Hi Gang!
I am feeling better today. It's been five years since my aunt died after a long fight with breast cancer - and you know my mom is battling it still - so I stayed up last night and worked out some emotions about that. And then I got a really nice email from my cousin in reply to what I wrote to her. So it was good. Family love, family healing.
Glad for you...
Dawn, I like the Bob Greene thing.
I know that it is that for so many of us. For me, I think it's a lot of things. It's certainly easier to eat then process. Honestly, I can eat my emotions and not feeling them and the feeling sucks sometimes. But this is not what I want for my daughter. I'm actually thinking about finding a therapist to support me during this round of my mom's cancer. I've dealt with a lot and gotten past a lot, but it's still hitting me hard, just in different ways. Anyway, enough about this. And who among us could NOT use a few sessions with a therapist???
Not a one...
Dawn, about the dog - didn't reply. Sounds like a great breeder. Really special. Let us know when you bring him home.
They are...
Also, I have been dying to ask you about your stay in N Ireland. Your friends, are they Protestant? Has their family been there for generations? Are they near Belfast or the border? You went during the summer - did you see the marching? (For Catholics, this is the time of year you don't visit N Ireland.) I grew up with the Catholic, and sad to say, IRA-friendly, perspective on the situation, and after meeting some Northern Irish and Irish as a student, I saw the situation from both sides. I'm interested to hear how it was for your family there, in 2006.
Nick went over the border in 2006, too, and had a funny experience of walking into an IRA bar. Our SIL was like, okay, we'll be going now!
Northern Ireland was brilliant. Our friends are atheists/non practicing currently...grew up Protestant but saw the mrches and had Catholic friends moved in the middle of the night so nott o have a say in the voting process...and they both decided that they were just tired of all the garbage and hate from both sides. To attend church sevices and have a lovely service and end with a pastor/priest sayong hatred was just too ugly for them. They had a neighbor boy...a Catholic murdered in Belfast 15 years ago...and that killed Kenny's belief in so many ways...
We were there 2 weeks in July...in Coleraine way north on the ocean...and also spent a few days on an Island renting a cabin and in Belfast just for the day twice.
We were on Shankhill Road...Treyner had a Ireland soccer Jersey on...and all of a sudden...AK 47's were foccussed on the van we were in...Kenny yelled at Treyner to hit the ground and take off the shirt...that was scary...to see curbs painted green and orange or red and blue to divide a neighborhood was insane and literal ared streets and police vehicles with armored skirts on them...was an experience my kids or I will never forget...
We were there for marches and laughed at the idiocy of people dressed in Hogans Heroes full military garb...all proud..and then..marching back...10 hours later...drunk and stupid...
We saw a city, look like it wa on fire form the bon-fires people create...and you have never seen anything like it..literally the size of 1/2 a football field and 30 feet hig wit anything that can burn from stoves to cribs...with a Southern Ireland flag on top..
We witnessed where Bloody Sunday took place and I tell you...te information Kenny and Nikki could give for 2 weeks as personal un-biased narrators and historians was incredible...they are angry at both sides...they feel the Catholics were wrongly persecuted yet at the same time feel the killings that wreak havoc on the hearts of innocent Protestants was uncalled for as well.
Kenny is a firefighter and has lost friends who died when houses/buildings were set ablaze by the Catholic parties only to trap firemen and shoot them off of ladders because they are government employees and as such are seen as protestant supporters...even when they were not...
My friend Nikki's father worked at the prison "Maze" where the famous hunger strikes happened...and was beaten by Protestants when it was leaked he was kind to the IRA...
It is a mess...and when I first asked Kenny about the start of it all and why...he explained that there was not enough Wiskey to have a converstaion about it in one sitting...
His father was a headstone manufaturer and thus tried to stay as neutral as possible for business purpasses...but ended up being run out of town after 44 years because people wanted him to take sides...
We walked the streets of Coleraine and di not feel danger or Belfast...but like many cities..there are places and times you want to be safe.
The danger is way better there than in years...and I would go back in a heartbeat...the best time on a trip ever..for the simplicity of the people...the beauty of the beaces and the understanding my kids now have over true hatred and prejudice over a decrepency in faith...and in that regard...both a form of Christianity...
I only bought one souveigneer there...it is a wooden cross...hand carved...that stands on a square pedestal about 2 feet high...and I bought it in hopes of one day...there will be a look from the hearts of those who perpetuate the hatred...that the common link is looked at...rather than the ugliness of it all...
There was ugliness from both sides...and I was sorry for that...but no different than getting mugged in Minneapolis /NYC cannot blame the whole city or describe the whole city...a few extremists would not deter me, or my belief everyone...should see N Ireland...and not be afraid...it is the absolute most beautiful county I have ever witnessed...
Kenny and Nikki and kids are my best friends...more than anyone I have ever known...they are truly good people...and the fact they are so sad in their spirituality...has not deterred them from giving more than some I know who claim the faith...and has taught me not to judge or be judgemental...
We met them at Typhoon Lagoon may 2002...Treyner and Matthew smacked into each othe at the wave pool...Carsyn and Holly talked...then Baylor joined...and for the rest of the day they were inseperable..we met Kenny and Nikki...that night...met up at the Boardwalk for dinner and drinks...they left te next day...we were just starting our stay...but when I got home...a gift package was waiting form them...with all sorts of goodies...and we talked...they came to stay in MN for 2 weeks the next April ...we went there for 2 weeks in July...
Then in 2004 we met up again in Florida...and in 2008...they went to California...but we could not bcause of soccer....but this summer...we will be in Florida all together again...
This is Kenny's facebook page....you can browse pics of him and Nikki and the kids...even if they look all serious...and he comes accross like a hard nosed nut...he is the nicest man ever...loves his wife and kids more than most...ferociously overprotective...and would be here tom. if I needed him
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=86848299
There are many neat pics...some of Giants Causeway which was amazing...and if you read his captions..you know the Irish sense of humor looms large...
Not many Minnesotans are on the DIS!
BACK UP THE BUS 
), it only includes about 2-3 miles through theme parks (MK and EPCOT at the end). The rest of the miles are on the disney roads. It is VERY similar to the 1/2 in january.
(well not really but that is how bad I felt)...I am so glad I was still able to finish, but at the same time I am harboring a bit of disappointment since I finished in 3:15, a half hour LONGER than my 1/2 in november.
So empowering. So....G.I. Jane 
