What the heck have we been up to?!?!?!

So here is it....the catch up blog.

So where should I begin? I think the best place to begin would be where I fell off the blog-wagon back in July.

July

When I posted last, I was actually in Switzerland...yes, be jealous because Switzerland is the most beautifully gorgeous country I have been in my life. It is so gorgeous, it is ridiculous...infact it is so beautiful...I am mad at it!

I was in Switzerland for a week and I had the weekend to kind of explore. I went for a nice long drive on Sunday and came across this gem of a landscape (unfortunately is was rainy that day so it is not the clearest shot). Nearby where I took this photo was this sign saying that on July 31st there would be a fireworks show over this valley, how freaking awesome would that have been!!! Unfortunately I had to go home before that, but just look at the picture and try to tell me you would not have liked to see that also.

Also while meandering through Switzerland, I drove past a town called....

Yup...Frick! I may be the only person that thinks this is funny...but that is okay. I am usually the only person laughing at my own jokes anyway...so I am used to it.

Back tracking a little. The week before I was in Italy. We had one night to spend in Rome, and we had an Italian showing us around. I have been to Rome before, so I have seen all the main attractions, but this guy showed us something that is not quite as well known...

I guess somebody wrote some love story and the lovers in the story wrote their name on a lock and attached it to one of the light posts on this bridge as a symbol of their never ending love. Well, people decided to copy the book and did the same. Apparently so many locks were attached to the light posts that the mayor (or Italian name for it) was going to take the locks down and through them away...people had a fit! So the solution was to put up this railing (there were atleast 10 more of these on the bridge) so people could attach the locks to them instead. It is insane the amount of locks on this bridge. It was interesting to walk around and read people's names on the locks and to see how much of an impact one person's seamingly insignificant idea can have.

Out of all of the locks I looked at, this was the one that I felt was the most heartfelt and got me a little emotional ...

I know it is kind of hard to see...and it is in Italian...but roughly translated it says, "Die Everyone!" Ha Ha! What?! isn't the act of laughing an expression of emotion.

August

August was moving month. Basically the second I got home from Europe, we had to start moving. I got home the very end of July, we moved on the 15th of August. I dislike moving soooo much. What made it even worse is that we had to repaint our apartment. We had painted it brown, and had to get it back to a whitish color, so the apartment people could come in and paint it again anyway...stupid. Anywho, we tried to make moving a non-event by doing a little everyday. I think it made the process go a bit smoother, but it was still stressful. Many thanks to all of you who helped us move.

Here is a picture of a big part of the moving team...

*Helpful hint...always make friends with the missionaries. They are the key to a quick move.

So moving was a bittersweet process. There are things we will miss and there are things we will not miss so much.

Things we will miss:

1) The view:

2) Our friends (including Ozzy's best friend) - Tom, Elena, and Frankie

3) Being close to the Leishman's and the Reed's

4) That feeling of being home (this was the longest place we have lived since we have been married and it truly felt like home)

5) The pathway by the river, nice for an evening stroll.

6) Something that Ozzy would do...but I can't describe it, I have to show it. But I can't get to the video, so I will have to post it later.

Things we will definitely not miss:

1) The fact that we could support a small country with the amount of money we were paying each month for rent

2) Our apartment building that was "settling" especially where our apartment was located. Everything was slightly slanted in our apartment.

3) Our noisy upstairs neighbors (who I am pretty sure were druggies).

4) No storage

In the end, I think we got a much better apartment. It is bigger...cheaper...and more state of the art.

Here is our old apartment:

And here is our new apartment:

I do have more to blog about, but I think this is a good place to stop for now. I know that I don't really have the attention span for long blogs, so I am sure many of you are the same (if you have even read to this point, for all I know you gave up a while ago). Stay tuned for a few pictures from our vacation, a farewell to a good friend, some other random things, and a special announcement ;)