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!!

Making the most of it...........

One day to go.......I turn 30 tomorrow.......aaahhhhh!! Will I make the most of these last 24 hours? Well actually it's only 17 hours and 19 minutes now! I will post more about the various celebrations afterwards.......I'm probably more excited about taking pictures with my new mobile/cell phone as it has an 8 mega pixel camera on it!! Will keep you posted! x x

I know, it's been a long time!

So I haven't blogged in ages.........amazing how you get out of the routine of doing it! I don't even know what to say now but thought I'd start with something fun and simple. I saw this on Jens blog........you choose the fourth picture in the fourth folder of your my pictures and post it with the story behind it........even now I have no idea what it will be.......will go and check now........

So this is it.......from June/July 2007 when Dad came with me to America for the 1st time to see where I'd lived in Michigan. We flew into Chicago and spent 2 nights there. This was the second night on Navy Pier with the skyline in the background.........such a great holiday and I'm astonished and grateful for the fact that Dad loved Michigan as much as I do and we're looking forward to returning summer 2010 for Sutton/Zak's graduation.

Life..........

So life's been a bit low lately........there's certain things that I've struggled with to do with family, singleness, expectations, loneliness, friendships, burn out, 'church' roles etc etc.........I went away to a camp run by Soul Survivor for students and 20-somethings and whereas I was looking forward to a nice relaxing time, it was a hot house and I felt like I'd gone 12 rounds in a boxing match by the end........I'd love to say that things have come up rosy and my self-esteem and self-confidence have picked up from it but sadly those things haven't happened.........most days I've just found myself crying out to God to give me the strength for that day.........and every day so far He's been faithful in that..........It's some how relishing the journey that you're on and the questions that you have and living life to the full inspite of not knowing the answers.........It's just tough when you think you're holding it together well and then someone that you don't know that well and don't share that many of your hopes, fears or thoughts with strikes right to the core of you as they say "Emma, I can see you're lonely"..........6 words that hit the mark of my heart at the moment.........

Anyway, not to throw too much of a pity party for myself!! ;- ) here are 2 things that have brought me happiness and comfort

The first is of course Seren. That is not to say that the other 2 don't bering me insane amounts of pleasure but I ony had a picture of her! She's over 6 weeks old now and absolutely beautiful with these big blue eyes.......Amanda just wishes that one of them would have the blond hair that she has!

The other is the house that I now live in.........it's taken some getting used to as I've had to stop living on the defensive as I previously was and instead now live in a place and believe that I'm truly accepted and welcomed there........this is taking some getting used to and isn't a resolved issue in me......but anyway the lady I'm staying with is an amazing gardener and seems to know everything about every plant and flower.....it's properties and uses......and things just seem to flourish.....it truly is amazing! These are some lillies that she bought, not knowing what type they were, have bloomed beautifully in the garden and I couldn't resist taking a picture of them......I should take more of the garden as this is only a taste.

Seren Haf

So the third Jones/Wilson baby was born on Monday July 21st 2008 at 9:32pm. She weighed 8lbs 12 and 1/2oz and has baout an inch and a half long hair! There is absolutely no mistaking who her father or her brother and sister are!

Lowri has been funny as she's attempted to comprehend how Seren has gone from being in Amanda's tummy to suddenly being in the Moses basket! But she's getting there!! Osian on the other hand takes it all in his stride.......you can almost see the "I've been through this once already" going through his mind as he gets on with playing and generally being a boy. He is very affectionate with me at the moment and constantly tells me that he loves me........a very very cute boy. Lowri is just beautiful and such a proud big sister.......she loves to take you over to where Seren is to intorduce her to you or to sit on the couch with her on her knee!

Anyway here are some pics......I'll take more soon!

How much like their Dad do the of them look!!

And more.......

And then there was the great blessing of being able to see people that I hadn't seen for so long, 7 years some people! It was great to catch up!!

Amy and I - apparently someone from Liverpool Hope University where I studied wanted a copy of this to strengthen the advertisement of relations between Hope Liverpool and Hope Holland, MI.........Amy and I had many a giggle over that!!

I love this Picture!! First it's Becky from the Isle of Man whom I travel with, the Becky who I know from Hope with her son Emmanuel whom I got to meet for the first time (he's so precious!), then it's Ana from Mexico who I hadn't seenin 7 years!, behind her is Kendra, a dear dear friend how has been with me through good times and bad, then me and then Ramona from Romania who I saw last summer and hopefully her and her hsband are moving to France in the autumn/fall so they'll be a little closer!! Such a good time ladies! You're all such a blessings!!!

I also got to meet up with Mariana (from Mexico) on the left and Cherry (originally from Hong Kong, now married to an American and living in Detroit) a few days before the wedding. I hadn't seen these lovely ladies in 7 years and we just picked up where we left off, it was great!

Melanie- who went to bible school with Amy and we've become good friends. I only met her for the first time 4 days before the wedding, but know that we're going to be firm friends. I look forward to much more laughter and giggles in the future!

OK, my first memory of these 2 is when they were 8 years old and I couldn't tell the difference between them!! They're now going to be 17 in December and are about a foot taller than me as this photo shows!! I am now "shortie" according to them and Zack loves to call me this name!! Thanks for keeping me humble guys!!

Otis-DeGrau wedding

So I said I'd post about the wedding and here it is.......now keep in mind that come this Friday I'll have been to 6 weddings in 16 months!! All a bit mad but know that I'm at that stage in life. I think being involved in this one and knowing that Amy and Rodrigo's faith is central to their lives made such a massive difference to the other weddings I'd been too. They probably spent the least out of all of them, but I had the most fun as I was involved in the set up, there were games during the party and a photo booth that you could get involved with and it was just all such an awesome blessing. It was held at Elme Point in East Jordan and we were praying for good weather all the way up to the wedding day as we'd encountered rain, wind and lightning storms!! I was blessed to see old friends, re-meet old friends and make new friends.........it truly was such a blessing in my life!

Well, I'll let the photos speak for themselves!! They don't do the day justice but I have many good memories so that's awesome!

Amy and her ladies; Yvonne from Germany, me from Wales, Pam from Mexico, Amy from the US and Bonita from Canada

Rodrigo and his men, Zak, Noe, Andrew, Matt and Aaron

Picture time was before the wedding, which was so much better as it meant we weren't hanging around for 2 hours after the ceremony while the pictures were being taken

There was also a cute bridge not far from the park that photos were also taken on, I can't wait to see the professional ones of these

It was such a special ceremony as you knew the commitment they were making to one another and to God was heartfelt and true