We're Family

When we were young, not so young, but young enough, my Nan and Granddad had a shed in their back garden. This shed was wide enough and wired up so that they could teach us darts and play music to us.

I have some very lovely memories of these times. Mostly the fact that I was particularly awful at darts and couldn't treble numbers on the odd occasion that I needed too. I won't forget Granddad telling us to always pull the top dart out first or Nan making that funny noise when we'd nearly got treble 20, only to hit treble 1. I understand the rules of darts because of my maternal Grandparents spending Friday evenings teaching us how to play.

Times have changed, last night my brothers and husband were teaching my Nan how to play darts on the Kinect. After discovering that I do not have the patience for such a game, Nan and Mum both hit their strides and were scoring well (until the Xbox over heated). I was demoted to back up and apparently Christmas arrived and it was New Years day by the time I'd thrown a dart!

How different is family life now?

No longer in a cold shed throwing sharp metal objects at a cork board, we're now throwing imaginary darts at an expensive TV.

Nothing in that statement is bad, just a comment on how over the last fifteen years technology and family have changed. And fifteen years ago I couldn't have imagined how yesterday evening panned out and couldn't have predicted how fun it was! (I beat my youngest brother at baseball!)

Settling to Normality

Life is much more settled now than it has been the last 6 months. Wedding, Wedding Blessing, moving, having house guests, getting back into the swing of work.

Now living in routine (as much as possible). Wake up, go to work, come back from work, eat, sleep. Sounds boring I know, but then I suppose that is what being an adult is all about. We are happy, I am happy.

Family life goes on, of course it has it's ups and downs. Life wouldn't be have as fun without those.

I know I promised images last time, so here are a few pictures from the wedding blessing to keep you entertained.

Americans, Wedding Blessing and New family

The last week of 2010 was a very busy one for Robert and I. We spent some time in Essex celebrating Christmas with my family. I love them all very much and it was really good to have Christmas at home.

Our first Christmas together was uneventful and very much a Fisher Christmas. Church, eating, sleeping, eating, drinking, opening presents and sleeping some more. We were at home for Boxing Day too, and managed to walk the dog, which was really lovely.

On Monday TJ and Val arrived from Atlanta and we had our first house guests. TJ and Robert have been friends since college. These two have supported Robert (and now me). They are lovely. I really enjoy their company. Tuesday we had an epic day and drove to Stonehenge. It rained the whole time, but was made entirely bearable by having a lovely husband and some very good friends for company.

On Wednesday Robert's mum and brother (DJ) arrived. We spent the day wandering around London seeing the sights. It was lovely to have my mum and dad with us. The 8 of us sat down to lunch in Nando's in Victoria. A very small Nando's but a lovely time eating with family and friends.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were more chilling out and shopping days. The girls and the guys split up and did their own thing for the most part. Guys enjoying Xbox360; girls shopping. It was good fun to hang out with the girls.

On Sunday Robert and I had our marriage blessed at St Hugh's, with my St Hugh's family, extended essex family and friends and two very special guests from Cardiff. It was a very exciting and stress-free day. This was the big white dress and suits day.

Hopefully we'll have the pictures very soon. The most overwhelming thing was that everyone was there. We had people from all the different parts of our lives, joining together and making friends. It was amazing to see and to be there. I really can't believe how much support we have and how blessed we are.

On Monday we said goodbye to TJ and Val, we'll see them again in May. And on Tuesday we said goodbye to Mum and DJ. Now we have a house all to ourselves. After a week of having a full-to-the-brim house, it's strange to be by ourselves. I do miss my new American family and friends. They are very good people.

The best thing to see is my family and Robert's family getting along and getting to know each other. It is such a blessing that they all we chatting and doing a great job of making everyone included. God's really done a good job with us all.

On to married life proper. Nothing before us, nothing to plan for, nothing to work towards, except being married.

It's been a while...

Sorry about that!

Lots has happened in the last few months. Robert and I are now married to start off with! We got married on 13th October at First Baptist Church, Lithia Springs.

I suppose I had better tell the story of what happened, as I know it the best.

We applied for a Fiance Visa in mid September, which to our dismay was denied. From there we had two options, apply for the visa again and risk the money (which is a lot) or tranfer my ticket from thanksgiving to early October and get married and apply for the visa again.

