25th Annual Spillway Classic

Hello! Hello!

As promised, here are the pictures from the race!  According to www.runnotc.org,  "This three mile course is run through the woods of the Bonnet Carre Spillway and is one of the oldest trail runs in the country.  The three mile course begins on the roadway leading to the Boat Launch Pavilion and quickly ascends the Lower Guide Levee. The first mile is atop the gravel levee-top road. The course then descends the levee through "The Gauntlet" where you will typically encounter the deepest water and muddiest footing. The remaining two miles wind through trails."

We Finished!  And we even received a medal!!

Kate's shoes and my socks were pristine white before the race.  After many washes, my socks are still only grey.  They will never be white again.  Oh well, it was worth it.

At the end of the race, firemen were spraying people down with water trying to remove all the mud.

This picture was taken from www.runnotc.com.  This is to show you exactly how muddy it was.

Love Always,

Amanda

First Week of Work and Such

Hello My Dear Family And Friends,

Well, I survived my first week and a half of work.  Barely!  I have truly been tested.  Last Monday morning I arrived at work for 8am, bright eyed and bushy tailed.  I had an accounting exam at 8:30am which I am happy to say I passed.  Very excited!  Then I spent the rest of the day and week learning the computer systems.  I am still learning, but now everything is finally starting to make sense.  Thank God!

Guess what!  There is a hotel attached to the building where I work, and on the bottom floor below the hotel is a PUB!!  Pretty cool, huh?  I am still learning my way around the city and am having a great time navigating.  I have made many wrong turns and have had many scary moments hoping I was in the right lane when merging onto the interstate.  It has been so much fun!!

Kate came over this past weekend and on Sunday morning we ran in the 25^th Annual Spillway Classic in Norco, Louisiana.  The race took us through the woods and into a mud pit.  That’s right, a mud pit!  Kate and I had to wade/run through mud that was up to our thighs.  Honestly, Kate and I had a wonderful time and I hope we run in another race soon along with Will.  More information and pictures from the race will be in my next posting.

 

 

Love Always,

Amanda

A New Job, a New Home, and a New Life

Dear Family and Friends,

Please do not be angry.  I know it has been many months since I last wrote.  I am not going to make excuses.  All I can say is that I am truly sorry.  On a good note, though, I have wonderful news for you.  I finally have a job!!!

I thought this day would never come, but it has.  Since I last wrote, I have accepted a position with a bank and I am now living in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Who would have thought this is where I would end up?  My resume was sent all around the United Sates, seriously, and I received an offer right here from my home state.  I am very excited about this opportunity and hope you are too!!

I am now living in my very own condo along Lake Pontchatrain and have a view of the water from my balcony.  The best part is that my condo is right in back of a levy.  Every day I can, and do, run/jog on top of the levy looking out over the water.  I am not going to tell you where I live (condominium name) for privacy/security reasons, but I will show you pictures.  I have not met too many of my neighbours, but the ones I have met seem to be very nice and friendly.  Oh!  I also live right down the street from a snowball/snowcone stand and also from a drive-through daiquiri shop!  Only in Louisiana will you find a drive-through daiquiri shop.  I love it here!  There is also a po’boy restaurant right next to the condominium so I had better be careful.  I can just see myself putting on weight from all the fried food here.  I must stay strong and keep working out.  :-)

Anytime y’all want to come visit please let me know.  I would love to show you around!  Especially with this being the home of Mardi Gras!   First come first serve, so please book early.

Hope this blog entry finds you well and I promise to write sooner and not be so lax.  XOXOX

Love Always,

Amanda

Before Pictures

After Pictures

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you asked to to see videos of me Irish dancing on St. Patrick's Day this year. I am sorry for the delay in uploading the video.  I have been under the weather a bit with allergy season this year.  I know, I know, I NEVER have allergies, but for some reason they have grabbed hold of me this year.  Summer cannot come soon enough!!

Below is a video of me Irish dancing at the Great Harvest Bread shop on March, 17, 2012 in Lafayette, Louisiana. I was dancing with my Irish dance school, The Ryan School of Irish Dance.  Hope you enjoy the video....and if you see any dance mistakes please do not let me know.  Hey, no one is perfect....including me! 

Love Always,
Amanda

Paddy NOT Patty

All over the world, especially in the United States, people have St.Pat parties or say Happy St. Patty's Day on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th.  This is a huge mistake as will now be explained.  When I was living in Ireland last year, I had a very good friend named Patrick AKA Paddy.  When we first met I remember asking him, "Do you spell your name Patty or Paddy?"  He gave me this evil look and said "Paddy."  Then I received a lecture on the difference between Paddy and Patty.

Recently a friend sent me link to a very interesting web page called paddynotpatty.com or http://paddynotpatty.com/.  Below are paragraphs taken from the website.

Each and every year millions of Irish, Irish-ish and amateur alcoholics are needlessly distracted from their Holy Tradition of drinking themselves into a stupor in the name of Saint Patrick, a Roman Briton slave holding the dubious honour of bringing Christianity to an island that would use it as another convenient excuse to blatter the hell out of each other for centuries.

