Nutella Love

I really like Nutella.  I LOVE peanut butter, but I'm allergic to peanuts.  Luckily I don't have that throat-closing scary allergy.  I just start sneezing if I eat peanuts or peanut butter (or peanut butter candy).  But sometimes Nutella can give me that little peanut-buttery, sweet and salty craving without reaching for a box of tissue or bottle of Zyrtec.

I also love glass cups.  I love to drink iced drinks out of clear glass - it's just a quirk of mine.  My hubby prefers the large colored melamine-like plastic cups for drinking, but I like to see what I'm drinking.  Watch the fizz of a soda against melting ice cubes in a "glass" glass.

So I was at a friends house and she had all these cute juice cups with Nutella logos.  One had Snoopy from Peanuts.  One had Shrek.  One had a swimmer that turns fish.  The kids were fighting over the one with Kung Fu Panda!  I saw all these little novelty cups and I asked her how she got all these cups?  She said, "You buy Nutella."  I was waiting for the punch line...I've only seen Nutella in the classic jar.

(and also the really giant life-time supply jar).  But none came.  She said that they sell them in the stores.  Believe me, I was at the local DECO the next day looking for these cups.  And I found them!  The Olympic collection!  They have cute cartoons with phrases in Italian that read "Swim like a fish" "Spin like a top".  Very cute.  So I bought 2, the gymnast for Emily and the soccer player for Ivan...

I went back to the store and bought the remaining 3 in the collection...

Then I went back to the store and bought another set...just so each kid could have a set someday...

Then I went back to the store *just* in case one breaks...I bought a third set...

Then today, Ivan threw a ball in the house and broke one!  :(  ...So I'll be heading to the store shortly to see if they still have the soccer player!  (I mean, I may as well have 3 complete sets if I can)

Now, I have A LOT of Nutella!  I eat a lot of it...like on bananas, on large salty pretzel sticks, on wheat bread and sometimes just on a spoon.  But I definitely need some new recipes!

I experimented with Emily by making the chocolate-peanut butter-chip cookies by substituting half of the butter for Nutella.  The result was a puffier, crispier chocolate cookie still soft in the middle.  I brought them to a church meeting with an Italian church and they LOVED them!  So that was good, but I'd love some new recipes.  Pinterest has some great ideas, but I'd love to hear yours.  Even if you don't have a recipe, give me some ideas!  Please leave them in a comment to this blogpost and I'll post some of my experiments in Nutella!

Panna, Panna or Panna?

Last night I had a very funny Italian experience.  It really wraps up the attitude of many Italians, the ignorance of a new arrival and the frustrations of an American that has been living here for many years.  And it was all over...panna.

Panna is the Italian word for "Cream".  And like in the states, we have many types of cream.  We have fresh cream, cream for coffee, non-dairy creamer, whipped cream, ice cream, etc.  In Italy there are many different creams too.  Primarily there are three.

Fresh cream (Panna Fresca)

Cream for cooking sauces that comes on a shelf

Whipped cream they call "Spray"(but they pronounce it SPRAI)

An American friend of mine was making a chocolate cake.  She needed fresh cream to make the chocolate ganache icing.  We went to the supermarket to find the cream and a few other items we needed for the Pollo Vino Bianco (White wine chicken - yum!)

We walked into the supermarket and looked for the cream.  We could not find it anywhere.  Fresh milk and yogurt yes, but no cream.  In disappointment she asked supermarket worker for panna fresca.  Here is the exchange...translated to English ;)

Worker: "Are you making a dolce (sweet)?"
Friend: "Yes, I'm making a sweet."
Worker: "Then you need the panna spray"
Friend: "No, I don't need the spray, I need the kind you pour"
Worker: "Are you making a sweet?"
Friend: "Yes"
Worker: "Then you need the spray"
Friend: "No, I don't need spray"
Worker: "It's SPRAI not SPRAY"
Friend: "I don't need S-P-R-A-I.  I need the kind you pour"
Worker: "You are not making a sweet.  You are making food that you cook and eat.  You need the panna over here on the shelf by the salt"
Friend: "No, I'm making a sweet that you need the kind of panna that you pour."
Worker: "What kind of sweet are you making?"
Friend: "An American sweet that you mix with melted chocolate"
Worker: "No, you need the spray"
Friend: "No, I need the kind you pour.  The fresh kind."
Worker: "Then you need this kind.  Come here and I'll show you."

