Some pictures from my "romantic" getaway in Italy part deux

Here are some pictures to go with my last post about Italy trip deux...

Abby, pretty much my bff in Italy for two weeks

my freaked out and lost in Sacile Italy face lol

I didn't know at the time that Nicole would become my sister in law, but boy was I grateful to have her around!

We became fast friends over those few weeks!

I'm sure Ben Stiller was there.

(and now for your enjoyment...mi vacacione Italiano dramatico!)

With a year of teaching in Thailand under my belt, I spread my wings to fly home, but not before a fun detour. This would not be my first trip to Italy. Six months ago, in April I traveled to Italy to visit my brother, the Air Force guy. I was pleasantly surprised when I hit the jackpot with my brother’s amazing best friend and fellow Air Force guy. My dream (oh come on now, every girl's dream) come true…to travel to a foreign country and meet guy.

My handsome Air Force fella and I did our best to keep in contact when I went back to Thailand after spending three weeks getting to know each other, including many expensive text messages and a phone call every Sunday. I would set my alarm for around 2 a.m. to call him at 8 p.m. his time. We even made plans for my return trip in October on my way back to the states. Endless possibilities of Germany, Rome and Ireland, all the while drinking wine and dancing, two interests we both shared. What could be better than that? Easy answer: nothing. Ready to embark on another adventure, I practically skipped off the plane in Venice. Our reunion was like one you would see in a movie. Okay, not exactly, but in my head there was a slow-motion run set to cheesy music involved. What came next, however, was my punishment for attempting to make plans with a military man and allowing my head to disappear into the clouds of a travel romance.

He had scheduled leave for my entire visit, which would be about two weeks. Perfect right? However, a week prior to my arrival his leave was cancelled due to lack of able men to do his job. FUN surprise! “Our” vacation quickly turned to “my” vacation as our travel time would now be limited to weekends. Insert dramatic sigh here. No worries, I would be spending my days with his loving golden retriever and after work we would cook dinner, well he would cook dinner while I provided entertainment. Lucky for me I am QUITE the entertainer. The outlook still seemed pretty positive to me. I consider myself an optimist after all. I was not about to let this simple fact of him not having time off ruin our time together.


The week went by much as I expected, adding to the list a lot of time spent talking to his sweet dog, but at least we were getting to see one another. I became a bit stir crazy one afternoon and decided to walk from his country home into the nearby town, which was only about a mile away. A bike would have been peachy at this point, but who is complaining? Of course with my expert skills I immediately got lost as I have about as much sense of direction as I have cooking ability. The nervous, about-to-cry breaths were just starting to build in my chest when suddenly my phone rings. I look at the screen and breath a sigh of relief! "My hero! I exclaim as I pick up the call. Now kindly get in your car and come find me," (I'm sure I was polite at this point:) 
He replies with a surprising, " No can do." Confused I ask that he explain why he cannot pick me up. Another unpleasant surprise...he has received orders to Spain and is leaving for the airport, like now. 
"Yeah right you‘re funny, I’m lost...please come get me,” I counter sure that I am on a hidden camera show in Italy. Nope. No joke. He's leaving--for a week. WHAT THE WHAT?! About a million questions scream through my head as my hand trembles while holding the phone. Am I being punked right now? Don't I have a say? What about my holiday? Our romantic travels? So many unasked questions to go along with my tears of frustration, but instead I hang up and start wandering home, definite tears falling now. With a stroke of luck, my military guy passes me as I walk home despondently, pulls over and we exchange a quick I'm sorry, lean-through-window kiss and he’s gone. Just like that I'm left on the side of some Italian road wondering “is this what military life is? Constant disappointment? This blows.

So…to sum up, I’m alone again with no one to blame. Who can I call? Family right? That's what I'm thinking and immediately call home to vent, where I get nothing, but compassion and understanding just like I thought. Wrong again. What I DO get is a lot of, “but you’re in ITALY! Suck it up!” Man I heart my family. (insert a special shout-out to my big sister Sunshine) You all really know how to make a girl feel better. 


After a very s-l-o-w week with the best four-legged friend ever, who is awesome company even though she can't actually talk to me, I catch a break when my brother is also sent to Spain stranding his visiting girlfriend with me. A small victory for my romantic Italian getaway. Someone who CAN talk to me and make guitar hero work (something I could NOT figure out to save my life.) Just add technologically savvy to the list along with cooking and navigational skills. A few days turns into another week without the guys so we are forced to make our own entertainment, including hat fashion shows, free drinks in all three bars in town from old Italian men and...karaoke. Awwww…the wonderful romantic memories.

