Another trip to the Amalfi Coast

Last week, we got to have Tiffany, one of my best friends from back home, stay with us! We had tons of fun, did lots of walking, and lots of catching up! It was a great visit, and she got to see Rome, Pompei, the Amalfi Coast, and a few local spots. It was great to have a friend visiting again, and we had fun showing her around. We even spent three days in Rome, shopping and sight-seeing. The weather cooperated for the most part, as there were only a couple of rainy days, and we had planned to be down on those days anyway.

We got lots of pictures of the Amalfi Coast again, and this time Neal got to come too, so we had loads of fun! We drove through Maiori, Amalfi, and Positano, but didn't make it to Sorrento. Neal and I are planning on hitting Sorrento on one of his days off soon.

On the pregnancy front, we are now at 18 weeks as of this past Monday - almost halfway! Wee P started making his/her presence known last week while Tiffany was here, and has not stopped since! Not a day goes by that I don't feel the bubbles of movement. S/he is especially active first thing in the morning and after I eat. But I joke that I must have swallowed a goldfish because it feels like I have one swimming around in my belly!

We've now had our third doctor's appointment, and everything is going smoothly! My blood pressure is excellent, the baby's heart rate is strong, and I've only gained a net of about 2 pounds overall, so we're right on track. Our next sonogram is next week, and we'll definitely post pictures from that one. We're very impatient to see our little one again, although we have finally decided that we're not going to find out the sex before the birth. We really look forward to finding out the day of the birth, and hearing the "It's a ... !" As so many have said, there are so few good surprises in life, and this is definitely one that we'll love! So bets are on now as to what we're having, weight, dates, etc. lol! Mom Carcello said knowing the genes on both sides, we could even take bets on hair color, as there's just no telling with brunettes, blondes, and redheads in the family!

Neal has this weekend off, so we'll be doing lots of playing in the garden! Janie's carrots finally came up this last week, so we can finally till it all up to start planting. We're already planning out what we want to grow, and how we're going to do it. At this point, we definitely want to do tomatoes, basil, peppers, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, onions, and some herbs. We'll definitely be busy, but it's so much fun! We also still have some cilantro and parsley in planters already growing strong, as well as some baby tomato slicers started and ready to transplant.

Anyway, here are some pictures from this last week:


Janie's carrots, ready to be cleaned, cut, and canned.


Sleepy Trajan, in his favorite place, sleeping beside Daddy as he works on school.


Springtime at the Spanish steps in Rome


Look what we saw on the way home from Rome! Neal almost lost it!


A little fruit stand on the Amalfi Coast


This is actually a restaurant that we ate at while driving around Amalfi



This was the view from lunch!


And on Tiff's side...


The baby bump, at 17 weeks, in Positano...


One of the local artists, painting on the beach of Positano



I'll post all of the pictures, and post the link later!

15 weeks and the belly's already expanding!

Updates abound!

I'm sure everyone's been waiting for some back-story here, since the last post came out of nowhere. Yes, we are pregnant. Wee P, as we're calling him/her temporarily, is due to make a debut around September 29th. It was a surprise, though a nice one. We were planning on waiting a couple of months, but as we've come to say, "God trumped us." We're super excited, as you can imagine, as are both families. This will be the first grand-baby on Neal's side, and the third on mine. Needless to say, this is going to be one spoiled child!

The pregnancy has gone very well thus far, and I can't complain at all. I only had a touch of nausea here and there, a little indigestion, and a few headaches. Nothing like what some women have, and I know how blessed I am. We're starting our 13th week today, which is the last of the first trimester. I'm already mostly over the little bit of morning sickness I've had, and though I still get tired easily, I'm feeling almost 100%.

We've seen our little one twice now. Our first doctor's appointment was on Valentine's Day, which is where we got to see and hear its little beating heart for the first time. The baby was barely over 1 centimeter long from head to bottom! We were both beyond ourselves, and Neal was nothing but grins. Our second appointment was just this last week, and though we weren't scheduled for another sonogram, it's still a little early to pick up the heartbeat without one, so they went ahead and did another. This time, we got to see our little one moving! And was it moving! The doctor had a hard time getting good pictures because of all the gyrations! At one point, we finally got a few good pictures, and Wee P decided to turn completely around away from us. I think s/he was done with being poked at that point. It was really neat to see though. S/he is now about 3 inches long. You could see the joints forming in between the bones, as well as the eyes and nose. The first picture we saw, an arm was up around the head, and you could see all the little bones inside the hand! Our next appointment will be at the end of April, and we have until then to decide if we want to know the sex, or if we want to be surprised.


