damn...

...i suck at blogging.
i really wish i was better

so yesterday Tom left for good.
:(
it was a very sad day.
also matt, abi and i went into burton and attempted to get some Engage work done.
im not sure if we were as successful as we could / should've been.
but at least i now know what i'm writing about.

today: baptism at church who are bringing over 100 people. intense.
and i am so tired it's not even funny.
i need a real day off sometime soon.

peace.

Good Week

it's been a good week.
busy, but nice.
Monday. instead of having our regular team meeting, the BYFC team went to see a potential candidate to be our new head office as we are being kicked out of the one we are in very soon (we were ment to move out sometime soon after the end of December, but sofar we have been inable to find anywhere new that is suitable or really gives us the kind of space or facilities that we need from day to day). this new office was nice, very spacious, and new looking, slightly closer to the middle of town that our present one, and right next door to the Riverside Church.
after this we went back to the office and talked with selina for a bit about out diary's for the comming month, and matt talked about getting time off. after this, mondays for me mean french club! so off we went to that where we made some little calendars with the months written in french and the kids drew pictures of things supposedly associated with france on them. (i drew The Eiffel Tower). i then have a bit of time at the office before i walk to Rachel's house in time to take the kids to her friend's house to be looked after before we trundle off to CRE8 at William Shrewsbury school. this week however, Rachel's friend was sick, so we couldn't take the kids there, meaning that Seb and Mary had to acompany us to the club. this was, supprisingly, less stressful than monday's normally are, we got to the school like 20 / 30 minutes early and we weren't in a rush setting up and getting ready for the hoards of adorable 9 / 10 year olds to flood us. we had a good club this week and we made picture frames out of card and stuck pasta and rice on to them to make little patterns. after CRE8, i went back to Rachel's house to eat and play with the kids! who are so cute! after this i have the two Youth Cell groups that i do with my church called GG and FOG. the past week, we'd had meetings about both of these groups in an attempt to make us be able to cope with GG and to try to deepen what we are already do with FOG. i think, on the whole, what we did was a huge success. GG was, although completely hectic, quite constructive. we got the kid's to write down a set of rules and consequences designed by them, in a hope to keep the disruption down to a minimum. we then mannaged to play a game without it being a disaster and we talked about some vaguely interesting stuff. great success! FOG, was equally good, we talked about a CD that we had given to all the youth abnd they talked about their favourite songs. it was goood!
Tuesday. ...... .. .. .

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

So, it turns out that sleep is good for you.

i havent been sleeping so well of late, i dont know if i've mentioned it before? but i thought i was escaping all side effects of getting far less sleep than i should.
however.
it would appear that it's finally catching up with me.
i have a headache and my eyes hurt.
not good.
i have to get up at 6! tomorrow (sucks to be me) to go to training in Nottingham.
so i figure that from now on, sleep should go up on my list of priorities, although saying this, it probably still wont.
i can only hope that i dont randomly fall asleep on any busses or trains and end up in Edinburgh or anything.
fingers crossed!

x

also...

i read the twilight saga, and saw the film.

A
W
E
S
O
M
E

wow. i suck at blogging

as the title says.
i suck.
it's been like 3 weeks since my last blog and even though I've had plenty of time, i still haven't done any blogging.
i hang my head in shame.

oh well.

so in the last three weeks, a lot will've happened I'm sure, but due to my appalling memory, i will undoubtedly forget the majority of it.
so I'll start with the basics.

1. I'm still alive - not that i was really in any doubt that i would be, but i find this simple fact reassuring none the less. i have had no crazed youths trying to kill me. yet. so all is good in the life department.

