I'm so glad to be back...I guess

The other night, Branden and I were laying in bed talking when he managed to stumble upon the worst thing to say after a sentence, "I guess".

His full sentence went like this, "It's a good thing I never dated her...I guess".

Now because I am a loving, supportive, and open wife, I poked him in the ribs multiple times and shrieked, "YOU GUESS!!! YOU GUESS??? You better KNOW!".

He giggle out apologies and we were in a fit of laughter when it hit me, "This is the worst thing to say after a sentence," I mused, still giggling, "think about it; 'Your cooking is the best...I guess' or 'Dang you're sexy...I guess' or 'Fredrick is just a friend...I guess' there is just nothing good about saying it!"

After some more giggles, my silly, sweet husband pulled me in for his goodnight kisses, saying what we say to each other often and what was even part of our wedding vows, "I love you with all that I am and ever will be".

I kissed him back and responded with what we always say, "Forever and ever".

He smiled and rolled over to get cozy under the covers.

"I guess," I said softly and then we erupted into giggles again!



What's the worst sentence to say this after?? And can any of you think up a worse sentence?? I am open to suggestions to tease Branden horrendously with peak my curiosity.

If you weren't here yesterday then pop over to THIS POST to read what's been going on since I've been away.

What a way to celebrate!

Before I get into all the photos from our wonderful trip to Kinsale, here are some random photos for you. Our local Nintendo graffiti artist has added to his already awesome work on a wall near our house. The wall is very tall and I would be about as tall as the top of the lower coins...so it's amazing!

One of our housemates makes the best ever carrot cake!! He has a cream cheese layer in the middle and it's so moist and tasty! Since Branden and I had birthdays 6 days apart from each other, he made us a cake! As you can tell, he tried to write "Happy Birthday" in grated carrots on the top but he ran out of space and so it actually said "Happy Birtdd"...I thought it was hilarious and awesome!

Now onto our trip to Kinsale! We had an amazing time and it was the closet thing to a spa day I've ever had. We stayed at a fantastic B&B with the friendliest couple who ran it. We had just a standard double room but it was gorgeous! Our bed was the most comfy thing I've slept in.

We had a cute little seating area in a bay window and the wardrobe had great tea making stuff in it, with cookies, coco mixes, and chocolates!

Since we don't have a bath in our room at home, we asked for a bath when we booked the room. We were very excited to see this big jacuzzi tub in our huge bathroom at the B&B! It was perfect for winding down after a bitterly cold day in Kinsale.

We also had a balcony off of our room. It had a cute little 2 person table and chairs on it, but it was too cold for us to go out there!

When we arrived at the B&B, The Old Presbytery, we got settled into our room and then we were told to go up to the dining room for some afternoon tea or coffee. They had a nice little selection of teas and then a fabulous little selection of homemade cakes! There were mini cappuccino cakes, mini raspberry cakes, lemon raspberry cake slices, and a raspberry muffin with white chocolate frosting...it was amazing!!

After sampling bits of everything, we decided we should probably get real lunch and we went to a cafe recommended to us by our hosts. It was a cafe/bookstore, with bookshelves lining one wall filled with old and new books for anyone to read at their leisure or to purchase if they so wished. They had an incredible selection of teas, which we each got our own little pots of, and a wonderful chicken, avocado sandwich on incredibly tasty bread.

When we finished eating, we snooped around the cute little shops along the tiny, narrow roads. Thankfully there are lots of fun shops as the weather was almost painfully cold to be out in. Kinsale is right off the Atlantic and the wind was absolutely bitter with cold! Shopping done, we went back to our room to get warmed up and take a nap before dinner. Being out in the cold makes you quite sleepy!

Dinner was beyond anything I could have hoped for! We went to a place called Max's where the food was incredible, the server was fabulous, and the restaurant itself was very nicely decorated and cozy. I had a starter of muscles grilled in a parsley garlic butter and topped with crispy breadcrumbs. They were heavenly and the server told us how to do them at home too! Branden had a starter of red seafood chowder that was jam packed full of different white fish, salmon, and shellfish. For a main, I had medallions of Ling with a delicious sauce with sun dried tomato and herbs and a side of potatoes, and Branden had the venison with an cranberry stuffed apple and side of broccoli and red cabbage. (are you drooling yet?) Dessert was another triumph where I had the mini Bourbon creme brulee pots with almond biscuits (cookies) and Branden had the sticky toffee pudding with pear and date compote. If you ever get to Kinsale, you have to go to Max's!

