November 3, 2003

Howdy folks!

Isabella's Update Oh my goodness. It's been a while since we (Ok, ok, *I*) updated this. Isabella is 2 and a half (ok, nearly 3), and wearing size 3T and 4T clothes and weighs about 35 pounds. She's tall and thin like I was at her age. She is really enjoying her Music Together class every Tuesday morning, and she gets a kick out of going to the Kids Zone at my gym when I go work out. She loves to run around with the other kids and do art projects. Play dough, bubbles, paint and glue make her very happy. Isabella loves reading, running around outside, and playing in the water. Bathtub, pool, sink, cup. Doesn't much matter. Luckily we have someow managed to avoid a toilet water fixation. Her favorite foods are milk, chicken, gumbo, marshmallows and birthday cake. She's really good about eating just about anything - these are just the things she regularly (or persistently) request. She's very loving and giggly, and she loves to sing and dance (still). She had a blast at Halloween, as a DINOSAUR! Much to my disappointment, she was not the least bit interested in the "boring" old princess costumes. She did look adorable, though. We couldn't quit giggling at her. She loves to have tea parties and rock her baby dolls. I guess she's just a well balanced gal!

We Bought our First House!! Well, geez. Last you heard from us we were moving back to the states. Not only have we done that, we lived in Concord for 6 months, bought our very first home ever, and have been living in it for two full months now. Sorry! We've been a little busy. :-) The house is much smaller than what we were accustomed to in Texas, but our tenure in Europe helped a little with the shock. It has a nice open floorplan so it doesn't feel as small inside. We're mostly settled, and now it's time to get some paint up and some more decorating done! It's nice to have the freedom to do anything we want!! Dave is loving his new job at Novell. He's getting to do a lot of things that he feels make a difference. So that's pretty rewarding. Elisa is enjoying living the domesticated life, and has even learned how to keep plants alive for more than a month at a time! Woo hoo! And the pay for stay-at-home-mommy is awesome. What's better than baby kisses anyway?

Our tiny, happy new house in Bedford, Massachusetts

February 10, 2003

Snow is cool!

Isabella's Update(s) and News Isabella will be 2 years old on February 26. Hopefully we will be be in (if not settled into) our new home by then (see below). She's growing like crazy, of course, and nearly 30 pounds. She likes to help Mom cook, loves to read, and can usually be found playing in her box "house", or making her toys play together. Her favorite food at the moment is gumbo. :) She still labels everything she sees, and asks "what's that?". She also quotes her favorite movie lines, like "To infinity and beyond", and "He's flying!" Peter Pan, Toy Story and Shrek are her favorites right now. She is always pretty good tempered, and has the cutest little pout (although we try not to let her know that). We got to deal with her first real illness other than a cold. She got a stomach virus at 2:30 am on the last day we were house hunting in the Boston area and was sick every hour or two after that. Not fun. Thank goodness for house calls and anti-nausea drugs. Otherwise our 7 hour flight back to Milan would have been worse than usual. Then she got a cough and cold that made her lethargic and miserable and kept her very close to Mommy all week. We took her to the doctor and discovered tonsils the size of cherry tomatos. Poor thing. After the first 2 doses of antibiotic, she was practically back to normal, though. Whew! She's still sleeping a lot, though. Lucky me - it gives me a chance to update the website, finally!

We're Moving Back to the USA! Yes, you heard correctly. Dave has accepted the position of Technical Director of Global Alliances with Novell. He's really excited about the position, and is looking forward to jumping in. The office is in Waltham, Massachusetts, and we found a house to rent in Concord. Three bedrooms, brand new kitchen and bathrooms, plus a basement, attic and "mud room". Since rent is pretty high, we hope to be buying soon so we can start building equity. Isabella loves the snow, but I'm sure that will wear off soon enough, because it's really bleepin' cold up there!! We will miss Italy and the rest of Europe, and most of all our friends here, but it is time for us to make the move back. It isn't quite "back home", but as our parents point out - At least it's on the right side of the ocean now. :) We hope to be moving the week of the 17th, but don't have a date set yet. argh. Talk about leaving it to the last minute!

We have the closest half of this duplex

 

November 5, 2002

And of course, she still loves her horsey and dressing up.

