I should be doing more.

I've had these strange feelings lately - like I should be doing more. They are completely unnecessary and unsubstantiated feelings - but I feel them none the less.

My feelings are in regards to "work". Ever since I graduated I have worked. When we lived in Australia I worked a lot - and it was more than just to make money, but also for something to do. I enjoy customer service (well, not always, but I do like seeing people and meeting people, etc)

Lately, thinking about our finances and things, I just keep having this nagging feeling like I should be working. But I can't work - I mean I really can't, I don't have a working visa. Not to mention I DO work - I'm Finnian's mom! AND I don't speak Italian, so there's no job I could get here!

So knowing those things, I start thinking of jobs I could do from home, in Italy - but the things I think about (for example, book-keeping) I'm not qualified for. Sure, I could do some online schooling - but I don't like school!

Anyways, those are just my thoughts right now.

It kind of reminds me of when we first moved to Australia. It took us FOREVER to find an apartment to rent (well a couple of weeks - but if felt like forever because we were going to get kicked out of our temp residence and didn't want to stay in a hotel). I spent a lot of time those two weeks looking on the websites with all the rental properties listed. When we did finally find a place, and move it - I was sooo happy with our apartment. We weren't paying TOO much, and I loved the location. But for some reason I found myself still looking at the rental properties website - I don't know why.

Oh well.

Note to Self

Don't get lost - otherwise your nice little afternoon stroll with Finnian turns into an hour and a half expedition of uncertainty!

Sore feet.

How I became Catholic - Part 4

That year I was asking a lot of questions. Conor couldn’t even answer them all, but he tried his best, or else he would find resources for me.

One Christmas Conor bought me a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church – pretty much the answer book for everything! I loved it…if I wondered what the Catholic Church said about something, I would just look it up in the index and there it would be. If I still didn’t understand I would tag the page and ask Conor later. I pretty much read it from front to back.

Around that time, I still wasn’t sure if I could become Catholic – I think I really wanted to, but was too worried about what it all meant, if it would affect my family at all, my friends, etc. Conor and I were quite serious at the time (neither of us had ever really dated anyone before, and both of us had similar views of only dating a person if there was the possibility of marriage). I knew that Conor’s Dad was Catholic and his mom was Protestant, but I didn’t know exactly how he felt about that, so one night I asked him “if I never become Catholic, will this relationship still proceed?” and he said yes…it’s funny because when I asked that, I thought that if he said yes, then I could just leave Catholicism alone and stay with things the way they were, but it was at that point I think I really felt free to take a very personal look into Catholicism.

In the fall of 2003 a very good friend of ours started attending RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation – the course you take before you become Catholic) at the local Catholic Parish. We would always meet up at Tim Hortons afterwards (when didn’t we meet up at Tim Hortons? We were going there nearly every evening!) and he would ask Conor questions about what he was learning, and I would look at some of the handouts he was getting. I was honestly kind of jealous – I was struggling at that time about what to do. I was still going to South Abbotsford Church, and I loved it there, but I started wanting things to be different. I started feeling awkward about taking communion, because now that I knew what I was missing, I really didn’t feel right about it. I actually stopped taking communion at all when I was attending church, unless I happened to be on the worship team that day.

Our friend decided to become Catholic, and asked Conor to be his sponsor. I attended the Easter Vigil where our friend was baptized, confirmed and received his first communion. At the beginning of the mass I felt very jealous, I was very happy for my friend, but I was feeling very keenly that I wished it was me up there instead. We all went out afterwards, and as Conor and I were driving to meet up with everyone, I asked him what he thought of me doing that (becoming Catholic) next Easter. He very nicely – not too enthusiastically – said he thought it would be good…and I could see that he was happy!

I told him I would start going to RCIA in the fall, and then see what happened from there – they generally wanted you to make a decision by Christmas, so I could back out if I decided it wasn’t for me.

Hmmm

So after two days of no milk, and only a bit of yogurt and/or cheese, Finn was still having gassy nights - no less gassy than the days when we would have a lot more milk.

I already had a bit of a suspicion awhile back that wheat wasn't making his tummy very happy, so yesterday we eliminated milk and wheat. I gave him rice cakes instead of his baby cookies (this is the first time he's eaten these baby cookies made with wheat instead of just the milk ones) and I didn't give him any cheerios, which he had been eating way too many of.

Guess what - NO gas last night, at all.

