The football season starts again on Saturday!! No Ryan but I'm starting to get excited now!! We play Macclesfield at home first. Not the ideal first game because Macclesfield are so dull but I'm sure Darlo will make it good!

So I'm finally back home. I had two great weeks at camp and then Keswick. First I'll start with camp.
Well, I arrived at camp to a different dorm name - the Beavers. I was so unbelievably annoyed at first because I had prepared loads of eagle stuff for the dorm. But in the end the name grew on me. The five girls in my dorm were so awesome!! They were all great and just really pleasant, kind and sweet. I hope they had as good a time as I did. They ended up calling me Mrs Beaver and they were the Kittens! How cute! I was so worried about having a dorm on my own because last year I was sharing a dorm with another leader, Kirsten, but it turned out fine. They didn't seem to ask too many nightmarish questions and the ones that they did ask I think I answered ok.
It was so nice to have a really small camp - only 17 girls, 6 leaders and 3 cooks. It was so weird though at leaders prayers and things like that because the leaders' room is much bigger now than it was last year and we were almost drowning in the space on the first day but we soon found lots of things to fill it with (mostly craft stuff!). All week we kept thinking that we were missing people when in fact everyone was there. It was just bizarre!
I quite liked having only a few leaders this year. Agnes was leading the camp as usual, Laura was the ATL like last year and Kirsten was also there. It was so good to see them all again! They are just amazing! Then there was Lola, who I had met before (even been to her house) but clearly she couldn't remember! It was so great to get to know her - kept me entertained a lot! Finally there was Helen who was brilliant - You are such a blessing to me Helen! I love ya!!
So I had to do my talk one evening. It went so well and I was so pleased. I just pray that I got the message across to the girls in an understandable way. All the girls, most of whom are not from a church background, seemed to be really receptive to all that we were telling them about Jesus during the week and it was just fantastic!

So that was camp. Dad came up to Lendrick Muir and picked me up to go to Keswick. We were also giving Lola a lift because she was going too. She was staying in a caravan though - unlucky!! lol I'm sure she had a great time - although I don't have a clue cos I didn't see her at all after the first day!
Keswick was good but just not up to standard this year. The morning meetings were great - Ajith Fernando was speaking and he was great. We were looking at Ephesians 1. The evening meetings were a bit hit and miss to be honest. Derek Tidball was good. Steve Brady was good one night, but awful on the first and don't even get me started on Luis Palau!!! It was so hot last week that I just found it difficult to do anything. Twice I had to leave the tent because I was feeling ill because of the heat. One time I really thought I was gonna faint or be sick everywhere. It wasn't pleasant! It meant that I also didn't do a lot during the afternoons.
It was Beth's 18th on Saturday, then Meg's 15th on Tuesday so we had a few little parties. Great times! It was so awesome to have Megan and Tina in Keswick this year! Such fun!

David and Mairi were staying with us for the weekend and Megan and Tina at the Ainscoughs'. They've just left this morning. Very sad!

At the moment I'm using the internet in the Earthworks tent at Keswick. I'm having such a great time and it is only Monday! Camp was awesome. The girls that were there were just fabulous and so responsive to everything that we taught them about Jesus. My dorm were great. We had a bit of a name change which I was a bit annoyed about at first but was reconciled to the name after a while. We were the Beavers. I enjoyed camp a lot but it was a bit frustrating at times when you are with girls 24/7 who constantly ask questions and you can't get a moments peace. Generally though they were really great and we had no trouble from them whatsoever!
Anyways, I'm off to enjoy the rest of what Keswick has to offer!!

