That was the week - that was!

Saturday - My nieces first birthdays. Kids parties are so cool and man, those babies are cute!

Saturday Evening - Maze at the Apollo. See Mr Hall's write up about that but I agree, it was like being at a party and the worship was GREAT! ( Lost Wedding Ring)

Sunday - Was very tired...and had been given time off on FOJ in terms of leading. Just had to 'be there' and it was good. Looking at the Friuts of the Spirit and Peace was the theme this week, which fitted beautifully with Peace Week.

During the meeting,some of the guys who had gone to Zambia presented their thoughts,feelings and some pictures which was cool.

Sunday Eve - a Corps Finance meeting at our house about the Grand Opening of the SA Hall - exciting, but scary too.

Monday -official Work from Home day, and spent an hour looking around the refurbed Romford SA and meeting up with a couple of FAB people - you know who you are. Too much communication via email leads to a need to get grounded in company sometimes and it had got to 'that point' - again exciting but a bit scary too. Emails continued throughout the week, but I think it is safe to say that progress was REALLY made in some areas.

Monday Evening - Light Party Info Sharing Meeting. We are going head to head with Romford Town's Halloween Celebrations and hosting The Light Fantastic on 31/10/08. Other Churches in the town are supporting too which is really great. ( Wedding Ring found!)

Tuesday - See below.

Wednesday - Back in the office - Tom being looked after in shifts at home. Had a very dynamic meeting in the afternoon. Keith in The Wirral all day, so VERY tired when he got home.

Thursday - In the office again! and also met a buddy for lunch.

Thursday Evening - Classic FM Royal Albert Hall Gig. Brilliant. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Emma Johnson ( Clarinet) Alfie Boe and Kate Royal ( Vocal) I cried in Ave Maria .Alison Balsom (Trumpet) and hosted by Simon Bates. Finale was the 1812 including fireworks!

Friday - Visit in the morning, office in the afternoon, Kids Club at The Base ( Chelmsford) in the evening - What a team!

I had been wearing my Wedding Ring on my little finger as my proper ring finger was sore and on the train on the way to the concert I realised that it was gone! (the ring, not the finger LOL) I am rubbish with jewellery, but had done pretty well with this ring up to that point! Quite honestly it could have been anywhere, but in Sunday Morning we were out in the garden where I had been hanging out washing, looking in all the places it might have gone- well obviously not ALL as we didn't find it. I had thought that with it being such a special thing it would just be there to find, but no.

ON returning home from the meeting on Monday evening, Keith and Joe had been playing Wii and Keith was complaining about a sore hand, asking me to have a look at it etc. I was telling him to grow up etc, but when I looked, there in his little finger was The Ring.. Turned out that it was in an overnight bag that I had packed for Elyse, as her and Tom had slept over at my mum and dad's. I had unpacked the bag on Sunday, but had mistakenly left her toothbrush in it, so Keith had gone to find it on Monday evening and there in the bottom of the bag was a glimmer of gold.

Hurrah all is well...until the next time!

I Love God!

Today, I was overwhelmed with Love for God. Nothing prompted it - that I was aware of - but I suddenly felt really full up with Good and Happy Feelings and didn't even think about attributing it to anything else but God.

I haven't had a particularly easy or reflective sort of day, if anything, it was relatively tough.

• Argued with a family member over socks this morning - wouldn't wear them because they had holes in them - IT WAS THE PATTERN! What she really meant was that they were too small, but somehow couldn't say that, so I thought she was just being fussy.
• Meeting in the office this morning - got out of it early which was a result and down to the graciousness of Mrs Boss.
• Tied up a few loose ends - actually it sounds quite idylic up to this point doesn't it?
• Remember to put my potato in the oven for lunch
• Prepared for a meeting I was having after lunch
• Sat down to eat lunch
• Got a call from School - Thomas had been sick, and school is 30 - 45 mins away from work.
• Phoned parents for assistance - no answer
• Panicked - what to do about meeting?
• Person I was meeting with arrived, went to meet them in the car park - had a chat in the car, will rearrange etc. They were very understanding.
• Got to school and picked Thomas up,he proceeded to fill me in on how many bowlfuls etc
• Got home and Thomas actually went upstairs to lie down. I was worried at that point - Oh he's actually really poorly.
• 20 mins later he came down, hungry!
• etc.

Tough, why?

Oh, that's easy - guilt, responsibility, guilt, resentment, guilt and so on.

However, taking Elyse to Choir later on I just was filled up and started laughing. Elyse wanted to know why, so I tried to explain how I felt - God doesn't just love us, he IS love and I love him!

Her response - Mummy, I God you!

