Our BIG News

In the beginning of May I announced on Facebook that we had an announcement but it would have to wait until more towards the end of the month. Well, here is what it is:

WE BROUGHT A HOUSE!!!

I am so happy about this big event in our lives! It feels so good that we can move on with our lives now. I mean...I know that there are still more things that can change our lives but with the house we will have enough room when we start having kids which is great!

The house is really cute! It's a five bedrooms, BIGGER kitchen, BIGGER dinning room, living room, 2 bathrooms, a master suite with it's own bathroom with 2 sinks. To top it off, the basement isn't all the way finish! So we can finish the way we want too. We can even add on another bedroom if needed. It's a two car garage but it seems small but always. Let's just say we knew we love it when we walked in the house. The only bad thing about it was the small backyard but to make it better there is a huge (and I mean HUGE) park down at the beginning of the street with 8 soccer fields and a small kids park.

We had some trouble with getting everything to get from one person to another one while we was in Italy during the middle of this but it worked!

Day 9 & 10 - Saying Good-bye to Italy And Getting Home

I had actually gotten to bed at 3:30 am in the morning and woke back up around 7 and then 8. I finally got Logan to get up a little after 8 too. We went downstairs and ate breakfast (the usually).  After breakfast we had to pack our stuff due to the fact that we had to be out by noon even though our flight isn’t until 7 pm tonight. We had hoped that they would let us stay until 3 but they were so busy with people coming today that we really needed to leave. We finished packing around 11. We had so much more stuff…probably due to the gifts that we got for family members. Since we had about 45 minutes, I decided to send a few emails out and read a little.

We were able to check out without any problems (that made us happy. We were afraid that they would want cash instead of a credit card to pay for the hotel). We then walked to the train station which was harder then I though with all our luggage. Reminder, don’t walk all your luggage to the train station which is about 15 minutes away from the hotel. We caught the train to Pisa Center and then to the airport stop. We than had to wait for couple hours before we could get on the flight.  

 Meanwhile, Logan and I got a snack (Gelato…I am really going to miss it) and dinner. I had grilled chicken (which it was pan fry-ed instead of grilled) and Logan got pasta and raw vegetables (after the fact that I comment on how he hasn’t really ate any this whole trip). Right after that we got checked in and soon was on our way to Rome.

When we got to Rome we saw that we got there a few minutes early so we looked around for about 15 minutes and by than it was time to boarded the airplane that headed to Paris. Let’s just say this flight had about 30 people on it…and it was so empty that I had a whole row to myself. We thought that it wasn't going to be this empty but than again it was really late and not a lot of people in the airport either. This flight went pretty fast for me. I was reading a really great book (which I finished and now need to get the second book of the series).

When we got close to Paris I looked outside of the window. It was so pretty. There where so many lights. The best part about this is that we got to see the Eiffel Tower! I really wish that we could of got a taxi and go see it in person but that would cost us an arm and a leg to get there and back. So instead we just went to the hotel and slept for about 5 1/2 hours. I would also like to say that the Paris airport makes Dallas, Texas airport tiny! It was that huge! Lucky there we sign every and I could understand some french (due to my major and an old friend that I don't talk to anymore). Anyways, to get to the hotel we needed to get a taxi. We found where the taxis were waiting but the thing was our taxi driver didn't know where our hotel was! I have never heard of a taxi driver not knowing where they need to go. I've never been so annoyed in my life and to top it off he tried to charge us extra due to the fact that he got lost! Logan and I was not happy at all.

After sleeping in Paris, we flew back to Salt Lake City and drove home. The next day we spent most of the night packing for our new home!

Day 7 - Lucca, Italy

We got up earlier today in order to make sure that we was able to be out by 9 or around than. Lucca is only a half day tour but it was better than not doing anything and staying in the room.

Anyways, it rained the whole day. My feet were soaked by the time we got to the train station which isn’t long at all. It also didn’t help that we didn’t really have an umbrella either. Logan’s feet weren’t really soaked until half way through us touring around. Also due to the rain, we weren’t able to take many pictures. It was kind of depressing because there were a lot of places that I would have loved to take a picture of.

Anyways, when we got to Lucca we were on the outside of the old city walls so we had to walk for a little bit to get to the old city where there was a lot of things to see. We didn’t get to see many of the cool things but we got to some pretty cool ones. The wall themselves are pretty cool as well. As we walked into the gate (which is called Saint Maria’s Gate) we saw this fountain that was pretty.  After that we walked down a street and arrived in one of the plazas. It was called “Plazza Napoleone”. There was this statue of a woman (which was clothed gratefully). The details on this statue were kind of funny. There were turtles in the pillars around the statue. Here is a picture below:

We then saw one of the cathedrals called “St. Michael Church” and the Square around it. There was a few museums in this area but they all cost money and we was really trying on not spending a whole lot of money. We did take a few pictures of the outside of this church. It was kind of pretty.

