Italy Day Two

Okay, I have to admit....it is getting better....after a harsh first day here, we had a good nights rest and woke up refreshed. Since my body alarm is out of whack, I woke up at 5:00 wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep. So I got up and got ready and leaving Chris still asleep, went downstairs with my coffee creamer and it is a good thing I brought it and had my first Italian breakfast...I had to add 5 pounds of coffee creamer to their version of "american coffee", it was like dark strong espresso...I took with me the camera instructions so that I could learn how to take really good pictures while I am here because this is the place that you want to take excellant pictures, so this was a practice shot.

I was the first person down while reading my instructions, more Team USA members trailed in one by one....I couldn't read instructions anymore....so I sit and chatted. Soon, Chris, Dick and Barb Morgan came down with their grandson from Pennsylvania, the couple that we like to travel with....today was registration and packet pick up for Team USA, then all their team meetings (I skipped out on those), the Parade of Nations and then the Team USA dinner at a local resturant....I took lots of pictures, but I should have finished reading the instructions because not all of them were good enough to post and even some of these weren't that great and clear.

Registration and packet pick-ups, they each got a brand new black bag with rollers, which you cannot see in this photo along with a whole bag of nice things.
While they were shopping, I stepped on over and got Team Canada's picture as well while they were posing....I thought they looked good.
There were tons of booths set up for all those that wanted to shop and get some last minute things, well not last minute, they are here all week.
Chris is trying to coach Kyle on what type of shoes to buy.
After registering for the race, we went to a little resturant and ate our first Italian meal with Dick and Barb and their grandson Kyle who is racing as well....he one of the top 12 in the nation at his age racing....I think he will do pretty well.
This was my first Italian meal, it doesn't quite look like the picture but was okay.....I won't try it again, I will just say that, but I was starving so I ate it all.
Team USA decided to have their Team pictures at the beach on the windiest day, I couldn't believe it.....I thought we were going to have it where Team Canada had theirs....we were eating sand....it was in our hair, our mouths, our socks even....I was glad to get this part over, but took a few pictures of the beach while I was there.
This is Team USA, I couldn't find Chris in this anywhere....I thought I had found him in a white cap and focused in on that person and then afterwards, realized he was wearing a red cap.....I do have one of him somewhere but when I was posting, the picture was so tiny, I couldn't tell which picture it was.
This is the parade of Nations and I am only posting a few....as you can tell, they are not that clear, so I am posting the best ones....I can't even tell what country this is.....I think it is Brazil, not sure...in all there were probably 30 + countries there represented....it was awesome, just not my pictures.
This is Team Canada, I can tell for sure.
Great Britian
Hungary, where we raced last year.
Ireland, you couldn't see, but they had some girls that were dancing....as each country passed, they played a song from that country.
Japan, they were a proud and happy bunch. Morocco
The Netherlands
You can barely read this one, but it New Zealand.
Slovakia, just say it with me, don't you love to say it, the way it just rolls off your tongue....I yelled it over and over when they were marching by and clapping for them just so I could say it...I also love saying Croatia, but their picture was real blurry.
At first, I thought this was the red cross, then I was asking myself, why is it a white cross though, then I realized it was Switzerland....what a strange flag.....it looks like they want to help someone.

