A Little Adventure

I love a bit of adventure. And I can make an adventure out of the tiniest thing as well (like driving in London or putting on a Holiday club). If you enjoy a little bit of adventure ever now and then, it makes life a little better.

So I went on a little adventure last week. All the Way to Atlanta, Georgia and back. "What's in Atlanta?" I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you! My best friend is in Atlanta.

Here's some pictures from my first (but not last) trip to the States.

Penguin up close and personal
The Sea turtleThe "Finding Nemo" part of the Aquarium
Jelly Fish
The CNN centre and it's vastness. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it! I literally gasped. I'm in the bottom right corner. It's a bit mental for something to be that huge, but then that's my general impression of America anyway!Here we are at the end of the Atlanta Braves baseball game. The Braves lost, but it was a good first experience of baseball.
Sweetwater Creek State Park. A very beautiful placeMe and my best friend!
I really liked my first experience of America. It was lots of fun and an eye opener in many ways. And there are many more adventures to come, but more about that later!

JM Pics

This is my desktop picture. It is lovely. And a testament to modern technology! Enjoy!

It's all over!

April has been a long month of celebrations!

Here is my mum at her birthday celebrations.
The boys brought her the delightful hat! We had a really good time, just the family and extras.

Lades and Gentlemen I present to you, Mr and Mrs Campbell!

Yeay! Rob and Mandy got married on Saturday. Brilliant ceremony and party afterwards. All the preparations and plans well laid, we finished dancing late in the evening, and the photographer was still there! Looking forward to all the pictures and honeymoon stories.

Here's Buff and myself in our roles as bridesmaid and supporter of the bridesmaids.

I think you'll agree we look gorgeous. Especially since she dragged me out of bed on Friday to do crazy exercise, which actually set me up for the day. Just enough strain to get the blood pumping and work up a sweat.

After all the certainity of April, I look to May with no idea what is happening! I even forgot we have a bank holiday next week. Definitely gonna enjoy that!

All My Ladies

This is the lady of the moment, right in the middle of everything. Mandy's getting married at the end of the month and at the weekend we all went out to celebrate her last moments as unmarried!

I had a really lovely time, we sang, played games and generally enjoyed the company that surrounded. We were in a casino, but I didn't gamble, I was far too busy chatting to the ladies who came out.

I'm really looking forward to the wedding. It'll be a lot of fun, and nice to be part of a wedding with some very friendly faces we haven't seen for a while. It's lovely to see two friends who I've known for a long time tie the knot and make a whole new family (And I'm mostly looking forward to wearing a handmade dress).

It's been a really good April so far. I expected to be quite tired, but I don't think it's gonna be too hard.

Uganda Part 4 - The Pictures

Sorry it's taken so long for this one, facebook has almost ruined the art of Photo Blogging.

So here we go, in choronological order I suppose...


This one really speaks for itself. The second time I've been south of the Equator.
Me and 10 year old Joel. One of the proper little brothers of the trip... he is awesome!
The school at the beginning of the trip, the far left of the building is not finished yet, that was our job. The matrons quarters.
The rainbow we made on holiday club day 2. We put up a lot of the things the children had made and it made our meeting space much brighter.This is St John's about 30 mins from Rukungiri. It was really good to see the church and join in. There was an auction after, Joe brought a goat, Stephan brought a chircken!

This is the sewing room in the Mother's Union. They practice on cement bags because it's a lot less expensive than material.
The Life Skills Clinc, where parents with disabled children come and learn how to cope, talk to other parents and teach their children basic life skills. It's part of the 5 Finger project.
The pre-primary school, finished! well, our bit was finished. The roof has been put on now. I'm still massively impressed with what the builders and the team.
This is Benjamin, my builder friend who remembered who I was and asked for me by name. We had some very good relationships on site. The Ugandan people are lovely.
A huge Elephant!
All my lovely young people at a salt lake on the dawn safari!

I have amazing friends!

