FAO Mrs Stacey Raymer.

Okay,
so if my crappy blogging of late was like a 6on a scale of one to 10, i think i have now reached an impressive like 8 or 9 on the "bad-at-updating-my-blog-on-a-regular-basis" scale. that is, if such a scale existed.
so since last time, a lot has happened.
i unfortunally have a memory like a seive, so i may struggle to remeber much about what happened a while ago, but i will do my best, and i will undoubtedly miss out some details, not that it'll matter to you, because you won't know. ha.
So I'm pretty sure that it's been well over a month sinc my last blog, which sucks, and is a little unusual, as i quite enjoy writing them once i get down to it, but i never really seem to have to right amount of motivation or desire to do them beforehand.
here enters Mrs Raymer - who is apparently my personal Blog Motivator.
well she didnt really do more than just ask me to post one, but oh well. i am doing. so i'm happy to oblige.

So when i last blogged i think it was like early to mid december?
i cant remeber, any way since then i've had like 40 days or something of work, holidaying and confrencing.
fun times.
So in december we at BYFC were in the process of getting ready for the holidays by having a bit of a change around in the old timetable front. a few clubs were cancelled due to the schools aranging other things to do for the kids. or because the orogrammes had finished for the term, so on that front it would appear that there was less to do. HOWEVER, no, what with extra clubs, tidying up and general festive jollyness, i seemed to be busier than ever.
I think the highlight of burtons christmas festivities was either:
-the all you can eat chinese staff meal at The Royal Harris
-the "snow" we had a couple of times
-winning first prize in the Stretton Playgroup Raffle. it was amazing (a hamper of random food, most of which i didnt eat, but it had biscuits and stuff which brought me much joy. also included a bottle of some champagne (dont know if it's technically Champagne - doubt it) but sparkling wine at any rate. fun times. thats still in my room, never to be opened)
Lowlights:
i can only think of one:
- was when i was made to facepaint small childrens' faces for 2 and a half hours or something whilst feeling the whole time like i was about to pass out and / or throw up. not good times. oh well. i survived.

okay, so this brings us to like the 14th of december or something, after this i had a few meetings, in preperation for what i was going to miss while i was away. and got ready to go.

In our church over christmas (on the 19th, 20th and 21st of December) we had a celebration event called "The Heart of Christmas". the basic idea of this was that a load of places, groups and organisations in the community around Stretton and Burton were given huge wooden heart cut-outs ( about 5 foot high) and were asked to decorate them with something about what christmas means to us, what we see as the heart of christmas. and also incorperate into the design something to do with who they were and their impact on the community.
[i've explained that really badly, but the final outcome was pretty much a load of huge, decorated, colorful hearts all around the church for anyone to come and look at with a free cafe thing on the saturday (20th)]
i heard good things.
i unfortunately had to go home before they were all up eaning i couldnt see them before i left. but i saw pictures and stuff, and i have been told that it was quite a success.

Okay, so i left Burton for the Christmas holidays on December 19th, and, with one bag packed inside another i set off home. the journey was all fine. bit dull, and i had to sit in the hall way becasue some jerk had spilled coffee all over the seat i had reserved. and the rest were taken. so that sucked.
but yeah. whatever

So i was back for a day, turned out to be a pretty busy one, i saw people as best i could to say i only had like 30 something hours in my own home before running away again i went to a PARTAY on friday night for my frieds 19th birthday, and i wourked out that i'd known the person longer than all of her Uni friedns put together. it was awesome. then on Saturday i went into oxford for a look around and to do a little last minute shopping. yay for leaving it untill it's almost too late. so that was fun.
i was meant to be going out on saturday night as well, but i figured that seeing as we were leaving the house at about 4 / 5 in the morning, to get to the airport i thought i'd give it a miss.
instead i unpacked, then repacked and sat downstairs all night, and watched films. (no idea what i watched apart from the start of Pirates of The Caribean 3 and some other random black and white film about some war)
it was aweosme.
so we packed up the car and drove to the airport, parked the car, and walked through to the terminal.
this is where the "fun" starts. at like 7 in the morning, we then proceded to join the back of wht turned out to be an aproximately 2 hour long queue, the majority of which was situated outside. bad times.
we (my mum, my dad and i) then met up with my sister, and our friedns in the queue. which was good.
i hadn't seen my sister in like 2 months.
the longest time since i was born.

the plane ride was all good, and we landed, on time in Grenobles.
we got our bags, and then got on the coach which is about a 3 - 4 hour rde up the mountain to the amazing little (actually huge) resort of Val d'Isere.
yay.
conditions were close to perfect.
blue skies, not a cloud in sight, beautiful deep powder. love it.
So this was the 21st of December. we went and got our skis and gear etc and went back to the Chalet (Chalet Charlotte) and ate cake. good times.
these first 3 days were amazing. the weather stayed awesome all through.
i didnt have a single complaint.
then CHRISTMAS DAY!
so at 2.11am on christmas morning my phone rings, i dont understand what's happening, so i dont answer, so i get a message telling me that it's my own fault not being away at 2.11 on christmas morning.
hmmm.
i forgave her.

christmas day could not've been more different conditions complee white out, and like 85 km/h winds up top. intense. not a lot of skiing was done that day. instead we ate cake and opened presents. and it was fun.

