We're now in Italy!

We don't have an internet connection and have to travel 45 min to the library now to get a connection so we are a little out of touch. Sorry everyone! Hopefully we will be better connected soon! But here is some news from a week ago.....

Hi Everyone! We're sorry that we have taken soooo long to update the spot. We have been really busy doing a lot of things here, but most of the things we have been doing here would be really boring to report, so we'll only tell you the cool things!



Our search for a house to live in has taken most of our time. The very next day after we landed, Dad had appointments set up for the family to start viewing a list of homes. The kids liked every house better then the last, and didn't seem to mind where we lived, as long as it was something we could move into soon. Jessica had definate ideas on the homes she liked best, and so did mom and dad. We decided to narrow our options down by price, and as soon as we ruled out a few homes this way, then the market started dropping down in price, which left some homes on the list and added one in particular that Mom really loved also. However, after a lot of debate, we have decided to put the home that Pete found and has been previously posted on a contract hold. The house then had to be inspected and now is waiting for a few safety issues and requirements to be met. Hopefully it will be ready for us to move into by the end of December. There are millions of paperwork steps all along the way and each level of beaurocracy takes it's own sweet time. Then there is Italian time...we've discovered that 10 minutes in Italian means maybe if I feel like it I will be there within an hour. We had to do a lot of talking with the Italian landlord's family to get them to come down in price. They have a wonderful restaurant and hotel in Bacoli, which is down by the coast in a very pretty touristy part of Napoli. There are ruins everywhere in that area and it has a lot of great places to see. The home is located between Pozzouli and Bacoli and has been vacant for over a year. This is because "Mama" as everyone calls the owner, loves it (she raised her children there), feels like everyone else should love it just as much, and doesn't want to change a thing about it, but feels like it is worth 3,000 euro/month. For you mathmatically challenged individuals, this is over 4,500 dollars due to the terrible exchange rate. The home is probably worth over 2 million dollars because of the location. We finally got her to agree to our 2,000 euro, only with the promise that she can be "Nona" or grandma to all the children except Nicole, whom she wishes to adopt as her daughter. The Italians LOVE children. They are all amazed that we have 5 children. They all say that they would like to have more children but cannot afford it. They spoil children rotten which is not helping Paul at all. Children can do practically anything here, including break things, and they are excused from all fault. "No problem," they say, "he is a bambino."



We have done some other fun things as well. I'll let the kids put things into their own words...



My favorat thing about Italy is the pizza , it is grate, you even get to watch them make it.

there are tons of romen ruins. We went to some, at first all of the archeolegests thoght it was a temple, but it terned out to be a market place.

it is awesome. We went to a dock it was cool. We saw a ferry.

and we found a house! We still have to get moved in though.

Peter



My favorite place in italy so far is a medeval church we went to. It didn't look very old, but it was very old. We also saw a castle, it was really cool. Some times they let you in, but we couldn't go in, it was closed. We could look on it from the outside, but not on the inside. It looked really old. It was really old. So far it's really cool and I'm really liking it.



Nicole



Being over in italy has been really great for me. I don't have any friends, which is taking a little getting used to, but I'm sure in no time I'll get some. I really enjoyed church, there are some nice girls. They're italian, but we try to communicate despite the language barrier. It's really cool. We're finally getting in a house. It will be so much nicer than the TLA. We went to the market, which was really fun. I found some xmas presents for people there, but mostly I just fell in love with their cool fur coats. I'm not sure how I would feel about wearing the high pointy boots they have though, it looks dangerous and painful. The food over here is really great. I've had sea food and pizza, that's basically all there is. It's going to be really fun to go to school and learn more italian, I'm looking forward to it.



Jessica

One more picture for us: This is the medieval castle that Nicole was talking about. The original castle with moat was built in the 500's with the rest of the buildings including the cathedrial added in the 1500's. It was really cool! A little too cool for us, as we were freezing cold that day, and the buildings were closed for the winter. But we are definately going back to the Caserta veccio ruins in the spring. Caserta is the name of the town and veccio is the italian word for old. I'm misspelling everything though! ;)

Well, I'm sorry that we haven't blogged in a long time. I'm especially sorry to Becky
who got us starting on the blog and made us promise we would blog. Well, here's the
newest update. We are now in an empty house! The movers came, packed the whole

house and took it to be shipped to Italy.

So, since we are sitting in an empty house with nothing what so ever to do, mom decided that we needed to varnish all the wood in the house. It has proven to be a very difficult task. Luckily for us, we have loving relitives like our Grandma Wilson and Aunt Elaine who offered to come up and help us. Since they've been her they have not only been vernishing, but have done the cooking and cleaning our cabinates for us until they shone. They've been so wonderful.

