New Year, New Site

Hey friends! 



I'm not going to do a Christmas, New Year, flew to the States recap or a 2010 recap.

Why not?

Frankly, because it's boring.  That and I have more exciting news.  My brother is hooking me up with a new website.  My very own .com place on the internet super highway. 

Update your readers and bookmarks.  The future is here.

www.nikkilooch.com is here.

Now, please be patient with me because the site is still under construction.  Whenever I update it, I'll let those with readers know.

The Ball

Can I be real with you folks for a minute?

When am I ever not real with you?  But that's besides the point.



I do not get excited about military functions.  Usually there's a lot of ma'ams and sirs and stand, sit, stand, salute.  I'm a down home kinda girl.  I'd much rather have everyone over for dinner than worry about if my dress is fancy enough or if I waited to let my husband introduce me in a receiving line rather than introducing myself.



I'm an army wife.  If I can take care of myself during deployments I can certainly introduce myself.  Duh.



But readers, I promised I would keep it real.  And the real truth of it is, I had a good time.  A really good time.

Since we're keeping it real I feel obligated to tell you: I also had 4 glasses of wine.

xo, nikki

Italia vs Fiji

Rugby is by far my favorite sport to watch.  Mostly because of those short shorts they wear and how manly they are.

I don't know about any of you other lady readers out there but I like a manly man.  The manlier the better.  Shew, give me a moment whilst I fan myself.



If you remember I went to see Italy vs Argentina in Verona a few weeks ago.  Last weekend we went to Modena (home of balsamic vinegar) to see team Italy vs Fiji.  It was a pretty amazing match.  Fiji does a haka dance before each match similar to the All Blacks.



We made a weekend of the match and stayed the night in Modena.  We were lucky enough to be staying in the actual same hotel as team Italy.  This monstrous fellow is Sergio Parisse, il capitano.  He makes me and my husband look like smurfs.



This is the BARBARIAN.  Castrogiovanni.  That's a serious last name for a serious player.  This guy was in a scrum one time and broke another person's collar bone.  He BREAKS BONES.  He was also really nice about posing for a picture with us.

Piles and Smiles

There's something different around here.



There are man things around.



Piles of man things.

I'm really happy about it.

My Favorite Veterans

I don't talk about being an Army wife or an Air Force brat a lot on this blog.  I'm not sure why because the former certainly affects my life in a gargantuan way.

My father served as a pilot in the United States Air Force for 20 years.  He retired when I was just a kid but you can tell he's a military man.  On clear days with blue skies he still says to me, "Today would be such a good day to fly."

My grandfather, who unfortunately I don't have any digital pictures of, served in the United States Army during World War II.  He fought in France along side his bother, my great uncle, who didn't make it home.  My father is named after this uncle.  My grandfather died when he was 87.

My husband is an officer in the United States Army.  He's currently serving a 12 month deployment in Afghanistan.

Side note: He's coming home so soon!  Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have the welcome home photos for you.  Squeal!

I wish I was close enough to one of my favorite vets to give them a squeeze today and say thank you in person.

Happy Veterans Day.

Vicenza Sotto'Aqua

It's been raining non-stop for 3 days straight.  I'm starting to understand a little how Noah must have felt on that ark of his.  I got off work yesterday because the post closed at 1200 due to flooding there.  I haven't left my house since Saturday.  It's a good thing I'm a homebody or I'd be going crazy.

As long as I have the internet I feel connected to the outside world.  This morning my internet was down for a few hours (probably because of all the rain, since I have satellite internet out here in the boonies) and I started pacing and panting and panicking and doing other outrageous things that start with P.  I'm plugged in now.  Whew.  If I wasn't I would have had to do something else like fold laundry or do schoolwork.

This post brought to you by the letter P!

**Update**
The flooding has gotten so bad they have closed the autostrada.  Post is still closed and I just ran out of sour cream and salsa.  How will I make my I'm-staying-home celebratory nachos?

Hello, November.

November is for NaNoWriMo.  It's for running as fast as I can for as long as I can.  November is for eating pumpkin in my morning oatmeal.  It's for studying hard.  November is for planning and praying about the future.  November is for husbands coming home.  November is for making chili and cornbread.  November is about doing things that are hard, but that are totally worth it.