Paperwork makes my brain go numb

Due to Branden finishing another chapter for his PhD, he's had time off so I have been MIA enjoying time with him and also ripping my hair out as we are messing with nasty paperwork and this year's funding for his studies. We also had a deep clean and thorough re-organization of our room which was much needed when all of our belongings and newly accumulated stuff has to all fit into one living space. It does make it easier to not buy new crap as there is simply no space, so that's a good thing. In between the chaos, the house has filled up again with our housemate from Botswana back from his Christmas trip, and a new housemate moving in who also happens to be a friend of ours and also an American. I cooked a big dinner last week of pork spare ribs (in Branden's own BBQ sauce) and then had sides of green salad, coleslaw, and focaccia bread (I didn't make the bread). It was great and it's nice that we can all get on so well. Another thing we've been up to is the making of another family birthday video!

My wonderful Mom-in-law turned 29 again this year (can't believe we'll be the same age in a couple of months!) and she is an artist so we made a very odd but somewhat artsy video for her. It's not the most flattering video, and it was very uncomfortable to shoot, but we had fun!



Thankfully none of our housemates were home as we shot this on our entryway floor and taped our video camera to the staircase rail. There was more detail at the bottom but with limited space and an unseen post that was in the way, you can't really see it. I did get the idea from that mom who would take photos of her sleeping baby after creating scenes around her with clothes, toys, and other random objects...it is definitely much harder to make it for 2 full grown adults!

Well, I have a load of clean laundry staring at me and smirking as it knows very well that I hate folding laundry...but I've got to leave soon so I better tackle the pile! (Oh goodie, socks! ...my favorite...)

New Year's Eve Update

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and are planning on a great New Year! I'm sorry I have been away for a while. After my last post, I was given the information that Granny's cancer doubled in size since October, despite 2 nasty chemo treatments. I basically shut down. Also having the 3rd Christmas in a row away from family, I just found it too emotional to write. We did have a wonderful Christmas though and I'm extremely grateful for all the friends who have taken us in over this holiday period. Last week included 4 days of Christmas eating, one just the two of us and the other 3 with friends...I may not be able to eat until Valentine's Day...

Tonight we are taking it easy and will be ringing in the New Year just the two of us. Our house has been empty for over a week, which has been fabulous, and I cleaned our kitchen the day the last housemate left. Now that all of the Christmas dinner cooking is over, I'm planning on tackling the fridge and cleaning the beast today. Our housemate from Botswana was wonderful enough to leave us his key to his room so we could use his big jacuzzi tub, as he's the only room with a tub, and it was fabulous to take a bath for the first time in over a year and a half...you can imagine how smelly we were  ;)

2012 was a good year, and I really don't have anything to complain about. Yes, there are/were some not so fun things going on but there will always be bad and good times, that's just how life goes. I'm just happy that I'm doing just what I know I am supposed to be doing and in the place I'm supposed to be. I do miss my family but after over 2 years of being away from them, it looks like we will be going back to visit in late spring or early summer. And speaking of family, Branden and I made a video for our nephews for Christmas. Since you all like seeing us make fools of ourselves for our precious nephews, here's the video:

And for those of you who would like to hear some real singing and see some real talent, here's a long awaited music video from our friend Noelle back in the States. I shared this song and another music video of hers a long time ago and I'm excited that this music video turned out brilliantly as the song is incredible! Way to go Noelle!

Happy New Year's Eve and I hope to come around and visit all of your blogs soon...after I finish cleaning the house with a toothbrush!

Dumb Ways to Die

Thanksgiving is done and dusted but I already decorated our room for Christmas two weeks ago so bring on the festivities! Branden and I have been enjoying our first minced pies of the season as well as some yummy mulled wine. We also had some leftover sweet potato casserole, which didn't turn out as well as last year's, but I mashed it all up and mixed it with some light cream cheese to make it taste like sweet potato cheesecake. Then I took some little glass ramekins, filled them about 3/4 up with the warmed up mixture then topped it with little marshmallows (I actually cut big ones in half) and popped them under the grill until the marshmallows were nice and golden. It was so tasty and incredibly easy!

My friend Jo cooked most of the Thanksgiving feast and her pecan pie was out of this world amazing! Jo also was the one to share this video with me that I am sharing with all of you for my Music Monday. It was made by the Melbourne Metro and is hysterically brilliant. This may just be my new favorite comedy song as I've always have a bit of a dark side to my humor.



