Church update

So I've been going along to the church that's a bit further away but has more people my age in it. Having great fun there so far and getting to know people quite well......I have a feeling this is where I am going to stay (for the time being anyway).

The other night I had a nice experience of 'belonging' (it's always nice when you get that for the first time in a new place). I went to play badminton with some people from the church, but the place was shut, so we went to a pub for a drink, then went to play volleyball in the park. By this time it was about 8.30, and had started to get dark, so we had such fun trying to see the ball, the players or the net! It was so nice because it ended up being one of those crazy evenings that you have with friends - but for me it was with people who I hardly knew, but were making me comfortable enough to feel like I was with friends. If that makes sense!

Anyway, this church that I am going to go to (I think) is called Cambray Baptist Church. I've never been to a baptist church, so should be interesting!!!

Right, well my stomach is telling me to go and get breakfast already!! What shall I have - cereals or toast?

The virtues of parents.........!!

Just had Mum, Dad and Ashok (our dog) up to visit for the night. I'll be honest, it took a while to get used to having people around me all the time again, but now they've gone, I feel a bit quiet and by myself. I'm so looking forward to term starting again - summer holidays can drag by a bit at the best of times, but when you've just moved and don't know anyone, it's like time's stopped!

It was so cool how excited Mum and Dad (and I think in his own way, Ashok), were about the house and the village. I loved showing them round and getting them to look in the estate agent's window to see what kind of house they might be able to buy.........................!!! (I would LOVE them to move into this area, it's so THEM!) And as well as showing them everything, they (mainly Dad and his drill!) did LOADS of jobs round the flat for me - shelves have gone up, locks fixed on doors, holes drilled into walls, fuses checked, and I at LAST have my bookcase (I saw this lovely tall one at IKEA over a week ago, but it wouldn't fit in my car, and the cost to deliver it was almost as much as the bookcase!! But Mum and Dad saved the day!!!!) - so all in all, a very profitable weekend (and they took me out for a meal which is fantastic!!)

THANK YOU MUM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!

an afterthought - completely unrelated though!

Can I just say how depressed I am that we lost the football last night to Danmark (this is an example of my rubbish spelling, that CAN'T be how you spell that!!). This is the first time I think I have EVER said this about the England team, but we played RUBBISHLY.

Thank goodness it was just a friendly.

Bring on Wales (in a couple of weeks), we have to regain some pride!!


ps - I've changed the time so that you don't think that I'm sitting up in the middle of the night writing this - just in case you were worrying about that!!!

pressure pressure pressure!!

So obviously, I've moved to a new area, one of the things I'm trying to do is find a new church. On Sunday I went along to a church in the village. Full of really friendly people, but no one my age. Also, the service didn't have much meat to it - it was only 45 minutes long!! But anyway, the people were so friendly, but ever-so-slightly desparate for a new person in their church. So I was given phone numbers, invited to things and told that I could help with music and their youth groups if I wanted (my fault for telling them I'd done that in my old church).
This whole finding a new church thing is actually laden with lots of feelings of guilt! I was invited back for lunch with a family (which I think is fantastic - not many churches in England show that level of welcome to people), and there was another couple there too who go to a church in one of the towns nearby that I'd heard good things about and wanted to try, but the family who'd invited me for lunch were like 'no, we saw her first'!!!!!! I feel so bad! But I shouldn't feel bad - I want to be somewhere where I will meet people my age, but I NEED to be somewhere where I feel God's word is preached in a challenging way, and this place really didn't provide that for me. But then I've just come from a church that was finding things hard and was desparate for new people, so I really know where these people are coming from.
Anyway, what sparked all this off is that this morning I got a phone call from one of the ladies at this church to invite me to a coffee morning this morning (only of course she rang at 9.30, and because it's the holidays, I kind of wasn't quite up and doing yet!!!) - and I don't know whether to go because I don't really want to encourage them. But that's so stupid of me!!!

It was never this hard when it was just up to Mum and Dad to find somewhere, all I had to do was turn up.............!

Why does the time say 2.36am when it's 10.54????

A Level results and stuff!

Just been chatting to a girl in my old church who is getting her A Level results tomorrow, so she'll be finding out if she got into her uni or not. Got me thinking about when I got my results - and I worked out that it was SIX YEARS AGO!!!!! I'm getting old!
It's so weird how six years seems like a long time - so much has happened in that time, but I can remember things that happened then as if it was yesterday! So that's got me thinking - what are the top 10 things to happen in the last 6 years........

1.learning a lot more about God and getting closer to him
2. Josh being born
3. Going back to Nepal
4. Hannah's wedding
5. Going to Australia
6. CU at Uni (especially the formal dinners!)
7. Graduating Uni
8. Buying my house!
9. Getting involved in youth work
10. Whale night and operation 45-11 (I will have to do a post explaining that one day!)

Actually there are loads more but I think these are some of the most special and are the ones that I remember with a smile!
Ok, going to go and have lunch!

I love my village - life in the countryside.

I went for a walk last night and a run this morning around Churchdown, the village that I have just moved into. It is sooo nice to be so near the countryside now! Last night my friend and I were walking through the fields dodging cow pats and looking at all the blackberries growing - in Ashford we would have been on the road the whole time dodging the 'Staines Massiv' who would be driving around with their speakers drowning out our conversation and making the pavement vibrate beneath our feet. Then this morning I did a run around the fields and down the footpaths - the sun was shining and it was just gorgeous!! I love it!
The other day I went to the shops and as I parked my car outside, I saw a horse 'parked' next to me!

It's quite funny how excited I get about it - Caroline and I were saying this last night - every corner we turned we'd see a gorgeous view in the distance, or we'd walk by a lovely house and garden and we just couldn't stop commenting on them all! I guess eventually I will stop being such a 'towny' and turn into more of a country girl (I hope so - there's a walk I really want to do but the path goes through a field of cows and and bulls and I kind of feel a bit nervous about going through that field right now!!). But for now it's like I'm rediscovering it all - and I always thought I was quite a city girl! Oh well, I suppose you learn something new about yourself all the time!

This is me

I said I'd be back, and I am! It's kind of hard to know what to write! I kind of feel weird about writing an introduction to me coz I'm thinking that most people will already know who I am - but just in case you're some lost surfer who has stumbled across this blog, this is me.......
My name is Ruth,
God is very important to me - I'm a Christian,
I'm a primary teacher - just about to start my 2nd job teaching 5&6 year olds which is a bit young, even for me, but we'll wait and see how it goes....!
I have just moved into my first house near Wales in England, it's all very exciting!
I LOVE chocolate! (I saw Willy Wonka last night at the cinema and was thinking, wouldn't it be amazing if his invention of chocolate from the TV actually worked?! Free chocolate whenever you saw it on screen!!!!!! Fantastic!)
I am an ex MishKid - I grew up in Nepal where my parents were missionaries - brilliant experience, would reccommend (that CAN'T be how you spell that - my spelling's terrible!) it to anyone!!
I have an absolutely GORGEOUS nephew called Josh who is 6 months old and I miss him loads since I've moved (it's only been a week!). He's more online then I am and has his own website already - Josh's pics - so cute!!

Jumping on the bandwagon

I have decided to jump on this bandwagon and make my own blog. The only thing is now I don't have time to write very much in my first posting!! I have just moved house and don't have the internet yet, so I'm at the library and my time is going to run out REALLY soon. So bye for now, but I will write later!