Norther Tour

Hello folks. Things are going well here in this little part of the world. I had to write a post, if not for sanity then at least for fun, to tell you that we had a full 100% sunny day in Ireland on Monday!! Not a cloud in the sky! Ladies and gentlemen, miracles DO happen!! Ireland can be sunny! Today, Tuesday, was not so...sunny. But more on that later. First, the weather!

That was for you Deidre, so you better have enjoyed it....or else.....Which reminds me. Those of you who haven't watched the first episode of Sherlock's new season need to because it is fan-freakin-tastic. Taunya, if you actually read this, I'm talking to you.

On Thursday Leo and I had Aircom, or however the Irish spell it, (Eirecom, Leo just typed that) come to instal the internet, except he didn't. After search our whole apartment over for a cable, he went out in the road and searched there for a bit. He came inside a bit later and said that all the cabling for our area was underground and that it looked like our neighbors were wired for internet but we weren't. He also told us that he didn't know how we would be wired and then left us. Super helpful guy that was oh so handy at his job......We are still waiting to hear back on what's going to happen next. So until then we are at his grandparents for internet :(

Saturday, after Leo's half day shift, we booked it down to Dundalk and had our meeting with an Immigration Officer who gave us forms to mail off to start the process of getting me legal. We filled the form out and mailed it off yesterday and hopefully we will hear from them sometime next week to know if I can start looking for a job while they finalize everything. That's if my application is accepted.

Starts February 28!! :D :D

Sunday Leo took me to the branch down in Dundalk. It is super small and is in a business park. There were maybe 50 people there. The chapel doubles as a sunday school class. Because we couldn't find the place at first we got there just as they were passing out the water for sacrament and so had to sit in the only place with two seats next to each other which was in the very front. Allowing everyone to recognize us as new kill, I mean people. After the meeting the missionaries were the first to jump. We introduced ourselves and when they found out I was a member but Leo wasn't, you could just see them painting a target on him. It was kind of funny. Ok, it was really funny :) Leo was a champ and stayed for two hours at church, the longest he's ever stayed and even through a lesson that went way over his head too :) He's a champ. When we went back to our place and attempted to make my mom's rolls because Leo has been dying for them since we left. Our attempt was just that. An attempt ;) First the dough rose so much it overflowed on to the microwave (that where I placed it to rise) and not only that but apparently I didn't add enough flour because it was sticky like sucker spit on a little kid. They still taste good and Leo even had the nerve to say they tasted better than my mom's because he made them. Cocky boy, that one.

Leo's old bed, that I am sitting on right now, is the bottom of a bunk-bed and the mattress is super thin. I can feel the bars on my bum, or at least I could but now my butt is numb. Fear not! I shall sit and fart, only a few times, on Leo's pillow!! Numb bum no more!! :D

Leo wants me to talk about una-word. But I started doing what Leo wanted I wouldn't really be his wife now would I? ;) A few people have asked if I've had a hard time with the accents here and the answer is yes. There are some people I can't understand at all and others that it takes 10 seconds for me to recognize that they actually spoke and didn't just make noises at me. The people I've met so far don't pause at all between their words which makes one continuous una-word. They also don't annunciate their "words" at all either. I told Leo that if normal annunciation was a triangle with its sharp points and clear distinction that the Irish would have a circle because there very little.

Finally, Leo is very impatiently waiting to read this post, today we woke up early and headed up north to Giant's Causeway. We drove down a road we weren't suppose to drive down and were told to drive back up and park in the parking lot. We did that and then saw how much it was to go back down and decided that we would come back another time, moved the cones keeping us in the lot, and took off down the coastal road. We drove along that for awhile until we came to Carrickfergus Castle. Leo says it's the only "usable" castle in Ireland now. But who knows how trust worthy a pen-pal of his nature is ;) Then, after lunch, we went to a windmill and a lighthouse before coming back here. That sums up what's been going on with me for the last while. I hope you enjoy the photos :)

Coastal Road

Carrickfergus Castle

Lighthouse

Tyres

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you all. I am using Leo's computer to type this so if there are random symbols throughout this post I apologize but I'm not quite use to this keyboard. From the sounds of it Utah seems to have been on the warm side of things lately. It's been in the 40's here during the day and pretty chilly at night. Last night (Monday night) it dropped below freezing so there was pretty thick layer of frost on the ground and frozen rainwater everywhere. Like all the myths you've heard about Ireland, it does rain here a lot. Also, Leo's mouse moves nearly at Mach 1 so I'm trying to avoid using it, so this is going to be a pretty lame post as far and interactiveness goes, but being the kind forgiving souls I know you to be you'll let it slide this time ;)

Friday night we went to our apartment and cleaned it up a little before going to bed. Saturday we cleaned the apartment most of the day. I've started to understand that many Irish people don't have the same standard of clean that I do. This was a challenge but I'm learning to accept it. Leo's been a champ and helped get our apartment up to my standard of clean. Besides being a little dirty, it's a very nice apartment :) He did a very good job at picking a nice place out for us. I had a bit of a homesick meltdown that night and he told me we could spend the next few night at his grandparents house while he worked Monday and Tuesday and that Sunday we could go to Scrabo Tower and coastal drive. If you are a good little reader you will be thinking something along the lines of, "Wait a minute! She said he was working Saturday and Sunday on her last post!!" That is true, I did say that, but shortly after I posted the last post we found out he wasn't working until Monday (phew! Thank goodness!). Sunday was fun and helped me relax. We also took a walk through Clandeboye Forest in the rain, which was nice as well.

