Birthday Shenanigans

I've been traveling, we've had house guests and work has been busy. Those are my excuses, sorry!

Anyways, on October 4th, Kenny turned 29. What an old man! That was a Thursday night, so we went out to dinner with Joey & Amanda (some of our Jax BFF's). We went to Bistro Aix, which I had just recently tried when Susan came to visit. Kenny got the steak (and anyone who knows Kenny knows this isn't shocking), and I got the Mussels for an appetizer and the Risotto for dinner. Nice, quiet celebration and home in time for the old man's bedtime ;)

Self timer shot on Kenny's birthday

The next day Richie and Christy arrived for their long weekend visit. It was pretty awesome that Kenny's birthday was Thursday, Richie's was Monday and Columbus day happened to fall also on the Monday so we could take advantage of the long weekend.

Kenny was able to get off work in time so we could both go pick them up from the airport. As soon as they got in the car, we discussed how we were all hungry and wanted lunch. (Not shocking if you know us well at all). After some debate, we decided on Moe's. And yes, Richie does hate Mexican food. And yes, he did let us know about it from the moment the decision was made, all the way through lunch and out to the car.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around, hanging out and also watching "Homeland." It's a show on Shotime, and if you haven't watched it, you should. It's seriously awesome.

That night I made Chicken Parmesan, another Kenny favorite. And we had birthday cake to celebrate Kenny's birthday since Richie and Christy couldn't be here on the actual day. Here's Kenny's cake. You know, the "normal" kind of cake. AKA Yellow cake with Chocolate Frosting.

Saturday during the day was a chill day. We knew we had to leave mid-afternoon to head to Orlando, so we just hung out for the first part of the day.

Orlando is about a 2 hour drive from Jacksonville. Universal Studios was doing their Halloween Horror Nights, so we decided to go there. Well, Christy wasn't that excited cause she gets scared really easily. I do too as a matter of fact, but I'm the type of person to get scared, scream my face off and then laugh to the point of snorting cause I think it's so fun. Richie loves going to haunted houses with me because I look like a real idiot but then can laugh about it later.

So we go there with enough time to eat outside of the park and the "Whopper Bar" aka a Burger King. And then we got in line to get in. No lie, we were in the entrance line for 45 minutes. We should've taken that as an Omen for the rest of the night.

Waiting to go in

After we got in, we made our way to a haunted house. And immediately saw the line was 60 minutes long. We nixed that one and decided to prioritize. Kenny is a huge fan of "The Walking Dead" the TV show, and they had a haunted house that was dedicated to it. So, we made our way to that...after waiting in a 70 (!) minute line, we got to go through it. It was actually pretty cool (you know, minus the fact that I was scared). It followed the plot of the TV show and you got to walk through the different sets and the different zombies that the characters had encountered were there too.

After that haunted house, we waited in the line another 60 minutes to go on the roller coaster. Which was an awesome ride and longer than 2 seconds, thank goodness. After that, we had time for 1 show.

So, all in all, a fun time. But we learned our lesson. If we go, it will be on a Sunday night when hopefully the crowds aren't as large. You only have 7 hours to do everything in the park and that's kind of hard when you're spending at least 60 minutes in line for everything. We ended up leaving around 1 in the morning, and heading back to Jacksonville.

Richie with the creepy creepy thing.

The next day was Football Sunday. In which the boys sat around watching football. Christy and I amused ourselves by shopping and watching movies upstairs.

The next day was Richie's birthday, so he got to choose what he wanted to do. He and Christy had some money left over for Dave & Buster's, so we headed over there first.

The guys, racing.

And playing Guitar Hero

Typical

We played a 4 way game of air hockey. Christy was the first to get knocked out (that's why she could take this picture). It ended up coming down to me and Kenny. I let him win, of course ;)

We also did the "Gene Machine." Where you take of picture of both of you, you choose the sex you want your baby to be and it spits out a picture of what your kid will look like. Kenny of course made us choose boy. He is determined we won't have any girls. Which, makes me think we'll have 2.

This baby is relatively cute. So, it's now hanging up in our house, waiting for the real baby, to see if it was right.

The future Baby Prindle.

After Dave & Buster's, we headed over to a Seafood Restaurant for Richie's birthday. He wanted crab legs as his birthday meal, I had offered to make them, but Kenny talked us in to going out. We ended up trying Alligator (pictured below) and it was good, tasted just like chicken. I got the Seafood sampler and it was AMAZING. So, definitely a go back to place.

Alligator Bites

After dinner, we came back to the house for Richie's birthday cake. Funfetti with funfetti icing, of course. Richie helped us sing Happy Birthday to him.