Isabella's Update(s) and News Isabella is roughly 21 months old now. She's talking in sentences now, and can communicate practically all her wants and needs. The pronunciation is always fun to listen to. Today she labeled a cucumber "coot-bubber". She loves her computer games and DVD's. Disney's "Robin Hood" is "Ooo-de-lally" and "Snow White" is "Baby Hi Ho". :) We limit the movies, but she'd be perfectly content to watch them all day. Luckily she loves reading, too. She's also sleeping in a big-girl-bed with a side rail. We couldn't get her to go to sleep in her crib, but she'd sleep just fine on the floor next to it, so it just made sense to make the switch. Now she'll even climb in her bed with her milk and bear, put her head on the pillow, and say "night, night". She says hello (or rather, "ciao") to everyone. It's fun watching people's faces light up when she stops dead in her tracks to say ciao and wave. We even ran into a lady last week who said "Look, here's the sweet girl who greets everyone".(in Italian, of course) :) She definitely loves making people smile.

One The Road Again Over the last month or two, we've done a lot of travelling again. We've been to Amsterdam, Bergamo, Pavia, Texas (home sweet home), Arezzo and Cortona (with Graham and Helen - for our Tuscan Tour 2002), Florence (again) and Nice. Dave also went on a business trip to Dubai. And we even have the pictures up to prove it all! (Finally, I know). One of these days I'm going to have to get a world map and put little dots where we've visited.

Us with Graham and Helen

 

September 4, 2002

Goodnight Gorilla

Isabella's Update(s) and News Isabella is a full year and a half old now. Where has the time gone?! She's started labelling everything. "Long neck" (pronouced "aww ehhh" means giraffe, apparently. I'm sure she'll find a better use of the term in 20 years or so. I need to start a list of her vocabulary and pronunciations. "Horse" is pronounced "yee haw", complete with giddyup motions. :) Her favorite book is "Goodnight, Gorilla", and her sound effects are just delightful. She gasps at the discovery of the gorilla in the zookeeper's bed, and says a rough approximation of "in my bed!". It's just too cute. She's sprouted 3 premolar-type teeth, and the 4th has been bugging her for a while. She eats everything we do. And she loves avocados. She and I fight over the guacamole on Mexican night. :) She's also decided she likes wearing hats and sunglasses now. And carrying her purse. Complete with wallet and keys, she loves putting things in and taking them out again, and then carrying it all around the house. Hey, it keeps her entertained!

For our August holiday, we spent 5 days in Cervinia in the Italian Alps hiking and skiing. Well, Dave skied, but I wimped out for some reason. Sigh, there go my chances of bragging about snow skiing in August! Dave had a fantastic time, though. It was really windy and cold the first day, and the second was so much warmer that he zipped the sleeves off his jacket. Unfortunately, it also made the snow icier and harder to ski on. One day we thought we'd go for a nice hour or so hike in the mountains. It ended up being a *5* hour hike! Beautiful scenery and lots of exercise. We had a great time. Dave was a bit more worn out than I was, thanks to the 25 extra pounds (Isabella, of course) on his back.

Hiking in the mountains

And swimming in the pool. Now that's a summer vacation!!

Tunisia was wonderful. Well, once our suitcase arrived on day 5 of our 7 day vacation! We spent far too much time tracking down diapers for Isabella and fretting about our luggage and having clean clothes (and underwear), that we missed some of the fun the first couple days. Luckily we got over it, bought new bathing suits and just sat at the pool. :) We finally relaxed enough to want to go out and do some real sightseeing in the desert or see some ruins in Carthage, but it was too late. Oh well, maybe next time!

 

August 8, 2002

Dancing Queen!

Isabella's Update(s) and News Isabella is 17 months old. She weighs exactly 10 kilos (22 pounds), and is under 3 feet tall. I couldn't get close enough to her with the measuring tape. I'll catch her eventually though. Isabella loves flowers and animals. She also loves to dance and sing and wear Mommy's clothes, shoes and now lipstick! While I was cooking dinner one night, she unzipped my purse, pulled out the lipstick, removed the lid and began applying lipstick. Over and over she opened, applied and closed the lipstick. She was having such a great time! Good thing she never figured out how to twist the color to the top. :) We took her to the Genoa Aquarium, and she had a fantastic time watching all the colorful fish. She was oohing and aahing, and running around everywhere pointing, gesturing and talking loudly. She was obviously enjoying it more than the rest of the kids there. Dave and I got a huge kick out of watching her have such a great time. We went for a quick weekend trip to the mountains, and did some hiking. Isabella liked walking better than riding in her backpack, I think, but even that was tiring. We're headed back up to the mountains for 5 days, then a day or two of packing and recovery, and then we're off to the beaches of Hammamet, Tunisa for a week of sun, sand and relaxation!

