Rock of Cashel

The Rock of Cashel-built between the 12th and 16th centuries.

I'm trying...

to update. I didn't have Internet for the first 10 days, last night it was on and off due to a storm I think and Blogger is being grumpy about uploading photos.

Ballinure, County Tipperary

First house-Ballinure

Sitting on the wall watching cars go by on the "wrong" side of the road.

Back yard with stables.

View over the back fence of the Ballinure Game Preserve.

The view from the grocery store parking lot. Not quite like the view we have from Wal Mart!

That's the Rock of Cashel in the distance.

Ireland Adventures

It's been a bit of a rocky start. Our plane from Atlanta was a little delayed. We left at 9:15 rather than 8:55 pm.

Watching the planes in Atlanta.

Waiting.

Our flight from Atlanta to Dublin was not great. LOTS of turbulence. The pilot also let us know that the lightning we could see was WAY off in the distance. After all, we were flying Air France and they did have the plane go down last month.

We got lucky going through customs. We were taken from the back of the line and ushered to an empty window! Then we waited for daddy to get the car which was too small. We upgraded.


Driving from the airport to our hotel was an experience. The street signs are on walls of buildings and fences so it took us awhile to figure out where we were supposed to go. The streets are skinny and driving on the left was breathtaking-not in a good way.

Our hotel is the old Mason's building; very cool looking. The night was really rough for one of us me. One of us me got some bad food on one of the flights and spent the night on the bathroom floor.

We went to Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Grafton Street and St Stephan's Green today.

We're Off!

We've arrived at San Diego Airport, gone thorough security, had our required McDonald's breakfast and now the big wait. Security was essentially a breeze for Paul. He went through first, I helped the kids get their shoes and jackets off and put their backpacks in bins. They went off through the screening machine. I took the laptop out of my bag like I had read to do, got my shoes and jacket off and into a bin. Then the friendly (really-totally nice guy) ask if any of the backpacks had a DVD player. Why, yes they all do. Those also have to be taken out of the backpacks, out of the DVD cases and put into separate bins. So, I managed about eight bins on my own while Paul put his shoes back on blissfully ignorant of what I was doing. Then he gets pulled aside by security because, after being quizzed by his loving wife, they find another pocket knife in his backpack. He'd already put one in his checked bag before we got out of the shuttle. Men!!!
Only another hour and my happy pill can be taken.

A Pirate's Life For Me.

Have you been on a Duffy Boat? We cruised around Naples last Sunday afternoon.


Daddy and his girls.

Except for my niece on the far left and my son-in-law in the straw hat, these are all Hawkins' children!

Happy Mother's Day

I just have to share my Mother's Day "letter" from Kieran.

My Mom

Do you love your Mom? I do.

These are some things about my Mom.

The first thing is that she will be taking my brother, sister and me to Ireland.

She is also good at cooking and planting.

She has lots of pictures of relatives in her family and our family.

She has beautiful eyelashes and gentle light skin.

She has dark red hair.

She is always good at board games like Monopoly and Sorry.

And those are some things about my Mom.

Hellooo Blogspot

(The title is my rendition of Carrie Bradshaw's "Hellooo Lover")

I've been neglecting you. I have developed a problem called Facebook. I'm sorry. I'm not alone though. Look at Terrell over there at My Life-Defined. Not a post since March 11th. Bad-worse than me. It's partially you Blogspot. You are being snarky uploading pictures. I want to edit them and you just won't let me. Then I get frustrated and go away for too long, I know. Things have been happening too. It was March after all. We had lots of dancing and carrying on. The Wee Trinity turned nine and spent the day at Disneyland. All of our passports have arrived. Kieran looks like a member of the Hitler Youth in his picture. I think it's kind of interesting that my kids and I all got our first passports in the same year. Do they know how lucky they are?
I promise I'll be back Blogspot if you promise to be easier with the whole picture thing.

Mommy Thoughts

Boys and Bathrooms

How can the military feel confident about letting men have guns when their aim is so poor?

They Just Make Me Laugh

We were home late from dance class last night because a reporter from the San Diego Tribune was there taking pictures for an upcoming article about our dance school. So, when we got home I heated up a pre-made batch of cashew chicken minus the cashews for the kids. When I set his plate down Kyle asked, "Do I have any nuts?" Just that sent me into pants wetting giggles. Kyle's reply, "What? Ohhhh." Then the boys were laughing too. It took Kendra awhile to get it.