My last day in Italy

As hard as this trip has been the majority of the time, I do not want to leave. I mean yes, I miss my family terribly and I miss Diet Cokes and normal food. But when I am out on my own in the city, I love it here.

On Tuesday, my friend Monet and I travelled to Florence. Andrew and Patrizia, as a gift to me, bought my train ticket. It was one of those new fast trains! So instead of taking 4 hours to get there, it took us a little over an hour! What a blessing. Andrew found me a cheap, but clean hotel for us to stay in. It was right in the center of Florence. We got there and found a tourist information center close to the train station to get a map. Neither one of us knew where or how to get to the hotel. All we had was an address haha. At this point, I knew I would have slept outside if Monet was not with me. I would have not known there were tourist information places. Much to my surprise, I can read maps. Pretty well I might add. Another reason I would not have made it without Monet, the hotel looked like any other door to an apartment or something. The only way you knew it was the hotel was to look at the name on the buzzer thing! Ok, I will admit, I am the naive American who expected an American hotel. Anyway, we got buzzed in and she showed us to our room. I took a picture, just for you guys.

I felt like I was moving into my dorm at college. Oh and Monet's bed was behind the door!

I had booked us a Wine and Cheese tasting for that evening, so pretty much as soon as we got to the hotel, we decided to go walk toward the wine bar and do some sight seeing.

One of the many bridges crossing the river. Actually just on the other side of this bridge is the best gelato you will EVER have in Italy. Just sayin.

These beautiful statues welcomed you onto the bridge and then there were ones on the other side too.

We finally made it to the wine bar but we were early so we window shopped in the cute little shops around. Finally it was time to go taste some wine! When we got there we were the first of the group. So they sat us down and gave us some wine while we waited! It was some bubbly white wine that was so good! They guy told us that there were 6 of us for the evening. The next couple that came in where from Japan...lets just say, they about spoke as much English as I did Italian. (The wine tour was in English) So that was pretty funny watching this guy try and get an e-mail address from them. He ended up giving up haha. The cheese he brought us was all sheep cheese and it was SO good! The first 3 wines we tasted were white. He told us about the distributor, where the vineyard was located, and how many bottles were produced. You know a good distributor by how many bottles he produces. The smaller the better. One of the wines we had, the wine maker only produced 2000 bottles and thisparticular wine bar bought 1500 each year. That wine was REALLY good! The guy wasn't too fond of white wine so he gave us those first and didn't drink with us haha. But when we got to the reds, you could really tell he loved what he did and really loved the making of wine. He told us about this one distributor who was 89 and still making wine. His hired help would pick only the best grapes and then dump it out in front of him on a table. Then he would weed through and find the best of the best. Ends up he dumps 60% of the grapes and only thinks about 40% of the grapes they bring him is up to par. This guy really loves what he does! Zeno (the wine guide) said that this guy could smell a wine, and tell you what trees and flowers were growing around the vineyard! Now that is talent! The last wine we tasted, he took us down to drink in the cellar.

A couple from the UK took this for us!

After the wine tour we went walking to find a restaurant to eat at. We had our handy dandy Rick Steve's book, but with it being August and that is when EVERYBODY takes their holiday, all the restaurants we wanted were closed. But we did end up finding a wonderful place to eat. I had lasagna...which I love! Stouffers move over.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to ask the hotel lady if she knew anything to do at night. She didn't have anything to tell us so we just went walking. More than once we heard, "Ciao, bella". As we were walking, we heard music. So we ended up in front of the Uffizi museum and there was a guy with an amp and his acoustic guitar just singing! We sat and listened to him until 11:30. It was so fun! We were exhausted by that time so we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning we got up, got an AMAZING pastry and coffee and then went and saw Michaelangleo's David!!!!! I couldn't take pictures but it was ABSOLUTELY beautiful!!! After that we grabbed lunch and headed to the train station. It was a really fast trip but TOTALLY worth it! Florence was probably my favorite place in Italy. It was small enough that you were not overwhelmed to walk everywhere yet there was a TON of things to see.

So...if any of you plan on traveling to Italy, take me because I can do the metro and the train systems like a pro!

Today is my last full day here. Last night we went and ate at a local chinese restaurant, then went for a walk in a nearby town.  I got all my clothes washed and the apartment cleaned. I am going to do a packing dry run to make sure everything fits, watch some American TV streaming through the internet. I don't know what I would have done without internet this whole time! I am so very blessed to have had this experience. Thank you everybody for all your prayers and support. I wouldn't have made it without every single one of you. Tomorrow I will be getting up at 2:30am Italy time, 7:30pm Saturday your time, my plane leaves at 6:30am Sunday Italy time, 11:30pm Saturday your time. I will be stopping in Frankfurt for 4 hours and Washington DC for 3 hours then on home to Bush International. I should be in at 8:35 pm Sunday night!!! That is over 24 hours of traveling! Pray for a better plane than last time, and strength and alertness for me.

