Snow Days, How I Love Thee . . .

One of the coolest perks about being a teacher happened today - we had a snow day! I got the call at 9:30 last night - very rare for my school district to cancel school that early. Joyfully, I hung up the phone and promptly turned off my alarm for the next morning. There's nothing better than waking up suddenly at 5am on the morning of a snow day, wondering how much longer you have to sleep, then remembering it's a snow day and blissfully falling back onto your pillow. It's mornings like these that make it seem worth being on the receiving end of countless eye rolls and disdainful groans day after day. Well, most of the time. Actually, my students have been pretty good the last few weeks - I don't have too much to complain about on that end for the time being.

In total we got about 8 inches of snow - the most we've experienced in two years! It made our street look very pretty - the cute gingerbread houses are particularly comely coated in a blanket of sparkling white snow. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to sled or make snowmen - I did catch up on a lot of grading though, so that will free me up to enjoy the rest of my weekend! I was also proud of my thorough shoveling job - Nate was thrilled to look outside and see our sidewalks and driveway clear.

This is a packed weekend - Six Nations rugby starts tomorrow, so Nate and I will be parked in an Irish Pub by 8am with a full breakfast, and later a Guinness. Then we're hoping to catch some of the Mardi Gras festivities - and of course take in the Super Bowl on Sunday, regardless of our disdain for both teams. Plenty of Blog fodder there, so I hope to be back soon!

A New Year, A New Post (Finally!)

Hi there!
Well, it finally happened - we got our new computer! So there's lots to cheer about. For instance: now I'm able to post on the blog again - yay! And I can check my personal email during the week again - yay! And in other random news, we had housecleaners come for the first time today - yay! (Nate finally caved and let me get someone to come clean once every two weeks - it's awesome, they've only been here once and my house is already cleaner than it's ever been!) And I mysteriously scratched my cornea last night while I was sleeping - yay! Wait a second . . . doh!No big deal - I just have to wear my glasses for the rest of the week and put in eye drops four times a day. No weird eye patch needed like the last time I did this (granted, that was about 25 years ago - but it was my brother's fault then!). We're still trying to figure out how it happened - even the eye doctor was mystified!

So for any of you who still happen to check this every now and then, I'm hoping to post more often - for real! I'll be putting before and after pics up of the house (when we first moved in and now), and I'll probably post a few of our Italy trip just to tie that experience off - even if it was nine months ago. We've come to look at this blog as a bit of a journal/scrapbook, so I don't want to leave that chapter of our lives unfinished.

So bye for now - but I'll be back again soon!!!Hopefully this weekend or shortly thereafter. It is Mardi Gras after all . . . maybe I'll get some pics of that too!

Our First Visitor

It's unbelievable that we've been back for five months now. Exactly two years ago, Nate and I were spending our first weekend exploring Dublin and desperately searching for housing. It was so daunting and exhilarating at the same time! Oh, the memories.

This weekend afforded us plenty of opportunities to reminisce over our previous European home as we hosted our first visitor from Dublin! Nate's coworker Margaret has been working in Atlanta for the last six weeks, and managed to carve some time out for a quick weekend visit to St. Louis. Margaret made good use of her short time here by visiting the Anheuser Busch Brewery and perusing downtown sights like the Arch, the old Courthouse and Busch Stadium. We tried to provide a few classic American culinary experiences too - we went to a great cajun restaurant for dinner, complete with a live bluegrass band adding to the fun, casual ambiance. We also took her to Ted Drewes for some quintessential St. Louis ice cream. It was great to catch up with her, to hear about some old friends in Dublin, and to share a little of our own life here. Both Nate and I enjoyed the excuse to take a break from our insane work lives as well.

With fall approaching, we look forward to the distractions that the season holds - mostly in the form of American football. Since Nate has returned to his homeland, he is now fully devoted to nurturing his obsession with full force. If I ever get pictures running on this blog again, I'll have to post a few of the sojourns we've been taking to compensate for the time Nate had to spend away from his favorite sport! Until next time!

Life all Grown Up

I've seriously got to get my blog updates back on track! It's a little hard to transition from writing about trips to Spain or Germany to waxing poetic on the mundane details of a life that's shifted back to more ordinary.

My life and free time as I knew it during the two years we were in transition has for all intents and purposes come to an end. I'm back to waking up at 5:15 am and spendng my weekends grading and planning. I won't lie, it's not all roses, but I am enjoying the challenges and rewards of working again. The vast majority of my students are awesome - my first class of the day has been an absolute joy to work with. And while my life is beyond frenetic, it's still much easier than my first year of teaching. Plus, I now have a host of wonderful memories from Europe to calm me when I'm feeling overwhelmed.