After that masterpiece of food, we popped into a nearby grocery store, picked up a bottle of red wine and headed back to the B&B for the night. We just relaxed, watched Rio (loved it!), and took a bath before conking out in our most coziest of cozy beds.

The next morning we woke up to snow! It was crazy but luckily it wasn't sticking to roads, just cars, bushes, and tops of buildings. By the time we finished breakfast it had almost all melted though. Breakfast was also a culinary delight. I had a crepe filled with warm fruit and drizzled with honey. Branden had scrambled eggs and John Dory (a tasty white fish) that was buttery and delicious! We had heard that our B&B had the best breakfasts and they certainly proved themselves!

With tiny hail type snow falling, we decided to wander around the town again before catching an early bus home. We walked up the hill by our B&B to a convent that overlooked the bay.

This was the front entrance to our B&B

Pussy willows in front of St. Multose Church which was built in 1190. We couldn't get in but we have been inside a couple of months after we moved to Ireland. You can see that blog post HERE

Across the water and on that patch of land, there is an old fort. We wanted to walk to it (which was down the road a ways, then across a bridge and then up the other side) but it was snowing on us the whole time, which is why the photo is slightly hazy.

And old, derelict house that would be amazing done up!

My disbelief in the crazy weather as little tiny snow pellets pelted me.

After touring around some more, we hauled our frozen bodies to the cafe/bookstore and waited for our bus. I got some hot coco and Branden got a mocha. When we got back to Cork, it was lovely weather! Yes, it was cold as well, but the sun was out and there hadn't been any snow! We went to lunch at a Thai restaurant after popping our heads into a toy store that was the closest thing to Toys-R-Us I've seen since leaving the States. After a tasty lunch, we did some shopping before going to the cinema to see OZ the Great and Powerful. We really liked it! To finish off our night, and not quite ready to go home yet, we stopped in to an Australian themed pub that's on our way home that had half price pizzas that day. They also have good deals on pitchers of cocktails so we ordered a pitcher of Melon Madness cocktail, a yummy, meaty pizza, and a side order of fries. It was great! We walked home just as it started to snow (and thankfully didn't stick!) and made it back happy over all the fun and good food we had experienced over the short 2 days!

It was fabulous! Tomorrow we are going to Cashel and Cahir Castle for a day trip to celebrate Branden's birthday that was on Saturday. He does need to see a couple of tombs in the Rock of Cashel as part of his studies, but it's a cool tourist destination anyway and we missed it last time we did a research trip. It should be fun and we'll have more photos!

Mucus, Divas, and Black Eyed Children

Never mention to someone that you don't get sick very often. The day after I said this, Branden and I came down with a nasty cold...oh joy! So that's where I've been all last week and it was a head cold so my head didn't work very well. My head is more clear today and I think I'm clawing out of this cold which is great as we have friends from the States coming to visit at the end of the week!

The good thing is that Netflix got all 4 seasons of Drop Dead Diva so I've been flying through them! Especially now that I saw in the news that it's been re-negotiated with Lifetime and will come back for a 5th season, which means that our Netflix may lose the seasons since Irish Netflix seems to only have shows that are dead or dying! If you haven't watched it, then you should as I love that it's fun, clean, and has a fabulous lead character who is plus-sized.

I don't like being scared AT ALL! I don't watch scary films, I'm not into scary stories, and I hate scare pranks. A couple of weeks ago, Branden's mom was talking to us on skype and mentioned the black eyed children. We had never heard of them before, and since my mom-in-law has always liked to tell tales of aliens, big foot, and other creepy creatures, she told us about some article she read on the web. When she tells stories of scary things I actually find it funny since it sometimes gets Branden and his brother all ruffled and bothered (especially big foot stories told in their sun room at night!). After we talked, I got online and looked up the black eyed children. Click HERE to see the website I read. I read a few articles on this site and then also looked around the web at other freaky tales and legends. Not a good idea considering it was night time! When I went to the bathroom I totally freaked myself out imagining some creepy kid with solid black eyes trying to see through our non-see through, warped glass window. Uncovered windows at night completely freak me out, due to something that happened as a kid, and eyes also freak me out, especially big open eyes.