Worker hands my friend a carton of Panna da cucina

Friend: "OK.  Let's just read the ingredients together, shall we?  First ingredient: Water, then Partially Hydrogenated Oil, then Salt....the last ingredient here is milk protein.  There is NO MILK in this carton.  This panna does not come from milk.  It does not come from a COW.  It comes from a COMPANY!  A FACTORY!  A CORPORATION!  It does not have milk.   I need panna that comes from a cow, that is fresh, that you pour!"

A bystander hears the exchange and she comes to our rescue!

Shopper: "Excuse me, are you looking for the "Granarolo" cream in the milk section?
Friend: "YES!"
Shopper: "The one that comes in the pink bottle?"
Friend: "YES!"
Worker: "She needs spray!"
Shopper: "No, she doesn't need spray, she needs Panna Fresca that you pour that is in the milk section."
Friend: "THANK YOU!"

We all walk over to the milk section and after much examination, the shopper finds that the area of the shelf for Panna Fresca is all sold out.

Worker walks away.

We leave the store to another store still in search of Panna Fresca.

I had a similar experience getting a manicure/pedicure recently.  I had an Italian manicurist that spoke English and after telling me my nails were too short for a French manicure (which I insisted she do anyway and she overly exaggerated how narrow to paint the white part, complaining the whole time that this was too hard)  she looked at my burgundy red color I picked out for my toes, applied it to one toenail and said...

Manicurist: "Why you pick this color?"
Me: "Because I like this color"
Manicurist: "This is the color of Thanksgiving or Christmas, not summer"

She gets up with my color and walks over to the other nail polishes.  She spends 2-3 minutes looking at the colors and comes back with a bright red.

Manicurist: "This is a better color."

And proceeds to paint my toes.  Meanwhile she tells me that I don't need the big house we are moving into, how my husbands commute will be too long (even though hers is longer) and how Americans are terrible to dogs.  Next time, I will go to someone who does not speak English ;)

They aren't rude.  They are Italian.  They are in your business and make you business their business.  They say things because they care and although they know EVERYTHING, there is still a lot you can learn from them if you don't get easily offended.  I'm thankful that I've had some of these experiences BEFORE I learn too much Italian and respond out of frustration.  It's most important to understand the culture even more than the language.  And when you are super frustrated, you can always play the "I don't understand you, I only speak English" card :)

Ciao!

Buying our Beater

After just a few days upon arriving in Naples, we were exploring the base by foot (when we could manage to stay awake, that is!)  We got as far as the Navy Exchange (department store) and Commissary (Grocery store) in one direction and a playground in the other.  I wasn't really sure even how much of the base we had covered until I had a conversation with another mom at said playground.

We talked about running.

Me: "Oh, you run?  Where do you run here?"
Mom: "I just run the perimeter of the base."
Me: "Can you go all the way around?  How long is that?"
Mom: "Just under three miles."

Those words started to burn in my head.  "Just....Three...Miles"  All the sudden I started to feel claustrophobic.  I had the same feeling before, on Oahu, when I drove the whole island in an afternoon.  Island Fever!  Get me off this island!  With our car in transit, we just HAD to find transportation off this island.  Quickly!

So the search for our Naples Beater began.

When you PCS to a foreign country, the military usually picks up the tab to ship one POV (Personally Owned Vehicle) from the US.  Any additional vehicles count against the weight of your HHG (Household Goods).  So most everyone ships one car and picks up a "beater" when they arrive.  We had our Volvo XC90 in route, but it wasn't scheduled to arrive for weeks.

The base has a "Lemon Lot".  What is that?  A collection of over-priced hunks of junk that are truly the sailors and soldiers ripping each other off.  Especially if they are trying to sell something with an automatic transmission!  Most cars are european and manual transmission.  Many don't have air conditioning or other conveniences that the Americans can't live without.  Lucky for us we can both drive a stick shift, so finding a beater was going to be easier for us...at least we thought.

We walked past the Lemon Lot several times a day.  Each time, we poked our heads in and looked at their asking prices with disbelief.  We arrived in Naples at the very beginning of the moving season, so quite frankly there were slim pickings at the lot.  There are also other resources like naplesallhands.com which is a craigslist-like site for Naples, but we didn't find anything there either.

