Work, Work

Well it has been awhile, no one probably reads this anymore! I have decided not to neglect this poor blog any longer! My xanga is fading as well... Although not much in my life is exciting at the moment!
It really is like i work in an office. 10-4. It is great, hahah I guess. I stare at the computor screen alot. Sometimes I go do cleaning. But it has been our mission after our 10 days of prayer to start getting more involved in the community as well as getting the word out about our base! We never get Scots here anymore! It is really amazing, because we were invited to come put up a booth at a Church in glasgow! So we are doing that this sunday. I have been putting together a video for people to kind of get the feel of what it is like. But after spending 7 hours preparing it something went wrong...ugh! I went back to work on it this morning and all the files are like missing. Well they need to be uploaded again into the program! So all my editing is gone. Only on some though. But that was a lot of work. Now to start again. Oh well at least I enjoy it!
The house is quite quiet now! We have three of us girls living here. The rest are in the States visiting home. Three weeks and my parents come visit!!!! Then 2 after that and I get to see my first Scottish wedding, then the next day my sister her husband and his parents are all coming here! and i get to stay with them! Oh im sooo excited. Right after that i head home! Its really great becuase I now know so many people along the west coast! I would love to go visit them all! 3 in Oregon, 1 in Washington! Even 3 in the Lower Mainland of BC. Dang... I have a new thing I am trying to do. I want to meet a person from every state. I have got 13 down I believe. But the conditions are that it needs to be for two weeks or more. I even say that it needs to be YWAM. But maybe not, that can be decided if need be. Ok let me recap where i know people... Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Texas, Missouri, Wisconson, Ohio, Illinios (that one is iffy), Tenessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Nebraska.... ok I think that is everyone! yup 13... sweet... next DTS Ill know more! hahah Ah i love meeting new people. It getting harder to keep on saying good bye though. Sigh. oh well... Alright I am off to work! Cheers mates

Outreach Pictures!

I finally had time to post some pics. I hope you enjoy, they are not in order sorry! cheers

The End of our 90km hike!

Me n the boys on the beach in Morocco

In London Town

Santiago De Compostella Cathedral. Where the disciple James is buried

An early morning during the hike, it was beautiful

7 Weeks Later

Outreach is officially over. I arrived back into Paisley this afternoon. Im exhausted. We spent the night in the Stansted airport, I actually slept about 5 hours surprisingly! We had spent the day in London. Well first off before I talk abotu outreach I would like to thank everyone who sent me something! I was so excited to find soooo much mail here waiting for me! Family I love all the gifts...and I loved reading all the newsletters makes me feel a lil closer to home! I had a mini christmas up in my room. I put on christmas music and everything. It was awesome.

Alright so outreach. Wow looking back is odd, I havent processed it yet. It was hard, hard to lead four guys with another girl leader. So the beginning. We started out in Gibralter. Oh my an amazing place. So beautiful and the people were amazing. We were shown hospitality I had never dreamed of. We worked with the local Catholic church. It was really interesting because I had never really know much about Catholosism but this church had recently had a Revival Rennual. We worked with the youth group. Some fun kids. We also spoke at the school to 16-18 year old girls. It was a religion class but its main focus was Christianity so we spoke about our walk with God. Most girls were not Christian. I think we had quite an impact on them, we were told they never ask questions but they were firing them off quite hard. There was even a Muslim girl who normally is excused from the class because she is muslim but she decided to stay and listen to us. We started out by handing out flowers that had lil verses on them telling them they are beautiful in Gods sight. They all let out "awwws". The guys were a big hit.

The next place was Morocco. There was mostly prayer. We stayed in Essaouira for 7 days and just prayed, handed out money and food to beggars and hung out with some of our old friends we had met last year. I loved being back there but it was nice to leave after 10 days. It is very spritiually waring there.

Then into Spain! We went quite all over! Madrid was first. We stayed at the YWAM base there. This was over Christmas and New Years so we had quite a bit of time off. I enjoyed seeing the centre of Madrid, very beautiful. We also painted some of the rooms for the base, just to help them out.

