Officer Of The Quarter

He didn't want me to post this, but I reserve the right to brag on my honey who just happens to be the Officer of the Quarter.

Time To Myself

I haven't had much time to myself lately. Today was really the first day that I've had *almost* free. I say almost because I did have some errands to run which were in Omaha, but other than that, a quick trip to TJMaxx searching for something, studying for a midterm, prepping dinner for later, and picking kids up from school, I had maybe 2 hours to myself to do what I pleased.

I was supposed to meet Gregg for lunch today at Smashburger, but that fell through because of a last minute project given to him at work that was due in a matter of hours. Must have been important...

So while I was putting on my make-up in the bathroom, I noticed the beautiful light coming through the glass block windows there. I couldn't help but go get my camera and attempt to take a few self portraits, here's what came out.

I personally really love the first one and last one. I felt like an idiot taking these, but I'm happy with the outcome.

Maybe the wind will die down and we can get family photographs sometime soon. I noticed today that they were harvesting the corn locally. I guess I don't have much time before the Winter weather kills my joy again.

Kind of Wordless Wednesday

I got this text from Payton last night while we were blowing her new phone up with texts. She's such a funny girl.

Finally Making It Around Back

Well, I've finally made it to my last post from our trip to Ireland. It's hard to believe it's been just about four months. It was an amazing trip and I have my loving husband to thank. You are just the greatest for so many reasons. Being a great husband, wonderful father, my best friend, providing for all of us so well, and always going beyond what I could ever expect. This trip to Ireland was a dream come true and just one of the best surprises of my life. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

We had one more day/night to spend in Ireland before we came back to the states, and that day was in Dublin again. We made it to the Jameson distillery. We're not really the whiskey type, so we didn't tour the facility, we just snapped a few pictures.

We checked into our hotel, which was SO TINY I couldn't get pictures, even with a wide angle lens. But this trouser press gave me a good chuckle, so I thought I'd share. Note the before and after drawings, really?

While walking around Dublin you just have to stop into a pub or two. This one was quite nice and the bartender was a real gab. Soccer was on the television, and if you know anything about Europe, soccer is HUGE over there. They were just amazed that we Americans had no interest in soccer what so ever.

By the time our pints were gone, we were actually interested in the soccer match.


Gregg and I went back to Leo Burdock's Fish and Chips joint where we had some of the best fish and chips ever the first day we were in Ireland. This time we ate them at another cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral to be exact.

It was beautiful. I just love the architecture.

Gregg ate and I took pictures.

Lots of pictures.

Then he fed the birds the left over chips.

After we ate we went and walked around more of Dublin, taking random photos as we went.


This is Dublin Castle. Doesn't look like much of a castle to me though...


The streets of Dublin can be confusing, but we were really starting to get the hang of navigating our way around. Wouldn't it figure that we would figure all this out the last day we were there.

This is the Ha'penny Bridge (pronounced Hay-penny) - officially named the Liffey Bridge, because it crosses the River Liffey. It was built in 1816 as one of the earliest cast-iron bridges in Britain and Ireland. It is a pedestrians-only bridge that acquired it's name by the toll once charged to cross it: half a penny. The turnstiles were removed in 1919, when passage was made free.

Here's my handsome husband posing on the bridge.

This is a photograph of The General Post Office, built in 1815. It was the main stronghold of the Irish Volunteers during the Easter Rising. On Easter Sunday, 1916, Patrick Pearse stood on its steps and read a proclamation declaring a free Irish Republic. Then he and an army of supporters barricaded themselves inside the post office. A siege ensued that ultimately involved much of the north of the city, and before it was over, the building was all but destroyed. It had barely been restored before the civil war broke out in 1922 and it was heavily damaged again. After that it had remained closed until 1929.

It is still a working post office today with many bullet holes in the walls out front to give a sense of its history. There was a wonderful movie made about the Easter Rising, called Michael Collins, with Liam Neeson starring. It is a must watch in my honest opinion.

Just outside the GPO is the Spire of Dublin, which rises nearly 400 feet into the sky. This spire is located in the spot that the old Nelson's Pillar once stood before it was destroyed by the NRA bombing in 1966.

Before heading back to the hotel for the night, we hit up a pub for something to eat. I must say that the item I had at this place was by far the worst food I had the entire time we were in Ireland. I had a chicken salad. How hard could that be to screw up? I was heavy from Guinness and fried fish and sausages so I wanted something lighter. Anyway, this was our view from our little alcove at the Porterhouse Brew Pub.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at O'Donnells pub, had another pint and listed to open mic night there. Later we came upon this street performer in the video above. Dublin after dark is quite nice, very different from our life after dark here in Nebraska as you can well imagine.

