September
Well, the big breakthrough is that we now have internet access at home. This should help with communication, with updating this blog, and with finally (soon) getting pictures on the blog.
September has been full, as all months seem to be. Some highlights:
* I (MFE) went to a speech therapy workshop at the University of Limerick. It was on Eating Drinking and Swallowing (as we call it here). The presenter was Suzanne Evans Morris from US. It was a great experience. I stayed in a nice B&B, met some nice people and good contacts, and enjoyed talking to Suzanne. I went on the bus, which was fine, but was offered a ride home by a new friend, which was even better!
*This Friday, driving back from Cahersiveen, we had our best rainbow day! We saw 4 or 5 different rainbows, and one was spectacular. It was a complete bow, ending at the ground on both sides of the road. Dana says we not only found the site of 1 pot of gold, we found 2! Even more amazing, on one side it came down in front of the nearby mountain, so that you looked at the green of the mountain through the dark, bright colors of the rainbow. And, even better, it then bent across the flat field and came toward us across that field - an amazing sight!
*Yesterday (Saturday) we went to the Listowel Races. Every town here has its own race course and racing sessions. We kept meaning to go to one, but didn't. We were advised that the Listowel races were not to be missed - in fact I cancelled therapy in Listowel that day! So, we went, and had a good time. Dana won a few, not quite breaking even, and I did even worse. However, we enjoyed the event and the horses. Neither of us has been to many horse races (Hot Springs only once, many years ago), so we were really novices. This race is not Ascot, although some people were dressed up quite a bit. This was more a common man event - in fact its called the Harvest Festival and was traditionally a celebration for the farmers at the end of the season.
*We had hoped to also go to dog racing, as Down Syndrome Kerry had a fund-raising night on Thursday - however, that go rained out. This in itself is amazing, because if they called things off because of rain most of the time, nothing would ever happen. However, Thursday was the heaviest, steadiest, and longest rain we have encountered here, and resulted in cancellation.
*The big personal event of September - we moved into the new house. It is 2-story, 4 br, 2 ba (sort of - one is downstairs and in 2 sections!). There is a nice living room, a dining room/den, an office/therapy room, and a kitchen. We have an Amana fridge, which we were excited about, but it has had some problems. We think it's working okay now; our repairman is the coach of the Kerry Minor League Football team (more in a minute on that) so he was relatively unavailable during our need! Our landlady and landlord are really nice and willing to do anything we ask, which has been great. We have a back garden (yard) which will be okay for the dogs, and they are willing for the dogs to come into the house. They are buying us a shed, which we'll use for storage and for the dogs we think. We are within walking distance of town centre.
*The big local event this last week was the Gaelic Football All-Ireland Match - in the seniors County Kerry played County Mayo. This is a huge even here - most houses and cars fly the green and gold colors. The trophy is the Sam Maguire, and people here talk about "Sam is coming home"! Well, Sam did come home - Kerry trounced Mayo to the delight of most of our friends. The Minor League (younger players) match was the same day and Kerry & Roscommon tied, so had a play-off game yesterday and Roscommon won - I guess 2 wins would have brought the county to a stand-still!
My work continues to evolve and I am gradually getting the schedule better arranged so I'm not killing myself (and doing a less than best job!). Having therapy here at the new house on Wednesday is a help. We are also looking at changing one of the further away places to fortnightly, and I'm going to a couple of schools to see kids instead of their coming to me. All in all its going well. I really enjoy visiting the schools and plan to blog later this month about what I've learned about the education system. I hope by then we'll be putting pictures on here so I can show you pictures of some of the schools.
More later. We may try to add pictures later this weekend!
September has been full, as all months seem to be. Some highlights:
* I (MFE) went to a speech therapy workshop at the University of Limerick. It was on Eating Drinking and Swallowing (as we call it here). The presenter was Suzanne Evans Morris from US. It was a great experience. I stayed in a nice B&B, met some nice people and good contacts, and enjoyed talking to Suzanne. I went on the bus, which was fine, but was offered a ride home by a new friend, which was even better!
*This Friday, driving back from Cahersiveen, we had our best rainbow day! We saw 4 or 5 different rainbows, and one was spectacular. It was a complete bow, ending at the ground on both sides of the road. Dana says we not only found the site of 1 pot of gold, we found 2! Even more amazing, on one side it came down in front of the nearby mountain, so that you looked at the green of the mountain through the dark, bright colors of the rainbow. And, even better, it then bent across the flat field and came toward us across that field - an amazing sight!
*Yesterday (Saturday) we went to the Listowel Races. Every town here has its own race course and racing sessions. We kept meaning to go to one, but didn't. We were advised that the Listowel races were not to be missed - in fact I cancelled therapy in Listowel that day! So, we went, and had a good time. Dana won a few, not quite breaking even, and I did even worse. However, we enjoyed the event and the horses. Neither of us has been to many horse races (Hot Springs only once, many years ago), so we were really novices. This race is not Ascot, although some people were dressed up quite a bit. This was more a common man event - in fact its called the Harvest Festival and was traditionally a celebration for the farmers at the end of the season.
*We had hoped to also go to dog racing, as Down Syndrome Kerry had a fund-raising night on Thursday - however, that go rained out. This in itself is amazing, because if they called things off because of rain most of the time, nothing would ever happen. However, Thursday was the heaviest, steadiest, and longest rain we have encountered here, and resulted in cancellation.
*The big personal event of September - we moved into the new house. It is 2-story, 4 br, 2 ba (sort of - one is downstairs and in 2 sections!). There is a nice living room, a dining room/den, an office/therapy room, and a kitchen. We have an Amana fridge, which we were excited about, but it has had some problems. We think it's working okay now; our repairman is the coach of the Kerry Minor League Football team (more in a minute on that) so he was relatively unavailable during our need! Our landlady and landlord are really nice and willing to do anything we ask, which has been great. We have a back garden (yard) which will be okay for the dogs, and they are willing for the dogs to come into the house. They are buying us a shed, which we'll use for storage and for the dogs we think. We are within walking distance of town centre.
*The big local event this last week was the Gaelic Football All-Ireland Match - in the seniors County Kerry played County Mayo. This is a huge even here - most houses and cars fly the green and gold colors. The trophy is the Sam Maguire, and people here talk about "Sam is coming home"! Well, Sam did come home - Kerry trounced Mayo to the delight of most of our friends. The Minor League (younger players) match was the same day and Kerry & Roscommon tied, so had a play-off game yesterday and Roscommon won - I guess 2 wins would have brought the county to a stand-still!
My work continues to evolve and I am gradually getting the schedule better arranged so I'm not killing myself (and doing a less than best job!). Having therapy here at the new house on Wednesday is a help. We are also looking at changing one of the further away places to fortnightly, and I'm going to a couple of schools to see kids instead of their coming to me. All in all its going well. I really enjoy visiting the schools and plan to blog later this month about what I've learned about the education system. I hope by then we'll be putting pictures on here so I can show you pictures of some of the schools.
More later. We may try to add pictures later this weekend!
posted by Arkansas Travelers at
12:23 PM
1 Comments:
Hello MF and Dana:
The Blog is great. We have enjoyed reading how your adventure has unfolded and especially enjoy all of the pics. I'm sure it helps to have a pro photographer along. It sounds as though you all are all over and having fun.
Love,
Janet and Chip
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