The Gallaher's In Italia

In our almost 3 years here, last week something happened that would never happen-- my whole family came to Italy. My mom came last August by herself... her first time flying and she flew to another country all by herself. I was pretty proud of her! I knew my dad would never come over. He runs a business and he can't just up and leave for 3 days, let alone 8. I made a joke about mom and dad coming for Rosalie's birthday. Before I knew it, plane tickets were booked and it was official. They even brought along their 7 old sidekick, my nephew, Jacob.

The week before they came was EXTREMELY hectic. Weds and Thurs consisted of a lot of running back and forth to the base because my dog got neutered. I don't know what I was thinking scheduling it that week. On top of that, Kevin was on 12 hour shifts. Along with cleaning, my Dad and Jacob requested sugar cookies (a 3 hour process).. plus I had all my laundry to do.. we had to go to the base to get all our bedding washed up since our tiny European washer and dryer hold about 2 bath towels. On Friday we had to pick up a van that we rented. Needless to say, by bedtime, we were both exhausted.

Their plane landed in Venice Saturday morning at 9. Jacob was the first to spot us and he was so excited to see us. He ran right up to me and gave me a big ole hug. I was really shocked because even though Jacob and I pretty much grew up in the same house, I figured he would make shy. Rosalie was the same way.. she didn't make shy at all either. She went right to my dad and snuggled up in his arms and just kept loving him. It was the sweetest thing.

We didn't have anything planned for Saturday originally because I figured everyone would be pooped, especially Jake. I know how hard flying internationally is on a child. I was wrong again! My parents took a nap when we got in and settled, but Jacob.. it was like he was on crack. Him and Kevin played hard for a couple of hours and then he INSISTED we go do something. We went to the town of Gorgazzo and walked around.. went up the mountain a lil ways to the "Chrome Dome" as Americans call it.. we went to the base and did a lil bit of shopping and Jake wanted to see the jets... went for Gelato and to BEFeds, a German pub for dinner.

Sunday we had to run to the base again in the morning because I needed eggs for dinner. That afternoon we headed about an hour north of our house to Venzone for the Pumpkin Festival..Festa Della Zucca. It's become a tradition of ours every year that we have been here. We walked around the medieval town, enjoyed delicious pizza, bought pumpkin beer, went into the church and crypt to see the mummies. We got home around 6 and I cooked dinner. By the time dinner was done and cleaned up it was pretty late.

Monday we grabbed a quick lunch on base and then headed up the mountains. It was the one thing Jacob hounded to do since he got off the plane. He wanted to drive up into the mountains soooo bad. lol. We drove up.. stopped at a pull off overlooking Aviano and then continued the rest of the way up. When we got to the top there was no snow laying :(, but it started to snow about 2 minutes after we got up there! We headed down the backside of the mountain to Lake Barcis. It's constant windy roads and Rosalie ended up getting car sick.. as usual. She made it to Barcis though without hurling her lunch. We walked around the lake and after about 10 minutes she started getting back to herself. We took the kids to a park by the lake and let them burn off some energy. We went back to the house.. as we pulled into the driveway Rosalie started puking everywhere. She had to get a bath and I had to get the car seat cleaned up. That is one thing she inherited from me that I wish she didn't. Her and I both get very car sick easily. After she was good to go, we headed back out the door. We went to the Italian Toy Store in Pordenone because my parents wanted to get Rosalie something else for her birthday. She ended up leaving there with a giant playhouse. Well, not technically.. it was too big so my dad and Kevin had to come back the next morning and pick it up. She also got a Hello Kitty doll baby and a baby doll crib. She was so excited over the new toys that it was impossible to get her to go to bed. She threw quite the tantrum. After the toy store we went to the go kart track so Dad and Kevin could race. We grabbed some pizza and gelato after that and called it a night.

