Saying goodbye to an old friend

I am not one for goodbye's...I am more of a "see ya later" kind of person. But after a great deal of heart stomach ache I must bid farewell to a dear friend...bread. I didn't want it to be true, but it has become painfully apparent that bread and myself cannot be together. At one time bread and I were the best of friends, we had some amazing times with our pals butter, cheese, jam and sob...Nutella! But no more, we just cannot be together. Every time I eat bread I feel pain, a pain that is far too intense for our friendship to endure.

I suppose for a long time now, bread and I have been having difficulties. Not the kind of difficulties a gluten intolerant individual may have, but difficulties nonetheless. Each time bread and I got together we had fun...for a short while. Once the digestion period kicked in bread fought back. No amount of antacid (of any variety) would settle the score between us. Sadly, bread now joins another of my former best friends, banana. Myself and banana went our separate ways about two years ago when it became apparent that after eating the bastard fruit it would fight back with Terminator-like indigestion for an entire day...seriously, I would still feel the wrath of the banana at bed time!

Since goodbye's are difficult for me I won't drag this out any longer. Goodbye bread, my dear friend...maybe we will see each other again one day...

A few more bits of my trip

My recent trip to Ireland was a busy one. There was a great deal of visiting friends and family packed into one week, along with a little bit of sightseeing...oh, and some wedding planning of course! Poor weather along with a packed schedule left little time for the sightseeing and picture taking I wish I was able to do, but I still managed half a day at the beach and a trip to Cork City. 

If you ever find yourself in Cork City you must visit the English Market...and be sure to grab a snack or ten!

I was lucky to have the chance to get inside the church where we will be married! Quite frequently the tiny church is closed to visitors and only open for special masses and ceremonies.

This is an example of the week's weather in Cork...cool, grey, extremely windy and rainy. I shouldn't be surprised, I was in Ireland after all! I suppose it was a change from the first two trips I took to Ireland where I enjoyed warm weather and clear blue skies!

We had less than two full days of sun and blue skies, so we did our best to advantage of some good weather by hitting the beach! It was a bit cool and windy and every so often the clouds would roll in and threaten us with rain, but that didn't stop us from taking a stroll on the beach. There is nothing quite like a breath of fresh ocean air!

What a trip!

I am back! I landed back home yesterday evening after a whirlwind week-long trip to Ireland. Since I am still in a jet-lag zombie haze (and have about 10 loads of laundry to get on with) I won't go into much detail about the trip and all of the family-visiting and wedding-planning activities that took place. For now I will just leave you with a few snapshots from the week that flew past!

What's new?!

So I haven't posted much lately. I suppose this is because I have not been feeling so well - I have had a lingering cold that knocked me out flat for about a week, along with a back that has been in knots. Along with being sick, things have been fairly quiet and boring. I'm still not up and running around much, and the weather is still so very blah...makes for not much to talk about.

Lucky for me, I am starting to feel better (for the most part) because I have a trip fast approaching. Jeremiah and myself will be setting off to Ireland to visit his family and to get a bit of wedding planning taken care of. Since it is early in the travel season flight options were limited, so we will be heading to England (and spending some quality time sitting on airport benches!) before getting a flight to Dublin. From Dublin we will be heading to Cork by car. There will definitely be a lot of travelling crammed into one week! I am looking forward to the trip, but as usual I get a bit anxious in the weeks leading up to a flight. I'm not a big fan of flying, but what I dread most is the airport - getting to the airport on time, the lineups, security and the fear I am forgetting something. Usually in the weeks approaching a flight I have dreams nightmares that I arrive at the airport only to realize I have lost my passport or have someone else's passport, and (my favorite) the nightmare where I am being rushed out the door to make it to my flight on time, but I am not packed and must run to the airport in my pajamas. Anyone else ever have this happen?!

Anyway, despite the nightmares, I am fairly well prepared for the trip...well...kind of prepared...okay, maybe not. Like I mentioned, this trip is to visit family and plan our wedding. I am prepared for the visiting family part but not for the wedding planning part. As I may have mentioned in the past, wedding planning is not for me. I have taken care of probably the biggest task, which was finding a venue for the wedding. The church is booked and the reception venue is 99% arranged (during this trip we will visit the venue, meet the owners and if all goes well we will book). But that is where things stop. Even for our tiniest of weddings, there is still a lot more to do and I don't know where to begin. We need to decide on the menu, look at entertainment, flowers, cakes, decorations and invitations, a dress (help me!), not to mention the actual paperwork that needs to be arranged for us to get married in Ireland. Maybe it is not as complicated as it sounds, but when I read the information sent to me from the parish where we are getting married, my eyes glaze over and I usually find myself drifting away from the church website over to YouTube to watch videos of cats...before I know it hours have passed, I have watched videos of goats that sound like humans, been to the weirdest (and by weirdest I of course mean best!) websites out there, played 10 games of Tetris, have diagnosed myself with 15 different diseases from WebMD and have forgot all about planning a wedding.

My hope is that by the end of this upcoming trip a few more major wedding details will be arranged, and by getting the ball rolling (and seeing the venue in person) I will get the kick in the butt I need to finish making the arrangements. Now, off to pack and clean the house...you never want to come back from a trip to a dirty house!

What's going on Spring?!

Why is Spring not arriving already?! We have had a few mild and sunny days and just when it looks like we are headed into full blown SPRING mother nature blasts us with more cold! I am getting anxious now, I want to get into the garden and get going on things, but the weather says no. Although we haven't had any proper ground-sticking snow for a few weeks, there are still patches of snow lingering in the yard (in shaded areas) and the ground is a lumpy wet mess. Between the weather being too cold and windy and the ground that threatens to swallow me whole, I am powerless when it comes to getting moving on the garden!

I have started a number of plants from seed indoors and they are really taking off. Just a few days after planting the seeds (early March) I saw signs of life! Buster is really curious about the plants and is obviously waiting until they get a bit bigger before he attacks. They will need to move up to bigger pots soon, and if they keep growing at their current rate, they should be big and strong enough to be planted outdoors in a matter of weeks...if the weather cooperates! Below is a shot of the seedlings over a week ago, a variety of herbs, tomatoes and wildflowers.

This morning I tried to do a bit of cleaning in the garden - mostly picking up garbage that has blown into the yard over the winter and toys from the previous owners kids/dog that had been hidden under plant life last summer. Since I can't do much else garden-wise, I will stick to my garden planning/research and keep my fingers crossed that the weather will smarten up!