Spring, Sheep and Socks!

First things first...Veroli WINS 6th game in a ROW!!  Whoooooop....we are all pretty ecstatic around here and that makes for happy weekdays..which is always a good thing ;)

The team has another home game this Sunday against Jesi and then they will head to the Final Four tournament in Novara.  This is always confusing for people to understand, but it is a tournament of 4 teams that all won previous tournaments at the beginning of the season.  It is typically around the half way point of the year and is a fun thing to be a part of, but has no impact on the actual season standings.  Last year we were in the cup and actually hosted it in Sassari...if you remember reading about it on my blog.

Way to go boys!!

Once again it is has been pretty slow moving around here, so much so that I actually watched this same flock of sheep graze through our field, then I saw them on my run, then I had to stop for them while they crossed the road on the way to grocery store!  These sheep have more of a social life then I do...they were all over the neighborhood today! ;)  But really these pics are for my niece that absolutely loves animals.

SHEEP AND SOCKS
(and in case some of you don't know...we don't have a dryer, well actually what you are seeing is our dryer)!!  

MORE sheep!

And since I have nothing super exciting to share that I did this week I will once again share another favorite product that is fabulous :)  

It is Paul Mitchell's Super Skinny Serum that makes hair shiny, and smooth especially in the dry winter months.  I only use a pencil eraser amount on wet or dry hair, but it really does help with static too!

Paul Mitchell's Super Skinny Serum!

Don't worry I could never forget about my countdown to being home:

ONE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 in a ROW!!

Well the Prima Veroli boys won their fourth game in a row!!  It is back to happy times around here, and hopefully we can keep this winning streak going!

We went out to dinner after the game to Pepe Nero, one of the best restaurants in Frosinone...it was so fun to be with everyone and enjoy yummy Italian food! :)


This week has been another quiet one with not a whole lot going on, but a short blog is OK once in awhile right??

Since there isn't too much else to write about I will share one of my new favorite clothing items:

The Zella "Live in" Pants
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/zella-live-in-leggings/3035710?origin=keywordsearch&resultback=0

They are seriously the best pants ever!  I wear them to work out in and I wear them under sweaters or dresses!  They are a great weight but still compressing too.  I highly recommend them :)

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!
Time till I am home for the wedding: 3 weeks exactly!!! WHOO HOOO!

Missing our Nieces and Nephew!

It is just too darn quiet around here and when it gets so quiet I really start to miss our three darling nieces and our handsome nephew.  They bring so much joy into whatever they do and I just love hearing their little voices on skype...it just makes my day!

Recently our youngest niece Hadley (3) broke her little elbow :(  But thankfully we just heard news that after seeing the specialist she won't need surgery and it is healing well.  Over Christmas she fell in love with the Sound of Music movie so she gave us a sneak peak of her singing ability with a range of songs on skype and it was so adorable.  Meanwhile Taya was showing us her dribbling skills and telling us about how she had 3 steals in her game, and made a boy cry after taking the ball from her...I think we have a hooper on our hands :)

Hadley

What an awesome pink cast!

At the Hardersen house, Gwenny and Brody, are loving Butters (their new puppy) more and more, and excited for the weather to get nice so they can be outside.  When I talked to them last, Brody asked me when I was coming home and just about broke my heart...it was so sweet.  And Gwenny gives me updates about school and tells me she is saving her work sheets for me.  But the best part was they ended up going outside and talking with the neighbor man that was pruning his trees and stayed out there talking for 2 hours!  They grabbed their own tools and attempted to follow the neighbors lead and prune their own trees too...I wonder how they look?  :)

I just have to brag about my nieces and nephew...isn't that my duty as an Aunt??