Their website for this song is really funny and you can check it out by clicking HERE

I have been terrible at getting around to everyone lately which is a combo of being busy and also my blog feed randomly omitting some blogs and bloggers even though I follow them and haven't changed any settings...irg! Branden seems to be getting sick as well so I'll be busy trying to get him better as soon as possible since he has another chapter of his PhD due in a couple of weeks (and a chapter is around 20,000 words). Hopefully I don't get it as then I will be even more behind than I already am! Oh well, at least both of us had chicken pox as kids or else we would have to worry about that since one of our housemates recently broke out in it.

Happy Monday everyone!

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.

Circus Cats

Last week is done and dusted and I survived! It was a good week but there were a lot of things going on, I was an emotional wreck, and I had to wake up before 10am almost every day!!! Don't worry, I'm making up for it, starting with this morning when I woke up at 11:40am.

My head is still a bit thrashed so it may take me a bit to get my writing groove back so I'm just going to throw a video at you and hope it keeps you entertained for a while (see, I have mothering instincts!). When I saw this video, I dubbed it "The most patient animal trainers in the world!" and I think you will agree!

One hilarious reason why I could never watch Magic Mike

Laughter really can be the best medicine and the video I have for my Music Monday had me in tears from laughing so hard. Lets say you are looking to video chat a random good looking woman creeper, creeper, creeper, please don't tell me if you are that desperate and you discover that the scantily clad dressed body you are ogling has a happy trail and beard...thus why I was laughing myself to tears!

Thank goodness it's not "Survival of the Sanest"

Happy Monday! Maybe not happy for all of you who must work, but happy for me when I was brought a late breakfast in bed made up of eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee. The humidity is finally lower (in the 70% range) and paired with lower temperatures, in the high 50's F, I am one happy camper. I am still surviving Giant Spider Season with no new encounters to report (Wahoo!). And to answer Bodacious Boomer's question of how large these spider are, they are about the span of your palm with bodies about the size of wine corks. I know spiders definitely come bigger, but considering that I had never seen them that size in WA State where I grew up, I never thought I'd find them bigger here in Ireland...where I will be living for the rest of my life...with these giant nasties. I have actually been thinking about the future and possibly planning trips to Iceland around this time of the year, or maybe Greenland where it's colder and the spiders are sure to be smaller. Even though it's been better this year, I don't know if my nerves can handle this yearly terror as I begin panicking months in advance to this season.

Most of you know that I had been gearing up and training for a new volunteer project but as of yet, I have not spoke of it or how it's been going. (click the link if you don't know or remember what it was) There is a reason behind all this as I am held to confidentiality with the people I help, and also since we are with a large organization there are publicity restrictions as to me even publishing anything about my experience. I understand the reasons why and am fine with it, but for those of you wondering why I'm not talking about my volunteering, then that is why. The Monday night homeless run that I was involved with is currently on hold due to all of the members involved in the new thing, and we aren't sure it will come back. We do run into a number of our homeless people during the new thing so that is good as we keep up a relationship with them but we don't carry food on us. The new thing is going well and I've had some great moments and been able to help a lot of people. Our hours on the street are from 10pm-4am on Saturday night so my sleeping patterns have changed a bit and I'm also not around the Blogland as much because I think my mind is still new to processing all of the experiences and things we encounter. The great thing about this volunteer project is that it really has been keeping me sane through my latest depression as it's something I look forward to and feel comfortable and 'at home' doing. Plus, I love the other team members I work with and they are great fun and good banter.

I'm not sure how much of my latest depression has been "seasonal", as I did have a lot of other things piling up around me and stressing me out. They all sort of came to a head a couple of weeks ago, which put me into a bit of a mental meltdown, but I've been taking myself away from things and calming my nerves which has been helping. That, and I recently got off my allergy pill which gave me a 3 day long headache and caused me to look up if others had problems with it. I was shocked to find numerous reports of people having mood swings, heightened depression and anxiety, and bad reactions from trying to come off of it after long periods of consistent use. My personality has completely changed for the better since I've been off, which is really nice for Branden as I had a tendency to become homicidal if he did the slightest slip up (like 2 weeks ago when I was ready to strangle him for not allowing the bananas to defrost an extra 10 minutes, meaning he just had to blitz them a couple of minutes longer to get the consistency we needed, and then I felt so bad for feeling such rage over such a stupid thing that I went and cried in the bathroom for an hour). I did feel like I was losing my mind and had no control over my emotions, so this week has been such a change and I feel more like myself...and Branden's happy that I'm back to my normal self of constantly trying to snuggle up to him anytime he gets within a 10ft radius of me...except when he's trying to study. Thankfully he's a cuddle bug as well so it's been a good week  ;)

Ok, done with the serious and now for some funny and adorableness! I laughed so hard over this video and just had to share it for Music Monday! I can't stand this song but put a dog scratching his butt along to it, and I'll gladly listen!

