Videos

You should be able to see the videos that I posted now! Let me know if you can!

Also, Happy Birthday Jen Quinn!

One Month In Ireland

Taylor and I have officially been in Ireland for one month as of Tuesday! It is crazy that we have been here that long! I really don't feel like it's been more than a week. So far, so good! I am loving it here, and really enjoy my Irish family. I hope the rest of our time here doesn't go as fast as this first month did!

Not too much else to report this week! The girls and I have really gotten into a routine, and they seem to still be enjoying school and the fact that I am volunteering there.

I've sort of been slacking on taking pictures recently but here are a few of the girls!

Naoise in her Meredith shirt that I brought her!

Aoife had to check to see if it was raining on the other side of the garden. Surprisingly, it was.

Naoise wanted a picture too. Pizza for lunch.

Here is a picture video of Aoife....she gets a little camera shy, but still funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMnEkM8AtOQ

Well- this weekend wasn't too eventful. Friday night I hung around the house and had dinner with the girls, Paul, and Catherine. After dinner I went over to Taylor's because she was minding her kids. We just hung out and watched movies while the kids slept. Saturday morning we got up and went into Mallow for a little shopping (although neither of us got anything). We had lunch in town and then headed back to my house.

Saturday night we had dinner in Fermoy (the town closest to me) and then went over to William's before we went out. We went out in Mallow, which was a good time and met some new friends as well!

Sunday I didn't do much, which was great! Just relaxed for most of the day and had our usual Sunday dinner around 3.

I volunteered in the school today, and I have the afternoons off since Paul is home to mind the girls. It worked out really well that I could volunteer on Mondays and Fridays when Paul is home because then I don't have to go straight from being in the classroom all day to watching Noaise and Aoife.

Finally

I finally got my passport stamped and my Ireland ID today after my second visit to the Garda station in one day.

It was a pretty typical day. I picked both the girls up from school, and we had some lunch, watched a program, worked on homework, and played. Naoise has recently decided on a best friends, Zoe from her class at school. So today she decided to make a poster for her.

If you were wondering (or can even see it) the BFFNF stands for Best Friends Forever Never Fighting.

Not much else to report. I volunteer in the school again tomorrow.

Last but not least here is a photo of my house. Are you happy now Jen Quinn?

Garda station = my new home

This week has been pretty relaxed.

I had my first day of volunteering Monday which I already told you about, but Monday afternoon I had to go into Fermoy to pay for my registration with the Garda (Police) in Ireland. Tuesday the girls and I made American Pancakes again after school, and did homework (nothing too exciting). Yesterday I got the girls up and off to school and then had to pick out a present for a birthday party that Aoife was going to that afternoon and then went to Tay's to hang out for the morning. The afternoon was full of picking up and collecting Aoife and Naoise from Birthday parties, school, and Taekwondo.

Today I had to go into Fermoy to visit the Garda station yet again. I thought this would be the final time, but apparently not. Sunday when I was there the immigration office told me to come back with one form, well apparently that was not all I needed. So, I will be heading back into town later today before I pick Aoife up. Hopefully it will be an easy and relaxing afternoon other than that!

I did get to print some pictures to put in my room while I was in town today!

Weekend Update

Another great weekend in Ireland. Friday afternoon was a bit chaotic at the house, but fun. The girls had friends over for a play-date, Catherine and Paul's friend called over around 5:30, and Catherine's mom came down from Cork City to spend the night. Needless to say there were a lot of people in the house. The girls had fun with their friends, and I know they were happy to spend the afternoon playing. Taylor came over about 6:30, and we headed into Cork City. We met the other American Au Pair that is in the area for dinner. After spending some time finding a parking spot we finally made it to the restaurant. Bridget (the other Au Pair) was really nice, but VERY talkative. She is from Boston, and also just finished school. She seems like she will be a good person to meet up and go out with.

After dinner we headed to our hostel to get ready to go out. We were in a 6 bed room, and I am not sure the other 3 girls were happy to have 3 loud girls in there with them. Lucky for them we really weren't there for long. We had a great time out in the city, we went out to two different pubs and ended up running into some people that Taylor knows from her village.

Saturday morning our new friend Bridget took the bus back to her host families house, and Taylor and I stayed in the city to eat lunch then headed back to her house. We hung around for most of the day then Taylor had the kids from 4 till the next day since Gill and Kieran were at a wedding. I was minding the girls Saturday night, so I headed back to my house around 7. It was nice to stay in since I was so tired from the night before.

Sunday was pretty relaxing. I had to go to the police station to start the paperwork to get my passport stamped for the rest of my time here. Then we had Sunday dinner like always, and watching Beetlejuice with the girls. Apparently it is one of Paul's favorite movies, although it wouldn't be my first choice.