Last weekend was great, Veroli beat the #1 team in Legadue who is Venice and the game was even on the road!!!  They won in overtime and sounds like they played great down to the last second.  Now everyone is happy and they have won three games in a row!  We play Imola this weekend at home and we are hoping to make it four :)

While the team was gone, we all went over to one of the wives houses and she treated us to her awesome Italian lasagna and some fun times with the kiddos and wives!  Do you want to know what secret ingredient she used in the lasagna sauce?   Cream!  Her recipe is very simple but in the homemade ragu sauce she added a little bit of cream (they use a thicker style cream then us though)...and let me tell you...it was GOOD :)

This is Alayna (the Kavaliauskas's daughter) she is so cute!!  Check out the Jordan socks!

Another week has come and gone, and I will be home in a month from today to get ready to celebrate T.j. and Ashley's wedding.  I seriously can't wait and I am getting a little nervous to watch my Brother walk down the aisle....someone please bring extra Kleenex!!

The future Bride and Groom!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!! Ciao Ciao!

The dust has settled...

Tony and I are officially back into our routine, tony has practice twice a day and I  am back to cooking and cleaning...oh the joys of routine ;)  Christmas is such a nice break from the daily stuff, and even though we know we have a rare situation that allows us to have nice breaks like this, we know they won't last forever so we enjoy them while we can.  Yippee :)

Last week went by rather quickly because the team had 3 games in one week!  They played Sunday against Scafati and lost a tough one by 2, then they played Thursday night at Pistoia and won big, and then brought it home again on Sunday against Reggio Emilia and pulled another win out by 3.  So now they are back on their regular schedule and have a game this Sunday in Venezia which is one of the best teams in the league, so it has been nice to have a little extra rest this week!

I had a fun week starting with a sleepover at my house on Wednesday, the guys were on the road so we decided to stay all together at my house.  We had a great dinner and then just hung out and made homemade cinnamon rolls for the next morning.  It was so nice to have a house full of girls and kids.  One of the wives has a 3 year old, one has a 3 month old, and one has an 18month old. They were so much fun to have here and happy our place is big enough for them to play and of course have somewhere for all of them to sleep!

Mmmm...these were yummy!  Thanks Amanda for sharing your recipe and baking skills with us!

Then the next day it was pizza and game time at one of the other wives house because the game was on TV, so that was nice too.  Such a change from last year where I virtually was girl-less the entire season!

Then it was my birthday last Sunday and game day so the day basically was normal because we wouldn't want to mess up the "game-day" routine ;)  Tony was very sweet though and brought me beautiful flowers, and did all the dishes..ha!  I also got a nice gift from the fellow wives that I really love so that was a nice surprise at the game.  One of my favorite things was I got to skype with a lot of family and got a couple special birthday songs from Gwenny and Brody, and Taya and Hadley.  Nothing like hearing your nieces and nephew singing Happy Birthday...they are sooo cute!

And even though my family couldn't be here it was so nice when I was home because we had a wonderful birthday dinner at my parents house.  All I wanted was just to be home and have have my Mom make dinner and just relax with my fam.  It was so perfect...thanks family :)

Not a Birthday with out Funfetti cake :o)

Thanks for the sweet gift Veroli wives...I love it!

Even though it was a quiet birthday...it was a good one!!

And one more little piece of great news....Angela and Joe Schmidt (Tony's sister and bro-in-law) are expecting a baby boy in June!  We are all so excited for them and can't wait to have another nephew!  Congrats Schmidt family!

Well the sun is shining and it is 60 degrees here so I am going to go sit on the balcony and enjoy the sunshine :)

CIAO CIAO!!

The most wonderful time of the year!!

Very Merry Christmas!

Well I get some bad blogger points for taking such a long break, but what can I say Christmas is a busy time and I knew I would have endless hours to get back on track once we were back in Italy.  We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  Is it really 2011...to even write that seems crazy!  

