One month and counting!!!

It's officially ONE MONTH before our departure!!!  It's so exciting, but it's also making me a little nervous.  I just want everything to go smoothly and it's killing me that I can't plan every little thing.  On the other hand, I am pretty laid back and can "go with the flow."  And, Brett definitely keeps me grounded and allows me to bring out the "relaxed" Adrian.  So, bless him for that.  Let's see, what has happened recently?

I ordered Euros and Great Britain Pounds through Bank of America online and they were delivered to our local bank on Thursday.  I picked them up on Friday and it feels nice to have that in advance.  We will still need to take out some extra when we get there, but hopefully not often.  We will have an international surcharge on all transactions, so having some currency before departure is nice and avoids some unnecessary charges.

I have been communicating with Rome Shuttle Limousine about getting a taxi ride to and from the airport in Rome.  The website quotes a price of 35 euros per ride, but the email they sent me said 40 euros.  So, I asked them if I could get the 35 euro rate and I haven't heard back from them.  Hopefully, it's just because it is the weekend and the office staff is not in.  I hope I didn't make them angry!!!  We'll see soon, I guess.

It's just down to the little things now.  I need to start working on specific clothing and items to pack.  I've started an informal list, but I need to narrow things down a little and think about the packing situation.  We're going to Amarillo next weekend to see Brett's family and to celebrate his neice, Emma's, 4th brithday.  It will be the last time we see all of them before our trip.  Otherwise, just getting little things like make up and hair dryers purchased.  Hope you all have a great week!

Itenerary

So, I've started working on our official trip itenerary and it's coming along nicely. Now that we have all of the big items planned (flights, hotels, etc.), I feel like we can start to hammer out the details. This is really getting down to the nitty-gritty of details, details, details.

So, if you want to see what we have planned thus far, you can go here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcb5b7z2_0dmsk5ncq

I am also starting a mental list of clothing and pretty much everything that needs to be packed. I need to put this into a list soon too, so I'll be working on that. I have been trying to decide what shoes to take. It is going to be VERY important to have comfortable shoes that I can wear for several hours per day without blisters. I expect that my feet will ache from all of the walking, but I don't want any unnecessary issues.

I only want to take two pairs. Definitely one pair of tennis shoes and one pair of causal flats. I got these for Christmas thinking that they were going to be a for-sure choice for the trip. However, they are not as comfortable as I had hoped. And, they're a little heavy. I just really loved the neutral color:

http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/28213749/c/146207.html

These are the "casual" tennis shoes I recently ordered. I think the neutral colors will be great. I have read in several instances that you will "stick out like a sore thumb" in Europe with white tennis shoes. So, here's what I've been breaking in that I'm pretty sure will be going:

http://www.dsw.com/dsw_shoes/catalog/product.jsp?productRef=CROSS%3A&category=&prodId=173690&brand=300255

Last but not least, I picked these up for about $20 at TJ Maxx one day thinking they would be good for casual days at work and occasional Saturdays. However, they have proved to be quite comfortable. Although I have not walked all day in them, my feet feel fairly good after a full day at work, so they are in the running:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.footwearetc.com/footwear/items/WomensShoes-PrivoPrivobyClarksHop2BlackMesh_medium_image1_11144.gif&imgrefurl=http://shoes.footwearetc.com/footwear/Hop&usg=__ZG5TDhnh_sxj-ZzKpjRxq4a-jgA=&h=125&w=125&sz=6&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=NGLGgJdu9iKSrM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dprivo%2Bpenny%2Bshoes%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

That's all for now. Only 32 days until departure!!!!!

Tornadoes and Thunderstorms

As you might have heard, Oklahoma City was hit pretty hard by hail, rain and tornadoes today. We're all fine. We had some tennisball-sized hail in the yard and a our back and front yards were full of water. We don't know if the hail damaged our roof or not, but all windows are intact. There were some homes in Edmond on Oak Tree golf course that were pretty much completely distroyed. So, we are very lucky. I just wanted to give you all an update on our status!

Folding Envelopes

Brett's mesh cubes came in this week and I also ordered some "folding envelopes" from Magellans.  They allow you to fold your shirts, pants and dresses into a uniform size and keeps them together in a convenient envelope. I bought one for both of us. I think Brett will benefit the most considering all of his polo-style shirts that I'm sure he'll be taking. You can see from my attached photos how handy these will be for us! Anything that can help keep our packing and unpacking time to a minimum is AWESOME.  You can see here how small the envelope is compared to my 4 t-shirts:

Here's the instructions and an example of how to fold the shirts using the handy-dandy plastic guide:

After folding the shirts around the plastic guide, they are all the same size.  Then, you just stack them in the middle of the envelope and fold the 4 sides up around the items. Lastly, you secure with the velcro.

Perfecto!  (Excellent in English) I think these are going to be great!  It will keep all of our items separated into small groups.  This way, we can abstain from stringing every individual item out of our bags looking for one specific thing...YAY!!!

Another thing I am currently working on his how to get from the airport in Rome to our apartment. We will obviously have our luggage and basically have 2 options.

1. We can take the "Leonardo Express" from the aiport to the central train station (a.k.a. Termini) for about 9.5 euros = $12 US dollars per person. From there, we will take a metro (subway) ride to about 3 blocks from the apartment for about $1.30 per person.
   


2. We can take a taxi directly to our apartment for about 35 euros = $45.

Why would we take the taxi for $45 when we could go the other way for about $27? Well, they main concern is safety. Although Rome is a considerably safe place, pickpockets are rampant at the Termini station. This would not normally concern me because Brett and I are both usually aware of our surroundings. However, we will have our luggage, which is not as easy to keep an eye on as a purse or small bag. Surprisingly, Brett thinks taking the taxi is a good idea (surprising b/c he's pretty frugile), so I just need to make sure we make the right decision. I'll keep you updated on our taxi vs. metro delimma.

Side note: What's up with criminals???? Why do they have to mess with everything? This would be a no-brainer if we didn't have to worry about pickpockets. ughh....

Just for fun: Here are my abandoned pics for this post...there seems to be a recurring reason why these photos didn't make the cut...lol...I LOVE my dog!!!