The Hill Family Holiday Gathering

Its always so great when I get to be in the presence of some of the people I love more then anything else in this world. And this was one of those days!  My Aunt Joyce, whom I have called Aunt Cookie since I was knee high to a grasshopper! She came up from LA. My cousin Carlos who is more a brother to me then a cousin came with his partner from Colorado. My son was there as well as my Brothers  boys so it was going to be a grand day!!!

We arrived to a table full of food  thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law Wendy. She always goes out of her way to make every gathering wonderful.  It was just great to be in the same room with everyone. And me being me, had camera in hand pretty much the entire time. hahaha I cant help it! They are memories and I want to cherish them all! I have learned over the last 10 yrs. that life is short and you  need to soak up and enjoy every minute your with your family! So that is why I am always with camera. I think I got some good ones that day. Sadly the day ended too soon as I had to head off to work. Well my friends that is where my holiday fun ended. I ended up getting into an auto accident on the freeway while heading to work that night. It was just a fender bender. Could have been much worse. I am working thru some health issues due to the accident. But I am thankful that I got to spend the time I did with both of my families. That accident was maybe a smack in the head from my mother or father or guardian sprit saying “Wake up!  Appreciate the beauty around you and how lucky you are to have a loving husband and son, Family who will always be there for you. Even though you only see them once a year, if you needed them they would be there. It was a lesson I plan on heeding. Cuz you know I don’t need  those types of slaps to the head very often!! hahahahah
I look forward to seeing them all again soon. And plan to do a better job of keeping in contact.

Blessings to all!!!

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Life after the Holidays.

Well, life right up to Christmas was, well uneventful. We got to spend some time with Dan’s sisters before I had to head off to work Christmas Day. As always it was wonderful to  see them. The times together are too short and the time between always too  long. We and a nice lunch,, got to check out John’s winery! Wow he has some great stuff down there! Such a joyful day. Even managed to get us all together for a photo or two. Hard to believe how big the kids have gotten.

Just a few of the pics from the winery! Its just basically a lil Mom and Pop thing, but boy do they may good wine!!!
After our wine tasting session we stepped out to the beautiful surroundings and took a few family photos.
 
See, I told you the surroundings were beautiful! I would love to go back when everything is in full bloom! Oh the photos I cold get! Anyway, Now to the family photos.


So at the top we have all the Jensen kids (minus Amanda). Then you have Dan and his sisters Heather and Crystal. Then me with my fabulous sisters-in-law! Then Grandma Laural with her beautiful granddaughters Carina and Caitlyn. Then just a few more shots of the beautiful surroundings. We had a lovely day with them and hope it wont be so long before we all can be together again!!! 

Stay tuned for the Hill family get together!!!!!! That is my next post!

Pieces of my heart

Hello again Friends,

Well it is fastly approaching 2 months since we have left the UK. I always knew that I had this "thing" for England and Ireland. That there was something about it that felt so familiar to me. I always chalked it up to just my obsession with it. But it wasnt until I was there, until I had actually stepped foot on the soil there, that I felt like I was finally........home. I instantly felt comfortable and at ease. It all seemed so familiar. And of course there was Dawn. I have always been a firm believer in past lives. And I knew years ago that Dawn and I had a special connection. I know that we were once linked to each other in a past life. There is no way to explain it that it will sound like I am sane to those of you who dont believe. But I knew years ago that Dawn and I were sisters in a past life. We knew so much about each other without having ever met. There was this familiar feel about her when I spoke to her on the phone. She was and is my sister.

So once Dan and I finally arrived in England I was eager to see if that feeling transpired over to my physically seeing her. When I actually saw her, when I was finally able to wrap my arms around her and hug her, would it still feel the same? Would that familiar feeling still be there? And it was. When we finally got off the plane and made our way thru imigrations and security. When I walked thru the airport and finally saw her standing there eagerly searching the crowd for my face. I knew everything I had been feeling was accurate. When she finally saw me and smiled, I felt like I was finally home. And when we finally embraced each other..... my world finally fell into place. This was my sister, this was the "thing" in my life that always felt out of place, the thing that was always just out of reach. She was the other half of me. As if I was a twin searching eagerly for her long lost sister. Once I hugged her and looked into her eyes filled with tears, I knew that I was home, the puzzle was finally complete. Everything just seemed to fall into place.