When I crawled back into bed, all creeped out, I told Branden that maybe we should sleep with the side light on. He started laughing at me as he realized that I had scared myself and had become a big weenie. We watched something pleasant on Netflix to take my mind off of all the stuff I had read, but by the time I had to pee again, I was still freaked and made Branden stand in the bathroom with his back towards me, blocking the window so I wouldn't have to see anything out of it. He continued to laugh at me. When it was time to go to bed, I still hadn't calmed down so Branden's laughing and teasing turned to tickling. He rolled over and pinned me in the bed, poking at my sides while mentioning my pansy-like qualities. I was giggling when all of a sudden we heard a huge *BANG* to which I promptly screamed but also caused Branden to jump out of his skin and yell out as well! We then started to laugh again as we realized it was one of our housemates coming home and slamming the front door.

Still giggling but still a bit jumpy, I realized that Branden had jumped too! For all of his teasing me, he had genuinely freaked out just as much as I had and even managed to sucker punch me in the kidney when he jumped...thankfully not hard! I took advantage of this realization and pointed it out to him, which caused us to laugh more, and then even more when we wondered if our housemate heard our unison scream when he shut the door. Later we asked him and he said he didn't hear us, but he thought the story was funny.

Me So Stupid

Over the past week, Branden has been trying to convince me to consider going to a concert for our wedding anniversary this year. I love a good concert and my favorite so far, besides the one Branden's band played at and proposed to me during the set, was the Mika concert we went to in Edinburgh. There are lots of artists that would be wonderfully romantic to go see on our anniversary but the one Branden has been trying to persuade me to go to is nowhere near my top 1000 list. I had to finally say it out loud to him for him to really let it sink in.

"Spending a romantic evening celebrating 4 years of wedded bliss does not include ZZ Top!"

My husband is the only facial haired man I want to look at on our anniversary, not a whole band worth of furry beasts. One night when we were in bed and Branden was still trying to entice me to spend our day with him and ZZ Top, I finally asked him what I should have asked at the start of this madness.

"Ok, if you are such a ZZ Top fan, what songs do they sing?" I pinned him.

"Well, they do that 'Give me all your lovin' song that you know," he came back quickly.

"...and???" I knew I had him because it was almost 1am and he was sleepy.

"Uh, well I could play some of them on guitar," and then he tried humming something that he realized wasn't right but kept trying to defend his cause, "There are other songs that you would know but I can't think of any right now."

I was laughing, tired, and in the rare moment that my husband's brain was just not able to remember something basic, I just came out with the typical response to this situation, "Oh Mags!"

After realizing that my automatic response to my husband's mindless response was to call him myself, we could not stop laughing in disbelief that I actually did that! I think we both lost our arguments but I got Branden to admit that he probably is just so desperate to go to a concert since it's been so long since the last one.

Now for something completely different. Christmas Eve was our night to be together, just the two of us and to eat whatever we wanted...isn't that what holidays are for?? For Christmas Eve dessert, I got my idea from watching Nigella on BBC a few weeks back. She called it 'homemade gelato' but we called it 'the best thing that has ever hit our tastebuds' and it was one of the easiest things I've ever made!

Ingredients:

Double cream (I never remember seeing it in the States but I've heard you can get it...if you can't, it's worth moving countries just to have it!)
Meringue cookies or nests
A chocolate bar (we used dark which I would recommend)
Spiced Rum (or you could use coffee liqueur but the spiced rum was so tasty!)

How to make it:

Whip your double cream until it's firm but soft. I had a small container of double cream, probably the equivalent of 1 cup of the liquid. Grate or slice shavings of a bit of your chocolate bar and fold in to your double cream. Just add however much you want. Take two handfuls of meringue cookies or two meringue nests and crush them like the Hulk into your mixture then fold in. Also fold in 2 tablespoons of Rum which Nigella only said 1 Tbs but you can hardly taste 2 Tbs although it's a nice balance and you could add more if you want the flavor to stand out more. At this point, you will have to use extreme restraint in not just eating this with spoons, but trust me, the frozen version is even better!

