post continued

So here are the rest of the pictures.

The next one is of a cake I baked for a friend back at the end of March. She was moving into a new house so I made a three tiered Carrot and Walnut cake covered in cream cheese frosting from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. We left it in her kitchen while we were at work so that why it looks like its sloped a little to one side - because the kitchen was warm......I have to say, it's a yummy cake.

The next is the most recent photo of my 2 nieces Lowri (at the back) and Seren. They are like rays of sunshine and I love them so much. I love that I can have conversations with Lowri now and she is so passionate about mundane things, like a tv character or an event that happened - love it!

Of course I couldn't publish one of the 2 girls without publishing one of Osian so here he is......cheeky grin and all. Whenever I go there the first thing they ask is whether I'll go on the trampoline with them......honestly if you could see me in my work clothes bouncing on this trampoline with them, it's hilarious, but I love it - they keep me young!

I had to publish a couple of photos from last weekend when I visited Ramona and Matt in Caen, France. What an amazing blessing. They travel back to the States in July for them both to start new jobs so I knew that this was going to be one of the last oppurtunities that I'd have to see them both until who knows when. I don't think Ramona and I stopped talking from the moment we met to the time I left, except for sleep. It was like trying to cram 2 years of catch up, hopes, dreams and memories into 48 hours......so bittersweet as it was too short.

So I will attempt to promise now to be more regular and thorough with updates - there is a sense of satisfaction in updating this. It may only be musings and ramblings at times, but I must do it - use it as my outlet or sounding board for myself.

Anyone still out there?!?!?!

I know, I've been hopeless at keeping this blog up to date recently..........I think it's been partly busyness of life, sporadic internet connection and a lack of knowledge of what to write.......my muse seems to have disappeared!

Anyway I thought I would update from my last post in October (!) with pictures.......and then hopefully keep on top of this blog with some consistency! I know that Amy O-DeG at least still reads this! Anyway, here are some pics from the months between October and now!

The first picture is one of my now 6 year old nephew in his school Christmas Nativity play. He told me he was playing Joseph. The conversation went something like this -

Auntie Emma - What are you in this years Nativity play Osian?

Osian - I'm playing Joseph, Jessica is Mary and Spencers the donkey

Auntie Emma - Wow, Osh, am well proud of you landing the role of Joseph - well done.

Osian - Mary gets to ride the donkey; Joseph doesn't.......but if I have a headache on the day I may do

I had to try and keep a straight face (and an eye on the road) as he told me this in the car.......but you can also imagine my shock when we were in the church, and out walks Osian as a King, not Joseph......the little rascal was lying through his teeth!!! All said he was a very good King - full of expressions that I'm sure the original wise men didn't have; like thumbs up and a form of moon walking!!

The next picture is of the coldest winter we encountered for 30 years in the UK..........sadly people died, it took my cousins wife 7 hours to make it the last 5 miles home as the weather was so bad.......some friends made the 10 mile journey home in 7 hours, it was all a little insane. Picturesque but insane. We are now hoping for a better summer to compensate the frustration of a cold, long, dark winter. I have to say that I quite enjoyed winter being "winter".....though I was lucky. I wasn't stranded anywhere and the worst journey I did was along on the M56 motorway, driving 50mph tops while lorries were overtaking me........my hands gripped the wheel as Sharon prayed all the way home beside me, believing God would get us safely from the leadership conference in Leicester.....an interesting time!

The next three are of a vacation I took in California in February......my first complete solo vacation, and it was over my birthday too! I really enjoyed it and was proud of myself for doing it. I'd definitely do this type of holiday again - a city break with a conference as it meant that I was pretty busy in the city and then when I went to the conference I knew that I'd meet people there that I could chat with. I flew into San Francisco, spent 2 nights there and then travelled to Redding in Northern California to spend a couple of days chilling and then went to a Prophetic Conference that was being held at Bethel Church, Redding. What a great place to go on vacation....one of the best times was just lying on the floor in their prayer house. The presence of God was wonderful and it was great to just lie in His presence, chatting to Him while not having to worry that you were meant to be somewhere else. The conference blew my mind away and God did some amazing things........all I can recommend is get some books or the podcasts that are coming out of Bethel as they speak Gods truth and His life into every fibre of your being.

The first picture is of course the "7 painted ladies" in San Francsico......I completely fell in love with this city and all of California that I saw. For me it's amazing how whereever I seem to go in the USA, whether I've been there before or not, it feels like home. I get off the plane and feel completely at home.......maybe I need to begin to truly explore this further!

