Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

* I'm not at a wake. It's a song that makes me ridiculously happy.

Well hello! It's Monday morning(ish), and a bank holiday over here in Ireland. I'm not sure if this is because St. Patrick's Day was Saturday, or because Mother's Day was the next day... I've a feeling they might claim to be celebrating their mothers, but in actuality they need another day to sleep off the hangovers of Saturday.

Since it's a holiday today, the boys are out of school. I've heard talk of taking another day trip (possibly to Wicklow - YAY), but we're not going till after lunch. We may also be going on another hike (we went on quite a good one yesterday... my legs are still a little sore...). Yesterday's hike was beautiful, but I'm kinda tired - plus, I really want to get to Wicklow and public transportation there really isn't great. So if I could tag along with the family, that would be most premium. :) Speaking of yesterday's hike, it was so clear up there that we could see almost 90 miles, to the Mountains of Mourne on the coast of Northern Ireland! Also, if I really looked hard, I could see the coast of Wales out to the east. Whew. That was fabulous.

Anyway, so I'll write tonight or tomorrow about what we end up doing today. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be nice. Most things here are.

Including church yesterday! I wasn't sure what to expect, because even though the people I met last week were really nice, I didn't get introduced to that many - and during fellowship time I kind of attached myself to Carole, because I didn't have anyone else to talk to. But yesterday was great; I actually was the last of the Speers clan to leave, because I kept getting caught in conversation. I met an elderly fellow who knew his Bible so well that he could lead a study in at least 25 languages, a couple who knows where Ventura County is because they took a train there once and left their luggage in San Francisco (where their daughter lives), a fellow who has lived here all his life and never gone to the St. Patrick's Day parade, an American (who's lived in Dublin for 6 years) who works with Google and, thus, avoids Facebook (and parades), a girl who was born in Finland, a head-honcho of Habitat for Humanity, an old man in a blue cardigan who told me that I brought the sunshine with me, and a man who went to school in California and got a side job with the Post Office, enabling him to know (off the top of his head) my zip code within one digit.

It was a nice morning.

OH! BIG NEWS. The girl I'd been planning to travel to France with actually can't come after all - so for a day I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to go, and I was super bummed about it. (I don't mind coming to Ireland alone, because it always felt a bit like home, even before I got here. But I don't feel quite so confident about France... or even England, really.) So I wrote my parents and told them where things stood, and asked for prayer. That evening, Dad wrote to me and said that my grandma had offered to pay for Kate to come to England and France WITH ME. And my lovely sister has sacrificially agreed. :) I'm so excited to wander around with her... it worked out even better this way! God is good.

Well. I'm going to try to figure out how to post some pictures on here, because I'm aware of the fact (because Mom keeps reminding me...) that many people who read this blog don't have Facebook. Just a warning to you, though, I can't upload very many on here... so if you REALLY want to see them all, bug my mom about getting on her Facebook with her. :) (You're welcome, Ma. hehe.)

It's a beautiful day over here, sunny for the second day in a row. The world is looking like such a nice place these days.