can i go back?

A few days ago, I was all excited to blog about all the gorgeous places we visited the last couple weeks, so I stuck my disk in the computer to upload my pictures and I had 679 pictures...

So as you may have noticed that put a little damper on my blogging desire.  I really like taking pictures, but the narrowing down process is so tedious.  I have condensed them down to a much more manageable size.  If you can call 400 pictures manageable.  

I don't know if I can.  

But soon I will begin to share (only the highlights, not all 400 I promise!), because it was all so beautiful and I want you to see it.

I am thinking that this vacation calls for one of those coffee table books you can put together yourself from shutterfly.  (By the way, does anyone know the most user friendly of those kind of sites?)

This is a picture we snapped in Doges Square in the heart of Venice.  Those musicians setting up under the canopy, play until the early morning hours, and I don't know, maybe it's just for the tourists, but I was totally enamored.  

They had me at the yellow chairs and those gorgeous ruffly awnings. 

And do you see how the ground is all wet?  Since Venice is built on a bunch of tiny islands, when the tide comes in, the water actually seeps up through the seams between the marble tiles that the city is covered in.  Some places don't get any, some just get barely damp, but others get an inch or a few.  People carry around their wellies if they have to go some place when there will be "water."  Kind of crazy.

And now back to real life: we have been busy with appraisals, inspections, Halloween fun, everyone getting colds and/or the flu, finding a place to live, going to doctors appointments, dealing with insurance companies and car repair--while we were on our trip, a pick up truck ran a red light and hit the Land Rover with my mom and Ava inside (on Ava's side).  My parents didn't tell us since they were both okay and didn't want us to worry (whiplash for both and a sprained thumb for my mom) and it is impossible to describe how thankful I am that they were okay.  

I prayed and prayed before we left on our trip that our children would be protected and watched over while we were away (you know how overanxious I can be) and I felt total peace that everything would end up fine, but I did have a sense that something might happen while we were away.  So I look at our car and hear what happened in that car accident and am sure that those prayers were heard.

I have just been feeling so full of gratitude the last couple weeks (tis the season); so thankful that we were able to sell our home in this horrible housing market.  I feel like that is just a downright miracle!  And that we got to sell it to such a cute family that will take good care of it.  

We've also been busy trying to decide where we should live now that we've sold our home.  While we thought this would be a completely no brainer decision, it has been a surprisingly difficult one and we have had to do a lot of prayerful contemplation to decide where our family should be right now.  But I feel peace with our decision, even though our kids will be switching schools and we will be moving a little ways away from our beloved friends and neighbors.  So in summary, I am feeling very prayerful, very peaceful, and very thankful, but am missing those completely stress-free days in Italy.

More soon...

xxoo

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