Buon giorno! Ciao! I landed in Italy yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, after being up for more than 24 hours straight. The travels all went great and I had no issues or delayed flights. Everything went as planned, thank goodness. I'm so grateful for a horizontal bed that I could sleep in last night and for a no-rush morning today. :) I'll recap the past week really quick, and then I have some photos to share of our new house that we'll be moving into very soon.  Last Wednesday, I took my niece, Mari, and her dog, Ducky Momo, to a grooming appointment. Ducky is 13+ years old now, and was in dire need of some pampering. His fur was pretty matted, unfortunately, so the groomer warned us that she would probably need to shave him down. The alternative would have been an extraordinary amount of combing through all the tangles with a small pick, which would have been very stressful for him.  Ducky Momo before . . .  And Ducky Momo after . . . Because of the frigid temperatures in E...

While the past week has been relatively quiet, I've enjoyed having numerous visits with family members in the area, which has helped me to pass the time. It still feels like I'm "in between" a busy period of life and another busy period coming up. Some days I am tackling several things from morning until evening, and other days I am just plain tired, so I don't do a whole lot on those days. I suppose it could also be the January Blahs that have kicked in. I am forcing myself to crank out this post right now, even though I am not very motivated to do so . . . ha ha. It is currently 13 degrees outside, with the bright blue sky beginning to fade to a light blue about an hour before sunset. As I went to bed last night, I was excited at the opportunity to "make a day of it" today while I'm stuck at home with no car to speak of. But as the day has slowly progressed, my motivation has slowly waned as well . . .  More on that in a minute . . . I want to give...