As you could guess, we went for the second option! Here is a photo of us just married.

We had a really good day. Robert's family and closest friends were around and we even had a little reception where we put cake in each other's faces! It was really brilliant to have Mum and Dad around too. They flew out especially. It wouldn't have been the same without them.

We applied for the marriage visa as soon as we could, and a few weeks later Robert moved to Luton! He's now been here a month, and it's really great having my husband with me. I still can't believe how crazy the last few months have been. I have a husband!

Oh and this is the ring...

It's it beautiful?!? I couldn't quite believe it when I saw it for the first time. It fits me perfectly and every so often I look down at it and think 'oh my word, that's a diamond and I'm married to my best friend who is awesome and he brought me this ring, which is a diamond...' and the whole process starts again. It's brilliant.

And on the first day we were married this happened...

Robert'll tell this story much better than me... but the first time I was in ATL I DIDN'T want my picture taken with the polar bear. So we take Mum and dad to the World of Coke and Mum drops me in it. She quite innocently says 'Karen, why don't you have your photo taken with the polar bear?'. Robert bursts out laughing and I concede. 9 weeks after I refused, I'm having my photo taken with the bear. I love my husband very much.

We are celebrating out marriage with a wedding blessing on 2nd January. That's the day for suits and big white dress as well as all my family and friends. We'll have some special guests from America too. I'm just as excited about that day as I have been about every day since I booked the tickets to fly the first time.

The last 5 months have been epic, but lots of fun. God has definitely been working in the both of us and now we are together! It's still crazy. But here we are approaching our first christmas together.

Thank you to every one who has prayed with me, supported us and just been there from before the word go. You guys are amazing. We vaule your support more than anything.

And here we are as of last night...

Celebrations

There were lots of celebrations going on this past weekend.

On Saturday we celebrated Kirsty and Ed getting married. A brilliant day was had by all. The bride looked beautiful and the groom was smiling so much his cheeks hurt. There were lots of people around to help them celebrate. I think that's how weddings should be, family and friends around all laughing and smiling. It was a long day. My favourite moment was being able to pray for the couple during the ceremony (and dancing with the bride's half sister to Justin Beiber, but don't tell anyone else that - it's one of my guiltiest pleasures!).

Then on Sunday I went to Essex to celebrate Mike turning 21. It's really hard to believe he's turned 21, it makes me feel quite old. In time old tradition, we were retelling stories of past family gatherings, especially ones which involve everyone, but mostly the boys telling stories of nights out. We also have new stories to tell. Especially ones that involve injury to one or more of the parties telling the story! We are an accident-prone bunch. I shared my news with them. They all were very excited. It lasted about a minute, and then moved on to talk about much more recent events. I'm happy that they know now.

Soon we will celebrate Mum and dad being married for 27 years. I think I'm home that weekend as well. Mum pointed out that two years ago when we were celebrating their Silver anniversary was probably the last time I saw my other cousins. I'm gonna have to rectify that one. It's hard having family scattered all over the place, but a time will come when I will be more than just a car journey away, that should be interesting!

More Weekend Stories

It seems I do not need to tell the story of the weekend... my Dad and sister have already told the weekend stories!

You can read their accounts... It was a really good weekend, except for the driving in Central London part.

That's all I have for now (it's Glee time!).

Uganda Part 3 - That Family Feel

We had our debrief day on Saturday. Another trip over to Godmanchester, in a lovely part of the country, Cambridgeshire.

This was the first time we had seen everyone since being torn apart at Cairo Airport. Unfortunately we were missing 6 people from our team, 2 married couples who thought it was too far to travel for and 1 mother son team who were too busy. We arrived (on time - big drama last time meant we were late) and had lots and lots of hugs and a few tears.

We really were a family on this trip. Having an 8, 10, 12 and 13 year old on the trip really helped this. We also had a 70 something and everything in between. People perfectly capable of looking after themselves and some who needed coaching through everything (this is regardless of age). Everyone had their bad days and there were space giving moments.

It was massively different from all the other teams who were mostly older and married, or a bunch of young people from school. They each had their own bonding things. We were family for two whole weeks, from the moment we arrived at Heathrow airport, by the time we got to Kampala we were one family (at least that's my perception).

During the two weeks I had some very indepth conversations, we laughed so much around the dinner table, we got irrate with each other, we experienced some life changing things together.

