Ireland Adventure, Part 1, Counties Clare, Limerick, and Kerry

Yes! We made it to Ireland!! How does it feel to have a dream come true? To me it feels completely unreal. I just can't believe it! We have been here 4 remarkably busy days--every day is so unlike the rest.

DAY ONE: We flew into Shannon airport and cruised right on up to County Clare. We saw our first castle overlooking Doolin Point. And can you believe the sun? Neither can the Irish! Apparently it's been raining all summer long, and just started being sunny. The forecast says it will be good all week. How's that for amazing?

We saw the Cliffs of Moher first thing. Aren't they absolutely breathtaking? The other 3000 tourists that day thought so too.

After the cliffs we headed to our B&B in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. It was Berry Lodge, a wonderful place to stay and an even better place to eat. Everything was delectable and straight from the garden. I had an apple & pear crumble (crisp) that was to die for and the pears came right off her tree. This view of the Atlantic I found right down the street from where we were staying.

DAY TWO: We went to the Limerick Branch for church on Sunday, and met the nicest people. Tom & Jackie Kelly invited us for a delicious Sunday dinner that brought back wonderful memories of my times as a missionary in England. And I discovered that I love parsnips. The day before I discovered that I love fresh beets. I still haven't had the courage to try black or white pudding. The black is blood sausage and I don't know what the white is, but ...Ick! Not that the Kelly's served that. We had a delicious plate of roast and roasted veggies with gravy over the whole plate. Mmm! And as if that wasn't enough, they then took us on a tour of Lough Gur, a lake surrounded by ancient sites, among them: an old church ruin, a communal grave from 2500BC, and the Grange Stone Circle which is 4000 years old and is the largest stone circle in Ireland (think Stonehenge). Interesting that we actually went on the Autumnal equinox too. So here are the Kelly's (minus their Eogan who was asleep in the car) in front of the Stone Circle:

I hope if they come to Chicago (he's doing an MBA through Northwestern) that we'll get a chance to meet again. (FYI Deb: She's originally from Queensland.)

DAY THREE: Monday morning we looked around Adare for a bit and then headed to the Dingle Peninsula. Can you say this 10 times fast?

Dingle Peninsula is serious Gaeltacht territory, so most of the signs were in Gaelic. While there we walked along Ventry Beach and found some nice shells.

One thing we wanted to do was go swimming with Fungie the local dolphin that lives in Dingle Bay. No such luck. The season is over so we had to settle with taking a dolphin watching boat.

We saw him!!! He was playing tag with our boat and coming up for breath every so often. I am sure I was as excited as any of the kids who were on that boat! I love watching dolphins so much. Next time I'll swim for sure!

That night we stayed in a gorgeous out-of-the-way B&B called The Shores in Castlegregory, Co. Kerry. The hostess, Annette, met us in a black evening gown. I'm not kidding. We must have been a disappointment in our jeans and what-not. It was so well-decorated and comfortable. And at a bargain price too. (Trivia: Apparently Dire Straits stayed there and so did the cast of Melrose Place.) Annette told us about little group of locals that got together to play music, sing, dance, and tell stories every Monday night, so we went to check it out. It was in this little cottage with white washed walls, low light, and a smoky fireplace The lady played the harp, 2 people played accordions, a few children played tin whistles and so did a dad, some different people sang various old songs. One little girl did an Irish reel (without a fancy dress and curly wig by the way). I just closed my eyes and felt myself go back through the generations of my ancestry. It brought tears to my eyes. I felt like I was extremely lucky to experience such an authentic piece of their culture. I'm sure it was only because we were staying so far out in the boonies, away from big cities and "progress". We were the only foreigners there. Anyway, here's the cottage of our "culture night":

DAY FOUR: Today we came down to start exploring the Ring of Kerry. We walked through some of the Killarney National Park, hiked up and around Torc Waterfall, visited Ross Castle, and here is the Muckross House:

Built in the 1840s and having about 20 chimneys, think of what it would have cost to heat that thing?? But other than that, it's my dream home. Gorgeous, isn't it? And here's the view from the front windows:

Hiking up and around Torc Waterfall, I didn't catch any leprechauns, but I found some shamrocks!

