littlelaughalot
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Thank you Mum & Dad Mathie
Thomas usually wakes me up in the morning before he leaves for work, and so with him being away I'm scared that I won't hear my alarm or it won't go off. Thomas' mum and dad get up at 7.30am and said that they would call me and make sure I'm up...which they have been doing these last few mornings. So thank you Angus and Elizabeth...it's very much appreciated!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Some weather!
What a miserable day today has been, weather wise. As I am blogging just now the winds are really strong. That aside, it's been a nice but busy day. After dropping the girls off at school I decided to go to East Kilbride shopping centre. It's all undercover so I stayed nice and dry. Later when I got home, I got the washing done and tidied up before the girls needed picked up. On Sunday it was our Young People's Annual at our church, and they got their prizes in the afternoon. In each age category a dice was thrown, and whatever was written down on Captain Stephen Poxon's (our visitor for the day) book that corresponded with the number on the dice, that was to be an extra treat for all the kids in that section. Dayna and Miriam were thankfully in the same section, and they were delighted to hear that they were to be taken to McDonalds at some point this week. 
This off course was a treat to be given by the parents not the church. So tonight I took them to McDonalds at Braehead...
......and afterwards we went to Ikea where I bought some nice things..can't say what because it's a surprise for Thomas coming home. Then when we got home I started dealing with the new purchases and before I knew it, it was 10.30pm. I then had to finish a few cards off while I was waiting for an ichat with Thomas. He's having long working days over in Philly but he's enjoying the mall at night. Won't be long till Friday...can't wait....miss you and so do the girls. Dayna said she was sad because she just wasn't getting the tickles her dad normally gives her.
When an occassion such as a person being enrolled as a Junior or Senior Soldier arises within the salvation Army, you can't just go out and by a card at the local Christian bookshop. you can get Baptism, Confirmation and things such as these, but nothing personal for the Salvation Army. I decided to make my own and have given these out on a few occassions recently.
The colours, yellow, red and blue are quite important to a Salvationist. the yellow signifies the fire of the Holy Spirit.....red, the blood of Jesus.....and the blue, the purity and holiness of God.
I have put these on my website in their own section....."Salvation Army"
On Sunday I officially retired as Assistant Singing Company Leader. I took on the position 7 years ago and last year was approached by Ruth (the Singing Company Leader) and was asked it I would take on the role of leadership so that she could retire after 17 years of service. I decided to take a few weeks just to pray about it, and I really felt that the Lord was telling me no. I am involved in Alpha, house groups, B.L.O.C., senior band, songsters and singing company and I am also quite frequently out singing somewhere....it's hard trying to be part of all of these things without it affecting other parts of your life especially family. I knew that B.L.O.C. Alpha and house groups were my passion and I truly feel that God is wanting me to focus on these things and to "hand the baton" so to say on to someone else. Pamela is now leading our Singing Company and has a new way of leading the kids. I didn't want to stay around too long and then leave and cause more disturbance for the kids, so I thought this was the best time and it just allows Pamela to get into her own routine and hopefully soon chooses a suitable assistant.
On Sunday afternoon I was presented with a gift from the Singing Company. It's called an Infinity Candle, and it's really quite nice. Hopefully the boys in the alto section will sing up now that they are one down.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
LIVE TO TELL
This is my big sister Caroline and her husband Daniel who it just like a brother to me. We love to sing together and have been out on a number of occassions doing programmes. On Friday we will be singing at the Pentecostal Church in Whitburn, and we have been practicing a lot of new songs together which we are really looking forward to singing.We love singing together and have been thinking of a name for our wee trio for a while now and have come up with "Live to tell". As follower's of Christ, our responsibility is not to hold on to the gospel but spread it...to share God's love wherever and whenever we can. Our lives belong to God, and so our main purpose for our lives is to tell...tell others about this amazing fact that God loves them. Caroline, Daniel and I have a great desire to share God's love through our singing and so "Live to tell" really sums up what we are trying to do.
Looking forward to seeing Bobby (my mum's cousin) and his wife Jeanette, who organise the whole event and have asked us over. Don't know whether we will see Dionne or Derek, but it would be nice to see them (second cousins). We were there last year at their annual dinner and have been asked back. So Whitburn Pentecostal...here we come...we're really looking forward to seeing you.
After a lot of hassle and uncertainty, Thomas will be going to Philly now from Sunday to Thursday, bringing him back home early Friday morning, allowing us still to go that same day for our anniversary weekend away.
