Very Busy Weekend!

Hi everyone!

This weekend has been very crazy! Brett got home about 3:30 on Friday. And we just relaxed, which was good as Saturday kicked our behinds!!!!!!!!

We got up early Saturday morning and did our usual morning routine...played with the Nut, breakfast about 7am, play some more, then naptime at 8. Brett stayed up and watched the Ireland vs New Zealand Rugby match that started at 8. Hazel and I slept until 10:30, got up, got ready and headed out the door at 11:45. We decided Friday night that we would choose the town of Bushmills as our adventure for the weekend. It was a gorgeous day out, sunny and warm. So off we went! We got to the Giant's Causeway at about 1pm and it was busy. There were tour buses and people EVERYWHERE, but it was to be expected as it was simply beautiful out. We headed straight for the Causeway, and chose the shorter route down...our first mistake. The path was paved and easy, and we thought we'd take the bus back to the top...the Causeway sits at the bottom of a cliff....it's actually the "beach" and jets out into the Irish Sea. But when we got to the bottom, our brains must have been clouded by the beauty of it all. We took lots of pictures of everything...even shorty sitting on one of the hexagonal (is that a word?) stones---

it was sunny out, can you tell?

Here's a picture of some of the rocks. There are just hundreds and hundreds of rocks that look manmade, but are actually the result of Volcanic activity!

Cool, huh? I posted all the pics we took on our Walmart site, so let me know if you need an invite to view them! We took 121 throughtout the day, which is entirely too many to put here!

So after playing on the cool rocks for a while, we decided to head back to the top. Now, whether it was becasue we hadn't eaten, or because we had too much sun, or maybe the view just peaked our curiousity, or (more than likely) just out of sheer stupidity, we decided that this...was the preferred route to the TOP of the cliffs. Carrying a 19+ lb child, her stroller and diaper bag. Yah, I know NOT intelligent. Notice that this picture is taken at the TOP of the cliffs looking down. Obviously we made it...barely. Let's just say, when we take this trip again with any one of you visiting, Hazel and I will be taking our butts back up on the bus. With all the elderly folk who can't do the 1/2 mile+ trail and 4 billion stairs to the top. Either that, or anyone who visits and wants to work off all the greasy food they eat here by carrying Hazel to the top is more than welcome to her! I need to look into getting my fat tush to the gym....I say that as I sit here eating Shortbread cookies dipped in Nutella (a chocolate and hazelnut spread for those who haven't experienced the fabulousness that is Nutella...you can get it at Wal-mart...run and buy some, dip some animal crackers in it...get fat with me ;-) ).

Once at the top we got ourselves some sandwiches and water, then headed off to Dunluce Castle which was just up the Coast from the Causeway. It's the remains of a Castle that was built somewhere in the 14th Century. It's just beautiful. (But then again, this is Ireland, what ISN'T beautiful?) The remains are preserved enough as they are to see actual parts of the castle.

and that's only part of the castle! When we entered the castle, there were people doing Musket and Archery demonstrations...pretty nifty....

and just lots of cool things to walk around and see! There we lots of old Chimneys still standing and most of them had daisies growing out of the bricks which just made it all seem that much more magical...

So Pretty. Kinda puts you in awe over how God can put life and beauty into anything...even things we let fall into ruin!

Well, I should get going for now, but I'll post more pictures and stories tomorrow!

Love to you all!

Worst Movie EVER....be ware...Cloverfield spoiler...so don't read if (for some reason) you still wanna see it...

So I forgot to mention that Brett and I downloaded a movie last night to watch after H went to bed. Brett has been jonesing forever to see the movie Cloverfield, so we rented it off I-Tunes and turned it on after H was asleep! Let's just say the most postivie thing about that movie was that it was only an hour and a half long. It's supposed to be scary and blah blah blah, I LAUGHED through every scary part. And you guys know how I deal with scary and gory.
So, if you haven't seen Cloverfield, don't bother unless you want a headache. The entire movie is shot by one of the characters through a personal camcorder, and there's no fluidity to the picture. You never REALLY get a good view of each character, or anything that's going on. 90% of the movie is them running, which you can only imagine what the cinematography during THAT was like. Plus, you know the old saying about how every group of friends has that one person that no one really likes and is kinda whiny and no one's really sure how they became part of the group, but you can't imagine life without them? Imagine THAT person as the camera man. He whined throughout the ENTIRE movie.

