Friday, August 26th - Sunday, August 28th

The kids and I woke up to this on our living room wall on Friday morning:

Apparently, they grow their spiders quite large in Ireland.  The kids quickly jumped on the couch while yelling at me to "get it!"  I wanted absolutely nothing to do with this thing, but, trying to put a brave face on, went to the kitchen for a tubberware container to trap it.  After doing the capture and release thing, the kids and I settled down a bit to start our day.  We went for another walk around our neighborhood and discovered a path that winds around the back of the neighborhood.  The sun was actually shining and I even managed to remove my jacket by the time we headed back.

We had our very first visitor this day, as well.  It just happened that our friend Ed, one of Nate's college buddies and fraternity brothers, had already planned a trip to Ireland with his dad before we were even sure we would be moving.  When we realized tht we woyuld be arriving just several days before, we quickly made arrangements for them to come and stay with us.  Ed hung out with the kids and I while Nate finished up work that afternoon, but he and Nate quickly made better use of their time once Nate was home.

Ed arrived less than a week after we had moved, and I couldn't believe how good it felt to have a familiar face and voice around.  It was nice to be able to sit back and talk and not worry about whether or not what I was saying was being said correctly, to be able to talk about some of the things we had encountered over our first few days and laugh about it with an old friend rather than worrying about offending a new one by recounting the same tale.  I think we were both slightly saddened when it was time for Ed to leave, but we hope there will be plenty more visitors to follow.