This was the best picture from our last sonogram...



Sorry about leaving that last post for so long. I wanted to make sure we got the announcement on there before I left for the US again. That's right, I went back home to visit for a month, while poor Neal had to stay behind for work. He didn't like being a bachelor again, even temporarily, but he managed, and was extremely happy to have me back home again.

It was a great visit. I got to spend much more time with the families, and got to spend Stephen's birthday with him. I did some house-hunting while in Knoxville, but alas, the housing market there has unfortunately not come down from its bubble at all, and we decided against buying right now. I also researched Obstetricians while there, because it looks like I'm going to be moving back home to have the baby. We're concerned about driving around here, as well as several other safety factors, and are working on the process of getting me moved back to the US at some point this summer, so that I can be back home and around family to have the baby. Unfortunately, Neal will have to stay behind, but he will get 30 days of leave to be with me at the birth, and a couple weeks afterward.

Finally, we have a fourth addition to our family now: an eleven week-old beagle puppy named Trajan. I got him while I was visiting in Memphis, and he's been a great little guy. He's a beautiful puppy, and has a great personality. He's definitely full of energy, but is also very smart, playful, and loving. He loves to cuddle, and fits right into our family. We got him eleven days ago, and he's already learned to sit, knows "no" and "down" well, and is working on using the bathroom outside. Luckily, we have tile floors. He sleeps mostly through the night now, and is just adorable and fun in general. He's a great companion.

Unfortunately, his eyes got messed up, but here's little Trajan at home in Italy...



I believe that is all the updating that I needed to do. We love and miss you all, and hope everyone's doing well! We'll keep you updated!

...and baby makes three!

Meet our "wee P" ... making an arrival around the first of October!

We are alive, I promise!

(Back in Memphis, relaxing and loving being home again!)


I'm so sorry it's been forever since I updated the blog! We went home earlier this month, and it seemed like I got nothing done the entire month of December, leading up to our leaving. Since we got back, I've been having a hard time adjusting to the time change, and Neal's had a sinus infection, so needless to say, I've not really been able to update. But here goes!

We left for the US on Dec 28th, but hit a snag with our first flight. We got to the airport 45 minutes before the flight, but due to horrible Italian security, we got to the gate literally 2 minutes late, and the plane was already gone. Who knew leaving the house at 6am wouldn't give us time to catch a 10:45am flight?!? Travel is seriously interesting over here, that's for sure.

Fortunately, we were able to grab another flight to Amsterdam, but we weren't able to catch one from Amsterdam to the US until the next day, so we got an overnight vacation in Amsterdam. We thoroughly enjoyed the Dutch people; they are extremely pleasant, helpful, and almost everyone speaks English - a real plus after living in Italy. We ate dinner at an Argentinian steakhouse, then walked around the city center. We were also able to do some last-minute Christmas shopping for our families while we were there.

The next morning, we were able to catch another flight out to Memphis, and arrived around 6pm local time. We had belated Christmas dinner with the Phillips parents, and really enjoyed all the hugs and kisses and time together. We brought Mom and Dad P a couple of mugs and some chocolates from Amsterdam, as well as some of our canned tomatoes and dried basil from the garden, which was really fun!

Because we wanted to visit the Carcello family while Stephen and the girls were out of school, we left the next morning, and drove to Knoxville for the first half of the visit. We were so excited to see everyone again, and the hugs and kisses started all over again!

The first night we were there, we all exchanged gifts (the flight over was supposed to be our Christmas gift, but nobody sticks to that, including us!). Mama C loved her tomatoes and basil too, and we brought some blue and white wooden ornaments for the Carcello Christmas tree. We also were able to surprise Karen and Sarah big-time! Back in January of last year, before we left for Italy, they said that all they wanted from Europe were "some of those wooden shoes." We weren't sure at the time whether we'd ever get to Amsterdam, but we told them we'd try to get some by the time we moved back. Given our overnight trip there, we were able to find some adorably painted authentic shoes, and the girls were so excited! We had them close their eyes, and even Mom gasped when she saw them! They had completely forgotten about asking for them, and were walking around the house in them the entire time we were home (which we didn't think about Mom and Dad having wood floors - sorry guys!). Overall, they were definitely a hit.

