What a Difference Nine Months Makes...

Yesterday Josephine Kate Brown celebrated her 9th monthiversary! What a difference 9 months can make...

She's gone from this...(day one)

To this...(a few months)

To this...(eight months-ish)

To this...(nine months)

What a stunner! My life has been changed by this girl. In fact, my life has been changed by two females hugely in the last 4 years - I feel like a blessed man indeed. Josephine Kate is the biggest time-waster known to man, I can watch her being her for hours. She looks just like her mom (thank goodness) and has the most relaxed temprement I've ever seen in a baby. I'm biassed, I know, but this is one special little girl who warms the heart of whoever meets her.

She is a tribute to the wonderful mothering of a fantastic woman.

One day soon my little darling will start crawling, walking and talking- she won't seem so little then. I'm cherishing these days with her more than I thought I ever would. At the risk of being soppy... I love my girls!

Snow Snow Snow...

Tom Avery is perhaps the only person I know who's spoken sense about the recent snow falling in London...

What’s so bad about ‘The Big Freeze’?

December 20, 2010 by Tom Avery

Sure, businesses are affected, travels nigh on impossible, it’s cold and wet, the economy suffers and for some inexcusable reason do owners don’t pick up their canine’s doodoo. But look outside! It’s magnificent.


I just do not understand people who don’t like snow! Go and build a snowman, go sledging, have a snow ball fight. What could be better.
I was watching the weather report and couldn’t believe the way the reporter talked about this glorious blanket of white. “Awful amount of snow”, “Thank goodness it’s not snowing in . . .”, “Nasty band of snow”, these were some of the choice phrases he used.
Even better than the fun to be had in snow is the change it effects upon people. Suddenly, you’re talking to people in shops about the snow, delivery men have a story to tell about how they got to your front door, and passersby greet you with a hello and a knowing look is passed between you.


In short, I love snow!

And a congratulations to Tom and Chloe for the birth of their second child, Rocco Winston Thomas Avery, born 13th December!

Bah Humbug...

Our church small group recently came together for a lovely Christmas party... when we heard Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas Time/ Feed the World. We proceeded to rip this song to piece's (despite it's charitable qualities), a few lines were the main sources of annoyance.

a) Bono sings like his life depends on it the following words "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you" ... real charitable, Bono, real charitable. If I were a starving whoever, wherever I'd be wanting to kick him in the face. Hard. There's nothing quite like a kick while you're down! Great lyric!

b) They all link arms and declare "There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas..." So what. At the time of writing there wasn't any snow in England any Christmas. Do you think African pop-stars get together in the summer all declaring "There won't be sun in Eng-er-land this summer..."??? Me neither.

c) "Where the only water flowing is a bitter sting of tears... Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow" Whoa! Way harsh!

Great chorus though!

Done and Dusted (Literally)...

We've done it. We're officially moved out. Yesterday we had a troop of friends helping to get the last bits out and thoroughly clean the place. We have some absolutely amazing friends out there - there were even people scrubbing our oven who I had literally never met or seen. Ridonculous.

I don't really know who reads this, if anyone, other than Sam, Ben and my hot hottie of a wife, and as such I write as if no one is really reading. Sometimes I get too mad, or sad, or whatever...unguarded you might say.

Leaving the house has brought out so many differing emotions in me. Last night I shocked at how I was feeling...utterly selfish. Essentially we're being kicked out of our house against our will at Christmas time. What an ultimatum to give*.

So our incredible friends have offered to put us up until we can find the right house, at the right price, in the right location. A monumental gesture of friendship in allowing us to completely invade their lives. Yet we don't want to be there. It's an amazing house and we have more than enough space - we even need to use the baby monitor now to hear our child cry!

I hate feeling like this because I think of the many hundreds of thousands of people worldwide living without a roof over their heads. I think about large families squashed into one tiny room because that's all they can afford. I get sad because we can no longer host as we choose, that it's not a "what we want, when we want it" rulebook temporarily. I keep thinking "this sucks"... but does it? It's a huge blessing! We're just being caught up in God's great grace. I know that we'll have the perfect place soon - I think I just need to adjust my attitude in the meantime**.


*Please note "kicked out" isn't due to rent payments etc etc, they are proposing putting another level on our building so the who block got given notice.

**Disclaimer - the couple putting us up are a wonderful couple. They are generous beyond belief, understanding and sympathetic to our situation, and have been great friends to Liz and I since their arrival in England. We have utmost respect for them. This blog is no way construing that they are a suffocating presence (in their own house, no less!!) or by any means lessening out quality of life. We love them dearly and are so grateful for all they are doing and have done for us.

My Phenomenal Wife...

My wife is utterly phenomenal. Like ridiculous. I can't believe her endurance.

Right now she is doing everything. Everything. We move house on Saturday, and I've barely lifted a finger. She's done it all, and she's done it all whilst looking after a teething baby, getting up for night feeds, cooking me dinner, letting me gate-crash marriage night with studies and coping with my grumpy, tired self. She's putting up with chaos at home with moving bits everywhere.

My admiration for this woman has at least tripled in the last week, and that's from a tremendously high starting point.

And you know the crazy thing? She'll probably be doing this all over again in a couple of months time. My wife is phenomenal.

Thinly Spread...

It hit me tonight, for the first time really, just how thinly spread I've become.

I long to be the perfect man, but maybe haven't realised just how much that entails until tonight. Don't get me wrong, I will strive to be this guy until my last breath... it's just exhausting!

I am currently trying to be the perfect husband, the perfect daddy, the perfect worker, studier, small group leader, worship team member to name a few things. This coming week could potentially be the most exhausting ever. We are getting closer to moving day (next Saturday) which is an emotional roller coaster in itself. I then have a large project at work being handed in on Friday and am trying to keep my head above water. On top of that I have my first University coursework hand-in on Wednesday, as well as my first examination in Construction Law.

My thought right now is bring on next week, when all of the above craziness will be over, only to be replaced by a whole lot more stuff, I'm sure.

3 Years, 1 Baby, 7 Cars...

I haven’t the time to blog, due to tight work deadlines, but Liz just reminded me that it was our 3 year dating anniversary last week! One of the best decisions ever and a night that would change my life forever. I like to think I’m a stats man, a straight thinker. If you want “outside the box” then I’m not your man.

One of the first things I thought of when “3 years” was brought to my attention was just how many cars we’ve had in that time… for the record, it’s 3 years, 7 cars! Here’s the breakdown

- Skoda Fabia – my housemates car which was leant to me for a year. The car we went on our first date in

- Ford Fiesta – Liz’s insanely beat up (by the end) first car in the UK. Served us amazingly well, despite obviously flaws (and lack of obvious floors dues to Liz’s “dump on site” philosophy!)
- Toyota Carina – Belonged to my sister-in-laws parents. We loved this car for a day – it worked! Day 2, the fuel pump broke, £300. After a month the head-gasket blew. Another car down.

- Vauxhall Vectra – Another car from a friend. This time the turbo was broken – 0-30 in 15-18 seconds. We went no where fast.
- Toyota something – my first Automatic car. Came at the right time, fun to drive until I tried putting the non-existent clutch down which was the break.

- Ford Focus – an almost new car. Work offered me a company car, this was my interim. The car of my dreams since I was a wee lad. Loved it
- VW Golf Estate – At 24 I was choosing a car based on the size of its trunk, unexpected. Received with less than 100 miles on the clock, this will now be our car for 2 and a half years.



Wow…