My 101st post!!

Wow, can't believe I've been blogging this long!!

I was away this weekend on the women's weekend that was for our church and North Wales Coast Church (formerly Towyn Pentecostal Church). It was such a great weekend and I don't think I've laughed as much as I did over that 48 hours in such a long time. The weather was glorious and as you can see from this picture we were staying in a gorgeous part of Mid-Wales. The campsite was called Cefn Lea and is a Christian run Caravan/Campsite that also has chalets that you can stay in. That was where we were staying with an average of 4 people per chalet.

We arrived around 6:30 on Friday evening after stopping in Newtown for something to eat. We then went to our first meeting on the Friday evening which was a games/introduction session. Its random when you see someone and you think 'I know them from somewhere but I don't know where'. I was paired with this girl called Esther and I knew her face but had no idea from where. As it turned out she used to attend Wellspring Church in Rhyl and had been friends with John.....small world.

Saturday saw another glorious day and I suddenly realised that I needed to figure out what I was going to say in my testimony. Sharon had asked me the Sunday before and I just wanted to get it straight in my head. I also wanted to make sure that I was doing it for the Gods glory and not my own and that the Holy Spirit would guide me on what I was meant to share. As it turned out I shared a lot and though I was petrified when I got up there I soon settled into it. It seemed to bless so many people and everyone was very encouraging. What blew me away though was the way God used it to touch so many people there; things that people had gone through or are going through were part of what I'd been through so it's an encouragement to know that we're not alone.

The afternoon saw the laughter and madness arrive. Sandra, Kathy, Sharon and myself decided to go and have a game of glof. Though the temperature was really high (late 20's oC) there was such a high wind. The pitch and putt course in Cefn Lea is actuall on a hill, if you can believe it. So we trapse up this track to the start of the course and that was when all sanity disappeared!! We were so bad, each and every one of us. Kathy's golf ball ended up over the fence going down the other side of hill, another ended up in bracken where Sharon had to go through a gate to try and find it, I was horrific and managed to 360 degree spins as I attemped to hit the ball. After my third one of these on the run and then just hitting up a load of dirt I turn around to see Sharon on the ground doubled over in laughter. There was another point where Kathy had appeared to 'professionally' be practicing hitting the ball, stepped up to it and missed it completely. At this point Sandra laughed so much there were tears streaming down her face and she had the rest of us in fits.

It was just the funniest time that I've had in ages. There was more hilarious activities in the evening when myself, Gail and Mair B all did rolly-polly's down the bank outside our chalet after playing a game of sermons by charades with some other ladies.

I am so looking forward to next years!! (The teaching was also excellent over the weekend!!)

Old friends

I went out for a lovely dinner last night with one of my old friends from school and her mum. It's amazing the comfort being with someone who knows every old thing about you. I've been friends with Joey since we went on a school holiday to Italy 10 years ago. I would then spend most Friday evenings round at her house and we'd go shopping with her and her mum on a Saturday. Moomin soon became my adoptive mum as it wasn't long since my mum had died.
Joey and I then lived together for a short time during University and the friendship has survived her working/travelling in New Zealand & Australia, my living in America, boys, other friendships and so much more. It was such a lovely evening full of laughter, memories and catching up with one another. It had been such a long time since the 3 of us had done that together, it brought so much comfort knowing that though we move on & grow up the bonds of friendship are still there.

The thing that really cracked me up was the birthday card (belated;-) that Joey gave me. I've included a picture of it here; you could hear my laughter resonating through Joey's house as I opened it. I hope you find it as funny as I did

~Blessings~

PS Becky R, we chatted about the fun we had with you 18 months ago on Boxing day and that sleep over for my birthday...such good memories!

