27 Things I LOVE about DH

Dear Hubby (DH) turned 27 this past Sunday. Here is what I wrote to him and share out loud with the family and friends at his birthday party:

27 reasons why I love Jon:
1. He is a patient and attentive listener
2. He is kind to everyone he meets
3. He has a nice voice
4. He thinks I am smart
5. That makes him smart too!
6. He takes risks
7. He let's me vent
8. He takes care of J-man so I can go out
9. He loves nature
10. He irnos his own shirts
11. He says I love you everyday
12. He doesn't roll his eyes when I repeat one of my stories for the 100th time
13. He loves my family
14. He loves to grill
15. He can say I love you to his guy friends!
16. Plays with and makes our son laugh a lot
17. He likes a good sweat (i.e. good with physical labor like moving boxes, mowing the yard, etc!)
18. He is very handsome (I could say more... but don't want to embarrass him)
19. He enjoys watching chick flicks with me
20. He is a hard and diligent worker
21. He loves others genuinely
22. He isn't afraid to show his emotions
23. He helps me with the computer and is patient with me about it too
24. He is a dreamer
25. He is mostly content with what he has
26. He is a loving leader and servant
27. He ages wonderfully just like wine! The older he gets the better!

I should be busy packing and getting ready right now but wanted to post something quick ( we are moving into a new place this weekend)
I know I am quite long-winded bot in real life as well as in this blogging world but I will try and just give synopsis of what's running through my brain and over me in my life.

I am going to try and read this spring Vanity Fair by Thackeray (it's pretty long!) and at least get a lot read of The Fellowship of the Rings by Tolkien with Jon. Although I wish I could put down a tons of other books I have learned that I must give myself smaller goals in order to follow through. Baby steps, baby steps.
I will be living in my in-laws' house in a small apartment they attached while remodeling two and half years ago. We will be even closer to campus. This will be at least through the summer.
We will be flying to Italy in July and Jeremiah and I will stay there for almost two months lord willing!
I am still trying to get fit, eat less sweets and lose weight. Not doing so good with #2. But last night at workout I got whipped and am so sore right now.
I can't believe Jeremiah is 9 months old! He is all over me these days, climbing on me and more. He also has learned the art of constant whining. That's his communication thing right now.
He says hello (trying to pull down the keyboard here).
I have been interested in my spiritual heritage lately. Among a numerous of other things.
I miss girl time something terrible. (Anyone want to plan a night out?)
My hubby is really busy with school work right now. He still manages to be the best dad and hubby even as a part-time student!

That's about if for now.


Talk to you later next week, I hope!

So instead of that spring cleaning, how about some spring reading? Just take up a book and head out for the park. Remember to take an old blanket or something to lay down underneath a shady tree while the cool breeze blows on you as you munch on an apple under a sunny blue sky day and read a just as delectable novel. Doesn't that just sound like a perfect spring afternoon? Find out more about this SPRING READING CHALLENGE. Thanks Lisa B. for introducing the idea!

So what am I going to read this spring? I will have to get back to you on that because I have to many to think of right now! I know I want to read Vanity Fair with Rachel (I think she is way ahead), I am just waiting for the book in the mail. How about some of you giving me some other ideas of great books? What do you think I should read this spring?


p.s. As a family reading challenge, Jon and I are going to try and undertake Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy!

Spring is here!

March 21~ Spring is here, and it has indeed already sprung. Daffodils are in bloom around town and the weather is warm, clear blue sky and a gentle warm breeze. Short sleeve shirts are ready and I am already in flip-flops although my feet do get cold still. I am so thankful! Thank you God for Spring! It is so nice to finally get out of the house and take a walk and enjoy the sights and colors spring brings. It truly does make everything 'new' in so many ways.

March 21 was also my nonna Siviglia's birthday. Thinking of you grandma. I love you.

For Fun- Visual DNA

I found a link to this from Lisa's blog. I thought I'd try it out. This is what I got: I'm a sofisticat, love bug, and I back to basics girl, can you believe it?

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

My hometown

Yes, two posts in a day to catch up folks! Although these aren't my pictures (found them on the web) I wanted to share my home town and the place where I grew up (all right, this is Citta' Alta and downtown Bergamo...too expensive to live there but I hang out here a LOT during high school)

What have I been up to?

I am so sorry I haven't been posting in, what, 2 weeks? 3?

We've been sick for some of this time (bad icky sick, stomach bug going around). Jon just had his spring break and so I got to enjoy my hubby a little more! And well, I fell off 'the wagon' so to speak- got out of habit of posting! (every time I use a figure of speech, I wonder if I just think it is a figure of speech and I am making one up, saying it wrong you know? I really did grow up in Italy! Please don't think I am weird.)

Others often ask me what I have been up to. I have to stop and wonder about that too. Let's see: I tell "no" and "don't do that" about 7,000 times a day to my almost 9 month old. I try and do 10 things at once (check email, watch Jeremiah, put up some toys up, read, answer a phone call, try to make a phone call or write an email, cook, clean, clean Jeremiah's mess, and just doing nothing on the computer). What do I do? Staying at home makes you feel like you don't' really do anything, although it isn't true. I know I am doing what I need and want to be doing: taking care of Jeremiah. It is frustrating and wonderful at the same time!

A lot goes inside my head too though and I'd like to share that for it is very intersting: I thought a lot about a woman's identity in Christ and not in temporal roles, about politics, war, peace, about marital relationship and how to strengthen mine, about prayer and God, the environment and what am I doing about it, a lot about consumerism and how even Christians are highly consumerists and how can I change that...I am always thinking of how I'd convey my musings and ideas to others. If you ever take a trip into my brain you would feel like you are at once sitting at an UN conference, a theological seminar and a rally. I think about how I want to change the world and I come up with all kinds of ideas and I used to think everyone else did too. Finally after my dh, my sister, my counselor and several other people told me that no, most people didn't, it hit me that I am the weird one. So although my laundry is not finished, the kitchen is still a wreck, the meal in the crockpot I made up and hope it tastes fine and Jeremiah chipped the entertainment center (he manage to take a piece of the plywood off...don't ask me how...I was on the computer), in my mind I finished my my first draft on a lengthy essay on a woman's value in Christianity and added another chapter in my book about Christians and grief and started a new group that engages Christians and others to stop thinking and acting in consumerist ways and finding ways to diminish our consumerist instincts.

Maybe I'll blog about my imaginative life more often.