The iLee Bird Gets The Worm

This is the end my friend

2006-03-17T20:27:00.000Z

Today, this blog dies.
R.I.P. 'The iLee Bird Gets The Worm'.

But fear not!
Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end, check out my newly designed website.

Click here to visit me.

Or to go directly to my new blog click here.

And don't forget to update your bookmarks and links to my new page.

There is a button on my new blog to subscribe to my rss feed.

Kaboom!!!

2006-03-16T23:47:00.000Z

What do you do when everything you're gunning for blows up right in front of you??

Right now I grieve for PDBC.

To coin a phrase from a Godfrey Birtill song, you 'Stand up, shake yourself from the dust, and arise!"

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor."

I have been called by God and I refuse to let man and the devil come between me and God's plan for my life.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, so I intend to use that anointing, I want to preach good news to the poor, I want to bind up the brokenhearted, I want to proclaim freedom for the captives and I want to see prisoners released from darkness.

This is the year of the Lord's favour, God is giving us a crown of beauty instead of ashes, wear that crown with pride!
Take the oil of gladness and the garment of praise and you will be called oaks of righteousness.
You will be a display of God's splendor!

The Lord is gathering His army, he's seperating the wheat from the chaff.

As one door closes so another opens.
The one thing I know for certain, is that God has a wonderful ability to take something bad and turn it into something wonderful!

As I've been praying all day and I will keep praying, Lord let your will be done.

The Lord says do not be full of shame, His people will receive a double portion, instead of disgrace you must rejoice in your inheritance. You will inherit a double portion and everlasting joy will be yours!

God has plans, and I say 'bring it on!!'

Today you must...

2006-03-16T08:32:00.000Z

Day Out!

2006-03-15T22:47:00.000Z

Today I was given a day off, so Sarah and I had a day out!

Well, our goal was to get Sarah some clothes for her ever expanding tummy, as I'm sure you're aware if you read Sarah's blog yesterday.

So we set off to Manchester, not having a clue where to get maternity clothes from.

I guessed Debenhams and M&S would be good starting points, so we headed into M&S and asked a nice lady wearing a bright green ribbon (that said 'how can I help?' on it) if they did maternity clothes. Marks and Spencer, the bastion that is nice sensible clothing that won't fail you, the store that covers every item of clothing from every possible angle, all except maternity wear that is!
However, the lady lived up to her green ribbon and was extremely helpful, she told us exactly which stores in the Trafford Centre did sell maternity clothes, so off to H&M we went.

I have to say, H&M had a very good selection of maternity clothes. So good in fact we headed for the changing rooms with at least 15 items in my arms! I think it took Sarah about an hour to try them all on, but we left that store with a bag brimming full of goodies! What a great start! Sarah and I were thinking we'd be doing well to come away with anything more than a couple of items, already we had almost a wardrobe full!

The pressure was now off, all we really needed to find was a pair of jeans, which we did in Dorothy Perkins. Debenhams provided underwear, as did La Senza, M&S provided new pyjamas, a dressing gown and a nightie, and I even got to spend a good 15 minutes in the Apple store exploring the new MacBook Pro and the joys of iLife'06 (I have to admit, I left with a copy of iLife'06, so you'll probably be seeing a revamped look to my website soon, and hopefully it'll make my life a whole lot easier when it comes to podcasting.
We played around with the different iPod speakers too, cranking up the volume and annoying anyone within ear shot.
But I have to admit, we got that idea from a deaf old man who we watched stick his ear right next to a speaker and then crank it up to full volume! T'was funny!!

Our shopping trip ended with the obligatory Starbucks, all together now, can you say 'Grande White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream', mmmmmmmmm.

Can you feel it?

2006-03-14T11:43:00.000Z

Bean has recently begun training to be an Olympic gymnast, or possibly a Premiership footballer (please please please!).

or

What I mean is, for the last week or two, Sarah has felt Bean moving, kicking, somersaulting and doing all kinds of wonderful stuff.

But until yesterday, I've struggled to feel it. But last night I definitely did!

We were lying in bed and I was singing to Bean, I think it was a rendition of the theme tune to The Gilmore Girls that got him/her moving! Perhaps I shouldn't admit to knowing that, but only my North American friends will be able to judge me for it!

I feel happy, my baby is getting big and strong!

I know, I'm a slacker!

2006-03-08T19:31:00.000Z

A few of you have pointed out my recent lack of blogging.
Well, in my defence I usually wait until I stop getting comments before blogging again, if the comments are flowing then there's still life in the current entry, that's how I look at it.
But I suppose, since most of you comments are telling me to blog, it doesn't really apply in this instance.

So I am blogging.

Now I've been pretty busy lately, what with work and looking after the preggers Sarah, and leading worship (it involved a lot of practice and preparation time you know!) and DIYing and producing DVDs and podcasting and all kinds of stuff.
But nothing seemed really blog worthy.

With the help of Andrew (from work) I finished installing our new shower enclosure. I say 'with the help of' but it was really a case of Andrew knew what he was doing and I helped where I could. Still, our shower is finally finished and looks incredible!!