What other remarkable adventures to come? Hopefully Skellig Michael, Cork and the Blarney Stone, and Bunratty Castle. Stay tuned...

Clean, Good Literature Ratings!!

I am so excited!! I have wondered and wondered how to find a ratings guide for modern literature. I'm too afraid to pick something random off of the shelf at the library. Who knows what it might contain? I have wished that there was a rating system like for movies, so that I would know what I was getting into. Well, my day has come!! I just became aware of www.ratedreads.com. This is a woman who has been a literary editor for a newspaper, but is also an active, returned-missionary member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her mission is to help people know what's out there that is well-written and clean too. I hope avid readers are just as excited as I am!

Glory, Glory, Back to School!

Two years ago Avandra started preschool. She was so excited to start school and with her academic mind, I knew she was coming into her own. We arrived at school the first day with some time to spare. Enough time for her to look around at all the children she didn't know, all standing in line waiting for the door to open. Enough time for her to allow all the inner fears of the unknown to come out. So when the teacher opened the door and all the other children went through, my daughter freaked out. She grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I tried to encourage her to go in, but she would not. Then the preschool teacher physically grabbed Avandra and started pulling her into the classroom. Avandra responded by wedging her body into the door frame with her arms and legs, crying out, "Mom! No!"

I was completely floored by the teacher's response, but knowing that chewing out the teacher right then wasn't going to help Avandra, I just put on this fake cheery smile and said, "Goodbye Avandra! Have a fun time! I love you!" And then I went around the corner and burst into tears. Needless to say, it was one of the most horrific moments of motherhood I have experienced.

Between that first experience with the teacher, and some subsequent ones, I requested that Couscous get a different teacher for her turn this year. Everything was going as planned until...a million new kids moved into the school district and they had to rearrange everything. When Couscous ended up in that same class I wasn't excited, but I figured things would be better. For starters, I was pretty confident that the teacher would remember our post-traumatic discussion following that first day of school for Avandra. I was sure I could count on the teacher not repeating that opening performance. But Couscous? She's more of a mama's girl than Avandra ever was. She's just the sort to become a cling-on at the exact wrong moment.

Nervous as ever, I took her to the school that first day. I timed it perfectly--just in time to watch the kids go into the classroom. No time to wait and worry. I gave my Couscous a goodbye hug...and she didn't let go. She grabbed me so tight. I wasn't sure what to say so I didn't say anything, I just held onto her too. The teacher assistant came over and said, "It's time to go inside." Couscous just kept holding onto me...and then finally said, "Goodbye Mom. See you later," and walked into the classroom. Hooray! Victory!! I guess she just needed the time to pull out her confidence from the safety of our embrace, and then she made the decision to be brave. I'm so proud of her!!

So here's a picture of her on her first day with some buddies:















As for Avandra, she hopped onto the bus taking her to 2nd grade without any hesitation. When I told her teacher that she loved to read to the point of neglecting everything else, she said, "What a teacher's dream!" I had my doubts about that, which have been justified by Avandra already having been reprimanded--for reading while the teacher is talking, for reading while the other children are at their lockers, for reading during math review. [She even skipped class in 1st grade once. She told the teacher that she had to go to the bathroom and took her book into the hall and read. ] I hope she never tries anything really dangerous because I am sure she's prone to addiction.

August Rush

At the recommendation of Carrie, T & I rented "August Rush" last night. I loved it so much. It's definitely an addition to my "Mostly Clean Movies that Don't Insult My Intelligence" list. Yes, my analytical side obviously doesn't agree with some choices that were made, or know how the next 30 minutes of the story would continue post-movie, but overall I found it so beautiful and enjoyable--the music especially. I hadn't heard of the movie before--was I just out of the loop or did it sneak in and out of the theaters?

August Re-Cap

We have had so much fun lately, but haven't had a chance to share. So here is the condensed version.