This is my best friend Christine standing next to her own handy work. And there is another line drawing of Europe off to the right of the picture, but it wouldn't all fit in the frame.
It's not finished yet, but I will go back and take a picture when it is.

I have amazing friends. I could never imagine creating anything so huge or beautiful. My friends are great!

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!

Easter Celebrations

This year we combined our Christmas and Easter displays, so here is what is on the ceiling at the moment, with the cross positioned underneath it.


The crown of thorns sits lonely on the steps to the dias. Awaiting to be put back on the cross, where it normally is. Apparently it was worn by one of the young people when he played Jesus a few years ago.


I think this was the most powerful thing that we did. At the right point in the story, 3 men raised the cross to standing, with the children sitting at the foot of the cross. It brought to mind all of the feelings over the Easter season. Everything drawn to the cross.

On Sunday morning we walked to the hills and watched it get lighter, the sun rose behind the mist. When you get up that early you kinda feel cheated if it's misty, but nevermind, a good breakfast, services and lunch followed. A good Easter all round really!

In the run up

We are on the final sprint towards Christmas, in case you hadn't noticed!!

St Mary's had their Christmas Ball on Friday. Was expertly done, by too many people to mention and there was a fantastic atmosphere in the church. It's amazing to think the amount of work which went into it! I hope it continues for many more years. Here's me...


The weekend saw the end of Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC. Many opinions shared about the final result and one interesting one here. It was very good to watch it with friends, I feel that's what it should be about. Reality TV is no fun by yourself!!

Sunday was a little bit random, Church services at different times than normal. Christmas tradition at St Hugh's is great. Carols by Candlelight was amazing. then we watched Scrooged and The Snowman afterwards. It was very christmassy.

All in all it's going well. And I've just agreed to preach on the first Sunday of the new year... Epiphany. Should be very interesting.

A very happy Christmas to everybody out there!

I've always thought of you as...

My sister said something to me a few days ago which has been wanderng around my head ever since.

She said to me "I've always thought of you as a chunky ring person". We were having a discussion about the ring I'd just brought, a beautiful thick mother of pearl ring. She's right, she knows me quite well it would seem.

It kind of tags on to something I've been thinking about when it comes to God.

I think I'll be pleasently surprised when I meet God (which isn't any time soon... this isn't morbid). I have pictures of God in my head, but they are limited by what I've experienced, what I can see around me and what I've read of the Bible. I know that God is bigger than all that, but my mind can only handle it in very small bites.

The season we are coming in to has become famous for ignoring God, my hope is that I'll see God and all my "I've always thought of you as..." statements will be smashed and redifined, from heaven's perspective, not my own.

Hype

Relaity programmes are rife at the moment and I just caught the end of last nights X Factor, helpfully replayed on ITV (you know, instead of putting on sport at a sesnible time). It makes me very glad that I have absolutely no desire to be on Television at all.

Girls in absolute hysterics at being kicked off the show, yet they all had perfectly reasonable jobs else where. In fact they were the better band, with an imaginative name, left in the competition is "Girl Band"... seriously? Before X Factor the 4 girls were hairdressers and will probably be hairdressers again eventually.

The hype is all too much, I think we're only in the second week of live shows and we already have crying? We never quite get 'hype' right do we?

NB - I stand corrected we're only on the first week and the girls weren't hairdressers, they look like hairdressers. Thanks L

There wasn't enough hype about the Singapore GP the other week... floodlit driving? What were they thinking? 5-10 years ago they would have got away with it. But now, in the age of ecological enlightenment Formula One decides to race at night? Not a clever move, I wonder why some didn't boycott. And today in Japan Bridgestone are running 'green' tyres. Enough to make any sane person scream. I hope they don't do any night races soon.

"I'm not hyping it up" - some thing I've heard recently, but then there was some significant hyping... Church haven't got it right either. We try.

Autumn has arrived in Luton, SLR out and taking some pictures of the red leaves covering the back wall of my garden. SLR isn't digital though, so we have to wait very patiently for the film to be developed. If the photo's are any good I'll post them It's been a long time since I used a film camera. I also have made pumpkin based food stuffs. Pumpkin pie is quickly becoming my own little tradition.

