Tuesday, August 27, 2013
expect the unexpected
a few new Irish things
School:
No peanut butter allowed ( I guess that s allergy paranoia to the extreme)
They don't eat peanut butter and jelly over here.
They do eat nutella sandwiches or so Audrey our insider says
Haircuts:
Ladies are not allowed to have haircut at the barber, have to go to salon
GPS:
pretty much guaranteed to be wrong half the time. Google may have their european division headquartered in Ireland but we seem to have >40% failure rate of directions.
school starts Thursday and we re trying to figure out what we can make no PB&J no potato chips (aka crisps)...
thats all for now
Rob
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Blogging for the procrastinator...
Well, I've been the most remiss blogger ever - it has been over a month since my last post and so much has happened.
Saying goodbye in Oregon was really tough. The "see you later" party was wonderful, but also hard. Lots of tears and hugs. For the adults and for the kids. Then we had a few days at our hotel home in Hillsboro with nothing to do but see family and try to get in as much love and coffee as our little hearts could hold. Then the really hard day came, when we had to say goodbye to family for good. Hard to watch all of the cousins sobbing as the car pulled away.
Then on to Florida. Our week-long vacation with Rob's parents was simply wonderful. A week when we couldn't do much about our move to Ireland, and were forced to sit by the pool, take boat rides and eat wonderful meals prepared for us by my mother and father in law. Then the day came when we had to say goodbye and head over the big ocean to a our new home.
The trip went really well - the kids were champs and before we knew it we were landing in Dublin. Then it got interesting. Our rental car was a stick shift. Let me just paint a picture for all of you who have spent your lives driving down the right side of roads with normal sized lanes, on the left side of the car with the stick shift operated by your right hand as God clearly intended. Here we were, faced with a car having the steering wheel on the right side, asking us to drive on the left side of the road, and operate the stick shift with our left hand. Rob drove. I squealed and jumped. The children cried, then we finally made it home. Within a few days both Rob and I were feeling pretty confident with the crazy new arrangement - enough that when we bought a used car a few days ago, we chose to get a stick. Better mileage and all.
That first day was a whirlwind. We landed in Dublin at 8, took the above mentioned- cringe-inducing ride, got the keys to our new house at 11 and met the movers with our 1108 pounds of stuff at 1. After an hour or two of unpacking and learning how the house works (let me just say that it isn't as intuitive as you might imagine - I will devote a whole blog posting to the wonders of boilers, radiators and electric showers) we went to our hotel. We stayed at the hotel for a few days to get our bearings and get the house ready to live in. And to have the chance to eat out rather than face cooking.
So now we are here. We have trash (or rubbish) service, a TV with cable (a new treat for the kids), a car and internet. We've been to a bog, a camogie match and to the pub to watch hurling. Our kids have a gang of friends in the estate (what they call a neighborhood here - fancy isn't it?) and Rob and I have our first overnight trip planned. We will be traveling to Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher and Innishmore.
I'm homesick as hell, but each time we can pry the kids away from their new friends long enough to see some of our new home we all are happier for it. So see our new home and surroundings we will. But if you can come to see us, the guest room is set up and the pull-out couch is waiting.
Saying goodbye in Oregon was really tough. The "see you later" party was wonderful, but also hard. Lots of tears and hugs. For the adults and for the kids. Then we had a few days at our hotel home in Hillsboro with nothing to do but see family and try to get in as much love and coffee as our little hearts could hold. Then the really hard day came, when we had to say goodbye to family for good. Hard to watch all of the cousins sobbing as the car pulled away.
Then on to Florida. Our week-long vacation with Rob's parents was simply wonderful. A week when we couldn't do much about our move to Ireland, and were forced to sit by the pool, take boat rides and eat wonderful meals prepared for us by my mother and father in law. Then the day came when we had to say goodbye and head over the big ocean to a our new home.
