The Joys of being a homeowner!

Well what can I say my on Saturday 21st April 2007 my washing machine went to the big soap bubble in the sky.

Yes its true I now have no washing machine, so what did I do on my day off on Monday, thats right, I took my washing bin full of clothes and trotted off to my mum and dads and did my washing - oh what joy!!!!!!!


So I am currently scouring ebay for a decent washing machine, but until I find one its off to "Jackie's Launderette" to do my washing oh ha ha ha ha ha - sorry i'm laughing out loud as I wrote that that really has made me chuckle - can you imagine it!!!!!!!!! he he he he he he :->



There are some bonuses to using Jackie's launderette I put the stuff in the washing machine and depending on whether I am still there when its finished depends on whether me or my mum hangs it on the line. Oh yes and one MASSIVE advantage is that I don't usually really iron much other than my army shirts but when I use Jackie's launderette I get my stuff ironed for me he he he THANKS MUM :->

Portugal vs Essex??!!??

Well at the weekend I was supposed to go to Portugal with my mum and dad, but due to unforseen circumstances it has had to be postponed till June.
So whats a girl to do all geared up to spend a lazy weekend in the sun well i'll tell you she (with help it has to be said) felted the roof of her shed and cut her grass which resembled a jungle and wait for it wait for it....... WENT TO THE GYM.
But actually it wasn't all bad i did have a very productive weekend just not what was planned.

On Sunday (having already arranged that I wasn't gonna be at the army - got cover for the band etc) I decided to still have the Sunday off - which is very much a rareity!
And I must say I really enjoyed it - for many reasons. Just because I didn't go to the army doesn't mean I didn't spend any time in worship it just wasn't corporate/ group worship. I had my own worship time on the treadmill and cross trainer. Another reason I found Sunday interesting was because I got to see how everyone else does "sunday" Now I know I for one can get a bit caught up in my own little bubble on a sunday morning, it just doesn't really enter my head what othere people do on a sunday morning and here I was in the throng of it. It really did set my mind wandering and was an excellent catalyst for my thoughts.

So there you have it instead of going to Portugal i spent the weekend in sunny essex - which for a change isn't meant in a sarcastic way. The wetaher was lovely and I had a very productive weekend and best yet I still have the weekend in portugal to look forward to so there is a silver lining to this cloud :->

For those who are interested

Tim (Fisher) and Helen are engaged -

Planning to marry Summer 2008 .

I read this...

It seems odd to have to say so, but too much religion is a bad thing. We can’t get too much of God, can’t get too much faith and obedience, can’t get too much love and worship. But religion – the well intentioned efforts we make to “get it all together” for God – can very well get in the way of what God is doing for us. The main and central action is everywhere and always what God has done, is doing and will do for us. Jesus is the revelation of that action. Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God’s action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith.
But more often than not we become impatiently self important along the way and decide to improve matters with our two cents worth. We add on, we supplement, we embellish. But instead of improving on the purity and simplicity of Jesus, we dilute clarity, clutter the simplicity. We become fussily religious, or anxiously religious. We get in the way.

Comments please...

Haircut day is nearly here - HURRAH!

At the weekend I am finally getting my haircut it was due for a cut a few weeks ago but I had to put it off so that I could get my hair up during my week off so it was easy when I went swimming and I didn't need to take my straighteners with me. But finally it is in sight. I don't know how you all feel but I just get to the stage where i'm desperate for a haircut and it becomes a really big thing cos my hair is doing my brain in - well I reached that stage a good 3 weeks ago and finally its nearly here woo hoo.

And yes for those of you who are interested i am getting a considerable amount chopped off and this is not just me getting all excited about a trim.

Does anyone else have weird things like this comments please - or am I the only one who gets this compulsively obsessive about matters like this

SCARY SCARY SCARY!!!!!