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.

Library Pile

I am the type of reader that gets sucked into a book and doesn't come out until hours later, usually to eat or pee, and then gets back into where I left off. Last year, when we first moved here, we hardly knew anyone and my anxiety was flipping out over me dragging it into yet another new country so I didn't leave the house often which made it perfect for me to get into reading again. One of my wonderful cousins gave us a Kindle before we moved to Ireland so that also was a spur.

The past few months have not been in my favor for reading. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as Branden has been using the Kindle a lot for articles he needs for his research, and I have been busy with friends and new volunteer projects. I have quite the line up of books to read though, and now that life has been kicking off over here for me I want to share some that are in my stack. And since it's also Music Monday, I have a link for a free CD that you can download.

Melynda, the fabulous and amazing over at Crazy World, has been popping out a series of books over the last few months. Currently there is Just Nonsense and More Nonsense but there will be two more books for your reading enjoyment over the next few months! If you love a good laugh, then these will be a perfect book series for you!

Elisa, the marvellous and wonderful over at The Crazy Life of a Writing Mom, seems to be publishing a book every time I blink! I read her first book The Golden Sky and it was fantasic! Since then, she has also published The Sword of Senack, Bible Girl & The Bad Boy, How to Lose a Tooth, and The Best of ECWrites. You can obviously see why my library is so backed up!

And now, for your musical pleasure, I give you Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys. Most of the members are good friends of Branden and he even used to be in a small band with some of them called The Jammin Salmon. Sadly, Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys are having their final concert soon, and we won't get to go back to the States and hear them play again...so sad! Their concerts were always fun and their music is incredible. You can download a live CD for free by going HERE and you can buy their newest CD by going HERE. You can even preview the songs, which I highly suggest that you do for their new CD. Track 7, Drunken Drowsy King Joey (a twist on the original song Drowsy Maggie) is amazing and I'm pretty sure they were actually trying to kill Joey by seeing how fast he could play on that fiddle!

So happy Monday everyone! Enjoy your reading and enjoy your music!

Old Mother Hubbard's Morning

Tip of the Day: Frosted Shreddies (or Mini Wheats) will disintegrate on contact with hot coffee. I don't suggest this as a substitute for milk.

It's been a busy past week and here's my new favorite photo taken yesterday while we were at the World Street Performer's Competition.

Since need to go grocery shopping I've got food on the brain so I am sharing a great new video I've seen!

How a dishwasher had me sobbing on the floor

A while ago, I mentioned crying over a dishwasher but saved the story. This was years ago, probably 7 years ago, but Chrissy and I still laugh and joke about it sometimes.

I was house sitting for someone and it was proving to be a bit more stressful than I thought. She was gone for over a month so it was practically more like living there while I looked after her frisky cat and fish. The cat kept me up most nights, and I ran across spiders so often in that house that I pretty much screamed and cried every time I had to go through the garage! I called my mom in hysterics one night because there was a huge one in the tub and another one on the living room ceiling. She did come over once and helped me water the garden where another large spider tried to bite my hand off  popped out of his little home that he made in the siding where the water faucet was cut into! I almost grabbed him and then mom and I had to figure out how to turn the water off with that nasty thing there. Mom sprayed the heck out of him and then turned it off as fast as she could.

Also, the woman's husband had passed away in the house earlier that year. They were practically my adopted grandparents so I knew him, loved him, and even got the cat for him. I am not a believer in ghosts so that wasn't even an issue, but I suppose the thought that a lot of people would have an issue sleeping in a house where they knew someone died, played tricks with my mind at night sometimes.

Needless to say, my nerves were on edge, so when I went to do a load of dishes in the dish washer I was not expecting something to go wrong there too. I put the liquid detergent in the little box in the door and then closed the little lid...but it wouldn't close. I pushed the little lid down harder but it still wouldn't click shut.