8 Random Facts

I've been tagged by Judy, so here goes:

I was the best bottom second trombone player in the world - had to retire to give others a chance!

It was love at first sight for me when I met Keith - he took more pursuading!

My maternal grandma and my great auntie were twins, I have twins and my brother has twins.

When Keith and I were first married, we lived in a little flat in Barking.

I really wanted to be a PE teacher. ( see next fact)

I am a Homebird and the thought of going to Uni freaked me out, so I went to work for LLoyds Bank and spent a year doing Banking exams - Totally random. Passed Law and Economics, failed BANKING and ACCOUNTANCY!

For the first 18 years of my life, we went to Felixstowe for our Summer Holidays - Beach Hut, then moving up the Caravan. ( My 18th year we went to the South of France - SO cool!)

And finally - today I am going to have lunch at IHQ! ( Salvation Army International Headquarters)

People who should follow suit - Jenny Fox, Claire Tomkinson, Ann Borrett,Andy Hill, and Sarah Joy.

XXXXX

- isation or -ization?

The spelling is not the point actually. The point is that EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is getting '-isated'...or should that be '-ised?!

Words you can add - isation to :

Global
Container - apparently soon the whole world will be containerised, which is what prompted this ranty response.
Industrial
Agricultural
Forest...ok that's actually Forestation, but you mark my words, soon we'll be Forestised, once a global prgoramme of tree planting swings into action.

There's possibly more and that can be your Friday challenge, but the one that I can't quite get my head round is..... COLON!

I'm off to Clacton now for some Clactonisation - you all have a great day!

Happy B'day! (Revised edition)

Yesterday was my birthday and it can be summed up using the letter B!

Barking and Babies - I visited and P and T group at Barking and spent some time chatting with a few mums about starting up a Bi weekly Toddler Church on a Sunday. They are excited and so am I!

Bug - Keith was laid low this week with a Flu Bug that extended to an upset tummy so yesterday morning I was kind of arranging the signing of my own birthday cards ( sad!!) as hde had taken the kids to town after school to buy them, and some prezzies, but the exertion of that had left him too exhausted to follow it through( possibly not a good expression considering his ailment ..eugh!). He was POORLY so, all is forgiven.

Bracelets and Beads - the kids got me some funky jewellery - looks a bit like a string of boiled sweets, YUM!! The kids at Toddlers were fascinated by the bracelet.

Birkenstocks - yeay, I got a pair for my birthday from one of my friends. Turquoise blue to match my toenail varnish.

Buffet - we had a buffet tea last night - for me, by me, as the poorly boy ( I can kind of tease him about it, now that he's feeling better)was still feeling averse to food. He did organise a rather splendid Chocolate Birthday Cake though, which can legally come into this blog as it was BROWN!

Blueberries - still loving them. They DO go with everything. Look great with strawberries and Granny Smith apples and taste just FAB.

( Bad News - a couple of my friends have had a pretty tough week, one thing and another and I caught up with some more bad news yesterday - thinking about you guys X)

So I'm considering having my Birthday extend through the month of September as we have a couple of events to look forward to which are 'Birthday Presents' - A trip to The Hammersmith Apollo to see 'Maze...featuring Frankie Beverly' who is probably about 100 years old now ( see Keith's Blog ).

When I first met Keith, Maze was his current fave band and he would sing and recite stuff from the current album ALL the time at work i.e.( imagine a Southern USA drawling accent)

'This is the place y'all, THIS is the place. ( sound of crowd cheering, yep he made the sound effect too)It's Sunday Mornin' y'all and THIS - IS - THE - PLACE. We're doin' a laav album and somebody said to me....( slightly more high pitched) somebody saaaaid, well waa did ( DID?) a laav album in New Orleens and Aa said well wa not...you dig,,,( high pitched) you dig?'( sound of crowd cheering).

The song was 'Joy and Pain' ( are like sunshan and rain oohh hoo etc ad lib)

I am also going to the Royal Albert Hall with Joe and my mum and dad to one of the Classic FM Live concerts - an enormous programme and featuring Emma Johnson playing Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, which Joe is attempting to learn - so pleasure and education in one evening.

Eclectic just doesn't come anywhere NEAR!

I've just got home from a trip to the town armed with an M and S Voucher and a Next Voucher . In M and S I bought what they are famous for....no, NOT food, and in Next, 2 bottles of perfume, one of which is remeniscent of my mate Fiona and I didn't realise until I got home and Elyse said - Oh you smell like Fiona!

This Blog was bought to you by the Letter B and the aroma of Passion! :)

Wee Meme Too.

