Sunday 29 May 2011

Cousin's Wedding

Yesterday was a long, but great day. Prep for the wedding started Friday with my friend C, treating me to an eyebrow wax and tint and fake lashes. Then Saturday morning I got up around 7:30 and started make up and at 9, cousin AB came down and curled my hair. It took over an hour to curl it all. Then we left for the ceremony at 11. The church was two hours away in Kingscourt, Ireland.

I should introduce who was getting married. One of my husband's cousin, A, was marrying an English man, N. They had met in university in England. They've been dating for at least 4 years. She is one of three girls of my mother-in-laws brother. To continue, the car ride down was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that as we got closer to the wedding the roads got really small and curvy. I got a little car sick to say the least. We got to the church just before the bride and took our seats. The ceremony was a Catholic one, so it was about an hour, but the priest was very friendly and nice. O did very good. She walked around in the corner with her little heels so she made clicking noises through most of the ceremony. Her cousin's A and R were also there so she had someone to play with. The bride was gorgeous as well as the bridal party and the church. After the ceremony everyone got to congratulate the newly married couple, then it was an hour to the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell Ireland for the reception.

The hotel was lovely. We had wanted to stay there at night, but it was a little pricey so we all planned on coming home after the reception. We were greeted to a tea and cake snacks while the photos were taken. Then it was some family photos and dinner. The food was amazing. We had salad, soup, steak, and a wonderful dessert, followed by tea and coffee. Again O did really well snacking on some chips. We were at the same table as two of R's aunt and another lovely couple and the wee cousin's A and R.

After dinner they did the speeches, which took about an hour for all of them. Then we went outside to light flying lanterns into the sky. That was pretty funny, but some of them weren't taking off properly so we that tree and the hotel were going to be set on first. These things would be very illegal back in the States, but it's so wet here so they wouldn't start a forest fire when they landed.  The joke was that in the papers today we were going to see a destruction of a small village just a few miles away. The lanterns were followed by a band and a DJ. That's when the party really started. The older relatives said their goodbyes and everyone got their drink and dance on. My daughter is a party animal. She was one of the first on the dance floor and didn't leave until she literally passed out in her jammies dancing. She was so cute, everyone was taking pictures of her and dancing with her.

She fell asleep in a pack n'play in the corner of the room and we finally took off around 2 in the morning. With the drive home we didn't in until almost 4. So needless today, it hasn't been a very productive day.  I wish I could tell you more about it, but than it would be a very very long blog. Below are some pictures of the wedding. I took pictures of just some of the hats and fascinators for all of you. Tonight we've got Beoga's concert at Bryson's in Magherafelt which will be loads of fun, cause a lot of the cousins are coming too!

Princess O and her daddy headed into the church

The bridal party signing the papers

The front of the church


O and her cousin A all dress up.

Most, if not all of the guests.

The two of us glammed up.

I loved this hat!


Aunt M's fascinator

This lovely girl let me take a picture of her fascinator.

Another Aunt M and her fascinator

The bride and groom with all of her side of the family. Let's say my husband has alot of aunts, uncles and cousins. In fact we're missing 9 cousins.

The wedding cake. I loved the marzipan. The African theme came from where they got engage. N had taken A down to Africa to propose to her. The table names were also names of animals from Africa.


The flying lanterns

Uncle A's lantern

The three stooges. Uncle A, my husband R and Uncle L. Can you see the family resemblance?

Us together. R giving his best blue steel.

O booging away

4 generations. The greats are in the middle and us with the in-laws.

The babe passed out with all the music and people. She didn't wake up when we transferred her to the car until we got to a quiet area.

oíche mhaith

Friday 27 May 2011

Reflections on our trip.

