LATELY...

I was intending to write an autumnal themed lately post as lots of people are beginning to fall prey to the autumn vibes. However southern California hasn't got the autumn idea yet. The weather has continued to be ridiculously hot. Now I'm not complaining about that. I like wearing shorts in September. I don't maybe like days that are 100+ degrees, but I'll roll with the hot weather a little longer. But it doesn't give me much inspiration for writing about autumn. 

Then this morning I had a brain wave! I'll write about England! You see in less than two weeks we'll be touching down on British soil for a well needed break seeing the family. It has been almost a year since we were home and that is far too long. So in honour of the fact we're going home here are some of the things I think/dream about when we consider going back to England! 

The first thing I think about when I consider going home is my home town, Dunstable. Now for you Americans that's right it does say that Dunstable has been around since 1109. We've got history! But to those of you that know me well enough you know I'm not a huge fan of our town. Its not the best. Andrew would disagree, he loves it. I however, love it merely because its where the family is (most of them). 

A lot of my dreaming is surrounding this as on Friday the Rugby World Cup kicks off in England. Obviously I'd love us to do well enough to win it but to be honest I'm just fairly excited that I get to watch it all and enjoy! 

Then there's this stuff....Yorkshire Tea! Whilst I do have a large supply over here there's something different about it when you are drinking it in England. Perhaps its the cold weather!

This little man! He's grown HUGE since we last saw him at a month old so I literally can't wait to get home and just play with him, all day every day! He'll be so sick of me by the time I leave! 

Whilst it will probably be freezing in England for us when we get back I have been dreaming about the autumn leaves and the coldness. I'm not excited at the prospect of being cold, I hate being cold. I'm always cold (except in California!) However I am highly thrilled about wearing scarves! They are my weakness and I will wear one ALL the time when I'm home. I will fill my suitcase with different ones and then probably buy some more when I'm there! 

And finally....the Sunday Roast. My mum text me the other day to check whether we wanted a roast on the Sunday we land. Andrew looked at me as if to say, why is she even asking! Out here we rarely cook a roast because it seems too hot to bother. And lets be honest, my mum's roast dinner....the best EVER!

H

HAPPY 4TH ANNIVERSARY

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. Hurray! Unfortunately we will be spending it apart due to Andrew's commitments in Florida. However it is the first one we have ever spent apart and considering Andrew is in the RAF that's pretty good going. 

It's crazy looking back at pictures from our wedding day and thinking back on how in love we were. We were so young and naive; full of idealistic ideas about what marriage would be like. The idea of spending all day, every day with Andrew and sharing everything seemed positively blissful (for the most part!) We both felt like our wedding day was the happiest day of our lives and in many ways we couldn't have imagined it being any better.  

Well four years later and we've had our fair share of good days that match the ideas we had pre-marriage, but we have also had our bad days and some downright ugly days. However I can say without any hesitation that I love him more today than I did on our wedding day. 

You see the good days are great and they help to provide such fabulous memories. But its on the bad days and the ugly days, when our lives don't match what they should be, that our love for each other grows and develops. In fact the Bible talks about love and what it should look like and we have found that through those bad days we are learning to have a love that matches that. It says:

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does no insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

1 Corinthians 13 v4-7

Now I'm not saying we have a love that matches that, in fact we are still far from it, but we are aiming towards that. By God's amazing grace and with His help we are learning to become those kind of loving people. There's still a long way to go, but I'm looking forward to it. The journey of marriage may not always be easy, but I sure am glad its Andrew by my side!

H

PS. I don't apologise for the mushy nature of this post at all, after all it only occurs once a year!

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Today is the last Macintosh Monday where Macintosh himself is actually on the other side of the pond. He hopefully arrives into the US on Wednesday and we are rather excited about it. We have enjoyed the small break from his insanity but we are rather glad that he's going to be here soon. 

Now as you all know from the posts on here Macintosh is a bit of a crazy dog and he does some pretty weird things. But very few of you have actually seen him in action. Whilst we have been away Mum and Dad have been showing us what he's been up to and there's rather a few clips of him doing something silly. I thought it would be a good opportunity for you to see his madness and for us to be reminded of all the craziness that will shortly arrive into our lives again!

So without further ado, here is Mr Macintosh in all his weirdness! Isn't he adorable! 

H

                

              

                              

              

                            

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Hold your horses everyone but here comes another happy Macintosh blog post...

On Sunday the weather was wonderful so I decided to take Mac on a rather long walk along the canal from Burton Waters through to Lincoln, near the Odeon cinema. It was about an hours walk each way and with the sun shining and a few happy dogs to meet along the way it was a lovely walk. 