July 26, 2002

I like wearing Mommy's clothes! (Yes, that is my bra)

Isabella's Developmental Update(s) Isabella is 17 months old today. She weighs exactly 10 kilos (22 pounds), and is under 3 feet tall. I couldn't get close enough to her with the measuring tape. I'll catch her eventually though. She's off and running now. She's outgrown (and practically destroyed) several pair of shoes, and already LOVES to shop for them and clothes. :) She's already started to wear mine, actually. It's pretty funny watching her walk around the house in my heels. I'll have to see if I can track down the video. Isabella also likes to wrap Mommy's soft clothing around her neck like a feather boa. She's also speaking Italian. No, really. Well, she says "ciao", and "amo". "Amo" means "I love" in Italian, but for her, it's an abbreviated form of "andiamo", meaning "let's go". She also understands everybody just fine. Better than we do, I think. Her English vocabulary includes Grandma, toes, shoes, glasses, baby, duck, puppy dog, nose, hat, Pooh, Eeyore, Owl, and Tigger. She's suddenly taken a liking to hats, too. She's frequently seen wearing our souvenir Alpine hats from Octoberfest (yes, often accompanied by my heels). She loves it when her Daddy comes home, so she runs down the hall and into his arms to greet him. Needless to say, Dave LOVES this. Of course, she also loves chasing birds and dogs. ;-) Isabella has also just discovered crayons. She's drawn several lovely pictures, and we've mailed them off to Grandmas. Well, that's about it for now, time to chase her down again!

Family Visits We warned you last time that we were going to have family come visit for a verrrry long time. :) Well, we did survive the 5 weeks solid of family and travel. But just barely. I don't have all the pictures online yet, but I'll be working on it, and I'll let you know. Dave's parents were here for 3 weeks. We went to the mountains for a couple days near the Matterhorn (Mt. Cervinia), then to Tuscany, then Rome, Sulmona, Chieti (where Dave's Verratti ancestors are from), back up through Modena, then to Venice. After that we went up into Switzerland. It was an eventful three weeks. My parents were here for just two weeks, but they had a fantastic time. First they went straight to Venice for a week, then we took an nice leisurely drive up beside Lake Como, through Switzerland into Leichtenstein and into Austria. We were promptly greeted by a 120 Euro fine for not having a tax sticker (which we weren't warned about). It must have been the end of the quarter and quotas were short, so they set up a huge sting operation. There were hundreds of cars pulled over for the same thing. Grrr. Since they decided to collect our tourist dollars up front, we turned right around and went back to Switzerland. We had a lovely time in Zurich and Lucerne and driving through a couple of gorgeous high mountain passes on the way back to Milan. We were stopped a block away from the house and got a 65 Euro ticket for not having an international driving license. Ack! Just let me go home!

Al and Barbara Verratti on top of San Marco in Venice Jean and Andre Meyer. Guess where.

Isabella and Jessie

How about a BBQ? Helen sent us a text message one day saying they were having a BBQ on the 6th, and would we like to come? Dave texted back immediately with "We'll be there". It took them a bit by surprise, but were happy to have us buy last minute tickets to come see everyone. We'd been discussing a weekend visit up there anyway, it just gave us a good excuse (like we really needed one). We got to see just about everyone! We met Jessie for the first time (absolutely adorable!), met Graham's mother and sister (both lovely), and saw Helen and Graham, Tracey and Tony, Matt and Sam, Dom and Abigail (Congratulations again, you two!) and met the new housemate Vanessa. The BBQ was wonderful as usual, and we had a great time seeing everyone, doing some shopping, and having a yummy dim-sum. :)

 

April 14, 2002

Welcome Jessie Marie!! Our friends Tracey Prow and Tony Woulfe welcomed a sweet little Jessie Marie to the world on February 20, 2002 at 3:28pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs, 1 oz. The parents and Aunt Helen are very proud (not to mention sleepy!) Congratulations you all! We can't wait to meet her!

 

April 4, 2002

Almost Walking!

