Full steam ahead

Last week I had appointments with both Dr Brian (my dentist) and Dr Johnson (my surgeon) and they are both very pleased with my progress and astounded by the healing that has taken place in the enormous graft site.

So, now that means it's full steam ahead into orthodontics. I am so excited for that, so many reasons.

It's the next step on the road to being done with all this work, and also, it means I will be able to go without my flipper too - and for that, I am super excited.

It is still a long road ahead of us, and it's very likely that we won't even be catching a glimpse of the end of that road until December 2012, but at least we're taking steps in the right direction again!

So, on Wednesday this week I'll be in braces...

Keep your jokes to yourselves please people... I may just bite your head off! ;)

Farm life

This week has seen a big change in the Fast household. Cory finished up his job at the Physics Research company and is now working at the family Farm.

It will be a huge change in our life, but it is also a very exciting one for us! We are looking forward to the exciting adventure and how it will shape our life - it should make for a very interesting summer!

Will keep you posted over the next few weeks on how all that fun stuff is going :)

Oregon bound

So, our trip was coming to a close and it was time to start heading back to Oregon... we packed up our things in London, I even tried to pack Paul into my little suitcase, but Morgan ratted me out to Caroline..... :(

It had been a wonderful trip, but I knew it was going to be a long and disjointed journey home.

After just three hours sleep the night before we were packed up and in the car ready to leave my parents place by 4am on the Thursday morning... we flew to Dublin, rented a car and then drove to Laois to my brothers place. We were knackered when we arrived and promptly found a bed to take a nap - ugh.

After the nap and the lunch we sorted through all my luggage so none of it would be overweight and to make sure we could fit everything in. It was a tedious task of adding something to the case and then re-weighing it over and over again, but we got it done and then we packed everything into the car. My goodness, that rental car was packed to the brim... one bike (in a box), five large suitcases, one large size rucksack, one carry on suitcase plus two 'personal item' size carry on bags. We were up to the limit on everything we could bring.

After a fun night out in Tom's Bar that night and another night of getting to bed way too late we got up in the morning, got our last few things together and headed to Dublin. At the airport the check in staff were having issues with my bike. We had been told that we could take it in lieu of a suitcase for no additional charge, but their system was advising them to charge us 200 EURO - YUCK. After much research, several calls and an hour later they finally waived the fee and checked in our bags.

We needed food...

We headed through security and to the lounge and grabbed some snacks and drinks until our flight was called.

Once our flight was called we headed down to the gate through immigration and border control. I'd never flown to the USA from Dublin before, so I don't know if it was a new thing or not but we did our passport and immigration stuff there before we even got on the flight.

We arrived in New York... it was warm, we were tired and we had a ton of bags to lug around. we got some help with our bags and went outside to try and find a taxi that we could squeeze everything and us into.... success.... then we headed to Dave's place.

Driving (or even being driven) in NYC is not a fun experience. It's quite stressful and even a little scary - the drivers are all in a hurry to get somewhere and the driving style is really aggressive! Ugh

After a fun 24 hours (give or take) in NYC we squeezed our stuff back into another taxi (minus the bike which we decided to ship instead of lug around) and headed back to the airport.

By now it was Saturday evening (NYC time) and we were more than ready to be home... we still had a long slog in front of us.

The flight was decent, a little rough in the middle due to a thunder storm but I was so tired I'd fallen asleep before we'd even got off the ground. I was wrecked!

We left JFK about 40 mins behind schedule, but we still ended up arriving in PDX an hour ahead of schedule. We were very glad that Cory's parents had checked the status of the flight and were there to pick us up...

Almost home...

It took about an hour to drive to Cory's parents place, and then we had to unload their car and load everything to our truck, by now I was starting to feel like we would never get home. It was already the wee hours of Sunday morning and I was very eager to get into our bed.

We headed home, I think we were on auto pilot by this stage.....

We unloaded all our stuff into the house, smack bang in the middle of the living room floor. By this time we didn't care where it went, we just needed to get into bed...

I slept so hard that night... it had taken from the wee hours of Thursday morning to the wee hours of Sunday morning to get home... It's safe to say we were both done travelling for a while.

Birthday time...

Cory & I were excited that we would get to have our birthday in London... I was excited to have Colin the caterpillar cake for my birthday too - Yummmm...

We didn't have much planned for our birthday, and I guess we probably should have planned a little more, but it was perfect as it was, and I will definitely remember turning 30 (ugh).

We had a lazy morning, complete with a yummy fry up (bacon, egg, beans, toast....) and then opened presents with the family. I didn't really expect any presents, and Cory & I had decided before the trip that we would exchange gifts when we got home, but he still brought a little red package out of his bag and gave it to me. I couldn't think what it was, I completely had no idea what he was giving me. I opened the little velvet pouch and immediately recognised what was hiding inside. It was the most beautiful blue/fire opal ring I had ever seen, and it had belonged to Cory's late Grandmother. Paula passed away just a few months ago - I was overwhelmed, and absolutely and completely speechless.
After a few minutes I asked him how it came to be that I was receiving it and he told me the story. I was honoured.

