Stephanie Howell

15 Confessions on the 15th | 2 Years in Italy Edition!!!

Today is a very special edition of 15 Confessions on the 15th because today my family has been living in Italy for TWO YEARS!!! That's right...it's our Italianversary!

I can't believe it. It has been the best two years of my life and the most frustrating 2 years of my life. I truly wish we could live in Europe forever. This has been the greatest gift to our girls and I will be grateful forever.

In celebration of this special day, I thought I'd share fifteen lessons I've learned since moving to (Northern) Italy.

 

1. Sometimes you just have to slow down. Allora, aspetta, domani. Things aren't getting to get done today. Or tomorrow. Or possibly even this month. And that's okay. Just breathe, pour a glass of prosecco, and relax.

 

2. Everything tastes better here. This is not an exaggeration. Wine, cheese, truffles, meat, tomatoes, pasta, gelato...I am ruined on these things for life. They will never ever taste as good as they taste here.

3. You will get lost every.single.time. You will never get anywhere the first time you try. There are no such things as street signs, and thank God for GPS- but that doesn't even work most of the time. Just go with the flow.

 

4. There is no such thing as ordered line waiting. It's all just basically a clusterF*&#. There are no straight lines, just groups where everyone is breathing down your back and stepping on your toes. There is no personal space. You will wait for an hour and once you get to the front they will send you to another line where you will wait for another hour. When you get to the front of that line, they will be closed for riposo. You will come back later and start the whole process again, but the person at the front will act like they've never seen you before and then they will put up the "Chiuso" sign and go drink coffee.

5. It's never too early to have a drink. Day drinking is a sacred art. But no one ever gets wild or drunk or sloppy. Bella figura is a real thing, y'all.

 

6. Italians love big families. But no one has them. Remember, this is NORTHERN Italy I'm talking about. Things are different in Sicily, for example. Most families here only have one child. And they don't start having children until their late 30's or early 40's. My big family gets a LOT of attention. We get stopped everywhere and I also get lots of compliments for being such a young mom. Ha!

7. Driving is serious business here. Don't ever try to pause for one second to turn left and don't you dare hesitate at ALL when the light turns green...or you WILL get honked at. Aggressively.

 

8. Women dress to the nines here. All the time, no matter the hour of day or the occasion. You will NOT see yoga pants, workout clothes, or flip flops. And you WILL feel like a slob when you wear these things. After 2 years I've let it go. I cannot always look perfect! But the Italian women manage. You should see them rock the high heels on their bikes. Also? They are all TINY. No clothes or shoes fit me here.

 

9. It's not considered rude to stare. Culturally, it's very different than the US. It's not considered rude to openly stare. At first I was very taken aback by it, now it doesn't bother me. I just like to smile and wave.

 

10. Produce here is incredible. Affordable, fresh, and free of GMOs and all that added crap. But don't you dare touch it without putting on gloves first! 

11. You can get milk from vending machines and wine from the tap/ gas station type pumps at special stores. I still get very excited every time I see these things.

12. There are bicycles EVERYWHERE. This is not an exaggeration. It is common to drive down the street with bikes completely surrounding your car. And lets just say that many of the cyclists don't abide by traffic rules. I have to be on high alert every single time I drive. I've gotten crazy good at dodging people.

 

13. 'Latte' is milk and 'pepperoni' means peppers. If you ask for a latte you are getting a milk and if you ask for pepperoni pizza you are getting pizza with papers. Ask for a diavola and a caffe con latte. Macchiato literally means "spotted". If you ask for a macchiato here you will get an espresso with a dollop of cream (j's fave). Not a sugary drink like at Starbucks. For me? ALWAYS cappuccino.

 

14. Don't expect to find a hearty breakfast here. It's coffee and a pastry every morning. And that's about it.

 

15. It's every bit as dreamy as it seems. Yes, it can be frustrating. Efficiency doesn't exist and the language barrier can make you feel vulnerable. But every day here is a gift and I've loved every single second.

Thanks for helping me celebrate our two year Italianversary. And thank you for always joining me on this crazy ride!

 

xoxo

S

15 Confessions on the 15th | March Edition

1. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it's the 16th. I'm just proud of myself for getting this post written at all!!!

