Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo.....

On Sunday night when we returned home, this is what we found on the chalkboard in our kitchen from Min.  Apparently, we live in a zoo.  Poor girl.  Drinking the Pioneer Woman's iced coffee in our fridge for those things is worth it! I'm just sayin', the iced coffee from Pioneer Woman's blog is so fabulous.  What she says lasts her 3 weeks, lasted us 1.  I never used to drink coffee. Now I'm addicted.  I'm trying to do half decaf, half regular to eventually get myself to mostly decaf and then nothing by winter.   The heat makes you so exhausted here that you need some caffeine to keep going.

Anyway, on to the above chalkboard.

1)  Min had to get the cleaning team from the hospital to come clean up the dead cat. She was so freaked out by herself that she couldn't do it.  I'm with her!  She said she went inside while they were deciding how to get it.  It was in our courtyard area by the hose.  Maybe it was looking for water.  All you cat lover, don't think about it. I'm not a cat lover so it's easy for me not to think about it:) She keeps making the face of what it looked like and I just can't stop laughing. 

2) Cockroaches.  Unfortunately they are reality here.  Not the kind that you get from being dirty. These are the big suckers that come through the pipes if you don't flush your toilets daily or use the drains.  So when we go away we have to spray stuff and then plug up the drains.  By the time we get back, the water in the toilet is all dried up due to the heat!  That even happens sometimes in our guest bathroom if we haven't used it in a while.  I try to make a conscience effort to flush it each day because I don't want to see any animals in my house but if I forget, sometimes I have a dried up toilet and then I tip toe around the bathroom to make sure that I don't see any cockroaches.  If I do, you'll hear me!  I just start yelling and Trey just starts walking towards the special spray immediately to save the day. 

3) Lizard. Hmm....I don't see many of them so I don't know where that came from...but it was outside on our porch. Hopefully it is eating all of the other bugs that I don't want in the house.

All of that deserved the iced coffee in the fridge.  Min, you can have our iced coffee anytime!

More of Italy.....

Here are a few more pictures for you of our time in Rome and Tuscany. You will see picture of me below at a vineyard with a speaker.  We went to this one vineyard that was sponsored by Bose and had speakers all over playing classical music. He really believes that it helps the grapes and that the wine tastes different. I think he's been on Good Morning America or something like that.   He said that he has talked a lot about it in the US. Pretty interesting. We thought it tasted good....we bought 2 bottles. There are a few wines that only come from that region of Italy so we wanted to be sure to get a couple bottles to have. 

I see trees of green......

We are home and getting back into the swing of life again after vacation.  Isn't is hard to jump back into reality immediately?  Man, I was used to sleeping in and staying up late, taking a nap if I wanted to, drinking espresso twice a day, eating gelato when we felt like it, a good glass of wine with our dinner.....oh the life of vacation!

I wanted to post some of our HDR pictures that Trey took while we were there.  Enjoy the view of the countryside, beautiful hills and churches of Italy. 

I think Italy is a place I could live and a language that I could learn.  Anybody else with me?!  People were fabulous, the food is good, so much history, beautiful scenery, good shopping....oh I could go on and on.  

Who Says You Can't Come Home

It is nice to go away but, it is always good to come home to your own bed!  I will be posting some good pictures as the week goes along each day.
On my way home now- just getting on my connecting flight!

Knock You Naked Brownies from the Pioneer Woman

Min made these brownies from the Pioneer Woman. And they truly are delicious. Check out the recipe and trust me these are worth all the small steps it takes to make them! Here's the almost final product... they still needed the powdered sugar layer!

In a Small Town

As John Mellencamp would say "I can breathe in a small town"! This small town we are staying in is such a breath of fresh air! Here it is, just some people hanging out in town, the pace of life is perfect here! I am still waiting for a grandma to invite me to cook with her... no one in sight yet.

Look at these people out for a stroll in the afternoon! Drinking espresso and eating gelato- I don't think I would ever get sick of this stuff.

We really are having a fun time together, as if there is ever a boring moment with Trey!

And here I am in front of this pretty, old church, taking advantage of the wireless internet. And yes, it's from the Ipad 2 that Trey gave me before we went home in June. You really should get one! They are so much fun. 

"I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller..."

We made it to Trevi Fountain and I threw my coin and made my wish. And, no I didn't actually wish to be taller but, Trey may have wished he was a baller. I don't know, after all you aren't suppose to make your wish out loud or it won't come true!