hurry up hurry up hurry up and WAIT

well

i thought I would be updating y'all in june

but

we got orders!!! 

 {pic credit plus a great article!}

ken will be making his way to 

greenland

come early next year

since this is a remote

meaning he will be going alone

to sit on the big ol' ice cube

emerson and i

well

we wait

until 

approximately 120 days from our deros

(ie sometime between august and september)

to find where we are going

hurry up 

hurry up

hurry up 

and 

wait......

so while we wait

i googled some fun facts about greenland

the average daily tempature

averages

−8 to 7 °C (18 to 45 °F)

brrrrr

that is where i stopped

 again 

brrrrr

love love 

from aviano

 

milano in a day

this past easter weekend we went to milan!

i was so excited because it was one city in italy 

i didn't see twelve years ago when i visited as a high school senior 

so

is it possible to go to milan in one day?

YES

but i highly recommend more than one

because 

let's be honest

you need at least a day to shop

we took the train to milan

it's an easy train ride from aviano 

and the most gorgeous site welcomes you when you get off the train

the train station itself!

it is gorgeous

{picture credit: blog eurorail}

the prettiest train station i've been in so far!

when you exited the train station 

another gorgeous site 

welcomes you

the duomo

the duomo is a key building in milan
it is the fifth largest duomo's in europe
and 
the seat to the archbishop of Milan

 i could write a short paper on the importance of it 

but 

i encourage you to 

{click here} 

and 

{here} 

but know this

do not miss it!

go inside because inside you will find

 some of the prettiest stain glass i've ever seen

it is at moments like this that i wish i was a better photographer

and  

 

another look

but i can not take pictures

so to tease you more

  {picture credit: the roaming lama}

**travel tip: while entering the duomo is free

 it cost two euro to take pictures inside the duomo! 

you pay at the booth that greets you when entering**

next to the duomo is the infamous 

{galleria vittorio emanuale II}

aka "the mall" 

where prada and louis are neighbors

and

swarovski lives across the street

it really is a wonderful world

while in milan 

you must see 

leonardo da vinchi's 

"last supper"

the "last supper" is hidden inside

the ordinary looking church 

in the

refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie 

i was expecting an extremely small painting

similar to the mona lisa

but

"the last supper"

does not disappoint

it is an extremely large painting

and 

while the tour is brief
(you only get 15 minutes to look at the painting, 

seriously only 15, 

they will kick you out)

the painting is stunning

 {picture credit}

and 

don't forget to take in

Giovanni Donato da Montorfano 

fresco

"The Crucifixion"

{picture credit}

more information about "the last supper" can be found

{here}

finally we stopped at 

{castello sforzesco}

{picture credit-mighty mac}

the castle is extremely impressive

it is almost all intact

and

covers a mass amount of ground

by the time we arrived at the castle

we had a very tired toddler

so we 

didn't venture on the tour

(again why you should do milan in two days not one) 

other highlights of milan

chocolate!!!! 

Monte Bloc Gourmet writes a great blog piece about chocolate in milan

read it 

{here} 

and of course buy some chocolate!!

throughout milan there were wonderful statues and art pieces

below are a few we found

disclaimer:

most of the following pictures are straight from my iphone 

so i apologize for quality

and

since i was totting a toddler i only saw bits and pieces

in between goldfish and juice boxes 

i know very little about what i saw

except it was appeasing to the eye

and finally

the coolest way to order at a mcdonalds yet

 we had never seen something like this before

call us sheltered

but we were thoroughly entertained

by

such technology

milan was doable in a day 

from 

aviano

however

i recommend

two days

especially if you have a kiddo in tow!

it is a gorgeous city

and

a perfect combination of

art, history, and modern

love love 

from aviano

 

around my mind in 80 days

in eighty days we will know where we will be come this time next year

while a lot can happen in eighty days 

one thing is for sure

we will have a rip in eighty days to somewhere

so 

how does a planner

like myself deal with the unknown

honestly not very well...

i make up picture collages of what our 'listing' looked like

ha!

so without further adieu 

here is where we may be this time next year 

 

the af likes to keep things pretty specific.....

 

our first 'notification' may come as early as middle june

if we don't hear anything then

our next 'notification' 

will be the middle of august.

any guesses where we may end up?

  so for now my mind will travel between 

belgium, 

united kingdom, 

colorado springs, 

san antonio, 

and the entire lower forty eight 

playing the "what if we live here" game 

oh and let us not forget the curveball of a remote...

(oy vey)

love love 

from aviano

tre anni

we've been in aviano for

three years

tre anni

if you wan to learn italian

today

while the little one was doing a rare thing called 

napping

i reread my blog

it's been a fantastic three years

i've failed miserably at blogging in 2013

but 

honestly

i was having way too much fun

here are the highlights

in pictures

we celebrated a very special birthday!
 
and ate lots of cake!

 in march we learned to make knives at the maniago knife museum

in april...

we got to punch daddy!

 

HARD!

then in May we went to 

 Florence
 
 Rome

 Capri

Pompeii

 and our first time at the beach!

 

 we swam a lot 

and in June

 

mommy and i got dressed up

and

 

went to Jenny and Jesse's wedding in Oklahoma!

we came back to Aviano in July

and

in 

August

 went to 

Grotta Gigante

then in September we went

 Lake Bled

 and

Munich for Oktoberfest

 and then

Newuschwanstein Castle 
In November we went to

Villach's Christkindle Market

and December was so much fun!

 
we went to Disney World
and
to
 

Oklahoma
and
I got a lot of 

 Braum's ice cream!!
 From the pictures you can see we traveled a lot in 2013!!

and enjoyed every minute of it!!

love love 
from aviano!