Next after a lot of prayer we decided to go to Santiago De Compostela. Jules knew about an ancient Celtic trek that was 90km long. So low and behold we did it! With full packs! But thankfully we had decided to pack light and left most of our stuff in Madrid to pick up later. Santiago is a beautiful city. Awesome people. I felt so welcome there. We met another Missions Organization that owned a coffee shop so that was really cool. Alright now the hike, it was hard. Definitly not easy. I got really bad blisters and every was exhausted. But we pulled through, we even had some good laughing times. The scenery was breathtaking. It did not look like Spain at all. Finesterra was the last town, it was quaint, light house on the west coast. Hundreds of years ago pilgrames would walk there from southern spain and come to this shore and burn their clothes. So we each burned some of our clothes. It was fun:)

The last week was spent in Seville. We had some awesome prayer there but it was only two days and we flew out. Now Im back. Debrief weeks starts on Monday then Graduation on Friday. I cannot believe its so close to over! Thank you everyone for your prayers, please continue to pray for renewing strength! Love you all! God Bless

The rain in spain fall mainly in the plain!

Its that time once again. To say goodbye. My life is full of goodbyes. Some happy others sad. I feel like I say goodbye to people leaving more than myself leaving. Maybe that is because I am now a fixture in Stanely House. We are leaving in about 2 hours for the train station in paisley where we will head over to the Prestwick Airport. Our flight leaves at 1645pm and heads right over to Murcia, Spain. I believe we arrive at 2045. or so. We will, God willing, find a hostel! Then the next day we bus over to Gibralter!
Now I have no idea how much I will be able to check email or post so ya.This may be goodbye for a time! thankfully Chase is taking his laptop! So i can put my pictures on him computor and post them! Oh and we will be in Morocco from the 8th-18th and I dont think I will check my xanga or anything:S YWAMese is on here to much and i dont have time to unywamese it! hahaha! But please pray for me and my team, for safe travel, random meetings to witness, umm unity! that is a big one, and health too. Also for Jules and myself as leaders and also when we go into Morocco, im not looking forward to feeling the way i felt last year with the men there. Please pray for protection over us! Ahhh thank you everyone! Im going to miss you all so much, although most I miss already! #
To sign off I left a few pics of our teams:) enjoy!

Greece, Turkey, Isreal Team

Spain Team

September DTS 2005

God Bless!!!!

Waiting for the warmth

Wow its been way too long. Seriously. Ive gotten so hooked on my xanga which has background pics and music. But there I post really short. See here I guess I can post longer. But by now noone checks this blog cuz i havent written in it for so long! IM SORRY!
Now catchup time. Oh dear this may take awhile. Ok lets see. This past month has been our last of lectures. We went over to West Kilbride to the base Seamill there. We had a week of lectures. It was great. Such a beautiful place. I got to watch the sunset one night set over the mountains on the Isle of Aaron. Wow amazing. I should show a picture ok here just a sec

Ok there. So gorgoeus eh! Alright so ya, this week was kind of our culture shock and such time. I missed three of the days cuz one was my day off then two I had this new staff training meeting. It was for people all across YWAM Scotland. It was really cool. The first day we met in Stirling had learned stuff and presented stuff from other bases and prayed for them as well. Hung out with people building relationships. It was really cool. Today was here at Stanely and we did more of the same. I really enjoyed learning about each base! I had no idea what they did, dang God is doing some amazing work in Scotland. Using some amazing people too. Then the National Leadership Team came and ate a huge feast...an English Lady made us a Thanksgiving dinner.Oh it was good. Then the NLT guys all prayed for us... It was really really cool.