While we were in Knoxville, which wasn't long enough at all, we also got to have New Years' Eve dinner with some of our college friends. We watched the UT bowl game on New Years' Day. And we went outlet shopping with Mom and the girls. Dad made his famous ribs on the grill, which were very quickly devoured. We finally got to see "Facing the Giants." And Karen and Sarah got to tell us all about the labrador puppy they're going to get! It was so nice to be back at home, and we really hated leaving again.

Back in Memphis, we had more shopping to do (there are tons of things we can't get over here, or are ridiculously expensive). We also got to just spend some time with the Herman and Peggy, which was nice. Daddy P took us out to eat one night at a local steakhouse, and we were served HUGE steaks! I also got to cook for Mama P one night while we were there (Chicken Marsala!), and we had a great time overall, though WAY too short!

Our trip back was not nearly as eventful, which was fine with us. After our flight into Rome, we still had a couple hours of train rides to get home. We got back just in time for Neal to get some dinner and get ready for work. Neither of us were ready to leave home again; it was much harder this time. But we're already planning our next trip home to be much longer and much more calm!

Unfortunately, as soon as we got back, Neal started having sinus problems. With being on nights, and the horrible sleep schedule that causes, it's really been kicking his tail. This past weekend he was coughing so much that he lost his voice. Luckily he seems to at least be feeling better, and with some rest of his voice, it seems to be (slowly) coming back. We're hoping that he can take the long weekend he has this week to rest and finish healing up.

Other than adjusting to getting back into our groove here, there's not much going on. It rained the first week or two after we got home, but it's been sunny now for a couple of days, and it's supposed to stay that way for the next week. Though it's recently been very windy, the temperature here is around 35-45 at night and 45-55 during the day, so we can't complain at all. Hopefully it will stay like this well into Spring.

Our baby garden grew by leaps and bounds while we were gone! The boxes really protected them from the elements, and they're doing really well! Unfortunately, so were the weeds, but I was able to get out there on one of the sunny days and tilled up the weeds, and babied the plants some. Here are some pictures:


The entire area, with our boxes open for some sun.


The box below has some parsley and chervil thriving well. The thyme is finally trying to peek out. There is basil as well, and I counted three sprigs today that are trying to break the surface. I'm afraid the oregano and mint that I also planted in here may be DOA's. The big bushy plant there right in the middle is a cilantro plant (I finally found cilantro for salsa!) that I keep in the box for the still cold nights. I have a second plant that I planted outside of the box just to see how it fares.

Behind the box, almost out of the picture, are three extra rows of carrots (on the right and center), and the one row on the left is more of the larger scallions. Those were extra seeds that wouldn't fit in the boxes, so I planted them outside to see if they survived. They're doing great, and are just growing a little slower than the box herbs/veggies. But that way, we'll have a second harvest of herbs/veggies.


The second box (below) contains two rows of carrots (on the right), as well as one row of two types of scallions! The bottom half contains the bigger scallions, which seem to be doing better, and the more sparse top half is the smaller ones we Americans are used to.

Back behind the box in the big square patch is where I threw the rest of the parsley seeds I had left, and they're doing very well! The row in the middle is another row of chervil. And the one small plant on the right is the second cilantro plant.


We're planning on getting some more tomato plants going soon (mid-February we'll be starting seeds), as well as some peas, bell peppers, squash, eggplant (maybe), and whatever else tickles our fancy. We're really looking forward to our garden this year, since we know how well the tomatoes did last year. We can't wait to start playing with it all. We're going to take pretty much the entire side of the yard here for a veggie/herb garden. Also, our landlords are letting us use some of the space behind the house for more tomatoes! We've already used most of our canned tomatoes, so we're looking to can even more next year. I'm going to be a busy bee this fall!

Last, but not least, we have some bulbs that we potted back in the fall that are starting to come up. We'll post more pictures as they start blooming.


I will try and update a little more often. We love you all and miss you dearly! Feel free to email us, or put comments on the page. We love hearing from everyone!

Italian driving rules...

Neal likes to joke that when it comes to driving in Italy, everyone is related to Mario Andretti. We joke about the driving here constantly because it really is laughable. Here is a satirical look at driving in Italy...