The next day, Richie and Christy had to leave :( It was sad seeing them go but it was so nice having them here! Can't wait for their next visit :)

Dining Room

I use the term "dining room" very loosely. Its a little cubby right off the kitchen, across from the foyer. It's the barrier between the kitchen and the living room. And it just happens to have a chandelier...

Here's what it looked like before. The picture on the left is from the realtor, and what it looks like with nothing in it. The picture on the right is what it looked like right after I moved in. And yes, those are our wedding thank you notes on the table.

Our to do list was:
- wine storage
- china hutch

Now, as you can see there really isn't much for these things. Also, we have a dining room table and china hutch waiting for us at my parent's house. They were my grandma's and are those really nice, handmade, wood furniture. So, I knew the dining room storage solution would be more of short term, just while we're living in this house kind of thing. So I sequestered a bookcase that Kenny already had that was acting as his DVD holder. It was yellow, and fit right into the color scheme, winning! 

I'm actually still working on trying to find a wine holder that works for our situation - I don't really drink that much wine, so it's not that big of an issue.

So here's the "After" or should I said "In Progress."

The Kitchen

When I got to Jacksonville, Kenny had 3 plates, a bowl and about 10,000 utensils. I'm not really sure why you need that many utensils when only 3 people can eat off a plate - but who knows.

So this is what it looked like when I got here and had unpacked a few of our wedding gifts. There's a large window in an area that is labeled a "breakfast nook." But we weren't planning on using it for a table, so I had to think of another use for the space.

Once again, knowing the colors of the bottom floor were green, brown, yellow and teal, I went to work on finding matching towels. Luckily, I had green curtains from my previous bedroom in my old apartment. And luckily, they happen to work with the color green were were going with.

Here's the to do list we had:
- Towels
- Pot holders
- Picture Frames for Wall space
- Calendar
- Cork Board
- New Trash Can (with a lid)
- Buffet/Storage for extra serving dishes
- Key Hanger

I found some towels at Target that matched our color scheme. I'm actually still on the hunt for pot holders...we got a trashcan & a key hanger/chalkboard from Target also.

The key/hat hanger

Side note: yes, I do live at Target as my second home. And we were fortunate to get lots of gift cards for wedding gifts. So thanks to our friends and family for making our home pretty :)

We found a buffet table at World Market. It's supposed to be a bookcase, but it worked perfectly for a buffet/storage for our serving dishes. Most importantly, it was on sale.

Next up were some crafty projects. I wanted a cork board where we could pin up receipts, grocery lists, funny pictures, cards, etc. Basically stuff you'd put on the fridge, but you run out of fridge space or magnets.

I bought a 3 pack of cork board at Micheal's & bought a shower curtain on sale from Home Goods (it was $5!) and decided on a little DIY. I cut a piece of the shower curtain to match the corkboard + a little bit more for the overhang of stapling it on. Then I got my staple gun, and stapled the fabric to the wood frame around the corkboard. I then got some binder clips (that matched the color scheme) and tacks to hold everything on the board.

I bought a smaller cork board and repeated the process to make a holder for our calendar. I found a template somewhere online, I seem to have lost the link, and printed that out.

Next up was some kitchen art. I found really cute printables here. The red one didn't go with my color scheme so I ended up just making one myself in brown that said "Mix It Up" with a whisk on it. I had some more picture frames so I ended up taking a piece of the fabric I used for the corkboards and put that in a frame. Along with another printable I made that just says "Milk, Butter, Eggs."

I used paper templates that were the same size as the picture frames so I could adjust and move them around till I found a position I liked. I then hung them all.

Also, this guy was in an ad that was on the sheet of paper I used as a template. Is this not the CREEPIEST thing you've ever seen? Why would you put Uncle Fester in your CPAP ad?

So now for the After Pictures with everything done:

To Do List:
- Towels
- Pot holders
- Picture Frames for Wall space
- Calendar
- Cork Board
- New Trash Can (with a lid)
- Buffet/Storage for extra serving dishes
- Key Hanger
Only have to find potholders that I like and then the Kitchen will be officially complete :)

The Half Bath

Unintentional blog break (that seems to happen a lot), but I'm back again.

So, the Half Bath wasn't my first priority. But it didn't really need all that much done. In fact, if we're being honest, I just finished everything in there 2 weeks ago. Nothing like a visitor to make you really get your bum in gear.

Here's the layout of our town house. The pink arrow indicates the bathroom I'm talking about...

It's the hall bathroom that's just off the kitchen. The one guest use when they come over for dinner. I was actually impressed that Kenny had a rug under the sink and hand soap. Pretty big steps for a guy. The only before picture I got was a shot from the hallway.