I made a DVD with the best wishes of PDBC to Covenant Church. It was a challenge turning it into something fun and exciting, but thankfully my mum's outtakes made that job easier! Apparantly it was well received in Florida.

With my dad sunning himself on holiday in Florida (he wishes!) I was in charge of the business too, all the caravans are still standing so I don't think I did too badly! There was a minor disaster with one flooding, but it was ok in the end!

I think my worship leading is coming along well, I got lots of positive feedback last Sunday, it seems it was my best to date! I even had a first request for my CD. Shame I haven't cut it yet.

The biggest, bestest news of all is that I felt Bean moving around for the first time!!!
Sarah gets to feel him/her kick all the time, but he goes still when I try to feel. But I did feel him move, and I know I'll feel the kicking soon! It's so cool, our baby is big enough to make him/herself felt now! It's awesome!!!

To finish, I will wrap up this incredible blog entry with a link for you to visit...
click here if you like The Simpsons.

Now leave me alone for a few days!!!

Mmm Pancakes

2006-03-01T21:07:00.000Z

Yesterday was pancake day.
Sarah and I didn't make any, but we made up for it today.
My parents came round carrying eggs, flour and milk and we cooked it up good!!

I may not be the best when it comes to whipping up the mix, but I can toss with the best of them!

You're only as old as (the woman) you feel

2006-02-25T17:19:00.001Z

My computer told me I act like a 22 year old, I took a test and everything!

You Are 22 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

DIY Superstar!

2006-02-24T21:38:00.000Z

Since we've bought our own home, I've been busy getting looking the way we want it to look.
This has meant lots of easy jobs like changing the door handles so they all match, painting the bath panel white to get rid of the nasty wood look it had before and putting up curtains.

But I've also had to turn my hand to more adventurous jobs, and I don't think I've done too bad so far!

I've removed a sink and used the plumbing to hook up our washing machine.
I've put together a fireplace, stained it, varnished it and put it in place (after removing the old one).
I've put together lots of flat pack furniture, from desks to wardrobes to futons (with help from my glamorous assistant, Sarah on that one!).
I've installed a new fire in the living room.
I've set up a wireless internet connection and made sure nobody else could hack into it.

These last few days I've embarked on my biggest task to date, replacing the shower and shower enclosure. Now, I won't pretend I've tried this one all alone, I had the help of Andrew, who I work with, to install the shower itself, I helped, but he definitely did the tricky stuff.

But I'm now part way through replacing the enclosure.

It was quite a job getting the old one out, but I managed it. The glass itself wasn't the problem, in fact one whole wall was held up by a single screw, it's no wonder it leaked and wobbled! It was the base that didn't want to leave!

I then took off some old white tiles and cleaned off all the old tile adhesive, preparation is important!

Eventually I'm ready to begin, my first job was to replace the old tiles with new ones that match the rest of the bathroom tiles. And this is where I'm at, the new tiles are in place and they look fantastic, even if I do say so myself! Tomorrow I will grout them, and then it's installing the new shower enclosure itself.

Please pray I can do it!!!

Ok, let's get this blog over with

2006-02-18T22:49:00.000Z

I've been tagged.

Unlike Sarah and Tara I hate these things, but for the sake of a quiet life I'll do as I'm supposed to...

4 JOBS I'VE HELD

1. Various finance jobs, including Caravan Park Finance Manager, Regional Finance Manager for a national car finance company and a few others.
2. Various bar jobs, these never seemed to last long, but I do remember I was serving alcohol before I was legally allowed to drink it. That probably means I wasn't legally allowed to serve it either!
3. Various retail jobs, including B&Q and Woolworths
4. Various rubbish jobs including the obligatory MacDonalds (for a whole day and a half), selling ice cream at the end of the pier in Llandudno and working as a waiter in the club on the caravan park for a whopping £1 an hour!!
Wow, I've had a heck of a lot of jobs!!!

4 MOVIES I CAN WATCH OVER AND OVER

1. Napoleon Dynamite - Heck yes I can!
2. The Incredibles - 100% machine washable darling, that's a new feature!
3. Usual Suspects - awesome, just awesome movie!
4. Ghostbusters - who ya gonna call?

4 PLACES I HAVE LIVED

1. Deganwy, North Wales
2. Bristol, England
3. Manchester, England
4. Toronto, Canada

4. TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH

1. Lost - but I'm getting sick of waiting for new episodes, what are Fox (is it on Fox?) playing at!!
2. CSI - I just watched Quentin Tarantino's series finale where a guy gets buried alive, great tv!
3. Little Britain - computer says no, but I say yes!
4. I hate to admit this one, but I suppose I have to put Gilmore Girls, I never thought it would happen, but it has, I'm officially hooked!

4 PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON HOLIDAY

1. Caribbean - cruisin' baby!! It's the only way to travel!
2. Tunisia - honeymoon fun
3. Florida - Not ony seeing my favourite little bro, but also DISNEY!!!
4. Several Mediterranean Islands - they're all pretty much the same... sun, beaches and very fat, very ugly topless women, eeeewwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!