2. Life is good - i cant really think of anything to complain about. other than being tired a fair bit of the time, and my social life outside of work being pretty poor, life is good.
I'm happy, and Jesus loves me. and if both of these are true. what else matters.

as for the rest of my past three weeks, here goes:

as Christmas approaches (and i have to final fold to the fact that Christmas is really here! despite the fact that advent calendars and the like have been in the shops for well over two months (could be nearer to three months) it is now December, advent has begun and Christmas is close!) so, as Christmas approaches things are beginning to get quite busy.
what with the combination of the youth starting to realise that the end of term is creeping up on them, and with the business that comes alongside the end of a term at school, my life is starting to become slightly hectic.

this last week has been really good for me, nothing especially noticeable happened, but it seems to have really had quite a strong impact on my life, it started off with a change in routine, instead f the usual Monday lunchtime french club, i was roped in to cover for Matt and did JP2S in William Hutson school. this is a group of kids who i usually do a lunchtime youth club with on a Friday at their school, and it was slightly unusual for me to see them in a classroom setting. i had previously thought of the group as being out of control, and i had really not envied Kay, Matt and Steve for going there every Monday to try to actually impart some wisdom onto these kids. however, after spending the two hour session with them, my opinion had been completely changed. i realised that these were just children who craved some attention and so played up in clubs in order to try to achieve this goal.
this was a real eye-opener.
the rest of the week was somewhat un-eventful, it flew by, as most of time seems to be doing recently.
Thursday was another good day for me. i woke up surprisingly early to say i don't have to be at work until 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon, but when i woke up at 8.43 i found myself unable to go back to sleep. it's probably connected to the inability to sleep that i have recently developed, but all the same, i decided that i should get up and make some use of my time, rather than lying in my bed, and trying to force sleep upon myself.
so i got up and decided that a useful way to use my time, would be biblically. so i had a shower and at about 9 i settled down to what thought would be a light prayer and meditation session. i must've been more into it that i thought, because by the time i was starting to think that it was time to wrap up the praying, i glanced up at my clock and had to double check when the time was just past 11. i cant remember a great deal of the specifics of this time, but i felt a lot better for the time i had spent, and i really feel like i sorted some things out with god in that time. the rest of my Thursday was great. i didn't do a lot until i got my bus to Stretton to go to William Shrewsbury, where i was supervising some singing for the little'us then taught an re lesson on "christian values and the impact they have on our lives" which was basically the ten commandments etc. but it was good.
usually after this teaching i go home to relax and help with the dinner or whatever, but for some reason, i felt the urge to go into Burton, so i caught the bus and decided that i wanted to go to Costa Coffee, so i did. i ordered my drink and sat down, briefly facebooked on my phone then sat and watched the world go by for an hour or so. i really enjoyed just sitting and watching the people g about their lives. it really made me stop and appreciate the time i have, and what a wonderful gift God has given me in putting me in Burton this year.
i had a good end to the week, and a good, albeit tiring weekend. and i find myself surprisingly refreshed for the approaching week.

as for the two weeks before this one, i am afraid to say that it would appear my memory is going to fail me.

i will endeavour, in future to give a more detailed account of my life, at least once a week, as I'm sure that I'll be able to find the time to write a little something at some point.

bible verse of note at the moment:

Psalms 5:8
"Lead me in the right path, O LORD, or my enemies will conquer me. Make your way plain for me to follow"

with my uncertainty of next year, and the rest of my plans for future life, wherever i may be, and whatever i may be doing, this verse is one I've been going over, as i pray that God will show me the path i need to take in my life and will make the way i should follow, more available for me to see and act upon.

