Three times in one day

I wonder what might be going through your mind right now as you read the title of this post. Of course, I'm referring to going to three church services last Sunday, what else? :-) Our Sunday started off with a bang as Jeff and I helped lead the music at the Baptist church's morning service. It really was a great time of worship with a full band...piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, vocals... During communion, I got to sing a fantastic song called "The power of the cross" written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. When I was last home my mom bought me the CD of Keith Getty's songs and it has a beautiful version of "The Power of the cross" sung by his wife, Kristyn. Mom do you remember me playing it over and over again on our way up north? Anyway, it is a fantastic song that really defines the amazing power of the cross. The words are brilliant:

OH, TO SEE THE DAWN
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

This, the power of the cross:
Christ became sin for us.
Took the blame, bore the wrath -
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Every bitter thought,
Every evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees,
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
‘Finished!’ the victory cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death,
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

(Final chorus)
This, the power of the cross:
Son of God - slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2005 Thankyou Music

I could probably write a whole post about how powerful the cross of Christ is, but I might just convince Jeff to do that on his theology blog... he needs something to write about... he's been pretty blog-lazy. So moving on, in the evening we then attended the ecumenical service at Saint Salvator's chapel before heading over to Pizza Express for dinner. Jeff then decided that sleep was the only option left for him; I however was keen to go to the late service at Holy Trinity to see our friends lead the music. So off to bed Jeff went and off to Holy Trinity I went... actually Pizza Express is right next to Holy Trinity so I didn't have to go far. I do believe that last Sunday was my first and only experience of attending three different church services in one day, and I've got to say that a day full of worship with other believers is awesome!

Times, they are a-changin'

The past few weeks have just been complete madness; hence the lack of blogging. :-) Where do I begin? Well, I guess it makes sense to start on Friday, almost two weeks ago. This was the night that we began packing... actually packing isn't really the right word... it was more like sorting through all the crap that we've accumulated over the past 5 years. We had boxes of things that hadn't even made it out of the box since we moved up from London over two years ago! Anyway, the sorting wasn't even the most difficult part. Think about it... I'm a woman, right? Well women need their clothes, yes? So how on earth am I supposed to be expected to decide what clothes I can live without for the next 6 weeks?!? It's madness really... expecting a woman to make such decisions! Well, remarkably it was a little bit easier than I'd anticipated. Actually the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was really the clothes that I had available to wear on the other end, in CA, that I was most concerned about. I decided this must be because in CA I'll be likely to run into people who I haven't seen for probably years and therefore would like to look good when I run into them. Makes sense really... so I packed all the summer type clothing that I felt would look really cute when I wore it in CA this summer. That made the clothes packing much smoother. Saying this, it was only once all of our belongings had been packed up and taken away by the moving compay that Jeff decided to inform me that we wouldn't be receiving any of the things we shipped home until mid to late August! Well that ruined the whole plan! Now I won't only look the opposite of cute when I run into all these friends of long ago, but I will be roasting in Scotland attire! Out of control! Jeff calmed me down a bit by explaining that the reason it would take so long is because, for customs reasons, they can't actually bring any of our items into the US until we ourselves are in the US, so our belongings will arrive on the east coast shortly after we fly home and then we will have to wait while they are all trecked across the country to CA... good times.

Ok enough complaining about clothing. So after all of our things left us that Monday, we continued to live in our very empty flat until Thursday when our lease was up and moved into our neighbors spare room. I am quite proud to say though that I literally only have the one suitcase to live out of which is making our currently transient-like life here, and not to mention the trip down to London and back to CA in July, much easier.

This whole time of transition has been an interesting one so far, I have to say. I'm very much focused on preparing a life for us when we return to CA. I am daily checking and applying for jobs. Yet there is still the part of me that can't believe our life here in the UK is coming to an end. I feel I've been forced to think about it a bit earlier than I would have liked with all of the packing and moving. I'm pretty sure that had we been able to continue living in our flat and waited to ship off all of our belongings until just before we left, I probably would have lived in a bit of denial for a while. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely ecstatic to be moving back home near family and friends, but at the same time it all seems soo strange. We even had our last Bible study on Tuesday and it felt soooo weird to realize that never again would I have those group of women to look forward to seeing every Tuesday. I guess we just get soo used to our daily routines and comforts that it's only once we no longer have them that we can truly appreciate just how much they really mean.