4 OF MY FAVOURITE DISHES

1. Steak
2. Roast Lamb and mint sauce
3. That traditional English dish, curry.
4. Spaghetti Bolognaise
Mmm my mouth's watering just thinking about them!

4 PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW

1. I'm with Sarah right now, so there's no place I'd rather be! Is that answer sickly enough for you!?!
2. Ok, I'll give a few better answers, but bear in mind they're all with my beautiful wife. I would say Canada visiting Sarah's family and our great friends there, but I'd be lying because I'd rather wait until winter is over to do that one. So I'll say West Palm Beach, Florida to visit Alex and Tara.
3. Anywhere I can swim with sharks, I really want to swim with sharks.
4. In Sarah's womb, hanging out with Bean. I'm not sure Sarah would be too pleased though, imagine the stretch marks!!

4 PEOPLE I AM TAGGING

I think most people have been covered, but I'm going to repeat because they haven't taken up the challenge yet.
1. Mum & Dad
2. Alex (Tara's off the hook because she's done it)
3. Kelly
4. You!!!

So, that's it, I've done it and now you all know a little more about me, even if they are all useless facts.
Now get going, you've been tagged!!!

Better Than The Queen

2006-02-13T21:56:00.000Z

Sarah, Sarah oh so fair
Sarah with the pretty hair

Sarah, Sarah oh so kind
Sarah with the cute behind!

Sarah, Sarah oh so smart
Sarah you have stolen my heart.

Need Sleep

2006-02-13T14:43:00.000Z

Lately I've been waking up very tired.

I don't know why, it's a mystery, it really is... oh wait, I do know why and her name begins with an 'S'!!

Ok, before you all start thinking this is going to be an inappropriate blog, you're wrong, get you minds out of the gutter people!

The reason is that Sarah, in all her beauty and wisdom and sickness has become something of a night owl.
I don't know what it is but she seems to miraculously become well when the clock strikes midnight, it's like Cinderella in reverse or something!

I have a theory... basically I think Sarah is still on Canadian time. Caused in part by the fact she is unable to get out of bed in the morning because of her sickness, so she sleeps late. This in turn means when I think it's midnight, it's only 7pm to Sarah so she's wide awake and full of life. And because she's been sick all day, she wants to make the most of this new found 'wellness' and talk.

I don't know why but Sarah insists on keeping me up to share in her joy of not puking.

Last night Sarah was so happy she actually pushed me out of bed!!
No kidding!!! And we have a king size bed!!
I hit the floor with a thump.

So I need help, how can I get some sleep??

Does anyone have any sleeping pills??

I want to be... "an International House Pancake"

2006-02-05T23:24:00.000Z

That's a line from one of my favourite movies, any ideas??

But that's off topic, today's blog is dedicated to my first attempt at making North American style pancakes.
My parents brought a box of pancake mix back from the US when they visited Alex and Tara at Christmas, up until now we haven't tried to make them, but I finally bought a whisk and decided to give it a go.
The thought of light and fluffy pancakes covered in maple syrup was too much to resist.

I've made pancakes before, but North Americans would call them crepes, you know the really thin ones?
Those I've done, I even remember being able to toss them (admitted, not always successfully!).

But these pancakes were smaller and thicker.

So I made the mix up, that bit I couldn't go too wrong with, I just had to add water and mix! Easy enough right, even for me!

I showed Sarah the consistency to make sure I had things right before I actually tried to cook them, and got her seal of approval, so I was all ready to start.
Admitted the kitchen was starting to look like World War 3, but the mix was looking good!

I heated up the griddle and away I went.
I don't know exactly what I did wrong, but they sure didn't taste like the ones Ron makes when I'm in Canada!
Or even the ones from IHOP (the pancake one, not the prayer one).
I think I had the heat too low, and I think the first couple I tried were just too thick.
One was still a bit gooey, the others were just stodgy.

So it was a pretty appalling first attempt, but we have more mix left so I can keep trying.
Practice makes perfect right??

Conference Time!!

2006-02-02T16:19:00.000Z

It's conference time, again. It's almost like being back at TACF!

Except I'm not, and this is the first Prayer Week Preparation Conference.

A lot of preparation has gone into this conference and I think it's going to be a great time! Godfrey Birtill (one of my favourite worship leaders) is leading worship and there's lots of speakers, so I can't wait!

Please pray that it all goes smoothly, and that everyone who attends (we have about 120 prayer leaders booked in so far) is impacted by the vision of Prayer Week to go back to their own churches and stir up a praying community.

"Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes...' With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord"
- 1 Kings 18v30-32

"Then the fire of the Lord fell"
- 1 Kings 18v38

It's a mystery...

2006-01-31T23:16:00.000Z

Have you ever lifted up your shirt and found a nice little ball of fluff in your belly button??
Just sitting there, looking all innocent, like it had been there your whole life, but you know that's not true because you showered only a few hours earlier.

I have.

And I'm coming out!
That's right, it's time the whole world knew... I have belly button fluff!!

I thought this was a common occurance, but the topic came up in conversation (I have no idea how) the other night at my parents house and it turned out I was the only one in the room that had ever found that cute little ball of fluff in their naval.

