Glenbeg

At last.

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 18:05:40 +0200

Finaly i have updated www.glenbeg.co.uk sorry haven't been around for a while but we are living in a caravan with no internet hope everyone is well xx

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smile.........

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:45:19 +0200

Six months today Mj and i will be married............. awwwww.
xx

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I know your all on the edge of your seats.................

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:44:08 +0200

Well friends and family there are new house pictures on www.glenbeg.co.uk
xx

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Happy birthday both!

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:41:32 +0200

Well we have had such a crazy time of late that i forgot to wish our wonderful nephew a happy 1st birthday for 27th may. We love you so much and you make us both so happy! We had a lovely time at your party last sunday. Love and hugs Auntie H and Uncle MJ xx

Happy birhday to our dear friend paddy. We love you and have a great weekend,its the only time i have ever missed living in solihull!
xx

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So much to do so little time...................

Tue, 29 May 2007 15:25:03 +0200

Mj and i haven't been feeling to well lately,i think we are stretching ourselves to thin and not enough time together. I think this does cause throat infections! lol. Well for those who were waiting on photo's of the house and also our nephews 1st birthday im sorry for the delay i just haven't felt like doing them. I made so baby thankyou cards last night for Rachael and Chris and that wore me out. Woke up this morning with a throat infection and managed 3 hours at work and then had to come home. The block layers have started the 1st floor now and Mj said the gables are up now but i hope to see for myself tomorrow. we had a great weekend with Ethans birthday party but now i need to get better so will sort those photo's out as soon as i can.

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News........

Sat, 26 May 2007 21:52:07 +0200

Well im not sure at all where that week has gone! Ups and downs this week so hello to my friend who is a little down,she knows who she is. On the up is our house! The ground floor is now completed,all the block work is done on the garage also. The hollow core floor arrived on friday and was put in place and there is a ladder where the stairs will go and we can now go up onto the 1st floor. The blocklayers will be back on monday to start the up stairs blockwork. I cant believe we are only 3 weeks into the build and already we can see all the rooms in the downstairs of the house and we have a fire place. We cant wait for the plasterers to start so we can see the true size of all the rooms. There will be plenty of pictures on the website after the weekend but there are more exciting things going on tomorrow! ITS OUR NEPHEW'S FIRST BIRTHDAY. We have a little tea party to go to and lots of jelly and presents. Were so excited! So sorry there is not much news but will be more after tomorrow.

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Volvo ocean race.........

Sun, 20 May 2007 22:57:20 +0200

I read a post on my brothers website the other day entitled "Helen can i book my bed now!" I wasn't sure what was so important but as i read on i was surprised to hear that the volvo ocean race had asked Galway to be a european stopover destination for the race in 2008-2009. 8 million euro later and i found out today that it is going to happen! I cant believe i hadn't heard about it before now! It will mean so much for Galway as a city and Ireland in general. Personally i cant wait to see my brother and sister in law and a few boats aswell!

www.volvooceanrace.com

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Our day at the gym!

Sun, 20 May 2007 20:27:28 +0200

Well our day was great. We have bought a 12 month membership to our local gym and it was sooooo much fun! I went on the bike for 15 mins,the rowing maching for 10 mins and then the running machine for 10 mins and then i was f****d! That was enough gym for me today! We went down to the pool and i was swimming for half hour then sauna and jacuzzi! We have 6 months till our wedding so i realy have to be strict with myself and Mj has to suffer with me! haha! He loves the gym though.

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In other news...............

Sat, 19 May 2007 23:55:14 +0200

Our new niece is so lovely and Ethan hasn't even noticed the new addition realy. All the family are well and realy enjoying everything going on right now. Chris has 3 interviews for jobs next week and Lee is sorting out work and college for himself. Mj and i are having some us time tomorrow and are off to join the gym in the village where we are moving to. I have gym phobia so will be fun haha! Let you know tomorrow.

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Photo's for you all to see...............

Sat, 19 May 2007 23:44:03 +0200

Finally i have managed to put the photo's on the new web site. So you can see the house build so far and from now on i will blog here and post on the new site aswell. We are two weeks into the build and i am amazed how much has been done! Im sure you will be to! If things continue like this im sure we will be in for the wedding!

www.glenbeg.co.uk

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New website.............