So I'll do the same thing today, and if he has another good night, then I might start trying to reintroduce milk and see if it's BOTH, or just the wheat, that's bothering him.

Wish us luck!

How I became Catholic - Part 3b

The other event that changed things was a Religious Studies course I took at the local secular Univerisity. I think it must have been the Jan semester following that Good News seminar (2003). At that point, I was asking Conor more questions about Catholicism. In the religious studies course we got a basic overview of many religions, and apart from the final exam, the main assignment for the course was to do a “church visit”. You were supposed to get a “mentor”, go to a service at their church, ask them questions and then write a paper on the service (the order of the service, the people involved, things you saw in the church building, etc.) A lot of people who took the course would just be their own mentor and go to their own church – the easy way out (in fact, Conor had taken the same course and done just that!) I, however, decided to go to Conor’s church as my visit. I thought that by doing it this way I could satisfy my curiosity surrounding the Catholic Mass, while not making Conor think that I had any interest in converting. (I don’t know who I was kidding though, my interest in the Catholic church was very steeply increasing at that time).

So one Sunday evening, Conor, his brother Nathan and myself went to mass at St. James in Abbotsford (I’m glad I didn’t go with his whole family on a Sunday morning, I think he had that in mind though as well). In Abbotsford there are two Catholic Parishes, St Anne’s and St James. St. James is the newer of the two, and still currently holds mass in the gym of the Catholic Primary school. So as far as my first Catholic Church visit, it was pretty subdued – not as many “smells and bells” that one might find at another parish. I think that may have been a good thing though – I was used to very simple church decorating, so lots of candles and statues may have really confused me. Anyways, the thing that struck me right away was the silence – but not in a bad way. At all the churches I had ever gone to before there was a lot of socialization before the church service started, and this usually took place while sitting in the sanctuary. I never really thought anything of this until I walked in that Church. I could sense that the room held something very special, despite the fact that the room itself was only a gym; people were being silent in respect, they were being solemn, and I found it very moving. I watched as Conor did the sign of the cross with Holy Water, and as he genuflected before sitting in his seat, and then as everyone kneeled and while I felt like such an outsider, I didn’t feel it was because I wasn’t meant to be there, but because I was there but couldn’t experience fully what everyone else was experiencing.

I was actually most nervous going to mass because my brother told me before I went to expect to sit, stand, kneel, stand, kneel, bang your chest, stand, kneel. I wondered if it was like a weird ape dance or something!?! But I just followed Conor’s lead (although I didn’t go up for a blessing when everyone was having communion, that felt like a bit much at the time). Afterwards Conor let me read the paper that he wrote, and the mass made a lot more sense to me. It seemed so much more intricate than services at my church. I was used to: pray, sing, pray, sermon, pray, sing, pray. Here they used the term “liturgy”, they have several readings from the bible (funny thing, because I was under the impression that Catholics didn’t read the bible!), they sang hymns (I’ve always loved hymns!), and they had communion every Sunday (actually every single DAY if they wanted to, at daily mass).

One thing after another.

I try not to be a negative person, I really do - but the last few days have been up and down!

After my post "Where'd my baby go?" - he had a few really good days!! We haven't really done anything new at night - but there's a few reasons for it.

I was right about him wanting to eat more, but only as far as the days were concerned. He was a LOT happier once I started giving him more snacks and more sippy cups of milk.

But that all ended at around 1:30am every night. He's not handling the milk so good. He LOVES it, but his stomach does not. It equals painful gas for him in the middle of the night. I guess it doesn't bother him during the day, because he moves around enough to get the gas out, but at night after laying down for a few hours, it all builds up and he wakes up in a lot of pain - the only cure seems to be putting him over Conor's knee until it just comes out.

This is very disappointing for me - because I was really looking forward to not having to nurse him as much! I still wanted to keep nursing him at least 50% of the time (and I'm willing to do this for awhile because I know breastmilk is best for the first two years, not just the first year). But he nurses best when he's tired, otherwise he gets really cranky because my let down isn't as fast these days, and he gets so distracted with everything else. I loved that he loved his milk and sippy cup. As soon as he sees the cup he starts reaching up for it and crying out for it.

But no more milk for him - maybe I'll try again in a month or so. This means that I have to go back to nursing him full time... meaning not as much ME time... oh well.

