We took Lars and Maria and the boys to the airport on Wednesday for their flight to Denmark. We loved having company but are worn out now, and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. It’s great to have people visit us though. I think with Northern Ireland being such a similar [...]

We are so excited to have the whole Kristiansen gang here with us for the week.  That is Lars, Maria, Luca, and Silas for those of you who don’t know them.  They are in the process, albeit a rather long one, of moving to Newcastle to join us in our work here.  And we get [...]

You might recognize some of these places by now, as this is one of our favorite places here – Tollymore Forest Park.  Some of our favorite spots were blocked off when we went because a movie (Your Highness, I’ve been told) was being filmed.  It was raining, so nobody out filming.  I’m looking forward to [...]

My dear parents flew home yesterday after a whirlwind 3-week adventure here with us.  And we were absolute failures at communicating with the world during that time.  Sorry about that.  Right now we’re both in recovery mode, though Mark seems to be ahead of me on that front.  We’ll do some extra blogging in the [...]

This is so wierd.  We’ve been here long enough now that I sometimes hear a Northern Irish or British accent and think it’s an American accent because it’s sounds so normal.  We were watching a British movie on TV the other day and I totally could not tell what the accents were.  I wasn’t convinced [...]

I’ve never really enjoyed getting my car fixed.  Even in America, there’s that awful feeling that the mechanic could so easily take advantage of my lack of knowledge – “That’s right, sir, your second carburetor needs a new truss rod and parts alone will cost $300…”  So this week I got to have the super-fun [...]

Could I be any more creative with this post’s title?  Maybe.  But that’s just what this week has been.  Again.  And I’m not complaining.  It’s been full of hard work – Mark with computer work (of the required and voluntary sort) and me with sewing.  We made a loaf of banana bread for Sarah the [...]

It’s been a quiet week for us.  Campbell and Kristi left for a month-long trip to visit her family in Thailand on Monday, which always leaves a bit of a vacuum socially.  The upside is that you know you have good friends when you miss them.  We’ve needed a quiet week though, since the ones [...]

Hope is like a toddler in the surf, a candle in the draft, a frail child at recess. Hope is held up on the thinnest string: So easily he falls prey to the waves, the wind, the bully’s words. We must guard him, this tender egg. If he hatches he brings a new world, If [...]

It’s been sunny and beautiful here in Newcastle for the past few days.  And I’ve been eating up being outside (and not being on the computer) in the low-70s-warm-sun-cool-breeze weather.  Sorry I’ve been m.i.a. again.  We’ve decided a weekly posting time is in order for us Guinns as we have a pretty horrible track record [...]