*Push *Push *Push *Push *Push!!!! No click; no shut little lid! Maybe there's too much liquid in it?? I'll scoop a bit out with my fingers and see if that will work.
*Push *Push *Push *Slippy finger Push *Soapy lid Push *Liquid's making fingers itchy Push!!!! NO CLICK!!
Why won't this stupid thing close!?! It's just a stupid little lid! It just needs to close!! CLOSE STUPID LITTLE LID!!!
*PUSH *PUSH *PUSH *PUSH *FINGERS COVERED IN NASTY SOAP PUSH!!!!

This went on for a half an hour (because it was just a little lid so I must be able to do it!) before I finally snapped!

*Tears streaming down a mascara stained face, soapy fists pounding the kitchen floor.
"WHY GOD, WHY!?! WHY WON'T YOU JUST LET THE LITTLE LID CLOSE!!! OH GOD, PLEASE JUST LET THE STUPID LID CLOSE!!! I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANY MORE; I CAN'T DO THIS ANY MORE!! PLEASE GOD JUST CLOSE THE FREAKIN LID!!"

A few minutes later, the lid closed. I wiped the mascara and snot from my face and got ready for another sleepless night in that spider house with the crazy cat.

Now for your Music Monday, here's a music video that does make me cry, but I think for decent reasons. I love this song and the music video story is just brilliant. You probably won't cry but I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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!

You make me happy

We had a very busy but fun weekend. Both of us crashed just after 11pm, which is early for us, and Branden got up at 8:30am while I slept in till 9:45am. The morning has been a bit interesting because neither of our brains seem to be functioning properly. Branden told me that he almost put deodorant under his chin instead of cologne when he came out of the shower. I can't seem to form words so this short post is taking me forever to type...and I haven't had coffee yet...

It could have been a nice, long sleep last night but I woke up from a nightmare. Whenever this happens, I cling to Branden, whimpering, and trying to get as snuggled into him as possible. He woke up and knew what was going on so he just instantly started talking to me about the ridiculous dream he had been having and puling me as close to him as he could. He rambled for about 15 minutes until I got comfortable enough and calmed down enough to fall back asleep.

The simplicity of just being able to sleep in the same bed as my husband is something that I absolutely cherish. It's not something we did before we were married so it's incredibly special to me. Every night, I snuggle up to his back and wait until I hear him fall asleep, then I roll over, press my back against his, and fall asleep. I used to take forever to go to sleep before I was married, sometimes laying in bed for hours just waiting to drift off. There's nothing more comforting and more wonderful to me than to have Branden there every night, and I fall asleep pretty quickly now.

This is a bit mushier than my usual blog fodder, but I am just blessed with an incredible man who just got back from walking to the store so he could get me something for the breakfast in bed, which he brings me almost every morning. It's just under a month until our 3 year wedding anniversary and I feel more like a newlywed today than I did back then. I love you my wonderful husband and thank you for treating me like I'm your treasured wife.

Epicness

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. We had a pretty good one, except for the 45 mins or so that Branden and I were on the verge of killing each other...but that's what we get for not getting dinner until 10pm. Have you ever seen footage of two lions fighting over a dead warthog? Apparently people have that same instinct when they haven't eaten in 8 hours. Thankfully no limbs or faces were ripped off in the process.

On Friday night, we were watching one of our favorite chat shows, The Graham Norton Show, and since Will Smith, Gary Barlow, and Tom Jones were on the couch, epicness was bound to happen. Random side note: "epicness" isn't a real word (unless you count Urban Dictionary) which I'm revolting against and going to use it anyway because there is too much epicness in my world to not say so!

So anyway, this is the clip of epicness that ensued from that show.



I do love how EVERYBODY knows that song...except Tom Jones... He's allowed to get away with it though, especially since he actually appeared on The Fresh Prince show and did a sing along with Carlton (and the Carlton Dance to Tom's song is amazing as well!). I also loved how Will kept cracking up over Gary's playing and also his vocal impersonation of what Gary played! It truly was a great show that night and that moment was priceless!

NOTE: I did get this clip on Youtube from BBC so if for some reason it won't play for my US readers, please let me know.

Dont Bite your friends!