The rules of the road are as follows:

1. GET OUT OF MY WAY
2. Anyone can do anything at any given time
3. Those lines painted on the roads are purely cosmetic, there is no purpose for them whatsoever
4. The person who pulls the furthest into the intersection first has the right of way
5. There is no such thing as a crosswalk, the entire road is a viable option for crossing
6. You MUST go at least double the speed limit
7. You MUST slam on your brakes and come almost to a complete stop when Polizia are spotted
8. Seat belts are purely optional. In fact, children are not allowed to use them. They are required to be up and about the cabin of the car at all times, smiling and waving at other drivers.
9. It is illegal to have any less than 6 inches between you and the next car, this is reduced to 2 inches when stopped
10. While you must be 18 years old to drive a car, simply being able to breathe is the only requirement for driving a motorino
11. Helmets on motorinos are only fashion accessories, and need not be worn. It is highly unnecessary to wear anything more than a tee shirt, cut off shorts, and sandals for men; and a bathing suit, miniskirt, and heels for women.

More to come I'm sure!

Our First Thanksgiving (together)...

Neal and I thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day together. It was just the two of us, with loads of food, but it was nice and relaxing. We had a wonderful day, and we loved every minute of spending the holiday together this year. I really enjoyed the time we got alone, him helping me cook, sitting at the table and nibbling on what was left on our plates after we filled up, and enjoying a glass of wine and a game of cards together. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect, romantic, or special Thanksgiving.

I think we're both getting more and more anxious to get back home for a visit, as we were talking all day yesterday about what we want to do when we get there, things we want to take home with us, and what we can only get at home. We're both very weary of being so far away, and overly ready for a trip back home. This assignment will really test our patience, I think.

I was really happy for Neal to finally have a normal holiday. Given how many holidays he's missed out on from being deployed or working and not able to get home, I was so happy that this year, even though we’re not at home with family, we could at least have our own special dinner. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, as he’ll be working this weekend, but we were both so grateful for him being able to be home to have a special day, and for all the ways that God has blessed the two of us.

Here are some pictures from our dinner:

...Trying to reheat the casseroles that I made up on Wednesday, while keeping the turkey and mashed potatoes warm. Thank you Brian and Melanie for our casserole dishes! You can tell they've come in handy!

...I just had to set out my snowman dish that the Pritchard's gave us at my bridal shower in Memphis. It's adorable! I told Neal I needed something to put in it, and he said I would just have to make cookies to fill it, hahaha!

...the spread (turkey breast with stuffing, corn pudding, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and steamed broccoli), and the cook...



...Our desserts, Apple Crisp and Pumpkin pie (already a casualty)...


We love you all, and hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving!

Just having fun...

I found a link for some seasonal fun the other day, and thought that everyone would enjoy seeing this...http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9555628610 (P.S. Neal hates me now, lol!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

More garden pictures

Here are some more recent pictures of the garden and other stuff. Some of them were taken at night, so they're not all that great, but they're just so everyone gets an idea.


These are the cold frames that Neal made for us. We put carrots, onions, and various herbs in them, and still had enough seeds that we decided to plant them in the back half of the garden.


This was our way of labeling what we planted. We had a few pieces of wood left over and had to use something so we didn't walk all over the seeds.


Here's Neal fighting our new tiller. Luckily it's just a bitty little one instead of a monster one, but it was eagerly eating up that ground. It was jumping and bouncing all over the place at first because the ground was so hard, but once it softened up, we got some gorgeous dirt!


This was the ground, after we burned off the "grass" (read: weeds and rocks), and before we started tilling it.


This is for comparison. The far end was the area with the hardest ground, and in the foreground is the area that had been tilled once over.


My hunny doing the hard work for me!


Another view of the garden, and my guard duck!


My Guard Duck - we're still trying to come up with a name for him. (Neal doesn't like Howard)


We took this picture about two houses down the street. There was a gorgeous sunset the other night, but we had the hardest time getting good pictures. This one's even a bit blurry. But it's beautiful, and you get the idea.


The same night, this was the view from the back of the upper deck of the house. (There's actually snow on those mountains now, it literally happened over the course of about two nights.)


I was nice and didn't post the picture I took of Neal, but he got a serious giggle out of my choice of color coordination. I told him I was just trying to blend in here in Italy. Note the bright yellow garden shoes, lol!