And I have to say that our husbands....... They too seemed to be a mirror image of each other. My husband who is usually a quiet and reserved man, came out of his shell. The two of them seemed to feed off each other. They were so comfortable around each other.....as if they had known each other for a lifetime! Coincidence? for me I think not. I think.......no....... I know that the four of us have been apart of each others lives before. We are family, and we go back a long long time.

On the day that we left Norwich it was as if part of my heart was being torn out. As the bus pulled away and I looked back at the two of them, and then looked at Dan. I knew he too felt what I feeling. That we were leaving a huge piece of our hearts in Norwich. But I am not in sorrow for that piece of my heart for I know that it is being well cared for. My sister has that piece of my heart and she is protecting and cherishing it until I return. When the 4 of us are together, to laugh and to enjoy all the wonders that Norwich hold for us. When we can all go out and exlpore the beautiful relics that await us.

Until that day comes I will hold them here.....in my heart where they will stay safe and remembered every day.

A glimpse at our time in Norwich

Hello Friends ~

Well we have been back from our amazing vacation for 3 weeks now.  Seems like it was only yesterday that we were driving thru the beautiful Irish countryside looking to see where our adventure would take us next.  Now that we are back I thought maybe I should give everyone an update on how the trip went since  didn't do a very good job of keeping up with my blog while we were gone. So lets see how well this ole brain of  mine  is at remembering everything!!

Dawn & I our first picture together

the gang finally together!

Well as you all know we spent the first 10 days of our vacation with my wonderful friend and sister across the sea Dawn and her family.  I don't know if I could find an adequate word to describe how amazing our time with them was.  Sadly it was too short. But in that short amount of time we saw and did so many things!  I quickly fell in love with Norwich!  There are quite a few ancient ruins. Old Abbeys, Churches, Monasteries. Each  more amazing then the one before!  We covered so much of Norwich and its surrounding areas. On our first night there we had a BBQ with all of Dawn and Darryl's friends. Oh my and what a fun bunch of people they were!  We had great food, and lots and lots of laughs! Towards the end of the evening we sent up some small hot air balloons. 

Getting ready to send the balloons up

away they go!

That was fun and really beautiful to watch them go and sail away. Everyday was just one fun filled adventure after the next.  With Darryl's help I quickly learned how to enjoy the taste of different Ales. I was always a Coors light drinker. But I can now proudly say that I enjoy the taste of many different types of beer! (Thanks Darryl!!!)   I also found that putting malt vinegar on your fries is REALLY yummy!

One of the many Ales I fell in love with!



While we were in Norwich we went on a Ghost hunting adventure a Weeting Castle. If you have been reading my blog then you know about Weeting Castle as I have written about it in the past. It was quite an adventure. We met up with Eddie, Jean and Steve who are folks  I had been chatting with and that live in the Norwich area and who regularly go out to Weeting and do investigations. Unfortunately I didn't get anything on camera. But, there were spots where you got some definite feelings that you were not alone. One of them was the old ice house. It is reportedly haunted by a rather ill natured spirit. I being the crazy person that I am went in to the ice house and spent a few minutes in there. And I can tell you that there is definitely something in there. I never thought I was one who was  "Sensitive" to the spirit world, but after our time in Norwich and thru out Ireland I have since changed  my mind on that.  My body felt the physical effects of being near or in a place with spirit activity.  I experienced it in several places in Norwich and in many places we stayed at and visited in Ireland. 



