Sunday the 9th, Mother's Day

Sunday, May 9th, dawned sunny and clear in Brannockstown.  Sunday was a busy day, as Mark preached a sermon in the morning at 11:00, and, as it was the second Sunday of the month, Mark also had an evening service.

We had a leisurely morning, had breakfast, then got ready for church.  Alisha took Mark early, and then then 3 of us followed, arriving about 10:45, in time to have a tour of the church and the outbuildings that have been renovated and are now put to good use.  We also got to meet most of the congregation, which was great, as we had heard a lot about them.  The Brannockstown church has been operating since the 1800's, so a lot of families have grown up there.  The church members are all very proud of the changes that have been brought about in the church since Mark and Alisha's arrival.

After the service and tea, where we got to visit with everyone, we headed back to Mark and Alisha's for lunch.  Also, they had some work to do, coordinating church messages, etc., before we went back in the evening.  And, Mark was finishing up preparing the evening service.  We took some pictures, both inside and outside of their home, including the veggie garden, which is coming along nicely.

It wasn't Mother's Day in Ireland, but we got to be part of a huge Mother's Day surprise for Alisha.  Gary and Joyce had gotten her an i-Pad!!  Now, the i-Pad isn't even available in Ireland yet, so we knew that they would be very surprised!  We scheduled a skype call with Gary and Joyce for Mother's Day, and had arranged to bring out the i-Pad at that time.  When the signal came, Lee handed the i-Pad to Alisha, and, through the miracle of technology, Gary and Joyce were able to see her reaction, and be there with her when she got it.  Needless to say, they were both so surprised and happy and excited!  In fact, Mark managed to work it into the evening service, by asking people to rate their day on a scale of 1 - 10, to let everyone know that Alisha's day had been a 10, as her parents had sent her an i-Pad!  There was an audible gasp from some of the members, so they knew what it was.

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful Mother's Day!  I got cards and e-mail wishes as well, which really meant a lot to me.

Tomorrow we are off to Kilkenny castle!!  How exciting is that??!!

This is the Brannockstown church spire.  I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the front...

Here are Mark and Alisha, with matching Mac's getting all of their messages and notices coordinated.  Lee and I were just lazing about - you can tell it's after lunch, because of the chocolates!

This is the deck at the back of their house.  As you can see, it was a really nice day, with lots of cloud activity!

And here are the "girls", Gertrude and Chickie!  They're pretty good about contributing two eggs a day to the larder.

This is the "country kitchen" - it's like a green house, with all of the wonderful windows and natural light.  It gets really warm and cozy in there - you can see that the top windows have been opened.

The back door into the kitchen

Inside, looking out.  The plants along the nice wide window sill are tomatoes!  Very happy tomatoes.

The view from the back yard - lots of shades of green!  You can see the chicken house in the distance.  Mark moves it regularly so that the girls get fresh grass and things to peck. 

Operation i-Pad!  Lee has just handed it to her - you can see by her expression that she was NOT expecting it!

I know that Joyce and Gary were enjoying being "front and center" and seeing Alisha's reaction - almost as good as being there!

Two very thrilled people!  I won't comment on the sequence of pictures below, but, you'll get the picture!  These are the shots we e-mailed to Alisha's parents, so that they could see it from our perspective.

This is Hishey cat!  He's such a sweet, loveable cat, and it was great to have some quality "cat" time, even if it was temporary

Mark watering the vegetable garden.

This gorgeous gardenia was blooming away on the window sill in the kitchen.  It smelled just wonderful.  Alisha said that it reminded her of home, as her Dad always had gardenias.