Fri, 18 May 2007 23:37:03 +0200

My brother has made Mj and i a lovely new website and although i will be keeping the blog all photos of house build will be on www.glenbeg.co.uk It has taken me a while to figure out how to use it i have used photo's of my new niece to sort it out. So tomorrow i promise i will upload all the picture of the house build but for now if you want to see my new niece and my adorable nephew you can go have a look.

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Welcome to the world Ella Nolan..............

Tue, 15 May 2007 23:10:15 +0200

At 4:40pm today Rachael and Chris bought a beautiful baby daughter into the world. Ella Nolan weighed in at 7lb 7oz and will be a sister for Ethan,11 1/2 months. Many congratulations and all our love and thanks for our beautiful niece.

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All the house news.............

Sun, 13 May 2007 22:33:47 +0200

Well im realy sorry that i haven't blogged since day 2 of the build but im not sure where the time has gone. We started the house build and got engaged on the same day then after a few days of celebrations we were at the site alot and were not getting home till late. Then on thursday i wasn't to well but still made it down for an hour later in the day.
So the last time i posted we were having truck loads of stone put on the foundation. Well now all 30 truck loads are done and it has all been flattened with channels around the rooms for the steal to go into. Then on wednesday,thursday and friday the raft/steal went in and Sean our engineer came out to inspect the site so we can apply for our second stage payment cheque. Then on saturday the concrete arrived and in the rain (which is good weather for pooring concrete) they filled the foundation. Mj and i missed this as we were in Dublin but went over to the site as soon as we were home and you can now see the exact size of the house now. Its all so exciting and things are moving very smoothly and quickly as it has only been 9 days. The block layer is starting on wednesday when the concrete is dry and he will have 6 layers up in the 1st day (weather permitted) and 4 layers up on the 2nd day and it will realy look like a house by next weekend! Im sorry i haven't posted any pictures yet but i do have loads! My brother had made me a website and im still learning how to use it but when i have had a long chat with him i will be putting all pictures on there and a link on all blog posts for you all to see!

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Pre marriage course..................

Sun, 13 May 2007 18:16:57 +0200

Hello family and friends. Just wanted to let you know we are still here haha!
Mj and i have been soooooo busy this week i havn't even had time to blog. We have just arrived back from Dublin after completing our pre marriage course. For those who don't know its a day long course (or done over a few weeks) that gives you advice on marriage from communication right down to the laws about marriage in Ireland. We have to have this certificate to get married! We started our day on saturday with a 4:30am wake up scream from my alarm clock! We snoozed for 15 minutes then i dragged myself to the kettle and toaster. We threw together an over night bag and at 5:20am headed on our way to Dublin. We arrived at Terenure College at 9:15am after stopping for coffee on the way. We had a meet and greet with 48 other couples and then settled down in a classroom enviroment for the 1st session on communication. An hour and a half later i was pleased that Mj and i could relate to almost all of what she was saying and was secretly very proud of how we handle alot of things in our life. We had a break for coffee and biscuits which i was sooooo excited about and they are not on my diet but as the letter said food and drink provided i had not packed any fruit! How awful haha! yummy! At 11:30am we went back in for the next session on relationships and sex haha it was sooooo funny and the woman doing it was very humerous! She gave alot of family planning advice which i found interesting and useful and the rest of the session is a blur as i found it very hard to stay awake. We broke for lunch at 1:00pm and after soup and sandwiches we both felt refreshed and ready for the next session at 2:00pm. A priest took this session on marriage laws and religion in the marriage and the wedding ceremony itself. The priest was very down to earth and funny and made the session go quite quickly (thank god haha) as by this time Mj and i were feeling the effects of our 4:30am start. Mj realy enjoyed this session and i realy learnt alot. As i am not catholic but Mj is i was worried what parts of the ceremony i could change but not to take away the catholic meaning. At the end of this session we grabbed a coffee (and more biscuits!!!) and went back into the room to have a chat to the priest about our ceremony and he put our minds at rest about a few things. At 4:00pm the last session started. A couple who had been married for 26 years came in to talk to us. The were soooo nervous and he was very quiet and shy but his wife was CRAZY! She didnt stop talking and when the husband was talking she would jump in. It made the last our more amusing! At the end the called all the couples out 2 by 2 and it was like a graduation,they shook your hand and gave you the certificate. All in all a good day but very tiring. We drove a short way down the road and checked into a nice hotel,we have a lovely meal together in the restraunt,we had a few well earned drinks in the bar and then went to bed.

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Day two (yesterday)...............

