Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go

Yep, I'm back to work after almost 19 months off!

When we had decided that we would be coming back to Canada for the summer, it made sense for one of us to work a bit as well, to make the ends come a bit closer together. We figured it would be easier for me to get part-time work. Plus if I work, Conor can at least get some study done while Finn is napping and playing happily, other than not getting any study done at all on the days he worked.

Anyways, I emailed the good old bank (where I worked for 3 years before heading off to Australia, and for a couple of months before Finnian was born), but unfortunately the branch I used to work at was overstaffed as it is, so the manager sent my name around to the other branches with a recommendation and I got a call that day! The one branch is Abbotsford that I haven't yet worked at (and the one my mom worked at the longest) was looking for someone part time.

They can't just take resumes and hire whoever they went, they have to put up a job posting, let anyone apply, and then officially give out the job.

I got the call yesterday that they are giving me the job! So on Monday I go in and fill in all the paperwork, and then I will be working 15 hours a week... one weekday, and one Saturday.

I'm looking forward to it, but it's a little weird. The longest I've been away from Finn was probably when Conor's sisters and I went into Rome, and that wasn't even 8 hours. And this is also the longest time not working since high school. I did go 2 years not working in the bank though, and when I went back before Finn was born, it was like I never left... so I'm sure it will be fine, although the new branch will take a bit of getting used to.

Oh, plus I'm TERRIBLE with names. I've been lucky that normally when I go to a new branch, it's one that my mom has worked at within 5 years, so I've known at least a few names... well my mom worked at this branch before I was born, so I'm pretty sure I don't know a single person by face (a couple by name only).

Stroller Dilemma "solved"

This is our "new" stroller.
Looks just like the old one, don't it??

Well that's because it is.

So here's the deal - when the front wheels broke off, we were in the middle of actually going somewhere, and didn't have a good chance to look at the damage. We just taped the wheels back on and went on our way. I had heard that you could order new wheels from Graco, but I didn't know if just the wheel part was broken or if it was broken on the stroller frame part. If it was the frame, then a new wheel wouldn't do anything - and I had a feeling that it WAS the frame that was broken - so I just kind of forgot about that option.

On Monday I was going into Vancouver to get a replacement power cord for my mac, so I contacted someone selling a used Phil & Ted's and I was going to have a look at it, and I brought $300 with me in case I decided to buy it. Sunday night Conor and I talked about it and decided we didn't really have the money RIGHT NOW to buy a stroller for that much, and we still have three months, so I emailed the lady and told her I was sorry, but I wouldn't be coming to look at the stroller. (PS. My mom bought an umbrella stroller for her house, which we are using right now)

So then I decided I might as well take off the tape and have a look at the damage, and it turns out that the damage IS just to the wheel part... therefore new wheels will solve the problem.

To tell you the truth, I just really really really really want a Phil & Ted's (can you tell??) but it's just not in the books right now - so instead of spending $300, I spent $33 on new wheels.



Oh, and remember how my ipod broke the same day?

Well I've just had saran wrap on it since then, but it's really annoying because I have to keep changing the wrap, plus it doesn't really keep it protected if I drop it again...Well I looked and looked for a suitable case for it. One that had a plastic touch screen cover, but DOESN'T stick to the screen, but there was only ONE. And it wasn't snug enough, I had to really press to work the screen, which kind of ruins the whole touch factor.

Anyways, I decided to finally make a cover. I bought one of those regular cases that doesn't cover the screen at all, and then I went to my local CIBC and got a plastic bankbook cover for free, cut it to size, and voila! Problem solved. If that bankbook cover didn't work I was going to go buy one of those old school projection slides, transparency or whatever it is called.

If anyone ever wants to just GIVE me a Phil & Ted's double (with rain cover, preferably) or a new iPod touch (or even an iPhone for that matter) just comment on here and I'll give you my mailing address ;)

Stroller Dilemma - Update

Okay first - my friend Helen in Oxford posted a long comment for the Phil & Teds, but I accidently rejected it during moderation! Whoops, so thanks for your comment Helen, I did read it!