When we had to say good bye on Saturday, I didn't realise how exhausting the whole day had been. I definitely didn't want to say goodbye. So I've promised myself trips to see people. We didn't work very hard on our presentation, but we had lots of fun while we were there.

I know lots of people have been on mission trips this summer, and I can bet they'll all have something to say about what bonded their teams, I can certainly say that our varying ages was the thing that bonded us the most.

A Long List

Things have been happening since I last wrote...

My faith took another bashing at a Youth BBQ. I can understand the school children doing it, they don't know me, they are permitted to ask questions (however mockingly). But at a BBQ with young people I know quite well, sadly I had to walk away and not be part of the conversation any more, cause I'd run out of answers and patience.

Then we had Lewsey Churches BBQ inside because of the torrential rain and thunderstorms outside. I can't remember having such extreme weather in the UK, it's been such a long time since we had regular decent thunder and lightening. I really enjoyed it, mainly because I wasn't getting wet!

The week wore on; it's that time of year for trips. We have an unusal thing in our youth group where two people were born hours apart, so have the same birthday. They are completely unrelated. I love the way God brings people together. We headed to Laser Quest for their birthdays. During 'dinner' I sat back and realised what a wonderful youth group had been formed over the last year. They, as a group, are testament to how much I have learnt. I love them all dearly and pray that their group gets stronger.

We had breakfast on the car park and a mighty miracle from God to do it. He moved the clouds at 8am and the sun shone through till 9.30am. Everything is possible when you let God work! It was great to see the young people and teachers that day, though sadly no dustbin men or old grumpies. Our community doesn't feel complete without them really. It was a great way to end the term.

During that week I also completed the practice and essay for my PGDip and JNC. So I can now say that "I am a fully Qualified Youth Worker, subject to Exam Board passing my essay and practice file". Not quite as fun as saying I'm a JNC Youth Worker, but close enough for me! It's been 2 years of hard work, but it's all done (subject to Exam Board - it's like a sting in the tail).

Then it was time for me and my sister to turn 25. We went our separate ways for our actual birthday. She hung out with our family and went drinking and dancing, whilst I spent the morning at Luton Hoo, and the evening at Silverstone.

For those who don't know Luton Hoo is a stately home turned Hotel, newly refurbished and reopened to the public. They do a great breakfast. So I and 12 girls (and 1 boy who is so tiny he didn't know any different) had breakfast together. It was delightful!
Me and Christine

Me in my new role as Stately Home owner!

Silverstone is a whole other world. Its one of the main race tracks in the UK and where Formula 1 raced only a few weekends ago. I went up there to spend the evening with a friend who was racing with Formula Student. All the Mechanical Engineer departments in Europe racing cars they have built. Was very fun I stood on the track and in the pit lane. My Dad really lovely Formula 1 so was very jealous. I loved it.

The Home Straight

Me standing with a vacant expression on my face... hoping not to get run over, not really know what to do. I look proper tiny under the Santander Bridge!

The pit lane... apparently still had markings on it from F1 (I don't really know though, I'm a girl!)

Sunday was spent at church with a[n embarrassing] rendition of Happy Birthday, which left me very red and quite embarrassed. Then to the parents for BBQ with family, extended family, our church friends and the boys school/work friends. Was lovely to see everyone and hang out. (will post pics soon)

Monday night I held another Youth BBQ and the new Curate helped out. He's a man and loves building fire, so the job was perfect for him. The YP had brought me a card and cake! They surprised me massively. And again I realised how blessed I am to have all 13 of them in my life. Lovely young people! Brilliant end to a great weekend!

Hopefully life will calm down now. Just Uganda and September term to prepare for! Ha ha... working hard as ever!

All growed up

Look at us all...

Aren't we a good looking bunch of young people? These are people I've grown up with and now have some really good friends. Essex people are lovely and this group are no exception. Here we are celebrating the engagement of Mandy and Rob. Both of whom I've known for a long time. Mum's is already planning the card for their wedding day! Had a great time partying with them.

As younger girls we'd always have the conversation about who would be married first. It changed depending on what mood we were all in. Mandy always thought she'd be last, but that's all changed! The planning for the wedding has begun with vigour! Should be a lot of fun.

These are my roots, I'm very proud of them.

