Dublin tour day

Most of us slept very good last night.  We woke up and gathered downstairs for a buffet breakfast.  We met up again at 8:50 am to get on a double decker bus for an hour and a half bus tour of Dublin.  The weather here is mild.  I went out in a thermal shirt a sweatshirt jacket and I was comfortable.  We'll see what the wind is like when we're out in the open.

We all five left at 9:00 am for the Dublin bus tour.  The weather was very nice for us in the morning but by lunch it was getting much colder.  From the top of the partially covered double-decker bus we saw 23 different locations throughout Dublin.  We took so many pictures my camera battery died.  Our tour bus driver was very witty.  We loved his jokes, facts, songs, and stories.  We drove back around until we found the Christ Church Cathedral.  We toured the Cathedral with our headphones on.  It was very nice.  Next, we ate lunch at a local pub.  It was nice and warm.  The food was really good there.  We left the pub and headed out on a leisurely stroll in search of The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St. Patrick.  That short walk brought us through a market area.  Everything looked and smelled fresh.  We got back on the bus and dropped Greg off at the Guinness Storehouse.  The four others drove around on the bus until we came to the Garden of Remembrance.   Very pretty.

Now we're relaxing before we go out tonight.  We have reservations at a pub with River Dancers. After a very short nap we went in search of a candy store we spotted.  By the time we got there it was closed. 

To Gaelic or not to Gaelic, that is the question.  There are many different languages here.  Most everyone we've had to communicate with speaks English.  However, strangers everywhere are speaking different languages.  I must say watching Sponge Bob in Gaelic is a hoot.

A few things to know about food and drinks here...lemonade means Sprite and when ordering coffee here, one needs to know whether you want it served black or white. 

All five of us met up at 7:45 pm for our "short" stroll to The Arlington Irish Dancing & Dinner Show.  We walked about five blocks too far in the bitter cold.  JD spotted the restaurant as we walked by but unfortunately we disregarded him comment of, "This is it right here."  We turned around and found it in no time at all.  The three course dinner was fair.  The river dance show was pretty good.  I think the best part was a birthday girl who we'll call Molly.  Molly was of course celebrating and drank maybe five beers too many.  She tried to get the entire audience to do some kind of wave going from table to table woot'n and hollar'n.  JD nearly saw her female part hanging out of her top.  It was extremely loud in there, but we had a grand time.  (Thanks again Lyndell for the "trip of a lifetime!")

Until tomorrow...slan.

On our way -10 March

The first problem of our trip was 9 March when Continental called Greg to let him know they rescheduled our...(Jeff, Cheryl, JD, and Lyndell)...flight from Raleigh because of forecasted weather on the entire east coast. (Thanks Mother Nature.)  We were suppose to leave Raleigh at 5:37 pm on 10 March, but we now had to leave 5 hours earlier.  This was a problem for Jeff's leave request at work and the logistical plans of picking Lyndell in Greensboro.   There was a slight delay leaving Raleigh because Newark NJ had a delay receiving in new aircraft because of their weather.  It was a shaking take off, flight, and landing, but all worked out well. This was JD's first flight since Sept 2001.  He was giggling off his nervousness and saying a lot of "Holy Crimanies."  JD also made the comment that the clouds make it look like we're in heaven.

Once in New Jersey we had a 6 hour layover. (Fun times with JD's ADHD. The escalators were our friend.)  We finally boarded our flight at 10:00 pm and sat on the tarmac for close to two hours or more with threats of getting back off for the night.  (You guessed it...weather delays.)  As a matter of fact the pilot came on speakers and said, "Some of you on the left may have two explosions.  The wind caused the transformers to explode.  We should be taking off in about 15 minutes."  What!?  Again, it was a rough takeoff.  (Prayers were distributed through seats 38B-F.)  Now we start our 3,270 miles trip traveling at 500MPH. (Yippie)

None of  us hardly slept a wink all on the plane.  They had small TVs in the back of all the seats with personal choices of: movies, shows, games, learn a language, etc.  (Hey this homeschool thing is working out great!)  Customs was very easy and before we knew it we were in a taxi and unloading into our hotel in Dublin.  (Best Western Academy Plaza.)

Some of us caught naps from 1-4pm and others didn't.  Jeff and JD left the room without me knowing it and went out for a stroll and a burger at Burger King.  (Really?  Because we are in Ireland and...oh never mind.)  We all five regrouped for dinner out.  We ate at a local pub. The music was loud but the family, food, fun were GRAND!  We went out for a leisurely stroll over the river and to the "good" side of town. 

