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...

the 31st "steelcity" beer festival

I've broken the blogging silence to bring news of the above beer festival this weekend - we'll be going on the saturday - it's kid friendly so robin'll hopefully make it with his new shoes too... just gotta keep him off the skullsplitter...
for a full beer list see here - am looking forward to trying the Smiling Assassin and the Bear Ass Bitter if they're still there.
It costs £4.50 entry but that includes £1.50 returnable deposit for the beer glass. there?s also a charity pub quiz in the afternoon.
more details on our plans to follow - hopefully before the event and not in 2 months time.
alternatively, give us a call if you're interested in coming along...

an update...

...on robins (and our) sleeping.
since Bea went down to Cheltenham and Herefordshire there was a certain sense of appprehension about how robin will transfer over to sleeping with Bea instead of me, but basically he's done it fine, so well done Robin!
i think this whole ordeal has been far more stressfull for us than it has him - i guess he was more ready for it than we realised.

Off to Greenbelt tomorrow - yay!

a mars a day helps you work, rest and play...

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!
>
> This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter
> that
> will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in
> recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is
> in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on
> Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be
> certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth
> in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as
> 60,000 years before it happens again.
>
> The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
> Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and
> will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in
> the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9
> and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest
> 75-power magnification


>
> Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
>
> Mars will be easy to spot. At the
> beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m.
>
> and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
>
> By the end of August when the two planets are
> closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its
> highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty
> convenient to see something that no human being has
> seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at
> the beginning of August to see Mars grow
> progressively brighter and brighter throughout the
> month.
>
>
> Share this with your children and grandchildren.
>
> NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN



i think times refer to england

taming the shrew (or weaning the doormouse)

after several nights unrest due to a underproducing milk supply and a voracious little doormouse, the time for nocturnal weaning seems to have approached slowly and steadily at first, and then a lot quicker as time went on.
breaking point came on saturday night and the breastfeeding counsellor was called in to offer helpful hints and sage guidance.
so last night we took the plunge - the plan was thus:
1. bea sleeps in the attic
2. robin sleeps in our bed
3. armed with only a bottle of water and a cuddly elephant i sleep in the same bed with him.
4. when he wakes up for a midnight snack, i'm there to comfort, console and cajole him back to sleep with the previously mentioned items.
5. bea refrains from coming down when he's still screaming at the top of his lungs at 4am looking for her through tear streaked eyes under the bed and in the drawers.
6. we make it out the other end and robin finally collapses from axhaustion.
7. we collapse from exhaustion.
8. repeat for a few more days.

what actually happened:
1. through 3. as before.
4. robin woke up, made a few noises, looked around for Mama who he was sure was there when he dropped off 4 hours ago.
5. Dada lept to action. No sooner had he said "no booby", Robin promtly dropped straight back off to sleep again.
6. with an anti-climactic sense of confusion and apprehension, I also fall asleep again.
7. repeat these revised steps 4. through 6. seven or so more times, which takes us to 7.15am, 15 minutes after our cut off point/ wake up time and Bea returns to a sleepy but generally rested and happy little doormouse.
8. we're all a bit sleepy, but very releived.
9. hopefully repeat for a few more days.

happy birthday andy!

today andy is 28 years old - hooray!!

happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday dear andy,
happy birthday to you
xx

sorry this post is going up so late in the day but it will be perfect for our american friends who are just getting going after a late morning coffee.

also, today we were going to get our van back but paul (the guy who's doing it up)had to shut up shop because his partner went into labour. please pray that her delivery goes smoothly. it seems that more births have comlications and intervention than not which is really sad. interestingly, if i had been in hospital, it is likely that i would have had intervention. maybe even a c-section because they probably wouldn't have let me push for so long.

i am shattered at the moment. robin is doing much better but he is feeding non-stop at night and i am finding it really disruptive. i have decied, against all my hopes and dreams, to get him off night-time boob. andy and i are going to get a plan together once i'm out of 1st trimester exhaustion. having talked to debbie jones about weaning it sounds like you have a few really difficult nights to push through before you come out the other side.

i hope everyone else is well and sparkly.

my fingers smell of roast chicken even though i keep washing them.

today i took robin to the doctors as he has a rash all over his body and also a temperature at night. he's generally not himself. the doctor thought what was going on was fascinating and said that robin's lymph nodes were up and also the back of his throat was red - must be why he keeps shoving his fingers back there! so we just have to keep an eye on him. supposedly keep his temperature down but i boycott that advice becasue i trust that God caused our bodies to run temperatures to kill bugs so we would get better quicker and also have healthier immune systems. this also goes in line with various alternative medicines too.

andy's birthday is on friday - crazy that he will be 28. i was really surprised when i realised the other day that i was 23 when i got married. my birthday isn't until march and jen's birthday was on tuesday but also offcially on monday because she was going to france on tuesday.

i am meant to be having my afternoon nap but i am struggling to sleep so i thought i would blog. i don't have a lot to say but the roast chicken we had last night at dan's was lush. lush is now an official word of the english language - bring it on!

here is a picture that i thought was very lovely:

i'm sooo bored...

thought i'd see if i can get a blog up via email from work.
harry potter's just got a whole lot more.... errr... not sure what - wasn't
expecting what happened there. very sad.
not quite finished it yet - just a couple of chapters to go