Flashes are not cool Dad 

I like it better tonight Mum!!! 

I have no time tonight for major ramblings or thoughts as I am headed off on MIssion trip in a few hours, so i will be extremely brief.

1. Lions - they played much better but were pissed on by an excellent All Blacks team. What the Northern Hemisphere need to learn is how to keep the ball alive in the tackle - the Lion's were unable to deal with how the All Blacks managed to do that.

2. Live 8 - Brilliant, just brilliant. www.one.org - to see Pink Floyd playing was just out of this world. Kudos Sir Bob

3. Eva - Perfect. I don't know how I am going to drive away from margaret and her tonight. maybe you could whisper a wee prayer for them and I this week as we are seperated due to mission trip commitments. She had another bath tonight and it was a much better experience, she loved it.

I will post again in a week when i get back with much, much more I promise.

Blessings

 

 

Marge and Eva again 

arty again 

I forgot to mention we got all arty with our pics!!!!! Me on the piano 

Marge and Eva and her fave giraffe - thanks Debbie 

So you know how I said yesterday was one of those days that you never want to have to live again in life ever, ever? Well today was like Groundhog Day. I am serious, I could have been Bill Murray in that movie because it seemed that it was all the same as yesterday. Remember the paperwork I was telling you about and how it had been the bain of my day and caused me much stress and an increased heart rate? Well today I got into work and thought that I was lined up for a day free from the stress and strain of retreiving paperwork to get permission and insurance to take our youth group away on mission this week. Everything was in and all the insurance forms had been faxed away and as far as I was concerned I could forget about them and get on with the continued work of getting ready for the trip. How wrong was I? I got there and Gladys told me that the insurance company had received my paperwork and that it was cool except that they had recently changed all their forms and that the ones we had filed were no longer valid. We were to download all the new forms and get them filled out by tomorrow morning -and so my groundhog day began as I started to think about how we might get all this paperwork done legally and have things signed and dated where they needed to be signed and dated. I spent the next couple of hours running around like a blue arsed fly trying to get this done and forgetting about everything else that was on my 'to do' list for the day. Again, to cut a long story short I managed to get it done and have everything signed, sealed and delivered this afternoon (well faxed!!!) Maybe tomorrow I will get the rest of the stuff done.

Today I did not get to see Eva much because of the content of the last paragrapgh mixed with the fact that we had youth tonight at our house. I don't think I have blogged about how cool our youth group is. We have them split into two smaller groups by age and tonight the older kids were round at our house. We are moving through some preparations for the mission trip together at the minute which is coming up for them in a couple of weeks after I get back from the Middle High mission adventure. In this older group we are developing a bunch of very honest sojourners who are being encouraged to look inward and upward as they try to figure out what the truth and relevance of the gospel is for their lives. I am excited about them going on Mission together and discovering new things as individuals and as a team. I cannot wait until I am able to blog about their experiences and tell whoever is reading what they have had happen in their lives.

Ron and Jen were here for youth tonight and then stayed for a while after. This time last year we were living so closely and spending so much time together and because of a number of factors - baby and new house etc, etc - we just don't get time together like we did. Tonight though we recreated a little bit of last year and got to spend some time together to talk and laugh and drink, play guitar and piano and eat pizza (much to the chagrin of Margaret). We also got to take some pictures which Jen's mum Marsha has been requesting we take - one is of me holding Eva's wee head in my big hand and the other is of me playing the lovely Piano that Ron and Jen gave us last year. You should be able to see them above this post!!! Ron and I also jammed tonight for the first time which was cool. Kudos Ron and Charlie!!!!!!

Okay - tired and going to bed, enjoy this pictures.

Blessings

PS - It's cool to be a sap!!!!

Eva saying her farewell and give a wee smile as well. She totally looks like a Charles!!!!! 

Pauline making farewells 

What a day! I mean what a bloody day. Have you ever had one of those days where everything is just great until you realise that there is something important which you have completely forgotten to do, something which will cause you immense amounts of stress and something which puts whole projects in jeopardy??? Well that was today for me. I was in the office and working on getting some paperwork finalised for this summer's mission trips. I hate paper work but in general it was going okay and I had everything that I needed and as I said, things were peachy. So I called into Gladys's office. Gladys had just come back from her vacation, an Alaskan cruise, and I wanted to welcome her back and find out how she had got on up there. I should also point out that Gladys is the fountain of all church administrative knowledge and very much keeps me right in all things administrative including deadlines, bills and general business stuff. So I get into her office and we are chatting through her trip and she asks me how things are going for the mission trip and I tell her they are well and that everything, including the paper work is finally coming through. It is at this point that she looks at me and asks if I have sent in the bus insurance forms. Every year before we go on a mission trip we are supposed to send in the destination and numbers information to our insurance people two weeks before the departure date of the trip. We are leaving for our first trip on Sunday, two working days away. To be frank and crude -I almost sh*t myself on the spot and plucked up the courage to tell her that I had forgotten to do it. My heart began to beat harder and faster as the panic and realisation of the possible consequences of this particular brainfart set in. It could happen that the insurance people will not let us go because they have not had their two weeks notice(though they are never that rushed when you need information or the settlement check!!!) I think for the next hour or so while I sorted it all out, I was in a daze, I could not hold a conversation because this was all that was running through my head. To cut a long story short, I got the information and Gladys remained very calm - the break has done her good. We faxed it off to them and hopefully it will all come through tomorrow or Friday that we are good to go on our first of the summer mission trips.