Then the good ole USA....I was wondering what song they would play for USA and I was shocked to find out it was "Surfing USA"....out of all the songs they played for us, they chose that one....SHOCKER!!!! I was thinking maybe "God Bless the USA" or at least "Born in the USA", but not "Surfing USA", that was crazy to me....I think our great Team USA leader picked it out....Oh well!!!! it was still fun.
At the end of the parade, they got to shake military leaders hands and officials from Italy, a nice way to welcome each country there I thought....or maybe they were sizing everyone up. A mixer after the parade with all the countries....this is Kyle and the little boy who carried the USA sign....he lives in Italy, but his parents are from the USA....his grandfather had a book that he was getting all the team members to sign as a souvineir for his grandson.
We met up with Rad again (in the yellow shirt) from Australia....we made friends with him last year in Hungary....he was born and raised in Germany and defected to Australia, but was in a prison camp and he told stories after stories on our way to Vienna Austria last year....the best part of our trip....we were hoping that we would get to see him again....he is 81 and still in great shape....he is a blessing to everyone that knows him....we just love him.
Dick, Rad and Chris
I asked her if I could take her picture, she was on the Japan team and we were telling her that she was so beautiful and she was blushing so bad....she could hardly speak...trying not to cry....she was very sweet.
We had to wait turns to get pictures in front of this huge sign, and people kept running up there, one little Japanese man was getting ready when an Italian ran up there and the Italian said come on, then a USA member ran up there, then.....
Kyle ran up there from the USA, then....
Great Britian and another country ran up there, then......
Hungary and Ireland got in there and the group just kep growing with different countries getting into the picture....one of my favorite moments of the event.....how great if we could all get along like that with no government involved, I think we would all do great because we all bonded....there was no hate....except on race day when you hope someone will fall down so that you can beat them, but other than that....it is all great.

This girl on the right is Shelia, she lives in the USA, but she is Irish....we love her....but she is racing with Team Ireland....somehow she qualified and we are all just standing around chatting and I had to take a picture of her....sweetest lady and I love listening to her talk....I wish that her accent would rub off on me.....I am sure that it won't.
After all the parade, we went back to the host Hotel and they had a Who's Who Wall and Chris is on it, but everytime I zoomed in on him, it was blurry....still need to read that handbook instructions for my camera.
This is areas of the host hotel, very beautiful.

After going back.....we finally went with Team USA to eat at La Logge and had Italian food of course....it was a beautiful resturant....the head at the bottom is a guy that we were sitting with who was hit by a truck just two weeks ago while racing....a car ran into the racing area and hit him....he broke his arm....but still came to cheer on his fellow teammates, but his father is full blood Italian.



Even their toilet seat was neat....I had to take a picture of it....I carry my camera everywhere I go, you never know when you find something worth taking a picture of and I thought this was worth it.

Bon Gourno Delle Donne

I have to write fast because I am getting charged per minute that I am on here, it is so much per hour....boy, these Italians...but just wanted everyone to know that we made it here finally....we lost 7 hours, so we are 7 hours ahead of you now....but we gain it back coming home.

Our flight was great, both of them....we flew to Frankfurt Germany and then into Bologna Italy....from there our trip was not good, but at least we have a week to make up for the first day here....we flew into Bologna and Chris's bike did not arrive for the race, it should be here by tonight....while we are at the airport, the lights went out and they lost power....well we hadn't exchanged our money yet, so we had no euro's, well guess what, the computers were down and we couldn't get exchange money to pay for the bus to the train station....finally after much fretting and fighting and wanting a divorce (just teasing on that part), we were desperate and Chris found someone that was willing to exchange american dollars for euro's....Praise God, so we got on the bus after a great search....then off to the train station.....walked in and it was like the busiest day plus more on a Canton weekend with dozens of those motorized vehicles almost knocking you over and with a couple hundred different languages going on at the same time....if this gives you any indication of how crazy it was....the lines to buy tickets for the train was a mile long, and we had tons of luggage ( I should have learned that you do not carry more than one bag, but as I was telling you earlier, I was fretting over what to bring....so what does a woman do, brings everything, including my huge iron.

After buying our train tickets to Rimini, we had only 1 minute to find the train that the track was on and there was an "ask me" desk in the middle of the station so we were asking what track do we get on, he didn't understand Chris and so he wrote it down on a scrap piece of paper and it was like a blind person trying to read a book without Braille (I have a whole other story on Braille) anyway, we finally found the track, and the train had already left....we found another one and it left....so went down and up the stairs twice and I am having a heart attack by now and feel like I have smoked all my life and I have emphesema....I cannot talk and by this time, Chris was very happy that I couldn't talk, because he knew that I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, because if he had listened to me the first time, none of it would have ever happened....but you know men sometimes, they want to be the hero, but what happened in our case is that he had a demon possessed woman wanting to tear his head off.

