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On Jan 19th around 8:30am is when I had been having braxton-hicks for most of the day and for a few days before. I wanted to be checked beca...

Friday, November 19, 2010

First Steps in Building our New HOME Together

We have moved into our apartment!! It is so wonderful to finally be getting settled into a permanent home. It has been 6 months or more that we have been in one temporary place after the next.  Actually I've moved 5 times since April 2010!! Ben has moved 4 times!!
The picture you see is from the guest bedroom window in our apartment. So beautiful! Those mountains are the Italian Alps. We plan to go explore them this winter!!

Moving in to the apartment was quite interesting...While we were in our hotel, we could see our new apartment from the window. I looked at it longingly EVERYday. So, since we were so close we decided we would walk  all our stuff (we came with just suitcases) over in a few trips. Since we arrived here (a month ago on the 21st) we acquired quite the pile; new jackets, food, and other miscellaneous “stuff”.  FMO (Furniture Management Office) was scheduled to drop off temporary furniture at our new house around 0930. We made our trips back and forth and around 0915 I realized that I better hurry my butt back over to our apartment. I arrived the same time they arrived. Phew! The policy is that you MUST be present when they get there or they leave with no mercy. But we were safe!
They gave us all the big items we would need. We received a fridge, stove, couch, dining table, washer, dryer, bed, and 4 wardrobes (SOO thankful). We get to keep the wardrobes, washer and dryer and kitchen appliances for the duration that we are here in Avaino. They also gave us transformers and a fire extinguisher that we keep the whole time we are here. European beds do not have springs. It’s like you are lying on a well padded floor, but it’s not too bad.
Our home is located right across the street from a place called the “Western House” it is an Italian restaurant, very casual but also a “sit-down” place. It’s pretty yummy. We also live kiddy-corner to the mall here. Americans don’t recognize it’s a mall because it is so tiny. It’s like the size of a medium sized apartment complex you would find in the states. Now, I’m sure you are wondering how big our apartment is. It has a grand total of 6 apartments in the complex. It is GREAT!! The homes are made of concrete too, and we have gas-powered radiators to heat our home. It is taking some getting used to!

Ben is doing well; he has been so helpful getting our home set up. He is a great protector and provider!! J When he got home the past two days from work he has been so excited to get everything out of his suitcases and put away. Then the sweet man told me he worried he doesn’t treat me the best he could!! What girl would argue with his man when he comes home and does work around the house?? I actually end up asking him if he will just relax with me for a little. (He is just like my dad and I love it). We found a great pizza place called Pulciena’s (sp). If anyone has ever had Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza, Pulciena’s is very similar. The best Pizzeria we’ve had here so far.

We do not have internet or our home phone hooked up yet…but I am able to walk to base (yes we live about a 10min walk away) to use the internet in the library.  We are going to have Thanksgiving Dinner with a few families from church. Last weekend we house-sat for a family who let us borrow their car while they were gone. They want to let us use their car again this weekend!! Then we will house sit again for a different family Thanksgiving weekend and they are going to let us borrow their car then also!! What a great blessing.
Love,
Kasie

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Just to get us started


Hey everybody!                                                                                    November 7, 2010

Kasie and I are enjoying much of the beauty of Italy and the wonderful blessing of working for the US Air Force.   Kasie got to go to Venice this past Friday (without me) with the senior couple that serves in the military ward and the seminary students from our ward here in Pordenone.  Pordenone is the main town nearest to base.  We got the chance to walk around in one of the shopping markets there and it was exactly what you would picture Italy as.  So beautiful and sooo dang expensive.  You might of thought of me being pretty cheap back at home, but kasie will agree that I have become even cheaper out here.  For one night at our hotel out here is 85 euro which come out to being $119.  Yeah and on the 10th it would be our 20th day in this hotel.   That’s border line $2400 freakin dollars out of my own pocket(well yes but not really)  the air force reimburses us fully but we still have to fork it out ourselves.  And that’s only one expense we have, not to mention food, transportation, or any entertainment.  I suck at trying to learn a new language.  Kasie giggles at me all the time as I’m trying to learn a new word.  I’m such a late bloomer.  And the worst part of it is is that I get board with the one I’m working on or I think I got it down and so I go onto the next word and totally forget about the one I’d worked on before.  haha kasie is so good and excited to learn Italian and catches  on pretty quick or at least a lot quicker than me. 
I get a lot of support from the people who work with me in the water and fuels shop.  They all were there to greet us as we got off the plane here in aviano.  One of them just so happens to be the ward clerk.  So finding the church wasn’t hard at all.  You could say it found us(gods looking over us).  His name is Jeremiah Case and his family is so awesome.  He’s like 35 and his wife Jen is about 2 years younger.  They have four children, two boy and two girls(boy, girl, boy, girl) and another child on the way.  So they are a great help and example for Kasie and I.  I have a sponsor who has also helped us out a ton.  She gives us, or at least arranges someone to take us to an appointment we need to get to and we always get there on time. There is so much more I would like to tell you about our adventures here. I will tell more when I have time. Love you all!

Love,
Benjamin

Alright so I was sitting next to Benjamin as he was writing his protion of our letter, and then he says, “hey you falling asleep? Here you write”. He hands me the computer and then is instantly distracting me. He is so sweet. AND he is annoying cause he keeps telling me what to write. GO AWAY BENJAMIN.

Ok so now that he is gone. I want to say that I am really enjoying getting used to everything. I had a great time at church today. We finally got to meet our bishop. Bishop Lasenby (lazz-en-bee). He had been out of town for our first two Sundays here. All the families have kids…actually I think we are the only ones without. But it is okay cause I get to see the great examples from all the wonderful women here.  It is a difficult job to be a mother and father and also a difficult job to be a military wife and Military member. What a blessing to have the gospel in our lives. Everyone wants to help us get started here. They all know what it is like to be in our same position.
Ben and I are participating in the ward choir and practicing for the Christmas program. We will all sing “O Holy Night”. There is a great spirit in our ward, we all can relate because of the military and the gospel so we connect really well.  Some families have had us over for dinner, which helps out so much because we don’t have much of a place to cook, or much money to cook cause it all goes to the cost of the hotel. Its crazy expensive.  I have been searching for a job and there are a few places that would be perfect. The Child Development Center seems like a very nice place and great people working there. Also there is the Outdoor Recreational Center that I am really interested in getting a job there (mostly cause we would probably be able to rent camping and snowboarding gear for cheap).  I am looking into going to school online, and that is going well so far.

I guess that is all I can think of right now. Im pretty tired. I love you all and miss you!

Love,
Kasie