Our trip back to America was everything we wanted it to be and more. My husband was able to get some part time jobs and put more in our savings. He also got to bring our Mustang, or his baby out of storage for the whole time we were there. He even was able to change some components to it. I was able to visit with so many of my friends and family. My mom came out from Denver to visit and we had a wonderful week together. I didn't get to see everyone however and if we didn't catch up, I'm sorry. You would think that 6 weeks would give you plenty of time to visit everyone since O and I didn't have many plans. Nope, It's hard to coordinate everyone into the week and weekends were even harder. But the trip back was just what I needed.
Nothing makes you feel more loved and missed then seeing everyone you love after 6 months. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about since some are in the service and don't see their loved ones for even longer. But I'm not just talking about family, I'm talking about best friends, friends and co-workers. Without these people I don't know where I would be. What was also a wonderful  was kind of feeling like a mini-celebrity since many of you would come up to me and say how much you loved my blog. That means a lot to me and gives me the motivation to keep writing.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't exactly excited to go back to Northern Ireland. Don't get me wrong, I love living in Europe and know in my heart that we made the right decision. But coming back made me realize just how rich my life was in Maine. Also my husband and I realized that living with the in-laws is taking a harder toll on us then we thought. It just gives us even more motivation to get a house ASAP!

The weather has been crappy since we got back. But I have faith we'll have a good summer. Today I'm getting some much needed pampering for the big wedding tomorrow.  One on R's cousins is getting married. A is the first cousin after my husband to get married, and there are 25+ of them. It will be nice to have the family all back together. I can't wait to tell you all about the wedding.

Here are some pictures of our trip to Maine!

Easter Morning. She discovered the M & M's hidden inside

With Daddy at a test event for Kraft Lunchables



Family photo at C & B's

Eating popcorn with auntie K

O all dressed up for Sabbath School

Perfect picture taken by my mum

4 generations. My grandmother, mother, me and O.


A windy day at the Deering Park playground

Another day at the park

Enjoying the beach with Granny.


O wasn't afraid of the water at all. Even though it was freezing


oíche mhaith

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Trip back to N.I

Hello. It's me again. I am back in Ireland after a good flight and a days rest. It's been a long time since I've blogged or written anything. I don't know where to begin or how to tell you all the feelings that are going through my mind. I didn't write the whole time we were over there because we were out straight visiting friends and family and I was with most of my blog audience. But now that I'm back, I will definitely be more diligent.

We made it to Ireland safe and sound. The trip back wasn't as bad as the trip to America. Everything seemed to work out so well. When we flew the first time, my husband and I each had a suitcase and a carry-on each. Well, we ended up getting alot of stuff that we wanted to take back with us that they don't sell in N.I or that we know of anyways. Such as popcorn kernels (for my air popper), Pepperridge Farm Gold fish, Foldgers coffee, and our deodorants. It's funny what you're will to find a substitute to and what you're not. O also got alot of toys and clothes from my mom and grandma C. So lets just say our bags were stuffed to the brim, we added an extra check in, and we also added an extra carry-on. On top of that, I dug through my old baby clothes and since we didn't have any room for those, C is sending them to us. I honestly didn't think we'd come back with this much stuff. But oh well it was nice to shop.

Anyways, our flight was good. We left Portland just shortly after 6 pm, when the Rapture was supposed to take place (I won't bore you with my thoughts on that). We had an hour flight to Newark and that was okay. O didn't like being confined to our seats, but there were only 8 people on the whole flight so we each got a seat, much different then coming to Maine. We got to Newark in plenty of time to grab some McDonald's and get O into her jammies. Just before we boarded I ask the clerk at the check-in counter if we could get a baby bed for her, but they said they didn't have any left, but she said she could work it so that we could have more room, but she didn't really tell me what that meant since the flight was full. She ended up getting O her own seat between us . The first 20 minutes of the long flight were not very nice since we weren't moving, baby was over tired and the lights were on. As soon as we started moving and they dimmed the lights she was out, well like a light. It was a smaller plane, so only 3 seats on each side which was perfect. She slept almost the whole way and only cried a little bit when we strapped her into the seat for landing.


We got to Ireland safe and sound and completely exhausted. My husband and O slept all morning and I got about a 2 hour nap. It is nice to be back, but I am really missing everyone and also my brain hasn't quite wrapped around the time change and the fact that I can't just jump in a car and see people.(more thoughts on that later). We're all unpacked and falling back into our routine.

I hope all of you are well and I'll be posting pictures of our trip soon.

oíche mhaith