We missed two trains to Rimini, we finally found another train on Bin (Italian for Track) 10...it was down the stairs, under the train station and then back up two flights of stairs again....at this point, I am thanking God his bike didn't make it with us....I was dying....we got up the steps only to realize that we had to wait about 50 minutes.....it took me that long to catch my breath to start talking again.....while we were there waiting on the tracks with several hundred people, we inhaled so much second hand smoke that I felt as if I was getting emphesema again....what is wrong with these people, couldn't they tell by me laying on the ground that the cigerette in their hand beside my face was making me ill, NO.....while we were waiting, all of a sudden this huge group of people who were waiting to go to a different destination, all began running down the stairs....I didn't think it was a good sign, but we stayed and learned finally that their track had moved....I am thinking to myself, you know we should probably be going too, because I would bet a hundred dollars that is what is going to happen to us, so while we have at least another 30 minutes that would give me time to get up the other staircase, going down was no problem, although I may not have wheels on my luggage after this trip. But my hero of a husband assured me that no, this was the Bin that it said it would be on, so no, they wouldn't lie....we now had 5 minutes and again, all of sudden, this huge group of people went running down the stairs....just what I had thought, our train had moved to another BIN....dang, it can't get any better than this....we made it finally to the train and as the door was shutting, someone saw us in distress and opened the door for us....there were no seats left so we had to sit on our luggage for over an hour going through each little town stopping and letting more people in....I also was sitting on my luggage perfectly okay with just being on the train, but I was also in front of the bathroom door for the train, I kept having to move.

We get off the train finally at Rimini and Chris googled a map of where we were supposed to go, it was within walking distance he said, google maps are always right....well that may work for America, but when you are in Europe, just disregard it....it was dark by this time, almost 30 hours later and with no sleep since we had left our house and we couldn't see to read the map (by the way, I have to say that I am better at reading maps than Chris, but I was trying to let him be the hero again)....I said one way and he said another....so I followed him....we got a couple of blocks down with all of our luggage and realized after seeing one street sign, that we were going the wrong way.....we got back to the train station and set there for a second, still not having any Euro's for even a cab, but Chris decided to ask a cab driver if he would take American money for a ride to our hotel....Chris didn't even know the name of our hotel, but he knew the address, it is hotel Villa Lalla....he was such a nice guy and he took our money, by that time, we would have paid him $200, but it only cost us $15.....when we finally made it to our hotel, we realized that it wasn't in walking distance at all and we would have never made it by the google map....we would have been better with a GPS in our suitcase....anyway, we finally got here last night and stunk to high heaven I am sure, but they sent us right away to the supper and we barely made that, sitting with people we didn't know, but got to know them from Team USA....it was great...got to our rooms, took showers and Chris flooded the bathroom floor because he didn't know how to work the shower door, he made it into a U shape when it was supposed to be a square....but at this point I didn't care, he became my hero after that, I realized he had the nerve to look like a begger two times for me and we made it here....and thanks to him, this week will be fabulous.....freezing, but fabulous.

I have taken a few pictures but nothing to brag about yet....I will be posting pictures soon though...I promise....I love and miss you all....arrividerci delle donne.

First ebay Win!!!

I was playing around with ebay trying to win a pair of Steve Madden Slouch Boots and was looking around at their Halloween costumes for my little grand baby, just looking to get ideas, not intending to get anything...until I came across this one thing that struck my attention...a friend of mine said not long ago that sometimes, I just act blonde...so I was thinking about pulling a prank on her...I saw this and I thought, hey I am going to bid on this...I did and then I was thinking how stupid and what a waste of money...I can't win this, I don't even want it and I couldn't take my bid back because I had already taken it back twice in the same day because I got scared that I was going to pay too much, and then ebay would block me from bidding again...so I was trapped...I was just praying that someone would outbid me...days went by and I got a notice...Congratulations, you won the bid!!! Darn, now I have to pay a whole $15.84 including shipping and handling for something that was a complete waste of my money...the seller was good and sent it right away thinking that I would be so proud of my bid...I gave her a great rating none the less....here are the pictures to show you what I won...I hope you enjoy it!!!! The blonde wig goes down past my knees and is tangly...great buy, don't you think...next time, I will think twice before bidding on something.