That has been my last two days. Oh wait last night I went over to the Killingsworths for one of their birthdays and we had another huge turkey dinner! Oh so good. Watched some Napolian Dynamite as well. hahah Oh and I had some sparkling champagne too. It wasnt too terrible, although it was some cheap sugary stuff. It was festive! hahah

Now outreach! We leave in 4 days! Monday the 28th! So I will let you know our plan oh and before I forget...our school has an outreach xanga! it is www.xanga.com/cwdts we will be updating it was we travel! Both teams. anyway...ok So first we are flying into Murcia....we dotn know where we are staying yet there. The next day we are taking a bus into Gibralter. Its really cool because that was the original place. The very first one mentioned in prayer and it is the most open and has tons for us to do. We even have places to stay for free which is so amazing. We will be there for about 1o days then we will be getting on a ferry down to Morocco! We will be in Morocco for 8 or 9 days. We will be in Essaouira . Oh and just to let you know I probable wotn be able to check this while I am there. So in Essaouira we will be visiting our old friends. Maybe doing some construction or so. now after we leave morocco we are unsure! We are still waiting to hear from two YWAM bases. in Madrid and Bilboa. Madrid looks promising but we are not sure! We are following Gods voice!

Alright I need to be off! Thanks for all the prayers! Sorry for the lack of writing!

cheers

cherie

Time for something new

ahhh Im sorry! Its been forever since I posted. We went away for a week then had guests here and stuff so things have been soo crazy! Well we have decided on outreach. I am going to Spain! We are flying into Murcia which is on the east Coast...then going down to Malaga....we are thinking of going into Morocco but still praying about it. Jules and I are leading this team then John is leading a team into Athens and pilgramaging down into israel. Itll be great.

Hmmm other things....our trip to Iona was alright. Not the best. It rained a ton! so horrible. The place is so beautiful in the sun. Then we headed up to Lewis which was also quite rainy. But still great. We stayed at Moraig McPails house. Her husband is normally our speaker when we go there but he past away a coupel months ago! Moraig being her amazing self still had us there...all 12 of us! Dear Lady. They are amazing ppl...

I thought i would post some pictures of Iona....it is just too beautiful to pass up! Things are going good....lil stressful but not bad...Im tired and this weekend I got almost no sleep...Woke up at 5am on morn and 7 the other to say goodbye to some friends....
enjooy the pics!

The Group of us on Martyr's Beach

Aint it just gorgeous!!!!

cheers love you all

cherie

Beautiful

I have to admit that none of these are my own photography! The first couple are from an amazing photographer who was a student in the May school. Alex. If you want to see more of his pictures you can go to his xanga, www.xanga.com/Tweirdisted ya they are amazing. He went to Kenya on his outreach and wow they are like right out of National Geographic! Which is his dream:) Then the last one is Jacquelines, a student in my school. I just really liked hers!

Stanely House, my home. This is taken across the resevoir. Alex did edit out all the other houses but ya it is beautiful
Im actually not sure exactly where this is taken, im sure on one of the islands in Scotland. Amazing photography!

Alright I decided to post some Kenya ones, just to get a feel. Ah they are amazing. Enjoy.

This is back in good ole England. This in on the beach at Ross Sands in Northumbria. Beautiful.

I hope you enjoyed all my colorful photos:) cheers

cherie

My Job

I have a lot going through my mind today. Good things. Ive been thinking about my job. What is my job? Im a missionary. What do i do? I equipp young people to go out into all nations and tell about Jesus. Im 19. The people Im in charge of are mostly older than I. Why am I so far away doing something so crazy at a young age? Cuz I felt God calling me. Sometimes it felt wierd that he would call me to do this, but its days like today I feel encouraged. I am here doing God's Will and seeing the changes I make in peoples lives, not only that. I am growing in my relationship with God amazingly. I see him in every day life. It is what I have been searching for for so long. Yet the question comes up in my mind, "Why do I have to be in Scotland to find that?". It was like I was blind in Abbotsford and could not search God the right way. I dont know.