After two weeks of my “dream” getaway, (HA!) I am ecstatic when he returns. We have less than 24 hours until I depart, but we can finally spend them in the same country! Who knew that dating a military man would be so hard. Did I learn anything from this fantastic trip abroad? Nope, not really. I'm sure I would do it all again expecting a different result.

misty water-colored memories

So, I was looking through some of my college work, i.e. lesson plans, essays, final projects ecetera and found a few that I thought would be fun to share...

I wrote this poem as a final for an English class at the end of my freshman year in college.

                                             Courage To Move On

I see his picture upon my wall

Staring back as if nothing’s changed at all.

But I know in my heart things are not the same

And I can’t help but feel I bear some of the blame.

The touch of his arm wrapped around my waist

Brought comfort and love with every embrace.

Each kiss, like the first, full of passion and desire

No one ever thought they could put out this fire.

I try to move on placing his face in my past

But four years of memories and feelings are hard to lay rest.

I keep wishing and hoping he’ll show up one day

Take me in his arms and feel sorry for his mistake.

My mother keeps saying don’t worry you’ll see

You have nothing to worry if you’re meant to be.

So with new courage and strength I find deep in myself

I clear off the walls and redo my shelves.

Hi-ho, hi-ho it's up to the mountain we go!

Last weekend, I was invited up to the mountain to snowboard for the day with my brother in law Chris, my nieces Addy and Livy, an awesome kiwi gal Chris works with named Kylie, and family friends Brandon and Alexis.  Our initial "plan" (I use air quotes because the Buzos rarely plan out something so extensively as they did this trip lol). I'm talking sandwiches and snacks PRE-MADE the night before! Chris and Sunny get a major kudos for this master planning:) The plan was to meet at the Buzo's casa at 6:45 a.m. and be up at the mountain in time to put the kiddos in a lesson at around 9:00 so the adults could get some quality time on the slopes! Sounds amazing right?

Well about 15 minutes before I'm about to leave the house I get a call from Mr. Buzo. Bad news bears. Livy has been up all night with the major sickies and thus my nieces are no longer accompanying us to the mountain. Oh and also, we are not leaving until 8:00 now. Frick on a stick! I'm totally bummed the girls are not going AND that I'm up and ready at 6:30 a.m! Asa, Brandon's son, was going to spend the day with auntie Sunshine, but guess that can't happen now that the girls are all sicky so they are out for the day too. The small positive note is that Chris, Kylie and myself now have the entire day to hit the slopes!

We made amazing time up the mountain, however, none of us bothered to check the weather before hand and as we're getting geared up by the car it starts snowing cats and dogs. Does this saying work for snow as well as rain? Anyhow, it was quite the blizzard made worse by the continuing gusts of sharp wind. Can wind BE sharp? Well it FELT sharp on my unprotected face! The snow, on the other hand, was glorious!! I'm talking about thick, white, powdery goodness! If the wind could have just let up a teeny bit I would have been in my snowboarding heaven! But no. Did I mention I also don't believe in wearing goggles? I have fogging up issues and I tend to become majorly frustrated when I can't see as I'm flying down the mountain. FYI, this is something I took major flack for ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY! Kylie and Chris were constantly asking if I was ok, genuine concern for my open, wind-wacked face lol. I even tried wearing Chris' sunglasses for a bit, but AGAIN with the fogging up!! WHAT THE WHAT?! So annoying! Strangers would sit next to me on the lifts or ask me in line as we waited, "where are your goggles? "How are you up here in this weather without goggles?" Everytime I answered with a, "uh, I don't actually know." Real great answer huh? Makes me look like a first time boarder and a complete LOSER lol. Instead, I squinted and went for it each time, real hardcore like. My speed was severly hindered due to the fact that I'd have to slow up everytime I got going too fast...I can only handle so much snow in my eyes!! I also haven't quite figured out boading off the trails. In places where the snow was too powdery I got stuck and soon there after oober frustrated!

