Imagine

Now, on to Imagine. It's a big festival for young people which happens each year, designed for young people to encounter God and return to their communities to make a difference. It's a bit like Soul Survivor if that helps, but on a smaller scale. A few hundred young people come to the event, which is based at Thainstone, Inverurie (20 min drive from Aberdeen), which also happens to be a mart. That is, where farmers come to sell their cows an so on. The mart activity keeps going while Imagine is on, and it's quite amusing to see two very different groups of people together. For much the same opening paragraph, and how it went last year, you can go here.

Jay's job this year was running the information team, who sell entry tickets and give information to everyone who comes to Imagine. Delegates and speakers alike expect Jay to be able to tell them everything from the exact location of the power sockets in the random room they find themselves in, to the shoes size of all the Imagine directors. It is a fair amount of information she needs to keep in her head, which this year was extra challenging due to an increasingly severe case of baby brain! People also assume that Jay can resolve absolutely any issue they have, from a stuck chocolate bar in a vending machine (which belong to Thainstone, not Imagine!) to needing a first aider. Jay also finds herself trouble shooting the most bizarre of situations: this year's finest was finding an emergency lift to Aberdeen for mother, baby and young person for only an hour or so later! It's no small job and it takes a serious gift of administration like Jay has to do it well.

My job was to coordinate the tech team - excepting the PA for the main worship sessions, our job is to look after everything with electricity running through it at the event. This includes smaller PA systems, video projectors, cameras, lighting and power for numerous venues. Our team work silly hours (8am to midnight most of the days), and are frequently seen running about with bits of cable. We had couple of changes on the regular team this year, in addition to Paul and Lewis from previous years we had Phil (a guy with the coolest job ever - making YouTube videos!) and my brother Ian. We all got on great and it's a good team to be part of. We also get to play with shiny things like this pro camera, which was hired for the event:

Most of the young people (and accompanying adults) camp in one of the fields attached to Thainstone. This week was a bit on the damp side...

In the marketplace were two inflatable chairs. On the days Naomi came to visit she thought these were fantastic.

Loving the static hair!

There is usually a talent contest at Imagine, running on a few of the nights, with a final on the last night. It's one of the most popular activities during the week (based on the numbers coming), and is usually based on the current big thing on TV. Previous ones have been named things like "Imagine's Got Talent", "Strictly Talent on Ice" etc. I'm always impressed by just how good the contestants are! This year's was "The Voice Of Imagine", and here's the venue set up...

and here are the three judges, complete with swivel chairs.

Here's this year's tech desk, home to us on the tech team for most of the week. Look closely for the essentials: Irn Bru and Mars Bars.

Yes, that's Mike Pilavaci speaking, we had a good bit of banter at one point where he gave some mock criticism of the lighting and cameras, so we turned the lights out on him (all in good fun of course)

I think I mentioned before that NESYFC have got themselves a football cage, something I was keen on making happen when I was more involved. Here it is for real - I'm responsible for the banners on it; the black one has our fireguard in the background as I didn't have a closeup of the cage to hand!

We thought this was quite funny - driving over to Thainstone one of the mornings, we got stuck behind this tractor towing a cess tank. It was full enough that it kept spilling over, needless to say, it got a very wide berth when we overtook it.

Breakfast at Thainstone. Naomi's first Rice Crispies.

Unbelievably, Naomi took a nap at least once right in the middle of all the action. She was one tired girl.

All in all, a tiring week, but definitely worth it.

Imagine

We've just been for a visit back to the north east (now we can be more specific than "Scotland"). In the main this was so I could help do tech stuff at Imagine - which we've blogged about before here and here. Jay took the chance to catch up with a lot of our friends who'd come to the event, and still managed to fit in both childcare and some volunteering with admin things herself.

