Our Own March Madness

Hey guys- There isn't one site that does everything I want, so I will write about what we have been up to here, but if you want to see pictures you have to go to the shutterfly site here.

I can't believe a forth of the year is over already. It was a year ago that we found out we were moving to Ireland, and here we are still trying to figure this place out.

We are having a lot of fun. Jason is working a lot but when he doesn't have to work, or when we are using one of his 22 vacation days, we find cool stuff to do.

One of the coolest things that went down recently is our support of our village Hurling team. Hurling is a Irish sport that is unique to this island. Our good friend Hugh Ford has two brothers and two cousins on the top team. This year they went all the way to the top and won the all Ireland Championships. The final was on St. Patrick's Day, in Dublin, at Croke Park. We drove the two hours there the night before and stayed a hotel. It was one of the few family rooms I've ever stayed in that was really for a family! It had three single beds and a king! The streets were croweded with all the Paddy's Day revelers but we were in our Maroon and White! We had a huge flag and we made our own parade as we walked to the stadium. It was so much fun waving at all the passing cars with other Clarinbridge flags, and also chanting at the cars with green and white (Kilkenny) flags. It was the first time since probably the Redskins in the 80's that I felt any Athletic pride. We've never followed sports as a family but this was personal. This was our tiny village, and our friends. We were the underdogs with odds of 200 to 1, but like a train gathering momentum the boys won 24 to 12. Afterwards everyone was in the streets cheering and making their way home to Clarinbridge. It seemed like the whole village was at the truck stop off the highway. Once home the bus with the players on it did a tour of the parish the came home to make speeches and start the party. It was a long weekend of cheering dancing and boozing. Jason and I went down Friday night to hang out. The band was really great and it was so fun to be part of it. We really felt like we belonged to the village. All weekend you could hear the celebrations. Last night everyone lit bonfires and the players did another tour. We had some of them sign Alex's hurl and we plan on hanging it up. This victory has never been achieved since Clarinbridge started playing- everyone said it is a once in a lifetime thing and that we are so lucky we moved to just the right village at just the right time. We feel the same way!