John is in Italy.

It's his fourth trip to Europe (third without me) and this time he is visiting Germany, Italy, and Belgium.

Germany and Belgium he's been before, but never Italy.

He's in love.

(with the country, of course!)

He used to be all about Germany. Studied German in high school, thinks red cabbage sauerkraut is the finest thing to ever be fermented, etc, etc, and it was a life long dream to visit there. (That dream was realized two years ago.)

We've fantasized about moving there. For a year or two anyway. Not permanently. We were even teaching our kids German as part of FHE for a few weeks.

Italy was never even really thought about (as a place to live). England- absolutely. Belgium- why not? But Italy?

But in just 2 short days, he's hooked.

He actually said he'd rather move to Northern Italy than Germany right now.

He sends me pictures via text message every so often.

With comments like "wish you were here!"

and "our table, waiting for you"

and "the best pasta I have ever had!"

My texts back to him vary between feeling incredibly jealous he's over there and I'm stuck here dealing with kids and their messes and their fighting and arguing and whining, and trying to clean the house and pack and plan so I can drive the kids to Utah by myself next week,

details about my bout with the flu or whatever that bug was that had me puking all night,

and the mundane like "did you pay the cable bill?"

Aaah, what a glamorous life I lead.

Before I garner too much sympathy, he's gonna make it up to me though. He has another business trip planned for next month which I do get to accompany him! Not to Italy though. Mostly Germany with a little bit of Austria and Belgium thrown in for fun. He will have to work most of the time, and I will be on my own, wandering about the German countryside, but I think I can handle that.