For those that don’t know much about what’s happened in my life over the last few years, me and Chantelle became less active in the Church between around September 2008 and April 2009. Previous to that, I had been preparing to serve as a full time missionary for the Church. Put simply, I exerted a bit too much pressure on myself and I’d convinced myself that what I was doing was to be expected, that people looked to me as an example, and so on.

What transpired throughout those few months is all behind me – as the title suggests, the past is in the past – but looking back through thoses posts and even considering the events and goings on around that time has made me appreciate that little bit more what is really important. Even though I may have gone a little crazy and gung ho in my approach to living the Gospel, what was important was that the Church was always there, and having that time away from it gave me a little more perspective.

Later in the blog, I actually found quite a reflective and positive post, and I’ve decided to share it an extract of it here.

So, in the interest of entertainment, please find below a small sample of “Shaunisms”…

Chantelle: Jo said, “Oh I’ll get your new number off Shaun…”

Shaun: “Did she get it then?”

Chantelle: “I don’t know…you’re Shaun.”

…

“Ooh, our baby will have his first Christmas before his first birthday!”

(Thinking)

“…wait…every baby will have its first Christmas before its first birthday…”

UPDATE: I thought that there may be a likelihood of more of these in the future, so I’ve now set up an entire category for this and future posts…

Breaking all previous agreements with those wonderful men and women who helped us to move last time on the condition that we wouldn’t move again any time soon, we’ve crossed the city into a house on Bransholme, within shouting distance of Kingswood.

I wonder why they call it “shouting distance”… really, it all depends on the shouter and the shoutee. Does the shouter have a particularly loud voice? Does the shoutee have super hearing? There are too many variables to define what “shouting distance” actually is.

Anyway, the logic behind this year’s moving story is that we want a place to settle and bring up a family. The house is a three bedroom property in a very quiet part of Bransholme, and it’s great. The moving process went quite well, albeit it took seemingly forever, with many a late night car journey between the house and flat.

After we looked at one house on Longhill that was sort of promising but not really comfortable, Chantelle went with her parents to look at this house in Bransholme. I got a call at work, and she was falling over herself trying to tell me how great the house was, and how her parents loved it. I was told that it was very old person-esque, but that there was furniture there, it was double glazed and had central heating, it’s in a lovely area and so on. We decided to go for it, in spite of the fact that I was yet to see this property, but I completely trusted Chantelle and knew that she wouldn’t choose a place that would be anything less than a place she would want to bring up a family.

Turns out the tenant’s uncle lived in the house before moving back to Pakistan to take up his medical practice again – he’s 74 and UK authorities wouldn’t let him work past the retiring age!! – and everything that was left in the house had been there when he took residence, after the previous couple had moved into a residential home. So, all the furniture, curtains, carpets etc were all left behind. It’s all very old people-esque, but it means that we didn’t have to worry about moving the sofa or table and chairs, and we can always replace the stuff later on when we can afford it.

So far so good.

After nearly three years at Comet, I’m now moving on…to another department at Comet. Moving away from the Specialist Web Team where I’ve pretty much exhausted all career options, I’m heading to “proper” Comet to work on the Business Services Management Information team which looks after all sorts of reporting and analytical stuff, looking at trends in sales and refunds, and also reporting to Comet’s insurance clients on what they’ve spent their money on, and so on. In some way it’s a kind of “growing up” work wise, dealing with time and cost sensitive information, and working to strict business guidelines. Whilst it’s not realising any long term ambitions, it’s providing an opportunity to try something completely different, and there are more opportunities for development around the Business Services department.

As was mentioned in my review with my team leader yesterday, I’ve had “itchy feet” for a while. Apart from the Police, which is more of a long term goal, in the short term my ambitions are pretty basic really. I want a job I’m comfortable in, where I can develop myself and be really good at it, without having the responsibility of being a team leader or manager. Some people are good at managing, but it’s not for me, especially when it involves working longer hours or taking work home for a job I’m not totally enthusiastic about.

On reflection over the last six months – it was our half year wedding anniversary last weekend!! – I’m grateful for how mine and Chantelle’s relationship has grown and strengthened, and I look back through events and moments before and after our engagement and wedding, and I can see how we’ve become more understanding of each other. I might be seen as the Patriarch of our family and the one who should lead by example and guide with love and wisdom, but my goodness she’s the one that shows me what I example to set! In fact, it’s been with her help – that is, gentle nudging and showing “an increase of love toward him whom [Chantelle] hast reproved“  – that I’ve experienced slow but sure moments of growing up-ness, and I appreciate her for completing me in such a way.

