It’s always Autumn in England

My birthday is coming up a week Saturday. I booked it off as annual leave at St Andrews, but now that I have a new job, I will be working at Mercy the whole weekend of my birthday. So Evan and I have decided to celebrate it tonight.

On Thursday, instead of having our normal Home Group meeting, we are having a ‘cocktail party’ with our Cell Group. Friends of ours, John and Cathy have all the mixings and the wonderful talent of making great Cocktails. So we are going to celebrate me being a quarter of a centry old with cocktails.

I am probably going back to work tomorrow having been off for several days with pains in my side from having Shingles. I am on tablets which are supposed to be helping the pain, but I can only take them at night because of drowsiness, but by 3 or 4 in the afternoon I am feeling pretty worn out…and this is after having slept for 13 hours both of the last two nights.

My first weekend at Mercy went really well.  I like the church Abundant Life a lot, so that was good….maybe Evan and I won’t have to go through the hassle of trying to find a church.  But I definately want to visit a couple more times before I decide on anything.  It was a guest preacher, so maybe I won’t like it as much next time…who knows.

My biggest struggle at Mercy was trying to use the computer….they use Apples and I hated every minute of it.  Every document I tried to write was so small I could not read what I was typing…added onto it that the keyboard was very different to what I have at home, so my typing was even slower….and let me tell you, there is lots of paperwork to complete there.  But, the girls were fantastic.  The best part was just getting to know them and talk to them and hear their stories about how they had reached the point they are at now.  If you think of it, pray for them….they all have so many needs.

Also, after talking to Kerry and Arianna, I am not going to take the Admin position.  We all just felt it was not the right place for me to be….and they will look for somewhere else within Mercy that I can fit in, so that I can be full time.  Please, please pray for the finances to come through, that is the biggest hurdle in the way.

Mercy is getting three horses next week that will live in the paddock in front of the house.  I am very excited about that.  I have not been around horses since I lived and worked at Rainbow Camp, so it will be fun to be able to ride again on a regular basis!

The countdown is on….only 7 shifts left at St Andrews…thank goodness.  Having been at the Mercy House all weekend I really do not want to go back…it will take all my patience to work there this week.  Luckily I have 4 shifts this week and then I have a week off of Annual Leave.  I am back at Mercy on the 6-9 October and then 3 shifts at St Andrews and I am done.

It is my first weekend at Mercy, so I am driving up there tomorrow morning.

Evan and Pete are going to hang out all weekend, because Anya is away this weekend as well.

Our friends Andre and Liezl will be moving into our house when we move to Earby.

I will officially pick up the keys to the new house tomorrow!

This is a LO I did this week and thought I would put it up on here, especially for Bill & Jane.

Should have mentioned this before. The paper I used is two shades from Joana Carvalho Designs, called Green Elephant and is from Digital Freebies. The ‘Travel’ and ‘Adventure’ embellishments are from Rhonna Farrer called the May Free {PEA} Kit.

We signed on the house in Earby yesterday. We will move on 28th October.

Mercy called me Friday and have offered me more hours and a different job. I am ‘interviewing’ with the director on Friday to discuss options.

The last two days around 3:30 a hedgehog has appeared in my garden. Hedgehogs are nocturnal, and you rarely see them in the day time. I new we had one that lives in the overgrown Ivy that I cannot be bothered to cut back, but I had not seen him for a long time, I just hear him if I happen to be out at night.
I was a bit worried when I saw him out yesterday, so I put some cat food out for him. Today when I got home from work he was sitting in the front yard next to the road. 
The elderly lady across the road had seen him a few minutes before and he was in the road. She came over with some gloves and we moved him into the back garden and I put some more food and some water out for him.  He ate the food and is now happily wandering around the garden. I might move him again over to the area he normally lives at.

I also took some pictures of him!
 

I have added this map, which shows Oxenhope, where the Mercy Ministries house is and also to the North and West shows Earby.  Earby is where the house is that Evan and I are going to see on Saturday is.  It takes about 20 minutes to get from Earby to Oxenhope. 
I have highlighted the two towns in a pink box.

This is Abigail all dressed up for her third birthday party with her friends from nursery and church!
I think Angela was going to add this to her blog, but since she didn’t I thought I would!

This last week I have had the worst cold I have had for a long time. It touched on becoming the flu, but I don’t think I could really say it was. I ran a temp for 6 days, had a sore throat, coughed (still coughing) itchy eyes and still have an ear-ache.

I also dropped Angela, Graham, Abigail & Jacob off at Heathrow Airport this morning and they will be gone for 6 weeks.  I am not sure what I will do without them, I already feel a bit lost.

Saturday, Evan and I are planning on heading up to Earby to look at the house we want to rent.  If we like it, I will hand my notice in at St Andrews, and I plan on Weds, 18th Oct being my last day there.

I looked at renting a van to move in, and that is going to cost between £180 and £280 pounds. I think we will choose the cheaper option, which requires us to drop the van back off in Northampton, rather than return it in Leeds. Oh well.

I met a girl at work yesterday, who was born in America and lived their until she was 12.  I asked where she lived and she mentioned Indiana.  I thought that was cool, so I asked where….and she lived in Newcastle.  How crazy, that is only about 30 minutes from Anderson where my parents are from and I have a very good friend, Jessica, who is from Newcastle.  So Jess, email me and I will see if you went to school with her!!

Because I can’t help myself, here is a new picture! I took this yesterday!

I spoke to Arianna at Mercy today and they are happy for me to begin working as Advocacy Coordinator 1 day a week starting on November 1st. Added to the every other weekend, this puts me at nearly full time.  Hopefully before the New Year I would be doing 2 days a week as Advocacy Coordinator.
We are planning on moving up to West Yorkshire the last weekend of October, which is the week Angela and Graham get back from America.  We have found a house that is in Earby, about 25 minutes from the Mercy House. Here are a couple pics:

   
We are going up on the 16th Sept to look at the house because Evan has not seen it yet.  It is a brand new built house, and the carpets had not been laid when I saw it, but it will be finished next week. If we are happy we will sign the contract and move about 6 weeks later. If we find any problems, or are not happy with the contract, we won’t take the house and we probably won’t move until December.

I think that is it for now.