So, with the wonders of modern technology that is wireless internet, we looked it up online.

I was relieved to see that I wasn't a total freak, and in fact there were lots of websites devoted entirely to naval fluff.
Quite disturbingly, one guy has kept his belly button fluff since 1984 and is now on to his third jar full!
It's true and I can prove it, here's the jars...

And I've noticed something, every time I find some belly button fluff it's blue!
It doesn't matter what colour t-shirt I'm wearing, it's always blue! Why is that??

So where does the fluff come from??
My research has thrown up several suggestions...

"I believe that naval lint is the by-product of all the missing socks in the world...must involve some sort of multi-demensional behavior. All my tee shirts are white..wherefrom the blue grey lint?"

"My own personal theory is that what you ignorantly refer to a "navel fluff" is in fact the moulted beard-hair of tiny dwarves that frolic in humans' belly-buttons. By making the above ridiculous claims regarding "navel fluff's" origin, you are denying these tiny beings' very existence. Shame on you."

"I subscribe to the theory that the 'lint monster' places fluff in our belly buttons whilst we sleep."

Do you have any suggestions??

I'll leave the last word on this entry to a little guy I found during my research called 'King Fluff'

"I experience seasonal fluff, strongly correlated with wearing long underwear in the winter. its most important function seems to be in amusing my wife"

Scan-tastic!!

2006-01-26T12:14:00.000Z

Today I saw the greatest thing ever created, my baby!!
Sarah and I went for her first scan, and here it is...

We didn't learn a whole lot, but at least we definitely know Sarah's pregnant!

Ok, what we did find out was...
1. We are having one baby, not two, so all you people who said it was twins were wrong (thankfully!).
2. Our baby is 64mm from crown to rump (they don't count the legs because they're just curled up into the body).
3. The due date for Bean to appear into this world is 6th August, which also happens to be Sarah's birthday (although only 5% of babies are born on their due date).

If you want to download or print your own copy of this picture (I'm talking to Kelly here!) then go to my Flickr and download it, I have the full quality image there.

I got to see Bean's heart beating, I saw his arm and his leg and I cried a little.

Today was a great day!!

What would make me jump, scream & whoop??

2006-01-23T16:29:00.000Z

It's something I haven't done for a while, but then, there hasn't been cause to do it for a while, because my team, Manchester United, have been rubbish of late.

But all that was forgotten yesterday as we played our arch rivals Liverpool.
(I'm talking football by the way, the English kind)
It wasn't a great game, and I wouldn't even say we deserved to win, but that isn't the point.

There was no score as the game was heading into the final minute, but we were pressing forward. The ball is whipped in from the left hand side and up jumps Rio Ferdinand to head the only goal of the game.

At this point I scared Sarah by doing a dance around the living room, probably making our neighbours think the house was falling down in the process.

But I don't care, we beat Liverpool with a goal in the last minute, and that my friend, is sweet sweet sweet!

Boy or Girl??

2006-01-19T16:51:00.000Z

This morning we got a date for our first ultrasound scan.
It is Thursday 26th January at 12.05pm.

So, we'll finally be able to put to bed all the rumours about us having twins.
I've decided we will be able to cope with twins, even though it would be scary and hard work.

Will we find out if Bean is a boy or a girl? Or 2 boys or 2 girls or 1 of each! Who knows!?!
I think it might be too soon to tell the sex, but I'm hoping we can find out.

The biggest question of all though, isn't twins or triplets or boy or girl, it is in fact...
How will Sarah cope with having to drink a pint and a half of water before hand, will she vomit it right back up? Will it even go down in the first place? Will she be able to keep it in until the scan is over or will she pee herself??
All of these are excellent questions, and I will provide the answer next week.
Stay tuned!

Are you new you?

2006-01-13T17:51:00.000Z

This week Sarah and I started our Newcomers Group.
We host this in our home, and it's basically for anyone who is new to our church, or Chistianity in general.
We had 3 people show up, which was a good number.
It is an opportunity to ask any questions about anything to do with God or the church or anything at all really.
I was a bit worried nobody would show up, and also that people might be a bit shy at first and not want to talk.
No worrys there I can tell you!
The group started throwing out questions and the discussions flowed right from the word go.
In fact we talked about things (that just so happened to be on my notes anyway) for a good 20 minutes, before I even bothered looking at my notes to see what we were supposed to be covering.

Hopefully people will come back next week.
I think they enjoyed it, next Wednesday will be the true test, will we still have 3 people?!?

Another thing that was 'new' this week was Sarah's first trip to a UK hospital.
Why you ask?
Well, because we went for Sarah's first anti-natal check up and they diagnosed Sarah as totally dehydrated, so they admitted her to hospital to go on a drip for a couple of days!
Yikes!

I think Sarah now wishes this was possible...