I have attempted to write this post 2 different times now, one is sitting in time out in my drafts, and it's just not been my writing day. After explaining to Branden that I just wasn't able to write today but I still had to do it anyway, I broke down and had a cry I left it alone and then ate lunch. Lunch is over and I'm still extremely frustrated over both of my posts being impossible to work with, so without working myself up again, here's the video basis of what I wanted to share today. 

With Mother's Day being just yesterday, I find this very appropriate as well.and also a good reminder because if my blog was a person, I would totally bite it right now!


I hope you all had a good weekend and I'll see you around at your blogs today! ANYTHING TO GET AWAY FROM MINE BECAUSE WE ARE SO CLOSE TO NOT BEING ON SPEAKING TERMS!

*Santa and Tooth Fairy spoiler alert!

Since Branden works a full day on Saturday, I usually try to go into town and meet him for his lunch break. This last Saturday was no different, except I was also planning on meeting a friend of mine for coffee afterwards. My friend took me to a quirky little coffee shop I hadn't been to before down one of Cork's many little alleyways.

My friend is originally from Spain and I was curious to know if they had things like the Tooth Fairy back in Spain. She informed me that instead of a Tooth Fairy it was a mouse, which would crawl under your pillow to take your tooth...sure that might be more believable than a fairy but I don't think I'd like the idea of a mouse on my pillow!

This got us onto a wonderful Christmas conversation.

My friend informed me, "We didn't have Santa when I was growing up although he's part of Christmas now because he's so popular everywhere else."

"So did you have something else then besides Santa?" I questioned her.

"Oh yes, we have the Three Wise Men!" she stated.

Slightly chuckling, "Well I suppose you would get more gifts with Three Wise Men than with just one Santa!" She laughed a little too and I continued, "We leave milk and cookies for Santa that our parents eat and drink when we sleep..."

She jumped in, "Oh we do that too for the Three Wise Men."

I was definitely laughing at this thought, "That would be pretty tough for your parents to have to eat everything for Three Wise Men!!"

And then, as if I should have thought of it myself, she stated, "And their camels!"

At this point, I lost it and was just dying! "What do you leave for 3 camels!?! A hay bale?? The poor parents that have to eat that!"

She sadly didn't really know what to leave for the camels because she never did it when she was little, but I couldn't get over the thought of leaving a massive plate of food for 3 Christmas visitors and a bale of hay for their camels!

On a different note, she also said that she never knew anyone who was vegetarian back in Spain, which really got me thinking. Since we had a Spanish housemate who's family would send him the most amazing sausages and cured meat, Branden and I came to the conclusion that Spain has the best meat in the world! With this in mind, I wondered out loud, "With the incredible meat that you have in Spain, I can't imagine why anyone would want to be a vegetarian there. Maybe vegetarians only live in countries that have not so great meat? I just think it would be torture to be a vegetarian in Spain!"

Maybe I'm onto something???

Anyway, for your music today, I'm giving you something super cute and fun! Britain's Got Talent is going on over here and even though we haven't been watching it faithfully, we have caught some bits of it. Thank goodness we saw some of it last night because this was the sweetest thing! Since most of you are dog lovers, I know you'll love it too!

Isn't that the cutest ending ever!?! I about died from overdose of adorableness! I really hope they win (although I am a bit bias, especially since I haven't really seen any of the other acts!) and Simon really is rooting for them too. He has wanted a dog act to win forever so he loves these two...and can you blame him?

A baby, a dress, and a fit of laughter

Marcie had her baby on Thursday and they are well! I've seen some photos on facebook and he is absolutely adorable! They are all getting settled and hopefully will get to go home today. Thanks for all your wishes and prayers!

Branden and I went shopping on Friday. We've been looking for new jeans for Branden and I've been in search of a teapot for a while. While we were in a clothing shop, I was drawn to a particular item of clothing that I long for but have never owned...a maxi dress. Yes, I know that I am only 5'2" and a floor length dress will make me look like a stump made of fabric, but there is just something about this dress that makes tall, stick figured women, look fabulous, would transform my curvy, short, feminine body into something similar to an overstuffed sausage, I like. This is why I don't own a maxi dress, because I fight this constant struggle of "I love it but I shouldn't have it if I want to look remotely decent". So anyway, I spied the maxi dress display and made a beeline for it. As I flipped through them, I told Branden all the reasons why I shouldn't wear one and how I thought just the right style and pattern may just work if I could just find it. Then it happened...my whole maxi dream was crushed...in my husband's rare moment of common sense.

