American Holidays aboard

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone has a great day.

This is my second Thanksgiving over in Northern Ireland. It hasn't been the only American holiday I've tried to celebrate over here. We did a small flag waving for the 4th of July and luckily Memorial Day and Labor Day are celebrated over here,just with different names.  It's hard to get into a different mindset when no one in your area understands the importance of the day. I went to the Thursday Mother and Toddler and they were making Christmas cookies. Had to laugh at myself since it felt very wrong to be making Christmas cookies on a day like today when I should just be stuffing my face. However after today I won't feel guilty watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas Music.

Last year at this time we were still unpacking and it was snowing. We did a small dinner with the family and celebrated just being back in Ireland. However this year seems so much different. I am home alone all day and we're not going to do a big dinner until Sunday. I have been given permission to change Sunday dinner up a little bit with devilled eggs and our family's seven-layered salad. I was trying to get a hold of some pumpkin pie mix and found a great website, but it's just too dear for shipping for one little can. (I will however make one soon when I order my root beer). It will be nice to take over a dinner with a few family members. Maybe next year R will get off and we'll do a big dinner with people around in the area.

The worst part about being over here during an American holiday is missing out on the days off, the family all around, the parade and just the over all holiday spirit. Yes, I am home all day, but no one else is home with me. I hope I don't sound too depressing. I know things will get better and someday I'll be able to fly over for Thanksgiving, but sometimes it's just too hard to see the forest through the trees (think I got that saying right). But I'm not the only one in this boat. There are service men and women all over the globe without their families and many people have no choice but to be separated from their loved ones. I do count my blessing that I am able to be home everyday with my daughter and we have a lovely house to live in and especially R has a job that he is loving.

It's not all bad because Christmas is coming and I have to say, I LOVE Christmas over here. We have the Christmas markets, R's huge family around and everyone has at least 2 weeks off for the holidays! So after today it's countdown to K's visit and only 4 more weeks until everyone is home for the holidays. I know the Irish wouldn't like me saying this, but I really can't wait for snow either. Hoping for another white Christmas this year. I promise the next blogs won't be as depressing.

Again, I hope everyone has a great day and very excited that I can Skype many of you in the middle of the week!

oíche mhaith

The month of October part 3 and 4

As mentioned in the last post October was a very busy month for us. While my dad was here, R and I went to two Halloween parties over that weekend. The first one was Friday night at the Errigle Inn in Belfast and the second one was a house party at G & A's new house.

The Errigle was a fancy dress gig by Beoga. We got dressed at R's cousins's house and taxied over to the bar. It was a good gig, a little noisy for the bands but good. Almost everyone dressed up. Some of the costumes were the generic ones you see everyone, while others were down right creative. R, dressed up as Wolverine was responsible for walking around and picking the top five costumes and the crowd would choose from there. The winner was Mr.T, which was a pretty sweet costume. There was also a very tall man with permed hair in an hold Irish dancing dress. He liked to walk around showing his legs, but ended up showing people much more, it wasn't a pretty sight. Overall it was a good night. I dressed up as Storm from the X-men with white contacts and a very tight corset. It wasn't the most comfortable costume and I couldn't sit or see for most of the night.

R and I in our Halloween costumes

R with his Wolverine face.

The next day we went over to G & A's for their Halloween party. They actually had a theme to their's, famous dead people. R went as Bon Scott (first lead singer from AC/DC) and I went as a dead 80's groupie cause I was just costumed out from the previous night. That was also a good night. It was mostly his family, which we had all met before. However, I just really wasn't feeling it, so I tried to go to bed early. However one of the family fell down the stairs and an ambulance was called so that made for an interesting finish to the night.


But all of that leads to part 4 of the month of October. Even though part 4 started in October it keeps going into November. I'm going to preface this with this is not a pity party. This is just me sharing my feelings about what is going on right now in a safe forum. I haven't posted it on Facebook because I wasn't sure how some people would take it if I expressed myself in a short sentence. But I'm lonely. Now that R is gone during the day I have no one to talk to but a little irrational human. They leave at 6:15 am in the morning and don't get home until after 7pm. It makes for a long and lonely day. Another part of this is because R is gone all day I have no car, so if it rains we can't get out of the house at all. This means that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday we can't get to Maghera for the mother and toddler groups. So no adult interaction for me. I've started going to one at the Baptist church here in Tobermore, but no one talks to me, even worse than at the start of the Maghera ones, and it seems I can't be their friend unless I convert and join their church.

It comes down to a simple thing; I'm tired of trying to make new friends when all I want is my old ones. The Halloween parties kind of started it all. If I had some of my own friends, I could have sat comfortably and chatted all night long, but where I really don't know anyone outside of R's family it makes it hard to talk to people. Especially when I feel people just don't get my sense of humour. I've never really had a hard time making friends, but over here it feels like people just really don't like or get me. It will get better when I get a real job and hang out with people outside of children, but I miss chats on the phone, Friday beers, and hanging out at other people's houses. With Christmas coming up, I really want to throw a party, but who would come?  It could be worse, there could be no Facebook or skype...

The license will come and friends will come, but it's just hard when you know what your missing.



oíche mhaith

The month of October part 1 and 2

It's been a month since my last blog and lots has happened since then.

1. My husband finally got a job!

2. My Dad came over for a 10 day visit

3. Two Halloween parties

4. Solitude is not for me. 

The best thing that happened in October was R finally finding a job. It was a year long process and very trying. Originally he had applied for a job at a lab company that I mentioned in September. Well, they never called. In fact it took almost 4 weeks to hear anything, and it came from the recruitment agency. As many of you know, they didn't say no to him but they didn't say yes because they wanted to explore their options. Which really means they didn't want to pay the recruitment fees for the perfect candidate. While he was waiting for the lab company, he applied for a graphic design job at a Irish dress making company. To cut a long story short, he got the design job. When they interviewed him, they didn't realize how much he could do (media wise) and now they are putting him through his paces. He is helping design their new media and working with their website. In fact he's really liking the job and is working up the ladder. It's a perfect fit. We are thankful everyday for God answering our prayers. There is one thing that is kind of funny about the job. There are about 30 employees there and he is the only man. Luck him.

Another great thing to happen to us in October was a visit from my Dad. We hadn't seen him since last August when R lost his job. He fly all the way from Denver, rented a car and drove up to us from Dublin. It was so nice to have him spend time with myself and O. When he had first planned the trip, R was going to be home so he didn't need to rent a car, but since I can't drive yet, he got one and we were able to tour around the countryside. We did a day in Derry, Coleraine, a few trips to Cookstown and a lovely afternoon in Belfast. He'd been here once before and done all the touristy stuff, so this was more of just spending time with his granddaughter. He also came with lots of presents from my Mom for O and I, but O seemed to get the most of them (surprisingly) She warmed up to him right away and they had a great time. We all did.

Grandpa and granddaughter snuggling on the couch with lots of pressies from Granny Morgan

Sightseeing on the walls of Derry

While he was here we also went to two Halloween parties. But that is for another day and since I have a subject it won't be so long in coming. Well, here's hoping anyways.

oíche mhaith