With our emotions running high and sleep deprivation we were starting to think we'd have to settle for something we truly didn't want.  But then one day at the food court, we looked at a bulletin board and saw a decent looking car for sale.  A Renault Scenic, 1998, with 4 doors, manual transmission, AC and diesel.  We took down the number as a possibility.

Later we were in another building and we see the same car posted again.  This time, the 1200 Euro price tag was scratched out and 1000 was written above it.  Yes!  A motivated seller!  You see, the closer you get to leaving, the more motivated sellers get and the less they will settle for on their cars!

We decided to call then and there (and take the poster off the wall so no one else would call).  The car belonged to a Spanish Officer working at NATO and he agreed to meet us that afternoon to show us the car.

Words cannot describe how we felt when we saw this little car.  This officer had been the original owner of this car, and he took immaculate care of it.  He described all that the car had to offer and that it was designed by a woman who was a mother and the details showed that.  The back seat is actually three independent seats that can fold down, flip up or be completely removed.  The back seat passengers have airline style trays that flip up on the back of the front seats.  The center seats fold down into a tray two children can use.  The usefulness goes on and on.  Plenty of cargo space, hidden compartments in the floorboards, etc.  This was a true gem.  We offered him 900 Euro and he accepted as he already was leaving Italy with two new cars and could not take this one back.  SCORE!

We've been driving our beater for almost two months now, and its fabulous!  Our first weekend here we drove it to Sorrento for a day trip. It commutes with one of us daily and the gas mileage is awesome!  We definitely scored a diamond in the rough with this car.

Now our Volvo is here as well, and we are still waiting on the Harley Davidson to arrive (Heritage Softail Classic) with our Household goods, but we are off the island and although I'm still on base almost every day this summer for swimming lessons and gymnastics classes, we couldn't be happier to be mobile.

Sadly we met many people who do not ever leave the base.  Some have lived off base and had a bad experience.  Some are just fearful of the unknown, and others still are say, "Just doing my time until this  tour is over!"  It saddens me that so many fear to leave the base.  I have had an amazing experience in less than two months.  Even just admitting in Italian that I speak mostly English softens the heart of the Napoletano and provokes them to going the extra mile for us with help.  If you try, they will try harder.  I'll save driving for another blogpost, as it really deserves extra attention, but even their crazy ways start to make sense once you take the time to understand them.  Getting out there and doing it as soon as possible was the best way to help me feel more comfortable.  I drive now and more often than not, I leave the navigation system at home!  It takes time, but it's totally do-able and totally worth it!

Ciao da Napoli!

Ciao familiari e amici!  We are very much in Italy! 

We have been here for just over a week and have accomplished quite a lot in a short amount of time.  We took the Area Orientation training, bought a car, selected a house got a new cell phone and many other things.  Over the next few weeks I will go into the details required for each step, but so far, things are progressing better than expected.

The day we arrived was definitely the toughest day for me.  After about 24 hours of travel from California to Naples, I was physically exhausted.  We arrived in Naples with 11 bags of luggage for the family and were promptly picked up by some fellow sailors to take us to the Support Site Base in Gricignano.  Stepping foot out of the airport and into Naples was about as underwhelming as passing the border into Tijuana.  "What have we done?" was the first question running through my head.  It was busy, dirty and nothing seemed to make sense.  As we drove, you could see run down buildings and gypsy camps along the highway.  It didn't look to good to me the first day.  But as we looked past those things, you can see Mt. Vesuvius in all its glory.  That made me think that there are good things here too. 

We got to the base, and as soon as we checked in to our 2 bedroom villa and loaded it with all our bags, I was able to see that we were going to have to get used to a very different life.  There was a closet in the master bedroom, but none in the other bedroom.  I have all the kids clothes stacked up on a shelf in the hallway.  We have a gas stove that has a manual light button (that doesn't always work the first time, so you may have to air out the kitchen before trying again to prevent an explosion).  The villa has a washer and dryer - but before you get too excited there are many differences. Upon first appearance, they look brand new and look like miniature versions of the big fancy HE washers we have in the states.  However the washer is only hookedup to cold water, and therefore the washer heats the water and a load of laundry can take up to an hour and a half or two hours to wash.  The dryer does not have a drain.  It collects the water in a removable flat basin and you must empty it between loads (and sometimes during a load so that you can actually finish).  It can take 2-3 hours to dry and some have told me that some loads in the winter can take all night to dry!  So most people line dry their clothes because it takes so much time and also the electricity is so much more expensive here.  We are alloted 800 Euro for utilities per month! 