Anyways, just as we're getting him off milk, he starts teething even worse! He has snot and drool EVERYWHERE as I speak! And I'm pretty sure the snot is not a cold, but just from the teeth coming in (a few people have told me that it's common)... so he's finding it very hard to sleep with a stuffed nose.

He only napped for MAYBE 45 minutes today. Not cool!

Hopefully these teeth just COME OUT already - and then I'll do a few happier posts! (About getting to hold baby Sophia a few days ago, and our dinner guests last night)

How I became Catholic - Part 3a

In case you need to refresh your memory, or haven't read the first two parts at all:

How I became Catholic - Part 1

How I became Catholic - Part 2

I guess I need to rewind a little bit and give a little bit of back info now. Prior to meeting Conor, I never knew any Catholics (or at least I didn’t know that I knew some). Not only did I not know any Catholics, but I really knew NOTHING about Catholicism. There were only two things that I “knew” about Catholics: they wore Crucifixes instead of a Cross, and they had a greater focus on Mary. I actually feel quite blessed that I didn’t know anything about Catholicism (if I had, it probably would have been in a negative form) so I was MORE open to hearing about it all (eventually!)

Me playing at a folk show at Ethical Addictions

Around Christmas 2001, I met Conor. I was involved in the music “scene” in Abbotsford at the time. If you can believe it, I was even in a band called the Progressive Thinkers. I also got into some Folk music at the time, and played at a few folk shows. Some other people in the music scene used to hang out at Tim Hortons (a Canadian coffee/donut shop), and I was invited to join them. The first time I went, we were all sitting around, and my friend Kyle said “where are the Caths?” I had no idea what he was talking about, so he clarified – the “Catholics”. I have to be honest, I thought it was weird that he called them the “caths” and didn’t know what to expect! I found out later that one of the girls in this group, Janel, was a Catholic, and had a close family of Cousins who would meet up at Tim Hortons as well, who were also Catholics. I went to Tim Hortons a few times before meeting the “Caths”.

The day came: Kyle and I walked into Tim Hortons and he said “there they are!” I looked over to see two big guys huddled over a card game, looking kind of intense. After we got our food, Kyle introduced me to Nathan and Conor Sweeney.

Now fast-forward a bit – a week after that eventful day, May 19th (the day my nephew was born, and my grandparents were invited to South Abbotsford Church), I attended the Sweeney Singers spring concert, and Conor asked me out. I remember when I told my mom that I was going out with someone, she asked if he was a Christian – this is how little I knew about Catholicism, I had to answer “I don’t actually know, I think so”…my brother quickly piped in that yes, he was a Christian! Haha

Initially, we never really talked about our faiths with each other, we both went to our own churches on Sunday and that was about it. One day at Tim Hortons, a very blunt friend of ours asked me when I was going to become Catholic. Awkward!! He went on to tell me that it was inevitable that I would become Catholic. That’s when I started getting kind of defensive. Why was it inevitable that I would become CATHOLIC, and he never asked Conor when HE would become PROTESTANT? I didn’t like it one bit…and actually mentally made a note not to talk about religion at all, because I didn’t want Conor to think that I was asking about Catholicism with converting in mind. But I did start to get very curious!

Two events happened that really changed things for me. I’m not 100% sure of the timeline of these events. One for sure was that Fall, 2002. The local evangelical University, Trinity Western, has a Catholic College, Redeemer Pacific, on campus. At Redeemer Pacific (RPC) they offer courses in theology, philosophy, biblical studies, etc. You can get diplomas there, but you can also be getting a degree at Trinity and take some of your courses at RPC. Anyways, a friend of ours (who at the time was dating Conor’s cousin, they are now married) told us about this seminar thing that was being held at the College and asked if we wanted to go. It was called “The good news about Sex and Marriage” presented by Christopher West. I was embarrassed at first by the title, and no one else seemed interested in going, but eventually Conor, a friend, and myself decided to attend the seminar with her.

I’ve got to say that it was pretty much a life-changing seminar for me, and for Conor as well (eventually taking us to Melbourne for him to study at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family).