"Mags, just look at how high the hanger is in comparison to you. You couldn't wear it if you wanted to." He obviously stated with a small grin on his face.

My face dropped. I had never thought of this before. My eyes gazed at the dress, the fabric reaching the floor, and the straps, hanging from a hanger that reached the very tip-top of my head! In slight sadness, but mostly ridiculous realization, I started cracking up! Heavens, I pretty much could have muffled my giggles in the dresses waistline! Why had I not realized this before?? I consider myself to be very practical, but I would have reached far above my head, grabbed the Amazonian dress from the rack, tried it on, and only then been surprised and disappointed that the dress was way too long for me. By this time Branden was laughing as well and my eyes were tearing up with my fit of giggles. So much for my own common sense!

Other than my maxi dress dream being crushed (and don't even think that I could just hem the skirt because if you knew my 'sewing abilities' you wouldn't suggest the demise of an innocent item of clothing) we had a very successful day of shopping! Branden got 3 pairs of jeans, I got my teapot, and we also got some new bathroom towels, a new casserole dish, and some other handy things. Now if only my allergies would let up, I may get to enjoy the week!

Irish summer is basically here!

The weather has been fantastic and should keep up for at least the rest of the week! Although my allergies keep trying to convince me that I don't like this dry, sunny weather, I have called it a big fat liar and coughed in it's face! Take that! Yesterday was fabulous as I met up with 2 of my girlfriends. One has a 1 year old boy, who is the cutest thing in the land, and the other is almost 1 month away from her due date. I said we looked like a group of sister wives and I appeared to be the unloved one...

Today has been even nicer outside and Branden and I even took a break to go to the park by our house. There is almost always an ice cream truck at this park so when we saw the Mr. Softie van, we looked at each other with excitement. (NOT what she said!) This was a different ice cream truck than the normal one that scours our neighborhood. This is a good thing as we were pretty much convinced that the other truck was a drug dealer as he would loudly jingle through the streets at 8:30 at night, long past dark, and in the dead of winter...crack cream cone anyone? I hear the Meth with chocolate chip is to die from! ...er, for...

I will be posting about my birthday fun but Branden is hogging his computer (how selfish of him!) which has all of our photos and videos on it from the day. I probably need to take some time to continue to calm down from the experience because I TOTALLY GOT 3 FEET FROM A LEMUR!!! I don't think a 4 year old girl meeting all the Disney princesses could have been as excited as I was! There was some serious flipping out going on and the photos of me as the day progressed had me looking more and more crazed with a questioning look on my face as if to say to Branden, "Can we put a kangaroo in your backpack??" Sadly, no animals were smuggled out in the process of our visit but we got some great shots and some great videos. I really want to upload a video and share it where Branden and I are looking at a baby monkey. Our conversation is completely normal for us but to the general audience, we would sound like a couple of nutters who should not be allowed out in public.

Even though today is Tuesday, I am sharing something under "Music Monday" because it's too hilarious to pass up! I love hounds and I love towheaded kids playing harmonicas so this was just brilliant! I hope you enjoy it!

First St. Paddy's Day in Ireland

We moved to Ireland about a week after St. Patrick's Day, so Saturday was our first time celebrating it here. There were reports that the weather would be bad but the morning was glorious. We started the day by making German pancakes (note: I do not know the blogger from who's blog I got the linked recipe from) and they were amazing! A parade was set to take place in Cork at 1pm, so we trekked into town to claim a spot along the street. The parade was wonderful! I love how it wasn't commercialized like most US parades that I am used to. Some of the floats were made out of cardboard and they were brilliant! As soon as the parade ended past us, the heavens opened up and chucked down rain and hail on us. Branden and I cuddled under an umbrella and waited for it to pass, which it did in about 5 mins.

If you look closely, you can see the rain/hail pelting down.

Since we were in town, we decided to check out any sales in town. We haven't been clothes shopping since we've been here, and with Branden loosing a ton of weight, he was starting to look like a well dressed, white rapper since his clothes hung off of him. We were pretty successful, and I even got a cute top for 1 euro! My jaw about hit the floor to see Branden step out of a dressing room in jeans that fit him and a shirt that fit as well...I almost thought he was the shop model! After walking and standing for about 6 1/2 hours, we headed home, crashed for a bit and then made tacos! We are so festive, I know!