I have been nominated to fill you in on my recollections of these 5 eventful event and their impact on my life.

Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997
This was the day after we had travelled home from a fab week in Wales with our good buddies Keith and Fiona Starling.Joe was and Mark were 3, Hannah was 7. I can't recall why I put the TV on that morning, but I did and just sat and gawped at the news. Keith was still in bed, so I shouted up to him and we both gawped. That day was the dedication of our friends Helen and John's baby Luke, so we had a lovely buffet lunch at their house and the talk was all about Diana.

Margaret Thatcher's resignation - 22 November 1990
To my shame, I can't rememeber the shenanegins surrounding this - We had moved into our house that year and were in the process of some rather massive renovation, living upstairs for about 18 months and I became quite ill at one point - this might have happened then - who knows?

Attack on the twin towers - 11 September 2001
I was just going out to get the children from school when the programme I was watching - some trashy chat show - was interrupted with this news. Another gawping in front of the TV moment. All the talk in the play ground was about the crash - at the time it was not known that terrorists were involved and it all began to unfold once we got home, but I had to wait for kids tv to finish before I could catch up!

England's World Cup semi final v Germany - 4 July 1990
This was the Saturday that the Romford Youth were involved in the Territorial Congress doing Drama, under the tutilage of Stuart Grinstead. So, as we were still in The Youth then, we all piled round to Keith and Fiona's afterwards to watch it on their tele - wasn't it the one where Gazza cried and... we lost. I recall Fiona being rather taken by Lothar Matteus ( SP??)

President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963
No idea - wasn't even a twinkle in my dad's eye till the January of 1964 - WHAT a year that was!

I nominate
Rich Borrett
Ann Borrett
My Bro Jon - if he's still bloggin that is.
Serena Hostler

Camping?!

So, there are always a few raised eyebrows when I tell people we have been camping. Some people actually look sympathetic as if it's a bad thing, others just laugh out loud or wrinkle noses in distaste.

I can appreciate that it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think camping has really bad press and so while we were away I tried to analyse what the good and bad things are and how, for us at least, the benefits far outway the inconvieniences.

First off, we generally book at a site that has superb reviews and great facilities - one year the Convienience Block ( Loos Showers Laundry etc) had a sauna and steam room!

Yes, you have to to walk to the Loo and yes, it can be annoying at night, particularly if one of the kids needs to go and it's raining and wellies and kagools have to be put on instead of your normal toweling dressing gown.This year the facilites were impecable - the cleaners were the most diligent I have ever met ( bar my mum). Ok, so the showers failed towards the end of the second week and that was just bad luck for us and the site owners , but we stayed clean and fresh smelling none the less.

Zips : can be annoying and there are loads on our tent, so there's a kind of zip symphony played as people go in and out, especially as we were battling wasps - but our tent has insect nets, so we won, most of the time.

The Weather : it rained lots this year and that can be noisy in a tent, but we were warm and dry when inside, which wasn't often as we went out everyday - part of the plan. However, when the weather is good, most things happen outside and that's lovely.

Food - well, we have a hob and grill and rustled up some magnificents feasts and barbequed too - not as much as we would have liked, cos of the weather though.

We never take any media tech with us - TV,Laptop etc, although we do have 'Electric Hook Up', so can charge up phones and DS's, have light at the flick of a switch, have a small fridge, use a hairdryer and have an electric kettle for that urgent cuppa. We nearly bought a cheap toaster this year, but Joe felt we would be selling out too much if we did, so we didn't!

Sleeping on the floor was never something I looked forward to and in our old tent, we were on a raised platform, but I was pleasantly surprised but how ok it was. Air beds are quite comfy and Keith and I use out normal bedding rather than sleeping bags, althought the kids sleep in bags. We have our own 'pods' to sleep in, so everyone has a place they can call their own and retreat to it as and when.

We live from day to day which is cool, and contrived this year to drive past Tescos every day on the way home from places to stock up for tea and breakfast.

So that's the mechanics of it and yes, sometimes you have to be very resourceful and sometimes it can be frustrating.

The benefits for us though are:

• the simplicity of life - life at home is so complex
• the 'being together' - having time to feedback to each other, playing games that we never play in normal life ( cards, Bananagrams etc). This really is the main thing for me. I appreciate holiday time is when everything gets easier and you could relive this experience in a cottage or a house, but there's a lovely intimacy to camping.
• The fresh air !
• The lack of pretentions all around - you can't hide much when all that separates you from the people next door is 6 metres of air and 2 nanometers of fabric

So, that's my case for camping and while some of you readers might know totally where I'm coming from, others might never understand, but that's fine - carry on camping, that's what I say!