Fun Day Monday

Fun Day Monday!

Today we took the kids to the beach.  Mondays and Saturday are our days off.  So we try to do something fun on either Saturday Family Adventures or Fun Day Monday. Mondays only work while the kids  are on break from school. Otherwise Josh and I will use it as a date morning when the kids are in school. 

Back to the beach...It was a sand beach in Cassibile, Sicily about an hour and 20 minutes drive south from our house.  Some friends of our told us about this beach.  We normally head north to the small pebble beaches. Josh wanted to try a sand beach.  I for one dislike sand beaches.  I dislike that sand get everywhere.  I dislike it more now that I have kids with sand everywhere.  Despite of my bad attitude towards sand beaches we had a good time.  Enjoy some pictures.

The view from our umbrella

Rest time after eating lunch

Titus knows how to do the beach

Josh getting the sand off of Ryleigh Joy

Our Dog

Libby, Ryleigh Joy, Macy and Kaya
Christmas 2009

Josh and I both had dogs growing up. We wanted the same for our kids.  So for Christmas 2009 we got Kaya.  Kaya was my dream dog. A german short haired pointer that lives for 18 years and really good with kids.  She was a great dog.  I looked and looked on craigslist and petfinder.com for this breed. I prayed every time I would get on the internet, "Lord I really want a German Short Haired Pointer."  And He answered that prayer.  I found her on Craigslist.  She was the runt and no one was buying her for $2000.  So the breeder put her on Craigslist for $50 and we brought her home for Christmas.

Ryleigh Joy and Kaya both 5 Months old

In 2012, once we knew for sure that we would be moving to Sicily, we knew that we couldn't take her.  The transition with 4 kids was our limit. Also we didn't know where we were going to live or if we would have a yard (which is a must for German Pointer). We gave Kaya to some wonderful friends of ours that wanted her the moment they heard that we weren't going to take her with us. She is well loved and taken care of. It is fun to see pictures of her on Facebook.

In December of 2013, Josh and I started talking about getting a dog since we are settled here in Sicily. We knew what we wanted.  Again trusting that the Lord would give our family the perfect dog for us. We wanted a female dog, young but not a puppy, kennel trained, spaded, medium built and most importantly really great with kids. We started with looking on the US naval air station in Sigonella, Sicily. They have a Facebook page and since so many people are leaving and coming there seems to always be pets up for adoption.  We saw a dog that we were interested in last December and contacted the man through Facebook.  We knew we were going to be going back to the States for Christmas so we would not be able to take her right away.  The man said he had friends that could watch her for us until we got back, so we decide to go and meet her and see if she was a match for our family.  The morning that we were suppose to go see her we got a message saying the couple that was going to watch her for our time in the States decide they wanted to keep her.  So that made it easy that she was not the dog for us.  

Margo

We did keep looking at the Facebook post of other dogs for adoption but none of them seemed to be what we wanted.  Until in June 2014, Josh saw a post for a golden retrieve/beagle mix and he contact the man.  Which if you know my husband he likes to take his time making decisions.  So it was very unusual that he made contact and then told me about the dog.  The man called us back that night after many missed calls. We made an appointment to meet the dog.  Two days later we arrived at their house with the kids.  We told the kids that we were going to meet some new American friends of ours and that they had three kids and two dogs that they could play with.  We got there and this couple was so sweet.  We sat and talked about life while the kids played with the dogs.  Our kids really enjoyed the dogs and being able to talk to other kids in English. By the end of our time we decide Margo was the dog for us. 

A boy and his dog

Margo is a bit timid and afraid of men but the perfect dog for us.  She is so sweet with the kids.  She prefers to be with them over Josh and I.  If the kids are playing in their rooms the dog is in there with them.  She sleeps outside their doors and waits for them to wake up every morning to play more.  She really does let them do whatever they want to her. Which is nice to know she is not going to hurt them but also I dislike seeing them mistreat the dog.  

Margo has been wonderful addition to our family.  The neighbors all comment on how sweet she is.  She has become my running partner.  She does very well running on a leash and doesn't freak out as cars pass us.  No sidewalks here so I run in the street. She is a companion to the kids when they are upset and crying, Margo goes over to offer comfort.  We are grateful!

Summer part 1

Ms. Susan's birthday

This summer we had a wonderful teacher, Susan Nylin, from the United States come to work with our girls on reading and writing English.  Our girls have been in the Italian public Schools for 2 years now. Their first year was in the preschool/kindergarden. Macy and Liberty's second year was in the 1st grade at the elementary school. First grade here starts the year your child turns 6. Macy is a year behind for her age. We wanted her first year to be in the smaller school with her sisters learning Italian. 

Last year at the Italian school was full of learning for the two older girls...they went from writing block letters to writing in cursive, doing basic addition and subtraction, making friends and learning and understanding many new words in Italian. Macy and Liberty both had their ups and downs being in an Italian school but they did great!  We are so proud of them.

Josh and I wanted this summer to get the kids evaluated to see where they would line up with kids in the States with education and what was expected from their grade.  With living in Italy and not totally understand the school system or curriculum it has been difficult to know if they are at par.  

Titus and Susan

We are very thankful for Susan and her willingness to spend almost 7 weeks of her summer teaching and loving on our children.  She left Sicily 5 days before she had to be back at her teaching job in the States.  Susan spent an hour to an hour and half with each one of the girls.  3 to 5 hours every morning were spent teaching. Every week day my girls would look forward to spending their time with Ms. Susan.  She did an amazing job with each of them.  She left me a lot of material so that we can continue to give them activities to do that will help them improve. 

Saying good-bye at the airport

While Ms. Susan was here we also did Family Adventure Saturday.  We wanted the chance to show her the island of Sicily.  We were able to travel to Agrigento, Syracuse, Aci Castello, Aciareale, Catania, Mount Etna, Taormina and Cavagande.  We very much enjoyed our time in each one of these place.  Click on the link to see more about each place.  I will do another post on the different locations once I download our pictures from the camera.

The girls really miss Ms. Susan.  They learned so much from her.  Good-byes are hard but we know we will see her again next time we are at Waypoint Church in Omaha!