Last year, I made a New Years Resolution to start a family blog.  So far, it’s worked out pretty good and I’ve been happy with it.  Really happy.  However, these past few weeks, I’ve finally started to get my mind back into working order.  My desk is organized.  The house is somewhat under control.  The baby is teething and cranky yet becoming more active which means more time sleeping.  Things seem to be coming together.  I feel like I can start up again on my Italian lessons and job hunting.  I’ve put both on the back burner for too long.  The Italian is coming along but slowly.  I would like to speed things up to find a job.  The job hunting stopped with I found out that I was expecting.  I concentrated on teaching English which is great but it’s not paying the bills.

Now that V is almost ONE, she’ll be ready for Day Care and social interactions.  I must find a job to pay for daycare and to help more around the house.  So, with that said, I’ve decided to merge my family blog back into this one and keep this as my main journal blog.  Things will go on as usual.  All posts from the family blog will be imported here.

I have also decided to change the name.  La Dolce Vita was chosen when we still lived in Texas.  I just picked it because I wanted to reflect what I thought my life in Italy would be like.  It is true, my life here is sweet but it has bothered my that my blog title and URL are not the same. My Sweet Monkey was chosen at the request of my hubby since he once said that I “looked like a little monkey” when I was younger.  Now that we have V, we often refer to her as the little monkey and now I want to focus more on our life as a family in Torino rather than just a blog about living in Torino.  Does that make any sense at all?

I will utilized all of the cool fun features Blogger has to offer and use Pages to keep a list of recipes that I’m learning, links to the site I like, blogs I read, and any information that I think will be helpful.  I will spread the love of other site and post buttons and badges and hopefully create one for my blog as well.  I register with Blog Directories to get my blog out to those who want to know about my life in Italy. I want to find friendships and build network relationships with other moms especially with those who are expats like me.

I will now start replying to comments.  I also find it nice when someone thanks me for my comment or adds to what I say. I feel like I should have done that from the very beginning but it’s never too late to start.

I will start a Facebook Fan page for this blog.  I have gotten friend requests from people I don’t know and since there is no indication of how they found me (from a friend or blog) I ignore the request. I have been asked if I have a Fan page and I think now is the time to start one.  I know several other blogs I read are thinking about making one/or already have one and it’s a great way to keep up on their post or daily musings without intruding too much into their personal lives.

I WILL NOT start a Twitter page for this blog.  I am not opposed to Twitter but I just feel that almost everyone I know lives 5,000 miles away from me so it doesn’t serve a purpose to me… or this blog.

Lastly, as a hobby that I hope to turn into a future prospect for employment, I will create a new blog with all things TORINO.  It will serve as the main info point for the information I have gathered. Places I see, Gelaterie I frequent and events in town.. I will try my best to put it all out there so that those who write me for information can go there first.  I enjoy writing and I love taking pictures. I am working harder at improving both so that one day I can maybe get some freelance work out of it BUT if anything, I really hope this can serve as a step into my “current dream job” which is to be a City Tour Guide. I think it’s the perfect job for me (and Carlo agrees it would be great).

This new blog isn’t active yet, in fact I can’t decide on a name and wether or not to buy a domain. As soon as it’s ready, I’ll reveal it here….. on the new… MY SWEET MONKEY!

xoxo
Sonia