Another thing that we went and saw was called the Tower of Guinigi or Plazzo Guinigi. This tower is kind of like the Tower of Pisa but instead of having bells at the top, there were oak trees. I am not sure why they did trees instead of bells but it sure was pretty. We climbed the 130 stairs to the top (which by the way, I was holding onto the handrail with my dear life) and took some pictures of the view of Lucca. It was breathe-taking! I am hoping to make a panoramic picture with most of the pictures that I took up there. I also caught a picture of Logan looking out across the town. Logan and I both agree this was our favorite thing in Lucca to visit.

We visited more places than decided to eat lunch before it got too late. Logan really wanted pizza so we went to a pizza place. We both ordered a calzone (which means folded pizza) and this is what we got:

We both looked at each other and couldn’t believe how big they were. Logan was able to finish his off (of course) and I was only able to eat about a quarter of what there was. Logan later finished mine off but I still can’t believe that they are that big. And another weird detail is that they put the sauce on the top of the calzone too. We than headed out and visited more place and grabbed more gelato (I don’t think I will get enough of the ice cream here!). By this time I was just miserable and wanted to head back to the hotel because my feet started going raw. So we than decided to go back to the hotel for the night.

Day 6 - Conference Again and Tour of Pisa

Logan had part of today for the conference while the other part was for touring Pisa.

We walked about 20 minutes from the hotel to see the leaning tower of Pisa! It was so busy. There is a market place right before you go through the gate to get to the tower, cathedral, Baptistry and cemetery (along with many museums around them). Here are some pictures:

A map of the Plaza Duomo

From Left: Cemetery, cathedral and leaning tower

This is how busy it is most of the time in the plaza

Leaning Tower

from left: cathedral, baptistry, and cemetery

This is a picture of the inside of the cemetery

Outside of the cemetery

The cathedral

There was so much in this plaza to do. There was also a lot of gift shops with so many neat things. I just felt bad that we couldn't take more back with us than what we got for family. I will say this tho...I don't think I'll every go into another cathedral in Italy. This one had a glass coffin in it with a dead person in it (take note: the person was important to them) and than on the other side of the cathedral there was a skull in a small glass box. It creeps me out so  much! Don't get me wrong...dead body don't really scary me...its just the fact that it was on show-case for the whole world to see.

We decided not to go up the leaning tower because you had to get to the top and back down within 30 minutes. I did find it pretty cool how it was leaning. We went to all the museums too. It was so much fun. On the way, back Logan got a spicy chicken Doner Kebab and I got some gelato ice cream.

Day 5 of Trip - Conference Day for Logan

Well today isn't every eventful for me. I actually was in the hotel most of the day or walking around on the property of the hotel so I wasn't sitting the whole time. I also slept too...I really love the fact that there are huge curtains in our room which helps with keeping the light out during the day.

Most of the day, Logan was doing things for the conference. In the morning he had a breakfast to go to due to the fact that it talked to the people who was presenting and let them know some things before hand. Logan didn't like the breakfast that they had there beside the eggs (we think that the eggs that are served here are just liquid yolks...don't really have any taste to them). So he came back and had another breakfast here at the hotel (which mostly consist of most pastries here at this hotel).

Anyways, Logan has gotten back his reasons of his talk and everything was great. He was so worry about how it went. But the same thing happen with one of his finals and he wouldn't believe me that he will have a great grade until he got the results. It made him fell better.

More updates to come soon. And pictures...I promise.

Day 4 - Walking by the River Again

We only really didn't do anything on this day due to the fact that Logan had to practiced for his talk and I kept passing out due to the jet lag and not being able to sleep at night.

Even though we are here Logan still has a lot of work to do. It has mostly been with ISU but he also has to study for his new job because of the fact he still doesn't really know much about metals but than again he probably won't do that until we are on our long flight back to the US. Anyways, for the most of this day he practice and figured out what other talks that he wanted to go to.

When I was finally awake and we got ready and head for the grocery store. We were so hungry! Now remember we wasn't even going to get food from down stairs because we didn't really like it. So we head out and caught the bus for most of the way there and walk the other half. It was so packed when we got there. I think it was worst than Walmart! Anyways, we had to guess what to do and we was lucky that we did pretty ok besides the fact that you weigh your produces and get a sticker for them instead of using a number like we do. After we got everything that we needed, we had to wait in line for more than 30 minutes. We was also lucky that the lady as the check-out could speak English.

Afterwards we walked back on foot the whole way (about 50 minutes) due to the fact that the bus had stop working before we even checked out of the store. So we was lucky to walk besides the river again at night. It's so pretty walking that river. I just wish I had though of taking my camera to get a night view picture...maybe before leave we will go and get one.

Well, that's it about today. More updates to come really soon.

Day 1, 2 and 3 of Pisa Trip - Traveling to Pisa

Well, it's been a really busy schedule for us. We took two days to get here. It was so much fun.

Day 1 was on Thursday May 9th. We had a lot to do the day that we headed to the Airport Inn Hotel in Salt Lake City. I had to 1)finish packing everything, 2) go see Dr. Wheeler for my appointment, and 3) finish Daniel and Kala's wedding cake.

