c'era una volta...

A year ago I was 37 weeks pregnant. I had lunch packed for work, I had workouts selected for the week, Netflix shows downloaded for any downtime. I did not have a carseat in my car, I did not have a bag packed for the hospital, and I had a list of things to get done over the next few weeks. Well, the bag got packed in a frenzy, the lunch went bad in my fridge, the Netflix shows expired, and my list went undone. Waking up because your water broke at midnight can throw a wrench in the best laid plans. Tonight I'm snuggling my baby for the last night of his first trip around the sun, letting him know just how wanted he was and how loved he is. The last year has changed so many things. I didn't know then that I wouldn't go back to that job. I didn't know then that keeping a human alive takes more than you feel capable of giving and rewards you in ways that are meaningful to nobody but you. I knew that my husband was thoughtful and helpful, and I should have known jus...

I was fairly certain that Spartacus was going to come before the 30 th . I figured he’d come some time after the 15 th . I had a plan to labor at home (or work, I guess) as long as possible, and once at the hospital use the birthing balls, walking, etc, eventually get an epidural, and have this baby. But I hadn’t written it out or even finished packing a bag, and that turned out to be okay because my birth plan wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Sunday the 9 th we had everything ready for work Monday—lunches packed, workout loaded on computer, and we went to bed. I woke up just after midnight, felt some wetness in spurts (not like the movies) and thought my water had broken, so we quickly finished packing and drove to the hospital. We got into triage around 1:15 am, and they confirmed that I was “grossly ruptured” and we would be having a baby one way or another in the next 24 hours. We were moved to labor and delivery—Spartacus had not dropped yet, and they were concerned th...

When Alex and I met, we were 18 and babies, and he said he wanted to be married for six years before kids. We’ll be two months short of that, but this baby has been in the plans for a long time, and in spite of silly things teenage boys say, we both wanted this to happen much sooner. (Alex wants me to clarify that we got married 4.5 years after we met, lest you think we are younger than we are) One of the earlier pictures, spring 2008, a year after we met. We did start out waiting. Realistically, I didn’t have health insurance that functioned in the state I lived in for the first few years we were married. We are both extremely stubborn and opinionated (and I realize that unless you have previously lived with me you may think Alex is the only opinionated one but…he’s not) and we needed to just be Alex and Liza. Ultimately, we both accomplished a lot in those first years we were married that we both needed to accomplish. I would never trade that. Somebody told me a few ye...

Thursday, Alex told me before going to bed that he was going to get up first thing in the morning to watch Tiger playing in Dubai. Like, right when the alarm went off (5 am) he'd jump out of bed and run downstairs to watch. So, we go to bed, and sometime in the night Alex starts talking to me, kisses my cheek, feels my forehead because he's worried I have a fever after kissing my cheek, talking the whole time. Gets out of bed, grabs his jeans and is walking around to the door when suddenly he looks down at his phone and says, "Wait, didn't the alarm just go off?" I said, "no." And he apologized and went back to sleep. A couple of other times he jumped up and grabbed the phone, and I told him to go away at one point. Come 5 am when the alarm went off, he did NOT jump right out of bed and watch Tiger. He took his sweet time. The best part is, I was still half asleep the first time he woke up, and didn't think anything was weird because it's fairly ...

So, I got a job. My very first full time job. Actually I've been at it for a while. This week is, in fact, my fifth week if you count my first two weeks of full time training. I am a billing specialist at a web hosting company. BlueHost. Except not really BlueHost because I am working for JustHost. It was really a cruel trick of them to play on me. Although not so cruel since I don't think I ever even applied for the job. I had no idea what the company was before they called me for an interview. (Thank goodness they emailed me something to do so I could google them and find out) So I went to my interview and didn't even know what job I was interviewing for. Yeah. I got the job. They liked me. They even miraculously gave me the perfect shifts --Monday through Friday 6am to 2:30pm. You can question my sanity, but we go to bed at 9 and get up at 5 and it works. Plus I have the whole afternoon to live my life and do things like write blogs and read books and other things. It...