Each bathroom also has a bidet, which my four year old son thinks is his own private sink - eww!  "But Mommy!  It's just my size!!!"
After starting to put away the clothes and unpack the bags I got an enormous migrane headache.  I had to end up taking a double dose of Chris' prescription migrane medication to get over it.  I think it was the stress of the travel and the emotional strain of the first impression.

Now that we have been here a week and have been around town, I have to say that Napoli is really growing on me.  I love the neighborhoods and the people.  The food is more than amazing and there really is a lot of beauty and history here.  I already feel it is going to be difficult to say goodbye in three years.

Driving?  Well, as they say here, "If you can drive in Naples, you can drive anywhere in the world!"

More topical posts are coming so subscribe and check back often!  I am planning to write about house hunting, buying a car, driving, food, looking for schools and much, much more!  You may have many questions and I'd love to hear them. Please post any questions I don't answer on the blogpost. :)

Ciao! Ciao!

Decisions, Decisions!

The past couple of days have been nothing but decisions! Big and small...I've made them all!  Monday was the move of all the things we MIGHT need IF we find a place to live before our main shipment arrives...things like pots, pans, dishes, linens, clothes, shoes, etc.  I mean how do you prepare for something like that?  I tried to think outside the box and I thought of things like a cheese grater, some Tupperware and even a set of measuring cups and spoons.  But I must say, I had a moment of panic when I realized I didn't ship an ice cream scoop!  What will my family do without that???  Then you have to realize that you will be living without those items on THIS side of the move.  I hope my littlest doesn't have a potty accident in the night, because he'll have no spare sheets!  I'm even typing this blogpost on my Mother In Law's tiny mini computer that is slower than the Navy travel office!  :)

Then if that isn't stressful enough, Tuesday was the Long Term Storage shipment.  Yes, in 24 hours I had to decide what I can't live without to what I can live without.  Do I take all the kids artwork accumulated over 8 or so years because I think I will have time to put together crafty books with them?  Or do I store that extra bookcase - and what about all the tools in the garage?  Will I need a shovel in Italy?  We don't know if we will be in a 900 sq ft "flat" or  2000 sq ft "villa".  Will my very extensive (and expensive) cooking appliances even work with the power converters?  Will I have a garage or a yard?  It is almost impossible to plan for the unknowns!

I had to decide to take some things and store others.  Also, knowing that burglary is a real possibility, I chose to leave behind some very valuable items along the lines of silver flatware and china, and my irreplaceable Christmas dishes (sniff!).  Also most of my holiday decor I decided to leave behind.  So hard...but I think we made some good trade offs in order to stay flexible and not be tied down.  We want to be able to make the most of the experience and travel as much as possible.

I'm also running some odd errands...I decided to have my vacuum overhauled and tuned up, looking into some camera maintenance, and other things that may be difficult to do in Italy, at least right away.  I have so many things running through my mind that my brain has been hurting daily, my face is breaking out like a teenager, and my waistline is quickly outgrowing all my waistbands because I haven't been exercising or eating well. 

Speaking of eating, there are also decisions on how to eat down the fridge and the pantry.  I'm pretty much down to only having things to bake.  I think I could make a batch of cookies every night until the day we leave.  But I can't make much else...much of the good food is gone, and it seems a shame to buy much more.  Pasta is the meal of the week, as you can prepare it with so many pantry goods and meats from the freezer.  Tonight the kids made a dump cake (Can of cherries, box of cake mix and a stick of butter).  It's a wonderful cobbler and you eat it piping hot with ice cream on top.  Oh, that's one way to eat down the pantry!  Tomorrow night it's peanut butter kiss cookies. I have so much peanut butter to get rid of!  Any good recipes to share?