Pretty sure this is my last blog. Not sure you all what to know about my times in Houston haha. I would have to change the name to "When in Houston". Thats boring.

Thank you again for everything! I have felt so loved through all your comments. I love you all very much!

Love you-
Kellie

It's all coming to an end

Well, I only have 8 more days here in Italy. When I first came 2 months sounded like FOREVER! I thought this day would never come, but now that its here I can actually say that I am sad. I have met some pretty amazing people and made some lifelong friends.

Last weekend I went to Ostia to stay with my friend Monet and her husband Marco. They are the ones that Andrew and Patrizia had over for dinner because Monet is American. We have hit it off great and I hope to come back and see her sometime! I LOVE Ostia! Its such a hip little town. Every night in the main Piazza, there is live music. Its different genres every night and when we went, it was German classical haha. I couldn't tell it was German, but it was good! Then because it was a Saturday night, along the beach, artists had all these booths set up of their paintings and there was an outdoor bookstore. Too bad I don't read Italian. There were some great prices for books. For dinner Saturday, Monet and I, the two Americans decided it would be a good idea to try and make her Italian husband some pizza. Bad idea haha. First mistake, we made too much dough so it was the thickets pizza ever. Real Italian pizza is thin crust. Second mistake, we didn't let the dough rise enough so it was hard. It was quite comical. Marco was nice about it and ate like 3 or 4 pieces. What a trooper! We still had left over dough so I decided I would make cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and Marco had never had them! They turned out WONDERFUL! I was pretty proud of myself.

Sunday, we went to church and then Marco's mom cooked us lunch. Ok, seriously, I have never had food this good EVER! She made Lasagna! I can't even describe how good it was. One thing I have realized is that us Americans use way too much red sauce! Solution, less red sauce, more cheese! Then she brought out potatoes, salad, and some pretty amazing meat! I was SO SO full by the time we left there! But I will never want to eat Lasagna ever again...except in Italy of course.

So on Sunday, the boys are going to stay with Patriza's parents again and not coming back till after I leave!! Which means that I have to tell them bye tomorrow! I am going to miss them so much! When Andrew and Patrizia are not around they are the best little boys and we have so much fun together! So I have been doing a lot of, "this is the last time" stuff. Last night was the last time I will get to bathe Marco, which is really fun! And the last time I will get to kiss them goodnight. Marco loves the kisses and Alan acts like it bugs him but I know he loves it too!

I had to tell Andrew's parents bye last yesterday too. They are going to a conference in France and will be back the day after I leave! That sucked too.

On Thursday we went to a water park...yeah. It was packed and hot. Not my idea of a day out but I got a great tan and didn't have to babysit so whatever.

So Andrew and Patrizia decided to do something really sweet for me, they booked me a hotel in Florence for Tuesday night! So I will have some fun pictures to post next week.

Love you all and see you soon!

The BEST weekend of my life!

So as I mentioned in the last post that I got to go with the American's to Rome on Saturday night. I walked up to EBEI around 4 PM and we left around 5 PM. We drove to the Metro and then took the Metro into Rome. Because of all my previous Metro travels I felt like a pro. I knew exactly where I was going and I already had a stash of Metro tickets.

I liked this trip to Rome the most because I had already taken all the pictures of the sights so this time I could just walk and enjoy the scenery!

I got to be really good friends with 2 of the girls. One girl, Lauren, was 20 and 2 months before she came to Italy, she had just gotten back from The Philippines for 6 months! She went and worked in a birthing center because she wants to be a midwife. A missionary had set up this birthing center, so it was kind of a mission trip for her. She plans on working on her Doula license when she gets back to Colorado.

Lauren and I

Another girl, Ruth, was a very sweet girl. After talking with her for a little bit we found out that we knew a couple of the same people! For those of you who know the Raber family, her and Luke took Chemistry together and they studied together! What a small world to meet her in Italy!

Ruth and I

There was another girl, Kayla, who come to find out goes to Tabor, which is the school I went to my freshman year!

Ok, this was supposed to be just Kayla and I. We had no idea Emiliano was behind me. And we actually got a picture with just us two, but I just love this one so much!