So, Alex and I really like our new ward. We tried the family one for a couple of weeks but the strange Jerusalem high tech travelogue otherwise known as Sunday School was a bit too much for us. We decided instead upon the married student ward. It's great, it's on top of things, I had a visiting teaching assignment before we were even officially in the ward. But it's odd. A "married student ward" is an odd concept at times. Like, if you're not cuddly enough in Sacrament Meeting the member of the Stake Presidency might get up and tell everyone that they need to go home, look their spouse in the eyes, and tell them the reasons they love them. Or if you don't hold hands walking to or from the chapel, chances are people will give you funny looks. Unless you have a baby preventing you, which is likely. (Alex thought you got kicked out of these wards once you had kids...he was very wrong) We have a good time analyzing clothing styles. I complain about the fac...

So, I've been told that since I'm married I really need a blog. That and I haven't updated my blog since I came home from my mission in December. It's been a while. So, basically, I'm MARRIED!!! Here's the scoop: Alex and I met in early 2007, our freshman year at BYU. I was in the Cougareat one Friday after Music 101 with Alison and the boys from our ward who were also in Music 101, and our friend Tracy was sitting a few tables away with this really good-looking boy . Naturally, I was curious, and I walked over to find out who in the world this boy was. I sat at their table and talked to them for about five minutes and then it was time for people to head to class. Next run-in: Tracy was avoiding Alex's roommate who was coming to visit her during visiting hours and so I went with her to visit Alex, because obviously his roommate would never expect her to be there. Well, Alex had the book The Three Musketeers on his shelf. Which obviously meant he must...

Oh mamma, I don't even know what to write about, it's been a whole new week but I don't think I am capable yet of comprehending that this is the last day. Okay, so I am, but I still feel like everything is normal and that I'm going to be here forever except that everytime that I see people I make them cry. miiii I still hope that by some miracle the camera or at least the memory cards are still returned to me, but there are so many more important things that I just can't be sad about it forever. Luckily I have been blessed with lots of companions who take lots of pictures. By the way, that's really funny that Tommy is in Anziano Grigg's ward and has been forever. When I met Anz Grigg he said to ask Tommy if he knew his family because he lives in his mission, and I forgot to ever ask. Oops. So let's see what has happened this week... On Wednesday we went to the Vittoriano. WOW. It has a terrace, and you have to pay 7 euro to take the elevator up there...

Also, the Area Presidency asked us to share "spiritual success stories" with each other a few weeks ago. This is what I wrote. I have never seen a baptism. But I have seen so many miracles. I have seen so many people come so close and make so many changes in their lives that it is absolutely incredible. I have talked to hundreds of people on the street, I have gotten many phone numbers to call, I have taught many lessons, I have met the most beautiful people that exist. The Lord has given me so many opportunities to learn and to grow and to serve Him. Although I have never been present when a person I taught was baptized, I have seen a lot of success in my mission. One of the biggest spiritual successes I have had is in myself. When I began my mission I had no idea that I was capable of stopping a stranger on the street, telling them that I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and teaching them the Gospel. I had no idea I could take control of a lesson and keep it going on t...

Hello family! Well, heartbreak of the week so I can just get it over with...my camera got stolen on Sunday. And for some reason it had all of my memory cards in its case so there went everything. At least I assume it got stolen since it was no longer in my bag, although it was shoved in there pretty good and I never felt a thing and I always feel when somebody touches my bag. It was just weird. Anyway, I cried for about 3 hours straight and it's still extremely depressing but I can't do anything about it so I guess I just have to get over it. Don't ask me to see my pictures though, thank you. Oh dear. The rest of the week was pretty great. We went to the Galleria Borghese on Wednesday. It is incredible. Mamma mia, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was my favorite sculptor before and now he definitely is. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. All of the detail and all of the movement. Apollo chasing Dafne while she's turning into a tree and in only a second more he'll crash into her and sh...