How did it change my life? It gave me a perspective on Christianity that I had never encountered before. Christopher West bases this seminar on the teachings of Pope John Paul II in “The Theology of the Body”. I can’t even begin to adequately describe “The Theology of the Body”, it’s just too complex for me to comprehend fully, let alone try to explain! But briefly, and by no means adequately, the key theme is that we are created for total self-giving love in the image of the Trinity. LOVE is exemplified through the ‘communion of Persons’ in the Trinity, through total self-giving. What John Paul II points out is that the communion of persons which man and woman form through the total self-giving in marriage is not merely something ‘natural’ but is actually something ‘sacramental’ – is actually an image of this Trinitarian love, a witness to LOVE. He calls it a theology of the ‘body’ because it is in and through the body’s capacity to express and receive love – what he calls the ‘nuptial’ meaning of the body – that we are able to live out our vocation of total self-giving. (I'm going to reference this paragraph to Conor - because I was having trouble putting into words what I wanted to say)

I highly, highly recommend having a look at this book.

It's a VERY easy read (I read it in one day), Question & Answer format.

It answers some tough questions, and for non-catholics, will give a bit of an understanding as to the Catholic view of Marriage and Sexuality.

Apart from that main theme, the things that struck me the most in his talks, were the “Catholic” things that he made reference to. What Chris West gave me was a catechesis (explanation) of the Catholic faith while talking about Marriage and Sexuality! He likened Christ’s relationship with the Church, to the relationship that husband and wife have. Christ gives himself fully to us in the Eucharist. This is when I learned about a couple of the more controversial topics of Catholicism: the Real Presence (that the bread and wine in the Eucharist are the REAL body and blood of Christ), and how each act of intercourse should be open to life.

This is where some of my questions started finding some "answers". I had previously mentioned that I didn't understand the point of communion. It seemed like such a big deal in the bible, but then in church, it seemed to be "just bread" to me. Christopher West talked about how Christ gives himself fully to the Church in the Eucharist (communion), I then learned about the Catholic belief of the "true presence" of Christ in the bread and body.

I had also always believed in being open to life in a marriage, openness to children, and this was a huge portion of the seminar. That total self-giving, means giving all of yourself to your husband/wife, including your fertility.

I also heard him use words that I had never heard before, like sacrament, Eucharist, Marriage (which I already knew, but marriage as a sacrament?). I had a lot of questions for Conor after this seminar!

Time for a change

We have a dirty little secret. Finn still sleeps in our bed most (of the) nights!

I don't really think that it's WRONG to co-sleep/bed-share (as long as both parents are in complete agreement about it), but it's not what I want.

I'm so over it.

There's always an excuse: he's jet-lagged, he's teething, he's sick, he's gassy. But I don't want a three year old in bed with us! I guess it just never should have started, but it did, and now it has to end.

The fact that we only have one bedroom makes things difficult. We can "take turns" patting him or rocking him (no, not letting him cry - that will be the last option - but I just think I would handle that worse than letting him in our bed)... but the other person is still in the room, and kept awake. I tried really hard last night to not let him back in our bed. Meaning we each took about two or three turns rocking him or patting his bum, but each time his little head hit the crib mattress it was game over! I finally gave in - I hate giving in!

I hate new years resolutions - I think they're cheesy and set up for failure... but I'm setting one (albeit a little bit late). Finn has to be out of our bed.

First method - feeding him as much as he'll eat during the day. I've heard from a few people that their kids had been good sleepers and all of the sudden were waking up a lot. They decided to start feeding them more - an extra snack here or there - and they started sleeping better.

Wish us luck!

Where'd my baby go?

Well I know I said that Finn was starting to get back to his old self again, but I was wrong! I don't know if it's teething, or something else, but he's just so unhappy most of the time. I'll try to play with him and he's just up and down, one second he's having so much fun and the next second he flings himself forward in a fit. It's not fun!

We've had a few distractions though, which is nice. Yesterday a friend came over with her 18ish month son. Finn (mostly) behaved himself. Today we went into Civitavecchia with another friend and her two kids. She showed me where a few good kids stores are there, and we went to the park. I'm so sad I forgot to bring my camera, but I'm sure we'll go again (it's only a 10 min train ride away) and Finn seemed to enjoy himself.

Again, once he starts walking these things will become a lot funner. I think that might be partly why he's so cranky lately. He's ready for something new, developmentally, but I don't really see him being that ready to walk yet. We've been trying to get him to walk just holding onto ONE hand instead of both, and he's getting better at that... but you can't really rush this. He'll walk when he's ready.

Finn really liked these toys.

Well here's hoping for a better day tomorrow!