I have one of those flip-chart-daily-read-things on my desk in work which has a verse from the bible on it and a thought for the day. I'm catching up for the ones I missed over the weekend and this one really struck me. God has been teaching a lot over the past week or so how I can be lazy in my faith and take the easy route instead of the route that uses what He has givenme and has a reliance upon Him. Anyway i thought I'd post it and then you guys can post if you have any comments. Hope all well

~Blessings~

Using or Losing

Matthew 25:14-30

Well done, good and faithful servant!... (Matt 25:21)

How frustrated God must be when we misunderstand Him. If we want to hear God say 'Well done,' we need to avoid fear which paralyses and laziness which idles time away. We need to use our gifts with joyous abandon in order to give Him pleasure. No more hiding our talents, no more fear, no more excuses. He wants to see us valuing what He's given us.

Mixture of embarassment and excitement

Monday evening saw me zooming off to Liverpool to pick up the lovely Miss Rachael and Miss Helen and then onto Manchester to the MEN arena to see Take That in concert.
For those of you that live over the pond, Take That were our Backstreet Boys in the 1990's when I was in my teenage years. Robbie Williams left the band and then they split 10 years ago. I absolutely loved them and thought that Mark Owen was the best thing since sliced bread! We were chatting about who was our favourite and Helen said that for her Mark never was, but he's probably about 4 inches smaller than her and is therefore the perfect height for me!!!!
As we were sitting there I was saying that I felt a mixture of embarassment (as I felt like I was 15 again!!) and excitement (I'd never seen them live when they were together the first time) ........the average age range there was mid 20's as we were all teenagers when they were first around.
Anyway they were fantastic.....I had an awesome time!!! It was more like a show than a concert and contained everything from rain coming down on the stage during the song 'Back for Good' and fire shooting out of the stage up to 20 feet during 'Relight my Fire'.....It was fantastic.
I eventually dropped the girls off in Liverpool at 11:50 and got home around 12:45.......needless to say I didn't get up for work at 6am yesterday and took the day off on leave!
Here are a couple of photos

I seem to be blogging like mad at the moment.....

Seriously, I don't know whats gotten into me at the moment! Anyway I wanted to post this picture. I was visiting friends on Friday evening who live around 2 miles outside Denbigh in a place called Llangwyfan. They live at the base of Pen-Y-Cloddiau hill in the Vale of Clwyd and it's stunning views from their house and around where they live; it's very rural.

Anyway I drove up to the house and got out of the car and there standing in front of me was a peacock. It was amazing, I've never been that close to one before. The colours were just stunningand he was very tame as he and 2 others have been reared at a house up the road from Catherine and Eds.

Anyway here is the picture and I hope you enjoy it.

~Blessings~

Gods beauty

Just soak up these photos, aren't they great! I took them yesterday afternoon when we took some of the Youth group out for a walk to get them to recognise God in creation. These photos are a testimony of Gods glory and the way creation sings out His praise! Enjoy!

My woodwork

Well after posting the stuff that I did in pottery, I thought I'd post some of the stuff I did in the wood.
After pottery it was onto the wood workshop. I have to say that I spent pretty much all my time in these 2 places. I realised that these were the kind of things that I wouldn't have access too on a day to day basis and I wanted to take advantage of them. The sewing, card making etc I could do any time as I know pretty much how to do them and where to get the resources from but this was something new I wanted to try. Anyway my first thing was to do a pig for my Dad. He loves these animals and I just really wanted to bless him and let him know I was thinking of him when I was away; so here is the multi coloured pig!!


The next thing I did was an idea that I have to admit I stole from another lady there that I had travelled up with. She had written out her mothers maiden family name and was going to cut this out of wood. Apparently that side of the family is very creative and though God fearing they don't have that personally relationship with God. I began thinking about my family and how God has really challenged me about praying for them over the past few weeks and the lack of commitment I have in praying for their salvation. So i decided to make my mum's family name (Roberts) and my dad's family name (Jones) out of wood so they'd be a constant reminder in my bedroom to pray for the family members.