Then there is Emiliano and Luca. They are guys that I met at the church that Andrew and Patrizia go to. The cool thing about Luca is that when I first met him all he could say to me was, "How...are....you?:" That was a little over a month ago. When we were walking around Rome, he was telling me history of all the sights! Now, he wasn't fluent and I had to help him out some, but seriously...this guy has learned more English than I have learned Italian! And Emiliano and I could communicate a little bit in the beginning but his English has improved SO much! Saturday night we were walking together and he was asking me all these grammar questions. Like, "What is the difference in the way you use the word 'Excuse me' and 'Sorry'. So we worked on that for a while. It was very fun! He really wanted to say things the right way and not just get by. What a cool guy!

Luca on the left, Emiliano on the right. They are best friends!

Then there was Sunday. We went to church and I sat with the Americans...of course! I thought that that was the last time I was going to get to see them, but they said that they were going to go out that night and told me to be there at 5 PM and I could go! Yay! Sunday's are my only definite days off so I was excited to have something to do again. We went to a little town about 5 minutes from where we live called, Monteportzio, and this is where there is beautiful scenery and the pope has a summer home here. Actually this photo...

is of a guard outside the popes summer home and when the guard is standing there that actually means the pope is currently in that house. I shouldn't be so excited about that but I thought it was pretty cool haha!

Then there was dinner, which was by far my favorite part! It was this little hole in the wall REAL Italian restaurant. There was no servers, the owner himself brought out your food. He would come out singing a different song every time! He was a hoot!! There was 5 courses! First was pasta with red sauce and pancetta. Second was pasta with mushrooms...eww...but I ate it. By this time I was STUFFED!!!!! Third course was three different types of meat. One was their equivalent of hamburger which I am not fond of...another was I think lamb, but it tastes like steak so I ate that one. I have no idea what the third piece of meat was and I didn't touch it haha. Fourth course was salad topped with olive oil and salt! Fifth course was the best potatoes I have EVER had!!! They were chopped up and then I think fried in butter or something because they melted in your mouth! Red wine and white wine came with dinner. I wasn't too fond of the white and I usually don't like red but this red wine was SO good! Then they brought out some Spumante wine! OH MY!!! It was so good! I was sitting next to this guy named Chris who was just on Holiday visiting his aunt Hannah who came to dinner with us. He is from Switzerland. But he told me that I needed to be careful with the Spumante because of the bubbles and you can get drunk really fast. So...I only had one glass. But man was it good!

My favorite part of the dinner and probably the whole weekend was when all the Italians and the owner of the place started clapping and singing! Danny, who is the missionary over the English camp that the Americans came to do, said that this was a common song that is sung in places like this. You have to watch this video! I want to marry an Italian and live in Italy just for this haha!

The guy with all the tattoos is the owner of the place. Danny, the missionary, is the guy at the head of the table. He is one cool guy. He was born in Italy but lived in the states for 6 years going to school. His English is SO good! He just has a small Italian accent when talking English. He teaches at EBEI but is also a missionary supported by various churches. One of the churches is the one in Colorado that all these Americans came from. Oh and if I had my pick of which Italian guy to bring home...he would be the one haha. Not that I am bringing an Italian guy home...sorry to get your hopes up for a minute!

This next weekend is when I am going to Ostia to stay Saturday night with Monet and Marco! I am sure I will have stories and pictures to share then!

This weekend was totally worth everything that I have dealt this whole trip! I was blessed to meet some amazing people and hopefully a couple of life"

New friends and an Alan story.

So this last week there was a mission group from Colorado here doing an English camp. I got to meet them at church last Sunday. I didn't get to see them during the week because I was working and they were doing their camp. But last night to end the camp they had a little program for the kids and family. We met at a park and the American teachers taught them the electric slide, which I had to get in on, and then some other country dance that I didn't know. It was SO much fun! I got to meet and get to know a lot of the girls that are here on this trip. One of them, Kayla, goes to Tabor! Its crazy how small our world can be! And they were telling me that since the camp was over that they were going to see Rome by night on Saturday night and then go again on Monday. They invited me to come with them tonight, Saturday, but I usually have the kids on Saturdays so I had to say no. But when we were driving home, Andrew asked me what their plans were for Sunday. I told him about their touring but that they didn't have anything planned for Sunday. So him on his own, without me asking, said that he would keep the kids on Saturday night and I could go with them to tour Rome! So I got up this morning and walked up to EBEI (pronounced ebay, the institute that the Americans are staying in and where Andrew works) to see if they had room for me and what time they were leaving. They were more than happy to have me and I sat and talked with them while they ate breakfast for over an hour! It was such a wonderful time! I am very excited to go tonight.