First and foremost...my sister's family is here!! Woo-hoo! We are loving having them here. If you live near here and haven't met them, you really need to. They are so cool!

Second, we continued our family tradition of going to State Fair, where everyone tried a new ride:

Third, we went to Utah for Kari & Erik's wedding (those are my kids in the picture, not theirs! We still believe in "First comes love, Then comes marriage, Then comes baby in the baby carriage.")

There was lots of fun with cousins and the girls loved spending the morning with their very cool Uncle John and Aunt Danielle up on Temple Square. (Danielle, I don't think you wanted me to post the only pictures that I have of you, sorry. The girls took them so they aren't really in focus.)

The funniest thing about that day was after the beautiful dinner at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. We watched the happy couple leave to go to their very messy, very decorated car. Only, there was a small glitch. The Honda with California plates that had been decorated was not the right Honda with California plates! So, someone later came out of the Gardens, maybe with a date, or maybe married 20 years, and they were greeted with a very messy, very decorated car that said, "Just Married!!" Needless to say, none of us stuck around to watch. Whoops! Hope they have a good sense of humor!

We also had our very own Corrigan Family Adventure! If you are part of my family, you know what that means. It usually involves my dad and lots of things going wrong. In our case, it started by us going to Deer Creek Reservoir to go waterskiing. This was the first time in 8 years that I had skiied, so I was excited. And my dad REALLY didn't want to disappoint us, so he got his boat all ready for us, even though he hadn't used it at all this summer. We should have known when we got it into the water and it wouldn't start. But between my dad (MacGuyver) and my intelligent husband, they jimmyrigged the truck's battery to the boat battery and got it all started. We went out in the lake and after everyone had a chance to get invigorated by the fresh, cool water, I got my chance to ski! I asked T to take pictures, although after 8 years, the shots he could have gotten are numerous:

Me totally biffing it

Me, a few hours later, in a total body cast

Heck, he could've even gotten the one where I'm trying desparately to keep my shorts up because they were causing drag when I forgot to take them off before jumping out of the boat.

But instead he got:


Yes, it's me! The form may not be great and I'm on 2 skiis, but I'm up!!

Immediately after I end this run (in a total wipeout) the boat's engine cuts. For good. And the next hour is spent trying to flag down some help, trying not to get blown onto the rocky beach, and going through 3 ropes trying to get pulled back to dock by some very nice and very inexperienced boaters. I tried not to freak out, since we had to catch our plane a few hours later. But we made it back to Christie's house where T & I threw our luggage together, each took a 5 minute shower, and then raced to the airport. Made it!

Other fun Utah adventures pertaining to my family can be found

here or

here (scroll down a little if you want to see what we look like photoshopped in with the rest of my family. It kind of makes me feel like we're the embarrassing illegitimate children. Not even invited for the real picture, just snuck in after. Interesting piece of trivia: The shirt T is wearing is the same shirt my brother-in-law is wearing. I don't mean from the same rack at the same store, I mean, the exact same shirt. Photoshopping is a modern day miracle, I tell you.)

or here (for a funny story about and cute picture of Avandra)

How's that for an update? Told you we had fun!

Bloody Mess

Congratulations to Avandra, who has gone from looking like this:

To looking like this:

And kudos to T, who was able to stay there coaching ("Twist, push, Did you hear it pop? Wow! It's sticking straight out when you do that! Can you taste the blood?") while I ran, hid, closed my eyes, and covered my ears. Yuck! And how many times do I have to go through this again? Thank goodness for T!! And Avandra is SO proud of herself, since she's one of the latest kids to start losing teeth. So Hooray!

Hooray! Politics is Interesting Again!

Thank you Gov. Sarah Palin, for making me care about this election again!I was so burnt out but she's breathed in new life. I actually WANT to vote now. For who? I don't know yet. But I'm actually motivated to study it out, whereas 1 week ago I couldn't have cared less. I think it's exciting that no matter which party wins, we will be making history in the White House, either with race or gender. And my first impression is that she's a far more acceptable woman for me to vote for than Hilary ever was.