In other news, it was announced at the church APCM on Sunday that Pamoja has about £6000 in its fund! Very exciting. We go to Godmanchester near Huntingdon on Saturday for Orientation Day. I don't know what it is but I'm genuinely joyful to be going on Orientation! Its a strange feeling, but I can't think of any other words to sum up this feeling. I'll let you know how it goes!

Cup Winners!

Oh yes! Probably the most gripping final of the season, the Johnstones Paint Trophy final was played yesterday at Wembley. Luton Town Vs Scunthorpe... an interesting match.

Luton have won something this season. Which makes a change from being unfairly robbed of 30 points at the start of the season. Yes, we still face relegation from the league, but at least we can go out on a high. We could join a small list of teams who are cup winners and then relegated.

And to take just under a third of the twon to Wembley Stadium is pretty impressive. I'm sure the rest of the town was listening or watching some where. I was, I got home in time for the beginning of extra time and managed to watch it on my parents sky box.

My lovely parents! And the rest of my family. We had a good time celebrating an 18th Birthday. We're all adults now, tis very scary. I can't believe we are already at this point, next thing we know we'll be celebrating our 30's!

New Year and beyond...

I have returned to Luton with the intention to work. I preached on Sunday morning. I'm glad that there wasn't a lot of pressure with this one, the Anglican year begins on the first Sunday of Advent.

It was good. Not my best, but good all the same. There were God moments, which I certainly hadn't planned for and it's just lovely to be back with family and people who laugh when you make mistakes (because they know you, not because they are laughing at you).

New Year went off with out too many problems. Some lovely dresses and well dressed men. I didn't win best dressed, but my parents where the Judges so I couldn't have won. Liz has pictures. I didn't take my camera...

Looking forward to 2009, it's started well, let's hope it continues.

Christmas Traditions

Oh it's all change this year, scary stuff! My mum is about to take over thr role of head chef on Christmas Day, it had previously been my Nan.

For longer than I can remember we've always gone to my Nan's for Christmas Day. It's a long standing tradition to gather around her table after church and hang out with my mum's side of the family. But having 10 of us for dinner for the last few years (my youngest cousin is 4, maybe) has obviously take it's toll! So this year she's going to hide at my auntie's new house in London and mum takes of the mammouth task of cooking christmas dinner (something Liz, the boys and i will fight over in years to come!). Mum does have a new kitchen and a family full of cooks to spoil the broth...

It'll be very strange to be at home all of Christmas day. And God only knows when I'll actually see Nan.

The religious bit of christmas is coming along well. St Hugh's has it's Nativity play on Sunday. All the other christmas seervices are coming along.

I'll share a little bit of Farm joy too... broken back windscreen wiper! Christmas lights are out though, so that's proper joy!

401st post

I had to distract myself whilst writing the last post, there was too much pressure to perform! So God and Dad do come as a welcome distraction.

I'm not one to write about anything remotely political, but we stand on the brink of change for America. Well the American's do. Can't say I'm too fussed myself. Will have the radio on tomorrow morning on the way to work, just so I have something to talk about.

Luton is relatively quiet at the moment. It's really strange to be out in the dark, where it's really quiet. I know I've spoken about it being quiet before. It comes and goes, I think the cold snap put off all the revellers.

Anyway, 1 month till the Germany trip! Yeay!

The Father Listens

It's great to know that there are people listening to me when I talk.

I moaned a lot that we didn't get a summer, nothing quite near it! So today, it was cold. I didn't quite realise how cold until one of the girls came in this evening and said it was snowing! We've got winter, proper. It hasn't snowed in October for ages... we might evenr get snowed in as it gets colder. Germany won't be the only place I see snow this winter!

God listens...

My housemate and I had made a pact that we wouldn't turn the heating on til the end of October... I was chatting to Dad about being cold and he suggested it might be a good idea to switch the heating on last night as it would be freezing. Better a heating bill than a plumbers! We did, got too warm, but it seems that had I not spoken to my Dad I wouldn't have even guessed it'd snow tonight.

Dad listens... and not just to me, but also to the weather (when I'm watching Home and Away).

I'm incredibly blessed to have many, many people who do listen to what I say. But I'm especially blessed to know that God listens and so does my Dad.

Surprise!!

Here we all are, including an imposter (but it's Mum's best friend so we don't mind), and missing one person too (a cousin). How the family has grown and changed over the last 25 years.

