Catching Up
Where has this fall gone? How can it be almost Christmas?
Marguerite just told Jeff she had no "rad" moves. Got to love Backyardagins. They're now fighting with her boffer swords. She alternates between being so much fun and driving me nuts. She's finally doing better after her bout with intestinal flu. She ended up in WakeMed hospital with dehydration last week. Slightly scary, but we caught it before it got really bad. I would pick the day she comes down with the flu as the day to give up the pacifier. She still occasionally complains to Daddy that "Mommy took the green binky".
Aah, she just came and kissed me night-night.
So, our trip to Italy was great. At some point I will get the chance to go through all my pictures and maybe absorb some more of what I saw. I was majorly frustrated by not being able to take pictures in most of the museums. We didn't care much for Milan (everything was closed on Monday except the Duomo and it was raining). Fortunately the rental car we got was nice, a Kangoo, and could easily hold all our stuff. We stopped at the Certosa di Pavia on the way to Ferrara. I really want to go back there on a sunny day because it was amazing on a rainy day. I got to see the effigies of Ludovico il Moro and Beatrice d'Este (and take lots of pictures). Completely worth the trip. We drove on to Pavia so Jeff could see the castle there as he thought it was the castle of the duke that Fiori (14th century fencing master for those not hearing abour HMA as much) had helped to train.
We continued on to Ferrara through an absolutely horrible rain storm. Thank God for the autoroute and for my MIL who gave us a GPS with European maps for an early Christmas present. The weather cleared overnight, and Ferrara was charming. The Hall of Months was AMAZING. I wanted to take pictures SO BADLY. sigh. Still, it was incredible seeing frescoes in person that I have spent so much time studying in books. Jeff wanted to see the castle while we were there. Ironically, it turned out that THAT was the castle of the duke that Fiori had worked for. Since the whole point of renting the car had been for me to be able to see the Hall of Months, it was a major bonus that Jeff got to see the castle.
We continued on to Florence in time for me to check in at the conference, meeting up with broderesse at our hotel. Many thanks to salviati for the recommendation, btw. It was a great place to stay. The conference was over the top. I met so many wonderful people, including authors of books I've read. It was like a collection of fangirls (and some boys) geeking out. Santina Levey is this very sweet, frail little old lady - she started off the conference (after the dull pompous men were through) talking about her dear friend Janet Arnold. She spoke of her with sch love and affection she brought tears to my eyes. I also got to meet Roberta Orsa Landini and Carole Collier Frick (who played with Miss M at the Palazzo Vecchio), so nice and rather bemused by the attention they received. I'll try to post more on the conference later.
After the conference we continued on to Siena, which we loved. We stayed in a really neat residenzia that had a painted ceiling and a playroom with toys. I got to see Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government, which was wonderful! So much fabulous art. So little time. It was so hard having so little time to see everything. Miss M was a good sport most of the time. Jeff got to be an expert at picking her up stroller and all and going up and down stairs of the museums. It was hard having her with us at times, but it would have been harder leaving her at home since she would have had to have gone to stay with someone. I couldn't stand the idea of being away from her that long.
Well, this is getting long, and I need to go make gingerbread men for a pre-school Christmas party. I'll write more on the trip later. I did want to let people know that we're almost paper pregnant (we still have to finish an update on our homestudy). Miss M's birthparents are expecting (got caught by Mirena's 99.8% effectiveness rate) and have asked us to parent. If all goes as we hope, we'll be adding a baby boy to our family at the end of February/beginning of March. It's not final, till it's final, though, so please keep us all in your prayers and good thoughts.
Off to bake!
Marguerite just told Jeff she had no "rad" moves. Got to love Backyardagins. They're now fighting with her boffer swords. She alternates between being so much fun and driving me nuts. She's finally doing better after her bout with intestinal flu. She ended up in WakeMed hospital with dehydration last week. Slightly scary, but we caught it before it got really bad. I would pick the day she comes down with the flu as the day to give up the pacifier. She still occasionally complains to Daddy that "Mommy took the green binky".
Aah, she just came and kissed me night-night.
So, our trip to Italy was great. At some point I will get the chance to go through all my pictures and maybe absorb some more of what I saw. I was majorly frustrated by not being able to take pictures in most of the museums. We didn't care much for Milan (everything was closed on Monday except the Duomo and it was raining). Fortunately the rental car we got was nice, a Kangoo, and could easily hold all our stuff. We stopped at the Certosa di Pavia on the way to Ferrara. I really want to go back there on a sunny day because it was amazing on a rainy day. I got to see the effigies of Ludovico il Moro and Beatrice d'Este (and take lots of pictures). Completely worth the trip. We drove on to Pavia so Jeff could see the castle there as he thought it was the castle of the duke that Fiori (14th century fencing master for those not hearing abour HMA as much) had helped to train.
We continued on to Ferrara through an absolutely horrible rain storm. Thank God for the autoroute and for my MIL who gave us a GPS with European maps for an early Christmas present. The weather cleared overnight, and Ferrara was charming. The Hall of Months was AMAZING. I wanted to take pictures SO BADLY. sigh. Still, it was incredible seeing frescoes in person that I have spent so much time studying in books. Jeff wanted to see the castle while we were there. Ironically, it turned out that THAT was the castle of the duke that Fiori had worked for. Since the whole point of renting the car had been for me to be able to see the Hall of Months, it was a major bonus that Jeff got to see the castle.
We continued on to Florence in time for me to check in at the conference, meeting up with broderesse at our hotel. Many thanks to salviati for the recommendation, btw. It was a great place to stay. The conference was over the top. I met so many wonderful people, including authors of books I've read. It was like a collection of fangirls (and some boys) geeking out. Santina Levey is this very sweet, frail little old lady - she started off the conference (after the dull pompous men were through) talking about her dear friend Janet Arnold. She spoke of her with sch love and affection she brought tears to my eyes. I also got to meet Roberta Orsa Landini and Carole Collier Frick (who played with Miss M at the Palazzo Vecchio), so nice and rather bemused by the attention they received. I'll try to post more on the conference later.
After the conference we continued on to Siena, which we loved. We stayed in a really neat residenzia that had a painted ceiling and a playroom with toys. I got to see Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government, which was wonderful! So much fabulous art. So little time. It was so hard having so little time to see everything. Miss M was a good sport most of the time. Jeff got to be an expert at picking her up stroller and all and going up and down stairs of the museums. It was hard having her with us at times, but it would have been harder leaving her at home since she would have had to have gone to stay with someone. I couldn't stand the idea of being away from her that long.
Well, this is getting long, and I need to go make gingerbread men for a pre-school Christmas party. I'll write more on the trip later. I did want to let people know that we're almost paper pregnant (we still have to finish an update on our homestudy). Miss M's birthparents are expecting (got caught by Mirena's 99.8% effectiveness rate) and have asked us to parent. If all goes as we hope, we'll be adding a baby boy to our family at the end of February/beginning of March. It's not final, till it's final, though, so please keep us all in your prayers and good thoughts.
Off to bake!