The semester after Micah and I were married, some of my friends in the Italian program asked me, “Com’è la vita da Fleming?” or “How is life as a Fleming?” La vita è bella, and we want to share the beauty of our lives with you by blogging! I won’t give too long of an introduction to us, because those of you that are likely to read our blog already know the basics. I am originally from Salt Lake and Micah is from Maryland. However, I also lived in Kensington, MD for 6 years growing up and had so many fond memories of Maryland that I hoped to marry a Marylander. I wasn’t sure how I would ever find a Maryland boy living in Utah, so I eventually had to meet him midway between the two states in Indiana where we were both graduate students at Indiana University. On December 30th we were married in the Salt Lake temple. Last semester, we lived in Bloomington IN, one building over from the apartment I lived in during my first year at IU (#666). I finished my course work for my master’s in Italian literature while Micah completed his second year of his master’s in music education. We love Bloomington, and it was fun to be closer to the Galli cousins as well as Micah’s family, and to receive a visit from Papa and Janel (see picture of them drinking old fashioned soda in Nashville, IN). However, I’ve missed the mountains. Micah had reminded me several times how he’d never been to the desert, and I had been anxious to show him what the Wild West is all about. When Micah asked me if that plentiful bluish plant we were driving past in Wyoming was sagebrush, I knew he hadn’t been pulling my leg that the desert was a foreign world to him. He was quite disappointed when I saw a tumbleweed pass us and he didn’t catch it. He said, “I thought those were just in the movies!” While we never came across any in motion, we did find a few stationary tumbleweeds and Micah was able to experience them firsthand. My parents were more than happy to introduce Micah to our “backyard” (see Dad explaining backyard above) so as soon as we moved to Salt Lake to teach for the summer, we took a trip to southern Utah. We hiked around Zions and Bryce National Parks together with Mom, Dad, and Laurel, and then Mom and I went home so I could begin teaching reading classes while Dad and Micah continued on to Escalante and Capitol Reef National Park. Now we’re enjoying summer with the Galli family. Highlights include attending a Real soccer team game against Toronto with a beautiful sunset, going to a Buzz baseball game, Micah getting certified in Suzuki at the Suzuki Institute, and next week we’re headed to the cabin for the 4th of July weekend. Mostly, it just feels good to be back with the family in Salt Lake, including grandma and grandpa next door and the cousins. I’ve missed eating dinners on the deck and singing camp songs on long car rides. That's the Reader's Digest version of what we've been up to since December. Now here we are, approaching our six month anniversary; that’s just how bella our vita is!
