August In Review

SPADE LIST ITEMS COMPLETED -

None :(

PROJECT #365 PHOTOS TAKEN -

Day 243 - Final Day.

The final day of freedom.... Hence the bouncy castle covered in foam. Anna's party.. happy birthday Anna!

So its the last day of summer. I've had a great summer, like a really really good summer! I'm grateful to everyone who made it special... you know who you are!! I love you! :) Now on to my final year of high school...

Day 242 - Lemonade, Bubbles And Cameras...

Yesterday was my sister's 5th birthday so we had all the family down for lunch today. I love our family parties... there is always a lot of bant! It helped a lot that today was an absolutely beautiful day, so we were able to sit outside, drink some lemonade, blow some bubbles, take some pictures etc. It was a lot of fun. Also, today could have been my last chance to see dear Emzy Doodles before she leaves for uni, like that smart girl she is. (Love you!)

Tonight we also had an SU meeting, to organise what we're going to be doing the first day. I'm very excited for this year's SU. Gonna be EPIC!

The journey home from this meeting was also fun, it involved a lot of raving to random foreign dance songs! Good times :D

Day 241 - 3rd Time Lucky!

Today was the third time I have been up Slieve Donard (highest mountain in the country... although that really isn't saying much) this summer! I feel I've done very well! I've grown to love mountain walking, even though it's tiring. I took this picture of Patrick sitting on a big rock about half way through our trek.

Day 240 - Pretty Darn Tired...

I am pretty darn tired. Last night I left the party around midnight, I was feeling tired so I thought I wouldn't stay late, get to bed and wake up feeling better. That plan failed. I did not sleep last night, I don't know why, but I just didn't. I maybe got an hour, two hours. It ended up people were staying until about 3:30 anyway. I could've stayed on and it wouldn't have made much difference! Bleaugh. Rage cake!Although I got a glowstick today, so that provided me some amusement, even photography wise! Glowsticks make me miss FUSED... there was one night when we had 3 glowstick raves... one at the Baptist Hall, one in the car on the way home, and one back at the house. Good times. Good times.

Day 239 - The Bertie Botts Beans Game...

Tonight this wonderful person had her 18th birthday party!!
It was a lot of fun! One memorable moment from the night was the 'Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans' game. If you are familiar with Harry Potter, you would know they really do mean every flavour. Well, the game was simple. One person took one bean, and another person took another. Whoever got a disgusting bean loses! It was hilarious! I discovered that the white ones were the worst, I'm pretty sure it was sour milk flavour. This led to everyone having to try them because they were that bad. Oh the screams and the horrified expressions that came to follow! Brilliant! :D

Day 238 - A Good Day Indeed!

Today I went to a picnic in Tollymore with these two lovely girls here -

They are my wonderful cousins! :) Lucy goes back to school tomorrow, so it was a good day to celebrate her last day of freedom! And Emma heads off to university soon, so it was good to get a chance just to hang, without the rest of the family running around like idiots haha! But yes, I had a lovely time. We went for a wee dander round Tollymore with Molly the dog and had a good natter.

This evening was also a lot of fun! I had another picnic haha! A blanket was laid out in my sitting room where Vikki and Mich and I sat having Chinese takeout. Good times! The two came over for some needed "3 amigos" time, I have missed this! We watched the Blind Side, which is a fantastic film. Watch it.

Day 237 - Shooting For The Sun

Yeah, I'm still kinda liking this shooting into the sun thing... I like this photo. It's of a tree in my garden. It just seemed to have blossomed all of a sudden and it's really pretty. I boosted the temperature in the picture ever so slightly, just do give it that summer look!I successfully did nothing today!

Day 236 - Lens Flare... How Amusing!

Sometimes lens flare amuses me!

Was back at Tuesday night karate tonight... I suck at fighting, I really do want to get better, it would be nice to win more. I know it's not the winning that counts, but losing all the time doesn't always feel good haha!

Day 235 - Simplicity...

I'm not really sure why I like this picture I took... I just know I do. I think its the simplicity.

Day 234 - Fireside Fellowship

Tonight was a fun night! The gang was at Ali's house (happy birthday Ali!) for a barbeque, it was great fun! A lot of it we spent hanging around a campfire that we made. It was great, I love chats around campfires! I could have stayed there for hours. :)

Day 233 - Nostalgia.