Today was my first day volunteering in the schools. It was a bit of a hectic morning getting the girls ready since I also had to pack my own lunch and eat breakfast (I usually do all that after I take them to school), but we made it! I helped out in a Junior Infants class today, which is pretty much like our Pre-K. The grades or classes as they call them are a bit different here, basically they split our Kindergarten into two different classes (Junior Infants and Senior Infants). It is definitely interesting to see the difference between the schools, and the heavy influence Catholicism has on their curriculum. I still felt a little funny when they said their prayers in the morning. Although I do love how cute they all look in their uniforms with ties and all.

I am pretty tired today after all that, luckily I will be volunteering on Mondays and Fridays when Paul is home. I have a nice break in the afternoon, and only have to mind the girls for about an hour.

I am pretty happy tomorrow will be a relaxing day!

Happy Friday!

I am happy to report that I am feeling 100% these days! The stomach bug is gone, and lets hope for good! This week has been pretty normal nothing too crazy to report. Most of the week was pretty rainy, so the girls and I have just been hanging around the house after school. Yesterday was beautiful! I actually had to change into a short sleeve shirt after picking Aoife up from school, which never happens to me! Needless to say we went to the park since it was so nice!

Taylor and I are going into Cork City tonight. A lot of the Au Pairs from my village will be there, and Taylor and I are meeting another American Au Pair that lives near the city.

Hope everyone else had a great short week! and I'll update again later on in the weekend.

I'll leave you with a few pictures the girls took on the computer!

Stomach Bug

Not too much to report. Taylor and I both managed to get the stomach bug that Eoghan had the other night. It hit me about 1 AM on Sunday night and I was up about every hour after that. I thought the worst was over by Monday morning, so I got up and took the girls to school. I was wrong, it wasn't quite out of me yet. I told Catherine, and she was great about it. Paul is home on Mondays so it made it worked out well. I spent literally the entire day in bed yesterday. Mostly catching up on sleep I missed the night before. I felt pretty bad all day, and couldn't really eat. Thankfully I woke up feeling much better today, and it was back to normal. Catherine did work from home today, just in case i wasn't feeling well, which was nice because she helped with the girls some.

Weekend Update

This weekend was pretty eventful. Friday after Paul collected Catherine from work I headed over to Taylor's so we could go out to dinner. Our plan was to just hang out and have a pretty uneventful night minding the kids. To our surprise right before Kieran and Gill left to go to the pub we started to hear noises from the bathroom that could only be one thing. Eoghan was sick. Not sure if it was something he had to eat or a stomach bug, but needless to say our night didn't go as planned. Eoghan seemed fine after Gill and Kieran calmed him down from the initial shock of throwing up for the first time, so they went ahead to the pub. We were wrong about that as well. He was up about every hour after that. Tay and I both felt so bad for him (he looked pretty pitiful). I'm happy to report he was back to normal Saturday, so I guess he got whatever it was out of his system.

After that traumatic night Tay and I decided to go into Cork city for a relaxing day of shopping and eating. Well, it was relaxing after we got out of the car. I am pretty proficient driving these days, but it is still a bit stressful. It also doesn't help when your passenger is having a panic attack every five minutes. I do have to say I don't think it was because of my driving, but just Taylor's fear of Irish roads in general. (A normal road here is about the size of a driveway in the states.)

I was suppose to mind the girls Saturday night, so after we finished shopping I dropped Tay at her house and headed back to Rathcormac. Paul and Catherine decided not to go out, so I hung out around the house for a little bit and had dinner with them and the girls. Since I didn't have to watch the girls I decided to go out with Taylor in Mallow. I finally got to experience the infamous Chasers that all of our friends have been hearing about for a year now. I have to say it lived up to Taylor's description.

This morning I got up and headed back to Rathcormac. After a quick nap and a shower I spent about an hour looking at Communion dresses with Naoise, Aoife, and Catherine. Naoise makes her First Communion this year and she couldn't be more excited. We went to Cork this afternoon to have Sunday Dinner at Paul's mother's house. I got to meet his 2 sister, brother-in-law, and their kids. We also celebrated one of the cousin's 12th birthday while we were there.

Now I'm exhausted, and am so happy to be laying in bed.

American Pancakes

I took the girls to school this morning, and then headed over to Taylor's house. We went on a walk with her two little ones, and then I headed back home to shower before picking Aoife up from school. Aoife gets out before Naoise, so when I picked her up she asked if I could make "American Pancakes" for them. They are obsessed with them, and oddly enough they sell them pre-made and packaged in the store here. Although it is a special treat to have them made from scratch.

The only thing we were missing was syrup. The girls eat them with Nutella on top. When Catherine got home the girls were so excited to tell her they had "American pancakes made by an American!"

After the girls had eaten, and changed out of their school clothes we headed to Castlelyons another village about five minutes from us. The girls like to "park hop" if you will. So it was a nice change from our usual Rathcormac park. They also decided that they wanted to pretend to be twins so they both put on their playsuits (rompers).