July a recap

Well  the Kitchen isn't finished (originally thought it would be complete in May, then June ...you get the idea) , we are still at the painting point- thanks to a combo of hot mud and painters tape, not getting on well, and pulling off our fresh paint.  I am hoping that painting will be finished this week and that next week brings, back breaking work with cement board -that is laying it on the ground over a layer of thinset-, after that i believe comes assembling the cabinets but at this stage i have lost track of what happens when ,i just know the stress continues.

Matt has been working at Microsoft now for just over a month and whether or not he is loving it (he is) is 'almost' immaterial to me  just seeing him come home in the evening is astounding the latest time he gets home is almost the earliest time he used to get home while working for Amazon. As i said earlier renovations in our future kitchen continue so he is still busy busy busy

July 27th we celebrated our 9th anniversary - yes we have been married forever and yes we are ancient, to celebrate we went on an underground tour of Seattle, it was fun and informative. Followed of course by dinner. seemed very low key this year, we didnt even get each other anything,  maybe we are tired of each other ;p

On saturday the 30th we celebrated our sealing date as a family since it is the date we became a forever family ( In Ireland and the UK you have to be married civilly before being married in the temple, we were married on a Saturday in Ireland the temple was closed in the UK on Monday thus we were sealed on a tuesday- in case anyone is wondering :) )  Since the theme for 9th anniversary is pottery the 3 of us went to a color me mine studio and painted a plate each - they will fire and glaze the plates for us and they will be ready for us to eat off of by the end of this week!

Emma is continuing half-heartedly doing school work while i enforce it half-heartedly/half of the time , summer seems to have finally arrived in the Northwest  and so i let her run around and play as much as she can while the sun is out - most of the time anyway. - We are both pretty sick of math facts but thankfully the reading part of the curriculum is not a hardship!



That is all

video killed the radio star

Facebook killed Blogger

will Google+ kill facebook?

I hope not cause now all of the stuff i would have put on my Blog is on Facebook, sure it isnt as cohesive as a blog post would be but when you are sharing everything you do online  already you dont feel you have anything to share in a blog post!

another catchup

so i guess with Facebook i kindof feel like i never have anything to write on my blog cause its all on Fb now but just so something is here i thought i would post the pictures of my 13 days of valentines, then matt took me to dinner on Valentines day...



It was a fun project, it certainly kept me busy for half of february!!!!!




 A quick note about my birthday (March 10th), after presents on my birthday including flowers balloons a hair cut games a kindle a bag of 30 gifts,earrings and dinner and dessert with friends. Matt took me away for a night - thanks largely to the fact that the Dacus Family put up with my darling crazy energetic daughter over night! The whole thing made me feel really special which is certainly not how i felt when i woke in the morning to me being 30.  I think certain ages really make you sit down and think about what you have done to get to this milestone (millstone) or what you haven't done. What Ifs  are hard to deal with. I looked at where i thought i would be, what i wanted for myself and i cried. I cried because I have not become the person i was hoping to be, I have not achieved the things i expected of myself. I know this doesnt mean i havent achieved other things or blah blah blah but that is just how turning 30 made me feel.
 Luckily once your mind is sufficiently occupied by being totally spoilt you tend not to think of 'how much of a failure I am' and just have fun. waking up the day after my birthday, I didnt feel the need to 'take stock' this doesnt mean that i like being 30 because 30 is still ancient, But really i dont have a choice but to be 30.

Christmas

I almost feel like ignoring the blog since it has been so long but a christmas update is required!

We arrived in Ireland on the 10th december and flew out on the 6th January . we spent christmas In the uk with Wendy(matts mom) Beth (sister) and Warwick (or almost uncle warwick as Emma called him :) )  we had a great time and Emma did really well santa and family spoilt her rotten. she was thrilled to get to do it all again when we got back to Ireland!

Emma spent most of the month of december conspiring with her cousin Robert (4) and when she could she would get the rest of her cousins to do her bidding (3,2,20months,the 7month old was impervious to her charm :) )  Basically having an absolute blast so much so that when we got home she did not know what to do with herself poor little only child that she is!

Matt had a blast getting his DIY on working with my Dad - he was so active he lost over 10lbs! over christmas period i mean really!!!!!
 i on the other hand while increasing my activity level by shopping everyday ate all the christmassy foods like pate and cheeses everyday to so while matt lost 10lbs i fear i may have found a few of those he lost!

I was able to meet Racheal for the first time and matt was able to meet Racheal and Megan (i met Megan briefly in sept 2009 when i came over for Elaines wedding (i was in Ireland for 3 days!). For me this is the hardest thing about living so far away while i miss my sisters and parents i hate not being able to get to know my nieces and nephews!

it was great to get to spend a chunk of time with family

One of the presents Matt and i got was a night away ! family booked us into a hotel in the wicklow mountains (stunning views-sorry no pics you can check here to look at how awesome the hotel was. Matts Favourite part quoting his facebook status " Few things in life are better than all you can eat bacon and sausages!!" the breakfast buffet the ol' fry up not that anyone here could get close to a fry up in ireland or england for that matter, bacon ,sausage, black and white pudding (if you dont know what im talking about check here to try make black pudding check here hint black pudding ingregients include a pint of pigs blood :)  )
then of course eggs, mushrooms fried tomatoes toast baked beans(i leave these out yeuch! only baked beans i like are courtesy of Ben Nelson and whatever way he cooks them! )


Ok now that my mouth is watering thinking of the fry up i might as well include other foods i miss from Ireland/UK (american translation in brackets!)
chips (french fries) from a chipper  better yet garlic cheese chips(fries with  garlic mayonnaise and cheese all melty on top) mmmmmmmn
breast in a bun  from hillbillies(chicken breast in a bun from a chipper in Cork)
chocolate 
prawn crackers
prawn cocktail flavour crisps(chips, as a side note prawn cocktail sauce is  made with mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcester sauce and paprika and sometimes some Cayenne pepper so imagine that on a chip! in no way is it like the marinara type sauce you get here)
im sure there are others but that will do for now!!!!!




we finally had some spear photos taken the first time since there where more than 1 grandchild that we have had a decent photo taken of all of us! while it certainly was drama filled to get in there it will be great to have until one of my other sisters pops out another one. Jenna and Cath both say no not I which leaves Melissa (currently only dating) to produce the next grandkid!!!!!hopefully soon we will have some pics to show from that  in the meantime see my profile pic on facebook!!!!


sorry for the long rambling post i am out of practice!!!