boxing day morning followed the same general trend as christmas day, not the best of conditions, so we had a beautiful lie in.
yeah!
however, as the day progressed, we saw the blessed return of the glorious weather from earlier in the week. so we skied, and it was good.

we came home on the day of the 29th of December to a dreary day at home, no rain, but bitterly cold. i think i may've made a mistake in traveling home just in my PJ's. no. thats i lie. they were amazing.

onto New years.
This wasn't the highlight of my year.
im not a huge new years fan to be perfectly honest. i mean i can see the point in it, but basically, it's an excuse to have a party, get a bit drunk and set of fireworks, and everyone gets charged twice as much as a regular night when they're out.
hmm.
oh well.
i went to a party in swindon, where i spent basically the whole night being the only sober one there, trying to clean up after everyone else, and stop anyone getting paralettic.
i succeeded.
we counted down, it was 2009.
all was well.

i then drove home at like 5 in the morning, and slept. a lot. it was wonderful.

the next 5 days pass very quickly, in a rush of business, and chaos.
i saw people, and did exciting things.
i then remebered that i was going back in like 2 days, so decided to pack.
i did.

And...

Staff Conference: Bodelwyddan (sp?) Castle, North Wales.

Worship ALL WEEK provided by...: YFRIDAY!
5th of January:
I got the train from Oxford to Birmingham (First Class! - which means free paper, free tea or coffee, my choice (i went for a cup of tea, and made the mistake of adding weird uht milk - i still drank the whole thing, i mean it was free, and i am a volunteer) and a free bottle of water. with the added comfort of all this being brought to me. and 4 huge chairs and a table to myself!) at 9.06, i then had like a 30 minute stop off in birmingham, and got the train to Burton.
Once back in Burton, i hung aroung the office a bit, then left with Jason to go to Staff Conference.
The journey took about 1 hour and 45 minutes, which wasnt too bad.
once we arrived we checked in. on the way from check in to my room i saw - KELSEY!
wonderful times.
i was sharing with Si (Watkinson) in room 116. go us.
i dumped my stuff in the room, read a beautiful note from our room cleaner person called Stella, and went to the introduction for YFCone volunteers.
we then had a little time to kill so we chillaxed for a bit. i cant actually remember what we did.
we then had the first of many AMAZING meals. it was just - yum!
the evening celebration that night was then held by Roy Crowne (the now ex-head of the whole of Naional YFC)

6th:
I decided to give the 7.00am prayer session a miss today.
wise move i think, i was tired.
breakfast arrived. and im not normally a breakfast person, but this was just huge. choice of cereal, or cooked breakfast, fruit, werd museli things. something for everone.
the morning speaker for the whole week was a canadian / american guy called Leonard Sweet, who did a series of talks called- "The Bible as Apple, Orange & Ostrich Egg"
they were very gopod, i really enjoyed hearing him speak.
I then went to a Talk by Geoff BAxter about calling - very good. had head some of the stuff before, but i really enjoyed it.
Lunch.
there was time here to dowhatever, and i cant remeber what i did.
but yeah.
i expect it was fun.
Dinner.
Celebration: Elaine Storkey.
love her.
really good speaker. was a little apprehensive at first, but i really liked it.
karaoke quiz night.
we didnt lose, i dont think, but we also didnt win. but meh.
i was happy with our performance.

7th.
PRAYER! AT 6AM!
i know
it's insane.
but i figured that once in a while God's worth the discomfort (well, God's always worth it, but from time to time i like to fully show it)
it was a good prayer session, writing on baloons and stuff, shoeboxes very enjoyable and i got a lot out of it, some things harder to deal with than others.
other than that -simelar to the day before.
i had a meeting with selina, about how everything was going etc.
and that was all good.
this night we went and played on the playground, and slightly broke a bridge. oops.

8th:
Last Full Day.
twas good.
played YFC football, which was good.
our team lost beautifully, and i had no football boots, so i was slipping and sliding all over the shop, but after all, it's the taking part that counts, like anyone's ever head anyone who just won something say that)
the evening celebration - awesome.
we had a good talk, with some slightly more interactive stuff to do
then we had a good oldfasioned christian rave.
twas good times, but had to end after a while.
sad day.
so we helped tidy, nicole (Mrs. I-love-to-pack) was in her element, i wouldn't be supprised if it was like the highlight of her week. i on the other hand was not so ammused when i was asked to coil what must've been about 200 metres of wire.
but i did it. because thats what christians are for.
this was a late night, eople just sat around chatting for ages, by the time i got back to my room it was like 4 / 4.30 and i wasnt asleep untill like 5. i then got up at 6.11 when i got a text.
so that wasnt the best night's sleep in the world.
oh well.

9th,
SAD DAY.
i dont like saying bye.
i find it hard for some people. so not my best day.
we left at like 10.00 ish i'd guess and got back to burton at around 12 by the time w'd got there.
i went back home to etwall, and settled straight in.

we've now been back at work for 2 days, and it's going good.
very tiring still,
and busy
but i love it.

that was long,

and Stacey, if that Blog does not meet you required needs from a blog, then you are being far too picky.

peace.

(kelsey - if you read this, feel free to spell check. i cant be bothered right now)

x