It took about 7 hours of just lying on a bed before a doctor decided to come and see Sarah, but thanfully by then they were happy she wasn't too bad at all and they let her go home.
That was a good thing, because I like having Sarah at home with me rather than stuck in a stupid hospital.
A bad thing was the 7 hours of waiting just to see a doctor (who's visit lasted all of 2 minutes during which she took Sarah's pulse, looked at her tongue and checked her ankles - oooooooooo it really needs 7 years of schooling to learn how to do that lot!).
Still, Sarah did make friends with other preggers ladies, including a Scouser (someone from Liverpool) who Sarah couldn't even understand!

We learnt that Sarah needs to eat small meals often (which we already knew) and drink lots and lots of fluids, even if they refuse to stay down!

Still, it was an adventure, but not one I plan to repeat.

What Kind of Street Do We Live In??

2006-01-07T18:47:00.000Z

You've probably already read Sarah's blog about our weird neighbours, and you're probably thinking we live on quite a strange street.

But...

There's more!

The other night we heard this noise outside, it was sort of like a train going past, but it went on for about an hour. We looked outside but couldn't see anything.

The second time I looked I still couldn't see naything, but there were 5 police cars outside.
Nothing much seemed to be happening, so I just left them to whatever they were doing.

I found out today, that it was actually a police helicopter overhead that was making the noise.

The reason there was a helicopter hovering over our street for an hour was because an armed response unit had been called to the hotel a few doors down from us, in fact the entire street had been closed off by the police, and we had no idea what was going on!

Apparantly someone in the hotel had a gun, and that was why the armed response unit was called, along with lots of other police.

Presumably it was all resolved without much fuss because I never heard anything on the news about a shoot off or anything, that would have made the national news, it's not very common for people to have guns here, that's more of a US thing!

Anyway, don't worry, I don't think that kind of thing is an everyday occurance, but we'll see in time I suppose!

No wonder Jesus wanted us in this street!!

Sleep, or lack there of!

2006-01-03T11:27:00.000Z

A quick update on my jetlag.

I didn't sleep at all on the way home, and I tried to stay up until that night.
I lasted until 7.30pm, then fell asleep.

I went to bed but woke at 1am.
I was then awake until 5pm that evening!
I slept through a movie for 2 hours and that got me through to a decent bedtime of 11pm.

I then slept through until 10am this morning.
I think I'm over the worst of it.

I've never woken up (and stayed awake) at 1am before!!

Jet lag sucks!!

Happy New Year from 37,000 Feet!!

2006-01-01T11:13:00.000Z

This maybe be something of an incoherent rant, but my excuse is I haven’t had any sleep and it’s 8am UK time (3am Canadian), so I apologise if this doesn’t make much sense. But then Ron said I should blog from the plane, and it’ll help pass the time, so Ron, this blog entry is dedicated to you.

We’ve speeding along at nearly 600 miles per hour, that’s almost 1,000 km an hour (for my metric friends!).
That’s pretty freakin’ fast!! (he, he, I just spell checked this blog entry and blogger told me to change 'freakin' to 'foreskin' he he!!)

After arriving at the airport later than planned (stupid snow), we were quickly through check in and security. We brought a whopping 81 kg with us in 4 suitcases, not to mention our carry on bags, so I was a little concerned about the excess baggage charge. We were allowed to bring 30kg each and 5kg carry on, so at the very least they should have charged us over $100, but thankfully God’s favour, and the check in lady’s holiday spirit prevailed and she let us through without paying a penny extra! I did give her a sob story about how we’d only been married a couple of months and it had cost a fortune to get Sarah’s visa sorted out so we could move to the UK, oh and did I mention we’re pregnant?! The nice lady took pity on us, she marked the computer saying we didn’t have any hand luggage, so she was able to waive the excess baggage charge. Result!!

We flew with Zoom Airlines, and I have to say they were excellent. Right from the nice check in lady who waived the excess charge, to the crew, to the plane itself. I opted to pay an extra $80 to get us upgraded to 'Premium' class, so we could sit together, have extra leg room and also so they would give us an extra 10kg each baggage allowance.
Ok, it wasn't quite like first class, but I had more leg room than I'd ever had before, I was actually able to cross my legs and still sit comfortably without touching the chair in front. Then we got drinks while we still sat at the gate and we were able to watch the movies on a huge plasma TV. The plane itself was brand new and I loved it!
Best of all, Sarah and I had 2 seats together with nobody else near us! Yay! I hate those planes where it's a row of 3 seats and you get stuck with a stranger, this plane just had 2 seats, so Sarah got her window seat and I got my aisle seat.

On the way over here I slept most of the way, and Sarah hardly slept at all, this time the roles have been reversed. Sarah has slept the entire way, well almost, she did stay awake long enough for her morning sickness to reappear a few minutes after take off. Thank you Lord for sick bags, that’s all I have to say! I think that took a lot out of her, the poor little mite, and she’s slept through both movies. They’re about to serve breakfast, the smell could mean another sick bad gets used, but I’m praying Sarah will be able to eat something. I found a big stash of sick bags in the bathroom so I picked some up, it might be useful keeping a couple in the car or around the house, you know, just in case!