Not much going on here. The weather's turned bitter cold, and it's been rainy for the past few days. We're waiting for the rain to stop, and for things to dry out a bit, so that we can till again and plant our fall bulbs. We're having a really quiet Thanksgiving this year, just the two of us. We're planning on getting a little turkey breast and making our own little feast.

We hope everyone's doing well, and enjoys the upcoming week with family, friends, and food! We love and miss you all, and can't wait to see everyone!

Pictures

Well, we've taken a few more pictures since the concert, and I've tried to upload them to Shutterfly, but didn't realize that I had a limit. So I'll be doing some rearranging of albums and such, and I'll let everyone know when I've finished putting them all up. For now, I'll post a few pictures of the cold frame that Neal made this past weekend. He's making another on his next day off. We've already put it in the garden, and I'll be doing some serious planting this week. We've already got seeds for lettuce, spinach, carrots, various herbs, and some Spring flowers. I'll be planting them throughout the winter to make sure we get several crops out of them. The flowers will be planted closer to February, then moved to another bed. We also bought a bag off 100 Spring bulbs that we're looking to plant in the bed where the impatiens used to live. We're going to try and find some stepping stones, then plant the bulbs around those.

This was the finished product before we moved it out to the garden.



In the garden, with the lid open.



From about halfway up the patch of yard on the side of the house. That's my little basil plant. The fencing is for the cats. We're going to just use the two cold frames during the winter, then use this whole area for tomatoes next year. We're working on another area on the other side that will be a little smaller. That's where we'll put the herbs and other summer veggies next year.



This is from July, just to show you that this is the little spot that we've widened, and are planning to put the stepping stones and bulbs in. I'll post a couple more updated pictures of this spot soon.



For right now, the only thing we have growing is my last basil plant (he's staying strong and thriving though), and the Wisteria tree that the landlady likes. If it were up to us, we'd remove it (Wisteria's not meant to climb a 2D wall, so it keeps growing out over the garden). But the landlady babies it, so we have to leave it.

Neal is back on nights now, and will be nocturnal for a few months again. But it works out well, as he's still busy taking classes. I'm back to working out daily, and Mikelauren is really doing a number on me! But it's all good. I'm running again, and I've actually gotten back to it even better than before the ankle sprain!

The weather is still really nice during the day. It's usually in the upper 50's to mid 60's during the day, and in the mid 40's at night, so very bearable. Most days are sunny and cloudless too, which I guess makes up for the late Winter/early Spring rainy days.

I'm in the process of making some curtains for the house windows, and will post pictures of the inside, as I've had requests numerous times (*hanging my head in shame*). Neal took a few this past weekend, so I'll take more and post them here soon too.

Enjoy the pictures!

Rome!

Hi everyone! We just wanted to upload a few pictures and update you all on our most recent trip to Rome! We had heard that Michael Buble was coming to Italy, and since we're both such huge fans, we decided to do an overnight trip to Rome to see him there as an anniversary get away. It was loads of fun! We got there Wednesday afternoon and checked into the hotel, which was about a block away from The Vatican. We then did a little shopping (mostly window shopping, Rome can be expensive!), and had dinner at a little cafe that we've eaten at before. It's quickly becoming a favorite, and it just happened to be right beside our hotel, and we didn't even know it!

The concert was at 9pm, and it was packed! Michael is definitely a favorite here in Italy. They play his music on the radio all the time, and the crowd was singing his songs (in English even!) throughout the night. It was a very fun concert. He is a great showman, and you can really tell that he enjoys himself on the stage. He has a great voice, and there was one point at the end that he cut all the music, put down his microphone, and belted out a few lines of the current song! We were both amazed that even with the not-so-great acoustics in the building, we were able to hear him crystal clear up in the "nose bleed" seats! Amazing!

The group that opened for him was called Naturally 7, an American a-capella band of seven guys who have gotten to be fairly popular here in Europe. They are described as a gospel, R&B, and pop "band" that has covered songs like "In the Air Tonight" and "Broken Wings." They are amazing, and even though neither of us are fans of the genre, we couldn't help but be amazed at the "beatbox" style of music they performed. Every sound was done by their mouths and/or bodies, and it was amazing.