Tuesday we headed to Venice for the day after Dad and Kevin got back from picking up Rosalie's present from the toy store. It was raining when we left Maniago, but by the time the train reached Venice it had stopped. We walked around and enjoyed the sights. It sprinkled off and on but nothing to whine about. We walked down the tiny streets and did some shopping. Rosalie came home with this adorable lil trinket box that is hand painted to look like a cat venetian mask. Kevin and I came home with 2 bottles of Grappa.. one that is in a handpainted bottle that says Venice with a gondolier.. the other in a cool red, white, and green bottle in the shape of Italy. By the time we reached San Marco Square it started pouring. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock and I must say, for once it was nice to be in a place that felt like "America". Our waitress spoke perfect English.. was so sweet and friendly. That's not very often in Italy. They don't care too much for tourists and Americans and they let you know that. All of our food was absolutely delicious. We left there unbelievably stuffed. When we got outside it was raining pretty hard.. so we went to the nearest water taxi and rode down the canal back to the train station. On the taxi, Rosalie was eating a nutter butter cookie. She shoved too much in her mouth and ended up choking. She gags on stuff all the time, but she has never choked. We ripped her out of her stroller and it only took one thrust from me and the cookie was out.. along with vomit.. that hit an Italian. At that point I was had enough and was ready to get back on the train and head home. Of course we just missed the train so we had to wait for the next.. and naturally it was delayed. We ended up being at the train station for about an hour.. which is a long time with a 2 year old and a 7 year old. We shopped a little bit and I found this adorable lil Venice gondola snow globe to go with Rosalie's collection. Jake also got her a Murano blow glass ladybug. It's cute!

Wednesday was suppose to be Rosalie's birthday bash... but of course it was pouring. We cancelled the bouncy castle for the day and booked it for Thursday. We still did cake and presents. She made out pretty good! Along with the stuff she got early, she got a cozy coupe car, tons of clothes, 2 American Girl dolls with outfits and accessories, a deluxe Mrs. Potato Head with extra outfits, tons of books, jewelry, shoes, and a my little pony. She LOVED her car.

Thursday we woke up to clear skies so Kevin and I went to the base and picked up the bouncy castle. The kids had a BLAST. Even the adults did too! We were all in it for most of the afternoon. That evening I took mom, dad, and Jake into Aviano for shopping and gelato. Jake said he needed it one last time before he left.

Friday morning they left Italy for Philadelphia. I'm so glad they got to come over before we left and Jake had such a great time. He kept asking to stay for another week and he kept saying oh he wished he lived in Italy! ha! The pictures I uploaded aren't anywhere close to the amount that I took!!!

Oh Where Oh Where Will Our Home Be?

On Friday, Kevin and I had just returned home from the base when my neighbor came over and said that her husband just received a call that emails went out with base assignments. Kevin and I decided not to go until Saturday and check because just because our neighbor received an email didn't necessarily mean we would too since they are different jobs. I started cooking supper and flipped open my email. I replied to an email and when I clicked back to my inbox a new message came in right that second. All I saw were the words "SrA Hollis" "base" and "selection". Kevin was in the kitchen and I screamed and he came running in. I showed him the email and we opened it. Unfortunately, it was just telling him that HAD received an assignment, but it would need to be checked on a gov't computer. We tossed the idea around for a good 20 minutes, and then gave in and decided to go back to the base.

So now you're wondering.... Where will our next home be????

The verdict is.. BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA!

We are both really excited with this. It was actually our #4 on our dream sheet. Our #1 and #3 were bases that didn't have a single opening for Kevin's job, but we figured it didn't hurt to put them on there. Our #2 was a base that had an opening for Kevin's job, but not his rank. Birmingham was actually our compromise base. I wanted something on the east side of America and he wanted a guard base. There were 2 guard bases available on Kevin's listing. One was Birmingham and the other was March, California. Kevin wanted to go to March, so we agreed on Birmingham since it was on the east side of America and was a guard base! We have to be there by no later than April 15, 2012. We're going to take leave in between our 2 bases so we'll be back to the states in March!