This picture below is of Bethel Church with the prayer house in the left of the picture. It was great to go there- you can sometimes put well known Christians on a pedestal and make them "celebraties" but it was great to see the leadership in their home church, serving their own people and loving their own community - what a privelage to have spent time there.

The weather north of Redding was colder and there was still snow on the ground as you can see. I was able to visit some beautiful parks in the area and the picture below is of Mount Shasta. It truly is a ruggedly beautiful part of the world and even now I crave to go back and spend some more time there........hopefully when its a little warmer next time. And with someone 0ne - I did take a couple of risks with the parks I visited and being the only car in the car park yet still hiking to the look out points after reading what to do if I came across a bear or a mountain lion.....hmm, not the best choice in hindsight!!! ha ha!!!

It's been too long!!!

I know that I've neglected this fabulous blog recently.......sad as it is, life has just got in the way.......but soooooooo much has happened since I last posted in June.

I'll try and give a brief run down now - July first!

Firstly it was taking the youth to Soul Survivor at the end of July. We only took 6 this year as a number of them were going to Romania with us on a mission trip the next month so couldn't afford both. It was awesome, and seems so long ago now! The one non-Christian lad we took met God in a powerful way and became a Christian the day before we left. We were at the "North" showground in Stafford were there about 4,000 other people - just great!

This is everyone in worship, such a great time to come together and worship God together.

I went to some Youth leaders seminars where on the first day they said that they wanted to get a choir together of all different members of the youth groups there and it was first come first served. I managed to put my hand up quickly enough that one of our youth was able to be part of it. There were 4 of the 6 youth that we'd brought that love being part of worship so we had to pick a name out of a hat. Here she is as part of the worship team.......was great to see her up there.

This is the guy that's set up and runs these conferences as well as Pastors the Soul Survivor Church in Watford - great at communicating to all people the gospel. This was taken just before him and another guy called Andy came on the stage and did Stavros Flatley style riverdancing. If you've not seen it, search for it on Youtube - just hilarious!

Thought provoking

I was reading the Times newspaper magazine section over the weekend and it had a photo article in it on a guy simply called Abbas. He's publishing a book called "In who's name?" - a coffee table book and looks at Islam post 9/11. Very interesting even just the few photos that they had in the article. There are more photos at this website. I just found the one above fascinating - from the fact she was in full burqha passing a lingerie shop down to the very trendy open toe wedged shoes she's wearing.......it challenged and provoked in a way I can't yet describe and haven't yet figured out.......I'd recommend looking at the other photos.

More of the kiddies

OK, am in the groove now and have some other great pics of the kiddies!! This one of my brother and Seren I think is great. She is so gorgeous and in general a happy baby (though she's 1 at the end of next month, not so much a baby!!) though she gets distressed and upset if she's left by herself and not part of what Osian and Lowri are up to......very cute girl!!

This one of the O-man I love......he's such a giggler and just giggles all the time. They have a new 10 foot trampoline in the garden with netting around the side so every time I go round there I have to go on the trampoline with them. I had such a wonderful moment a few weeks back with him- Him, Lowri and myself were lying on the trampoline watching the clouds rush by over head and he decided we should all bounce again. As I was getting up he stood in front of me, looked me in the eye and said "You're precious Auntie Memma"........at which point I nearly cried!!! I knew in that moment that he'd been used by God to bring a word of encouragement........it was a great moment and not anything that he'd have come up with himself. :-)

I love these pictures of Lowri........she's such a fun kid that makes me giggle and I love to sit and chat with......she chats with her hands......very theatrical!! Anyway I told her to smile and the first picture was the result......it wasn't that I happened to catch her with her eyes closed.....this was how she was. When I told her to open her eyes so I could take a picture, the bottom photo was the result......she cracks me up!!!

Day out with the Kiddies

A few weeks back Dad and I took Osian and Lowri to a place called Greenwood Forest Park near Caernarfon - it's about an hours drive away. It's great!!!! We went with the children's group from church and group discount meant that we got in for £5 each and once you're in you don't really have to pay for anything. They have a roller coaster, treetop tunnels and playgrounds, sand pits, barefoot trail, trampoline pillow thing, go karts, boats and runs that are either about 15 feet or 50 feet long that you sit on sledges to go down.......I had great fun!!
We all went on the roller coaster and I think my Dad thought it was going to be a sedate ride - he had the shock of his life at the speed it went and all the turns. Osian enjoyed it but Lowri's fingers had to be peeled off the bar in front of her and she burst into tears as we were walking away from it......don't think that was such a good move on Auntie Memma's side!!! Anyway here are some pics from it. I love the one of Dad and Osian......it's like Dad's the chauffeur!!