We just took a medium square tupperware container, lined it with cling film (leaving extra hanging over the sides to cover the top of the mixture) and then spooned the mix in, spreading it well into the corners and flattening the top. Fold the extra cling film over the top, put the tupperware lid on and pop the whole thing in the freezer overnight! When it's frozen through, just pop the whole thing out onto a plate, unwrap it from the cling film, and slice! The consistency is wonderful and there are no ice crystal bits like typical 'non-icecream icecream'. We loved it so much that we ate it for lunch on Christmas day.

You can see the white meringue bits which added a great texture and the chocolate scattered about for every bit tasting like we had died and gone to blissful creamy heaven! If you want an easy dessert with show stopping flavor, this is the way to go! And I think our 4 mile New Year's Day walk yesterday worked off at least 2 mouthfuls!




*Bonus points to anyone who realized that the title of this post is a ZZ Top song.

Bonus points can be redeemed by yourself at anytime by simply hi-fiving yourself obnoxiously in a public place

Autumn Walks in Cork

Last time I gave you all a feast for your eyes with photos from the area I am from in America. Today I'm sharing a bit of Autumn in the area around our house. Branden and I managed to find a bit of time in our crazy week to go on a walk which was wonderful in the cold, crisp air.

We also found a bit of time to sing together. After discovering this song recently, Branden busted out his ukelele and learned to play this adorable song.




The verses are perfectly us even if the chorus isn't quite as much. Sure it would be nice to buy our parents homes in the South of France but getting rich isn't exactly something we look at as a goal. Yes we would love to have a house some day but we don't want a big one...someone has to clean it! Money can't buy you happiness, give you freedom, or make your marriage better. We've gone our entire marriage with hardly any of it and I think it's removed the clutter of unimportant stuff and kept us focused on what really matters, each other. We've never fought about money and it is true that some things would be a bit easier if we had a bit more at times, but I feel extremely blessed by our situation and how strong it's made our marriage. I may have loved Branden with all that I could on the day I married him, but it seems minuscule in comparison to how much I love him now, over 3 years later.

Savoring the Silliness

Branden's preparing to start writing his next big chapter in his PhD which means his vocabulary will become unintelligible intellectual beyond all reason. He usually has me read over his stuff to edit it, but my editing is basically limited to inserting commas and making sure his tense is consistent. Half the time, I think he's just making up big sounding words which he totally is and the words slip out over our conversations while he's doing his writings. Because of this, I am taking every silly things he says and savoring it! Like this brief conversation the other day:

Me: Oh, Adele apparently had her baby.

Branden: Well that was fast!

Me: ...um, I'm pretty sure it was 9 months, like most pregnancies...

*we both crack up laughing

I love that Branden is intellectual but also very down to earth and weird...if he wasn't weird then our bizarre family birthday videos would be a lot more boring! Today we are making one for our oldest nephew, my first baby, and it should be fun! We've got some costume construction to do but I should be able to share the video tomorrow.

And now for a big announcement:

We weren't going to put it on blogger as we were trying to keep it quiet as long as possible but we figured most people have already worked it out themselves so to clear up all rumors & make it official yes we are expecting. 8 weeks from today. I'm shocked too!! I can't believe it myself. I mean who would have guessed that were expecting SANTA 8 weeks from now!?!

Hehehe, Branden saw that on a friend's Facebook status and I just HAD to steal it! ...I may have had a few people up in arms after posting it  ;)  But in all seriousness, what would our kids be like??

Date Day & Taking Birthdays on the Chin

With a busy weekend behind us, yesterday was our 'weekend'. Branden and I slept in and then made one of my favorite breakfasts, cornbread pancakes. My mom has sent me Jiffy cornbread mix (which I love and miss!) and we made the pancake recipe that's right on the side of the box...with the exception that I always add about 2 big table spoons of honey to the batter! Then we headed to the cinema and saw Frankenweenie, which was cute, funny and my kind of 'scary' movie!

