Tired as a Mother

It's been over 5 years since I last wrote a blog post. In the last 5 years I have: Moved back to the U.S. Attended 6 colleges and transferred 7 times. GCC, PVCC, UVU, BYU, VCC, ASU, BYU, ASU (& just last week I finished my bachelor's degree!) Married the sweetest man I know Bought our first house Endured 9.5 long months of pregnancy and gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy. My life right now is pretty crazy. Some beautiful and wonderful, some crappy and sad. All in all, I have discovered my memory is really bad since I got pregnant. As such, I want to try to savor as many of these sweet memories as I can before I forget them! Almost 5 months later, here is the reader's digest version of Liam's debut into this crazy world. At 36 weeks pregnant, I was done. Completely over it. My mom had given birth to me at 30 weeks and my doctor was convinced I would go early. My body on the other hand had a different plan. It was taking great care of my little ...

As I sat here pondering why I have been neglecting blogging…I have come up with multiple reasons. Stupid Reason #1, “I’ve been too busy.” **pathetic answer.** Reason #2 **still pretty pathetic** “We’ve been traveling and have had visitors.” Slightly more reasonable reason #3, **best reason I could come up with**, “I have found us easing into the Italian way of life, and apparently forgot that everyone back home does not find this way of life “normal” and also considered the possibility that maybe you all miss my random blabbering. But came to the conclusion that this situation was highly unlikely as well.” This said, none of my reasons are good enough and therefore I should be blogging more. I am going to try to do one a week at the least, until I return home. Fingers crossed, I don’t forget or wait too long, or procrastinate too much! Okay, okay, I’ll stop boring you guys with the reason why I haven’t been blogging and get on with the stuff you...

Venezia. God must have made that place just for me. It truly opened my eyes to the beauty of Europe itself. By far my favorite place from our journey so far. Breath-takingly beautiful. A city built around water. The Grand Canal actually runs directly through the city. It's truly stunning. I walked off the train, feeling like I was walking onto a movie set. If you have ever seen The Tourist, some of the Tomb Raiders or played Assassins Creed, that's really how it looks! The architecture, the buildings, the food, the streets, it all screams Italy. If I were to ask you all to picture the perfect Italy in your head right now, Venice is what you would picture. It truly was amazing, I cannot wait to visit again. No one drives in Venice, there are no cars. Simply boats and your feet. It really allows everyone to embrace the city. Walking on the wet, sea sprayed, cobble stone streets, air filled with that salty, misty, feeling.   Everyone on their own sheet of music, different language...

In another time one would have said I should really put pen to paper more often, but I guess in this day and age I really ought to say I should press my fingers to the keyboard more often. That said, the saying put “pen to paper” gives a better visual. Anyhow, the saying is relative at this point and I am simply rambling but you all get the point. I am realizing my typing in English does not flow as easily as it once did, I actually have to think of what words to use instead of them simply flowing. But the less I write well…the less I find myself writing. Lol, it’s funny how that works eh? They say the more often you pray, the more you will find yourself praying. The more often you read, the more you will have a desire to pick up a book. The more you think, the more often you will ponder. But it seems the more I am in Italy the less I write. I could say those go hand in hand or I could simply admit to the fact that sometimes I simply don’t have the mental capacity to come up with some...

Today I come to you all with a story. A story with good news. And a story with bad news. I typically prefer my bad news first, that way the good news cheers me up. So here it goes.. Bad News: My wallet got stolen by a gypsy :'( Good News: I still have my wallet (: Gypsy steals my wallet + I fight gypsy= This chick..still has her wallet (: So the story goes, One rainy and dreary Sunday, Corey and I take the metro to church. We make the walk down to the metro station, buy our tickets, scan them, figure out which direction to go and wait for the metro to arrive at the station. 15 or so minutes pass, the metro arrives, absolutely crammed full of people. Like a sandwich. Imagine fitting 50 people into a VW bug. Got it? Alright that's what I want you to picture, now instead of a bug it's a bus kind of thing so everyone is standing and everyone is pressed up against each other complete popping everyone’s personal bubble. i.e. if you're claustrophobic, you would die. As ...

As I begun staring at the empty white page before me today, I pondered how to convey all of my thoughts into words. Obviously, this is not at all possible, but what I can and try to do is if give you a piece of my mind and a taste of my life in Italy. I hope I am not too brutally honest in some of these posts. I typically write about 4 or 5 different posts before I finally come up with one I am comfortable sharing with all of you. Today, I'm going to do this a little differently... Let's start by playing a bit of deal or no deal. Today right now, someone comes to you and says, "How would you feel about moving to Italy for a while???" My guess is the first thought that would run through your head would be "NO WAY!!!?! Italy??!" Visions of pizza and pasta, Italians and Tuscan buildings, along with Venice and Rome and a beautiful language run through your mind. Sounds like a dream come true eh? Next, let's say you are interested in the offer, you ask ques...