Quote of the night

Insert whiney voice here:

"I JUST want to do what I WANT to do." - Maya.

TIM'S TRIP TO IRELAND!!

Well, I have listened to my wife tell me ALL day today thatI needed to post the few pictures that I took from my trip to Ireland. Here is what I have. Sorry that I did not take more, but when you are all alone; a) you are forced to drive on the wrong/left side of the road (if you are from the UK/Europe, I guess that it is the correct side), b) you find that there are no street signs in the cities/towns & nobody knows where anything in the towns are (I stopped to ask for directions and nobody knew where anything was), c) it gets dark about the same time you get off of work. So here are a few of the pictures that I did take. If you want to know anything else about my trip, give me a call and ask, otherwise, take the trip yourself!!

Here is the hotel (the Slieve Donard for those that want to GOOGLE it and see more of it) that I spent 8 nights of my stay in Ireland. For those of you that enjoy spending time among the SNOOTY, then this is the place for you. I have never stayed in a hotel that, a) there was a dress code while in the hotel and b) you had to make reservations in the hotel restaurant. I did not particularly enjoy dining among those type of people, so I ordered room service about 50% of the time during my stay there. Even though the people and staff were a bit snooty, the place was amazingly beautiful. The grounds are spectacular and are right on the coast of the Irish Sea. I can only imagine what it looks like in the warmer months. I do not say summer months, because from what the locals told me while I was there, the summer is not much more than 4-6 weeks, and it is NEVER what we would consider summer months temperatures. WOW, that would really stink!!

The next three pictures are looking out of my hotel room window.


These next four pictures are from along the roadway driving from Newcastle (where the hotel was) to Kilkeel (where the facility was). I thought that it was really neat seeing the countryside from one side of the Irish Sea (it actually was a little inlet, or as they say in Ireland, a "wee" inlet). That is one huge house if you can see it from the distance I was. I was probably at least 10 miles from where that house sat on the hill. I talked to some of the people that I worked with, and from what they said, you people in CA would think that your houses are cheap compared to what they pay for a house in Northern Ireland. They said that a 2000 sq ft house, on 1/4 acre lot would cost upwards of £400,000 (as of 2/15, the conversion of £ to US $ was - £1 = $1.96131). So a house that cost £400,000, would be the equivalent of $784,512. Wow, now that is a chunk of change ($392.25/sq ft) to pay for a house.

This was the remains of some type of castle. I don't have any details, maybe the next time I am in the area, I will look into it.
I just thought that this was a cool old boat anchor. Again, I don't have any details, it was just on the waterfront, along the roadway on the road that I drove everyday to and from work.
Here is a church, one of many in the area. I don't realy need to tell you what religion it belonged to, I am sure that there are not many Baptist churches in Ireland. I do know one thing, there are not any LDS units in Northern Ireland. I looked and the closest one that I could find was about 50 miles away (that translated to about 1.5 hours of driving) and getting lost along the way. Refer back to my comments in the beginning about asking people for directions, this applied specifically to my experience trying to (with no luck) find a ward/branch to join for the day.
I thought that it was really interesting to find a building old enough to have a swastica on it, I am not sure if this was a remnant from wartime periods, or if it was fresh, but I would have thought that maybe someone would have painted over it. Again, I thought that it was interesting and we had a discussion about it within our family. Oh, and by the way, this was in an area where the people were selling JUNK!

This is the area equivalent of a strip mall. I thought that the picture setting was really neat with the Mourne mountains (I laugh at the term mountain here, I think that Alta Loma/Rancho/Upland are at higher elevations than these "mountains").

This is a shot from my seat on the airplane leaving out of Newark airport. You can see New York City off in the distance. I saw the Statue of Liberty and I reached in my bag for my camera to take a picture, just then the pilot banked the plane hard left and this is what I ended up with. It is still a neat picture of the city from an airplane perspective, but not the Statue of Liberty.

Here is a little bit of what I brought back from Ireland. NO, not the silly little girls, the rugby jersey's that they are all wearing. They wanted to pose and show that they had writing on the back of them. I bought all of them the same shirt so there would be NO fighting over who liked what color better. I did not do a very good job of sizing as Maya was the only one that I got pretty close on being right. I guess that they have different sizing in the UK.

Casey said that this picture makes McKenna look like a little boy! What do ya'll think?

Any more questions?

I've been Love Tagged!

So, I've been love tagged by Jeannie. Thanks. I should be cleaning the house and getting going this morning but now I can't resist answering these questions. Since Tim has been gone for 10 days I am anxious to answer.