Being home is always a whirlwind from the minute I land till we take off the 26th (not so easy this year...more to come later) but I absolutely love every minute of being busy busy busy and spending time with my family and friends.  I also work most of the time I am home too, so squeezing everything in has become quite the art form. :) 

The weekend I got home was the FULL!  Saturday was the 2nd Annual Poe girl shopping where my Mom, sisters and I shop from opening till closing...it is so much fun and we seriously do shop for twelve hours.  We did stop to have a quick bite for lunch, but then we were back at it and got so much done.  It is so much fun spending all day with my Mom and sister...we have so much to catch up on and it is a day that I look forward to for about 3 months ;)

Then on Sunday we celebrated Kristin's 30th birthday with a family filled game day.  We ate, laughed, and of course got a little competitive in the games!  My Mom had great prizes for everyone and we all had a blast being together.  Such a treat to be there for Kristin's special day!

Then I started working on Monday and loved every minute of it!  It is so fun to work at Christmas time because everything is festive and we are busy busy busy.. The best part of working though is that I get to hang out with my Dad and Mom everyday...and our daily Starbucks trip are a must.

I kept pretty busy seeing friends and catching up on everything I missed while I was gone.  Then Tony got home on the night of the 20th and our first stop was Cheesecake factory (one of our favorite restaurants), then pretty much everyday was full from beginning to end :)  Tony's sister Lisa came home for a few days too so we had an early Binetti Christmas with just the fam and had dinner at home and then exchanged gifts.  The Binetti's headed out early Christmas morning for Buellton where Angela (Tony's sister) and her family lives...so it was good to get a few hours with just them since we weren't going to see them on Christmas day.

We were able to home for the annual Christmas party that Henry & Allison Level have at their house.  It is such a blast and the Level's do a super job of hosting everyone (about 38 people) and planning a bunch of games and a white elephant exchange.  We also have a dart tourney, and pool tourney.  We had a great time being able to see so many people in one night and we are so thankful they wait for us to get home to have it!  Thanks Level's!!

The next day was Christmas Eve which I spent working in the morning (favorite day of the year to work) and then on to our first Christmas Eve celebration with the Binetti side.  We had a delicious dinner and then off to 5pm mass at church.  After that followed Christmas numero due with the Poe side.  My Aunt Debbie cooks an amazing dinner of prime rib and all the fixings then we do presents!  Our relatives from Texas come up every year from Christmas and we always have the best time hanging out and definitely get a lot of laughs in :)  When we got home we also had stockings from Santa at the Binetti's house and opened a Garmin navigation!  Thanks Santa ;)

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!  Tony and I woke up early because he was taking his fam to the airport and I was heading over to my sister Sara's house for Christmas morning with my family.  Today was a special Christmas because Sara's kids were getting a puppy...so the excitement was in the air!  Our family are all early risers so we were all there by 7:30am and getting all our gifts under the tree.  Then my Dad showed up with all of our drinks from Starbucks...it was such a nice (and much needed) surprise.  Thanks Dad :)  SO then we started opening gifts and Tony joined us soon after.  We had a great Christmas and once again were super spoiled by everyone.  And then it was time for the BIG present to the kids from their parents...the PUPPY!  So we all gathered in the living room to see their reactions. It was priceless...they loved the puppy and his name is officially Butters.  We are not sure where Gwenny come up with that...but hey it is unique :)  We played outside with the pup the rest of the morning and had a great Christmas morning!!

Then I snuck in a visit with Jessie C. and then home to think about packing to leave the next day and get ready for the day.  Then off to the Bach's (my Aunt and Uncle) house for our Christmas with them.  It was once again so lovely to have everyone there (minus Chris Bach) in our entire family celebrating Chrsitmas.  We felt so blessed that we were able to be home and enjoy this time with everyone.

