jos is 5 weeks old today. he's doing really well and got weighed by the health visitor and is 12lb 11.5oz.

things are hard work - robin is extremely over-tired due to a number of cumulative factors and as a result is not sleeping well or going to sleep easily which just makes things worse.

had an awesome time on saturday night when our texan friends brian and whitney and their 2 boys came for the evening. hadn't seen them for 3 years but it felt like only 3 weeks. we ended the evening with a great time of prayer and they are now in orkney getting ready to explore scotland and find a place to settle there.

bizzaro!!!

two really wierd things to look at/ watch:
http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/44210/
http://www.citynoise.org/article/3629

something really upsetting happened yesterday so i am feeling particularly crappy today. have been awake since 3am being upset and woried. no doubt this 'thing' will get resolved soon but i feel like it has put me back a bit.

jos is great but very unsettled in the evenings - when he gats windy. quite normal for a little one but i really want to do some knitting!

two mini miracles happened on sunday - had an ansafone message offering practical help with shopping etc and also a friend popped by out of the blue with a meal and some sweeties!

juliet is back from her travels (she is a really good friend who lives half way up the road) so i have a nice cup-of-tea-getaway!

new photos should be up very shortly...

thought i'd post a little!

not doing so great so if you are the prasying type, youre prayers would be great. very emotional - sometimes feel i am only just holding things together. i've read andy's posts about some of what happened and in my head they feel much more traumatic and dramatic. my midwife is very supportive and she also found the birth experience very traumatic. my health visitor has told me about some specialist midwives who do something called 'birth after-thoughts' for women like me who have experienced trauma surrounding their birth experience. jos is doing great and in some ways the 4 days in the childrenb's hospital seem so far away. they never found what was 'wrong' with him and i tend to think my homeopath is on he right track when sdhe says it could well have been his way of balancing his body after all the puncture wounds (canula, blood samples etc) from our initial time in hospital immediately after he was born.

through all of it i found peace in God and he really was my rock but now i feel a bit lost and all at sea. i'm also struggling with where our faith is at because up until we started using conventional medicine with robin for the eczema, we had loads of faith for healing. now that seems to have diminished and we hardly pray for God to heal the eczema - it's as though we've resigned to the fact that medicine is what we have to settle for.

it would be lovely to hear from people - we have both felt quite alone and isolated in all the has happened and the aftermath of it. i know that some people like to have space etc but let's not forget that andy and i are the couple who tried to get home early from honeymoon becauuse we missed our friends!

Something of an update then? (for those who don't know)

Joss got admitted to hospital very early on Sunday morning due to a high temperature and some irregular breathing - they got him on antibiotics and paracetemol (to get his temp down), and then did a lumbar puncture to find out if there's any particular infection going on in there.
This then meant bea has been living in hospital since then (not a good Mothers day!) waiting for them to decide if they need to keep him in on antibiotics for another 7-10 days.
The tests came back today as all clear so they'll keep him in for 24 more hours without antibiotics and keep monitoring him, and assuming there's nothing wrong in the meantime, they should be out by this ime tomo.
At last!
Having said that, a doctor also noticed he had a slight heart murmour today - apparently they're not uncommon, and often heal naturally, but it's still not a nice thing to hear.
Robin's eczema's been a bit up and down recently too - as long as he's been smothered in steroids he's fine, take them away, and things go downhill again, so that?s been really disheartening too.
On top of that, bea's sore throat is also still there.
So there we are - it's all a bit crazy right now - any of you out there inclined to pray, we'd really value it right now!

day 5: more photos.

(click to enlarge)

Josiah Indi Marshall

born 20th March, weighing 9lb 10oz.
labour went brilliantly well, and he was born quite suddenly at 14.57 at home in a birthing pool in our kitchen.









anyway, whilst we had to go in to hospital when the umbilical cord snapped (not sure how much blood josiah had lost), everyones home now (at last) and everythings going well - robin seems pretty excited by it all too.

nothing yet...

...we're now on borrowed time.

not long to go....

...less than a week till the due date, #2 is iminent.

the many hats of robin

(click to enlarge)

happy christmas!!