While I am here I am meeting amazing people from all over the world. The Netherlands, Germany, North Carolina, Illinios, California, Ohio, Texas, ummm....Oregon, oh man the list could go on! So yes, I love it, it is hard leaving them but its one of the facts of life at the same time. Things change.

Today was an intense day. Really for being a missionary its takes a lot of time. I dont really have my own life! I had lecture with the students from pretty much 730am -1230pm then had 45 min then had lunch during a base staff meeting which started at 115 and went to 345! wow now it is my time:) and I am writing in my blog and watching videos I made yesterday:)

Alright I am off, to see more pictures you can go to www.xanga.com/sunshineglorydays
cheers
cherie

Ceilidh

Wow, this weekend has just flown by! So crazy busy! The house has been super loud. The May DTS is made of all extraverts while our school is mainly introverts....so adding the others is quite surprising, but nice for me! I have people that are like me here now! hahah We had a speaker Chris Brown for Wed and Thurs then on friday we watched a video series. The great and awesome "Roots n Fruits of Pride" by Floyed McClung. Ahhhh good times. Those are some intense times. It was really good though.

All day friday was getting ready for the May schools graduations. We helped clean the rooms, make the food and set up everything. Then all the girls locked their doors to their rooms so they could primp for at least an hour:) The graduation was wonderful! Mel, the German Staffer, made lasagna. It was delicious. The decorations were beautiful too! Then we all moved into the lecture hall and watched a video one of the girls made. Ahhh it made me almost cry, all these memories they had. Then they got their certificates and said blessings over each student. Oh man there was one girl, Michele, after she got her blessing she did this funny dance back to her seat, it involved flayling arms and jumping...well she was wearing these knited shoes and ummm our floor is wood...she totally slipped and fell on her side. It was something you would see on Funniest Home Videos...Ah we burst out laughing. She was ok. hahah

Later one we had a Ceilidh, now for those of you who dont know what that is....its a Scottish themed night...type thing...it is like a Barn dance. Like its a night for stories, games, and the most popular...dancing. There is an announcer too! And you dance to bagpipes! Oh wow is it funny! There is a dance called the Canadian Barn dance...but its totally scottish! hahah Another dance is called the Virginia Wheel...I like that one. With almost all of them you get a partner and go around in a circle doing the steps, it is great fun. This is my third one and I still suck at it! Although I finally mastered the parts where you had to waltz!!!! I was so proud of myself, although most of hte times it was because I let the guy lead:) I got some wonderful pictures...so i lied....I have some wondeful video footage...which I cant show on here...I have one alright picture:)


This is the last dance of the night I forget what it is called but everyone stands a two lines and the top people spin 16 times then each go to the opposite sex and spin then spin each other then the next people they spin with then spin each other....you can kinda get the picture...Wow do you get dizzy!!! but ya...dang! It was some good times though!

It was sad to see that this was everyones last night together, one girl left this morning and the rest leave on monday. It is hard to say good bye. Alright I better be off...i slept in till 1230 this morn! yes!
cheers
cherie

Bitter Sweet

I am back at Stanely! This is the biggest bitter sweet time ever. Let me try and shed some light on my life. First the good. There is a May school that is just finishing up here, well half of their team just arrived back from Kenya! So last night was like a giant party, the loudness was huge! Every one yelling and laughing all the way until midnight. It was great.

Now the down side. We have a thing in YWAM called IWAC....meaning It Will Always Change. Last night was one of those times. Phil, the male DTS staff member, decided to leave and focus on starting his family. He is engaged. It was painful for everyone, students and staff alike. So we had a meeting with the students which was hard but amazing at the same time. We were able to bless Phil and release him. Then as we are finishing praying, the Kenya team arrives with volumes!

That was the bitter-sweet. Very odd night, very odd day in fact. I would like to ask for prayer for our entire base. It has been a hard hit but God is working in it. You know that verse, rejoice in the times of sorrow. This is it. It is so hard to see Phil leave. Not cool at all. Also there are now 6 guys without a mentor, they were all really close to Phil and it was extremely hard for them to see him go.

