Gettin ma hayer did

Mr Ministry Man

Geocaching - Alice in Wonderland

Clue: when I fell down the RABBIT HOLE I was amazed to see the MAD hatter sitting on a THRONE, he gave me cake that made me very SMALL to go on my search...

NI Gurls Media Interest

BBC Radio Ulster Interview...



NI Gurls Video Follow up???

Vlog University 1 - Colouring in

Northern Irish Gurls - Parody of Katy Perry's California Girls

The rest of our trip in Lebanon

Day 2



Days 3 and 4

You got the love

A step into the world of vlogging with a cover of Florence and the Machine's version of "You got the love"

my albums

Jools posted this great little "meme" thing-a-mee that I couldn't resist doing - so much so I did it twice!

Here's what you do
1 - Go to "wikipedia ." Hit “random article”
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations "
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on the “explore" tab and select "the last seven days”
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Here's the results of my two.

Christmas No. 1

I'm so "uncool" according to my youth group cos I don't watch shows like Strictly Come Dancing or I'm a Celebrity or even worse.... X Factor!!!!! It makes me the weirdest person ever apparently, but hey I'm not that worried - I kinda suspected it.

X factor just annoys me to be honest. I like hearing people sing and do it well, but I get a bit fed up watching the same people every week and in the end whoever wins gets fame and fortune handed to them on a plate. I just think it's a little unfair given that so many have worked hard to get where they are but it's no newsflash that life ain't fair.

What really annoys me is that every year the winner releases their first single the week before Christmas and are pretty much guaranteed a Christmas No 1. When I was growing up I used to have fun trying to guess who it might be and often bought a single that week trying to help my favourite to number 1. Now though X Factor has taken the fun out of all that given that the past 3 years has been an X Factor winner and now it looks like Alexandra will be number one with her cover of 'Hallelujah' which isn't a great version of the song really.

So now I guess all the fun is guessing who'll be number 2.....

Incredible talent

I can barely draw a straight line, but this is incredible. A 3 year old boy with ann amazing talent for drawing and painting

I'm such a wuss for puppy eyes

I've mentioned before how fond I am of my wee pup (yeah he's a fully grown dog now but he still acts like a pup): I've made him Doggie Treats and Birthday Cake. And spoiled him with other treats like bones, pigs ears and toys and even little bits of bacon buttie. He gets great big long walks and lots of mad fetch. He is a spoilt wee boy who has taken over our sofa, well not only the sofa but the whole house and garden, and often takes over ownership of my lap.

I've become such a sucker for big puppy dog eyes and it turns out it's not only Stewie's eyes I fall for. In the past I've fallen for dogs who've been lost and followed me like "Mustard" and Digger who I couldn't help but try to get back to their owner. In fact I did the same once about 12 years ago when I first had a dog (a cute and chubby little Jack Russell called Mutt) and an old english sheepdog pup followed us home one day - my sister and I loved this wee dog but couldn't help but try and get them back to their owner again.

Today I was driving home from the holiday Bible club and almost ran over a little Jack Russell. I had to pull over and see if I had and if he was ok. As soon as I got out of my car this little dog came running over to say hello. I didn't see anyone around and I couldn't find a tag for a name or number on him so I decided to take him to the vet to see if he was chipped or anything. He was so cute and tiny and kept trying to sit on my lap (I don't think he liked the smell of Stewie on the passenger seat).



It turned out he wasn't chipped, the vet couldn't take him in and the dog warden wasn't answering the phone so I decided I'd bring him home and call the warden later after lunch time, but I ended up driving past where I had found the dog again and found someone who knew where the dog was from. I couldn't help but like this wee dog, he was so friendly and sweet and I admit I did ponder how Stewie and Rob would react to this new dog, but then I remembered how spoilt Stewie is and I'm not sure he would cope with the competition.

1 year blogaversary!!!!

OK so I've been a sucky blogger the last couple of months but hey I'm still posting occasionally so I think I deserve to celebrate my 1 year blogaversary!!!!!! It's been one year today since I made my first post and I don't think I've done too badly this is my 248th post too which would be an average of about 21 posts a month so I'm happy with that.

I've wrote about my life as a youth and family worker, blogged some youth work resources and childrens addresses, talked a LOT about my wee pup Stewie (yeah he may be 19 months now but he'll always be my wee pup), posted some videos that have amused or inspired me and also about my food blog (Ruth's Kitchen Experiments).

To mark this occasion I spent part of yesterday baking (predictable eh?) some Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Chocolate Ganache



Cute eh? And very tasty!!! I took them to youth group tonight and with only 3 of us there tonight we ate 9 of the 12 between us then Lynn took the rest home to her family to devour so I'm sure they're long gone now!

Backstreet's back

OK, I know I'm not a tweenager anymore, but when my friend texted me a few months ago and asked if I wanted to go to the Back Street Boys concert I thought why not? Now I'm not a big fan of them... in fact I don't even own any of their albums or singles etc so when I said yes and told some family and friends they were quite surprised.