After enjoying the film, we headed to a nearby pub that brews it's own beer and had just hosted a beerfest over the weekend. They didn't have any beers from the festival left but we still enjoyed a pint of their regular stuff, which was a bit of a big deal as my tastebuds are only just warming up to the taste of beer. We ran into some friends of ours when we headed back into town and had a bit of a walk and chat with them. Then we headed to another pub that was supposed to have a live band playing. The Jazz Festival was in town this weekend so we were hoping to listen to a bit of music on the last day of the festival. When we arrived at the pub, it was packed and the band wasn't so great, so we left and noticed a new store across the street. It was an 'outlet' outdoor store but their prices seemed pretty dang expensive. Branden did need a new winter coat and we did find one that was priced alright, but we headed to the nearby TK Max (UK and Irish version of TJ Max) and actually found a nicer coat for over 20 Euros cheaper!

It started to get dark and we started to get hungry, so we headed home to make dinner, stopping briefly to pick up a cheap white wine to use in the fish pie I was going to make. After using some of the wine for the white sauce I put in my fish pie, we drank the rest while we nibbled on crackers and cheese with dates and capers (we didn't mix the dates and capers!). Dinner was the best fish pie I've made yet and I suppose I'll have to post a recipe sometime as it's super easy to make.

Branden and I had a great time together and enjoyed every bit of our relaxing meanderings together. It looks like we have another busy week ahead so yesterday was a perfect way to prepare.

Now to tickle your funny bones! This is the last in our recent series of birthday videos, although Hunter will have a birthday in a couple of days so we'll be making a new one soon. The video below is the video we made for my Mom's birthday. It was a bit tricky to make as trying to get both of us to fit into the video was really tough and I do sort of move out of the shot a bit at the end.



For those of you who don't know, Sasquatch is also "Big Foot" or "Yeti", and more sightings of Big Foot are reported in Washington State (where we are from) than any other State in America...but I don't think Branden's chin contributed to any of the sightings   ;)

Childish Cartoon Issues

Scene: The end of a long, lazy day and Branden and I are trying to get sleepy enough to go to bed. We decide to go with our tried and true method of watching cartoons which usually puts us out like lights. So we start scrolling through our Irish Netflix (don't even bother suggesting things for us to watch if you have the US version as the Irish version will most likely not have it and won't get it for another 5 years) and this is our conversation:

Branden: We could watch X Men again  (note: this is the cartoon that started in the early 90's)

Me: But it keeps giving you weird nightmares every time we watch it so we should find something else,  maybe something more 'little kid-ish' that's not scary.  *I scroll past Thomas the Tank Engine* Except for that! That would give me nightmares!  (note: I have an unexplainable fear of the faces of Thomas the Tank Engine characters)

Branden: There is Sonic the Hedgehog...

Me: Oh yeah, haven't you been wanting to watch that for a while?

Branden: Well, I'm not so sure now...

Me: Ok, well we can watch Berenstain Bears, or there's Blazing Dragons...I think I remember that one...

Branden: I wish they had Dexter's Laboratory!

Me: Me too! I loved that show! Sadly, they just don't have the cool stuff on here yet. *More scrolling and looking*

Branden: It's not that I don't want to watch Sonic...but I'm just nervous that since I loved it when I was 6, it might not be that great to me now. I don't want to ruin it.

Me: Well...do you remember much of it from when you were 6???

Branden: Not really but I just knew that I loved it. I guess we can watch it; now I'm kind of curious.

Me: You realize that we potentially just had the most immature conversation of our adult lives. You can't watch X Men because you get nightmares, I can't watch Thomas because it scares the crap out of me, we both want Dexter's Laboratory, and you're hesitant to watch Sonic because it's legendary in your mind!

*End scene with huge amounts of laughter followed by watching Sonic the Hedgehog...which was ok*

Just a happy little road trip

Branden would be the first to tell you that I have no concept of time. This means I was a bit shocked when it dawned on me that we are leaving tomorrow for a research trip. Over the next 3 days and 2 nights, we will be hitting up over 15 sites, including cathedrals and abbeys, where Branden will be looking at various stone carvings and decorated tombs.