Alright now my trip. The trek was great. God blessed us majorly with sun every day! Three of the days is was supposed to rain a lot! It was hard. St Cuthberts 100km hike (62 miles) . It hurt, I had forgotten how painful it was. The last 2 km is over sand and I was actually limpy quite badly by then. We passed some of the most beautiful places in all of the UK. So here I would like to show them, I am not the best photographer but I tried!

Ahhh this one is great. Well almost all of our 6 guys went out in the first couple weeks and bought expensive kilts. And decided the trek was the perfect time to wear them! (even in England...oh that didnt go over too well) Well this is about 30 minutes into our hike when we come acroos our first beautiful field. Boaz and Chase just jumped at the invitation and here they are frolicking in the beautiful fields.

Ahhhh the highest point of all the hike! ahhh great time. It was soo cold! Alright let me explain everyone. Chase is on the left stopping the bagpipes to point and laugh at Daniel down below. Phil thinks he is cool being tall, Jane is just laughing histarically holding Stephs leg, where Steph feels like a beauty queen. I think im all tough and stuff while Micah does the old primary school peace behind my head. Bjorn is like "I really dont know these people" while Boaz is "Hey look at me Im a Dutch man in a Kilt!!! argggg". Front row left we have Daniel and I really dont knowo what he is doing. Bending down...all I can think is that he is laughing so hard he keeled over. Then Jacqueline is being her pretty little self smiling away. Then last but not least is Duncan, being his wild self and a umm rebel! hahaha Ah what a great school eh!

These are the signs we followed every day. Ah it was hard to find them once in awhile but they were cute. We lost them about 4 times! ahh not cool!

Alright these pics are taking forever maybe ill post more later! Everyone have a great day and my glasses are bugging the heck out of me right now so I am off to put contacts in!

Cheers

cherie

Alright

Alright,
At the moment, we are waiting, waiting, and um ya waiting. We were supposed to leave an hour ago! ahh. We are heading off to England yay...well not yet. We are heading down to Melrose to start are great 100km hike down to England! yay. Tim is our speaker this year! ya Tim, he was ours last year as well, fun guy:) haha Just thought i would give a heads up that I will not be blogging or anything for 10 days! Have a great 10 days, ill have to catch up on all xangas and such after!!!! byes
cheers
cherie

Busyness is not a virtue

Im so very sorry, my bloggings have slowed. I have to blame it on xanga hahah its takin up my blogging time. And my emailing time for that matter! Well this past week has been very great and it is the weekend. Not too much of a relaxing weekend but good none the less. Friday we had this big speaker guy come to Stanely house. About 70 people showed up for it. It was quite funny, we found that most of our house staff congregated in the office to get away from all the people. I only knew about 3 of them and they barely remebered me so there wasnt really any one besides our staff to talk to. Everyone was YWAM Scotland staff. We all felt our precious house being over run! haha...i just ended up busying myself with refeshing tea water and bisquits! I also have a lot of hospititaly stuff to do since Mel is in Ireland.

Friday night I headed over with John, May DTS staff, to the Killingsworths, the base leaders house. We played a game of LOTR Risk with the boys and John and I lost. It wasnt our fault! We got the crappiest cards! hahah and our rolls went down the tube. Oh well. We also watched a movie. Interesting walking back to Stanely house at 130am with drunk teens all over the place! haha

Saturday was amazing! Slept in then woke up to an almost empty house! All the students had left for Stirling and other staff other places! So i made myself some beloved tea and sat and watched the first three episodes of Lost. Great show. Then watched a movie. Yes it was my relaxing day and I loved it. I love being home alone, especially when that means that 20 ppl are gone! Then around 8 Steph Killingsworth picked me up and I head to Barstille, a pub in Glasgow to watch her friends play jazz. It was great fun, got some sweet pictures and a few videos!