Our prayers go out to people of Japan with the 8.9 magnitude earthquake which we learned about after we landed in Ireland.

Well, that's day one of many more to come.  Remember we are five hours ahead of east coast time.  But Jeff and I have access to email via wireless internet in our room and Greg can receive email too.  So if you need us we're here...

No school today

We did nothing school related today.  It was just a busy day of packing for our trip tomorrow, cleaning my client's house, shopping, and baseball tryouts.

JD will be coached by none other that his dad.  His team name is the Pirates.  We'll start practice right after the trip. 

I don't know if I'll be posting to my blog while I'm away.

A better day

Planning and preparing for our European vacation took priority today so all we managed was the devotion and AWANA book. The 3R's (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and two S's (science and social studies) were dropped today. (Sometime we need a break from life.)

The devotion was about Super Heroes and super powers. It asked a series of question like: if you could be a super hero who would you be, what super powers would you have, and in what way would you use those powers (for good or bad?) JD answered some scary guy, laser eye power, and for good of course; to fight off bad guys. God uses His powers to promote justice, because he is fair and just. And because ehe is fair and just, it is always right for us to be too.

The missionary we wrote yesterday responded today. He wrote, “We have two daughters. An encouragement email or letter may be helpful for (the four year old girl. She would love to receive one. She is a Cubbie at our church but doesn't quite understand why we go to different churches on the weekend. It would be great if you could attach a picture of JD or your family so that she could see the picture as I read her the letter.” I’ll have JD write her a letter after we return from Europe.

Today in the AWANA book JD learned because of Jesus, JD is justified. What a churchie word. We looked the word up in the dictionary and I like the way it explained it…free from guilt or blame. Jesus died on the cross for me to be free from guilt or blame. (Thank you Jesus.) JD memorized three bible verses to back this statement up.

My last task of the day was to finish up shopping for our trip.

A frustrating day

I promised JD that I would drop math and language arts today and focus on only science and social studies. Too bad only social studies didn't even get completed. (Grr)

The devotion was about C.S. Lewis and his book called Mere Christianity. It had a portion of the booking speaking about quarreling. Quarreling means trying to show that the other man is wrong. Most of the time we quarrel to ask for justice or fairness. It all comes back to treat others better than yourselves, then we won’t quarrel.

Today in the AWANA book we worked on challenge 5:7. That led us to research the internet again. Today we looked up more AWANA missionaries. We were looking for a couple that had a child. The assignment was to encourage the child by writing to them or sending a small gift. We sent the following message to a couple who listed children. “My 12 year old son Jonathan is in his third AWANA book. Challenge 5:7 is to encourage a child of a current missionary. We were wondering if one of your daughters is at the age where an encouraging email would be appreciated.” I thought that may look a bit suspicious what with all the creeps on the internet so I signed it as AWANA Commander at First Baptist Church. Now we will just have to wait to see what happens.

For social studies we looked up more information about Ireland. JD was not paying attention today. He was messing with the dogs, singing (again) and doing other things that we not productive to our lesson. I then asked him to think of five questions about Ireland and type them out. These would have been things he “wondered” about, like the weather there or their president. I left him alone and went outside to take down the water logged tent from his birthday. When I came back in (15 minutes later) he had not done a thing. I was fuming. I explained that this was an easy task. There must be things he wonders about he trip he just didn’t want to do it. We finally worked together (I suggested things and he typed.) He did come up with five questions. Then, I had him research the answers on the internet. This worked well but you could see him zoning out. One question was Why do they drink so much. His “researched” answer…Probably because there’s nothing to do in Ireland.

I got so frustrated I called it quits for the day. JD knew I was not pleased about the day and apologized.

I also had to call all the bus riders for our church to let them know the busses will pick them up only if they call first. Apparently, we go to their houses and no one is home. Then, I had to post a message in the church bulletin that AWANA’s has been shortened by one hour. We do not have sufficient teachers to run the program correctly.

Did not do science or reading.

My last few tasks of the day were returning three pairs of pants back to Ross. Jeff put them in the cart and continued shopping. I asked at the checkout if he had JD try them on. He answered, “No.” My response, “Well I’ll be back Monday to return them.” What do you know I went back. And the girl recognized me when I said, “My husband didn’t have him try them on.” She said, “Yeah, I remember you. I was the one checking you guys out.” I spent about 1 ½ hours hemming the pants after I got home. My last task of the days was completing two of last weeks blogs. Whew, I’m tired…