Nutella Cookies

Before arriving in Europe, I had no idea what Nutella was. Sure it's an European product, but it is available in the US.. it's just not widely advertised like it is here. We actually lived here for a good year before ever trying it. It's like a hazelnut chocolate. SO yummy. Nutella tastes great on just about everything! Rosalie likes it on bagels and animal crackers. If you've never seen it or heard of it, if you are in PA, I'm pretty sure Giant Eagle carries it. In our grocery stores it's found near the peanut butter.

NUTELLA COOKIES

Ingredients:

2 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 c SOFTENED butter (don't melt it in the microwave! It'll make your cookies flat!)

2/3 c granulated sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 c Nutella

1 c semi sweet chocolate chips (you could probably use milk chocolate chips if you prefer, but I used semi sweet and they turned out perfect.. so I can't vouch for how they would taste!)

~Preheat Oven to 375

~Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda; set aside

~Cream butter, sugar, & brown sugar

~Add eggs and vanilla

~Add flour mixture to sugar mixture

~Stir in the nutella. I swirled mine through... it gave my cookies that black/white appearance!

~Add chips

~Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes. I found that 9 minutes was perfect in my oven. Pull them out when they look like they aren't quite done, but almost. Let them cool on the sheet. They'll be PERFECT!

Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs

I was really unsure about this recipe. I really only eat plain foods.. and I absolutely hate pineapple, but dear lord it was yummy! I did change a lot of things about the recipe. One major change I made was marinating the chicken and the pineapple separately. Putting raw chicken and fruit together for 3+ hours just didn't seem the least bit safe to me.

HAWAIIAN CHICKEN KABOBS

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 2 inch pieces ( I only used 2 huge breasts and 1 little breast)
• 1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks
• skewers
• Cornstarch

-If you are using wooden skewers, SOAK them half an hour before putting the chicken on. This will prevent the chicken from sticking!

-Cube chicken

-Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, ground ginger, & garlic powder. Drain the pineapple juice into marinade and also throw in a couple chunks of pineapple. Although Kevin was adament on having fresh pineapple for this, CANNED is the way to go. Fresh pineapple is entirely too tarty for this recipe. I wanted the chicken to have the sweet taste from the pineapple, so that was why i put the juice and a couple pieces of pineapple in with the chicken.

-Place the cubed chicken in the marinade.

-Since I didn't want my chicken and pineapple together, I mixed up ANOTHER batch of the marinade and put the pineapple in it.

-Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

-Don't forget to soak those skewers!

-These can be done on the grill (Actually the recipe calls for it that way), BUT it was only 55 out and we weren't about to stand out in the cold to grill.. sooo my change..:

-Preheat oven to 350 (or roughly 190 for you European folks!)

-Line a baking sheet with foil. This is just my lazy trick for an easy clean up! :)

-Alternate the chicken and pineapple on the skewers. DO NOT use the couple of pineapple pieces that were in with the chicken!!!

-DON'T THROW THE MARINADE OUT!

-Bake for about 20 minutes (or until juices run clear)

-In the mean time, take all your marinade (minus the couple of pineapple chunks that were in with the chicken) and mix it with about 2 tbls of cornstarch. You may need to add a little bit more

-Bring to a boil, and let simmer. This will make a nice thick paste

-When chicken is pretty much done, pull it out and baste the marinade paste on the chicken.

-Put back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. I served these with rice and the 2 complemented each other perfectly. I started the rice, pulled the chicken out and marinaded it, and put the chicken back in until the rice was done.

Enjoy :)

Failed Blogger

I have been such a letdown with blogger lately. ha! I swear, I do have my reasons.