Woke up after another late night this morning and headed into Glasgow with Jules. Ah it was fun girl times. We went to our favorite Starbucks which now Steph K has a job at! Hmmm Peppermint Mocha! Then we headed to Borders and hung out there for about an hour. I bought a travel diary which is really cool! I can put pictures and stamps and tickets and stuff in it! Also I bought a book called Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. He wrote The Da Vinci Code. It will be interesting, I hear that it is quite a different perspective than myself. Hmmm... It was cheap so why not. I like good mysteries!

My greatest friend Kelsi has made it to France. She is doing her DTS, discipleship training school. Im so excited for her! It mostly in French too! She is hopefully coming to visit me at the end of March! yay! Alright I better be off! cheers
cherie

Just Like School

I have to say Discipleship Training Schools are just like real school! You have classes every morning! Well we have had a speaker Angela Kratti, who is German, speak on Spiritual Warfare and Intercession. Wow it is amazing! Such a different few on things and so interesting. I love it when a preacher or teacher shows scripture and the point is just magnified through the Word of God. Then its like a revelation! These scriptures and ideas you have heard before but never thought about it "that" way! But ya.
I finished my other puzzle on Sunday, and started a new one today. So this is my third puzzle and Ive been here three weeks. Oh dear. Its an Anne Geddes one! So cute but it is going to be a hard one. The whole thing is sunflowers and it is 900 peices of that. Oh with one lil baby in the middle.
So saturday our team went Gorge Walking. Its where you put on a wet suit and walk up a river. Its the best for group pictures because everyone just looks hilarious in these wet suits and brightly colored helmets and life jackets! It was so windy and cold. The poor students were shivering. Steph had a bad cold too!

The picture on the left is our team! plus two! hahaha and missing Jules and I. But Ok let me see if I can say everyone. Front row is Daniel (the one with no helmet) The second row starting on the left with the blue helmet is Micah, Jacqueline, Steph, Chase, Jane, Duncan, Ally (who is not a student) and her brother Daniel who is also not a student. Then top row from left is Bjorn, Phil, and Boaz! hahah there we go! Phil is the other staff. Ah dont they look great!

This place we went to is called the "Devils Pulpit". Oh was it gorgeous. Julie and I walked along the edge of the gorge and filmed and had a load of cameras. Well we could only walk about 2 minutes with them becuase the gorge was giant! It was great fun. We had to climb down these steep stairs it was so scary. I was holding a video camera as I went and recording but Julie made me put it away cuz I probably would have died! It was so slippery and the stairs we so old they pointed down! But all around was beautiful. The green was breathtaking.

Well I must be off. Oh just to let you know I have also now joined the world of xanga! I know a lot of people in it, but I am keeping both. I think this will be my serious one and xanga will just be funny random jokes and stuff! so if you want to check it out as well it is www.xanga.com/sunshineglorydays the only thing is that you have to be a member to comment :S sorry. You could always leave a comment on here about it! Well thats enough! cheers mate!
cherie

Understanding

I have had a few things consuming my mind these past few days. Its friendship and loss. First of what is friendship? Frienship is a person who you enjoy seeing, who you enjoy spending time with. Someone you feel comfortable with. Someone who you can talk to about almost anything.
Those are just a few things I thought of, Im sure there are many more things to describe friendship. The reason its been on my mind is I feel Ive lost a friendship, well I dont know what to make of it. Its brought me back to many past friendships I have lost. Over the years there have been a few. But some I didnt feel the loss. Others I have felt a deep loss. Now that is what is going around my mind. The loss feeling. Now why is it that being around a lost friendship makes the feeling of loss multiply? And opposite why is it that if the person is not around the feeling of loss almost is gone. Is it the out of sight out of mind way of thinking? I just dont understand. Hearing about the person and such is hard. And Im not just talking about more than just friends relationships. Im talking about real friendships between anyone. I guess I feel a loss and I dont even know if Ive lost this friendship. It feels like it. I guess the feeling of loss depends on the deepness of friendship.