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!!

What a weekend!

Here for your delight is a choronological photo blog:

This is John Mayer singing Wheel. He is beautiful and played so amazingly at Brixton Academy on Friday. I'm so glad I have seen him, and most definitely am in Love! If you haven't heard of him, I urge you to check him out.
He played Daughters, Good Love and Say during the encore. I have never had a better night, and I shared it with my best friend!


When we got back, I finished making the truffles for the wedding! They disappeared quickly on the day, mostly down Chrisitine's neck.



















So on to the wedding...
Here is my car all made up for driving the bridesmaids around.









Here is the bridal party. Don't they look beautiful?!?
L-R Pete and Becky Clemison, Matt and Mareike Shields, Chrisitne Macfie and Mary (don't know your last name, sorry!!)


We headed to the Oval for the reception and were kept busy with the M&M's on the table.














Here is me at the end of the night after Mareike put the tiara on me. No I didn't catch the bouquet, I was decorating the going away car!!

Seeing the sights

I'm not about to make a habit of this, but recently I've found myself driving into and around Central London.
I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, a photographer, but when I see a well framed picture I can't ignore it.

Here from left to right is a Red Double Decker Bus, the London Eye and Big Ben, if I'd have been stopped in traffic a little further back it would have been perfect!


This time I had Tim to keep me company, and give directions. Yes, Tomtom (sat nav) is most certainly my best friend at the moment. So apart from the traffic and a really bad sandwich on the way home, I've had a really good morning!

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!

God Is With Us

You have looked deep
into my heart, LORD,
and you know all about me.
Psalm 139 v 1

After all is said an done, God knows me inside and out, He knows exactly how to comfort me, when to inspire me, when to push me to my limits. He knows me better than anyone else ever will.

It's not been a great week, news and events wise. I've attended the funeral of one of the men who used to come to church. Sadly it took six weeks for the funeral to happen because there were no next of kin and only one breavement officer in the L&D. Strikes me as a silly thing to do, everyone dies, quite a few of them in hospital. So why only one breavement officer?

Following some bad news on Tuesday night, my bible reading was about David being chosen because of how his heart looked, rather than his outward appearance. God's unknown way of bringing comfort to me. I am in awe of how he has helped me, each time I take stock of my life.


On Sunday we headed to the prayer room at Kestin House to be part of the ten days of prayer for Luton. Here's an arty picture to keep you intrigued about the prayer room!

God knows you, He knows your heart
God is here, his spirit is with you.

Wedding

Introducing Nick and Ruth Heavyside! Lovely people who got married yesterday and met here.
Scary stuff really, Gap Year is a memory now, mostly a very happy memory. Can't believe we played a part in these two getting together. Nick did a brilliant speech and we had lots of fun dancing and eating chocolate covered delights (woohoo, chocolate fountain).

Also saw this lovely lady, she is brilliant and working so hard at the moment! Doesn't she look beautiful? We were in a really pretty church and had a great time of worship. It's a joy to see two friends get married. I hope there will be lots more.

Soul Sista, half term and essays

I got the feedback from my first essay for my masters today, a narrow pass and I know that I had a harsh marker, so it's ok, and I've taken it on board for the next one, which is due in two weeks.

The last week has been half term, and it's been relatively quiet. Only five weeks til Easter... yeay.

We headed to Soul Survivor today, with 600 other girls, we learnt about how amazing we are. Amazing to be me, amazing to be a girl and amazing to belong to God. All good things. We had a very good talk about Hosea.

Came home to some beautiful purple tulips.

In the midst of it all...

Here are some of my young people and me enjoying the Christmas Ball. St Mary's transformed, lots of good friends around and a brilliant evening had by all. It's great to get involved in town wide things.

Also a chance to get dressed up, everyone made an effort...




Also the Christmas lights are out in full force on the farm. But these ones aren't on the farm, they are my favourite though, and yes, that is a projection on the front door.