siftingtheworld

Shells Shells Everywhere We Look Shells (Bella and Gwynnie)

andyandjaycie — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:42:33 +0000

The shells are really awesome here. You can find them everywhere. We even find snails inside the shells! When we find them with snails, we keep them as pets in cages outlined with rocks. We also name the snails. Right now we have: Hello Kitty/Kit-Kat, Snaily Bailey, and Hersey. Here is a picture of the snails that we have along with many other empty shells. Here is also a picture of our cage…

Bella’s first Italian field trip

andyandjaycie — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:56:54 +0000

I went on my first field trip on Monday. We went to the Genga caves. We took a really big bus and my whole class went. We got to explore an underground cave and it was kind of chilly in there. My parents let me take one of our cameras on the trip to take pictures, so I thought I would show you a few pictures from my trip!!

Here is a picture I took out the window on the way.

Here is a picture of the cave.

This is my principal / math teacher and my regular teacher. Not sure why she closed her eyes, though!

This is a picture of my entire class.

Here is a pretty flower I saw in the field.

This is a picture of the girls in my class.

You Gotta Know When To Fold ‘Em

andyandjaycie — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:09:01 +0000

Mirrors, that is. In many parts of Perugia, because of the intact medieval buildings and streets, there are some VERY narrow ways. So, when parking along a street it is often better to get into the habit of folding your mirrors in so that you don’t get them damaged or even completely removed! Sometimes to get through some of the tight-spots it is best to pull your mirrors in as you are driving. Then there are other times, though, where it just doesn’t matter and the side of your car is scraped.

Cooking Adventures part 1

andyandjaycie — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:07:33 +0000

Today starts the post of new ingredients. I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the interesting things I find to cook with around here. So, first up is cooking cream. Now, this is not cream like you are used to in the States. This cream can be found on the shelf, is pasturized at ultra high temperatures (U.H.T.) and is used in numerous pasta and sauces. Here is what it looks like…

It is called Panna da cucina and it means “cooking cream.” It comes in a paper box, you cut it to open it, and dump it in your sauce. Super easy and so far, the girls love it in everything I’ve used it in! Here is another view just for fun.

Shopping Carts

andyandjaycie — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:08:44 +0000

We have found a common theme among the shopping carts at different stores–the swiveling back wheels!…this is in addition to the swiveling front wheels (like in the U.S.). One good thing about these is that your turning and moving becomes more versatile. Whereas when the back wheels are set, sometimes you have to pick up the entire back of the cart in order to move out of the way. With these, you can simply roll the back-end over. Another neat aspect of these wheels is that when they are on an incline or a decline, the wheels lock and don’t roll (thus prevening a runaway cart)! One bad thing about the back wheels being able to swivel is when you are trying to push the cart forward… especially when there is significant weight in it. The back-end slides left and right like crazy! Maybe similar to a rear-wheel drive vehicle in snow.

One last interesting note regarding shopping carts is that you have to use a 50 cent, 1 euro, or 2 euro coin to use it. You get this back when you return the cart. We have yet to find a store that does not require this. This is similar to what ALDI does in the United States, except there you only need to use a quarter. In the below picture (showing the back swivel wheels), you can see the blue box on the handle, which is holding our 1 euro coin. A tired and rundown Bella is also included in the picture (from many weeks ago, though).

First days of school

andyandjaycie — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:29:06 +0000

Those of you that get our email updates know that Bella and Gwynnie started school this week! This was both an exciting time and completely terrifying for mom and dad. We went the day before to meet their teachers (maestra is the word for teacher), see their classrooms and check out the school. The night before, none of us got much sleep, but the girls were excited, not scared. They trudged to school like pros that morning and didn’t show the slightest bit of fear. They are brave girls!! Both of their teachers spent lots of time during the day trying to help them and show them the activities. Bella’s maestra wants her to focus on learning italian vocabulary words, because then she will be able to understand what they are doing in class. She came home with a list of words her first day that she needed to work on, so we spent the evening making flash cards and quizzing her. It’s good for mom and dad, too!! Gwynnie’s maestra just wants her to jump in and start doing what the class is doing. They are working on letter sounds right now, which is perfect for her, too.

Thank you for all your prayers these last few days. We were all unsure what to expect and nervous that even IF something went wrong, how would we talk to anyone about it??

Both girls have even found a few other little girls that seem to be trying to help them through the day, and that was one of our biggest prayers, that God would give them someone to care about them.

Here are a few pictures to enjoy!

The first one is Bella, just before being introduced to her classmates.

This one is Gwynnie meeting her class and maestra for the first time.

Family picture outside the school!

Happy Easter, Buona Pasqua from Bella, Gwynnie and Lucy!!

andyandjaycie — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:27:38 +0000

This was our first holiday since we moved and we were kinda sad to be away from all of our friends and family, but we made several new friends on Easter, too! And, they do something pretty cool for Easter morning for the kids here. Instead of Easter baskets, they have these huge chocolate eggs that are filled with goodies, presents, toys, etc… inside. They have different characters you can choose from, different kinds of chocolates and many different sizes. So, here are a few pictures of our eggs so you can see what we are talking about.

This is us smiling by our eggs

This is what they look like unwrapped.

This is how they look cracked open.

And these are the presents inside!!

Thoughts from Bella and Gwynnie

andyandjaycie — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:13:35 +0000

We wanted to share something with you. When we first got here, some of our friends had given us some food and we saw on the table a box that said “milk” or latte on it. We asked mommy and daddy why the milk was on the table and not in the fridge. So, we learned that here in Italy, there are 2 types of milk. The fresh milk, which is always in the fridge, and the boxed milk, which only goes in the fridge once you open it. We were NOT very excited to try it because it looked so different, but once we put it in the fridge and got it nice and cold we discovered that it tastes exactly like the milk from home that we were used to!! Now, we love it! And, mom says its actually a bit cheaper than milk in the States, so we guess that’s good. So, here are 2 pictures for you. One is of the milk as it comes and another is once its opened. Now we think that boxed milk is pretty cool!!

First TEAM meeting

andyandjaycie — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:37:12 +0000

Throughout the long process of support raising, there has been a team of people here in Italy that have been praying for us, arranging paperwork and doing everything they can to ensure that our arrival happened successfully. We had the privilege of finally meeting these coworkers this week and they were kind enough to move their meeting closer to us so that we could be a part of the event. We spent time in prayer over all the current church plants and then shared a meal together. It was great to put names with faces and get to hug people that had already done so much for us!! We are truly part of a great family here and we are thankful to have them.

First blog from Italy!!

andyandjaycie — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:39:15 +0000

We promised that we would try and share some of the different/interesting aspects to life in another country and here is your first one. We were searching through the cabinets in our apartment, trying to figure out what goes where when we stumbled upon this contraption.

This is a typical way for Italians to do the dishes and then put them in a rack to dry. It actually looks like a cabinet!! It has a drip try that catches the water and then if the drip tray gets too full, it overflows into the sink. Kinda genius if you ask me.