i AM alive

Well hello there. Betcha thought I fell off the face of the planet eh? No, no, just busy as all get out the last little while. But I'm still here, I promise. :-)

Where to start? Well, about a week after my last post I received an email from my dad telling me that Cody's little brother Amos passed away, barely a week after Cody passed. So sad, Amos was so loyal and sweet. I'm sure it's been pretty hard for my parents losing two such great pups so close together. :-(

Dad did give me a call saying that they've in the process of adopting another new pup. The same breed, but a girl this time, named Dakota. She's quite the cutie. Pics Here.

What else is new? Let's see, my mum Diana came out to visit us for a week. We hung out around Dublin for a couple of days being tourists and such, then took off to Mayo for a couple of days to do some ancestral investigation. Was a great time overall, and believe it or not, we found a good bit of data. We found marriage certificates for John Patrick Gavin and Bridget Ludden (1856), as well as two of their children's birth certificates. We also travelled all around southern Mayo talking to locals trying to find the location of the village Bunlahinch (It's not on any maps), where they were married. One fella, Michael O'Malley and his daughter pointed us right to the location of the old clapper bridge that was part of the village. So, just outside of Louisburgh, on Clew Bay we found the Bunlahinch clapper bridge! We also found a very small cemetery on the hill which was built right on top of the church that Paddy and Bridget where married in. We even found two gravestones belonging to Gavins. One of them was from just a few years back, which means that most likely there's still living relatives out there somewhere! :-)

Not much else going on these days. It's been the wettest summer in as long as anyone can remember, so not a whole lot of fun. I've been completely overloaded at work due to a cutback that leaves me as the only support person in Europe for my application. It's also end of FY, so time for performance reviews as such. Loads a fun!

Jaidon had his Yellow Belt testing yesterday, and he did brilliantly! He's really doing well and finally starting to get the whole 'focus' thing down. His teacher called out how well he's improved and how much potential he has when he directs his energy appropriately. We're so proud of the big boy!