 

2. Whenever a friend starts a new exercise or diet program (especially CrossFit and Whole30 for some reason) I find myself praying that they'll still retain the ability to talk about other things besides said program. I know, I know. Maybe it's selfish. But I hate it when the obsession is so complete that they can't talk about anything else!

 

3. I took the girls to see Cinderella last night. We loved it. Not only was it beautiful to look at (but why the Jose was her waist so small???) , I loved the Have Courage Be Kind piece. Sadie whispered "Mommy that's kind of what like you always tell us!"

 

4. I'm listening to  The Girl on the Train on Audible (I just signed up and chose it as my free book - I was number 2938402384 at the library). I'm super engaged but it's just NOT FAST ENOUGH!! I need the real book in my hands so I can race ahead and read at the speed of light. Sigh.

 

5. I hate that I'm only blogging once a week, if I'm lucky. I just don't have the energy or desire to write more. But I'm not the same when I don't write here! I'm seeing the light at the end of the first trimester tunnel and I'm praying I'll be back to myself soon.

 

6. Speaking of the first trimester, I've been so....WEIRD. I told Jimmy that I'd turned into an introvert. That I didn't really like people and that all I wanted to do was sleep. And he said... "You're turning into ME!" Hahahaha! I'd like old Stephanie back stat. This doesn't suit me!

 

7. I'm in the midst of planning our Spring Break. I'm looking at Paris/Normandy, Krakow, and Prague. I know that I'll never again in my life have Spring Break options like this. So I want to take advantage. Especially while its just the six of us.

 

8. I'm addicted to The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Some of it is seriously stupid humor. But what can I say, I'm not above that. HA!

 

9. I just ordered my very first Kikki K Planner. The pink one was on sale so I scooped it up. I have a feeling I'm going to be obsessed. I haven't had a proper planner since my Filofax was stolen and my nerdy organizer heart is so excited.

 

10. I have been a disaster at math my entire life. Like really, truly, pathetically BAD. Y'all...Harper's third grade math homework is so damn hard. What in the world would I do without Google? I honestly don't even know what half of it means. Are all of you never going to come back now that I've admitted the depths on my Math issues???

 

11. Harper is auditioning for Aladdin tomorrow and I'm so nervous for her. It's so nerve wracking watching your child, your heart make themselves vulnerable.  Don't you think so? I never get better at it.

 

12. I hate Italian food since I got pregnant. Despise. Pasta literally makes me retch. Pizza makes me gag. It's horrible! But I'm so grateful that there hasn't been morning sickness (I was SO sick with the other 3 pregnancies) that I'll take it.

 

13. I'm very homesick (America-sick?) lately. I love it here, but I miss the comforts of the USA a lot. I wish it wasn't so hard to get back home because I'd love a little visit right now. I need some Mexican food and a Target trip!

 

14. Whenever I tell people we aren't finding out the baby's gender they say WHY?? And I never know quite what to say. Ummm...because we want to be surprised? :)

 

15. I never know what to say for number 15. I feel like it needs to be interesting, and then I just get stuck. So I'll just say I'm done. Yes, I'm a cheater.

 

xoxo

S

 

15 Confessions on the 15th | January Edition

1. Yesterday a lady asked me for directions. In really, really rapid-fire Italian. I said "Piano! Sono Americana!"...which means slow the crap down, I'm an American!

And she was SO nice and I got so flummoxed that I just said "SiSiSiSiSi!" to her question. Even though I honestly had not a single dang idea what she was saying. I didn't understand a word of it. I just got flustered and couldn't stop saying SI! OMG.

 

2. I ran up a large hill with Jimmy the other day. It involved many stairs and I was a hot mess. HOT.MESS. I am so out of shape.

 

3. I watched the latest Parenthood the other day (how can it almost get OVER) and ugly cried my way through the entire damn thing. What is it about Parenthood and CRYING?

 

4. Just started season one of Parks and Recreation. Yes, I know I'm really behind but I'm super pumped.

 

5. I am so happy to be blogging more regularly. It feeds my soul. I know that this is cheesy, but it's true.

 

6. I talked about this recently on Instagram and it amazed me how many women could identify/commiserate. I have major hair loss and you can actually see my scalp in several places. I've had my blood checked and everything is fine. It's probably genetic. I've started a new regimen involving oils, this shampoo, biotin, this hair powder (it darkens the scalp), and this root volumizing foam.