I think I've decided to look at some of the other used Phil & Teds in the area - they are more expensive than the $250 one in abby, but I really do want a Phil & Teds... then if I don't find one in good condition, or in my price range, there are always TONNES of used Gracos around, and I do still have 3 more months before I actually need it.

I will keep you posted on what I actually purchase!!

Stroller Dilemma - Please Help!!!

UPDATE: The $250 phil and teds is sold - but should I keep a look out for another one (potentially spending $350) or get the $100 graco now... or just wait until the end of summer... I can't decide!!

I need some decision making help... I need some to sort through my pros and cons and all my thoughts and feelings and tell me what stroller I should get... what stroller I REALLY want... what stroller will be best for us... HELP!!

Here are our choices (not the ones in the actual picture, but used ones)

1. Graco - same as we had before, I've found a 2008 (same year as ours) from the picture it looks hardly used, and it's $100

2. Phil & Ted sport (double) stroller - obviously we don't have two kids, I'll get to that part later, but I've found one in Abbotsford, used for $250, might be sold already in a half hour though!

Okay here we go, every thought I have on the matter.

Pros about the Graco:

• I love the storage, won't necessarily need as big of a basket post-Italy, but it's a huge bonus for when we have to buy 6 litres of bottled water a week, plus other groceries.
• I like that there is a cup/snack tray for child, plus a cup/storage tray for me.
• It's cheaper

Cons about the Graco:

• obviously a Graco didn't serve us in Italy too well this past year, so presumably this stroller will only last the 8 months we're in Italy, and we will have to find yet ANOTHER stroller next summer.

Pros about the Phil & Teds:

• Eventually we would like more kids, this is a single stroller with a double seat that you can add on. Meaning we can take it to Italy as a SINGLE stroller and have the double for the future.
• It's a lot more sturdy than the Graco.
• It's looks cool!
• (pro and con) It IS more expensive than the Graco, but new it retails at least $550 with the double kit (not to mention more for a rain cover and other accesories that are usually included in the used package deal). $250 is the cheapest I've seen for one, especially since this one is available in Abbotsford, and I wouldn't have to drive to North Van.

Cons about the Phil & Teds:

• I don't know if the basket is big enough for use in Italy - I would have to do water shopping with Conor. I don't really care how big it is post-Italy though.
• There's no cup tray for child OR parent
• More expensive (but not necessarily in the long run)
• Also, the issue of the second child being behind the first as opposed to beside - but those double strollers with the kid beside just look to big to me.

Okay, tell me every opinion you have on the matter - whether you have children or not!!

That time again

Yes, it was THAT time again.

Time for Finnian to get another hair cut.

The little "wings" over his left ear are what made me do it today.

So I sat him in his highchair with some snacks, put on Baby Einstein for him, and started cutting. He really didn't like it at first, mainly because it tickled his neck, but Grandma came to the rescue a few times with grapes and talked to him and he survived!!

I think he looks older.

Milestone

This year is a milestone, and not Finn's, this time!

Conor and I have now been married for the same number of years that we dated.

I don't know why, but that just seems like a milestone. From this year on, when someone asks me how long we've been married, and I say X years, and they ask me how long we dated, and I say 4 years, X will always be bigger than 4. (I like algebra, can you tell!)

Conor's cousins wedding, 2003

Disclaimer: What I just said WAS all I was going to write, but then it turned into this - pretty much our whole dating, to engagement, to marriage timeline. Read on if you like!

By my extended family's history, Conor and I dated for a LONG time before we got married. And really most people I know these days didn't date for nearly as long as we did. Did it mean that we didn't think we would eventually get married? No way.

Christmas - not sure what year

The general trend in my family has been: start dating in the summer, engaged at Christmas (or sometime around there, New Years for my brother if I remember correctly), and married the following summer. 1 year. Conor and I dated for 4 times that long.

But I was only 19 when we started dating (Conor was 21), we were both doing our undergrads, working, living at home rent free, and just enjoying getting to know each other. We have no regrets for dating as long as we did, and actually I just don't know how it would have worked otherwise.

Neither of us had dated anyone else before, and we really took our time with the whole relationship thing. There is no way I could imagine saying "yes" to him if he has asked me to marry him that first Christmas we were together (although I was definitely open to that in the future, otherwise we wouldn't have kept dating).

