fun fun fun

so as of last monday my property is now a building site! i was originally thinking the work might start in june or july......2004!!! so its only 4 years late due to various reasons! anyway hopefully it wont take too long to get sorted. gonna try and have some before and after photos of inside the house. had planned on taking some of outisde but (surprisingly?) the builders were very quick off the mark and had half the place dug up before i realised it!

got some stuff put into storage and im throwing out some other stuff. planning on moving out next week before they knock down my inside wall! incidently if anyone has any decorating tips, feel free to share!

incidently, if anyone has the urge to decorate my house for me - please let me know!!

smile please

so, this is lillian garcia. shes the ring announcer for WWE and she was at the show in belfast last thursday. My brother and I had front row seats. As far as im concerned, in this photo she is looking in my direction and smiling sweetly :) the reality of the situation is not important!

attitude

Sometimes I think our attitude sucks. Last saturday I got a phone call to say a resident that I worked with in my last job had passed away. She had a host of medical conditions along with her learning disability and it wasnt totally unexpected but she was only 27, I dont mind admitting that I spent most of that evening in tears as I remembered differant things about her. Even when she was wrecking the place and calling us every name under the sun, she was just so loveable! We had lots of laughs and ive got so many memories of her which im thankful for, but one of the things that struck me was her faith. One day when she came back from her mums house she made me sit down beside her so she could explain to me that Jesus died for us and we were going to heaven when we died. She also told me that she would be there before me so she might try and stop me getting in "for a laugh!". Another time she said she couldnt wait to get to heaven to have a party with the people she used to know and also because when she got to heaven there would be no more pain or suffering, no more learning dissabilities and no more prader wili syndrome (one of her medical conditions).

At her funeral last wednesday it broke my heart to see all the guys i used to work with having such a hard time dealing with everything. Really made me miss them so much more. On a lighter note, we were all standing outside the church afterwards, many people in floods of tears, but we suddenly remembered something that kathy told us many times - when she died we would all be at her funeral crying our eyes out and being all upset but she would be sitting in heaven looking down at us, laughing her head off because she had made us cry. This was followed by her little giggle that she did when she was up to some mischief.

she loved life, shes in a better place and most importantly shes not in pain anymore.

but were still here, probably complaining about stuff that doesnt really matter and getting worked up about things that really arent that important. maybe we should spend more time saying thankyou for what we have and learning to appreciate our lives more?

as i said, sometimes I think our attitude sucks.

Not much is happening!

a friend gave off to me the other day because I rarely update this. there really isnt much to say! since my last post Spurs have been in up and down form (mainly down), i went to the psv game and we lost 1-0. we also lost to birmingham and man city and went out on penalties in the 2nd leg against psv (altho we did win the game 1-0). the only bright point was when we beat west ham 4-0.
ive been working lots, my next day off is 29th march and im going to london to see spurs. then im working another lot of days and then off on 12th april....to go and see spurs.
im getting work done to my house from next month so im going to try and work as much as possible i think. if nothing else the money will be useful!
this looks like being the first summer in many years that i wont be doing much in the way of youth work, if things had been normal then i wouldve been leading a team to canada but sadly that isnt happening this year. maybe its finally time for me to move on to other things? dont really know about this one so i'll wait and see what God has to say before i make any decisions!

Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur

What a sight to behold! Robbie Keane holding the Carling Cup after a fantastic 2-1 win over Chelsea. It means we're in Europe next year and its a sign that things are looking up at the Lane! And for those who say the Carling Cup is worthless : shut your face and get a life.

House prices

house prices frustrate the life outta me! my house is up for sale but nobody is interested in it. at the same time a house i'm interested in has gone down in price but i cant do anything cos nobody is interested in mine. i do have the option of staying in my house but renovating it and making it slightly bigger but it means staying there long term. really dont know what to do about it, i know i need to be patient but that's something that i struggle with at the best of times!!!

Canada

So Im just back from a great time in Canada. Was amazing seeing people again that I hadnt seen in way too long! as much as I love Summerserve/ First Contact/ The Plunge it was great to hang out with friends away from all that and just relax and spend copious amounts of tim and money in Tim Horton's!!

One thing that hit me when I was away was how many of my friendships are based on mission trips. Without all those trips I wouldnt have been in Canada and wouldnt have made so many amazing friendships. That goes for people in Northern Ireland and Scotland as well.

It also made me think about why people turn their back on God. All these friendships I have are because of God and I cant imagine not having all these amazing people in my life, maybe sometimes we think we can do things on our own without God but we really can't.

Anyway, im not going to preach!!!