How I became Catholic - added note for Part 2

I am going to be finishing this series. I got a little derailed going back to Canada and such, and also because the next part was probably THE most important part to my conversion, and I'm having difficulties in writing it. What DO I say, what DON'T I say - it could turn out really long, or just too short. But it IS coming!

If you haven't read the other 2 parts, here they are:

How I became Catholic - Part 1

How I became Catholic - Part 2

Anyways, I wanted to add something that I forgot to part 2.

I said "I loved that (getting "lost" in a big Church) aspect of going there – but more than anything, I really really liked the Senior Pastor there. It’s been awhile now, I can’t even remember what the first sermon was about that he gave, but it was important to me at the time."

When I went home for Dad's funeral, two of my brothers and I got together to talk about funeral arrangements, and to just talk about Dad and ourselves and our relationships with him, and something jogged my memory about that first sermon I heard at South Abbotsford.

My Dad suffered from bi-polar depression - he was diagnosed when I was 7, but had probably been suffering from it for a lot longer than that. I've always been a sceptic of doctors and medicine. It's more from a lack of understanding than anything - but I do believe in mind over matter sometimes, and that people ARE over-medicated. I never really understood how Dad's depression could actually be helped by the use of medicine. Not only that, I just really didn't understand depression at all - I've always been a very optimistic, happy person.

It's never an easy thing to come out and tell the world about, but that Sunday the Pastor shared with the congregation his struggles with depression. He shared about his decision to see someone about it, and actually had his, or a, psychiatrist come up and talk about the psychology as well as the physiology behind the diagnosis. It made me come to more of an understanding and an acceptance of what my Dad was going through, and what kind of help he was getting.

I think, more than the separation and subsequent divorce of my parents, my dad's depression affected my life a lot. So hearing this sermon was very important to me, I had already felt a connection with the church South Abbotsford, and it helped then to feel a connection with the Pastor as well.

Our "Christmas Day"

Since Conor, Finnian and I weren't together on Christmas Day, I decided that once we got home, we would have our own "Christmas Day". We've kept up the decorations even!

Usually on Sunday nights we have a chicken dinner anyways, so today was our Christmas Day. We had a nice Chicken Dinner and then after Finn went to bed, we watched my Christmas present to Conor - the movie Up (which I rented on itunes when I was in Canada).

Tomorrow we'll take down the decorations and get back to "normal".

Poor Kid. He's had a rough week - LONG flight back to Rome, getting over jet lag, a bit of a stomach bug, and he's FINALLY cutting his two top molars (which will bring the tooth count to TEN!)

It's been rough, but he's starting to act like his normal self again! He has been a totally different kid this week - sooo cranky, I just blamed it on jet lag until I felt those molars so close to the surface today, so I'm assuming that's to blame as well. But tonight when I was playing with him, he came and put his head on my lap numerous times (I missed those little cuddles!)

Yesterday was beautiful! We had lunch out on the terrazza and I finally finished all the laundry! (no dryer means waiting for nice days to hang clothes)
These are Finn's shoes that I bought him in Canada - with the hopes that he will be walking soon! Although, who knows! He doesn't actually seem that interested. I know I will regret saying this, but I want him to start walking already! All of the other kids we play with are older and walking, so it's difficult for him to play with then unless we are actually inside. He can't play in the park or outside because there's no non-walking child friendly areas around here.

I'd always been proud to say that Finnian didn't watch TV - until I did two 17+ hour flights and just wanted him to zone out in front of the little screen but he wouldn't! So we're trying to see if he'll watch some baby einstein off youtube on the laptop once a day. It won't be a "babysitter" but we just want to have this trick up our sleeves for our flights back in the summer!
We have one cupboard in this place, it's under lock and key. But Finnian was being pretty fussy tonight, so Conor was letting him play in the cupboard (under supervision). Until Conor "forgot" to supervise... time to buy more cocoa!

I have a new niece!

I'm proud to announce that my brother Kevin and his wife Erin have had a baby girl, Nicole Janae. She was born on Friday morning (Jan 15), about 7 weeks early, at 4.2 lbs! She's on IV and a respirator but is doing well! Erin is recovering from her c-section, and I'm sure their kids, Ben and Morgan are looking forward to meeting her!

I missed her by one week - but I know that every day in the womb counted for her, so I'll just have to wait until the summer to meet her!

I'll post a pic as soon as I get one :)

Flying Home (to Rome)

They had these types of things at the Calgary airport - at almost every gate!