Wed, 09 May 2007 07:48:07 +0200

Sorry this is such a quick post but Mj and i have not been in our home much lately. We seem to work and then go to the site to see the house. Well yesterday we had the sewage tank delivered. We also had 14 (36ton) loads of stone delivered and emptied on to the site and then flattened with the roller. This will build up the level of the house to slightly higher than road level so that rain water runs away from the house. more later.................

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Were engaged.......................

Sat, 05 May 2007 08:11:20 +0200

Mj and i went out for our house build celebration dinner/hot date last night. When we arrived we were shown to a little tabe in the bar area with 2 champagne flutes and a huge bunch of balloons. I realised the balloons were from my sister and family as thats what my sister does for a job. Written on them were congratulations for the 1st day of the build. A waiter came over with a bottle of pink champagne and told us that the Nolan family had paid for it. My sister is so sweet and we have always made a fuss over special occasions and its one of the things i have missed until now! I turned to Mj and said how nice it was of them and how when i saw the balloons for a split second i thought he was going to get down on one knee............. and he did! I burst into tears and said yes of course! He gave me a beautiful white gold ring with a princess cut (square) diamond and a lovey bouquet of pink roses and calla lillies. At the end of a lovely meal we ordered desert and out came a plate with candles on and written on the plate was "congratulations on your engagement" and 2 bowls of icecream. Then the waiter behind gave us another even larger balloon with the same inscription. After a huge round of applause from everyone in the restraunt we ate the icecream and paid the bill. Chris picked us up and we went to their house so i could show Rachael my new ring! We had a few drinks and then Chris took us home. Amazing night. I must still be excited as i was awake at 6:10am haha!

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Day one........

Fri, 04 May 2007 17:27:20 +0200

Well what an exciting day. The digger,dump truck and steam roller arrived about 11:00am and its now 5:00pm and they are almost finished digging out the garage area. Mj and I have come home as we are off out for our long awaited celebration dinner tonight/hot date. Lee has been out on the site with Mj all day and they have had great fun with Lee on the steam roller putting a temporary surface down on the drive for the trucks. Mj has been on the dump truck moving all the earth for the digger. I had a half day at work and arrived about 2:00pm to find Rachael,Chris and Ethan there aswell. Along with Mj's dad John who is in charge of the build and Teresa (Mj's mum) it was a real event. Im sorry but i will have to put the pictures of today on tommorrow as were in a hurry and it wont let me do it. mmmmmmm must ask Paddy....

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Tomorrow's the day..................

Thu, 03 May 2007 20:50:22 +0200

Mj has been working very hard this week on the site with his Dad. The weather here is very hot and they spent tuesday and wednesday marking out the site with lime and spray paint. Mj is shattered and has blister's on his blister's. When i arrived at the site from work yesterday evening i could actualy walk round our flat house drawn out on the ground. It is very real now and very exciting! The steel arrived today although we wont need it for a while it is very hard to get so we had it delivered early. Well tomorrow is the daythat the digger goes in and it will be officialy day one of our house build.

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The weekend..........

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:05:21 +0200

Was great fun! On saturday we took Rachael,Chris,Lee and Ethan to the beach. Ethan's first time at the beach and we bought him a bucket and spade which Rachael and i loved playing with! We also played with his football while he laughed at us from his buggy. Mj,Lee and Chris we looking for muscles and Rachael and i just chatted and laughed. We had packed a huge picnic and flask of coffee for our day out as the sea air makes you hungry! After a couple of hours at Silver Strand we moved on to Spiddal for an icecream and some more muscle picking. The weather was perfect although Rachael wore a cardigan all day,it must be a pregnancy thing! We carried on after lunch out to Claregalway via the caravan shop(more about that another time) and over to Mj's parents house. Teresa hasn't met Ethan yet and was so pleased to see him at last. After a short stop there we headed home as Ethan has tea at 4:30pm and then bath,bottle and then bed by 6:00pm. A lovely day all round.

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Two years ago today...............

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:55:11 +0200

I just want to mention that it is two years to the day that i moved to Ireland and i am still just as happy as 27th April 2005. Alot has happend in the last two years and we have so much to look forward to.

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Our wedding...........