I did however finally win a pair of Steve Madden Slouch Boots and cannot wait to get them in, but I don't think it will be before we leave for Italy in the morning...that is right...I will be gone for 12 days, I am taking my laptop in case I have Internet connections so that I can stay in touch with everyone...I will blog about what we do everyday so that you can see, hopefully...in the meantime, please keep signing up for my big giveaway...I am so excited to be giving it away...I hope you stop by and comment me...so you can be signed up...I will post a video on how we do the drawing and you can actually see who wins. In the meantime, Arrivederci, delle donne.

My friend Jaci gave me this and I am passing it on for you to do.

Here are the rules...
Mention the blog that gave it to you and comment on their blog to let them know you've posted your award .
Publish these rules
Share 6 values that are important to you and 6 things you do not support
Grant the prize to 6 people
Things that I Value:
1. The Lord
2. My Family
3. My Friends
4. My Freedon
5. Honesty

6. People

Things that I do NOT support:
1. Lying
2. Drugs
3. Same sex marriages
4. Those who don't want to work
5. Obama
6. Abortion

Another Hairy Day

I have to admit....I am so very proud of my mother pictured here with me on my left....that would be on your right, don't get us mixed up, she looks like she could be my sister.....She has worn her hair like this for years and years and we have always begged her to cut it and get it styled....instead, it was always perms and frost jobs....she has such thick hair and I cannot remember her wearing any other hairstyle other than this one....she saw my new hair cut and loved it so much and went for it....I was thinking to myself, yeah right, she will never go through with it....well, she made the appointment and not knowing what style I picked out with my hair dresser in Sulphur Springs, she picked out the same picture and went for it....she is always known for her big hair....in fact, this was the second picture that was taken of us because the first picture didn't get all of her hair in the picture.

I cannot believe how much younger, and more beautiful she looks after the cut....I took pictures from all sides....I was so proud of her and she absolutely loves it....I think she will keep it like this forever....I know that you can tell what a difference there is and how different she looks....AMAZING isn't it!!!

"The Birthday"

It seems as though I haven't been able to post or read any blogs for months, but it has only been a few days....I have been so busy with trying to get things done before we leave in two weeks to Rimini, Italy....having my husband, Chris' birthday party, preparing and finishing all the work that I have to finish before we leave....it has been crazy...I'll tell ya.

Chris's birthday was on Sunday and I just couldn't wait until I could finally give him his presents so that I could use them....the first present being Rosetta Stone....it doesn't have the language on it, but I thought that it would be appropriate to learn Italian before we leave for Italy....we will be traveling to Italy for his World Championship race, we will also travel to Bologna (I think that is where Bologna was invented off the floors of the meat markets :) just teasing...Venice, Florence and Rome....I am so excited and I have been learning Italian today and in about an hour, I learned sentences and lots of words as well as the spelling, Rosetta Stone makes it really easy to learn...my next purchase will be Spanish since we need it so badly here in Texas....one of my favorite gifts that I have given him for myself....what wife doesn't get their husband something they can use as well....my husband got me a Wii gaming system for Christmas....and who uses it? ...I bet you can guess, the boys....well turn about is fair play....we can both enjoy his gifts....that is just being SMART in my opinion.