So here's the spoiler part.

EVERYONE dies. Every one of the main characters dies. Well, except one, and you never find out what actually happens to her after she gets on a helicopter and flies away. And that isn't even at the end, so it doesn't finalize anything. You spend the whole movie thinking you'll get to know what was going on, and you never do. One of the main characters gets bitten and then gets sick and explodes, but they never say why. Is it like in Aliens when a baby hatches? Or is that just a side effect of getting bitten? No one ever comes on after and explains whether it was a seacreature, an alien, a dinosaur, or what, and whether or not they defeated the creature. And the ENTIRE premise of the movie is the main character wants to go save his hurt girl friend. So they save her and at the end, they both die.

DUMBEST movie EVER. EVER. And the critics gave it a rave review! Talking about how it's so realistic and well thought out...blah blah blah. Realistic if you never look at the horrible computer graphic creatures. I could do a better job. Not really, but wow. They. Were. Bad. And the scene in the tunnels where the creature babies attack the main characters, I think it was supposed to be really gory and scary but I laughed my head off. I couldn't stop.

Now, if you've seen the movie and loved it, please don't be offended. But would you please email me and explain to me what I missed that made it good? SEriously. I won't make fun of you for liking it, but I really really wanna know why you did.

If you haven't seen it, don't. Rent Blades of Glory instead. It's equally stupid, but atleast you'll get a laugh that was intentional....

Busy week!

I can't believe it's Thursday already!!!! It's been a fairly uneventful week. Hazel is feeling MUCH better and seems to have replaced her ickiness with energy! She's started saying "Dada" Tuesday and since then has realized that she can make distinct syllables vs baby sounds. She's talked non-stop!

Tuesday we went to Mom & Tots group in the am, and then went into town for a little bit! Nothing exciting there, I did some research at the Co-operative travel agency on our trip to Greece later this summer...now we just have to make a decision on where we want to go! And when for that matter! We thought August, but it seems we can save quite a bit of $$$ if we go in September, so we'll see! I didn't get any lunch that day, so just before we headed off to get Brett, I got a cup of Ice cream, and Hazel got her first taste! She loved it! I know it's a no-no b/c of all the sugar involved, but once in a while I figure won't hurt. Brett took H and I out to dinner Tuesday night. We went to Mattie's Meeting House in Cairncastle (just north of Ballygally). It's an inexpensive meal and I got to have my garlic chips (which is a new obsession!). Hazel, got to try her first tiny bite of chicken...which she's not sure about...her first Green Bell Pepper...which she LOVED...and she tried Balsamic Vinegar for the first time (I dipped a tiny tiny corner of her toast in it). She was CRAZY about the BV. Straight BV, no oil...if you know about my vinegar craving during my pregnancy, you won't be surprised! I asked the doc if that was OK and they assured me that a tiny bit every once in a while is actually good for her. But we're supposed to stick to clear vinegar as the salt content is pretty non existant. So no more BV, for Hazel, but I can give her the clear stuff...wonder if she'd like cucumbers in vinegar? She seems to love all the components, so we'll see! So Hazel had a lot of firsts on Tuesday!
Yesterday was our Breastfeedingsupport group. Not very exciting, but we did get Hazel weighed and she weighs 19 lbs 5 oz!!!!!! She's gained 1 lb in 3 weeks dispite being sick and all her crawling! Daddy says we need to figure out what we're doing to make her grow so fast and stop it! Between you and me, I think it's breaking his heart ;-).

Well, that's all for the moment! I'm going out for my mom's night tonight, so maybe something exciting (not bad exciting, though) will happen and I'll get to tell more tomorrow!

It's a new week!

I can't believe we're the second day into June already! Hazel will be 9 months in 11 days...that's CRAZY! Which, now that I mention it, is exactly what she is driving me today. She is in to EVERYTHING and crying constantly. If I thought she didn't feel good, or something was wrong, I wouldn't be going nuts. However, she is just throwing a fit about everything. She's mastered pulling herself up and is a big fan of pulling up on the couch, but then screams and screams once she's there! So I sit her down, and she pulls herself up again. Then screams. Today is an ugly endless cycle......
The toe and the Creepy Crud seem to be better today, which is fantastic. Neither are still 100% but they will be soon, I hope!
Well, I will post later once I get shorty to nap and I get some chores done...maybe I'll take my craziness out on my house....

