You might remember from our last blog a picture of a piece of wood that we saw in St. Nicholas Cathedral. (If you do not remember, now would be the time to scroll down to that blog to read about it). I promised to tell about the neat thing we discovered after downloading the photies. This is the cool thing we saw:
I thought it was very cool that reflected in the glass containing the wood, dating back to a tree that was alive during the time of Christ, was the shadow of a cross. It is as if it is suggesting that the wood could have easily been the very wood used for making the cross of our Lord and Saviour. I also like how the light is in three separate sections: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three parts - one Light.
Friday, June 12th, we were busy getting ready for Dave and Rob to travel down to Top Barn Farm in Worcester, near Birmingham. Angus Buchan, a South African farmer Dave speaks of regularly, was the main speaker. There were over 2000 men from various countries at the farm to worship. Dave had a lovely time with his dad. They were both refreshed and revived by the Spirit. Dave was extremely pleased they went as God used that time not only to allow he and his dad special time together, but also to draw Rob to a place of deciding to seek the Lord's face daily and placing Him at the head of his life again. Praise God!!! When Dave and Rob came back from their trip Rob was a changed man! His speech was different, his face was different, and he seemed happier than I've ever seen him before. Dave was tearing up that whole day because he was overcome with joy and gratitude. What a blessed time!
As soon as Dave and Rob left on Friday, Joshua, Daniel, and I walked up to a park in Winlaton. We had lots of fun kicking around the ball and playing on the slide. Joshua met a couple of little boys that he had fun with. We walked home and then had spaghetti for supper. (It's one of Joshua's favourites).
Saturday, June 13th, we stayed at home all day. Mark, Louise, and Katie came over for a couple of hours. Daniel and Katie were having a grand time together, of course! Mark kept us entertained with stories of his childhood while Katie kept us in bruises with her tackling. Haha!
The rest of that day Joshua and Mummy watched Animal Planet because they were showing a really cool documentary about monkeys. Anyone who knows Joshua very well knows that he is not really a boy, but a monkey and will understand our enthusiasm in learning more about his family. =) Mummy made some yummy burgers that night which we quickly devoured in order to finish watching the monkeys.
Sunday, June 14th, we wanted to go to church, but Mark was to collect us for the Metro Centre mid-morning... dilemma. In the end, we decided to go ahead and go to church and leave Mark a note explaining where we were. We were really glad we went to church. We attended the same one we had last week. The people were, again, just so lovely. The speaker for that week, as they have no pastor, was preaching about Job. The speaker's main focus was how God brought Job to humility; teaching him that we are all so small and powerless in comparison to the greatness and power of the Lord. I found this to be very interesting.... especially when Dave got home and said that was the focus of the messages they had heard at the farm!
As soon as the service was over, I hardly had time to turn around and there stood Mark. Perfect timing! We went to the Metro Centre where we met up with Louise and Katie. We ate at Burger King; I had a peri-peri chicken wrap (something you cannot find at the Burger King in Oklahoma). Then we did some shopping around. Louise is quite the enthusiastic shopper! She was making me laugh at how she had been 'looking for one of these forever'; no matter what it was she picked up. Haha! It wasn't long, however, that all three children were obviously needing to take a nap so Mark dropped Joshua, Daniel, and me back at the house.
We didn't have too long of a wait before Daddy and Grandpa were home!!! YAY!!! Then we listened to stories of their weekend with excitement. The joy of listening to the stories was to be short-lived, however, because washing and packing was to be done as we were to leave the next day for Ireland.
While we were in the middle of our packing (at about 11pm), Rob calls us from the backyard. This is what we found....
For those of you who have never seen one before, it is a hedgehog. We had fun watching it roll up in a ball. Dave reckons it must have been eating slugs because it's face and hands were so slimy. GROSS!
Monday morning, June 15th, had us up early to head out to the airport. Rob dropped us and our plane was out of there by 8am. Through the window on our flight we saw some very pretty things that God made. When we landed in Ireland we grabbed a taxi and headed over to Lee and Eric's house. We were sooooo excited to see Lee!!!!!! It is not that we were not excited to see Eric. He just happened to be at work so we didn't get to see him when we arrived. Dave and I walked down to the nearest shop to pick up some milk and cream while Lee made us some German pancakes... Yummy! After breakfast we all had a lounge around and then we walked to the shopping centre to get some groceries for our stay. Most importantly, we needed some scones! We just couldn't go any longer without some yummy scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream.
By the time we got back, Eric was at home!!!! Joshua ran to him and jumped in his arms as we were walking our last block.. sooo sweeeet! They soon went to the backyard to play soccer while we all had fun drinking tea and nibbling on our scones.
After supper we just sat around and chatted and chatted. FUN TIMES!!!
Tuesday, June 16th, we stayed at home the whole day. Dave, Joshua, and Daniel played soccer.
Joshua was wishing Uncle Sesic was at home and not at work.
We just hung out together with Lee all day. Soon Eric came home and we played Carem, a game board that his grandfather had made. It has to do with flicking a shooter at a coloured ring in order to sink it in a pocket. I would say that it is very similar to playing pool... only with your fingers.
Wednesday, June 17th, we had big plans so as we were getting ready Daniel had fun watching Silly Songs with Larry. He danced and danced to 'The Song of the Cabu'.
We soon walked to the bus stop in order to catch a bus to downtown Dublin. Our first stop was the Nursing and Midwifery campus of Trinity College; Lee is a student there.
We walked from there over to the main Trinity College campus. It was pretty!