Well last night was the night and I have to say it was great fun. I haven't been at a concert in ages, so that was part of the fun too I suppose. The warm up act was a guy called George, who was being managed by one of the Backstreet Boys, who was really quite annoying. To start with he came out and the music started and he did this Justin Timberlake type dance thing for a few minutes then sang along with his own voice on the track for a bit before going back to the weird dancing. Then he really made me unhappy and completely massacred a classic: Eric Clapton's "Tears in heaven". He sang some more songs which were his own - "Lie to me" and "Talk to me" I was waiting for "Run to me" or something similar to be the next song. Then he went on to take off his shirt, which made me wanna barf because I just hate stars who flaunt their bodies to get more of a response and they usually do it to cover up for a lack of talent anyways (which I thought was obvious). All in all I really didn't like him as an entertainer, he may well be a lovely bloke though so I'll hope that maybe he is.

He cleared off and about 15 minutes later the main act came on stage. It seemed a little tacky to start with being that they'd dressed in boxer's gowns and were coming on to the stage on a boxing ring "fighting each other along to the "Eye of the Tiger" tune, then they started singing one of their own songs to the tune which sounded really good! They sang some of their older stuff and also some of their new album, as well as some of each of their own solo work. Nick got on a drum kit and did some great drumming to a dance track. Near the end of the show a couple of them went to the crowd so the crazed fans people at the front could see them up close - the guys just looked to be having so much fun which makes it fun to watch too I suppose. There was loads of variety in the music so a lot of different people would have enjoyed the show. It was a great night, and I even woke up this morning singing one of the songs! It's gone now though.

I didn't really get any photos cos I've only got my camera phone which didn't work so good, but when my friend puts her pics online I'll add them here.

Digger

I've posted before about having a random dog start to follow me round the park but it has happened again, and with a labrador again too!!!!

Stewie and I were enjoying a walk round Lurgan Park this week and loving the short heatwave we've had here the past few days when a labrador started walking along with us. To start I just ignored it thinking it's owner was somewhere near by, but after a while I looked around and saw no one. He started lifting sticks and trying to play with me, I tried to look at his tags to see his name or get a number but he kept growling at me so I left it.



Eventually though he stopped the growling when he didn't have a stick in his mouth so I got the number and called the owner, who told me that "Digger" just likes to take off sometimes for a wander round the park by himself and once he's done he makes his own way home.

How cool is that?!?!?!? I'd love it if Stewie was able to take himself for a walk when I've got really busy days but then again we do have great fun on our walks together.

Yay Marko!!!

Congrats Marko on the results of his recent "Are you a bigger looser than Marko?" contest loosing a total of 60lb over 12 weeks!!!!! Check out the difference!



And while you're at it check out this hilarious video....

Odd jigsaw

I've been having a bit of a rough time lately, mind you our anniversary weekend celebrations did help, but I'll not go into details here, however I'll post soon about the weekend.

Anyways I spotted a post on Marko's blog about a fun little jigsaw found here where the pieces of the jigsaw are little individual pictures that somehow fit together. It took be a little while to do that with some breaks in between, but it was a fun distraction from thinking about my bad mood.

Have a go I think you'll like it.

Photo meme

I saw this over on my name is cool... so I have to do it now, but hey I like the sound of this meme anyways.

Photo Meme:

If you read it you gotta do it!

1. Go to photobucket.com
2. Type in your answer for each question into the Photobucket search bar.
3. Only use the first two pages.
4. Copy the html and paste it here.
5. You can only answer in picture form.

What is your name?


When is your birthday?


What kind of car do you drive?


Where did you go to school/university?


What is your favorite season?


What is your favorite type of shoe?


What is your status?


What is your favorite movie?


What is your favorite song?


Who is your favorite Disney character?


What is your favorite vacation destination?


What is your favorite dessert?


What is your favorite drink?


What are you most afraid of?


What is your favorite TV show?



Now you've seen it give it a go!!!!

Sesame Tree

I finally got to watch some Sesame Tree: Northern Irelands new kids show. Alan in Belfast has posted loads about a Northern Irish version of Sesame Street hitting our screens and it keeps reminding me to check it out everytime I check out his blog. Getting to see it today was helped satisfy some curiosity about the show and made me remember loads of the little clips from Sesame Street that was on almost every lunchtime as I was growing up. I loved the show: it's great to have local kids learning and teaching each other too alongside some really cool muppets. But what I loved most about the show was how Hilda the Hare says "that was beezer"..... now that's "beezer!"

Nasty hailstones

I'm going to be typically Northern Irish and talk about the weather here... but what the heck is goin on with the weather lately! I mean there was snow at the weekend, a warm sunshiny day on Monday, then windy then rainy and now today there was hail! And it was BIG hailstones.... not golf ball sized or anything but still pretty big.



I'm glad I was inside!

Anyways it's given me more ideas of children's addresses, which reminds me that I really need to post more of them.

Hoots man there's juice loose aboot this hoose!

It makes me so happy to see this ad back on tv!!! I love it!