So I know I haven’t written much about our flight TO Canada, but the flight back is more fresh on my mind, so I’ll work backwards!

Anyways, the flight from Vancouver ended up working out all right. I looked online and saw that my westjet flight allowed me 2 checked bags of 50 lbs each, but my KLM flights only allowed 1 bag of 50 lbs. I thought that I would be collecting my bags in Calgary and then checking them in with KLM, so I packed one suitcase. But I didn’t have a scale, so I brought a spare duffle bag just in case. Turned out to be a good idea, because my suitcase was 65 pounds! But then I realized if I put some stuff into the duffle, I would either NOT be able to bring it on the KLM flight at all (knowing my luck with them) or else I would have to pay. Anwyays, I asked the lady in Vancouver if my bags went straight to Rome or not, she checked and said yes! Goodie – so I could bring both bags, and I didn’t have to collect them in Calgary!

Finn slept almost the whole Van to Calgary flight – just over an hour. When we got to Calgary I had to check in with KLM, but their desk wasn’t open yet – they have a GREAT play area for kids, near the check in desks. So Finn played there for a while, and they have free wireless internet, so I went online while he played. Then they opened their desk and I checked in. Then by the time we got through that, and through the security, we grabbed some food and then didn’t have to wait very long to board. There was a nice lady sitting next to us that didn’t seem to mind Finn too much. I had asked for a basinet for the flight, but they didn’t believe me when I said Finn was 22 lbs (the limit for the basinet – and yes, he is bigger than that!) so they laid a whole bunch of blankets on the ground for a bed. He didn’t sleep much, but he did sleep down there a bit, so I got to rest…and he could also sit and play there, or sit there while I ate. It made that fight soo much more bare-able than the flight TO Canada.

There was a nice lady sitting next to us, that didn’t seem to mind Finn too much (she didn’t really play with him or anything though). But then across the aisle was a British family with a 17 month old, Marlow. They were really nice. And I think the mom took pity on me, flying alone with Finn. When it was time to eat dinner, it was quite awkward for me. Either Finn was on my lap, but he didn’t like the food, so he was just being annoying… or else I would put him on the floor at my feet and he would climb up and grab the tray and such. So she had already finished eating so she came over and distracted him.

I didn’t get too much sleep – mostly because the people behind me had their lights on, and it’s hard for me (and Finn) to sleep with a lot of light. He would sleep for a bit on the ground, but then he would roll over and be uncomfortable, so I would pick him up and he would sleep a bit on me, and then I’d put him back on the ground. I think he got at least 3 or 4 hours of sleep.

When we landed in Amsterdam, we just wandered around for a bit. I went to that same room with all the cribs, but unfortunately they were all being used. And there is a play room, but not for kids as young as Finn. Calgary had much more variety, so that kids up to age 5 had something to do! Anyways, there was a place outside of those rooms that had little tables and rubber flooring, so that was nice. I put Finn down with some toys, and there were some other people around, a Scottish family with an 11 month old, that he played with. When an older boy, maybe 3ish, came and kept taking Finn’s toys and coughing all over them, I decided it was time to go to our gate!

Once you go through security, there is NO good place for a crawler to play. To toy things set up, all hard floor, no carpet. I was a little worried, because we still had 2 hours before we were meant to board. But by the time we got to our gate, Finn was asleep in the stroller. So I had about a half hour nap (I think that made a BIG difference to help me last the final flight). Finn started fussing in the stroller so I held him and he fell back asleep and slept the whole 2 hours.

The final flight was uneventful I guess. He had slept so he didn’t want to sleep again, but he didn’t want to sit much either! He played peek-a-boo with the guy behind us. We had three seats to ourselves, so I sat him at the window, me in the middle, and then I could use the aisle seats tray to keep my drink on!

We got to Rome, I called Conor and he was outside waiting. It took FOREVER to get our bags. At one point they had THREE carousels distributing our bags – but then nothing for awhile, and finally a carousel started up again and our bag came, and then we had to wait a bit for the stroller (every other airport gives you the stroller back at your gate!)

Anyways, Finn and I were both VERY happy to see Conor! He slept the first part of the train ride, and then played for the second part. We all had a pretty good sleep that night.

Jet lag

It will be so nice when this jet lag is over.

