More NC

Hannah met so many people for the first time, to include her cousin Ethan. I think he taught her how to screech. We took the babies for a children's play park and to a swimming pool. Hannah went fishing, and discovered a tractor and 4-wheeler. Hannah was definitely spoiled! I had to keep reminding myself that they're grandma and grandpa, they're allowed to do things that mom and dad do not, like ice cream cake for lunch! We celebrated David's birthday while we were there. He went to Gander Mountain and got to gander and get pretty much whatever he wanted. Then my sister made him a cake, which almost turned out to be a disaster during the frosting. David, with the help of many, many people, was able to purchase a very fancy fishing rod. It's a bait casting rod, which is used primarily for bass and it's used for very precise casting. We went shooting. My dad has new black powder rifle, instead of using a percussion cap it works of battery power so it's cleaner and the powder burns faster. David really liked that too. So like I said, it was a good visit.

Our visit to NC

NC was great. Hannah had a blast and got so much stuff we had to sent a small SUV to take it all home. That's no joke. David said he was going to start collecting a 5 dollar donation from people who gave gifts to her to cover the rental upgrade. We saw friends, which was something I really didn't get to do the last time we were home. We went to church, we did lots of fishing, playing pool and playing cornhole. And I spent a lot of time in the garden. Anything I picked or jarred came home with me. So while I was there we canned 25 jars of green beans and 3 jars of squash and zucchini. I also brought home creamed corn, field peas, catfish, butter beans, okra, peaches, tomatoes, and banana peppers. We had some of the catfish last night for dinner, David's parents were very appreciative of it. I also brought home a bag of deer jerky, but that is not public knowledge, as I'm not willing to share it! Tonight we're going to have some fried okra. I didn't realize until after I lived away from home for 4 years but boy do we like our fried foods at home! David was able to get wrapped up in a bunch of projects, which he loves. He drove a tractor for the first time, helped daddy move a 2 ton stump, learned how to work a lathe, which is a woodworking piece of equipment that's makes a piece of wood a cylinder.

Back in the states

I was informed yesterday that I needed to update my blog because people were still looking at it, just different people than when I lived in Italy. So I'm updating, and will continue to do so. We've been in the states for a little over a month now. Most of you probably know this but the flight was horrible. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the flight itself, it's just we had 10 bags, 3 kennels, and a baby. It was not easy to maneuver all that throughout the airports, thank god for kind strangers though. And of course, no flights are ever on time any more, and that made it even better! But Hannah was fantastic on the flight, she only cried for a few minutes and that was when she was going to sleep. We're slowing getting acclimated. For those of you who have been to Italy, I don't have to explain the difference in the food and how it's prepared. McDonald's is not a place that I can eat at yet! Tax is another one, we're used to paying the price we see on the shelf, because tax is already factored into prices in Italy. Oh yeah, I went to a Mexican restaurant in Fayetteville and spoke Italian! There's lots more, but I can't think of all of them right now. So here's some photo's of us enjoying ourselves at David's moms. It's where we'll be until we can get on our feet.