Chantelle has also had her cooking and baking fire relit, which always warrants reams and reams of approval from me. Over the last few weeks I’ve enjoyed Chicken Parmigiana, a fantastic Curry, Quesadillas, Barbeque Chicken, a Greek Salad, and more. I have a week off in April, and I’m determined to try my hand at cooking and creating my own wonderful culinary disasters masterpieces. I had to take tuition from Chantelle in peeling an onion, and I still couldn’t manage it.

So far so good.

Chantelle will of course tell you – and I freely admit - that I still have my childish moments. But the main theme of this philosophical insight today is my “growing up” somewhat since getting engaged and then married.

I guess my thoughts started a few nights ago, when Chantelle advised me that the toilet seat needed fixing. Under normal circumstances, a trivial matter such as this would not particularly arouse much thinking or pondering. But, this is Shaun’s world. It got me thinking about how domesticated I’ve become, how I’ve started to get a bit more house proud, and how I’m starting to like this whole taking care of my family stuff. I’m starting to feel more responsible, and a little more adult – in the grown up sense that is, and not in the R-rated sense.

It’s simple things, such as learning how to put a duvet cover on properly. When I lived with my parents, I would happily strip the sheets and pillowcases when they needed washing, but somehow, the next day, the covers would just magically appear back on the duvet and pillows. The secret? Mum. I recalled the first (and probably last) time I attempted to put the cover back on the duvet myself. I wasn’t particularly au fait on how to put a duvet cover back on. I was blissfully unaware that the most effective way is to turn it inside out, wrap it around the duvet, and then let gravity take its course. So, thinking that the duvet was simply a giant pillow, I attempted to pull the cover over the duvet from one end. I then proceeded to continue dragging the cover and duvet around my bedroom floor for a good three or four minutes, before I realised that it wasn’t working and I gave up.

What ties taking the duvet for a walk around my room and growing up, I hear you say. Nothing really – Chantelle was particularly amused by this story, and I thought it might make an amusing waste of two minutes of your life that you now can’t get back. Me, on the other hand, took great care and pleasure in creating this story.

The whole point to this seemingly mindless waffle is that marriage does something to men. I think. Well it has for me. It’s made me grow up just a little bit, just so I can start to appreciate what Chantelle appreciates – a good clean home, taking pride in our family, and a clean, warm, well made bed.

But hey, the wallowing is over, and all is well again.

Chantelle made some bacon/ham/cheese/onion pasties today – a proper stuff your face yummyfest if there ever was one. My wife is just a culinary genius. It’s almost like she just has to stand and look at the ingredients and they just organise themselves into heavenly goodies! Check out a few of her drool-inducing creations here…

We watched the second Work and the Glory film…it’s based on the novels about the Latter Day Saint movement, and how it affects the lives of a fictional family growing up in the mid west around Joseph Smith and his family. I’m always amazed when I see or read about the pioneers who just gathered their belongings and journeyed across America, often risking life and limb and losing loved ones, to follow their religion. I guess in some way it makes me appreciate the fact that if I want to learn about something or catch up on a lesson or talk I’ve missed, I can just grab a book or go on to the web, without having to journey hundreds of miles across the country.

Tomorrow, Chantelle starts her new role as a Sales Team Leader at Comet, as part of their “Next Generation” programme which puts colleagues through training and preparation for being a Team Leader over the Christmas period, with a chance of staying in the role once the peak season is over. It sucks a little that I won’t see her much during the day – we met through work after she joined Comet and came on to the same department as me!! – but I’m proud of what she’s done over these few months preparing for this, and I know she’ll do a great job leading the team she’ll be working for. Plus she gets a nice pay rise for being a Team Leader, so she’ll be bringing in a few extra pennies over Christmas…

Ahh Christmas. I haven’t even started to think about planning or shopping for Christmas this year. We’re hoping to spend a day at each of our parents’ houses this year, but apart from that neither of us have anything planned or sorted. Unless by some miracle Chantelle has organised everything and bought all her presents and is hiding them somewhere even I can’t find them..!

I’m sure I thought of so much more to say over the course of last night and this morning – I know it started with the desire to learn to dance, but right now my head is blank. I should really start writing stuff down. Like a journal. Ha. That fell flat on its face, just like my previous blog. I often wrote paragraph after paragraph when I was regularly updating my written journal, but I really should start doing that again. It seems that me and journals/blogs have commitment problems. I wonder if they have therapy for that sort of thing?