Feeling the effects in the Ice house

The infamous Ice house



I wish I would have been smart and keep a journal of the places we went to everyday, but alas I didn't think about that until after we got home! Oh if I were to sit here and write about all the places we went and things we did in beautiful Norwich this blog would be the size of "War and Peace"!  So, I will keep moving along. What I can tell you is that the time we spent in Norwich with Dawn and Darryl is something that  I will forever cherish. It all ended too soon. And the day we had to leave was a sad one.  I can tell you that while at the bus station just before we boarded our bus to the Airport, there were many tears shed and alot of hugs given. It was a difficult day.  I miss them and am looking forward to when we can all be together again. Hopefully next time they will be able to come here so we can show them where we live.

I think I am going to end this here.   I will pick up again next and fill you in on some of our adventures in Ireland.

Until next time my friends!

(I will include some photos here at the bottom for your enjoyment!)

White Horse pub (our first pub in Norwich!)

Bishops Bridge

The beautiful streets of Norwich



sorry for the long delay!

Hello all!

Well straight off I need to apologize to everyone, my thought before I left for this incredible trip of a lifetime, was that I would write in my blog every night. Yeah well after arriving and beginning our journey I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I mean it was a great thought and all but it just wasnt practical! Dan and I are up every morning at about 7 am we have our amazing Irish breakfast then we hit the road. Mind you we are not in any kind of a rush to see things but things pop up along the way that we end up wanting to see so the morning that may have started with just one or two things to see may end up with 5 or 6 things in the end! And honestly we expected that during this journey. We start trying to find a place to lay our heads for the night by about 3-4:00pm. Once we accomplish that it is find some food, have a pint or two and then we are both out for the count by about 8-9pm! I know we are showing our age here! lol. But it is amazing how tired you are at the end of the day. At alot of the sights we are visiting there is ALOT of walking involved! And for me personally that has been difficult but I have made it thru! But at the end of the day I am exhausted! So I am sorry I haven't done a great job of keeping up with my blog. Let me see if I can give you a condensed version of what we have done so far.

..........Gosh I don't even know where to start! I have spread Mom and Dad's Ashes in some beautiful places along our journey. The first place was in Glendalough. It is a beautiful national park area, I know in my heart they would have loved it there! I wish I could add photos here but with my Ipad I just cant, So if you have Facebook you can see all my photos from our trip there. We have also visited the Village of Cong which is where the movie "The Quiet Man" was filmed. WOW! what an AMAZING village. It is so incredible, there are no words to describe to you just how beautiful this place is. If I could I would live there. I truly didn't want to leave!! Of course we have visited most of the Castles that you think of when you think of Ireland, Trim, Bunratty, etc. We did Newgrange and Knowth, the Hills of Tara, Loughcrew Carins, Connemara. But alas no I didn't kiss the Blarney stone. Figure with my family history there is no need! LOL

However, I did visit a couple of places that were special to me personally. As anyone who knows me knows that I am into the paranormal and you also know that I am wiccan. So one of the places I wanted to visit that was off the beaten path (ok way way WAY off the beaten path!) was Biddy Early's Homestead. Biddy Early is the most famous "Witch" of Ireland. In all honesty all she was was a healer, she used herbs to heal, but because of the King and the way Christianity was taking over the country anyone who didn't follow their ways was thought to be a witch. But anyway, (don't get off course here Maureen!) parts of Biddy's cottage are still standing. It is just outside of the Village Feakle. And a few people still make the trek to find her cottage to pay their respect the the Great Biddy Early. It is said that if you go to Biddy's Place you need to leave her an offering or else you will be plauged with bad luck. usually its a coin or whiskey etc. So on the day that Dan and I went to visit we came with a coin and a small bottle of mead. It took us awhile to find the place. Had it not been for a kind older gentleman walking along the road we would have never found it! I think we passed it at least 6 times! But once we found it and made our way up to her cottage, it was a very moving moment for me. Once I stepped thru the threshold of her cottage I was overcome with a wave of emotion. I felt this great sadness yet at the same time I also felt a sense of pride. I think that is what Biddy must have felt. Sadness that she was misunderstood but pride in the fact that she was helping people. While Dan walked around the outside I took a moment to pay my respects to Biddy. I thanked her for all that she did and told her that I honored her for the woman that she was and that she was ahead of her time. I told her that I was leaving her a coin and a good taste of Mead for her to enjoy later. I placed the objects on the windowsill along with items others had left for Biddy. I again thanked her for allowing me the privilege to be in her home, A cool breeze blew around the inside of the cottage for a moment and rustled the few leaves that were on the wet muddy ground inside and then it blew past me and out the door. I took this as Biddy's fair well, I looked around one last time and I left. This was truly an experience that will live with me for the rest of my life.