As for the packing, I had most of it done so I wasn't really worried about it. I had most of the clothes packed the night before and all that really needed to be put in the bags was hygiene. As for the wedding cake...that was a different story. I had gotten both layers buttercream and fondant on it but I still had a lot of details to do. And they were tiny deals. It was my first time using royal icing. I was so glad that it turned out and I was able to use it. Although, as I was doing the last step of the wedding, I noticed that the dust wasn't coloring like it was suppose to be. I had asked a lot of people about what dust to use and everything...I guess I was told the wrong one because it gave it a gray shimmer. I had to call up Daniel's mom, Karen because I didn't have Kala's phone number to get a hold of her about the cake. Lucky Karen kind of knew how we was short on hand for time and just asked me to take the royal icing off that had the dust on it and just redo those details.

As for the appointment with Dr. Wheeler...I am kind of surprised in a good way but not at all surprised about anything else. She had finally said to try the natural progesterone cream (that's what surprised us...only a tiny bit). What didn't surprise us at all was the fact that she had no clue why exactly we want to do it and what it can do for me. She is pretty much putting this in my hands for about 6 months and wants an update at the end of it. She also wants to put me back on Clomid after the cream...I don't know if I am very for this considering that it was making me so sick a few months ago. I also have to schedule another appointment to see her in about 6 months. I am just hoping that the progesterone cream works for me. I see a lot of the benefits of taking it but it's kind of sad that I and Logan can understand why this would work but not my doctor. I guess life is different for everyone in a way.

Day 2 was filled with flights. We ended up going to SLC airport around 8:45 am and waited for the first flight for a little under 2 hours.Than we jumped over to LA, California for about 80 minutes. The flight itself was about an hour and thirty minutes. During the 80 minutes, we had a 30 minute walk to the other side of the terminal, go thru security again and find lunch and postcards for our nieces. We was very lucky to get there about 10 minutes before we was called onto the plane. The flight time from LA, California to Amsterdam, Netherlands was about 10 hours. The funny part of the whole thing is that I only slept about 20 minutes at the most on this flight. Logan didn't get any sleep at all. He did try to towards the end of the flight but than the lights were turned on so he gave up on it. We wasn't bored at all during this jump. We had brought stuff to do and they had stuff to do too which was great! We landed in the Amsterdam, Netherlands at 9:05am. It was very green...probably due to all the rain and it was a little cold too. When we got off the plane we asked where our next gate was. But to our amazement we was told the wrong gate. It was the wrong gate but it had a flight for Pisa, Italy earlier than when we had to leave. We had a lay-over for 4 hours.Our final jump was from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Pisa, Italy. This one was a quick one too in a way. I read most of the way there but towards the end I felt asleep for about 10 minutes. When we got our bags, we went out front to find a bus/taxi to take us to the hotel. I don't think I really like Italian drivers...I was so scared with the way the guy was driving. I swear we almost got in an accident a few times. We got here at the hotel and got the room (which by the way is lovely) and felt asleep for about 2 hours. We went downstairs to eat dinner in the restaurant that was located in the hotel. It was such a disappointment. We can literally swear we will not go there again. After to dinner we came back upstairs to our room and fell sleep.

Day 3 was pretty bored for us in a way. We pretty much got up and ate breakfast and went back to sleep until about 2:30pm (that's pretty much how much jet lag we have).  Logan actually did paper work while I slept.  At that time we got up and got ready to Skype everyone for Mother's Day. Let's see, we (in Italy) talked to Amanda (in Denmark), Kate and Nathan (in California), Carolyn and Joseph (in Utah) and Barbara (in Idaho). We talked for about 2 hours and 25 minutes. It was amazing to have everyone on Skype. After talking to them we left to have Logan register for the conference and get some groceries for we can eat food.  With our luck, the grocery store was closed on Sunday, which is nice to see although it left us without food. So we walked all the way there to find that out. So we walked back to get on a bus but come to find out (again) the bus had stop working at 8:45 pm. So that meant that we needed to get back to the hotel by walking back. It was beautiful at night tho. I wished that I had brought a camera with me when we left but we thought it was going to be quick and wouldn't need it. On the way back, we stopped at a panini (sandwich) store and got dinner (I can pretty much tell you that I will need to do a quick 3 day juicing detox because of this trip...I feel like I've already gain all those pounds that I lost.). One of the weird parts of today was that Logan received a gift from the conference...it was a bottle of (from what I can see) good wine, olive oil, jam and a small bag of biscotti bread. I don't know if you guys found it as funny as we do. But we plan on taking the wine home and giving it to some family friends of mine. I'm betting that I will become their favorite...just kidding. ^-^ Another thing, Logan has this really fancy dinner that he has to go to on Wednesday night at Corsini Palance in Florence, Italy. Well, to come to find out...I didn't know that it was fancy...to the point that I needed a nice shirt to wear. So now we have to go find one either tomorrow and Wednesday before we leave.

That's pretty much it for these last 3 days. Unfortunately it was Korey's birthday, and I wasn't able to get him anything before we left. Also on the 14 is my niece's birthday, Natalie's, and we lucked out and found her something the night before we left.