The source of this terrible distraction?
An onslaught of half-hearted, dyed-green references to St. Patrick's Day as St. Patty's Day. It gnaws at them. It riles them up. It makes them want to fight… you know, more than usual.

It's Paddy, not Patty. Ever.
Saint Patrick's Day? Grand.
Paddy's Day? Sure, dead-on.
St. Pat's? Aye, if ye must.
St. Patty? No, ye goat!

Paddy is derived from the Irish, Pádraig, hence those mysterious, emerald double-Ds.

Patty is the diminutive of Patricia, or a burger, and just not something you call a fella.
There's not a sinner in Ireland that would call a Patrick, “Patty”. It's insulting. It's really as simple as that.

Also....

Shamrock isn't just any auld piece of clover: it's three-leafed. It ended up a symbol of Ireland because tradition holds that St. Patrick used shamrock to teach the Trinity.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Love Always,

Amanda

Some of the information contained in this blog came from the website paddynotpatty.com.  I do not own any rights to this material.

Campbell, M. (2010) 'The Provisional Government of Paddy, Not Patty to the People of the New World', Paddy Not Paddy Blog [accessed 16 Mar 2012]

More Irish Facts!!

1)  The Titanic cost $7.5 million to build in the year 1912.

2) Ireland has the second highest number of lawyers per capita in the world, after the United States.

3) It was customary at ancient Irish weddings for a couple's clasped hands to be tied together by a rope as a visual representation of their union, which could explain why getting married is often referred to as "tying the knot."

4) Divorce was banned in Ireland  from 1937 until 1995.

5) Today, the average number of children per family in Ireland is 2.7465.  From the 1940's to the 1960's it was 10.

6) There are at least 5 different accents in Dublin alone.

7) J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y, and Z are not used in the Irish alphabet, which only has 18 letters.

8) The sparkling crystal ball that drops in New York's Time Square on New Year's Eve features hundreds of  custom-designed crystals made by Ireland's famed Waterford Crystal.

9) The greatest distance between any two points in Ireland is 302 miles.  However, if all of the stone walls from the country's neolithic and megalithic sites were lined up end to end, they would stretch for a quarter of a million miles.

10) When the Abbey Theatre opened in Dublin in 1904, part of the building that housed it had previously functioned as the city morgue.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Love Always,

Amanda

All facts came from the book Little Facts About Well-Known Places - Ireland by David Hoffman.

Irish Facts

St. Patrick's Day!!  My favorite time of year!  This year, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I have decided to tell you a bit about Ireland.  I recently came across a book in Barnes and Noble and knew the information it contained would be very useful indeed.  Did you know.......

1) There are 2 billion pints of Guinness sold annually worldwide.

2) There are 198 calories in a pint of Guinness - less than a pint of skim milk or orange juice.

3) Ireland has the highest per-capita rate of tea consumption in the world.  The average number of cups consumed by the average Irishman daily is six.

4) St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. 

5) The harp is the symbol of Ireland.

6) Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

7) Gaelic is Ireland's national language. Only in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) areas of Ireland will you find that Irish is used as the everyday language. In all other parts of Ireland, English is the spoken language.

8) One million gallons of cream are used each year to make Baileys.

9) Ireland has twice as many cattle as people.

10) Since 1969, artists, writers, composers, and sculptors living in Ireland have been exempt from paying income tax.

More facts to follow soon!!

Love Always,

Amanda

All facts listed above came from the book Little Known Facts About Well-Known Places - Ireland by David Hoffman.  Facts were also taken from the website http://ezinearticles.com/?20-Interesting-and-Fun-Facts-About-Ireland&id=2017486.

45 lessons Life Taught Me

Hi Ya'll!  This is an article that was sent to me in an e-mail.  I thought you might all enjoy reading it!   

Love Always,
Amanda 


Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.


1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone for everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time.. time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Merry Christmas.........

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a wonderful day with your loved ones.  Christmas day at my house this year was a joyous event.  My aunt, uncle, and gram all came over a few days before Christmas and spent Christmas Eve and day with us, along with other family members.  We spent the days leading up to Christmas cooking large amounts of food, baking Christmas cookies (and icing them), and watching Christmas movies!  Have I mentioned before how I love this season?!!  As a surprise for my family, my brother and I bought Christmas pajamas to wear on Christmas morning.  These were not your typical pajamas either.  We bought onesy pajamas, the ones that zip up from the bottom.  You know, the ones we use to wear as children when the weather turned cold?  The expressions on my family's faces were priceless!

On Christmas day the whole family came over and ate a large dinner followed by dessert and the opening of presents.  When the day was over we were all so tired, but happy.  Having a large family, we are not able to get together as often as we would like since the families are spread out in locations across the states.  Every year at Christmas though, we manage to come together and all bring love, laughter, and joyous memories to the day.  From my family to yours, Merry Christmas.

As Augusta E. Rundel once said, "Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved."

Love Always,
Amanda