Some things I've been up to

The urge to blog has arrived.....something that hasn't happened in a looonnnnggg time! I suppose reading Amy's blog made me think about those that follow this (the few that do ;-) who aren't on facebook and so don't have the update that others do in whats going on.

For me, photography has been a great escapism hobby for me recently - including going on a day course in learning how to even use the various functions of the camera! It's now possible for me to take photos with different focal points and at different speeds. I'd still love to do a more comprehensive course at some point but this will have to do for now!

Anyway, as said previously, where I live has the most wonderful garden and it probably thrives as I don't touch anything in it! So here are some pictures below!

Birthday pics

I had such a blessed 30th birthday - particularly as it was a birthday I've been dreading for about 6 months!! I learnt to embrace it and thorouhly enjoyed it!!

So the first thing was coming into my office the day before my birthday and some great friends had decorated my desk.......and my handbag........and my mousemat and bought me a gorgeous boquet of flowers and a balloon.....they are awesome and such a blessing to call friends!

In the evening I had youth group where they managed to keep me in the kitchen making pancakes while they decorated the church with party banners, set up a powerpoint and smuggled in a cake......sadly I don't have any pictures of this!!

On my birthday I was super blessed to spend the day with a great friend, Sharon. We went to Delamere forest for a 3 mile walk (got a little lost but all added to the fun!), then went onto Blakemere craft centre where we had lunch and wandered around the shops - it was fab ......... just such a blessing to spend such a special day chilling with a friend.

By the time I got home after meeting my Dad, brother, Amanda and the kids for coffee at McDonalds, I was ushered upstairs and told I wasn't to come down until someone came to get me. I got called downstairs by Kathy and there were about 15 people there to celebrate my birthday with me. The moto of the evening was "wear a dishy dress and bring a dressy dish".......we had a great time with loads of lovely food, giggles and some games as well........it was great! Dad was the one that had ordered that gorgeous birthday cake for me........I did end up sending everyone home with a big slab of it so it wouldn't go to waste!

This is what my bedroom looked like by the end of the evening with all the gifts that I received......it was nuts!!

A couple of weekends later, 7 of us then went to stay in a cottage just outside Caernarfon which is about 1 hour away from here........we had a fab relaxing weekend and the cottage was just gorgeous to stay in.......thank you for a fab weekend ladies, just a pity that Katie's missing from this photo!

Anyway, that was all the celebrations.......we also celebrated Dads 65th birthday which was another meal out and another birthday!! Nuts.

After dreading turning the big 3-0 so much it seems wierd to think that it's been and gone; it was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not really! I'm being positive though; I suppose the loneliness of being single is the thing that has scared/plagued me so much and now I'm attempting to embrace that freedom of being single at this time of my life.........some plans include a photography course with my new Canon 450d digital slr camera, perhaps a trip to California in October and treating myself to day trips and coffee and cake out without worrying what other people think about you being by yourself!!

Birthday

I know I said I'd blog about my 30th birthday and I do plan too.......just waiting on a friend to pass some photos to me.......I had a fab time and the best birthday ever......I have some awesome friends!

Baking for money!!

It's not that the recession is that bad that I've had to take on a second job I promise!!

More to do with the fact that we've now booked to take 9 youth and 4 leaders including myself to Romania in the summer to help with a charity called Project Romanian Rescue. We'll be there for 8 days and will be doing both practical work and social work with the kids of the charity. I'm excited and majorly nervous at the same time!!

It's costing about £500 per head to go and all the leaders have to raise/provide their own money. I am therefore baking for the lovely people in my workplace and recommending a doantion of £1 per cake. It's been going really well, I've done it twice so far and each time raised around £75. So hopefully I'll be baking tomorrow afternoon and doing another stall on Monday morning. It's actually quite enjoyable and a great way to raise the profile of the youth group and illustrate that not all youth are 'bad' as the media often portrays them!! Here are some pictures I took of the one I did before Christmas! There was Chocolate Brownies, Mini Victoria Sponges, Lemon Drizzle cake, Cupcakes with green icing to make the Christmas tree and Coffee andWalnut cake......mmmmm......delicious!!