peace.
x

busy times

so much has happened (yet again) since i last blogged..
last weekend, i had a long weekend off work.. which i uesd to briefly go home.. and i also used to go to London with Kelsey, Nicole, and Si.
OMG!
best weekend of my entire life...
we didn't really do a great deal of anything much seeing as we were only there for like 3 days, and it was Nicole's first time in London so we had a whole city of touristy opotunities available to us..
but this is what we did...
FRIDAY.
on friday morning, i got the train from oxford at like 10.30 (i was supposed to be getting the train at like 9.30, but me being stupid me, i left the train tickets at the office in Burton -Dang! so i tried to get them sent home to see if i could get them changed or get money off new ones.. but in the end the post was taking too long to come, so i gave up and just caved in... and bought new tickets.. some stress and £21 later.. i was on the train and on my way to Paddington)
so i arrived in london at 11.20 ish.. i cant really remember the exact time.. and i hung around in paddington station for a little bit because Kelsey and Nicole were getting into Kings Cross later and were meeting me in Paddington...
So Kelsey had arranged (through our YFC buddy Caitlin) to stay with this guy called Jonathan who lived just outside of Wimbledon.. this, at first seemed like a great plan..
and all was well. Kelsey and Nicole met him in Kings Cross and the three of them then came to Paddington to get me before heading on home to his house..
it was ok at first, he was really nice, friendly and chatty and it seemed like a great idea.
so we got back to his house and Kelsey, Nicole, and I were watching TV when he left to pick up his girlfriend who was sick.. so we were left, alone in a random persons house..
we were sitting watching tv and the doorbell rings.. i apparently had to go answer the door, and it turns out to be one of Jonathan's mum's friends with a book to give to her... i didnt do the smoothest job of acting like i should've been in the house.. and i'm surprised that she didn't accuse me of breaking in...
then the parents arrived home...
this was ok.. untill they talked to us.. they didnt know us, and it would appear, had no idea why we were staying in their house.. so we tried to explain our selves, and how we, very obscurely knew Jonathan.
then we had to eat... of all the food in the whole word to serve three strangers who are staying with you...top of my list of what not to serve: Spaghetti!
so it was good spaghetti.. but SO awkward (the one word to sum up our entire time in that house)
then the dad asked me how long i'd been in the UK.. for some reason he thought i was American..
we then returned to the sitting room to watch tv and the other son - Geoff, kept offering to come to London with us in the morning.. we didn't reallty want him to come, but Nicole as good as told him to come with us..
SATURDAY.
we woke up early ish and ate breakfast in a state of awkwardness, just for a change.
we got a lift to the station by the mum and from there.. the awkwardness was put on hold for the day..
we made our way into London on the overground.. then the underground..
first of all we checked out Trafalgar etc. and wandered around for a bit not really doing a lot.. then we went to a little coffee shop for nicole (who LOVES coffee) to buy some coffee for Lunden.
it was a really nice little shop.. and she bought two bags of coffee (one decaf and one regular)
we then wandered our way back into the middle of London in time to go to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards
it was really busy.. and we didnt have the best view in the world.. but it was good all the same..
we then wandered back around again and headed towards... HAMLEYS!!!
yay.
so much fun...
i think we probably spent about 30 minutes in the Harry Potter section alone.. it was amazing.. and one thing i can draw from being there - i want a wand.
after Hamleys we made our way towards the theatre ready for WICKED!!!
:D
it was SO good.. i loved it..
i'd seen a film of the play before.. but it just didnt compare.. this was awesome!
after the joys of musicals we met Si and then a little while after.. we met Kelsey's friend from Texas - Chris..
we then walked around and undergrounded around a little more.. we saw the Tower of London in the dark and rain and saw Tower Bridge.. which was lovely..
the 5 of us then got on the tube and headed in the direction of Chris's School (Uni) and Kelsey, Nicole, Si and I got off in Earl's Court.. where we randomly met Jordan (from YFC) so we rode the tube with him for a while.. untill we got to his stop.. then we carried on a little further to Wimbledon where Si turned round and headed back and the remaining three of us were picked back up by Geoff and his dad..
the awkwardness returns...
the entire car journey back was spent with the dad explaining to the car at large the numerous reasons why "soccer" was better than american football, and why it was more popular in this country..
thanks for that.
once we'd got back, Nicole, unable to bare the awkwardness any more.. went for a shower.. and never came back downstairs.. Kelsey and i sat on one half of one sofa in the room watching films... (the lack of advert breaks made the need to talk blissfully unnecessary!)
SUNDAY.
we woke up.. and Nicole and Kelsey joined me in my room / the sitting room soon to be joined by Geoff in a t-shirt and his boxers - nice!
we pretty much ran away as soon as we could after that....
Jonathan gave Nicole and i a lift to the underground station.. and took Kelsey to Heathrow...
where she propmtly ran away home and left me here for what seems like forever...
:'(
i have no idea what i'm going to do with myself came June 26th......
so Nicole and i met up with Si again, and we went to Hillsong Church in London..
it was really good, despite the fact they were pushing us to give them money most the time.. it was really good.. and i really liked the worship..
after this we went to starbucks then did a few slightly more touristy things...
-Parliment
-Big Ben
-London Eye (we walked past, we didnt have the time or money to actually ride it)
-Millenium Bridge
-St. Pauls..
by this time we needed to begin making our way home..
so we wandered and tubed our way to Paddington where we sat and chatted and ate for a while..
then Si took his train, leaving just me and Nicole..
after like an hour of watching one pidgeon with NO FEET be bullied by this fat greedy pigeon.. it was time for me to leave..
Nicole and i then had a reasuring conversation ending in us being positive that the tube was going to break down for weeks, and the only reason that Nicole wouldn't die, would be that she'd spent her last bit of money on loads, and loads of water just in case the tube broke down..
so i went.
and Nicole went.
thus concludes the best weekend in the history of mankind.