We've come a long way since touching down in the US in late April. We now have couches for our basement and living room, and a full grown up dining room set!! I've never had a china cabinet before - four years after our wedding, and I'm finally able to display our pretty plates! We still have a long way to go - the living room's still a bit sparse - but it's a good start. In any case, we have virtually no free time, so we'll have to live with it probably until at least Christmastime.

With grown up furniture came grown up birthdays for both of us - Nate and I have now transitioned out of the world of 20-somethings - aahhhh!! On the other hand, I suppose if our next thirty years are as unbelievably blessed as the first have been, we have have some incredible experiences yet to look forward to.

Fun with the Fam

I bet we've lost most of our faithful readers now due to my extended blog absence!!! Hopefully some will return to check in and find this long overdue post. We now have home internet access, but need a new operating system for our computer, so we haven't been able to use it yet. The only reason I'm even able to make this post now (with pictures no less!) is thanks to my parents' letting me commandeer their computer . . .

. . . Which brings me to the topic of the post! We were in Indiana hanging with my family this weekend on account of my beautiful cousin and her beautiful wedding. We had a great time celebrating with her and my dad's side of the clan. My bro brought his girlfriend Lindsey, who I always love hanging out with. Nate was even able to break from his hectic schedule to join in on the festivities - check out the pic of our happy crew above. Cousin Lori and her new husband Dan had a wonderful ceremony and reception that was very meaningful to all involved. My dad and aunt Jayne caught both my mom and I crying our eyes out during the dad/daughter dance - Lori made an excellent song choice that caught us both off guard! It was a great way to spend time with the family and reunite with folks we haven't seen in a long time. Here's a pic of the new couple as they entered the reception room:

As far as settling news goes, we're still doing well - we have our cats back and they've adjusted much better than they did in Dublin. I guess American cats are accustomed to the space of an American house - at least these Midwestern ones are. Their humans still miss certain aspects of life abroad, but we're also enjoying getting our life started again here. We should be getting a couch by Wednesday, so we'll finally have something to sit on besides our bed and kitchen table! Once again, as soon as I can, I'll post inside pics of the house - maybe some good before and after pics.

Nate is back into his job full swing and is traveling like crazy. I'll be starting my first day of "teacher training" on August 1 - which also happens to be a big birthday for me. It'll be the first day I've ever had to work on my birthday in my life - guess I'm lucky to have made it this long! I don't think I need to say how excited I am to get started with work again though - people who know me know I've been missing that part of my life immensely!

That's all for now - I'll try to get another update in soon!

Reunion with the Felines

We're in Kansas City this weekend being reunited with our cats! It's been nearly three months since I last saw their frightened little faces inside their carriers. They were being carted off on a forklift, bound for a plane headed for the US. Needless to say, this is a much happier encounter. They look great - Nate's parents have taken impeccable care of them. As Nate's brother Pat said, "They almost look more comfortable than they've ever been!" They've spent their hiatus in a much bigger house, and they had an additional four-legged friend - the family dog Digger who has made it to the ripe old age of 15!! Being the sage old hound that he is, Digger doesn't bother the cats much, unless he accidentally bumps into them due to his blindness.

Tomorrow we head back to St. Louis - hopefully the furry faction of our family will adjust quickly to our new house. We're liking the place a lot - it's close to a lot of great St. Louis landmarks and is in walking distance to the public transportation. I love the hardwood floors, but I'm wondering how the cats will deal with it . . . yikes.

Updates might continue to be a bit sparse until we get our home internet access! We're working on getting our house set up for wireless, so hopefully that will be complete within a few weeks or so. Until then, my only internet access is through the public library. It's also very close to our house, but they kick you off after an hour, and the online graduate course I'm taking eats up most of that time. Hopefully this will all change soon though!

It's amazing how fast the summer is already flying by, isn't it? We're already almost upon the two-month anniversary of our arrival back in the states. I'll be back in the classroom before I know it!

One Month Down

It's hard to believe that we left Dublin a month ago. I wish I'd been able to blog about our move-in process from that end - that would have been some entertainment! I really learned to stop worrying about making a fool of myself over there, because I did it multiple times a day.

This weekend we saw Nate's brother Pat for the first time since we arrived - it was good to catch up with him again. On Saturday we headed downtown to meet up with him and some friends, and we happened upon Busch Stadium. The Cardinals were playing Detroit on a gorgeous weekend afternoon. As we drove by I counted not one, not two, but three wedding parties getting their pics taken outside the stadium! I pointed and exclaimed, and Nate wondered if perhaps I was just looking at one big wedding party, but no. I specifically recall three brides, big dresses, veils and all. This town sure does love its baseball.

Five more nights in the hotel! Think I'm excited about it?