As a reminder our to do list was:
- get coordinates
- storage for extra toilet paper, etc.
- towel bar

I have 2 pillows in our living room that I used as color inspiration for the downstairs. Our living room/dining room/kitchen and this hallway bathroom are all right next to eachother. So, I wanted colors that worked within the same color palate but gave me a variety. The pillow has yellow, green, brown & teal in it (I'll have pictures in my living room post). So I found bath coordinates at Target that went with the Teal in the pillow, and Teal was an accent color in our kitchen, so I thought it made sense to "flow" into the bathroom.

I got brown metal accessories (trash can, soap dispenser, etc.) to go with the brown also at Target. I got a small little white cabinet to match the sink/toilet, etc. in there. It's a little storage cabinet for the extra toilet paper, the Febreze, and other things I didn't want just hanging out.

Also, we went to Home Depot and got a white towel bar to match the toilet paper holder. I mean who doesn't have some form of towel bar in the bathroom? Where do you put the towels for people to dry their hands? Bad design on their part. So, I got one and asked Kenny to put it up.

I bought some art at Micheal's (it was on sale) of a "hot" faucet and a "cold" faucet in black and white (which I thought went with the teal). Popped them into some white picture frames I got on sale and voila, bathroom art.

To Do List:
- get coordinates
- storage for extra toilet paper, etc.
- towel bar

All in all, I spent $75 on the bathroom once everything was said and done. But at least it looks presentable for our guests now.

House To Do List

So when I first joined Kenny down in Jacksonville after our wedding, I noticed he went for the "sparse" idea when decorating. His defense was he knew that once I got here, I'd want things a certain way. And since he didn't care, he figured he'd just let me do I what I want. Already a good start to our marriage :)

All kidding aside, once we unpacked everything we got from our wedding registry and looked at what he had. We made a list of things we needed to buy/do. We've actually checked almost all of them off, just a few things here or there left to do. I will be updating on the house progress now that there is some.

And here's our list we started in June, things got added as we thought of them, but things are crossed off too!
Half Bath:
- get coordinates
- storage for extra toilet paper, etc.
- towel bar
Kitchen:
- Towels
- Pot holders
- Picture Frames for Wall space
- Calendar
- Cork Board
- New Trash Can (with a lid)
- Buffet/Storage for extra serving dishes
- Key Hanger
Dining Room:
- wine storage
- china hutch
Foyer:
- Shoe storage
- Mirror
- Coat Hanger
Living Room
- get a recliner or love seat
- bookshelves for dvds
- Curtains
- Shelves for above couch/picture frames
Stair Hallway
- Picture frames
Guest Room:
- Night stand
- TV Stand
- Lamp
- Redo dresser
- Runner for dresser
- Mirror for dresser
- Pictures
- Curtains
Guest Bathroom:
Complete!
Office:
- Desk
- Printer Table
- Bookcase
- Sleeper Sofa
- Filing cabinet
- Trash Can
- Corkboard
- Pictures
- Curtain
Hallway:
- Pictures
Master Bedroom:
- Hang pictures above bed
- lamps for nightstands
- organize closet
Master Bath:
- Rugs for sinks
- Toilet paper solution
- "Cubby space" solution
- Soap dispenser for Kenny
- Curtains
Outside/Patio
- Dining Patio Furniture
- Grill

It's been real, Ireland

Saturday morning, I woke up at 4 am. This was after falling asleep around 10 and being woken up every hour by the party going on in the courtyard below my window.

After showering and packing last minute things, I made my way to the lobby to wait for my parents. I was greeted by a VERY intoxicated guy, who gave me a kiss on each cheek before being escorted to a waiting taxi by his also very intoxicated fried. The friend came back in and was like "Want to come have a drink with us?" I was like "Uh, it's 5 in the morning." He explained that they hadn't stopped the night before as it was a wedding reception. And I was like "Ah, so it was you having a good time outside of my window." My parents showed up and he continued to try to get us to go with him to drink instead of returning to America. Crazy Irish men...

Mel helped us load all our suitcases in the van and then drove us to Shannon Airport. We hugged and thanked him and then checked in for our flights. The security line was short - other than the Army Airborne soldiers that were flying through Shannon to get to the middle east, there weren't that many people there yet.

We went to the duty free shop, got some breakfast and then had only a few minutes to relax before they boarded our plane.

Other than a brief moment on the plane when I thought something was seriously wrong with me, our flights from Shannon to London and then from London to DC went well with little turbulence and were on schedule. My medical emergency consisted of being awoken from my nap on the plane with a feeling in my stomach like I was nervous. I was like that's weird, why would I suddenly be sickeningly nervous? And then it's like I could feel the feeling go from my stomach, travel up my body and into my head. I got tunnel vision, buzzing in my ears and I thought for sure I was going to pass out. It all passed within a couple of minutes, but of course my WebMD searching self was all "OMG I'm having an embolism!!" When, let's be real, it was probably a gas bubble reacting to the pressure. So, moral of the story, don't read WebMD, you'll go in thinking "paper cut" and come out thinking "skin cancer."