wow. longest post ever...
go me..
Kelsey - you better be thankful and proud of me for this..
i expect the spelling and punctuation is awful...
and i love how my flaws bring you so much joy...

ciao.

xx

long time, no.... type?

it's been a LONG time since i blogged
so much has happened, i'm sure...
but my memory being like the seive it is..
i can't remember a lot of it..
so i'll work my way backwards, from the future, to now, the back to the past..
today is thursday...
and tomorow morning.. i'll be getting on the train to London to meet up with Kelsey and Nicole (and Simon with fingers crossed....!)
what we will do: we'll im not entirely sure..
i believe it's up to Nicole... so i think we're doing some touristy things.. hamleys, shopping possibly the aquarium etc. which should be amazing! on saturday.. we're going to see WICKED!
i can't wait.. it should be awesome!!
i love the theatre... and musicals and i can't wait.
then on sunday morning, Nicole and i are going to Hillsong Church and Kelsey is getting the plane back to Texas (yay...? (apparently) i'm going to miss her...)
these last few days (tuesday and wednesday) i was at modular training with YFC- on a course called "working with hard to reach young people".
it was an amazing 24 hours...
it was great to see loads of people again.. and to catch up with them, even if the time we had to socialise was quite a small one.
after half term, i am starting a Youth Alpha course ( :D ) with Rachel (youthworker from my church) and Kim (vicar from my church).
i cannot wait for it to start.. this is the age of youth that i really love working with (16 - 18 year olds) so i am so excited to start to see what God will be able to do through me to influence these young people into turning to Christ, or at the very least, making them start to think about their lives, and their faith / beliefs.
i cannot wait.
it should be awesome.
after half term, i am also starting a youth club with my church at the local primary school, William Shrewsbury, called Cre8 which is aimed at year 3 and 4.
other than that..
i cant really remember anything of note that has happened
so i'll leave it there
Ciao for now.