On Saturday we headed to church to celebrate Mum and Dad's 25th Wedding Anniversary, 'cept M&D didin't know that is what we were doing. We had all afternoon with some lovely church people and friends.

L-R Me, Liz, Andy, Gray, Mike and Adam
Doing wht comes naturally, big posers! Much fun was had by all and it's amazing how we can all pull together to get the best out of each other.

I'm glad it's over, and I'm glad that at the end of the day Mum and Dad were surprised, though Dad says he knew something was going on!

Here's to the next 25 years!!

When life works out

I have, by no means got it all sorted, I cry at silly things, I often open my mouth without prior thought, I gossip and sometimes I'm not a very good friend. However I know God, and I know he definitely has it all sorted. How long did He ponder about making the Earth and all the intrinsic things that we don't see, and won't because we take them for granted. I still take time to marvel at rainbows, and their fleeting beauty.

This makes a massive difference in how I approach some tasks... I know that God will sort out things I can't and will bless the things I try to do.

Anyway the point is, I asked the young people to share how their summer had been, what it sounded like for them. For some it sounded like new music, melodies and words which touch hearts and get stuck there. For others summer made Jesus sound a whole lot bigger than they originally understood. For others there was a loud, clear call to be something more, to become the person they are.

For me the summer was a repetitive sound, in a good way. Not the drip of a tap when you can't sleep, but better than that. I talked a bit on Sunday about Psalm 139, and Doug (who is 'granddad') repeated the verse we'd learnt at camp, with no prompting. Every week as we pray, I go back to the Psalms and search out the verse we learnt at camp, I don't know why but it's comforting.

I'm really proud of what the young people taught church this weekend, and mostly because it fitted right in with the theme of the summer for church - the story of David.

My summer started with John Mayer and two months later its over with an event this weekend which I will not be able to talk about until it's over. And i will post pictures, I promise. i feel I have been a little bit middle of the road about life. It's time to start getting passionate again!!

Neeeeee-ver...

... forget where you've come here from!

Birthday on Friday, so headed in to London to see the musical based on the Take That songs.

It was very funny. Can't believe that the last time I saw Take That was when I was 11 or so, at Earls Court, minus Robbie. But now they are back, and doing well.

Then we went to Farringdon for drinks, pictures on Facebook!

Cake on Saturday, with family and friends, and then preaching this morning. Notes on the other site. Was a very fun lovely weekend.

Preaching was a good laugh, better than before, little bit of audience interaction and laughing. Now it's on summer programme, and I'll be calming down alot. Going to enjoy Summer this year I think.

Dessert

I bet you wish you were having dinner with me tomorrow evening!! This is one of the many dishes I will be serving; Strawberry Crumble.

Strawberry Crumble will be making many appearances this summer as it is very very easy to make and should taste delicious!

Will be taking all extra strawberries home with me, because i figure I can make mini versions for the ones who are on diets!

"When you let boys in your room" Part 1

There's a lot to be said for boys, they are helpful, strong and will generally rise to a challenge.

So when Jude's parent's dropped off a double bed for me, we realised we'd need a few boys to help set it up at leaset.

Challenge set, and the result was this:


So I have two beds in my room, and I slept pretty well last night. That's one double bed and a single bed frame on it's end.

I'm waiting for part two, which needs an alan key and an electric drill, neither of which the house currently has.

Weekend away was good. Here is some of the countryside behind the house we were staying in.


I got to teach, hang out with friends and be part of my larger Luton family in a more concrete way. It was very enjoyable and the sun came out. It's amazing how the sun can recharge batteries. I sat in the sun all afternoon, didn't get burnt, but felt like I'd slept an entire day!

Wonderful people, wonderful surroundings and a competitive Vicar's quiz, which made for a great weekend!

Launching

The young people of St Hugh's got a chance to share their experience and skills on Friday night, when they launched the fundraising for their trip to Uganda.

I'll put some pictures up soon...

The week has been a very busy one. Starting last Saturday, I had four visitors from Essex. We all sat and had dinner, discussing the finer points of a few things.
Sunday 'Life in all it's fullness' started... Good stuff.
So finally I'm back in to some sort of routine. Easter isn't that far off, and with Pancake day only a week and a half away the routine will be disrupted already.