Anyways, the trip to Ireland was fun, beautiful and good family bonding time. It was definitely a different experience for me, after having traveled around much of Europe. In Italy, you can go to one city (Rome) and see about 20 different things and be there for a whole week. In Ireland, part of the lure is the countryside and the landscape, and cities only have 1 or 2 "landmarks" to see. But, I can't wait to go back. I'm thinking it'll be awhile cause I'd like to take my children back (they'll have Irish roots on both sides) to see where their ancestors come from. And hopefully, I'll know more details about our ancestry once we go back.

And here's a final map of the overall route we took. Maybe next time we'll be able to get up into Northern Ireland.

Dromoland & Bunratty

Friday was our last day in Ireland. So we decided to hit up the family homes on our farewell tour. Our first stop was Dromoland Castle.

Dromoland Castle

O'Briens in front of Dromoland

The blood O'Briens

We got out for a little bit and were nosey. It actually is a hotel now so we were all "Don't mind us" as we walked around the halls.

Family Crest in the Stained Glass window

After our tour of the home, we meandered down to the gift shop to see what kind of tourist trap things we could purchase. They also have a golf course on site, so, surprisingly, my dad took the longest in the gift shop buying golf things for himself. Mom and I waited in the car with Mel.

Once Dad was done in the store, we drove over to Bunratty Castle. Also a Castle where the O'Brien clan once laid down their heads.

Gee, don't they look pleased?

Dad and I in front of the Castle.

They have the castle all set up like it would've been back when the Earl lived there. Pretty interesting to walk around and see all the old stuff. And we, of course, had to take the typical cheesy touristy photos.

Here I am, locked in the dungeon.

You can walk up to the top of the castle, on very narrow and steep stairs. Here's the countryside from the top of the castle.

And the Picnic tables, how 15th century...

The Castle

Surrounding the Castle, they have typical Irish houses. They have "imported" houses from Dublin, the southern coast, etc. so you can see how people would've lived in those areas a 200 years ago. They also have a turn of the century village mock up, with a school, a doctor's house, a pub, etc. They also had animals. Goats, chickens, deer, dogs - all kinds of creatures. And, you know our family, we were preoccupied with the animals moreso than anything. And you might think this is a small horse, but it's actually a large dog - an Irish wolfhound.

My mom, feeding the donkey

The Deer family they had. My mom has 7 invigorating minutes of them. Doing this exact thing the whole time. She loves her some deer.

The old pup was tired.

I guess I can't talk about my mom when I have 3 pictures of dogs...but look how cute he is!

After petting the puppies, we went to the gift shop, where I had to convince my mother that buying EVERY!SWEATER! in Ireland was probably not a good idea. We also grabbed some lunch there in the cafeteria.

On our way out of the Bunratty area, we stopped by Durty Nelly's. The family story behind this is that my Memaw and Pepaw came to Ireland in the '70's. They ate at Durty Nelly's and my Memaw (the portrait of Southern Elegance) was just appalled. They call it "Durty" for a reason people. When my Dad and Uncle Gavin came back in 2008, they stopped by Durty Nelly's as well. And then in 2012, we rounded out the story by stopping in.

We took a little jaunt inside to look around and I spotted a VT sticker!

VT Pride all the way in Ireland. The guy in the bottom of the pic cracks me up, nice posing.

After that, Mel offered to take me over to St. Camillus Hospital, where John S. had told us to go for the birth records. Me and my parents walked in and the lady (Jane) at the front desk as how she could help, I explained that I wanted to see if they could release the birth/death records of my family. She told me and my parents to come to her office.

There, she explained that the city of Limerick only have birth records from 1864-On, death records from 1920 on, and marriage records from 1920 on. The other records, births before 1864 and deaths & before 1920, were all manually kept in the appropriate county offices. She wrote down the contact information for the lady that works there so I could contact her for the records that I needed. She then went and searched for my great grandfather's (as well as his siblings) birth certificates. She went away for a couple minutes and then came back and told us that she had found them. We paid her the 20 Euro for the search and the copies of the records. She took down my address and promised to have them mailed to me that next Monday.

Once again, my family and I were blown away by the niceness and willingness of people to help us. If that would've been in America, Miss Bitter Betsey would've told me to get lost the second I told her what I wanted.

Update on this...I just received the birth certificates in the mail the other day. Well, copies of what the registrar wrote in 1884.  The thing I find most interesting about this is the "his mark" on the signature line. Obviously my great-great-grandfather couldn't write, so he had to just x marks the spot. Amazing to see how 4 generations later, things have changed so much....

I'm waiting to hear back from Betty about the other records, but hopefully they will help me get closer to the the information I've been hunting all this time.

And lastly, a map of our day's travel.