What is your husband’s name? Tim
How long have you been together? 12 years
How long did you date? We dated for about 2 years, with a few break ups here and there. Good thing we grew up.
Who eats more? I eat more of Tim's cooking than he eats of mine, that's for sure.
Who said “I love you” first? Ummm, I think Tim. Is that right?
Who is taller? Tim
Who is smarter? We have had many discussions about this. I think Tim is (he's the one with all them fancy degrees.) But, he says I am.
Who is more sensitive? Definitely Tim. He is such a softy. I have no sympathy for anyone (I'm told.)
Who does the laundry? Me, me, me and me. Oh, sometimes Tim takes the clothes out of the dryer for me. (Adda boy, Tim.)
Who does the dishes? Me mostly. Tim says the rule is that the chef never does the dishes but for some reason that doesn't always apply when I cook. But soon the girls will be able to do ALL of them all the time.
Who sleeps on the right? Tim
Who pays the bills? Me, only because I HAVE control issues.
Who mows the lawn? Both. While Tim was in school I did all the time. When I was pregnant he did most of the time, until I wanted to go into labor than I did it as often as possible. (Didn't work, what a waste of time that was.)
Who cooks dinner? I have been cooking for 10 days straight so I can say I do sometimes now. But really everyone knows that Tim does. I cook quantity but he cooks quality.
Who drives when you are together? Tim. Am I even aloud to drive when you are with me, Tim?
Who is more stubborn? I say Tim but I know he won't agree with that.
Who kissed whom first? Tim, definitely. He's a guy, what do you expect.
Who asked who out first? Good question. We got set up to play raquetteball but he says that wasn't really a date. After that he asked me out to lunch. So I guess he did.
Who proposed? Tim
Who has more siblings? Me. 2 brothers and 1 sister

Happy Valentine's Day!

Although, we aren't TRUE romantics when it comes to Valentine's Day, we enjoy this holiday as a family. I love when the girls run in to say, "Happy Valentine's Day." It's almost a race to see who can say it first. They love pink pancakes, heart shaped sandwiches and anything that resembles hearts and love. They especially love when their daddy gives them a valentine. (Don't worry Tim, I took care of it this year, since you were gone.) I just love that everyone seems to be just a little more loving and caring to one another. (I have to laugh because as I just typed that I hear fighting in the background. I guess we're not perfect after all.) But it is nice that we all try to make an effort.

We would just like to let you all know how much we love you and are thinking of all of our loved ones on this valentine's day. We are truly blessed to have y'all in our lives.

Have a great Valentine's Day.

Ok! So it's over - Until 2012!

I am sure you all know what has come of Super Tuesday. Not what we wanted. I was pretty upset. Not because I think of it as a competition and we lost but more like the Country has lost. The thought of a democrat in office makes me very nervous. Here are a few reasons I have come up with.
1. Pulling out of the war early.
2. Not making the tax cuts permanent.
3. Raising taxes
4. Universal Healthcare
5. Raising taxes
6. Making Pre-K manditory
7. Raising taxes
8. No secure borders
9. Raising Taxes

After Tuesday I was convinced that I would NOT vote for McCain because, well, he's as close to a democrat as they come. But I have had a change of heart. That Mitt Romney has done it again. I was all for his plan to stay in the race along with a lot of people but much doubt of him winning. He gave an incredible speech. I wasn't completely convinced by Romney that I should vote for McCain. He did influence me when he said that he thought it would be better for the country because of the war. We would need McCain over the Clinton's or Obama to not pull out of the war early. What really put me over the top though was when I heard that Romney was planning to stay in the race after Super Tuesday and when he sat down to write his CPAC speech he felt like he needed to drop out. I don't know about you but that was telling me that he was listening to the Spirit and being guided to do so. So, I guess what I am saying is that I am seriously considering voting for McCain now and I hope that you would all consider what Romney has said about it and make your own prayerful decision.

Ok! I think this is it for my political soapbox. I just had to swallow my pride here and get this out. It will be back to fun family stuff from now on. Although, I did enjoy all the comments. Thanks everyone.

Super Tuesday isn't OVER yet!

My thoughts this morning go out to all of you that get to vote today. I hope that everyone has studied and searched to learn about the candidates and their abilities to vote for the person that will lead our country in the right direction. For me this is Mitt Romney. He is outstanding. The man is a genious. He helped MA and now he can help the whole country.

I don't know why it upsets me so when I listen to the media. I don't expect anything else from them. They are trying their hardest to get McCain elected to make sure that Hillary or Obama win the general election. For some reason they keep spouting off that Romney is so far behind. He and McCain are only 4 delegates apart. But does the media say anything about that? NO!Just this morning one of the morning shows announced that they would be talking with the front runners of this race: Hillary, Obama and McCain. Where is Mitt? Is he not worthy of them? I consider him just as much a front runner as the rest of them. The only thing that makes me smile about all of this is that they must be SO AFRAID and he must be such a threat that Mitt will win and they are doing everything they can to make sure he loses. I KNOW that is how McCain is feeling - that's why he has come out and told all the lies that he can - to make him look better. A good friend of mine has always told me: "Cheaters never prosper unless your Marque Trosper." :) (Just a little shout out to you Marque.) I truly hope this will be the case for today. McCain has just been playing his dirty politics again.

I've said my peace, now I have to go do laundry and try to get through this stressful day. Only time will tell if Americans use their own minds or if they are just brainwashed by the media. GO Mitt, GO!