  

surviving facebook, overseas, and the military

I was one of the original Facebookers.... you know the ones who joined when you had to have a university email address... yep that's me.... (I understand I am dating myself) but knowing that you will understand the following post.

Facebook means something totally different to me than it did in college.  When you HAD to have a university email address Facebook was way to be a part of the "cool club". It was a way to proclaim "YES I attend college!!"  Facebook has since evolved..... and boy have I had to "catch up with the times".  After college I rarely got on Facebook. In fact during college I didn't get on Facebook often. I mean I didn't have an iPhone (they really weren't around then, again dating myself) and my blackberry didn't have a Facebook app (yes, I proudly sported a blackberry that I really had no need for).  Fastfoward a  few years (you can do the math based on the few timeline clues I have left you) and a different lifestyle than college.  I am now living this life known as a "Military wife" and man oh man... Facebook is something else! It's can become a breeding ground for drama, instability, and pure evil. I figured to make life easier for future military wives, I would comply a list of 5 ways to survive Facebook, living overseas, and the military.

1. Join the spouse page/group but rarely post! troll troll troll.......

Every base has a spouse page/group. Some have multiples.  Heck, at the base I am at, there is a group if you are left handed or have a mole over your right cheek.... just kidding, but there is seriously a group for EVERYTHING! Join the group. Utilize the little search icon and search your questions.... DO NOT POST!!! Well I mean you can post but more than likely you will get 100 different answers or 100 of the same answers or somebody saying please refer to the post made three days ago about topic x.

 

See that nice highlighted magnify glass... Utilize that!!!! And of course troll the page, because frankly if you are overseas, TV entertainment is limited to AFN and this will bring you more laughs and "oh mys" than any Real Houswives episode.

2. You DO NOT have to be friends with everyone in the squadron

Seriously folks it isn't necessary to send out friends requests with everyone you meet on base! You MAY learn you don't want to be their "friend" then defriending becomes awkward. Privacy is a thing of the past these days so protect what little is left!!!

Get to know the base, give out your phone number, email address, anything but take time to get to know people before you start clicking that "add friend" button!! 

3. You DO NOT have to be friends with the Active Duty Members in your sponsors squadron! 

This is something that baffles me ALL THE TIME!!! Ok, so I understand you want to be friends with the spouse because that means you get invited to all the 31, Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, etc parties BUT why do you feel the need to be friends with the Active Duty member? The military was founded on the lines of respect, rank, etc.... I feel (again this is my opinion, it is my blog) that these lines have become so cloudy and mucky! Is it so hard now a days to keep work and friends separate?  I can almost guarantee you that if the spouse posts pictures or a status update she/he will tag the Active Duty member in the post so there really isn't' a need to be friends with EVERYONE! And then this gets back to what if you really DON'T want to know what's going on in someone's marriage and you are friends with both.... again defriending = awkward situation! There is NO need for me to be friends with any active duty member in my husband's squadron.  He's friends with them so if I need to get a hold of someone, I ask him too.  I get so tired of military talk anyway, I don't want to see it on my newsfeed... but again, maybe that's just me.

4. People are CRUEL! They WILL use Facebook against you.
There are some people out there that are just plain mean and Facebook doesn't have a "mean detector" unfortunately.  Mean people take screen shots and send to people that have no business seeing screenshots.  We all "air our dirty laundry" at some point or another on Facebook. It's easy to do and it's instant. We LOVE instant gratification BUT people DO NOT know how to keep their nose in their own business!!! 

TRUST ME FOLKS!!! This reverts back to the whole watch who you are friends with business.

5.  Restricted Profile, Lists, Blocking= HALLELUIAH!!! 
 Ok, so you made a bad choice in accepting or requesting a friend and you do not want to go through that awkward phase of defriending because well you didn't listen to number 2 or 3 and befriended your sponsor supervisor and supervisor's wife. Well, folks, facebook has answered another one of our cries for help!! Learn to use restricted profile! You still "appear as friends" but they have limited access to your posts! If you are REALLY daring organize your friends into "lists" and only allow certain "lists" to see certain posts. BUT remember whose on these lists because you could post something on the wrong "lists" (I prefer restricted profile, simpler, and I don't have to remember anything). The of course if there is that one "friend" that just won't leave you alone (we all have met him/her) you can defriend then block! This is a little extreme, but trust me folks, sometimes it has to be utilized!!

Facebook can be GREAT!! I love the fact that I can stay in touch with my college and high school friends back home (the cool club that had Facebook when only university email address holders could get it) and that I can stay in touch with my parents, grandparents, cousins, etc.  I post too many pictures of my daughter, too many surveys, and too many news articles.  Facebook, overall has been good to me, BUT Facebook has also taught me a lot about what society is turning or has turned into.  If you delay friend requests, you may actually sit down and TALK to people, enjoy coffee, get to KNOW the person from their mouth, not simply from there 50 plus photo albums on Facebook. For those future military spouses or current military spouses, seriously the cheesy AFN commercial is our reality.  Safeguard your privacy! Very little is left in today's society!!  And enjoy being "old school" and MAKING friends by conversation, not just clicking "add friend".

Now I must go enjoy a glass of wine and troll our spouse page because frankly nothing is on AFN right now!!

Love Love from Aviano!