Tomorrow I leave for camp. I had to write a talk for the Wednesday evening meeting so hopefully it makes sense and I don't mess it up when the time comes! I'm so excited to meet the girls who will be in my dorm - the Eagles!! Beth made a good suggestion about a verse that could be our dorm verse:

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31

Awesome! Love it!! Hopefully camp will go well. It is a pretty tiring time but also really great. The girls ask so many questions about Jesus so you really have to know why you believe what you believe. It is really challenging!
Straight after camp I am going to Keswick along with just about everyone from church! I'm looking forward to it a lot. I'll be sharing a room with Beth which is always great - we talk A LOT!! Some of our friends are camping and quite frankly I think they are mental!! I don't understand people who choose to camp. It is bizarre! Keswick is a big christian convention or conference thing. It is always great! I don't really know how to describe it so this is the website address www.keswickministries.org
Anyways, this means potentially a two week break from blogging but I'll have a lot to write up when I get back!!

Had a nice day yesterday. Relaxed in the morning which was fab. Then met Clair and walked down to the school to pick up Ben and Bethan. We then all walked back to my house where the kids played in the garden with Hattie and I showed Clair my photos of my trip to the USA. She was probably bored because there are a lot of them!! I think she was interested in putting some faces to the names that I have been talking about because I have been talking A LOT!! Gave Ben and Bethan their t-shirts that I got for them in NYC. I was pleased to see that they fitted because I had been so worried that they wouldn't and I couldn't exactly return them!
In the evening I went to church to do some more Holiday Bible Club preparation. Had to paint a big sunset with silouetted palm trees with David Rowe. It turned out quite nicely actually! Also had to cut out some Memory verse scrolls which I did not like. I cannot cut out - my art teacher at school gave me a complex about it because she was really horrible about my cutting out and I've been scared to do it ever since. Yes, that is right! Scared!! I don't know why I can't do it. Maybe it has something to do with being left handed, but most left handed people are able to use scissors proficiently. I guess secondary school art had a bigger effect on my life than I ever thought it would!

me and James (I am so sad that this pic is blurry!!)

Jon

Jackie, me and Cherie
Jeff Graduation Night:

My room mates - Jackie, me, Stacie and Faith
Jeff, me and Robin

Annie and Brittney

Stubbs

Doc Noebel

Traci and I

Keagan, Joanna and I

Pat Edwards and I

Shane and Annie

Courtney and Traci
Mike and I
Praise and Worship practice
Mike
Jackie being a poser in the bathroom! Larkin
Bonnie climbing a tree (!)
Annie
L-R: Hastings, Jackie, Deborah, Emily, Annie
Stacie
Andrea not loving the Marmite!
Deborah

Italy won the World Cup. They won it on penalties so I don't know if they deserved it because I didn't watch it (as it is a Sunday). So Scotland v Italy will be a good one but that is not until next year I think. The France game is in October so I am looking forward to that much more. The atmosphere at Hampden will be awesome - hopefully there won't be a streaker this time though!
The Ainscoughs came round after church this evening. Showed Beth all my photos from the USA including Summit of course (sorry I haven't put my pics up yet - I don't know when I'll have the time this week). We also had a good chat and catch up which was great!!

Yesterday Mum, Dad and I had to get up early so that we could head to Edinburgh for the day to visit John and Morag. Dad had to sit an exam for the long distance course thingy that he does so John was going to invidulate it for him - had to make sure that he didn't cheat! Well we arrived in Edinburgh just before 11am and had a cup of tea. Then Morag, Mum and I went to Glasgow (which really isn't very far from Edinburgh) to check on my flat. On Friday we got a call from Partick Housing Association telling us that an alarm had been going off in my flat for a few days. This call really annoyed us because we had been planning to check on the flat on Saturday anyway. So I had to ring my friend Phil, whose parents have a set of my keys, and he had to go and check out the noise. It was the smoke alarm so Phil had to wrestle it off the ceiling because it is connected to the electricity. When we arrived there on Saturday though we found everything ok.
Didn't do too much in Glasgow. Went to the pet shop to get some food for little Zinny, looked around the Farmers Market that is held sometimes near my flat, then had lunch in a local cafe. After lunch I headed to a photo shop to print off even more pics (mostly Summit) whilst Mum and Morag went to Catherine's Of Partick (which is a clothes shop). We then headed back to Edinburgh where I put all my Summit pics in an album (cos otherwise I'd never do it). John and Dad had gone up Arthur's Seat (it is a hill) after he had done his exam. Jonathan and Graeme (John and Morag's sons) had been playing football all afternoon. Had dinner there and spoke to the bird that they have, who then landed on my head.
Listened to the World Cup 3rd place playoff on the way back home - Germany won 3-1 which I was pleased about. Had really wanted them to be in the final.
Was in church today. Beth was back from Beach Mission which I was pleased about because I haven't seen her for so long!!!
Ick! Federer just won Wimbledon - I am so sad. Did not want him to win!! Was supporting Nadal. It is so boring when Federer wins everything!