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:46:25 +0200

I have realised that with all the stuff going on with the house that i never blog about our wedding. So here goes........
Mj and i are getting married on the 1st December this year in Galway,Ireland. (where we live) We are having a catholic ceramony in a lovely church down the road. Were having 4 bridesmaids,my sister Rachael,Mj's sisters Lisa and Karen and my friend Laura. Mj is having 4 groomsmen,Best man and best friend Martin,my brother Richard and 2 friends John and Barney. My nephew will be ring bearer and we hope to put our new niece in a little dress to match my sister. We couldnt get on the pre marriage course that we wanted so were looking for a new one as we have to get that done soon. The lady who was doing our chair covers rang yesterday and told us that she has to cancel as she is pregnant and is due on our wedding day but other than those little problems we are sailing along haha! The church is booked,the hotel is booked,my mum is making my wedding dress which im sooooooo excited about and she is also making the bridesmaid dresses. We have the florist booked but have not yet picked the flowers.The cake is booked. We have Frank Naughton singing at the church and for those of you who wouldnt know who he is look him up online as he is a great classical singer. We have most of the music picked for the church and we have the band booked for the reception.
www.weightlessastronauts.net
So all we need now is.....well........about a million things and a honeymoon!
Oh and we need to get engaged somtime before we walk down the isle haha!

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Where has the week gone..........

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:15:39 +0200

Its been a very busy week and we did get the cheque on tuesday yay! So the diggers will be going in next friday and i will be there,camera in hand! I have not realy had time to put the laptop on this week so i have just spent the last hour reading all the posts from the last few days. Im sorry if i have not left any comments. We have been over at Rachael and Chris's alot this week and with work aswell we have only been home to sleep haha! We have copied the plans for the various stages of the build and it all seems real now.

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Todays the day..................

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:27:27 +0200

Sorry we didn't blog yesterday but its going to take me a while to get over the novelty of my sister and family being in Ireland and will be stalking them for a few days! The money arrived in our solicitor's account yesterday but he wasn't there to issue the cheque. We don't mind now that we know the money is there. So today realy is the day that we pick up our 1st stage payment cheque, 1:45pm to be exact and were soooo excited! Were going out for our celebration dinner on friday night after having the voucher since september as a present for Mj's birthday.

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Oh and........

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:16:21 +0200

I forgot to say that we didnt get the mortgage cheque and they are saying its monday morning now but i have given up getting excited. I have had more exciting thing to keep my mind of it this weekend. We have put the notice to build letter into the planning office and we start in two weeks so they had better give us the cheque soon!!!

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The Nolan family have arrived...........

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:07:14 +0200

Rachael (my sister),Chris (hubby),Lee and Ethan (nephews) have finally arrived in Ireland to start their new life. Rachael,Dad and Bob and George(cats) arrived on friday night about 930pm after 14 hours traveling. We sat up and had a drink and then got an early night as we were all very tired. Then at 3am Mj's friend Barney arrived with his big white van. They had a coffee and messed around with Mj's new GPS thingy and at 4am they set off for Dublin to catch the 8:05am ferry to Hollyhead. After breakfast on the boat they relaxed for the rest of the crossing by going to the cinema. They docked around 12 midday and then drove four hours to my parents house in Solihull where my my was their with Dads friend Mark to welcome them with COFFEE!!! They spent over an hour loading the van with all Rachael and Chris's things and then went in for dinner and a rest. At 8:30pm (saturday night) they left my parents house for the four hour drive back to Hollyhead to catch the 2:30am boat to Dublin. They were early and boarded the boat and went and booked a room to get their head down for a few hours until 5:30am (fast boat) when they docked. Then they drove the four hours from Dublin to Galway and arrived at the new house at 9:30am to a welcome of COFFEE!!! While all this was going on i was at home with Rachael and Dad. On saturday morning we did a little shopping and went to pick up a borrowed bed for the new house and then at 11am we met Con (the estate agent) and picked up the keys. Dad was driving Mj,s van and Rachael and me in her car. Oh and this is the first time Rachael has seen the house she is going to live in as Mj and i were left with the job of house hunting as Rachael is 8 months pregnant and chris was working full time. We then drove out to the house and thank god she loved it! We emptied the car of the stuff they bought over and made a coffee. There is lots of coffee involved in this weekend as none of us slept much! After putting up Ethan's cot we set off for Mj's parents house and Dad went via Galway airport to meet the 1:00pm flight carrying Chris,Lee and baby Ethan. Rachael was so pleased to see them and had realy missed them. We grabbed the sofa and two chairs out of the shed that Mj and i have stashed for a rainy day and went to introduce Chris,Lee and Ethan to their new home. Thank god they loved it aswell!!! Ethan was not sure where he was at all (being only 11 months) especially when we put him down for a nap. After alot of cleaning and lighting a fire Dad and i went back to my apartment about 9pm (saturday night incase your lost like i am haha!) We woke bright and early this morning well not so bright after another night in my spare room with their cats. We cant take the cats to the house till they are all moved in incase they get out and we lose them. At 8:30am we headed over to the new house and at 9:30am Mj and Barney arrived with the van and thats where my two stories collide. We unloaded the van and let the boys go and get some well earned sleep after a breakfast sandwich. We unpacked what we could and set up the nursery for the new baby coming in 5/6 weeks. Dad and Chris did all the flat pack stuff while Lee did his room(Lee is 17) and Rachael and i entertained Ethan and unpacked kitchen boxes and food and just chatted. I have realy missed that. After a few tears we took Dad to Mj's parents where his sister was taking him to the airport and said our good byes. We grabbed some logs and some tulips and headed home. Lee is staying at our house tonight and its so nice to have him round. Its been a very busy weekend and im glad they are happy with their house and i hope they have a very happy life here. If its half as happy as mine is then they will be fine! Here are a few pics of the weekend.....
Lee by the fire.Ethan finding his feet.
Waiting for the van.Coffee!Yay!
The mess begins.
Lee sorting his room.Coffee!Chris.