Thank you Thomas for dealing with all of this at your work. I'm going to miss you as are the girls when you are away but I know that the weekend will be even more special now because I will be so glad that you are back....as they say "absence makes the heart grow fonder"
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Crazy Hair Day!
On Friday, Dayna and Miriam were to go to school with crazy hair styles to raise money for Unicef. I was quite chuffed with my efforts and I thought the girls looked CRAZY! They had great fun at school and enjoyed wearing casual clothes for the day and being able to buy books and toys at the stall. I gave them both a pound to spend (that's the most they allow the kids to bring in) and it's amazing what you get for the pound these days! Miriam came back with about 3 books, a barbie doll, and she had also bought a couple of cakes, and she still gave me change back.
Alistair Smith is an amazing young man. We had the priviledge of meeting Alistair many years ago (through Janey), when he was really quite young, and even then have always found him to be nothing but pleasant and well mannered. Now that sounds really motherish (is that even a word?) but it's true, and it's rare to come by. He is only just 18years of age, and his head is well screwed on. This guys faith just comes over to me as being so natural to him. He's at real peace with God and overall is just one inspiring lad! Bless you Alistair...your family should be really proud of you. I know Thomas and I are proud to know you and think you are a real wee gem and a great example of a true worshipper. Thanks for being you!
The past few weeks at our church house groups have been fantastic. Ruth, Roscoe's mum has kindly opened up her home and has been facilitating the topic and discussion which she is great at! We've been studying the book of Exodus and have been following the story of Moses over these past few weeks. It's amazing what comes through a passage that before you would never have given any thought to. We have another house group being run at Kenny and Sarah's on a Monday as well, so numbers are growing and things are going well. If you are not involved in one, or don't have one.... get involved....create one...they are such an important part of "Church" and such an important part of our individual, as well as corporate, spiritual growth.
So thank you Ruth..."you da man!" or should I say "you da woman!" (just a wee joke from previous week)
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Sweeeet!
Loving these! Thomas showed this to me tonight. They are anamorphic cups...what?...don't worry all is explained if you visit their site..[[link]]
To check out other stuff from this company just visit www.normal.as
I love my tea, and I love my cups..these are sweeeeet!
Today's meetings were really great, and helped in some ways to amend a not so nice weekend. Alec posed a question in the morning service..." What is it that made you believe in the first instance that Jesus could help you? " Some of the replies were through seeing what he had done for others...just feeling his presence and being fully aware of him.....of just believing on God's promises..etc and he used the story about the Roman Official who asked Jesus to help his dying son. He had heard how Jesus had helped others, and so had went to Him and asked for help. He also finished with posing another question....When you come before Jesus, are you coming simply just for what you can get....or are you coming out of an act of devotion, to the Son of God who loves you, and died for you?
(if you want to download and listen to Alec's full sermon then look out for it at www.councilofwar.co.uk)
We were all given the miniature edition of "The purpose driven life", with the plan that for the next 40 days we would each take time to go through the thoughts and devotions within this book. In the evening service Andrea said something that really jumped out..and I probably won't be able to word it exactly, but she was asking us what we thought the difference was between a good person and a Christian? What is it that makes us different? She then went on to say that a good person has been shaped by their past...but a Christian is shaped by their future...a future that has been planned for them by God... a future that includes a glorious and wonderful future in heaven that he has already prepared for us.This got me thinking. So many times we allow things in our past to creep into our lives today. We carry around guilt and shame about things that God has already forgiven us for. Instead of claiming his wonderful forgiveness we continue to punish ourselves. We keep letting it get in the way of our todays as well as in the way of our relationship with God. We can't allow ourselves to be shaped by our past.
I think it's wonderful to know that I can never wander so far away that I can never be brought back into God's loving care. There is nothing that I can do to stop God loving me. What a hope...what a promise! I thank God that he has a purpose for me and that my future shapes who I am, as long as I simply trust and allow Him to be part of my life... today!
There is a familiar saying from the phone company Orange.....
"The future looks bright, the future's Orange".....but I can say for sure...that my future looks bright..after all...my future is in God's hands!
Thanks to our officers Alec and Andrea for another challenging day!
