Snapshots

Life has been a little crazy here lately. I haven't had time to write as much as I want, but I wanted to give you a little sampler of what's been happening and on my mind.

1. Swimming is on my mind. My daughter is a swimmer. It's her deal. We spend a lot of time at her swim team workouts, and last weekend, she had a two-day meet. The summary of a swim meet is that I'm the nervous one, sweating, and trekking around the pool with a clipboard to find out when and where exactly she needs to be lined up for each event. And she is the cool one in more ways than one; she is collected, and gets to be in the water multiple times. Oh, and did I mention that it was triple digits last weekend? Yeah, so I was envious about being in the pool. She rocked it though. It was a great meet for her, and good family fun.

2. Exercise is on my mind. Remember my new BFF named Self-Discipline? Well, she and I and my friend Shauna joined a gym. I haven't exercised in five years, and I haven't had a gym membership in probably 10. I'm still getting used to it, but it's starting to be a little bit fun. (However, I desperately need to find some new and motivating music for my little green iPod Shuffle. My Ray LaMontagne doesn't really make me want to pick up the pace. He helps me want to go back to bed. Help please.)

3. Italy is on my mind. A couple of years ago, with the help of the internet, a relative found our long lost Italian relatives. My grandpa, Frank, was first generation Italian-American in our family, his father and mother, Joseph & Mamie, having immigrated to the US in the early 1900's. Joseph's brother never got a chance to follow his brother as planned, due to the onset of World War I, and all his descendants are living in different parts of Italy today. Turns out my dad has a close cousin about his age, with a daughter about my age; they live in Milan, and I was fortunate enough to meet them for the first time this summer while on our fancy vacation. They are amazing people and I already love them so much. I can't wait to write more soon about my new favorite intercontinental cousin, Erica, and our great times together this past week when she visited California for the first time. (Erica, I don't know if you know this saying in English, but the truth is that in so many ways, we are "cut from the same cloth".) She and I have lived very different lives in very different places, and yet we speak the same language; not the language of the tongue, but the language of the heart. She is so awesome, AND she is a photographer, so I'll get to share some of her beautiful shots from her stay too.

So with those snapshots in words, here are some visuals to match. (The vacation shots are from the first part of August. Sorry people, I have no visual to go with the exercise part. Gross.)

Here is my little fish.






Here we are with our newly acquainted family members, having lunch at an unbelievably beautiful place; we are at the hotel Villa d'Este on Lake Como. Seriously unreal.

This is the real Bellagio. Not the Las Vegas version. I didn't even know it was a city on Lake Como. We are travelling there by ferry.

So that's what is happening over here.

(I'm sorry the photos don't seem very clear. I'm not sure how to make them bigger without distorting them. I need to ask someone about this.)

More on my time with Erica later. And I have to tell you about so many other things!! My new Bible Study, my upcoming boutique dates where Tidbit will be alive and well (that's a little children's clothing-and-now-home-decor-line that I co-operate, in case you didn't know), and...you won't believe this...even another blog. Because I have so much to say about everything! Now if I could only find more time to say it all...

Ciao.