We met sometime after Christmas 2001/New Years 2002. I was friends with some "emo's", of which Conor's cousin was a part of. This particular family of cousins and Conor's family are very close (they even have a singing group). So when said cousin and the "emo's" would hang out at Tim Hortons, Conor and some of his siblings would often meet up with them there. I was a mennonite at the time, as was a friend, Kyle. The first time I went to Timmies with them, Kyle said to me, "maybe you'll get to meet the Cath's" - well you can read more about that here. We took our time - hung out in the group - got to know eachother. On May 26th, 2002, the Sweeney Family Singers were having their annual spring concert, which I went to. Afterwards we all headed to centennial park and hung out, I had to work early the next morning and it was dark, so Conor walked me to my car. And he asked me out!

I was sooo excited! haha. My brother Dan was in Peru at the time, a day or two later he was online and I said "guess what!" and he said "you have a boyfriend?" haha, was I talking about Conor that much??

Anuyways, like I said, neither of us would have continued dating if we didn't see that if could/would lead somewhere - there's just no point in that. We never really talked very seriously that quickly, but I started sensing that yes, he was taking this seriously when he would talk about things in the future. Conor's grandparents had a house and property up on the Shushwap, and they would go there for a week or so every summer. They went up that summer, and I don't remember what exactly Conor said, or if it was before or after he got back, but he made some reference to me going there next summer with them. I was pretty happy to hear that!

We eventually started talking more seriously. There was one time in my quest to become Catholic (well, before I actually decided to), that I asked Conor "if I don't ever become Catholic, will our relationship still move forward". He replied yes, I was pretty happy to hear that too!

I think this was the same summer we were engaged - 2005

At that time, Conor's family didn't have internet at their house, so Conor would use our when he came over. One night he seemed pretty focused looking at sometime online, but I didn't really think much about it. After he went home I went online and happened to notice the website he was looking at. It was for the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne, Australia. I can't remember exactly when this all happened, but I know he still had at least a year and a half to go before finishing his undergrad. The first thing I thought was "he's going to go to Australia and leave me". Then I thought "he's not going to Australia without me!" haha.

Honeymoon - the mountain near Golden, BC

I didn't bring it up, but then I think he was looking at that site again sometime, and I casually asked him what he was looking at. He said he had heard about this school, and it seemed interesting, but that he also heard there was one in Washington DC, but he couldn't find the website. We eventually found it - I was kind of MORE worried this time, because Washington DC isn't so far away as Melbourne - and I just had this feeling like it would be more plausible for him to think of a long-distance relationship with me from there, than Australia. I started hoping he would start looking into Melbourne's campus again!

Honeymoon - Lake Louise

Eventually we got to talking more, I think he was seeming more interested in Melbourne and I finally just asked it "if you go to Melbourne, will I be coming with you?" and he emphatically replied "Of course!". It all moved pretty smoothly from there. This would have been just before our 3rd anniversary, he was a year away from finishing his undergrad, so presumably we would get married in a year.

Oh boy - we've both seen better days! Maybe 2003?

But I still didn't know WHEN he would propose. I went to Madagascar to visit my brother and his family in May, already knowing our general plan of getting married and going to Australia. I didn't know how the whole ring thing worked in engagement. I knew some guys just went and picked something out, I knew sometimes a couple picked it out together, or the girl would show the guy things that she likes and he would go from there... so I started to look online at engagement rings - it was fun!

Christmas - 2005

We both had awhile before talked about how we thought that engagements over a year are kind of rediculous. I just don't think you should get engaged until you are at the point of actually planning the wedding (setting a date, booking the church, etc.) but I was also kind of nervous that he would wait until winter and that I wouldn't have as much time to plan stuff. My sister-in-law and I chatted about it, it was good bonding!

Anyways, I was in Madagascar for our 3 year anniversary, so we had decided that when I got back we would go for dinner. Our first date when I got back, Conor said we could go where ever I wanted. Let's just say I love pizza, and being away from North American restaurants for three weeks, and only having pizza with smelly goats cheese on it, all I could think about was pizza hut. So away we went - how romantic! We had also decided that would NOT be our actual anniversary dinner.