I have plans to crop it soon. Short. I think that's my best bet. It's embarrasing and I worry about it, but it is what it is. I'm just trying to make the best of it.

 

7. I bite my fingernails. I have my entire life. I wish I didn't.

 

8. I'm posting this on the 16th. I won't even tell you how long it took me to write it.

 

9. I sneeze every time I pluck my eyebrows. Is this weird?

 

10. I was almost late for a meeting today because I couldn't stop reading. Seriously. I read the entire thing even though my hair was wet and drying rapidly. Even though I knew I needed to leave soon. I have the "just one more page!" syndrome. Do any of y'all suffer from this affliction too?

 

11. I break glasses constantly. It's really embarassing. I chalk it up to awkwardness and flailing limbs. At our New Year's Eve party my friend knocked over a champagne flute and instead of gracefully catching it I karate chopped it to the floor. Literally. I don't know what's wrong with me.

 

12. I am terrible at meal planning. I have the best of intentions but then I am too lazy for a big grocery store trip, or I forget the items I need, or I'm not home all day and forget to prep and run out of time to cook. It doesn't help that the food here is SO GOOD and fresh and healthy. Takeout for the win. Sigh.

 

13. It is 3 pm and I'm drinking a glass of prosecco. Judge if you must. It's ITALY dammit!

 

14. I hate doing laundry. I started the same three times yesterday because I left it too long in the washer and it almost mildewed. Again...what.is.wrong.with.me

 

15.If I'm not lying, but someone thinks I am...I completely panic. Instead of rationally stating my case I act like I am, indeed, lying. My voice gets VERY loud and high-pitched and I talk really, really fast. Jimmy is sitting next to me now and he'd like to add that I also make a really awkward face. Like I've smelled something stinky.

 

That is all. More proof that I am weird.

Now back to the prosecco.

xoxo

 

S

15 Confessions on the 15th | November Edition

1. I started two half layouts and the first page of an album in the past two weeks. I didn't finish any of them.

 

2. This time of year terrifies me. These are the days I want to savor most, yet they go the fastest. Where are the days, weeks, months going? They fly. I can't keep track. And I don't like it.

 

3. I'm at this weird creative standstill right now. I have so much I want to do. I want to do more with this blog (I've had big plans for so long), I want to grow it, offer some things - not all scrapbook related, leave Typepad, go to WordPress, and so much more. And I just don't have time. I see so many friends and women doing amazing creative things around me. Elise, for example. That girl is my hero. I love her vision, her tenacity, her creative drive, her everything. But I just don't have the time right now. Or I can't FIND the time. Will I ever? I don't know. But there's so much I want to do and share.

 

4. In many ways I'm the mom I hoped to be and in many I'm not. Luckily I think that the ways I'm not are the ways that don't really matter. But still. I'm not the mom that ever does my girls hair in cute ways. I imagined braids and bows. Nope, I'm a ponytail girl. If even that. Silly, yes. But still something I think about.

 

5. I just finished Season 1 of Transparent on Amazon. If I thought I loved Jeffrey Tambor from Arrested Development...I truly had no idea how amazing he was until this show. He breaks my heart.

 

6. At least once a day I "lose" my wallet. Every single time it's in my purse exactly where it's supposed to be. And every time I can't find it. And my purse isn't even that big. I start flapping my hand around like a maniac, digging frantically... and my heart starts pounding and then I find it. Right where it was the last time I used it. Sigh.

 

7. I write things on my left hand as reminders to myself. I realize this is a little weird but I've been doing it my entire life. I didn't even realize it might be weird until I caught myself doing it the other day and said to myself "Self- I don't think this is something normal people do!"

 

8. I put my coffee pot on the stove without coffee in it all.the.time. And I'm always so confused when only water comes out?!?!?!

 

9. I want to write a series of children's books about coping with deployments. I envision the books as a mom and her girls going on adventures and becoming stronger+better while daddy is gone.

