I love LAUGHING

Today, I really laughed....loads, and it has occured to me that I haven't laughed like that in ages, which is way too long.

Even though I feel a bit poorly, and even though I was working, there were some truely priceless and unexpected moments when I actually cried because I was laughing SO much.

Laughing is good and I must do it more often.

The Wait Is Over!

Here are my new little nieces Ellie ( in the pink hat) and Daisie ( in the yellow hat).

If you have Facebook and are a friend of Jon you can check out some more pics there.

My other niece Libbie was very excited on the way to the hospital last night to visit. We had stopped at a red traffic light and she said,'Oh come on, we have to get there!' - she's 3. I had to explain that unless a baby was being born in the car, which it wasn't, we really did have to pay attention to the rules of the road! She also suggested driving over the roundabout rather than round it - Jon DON'T EVER let her learn how to drive - she's a speed demon!

So it was all very surreal when we arrived, Libbie was very full of beans, but Jon and Tracy were exhausted and Ellie and Daisie was just getting used to being out really.

They are tiny and pink, very calm and quiet and move in slow motion, at the moment. I guess gravity is a thing they are having to get used to.

Anyway, they are here and all is well.

So...yeah...

Well it's been a while and trust me, I can't think for the life of me why.

Of course I have the usual excuse of 'being busy', which I have been, so it's not really an excuse - it's true.

Tomorrow, or even later today will be an opportunity for a really great blog about my family and I will post pictures and everything, but today at this moment in time, it's a normal working, waiting kind of day.

By the way, the picture is of a sculpture by Nnamdi Okonkwo of Orem, Utah and portrays the emotions associated with waiting. The figures do not represent particular people, but humanity. The artist chose women because he likes the fluid lines and the simple, elegant shapes embodied in the female form. In the arrangement of these large, round shapes he finds his ideal of order, balance and beauty.

Sorry ....'women, fluid lines, simple elegant shapes'...ok good so far.....'large round shapes'..oh no, I've gone right off Mr Okonkwo of Utah!

Mirror, mirror....

So Graham and the band did the biz, the theatre was very nearly full, so God honoured the organisers prayers - thanks Fiona, Neil and Ian, have 10 years off to recover!

The finale was Shine Jesus Shine - GK called in the Shiny Song and said that he wouldn't get out of the theatre alive unless we sang it. I have to disagree there as I think we, as a church have overdone this song and so my inital reaction was- OH no - very similar to my reaction when 'I'll Go In The Strength Of The Lord' is announced as a final song. It's the tunes really.

The words however are a challenge and, looking deep, maybe that's why I dread these songs. and The Shiny Song gets me everytime...mirrored here may OUR lives tell YOUR story.

Sometimes I don't like what I 'see' in the mirror.

Out of The Ordinary

See : Graham Kendrick and his band!

When : THIS Sunday Evening.

Time : 7pm

Venue : The Queens Theatre Hornchurch

Ticket Price : £9 From the Box Office 01708443333

http://www.queens-theatre.co.uk/

See you there!

Frantic!

As expected, the post holiday anticlimax was indeed painful and frustrating.

I worked from home and grateful though I am to my line managers for encouraging this practise from time to time...well those of you who have children and have anything purposeful to do during a day when they are being themselves, will recognise how hard this can actually be.

I had to hit the office at one point though and bought Thomas and Elyse with me and they promised to be good, which I guess they were for a while......Elwyn Harries, line manager, DDE , magician and all round decent bloke got NO work done after the Elastic Band Trick. It occured to me as people began to make their excuses to leave the office...I have to go to Clacton...I have to get my tyre sorted out....and I have to go to a funeral ...that maybe it wasn't the best idea I'd ever had.

Thank you to the great folks that I work with!

Visiting holiday clubs wasn't too bad and I have to say big hurrah to all the corps in our division who did go the extra mile this Summer, and Thomas and Elyse were fairly objective in their feedback - Even though we have sung and danced it, stuck and glued it, and heard it all before....it was good!

The culmination of this fractured week after a 21st birthday party on the Friday Evening, was a fairly busy weekend, running the Children's programme at a Corps retreat on Saturday and leading the YP Annual meeting at another Corps on Sunday ...where the enemy really tried to distract me.

Missing resources, no power for the laptop, mislaid flash disk and a sudden realisation that I didn't know where my purse was - all with about 15 mins to go before the first song.

However, as the meeting was based on Ephesians 6 v 10- 21, The Whole Armour of God, I thought I'd better listen to what I had prepared, stand firm and put the armour on.

The Songsters ( Senior Choir) sang 'Don't Despair', someone had bought a flash disk along, my purse was in my bag ALL the time and in the end, we only needed one responsive resource.

God is good, and as ever, closer than we think.

Thank you Nick and Ian for retracing my steps to see if I'd dropped my purse on the way to the Corps, God will reveal to you at some point why that had to happen.

Thank you Keith for your patience and support and I WILL plan more carefully in future X

PS Question of the Day, asked in all honesty and with complete conviction by a 7 year old:

'Can you speak to God on MSN?'

Answers in a text box please.