xx

kinda sleepy

understatement of the century..
i have had about 2 hours sleep (if i'm lucky) and i am babysitting tonight.. i may be forced to follow in the footsteps of my best friend kelsey and start up the tradition of afternoon naps in this house. we'll have to see, i dont much like the idea of becoming an old person quite yet.
so the reason for the tiredness... children!
small annoying children with far too much energy.
you would think a bedtime of 1.00 am would be plenty late enough... but nooooooo, they're going to stay up until way past that...
so, i eventually fell asleep at about 2.00 i'd guess and was sleeping comfortably when at about 3.00 am, Matt woke me up to inform me that the guys had started throwing a ball across the room and we're attacking each other in the dark.
not good.
i was not a happy chappy (as someone who will remain un-named used to say).
anyway. once this distraction was finaly dealt with, it was almost 4.00.
seeing as we we're supposed to be waking up at 8.00, i thought that another four hours sleep would do me good.
sadly, it was not to be.. the children decided that three more hours "sleep" was quite enough for one night, so that just before 7.00 they woke up again and unfortunately, that was it for the night.

anyway, enough ranting about sleep deprivation...

the rest of my week (and the week before that, since i haven't posted in some time) was very good. i cant remember a great deal of specifics, but i had a productive week, got a lot done and i am really satrting to be given more responisbilities with the stuff that i want to be more involved with which is awesome!

Also -COMMISSIONING!!!
yay!
it was so amazing to see everyone again, and great to see my family and friends.
i got to meet some peoples families as well, which was really good
there was a great service as well with some awesome worship which i had been craving somewhat...
all in all, it was a great day!

in a week and a bit.. we have our first modular training day back in Halesowen, so i'll get to see everyone AGAIN!!
yay!

just after that - London!
i'm going to London with my best friend Kelsey and our other friend Nicole...
which should be a great day or two...
:D

i cant think of much else to say.. so i will add some pictures..
and leave it there...

Fletch and his twin (and Tom) they're the same!!!!

Jess, Heather, Jo and I (at training)

that is all....

ciao!

xxx

times a-changing

so.....
just when i thought my timetable was sorted and i was begining to settle into a routine - it gets changed!
so yay!
but it is a good thing i suppose, i'm now doing more, which will keep me busy, and doing more "christ - related things" which is also good!
so this monday (today) i did an assembly about harvest!
which was good times...
we made children do taste / smell tests on food and got them to guess what it was whilst they were blindfolded.. it was good.. and seemed to work.. the kids loved it and was quite easy to do.
after this, i had french club again with Sue which was really good, the kids are very enthusiastic and most seem to want to actually learn french. we are still getting new people joining even on it's third week which is making it a little awkward for consistance, as we now have people at so many different levels it makes it hard to have activities that keep everyone happy all the time... There is also this one kid called Liam who is a special needs student who demands all of the attention on everyone at all times. he is quite sweet and blatenly doesn't want to learn french as he asked me and Sue today what club we were running when this is his third week of coming... but he's not doing anything wrong, he just sits at the back of the club and does his own thing and seems quite happy with it, and the teachers seem happy that he's being supervised for the time that we're there.
Oh well...
the this evening i was at GG and FOG. they were good. i got to see Jake again which was nice. and in GG we did filming for the 60 second movie clip thing for the competition, which seemd good. it was along the same standard as the other, it was ok, and seemed to work, but it was not competition winner...
FOG's group was good tonight, we followed the usual trend of not really doing much, but it seems to work, and they keep comming back, so i can't really diss the way they do things. but today's group was more religion based than any of the other 4 groups that i've attended. we actually read from the bible, and prayed and everything!
it was awesome!

The weekend just gone, Matt, Tom and I did the first of six parts of our Engage course in Nottingham. firstly, it took us about a month to get there we took a train from burton to nottingham, the a bus for about 20 mins, the we still had to walk for about another 2o minutes before we got there.
It was RIDICULOUS!
but the course itself was really good...
interesting and informative and i expect that it will be pretty useful in the year to come.
the downside is - Homework :(
we have two 500 - 800 word things to write, the do this other presentation type thing of our spiritual life journey.. which could be interesting....
the upside - we got to see ERIN! and SEAN!
yay....
it was so good to see them.. and we had a great time...
i think that'll do for today..
5 days untill commissioning! 
i can't wait!

as a good friend of mine would say - peace out trout.
x