The second place that ranks really high on my list is Leap Castle. Leap Castle is THE most haunted Castle in all of Ireland. It has been on many of TV shows such as "Most Haunted, "Ghost Hunters" and "Ghost Hunters International". I have read about it for years! And being into the paranormal as much as I am Leap Castle is at the top of the list of places you have to see! It wasn't until we were getting ready to head back to Dublin when I realized that we hadnt seen Leap Castle! And I thought "Oh No!! I am gonna leave Ireland and not have seen Leap Castle!" But Dan being the amazing and worlds greatest husband EVER that he is, said "Honey we still have time, see if you can figure out how to get into visit and we will go". So that set me on a mad scrabble to see about getting in to visit the Castle. Now some of you may know and some may not, But Leap Castle is privately owned and you need to contact the owner directly to inquire about visiting. The owner Sean Ryan is a musician and he travels the world playing so it is not easy to get access to the Castle especially in the off season. Which is when we are here. I searched the web trying to find the correct way to contact him. Holy cow there are so many different email addresses and Phone numbers ! But then I realized that the Book that I brought with me had a small snippet about Leap Castle in it and it gave his email and a phone number!!!! so I emailed him and asked if we could come for a visit, mind you this was a last minute request so I wasn't expecting him to be home or to even say yes, let alone that I would get a reply in a timely manner. So I sent an email that night, the next morning to my surprise I got a reply!!!! He said we were welcome to come and visit! I was over the moon excited! so Dan and I headed out that morning. As we got close to the village of Kinnitty we had to stop and ask for directions since we didn't know exactly where we were going and there are no signs. We stopped at Kinnitty Castle which is a privately owned hotel (posh to say the least! this Castle has been standing since 430 AD!!!!) We got directions but promptly got lost! Stopped at a local pub to ask directions. Dan decided he would wait in the car and he would send me in to get directions.....oh brilliant idea honey! I walked into this pub to inquire about directions and every old man in the place was like "Well hello lass" boy they were MORE then eager to help me out! LOL The younger guy behind the bar told them all to behave which got me laughing! they all started talking at once trying to tell me how to get to Leap Castle. I said "Wait I need you to write it down" of course that made them all look at me funny for a moment. You know that look of "Ahhh of course, because she is a woman" I just looked at them and say "Hey I use to be blonde so you have to write things out for me!" They all laughed and then asked me to come back for a drink after we visited the castle! LOL But of course they wanted to know why I was going there......"Its haunted ye know Lass.....Why do ye wanna go there?" I said "That is exactly why I want to go there!" Anyway, finally found Leap Castle. Met the owner Sean Ryan, he has to be the nicest man EVER! we must have sat in front of his fire for at least an hour just chatting before he told us to go have a look about. He handed us a flashlight for the bloody chapel since there is no light going up. And Dan and I were off to explore! Boy that place has quite a feel about it! on the way up to the Bloody chapel there is a room off to the left, which Sean later told me was the smoking room where they smoked the meat. That room was very oppressive. While in that room I had the definate feel that I was not alone. My chest became very heavy, I felt as if someone had their hand around my heart it was a scary feeling. Sean told me that I was not the first person to experience that in that room. Once in the bloody chapel there was a room off to the left corner that Dan and I both felt something in that room. And then there was the Obliet (not sure of spelling) that is where they would throw the prisoners. Obliet is a french word which means "To Forget" . Captures we thrown down there and just forgotten until they died. We didn't catch much on camera, just a few orbs. however while we were downstairs sitting in front of the fire chatting with Sean Dan and I both heard a females voice. She was talking although we couldn't make out what she was saying. And I was the only female in the house at the time. Neither one of us knew that the other had heard this until we were driving back to Kinnitty Castle where we were staying. We were talking about the things we had experienced at the Castle. I mentioned that while Sean was talking I had heard a females voice and Dan looked at me and said "Oh my god I heard it too! I was looking around to see where it was coming from!" So we have personal experiences but not much visual. Just a few orbs. Which for me, validate something as I know what was and wasn't there. Usually orbs dont mean anything to me as they can usually be explained, but I was there I know what I saw and what was there and what wasnt there.