We ended up going to this restaurant in White Rock where his family had been selling their asparagus to. It was a nice, family owned restaurant - I don't even remember what we ate. Oh yeah, before we left we had said we would bring our gifts with us to the restaurant, I got Conor a hand carved crucifix from Madagascar, kind of hard to hide! But I thought something was up when I didn't see his gift for me, and he nonchalantly said he had it with him and would give it to me AFTER the restauarant - I gave him mine at the restaurant.

Conor's Cousins wedding - 2005

(same Church as the one in 2003, and the church we got married in!)

We went down to the beach, found a place to sit. Then Conor said he wanted to sit somewhere else, so we moved. I started having some more of an idea then that he might be proposing. I had been working at an amusment park before this time, and you could buy these little silver rings for 25 tickets or something like that. I had alot of those kicking around my house. When we were sitting on the beach Conor asked if I remember loosing one at his house months earlier. I totally didn't. But he pulled it out, and got on his knee and asked me to marry him! I said yes. It was pretty much awesome.

This was a friday night. I got home and my mom was sleeping, so I went to bed and decided to tell her the good news in the morning. When I woke up I heard her awake so I went into her room, crawled into her bed, I can't remember if she was reading or watching tv, but when I was younger I used to always go get my breakfast in the morning and go into her bed to watch morning tv (sorry for the sidetrack, just reminicing) and then I told her that Conor and I were engaged. She squeeled! Then she got mad at me for not waking her up as soon as I got home the night before! hahaha.

Conor was embarrased that I didn't have a real engagement ring, but he said there was no way he would have bought one before hand, having no idea what kind of ring I wanted or anything. It was now Saturday, but it was his Mom's birthday party that day, so we couldn't go ring shopping. He wouldn't let me tell his family! It was awkward because I was so excited I wanted to tell everyone! Finally the next day, Sunday, we drove out to Langley, went to a few stores, I tried on a few rings which were all nice, but nothing really moved me. We were at Ben Moss and I tried on some that I had pointed out to try, after those the sales lady just grabbed this one last ring, even though I hadn't pointed it out, for me to try on. It was PERFECT. It was all I could want in a ring and more. It was MY ring. I don't even know why we kept looking, but we did. I guess when you're about to lay out that much money (well, we didn't really spend very much, students you know) on something I would wear every day for the rest of my life, you want to make sure it's what you want. But I totally knew. We went back, and bought it. It was a little big, they said they could adjust it and we could pick it up in a few days, but I really wanted to tell his family! So we took it and they said we could go to the store in Abby to have it fitted later.

Engagement pics

That day was Conor's dad's birthday (yes, his mom and dad have birthdays one day a part, but not the same year). Let's just say Conor can be a little awkward sometimes. We got back to their house, but he didn't want to tell just one person, and then another and then another. So he made me hide my hand all afternoon! Then we sat down to dinner, and I thought he would say something, but no. And I could NOT eat with my left hand, so I kept kicking him under the table until finally he grabbed my hand and announced that I had something to show everyone. What a guy.

So then it came time to plan the wedding. We still didn't know if Conor wanted to go to the Washington school or the Australia one. But I really wanted to make sure we got our church booked, it was the only thing I really cared about! I also wanted to get married somewhere around June. July and August get hot, plus it my chats with my sis-in-law, she mentioned that IF there was a wedding to come back to, they would plan their furlough around it, and probably be there around the end of May *hint hint* haha.

We planned and booked for June 10, 2006... one year and ONE DAY long engagement GASP. haha.

It turned out to be very good that we had an "early" summer wedding. We did a very rough budget of how much it would cost us to fly to, live and study in DC as well as fly to, live and study in Australia and it pretty much broke even. Flying to DC (we only budgeted one flight, but we all know we would have come back at least once) was cheaper than to Australia, as was the cost of living. But the institute in Melbourne was much cheaper. The two deciding factors were 1) how cool would it be to live in Australia for 2 years?!?! and 2) there was just no possibility for me to work in DC. It's difficult for a 'professional' to get a short term, unsponsored visa, let alone a customer service person. And not only was it not hard to get one for Australia, but it was really easy!