If you've ever seen our house, you know that we have a very high roof in our living room. In order to reach it we had to borrow scaffolding from our wonderful friends the Watts.
When Paul saw the huge jungle jim in our living roomyou could see him devising a plan to get to the top of that towere. He couldn't climb it because he wasn't tall enough to climb it by himself.
He's so cute! So we got to work. We sanded, we painted, we sanded some more, we painted some more, and now we're still sanding and painting!
It was fun to be so high up there!

We had to have the proper breathing gear so that we didn't breath in sawdust. So that's what the wierd white things are around our necks.

Grandma couldn't resist. She had to see what it was like up there.

The scaffolding was sixteen feet off the ground!

Aunt Elaine and Grandma were awesome sanders and painters. Thank you guys so much!

We have some bad news. Today an unnamed person was carrying Paul down the
stairs when they took a spill. Paul's leg was squished and we ended up having to take him to the emergency room. They're not sure if he has a broken leg or not, but the doctors put a cast on him just in case. Paul is getting lots of attention here and home and despite his leg he his very happy.

Last is a little video that I found very funny. I hope you enjoy seeing me leap off the giant scaffolding onto the ground. I have recovered and am not dead any more, but thanks for asking.

See you next time!

Becky is posting

So, the kids have not been keeping up on the blog! It's so sad because I love to log on to the internet and see their cute faces. But, they are quite busy getting ready for the whole move thing. I only hope that they are better at it when they get to Italy.

Anyway, my dad, Shelle, Trish, and I went over to Colorado this past Friday to pick up a couple of cars and help around the house as much as we could. So I decided I would post on the blog the happenings that occured while we were there.

We helped Denise and the kids pack up a load of garbage to go to the dump. On the way to the dump we were pulled over for going to slow! Seriously! That is a first for my dad! Apparently, we were going 20 mph in a 30 mph zone, ooooooo! But then the trailer's lights were not hooked up and the registration was old and there were 6 people in a 5 person car. Ooops! However, my dad and Aunt Denise played up the fact that Pete had been in Iraq and was now in Italy and the family was moving and sob sob sob! It worked! We got away with just a warning.

After the dump, we played around for a bit, had lunch, and then left. I am going to miss them but I am sure I will see them in Italy. I hope they have fun!

Possible house

This is a view from the roof top terrace of the entrance to the mother in law apartment looking through the clothes lineThis is a street view of the main entrance to the house, the dark door on the right is the main garage door, which is automatic, and the gold doors are the stairs going up to the main terrace to the main entrance to the house
This is panning to the right as you look at the house from the street, what you see is the main garage door, then bars that look into the mother in law apartment where there is a largish bedroom and another room/kitchen with an attatched bathroom. The odd thing is that it is not directly attached to the house, but the landlord said that he would cut a door in from the bedroom to the garage and you could walk up from there. It does look like there is an intercom, I just don't know if it is functional.
this is the far left view of the house from the street, this entrance can be used to go up to a locked gate from the outside. Looking up, you can see the main terrace area outside of the front entrance and looking up to the roof terrace you can see the corner of the sun room on the roof.
Denise, this is the nexus of the place, the hallway that connects living room to bedrooms and to the kitchen. Notice the arched doorways that you like and this is an extra on the ceiling of this little area. The column in the background is out in the main living room area

this is the far corner of the property, with the picture being taken from the pizza stove and BBQ area, looking back at the house. You can see the stairs leading up to the roof, the 16 x 20 sun room up on the roof and an idea of the way the yard looks. The path that is going straight out in front of Celeste drops down into the covered outside terrace (nice and easily big enough to set up a table and chairs)that is right out of the back kitchen door, in the corner of which is a step down wine cellar which holds somewhere around a thousand bottles of wine (just in case we decide to make that our two year storage!)
This is the sun room, it has shades and windows that open all of the way around. They are currently getting ready to refinsh the roof tile, so the repaired spot will not show when they are done. The view from up here is spectacular. Not quite the view of the other house, but clearly molta bellisma.
This is looking from the roof down to the main level terrace right outside the front door. It is an example of the kind of garden/yard that is all around the house. Surprisingly enough, there is not a lemon/orange or fruit tree on the place. The landlord did tell me that he would be happy to plant an orange a limon and a peach tree, but about died laughing when I asked him.
This corner of the roof terrace is the best view. You can see the coast of Sorrento, the Island of Capri and much closer the Castle of Bacl....something,
The downside is that you are in the city and this is what you see when you look at the back of the house, so your neighbors get to watch your party. The corrugation is the covered area outside the backdoor of the kitchen. I regret to say that somehow we did not get a single picture of the kitchen. It is big enough to put our table in, with enough space for the one cupboard that they give us. The cabinets are old but adequate and the entire kitchen is a different style of hand painted tiles.