Last night Finn did pretty well until about 1am. I had to give him his soother a few times, but I didn't have to pick him up at all. At 1 that all changed... we could NOT get him to sleep. He was perfectly happy to rock on our lap, not crying, just wide awake. Eventually he would SEEM asleep, but he wasn't. We tried putting him our bed a few times and he would just wake up right away and start crawling around. Then I eventually got him to sleep... maybe 3 am, or 4? I can't recall.

Worse than Finn not sleeping was that fact that I could not sleep. I don't think I slept much if at all before that 1am fun-time. But I didn't fall asleep for at least an hour after Finn finally did. Luckily we slept in until 9, but I probably could have slept longer!

All I can say is, thank goodness for naps!

Booking my flights

I booked our flights VERY last minute. Probably about 12 hours before we actually flew! I didn’t really look at the return flight, just saw that it came back on the 8^th (which was exactly 3 weeks, and I couldn’t stay later because I had to come back for our permission to stay appointment). I turns out it was a pretty annoying flight. Vancouver to Calgary (Westjet) - 3 hour layover, Calgary to Amsterdam (KLM) – 5 hour layover, Amsterdam to Rome (KLM).

After I got to Canada, and looked over that itinerary, I decided to see if I could fly Westjet Abbotsford to Calgary instead. I called Westjet, and was told to leave my phone number and I would get called back in the same order as if I stayed on the line. That’s an awesome system, because then I can do stuff without having a phone stuck to my ear! Anyways, after talking to them, I was told that because I booked on the KLM website, there was nothing they could do for me. So I called KLM. Had to wait on hold for awhile, finally got through, and was told that my tickets allowed NO changes at all.

While I had been waiting, I went onto the Westjet website and saw that they had a seatsale from Abbotsford to Calgary on for that day. I asked the KLM lady again, if there was any way she could switch my westjet flight to that one, and she said no…so I said I would just go ahead and book it and just pay for that extra flight then, I wasn’t very happy. That was the end of that call.

I was very happy with my decision to book that flight, it was an extra $117 but we calculated that it would save me 3 hours travel time! The flight from Van was scheduled for 1pm, while the flight from Abbotsford was at 1:50pm. Also, it would take WAY less time to get to the Abby airport, getting to the Van one you have to leave really early in case there’s an accident or anything.

Anyways, my flights was Friday, on Wednesday night my brother Kevin (a more seasoned traveler than myself) highly recommended that I call KLM again and officially cancel the Van to Calgary leg, so that I wouldn’t have any problems in Calgary getting on my flight. I called and was put on hold for a LONG time. I told the lady why I wanted to change (that I had booked last minute to go back for a funeral, and that I was traveling alone with a 1 year old and wanted to make the journey a bit easier) after being on hold for an HOUR she told me, without any apologies, that I could not cancel the Vancouver to Calgary flight. AND if I wasn’t on that flight, I could not get on the KLM flight in Calgary! I almost cried – and since she was very unapologetic with me, I said, “Fine, goodbye” and hung up as she was talking.

I can’t believe how inflexible they were – given my situation. I then had to call westjet and cancel THAT flight – I had some problems getting through (which is apparently very common with westjet) and because of that they are being VERY good with their customers. They couldn’t refund the flight back to my credit card, but they put the full credit in a travel bank for me, which I can use within a year (and my brother said that it wasn’t too hard to have that transferred to a different name, since I probably won’t be able to use it).

First two nights

So our first two nights weren't TOO bad... as far as jet-lag goes.

The first night, we got home, had dinner, I gave Finnian a bath and had him in bed by 10pm. He woke up crying a few times, just as we were going to bed (around midnight), then I eventually brought him into bed and he fell right asleep. I fed him around 4am, and then he slept straight until 9ish.

Conor wasn't feeling well when he picked us up from the airport, and I wasn't feeling good in the morning, so we waited until the evening to go to mass. We all had a good afternoon nap, and then went to mass at 6pm, had dinner, I gave Finnian another bath and had him in bed by 9pm. Conor and I stayed up a bit, and went to bed around 10:30. This wasn't the BEST night - he had been making lots of noises, but ended up not waking up until around 1:30. I tried rocking him, singing to him, nursing him - nothing would stop the crying. So eventually he and I came downstairs and played for almost 2 hours. I was kind of awake as well, so I wasn't that upset about having to get up, but he was kind of grumpy and fussy, so it wasn't the funnest! He started looking tired so I brought him up, tried rocking him, singing and feeding him again... still crying inconsolably. Finally Conor took a shift, and eventually went downstairs with him again. I think they were down there for about an hour, when he was looking more tired, Conor read and read to him and he eventually fell asleep. After that I think I fed him around 8ish, and then we all woke up just before 10am.