Well, hope you all enjoyed what little I could update you all on. I will try (not going to promise mind you) and update one more time before we leave. But at the moment I am sitting in Kinnitty Castle in a beautiful grand bar and it has inspired me to write. But we have 6 days left (I think! lol) so maybe I can write again once we are in Dublin) Much love to all !!!!

Goodbye Norwich...Hello Ireland

Parting is such sweet sorrow, having to say goodbye to you Norwich and all the wonders and magic you held was a hard thing to do. With a heavy heart and tears in my eyes I said goodbye to my Soul sister and to Norwich. The times we had there will be forever engraved in my heart! We shared many of laughs over a good pint of ale in many fantastic pubs! It is funny how four people who have never met before could be so much alike! It was  a whirlwind 10 days with a lifetime of things packed into it but Dan and I loved every minute of it and wouldnt change it or trade it for that million dollar lottery ticket......well ok maybe we would! LOL

In all seriousness I cant thank Dawn and Darryl enough for all their kindness, for putting up with Dan and I, for showing us their beautiful city. Introducing us to all their wonderful friends and just including us as part of their family.  It was a joy to meet their beautiful daughter Sabrina and her boyfriend Chris. They are two great kids....well they arent kids....but ya know what I mean! LOL

Our flight to Dublin wasnt bad, it only took about an hour and it was a smooth flight, unlike the flight over from LA which was VERY bumpy! On that flight we had to fly up into Canada to Greenland and just over the tip of Iceland then down to England because of the Hurricane in the south (I cant at the moment rememberthe name I think it was Irene or something like that) So, this flight was alot better! Once we landed we did finded it to be quite windy and once we managed to get our rental car and then get to the hotel we found that Hurricane Katia was coming and that they were expecting 80 mph winds and possible tornados! Can you say "Welcome to Ireland!!!"

Dan took to driving on the wrong side rather well. Me on the other hand, well as a passenger and seeing how close he was getting to the side of the road and parked cars was well lets just say making me a bit nervous! Found it best to just close my eyes from time to time! We stayed in the airport hotel for the first 2 days as Dan wasnt feeling very well. On day 2 we ventured out on the road and headed on to our first destination - Powerscourt. It is a beautiful estate with over 42 acres of gardens. And then further up the road is a waterfall. This waterfall happens to be the largest in all of England and Ireland and let me tell you it is quite beautiful!! We had a nice walk around both places. Although we didn't stay long since the wind gust of 65+ made it a bit difficult to be out there.

From there we went on to our next desination which was Glendalough. Glendalough is the remains of a monastic settlement.  In 498 AD a young monk named Kevin came here looking for solitude and a place to be one with nature. And let me tell you he couldnt have pick a better place! It is absolutley Stunning!!! I am a deeply spiritual person and this place just screams at you!  you can feel it in every fiber of your being. There are still things here that go beyond our comprehension.