this is the storage area of the main bathroom, It looks nice, but if you look close you can see that it is a converted shower stall, notice the hand painted tiles in all of the rooms, each room has a different pattern
This is the second main floor bathroom, it is quite narrow and you could sit on the toilet, use the sink all as you shower.......hmmmmm?
this is the main terrace overlooking the street, and while you can see a bit of the view, it didn't catch the fron of the house which is too bad, it looks nice with a bunch of planters and very large sliding doors going out on the terrace. Notice the rails for the sun awning which you can extend to shade the terrace area in front of the front room all of the way out to the edge. The railing is nice finished wood as opposed to metal railings that you mostle see, as up on the roof.
Master bedroom, somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 x 14 feet with ac. There is an ac in the front room and two of the bedroom which should be plenty adequate

This is off in the far corner of the yard and there is a wood burning pizza oven right over my shoulder, in front of me is a wood fired BBQ and behind me is a utility sink. To walk here from the kitchen is up about six steps and probably 15 yards

This would be one of the three bedrooms on the main floor with a beautiful beaurea (brass inlaid) this is the second largest room and is about 12 x 14 or so
This is the smallest room, about 11 x 12 with a 5 x 3 foot nook
This is the front room, on the left is the piano nook and front door, the piano nook is 10 x 14
This is the same piano nook, looking right down the wall
this is the main room looking from the hallway over towards Celeste is the front door and piano nook

downstairs apt kitchen and entrance to bathroom
opposite wall from the kitchen in the mother in law apt
little hallway in front


upstairs narrow bathroom

Downstairs, mother in law apt bedroom with built in shelves. Room is probably about 10 x 14

Here are pictures of the house that for me has moved to the top of the list. Now of course, Denise has to look and decide.

Becky writes tonight

This blog entry is once again done by Becky. This will probably be the last entry I do since tonight is my last night with the kids. I have really enjoyed being here. It has been fun. Granted, it has had its rough spots, but it has been an experience that I am so glad that I was able to take. These kids are special and wonderful and I am going to miss them, even before they move to Italy.

Today was a crazy day. We decided that today we would focus on getting the pool up and filling and cleaning the house. We woke up early and were able to start our chores right away as we didn't have breakfast (except Paul and Rachel) because we were fasting. We ended our fast right before 10am as the kids were going to Art class and snacks are usually served.

This morning I had the opportunity to get to know the people at the hardware store rather well. I visited it twice. I finally got most everything that I needed to get the solar panels up and running. However, one of the things I got didn't quite fit tight. So I used duct tape to increase the size around one of the tubes and it only leaks when there is high pressure, which believe me was a problem at first. However, the high pressure only occured when the water was running in so fast that it wasn't heating the water at all. I slowly turned it down until it was running at only a trickle (and I mean trickle) and even then it wasn't terribly warm. I don't know what else to do. It will take about a month to fill it at that rate I am afraid.

This picture was taken at the end of the day before I turned off the faucet. You can see how little the pool filled. Luckily, a neighbor will turn it on and off each day so it can warm in the sun.

In Art class the kids made cool crests (like family crests).

After Art class we started to clean. Jess cleaned the kitchen and quite a bit around the pool and helped in the bathroom. Peter helped clean and vacuum the car, and helped with the living room and the bathrooms. Nicole helped clean and vacuum the car and cleaned the living room and swept a little bit of the pool. Rachel did her chore and helped out where she could. Paul helped out by taking a nap after lunch so we could all do our chores. After all this cleaning I must say...the house and the car look fantastic. The kids all worked very hard and did a fabulous job!After the chores were all done I decided that for our last night out, I would take them all out to eat in Delta. They chose pizza as their meal of choice so we went to Pizza Hut (rather ironic I think as they will be moving to Italy). It was fun (despite having Root Beer spilled twice)! And the best part about it as pointed out by Jessica (who has the kitchen chores) is that we don't have to do the dishes!!!!

When we came home we packed our bags as we will be heading out to Utah for a couple of days tomorrow. Deniese (mom) comes in late tomorrow night. The kids are all very excited to see her. Paul is probably the most excited.

Then we said prayers and went to bed (of course I stayed up to do last minute things like pack the car and write the blog). After prayer tonight we announced "hugs and kisses" and Paul immediately jumped up and said "give me my hug"! Oh I am going to miss these kids! I sure hope that they keep up on this blog so that I will know what they are up to!

Good Night