Ok so i'm not a mum yet, but I have to blog a whole "they grow up so fast" blog!!!!!!!
Today was a scary milestone. Today was the day one of my charges got her own mobile phone!!!!!! Ok so now i'm sounding really bad, but it's sooooooo scary where the time goes last thing I knew she was just turning 5, i blink and suddenly she's 10 and has a mobile. I know the average age of a person to have a first mobile is getting younger but still it's so worrying.

While I'm blogging I suppose I should also add I am also now appreciating how daunting it can be for parents to let go at different stages.
When the schools go back becky will walk home on her own for the first time. Now she lives less then 1/2 a mile from her school yet this is such a big thing. I can't work out though whether i'm feeling it so much because between 8am and 6.30pm she is my responsibility oh whether its just cos its a daunting thing now she's growing up I actually think its both but more a case of the whole letting go and the whole independance thing - which is a scary prospect cos how much worse will it be when it is my own child - actually no I love the girls almost as if they were my own so it'll probably only be slightly worse. I refuse to become neurotic :->

Having thought about this over the last couple of days i remembered an incident when i was going out on my own the first few times and when you're allowed to start crossing "the big roads" by yourself. When we were little we were allowed round the block on our bikes, but I wasn't allowed to the newsagents - which involved crossing "a big/ bigger road" so once I was out of sight what did bolshy bec do - headed straight for the newsagents!!!!! That basically sums up the way I was back then (shame certain members of my family don't realise I've changed and actually people do grow up and grow out of things - but thats a whole other blog) But anyway - at the time I just thought my mum was being silly i mean i was out on my own and had crossed that road thousands of times before and was literally only 100 yards further then the places mum let me go anyway so I didn't see that problem. But I totally do now ah hindsight is a wonderful thing. Sorry mum :->
Anyway, basically i'm gonna sound like a complete granny but I don't care -

THEY GROW UP SO FAST!

Whose Kitchen is this?!

This is supposedly my kitchen, but I don't think i've ever seen this amount of work surface since I moved in 2 years ago!

2 Weeks ago I decided it was time to clean my kitchen blimey - I must have been ill!

I had to take pictures as I'm not sure i'll ever see that amount of work surface again - well not till I move out anyway!!!!!!

This is what it looked like afterwards.

(2 Weeks later I can assure you it no longer looks like this :->)

p.s Yes I got my new phone today (Woo Hoo) - hence being able to retrieve the photo's

Thought provoking

Have just read Liz's blog and felt compelled to write this - yes I know twice in one day - i don't even manage that in a week usually. But hey.

Well our Easter weekend is being led by Jean and Ian Harris - they are classed as our "specials" as although they go to our corps we had to book them a year ago to ensure we snared them first - sorry just find that amusing.

Well they lead a very good if somewhat different to the norm Good Friday service. It was very well put together and very powerful - just the way G.F should be.

Anyway, was sat in my usual position in the hall (end of the cornet bench - oh how I miss my horn - but that's a whole other blog altogether) pretty much in the middle of the hall.

At Ilford we have a life size cross stood in front of the platform, behind the middle of the mercy seat during the singing of the first song I had to peer round the "arm" of the cross and actually thought "the cross is in the way" Woah! At that point everything stopped and I just sat there, Shouldn't the cross always "get in the way" or at least what Jesus did for us.

Wow amazing how something so simple can just stop us in our tracks and make us think and just how many dimensions that one phrase has - "The Cross is in the Way" yet it is the Cross that paves our way. So that was my big wow/ woah moment from Good Friday the moment that really made me stop and think.

Have blog ready and waiting

Have blog ready and waiting to publish just awaiting my new phone. I have a decent blog all ready to go but need photo's for it to make any sense. The photo's are on my phone and I have mislaid the software to be able to transfer them onto the computer, am getting a new phone this week













So will blog once I have the pics on my computer.

Have been on a much needed holiday this week - just a few days away to great yarmouth but was some much needed R&R time.
All chilled and mellow and ready to face next week when the girls get back and we have a week of madness - fun madness but madness nonetheless.

*Disclaimer* Sorry very boring blog but needed to keep my average up as it has been somewhat lacking due to being away.