snelson.org.uk/john

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, but I've been thinking for quite a while that I should be blogging more. The trouble was that snelson.org.uk has become a bit of a family blog, and my family don't want to read my highly technical work related blog entries. On the flip side, any readers interested in XQuery, XML and databases probably aren't that interested in the latest Snelson baby news - gorgeous though my children are :-).

The solution is snelson.org.uk/john which is an index page and atom feed for only my blog posts. The family focused index page now also filters out all posts with the somewhat cryptic category of "Tech", so I don't have to explain to my Dad what the latest XML terms mean (Hi, Dad).

I've tried this blogging thing before, although last time I was being paid to do it. I've never been much of a wordsmith, and I ran out of steam last time. I'm hoping that writing for the love of it about subjects that I'm interested in, and being less ambitious with the frequency of updates will help me to last a bit longer.

Besides, I've really enjoyed reading both Saxon Diaries and Profound Titles No One Gets, since they always write about the highly technical business of XQuery implementation - my day (and sometimes night) job. I've also gained a lot from some great discussions with clever people recently, which I hope to write up some time. Hopefully this blog will help me to have many more conversations like them.

The second half of May was a very emotional time for us. John's mum went down hill very fast and died on the 19th. Less than a week later Jeremiah our newest Snelson was born.

As many of you will know Sharon had been struggling with cancer for 2 years now, with increasing pain and immobility. She went into a hospice in the 15th and died later that week. John was able to see his mum one last time as she died. I has been a very emotional 2 years watching her cope, (or not) with the increaing pain. It is such a relief that she is free from it all now.

Sharon was a wonderful person. She loved her family dearly and made me feel truly a part of it. I'm so grateful to how she brought up John, she cared so much and taught him a lot about God and caring for people. She always made people feel welcome and made sure they felt at home/included. Her grandchildren were so important ot her, I'm only sorry that Jeremiah never got to meet her.

John wrote a lovely poem for her funeral. I try to get him to put it up some time.

Jeremiah Christopher Snelson was born at home on the 25th May. It was all very straight forward as labours go, and he entered the world at 4:18am, weighing 9lb 1oz. He continues to be very healthy and put on lots of weight, he was 10lb 7oz on tuesday! He is named after our bestman Chris who died in 2005. We are so pleased that he came into our lives and really look forward to loving him. Emily is enjoying having a little brother and is often seen giving him cuddles.

What a lovely bank holiday we've had. The weather has been great and perfect for your plans.

We spent most of friday and saturday working in the garden, getting it ready for veggies. John worked really hard digging over the veg patch. Emy and I planted lots of seeds. Have a look at the photos of her on the gallery. She had lots of fun...

Sunday we rested in the garden. Jo Legg-Bagg and Rachel came round after church and we chilled, chatted and enjoyed the sun. It's great to be in the out doors.

Yesterday we went down to Reading to celebrate my niece, Hannah's first birthday. It was such a lovely day. I really enjoy spending time with my family, I love you all. Hannah seemed to have a good day, with lots of gifts. Unfortunately Hannah was having a sleep when I did most of the photo taking so there not many to be found of her... Hannah's First Birthday

It's so nice to be able to spend such time together. I really love all the people in my family and feel so lucky that we get on so well.

I'm still feeling very blessed at the moment.

John and I have been married for 3 years today. It's great, I'm very happy. We have enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to countless more loving years.

I have an amazing daughter. She really is... It's so great to watch her grow and learn everyday. I'm so lucky to be able to stay at home and care for her.

Snelson as yet unspecified is good too, I think. Mostly I'm feeling well with the whole thing now, just getting heartburn, but thanks to my lovely husband going to the shop last night I have a simple solution, Rennie!

We've received some timely things from freecycle too. A new (to us) bed base to replace the one that was left here, and a cotbed so Emy will have somewhere to sleep when the new baby needs her cot.

Plus it's the start of spring and new things are growing everywhere.
xxx

I've had a lovely day today. Two things really. One I've felt more myself, a little bit more energy. I've really been so tired all the way through this pregnancy. But since the weekend have been feeling so much better, still tired, but able to cope with doing things better. Thanks God for answered prayer.