On our first day we will be making 6 stops on our way up to Kilkenny. Kilkenny is a lovely little town that we visited once, back on our 1 year anniversary trip that we took while we were living in Scotland. The next day we will continue to head up to Dublin, stopping more along the way as we view various sites that are part of Branden's studies. When we get to Dublin, we will actually take a break from research and we are going to The Phantom of the Opera! It's London's West End show that is over for 4 weeks, and we are just catching it before it leaves. I'm so excited, as I have always wanted to see Phantom on the stage since I was a kid!

Our third day, we will be spending a little bit of time in Dublin before heading back to Cork and stopping at the amazing location of The Rock of Cashel, a large cathedral that the Queen of England visited when she came last year. We have never been to it before so we are quite excited to see this incredible and huge site.

Branden will be driving, as my license expired back when we were still in Scotland, but that's a good thing as the roads here terrify me to no end and Branden has no sense of direction, so my natural navigation skills will be greatly needed! Despite sitting in a passenger seat for 3 days, I will be getting quite the work out, as I discovered when the first time Branden ever drove in this country my thighs and glutes became very sore from tensing so much around the endless blind corners and tight village roads. It doesn't help that Branden thinks driving here is fun.

To take my mind off the stresses of plowing head-first into cow or tractor preparing for the trip, here's a song Branden saw on facebook from one of his friends. What better to calm the nerves than a good dose of Bob Ross and that sweet afro!



P.S. You most likely won't see me much at all this week but I'll be back next week.

Mauled by a Mountain Lion

I HATE technology. I have the most basic phone that I can own, I text like a grandma with severe arthritis, but I kick serious booty on my snake game. Branden's laptop is a Mac and I don't mind it for the most part, it's gotten me by in the days before I was blessed with my laptop. (Joshua rocks!) The newest upgraded system for Mac is coming out and there is something about it that irritates me to no end: it's called "Mountain Lion"! The current system is called "Snow Leopard" which I think is just some desperate ploy to get nerds sounding "cool" by talking about the vicious big cats that they own....it's not working fyi.

Branden is all excited that Mountain Lion is coming out because it will have so many new 'cool' features. I told him that if we are buying anything called "Mountain Lion" then I expect his face to be fully mauled by the time it's completely downloaded. We even had a discussion last night about him not referring to our computer stuff in giant feline terms, but I think he just loves seeing my hackles go up whenever he mentions it.

This morning, I turned on my wonderful laptop and got started on a Word document. I love Word, I know Word, it's nothing like Mac's Pages, and I like how I can find everything I need easily...until today. Now go back and throw in "used to" in all of those statements! Despite it being Word 2007, I have apparently been out of the loop for a lot longer than I first thought. All I needed to do was insert a simple calendar, *5 mins to find it* make it for the month I needed it for, *5 mins to change manually and 7 mins for Branden to insist there is a format for that in the program and go searching for it* add in a few names, *easy 1 min* and then make another calendar for the next month with the same type of stuff on it *15 mins pulling my hair out trying to figure out why it wouldn't copy and paste fully, why it wouldn't fit the names the same way, and Branden still insisting there is a format*.

I hadn't had my coffee yet so it was not my best moment when I blamed Branden completely because, "You are a nerd and you like this technology crap so it's your fault I have to spend all this time when I could have been done in 5 mins if I had printed out a blank calendar and written in the names!" and, "You have nerd connections, so can't you get someone to yell at Bill Gates for having a stupid, confusing program!". Thankfully, Branden finds this all rather humorous and he even decided it would be a good time to mention how good "Mountain Lion" will be...*face mauling 45% complete...

Foot-in-Mouth Disease

I want to bring to light a horrible condition that affects everyone in their lifetime (except maybe mute people): Foot-in-Mouth Disease. This crippling condition can leave you trying to hide behind your own mug, slinking to the floor and attempting to melt away, and/or giggling nervously, which actually just makes you sound like a creeper. With such a widespread disease, it's a wonder that there aren't any charities set up for it or at least informational television programs that can teach us how to prevent, treat, and blend into curtains at any given point.