We took an intermission, so to speak, around 11:30 to grab something warm to drink and thaw out. The lodge up at Timberline is one of my favorite places:) So warm and cozy! Boy oh boy did we need that thaw out! LOL each of our faces was quite rosey and red! We ended up boarding for another hour or two, Kylie and Chris lasted longer than I did. I drove down the mountain to pick them up after they took the trail connecting Timberline to Government Camp. I've never been so grateful for pre-made snacks! Thanks sis! We also made a stop at the brewery at the bottom of the hill for a few yummy brews. Mine tasted like coffee and chocolate:)

All in all, even though the weather wasn't perfect it was a day well spent on the mountain! I may have to resign to getting a pair of decent goggles for those surprise weather days and to save face in front of all the other boarders lol. Thanks mother nature for showing me who actually IS the boss of me!

3 things...

Because you never need a reason to share! 

Three things that scare me:
1. large, jumping spiders
2. bungee jumping
3. needles
Three people who make me laugh:
1. Alicia
2. Caleb
3. Kevbo
Three Things I love:
1. a great book
2. vanilla lattes
3. cuddling 
Three Things I hate:
1. ignorant people 
2. unnecessary busy work 
3. being lied to
Three things I don't understand:
1. geometry 
2. men
3. why our students are forced to take so many tests
Three things on my desk:
1. picture of the beagles!
2. pen flowers from Lacey:)
3. lesson plan book
Three things I'm doing right now:
1. listening to Falcon's bell as she runs around my room lol 
2. thinking about what I'm going to eat for lunch...
3. sitting criss-cross applesauce on my bed
Three things I want to do before I die:
1. make a difference
2. become fluent in another language
3. have a family
Three things I can do:
1. tap dance
2. teach junior high kids:)
3. live on my own in a foreign country
Three ways to describe my personality:
1. enthusiastic
2. passionate
3. determined
Three things I can't do:
1. diet (I refuse to give up eating what I want:)
2. put up with closemindedness
3. juggle

what ARE you waiting for??

Lately I feel like all I do is wait. I wait for my alarm to go off in the morning, I wait for the gym to be open, I wait for people to call/text/show up, I wait for Mr. right and the perfect teaching job. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Turns out..waiting is exhausting.

I wish that the "waiting game" was more like hide and seek. Atleast when you're waiting to be found in hide and seek you get to find a secret, cool hiding spot and there is giggling and nervous butterflies in your tummy. Now THAT is a good kind of waiting game.

I think from now on I'm going to turn the waiting around that inevitably I must do daily into a game. So if you happen to see me hiding in a wicked good spot please just give me a thumbs up and be on your way!

If your name was Edward Cullen, I'd gladly let you take my blood!

This week as been deemed by yours truly as the official "scare the BEJESUS out of Rachael ever wanting to have kids" week. After one too many frightening birth stories at the gym and today having to give blood, there is just no way I'm even close to ready to have kids.


Let me add that I have had an intense fear of needles drawing my blood since I can remember. It used to be all needles, but after countless shots and vaccinations over the course of my life I'm kind of immune (pun intended hehe). I've given blood one other time in my life back in high school and I was quite a mess. I'm talking tears, shakes, sweaty palms, pleading, and spastic breathing to name a few. Let's just say I'm glad the nurses were so patient with me. I also have a weird thing about the inside of my elbow, which makes the whole process even better. No touching my inner elbow or even yours in my presence lol, I do not enjoy!


SO...now that I have insurance again (WHOOOHOOO!) I was at the doctor getting my 10 year physical and it came to be that time when the nurse takes me to the special "blood sucking" room. Not as good as it sounds fellow Twilight fans, I was expecting to see Edward too! Bummer, no dice:( Instead I got to sit on a papered bench with my arms palms up on a pillow, my inner elbows just taunting me, and prepare myself NOT to freak out. I gave the nurse STRICT instructions to not tell me what she was doing and to instead tell me a story. Yep, that's right, I asked the nurse to tell me a story to distract me. She proceeded to tell me about her grandson and I even participated in the conversation for a bit until she said the most awful words ever..."Sorry, I didn't get it." Wait, WHAT?! Cheese and Rice!! This chick is serious! No vein on the right arm was willing to participate. Time to try the left. The tears just would not stay back at this revelation. Can you picture me yet? Sad, crying, little Rachael. Ok fine, 27-year-old Rachael. Staring at the wall and having meaningless conversation with a stranger for about two minutes. To be fair, it felt like much longer!


In the end, no sticker or lollypop, but I did get hugs and sympathy from the folks!