First and foremost, Kevin has switched shifts. He is now on swing shift, which is the military's version of second shift. When I found out that Kevin was going on swings I was not happy at all. When we first arrived to Aviano, Kevin was shuffled around shifts so we got to experience all of them. Right before Rosalie was born he was switched from nights to days and he's been on days ever since. For 2 years now we've been in a routine and BAM just like that, it changed. I don't do well with change. We all saw what PCSing to Aviano did to me! ha! They kind of prepared us two months out for the shift change. Finally I sat down and actually thought of what it would be like when Kevin went on swings and stopped looking at the negative of it being a change. It turns out that we LOVE this shift! Kevin gets to spend way more time with Rosalie. When he was on days he wouldn't get home until about five. We would eat dinner, Rosalie would get her bath, and by 7:30 she would be in bed. He only got 2 1/2 hours with her. With him being on swings, he's usually up by 7:30/8 and he doesn't have to leave until 2 in the afternoon, so he gets a good 6 hours with her. We've been taking advantage of the family time. We've been walking every morning and we can actually go do things as a family in the morning before Kevin has to go to work. I have decreased my internet time with Kevin going onto this shift. After he leaves, Rosalie and I usually do stuff together until it's time for her to eat dinner. After dinner she baths and then we watch cartoons and read. She still goes to bed at 7:30, but after she goes to bed I have all my daytime chores to do.. clean.. laundry.. bows. If I don't have anything that needs done, I usually read.

Reason number 2 for no blogging... I HAVE NO CAMERA! :( When we went to Tuscany the flash on my camera stopped working. I contacted Nikon and they wanted me to send it in to be serviced. They have had it since the middle of August. I was kind of irritated because it was only a few months old and I have taken excellent care of it. They said they wouldn't honor the warranty and I had to pay $100 to have it fixed. It was supposively shipped from Nikon last week and I haven't seen it yet. I'm get extremely antsy with Halloween and Rosalie's birthday coming up. Not to mention I have been crazy making bows for Rosalie and for my shop and I have no means to take pictures of them to put them on my site. I'm going to be bombarded with bow pictures when my camera finally arrives. Speaking of bows, things have really slowed down lately. With the closing of my online store and not having my camera to upload new pics, I haven't had as many orders and I really don't mind. For awhile I was so overwhelmed with orders and I wanted to make bows for Rosalie's fall clothes and I just didn't have the time. In the past month Rosalie has probably gotten about 20+ bows so I think she's set for the winter months.

Not much has been happening here. My, Mom, Dad, and Jacob are coming over for Rosalie's birthday! We're so excited that she'll get to spend her birthday with my family. I know my Mom was disappointed that she missed out on Rosalie's birthday last year. They are coming the week before Halloween and we're going to celebrate Roey's birthday early. We're not having a party this year because we spent entirely too much money last year and she'll never remember and she's not old enough to even know. I'm going to make her cake because I paid a fortune for her cake last year and was very disappointed in it. I bought a crown shaped cake pan and have been doing trial runs. I'm not to shabby! We're going to rent a bouncy castle for her and Jake and do presents and cake a few days before my parents leave. We don't really have much planned for when they come. We're going to go Festa Della Zucca (The Pumpkin Festival in Venzone). They arranged their trip around the festival because that was something my mom really wanted to do. We're just going to stay local and do things in the area. We're spent on traveling and my Dad keeps saying that he isn't coming to see Italy, he's coming to see us. lol.

Today is the Bella Befana Bazaar on base. I'm excited! I've been telling Kevin since we got here that when I leave Italy I will have an Italian made wine rack. Every bazaar we don't go until the 2nd day and by then they are always all gone. I'm making sure I'm there at 12 when they open up today so I can get a rack.