Now for the Alan story. The boys were SO excited to go to the American dance party, as they called it, but it looked like it was going to rain. Alan was so worried that we wouldn't get to go. Right in the middle of dinner, he stopped eating, and started praying to God that it would please not rain! Now I can't tell you exactly what he said because it was all in Italian, but he folded his hands and closed his eyes, which was clue he was praying; and talked about pioggia, which means rain in Italian. So I got the jest of what he was talking about. We laughed and thought it was cute and went on eating. Well, while we were in the car headed to the park, Alan informed us that he prayed to God that it wouldn't rain but God talked to him and told him it was going to rain. He was pretty upset.

Well, we got to be there about an hour before it started to rain. As I was carrying Alan to the car I said, "Alan, you said that God told you it was going to rain and it did!" He just looked at me and shook his head as if he was saying, "Uh, ya! I told you so!" It was so cute!

So I am praising God for the time I get to spend with my new American friends tonight! It will be a much needed outing. And some REAL Italian food!

Love-
Kellie

Praise the Lord!

Marco is potty trained! We have not had an accident in over a week!

Another praise is that the temperature has gone down significantly in the past two days! Their is a nice little chill in the wind. Love it!

Pray for my friend, Megan, she leaves for Paris tomorrow (I think) to be a Mission Nanny for a family there! Pray she has a safe flight, and a better plane than I had! Pray she gets over jet lag quickly and doesn't have an emotional break down like me haha. She actually already knows the family she is going to so that should help IMMENSELY!

At church yesterday there was a group of Americans here for an English camp they are doing in a nearby town. It was nice to talk to them and be able to pray for them this week! They are having an American dance one night but its on a night that Patrizia works afternoons so I don't get to go :(.

Nothing else really going on here. Still reading through the Gospels and LOVING it! I am in Luke. I love reading the different perspectives from the different authors of the same stories! I think once I am done with the Gospels I am just going to just keep on reading.

Its now just under 4 weeks before I come home. I know I am going to miss it here once I am home and back to my real life. I mean I really got it made here. I get to watch kid movies and take naps everyday. Seriously, its good. But with that said...I am ready to come home. I miss everybody!

Thanks for the continued prayers!

Love you-
Kellie

P.S. No I will not potty train your children.

1 Month

I have been in Italy exactly 1 month today, and tomorrow I will come home in 1 month! This has been a very interesting first half of my trip. I have learned very little Italian, dealt with some CRAZY kids, and met some amazing people! I am praying that this last half seems just like it is all downhill from here.

At the end of Dug Down Deep, Joshua talks about how we view the church. Most of us view it as a gas station. You go there because you need to be filled up, you don't go there more than to be filled up. Joshua Harris says, "The journey of the Christian faith was supposed to be made with other believers. The church isn't a gas station. Its the bus I am supposed to be traveling on." We get on this said "bus" every morning and it takes us around to where we need to go. And since we ride this "bus" everyday, people associate us with this "bus". Bus=God.

And people throw around the word church as if anytime 2 Christians are in the same room, they are a church. Some performers at concerts say, "We're gonna have church in here tonight!". What exactly does that mean?

So that is my challenge. What does church mean to you? Are you doing it to just be "filled up" once a week, or do you see it as not about you and what you can get out of it?

Gotta get back!

Love you-
Kellie

Pharisees

I was reading Mark this morning and came across chapter 8:11-13. And in these 3 verses I felt more convicted and like a Pharisee. The Pharisees demanded a sign from God to test Him. Then the Lord sighed and got on the boat and left them. I have a feeling the Lord sighs a lot with me. I think we as a generation are demanding more and more signs from the Lord to test Him. We need to remember that the Lord doesn't need us, He doesn't need to be needed by us to fill complete. He is loving us and blessing us out of sheer grace. Not because he feels obligated to, but because He loves us! I don't know when we got to the place to where we think we can demand ANYTHING from God.

That brings me to, we don't fear God. We run to him in times of trouble and throw up a little "Thank you Lord" when things go good. When we sin, we ask for forgiveness, but do we truly repent. I think we put God in a box WAY too often. Now know when I say "we" I definitely mean ME! I am the worst at throwing up one liners to make me feel like I talk to God everyday. I don't spend near enough time in just prayer.

So there ya go. I kind of just rambled, but I hope I got my point across. We need to radically change our lives and the way we view God. At least I do!

I get the boys back in the morning. Its been a wonderful week! I cannot believe all the things I have gotten to see!

Thank you everybody for praying for me. I need a lot of prayer these next couple days because Andrew said that Patrizia's parents SPOIL the boys and that they will be "very naughty" for a couple days. So, I will need lots of prayer!

Love you-
Kellie