Happy birthday Granma!! It's my Granma's birthday soon, so we had a big surprise birthday party at her house today! It was kinda fun, although, it was my family and a bunch of older people.

There was a lot of -

"oh you look just like your mummy!"

"haven't you grown?"

"auk, I haven't seen you since you were a wee tote!"

Naturally my brother and I spent a lot of the evening in the study, playing my grandfather's awesome keyboard -

I am excited though, because karate has now started again. I was there this morning, and was helping some of the wee kids with their demo stuff. It reminded me of FUSED... helping out with kids, and they were the same age...

*reminisces*

Day 232 - "Rooossseebuuddd"... *dies*

This rose bush is dying a bit. Thankfully I'm not, I was feeling sick last night and this morning, but I feel a lot better now. :)

Day 231 - "BAAA!!!"

Well I got my results! I did a lot better than I thought I would actually! Incase you were wondering, I got 3As and B. :) I'm very happy! Tonight I was at another party, a BBQ at Hannah's house! It was a lot of fun, although I don't feel so good. Hmm, dunno. Other stuff I did today? Went to the 'Daily Grind' for lunch with a few friends (LOL what a name!) and then Fiona and I went to see Toy Story 3 in the cinema! I thought it was quite good... still doesn't beat the A-Team in my opinion.Yeah, I like taking pictures of these Willow Tree ornaments... they're just really pretty!

Day 230 - The Day Before D Day

So tomorrow we get our results for our AS Levels! Aaa! It's kinda scary, but I'm trying not to think about it... so I distracted myself a lot today!

This afternoon I was out in Belfast with my good friend Sarah, I didn't buy much, as I'd spent quite a bit of money in England. But I got a couple of books. Then this evening I was at Anna's house for a pre results party! I guess its good for taking our minds off things, but I had a lot of fun.

Day 229 - I Love It When A Plan Comes Together!

This is an irrelevant picture. This happens a lot...I love it when a plan comes together, I really do! So I went to see the A-Team again tonight... it was kinda spontaneous (ish), but I got to see a couple of friends I hadn't seen in a while (A WHOLE WEEK! It has been a rough week, believe you me!) It was just as good the second time round! :D

Day 228 - Wii!

My little sister is getting the hand at playing the Wii. It's kinda cute!I took this with my fish eye lens.

Day 227 - Missing You...

There are a lot of people I miss. People. Friends. I can miss people I haven't seen in a week as much as people I haven't seen in two years. Thankfully some of the people I haven't seen in a week I can plan to see soon! Which hopefully I will! There are a few parties coming up, so I will also see people I haven't seen in months. :)

Day 226 - Home.

Well I'm back in Northern Ireland... my car, however, is not. Bad times. Bad times. Yes, my car is broken and is still in Chester. Guess that means no driving for me for a while! Ah well.

So sometimes I just can't help but edit... but I like it.

Day 225 - Friday The 13th?! Dun Dun Dun!

There are a lot of brightly coloured rhinos in Chester. I'm not exactly sure why... but they amused me! So it is indeed unlucky Friday the 13th ... our car seems to be broken. :P

Day 224 - In England.

Got up at 4:45am to go to England with mumsie today! Ah well it was worth it... I'm having a good time! I bought a lot of stuff today... new clothes!! Woop woop! But I took a picture of the pencils for art next year that I got... 'cause they excite me. Is that sad? Yeah I'm an art dork. I'm sorry, it's just I've only ever had a pack of 8 colours before (it included two similar shades of green and NO pink - FAIL COLOURING PENCILS) but this one had 36!! Art next year will be so much easier now!We went to see Knight and Day tonight at the cinema, after dinner at Nandos. It was a good movie! Very funny!

Day 223 - Bleep Bleep Bleep...

This is what my life has become. Lying on my bed playing Tetris. At least I'm going to England for a few days tomorrow!

Sorry for the crappy photo.

Day 222 - Cousinship.

Some people have friendship bracelets. I have a cousinship bracelet. :)My cousin Emma and I made "cousinship bracelets" in Newcastle today! It's like a friendship bracelet, only cousiny!

Day 221 - Never Fails.

I miss FUSED. Quite a lot. That's pretty much all I have to say today. I'm just sitting at home, reminiscing.

Day 220 - Until Next Year...

Goodbye FUSED. Tonight was the celebration service for the camp. Time to say goodbye etc! There were a lot of photographs taken and hugs and waves and laughter! :) Good memories shared with these people! Until next year...On a plus... look! Vikki's back!