Isabella's Developmental Update(s) Isabella is now 13 months old and weighs about 20 pounds. She's got 8 little teeth, and is threatening to grow more soon. When does the teething (and drooling) end? She's also walking!! Well, not all the time, but she's certainly able to stand up on her own, and take off whenver she likes. She still wobbles a bit, but she's getting much less tentative about it. She does seem to think that her "magic" shoes are necessary for effective walking, but we're gradually getting her accustomed to the joys of being barefoot, too. Oh, and I just discovered that she looks adorable with tiny little pigtails! She's expanded her vocabulary to include signs and sounds. She flaps her wings for birds, says "uff uff" for dogs, makes goldfish kisses for fish and does the ASL sign for "all gone". And that's in addition to the standard "bye bye" (or "ciao", as the case may be) and "no no", among others. The cutest is her "uh oh". She adds extra "uh's" in front, depending on the severity of the oops. There have been a couple occasions that warranted an "uh uh uh uh uh oh!" She's eating big people food regularly. Chinese, Italian, German, you name it. She even likes hot sauce (she got a hold of the lid once, and licked it clean!). Occasionally she'll still eat "baby food", but definitely prefers food off our plates. And, she seems to have developed a possible tomato allergy. Ack! Her little cheeks, chin and the tip of her nose turn bright red. How am I going to cook without my beloved tomatos! Oh well, I'll just have to cope.

Home for the Holidays We took a nice, long, and much needed break and went back to Texas for the Christmas holidays. We spent a week with his parents, a week at mine and then a week in Austin and Houston trying to see various and sundry friends. We spent New Year's Eve at Joe and Jenna Castro's home in Austin, joined by John and Kris Long, John's sister Heather, and other friends Howard and Jennifer. We spent far too much time trying to get paperwork sorted for Dave's work permit, and it's STILL not quite done. sigh. We did get to spend almost a week in London. We stayed with our friends Helen and Tracey (who had also visited us in Milan in December) and got to see some of our other friends in London, but certainly not everyone we wanted to. Hopefully we won't have to wait so long before our next visits home. We miss you all!

This Santa dude's not too bad...

Baby Girls on the train Bill, Beth, Pat, John and Olivia (asleep) Looking cool with Grandma and Granddaddy Meyer at the Colosseum

Guests, Guests and More Guests! March was the month of visitors. Nearly three weeks of visitors, to be exact. Our friends John and Pat, and their adorable daughter Olivia arrived the morning of February 28. We went to Rome with them for the weekend, and we even saw the Pope!! Then Dave and I came back to Milan (on an overnight train - NOT fun) to meet Bill and Beth who arrived Monday morning. Monday afternoon, Bill, Beth, Isabella and I took the train to Florence and met John, Pat and Olivia there. Wednesday, Pat really wanted to see Pisa, so they went for the day, while the rest of us came back to Milan. Bill and Beth left for Rome Thursday morning, while the rest of us went to Verona for a nice day trip. We misread the train schedule (ok, so John was the only one who even looked at it) and missed our last train. Very bad, since their flight back to the States was at 11:30 on Friday morning!! We found a hotel for the night (4 hours) and caught the 5 am train to Milan, got them packed, to the airport and on the plane in time! Woo hoo! We met Bill and Beth in Rome on Friday evening. Did some more wandering around and relaxing. Dave accompanied them back to Milan Sunday afternoon so they could get their Monday morning flight, and I stayed to meet my parents who came to Rome for a week. We had a great week, including our trip to Pompeii on Wednesday (which started with Isabella puking all over herself, us and the taxi we were in, just as we pulled up to the station). Overall, I think everyone had great trips. I certainly did, and boy was I exhausted from all the tour guiding!!

 

October 31, 2001

Going for a walk again! Yippee!

Isabella's Developmental Update(s) Isabella is now 8 months old and weighs 16 lbs, 13 oz. Where does the time go? She's got 2 beautiful little teeth on the bottom, and boy, are they sharp!! She says "Mamma" and "Dadda" regularly, and loves talking on the phone (or listening and turning her head to find the person talking to her). She has also learned how to shake her head back and forth. She practices this vigorously, and it sometimes causes her to lose her balance and fall over. She sits on her own, crawls everywhere, and pulls herself up on things (and falls back down, of course). Her favorite toys would be (if we'd let her) cell phones, electrical cords, plastic bags and computer equipment. She is constantly trying to sneak over to something forbidden when she thinks we're not looking. Otherwise, her favorite thing is definitely her new stroller. She pulls the seat forward so she can hold onto the front bar and watch EVERYTHING. She's eating some solid foods now, but prefers to play with it or spit it back at us. She loves yogurt, though, and will eat tons of it without protest. And she always prefers the food from our plates and the drinks from our cups. But we have to be careful about offering something to her, she's got a heck of a grip and we might not get it back. Forceful removal of something from her hands is not recommended. She'll respond with a quick pout and and teary boo-hoo's until she gets it back, or she's successfully distracted by something else. But she's a happy baby, and always ready with a beautiful smile, or at least a nice raspberry. pppppbbblllltttt!!!

