The Irish Have Landed....

Well...I finally have a minute to sit and write...well actually, I'm tired but dread going to sleep because my dog will wake me, so this is a great time filler...but more about the dog later!

It has been a hectic time lately but one filled with lots of laughter and fun! Shane & Alli have arrived in Canada and are settled into our home and hopefully feeling at home! I still can't believe they are here and we are all so happy that they are!

We have spent the last 10 days searching for a new home and getting settled and working out all the details on their long to do list! Thankfully, it is getting shorter and they can focus on the really important stuff which is setting up their charity and working on their immigration papers.

They found a beautiful new home overlooking the Kennebecasis River which they will have to renovate, though only on a cosmetic level, but that can grow too! The house appears in very good condition (Harry approved!) and it comes with 1.7 acres for Shane to stomp around on and feel like a king! They will have lots of fun decorating their new home and then hosting me for numerous meals and babysitting my kids as Andy and I take off on road trips of our own! Hah hah...like I could leave my kids!

The kids are really enjoying having them here! It has been pretty easy having them around and the kids enjoy hanging out with them! Jack seemed to get off to a good start on learning guitar. Hopefully, this will continue since Shane is a great guitar player and it seems to have inspired Jack...somewhat! Homeschooling has slacked off a bit, but every so often I crack the whip and Jack and Sam enter into my radar zone and the math books are whipped out and we go a big crazy doing a bunch of pages at a time!

Andy has missed out almost completely as he has been on a shutdown. He is gone 14 hours per day and sleeps the rest and basically lives like a zombie! Though, we did squeeze in a dinner with Heidi and Jon last Friday night which was lots of fun. Normally for me, it turns me into a bit of a zombie but having Shane & Alli here to keep me busy and the constant banter...I have been enjoying myself and the change in my routine is making time fly by until Andy is finished...though he may not agree!

I can't say the same for my dog! Maggie is an extremely nervous dog and upon meeting Shane, she emptied her bowels all over my kitchen floor! Then for the next week we had to listen to her growl or bark or poop and run! Now to add insult to injury, she has developed some sort of gastro infection which has meant that she has been throwing up and having diahrea.

This has left me a basket case because I am up with her every two hours and when I'm not doing that, I'm cleaning up poop of the floors, her bum or washing her towels from having to bath her 2-3 times a day because she gets poop all over her! She is now wearing diapers! Yep, I cut a hole in a diaper and she wears one when I am to exhausted to bathe her right away...such as 3am! Poor Shane & Alli took pity on me during the worst of it when we would discover another accident in the house! How's that for making a house guest feel at home! Put them to work cleaning up poop!

Well, I should try to get some sleep...but the thought of getting up to face a wet, cold night outside with a dog who needs her bum wiped....well....

Shane & Alli

Well, I have been meaning to write about our really nice Thanksgivings we had this year. It all started early in October when by chance I checked my blog on myspace only to discover that a person I had met on myspace a year ago had contacted me to say they were coming thru my neck of the woods and would I be available for coffee.

I was using MySpace mainly to contact people living in Northern Ireland to find out how things are over there to live and work. We were considering moving back over as I was born there and have dual citizenship. We were itching for a change both for ourselves and our kids but as things worked out it was not to be...right now.

Anyways, I found the individual websites of Shane & Alli MaGee and learned that they were planning this big trek through North America which included Canada...but I assumed that meant the east coast would be included. I said hello, told them to drop in if they ever came this way. But, I learned that they had no plans to come this far east.

I truly believe it was God's hand that made me check myspace that day. I hadn't checked my blog in so long and had lost interst as things here were so busy. To see that message on that very day was exciting and timely.

Shane and Alli are travelling across North America on a couch surfing/ drive across North America. They wanted to meet up with me for a coffee. So, instead of a coffee I invited them to dinner. I figured they would be ready for a good home cooked meal as they are travelling in their mini-van and eating on the road...not so appetizing on a good day!

When they arrived we were waiting for them and when I saw them walking down my driveway it was like seeing a family member coming home after a long trip away...I believe it was my spirit responding to two people it was already friends with and connected to...my brain just had to catch up.

Our dinner was fun and easy and filled with laughter. There was no small talk, we moved from the normal question and answer phase to pretty deep discussions. I felt safe to share my views and fears and struggles with my faith. My husband who doesn't know what he believes felt totally free to be himself....though that isn't actually all that hard for him but the nice thing was...Shane and Alli were fine with that!


We ended up inviting them to our Thanksgiving dinner which was truly wonderful! My friends and my brother also came and it was a fun, lively discussion over a nice big turkey dinner. They then stayed with us till they moved on to the USA on the next leg of their trip.

In marriage, you can often have one spouse begging the other to suck it up and be nice to the company that is coming...instead, both Andy and I were in total agreement to keep them here as long as they needed!! We both felt comfortable with them here...which is odd for us as we are pretty private people.

Shane also had an opportunity to preach/teach at our church (for a sample of what our pastor is like click on this link). This was his opportunity to make contact with our church & Pastor.
We had another great dinner which included my pastor and his wife plus two of my closest friends. Shane and I got into some heated discussions on feminism and homeschooling which we never did finish....but I will write about that at another time.

When they left we all felt such a huge sense of loss! We even felt kinda silly for feeling that way because the time flew by so quickly and in all likelihood unless we take a trip over to Ireland, we might never see them again.

My three year old ella still asks when they are coming to dinner and that she misses them. She adored, adored Alli! Ben my oldest enjoyed the conversations with Shane and makes a point to read the book of poetry that Shane left him.

After the rough year we have had, when they came it was like a page turning in a book...I felt we were moving on towards better days. I just wish I could shake this sense of loss from them leaving.

Things would be lovely if they were actually close by as we all feel like a piece of our family is missing now...However, Shane is going back to University to get his Ph.D and Alli has been accepted into school to become a lawyer focusing on human rights....
We miss them both...so much!