In the qualifiers for Euro 2008 Scotland will be playing a match at Hampden against the World Champions. Yes, both Italy and France (who are in the World Cup Final) are in our qualifying group - also Ukraine who got to the quarters of the World Cup. So do you think that we've got any chance to get into the finals of Euro 2008?? Let me think about that a minute....!!! We'll probably play better against them than we will the Faroes mind!! As a member of the Tartan Army I should be able to get tickets for the matches against Italy and France so that is quite exciting!!
I was putting lots of pics up on my blog last night but then my computer decided that that would be a great time to stop working! So annoying!! I will try again a bit later!!

First I'll just do the views - then I'll put up pics of the brilliant people!

Summit!!:

These are from the Garden of the Gods:

Manitou:

The view from my room plus bug screen!!:

Oh, I forgot to say, I passed all my uni exams for this year!! So YAY!!! NO RESITS!!!

Will post some of my Summit pics in a little while. I don't think that I'm gonna write anything much about it cos I don't know where to start but we'll see! So I'll try and get them on asap - have to go and use my laptop though. Took my photos in to be printed today and it cost me a lot of money - around £41 (dunno what that would be in $ but I'm thinking A LOT!). Twas nice to get proper copies though.
Went to Ben and Bethan's school today for their garden party thing - lots of little stalls, ice cream, a bouncy castle, Punch and Judy etc etc. Clair, their mum, couldn't go so I went along instead. It was actually really hot today (for English standards) so I'm pretty sure that I got burnt. I was wearing a top with a hole cut out of the back so I'll probably have a bright red patch there. I am so glad I went because as we were leaving I bumped into an old school friend from Polam, Clare, who I hadn't seen for about five years!! So we managed to catch up a little bit and hopefully we'll meet up again soon. It turns out that she even helps with Ben's class. I was just so pleased to see her because I had been thinking about her a few times recently, wondering where she was and what she was up to because she really was a good friend at Polam. For those of you who don't know, I had a terrible time at Polam, the school that I had gone to for ages. Eventually I left and went to Barney when I was 14 years old and had a great time!!!
Anyway, enough babbling - I shall go and sort out some pics very soon!

Does anyone think that the guy on the left (Shaun Maloney) looks like Adam who was on staff at Summit? He totally does in my opinion!
There is supposedly a heatwave here in Britain at the moment. To put this in perspective it is about as warm as Colorado's 'chilly' spell!!! Heatwave?? Pah!! Having said that, it is probably a lot warmer in London and the South - it doesn't tend to get too warm up in the north east. Today it didn't even get out of the 60s in Darlington! In London I think it reached something like 86 which is pretty hot for Britain to be fair. Zinzan (the hamster) is feeling it hot because he has started having nosebleeds again! Poor little mite! I think that he is probably annoyed that I am home because I keep waking him up during the day when he is trying to sleep!!

I forgot to say that my worst fears came true while I was away in Colorado.
Ryan left. He is now playing football (soccer!!!) for Wrexham. I was so gutted when I heard. So not only have Darlington brought back the player that I like the least of any player that I have ever come across, BARRY CONLON, but they let go the best football player in the world, RYAN VALENTINE!! I was literally sobbing when I heard. Pathetic, I know! But since I won't be getting any new pics of Ryan as a Darlo player I've just got to put a few on here.

I am delaying in posting about Summit partly because it is going to take me ages and also it will mean that I have to admit to myself that it is over!!