We packed a lot in to the week and a half. We started with a visit to Granny and Grandad (Jay's parents), then headed out to the McCalls in Kintore, who very kindly put us up while Imagine was on, their house being only a few minutes' drive from the event. (John McCall was my PhD supervisor so you can guess that there was also a good chance to talk research for a little while too!) I briefly saw my old friend Tom in Old Deer, we dropped in to Oldmachar church for a Sunday service, and we saw our friends Anne and Dan Pearson at their new house. We stayed for a couple of days at my parents' house in New Deer - although they were on holiday in France so this was simply a place to stay while I returned borrowed kit to different churches, and it allowed a brief catch up with my sister Allison and her daughters, and my brother Ian and his wife Christine. Ian was also on my team at Imagine, but naturally we didn't have much time to ourselves there! Finally, one the way back south, I got a quick look around RGU's new building at Garthdee and we stopped off with Lizzie Bird.

On the way up we stopped at Peggy Scott's again for a nice cup of tea and some cake. Clearly this went down well:

While we were at Granny and Grandad's we nipped over to the park in Keig.

Those action shots above where quite hard to get, as we have very fast-moving children. My camera is full of pictures like this:

Jay also took the girls to the park in New Deer while I was out delivering kit...

The whole week of Imagine was a tiring exercise. I was working from about 8:30am through to midnight each day. The girls had a lot to do as well, so Naomi much appreciated the double bed at Grandma's house:

This provided somewhat more space than the former cot mattress we'd taken with us for other places. Apparently our luggage was more comfortable...

Of course Miriam was happy to just sleep anywhere.

Here is where I spent most of my week - the tech desk - complete with various gadgets and a hefty supply of Irn Bru.

Our job was making things appear on the screens, working the lights, and doing pretty much everything electrical in the smaller breakout venues.

The venue for Imagine is Thainstone Mart, usually used for selling cows etc. In fact, we had to clear out of this venue on a couple of days to make room for a sheep auction! Here's the room set up for the talent competition, which was excellent fun.

The week is also good for getting to play with lots of toys, like this neat little digital audio desk. It has colourful lights, what more could you want? (seriously, this is one of the best digital desks I've used, very logically set out and easy to pick up, and ideal for the small set up we had for the talent stuff - well done to Soundcraft for this one)

At the end of the week I delivered kit back to various places it was borrowed from. Some had come from NESYFC, which is about to move office from Crown Terrace Methodist Church to Deeside Christian Fellowship Church. NESYFC has been at CTM since 2000, almost the whole time I was volunteering with them, and it's a bit of an end of an era. This is the last time I'll see the office there - a little sad as there are a lot of memories there. Here it is, already in a bit of mid-move disarray...

Back to the children. You can guess that Naomi sees me sitting at a computer a fair bit. While at the McCall's house, she made herself a laptop with two coasters (one of which was a magic square so it looked like buttons). We thought this was just excellent...

She's also quite adept at the real thing. Here she is playing on Wii Fit at Anne and Dan's house (friends we visited just after Imagine)

Naomi's getting really good at drawing and painting, and really enjoyed the space made for such things at Imagine.

Jay asked Naomi if Jesus was giving her any pictures to draw, and Naomi was adamant that these two were such:

I was particularly pleased with how well the car was packed for the trip back to Stirling! I don't expect it will be this good next time.

Lastly, we thought that you might enjoy this picture of Miriam being thoughtful. We do :)

Imagine

Most of my first week of holiday was taken up with Imagine - where several hundred young people from across Scotland (and beyond in some cases) come together for a few days of worship, teaching and generally good fun. It's been going a few years now, and looks a bit like Soul Survivor. It's held at the Thainstone Centre at Inverurie, which is also an operational mart - and the selling of cows and sheep continues in one part of the place even while the festival's happening! It's always a great week, and the testimonies from young people on the last night always reflect that God's been doing a lot in their lives over only a few days.

For the past few years both Jay and I have been helping - Jay on the information team (ie registration and general administration of a lot of stuff), and me on the technical team (PA, lighting, visuals and most things electrical). This has usually involved camping on site too. This year, with a child to look after, things were a bit different. We stayed at Jay's parents instead of camping (not so far from Inverurie), and only I joined the team with Jay and Naomi coming for visits each day, in part to see Daddy, and in part to see all the goings on and meeting numerous friends (Also Jay helped with the DNA stall while numerous friends did a little babysitting). Clearly Naomi loved meeting all the new people, she must be wondering if there's anyone in the world still left to meet!