The trip went really well - the kids were champs and before we knew it we were landing in Dublin. Then it got interesting. Our rental car was a stick shift. Let me just paint a picture for all of you who have spent your lives driving down the right side of roads with normal sized lanes, on the left side of the car with the stick shift operated by your right hand as God clearly intended. Here we were, faced with a car having the steering wheel on the right side, asking us to drive on the left side of the road, and operate the stick shift with our left hand. Rob drove. I squealed and jumped. The children cried, then we finally made it home. Within a few days both Rob and I were feeling pretty confident with the crazy new arrangement - enough that when we bought a used car a few days ago, we chose to get a stick. Better mileage and all.
That first day was a whirlwind. We landed in Dublin at 8, took the above mentioned- cringe-inducing ride, got the keys to our new house at 11 and met the movers with our 1108 pounds of stuff at 1. After an hour or two of unpacking and learning how the house works (let me just say that it isn't as intuitive as you might imagine - I will devote a whole blog posting to the wonders of boilers, radiators and electric showers) we went to our hotel. We stayed at the hotel for a few days to get our bearings and get the house ready to live in. And to have the chance to eat out rather than face cooking.
So now we are here. We have trash (or rubbish) service, a TV with cable (a new treat for the kids), a car and internet. We've been to a bog, a camogie match and to the pub to watch hurling. Our kids have a gang of friends in the estate (what they call a neighborhood here - fancy isn't it?) and Rob and I have our first overnight trip planned. We will be traveling to Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher and Innishmore.
I'm homesick as hell, but each time we can pry the kids away from their new friends long enough to see some of our new home we all are happier for it. So see our new home and surroundings we will. But if you can come to see us, the guest room is set up and the pull-out couch is waiting.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The movers are coming...the movers are coming!
I have officially moved from nervous to actively twitchy in the last several days. And yet I am still choosing to spend time with friends and family rather than go through cupboards and other areas of the house that need to be sorted.
I keep repeating the phrase shared with me by my handsome husband: "If the movers pack up and store stuff we don't really want to keep, it's not the end of the world". Maybe not the end of the world, but it just might be a harbinger of doom. However, that could just be me.
Today marks just 4 days until movers come, and just 12 days before we fly out of Portland. Now many of my interactions with friends are the last for a long while and are thus a bit weepy. All my friends will remember me stressed and teary. That's why they all need to visit us - to erase that memory and replace it with a better one. Hopefully of us settled into our new Irish home, ready to host and share the beautiful country with visitors.
So save your pennies people, we mean it when we say we want you to visit.
I keep repeating the phrase shared with me by my handsome husband: "If the movers pack up and store stuff we don't really want to keep, it's not the end of the world". Maybe not the end of the world, but it just might be a harbinger of doom. However, that could just be me.
Today marks just 4 days until movers come, and just 12 days before we fly out of Portland. Now many of my interactions with friends are the last for a long while and are thus a bit weepy. All my friends will remember me stressed and teary. That's why they all need to visit us - to erase that memory and replace it with a better one. Hopefully of us settled into our new Irish home, ready to host and share the beautiful country with visitors.
So save your pennies people, we mean it when we say we want you to visit.
Friday, June 28, 2013
It's all coming together now
Just one month to go. A friend came over yesterday to help me sort and remove. We've only just scratched the surface and yet we came up with 4 bags for Goodwill, 3 bags for freecycle, a bag of toiletries for a shelter and plenty of good old fashioned trash. How did we manage to accumulate so much stuff? I must remember this feeling of drowning in belongings and not let it happen again. Oof. So, plenty more to do.
That said, we are making a point to do all the stuff we love/haven't ever done here in Portland. We went to Kruger farms for the concert for the first time last night. Such a great time! How have we been missing this every summer? Jeez.
We also plan to do at least one movie in the park - although I've got to say that keeping my kids up in public until 10:30 or so could be problematic. Both for them and for the public...but, we only have a month left so it's now or never.