The next morning we got up and had some breakfast before we headed back to the airport. I snapped this photo with my cell phone through a mirror.

This is Gregg's breakfast. Apparently he liked his beans and eggs mixed.

And here I am very tired early in the morning. I was sad to be leaving such a beautiful place, but also excited to see the kids and Jolie again. We had SO many beautiful photos to share!

Our first leg from Dublin to Chicago was just fine but looooong because of a screaming child right next to us across an isle. The mother of said baby even was kind enough to change a couple shitty diapers right there in the seat. As you can imagine I was not very appreciative.

Once we got to Chicago though, that's where things went awry. There must have been 5 excuses we got from the airport staff why our flight was delayed. Storm in Omaha, mechanical issues, storm in Chicago to just name a few. Our flight was delayed every 30 minutes for a new excuse, then there was news of it being canceled.

We were supposed to pick the kids up in Kansas the following afternoon, so I was freaking out. And I wasn't the only one. People were pissed and there was even one woman that threw a huge fit when she was told she would have to sleep on a cot in the Airport because all of the hotels nearby were booked because of all the canceled flights out of Chicago. At least it provided some entertainment... Eventually the canceled flight wasn't canceled and it began to be delayed every 15 minutes until we finally left 5 hours late.

Gregg and I had been craving a Chipotle burrito and were just really hoping that we could make it back to Omaha and be able to pick some up on the way home before they closed. We did make it but we were beyond tired, it had been almost 28 hours since we had slept and we were BEAT.

The following morning we had to get up and make our way to Kansas to pick up the kids who stayed with my father while we were gone. Jolie was just so happy to see us again we had to take her along and she just loved it.

It was good to be back in the US, but what I wouldn't give to travel to Ireland again.

There's just nothing quite like it.

A Day In The Life...

Cats are funny and they totally have it made. I thought I'd share with you a morning in the life of one chunky cat I know.

8:30 AM wake up - Jolie wasn't really thrilled about this part because she usually isn't up and around until somewhere around 9 AM.

Time to get up and get moving!

Jolie sleeps on blankets laid neatly around the house. She refuses to sit anywhere there isn't a blanket. She sleeps in bed with us, at our feet on that blue blanket. She's a spoiled kitty.

Gotta scratch (poor girl has no claws though) and stretch a little.


Now it's time for some exercise. This is Jolie's version of the stair climber.

Working out...

Jolie needs to fuel up for her day with some food and water.

Here you can see that Jolie's haircut is growing out for Fall/Winter.

Don't worry, I didn't get pictures of Jolie doing "her business".

I just wanted to tell this little story...

We purchased this new litter box back in May, it's called a "Litter Robot" (there is a silly video on the linked site showing how it works if you feel so inclined). That sphere rotates out the used litter.

Unfortunately, we hadn't been able to get Jolie to use it exclusively until just last week. We tried everything from taking the sphere off the base to see if she was just scared of being in the thing, unplugging it, and even putting a regular litter pan on top of the base to try to fix the problem.

Turns out the lights on the front of it freaked her out. We thought this might be the case when she used it when it was unplugged. So I proceeded to cover the lights with some electrical tape and **presto** she uses the Litter Robot exclusively.

She's smarter than we give her credit for.

Here's a close up of the lights. The green light turns to a red on in the center when the globe is spinning, and a yellow one to the right when the box senses that a cat has used the box. If I were her I would be a tad bit afraid the thing would start spinning with me inside it too.

Business taken care of, it's time to go outside for some fresh air...

Gregg and I screened in parts of our railing around the deck and put up a gate so that Jolie wouldn't roam freely around the neighborhood. Back at our last place, we had a fence which kept her contained for the most part, but here in Nebraska we have no fence. I had recently found Jolie laying in the middle of the road taking in some sun, which totally freaked me out. We live in a quiet neighborhood outside of town, but laying in the road just isn't smart.

Amazingly enough, the screen has kept my girl on the deck happily for at least a month now. She so loves it outside, and I'm glad she's safe out there now.

Time to go back inside and start the whole rotation over again. Sleep, eat, sun. Sleep, eat, sun...

Outdoor Education

In Papillion, sixth graders do something called Outdoor Education. The two classes went camping overnight at the end of September. They left early in the morning (that's when this photo above was taken) and returned the following evening as everyone else was getting out of class. I am still amazed that the schools here are able to coordinate such an event and have so much fun doing it. The kids stayed in small groups with adult supervision. They slept in cabins, took hikes, wrote poetry, did some trust courses, and generally just had fun learning about nature and spending time together.

I wish we could have done this as kids, it really sounds like a lot of fun. Payton doesn't look so thrilled in that picture, but believe me, Outdoor Ed was all she (and all the other kids) talked about since school started this year. She was beyond excited.