Graham and Helen and the Tuscan Wine Tour Our friends Graham Key and Helen Prow came to stay with us for a week, and we decided to take a driving tour around Tuscany, the home of some of Italy's best wines. We started in Siena for a night, then drove to Montalcino, which was our base for 2 nights with day trips to vineyards and Montepulciano. On the way home, we stopped in Pisa just long enough to see the leaning tower and (the outside of) the rest of the gorgeous duomo. The scenery was incredible and the wine was wonderful (and we bought a LOT of it). It was a well needed break, and we all had a fantastic time. We drank a couple bottles of Brunello di Montalcino and decided it deserved it's good reputation. We also managed to get Graham and Helen hooked on good Italian espresso. It was also on this trip that Isabella sprouted her first and then her second tooth! Thanks for visiting you two! Come back and stay any time!

Our first Brunello, in Montalcino.

I missed you Daddy!

Dave's recovering On October 1st, on his first day back at work after our Tuscan driving holiday (pics soon), Dave's motorcycle collided with a car that pulled out in front of him. Luckily he escaped with just a badly broken wrist and a limp from a sore hip. He spent 4 days in the hospital, and had surgery to put a couple of rods through the two bones that were broken in his wrist. Luckily enough, my Italian improved while he was in the hospital. Very few of the nurses spoke English, so I got to figure out how to ask for painkillers in Italian for him. :) The pain has been replaced by discomfort now, and he's already plugging away at work one-handed. The cast comes off November 2nd, but we're still not sure if he gets another one or not. Welcome home Dave.

 

August 17, 2001

Mmmmm, red! What are these things?

Isabella's Developmental Update(s) She's now about 5 1/2 months old. Ouch. They said she'd grow fast, but this is ridiculous! She learned how to roll over. First from back to front, and then from front to back (after about a month or so). She's now a hazard to herself and can't be left unattended on anything higher than the floor. She used to hate being on her belly, but certainly prefers it now. We discovered that Isabella LOVES the color red. At least we hope it's just the color red. Otherwise, she's showing evidence of a very early addiction to Coca-Cola, McDonald's fries and Ritz crackers. She's trying to sit up and crawl. She's not very good at either one. She can sort of prop herself up for about 30 seconds or so sitting, but gets too distracted by stuff around her and falls over when she reaches for things. Her crawling style seems to be a bit of face-plow. She can get her feet going and her belly off the ground, but is having trouble with the concept of using her arms at the same time. She said "Daddy" pretty clearly in Venice, with no confusing babble around it. She hasn't said it again since, but at least it was a quality "Daddy". It sure made Dave's day anyway. She's started saying "mamamama", but we suspect it just means breast. At least I'm the only one who has functional ones. :) She's also discovered her toes. And just recently has decided they taste pretty good. I think we've caught her sucking her toes more often than her thumb. She generally prefers fingers, or the entire fist.

Erin's gone! :-( My youngest sister Erin stayed for 2 1/2 months with us, and we had a fantastic time, despite the stresses of having to help us settle into a new home, stumbling along with us as we try to learn the language, and the lack of an internet connection for the first month which isolated her pretty thoroughly from her friends, and more specifically her boyfriend. We took several trips around Italy, and we can't pin her down on which city is her favorite. I think she's got it narrowed down to Rome, Florence or Venice. She's not sure if she prefers the lakes or the ocean better either. We spent a lot of time wandering around and exploring Milan . We also took cooking classes from a real Italian! Erin cooked many a meal this summer while I took care of Isabella. Her spagetti pomodoro still tastes better than mine. :) She also made a mean gelati (Italian ice cream). Erin is also responsible for the now famous "diaper song", sung to the tune of "Cinderelly" (the mouse song from Cinderella). Isabelly, Isabelly You're so smelly, Isabelly It's time to change your diaper I'll be your booty wiper It's time to change your tushie It's feeling really mushy Then you won't stink at all You'll be the sweetest one of all When we change your diaper Smelly Isabelly Erin, we all miss you tons already. Come back and visit anytime!