Sadly we will miss two of my favorite summer events in Portland - so you should go for me. The Portland Festival Symphony is awesome, the very best performance is the first one in Cathedral Park. Really anything that happens in Cathedral Park is great.
http://www.portlandfestivalsymphony.org/schedule.html
And Trek in the Park is perfection. And they outgrew their previous park home, so now they perform in Cathedral Park. See, everything that happens in Cathedral Park is great! Here's the link to Trek - and if you think you don't like Star Trek well....where do I start? How about I just say to try it live - it's a whole different animal and is not to be missed. Honest.
http://www.atomic-arts.org/
TTFN
That said, we are making a point to do all the stuff we love/haven't ever done here in Portland. We went to Kruger farms for the concert for the first time last night. Such a great time! How have we been missing this every summer? Jeez.
We also plan to do at least one movie in the park - although I've got to say that keeping my kids up in public until 10:30 or so could be problematic. Both for them and for the public...but, we only have a month left so it's now or never.
Sadly we will miss two of my favorite summer events in Portland - so you should go for me. The Portland Festival Symphony is awesome, the very best performance is the first one in Cathedral Park. Really anything that happens in Cathedral Park is great.
http://www.portlandfestivalsymphony.org/schedule.html
And Trek in the Park is perfection. And they outgrew their previous park home, so now they perform in Cathedral Park. See, everything that happens in Cathedral Park is great! Here's the link to Trek - and if you think you don't like Star Trek well....where do I start? How about I just say to try it live - it's a whole different animal and is not to be missed. Honest.
http://www.atomic-arts.org/
TTFN
Thursday, June 6, 2013
A change of heart
One of the most difficult parts of this huge change for us has been my fear that our children would not thrive in Ireland. Audrey in particular was filled with anger and sadness at the loss of her friends, community and close relationship with family here in Portland. Well, something has shifted and she is feeling excited and ready to go. She filled her backpack with Ireland stickers and is thrilled with the house that we've committed to in our new home:
(22 The Arches, Maynooth, Co. Kildare
http://www.daft.ie/searchrental.daft?id=1344719)
I don't know what made this change come about (perhaps lots of prayer on my part helped), but I'm so glad for it. Audrey credits her 2nd grade teacher Erin Quinton with her change of heart. We stopped in at our old elementary school yesterday afternoon and Audrey and Ms. Quinton hatched a plan to correspond while we are away. Audrey will be Ms. Quinton's class pen pal. She also tells me that learning about families on the Oregon Trail gave her some perspective. What those kids went through made moving to Ireland look pretty good to her. Thank God for covered wagons.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
How much does your history weigh?
Odd thing to realize that all of our worldly possessions need to be whittled down to 1000 pounds of air freight and a 200 dollar a month storage space. In case that seems like a lot, it's not. Trust me on this. We, like most people, have way more stuff than we need/want/realized we had. Some of it is really hard to part with, some of it I can't believe we've had this long. There is a mental toll in simply having things. You have to tidy them, or dust them, or just use energy and time figuring out where to put them and where they are should you actually want to find them again. Ahh, how much better simply to not have the stuff in the first place.
But then I think of heirlooms and how few of them I really have. Does that matter? Do I and my family have a less than rich history because we don't have belongings attached to that history? Weighty matters folks, weighty matters. About 1000 pounds worth to be exact.
And I will leave you with this last thought: in Ireland a boot is the trunk of a car and a fanny is not a person's backside, it is "lady parts". If I misuse the first one, people might be confused. If I misuse the second, people will be offended. I'll need to learn this stuff soon.
But then I think of heirlooms and how few of them I really have. Does that matter? Do I and my family have a less than rich history because we don't have belongings attached to that history? Weighty matters folks, weighty matters. About 1000 pounds worth to be exact.
And I will leave you with this last thought: in Ireland a boot is the trunk of a car and a fanny is not a person's backside, it is "lady parts". If I misuse the first one, people might be confused. If I misuse the second, people will be offended. I'll need to learn this stuff soon.
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