Dinotown haha - 2006 (I think just before we moved to Australia)

Anyways, the school year there technically starts with the new year, but we would go be arriving for the other semester, which started in August. On the visa info, it says that it would take up to 6 week to process, and that was pretty much EXACTLY how much time from the wedding to when we wanted to leave. Conor could have applied for the visa up to three months before the start of school, but the visa application is expensive, and then I would have had to apply to go with him after the wedding and pay as well. If we waited until after the wedding, it was just one application and one fee.

After the Sweeney Family Singers 15th Anniversary Concert - so 2004, or 2005?

So there you have it!

4 years - Conor says that must be why he feels so old!

**Ps Sorry for not posting this yesterday, on our actual Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, Conor - I love you!

Busy but no routine

It's weird - when this blog started, it was to update our Canadian friends and family on our big move to Australia. When we came back to Canada, it was to keep our Australian friends up to date on the birth and life of Finnian. When we moved to Italy, it was to keep the Canadians AND Australians informed about our lives. Well now that I'm back in Canada, so far I forget that now there are still Australians AND Italians that want to be kept informed... at least right now since I don't have much of a routine, I probably won't be blogging as much... we'll see.

Saturday night there was a "welcome back" party at the Sweeneys, which included poker. I got a Royal Flush! Wooo hooo!!!

Sunday afternoon was my nieces 6th birthday, and I got to meet my baby niece for the first time :)

And today is... nothing really. We rearranged the basement to suit our needs - finished putting some stuff in closets and drawers and put the suitcases away, Conor went for a walk with Finn (I'm suffering terrible allergies and a possible cold - blah!) and now I sit and type this.

Hopefully we get some sort of routine soon so that Conor can get to work on his doctoral research - otherwise that is life right now, meeting up with family and friends - not to shabby :)

The flights

Our flight out of Rome was scheduled for 1:10pm. Eleonora came and picked us up, and Finn had a little nap in the car on the way there (good thing!) We got there just before 11am and the line to check bags was really long. Boo. So I asked a lady at the desk if there was a line for people with small children and she gave me this bad look and just said "no". OOooookkkayy, sorry for asking.

Then a minute later a lady that was going through the line checking passports told us to follow her, and we got to skip the line and were helped by the lady who said no in the first place!

Then we waited for our flight - Finn really enjoyed wandering through the duty free shops and looking at himself in mirrors. They changed our gate at one point and then when I looked at the screen it said our flight was leaving at 1:45. Well it was supposed to get into Toronto at 4:50 and our connection was at 6:30 - already a bit tight, so I was getting a bit worried.

I asked the lady at that counter (turns out to be the grumpy one that checked our bags) that we had a connection, I hardly spit out the time for the connection and she snaps "it won't be a problem".

We board the plane and we are sitting in a three seat section (actually, backstory we were given seats A and C to begin with, but I assumed that there was a B in between, so I called to get our seats changed... then when we got on the plane, it turns out that there is no B and that A and C are two seats and in 2-3-2 seated plane. So I was a bit upset, because we would have had two seats to ourselves and now we are in a 3 seat section with someone sitting beside us). Well the girl sitting beside us really wanted to try and sit with her friend, and it turned out there were two seats somewhere else together, so she moved and Finn ended up with his own seat!!! That saved the day.

That flight - just about 10 hours - was SOO good. Finn was just sitting in his seat (nap time) and just eventually fell asleep on his own there, so we got to eat our dinner in peace, and I even watched a movie! I was afraid that he would want to be running up and down the aisles the whole flight, but because he was in a seat, in between us, and had our attention the whole flight, he didn't get out of his seat once! He was such a good kid. Near the end of the flight he fell asleep again (it was already after 9pm Rome time then) and was very upset when we had to get off the plane, but once he woke up and we were walking he was fine and just looking around.

Now for the BAD part. As I said, we were supposed to get into Toronto at 4:50, but our flight didn't land until 5:20ish. We told the lady on the plane and she said she really wasn't sure if we would make our flight - it depended on our baggage and customs lineups. So we got off the flight and RAN through customs (ended up not being much of a line) and then were confused, because all of the sudden we were in the baggage collection area, but I saw a sign for connections so we went over there and stood in line for a bit, before we were told we needed to collect our checked baggage! I still do NOT understand this - they said it was because it was our first point of entry into the country, but why they couldn't transfer the bags themselves and have us go directly to our connection I don't know.