Erin's travels were all well documented. Isabella will never forgive you for this one, though. ;)

May 31, 2001

Our former London home. The new moving mess

Goodbye London and Ciao Milano!! Moving sucks! Oh wait a second, what am I complaining about? I'm in Italy now! Well, the move didn't go quite as smoothly as we'd hoped, but not as bad as we've been told it could have been. Monday morning we went to our new apartment to get the keys and move in. The keys arrived just as the movers did, and we discovered that the flat "wasn't quite ready". Hmmm, no kidding. They were still painting! We were able to let the movers go ahead and unload into the mostly dry living room, but we had to stay with our friends again that night because the paint fumes were just too bad. Turns out the paining was supposed to be finished the Friday before, but they'd had a little incident with the ceiling falling in. oops! By Tuesday afternoon, the painting was finished, the movers came back and unpacked some boxes and put furniture back together, Erin arrived from Dallas, and we managed to get the placed aired out enough that we could stay in our new home last night. We're still sorting things out! Now if only I could learn the language, so I don't sound like an idiot buying groceries. :) Maybe my Italian cooking lessons will help! But we're still feeling pretty isolated because we don't have phone or internet hooked up. Dave is updating this from work. So please don't be offended that we haven't written anyone back yet!!

Erin's here! Erin arrived right in the middle of the moving mess. After the movers left, and Dave and I were trying to sort through the rubble, she gave in to the terrible jetlag you can get flying overseas and having a 4 hour layover in Frankfurt before reaching Milan. She promptly passed out on the futon in the living room, waking up only briefly to eat pizza. Who can blame her? We passed out that night too! A day or two later, we drove to Switzerland to go to Ikea. It's not QUITE as ridiculous as it sounds, it's only a 40 minute drive. But we admit it was pretty silly, especially when we found out there was one much closer - and actually in Italy. At least the drive through the Alps was gorgeous! On Sunday we drove north again to Lake Como on the Italian/Swiss border and in the foothills of the Alps. We spend the day wandering the streets, eating gelati and pizza and getting blisters. It's gonna be a great summer! Erin and Isabella are getting along swimmingly. Isabella's providing enough drool for a pool! Erin's learning all about taking care of babies, and has decided it's definitely not easy because you never know what they're crying about.

In Como Drool!!

Correction to last week's news... We said: "British people drive on the left. No one else does." We have since been informed that this information is incorrect. There are many other countries that drive on the wrong (oops, I mean left) side of the road. These include Australia, New Zealand, and most of Southeast Asia. Thanks for the tip, Quentin!

 

May 15, 2001

On the Road Again! This is move week! On Wednesday the movers arrive to pack all of our stuff, put it in a truck, and drive it to Milan. We'll hopefully only be homeless for a few days, though - we should be moving into our new apartment in Milan on Monday morning. We'll be driving from London to Milan via France and Switzerland, and are really looking forward to the trip. We're a little sad to be leaving the UK so soon - although it's been almost a year and a half, it seems like we just got here. I know I didn't get to do everything I'd planned on doing, and we'll really miss the friends we made here. Most of them seem to be planning trips to Milan, though, so I think we'll be OK. We'll try to update the site again next week, but it might be a little difficult if we don't have a phone or internet access.

New car for the continent. British people drive on the left. No one else does. This means that leaving the UK either requires us to drive a right hand drive car on the "wrong" side of the road, not drive at all, or get a new car. This is the car we're buying and driving to Italy. It's a 1993 Range Rover - we decided to take one last souvenir with us from England.

 

May 8, 2001

Zeke was here! Zeke Cassinelli and a couple friends stopped in London for a very quick visit on May 6th. They had a 7 hour layover before continuing their journey to Malaga, Spain for some well-deserved relaxation on the beautiful beaches. With the travel time to and from the airport, we only got to spend about 2 hours with them. We managed to squeeze in a pub lunch, a long delay in London's wonderful underground, and a visit to Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. They almost missed their flight because of poorly synchronized watches, but we assume they made it on time because we didn't hear from them again begging for a place to stay.

"Auntie" Erin is rumored to be planning an Italian invasion. Elisa's youngest sister, Erin, is due to arrive in Milan just days after our move to stay the summer with us. In exchange for a delivery of Region 1 DVD's and some babysitting, Erin will spend her first college summer experiencing the wonder of travelling with a newborn in Europe with us, rather than being useful and getting a job back home.

 

May 1, 2001

This is our brand-new site - we had to get rid of the last one as it never seemed to be up to date. Hopefully we'll be a little better with our own domain.. We're just setting it up, but don't worry - new pictures of Isabella are being added as we speak. :-)

Congratulations to our good friends Lauren Buckle and John Toubassi who just got married on April 28 in Houston. We're sorry we couldn't be there - but we still want to see pics!

And, ummm, for those who haven't heard, we kinda had a baby in February. (She's the one in the picture at the top, and the subject of a LOT of pictures here.)