But in the midst of all my decisions, the doorbell rang this afternoon, and I received a much unexpected delivery.  Beautiful Mother's Day flowers from my Husband!  Now, you have to understand.  We've been married nearly 11 years, and I always receive flowers, and they always come to my office.  It was a tradition that early in the week of a celebratory event, my flowers would come to the lobby in the main building of my work, and I would have to walk to that building, collect my bounty and walk back to my building and my desk.  Everyone would ogle them along the way and I would explain that I had the best Husband in the world.  Especially when he's overseas or in the middle of the ocean, he never misses a holiday!  But this Mother's Day, for the first time, the flowers were delivered to my NEW office!  HOME!  He called them my Stay At Home Mother's Day flowers.  They sure brightened my day and helped me to put all the decisions into perspective, in that each decision may not be perfect, but in the end, it will be, as it's all part of our story!

Stay At Home Mother's Day Flowers!

I Smell Chicken!

So we had quite a trying time getting our travel made for this PCS. First, an overseas PCS requires all your family to apply for No Fee Passports. Then when you are in a two month window of your travel date you must apply for visas to enter the country long term. We applied for the passports and received them in the expected timeframe. However when we applied for the visas, we were rejected because we have a child adopted from Russia and all his documents are in Russian. Our translation was not certified and therefore the Italian Embassy would not recognize it. They wanted the Russian embassy to translate the documents and certify them. Well, I don't know if you have ever dealt with Russians, but it just doesn't work that way. We called the Russian Embassy and their phone tree had three options. None of which fit our set of circumstances, however that didn't really matter because no matter what we selected, it just hung up on us!

We worked a few connections and got two translations, one from Russia and one from Washington DC. Finally with only days to spare for bookin travel plans, we received our visas. On to booking travel arrangements!

My husband comes to the travel office to book our flights. He gets informed that there is actually a twelve day window in which you must look for a flight and if in that window there is a military flight vs a commercial flight your family must fly the military flight. Well, wouldn't you know, DAY 12 there was a military flight! Darn! So my husband who is very savvy in these things says to the man and woman behind the desk, "Well, just move the travel up one day and then there isn't a military flight in the window!" We'd still be honoring the orders by flying in June and we'll be able to fly commercial!"

The man said, "Oh no! That's crazy talk! I'm not doing that #%^*.  No way! I'm not getting fired for that ^%#*."  The woman said, "Oh I'll do it. Transfer his case to me. I'll handle it."

Then, in a whisper, she leans across the counter and says to my husband, "You know, we work for FOOD up in here."

"Food?" my husband says. "Like doughnuts? Or bagels?"

"Or chicken!" she whispers.

"Chicken?" he says in disbelief.

"MmmmHummmm! Chicken, bagels, it's all good!"

So my husband leaves the travel office and heads a block down the street directly to Church's Chicken and picks up two Deluxe Family buckets with four large sides and brings it back into the travel office. He sets it down on the counter and the two come right up to assist him.

"Oh yeah, I got you this time." says the hungry woman. "He'll get you next time!" referring to her coworker who wanted nothing to do with this #%^*.  Later that day, Chris received a very nice email with all the details of our travel to Naples!

And that is how we got our travel booked!  You want good travel service?   Just show up with food the first time!

Turning the Page...

Today marked a new chapter in my life.  After nearly 15 years, I left my company to be a full-time wife and mommy!  I tell everyone I've accepted a promotion.  The pay isn't good, but the benefits are amazing!  After being home for about an hour, I was ready to go back to work!  It's not easy to turn this switch in my brain.  But I'm sure with time and God's good grace, I'll get the hang of things.

Many knew for a couple months I was leaving my job due to this upcoming PCS move.  So for weeks I was living a very surreal life - making decisions and laying lasting foundations that would outlive my term, but that I made as though I would be there to see them through.  I had to step back a few times and realize that what I did in these days would have to survive without me or fail.  It made each step a little more meaningful.

My program had a beautiful going away luncheon on Wednesday which gave me time to say all my goodbyes and slowly fade out today.  I came in very early, packed my boxes, said a few heartfelt final goodbyes and left.  Although I did have fun with my team in the LAST days...They would often here me say, "This is my last CCB meeting!"  "This my last staff meeting!"  "This is my last Customer Support Call"  "This is my last status report!"  They were so sweet to endure all my "LASTS" and constantly parallel them to my "FIRSTS".  Interestingly enough, when I started at this company, I started on the very same project!  During my career I moved around a lot, but came full circle, so some of these people were my very first friends and co-workers.  It's been a great way to end this chapter!

Thanks to all my work friends!  You are all so special to me and have each made a strong impression on who I am as a person, employee and friend.  I can only hope that the company got half as much out of me as I received from my brethren.