After the previous weekend being so busy, I was really looking forward to this weekend. We always have a busy week with so many things on and so the weekends are really precious to us. Nothing had been planned for Friday night or for Saturday, and so I was really looking forward to chilling with the family. I picked Thomas up from the station only to be asked...would I like to hear the bad news or the bad news? Thomas is more than likely to be going back to Philly for not one week...oh no....two! Oh and when would that be...oh yes when we had our anniversary weekend booked! I was absolutely gutted..to be honest I still am...but to have been given such short notice just enraged me....I am expected to just drop all of my plans...really special and worthwhile plans to suit a last minute decision at the workplace. To say the least Friday night was ruined, as was pretty much all of Saturday. Obviously we were both unhappy and the disappointment of it all was pretty much aimed, by me, at Thomas...indirectly of course because it wasn't his fault.
This weekend had been picked due to a particularly heavy period for me between now and May and so being realistic, we may as well forget going away now..I can't see it happening. But to then have Thomas away from two weeks is not particularly cheering me up either.
You see...this was never really in the job description..that was never the way we wanted work life to be for us, but I know that I can get by...but it will be harder because the girls really struggled the last time when it was only for a week, never mind two. I'm the one who has to pacify them...not his work!
So emotions have been running extremely high this weekend, but I'm feeling a bit more settled today. It's awful when you wish you could just have those few days back again to just enjoy and spend together...but they're gone you just can't have them back.....and as my mum reminded me....enjoy every moment together..you never know when it will be your last...and then she reminds me of the chorus of a song I think was written by Gloria Gaither....
"We have this moment to hold in our hands
and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand;
Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come,
But we have this moment today."
Thanks mum...and sorry Thomas....I just hate the thought of being without you.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Believe HandmadeJust a short blog to say that my handmade cards are still available to view on flickr, but I have also created a freeweb website for the time being until I can go about getting my own website. please check it out, its www.freewebs.com/believehandmade... It's nowhere near perfect...still lots of cards to upload, but I thought I would make a start. I'm a wee bit annoyed because I made lots of cards over the last few months that were kind of special one off's at the time...but ones that I would like to bring into my range...but I never took photos! So I will have to get busy making more samples to display!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day!
"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times.....always with the same person"So, we decided that we would give each other cards and declarations of our love to each other then. But I can't let the day go by without saying "I love you Thomas" and to thank you for all that you mean to me.
This last week has been a mixture of a few really relaxing and some really busy days. Enjoyed spending some quality time with the girls and with Thomas on a few evenings last week which was really lovely. On Saturday Thomas and I were asked to help out at the "Outside out" Youth Rally that was held in Glasgow. We were there from 10.30am to about 9.30pm so it was a long day, but not as long as some of the technical team who had been there from 7am and were still about when we left. My lovely husband Thomas aka the headphonaught had blogged about the day and has some pics too so check that out!
On Sunday it was just as busy. Morning service, then Singing Company (Junior Choir) practice, home quick for lunch, back out to the church for 4pm for a B.L.O.C. practice and then into our evening service followed at 8pm by S.N.A.C. Exhausting but well worth it. Another great day. We were able to share in a love feast together in our evening's fellowship during our S.N.A.C. get together and the whole evening was just a great success and God's presence was ever near.
We had a laugh on Monday. I was dropping Thomas off at the train station in the morning so that he could catch the train to work, and he said in the car on the way...I have a strange feeling I have a holiday off work at round about this time. When he got to work and checked, he realised that he was supposed to be off that very day as well as the Friday before. Thomas you are such a numpty! Never mind, it was nice that you were able to get yesterday off instead and another day in a few weeks time.
Couldn't believe it last night! We have our church choir, our Songster practice on a Tuesday evening and Thomas and I usually take turns each week to go so that one of us are in the house with the girls. Last night we forgot all about it. I couldn't believe it. For some reason it didn't even click with either of us that it was Tuesday. I think because Thomas was off and the girls were still off school on holiday that it just threw us. Didn't realise till about 10 ish...Ooooops! But don't worry I have sent a very apologetic email to our Songster leader.
On the positive side though we did spend that time in a quality way...we watched a film together with the girls.
Monday, February 05, 2007
No promises"No promises".....love, love, love this song. It sends shivers down my spine. Heard it at the early part of last year on the radio just the one time and instantly loved it, and because I wasn't sure who sang it, I kind of had to forget about it. But hey, I found it. It's sung by Shayne Ward and was originally sung by Bryan Rice....a song from the soundtrack of the film "Nynne" which I'm not familiar with.
Anyway the song is amazing......the video is beautiful but incredibly sad!,,,huge lump in my throat!!!...anyway...enjoy!