Hmm ramblings. Dont you love them. I hate this feeling. I think though it is larger because Im far from home. Oh dear. I believe that is enough ramblings for today. It was heavy on my mind so getting it out helped:)
Alright good bye
Cherie

Only Thursday

Today was our last day of classes taught by Jackie Kratti. They were all really good. I had him last year and really enjoyed his teachings on the Holy Spirit. He taught a little bit different this year which was really cool. Wednesday was my morning off! It felt so good! I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 1030 the next morning. Oh wow! I made myself a delicious breakfast and some tea and went and watched Sleepless In Seattle. Oh I love that movie. I want to go to New York one day.
It was enjoyable and fun. Oh and Tuesday night we went out for small group to a little coffee shop. Its called Kikko's and its in Johnston. We were the only ones there and the guy working asked us why we came to Johnston! He said its the blank of Scotland. Sorry its a bad word I wont repeat. But it starts with an a! Well we have heard that Paisley is the armpit of Scotland. Really there are no tourists here! hahah its nice though. We are surrounded by Scots! I love Paisley, I think its beautiful. Although it cant compare to Edinburgh I admit but still it has its own quirks!
I went into town by myself yesterday, boy was that interesting! Ah I hate getting on buses! Im sure one day Ill be more comfortable but oh well. I did buy a book! Runaway Jury by John Grisham! I love the movie and Ive read almost every other book by him so I cant wait.
Well I better be off, I have a staff meeting! Monday was crazy we have 3 hours of meetings! oh boy! They had to continue the next day even! hahah oh well its great! byes!
Cheers
cherie

as she sits upon a window sill

she knows that love is something she'll never feel

and her tears keep her company

as she dreams of how love could be

and as she cries someone whispers in her ear

I died for you, I died for you, my dear

and as she falls, into her daddy's arms, she knows that this is true

and as she cries, he cries too

she could hardly see, but she could believe

and as she knows, in her heart of hearts that the Lord loves her so

and as she smiles, someone whispers in her ear

I love you, I love you, my dear

LaRue

Tired, Sweaty and Sore

I am happy. I just climbed a Munro, well it isn't quite a Munro but almost. A Munro is about 950 meters high. So we climbed just under that! Oh wow! I'm so sore now. But it felt good too. Now I am sitting here drinking my cup of tea. Oh that feels good. Gary also fixed the tub this last summer so I can have a bath with hot water! Oh I cant wait! The weather was alright for the hike. We were really supposed to do it on Wednesday but then it kept getting pushed back. So now its Sunday and it was probably the best day to do it. Although at the peak it was freezing. Alpine conditions. Oh dear was I bone chilled! It is such a beautiful mountain though. It overlooks Loch Lomond. I just love the Scottish lands. The rolling hills and sheep grazing everywhere! Its so beautiful. There is just something about Scotland, I cant put my finger on it. We are doing a 100km hike and I cannot wait! (the picture is Jacqueline, Julie and myself)

Yesterday we all piled into two vans and headed to Pitlochry to watch the infamous Highland Games. Men in kilts all over throwing either logs are giant weights. The caber Toss was the best though. That is when they pick up a log as big as a telephone pole and run with it straight up then toss it and try to get it to go end over end. 12 o'clock and over. Wow it was amazing. I caught two guys do it on film! The town is also adorable. My cousin actually lived there awhile back. I tried to find her house but I don't think I did. I found a puzzle though in cancer research shop! It was only £2 so that was sweet. I just finished mine from home, now I got another challenge! haha. (This picture is of a marching band that past in the street. I have video too but Idon'tt think I cant put that on here! Oh well.)