So we waited and waited and waited and finally got our bags, had to go through ANOTHER declaration line (which was sooo long, there should have been one line for people going through to a connection and one line for people exiting the airport). We finally get through that and run to the place where we put our bags on for the transfer. There was someone directing people depending on what flight they were connecting to, so when the lady sent us one way and everyone else was being sent another, I assumed it was because our flight was leaving soon, and we were getting some sort of priority - but when we turned the corner we were in a line, and everyone else was being put right through. Confused. So I turn to this other Air Canada guy and say we need to get to our flight and why are we in a line when the other people with later connections aren't and he tells me "oh, you missed your flight, they will rebook you for the 8:30"

What!! So no one was actually going to tell us we missed our flight!?! What kind of customer service is that! I understand things happen and you miss flights, but we were most upset at the fact that no one at any point would just tell us that we missed our flight. There were three people in front of us who missed the same flight (also hadn't been told) so we waited in line to get booked for the next flight.

When we get to the front, the lady tells the other three that the next flight is at 10:30pm. Excuse me? 4 hours later??? So I told her that the other man said we would be booked for the 8:30 and she said that flight was full. Great - this means that instead of getting into Vancouver at 8:30pm we would be getting in at 12:30am - NOT GOOD!

So as I'm pressing more, and making my anger known, they mention that we could all go standby for the 8:30, but there were no guarantees. But the thing is, you are for sure booked for the 10:30, and stand by for the 8:30, your bags will get on whatever flight you get on, no matter what, so why would they not offer to put you on stand by for that flight no matter what?? If that first Air Canada guy hadn't mentioned the 8:30 flight, we all would have just booked ourselves for the 10:30 and that would have been that.

Anyways, we all go on standby, and make our way to the gate. Called our parents and told them the deal, that if we didn't call back in 2 hours it meant we would get into Van at 10:30 and if we DID call then we would be getting in a 12:30.

This part was kind of nice though, because it meant Finn got to run around until at least the 8:30 flight, where if we had made the 6:30 flight, he would not have gotten to, and that flight probably would have ended up being a nightmare with him!

So Conor and Finn are running around, they told us they would call our names at 8pm if there were seats available, so I waited in anticipation - and they called our names!! Yay!!

Uh oh, where's Conor and Finn?? They didn't hear our names called, and weren't near by - I started panicking asking the lady to call their names again and she said she was in the middle of something. Finally the other three who were also on stand-by (and got seats as well as us) said I could leave the stroller and bags and go find Conor and Finn. I ran around, couldn't see them, almost gave up and was on my way back to the terminal, but I took one last look back and saw Conor poking his head around the corner and I frantically waved to him! He got the picture - ran and got Finn, and met me at the gate.

Thank goodness - seriously, it ended up being perfect. Finn had enough time to run off some energy, he freaked out a bit at the beginning of the flight (he had to sit on our laps because the flight was full) and then fell asleep for the rest of the 4.5 hour flight! Perfection.

My mom and Conor's dad met us at the airport, and we made our way home. Home Sweet Home.

We slept from 2am - 8am with just one wake up in the middle, had a good afternoon nap yesterday, and then slept from 10 (finn went down at 9) to 530 this morning. Not too bad, it can only get better from here.

HIGHLIGHTS:

My favorite things right now are seeing Finn with the cats! and our place here has a sunken living room with two steps, we taught Finn how to crawl down them backwards. It's so cute - and sometimes he will turn around and start crawling backwards WELL before the step - haha.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home. Finn was an absolute champ! We did however miss our connection in Toronto, but were on stand-by for 2-hours later and got on. It wasn't the end of the world.

Now it's 1:36am and we're just waiting for Finn to show signs of sleep (he sleeps the entire second flight - 5 hours!)

More info later.

On our way!!!

I'm writing this the evening before, but scheduling it to post as we leave the house.

Schedule:

(Italy time)

Leave the house by 10am - drop off our keys at the agency

Flight leaves Rome at 1:10pm

(Canada time)

Arrive in Vancouver at 8:32pm!!!