Day 219 - Empi

This doesn't look like a great photograph... and that's because it isn't a great photograph. It's a piece of wood, split in two. Because that's what I did today. I elbowed a piece of wood in order to break it in two.Remember how I said about the Karate Kid movie and how we were gonna do a demonstration, and then I said that it was postponed to a later date? Well today was that later date. It meant we couldn't go up to the North Coast with the rest of the FUSED team which was a bit disappointing, but we did end up having fun! The demo went well, I thought. And it was fun!

We watched the Karate Kid, it was good I thought! Afterwards, Mich and I really didn't want to go back home (to our own houses, so we figured we may as well stay in town and watch another movie (we got into Karate Kid free). We ended up watching the A-Team, which I liked better than the Karate Kid. It was good! :)

One last day as a team tomorrow...

Day 218 - This Is Not The End.

"Last day, last chance to make a difference. After this, the story changes. You write the rest, the highs, the lows, the middles. It's all up to you. Be the change you want to see in the world!! Good luck."

^I love encouraging messages from best friends. :)

I really do feel like "after this the story changes". It's something that's been on my mind the entire two weeks, and apparently I haven't been the only one thinking this. It's like my entire summer has been building up to these two weeks, and afterwards, who knows what's gonna happen. I mentioned this to a friend earlier this week (same person who wrote me the wee note, love you! starhugstar!). I said that the two weeks I'm having feel like the centre-point of something. Afterwards, I'm stepping into something new. Life's gonna be different.

I don't really know why I feel this way. But I'm looking forward to the future with a new-found optimism. I just have this feeling that this next year, the last year I have at home, will be different. A good different. Gonna be honest, this year (from last summer until a few months ago) wasn't good. I didn't like it. (understatements are fun!) But I know that I'm now stepping into something new. A new start. This isn't the end. This is the beginning. (clichés are also fun!)

These are some pictures from today. Ah FUSED, how wonderful you have been. We were blessed to see two kids become Christians. :) I can't help but want to dance just thinking about it! *dances* I really hope I'll be able to do this again next year!

Sorry about the long post today, but I had a lot to post!

Day 217 - Our Resident Jedi Knight.

This is Josh Firth, our resident Jedi Knight.Today was the awesomeness that is 'Hunt The Leader', which is when us leaders dress up as idiots and the kids have to come and find us. It was quite amusing standing in the same place for a good 2 hours, dressed like this -
I got many strange looks and a group of teenagers got their picture with me, which amused me greatly! The picture is probably on facebook somewhere anyway...

I'm really sad that tomorrow is the last day with the kids.... I've had too much fun, and hanging out with them and being able to talk to them has been amazing. I'm going to miss this.

Day 216 - Mmm... Strawberry!

Today was yet another messy day at FUSED. The fantastic Graeme Kincaid was speaking tonight and it involved getting a couple of our leaders covered in strawberry sauce... and trust me, that was only the beginning.

We also had a lot of fun with felt tips this evening...

Day 215 - Looking Like Idiots...

More dancing with the kids, except this one makes us look more like idiots. :D

This picture was taken in the evening. This afternoon we were at the beach for FIGHT THE TIDE!! Woop woop!! This was a sand castle building competition and then Leaders vs Kids water fight on the beach! It was immense. I would have loved to get pictures, but my camera would have been destroyed in the process... a risk I'd rather not take.

Day 214 - "Tell The World!"

Don't want to stand here and shout Your praise
And walk away and forget Your name
I'll stand for you if it's all I do
Cause there is none that compares to You

And all I want in this lifetime is You
And all I want in this whole world is you, is you

Tell the world that Jesus lives
Tell the world that, tell the world that
Tell the world that he died for them
Tell the world that he lives again

This is a picture of us all dancing to "Tell The World" by Hillsong United. Awesome song! :D I love these kids, their faces light up when we play this song, and they dance like it's their job. :) Love it!

Day 213 - Hiking With The Yankees

Today the Americans were going up Donard so a few Irish joined them, and it was great fun! The hike up was hard, I think we all kinda died a little! When we got to the top there was a lot of celebration to be done (in the freezing cold). The best bit was when we started walking back down again, because as soon as started, the sun momentarily burst out of the clouds so blast us with heat, light and hope! This made a few of us hyper, and Mich and I ended up running down the rest of the mountain, talking in hillbilly accents!

Good times!