New cast for Harry Potter

Been meaning to put this one up for a while.
I'd been thinking about who I'd cast for new characters in the new Harry Potter movies (ie books 5 & 6). Then a few of us were talking about it and it seems we have very different ideas.
So who would you cast for the following characters:
(Nymphodora) Tonks
Kingsley Shacklebolt
Delores Umbridge
Rufus Scrimgeor
Bellatrix LaStrange
Horace Slughorn
Mundungus Fletcher
Young Voldemort
Fenrir Greyback
Bill Weasley

Comment up!

more potter thoughts...

so, has anyone out there been thinking who the R A B is at the end on book 6? maybe not, but it seems there are a lot out there who have. the main one out there is regulus black, sirius' brother who was supposedly killed by one of voldemorts death eaters a while ago.
i thought it was a bit tenuous, until someone pointed out in the norwegen translation of the book, sirius is called sirius svaart (svaart being norweigen for black, and then at the end of book 6, the locket has R A S on it, not R A B.
plus there was the heavy, hard to open locket in the cabinet at grimauld place that was cleared out in book 5...
go here for some more hard to follow forum ramblings...

what's my theology?

ironically (is it?) when i first saw that i was the below, i thought "ewww - postmodern? what a cliche!".
maybe it would've been more ironic (or ironical as the americans might say) if i thought, "eww - labels - don't pigeon-hole me!"

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 68% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 50% Neo orthodox 50% Reformed Evangelical 43% Modern Liberal 36% Classical Liberal 36% Roman Catholic 32% Fundamentalist 29% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

baby no 2

and here's a photo of the bump at 20 weeks.

an update...

have finally realised a long term goal of getting the big lebowski DVD at a bargain price - no surprise then that it was fopp that came up trumps at just £5. just need some milk, vodka...

bea and i have moved onto the 3rd series of this excellent programme - was particularly confused by the initial opening sequence with nate err... can't say anymore.

and lastly, a website that's come to light on this grey and rainy morning is mike the headless chicken, the story of a chicken that survived 18 months without a head!

something else then...

went up to fargate at lunch time and there was a huge crowd watching this guy getting tied up in a straight jacket and wrapped in chains. and there was this tiny suitcase on the floor so we decided to stop and watch thinking this could be interesting.
unfortunately we missed the beginning where he presumably explained what death defying trick of physical agility he was about to perform.
so after loads of playing up to the crowd and talking up street performers about how everyone should give a couple of quid to keep it going, he got ready for the great finale...
with a dramatic countdown he proceeded to wriggle a bit, jump around a bit and lie on the floor and then take the chains and straight jacket off.
anti-climax.
no getting in the suitcase or anything.
boo.

see - loads of time to blog random thoughts and events.

well, this is fun...

another day in the marine core, another day on the farm... every paycheck a fortune...
it was mentioned last night that seeing as i have access to the internet at work (albeit limited), i probably should blog more.
so.. err... what is there....
going to see my friend from work, jack, playing bass in the guild this evening at the grapes - finally making it to one of their gigs with bea. very exciting. robin'll be left with the wonderful andy swan (and fiancee jane) with whom we have an excellent understanding - he babysits robin, we supply him with homemade raspberry jam.
that'll do for now.

six feet under...

you know how every month or so, a blog goes up on here, and that once every 6 months or so there's mention of the latest series bea and i have discovered 3 years after it was first made?
it started with the office, then it was spaced. more recently there was scrubs (2nd series hugh - how'you getting on with it?!), and now it's six feet under - still not completely taken by it - find most of the characters a bit irritating in a slightly cliched 'i'm messed up' kinda way - how they spend half their time having a go at their siblings for being immature, and then being immature themselves. especially claire, "the angry teenager". having said all that it is still very compelling stuff to watch, and suitably addictive as these types of HBO series tend to be.
so thanks go this time to pete and mary david for giving us something to fit into every spare hour of the day. currently on episode 5 i think, with the usual "we need to watch the next episode" vs "i'm too tired... need to sleep" conflict going on as the credit roll each time. at least with scrubs it was only another 23.5 mins as opposed to 50 odd mins...