A few minutes after that there was a knock at the door.... the postman. Mum and Caroline had gone round to the shops so I went and answered the door. He handed me a package, with MY name on it - WEIRD, I don't live here anymore.

I recognised the writing - it was from my buddy in Finland... so I opened it with Cory - it was this awesome green bowl on a stem type thing. I really don't know how to explain it, except that it's beautiful, it's glass, and it's very Finish (apparently). Thank you Anna... it's perfect!

So, after opening presents, and having that lazy morning I mentioned we got ready and headed out for a walk to Holland Park. It was a beautiful day for a walk in the park. It was such a relaxing morning and I got to show Cory all the little things I remembered of our frequent visits to that park in my childhood.

After that a spot of lunch and then a little shopping, and then we headed back to the house to hang out with the family for a bit before dinner. We had reservations at the Bombay Bicycle Club - THE best Indian restaurant in London (IMHO) and my favourite place to dine, I couldn't think of a better place to have birthday dinner.

Once we'd filled up there we headed back home and had birthday cake with the family - YUM!

So, I decided that turning 30 wasn't too bad after all... it wasn't really all that different to being 29, except for all the smart alecs cracking jokes all day... I guess I'll give thirty a fair shot and see how it treats me in a few weeks. ;)

Here's some pics of our birthday

Another surprise visitor

The boys last night asked me to bring them a surprise when I picked them up for school... perfect timing!
Cory arrives at noon and we should be back from the airport with time to both go to the school and pick the boys up. After seeing the reaction they both gave when I showed up last week I'm interested to see how speechless they are today - they are certain Cory's not coming on this trip, even though every night they say they wish he could have come to visit soon.

Alfie has even offered to get his 'pocket money' savings out and send the money to Cory towards a ticket - those boys are so sweet, and are going to be so surprised.

I'm excited to see my hubbie too. It seems like so long ago that I left Oregon to fly into Ireland. Two weeks is entirely too long to be away from each other and I am excited to give him a big hug and kiss...

It's our birthday on Friday too - so I'm hoping we can figure out some fun 'tourist' stuff to do while we're here.

More photos...

Paul at three weeks

Charlotte at 5 months

Such a little snuggle bug

Super-Fred!

Getting ready for swimming lessons with Hadar

Little man is getting big
I can see the change in him even in the week I've been here.

London...

Well, it's Sunday afternoon and I'm here in London at my parents place. It drove down to George & Jen's on Tuesday afternoon and stayed with them til I flew to London on Thursday morning. I was pretty lucky, all flights from Ireland had been cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the dangerous levels of ash in the air from the volcano.

When I got to Luton airport I went to baggage claim and grabbed my bags and then made my way out to the terminal to find my Mum. I saw her and Morgan looking up at the screens for arrival information, so I snuck up on them and just said "well hello, fancy seeing you here". Morgan stood there, his mouth wide open and couldn't say a word.... he was speechless, literally... for half an hour at least. The first thing he did say when he finally found his tongue again was "Where's Cory?" closely followed by "Caroline got a baby and I got a sister". He's so funny, whatever goes on his head he just blurts out.

Alfie was shocked when he came home from the shop with Granda and found me in the kitchen... he stood there for a few minutes and then just said "Hello Mary" ("Granda, look, it's Mary").

I was excited to see my sister and meet her new little baby, Paul so we hopped into the car and headed over to her place. He's just adorable and such a good little man too - she's lucky!

I'll post photos and try and keep updated, can't make promises tho...

Donegal photos

Packed & ready...

Well, the cases are all packed, the house is clean and tidy and I have realised that there are a few things not done that will have to wait until next time...

I have packed the little Ford focus heavy, it's going to be a hard slog down to Portarlington - One bike, three large (full size) suitcases, one medium suitcase, one carry on case, one backpack, one laptop, several 'swing' bags of clothes and a box of stuff to pack when I get to Laois.

I check everything for the millionth time and then lock up, jump in the car and get on the road. There's a tug on my heart and a lump fills my throat... That little house isn't 'home' to me any longer, but it will always be a very special place and holds so many special memories for me - my childhood is wrapped up in that place.

As I drive down the road I think of Granda... I still miss him dearly.

On the road again

I'm starting to know what the littlest hobo felt like.... it seems like time has flown past since I arrived and now I am packing up ready to get back on the road.

I honestly didn't allow enough time to get everything done. The past 4.5 days have been insane and I haven't stopped working (literally) except to sleep and sometimes eat, it's insane.

Today I am aiming to get the house cleaned and everything packed into the car. The house is a complete bomb site right now, and if you could see it you would know just what a task that is to do in one day.

My bike is packed into it's box and ready to go and I have 2 cases packed, that's all...

Yikes!