I can't believe that in 1 month Rosalie will be 2. Boy the time is flying. I have her pictures schedule, with PumpkinCharm Photography again! She's also going to get Halloween pictures done since her birthday and Halloween fall on the same week. I have 2 birthday outfits ready for her.. bows are made.. and I just ordered shoes this morning. She's outgrowing EVERYTHING. She's going to be a 50s girl for Halloween. Her poodle skirt and shirt have been here for weeks now and the bows are made. I ordered her these cute bobby socks with poodles on them and ordered her some plain white sneakers this morning. I really wanted to get her saddle shoes but no place has them small enough for her. :(

Well that's about all I have.. a little lady is getting impatient and wants to go get her bath!

Ciao!

Homemade Soft Pretzels

About a month ago, PCS fever set again. I started getting extremely anxious about moving back to the states and started thinking about the things I miss about America. I started getting excited thinking about being able to drive or fly and see family in only a couple of hours, instead of days wrapped up in traveling.. being able to walk into a Toys R Us to Christmas shop for Rosalie... Olive Garden... Target.. just being able to shop in stores in general... not having to use a transformer when I want to use any type of appliances... oh boy i'm getting anxious just thinking about it again hahah. In all my yearnings for American things, I started craving and I mean CRAVING Auntie Anne's Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels. Probably one of my all time favorite treats. (forget it... i'm not pregnant! just a woman missing America!)

Then I remembered a recipe that I had found and stashed in my card box that I had never attempted. It was a Auntie Anne's imitation recipe. In my opinion, I don't think it tasted like Auntie Anne's, BUT they were soo yummy! I made half with salt and half with cinnamon sugar per Kevin's request. He said he didn't like cinnamon sugar that he wanted salt. Well after he had a taste of my pretzel, he regretted telling me to do salt ones lol. I don't think the salt ones were anything spectacular.. but I didn't have them fresh out of the oven. I tried one 3 days later after they were stored in a lock'n'lock container, which was a mistake. It made them entirely too moist and gross.

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels

Ingredients

1 1/2c Warm Water

1 1/8 tsp active yeast

2 tbls brown sugar

1 1/8 tsp salt

1 c bread flour

3 c regular flour

2 c warm water

2 tbls baking soda

coarse salt (If you chose to do salted)

2-4 tbls melted butter (for salted)

1/2c sugar + 1tsp cinnamon = perfect cinnamon sugar

1 stick of melted butter for cinnamon sugar pretzels

-Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water (1 1/2c water); stir to dissolve.

-Add brown sugar and salt; stir to dissolve.

-Add flour (Both types) and knead dough until smooth.

-Let dough rise at least 1/2 hour.

-When it's time to do the pretzels, prepare a baking soda bath using 2 c warm water and 2 tbls baking soda. Stir often. I stirred every time before dipping a pretzel in.

-After dough has risen, pinch off bits and dough and roll into a long rope (About 1 /2 in or less thick) and shape into a pretzel. I had a hard time with rolling into a rope and it took my so long to do this part. I don't know why.. but I had a hard time getting it thin.. every time I would get it about the size it should be I would end up ripping it lol. Although by the end I had perfect looking pretzels!

-Dip pretzel into soda solution and place on a greased sheet.

-Allow pretzel to rise.

-Bake at 450 for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

-If doing cinnamon sugar: Dip in bowl of melted butter and then dip in bowl with cinnamon sugar mixture.

-If doing salt: Baste with butter and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Enjoy!

Tuscany

We've been so blessed to be able to travel around Europe the past 3 years. There are so many countries and cities that we have visited and when I think about those experiences I have nothing but awesome memories. This last trip we took was the exception to that. Our trip to Tuscany went so bad that it was enough for both of us to say "We've had enough traveling." Don't get me wrong.. Tuscany is amazingly beautiful. It's like right out of a movie, but all of the things that went wrong on that trip are enough to cloud the beauty of it.

Our morning started at 2:30 am. We had to be at the base by 4 to catch our bus. I packed Rosalie a lunch and an extra cup of milk in my playtex cooler. We got to the base and in the hurry to get everything out of the jeep, I forgot the cooler. I shoulda known right then and there it was going to be a bad day.

