Our Family & Our Life

Dear Diary, Here we meet again... Colin and I had a mini-weekend break on the west coast of Ireland in a city called Galway which is famed to be the most beautiful city in Ireland. It was a lovely city and surrounding area and it is nicer than Belfast and Dublin... A piece of real estate we fancied just outside of Galway The weather was lousy. It rained everyday and late Sunday afternoon there were gale force winds which continued until Monday morning. We were getting cabin fever just being in our hotel room so we decided to drive home a day early. Colin was especially happy as he could now have his own pillow! Between the wind pounding the windows and an uncomfortable pillow, the poor boy didn't sleep much... However, before we left Galway, we did enjoy a lovely Italian dinner in the heart of the city with a nice bottle of vino blanca followed by a stroll around the city on the cobblestone streets (it was dry at this point!!). The next day we walked along the beach and board walk...

Dear Diary, After recovering from the mid-winter blahs, it's starting to get warmer and the days longer so it's time to fill you in on what we've been up to. "The Girls" are now 8 months old and losing their kittenish look, however, not kitten actions; now they just look like small cats... Here are their close-ups.... Dixie Pearl The front window is one of their fave places to look for birds, other cats and bugs... We've recently had the kitchen and bathrooms tiled and whilst we still have to install new light fixtures, paint and a few other finishing touches like putting the kicker boards back up, it's all starting to come together.... Kitchen: Ensuite: Colin, conquering the 11th century world from his 21st century office: In case you missed it in an earlier blog, we have finally received our permanent house # and street address. Funny things is, our site number was 22 and our permanent number is 23 but our neighbours are the exact opposite of that...

Hope you enjoy them! Colin and Heather P.S. Mom & Dad, I will be mailing to you a CD with all the photos ...

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BLACKS ! God bless, Colin and Heather

Dear Diary, Time to whip out the address book and update our address. We now have a permanent address and post code and will no longer use the temporary construction site address. For the sake of internet security, just ask us and we will email it to you... Our phone number will stay the same.... 'Til next time, Heather and Colin

Dear Diary, Just in case you're getting fed up looking at photos of the cats and forgot what Colin and I look like, here you go: Our first Christmas together Colin asked how he should pose so I told him to stand on his head - and he did! Thank you Marie for sending these to me ! 'Til next time.. God bless, Heather (and Colin, who is coming home from Dublin today!!!) :-) P.S. - HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY KRISTEN!!!

Dear Diary, Well, in terms of adding postings to this blogsite, I've been more frequent than in the past but it could still get better, eh?!?.. Colin and I have been up to our regular day-to-day stuff. He's been working in Dublin for the last few weeks (including this week) so we haven't seen to much of each other but hopefully that will change next week. On the 2nd December we finally had our kitchen and dinng room floor tiled and it looks great, we're very pleased with and so are the cats! The little ejits run across it and slide into the walls all day. We've moved their bedroom and food to the kitchen and the littertrays are now in the washroom just off the kitchen which has been nice for us as we now have our 2nd bedroom back as as bedroom rather than cat room! Here are a few photos of the "girls": Our new "bookends" (Pearl is on the left, Dixie on the right) Aren't they good?! It's hard to tell who is who... My cousin Marie came to ...

Dear Diary, yes, I'm horrible, but there's been nothing worthy of blogging!!! Colin and I have been going about with the daily stress of work and routine life so I didn't have anything interesting to post - and not much has changed now either but that isn't stopping me from adding this blog post! Colin has spent a few days here and there doing the five-hour commute to Galway and then coming home again. For the most part he has been staying close to home which has been nice for the both of us especially at this dreary time of year. His boss was in Belfast a few weeks ago and the "Irish" crowd went out to catch up and he came home with some interesting stories to tell... My job is pretty much the same - get up, get on the bus, go into work, type, type, type and type some more, leave work, get back on the bus and go home..... Exciting, eh? Our girls are doing well. They've just finished a growth spurt and finally stopped eating! Pearl is our "big gal...

Dear Diary, Overall it was a pretty good week, fantastic in fact 'cause I finally got my NI drivers' license!!!! It's been a nightmare and would you believe that I earlier failed a test because I bumped a curb... It's ridiculous, but true. Anyway, Colin and I were going to go out and celebrate in Carrickfergus that night but no sooner had I driven 1 km then my card died so we had to go home and use Colin's car. We decided that it wasn't worth the money to have it fixed so we decided to sell it and buy something else. My driving instructor also sells cars and I got in touch with him to see if he had something to meet our requirements. He had a 2000 Nissan Micra which looked decent and was affordable so we scooped it up. Better still, he took the Corsa off our hands as a trade-in. Just when I thought all my car troubles were over, the emissions light came on during the drive home. Hopefully it's a simple fix but we'll see, I'm waiting word from him on ...

Dear Diary, The month of October has started off a bit damp but otherwise, pretty good. Colin dropped me off at work Monday morning and then drove five hours to Galway in the Republic of Ireland for a new installation from start to finish. Unfortunately, this would take him away from home for the week but after a week of long hours and getting the job done , he arrived safely home on Friday evening at about 9:30 p.m. All three of his girls were happy to see him home again... With Colin being gone, my week was a bit of a bore but the good news is that I passed my six-month probation at work on Monday morning and I am officially full-time permanent at L'Estrange and Brett and should soon be receiving my very dull and matronly blue uniform. Oh, happy days, as they like to say in Belfast! At least once I do get it, I won't have to worry about what to wear in the morning, will I? Oh yes, very important, our road has it's first layer of tarmac which means I no longer have to walk...