I know that I have suffered from Foot-in-Mouth greatly but as it is still before 11am, my memory isn't very good...except for remembering things about my husband. Just the other night, Branden came down with an unexpected case of Foot-in-Mouth, resulting in eyebrow raising, severe side poking, and a secondary outbreak. Here's the case study:

A lovely couple prepare to go to sleep. The husband preps his pillows and chooses the one he wants to place on the side of the bed facing the wall so he can cuddle it in the night when he's not facing the other way and cuddling his wonderful, perfect, incredible wife. *note: This is a case study so the opinion of the writer is unbiased

Husband: "This one is better because it's lumpy."
Wife: eyebrows raised "What?! This is what you use to mimic me and you choose the lumpy one as the most realistic??"

*first outbreak of Foot-in-Mouth

Husband: awkwardly giggling like a creeper "No, no, no! It's not that you are lumpy. It's just not as nice as a head pillow because it's lumpy."

Wife now begins severe side poking


Husband: "You are not lumpy! I use the other one too; it's fluffy."

*second outbreak of Foot-in-Mouth

Wife: eyebrows raised so high, they are practically in the back of her head "FLUFFY!! So I'm lumpy and fluffy!?!" more severe side poking


Husband: awkwardly giggling even more like a creeper and hesitant to speak again in case the disease takes an even stronger hold


Has this ever happened to you? With all the advancements in health and science, why isn't enough being done to protect the innocent victims, like the lovely wife, from encountering diseased Foot-in-Mouth sufferers? And most importantly, is it justified to just shoot those diseased???

What are your thoughts?

Anniversary Trip to Galway!

I do have to say, before sharing our fun anniversary trip to Galway, in continuing with my wedding horror story, my honeymoon wasn't much better. We spent the two days after our wedding in a beautiful and fun little town only 45 minutes away from home before flying to Kauai for a week. Kauai is where it got worse. To make a long story short, I ended up with 3 infections and within a week of my wedding, had been prescribed 5 different medications, most of them saying to not drink alcohol or be in the sun. One of the infections was a sinus infection which made it impossible for me to be in air conditioning or else I would cough until I threw up, which wasn't pleasant for Kauai in July. With me being so sick, we didn't really get to go out much but luckily both of us had been before so I guess that helped. We also got our days messed up so we missed our flight thinking that we weren't flying out until the day after. This did end up costing us a bunch more with the airline company but the lady who owned the cottage we were staying in, was nice enough (and felt so bad for us) that she gave us the extra night free. That 'extra' day ended up being the best day of our trip since it was the first day I really felt better, so we drove around everywhere and made the most of it. 


Now, onto Galway! We had a great time exploring this city and the weather was actually decent, although it was super humid the first 2 days and we hardly were able to sleep because it was so miserably muggy at night. You know it's bad when at 10pm, people from Arizona were fanning themselves with their beer coasters and complaining about how hot it was (and it was only in the low 70's, high 60's).


Our first day, we did some exploring, pub hopping, and ate some amazing seafood, delicious gelato, and then a late night plate of yummy nachos as we listened to a band in a pub. Here are a few pictures from our first day.

Our second day was our actual anniversary and as soon as the alarm went off Branden suddenly said, "I can't wait anymore! I got something for you!". I was quite shocked since we haven't bought gifts for each other for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, etc. since our marriage but we do something fun to create a memory instead. Branden broke the rules and bought me the most beautiful pair of pearl stud earrings! It's my favorite color in pearls and they actually match my eyes!

We took our time getting ready that morning as we prepared to do the 2.5 mile walk to Salthill to go 'kick the wall'. I don't know why you go kick the wall but at the end of the walk, there is a wall and you are supposed to kick it. Along the way there were a couple of beaches and the day cleared up and became nice and sunny! We had dinner reservations and it was the most amazingly delicious food! We ordered a bottle of Prosecco along with our meal and it was perfect! Champagne isn't my favorite and makes me sick to my stomach, so I was glad to discover that Prosecco suits me much better! Here's some photos from our anniversary day.

Our last day, we spent our time exploring the city more. Since it is a University town, we went to have a peek at the campus. It was a great little campus and reminded us a bit of a smaller version of the campus here in Cork. We visited the Cathedral but couldn't really get any photos inside since they were having Mass at the time. There are lots of waterways through town so we walked along many of them, popping into cute shops along the way. Galway was a fantastic town, we absolutely loved it, and who knows, Branden might be able to get a job there when he's done with his PhD! I wouldn't mind living and raising kids there at all!