The Verdict

So H and I went to the doctor this morning at 10:20 to see if I'm dying or not. Good news...the doc says I'll live. She did say, however, that I've defenitely caught the creepy crud (it's a technical term) from the Nut, but as I'm still breastfeeding and she's already on antibiotics, I don't get anything but basically tylenol and time! So I'm chugging OJ as we speak...go! Vitamin C! go!...and attempting to get rest.

The doctor also said I've either broken or severly bruised the soft tissue in my toe, but she can't tell by looking or touching it. The only way to tell is to go 35 minutes away to the ER (they call them A & E's) and get an X-Ray, however, the treatment isn't any different if it IS broken, the only difference is we take on an X-Ray bill...so I opted to do nothing as she said that's what they'd do if it is broken...send me home and tell me to stay off it.

So here I am contemplating my next course of action...I believe knitting something neat would make me feel better! Oh, here's a picture of my glorious toe...incase you care to see!

Graceful

Which is exactly what I am...graceful. I think this is actually common knowledge, and, true to form, I had a moment of true gracefulness last night. I had just gotten out of the shower and was running downstairs to grab my nightgown, in the dark, and I stubbed my toe on Hazel's pack N play that was in the hall (collapsed, I just hadn't put it away since Wednesday when Brett brought it in from the car). It hurt something awful, but all stubbed toes do. I went to bed groaning about it, but knew it would be fine in the morning!

I was wrong.

It hurts as bad if not worse this morning.

It's got a purple tinge to it and just short of makes me want to pee my pants when I put a shoe on. Wouldn't you know that today, I have to go to the doctor, so I can't sit around with no shoes on. Plus I get the privledge of driving our manual car around Larne. YEA!!!!!!! for clutches....sigh.

I think there should be some award for Klutzes. I'd probably win most years....

Well, that's all for now. I'll keep you posted later about our doctors visit later!

Feeling icky...take 2

So we're well into day 2 of the ewwy gewwies (it's been upgraded from the creepy crud). Hazel's still an enormous ball of snot and I'm still running a fever....go figure! And we had a full day planned for today! We were supposed to go to Mom & Tots this morning and then we were going with our new friends Michelle and her daughter Beth to Junction One (the outlet we love) in Antrim. Then I was going to pick up Brett and Jenn at FG Wilson after they got off work, drop Brett and Hazel off at home, then Jenn and I were going to Carrickfergus to get birthday pedicures! THEN Brett, Matt, and Hazel were going to meet us in Carrick for dinner. However, I can't imagine trying to get ready to be presentable for this evening. EVERYTHING aches. I haven't knitted in 2 days b/c my wrists ache so bad!

On more positive notes, last weekend was wonderful! Friday night Matt and Jenn babysat Hazel so Brett could take me to Belfast for my birthday. He surprised me with dinner at a place called Cayenne. It was really good. I had some sort of fish on top of the NASTIEST oodon noodles I've ever tasted. But the fish was good! Brett got Venison (which is really popular here), and, of course, since he loves venison, he enjoyed it!

Saturday, we got up and I got ready, b/c Jenn and I went to get my hair cut! I'm not super thrilled about it, but it's been nice since we've been sick b/c it requires no styling efforts! It's easily an ich and a half shorter than I asked for, but what do you do??? Hair grows. Jenn and I, then, went to town and got stuff for dinner at our house that night. We were HARD CORE shopping for an hour. So hard core in fact that when we got home, I took a nap with Hazel! Matt and Jenn came over for dinner. We had Strawberry/Goat Cheese/Butterhead lettuce salad, Chicken breasts with Creamy Pepper Sauce, Garlic Bread, and Mashed potatoes! VERY filling, I think the boyz let out their top button afterwards. Jenn and Matt brought over birthday cake and we played Euchre and it was just all around a fun night!

Sunday, Hazel, Brett, and I got up early and went to have Ulster Fry at the Ballygally Castle hotel. So yummy!!!! We came home, took a nap and then went shopping at Junction One for my birthday present! I got 2 pairs of shoes, a skirt, and a sweatsuit for mom N Tot's group! Then we headed home and had KFC (that's right! Kentucky Fried Chicken!) for dinner! I was fully okay with that! It was very good and actually hit the spot!

Well, I should get going, it's about nap time for the Nut and myself, so I will try to post again tomorrow!