**Update**
Sarah not only needed another sick bag, she needed 6 in total as she threw up more than I ever thought humanly possible!!
The poor thing, morning sickness and planes do not go well together!
**End of Update**

At midnight the pilot counted us down to the new year, and Sarah and I saw in 2006 with a kiss, what a way to start!
A Scottish couple behind us then led us in a rendition of Auld Lang Syne and I heartily joined in.

It was so strange coming in to Glasgow airport (we dropped people off there before continuing to Manchester), we touched down at about 9.30am and the roads were deserted, it was like a ghost city! No kidding, there wasn't a car in sight, it was very weird for a big city!

So, I find myself pondering the new year. It’s 2006 and the thought of what lies ahead this year makes tears come to my eyes, tears of happiness, joy and excitement! This year is the first full year of being a husband, I’ve had a few months, but as 2004 ended I was just coming to terms with being engaged. I can’t wait to grow as a husband, with God’s help and guidance of course! I just want to fall deeper and deeper in love with my Heavenly Daddy this year, and also deeper and deeper in love with Sarah, my b-e-a-utiful wife.

Then I look ahead to the other HUGE event of 2006, the birth of my first child!!
OH MY GOODNESS!!!
I am so excited about becoming a Daddy, I don’t care if I have a boy or a girl, it doesn’t matter to me in the slightest. I’m just so thrilled that I’ll have this tiny little bundle of joy that will be totally dependent on me and Sarah for absolutely everything. I think little Nevaeh / Casper (or whatever we decide to call Bean when he/she is born) will teach me a few things about being dependent on Daddy’s love that I can use to grow my relationship with God. The only thing I know for sure right now is that I will love the little thing so much it scares me!

Anyway, those are my thoughts as 2006 begins. I’m sure God has many other things lined up for us too, but that’s as far as my narrow little mind can see right now.

God Bless you all, may God give you everything you’re looking for, and then some.

Merry Christmas!!

2005-12-26T03:41:00.000Z

I'm not wasting Christmas Day writing a huge long post, but I did want to wish you all a wonderfully Merry Christmas!!
And an equally wonderful, and even happier New Year!!!
Enjoy 2006 everyone, it's going to be the best year of your life!!

A Christmas Tradition Explained

2005-12-23T21:56:00.000Z

One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip ... but there were problems everywhere.

Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule. Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her mom was coming to visit.
This stressed Santa even more. When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where. More stress. Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys. Needless to say Santa wasn't in the best mood.

Just then the doorbell rang and Santa went to the door expecting another problem. He opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree there just to cheer Santa up.

The angel said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas Santa. Isn't it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn't it just a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?"

Thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

A Class Above

2005-12-21T17:03:00.000Z

Well, we're half way from Wales to Canada, and by half way I mean we're in London. Well, it's kind of 'half way' because we've finished one flight and have one to go, sure the first flight was 30 minutes and the second one is 7 hours, but that's just semantics!

I write this from the comfort of the first class lounge, that's right, free peanuts, crisps, muffins, coco cola and any alcohol I want!!

Technically we shouldn't be here, but the nice lady on the door was in the Christmas mood and said we could come in anyway! Yay for Christmas cheer!

So I'm sat here, spread out on a leather couch, with Sarah sat across from me, feet up reading a book, and I'm people watching. What kind of person frequents lounges such as this?

In front of me is an Asian businessman, he's about my age but he's busy typing away on his Sony Vaio, apart from that he looks stylish, nice watch, nice shirt. I want to invent stories for these people, so I've decided this man commutes from Beijing, he's probably heading to some high powered business meeting first thing in the morning, then he'll be right back on the first plane to London and back to his desk in their London office.

Behind me are two Middle Eastern men, one looks a little like Said from Lost, the other is more like Hugo. Perhaps they're terrorists, heading back to Iraq or Afghanistan or somewhere like that following their reconnaissance mission in London, but more likely they're heading home for Christmas.

Further across are a clearly 'well to do' family. They always travel first class. The Mother is all prim and proper, nicely middle aged and nicely turned out. The Father has had one too many mince pies already this Christmas, but is clearly enjoying the free food this lounge has to offer. They have three children, the eldest, a son, sits with his shirt sleeves rolled up, looking very much like Prince William, he's probably a good friend. The middle child is a girl, but clearly an 'it' girl in the making, wearing her designer jeans and neck scarf (even though we're indoors), clearly she knows what she wants and Daddy makes sure she gets it. I overheard her complaining about drinking water out of a plastic cup and how disgusting that was, I'm not sure why she was complaining about that, there isn't a plastic cup in sight. The youngest son is a smaller version of his big brother (what younger brother isn't?), he wants to be older than he is, but he's too short to look it. This family are probably heading somewhere warm, probably a swanky 5 star hotel in the Maldives, no boring, cold, London Christmas for them.

Things are quieting down now, some flights have been called and people are leaving. There's not many people to watch now.

The only disappointment of this lounge is the lack of free internet access. While I write this to you from the seclusion of the first class lounge, alas I can only post it when I reach Canada. I think this must be the only first class lounge in the world that makes you pay to use the internet.

