UGH!

June 22, 2009

Jackelin’s family, the Ovalle family, is SO funny.   Last night Jackelin and I were just talking and I wanted to take a picture of us but she was like, “NO!  I don’t have any make-up on!”  

So I opened up my computer to the little photobooth program that I have and that can take funny pictures.

  Jackelin loved it so she called her brothers in and they all crowded around the computer making funny faces and they were laughing so hard that they called their mom over and then she laughed so hard and called her husband over so everyone was there taking pictures on my computer. 

We all laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes. 

This morning Jackelin had to go to work so I got ready to head over to Rachel’s.  Rachel Criscione is a friend that I met when I was serving in Torino.  She’s an American that’s married to an Italian man, Giovanni Criscione.  They are super super nice and are letting me stay with them for a couple of days.  They have a new baby girl named Charlotte who is the cutest thing ever!  So I took the metro and a bus over to the other side of town and found their house.  Rachel and I caught up for a bit and then she took me to a bridal store that’s near her house.  When we went in they thought that Rachel was the bride…maybe I look to young to them to get married since people here usually get married at an older age.  The lady took us into a big room that had lit up closets all along the walls with dresses in them.  

There weren’t all that many dresses but they were all very pretty.  She had me pick out the ones that I liked and then had me narrow it down to three that I wanted to try on.  Some of the styles were really different than what girls in the states wear but it was a nice to see different styles.  Every time I see a pretty dress I would go, “Ugh!”  I meant it as “Ah, this is so pretty.”  When I saw the one that I ended up liking the most I  said really emphatically, “UGH!!”  The lady helping us looked really offended and said, “Non ti piace?! (You don’t like it?)  Haha!  I had to explain to her that when I went, “ugh” I meant that I LOVED it and that it was disgustingly beautiful and awesome.  LOL!  I guess I’ve never thought about how weird that sounds until I had to explain it. 

It was fun trying on dresses with Rachel.  Afterwards we went over to her friend Amanda’s house.  Amanda is also an American girl who is married to an Italian.  They live in this villa/house type of thing that is about a hundred years old.  Amanda’s husband inherited it from his grandmother.  The house is four stories high with two bathrooms, three bedrooms, an office, a sitting room, kitchen, cellar, and about four other rooms that still haven’t been remodeled.  The house is really big and old styled!  

Amanda gave us a tour of the house and it was so interesting to see how a hundred year old Italian house was built.  It also has a pretty big back yard where she grows mint, basil, parsley, cranberries, and a bunch of pretty flowers.  

Amanda and her husband, Zeno, hang out with Rachel and Giovanni quite often so they’ve grown to be really good friends.  I think its so cute that they’re friends because they’re both the same: American wife with Italian husband. 

For dinner Rachel cooked a really yummy chicken with rice and then we had family home evening.  Giovanni gave the message on prayer and then we watched the movie Enchanted. 

I like it here.  Their house is really homey and there are pictures of Giovanni and Rachel at the temple around the house and their little girl Charlotte is so cute and smiley.  I like the spirit that is here.