We had a great time and really enjoyed having a bit of a holiday together! I'm just so happy that I get to do all of this with my best friend and love of my life!

An "Average" Wife...

The amazing, wonderful Michele AKA BodaciousBoomer posted a marital test for husbands and wives that was published back in 1939. I took it and only scored a 7 which was bad because apparently you needed over 70some points to be "Very Superior". I could only see that there were 25 points possible so when I shared this on Facebook, my friends pointed out that it was actually a longer test and it gave the husband's side!

You can take the test over at BobaciousBoomer's site by clicking HERE and you also should make sure that you are following her blog, if you don't already, because she is hysterical and fabulous! She is an amazing artist, which I find it a bit ironic that my mom-in-law is an amazing artist as well and spells her name the same way "Michele" does with one "l". (TOP TIP: if you want an incredibly artistic child, name her Michele with one "l"). You can see some of Boomer's stuff and get updates on her items for purchase by simply liking her Facebook page: Ecofab Gifts

So back to the test. Branden and I took it and we had a laugh filling out the questions for each other! Branden had a whopping 109 merits and only 14 demerits so he got a grand total of 95! Well above the "Very Superior" range! And myself??? Ummm, well, I did get 84 merits....but I also got 30 demerits so I only ended up with a lousy 54 points! That puts me in the "Average" range. Some of the questions were hilarious though and Branden did say that I lost out on a lot of points since we dont't have kids...plus I would think that I am far from "Average"!

So how well did you do and do you have any favorite questions? You can leave your responses either here or just over at BodaciousBoomer's because I'm there all the time and love reading her comments!

Oh how I love June!

We had a good weekend for the most part. The not so good part was just that my throat decided that it wanted to make it extremely difficult and painful to eat or drink anything. The worst of it was Saturday, when Branden had to work all day, but he brought me home some good numbing lozenges and I significantly improved throughout Sunday.

Friday night was wonderful though. My throat was starting to bug me but we were able to go out and enjoy a gorgeous June evening. We brought the camera and headed to the park by our house, and then our usual walk up the river. The weather was nice, the sun was setting, and I somehow managed to not even inhale a single bug! Here are some shots we got.

It was a wonderful walk, especially since it chucked down rain the entire next day! Oh well, it's green here for a reason!

On Sunday, we heard music coming from the park so we decided to go explore. Sure enough, there was an event on with 2 music stages, lots of kid's activities, and a good number of food and drinks vendors. We stopped by a baker's booth since she had a 3 for 5 Euro deal. Branden got a Belgian chocolate mousse, I got a white cupcake with little chocolate pieces and sugar glitter on top, and our third item was a giant chocolate chip cookie which we heated in the oven and ate today after lunch...mmmmmm! We also got some coffee and then went to the main stage and listened to a band finish their set. With it only being about 3 in the afternoon, and bands set to play until 5, we decided to pop back home really quickly to get a blanket to sit on, some water, snacks, and umbrellas (since the rain wasn't making it's mind up on if it was going to mist on us or pour on us). We had a great time listening to a few other bands, and even got a CD. There were lots of people, lots of dogs, tons of kids dancing, and great music. At one point I discovered that I had been sitting on a very large earthworm, but other than that, things were fabulous!

Today, Branden and I set to book a place for our 3rd wedding anniversary that will be at the end of this month, but things didn't go the way we had hoped. Our original intent was to book a place in Killarney since we haven't been yet, but it just ended up being really frustrating trying to find a place and oddly didn't feel right. So we got random and now have a B&B book for 2 nights in Galway! We've never been there either and I think a quirky Irish town on the coast is just what we need. We're pretty excited now and we'll be anxious for a 3 day little holiday since it's been a while since our last one.

I was going to share with you some music that we heard yesterday, but I couldn't find it so I may have to share it at a later time. Thankfully though, a friend of mine on facebook shared this video that had Branden and me cracking up! I love "Misheard Lyrics" videos anyway but this one is brilliant! It may just brighten your Monday up a bit!