All that remains is for me to head back to the free bar and get some more food and perhaps another glass of wine. my excuse is it'll help me sleep on the plane, and I'm sticking to it! I haven't tried the toilets yet, I wonder if they're like the regualr loos or if they have gold seats or silk toilet paper?

*Update*

I'm now in Canada, the land of Tim Hortons coffee and snow, it'll be my second white Christmas in a row, cool!!

Done it!!

2005-12-18T17:34:00.000Z

This blog is in 2 parts, the first is...
We've moved into our house at long last! Yay!

We finally got the keys on Friday, with a bit of help I had all our stuff (including what furniture we've been able to accumulate) all moved in.
By the end of Saturday we'd unpacked everything too.
I now realise just how much more stuff we need to fill this house, it's so bare at the moment!
But at least we're in and we can start making it feel like home.
Well, until Tuesday anyway, then we get a holiday to Canada, we can't wait! So we'll be putting the house on hold and going away. Everything we need will be cheaper in the January sales anyway, so this helps keep me restrained.

The second 'done it' is...
The Christmas Tale! Yay!

We performed our Christmas musical on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
It wasn't quite to packed houses, which was a shame, but there were still lots of people there, and lots were impacted by the message, so that's what matters!
We did a preview show the Sunday before for the church, and they were all supportive and encouraging, but when we stepped out on Thurday night we were hit by a wall of resistance, it was horrible.
But once we'd come to terms with that, we began to break through, it was great to see the people warming to us as the show went on.
Some people actually thought we were a professional troupe hired in especially for the production!
I'll be posting a video of the production as soon as I have chance to edit it, we had a couple of cameras running so hopefully it'll look pretty good once I mix them together.
The feedback we received from everyone was fantastic, the only problem we'll have now is topping this next Christmas!!

Nearly New House Time!!

2005-12-14T21:15:00.000Z

On Friday Sarah and I will FINALLY get the keys to our new house!!
I paid the deposit today, so now I'm officially skint again, I enjoyed having that money in my bank, it looked so good every time I read a statement, but now it's all gone.

Still, it's totally worth it, we have a house!!

The first job will be giving the place a good clean, the previous owner had a cat so I need to get all the cat hair out of there before it drives me nuts.

Then I have to start moving the furniture in. We have bought a lot of stuff online already, it's sat at the caravan park, just ready to move in. We don't have our sofa's yet, we've ordered them, and Marks & Spencer said delivery would be before Christmas, but don't believe anything they say! I got the confirmation back the day after paying for them saying they'll deliver by the end of January! Ggrr to you M&S!!

Still, it doesn't matter too much, we'll (hopefully) be winging our way to Canada on Tuesday and we won't be back until after Christmas!!
Sarah's visa has finally been approved and her passport is currently winging it's way back to us. It should arrive tomorrow.
So, all being well, it'ss get here in plenty of time and we'll be flying next week. So we only have a few days to get the house organised.
The rest can wait until we get back.

More Flickr

2005-12-14T21:04:00.000Z

I've spent most of the evening putting most of our recent photos online.
I like Flickr, it's a good little website.
The great thing is I can upload the full quality images, so if you want to print a photo you can get it top quality!

All our wedding and honeymoon photos are online now, so if you've been waiting to get a copy of any of them, you can download it from Flickr and print it yourself!
Cool!!

I've also added some other family photos from Woodstock, check out my cute little niece!

If you have a Flickr account let me know so I can add you to my contacts.

Click here to visit my Flickr site.

A Christmas Tale - The Preview Updated

2005-12-11T21:42:00.000Z

Tonight was the preview show of 'A Christmas Tale'.
The idea is we previewed it for our church, so that they would know how great it was and then they'd bring all their friends on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
We were all a bit nervous before the show, but it went really well.
Everyone remembered their lines, the musicians all hit their notes and the lights and sound were terrific!
We got some wonderful feedback from those who watched it, and we're all looking forward to the next performance.
Hopefully the Saturday show will be recorded, so I'll try and post it here so you can all watch us!!

*Update*

Well it would seem someone filmed a short clip from our performance last night on their camera.
It's low quality and unfortunately the mic on the camera makes us sound out of tune (we sound good in real life! I promise!).
The clip is a minute long and the file is about 9mb so please be patient as it loads.
To view the clip click here.

Flickr

2005-12-11T11:51:00.000Z

Inspired by the wonderful photos of Christine Gill, I have signed up for a Flikr account, to display my photos.
You will probably have noticed the flashy link on the left hand side, just below my profile.
Check it out!
Or if you're too lazy to do that, just click here.
There's some photos from the Delirious concert!

A Deliriously happy day!

2005-12-10T18:08:00.001Z

Yesterday Sarah and I had a full day, we began by going to Manchester and doing a bit more shopping.

We went a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to shop for each other! So back we were, in the crowds and the pushing and the lack of parking spaces, but we did it, we shopped for each other and I think we did well, except Sarah won't tell me what she got me, but I'll find out soon enough, Christmas is nearly here!!

Then it was on to Bradford and to Abundant Life Church, where we had tickets for the opening night of Delirious' UK Tour!
Woohoo!!