Here's a few snapshots of the main tech desk, a place that was home for me for 16 hours a day, Tuesday to Saturday. Sorry they're a bit dark; best get someone in lighting on to that...

Love you Baby Brownlee

In keeping with this letter that I wrote to Naomi when we were expecting her I have I have decided to write a letter to our new baby.

Baby Brownlee, I am already conscious that you are suffering slightly from second-child syndrome.  Your Dad and I never really got to coming up with a nickname for you while you are in my tummy and this letter comes later in my pregnancy than with your sister.  The thing is, though, it doesn't mean we are less excited about you arriving and it definitely doesn't mean we love you any less.

I am so excited about meeting you and I already love you more than words can express.  As I sit and type this I can feel you kicking me in the ribs and although it hurts quite a lot it makes me realise that you are already working out how to make your presence known, I know that you are going to be a massive part of my life and this family because I know you are going to be just incredible.

I am excited for seeing what you look like, I feel like we've had a sneak peek having already met Naomi, but you will look just like you, you will be one of a kind and I am really looking forward to knowing what that is like.  I can only imagine you will be beautiful.

I am even more excited, though, to find out what your personality is like.  If the old wives' tail is to be believed and the temperament of a baby still in utero relates to the child that baby will become, I think you will be quite calm and chilled out (which having been dealing with your big sister for nearly two years now I am not sure what that looks like) and I suspect you will be quite contemplative.  It's up to you, though, baby.  You can be whatever you want.  God will have woven hopes and dreams and desires into you and you can follow those as you want, I will consider it a privilege to help you work out what those things are.

Baby, you will be beautiful, I am sure.  You will be incredible, I am sure.  You will steal my heart, I am sure.  I can't wait to meet you.  Come and meet me, it's great out here, we have milk and cuddles, these things are brilliant and we have your big sister, she is also brilliant.  Hope to meet you very soon, indeed!

Mummy

Baby things!

Let's start with a picture of the "baby's room".



Because the baby wasn't coming imminently we started with all the other rooms, they are not necessarily quite finished, but they are quite livable in, as you can see, poor wee baby doesn't have anywhere to go right now!! In the midst of trying to get on top it however, I have made a list (because that is what I do) of all the things we have.

Now, I am going to share with you all some "holes" in our inventory, things we still need. I want you to know though that this is not me asking for stuff, it is definitely not me telling people to buy stuff. I know though, that there are certain people out there who will want to buy the baby some things and I thought I would try and guide them towards the things we need. So the general rule is, if you weren't going to buy anything then read on but don't go and buy anything, if you were going to buy something we would appreciate (but don't demand) if it was something off the list. If you have already bought something, we will love it, don't take it back under any circumstances!!

The baby already has lots of toys, certainly enough to occupy a newborn, it has baby gyms and things to hold although it does not have too many soft toy type things, if you want to get something like that, I'm sure it will become well snuggled in time!

We have all the baby paraphernalia we could imagine needing, however we do still need a couple of dummies (just in case!) a couple of bottles (I want to breastfeed but I might express some so Sandy can help with those night feeds, if you want to get these can you get in touch, I have a strong preference for a particular type/brand that I have on good authority and have seen in practice are good for babies that are both breast and bottle fed)

The main thing our baby needs is (are?) clothes, we have only a few things that are newborn/0-3 months at the moment. I'll a list a few things that are high on my priority list but all of you are able to use common sense!!

at least 1 more 0-6 month winter grade (2.5 tog) "grobag" (link only provided for those who might not know what I am talking about!)
Socks! Baby currently only has 3 pairs!
A few more 0-3 month vests would be good, although we have a fair few 3-6 month ones!
Also, a few "normal" clothes - like jeans/trousers/jumpers etc, I know they pretty much only sleep for the first long while but I like to think the baby won't need to only wear pyjamas to get it through that phase!
Some mittens (poor wee thing is being born in winter after all!)

The last couple of things are really things that I (Jay) would like so they are being listed separately, I will happily receive these as Christmas presents as I don't see them as essential for baby at all!!

a Hooter Hider
an device for expressing, I have one (thanks Joe and Trina) but it has an American plug on it and I have heard mixed reports on it's ability to work, I'd love to have one I know is working from the word go! (A hand pumper is fine!)

