devastation

until we got here and began looking around it was impossible to really take on board the devastation of event like hurricane katrina
this is a house we saw at the beachfront

quite literally everybody has lost something
around two-thirds of the population of long beach still have not returned - the storm hit five months ago

mississippi with a mission

phil set off today for a six day mission trip to the gulf coast of mississippi
a group of ten from the st andrew's year team will be helping with hurricane katrina relief
follow the team's adventures online at the year team blog


here's the team after lunch at charlie joseph's in la grainge, georgia

fdr

"let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance"
(from franklin d roosevelt's inaugural address, saturday march 4th 1933)

shipping news

the stuff we shipped from the UK has arrived in Charleston today! woohoo!

but perhaps you're more interested in skye who has teeth and can crawl now (it's official, mummy said so).....

what goes...

...wriggle, wriggle, lunge, face-plant-into-the-carpet, giggle?

(answers on a comment below)

pirate baby

panthers lose

the carolina panthers lost 14-34 to the impressive seattle seahawks, who win the nfc championship and now progress to the super bowl
they'll play the pittsburgh steelers in detriot on sunday february 5th
(translation: some american sports result)

home help

spent the day doing errands, tidying up at home and getting ship-shape
later mags and skye helped the calladines and phil went with some of the year team crowd to hollywood (it wasn't glamourous - just helping at a nearby church)

late christmas pressie

this morning daddy put my last christmas pressie together....
....it really is a rocking pony!

as you can see, i'm getting pretty good at balancing now!

also wishing a huge happy birthday to amy!

tasty milk

responding to fresh encouragement over christmas from susan and miriam we've been thinking about buying more stuff that's either local, organic, animal-friendly or fairly-traded - hence 'loaf'
it seems the interest and market for this kind of goods is much less developed here than it is in britain and the cost is often twice that of the usual suspects
to spread the cost our resolution has been to switch one item a week to loaf-principled goods in our grocery shopping
harris teeter organic milk (like the salted pork) is particularly good, slurp!

woohoo!

congratulations to ansley and jim who got engaged on sunday evening!

today is martin luther king day

'most Christians are thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society'
challenging stuff

go panthers

our team take on the chicago bears in the nfl playoffs today
(translation: a quarter final cup game in american football!)

habitat for humanity

spent a happy morning digging holes and wrapping houses with the college crew at habitat for humanity

a long-expected party

well it's goodbye mulehouse
the sale of the house God gave us in Sheffield was completed today
it was a wonderful blessing to us and we thank God for special friends and times there
we pray it'll continue to be a great home for the new owners

friends

we had fun playing with friends who came over to visit today

here's elizabeth with annie grace, skye and cameron with harper

explorer

skye's now a nifty roller and loves to explore - especially under furniture if that's possible!

stories

the year team regathered today, we simply told stories of what God has been doing with each of us over the three weeks we've been apart and prayed
good times

jon senior is travelling back today too (with his mum, who's visiting for a while)

chilling

a quiet day at home

flying high

us airways were very good to us
skye got her own little first class bed both ways!

stuff

finally the shipping company came to free rich and mim from our stuff!
they collected 18 boxes to send to south carolina

cute piccie

here's the granddaughter (skye) with gran (helen) and granddad (john) at rich and mim's in sheffield

baby boom

there is a lot of babies blooming in sheffield, it's really lovely to see

here's mags with joy and skye, isaac, noah, jo with ben, jack
a special hello to isaac and jack, our gorgeous Godsons!

taylors in town

john, helen and auntie maggie came back to sheffield for the day
it was lovely to see them, they said they wanted to see us, but we know what the real attraction is....
....skye playing the spoons!
:)

happy new year

skye with her great aunt evelyn and grandma