Also, I won 2 competitions today, Hurray! God can bless in so many ways. I won a duvet set from Oxton Cotton, they make Fair Trade towels, bed and table linen. This is great, cos our spare got chewed by a mouse!

The other win was a box of goodies from Purely Natural Online. A nice treat for me. They are also great, cos they stock some nice products for psoriasis.

Happy Day

Seems a long time since I wrote anything on here. I have a good excuse...

We are expecting another baby! Hurray! I have been feeling pretty awful though, so have just been doing the jobs that really need doing. Hence no blogging.

Anyway, we are expecting this new arrival in May, just after my birthday. I'm now 18 weeks pregnant, (4 1/2 months). We've heard the heart beat and I'm starting to feel a few flutters in my belly! We are off for our scan next week, so hope to post up some nice picture then.

Emy's still being fantastic. She is just recovering from about a month of illness, all started by a tummy bug. She's walking and very chatty. You can now see her beautiful red hair too as it's grown longer. She continues to love playing with cardboard boxes and beer bottles! (for the recycling) I love being her mum!

While reading Jeremy Smith's blog, I found an interesting study on the link between people who prefer evening time and creativity. That explains a lot ;-).

I think that Jeremy has an interesting point about "alone time", but I don't think that can be all there is to it.

Also interesting is that the article talks about genetic factors in determining which end of the day you prefer. I've always wondered why any attempts I make to adjust my waking hours is short lived at best.

While reading Jeremy Smith's blog, I found an interesting study on the link between people who prefer evening time and creativity. That explains a lot ;-).

I think that Jeremy has an interesting point about "alone time", but I don't think that can be all there is to it.

Also interesting is that the article talks about genetic factors in determining which end of the day you prefer. I've always wondered why any attempts I make to adjust my waking hours is short lived at best.

Have just put up some photos from our holiday in the Gallery. My mum gave us a copy of her's, due to us loosing our camera! You can even see the river that it fell into!

Hi everyone,

Seems like such a long time since I wrote anything. Sorry! No real reason, but I thought it was about time I broke the silence.

We are all well, have been on holiday, John's started a new job, Emily's started sitting up, got teeth and eating solid(!) food. I've just been enjoying being mum. Lovely!

Our holiday was really nice. We went to france with my Mum and Dad, visited family and spent a couple of days camping. We were under canvas for 4 nights and by the last night Emy had got the hang of it. Unfortunately while on holiday we lost our camera, hence why no photos for a while.

John's new job is with Oracle, it really is good news as he really enjoys the work he will be doing. It's also great because we have a little more money to go round. (I can buy new clothes now and John is allowed to go to HMV.) I does mean he might be off to the US on monday. We shall miss him.

Emily is still a very happy girl. She enjoys banging 2 block together, and trying to climb up you. Although she is not mobile yet, she is very keen to stand all the time.

Life in the Snelson household is good, veggies are growing, butterflies are out in the garden, all is good with the world. x

Well I have just read the most stupid article ever.

This week is real nappy week and there has been lots of media coverage about how great terry nappies are, either the squares or shaped ones. But the BBC magazine ran this article Nappy wars which talks about how disposible nappies have freed the housewife from days spent washing nappies. What a load of poo! I wash Emily's every 3rd day, it takes 10 mins to load the washing machine, and about the same to put them out to dry. If time is the real reason people are using disposibles then you can get them taken away and washed.

I really can believe that the BBC can be so stupid. I can think of lots of reasons why people don't use them, but time is not really an issue. (How long does it take to carry out all those bin bags full of smelly nappies?!)

On Saturday my brother's girlfriend, Claire, gave birth to their baby, Hannah Louise. Labour was not fun, but as you can see they now have a very beautiful daughter. My mum and dad have been up to London to see her and said she looks lovely. We are hoping to visit when they are all back home and settled. I'm so happy for them both, and am really looking forward to meeting Hannah.

