Half term is almost over! I'm going into school today to start getting ready for the children on wednesday, it's definitely back to reality!
But before I have to come back to earth with a bang, I thought I'd leave some pictures of a masquerade ball I went to on saturday night. I had gone to see Jen in her new house in London, and this ball happened to be going on at her church while I was there, so I went along! it's a funny thing, dressing up, the thought of it never appeals to me, but when you get to do it with a friend, it turns into this fantastically girlie time which is actually quite fun! I have to mention Hannah who did a fantastic job of decorating the masks that Jen and I wore, they looked very cool! THANK YOU!

Yes, this picture WAS taken in the toilets!!! Part of the randomness of the evening!

slightly worried.....

I was driving home last night down one of the back roads from Cheltenham to Churchdown which was really dark, so I went to turn on the full beam headlights, but couldn't find them! How long have I been driving this car? (the answer is almost 4 years!) I use full beam loads now I'm in the country, but for some reason last night it took me ages to find them - I kept switching on my windscreen wipers instead! I started off just thinking 'oh silly me', but then when I put the wipers on again, I was really like 'where have they gone? Has someone stolen my full beams?!'

Maybe I haven't caught up on my lack of sleep as much as I thought I had..............!

Whoever came up with the idea of half term needs to be knighted! It could not have come at a better time and has been very much well received by me!! The last week of school was a bit crazy - busy, stressful and quite a few late nights - so to suddenly have space to do what I want to do, and to catch up on sleep has been bliss!
I'm going back to Mum and Dad's tomorrow for the rest of the week - the plan is that Dad and I are going to build a bathroom cabinet together for my bathroom! Could be very interesting I reckon! But hopefully it will also be a nice time to catch up and chat about life, the universe and everything, it's always nice to spend quality time with Dad - he's usually quite busy. And then there's the pampering from Mum..........can't wait! Thank you God for parents!

Playground drama

Sometimes it's nice to see some innocence left in the world! I had the cutest thing happen to me the other day at school. I was on playground duty when one of the girls from my class last year came up to me crying her eyes out and blood dripping from her mouth (no, this isn't the cute bit!). When I checked her mouth I saw she'd lost a baby tooth, so I said, 'oh, you're tooth's fallen out', at which point she started screaming in panic. It turns out she knew nothing about the fact that you get wobbly teeth which fall out! It took ages to calm her down, and it involved all her friends crowding round and pointing at the gaps in their mouths (HOW did she not notice them before?!), and the teeth growing back. Once she was calm though, she was so excited that she was growing up and that the tooth fairy was going to visit her (dilema - was I right to not say she doesn't exist?!).
I love that teaching isn't always just about how to write sentences and number bonds to 10!

Red sky in the morning......

Yesterday I was moaning with someone about how it's dark now when I get up and start going to work (I hate that, it makes it so much harder to get up when it's dark!). But today, while it was still quite dark, there were the most incredible streaks of red across the whole sky. I wish I could have taken a photo of it, but that would be wrong and dangerous as was driving at the time.
Anyway, just thought I'd share that! Posts are few and far between at the moment, have not had time to sit and think of anything intelligent to say for a long time!!! But hey, it's half term coming up soon, maybe some inspiration will come from that!

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Ephesians 4:29

Last night the youth group led the service at Cambray, it was really encouraging to see some of the gifts that are coming up through the church. The verse above was something that really challenged me in the talk that was part of the service. Was also thinking about it in relation to what a friend was saying on her blog about how easy it was to join in with backbiting that goes on at work. I'm so easily sucked in with that, especially at school, and I really hate that I give in so easily to the pressure of bad mouthing whoever's in charge. So through what my friend said and the talk last night, I really felt God was talking to ME, need to try and shine a bit brighter for him.....

"do not give the devil a foothold."

(And as an extra, here's a verse I felt someone might need to hear.....)

"The sky was awash with a treasure-chest of colours and light. THEN the sun rose. My heart stopped. God had just said good morning!"

I got this from another blog and I love it so much! I've been taking a new route to school each day recently, one that goes more along a country road rather than the boring dual carriage way, and the views that I get are amazing. Each morning as I see the sun coming up over the hills, I think of this quote. Cheers me up no end the picture that my Creator is saying good morning to me each day!!!