So please refer back to the beginning of this post, I am not expecting anyone to buy us anything, but if you would, then these are the things we most need!

Sunrise

This is the beautiful sight I was privileged to see on waking this morning. I always imagine God taking extra time to paint the sky when I see things like this...

Containment

As you might guess, virus-related things have rather overtaken most other stuff the past few weeks. Gradually the messages from work sounded more and more like the university would be closing, and eventually this is what happened. The girls' teachers at school have been sending work home in preparation for a closure there, and gradually more and more activities were getting cancelled. Even Church is off! As a family of six, all our shopping looks like panic buying, so it has proved a little harder than usual there too.

Where are we? Well, everyone in the house is healthy (praise God). All groups and activities are off; it looks like Brownie camp won't go ahead; Esther won't be starting nursery in a few weeks; the girls are at home every day and Jay has the job of looking after them and providing some kind of structure in which they can keep learning (their teachers are helping remotely with this but it is most definitely sill hard work!) I have set up a temporary office so I can work from home: teaching was nearly finished but it now involves a lot of talking to cameras, Skype calls and emails; research is much the same but already the GECCO conference in Cancun (in July) is going to be web-only. We had our first home school+work day today and it went pretty well but it's hard to imagine this being how it is right up to the summer... We won't be visiting grandparents at Easter. Church is off, so we are doing our own worship (joint with various Brownlees via Skype) and joining in with things like prayer meetings with others in Cornton on the webcam too. It's going to be a very hard few weeks, possibly months ahead - yet through it all we have much to be thankful for.

Technology means we are still in touch with everyone (including the girls' friends) and my job can almost completely be done remotely: in some ways it's easier without the interruptions (I'm one of those with their office door always open, which is just inviting visitors really...). We also have a decent garden and a good house to do all this in. All the more so then, God is good!

Church on Sunday. We did some singing to YouTube videos, then while the adults listened to the recorded message our pastor had provided (and prayed via Skype), Naomi took on the role of Sunday School teacher for her sisters. Jay had provided some craft activities and they did an excellent job of these.

My bike on the last day before shutdown. Normally at this time of year the rack is full. 

Our spare bedroom is snug...

...just enough room for the bed and nothing else. (There is - literally - 1mm of clearance to get the last screws in/out, with the bed up on bricks so it's above the skirting boards)

One bed dismantling later and it makes a reasonably good home office.

Splendid.

The timetable for school today. We all went for a pre-school walk, then the girls got stuck in to a good mixture of learning and play.

We're adding to this every day - a list of all the things we are thankful for in the midst of the challenges.
This is down to my lovely wife, who is far more wise than she'll ever admit to.
(and a huge blessing to the rest of us too)

To my beautiful, wonderful Miriam

Miriam, you have been waiting for this day for *so* long. So many of your friends turned six a while ago and yet you have been waiting your turn. I'd say patiently but despite your many wonderful qualities patience is not one of them.

You have always been a wonderful child with such a sense of fun. You continue to have a laugh that comes from deep inside your soul and it brings me so much joy to hear you use it. This year you have very much grown into the young girl you are. You are learning so much and so fast and you are growing taller as well as maturing.

You love to be outside. You love to be in nature. And you continue to love a stick.

You like to be doing whatever Naomi is doing and actually, for the most part, the two of you are really good friends. I love that and pray that this will continue for the rest of your lives. You look out for each other and that makes me happy. I am so pleased you have each other.

You love to learn. About anything. You're ability to read has massively come on this year and so there is little to hold you back now. You love to find out how things work, I imagine you turning out to be some sort of engineer or scientist of some sort.

You are the most determined child I have ever met, some might call you stubborn, and we are daily learning how to work together to use that as a power for good. Some days I don't get that right, I am sorry for those days. I love you so much, the thing is, I am pretty "determined" too.

I will be praying this year that as you grow and mature more that you will be sure of who you are and that you will learn whose you are. I will be praying that when people look at you, they will see something of the likeness of God, after all you are created in his likeness.  I will be praying that you learn not to "let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12) because you have the potential to influence so many things around you.

Keep being you.  Love you! Thankful for you.