Paestum.

We went down to Paestum a few weeks ago which is a small town on the Amalfi Coast.  We're slowly going to all the towns, only a few more to go!  Paestum was founded around 600 B.C. by the Greek, so the ruins are actually Greek, not Roman.  The Romans didn't come to the city until centuries later.  It was a relaxing day, but pretty hot.  It's starting to get very hot and humid here, but we're still trying to get out and enjoy ourselves : )

Brian.

Happy Father's Day!

Brian has been traveling and working A LOT over the past four months.  In case you don't know, he works directly for The Admiral of Naval Forces Europe/Naval Forces Africa/Allied Joint Forces Command Naples.  He travels around the world with him setting up their communications systems wherever they go.  In the past few months he's been to Ramstein (Germany), Kosovo, Izmir (Turkey), Brussels, Madrid, DC, Seattle, Tampa, Lajes (Azore Islands), Djibouti (Africa), and Souda Bay Crete (Greece).  He flies around with the admiral on a private jet and gets to stay in amazing hotels.  Although he's been working a ton while traveling, he's been able to enjoy some of the places that they've been for at least a few hours of free time.  We are very proud of him for all the hard work he's doing and I only get a little jealous of some of the places he gets to go!

Since he's been traveling so much, his request for Father's Day weekend was to stay home and relax, so that's exactly what we did.  Here's what we did today - 

JJ woke up nice and early, Brian got up with him and let me sleep for another hour

Went to church

Came home and ate lunch (Brian made himself and JJ grilled cheese sandwiches!)

JJ and I took a nap while Brian played video games

Went in the pool at our house

Brian cleaned my bathroom

Brian vacuumed

Brian made dinner (I tried, but he insisted, so who am I to argue with him when he really wants to cook!)

I cleaned the kitchen while Brian gave JJ a bath

Brian put JJ down for bed

Brian is now currently drinking a large German beer and playing video games again

I know, it might look like it wasn't a very special day for him, but we all had a great day : )  

Preschool!

JJ went to preschool this week!  We've/I've been looking for a good preschool pretty much ever since we got here.  We've visited a few schools, but were debating when to enroll him and what kind of a school to send him to, i.e. Italian, American, or bilingual.  Most Italians seem to send their kids to school starting around the age of three full time.  I knew that JJ didn't already need to be in school 5 days a week already, so we were trying to find a good part-time program.  I found a school that a lot of people from the military here send their kids to and they all love it.  The teachers speak Italian only during class, even though one of them speaks fluent English, but half the class is American kids.  The school offers a free trial week, so we decided to take advantage of that and see if it's a good fit.  

Well, JJ seemed to love it!  The first day he was only supposed to be there for a few hours, but the director of the school called me and said JJ was doing great and they would like him to stay a little longer!  The next few days he stayed for full days and did really well.  There was never a morning that he didn't want to go.  The only "fights" that we got in were trying to get his shoes on in the morning, which I think will be a battle for the next 10 years, and one morning he really wanted to wear his pajamas to school!  He was standing at the door with his backpack on yelling at me, "Ready to go to school" and fought me when I said that he had to change into "real" clothes first!  I'm meeting with the director next Tuesday to discuss enrollment options.  They've already told me that he seems to fit in really well and he was acting like he'd been there for weeks or months, not days.  Looks like he'll be learning Italian! Brian and I should too then : )

Ok, this picture has nothing to do with preschool, but I thought it was cute : )  Brian is gone again this week, so I find myself eating dinner by myself again every night.  Last night, JJ decided to sit and "read" while I was eating dinner.  I guess that's not such a horrible alternative : )