Friday was also a great day. I went with a bunch of the students into Glasgow. Most of themhadn'tt been yet. It was funny because all of them were depending on me getting them there and back on the buses. I haveonlyy gone once on the bus to Glasgow although it is a lot cheaper! Half the price of a train plus wedon'tt have to walk so long back toStanleyy House. Itwasn'tt too bad though. I did pretty good navigating where to go all time.I'mm finally getting a sense of both cities. Three of us girls went shopping and the rest just went sight seeing. I bought a jacket!!! I am so happy! I have wanted one for so long! It is totally me, wellIi think so anyway! Ill have to post a pic of me on here sometime. It is black and long. Totally European style. I just love their style here, well some of it! Other things I think are just plain ugly but I like bits! Then we got back into Paisley and went to dinner at The Last Post. That is a pub in City Centre. It was alright. Lots of smoke. We almostdidn'tt make it home! We went on a random bus I kinda knew where we were going but then I figured it out after we had to walk through some random neighborhoods!

Well the fire alarm went off just now. Oh dear. It always goes off. No fire, just Mel was baking and forgot to put the fan on! hahah I better be off. I need to have that warm bath now!
cheers
cherie

Oh how I miss

Just knowing that I will be away from my family for 2 years is the hardest thing to deal with. Ive been away for a week and Ive already gotten homesick. The other hard thing is missing my neice. She is the most beautiful girl in the whole world. I missed the first 5 months of her life because I was here in Scotland, now I will miss her 1st birthday as well as her 2nd. It is so depressing just thinkin about it. She is so precious to me. I have waited in anticipation since Andy and Cara got engaged, hm even before that, to have a niece! 6 years later I finally have on and I am missing so much! Her first real steps, her first word! Everything! It is so hard to think that I will miss 2 years!

Now these pictures are ones that Andy and Cara burned me onto a CD to take with me. Along with some darling videos as well. It has been wonderful. I love the top one, it is my favorite. That is such a Sarah face just staring in wonderment wanting to touch whatever she sees. Then this one beside me was a surprise one I got on the Picture CD. OH it is so cute! She is giggling at the sign! hahaha. And this last picture is my family. Or what there was that night. Heidi and Josh live in Cali so they arent in it. I do wonder when we will be able to get a full family picture all together, probably not until me or Jamie gets married! Oh dear that could take forever! Ah but I know Jamie will get married one day.

It is almost dinner and this blog has taken me so long to finish. I have actually given up about 3 times and stormed out of the room because it was taking so long. I think it has something to do with so many laptops all over the house using the wireless connection. I believe there are 7 in this house! then as well as 4 normal computors!

Alright I am off! Have a good day everyone! I miss you all back home!

Cheers

cherie

The Beginning

The DTS has now started! We had our welcome dinner last night, it went really well. We had so many guest that only like 3 of us cooked for 34 people! It was yummi. After we had an intro to the school and played some games I organized! They worked out amazingly! The night was a major success. Now here is a great picture of Phil and Joy, they got engaged last week! I know I talked about it and here they are! Awww so cute.
It is a little different being on staff with the friendship part. I feel a bit distant from the girl students so different from my own dts girls! Oh well I just need to give it some time. I started up my puzzle! So enjoyable, its in the staff lounge so I can just go in there and relax and do my puzzle. Reminds me of home:<
Yesterday was a totally wierd day! 10 am Gary, Julie, Bjorn and myself headed off to Glasgow to go to Hope Church. Well about half way there we hit traffic! It didnt make sense on a sunday. Well it took awhile but we finally realized that we had got the day that the Great Scottish 10km Run was! Plus a Half Marathon! Oh my was it bad. We were stuck in thick traffic and could not get close to downtown. Which unfortunatly is right where are church is! So after about an hour we gave up. We knew church was already almost over and we would have to park far away so we slowly made our way home. Which ended up taking another hour. We got home at 12:45! Oh so long. But a few good things came. It was funny to watch the runners. We saw some pretty dressed up people. One guy was an Indian! It was hilarious!

This picture above is the jam we were dead stopped in for the longest time! Then the one to the right is a car that was next to us. These are the types of cars that are everywhere! Every car is nice and shiny! So sweet. This is an Audi, very typical for UK drivers.

Alright its time for me to be out. Peace!
Cheers
cherie