Our New Place

Well, Brookfield Hall has been a decent place for us to live, but we have decided to move to the city center. At first we kicked around the idea of a country cottage, but none of them had internet and we can't live without it, I'm afraid. So, we thought how nice it would be to just get out and walk around town and got pretty excited about it. So, we started looking last Thursday, signed a lease yesterday morning, and moved yesterday afternoon. We're all settled in now and enjoying the luxury of moving so little stuff. It was wonderful... we got out this morning and did some shopping and walked around town. It's nice to be in the middle of things. We had friends over last night for dinner and then we walked to a session. Here's a look at what we've left behind and what we've gained.



This was our guest room at Brookfield Hall. We had another single bed stacked against the wall for when a couple was coming to visit, but it took up too much room, so it is still stacked aginst the wall. Next is the guest room at our new place. It comes with lovely bedding and curtains, so it has much more of a homey feel than our bright blue and orange scheme (I mean those are AMAZING school colors (war eagle!), but not so much for decorating. So, this is where you'll stay if (when) you come to visit us.


This teeny room is our old bedroom. That bed is 4x6 feet...it's a good thing we like each other. It wasn't the most comfy. And last night in our new place we had a glorious night's rest in our queen size (that's 5 feet wide, thank you very much). I feel like we're on vacation with our own balcony looking out over the courtyard from our bedroom.



These are two shots of the fabulous living, kitchen and dining area at brookfield. When we had 10 friends over for Christmas carolling it was pretty comical. It was very cozy with so many folks. Our new place is much more condusive to entertaining, which we all know is important to me :0)



So, this is the new living/dining/kitchen area. The kitchen is *gasp* actually a separate room. Plenty of room for plenty of people to hang out and watch movies on Blayne's laptop. It's sad, but true. Among our friends Blayne's 15 inch laptop is the best screen we have for movie watching. It's a far cry from home with our rediculously large tv, but we manage to get buy. No point in buying a dvd player that we couldn't even use in the states.


Here's a favorite feature. This is looking off to the left from the balcony in our new place. That's St. John's Cathedral there. At Brookfield our teeny balcony looked out over to scenic concrete block wall. Ah, the memories :0)

All that to say that we are glad to be in our new place, though it's been strange since we are the 2nd people to let an apt there. The internet is supposed to be installed today (we're not getting our hopes up), so its been frustrating not to be in touch with everyone. I'm finishing writing this at an internet cafe a few minutes from our place. It is so very nice to walk out the door and be in town. We leave next Sunday on our European adventure. We'll go to Milan, Venice, Barcelona, Paris, Edinburgh and the Isle of Sky (also in Scotland). I'll try to post while we're on our trip if I can get internet. We are so very excited for the upcoming adventure! Lots and lots of love to you all.

European Adventure Pictures (Finally)

Well, here are long over pictures of Paris, Mont Blanc and London. Since we didn't have our camera. (or we had it, but the battery was dead and that was the one thing we forgot to bring) My mom was kind enough to have her film put to cd for me. So, here are few highlights of the European trip.

This is a side/back view of the Cathedral de Notre Dame. The next two shots are from the bell tower in the front. It is a spectacular place. Our hotel was an easy walk from here just over the bridge in the Latin Quarter. I'm so looking forward to taking Blayne here later this month! Paris is such an incredible city. The next two shots are of the statues around the bell towers. The gargoyles are magnificent--each different and intricately detailed.



This is me full of "joie de vivre" at the foot of the eiffel tower. Sadly, the night time pictures didn't come out too well. I don't think there's any debate about the fact that it is much more beautiful at night. We spent our first night there going to the top of the eiffel tower and Paris is stunning at night. All of the monuments and building are brightly lit, so the city is like Christmas all the time.

So, this is just up from Chamonix France at the Mere de Glace, the longest glacier in Europe. It's so breathtaking to be in the middle of the alps (no disrespect to the Rockies mind you :0).

I wish these pictures could communicate how incredibly beautiful this place really is. Imagine these sorts of peaks being over 200 degrees of your view, then the other part being out across an incredible valley. In the distance you can see the Matter Horn and you're right at the base of Mont Blanc towering at close to 16,000 feet.

Here are some mountaineers heading down to the basin at the foot of the Aguille Midi getting ready to do who knows what sort of fun. People use the cable car to head off to base camp to summit Mont Blanc or to para glide the 9,000 feet back down into Chamonix. Needless to say, I was so wishing that I was heading off with these adventurers. Just thinking about it now, makes me want to go!!!

This is before Blayne got to London (with our camera, so you've already seen a few London shots). My parents and I geeked out at the Sherlock Holmes museum (WHAT FUN!!!) and also at Shakespeare's Globe Theater (not pictured, sorry). Laugh if you want, but my family loves those Sherlock Holmes on A&E with Jeremey Brett, and we had a ball at the museum.

Here's the Houses of Parlaiment and the belltower which houses the famous big ben. We were wandering around at twilight and it was cold in London that weekend. Ireland is a good 10 degrees warmer because of the Gulf Stream. But we managed to enjoy the sites as bundled up as we could get :0)
This parting shot is back here on the Emerald Ilse. I thought this shot came out very nicely, so I just had to share it. The hills are so beautiful here. We've been able to get out a bit and remember that lately. Blayne should be done with his paper tomorrow. YEAHHH!!! Hope you all have a very Happy New Year! Lots of love from Ireland!