In Loving Remembrance

This past Tuesday, my precious aunt Deanne passed away. For any of you that knew Deanne, know the amazing, gracious, loving, beautiful, Christ-like person that she was. I can honestly say that she was one of the most amazing people I have yet to know. She was such an amazing aunt to me. Something I remember about Deanne is that every time I would see her, she would always ask for a hug, and tell me she loves me. I remember growing always hoping "I'd be as beautiful as aunt Deanne."

8 years ago, we were all told that Deanne wasn't going to make it 6 more months- she sure proved the doctors wrong, didn't she? She not only lived 7 1/2 years longer than the doctors predicted, she lived to change the world. She and her family lived in Africa, and she did so much good there. She changed so many people's lives. Deanne has gone through so much in her life.. and I mean SO much- however, she was ALWAYS concerned for everybody else. She would always make sure that everyone around her was happy.. even though she was in so much pain and suffering- nobody would even have the slightest clue.

Deanne is my father's sister, coming from a family of 6. When Deanne and Mark (my uncle) and my dad were young, they lost their sister, Jana. Almost a year ago exactly from today, their father died. My boppa. He was so precious to all of us. I can't even begin to imagine the pain that my dad's family has gone though. It has been a blessing to me to see my father's strength through all of this. I know that it is very hard on him, and he is in pain- as well as his brother, Mark, and my Nana.

My biggest fear is losing somebody so very close to me.. and that family has gone through it too many times. It kills me to see it, but at the same time my testimony has grown so much to see the faith in my family's eyes. My nana, the strongest person I know- has been so amazing through all of this. Losing her 2 girls, and her husband, yet she is still the most faithful, loving, giving, precious person ever created.

It's been said that Heavenly Father will not give us trials that we are not able to make it through. As hard as times can be, in this corrupt, unknown, bizarre world- we have to keep believing that that's true, and that Heavenly Father is with us until the end..

Deanne will forever be in my heart, and remembered every day. She always made life so beautiful.. She is out of pain now, and in a better place. Because I have been so blessed to have known Deanne, I have to say that La vita e bella.

What I've been looking forward to.. IL CIBO!

MANGIARE! I am going to have to be honest, one of my favorite things about Italy.. is the food. the CIBO. I can't even tell you how excited I get when it is time to eat! Something you need to know about the Italians, is they put all they have into their cooking. They care so much about their food, and how it looks and tastes.. ALWAYS! I am loving it.. (well, my thighs may beg to differ) but the food is definitely a work of art, in and of itself. Whether it be a homemade cooked meal from a native, or going to a ristorante, or a mozzarella bar- it is always a green light.

Something that my body has not yet adjusted to (and probably will never adjust to) is the theory of a 3-5 course meal. MAMA MIA! ACCIDENTE! Often, we will go eat with members, or good friends or visit my mother's family- and of course, they insist on feeding us. No matter HOW hungry I am, I can never bring myself to eating ALL OF THE FOOD. It is an anxiety attack for me, and I don't want to offend them by not eating their food. I could fast for 3 days straight, in preparation for these meals- and STILL not get past the 1st or 2nd course. Is it just me?

The best story is from last Christmas. Matty, Jen and I came out here for the holidays, and on Christmas Eve, we, as a family went out to dinner to a local restaurant- The Pinocchio. (One of my parent's favorite.) The old lady that ran the store didn't speak any English, except a few "choice" words, and thought it was funny to say them to us- over, and over again. Classic Italian Nonna. Don't get me wrong, the food is ALWAYS incredible, just too dang much of it! So, they bring out the pastas, then the salads, then the caprese, and of course the excessive amounts of bread- which can fill you up by itself. Well, as we all are sitting there around the table, like beached whales.. she brings out chicken! Ohhh Mama mia! Of course, we didn't want to be rude, we HAD to get it down some how. Some way.