We had a late nap today, so he'll probably go to bed a bit later again today, but hopefully he'll sleep well, we'll try to wake up earlier (8ish?) and then get back to our regular nap and sleep times.

Wish us luck!

And so it continues

Remember this post? Permesso di Soggiorno: The bane of my existence

Well today (Monday Jan 11) was our “second” appointment for our Permission to Stay (because we missed the first one). When we got there, I had no idea how they would know we were there (there’s no front desk, and everyone just waits in the hallway) so I saw the lady who spoke English with us before, and asked her if they will call our name or not.

She looked at the sheet that had our appointment on it and then went to another room. Turns out that, even though they told us that our appointment would be at that office, it was actually booked for Rome! So she said she would have to book another appointment for us. This system is so frustrating.

She started looking over our stuff while they were rebooking our appointment (which turned out to be a good thing) because pretty much everything we had brought was wrong for one reason or another:

1. Our “passport style” pictures (which I had printed at Wal-Mart while I was home, the same ones we used for our visa applications) were too big. So we’ll have to go and pay big $$$ for proper passport photos…frustrating.

2. I need TWO photocopies of all our papers; I only had ONE copy of each.

3. She started looking through our passport for our stamp from the Rome airport – we don’t have any stamps, because we didn’t have to go through any customs (I think there WAS customs off to the side, if you were declaring something) otherwise the airport is very silly. After you collect your bags, there are three doors: nothing to declare, coming from EU, and something to declare. Well all doors lead to the same door – OUT. I don’t get it?! Anyways, she said that our visa stickers in the passports were good enough, because they had the date of issuance on them.

4. Marriage certificate, and Finn’s birth certificate were supposed to be translated into Italian at the Italian Consulate in Vancouver. How are we supposed to know this before hand?!? Anyways, she said it was fine, so never mind that one.

5. Now for the most frustrating one! Health Insurance. The first problem with our health insurance, back when we were applying for our visa to come to Italy, was that we ARE covered by MSP (BC’s health care system) because Conor is a student, but the letter that they sent us to show we were covered says nothing! It has our names on it, our birthdates, the day we started coverage (which for each of us is our birthdays) and it says we are covered until “present”. Obviously insufficient. It needs to have a specific end date, say that we are covered overseas, and have an amount for emergency coverage.

So because our MSP letter didn’t state all of that, the Italian Consulate in Vancouver told us to just buy a couple months worth of travel insurance. So we did – it expired Dec 12, 2009! So now we need to figure out some sort of insurance to show them…we’re going to contact Conor’s school and see if someone there will help us out. It’s annoying that we have to pay for insurance here, when we have coverage already, but oh well. Technically I only have to have insurance that will cover us until “sometime” after our next appointment (in Feb).

Then she tells us that, at that office, they only take the paperwork, but the office in Rome actually issues the permission to stay. Our letter from the school says that we are here studying for 2 years, but she said that they might only issue us a permission to stay for 5 months, 6 months, 1 year…but probably 2 years. If they issue it for less than 2 years we need to REAPPLY and go through all of that again! (starting with filling out all those forms again, paying 70 Euros, waiting for another appointment, etc)

Is it worth it?? I think not.

Oh, and they have another students address on file for us, because we were still at the hostel when we actually applied. So I asked if I could change it with them, and she said that we have to apply for residency or something, and it has to have all of the members of the household on it?? I don’t know where to do that…I’ll probably just skip that! haha

Home Sweet Home

Finn and I survived the flight (actually it went much better than the way TO Vancouver). I'll write more about that later.

We just got home. I'm gonna give Finn and bath and then hopefully we'll all get some sleep!

I miss blogging

For many obvious reasons, I haven't been blogging lately, and I miss it.

Hopefully once I get over my jetlag I'll be able to go through these last 3 weeks that Finn and I have spent in Canada and remember everything that I thought at the time to blog about!

Right now I'm not very happy with KLM, I will blog about that later. But Finn and I fly out of VANCOUVER at 1:00pm tomorrow (Friday), so please keep us in your prayers! Luckily I was able to book one of the seats with a basinet - so yay for extra leg room and not having a baby on my lap the whole flight! And it's a two seat spot instead of a three seat spot.