Back from Italy!

I just got back from a last minute, unplanned trip to Italy! My parents have a gorgeous house in Tuscany, and my mom wrote me an e-mail inviting me to come and spend a week with her. Since I'm not working at the moment, I took the opportunity! It was great. We swam in the pool and read by the pool side...it was 36 degrees and sunny. In the evenings, we would go to a nice restaurant. The food in Italy is so good. They have the best ice cream and pasta...the pizza is great too. I think it's all in the cheese! The tomatoes, olive oil and vinegar are wonderful too. Everything is fresh over there. My mom took me to the Spa for the day...it was wonderful. We got a massage, and swam in the sulphur spring water. We had a beautiful view over Tuscany. My mom took pictures, I'll try to post them! It was a great little vacation. I wish Raph could have come too. He just started his new job position a couple of months ago, and doesn't have vacation till mid August. He's had a big year too, with two promotions, two moves...he travelled a lot as well. Basically, he'd like a quiet vacation at home this year. So, we'll probably stay in the area and go biking, maybe go camping for a few days. At the same time, it was nice to spend some time alone with my mom...it's rare that I get that chance. The week went by way too fast :0)

We're slowly getting settled into our new house. The boxes are unpacked now, but there's still some work left to do. The office and the baby room are still unfinished. The painting is done and the curtains are up, but the books need to be organised, and we still need to buy some things for the baby room. We don't have a changing table yet, or any clothing...we don't have any toys either. I'd like to get a play table and chairs as well. All in good time...
The kitchen still needs some work as well. We're renovating the kitchen this weekend. My brother is coming to help us. Raph took out all of the old tiles from the floor, and we bought a new counter top. This weekend, we're going to change the counter-top and put up the chandelier. During the week, two guys are going to come and lay down new tiles on our kitchen floor. It's going to be charcoal grey. I can't wait for our kitchen to be done...in the meantime, we can't use our dishwasher or our stove! In a week from now, our kitchen should be completely finished. Yay!

As far as the adoption process is concerned, I called our agency and changed our address and telephone number. They told me to call immigration as well, to update our information. It took me a couple of hours to make the phone calls, but now it's done, and everything is up to date. I'm sad that the psychologist who did our home study won't be following us anymore...he was great. Quick and efficient. He adopted a child himself, and knows what we're going through. He was always very straight-forward and to-the-point with us. We really appreciated this. He gave us some really great pointers. We'll have to find someone new over here!
On August 22nd, we have a picnic organised by our agency. Raph and I are really looking forward to it. It will be great opportunity to meet other couples going through the same process as us.

I'm actively looking for a job. I've been sending out my CV, and I've had two interviews. I'm on the bank of candidates to teach Civil servants through a government run program. They're willing to offer me training as well. They're looking more for someone for September, depending on enrollment. They want to start me off slowly, giving me some private contracts. So, I'm in their bank of teachers...now I just keep my fingers crossed that they call me soon with a contract! It could be a nice opportunity. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on looking...