Then this is where the real fun starts.  Tony and I went home early from Christmas day to get packed and go to bed early as the alarm was set for 5am to go to the airport.  So we were up, packed and out the door at 6am to get to my parents so they could take us.  We get there and I scan my passport and it pops up that our flight had been cancelled....so of course Tony thinks I did something wrong and tries his...same thing!  Well there was a huge snowstorm happening on the East Coast and all flights had been cancelled!!  So then the ticket agent told us that we couldn't re-book International flights from the airport so we had to call customer service.  So my parents turned around and picked us back up because the earliest possible flight was the next day.  So then I called customer service and sat on hold for 3 hours (yes 3 hours with the phone next to me) and got "unexpectedly" dropped and when I tried to call again the operator told me to try again later because they are too busy now! HA..wow I was pretty much steaming mad...but there was one thing making me super happy...it was Kristin's birthday!!  So we were actually on our way to surprise her in Seattle!  She was supposed to have brunch with just my Mom and Dad, but we thought it would be fun not to tell her we got cancelled and just show up!  

So to finish our lovely travel experience, I finally got through to talk to someone and they re-booked us for the same flight the next day.  So at this point we knew we were going to be home for one more day and then Tony did something that completely shocked me in a good way...he suggested we stay at the WAC for the night!!  I was so surprised and happy!  If you know Tony at all you know this not something he would typically do with out the hours of persuasion from me.  So we had an awesome brunch at the WAC (a club my sister belongs to downtown Seattle) with the birthday girl and just enjoyed some free time with NO plans. Then my Dad and Tony went and worked out and my Mom, Kristin and I went shopping.  Then we after a relaxing afternoon Tony and I went and met up with Kristin and her friends to celebrate!  

SOOO we thought the travel story was over.  Now it is Tuesday morning and I wake up at 3am to check if our flight is cancelled...it is still on!  So up at 5am to get out the door and take the Seattle Light rail to the airport.  We get there and check in and eat breakfast...flight is still on time.  Right before we are supposed to board we get delayed two hours and the gate agent tells me that will miss our connecting flight to Rome.  So Tony called his team and had they had to get him on a flight direct to Amsterdam then to Rome.  The flight left in a few hours so we just ate lunch and relaxed and I actually got to hug him good bye at the gate! :)  

Then I got to have a whole extra day home on Tuesday since there weren't any flights for me until Wednesday.  Even though we didn't get to fly together it was a pleasant blessing in disguise to spend those extra days at home and spend it with my family. 

Now we are back in Italy and getting settled back in!  It is always an adjustment to come back here at first because things at home are just SOO easy and here there always seems to be an extra step involved when doing anything.  But it only takes a few days before I get used to it again.

That was a marathon post and I would be amazed if you are still reading!  But if so Tony and I hope you all had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!  We hope 2011 brings joy and blessings to you and your family :)

Ciao Ciao!!

Some Fun Christmas Pictures of the time home!

So fun to meet Miss. Blayne (baby on left) and see Kaylin, Katie and Jaelynn!

All ready to see Santa!

The cutest kids on the planet!!

My parents and sister and I all showed up to work in matching outfits..hah!

Annual dinner with the SPU girls! 

Presents anyone?

Her very own PANDORA bracelet!

Pure surprise and excitement

Welcome to the family Butters :) 

Happy Birthday Kristin!!

So glad I could be there to celebrate!

OK...so I got a few lip glosses for Christmas, they must know how much I heart them!

MILANO!

It's starting to look a lot Christmas!!  I love this time of year and can't wait to be home enjoying the Christmas time with my family!  Only one more day!! :)

This last week has gone by super fast with more day trips around Veroli with the Binetti's, and a trip to Milano to see Tony's game.  Tony's parents and I flew to Milano on Sunday morning and then went to our great hotel and got ready for the game.  My favorite part about that was for sure the shower...it was awesome, I obviously forgot what good water pressure feels like...I think I had 4 months of shampoo in my hair ;)  Then we headed to the game that was about an hour away to meet the team at the hotel so we could follow them to the gym.  We got to see quite a bit of Lodi (not by choice) but eventually found the hotel right before they left.  Once we found the gym we headed for a quick bite to eat...and then back to watch the game.  The team played the best I have seen them play and won!  They had a solid lead most of the game, and they seemed to click which was nice to see.  Then it was back on the bus for Tony for the 7 hour bus ride home, and we were headed back to the hotel.  That is when it started snowing...haha!  It snowed the whole way home (I was driving) but luckily it wasn't really sticking yet so the roads were fine.  