Here's a teenie taste of Michael:




On Thursday, we went to Saint Peter's Basilica, took loads of pictures, ooh'd and aah'd and generally had a great time. We spent two hours in the basilica, and Neal, the resident shutterbug (and people thought I was bad), took almost 200 pictures! Of course, not all of them turned out, but he was very pleased with the ones that did, and I'll be uploading those very soon.


Neal at Saint Peter's Basilica...beside a massive marble "thingie" for a former Pope. A lot of the Popes were buried there, and there were these huge pieces all over! We just kept gawking at the massive amounts of gorgeous marble!


This is me before we left for the concert, in our hotel room. It was tiny (probably about 10x12, including the bathroom), but for one night, it worked fine. I even slept really well! And the bed didn't have a huge gap in the middle (Italians will put two twin beds together and call it a King)!


Neal is working this weekend, but we have been told about a store near Naples that we can get lumber at, so we have plans next week to go and get the materials to make a cold frame or two for the garden. We're planning next weekend for our stay at home/gardening weekend.

The weather was bitter cold last weekend, mainly because we had wind gusting up to 25 mph (I think Neal was wondering if he was back in Whidbey Island, lol!). It was around 45 at night and 55 during the days. But yesterday it perked back up, and we're back in the 60's again, so it's really pleasant.


P.S. This is what we saw from our back patio last weekend, in the middle of 25 mph winds!


A close-up:


The Italians like to burn everything: grass clippings, trash, and apparently the mountainside! Amazingly though, it ended up burning a complete circle, then going out as quickly as it started. We asked one of the ladies on base what the purpose of this was (we see random fires on the hills regularly, although not usually that big and close), and she said the shepherds burn all the dead brush and weeds from their pasture land to allow for new stuff in the Spring. Although it is technically illegal, they don't really police it (surprise!), and she said there's never been a problem with one getting out of hand! But with all of the wildfires in California right now, that was just a little bit of a nerve-wrecking sight to see when you walk out to get firewood from your back patio!


We did have fun with the colder weather over the weekend though:



I am back to working out now, so the warmer weather is definitely welcome now that I'm traveling to base daily as well. I have plans next week to start personal training with Mikelauren (the Navy wife I mentioned from Easter Mass), so I'm really going to be busting my rear end back into shape hopefully. The two months off from my ankle sprain were no fun, and I really missed it. Luckily, it seems I haven't lost too much stamina, as I've managed to run three times this week already, and I only had to limit myself because the physical therapist said to do so. Otherwise, I could've kept going, so that's encouraging. Mikelauren is going to help me with weight training, and I'm going to keep running too, so I should be a hot mama in no time! Just kidding, I've got a personal goal to meet by my birthday next year, so Mikelauren's going to be keeping me in line. She's good like that.

Neal has his biannual physical readiness training (PRT) next month, so he's been running again as well. He told me yesterday he ran it easily with only a minute to shave off his time, so I'm not concerned for him at all. I'm sure he'll do fine.

So that's what's going on in our little world! We love keeping up with everyone, and hope you all are doing great! We love you!

Minor update and pictures

I know I just updated, but I wanted to post some pictures now that Blogger is back and working. I still had tons of tomatoes left, so I talked to a couple of the Italian women who work on base, and they told me how best to can them for use later. So here are pictures of the process. Overall, I ended up with 15 cans of diced tomatoes, 4 (now 3) of sauce, and 2 of what I call "guts"(basically crushed tomatoes). So I think we're pretty good for the winter.

The tomatoes in the plastic bag were about half of what was originally in there. The ones that were already diced at this point were what I'd already taken out.


Even more, besides the ones in the bag. In all, over 25 pounds!


This was fresh basil that I'd just picked off our own plant. I put a few basil leaves, as well as some garlic in each of the jars with the tomatoes. So they are about 90% home-grown (the garlic wasn't ours).


The first batch, about to be sealed up and then boiled.


Doesn't that just look yum?!


This was the first batch, ready for boiling. The cans are about 24 ounces maybe, so we've definitely got plenty of tomatoes for chili, spaghetti sauce, salsa, marinara, pizza sauce, etc...


On another note, I had a couple of people ask how to post comments on the blog because they were having issues. I did some research and realized that when I set it up, Blogger automatically only allows fellow Blogger members to post comments. However, I've changed it now so that anyone can comment. I still moderate them, so they won't show up until I've approved them, but it emails me anytime someone comments, so it shouldn't take me long to get to them.

Thanks for looking!