We have started to decorate our house. Last week we started Emily's room. I thought it was going to be quite straight forward, but as always happens one job has lead to another and another...

We began by stripping the tiles off the ceiling, but the paint started to come off the walls as we did it, so we are now stripping that off too. Stripping paint really does take a long time!

Yesterday we wanted to get behind the radiator, so off it came, with only 3 minor problems. The last of which we discovered last night, when water dripped through to down stairs, it turned out we hadn't quite turn the valve off, oops!

All is going well though, and life is good. x

I do hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. We had a great time at my parents. My niece Elena came over on the 28th to visit from Norway. It's always such a precious time as we only get to see her twice or three times a year.

Emily enjoyed christmas, well as much as she could. She got lots of cuddles and lots of gifts. She slept all the way through the opening of them, but I enjoyed it! Thank you so much for all the kind present she received.

My niece Elena came over on the 28th to visit from Norway. It's always such a precious time as we only get to see her twice or three times a year.

We went to the Panto (oh yes we did!) as a family, Grandma, Granddad, Paul (my Brother), Elena, John, Emily and I. It was Cinderella (oh yes it was) which was fun. Emily was a little startled when the music first started, but she soon got used to it and fell asleep.

Sadly John got really sick at the end of the evening and was sick out the car window on the way home, then all night! Poor thing. This meant that new year celebrations involved sitting in bed watching Babylon 5, hoping John was not going to be sick again! (Which he wasn't.)

We stayed on at Mum and Dad's a couple of days so John could get better, then came back to Oxford via Nan's house so she could have a quick cuddle.

Hope that you all have a great year xx

I've finally got around to installing Gallery 2 on our website, so that we can keep our photos in order online. It was very simple to do, apart from having to try and skin it to look like the rest of the site.

So, go ahead and check out all the photos Sally and I have put up. We'll be adding in the older photos to the new system in time - and of course, watch out for some pictures of the forthcoming new arrival...

As you might have worked out we have know moved house, (please email us to find out our new address). We have settled in quite well, and our main focus over the past weeks has been to make sure it is ready for the baby. We think it is! Which is a good thing as we are fast approaching the due date (1st Nov, tomorrow). Will up date soon I hope.

Anyone who knows John and I well will know that we both enjoying cooking and feeding people. Well this was stretched this weekend. We were asked to caterer for the annual SPEAK training conference in Quinta near Oswestry. Our task to feed 45 and still like each other at the end of it all.

Well you will be pleased to hear that we were successful on both these counts. We managed to cook enough food for 60 people! and we still like each other (oh sorry I mean love!).

High lights of the menu were; a fantastic lebanese meal, including lots of hummous and perfectly cooked rice, A lovely apple crumble made with apples from our neighbours garden (Thank you Phyl), and nice crispy jacket spuds (they were in the oven about 4 hours!)

I did get a little tired, but it was so nice to bless all these people who are very important to me. John loved every minute and it was hard to get him to leave the kitchen at times.

I do hope you all had a fantastic weekend and look forward to seeing you all in the future.

Those of you who wanted recipes, they will follow shortly. x

Seems like for ever since we added anything to our blog. So much has happened I really don't know where to start... What with holidays, weddings, wedding aniversaries. I will give you a few highlights, maybe I'll write a bit more indepth later.

A couple of months ago now we went off to Maine, USA for a holiday. John had to go out there for work, and I joined him once all the boring stuff was done! (Sorry babe, but it is to me!) We had a fantastic holiday. We did loads of out door stuff, lots of exercise, John lost weight. (I didn't but I am making a baby!) I'll write more about this soon, and add a few photos.

Staight after we got back from Maine, John's mum got married. This was a lovely weekend. Very relaxed, which I needed as I was still a little jet-lagged!

Last weekend was my Mum and Dad's 40th anniversary. All the family went down to Dorset for the weekend. We had a BBQ for 20 on Saturday and a picnic for 80ish on Sunday. Many, many relatives were there! The whole weekend was beautiful and a lot of fun. I love you guys xxx.