Today was also Pauline's last day with us in the USA. Tomorrow, she begins her journey back to Belfast and back to normal life. I don't think it is setting into us all yet that she is actually leaving us tomorrow. Margaret was with her for some time today as she came round to say goodbye to her and Eva. When Pauline was going, Margaret was saying good bye as if we are going to see her tomorrow or next week or something. It really is weird. I had to remind Margaret that this was goodbye for now and that she needed to give Polly a hug!!! Quite funny in a way but in another way, completely reflective of how Pauline has become very much a part of our lives and family here in Port St Lucie. Personally, I am going to miss her so much. Pauline told me the other day that I was the one who knew her most and knew her best over here - I was really privileged to be that person for her during her stay here. But, and there is always a big hairy butt, it should be stated that apart from Margaret, Pauline is the one who knew me best and knew me most over the last year and as such I have always been able to consider her very close and receive very easily the wisdom of her words and actions. The future holds much for Pauline Joanne Watt, I am convinced of it. She will be a mighty warrior in and for the Kingdom of God and I for one, will always be right there with her applauding her every move for Him.

Now this would not be a blog during the Lions Tour to New Zealand if I did not make some comment about the latest from NZ. Woodward announced his selection for the second test this weekend and made a massive 7 changes to the squad from the last game. I must say that I am very glad to see that the two Irish boys are the second row partnership, this is a good move by SCW. I am though somewhat befuddled by the selection of Thompson at hooker. Now don't get me wrong I am not an advocate of picking Shane Byrne again after his disastrous display last week but I hardly think that Thompson will create anything more spectacular in the lineout. My choice at hooker would have been to give Bulloch a chance and have Thompson on the bench. Byrne should have been dropped completely. The back row is interesting in that I thought Martyn Williams would have got a run out over Lewis Moody who has not shown us anything on this tour. Though to be fair to the selectors, Williams has not done that much either. At half back, I must once again say how upset I am with the choices and ask what it is that Cusiter and Hodgson have to do to get their chance in a test match. Jonny Wilkinson was one of the few decent players last week and as such is deserving of having retained his place in the team, but I do feel sorry for Charlie Hodgson, he has not put a foot wrong on this tour and I reckon he could do alright in the test. It is not that I think he is better than Wilkinson, in fact Wilkinson's all round game is much better than Charlie's, it's just that somewhere in my heart I still believe in earning things on merit and Charlie's merit is deserving of his chance. The only other cock up I think SCW has made is the continued inclusion of Jason Robinson. Now Jason is a brother of mine in Jesus and I like that, but his playing of late has been crap. I cannot believe that he has been selected. I understand why Thomas was moved in to the centre (though I think Greenwood could have done the job at 13) but I cannot belive that Robinson remains on the wing. He could have picked Murphy or Horgan or Hickie to play at wing, even Cueto could have had his chance!!!!!!!! Either way the side is picked now and again I wish them all the best, however I want it to be known that I cannot see them doing the All Blacks over at all. I can see this series being a whitewash.

Today Eva has had her second day of being awake a lot during day light hours. I know I keep saying this but everyday something new happens. Today she was able to grab onto a toy fish on her swinger and she has been guzzling 5oz of milk at a time. She drinks lots and she drinks fast - a chip of the old block eh???? She is still beautiful and was very brave as she said good bye to Pauline.

Fatherhood is wonderful - being able to look down on this wee baby and know that she is flesh of my flesh and blood of my blood is just a huge moving thought for me. I have been taking time to tell her things as I hold her in my arms each day - you know, fatherly advice and all that. I tell her that she is never to be afraid of anyone or anything or to let herself be put down by other people. I tell her that I hope she always knows how loved she is by Jesus and by us her parents. I tell her I love her over and over again as I kiss her wee head. I tell her that she can do anything and to never underestimate herself or her dreams. I tell her that I will always look out for her and protect her and provide her with everything I can and as much love as she can take. Strange that she might not understand the words I am saying to her each time I start talking, but somehow I think she gets it.

Blessings

Charlie

I should really have her the right way round for your viewing pleasure 

Eva's first bath. 

So we had Eva's first bath time today. Now before any of you wonder about the fact that it has taken us three weeks to bath her and have Children and Family Services onto us for neglect, I want to say that we have been washing Eva, just not in the bath - we have been waiting for the stump of her umbilicle cord to fall off, as you are not allowed to get that bit wet. So it finally fell of over the weekend and we decided to give her a bath today. It did not start well. The baby bath that Margaret thought would be very cool and help with bath time turned out to have a leak in it and so we went to the traditional method of bathing her in our hands inside our bath, which if you ask me, worked just as well as the other piece of kit might have worked had it not had it's leak. Anywho, so we got the water at good temperature (between 96 and 100F) and Margaret had Eva in her hands and was about to put her into the water when she decided that she was too scared of harming Eva and so, she swiftly accepted my offer to put her in the water. I did my fatherly duty and then stepped back and became the photographer - have I mentioned how snap happy we have become since having a kid???? It is a huge change for us as we have always been crap at taking photos. Anyway, Eva gave us a few of her best screams as we washed her from head to toe. You know there is nothing worse than hearing your kid scream. Bath time was cut short because we could not bear to be making her cry like that any more - but don't worry we kept her there long enough to make sure she was as clean as a new pin before we took her out.

Enjoy the pic.

Blessings

Charlie

Big kisses!!!!!! 

Staring each other down