Mommy and Me

I had a wonderful three week visit from my mom. This was the most time I've spent with her since I lived at home, and it was great to be with her more than a few days. She was so much help with Asher that I'm finding a little difficult to readjust and to do everything myself, but I'm really glad that she came when she did because I think it got us through a difficult crying time (for Asher, Ryan and me!)

We did get to see a few things while she was with us. This was especially nice because my mom has struggled for years with her health, and it was such a blessing that she was feeling well and able to get out and enjoy being here. Our biggest excursion was a train trip the the very tip of the south east part of Ireland. We wanted to see what was down there and heard that it was a pretty train ride. The train ride was really fun. My previous experiences with trains in the U.S. wasn't so great, so this was a nice change.

Here we have scenes from the train - the sun rising over the Irish Sea and a view of the coast.

When we got there we found out that there is nothing at the south east tip of Ireland, except for a ferry post, lots of rain and wind, and a steep hill. Fortunately there was a cafe at the top of the hill, so we had a shelter until the next train came.

We also saw Dublin Castle, which has an interesting history. I'm becoming an Irish history buff (at least relatively speaking), which is kind of fun.

It was great having someone else around. I'm finding that I'm pretty isolated here. I don't know and never even see neighbors for the most part, and our church meets once a week, and since people live spread out all over the city and since for the most part they're all working there isn't really that much of an opportunity to get to know people well. But, I'm so thankful to be able to stay home. That's part of the reason why Ryan took this job, and I'm really glad. It's just different to be in a new place without really interacting with others face to face that much. But I expect that with time this will get better. Even in Indiana it took a while to get to know people and feel settled in.

A note about daily life -

This is how I carry the groceries - bags on stroller. That thing gets pretty difficult to push, especially if it's windy and rainy and the wind hits the slicker cover. Then the challenge is getting it into our apartment building, which has no handicap entrance and a series of steps and heavy doors, one of which takes a key to open. Then it's into the elevator which is just BARELY big enough to fit the stroller ( I make about a 50 point turn - think of Austin Powers in his golf cart - terrible reference, I know). And that is when the elevator is working; I'd say that's about 75% of the time. The last time I was out it didn't work, so I had to take the sleeping baby out, which woke him, take him up three flights to our apartment, leave him screaming upstairs (in a safe place), come back for the stroller, fold it up and lug it up three flights. I was glad that I didn't have any groceries with me. This is the kind of thing that I never would have thought about before but that ends up taking a lot of my time. Sometimes I feel like I'm in some sort of weird obstacle course!

And now for some parting photos, which are super cute, if I do say so myself!

I call this one "Pappa Nerd and Baby Nerd."

And this one "Bye-Bye"

God bless!