Finally, we came to the realization that there was no possible way we could eat this chicken. Thanks to mom, and her big winter coat, we found our EXIT.. to stuff the chicken in her pockets. Indeed, we did it- and mom wobbled out of there with at least 4 or 5 big pieces of chicken in her pockets. Oh, and don't worry- at the end of the meal, she brings out champagne for us to drink. Again, we don't want to be rude. The minute that she walked out of the room, we started pouring the champagne into the empty water bottles, and even some onto left over food.. we had to get rid of it, to make it look like we drank some of it! Keep in mind, there are 5 of us doing this!

So, moral of the story- do not ever underestimate an Italian meal. Do not ever overestimate your digestive system.

My eyes light up every time I see the food here. There are so many different types of cheese here, I can't even believe it! I didn't even like cheese outside of the Cheddar family, until I came here.

Of course, I can not forget the GELATO. I could go on for days about how incredible the gelato is. It is lighter than ice cream, but so much more delicious and beautiful. GELATO= Heaven on this earth.

The beautiful and pleasing food here, is definitely a legitimate reason to say that La Vita e Bella.

Running for my life.. is definitely worth it.

Finalmente! I have arrived to the Motherland... once again. Let me just say, it wasn't easy getting here. The morning of Wednesday the 10th- my mother's birthday in fact :) Cam took me to the airport.. bright and early. It was my first time flying alone, and I needed to make it across the world, solo! So after I adjusted my luggage to be suitable for take off, (AKA- Cam and I rummaging through one bag emptying things into the other in order to fix the weight problem.) I was ready to go. On my way to JFK- I sat in between two very different strangers. The young man on my left was a dancer on his way to perform in NYC, the woman on my right was a middle aged professor, who was asleep the whole time. If I may add, I was 1st place FOUR times on the "inflight trivia" game! If you have played it, then you know how ridiculously hard the questions are. Yes, you should be veryyy proud. :)

Well unfortunately, our plane took 30 xtra minutes to land! Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but my flight to Milan departed in 20 minutes! I'm waiting to get off the dang plane, as the dancer boy next to me is trying to get through all of the passengers to get to the bathroom for an "emergency". Of course, the flight attendants send him back to his seat.. to be honest, I felt worse for him than my situation, ha!) So finally, I get off the plane and I immediately ask for help to find my gate. They point me to the direction of a shuttle I need to take. Shuttle? In my mind, I am thinking how in the WORLD am I going to make it to my gate in ten minutes. Of course it doesn't help that the women working at the airport were witches in disguise.. well maybe one wasn't in disguise ;) The shuttle comes, and of course we are driven around the whole airport twice before arriving to the gate. I literally am running up the stairs, and through half of the airport to find GATE 5. I am panicking, and my phone is almost dead. What will I do if I miss the flight? How will I get a hold of anybody for help? Finally I reach my gate. The doors are shut, not a soul around.. except one woman in the corner who noticed my anxiety. She asked, Are you going to Milan? Yes yes ! I replied, with a little bit of tears behind my voice. A man finally came that worked there, and I told him, holding back my tears, that I NEED to be on that plane. I explained that my plane was late, and I ran all the way there. He made some calls, and about 3 minutes later he opened the doors and sent me through the gate. I can't even tell you how hard I prayed that I would get on that plane. It was like a scene out of a movie! I texted my parents who were waiting with anticipation to see if I'd make it, all I said was "Phew." Lucky me.

The flight to Milan wasn't too bad, I watched about 4 movies, as the guy to the right of me just stared at me the whole time.

First time flying alone: very.. interesting.

Well, SONO QUI! I am here, and I have loved my first couple of days. Yesterday, We went to the Military base in the city of Vicenza. It was like little America! I have never been to one before, so it was a really great experience for me. We ate lunch with some of the troops who had just returned from being in Afghanistan for a year. It was very cool to see all of them and how they live in the base.

Ecco ci qua. I am so excited for these next two months here in Italia. I hope that I will be able to help the people here, learn the language better and strengthen my testimony.

Today I can definitely say, La Vita e Bella.