The second gift that I was hinting at in one of my last blogs is from EZ Hang Chairs , and it is easy to assemble if you read the directions which my husband did not do....he didn't even look at the picture....I don't like to read directions, but I do look at the pictures and I kept telling him he was doing it wrong, but I finally shut up because what husband likes to listen to his wife know how to assemble the correct way....so I just let him have it his way, kind of like Burger King, he had it his way and it messed up....I have left out so many pictures of how many times he had to redo it, until he finally gave up and listened to me and did it My Way (I am more like Frank Sinatra) and he like Burger King....anyway, this is the beginning of the journey of him hanging it up...but once you see what it looks like, you may want to check it out....Mr. Wright, the man who sold it to me, said that you could say that you are a friend of mine and they will let you have it at the price that I got it at Canton....I am not sure how much that will save you since I haven't been to the site yet, but he threw in the chains to hang it with, the spring and the swivel....I could have been suckered, I don't know, but I DO LOVE the chair and it is so comfortable and you can sleep so easily in it....I hope that you enjoy the pictures.

The Beginning...

Testing it with Zachary....

One of the 20 times redoing it.... :) I told him...

Finally getting it right and taking it for a test ride....Zachary first though.

Leslie testing it out again before Chris sets in it...

Finally, Chris is LOVING it and gets a little snooze....

Just a Swanging....how we say it in Texas....

Tanner, Ashley and little Alli came to say Happy Birthday to Pop....

Leslie and Lucy Grace (her dog) came down from Dallas for her dad's birthday...the others were in school or in Iraq and couldn't make it....we really missed you all....it was good to have Leslie to come and stay and get up and go to church with us that morning.

Pop and Alli having some fun, laughing and playing with each other....and giving some really good smiles for the camera.

This was my favorite picture of both Pop and Alli....you can tell that they are crazy about one another....when he is around, I can forget about her coming to me....she loves her Pop.

We had a great day and now we are back to work again....and hopefully getting back into the swing of things....I still have so much work to get done before we leave....My new page is getting worked on and you will all be surprised by the new look....and I cannot wait to post what I am giving away....so start getting your friends to start posting and visiting so that they can come back and have a chance to sign up for the give away valued at $50 and will be shipped to you quickly, you will be able to pick from a number of things from this site....it is one of the things I went to Canton for....you will love it when it is posted, but I am waiting for the blog page change first.....so please start getting your friends to stop in and comment....CANNOT wait to give it away.

My Day with Max and Kim

I spent the day with Kim and Max going with her to Scottish Rite Hospital for Max's check-up...I needed to go for something myself and went along for the ride...and boy did I have a ride as you will see. Max's appointment was a little long as we waited on his turn to go in to see the doctor, we had a little fun...I am not sure who had more fun, me, Kim or Max. We went out onto the Scottish Rite's playground and what a nice playground it is....I loved this little duck crossing as we entered onto the grounds.

Kim trying not to fall off of the ride like I already had...I am sure she will post it on her blog.

Just one of the mirrors that was on the playground that we got a kick out of seeing our legs for the first time, long and thin.

One of the monuments that they have at the hospital...little children saluting the flag...with Max looking on at the flag high above him.

Another monument with Max trying to catch the butterflies that they have in their hands.

Max is saluting the flag and singing a Christmas Carol I think...not really...he is just trying to see the flag that is way above his head.

This is the short legged mirror that I hated...but Kim of course made me laugh so hard that I fell down looking at her feet.

Kim and I were both taking pictures of Max in the train...Kim was telling him to look at her....but clearly, he was looking at me, hehehehe!!!!

How come I look fatter and shorter in this mirror?

Kim clearly trying to hang on for dear life....this little ride will throw you off in a heartbeat...but it was fun getting thrown off.

Kim and I were on the see saw taking pictures of each other...she didn't warn me when she was getting off...I guess you know what happened.

In the waiting room to see the doctor....there was plenty of things for the little ones to do....way too much stimulation before they go in to see the doctor.

Does this picture look familiar? I think she is just posing for the camera for sure.

And ME at the end of the day....it was almost 11pm before I made it home....I was quite tired and didn't know that I looked like a raccoon until my son said something about it.

I don't think there is any good angle....Kim had tried to get me to go into the store looking like this....is she CRAZY....I don't think so Suzy Q.