Just about Joe....

Joe in a cucumber eating contest in Sola, Norway. He came in 2nd! Not bad for an "Englishmen" as the farmer announcer called him!

Joe and his classmates from ISS in Barcelona, Spain

Joe and the Green Goblin on the streets of Barcelona

Joe and his host student, Sergi Aguilera, who will be living with us for 10 days in May

Superman, Joe Messina, holds up the leaning tower of Pisa

Yes, he has an appetite...good thing as these pizza slices we bought on the streets of Venice were huge!

My oldest just turned 13 years old on November 13th! Wow! I can't believe it!

A little about Joe....if you have ever seen the movie, "Ratatouille", you know the character Linguini (good Italian name in a French setting in the movie). Linguini is Joe in a cartoon character. I swear they could have used him as the template for the drawings....tall, lanky and freckled with curly, out-of-control reddish-brown hair on the top of his head. I laughed out loud when I first saw his character. Every now and then I call him Linguini, which, of course, I get a goofy grinning/grimace shot back my way that only a teenager can give. :o)

Joe is in the 7th grade at the International School of Stavanger (ISS). He plays on the JV basketball team and also plays club basketball. Between practice and conditioning, he is usually at the school for some kind of practice four days a week. He is also has taken up a new sport, lacrosse. That meets twice a week for a couple of hours. Don't worry, he has plenty of time for homework and practicing his trombone. He continues to be one of the "cool guys" at school and so far I have been happy with his choice of friends. ISS has students from 35 different countries, so his friends come from all over the world. Speaking of all over the world, Joe just returned a few weeks ago from a 9 day field trip to Barcelona, Spain. Pretty cool! The son of the family he stayed with will come stay with us for 10 days in May. The pictures above are mostly from his trip to Spain, where he was able to really experience a great time in Europe. The rest of the pictures are from Italy, where we went for fall break in mid-October. In October, Joe was in Lierskole up north in Norway for a week, in Spain for a week and a half and in Italy for a week with us. That kid gets around! We are really proud of him!