I've been tagged

Remember Mariam? She managed to tag me. I have to admit that I wasn't very excited about having to come up with eight random facts/habits about myself... not that I'm not happy sharing them... it's just the effort of coming up with them that seems daunting. Luckily, I have Jeff and our dearest friend, Allison, sitting here willing to help point out my crazy ways. So here's how it works:

1) Post the rules of the game.
2) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3) People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things.
4) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5) Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Here's my facts:

1) I'm a science freak. Well, actually an astronomy nerd to be exact... yeah, I can name constellations and get really excited about random things when I look into the night sky.

2) I take an insanely long amount of time to get ready in the morning. I couldn't even tell you why... I just do. I am working on that though.

3) I, like Mariam mentioned in one of her own facts, LOVE cats. I have been forced to live without a cat for the past five years and it is killing me. I can't wait to get back to California and get a cat!

4) I am a huge Harry Potter fan. All of my Harry Potter books are from the UK so I'm having a friend mail the last book to me in CA when it comes out in July... I can't have all UK editions and have just one US edition... that would be ascinine.

5) No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to stop cracking my knuckles. I have tried and tried... and even have a husband who points out every time I do it and reminds me that he doesn't want to have to brush my teeth for me when I have arthritis within the next 20 years.

6) I love dance. My dream job would be as an ensemble chorus member on the cast of Chicago the musical or as a back-up dancer to one of those singers with great dance skills (like Britney Spears). I know, I know... but have you actually watched a video of one of her concerts? The dancing is brilliant!!!

7) I'm in love with Kelly Clarkson. She has got the most amazingly fantastic voice ever!

8) And finally since I'm now stuck on coming up with facts... I'll mention that I recently made a guy crash a gorgeous silver Lotus into the side of the road because he was trying to show off in front of me. Note: he's alright, by the way. (That's the Lotus story I mentioned in one of my other posts, but it's definitely worth hearing from start to finish when you've got me on the phone some time.)

Here's my tags:

Ok so who to tag... drum roll... I'm officially tagging Angi, Nathan, Becky, Meg, Chad, Sherilyn, Suzanne, and John. And I'm holding you all to it. :-) I look forward to reading your facts.

Ever wonder how to make a Meigan? Probably not, but here's how anyway...

How to make a Meigan

Ingredients: 1 part intelligence 3 parts crazyiness 3 parts beauty

Method: Blend at a low speed for 30 seconds. Top it off with a sprinkle of emotion and enjoy!

Username:

Hmmm... I'm not really surprised...

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

How long have I been here exactly?

You Belong in the UK

Blimey! A little proper, a little saucy. You're so witty and charming... No one notices your curry breath

What English Speaking Country Are You?

The Spidey is back

So Spider-Man 3 opened in the UK today and I convinced Jeff that we should spend our Friday evening watching a well-anticipated movie such as this. Now I don't know what most people expect going into a Spider-Man movie, or any comic book based film for that matter, but apparently my expectations were quite different from the undergraduate population who were exiting the theater with us. They didn't like the movie at all. Shall I explain why their opinion is wrong? Why, thank you; I think I will. First, let's take a walk down Spider-Man lane, shall we? Were either of the first two Spider-Man movies brilliant blockbusters? No. Did they contain exceptionally amazing acting skills? No. So why the flip do people expect that the third time around will be any different? Now, I went into this movie expecting there to be good action sequences, comic moments, and some rough acting... and that's EXACTLY what I got. Personally, I thought the movie was great... it had all the things that I know and love about Spider-Man movies. Did I feel just a wee bit bad about joining in with the audience laughter when Tobey Maguire made a poor attempt at emotional acting? Well, yes, I did feel a little bit bad... but come on... it's what we should've expected, right? Honestly, the bad acting made the film that much more enjoyable for me. By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, there's a couple of comic moments to keep an eye out for... 1) Harry's facial expression when he gets his memory back and is listening to his dead dad and 2) Eddie's brilliant reaction when Spider-Man takes away his camera. These little tidbits are sooo easy to appreciate in a packed movie theater full of college students who have had a bit to drink... everyone laughs at random moments. Jeff's main problem with the movie was that you just don't know if you're laughing at parts that the director intended to be funny or if you're actually laughing at what he intended to be a serious moment. Personally, I think that is the movie's strength... you can laugh at it as well as with it. It's great!