My eye then fell on this pattern of a Cyprus Tree that was like a jigsaw that fitted together. It looked challenging but something that I wanted to do. Like the names above I then covered them in Danish Oil and waxed it afterwards. What was amazing about this was that on the last day all the items that people had made were laid out at the front. Somehow my tree was knocked over and the trunk split in half. I didn't know about this until the end and someone came and told me. I was quite upset about it internally and was chastising myself saying "Nothing you do ever turns out right, it always ends up broken, damaged or just stupid". As I was saying this and I was fighting back the pity party inside God told me that just as I had created that tree, put so much into it, and was upset when it had been damaged, He was upset by the events that have happened in my life that have damaged me. It gave me a glimpse into the heart of God and the fact that I sometimes see Him as impervious and aloof, but infact he is loving, emotional and deeply caring about each one of us. Anyway, sorry for rambling, here's the tree.


Lastly, thinking that I should really do something instead of these 2 activities I went and decorated some boxes for people to keep their trinkets or jewellery in. Don't know if the people I give them to will like them, I hope they do as I realised that when you create something, you put part of yourself into it and if someone rejects a gift, they reject part of you. Anyway here they are.



There is so much more that God spoke to me about while I was there, but too much to write in an e-mail!!! Hope you all well.
~Blessings~

My pottery

Last weekend I went on the Healing through Creativity Course in Ellel Ministires in Lancaster. It was great fun. I had a go at so many things that I wouldn't normally have tried. Here are some of the photos below. These are the pottery ones as I couldn't get all the photos on one post for some reason.

This is the first pot that I made. It was my first time on the potters wheel and it was so much fun. (Amy, your parents better watch out at Thanksgiving, I think I'll just be in the potters shed all the time!) I am going to try and find an evening class in this area for pottery.



This was the second pot that I made. It amazed me that though you were given roughly the same size piece of clay, and everyone was given the same instructions as to how to mould the clay and make it into a pot, everyone's looked different; there were no 2 the same. Reminded me of the way God made us, individual, unique and special, no 2 the same.

These 2 were actually the first things that I made. I went into the pottery workshop and just sat there thinking what on earth I can do. So I came up with the idea of doing doorname plaques for Osian and Lowrie to put on their doors. Sadly I wish I had painted them twice but they still need to be fired and glazed so hopefully they'll lose that smudged look.

The future

After the last post I just wanted to show some pictures of the little guys.....the future of our family I suppose. I went to see them on Monday evening and managed to get some great photos of them. Hope you enjoy!

Lowri - She was in a great mood.......so giggly and happy as she'd just had her dinner from my brother....so cute!

Osian - Here he is.......his new words are "disgusting" and "leave me alone". I bought him a new Thomas the Tank Engine book yesterday and he just kept saying "thank you memma, thank you". So cute!!

The Past

So wierd how things manage to catch up with you. Spring always reminds me of my mum. It's a time of year that she loved....the smell of fresh cut grass really brought her back to me today.

I've just had a bath (very relaxing with a glass of wine and candles!) and I was continuing to read the book that I have advertised on the sidebar-Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge and it was talking about her relationship with her mother and the way in which God brought restoration to that before her mum died. I was just overwhelmed by this sense of loss. April 21st means nothing in the context of anniversaries or birthdays in regards to my mum but today was just one of those days where it seems to have caught up with me. I was just so sad for this life that had been cut short (she died 10 and 1/2 years ago aged 48) and the marriage that was cut short. I was upset to think of the years wasted by me on my relationship with her when she was alive due to me being a petulant teenager and for the times that she hasn't been around: my driving test, University, America, graduation. But what was great, though there was that sense of 'why God, I still don't understand' and 'I don't know where she is now as I don't know what type of relationship she had with you' I was driven to pray ernestly for my Dad. I do not want to deliberate where another parent has gone, selfishly I want him to go to heaven but I also want him to start an awesome relationship with God now......it's pushed me into praying deeper for him . I suppose sometimes this is why God allows these moments to come.

Anyway don't know if any of these thoughts make sense, just thought I'd share them with my loved ones..........the picture on the top right is of mum and dad about 15 years ago......