There were probably between about 2,000-3,000 people there. The disappointing thing was that you'd think a Christian concert would mean a bit of consideration for the others there, not so much of the pushing and shoving, but no, it was almost like Christmas shopping all over again!!
But Sarah and I found a good spot near the back next to the sound desk, where we had a good view and room to breathe.
As it turns out Delirious have a new CD out, something we only found out on the night, and they did a lot of songs from it, but they still did some of the classics too, I think my favourite was History Maker.
I've wanted to see them live since I got saved, but it's never worked out before, so I loved it!
I think my favourite new song was one called Miracle Maker, get it!

Maybe my child could be called Aslan

2005-12-08T17:00:00.000Z

Over here in Wales, the first installment in the Chronicles of Nania, 'The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe' was released today.
Sorry to all you North American friends, you have to wait until tomorrow, and not only that, with the time difference it's almost a whole day and a half before any of you can see it!
Well, let me tell you, it's well worth the wait!!
What a great movie!!
And not only was the movie great, but we also had the whole movie theatre to ourselves. Going during the afternoon is a great idea!
So we had our very own private viewing.
My only complaint about that was my Dad decided if there was nobody else there, he could talk as much as he wanted.
And the only thing about the movie I wanted to change was the size of Aslan, I thought he should have been bigger, he needed a bit more of an 'awe' factor.
But apart from that it was fantastic!
I won't give any more away (not that the story is much of a secret), I just wanted to blog and say ha ha! We've already seen it!!
And now I've gloated a bit, I'll go, and dream of lions and fawns and talking beavers.
Enjoy the movie!

Dates, Mates & Babies

2005-12-04T19:39:00.000Z

As I'm sure you've read on Sarah's blog, we had a good date night the other night. We went to see Flightplan with Jodie Foster, good movie!! Just the type of film I like.

The other type of date I want, but am still waiting for is a moving in date for the house. We're STILL waiting! Hopefully when it all happens it'll happen quickly, but at the moment it's still in the hands of the solicitors, man do they ever move slowly!

This morning I co-led worship, this is the first time I've ben involved with the worship team here (I've led a couple of other events, but not the regular service), so to lead first time up was pretty cool! Admittedly it was because they were missing a few people, but I still enjoyed the opportunity.
I stuck with some golden oldies, the tried and tested for the most part, but threw a bit of Grace Like Rain in there, and even did one of my own songs pre-service. I really enjoyed it, and it went really well too!
And I'm making some good friends on the worship team too, I led with a Brazilian guy called Celso this morning, he and his wife Denise are really cool.

I'm just about coming to terms with being a father, I think.
Sarah and I bought a book of names and a book called 'The Pregnancy Bible' which tells us absolutely everything a book can do.
The wierdest thing I've learned so far is that Sarah actually conceived 3 weeks into the pregnancy. Don't quite get that one!
So we think the conception was about 3 weeks ago, but that makes Sarah 5 weeks pregnant.
Based on that date the book also tells us the due date is 6th August, which just so happens to be Sarah's birthday! Happy birthday sweetie!!

Sarah and I have affectionately called the baby 'Bean'.
Bean's heart will begin to beat any day now.
Bean is about 2mm tall.
Bean looks like this:

The name 'Bean' is set, at least for now, my Dad told the church during his preach this morning, and then proceeded to use Bean in an illustration, so now everyone will be calling him/her Bean.

I hope that doesn't stick after Bean is born.

Who's the Daddy!!!

2005-11-30T23:13:00.000Z

So, it's my first blog on my new blog website.

First off, let me tell you about my brand new homepage, check it out here.

It's a great new site that you should bookmark, because it links directly to my blog and to Sarah's blog as well as a whole host of other stuff.

Ok, with that bit of advertising done, I'll move on to what I really want to blog about...

The biggest news since, well, um, since I got married 3 months ago!!!
What is it I hear you cry???
(Except those of you who've already read Sarah's blog)

I'm going to be a Daddy!!!
That's right, Sarah is preggers and it's my fertile soldiers who are responsible!
I always knew my little guys were super-sperm!

Sarah did a home pregnancy test yesterday, and this is what it looked like:

This is the actual stick that Sarah had to pee on!!
But don't worry, the blue cap on the end goes over the wet bit, so it's safe to hold.

The blue cross means we're pregnant! We're gonna have a baby!!!

When I first saw the test it all seemed so surreal, I couldn't actually bring myself to understand what it meant.
But now I've had a day to let it sink in, and I'm thrilled to bits!

I'm scared to death, obviously, about the prospect of becoming a Dad, what do I actually do!?!?
But, more than that, I can't wait to start a family with Sarah.
Thank you God for this blessing.
I really want our child to get off to the best possible start in life, so if you are reading this, please pray, right now, for our baby.
He or she is about a millimeter in length right now, but if I can have prayers coming from all over the world, then what better way to start your existence on this planet?

Now I'm already looking at Mothercare catalogues deciding how I want my baby's room to look and what type of pushchair (stroller) he/she should have.

Yesterday Sarah and I embarked on a long and scary journey into parenthood, but you know what? It's going to be the best journey of my life!