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Now its this friday........so they say........

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:20:02 +0200

Well im not sure if this is going to make sence but i will try to explain anyway. When our mortgage paperwork gets sent to Dublin its gets scanned into their computer and someone must have missed some and it was showing that some things had not been recieved. Well this was not the case but the Galway branch re sent the missing pieces anyway. So as it stands,now the lost things have been found,the cheque should be issued and we should have it by friday. We have lost all the excitment in what should be a very exciting time for us.
In other news its only three days till we see my sister and my dad and only four days till we see our brother-in-law and our nephew's Lee and Ethan.
We are six weeks into a boil water notice in county Galway and i never mentioned it before because we thought it was nothing to worry about but there are now 180 confirmed cases of cryptospiridium (not sure if its spelt like that haha!) They cant find the source of the out break and we will be boiling all water till september they think which is soooooooo annoying!

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More bad news im afraid........

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:00:46 +0200

We called up the solicitor today and they had not recieved a cheque for us so we got on the phone to the mortgage people in the head office in Dublin and they said "we are still waiting on your letters from employers and p60's." I dont even have it in me to get angry writing this post but just to tell you that they were sent in January will let you know how we are feeling right now. We are being lied to again. We were told on tuesday last week that the cheque was being issued in three days. We are not sure where to go from here and im not sure what will happen tomorrow but we have given them 24 hours to sort something out. Might just leave it at that for tonight and talk to you tomorrow.

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House plans........

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:33:22 +0200

Just a few pictures of the house plans for you all to look at.
This is the front of the house.
This is the plan of the ground floor.
This is the plan of the 1st floor.
This is the back of the house.

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It must be monday...........

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 23:30:05 +0200

Well it wasnt friday so it must be monday that the cheque will come and we can make plans for the build. To add insult to injury when we recieve the cheque we have to then send a letter to the planning board to inform them that we will be starting the house two weeks from the date of the letter. So we cant even do anything strait away. Mj and i have been to a home exhibition today and we found a family run company that do the exact furniture that we want. The wood they use is all Irish and its all natural shapes and colours. So were off to pay them a visit in a few weeks to work out what we want and in what wood. If you want to have a look its www.paulmoore.ie and i have no idea how to put that up as a link haha! (must talk to paddy about that!) We then drove out to Claregalway to catch up with Mj's family and pass our site and look at our empty field. Then we drove on to Clarenbridge to see Mj's uncle and aunt(Liam and Maureen)and to give them the dvd we made of Maureen's 60th birthday. They loved it and it was so funny to see Liam and Mj judging their own singing. Then on the way home we stopped at a petrol station for crisps,we are both going back on our diet on monday after deserting it over easter and Mj is giving up the crisps. This time next week my sister and family will all be in Ireland for good and im sooooo excited! Well i hope everyone else is having a good weekend.

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Its tomorrow or monday..............

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:02:56 +0200

I am writing this post with a little excitment which i probly should NOT have, but after a stern phone call from our solicitors secretary to the mortgage people our leagal paperwork suddenly appeared on tuesday morning!!! They emailed down one last form for me to sign and Mj dropped that strait back into her and she said those words again....... "your first cheque will be issued in three days." So its tomorrow or monday we hope. There is no other news realy we just cant wait for the weekend.

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