Branden is now playing electric guitar in the church services, so we went to the early 10am service yesterday as he was on the music team. Our church was having a competition for best festive dressed man, woman, and child in honor of St. Patrick's Day. The congregation was a sea of green, and we had fun singing and doing hand motions for an Irish folk song, learning some Irish, and then having a Poc Fada competition, which is just seeing who can hit a ball the furthest with a hurley (stick/bat thing). Hurling is a massive sport here in Ireland and I can usually only watch it between my fingers as I anticipate someone being bludgeoned to death about every 5 seconds...it's wild.

We had a pretty good weekend I'd say. Branden has classes off today and most places are closed as it is a bank holiday, so today started pretty good too! Sleepless in Seattle came on this morning and even though I own it, I watched it on TV anyway...ahhhhh, I love that movie! Branden's spending all of today on a paper and studying for his Latin exam that will be on Thursday. I get to clean, clean, clean as we have been so busy lately and I'm a bit behind... There was ANOTHER spider crawling next to my pillow this morning! It was small and I wasn't sleeping but still!! All this lovely chat about how wonderful Ireland is around St. Patrick's Day to say, I'm moving! ...as soon as I find a nice place to live that doesn't have any spiders...

Since it is Music Monday and I just finished watching Sleepless in Seattle, here's a wonderful classic song for you today!

Now go make someone happy!

I'm back! If only my brain knew...

So I am finally off meds, feeling better, but I still have some leftovers from the cold and my energy is still lacking. I slept in till almost 11 this morning (unusual even for me) and my brain is still thinking it's nap time. I am cheating a bit today by sharing an old story with you. This was written for my old blog back in 2006, when I was a wee 22 year old. Since it's also Music Monday, I have a song to share from a friend who's music video I recently shared. She has put out yet another song and this one is so catchy and fun! She even came and saw us 2 weeks ago (the day before I got sick) with another friend! It was great to have people from home in our neck of the woods and we absolutely loved having them! This song is actually written by both of them (although Noelle seemed to say it was mostly Braden's doing), and it has a fantastic message. I hope you all enjoy it and share it as much as I do!



Now for the tale from the past:

The Blackberry Pie Bomb

In the summer, when I was about 15, my cousin (who lived in Minnesota at the time) had to go to Colorado with her husband for some business meetings. They only had 2 kids at the time (now they have something like 7 last I heard!). The oldest was probably only 4, and the youngest was probably only 2. My cousin, Kristin, was going to fly me down to watch the kids while they were in meetings. I thought this would be great! 

The plan was for me to fly to Denver and then we'd drive around Colorado for about 4 or 5 days until we finally got to Snow Mass (which is just outside of Aspen). This was where the meetings were and also where our two storied, 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom condo was! It was bigger than my house! I only watched the kids for a few hours out of the whole trip, and it was usually in the evening when they were sleeping. I got to stay in incredibly nice hotels, bed and breakfasts, condos, went on a morning horseback ride through the woods on a Tennessee Walker, and even got paid! It was great, but now for the explanation of the blackberry pie bomb. 

Blackberry pie is a big thing in my family. At any big get together we HAVE to have blackberry pie. Not just any blackberry pie either, homemade with wild, picked by my dad, blackberries, and Mmmmmm warm with vanilla ice cream. Since my cousin lived in Minnesota, she had been missing out on blackberry pies, so my mom decided to make her one. The only problem was transporting it. She made it in a glass casserole type dish that had a Tupperware lid on it. I had to stow it in my carry on bag, and dad didn't want it coming open so he covered it with cardboard and duct tape. It looked like a redneck footstool when he got done with it! The thing weighed like 10lbs too! 

When I got to the airport to check in my bag, security put it through the x-ray machine thing and of course all they saw was some solid black, large, brick type thing...so they put it through the bomb scan! I was so embarrassed. I was just praying that I didn't resemble some 15 year old Caucasian, blue eyed, terrorist! (luckily this was before 9/11) It passed inspection; they didn't open my bag and didn't even ask me about it...thank God! When I arrived in Denver, my cousin met me and offered to take my bag. She grabbed it and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! What did you pack, bricks?" I smiled at her and said, "Nope, a blackberry pie!" Her totally puzzled look was priceless and then we cracked up as I told her the story. It was a good pie too! 

Tomorrow, I'll be over at my other blog With a Meek Heart, answering Joshua's question of why I am not allowed to work in Ireland. For those of you who have wondered, you will want to take a peek...then throw rocks at the Irish government!