 

10. Those packages I told you about last month? Haven't been mailed yet. But they are now in the back of my van and I guarantee I won't be talking about the post office on next month's 15 confessions on the 15th.

 

11. J and I are going through a phase where we are watching horror movies. So NOT my thing. I have a blanket over my head the entire time. We don't really ever watch them, so there are so many to choose from. The other night we watched The Descent. I won't even tell you how many times I screamed. Seriously scary.

 

12. My hair is so thin. It actually really scares me when I imagine what it will be like ten, twenty, thirty years from now. Do any of you have this problem? Is there anything I can do? I haven't ever had super thick hair but I lost a LOT with each baby and now it's so so so thin.

 

13. We have been in this apartment one year and four months and we are STILL putting things up on the wall. We just added this map (saved up for and ordered MANY months ago- it's just been in a corner) to the wall behind our couch. I LOVE it. We still have many blank walls and bare windows. That's what the military life does to you, ha!

 

14. We've been using Essential oils to try to combat all of the sickies that usually happen around here in the winter. Cate has already been on steroids two times this year for her asthma and I do not want another year like last year (she'd already been in the hospital once by now). I don't know if oils really work (to be honest, I'm not convinced) but I figure it can't hurt. She takes Flovent 2x a day, Albuterol as needed, and Cingulair every night. I worry about her a lot. So I've been using the diffuser and rubbing oils on her every night. We shall see.

 

15. I know that today isn't the fifteenth and this is technically "15 things on the 17th" but it took me two freaking days to write this post. HELP!

xoxo

 

15 Confessions on the 15th | October Edition

1. I am so over the diet portion of the Whole Life challenge. I'm struggling through but man, I'm uninspired.

 

2. I finally crave exercise every day. This is a VERY foreign feeling to me. But I'm grumpy if I don't fit a workout in. I love it but it's so weird!

 

3. I think I'm done with Scandal. The.way.they.all.talk.like.this. has officially driven me nuts.

 

4. I don't get manicures. Seriously. I've gotten once since I got married 11 years ago.

 

5. I've lived in Italy for over a year and I haven't visited Rome yet. We are planning to spend Christmas there, though, so this one will be remedied soon.

 

6. FB really brings out people's hidden racism, close-mindedness, and ugliness, doesn't it? I'm so discouraged over some things I read there today. Also- do people even verify news sources before they post stories as fact? It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

 

7. I got my first calluses from CrossFit! I was so excited I sent a friend a picture. She said I was funny, I think she meant weird. HA!

 

8. Every morning I set my alarm clock to get up an hour before the girls. Most mornings I hit snooze and actually get up at the same time as them. Which means that mornings are always chaotic.

 

9. Have you seen the Jimmy Fallon "EW!" sketches? This weekend (after listening to 'My Favorite Things' from the Sound of Music for the 29184082304th time) Jimmy taught the girls to say "Schnitzel with noodles? EW." And I can't.stop.laughing about it. Every time they say it I laugh until I cry.

 

10. I have the weakest arms ever. I mean honestly. No upper body strength. My arms are almost completely worthless. Like noodles. I did TWO pushups last weekend and was really excited. I am fairly certain that I will NEVEREVEREVER get a pull up. And I'm totally okay with that. I just won't ever be a hardcore CrossFitter. I'm like the worlds okay-est CFer ever.

 

11. I love rap. I have since I was about 14 years old. By far my favorite genre of music. I know all of the words to almost every rap song from the 90s.

 

12. Sometimes I completely tune the girls out and go into some weird mom zone/survival mode. And then they will ask me a question and I'll say something like "cool!!!" and Sadie will yell "THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE AS AN ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION!" uhhhh.

 

13. I have a major scar between my eyes. In college, in the parking lot outside of a bar, a boy threw me over his shoulder, trying to flirt, and dropped me right on the concrete. FROM HIS SHOULDERS. Yep. Cut all the way to the bone.

 

14. I go in my craft room at least twice a day and look at my stuff and then leave.

 

15. Today I was shopping and gave someone the side eye for getting too close to me. It was a mannequin. Then I started laughing so hard I snorted. I am stuck between praying no one witnessed this and really hoping someone did.

 

xoxo

 

13.