It was almost 80 out at 4am. The bus had absolute no AC. Rosalie fell asleep as soon as we started off which was awesome.. but we had to pass her back and forth just because she gives off so much heat when she sleeps.

We stopped 3 hours at an Auto Grill, which is basically an Italian rest stop. Rosalie got a fresh diaper and dressed for the day.. got all dolled up and we headed back to the bus ready to finish our journey. We got on the bus and got Rosalie's dvd player out and got her set up with breakfast. She didn't want to eat. She didn't want to drink, which is very unusual for her. She just laid her head down on Kevin's lap. We knew something was up. She started getting clammy so Kevin picked her up and put her on his lap. Then it started.

We spent the next 3 hours dealing with Rosalie vomiting everywhere. Thank goodness she did not drink any milk or eat any cereal. She was throwing up straight water. By the team we reached our first stop, Volterra, Kevin and Rosalie were both soaking wet and stinky. The best part: I laid her out an extra outfit to take JUST IN CASE and I left it sitting on the hope chest upstairs. FML.

When we got off the bus it was like a sigh of relief for Rosalie. She started perking up and getting her color back. She even ate her breakfast. We went on a guided tour of Volterra and then had some free time. We ended up being there the same time as their local market so we hit it up. Since we've been here we've never gone to any of the local markets. It wasn't what we expected. Did you know the sell delicates at the markets? Well i don't know if they all do but this one did lol. "Hey hunny, I'm going to run down to the local market and pick up some skimpy undies."

We had lunch at a tiny lil pizza joint and it was the first time since we've been here that I was disgusted by Italian pizza. Usually I'm the first one to say "let's get some pizza instead of having a sit down meal." But holy man.. that pizza was terrible. Strike 3 for the trip.

Volterra is famous for it's Alabaster, and the Twilight Series lol. Rosalie came home with a huge alabaster ladybug, a little alabaster ladybug magnet that says "Volterra" on it, and a hand carved alabaster heart that says "Twilight, Volterra" on it.

We boarded the bus around 1 and headed to San Gimignano. It was about an hour away from Volterra. Naturally Rosalie started getting bus sick again. Thankfully she was able to hold it in though lol.

We got to San Gim. and Rosalie had enough. She was tired. She was hot. Oh, forgot to mention.. it was about 100 out. We walked into the entrance of the city and she lost it. She started crying uncontrollably. She didn't want anything. She didn't want held. She didn't want down. She didn't want to drink. She didn't want to eat. Ugh. People were staring. Kevin was at his wits end. Me? How was I acting at this point? Well to be honest, I just want to throw myself on the ground with her and start bawling my eyes out. I just wanted to go home. My poor baby didn't feel good. She didn't want to be there. She wanted to be in her own home, with her toys, with AC.

Kevin suggested just to keep on walking, keep her occupied. I suggested that he throw her up on his shoulders because she really likes that. Well both of those things were the ticket. She calmed down and was as happy as a peacock. She ended up leaving San Gim. with 2 snow globes, which we started collecting for her after we went to Austria and Kevin and I came home with some wine. I'm shocked we didn't pop it open on the ride home. Ha!

Around 5:30 we headed back for Aviano. Good riddance. We just wanted to get home. Thankfully Rosalie did not get sick on the ride home and slept the entire way. I'm so glad she did sleep though because we hit traffic and it took us an extra hour to get home. I don't know how she slept on the bus. It was so muggy and miserable. Then all of the sudden the AC started working again and the bus became a freezing icebox.

You have no idea how painful it was for me to write this entry. The.Trip.Was.A.Nightmare.

Now that you read about the nightmare we lived, how about the beauty of Tuscany......

Volterra.............

It's probably for the best that we don't live in this town... pretty sure the jeep wouldn't fit on this road lol

Reason #1 Not to eat at the local market

Even after vomiting all morning she was still smiling.

Roman theater ruins

and San Gimignano.....