Monday Leo only had a half day at work(what a nice way to break back into 12 hour shifts ;) ) before going to tech. So after a quick walk to get some lunch he took me to an island. I don't remember or even think I knew at any point what the island is called, but that's ok. We walked around it in about 10-15 mins and got some cool pictures.

Today I have been Sherlocking it up(ha ha ha!! You guys still have to wait until January 19th!!!! >:) ), messaging people, went for a walk, and writing this post. Sorry this isn't a very humorous post. It seems my humour has been deleted with all these random symbols I keep typing. Yes, for those of you who doubt, I do have a sense of humour it just isn't like yours, which makes it more hilarious.

Tonight we are going back down to our apartment so we can sort out all the legal stuff here and on Thursday we should have internet to our apartment. That will be so nice. Crazy how I feel so lost without it. Tara and her cafe know what I'm talking about ;)

It sounds like those of you who I have heard from are doing fantastic, which is awesome, so keep up the good work. I will write more at a later date so take care and take luck ;)

For pictures of the previously mentions places, please click here.

Newtownards

Salutations from Ireland! There was something I was going to say about last time....but I can't quite remember what it was.....Anywho, our trip to the Green Isle was quite an adventure. If you were to ask Mick about it he'd have a few choice words to say about it no doubt. We checked into American Airlines with my family. Strangely Mick and I didn't get boarding passes for our other planes only the flight to Chicago. After a sad teary goodbye we headed on our way. We left SLC a smidge bit later than scheduled and arrived in Chicago only to find out, after being sent to two wrong counters, we needed to be in a whole other terminal which required a tram. So not knowing if we had missed our flight or not, we knew it was delayed but didn't know how delayed it was, we hurried over to the correct terminal. We had to get all our info changed because we were switching to British Airways, which took sometime, but in the end we made our flight. The rest of the journey went very smooth and we made it here without much more fuss. Besides the fact that one of my bags stayed in SLC....I think it's because it's purple it got confused. Silly purple case!

The first few hours here were pretty rough but after cryin and talkin things out together, we set out to make things better for the other. Things have been much better today and we've got a lot done in a relatively short period of time. I do have to say that being married is good :) The one thing I don't like about it is sharing a bed. He's always touching me, pulling the blankets off me, making me super molten lava hot, or moving so much it wakes me up. But the rest is good and makes up for the crap sleep :) And by 'the rest 'I mean being with him and having fun doing things with him so all you dirty dogs and just jump your mind right out of that sex-filled gutter. Fluffy bunnies and rainbows is what we're about here at Ramble On, you just remember that *narrows eyes*. I've got my eyes on you....

Here are a couple pictures of me eating breakfast this morning in my new coat. I didn't have room in my suitcases for a coat so my dear sweet boy bought me one as the first thing on our to-do list today :) Stands out against the dreary gray sky ;)

It's nice to be back in Ireland :) It's so beautiful here! I'm sorry I didn't take my camera to take more pictures but I should be putting some up soon! We should be moving into our place later tonight so I should be busy the next little bit sorting all that crap out. I hope I'll be busy anyway because Leo has work Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before he gets a break so the busier I am the better!

I hope to have more pictures and stories next time but until then, alvederzane!!

The Windy City

I'M MARRIED!!! If you think it's super crazy you know how I feel. I NEVER EVER thought I would get married, but I did. And so far so good. Phew! ;) That wouldn't be very good if I was hating it after my second day. That would be a horrible start to the rest of my life ;) Thank you one and all who were kind enough to give us a gift. It is greatly appreciated! Personally I thought everything went well, was very good, and a lot of fun. Anyone wanting to look at pictures and video taken by picture takers at the wedding aka Jaden, Jared's brother and El Tovar. Click here to see said pictures.

Some have seemed confused so I will clarify that I am not going on a honeymoon because Leo has no more time off from work or school until May or so. We were also suppose to be on our way to Belfast right now (Monday Jan. 6) but Chicago has had really bad storms and snowfall which has caused a cancelation of all flights to and from that airport. Luckily my dad was able to get all of us rescheduled for the same flights (the same times) together but on Wednesday. It was the earliest he could get. So I took Leo and Mick to Antelope Island today after my lovely mother dearest bought us lunch at Mimi's café. Thank you caring loving mother!! I think they had a good time there. I took them to the visitor's center and then to the Garr Ranch there. Along the way we spotted some buffalo and a coyote. Mick mentioned to Leo how it'll be so weird going back to gray skies. I dunno how that's going to be for me : /

Here are some pictures I've taken recently so enjoy them.

Tomorrow we might go to Cabella's and then a Jazz game. That would be a good end to their stay here and a high note to leave on. I'm really sad to be leaving so many wonderful people behind but I know that you will all be well taken care of by each other. Plus I won't be gone forever. So don't worry, cry, or even tear up because I'll be back :) If that is not good news to you then go ahead and cry you big jerk face. I don't even really like you anyway! >:P

Since my wedding has come and gone, I can finally post my bridals for you all to see. Right here is where they can be found.

Thank you all for your love and support all these years. I wish you all the very best and hope to hear from you often, but not too often. Just ask Shan, he knows what I mean ;)

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