And to top off the visit, the hotel that we are staying at is litterally  100yds from the site! I can sit in my window and look down at the ruins. And when Dan and I checked into the hotel I just got a feeling that there was more to this hotel then met the eye, I had this.....ummm how do I explain this, almost like the feeling you get when someone is staring at you. Well that is the feeling i got as we walked down the empty hall to our room. So after we got settled in and had a pint in the bar, when Dan went back up to the room I went out front to take some pictures on the way back in I stopped at the front desk and asked the young lady behind the desk how old this hotel was, she said it was opened in the 1800's, so not too old. But then I asked her if they had ever had anything "strange" happen, she got this  look on her face and looked around, I said to her that I am into the paranormal and that I do investigations. That seemed to put her at ease, she leaned forward and told me that they see and hear things all the time! lights go on and off, they hear people coming down the stairs and the hallway when there isnt anyone there. And that there has been the apparition of a child seen in the halls.  She even told me that the owner has never had a night go by that he hasnt seen or heard something!  Bells and whistles went off for me! I thought Whooo Hoooo!!!! I have hit the mother load!!! Where is Carrie and Dom when I need them!  So guess what I will be doing when it gets dark?  Yep you got it, I will be roaming the halls with digital voice recorder in hand and camera seeing if I can catch anything! might be hard as there are lots of guests but doesnt hurt to try!


Well my friends, that is an update of what we are up to as of late. Will try and update you all again as soon as I can. Dont know when we will have interent again so bear with me. Again if you have facebook that is the best way to see pictures as my Ipad will not let me add pictures here which I am really bummed about.  But will keep you all up on our adventures as best I can!

Much love!!

First part of the UK journey

We have now been in Norwich for 5 days, and this is the first chance that I have had to sit down and write in my blog. There is so much to tell you all that I don't quite know where to start! I am sure that it will take me a day or two before I even finish writing this and get it posted!

So, lets begin and the beginning....The flight! Well Dan and I arrived at LAX about 4 hours before our flight was due to depart as we knew we had to go thru customs and all of that BS. So we figured that it would be best to go thru it all as soon as possible to get it over and done with. Once we did that we just kinda hung out. Had a beer in the lounge, an EXPENSIVE beer mind you! By the time our flight was ready to board we found that instead of the Boeing 777 we would be boarding a smaller plane so some of the passenger would have to take a later flight. At this point all I could think was "WHAT! oh hell no!!! so I quickly went to the counter to see if we were still on the scheduled flight which thank god we were! so all was well. Took FOREVER to finally take off but finally did. The flight its self was ok until we had to fly up into Canada I am assuming because of Hurrican Irene. That is where the flight became my worst nightmare! We hit some pretty bad turbelence. Now when I say bad, I mean the entire plane felt as if I was on a freakin bull being tossed about! And dropped a few feet! I don't think Dan realized how serious I was about the fact that I was afraid to fly until I had my hand dug into his and he looked over at me and saw the tears streaming down my face. That had to be the scariest thing I have ever been thru!!! I didn't like it at all! I prayed to every bloody saint, goddess, deities I could think of to just get me thru it and get me back on the ground in one piece. If I am gonnna die in a plane crash let it be on the way home! After I have experienced England and Ireland!

When we finally landed in London and got thru customs it seemed like it took forever to get thru to where Dawn and Darryl were waiting for us. As we rounded the gate I spotted Dawn right away! I could see that she hadnt quite seen me yet so I just raised my arm and gave her a good wave and the smile that came over her face was worth the 10 hours of hell I had just been thru! As I finally let go of my bag and just got up to her and was able to finally wrap my arms around her, my sister, my long lost soul sister it all felt complete. I had come full circle. I was back where I belonged. I was home. The other part of me that I had always felt was missing was now there. And we started in with each other like we had just seen each other yesterday! The comfort was there. She is everything I knew she would be. And I love her even more then I thought I would. We are definatley alike! it is quite funny actually. On the 2nd day here Dawn and I went and got matching Tattoo's. We now have a celtic sister symbol on our right wrist. I wish I could add pictures to this blog but every time I try it wont let me. So if you dont have a facebook account you may want to consider it, as I am putting pictures on there every night of the photos I have taken that day. Since I cant do them here. So if you do get a facebook page you can find me as Maureen Hill Jensen.

Until the next time folks. Which in all honesty probably wont be until we get to Ireland! Love and miss you all!!!!