Please please send a few prayers our way. Specifically that we don't have any luggage issues (ie. going over weight, or missing bags when we get to Van) and that Finn behaves as much as can be expected! And of course for any other unforeseen mishaps!

I can't wait to see my Mommy :)

Fatty

So we just were weighing our suitcases and decided to weigh Finn while we were at it.

For his 1 year appointment he was about 23 pounds (75th percentile - which means out of 100 kids his age, he would be bigger than 75 of them)

Now he is 30 pounds - 95th percentile! haha. Where most kids his age have stopped eating (or eating much less because they are so distracted and interested in running around and such) Finn is still eating 3 full meals, plus snacks! haha

Oh, and we're using a really cool scale - it says I have the body of a 32 year old... boo! It says our neighbor (who's in his 50s) has the body of a 12 year old!! He's a marathon runner.

My how the time flies!

Well we leave in just 2 more sleeps. It feels like just yesterday my countdown was 50+ sleeps!

Dinner tables set up for the Andersons

On Friday, our friends the Andersons (the Aussies with 5 kids), came out in the afternoon. We had soo much fun with them! The kids are so good with Finn - playing with him, making him laugh, feeding him even!! We brought them up to our place, an d then everyone got ready to head down to the beach. The forecast had said rain - which was really sad because their kids love the beach and really wanted to go there - but as it turned out (as usual) the forecast was wrong and it was a beautiful afternoon! The kids loved the beach - even Finn really enjoyed himself this time. There's one part of the beach that has more compact sand. So Finn would wade it the water, and then walk up the beach a bit, and then run back, and a couple times walk to far into the water where's there's a little drop off and fall it! haha - it would shock him a bit, but he didn't mind it at all.

Little Anna slept all through dinner.

After the beach the Andersons went and had gelati while we got dinner ready. We had a great dinner with them. At one point Finn didn't want me to feed him anymore, so Kate (the mom) started feeding him, and then little Olivia told her mom that she wanted to switch places. Sure enough it was because she wanted to feed Finn. Very cute! It was such a great visit, and so nice to be able to catch up with them before we left for the summer (as luck would have it, we had to meet up with them again, because I had given them a set of my keys and forgot to get them back!!)

Three of the kids playing.

On Saturday we spent the morning doing some more packing and organizing, and then in the afternoon there was a going away party for the two families that are leaving and not coming back. Finn was such a crank pot most of the evening, wasn't the funnest night for me... but Conor played poker with the boys afterwards and won $5 - that's always nice!

Sunday morning we were invited to Mass at the NAC (North American College) - there are two, one for priests and one for seminarians, last time we were at the one for priests, this one was for the seminarians. We were invited by an Aussie seminarian - again, great to be able to catch up with him before we left for the summer. Before Mass we were just hanging out in the courtyard and Finn was being pretty loud - I'm sure he woke up a few seminarians that were trying to sleep in before mass! haha, but he did GREAT during mass and during breakfast. Michael showed us around a bit - took us up to the roof where there is a great view of Rome, and especially the Basilica.

The NAC soccer field. They have it pretty good there :)

View from the roof.

After that we met up with the Andersons to get our keys back, and then found out another couple from Melbourne, the Krohns (she used to teach at JPII) were in town for a conference, so we briefly met up with them before we had to catch the train back to Santa Marinella.

Us on the roof of the NAC.

I can see it's going to be awhile before we get a good family picture :)

Us with the Anderson kids (minus the youngest)

Just for fun - click here to see a pic with us and these kids on our last night in Melbourne

Yesterday we helped one of the families pack up and load a moving truck (they left for Germany that evening) and then spent the afternoon doing some cleaning and packing. I was going to finish packing this morning, but last night it was nice out, so I just opened all the suitcases outside and did it then. Much easier without Finn trying to grab all the toys I'm packing up! haha

Me with the two Anderson girls.

Later this morning our friend is going to come by and we'll bring some stuff to her place, everything that isn't coming back for the summer is being stored here - and we are very grateful to her for storing everything! Then tonight there is a dinner so that we can all get together one more time before we leave and another family leave.

The days are going by very quickly with our schedule being so full. I keep thinking it must be Monday, I've lost a day in it all!

To you Canadians, see you soon!