Once in the courtyard, a large structure lead to a lovely park.
Our first objective was to find food because we were all hungry since it was already 2:45pm. Once our bellies were full, we were eager to head over to see the Book of Kells. - The Book of Kells is one of the most famous manuscripts in the history of the world and was completed in about 800 AD. The vellum (calfskin) manuscript contains transcriptions of the four Gospels, lavishly illustrated and ornamented. It is the most elaborate manuscript of its kind to survive from the early Middle Ages. The scribes and artists who created the Book of Kells were monks who lived in a monastery on the remote island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. The monastery was founded late in the sixth century by an Irish monk, St Colmcille. (bookofkells.com/the-manuscript)
Wow, that was amazing. Can you imagine being the one who did that???
After the we walked up to the Old Library. I don't know how many of you like looking at old, old books, but we just LOVE it!!!
We left there and walked...
over to Marks and Spencer, a fantastic English department/grocery store. It's like Walmart... only way more upscale. Joshua was thirsty, so he had a small carton of juice.
After that, we walked over to Avoca where Lee got us some more YUMMY scones. From there we went over to the bus stop. Joshua was excited to get on this bus because it was a double-decker.
Eric was at home when we arrived. He and Joshua we quickly out the door for some soccer playing as Lee cooked the chicken and David and Amy settled Daniel for a nap.
As it was Wednesday night we had home group. We sang lots of songs, many of them were written by Eric. One that we really enjoyed was the creation song (don't remember the real name of it). It was a fun song! Eric played the guitar for us while Joshua accompanied with the maracas.
Lee played her drum, which has a proper name that escapes me, while Dave added more shaking percussion.
Dave read from the Word and we prayed. After that, Lee finished preparing supper while Dave and Eric chatted and Amy went upstairs to have a good cry (she was wishing to be in Oklahoma for her Papaw's funeral). I just LOVE how God speaks to every heart in a different way using the same words!
Thursday, June 18th, Eric woke up early to go rent us an SUV so we could do a little bit of site-seeing. While we were waiting getting ready, Daniel had a little bit of a trip and got a good scrape on the noggin. I just knew it was going to leave a huge, ugly bruise, but it didn't discolor a bit.
Joshua got involved in 'Winnie the Pooh'. He ended up taking it along in the car.
Soon we were off. Lee and Eric's house is in Dublin and we were heading to where I was pointing. We drove through Port Marnock and Malahide on the coast before heading up to Newgrange.
Newgrange was amazing! Older than the Egyptian pyramids. The chamber is in the shape of a cross!- The Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange was built about 3200 BC. The kidney shaped mound covers an area of over one acre and is surrounded by 97 kerbstones, some of which are richly decorated with megalithic art. The 19 metre long inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber with a corbelled roof. It is estimated that the construction of the Passage Tomb at Newgrange would have taken a work force of 300 at least 20 years.
This pic was taken as we were walking to the visitor centre.
Here is Newgrange as seen from our bus.
The view from Newgrange was just amazing!
I really Loved the pattern on the stone. This pattern is seen in so many megalithic artefacts, yet one can only speculate as to what it actually means. I like to believe that it symbolises the Trinity - three, yet one.
This is the entrance. Even Amy had to stoop a bit to get into the door. The opening above the door is where sunlight will shine through during winter solstice and light up the tomb.
We crossed a bridge over a river between the bus and visitor centre.
After awing at the mound work we hopped in the SUV again to head over to Ardgillan Castle.
The name Ardgillan is derived from the Irish "Árd Choill" meaning "High Wood". Ardgillan is a large country house with castellated embellishments built by the Rev. Robert Taylor in 1738. It stands on the elevated coastline commanding magnificent views of the Irish Sea. The house consists of two storeys over basement, which extend under the south lawns. Robert Taylor was a grandson of the Thomas Taylor who worked with William Petty on the mid 17th century Down Survey of Ireland. The house remained in the Taylor family until 1962 when the estate to Heinrich Potts of Westphalia. In 1982 the estate was sold to the County Council. (dublintourist.com/details/ardgillan_demesne.shtml)
The castle was just stunning! You can see in the photo that it is right on the coast of the Irish Sea. Just BEAUTIFUL!!! We decided that if we were to ever live in a castle this would be the way to do it!
The castle had a huge, beautiful rose garden that then lead to the secret, walled garden.
We spotted two love birds.
Joshua sniffed the peonies that were the size of his head.
Joshua and Dave thought they should brush up on their karate chopping skills just in case we ran across any wild beasts in the secret, completely surrounded by wall, garden.
There are those love birds again.
Mommy and Joshua enjoy a nice stroll together.
We walked around the back of Ardgillan.
This was the view at our backs.
When we were leaving the car park we noticed a lovely rainbow stretched across the sea.
So we travelled to the sea!
Where Joshua had a quick frolic in the water.
Joshua's clothes got very wet from his fun in the sun (or, water, as it were) so he had to ride back home without any clothes on... just his coat. As soon as he walked into the house he ran upstairs to get some clothes on. This is what he came down wearing....
DANIEL'S CLOTHES!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha!!! That boy Cracks Me UP!
The rest of that evening was spent eating supper and playing 'Settlers of Catan', a FUN game that Dave and I plan to purchase as soon as we return to the states!!!!
Friday, June 19th, Eric was back to work so Lee, Dave, and I enjoyed ourselves by just lounging around and playing more 'Settlers of Catan'. When Eric came home he joined in our leisure.
I'll stop here and finish with Part 2 in a day or two.
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