I know it has been so so so long, about 2 months to be exact. I'm sorry, I have been putting this off for too long. These pics are random and not in order very well. There is so many it would take too much time.Conner had a great time in V.B.S. this summer, it was the rainforest v.b.s. at Maranatha. He had fun with lots of kids from Awanas and some from preschool.
We also had alot of fun at some friends from church house and had supper with them and also went swimming. They live right on the lake so Conner got to catch frogs with there little guy, they had lots of fun. Its a boy thing. :)
We have also spent lots of time at Shell lake beach, we love it there. My dad would take us there every Monday night, its our little get together with grandpa, since he is out trucking all week.
We also went to the fair this summer, not as much as we did last summer, but we went enough times. I got 4th place in everything except my strawberry jam, I got 2nd on. Yay! Also during the fair week we spent some time with cousins, Maria, Therese and David, we don't get to see much anymore. They live in Texas now. So we spent a nice little time with them one evening. We loved seeing them and see how much they have grown and changed. And I got to play dolls with Therese, which was really fun and something different then playing with bugs and guns.
Please remember to pray for their daddy, my cousin, who is serving over in Afghanistan.
We have been seeing alot of the policemen and there dogs this summer too. Which has been great, Conner loves them, he even got a pic with Robbie, the police dog.
So my big decision this summer was trying to decide if Conner should go back to preschool at First Lutheran or if I should just homeschool him. And after thinking, praying, thinking, praying, I decided to keep him at home. I have a few friends at church who homeschool and one of them let me borrow some preschool homeschooling books, which would be $180 if I had to buy them. So nice of her, she also gave us a tour of her homeschooling room, which was really cool, it is in her attic. Its amazing! So I got some ideas from her. She told me just to have fun with it and teach. Its just preschool, so its not algebra or anything crazy. I am just excited and think it will be fun to be the teacher. I am also planning on taking a college class online too.
So I have been trying to get in contact with someone who knows Librandi family in Italy to try to find out more info about my great grandpas family there. I have not had anyone know, but I have finally met someone who will help me and knows the Librandi family in Italy quite well. Her name is Carmela Tursi Hopkins. She has been on Kare 11 for her cooking, she has two cook books out and she travels to Italy to learn new things about cooking. She also teaches about cooking.
We have been talking via email and she invited me to meet her for lunch, so I found a babysitter and went. I am so glad I got to go, she is a very nice lady and knows quite a bit about Librandi family and their winery. She showed me pictures and told me about them. She also said she is related to Sara Falbo Coco, she is her cousin, which is my great grandmas cousin. Her family is from Des Moines, Iowa. Her brother owns the Latin King restraunt in Des Moines. She also said her grandpa and some other men left Iowa to work for the railroad in St. paul, which is the same thing my great grandpa did. Maybe they went together, not sure. So she has emailed Paolo, which is the only Librandi in Italy who speaks english, to see if he would know anything about my great grandpa or at least some family history. It would be very cool to know. Terravechia is a very beautiful place and I hope to one day visit their and see family. She said it could be awhile before he emails back, right now in Italy is the harvest time for the vineyard. Check out her blogs and website, she has some great cookbooks. carmiescucina.blogspot.com and http://carmiescucina.com/
Hopefully I will be able to update sooner than later next time. :)