Mamma mia che settimnana lunghissima...uou. So it's been another good one. We're definitely busy. I have a question for you--what is my homecoming talk on??? I have to write it before I get home because I don't think that even with going back in time a day that I'm going to do it the day I get back so somebody needs to let me know please. Thank you. So, let's see, Thursday was Thanksgiving, which of course is a day just like any other here in Italy--some of the people who use internet occasionally read that it was a holiday in the USA but they don't really know what that means. So in the morning we tried to go visit Rosanna, the woman who lives in the house that's more than 1000 years old but she never answered her phone so we just ended up doing some finding work. We also had to make a copy of the key to our water heater cabinet, because the one that was in there was ridiculously old and it broke. They didn't even have to make a copy, they just have t...

Mamma mia, che settimana! But can I please start with today, because today was way cool. Actually, I'll just say the CRAZIEST part of today. So, we were in the Vatican, looking at St. Peter's after having walked up the the cupola and stuff but I'll talk about that later. And I was taking a picture and somebody says "hi Sister" and I looked to see who it was expecting to see some member from the USA because we see them every p-day, and I looked and the face looked very familiar and she said "I'm Sister Beck." !!! Wow. What are the chances. And then she talked to me for a minute--her husband served a mission in Italy 40 years ago (and he speaks Italian VERY well still) and her son-in-law served in Milan about 15 years ago so they were visiting. So cool. She told me to tell my parents thank you for letting me come on a mission. So THANK YOU. What are the chances, going to the Vatican and meeting a general authority who's just on vacation. So awesom...

Hi! We're in an internet place that doesn't check documents...how weird and illegal. It's hidden in little streets and I'm writing on a laptop and my fingers are having such a hard time using it, it's so different. But more comfortable. However, typing is annoying, my rings are too big and they spin around and I'm actually kind of afraid of losing them from my fingers. Sigh...cosa posso fare [what can I do]? Well last Wednesday we went to the "Bone Church" really the Cappucin crypt or something, it's really quite fascinating. They had to move the crypt at some point so they just decided to use the bones to create these rooms of art and such--apparently the decorations made of bones are supposed to symbolize their hope in the resurrection. It was really quite fascinating, thousands of people's bodies were used for that thing, they had chandeliers made out of hipbones. Mamma mia, I don't know what they were thinking but it's pretty coo...

Hello! Well, what a week. Last P-day was way cool, we rented bikes for three hours and rode around and saw a whole bunch of things--la Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon (and unfortunately half of the facade is covered by scaffolding che triste), a couple of other fountains, piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, I don't know what else, but it was a lot of fun to zip around on the bikes and ring those annoying little bells at people so they'd jump out of the way. Luckily my collega only ALMOST got hit by a taxi. Fun fun fun. We had an appointment with Claudia in the evening, she is awesome, she understands a whole lot more than the average bear and she is interested in learning. Unfortunately she wasn't able to come to church this Sunday because she went to Padre Pio Puglia. HAHAHA. Oh dear. Thursday Anziano and Sorella Marcucci came over for Anziano Marcucci to fix our shower so it's actually like a real shower and has a curtain and everything che incredibile! And we were...

I really like this city. So last week for p-day we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. SO INCREDIBLE. Mamma mia, I'm so glad that I have a companion who wants to see everything, I think if I had one who just wanted to stay home and write letters I would die. Thankfully even though she's been in Rome for a while Sorella Zeller is willing to go everywhere. Don't worry, I'm going crazy on the photos. I figure I have not a lot of weeks left and I still have about 4 gb of scheda left so I'm going to just take pictures of everything. Don't worry, I'm taking a few of myself as well. But WOW this place is a dream. The Colosseum is fantastic, I am just so in awe at how it's built so perfectly and solidly and has been here forEVER, mado' it's amazing! An investigator told us the other day "we used to be able to build things that last thousands of years, now we build a palazzo and it crumbles in 10" Wednesday night we went to see a girl na...