Mimi and Joe cheering on Tony and the Team

Cinzia was there too! 

The Binetti's last night!

Nice elevation ;)

The next morning Mimi and Joe were off to the airport early and I got to check out a little bit later and return our rental car.  When I opened the curtains there was about 3 inches of SNOW!  It was beautiful but I started to get a little nervous of driving back to the airport, so I got up and out of there as fast as I could so that I could drive 1mph if I needed too :)  The drive ended up being fine and I got there safe, sound and slow! 

In front of the hotel after the game!

The car in the morning!!

Good thing the airport was close to the hotel ;)

Now I am back home with Tony and only have one day before I leave for home.  I am so looking forward to being back in the U.S. of A!!  There are so many things that we miss being over here, and it will be so nice being back for a few weeks!  I can't wait to see my family and friends!!  :)  Not too mention eat some great food, shop at all times of the day, and STARBUCKS...this list could go on and on!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

A super duper Thanksgiving!

We are just finishing up an awesome week with family and Thanksgiving celebrations!  We have Mimi, Joe, K.C., Sveja, baby Tino, Michael and Carol here visiting and it has been non stop fun :)  Tony and I also enjoyed a team Thanksgiving dinner last Thursday that was pretty darn amazing.  We had two huge turkeys, all the food you can imagine on Thanksgiving, and a huge group of 30!  We actually rented out a restaurant that let us bring in all the food and just provided the drinks, the flatware, and the best part...the cleaning! :)  It was so fun to have everyone all together and Adriana Jackson did a great job of planning and pulling everything all together...not too mention cooking a majority of the yummy food!

Veroli's team Thanksgiving

Adriana, Cinizia, Elisa, me...go wives!

Then we celebrated again on Saturday because Michael and Carol arrived Friday evening so we had our whole clan here!  There was 9 of us with Valentino!  Tony and I feel really blessed that we have a big enough apartment to host so many family members and be able to just hang out and spend a Holiday together in Italy.  We did figure out that we broke two Callero records...#1.  The most Callero siblings together for dinner in a different country (excluding Canada, and Mexico) and #2. The most extended Callero family at one dinner outside of the country. :)  Oh and we ended up making the best stuffing that most of us have ever had...it was fabulous!! Who what have thought we would ever get to have a table of 8 family members enjoying turkey in Italy??

The Binetti's and Valentino Callero

Binetti/Callero Thanksgiving Dinner (Kristin do you notice anything??)

Mi amo...so thankful for him :)

Picture Perfect!  Bon Appetit!

Tony and Michael dishing up!

SO..now it is game day and we are all getting pumped up.  Veroli won their home game last week, and now will try again against Verona.  It will be a tough game, but I think the team is feeling confident and is ready to start a winning streak!!

Of course Thanksgiving is a time to reflect and appreciate what you are thankful for and we feel like we have so much!  God has blessed us with a great life and we have a wonderful and supportive family that are all healthy and happy!   :)  So THANK YOU to our families that are always there for us, we can't wait to see you soon!

Official Countdown:  I will be home in 9 days!!!!!!!

CIAO CIAO!!

UPDATES:
Since I wrote this, but before I posted it Tony had a game last night against Verona. We lost in over-time!  BUMMER...and SO frustrating!  We are off to Rome today to show Svenja and Tino the sights :)

Also, my sister Sara rocked her first half marathon!!  Way to go Sara...you did so well especially since you were in the emergency room a week before, yet you never surprise me when you do things that not very many people can do!

AND...


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!  Hope you have a fun day...miss you!!  I will have go and have a cappuccino in our favorite place today ;)