Macintosh behaved so well on the walk. He was friendly to all the dogs and children that wanted to say hello. He moved out of the way and sat down when I pulled him out of the path of cyclists. He even took care to avoid people who clearly looked scared of dogs. He didn't attempt to go into the canal. Best of all he didn't eat or roll in any wildlife poo! 

Overall the walk was a total success! Here are a few (poor iPhone) snaps of the trip.

                          

                          

                          

H 

MACINTOSH MONDAY

We've had a miracle occur this week. Yes amazingly Macintosh has been good.... all week! Now notice I don't say perfect. That would just be ridiculous and I'm under no illusions about his behaviour. But he has been good so I thought I'd tell you about one good thing he's done so as to attempt to convince you (and myself) that having a dog is in fact a good idea! 

As the weather was warm yesterday Mac and I went for quite a long walk around the camp. Recently its been quiet and you can have a good walk without running into too many other people or dogs. But we bumped into lots of children out playing yesterday as it was so lovely. Now typically children are fascinated by dogs and are always pointing them out. Its no exception with Macintosh. As we walked around lots of children; from small toddlers to older children pointed him out. There were lots of "Look Mum, a dog!" or "Awww he's so cute" or "Doggy! Doggy!" or even an " 'og! 'og!"

So of course I stopped so that they could see him as I don't mind them adoring my beautiful beagle and it was amazing to notice how good Macintosh was with them. He allowed them to pat him and stroke him. He didn't seem to mind if they accidentally poked him or if they pulled his fur. He didn't mind being crowded round and patted vigorously. He simply stood there and took it all. I would even go as far as to say he enjoyed being the centre of attention!

It was such a comfort to be reminded that he is good at something, especially when he often seems like the worst dog on the planet! It was such a relief to know he was good with children too as when his cousin baby Snuggs makes an appearance he'll be lovely and gentle with them. Of course I will under no circumstances leave them alone together in a room though, I'm not that naive! But to know we can visit them with Mac will be great!

Well there we go, a good bit of praise for Mr Macintosh. Miracles do happen! And I'll leave you with a picture of Mr Cute himself. 

H

VALENTINE'S DAY

5 years ago today I said yes!! 

It was the first valentine's day we had spent together in the 7 years we had been together. There may have been one early one but that was all. He was about to go to Afghanistan for 2 - 3 months. We barely saw each other due to his RAF shifts and my teaching degree. I think we spend about one weekend every 5 together. It was a hard existence when everyone around had their other half on their doorstep but we survived.

Then he came to visit for the valentines weekend and said he was taking me out early that day to someone special. Now I had just come off teaching practice the day before and was shattered so the idea of getting up at 5am was not very amusing. I consequently moaned all the way to our destination! When we got there I realised it was the Peak District and we were going to have to climb in the cold before it was even light so I began to get a little more excited but still moaning at the early time!

That moaning stopped the moment he got down on one knee....

He apparently had some great speech to say and had spent half the night agonising over it still but when it came to it what he said was perfect. I naturally said yes....not 'ok I guess so' like I did when he first asked me out but actually yes! 

It was about 7:30am at this point so everyone we wanted to call got a VERY early wake up, apart from my sister Becks who was on a shift at the hospital and I interrupted her rounds to announce it causing her to scream and panic a few people! 

And now comes the soppy part. At that point in my life I didn't think it could get any better. But then I got married and our wedding day was amazing. It really was everything we had dreamed about and planned for. Yet still that wasn't the highlight because for me being married and living our day to day life is the highlight and it only gets better with time.

Of course I would forgive some of you for thinking we must have the perfect marriage for it to be the highlight, but really we don't. At times its easy and good and we love it. Other times its hard, there are tough points, difficulties to live with and times when we really don't act like a married couple! But those are the parts I love as much as the good times. Why? Well because that's teaching us to grow as a couple. It's exposing our sin and it's where God helps us to grow and develop. See marriage isn't about what you get out of it. It's supposed to be a picture of God's love for us. He loves us like a husband loves a wife and so our marriages should be that loving and self-sacrificial. Marriage is where we get to love and serve the other person, not ourselves.

That's hard. It always has been but that's what we are seeking to do. We haven't managed it but we are growing to do that and will spend the rest of our lives together doing that. Thankfully we don't do it alone, God is always encouraging and giving us the strength to do it. We can't do it alone.

So Andrew, although we are far apart on valentines day I love you. I said yes five years ago and three and a half years ago I made that a public promise. Today its still the same; I will love you with all my heart as long as I'm here on this earth, no matter what happens.

H