Chocolate.

I am having a problem. I am having an obsession with chocolate. And I normally do not eat sugar. I have not had a candy bar in months, and today I ate a kit kat!! Ah. I feel like a traitor to my body hahaha. And worst part is I would love to eat another one. I try to only keep dark choc. around but the church has chocolate downstairs. It isn't mine so for now I am safe. But he said I could have one if I ever wanted to, and that's where that kit kat came from. chocolate. mmm. I am bored that is part of the problem. Kimberly left so I am a little lonely, not bad. Good time to study and do laundry and what not but it's weird to have so much down time.

playing catch up

wow. so I got back from 7 days in Sweden on Sunday! It was so gorgeous. We were at an Adventist camp in the woods there, with a beach. I got basically 0 hours of sleep haha but it was fun. It was kind of culture shock, because the rules compared to adventist camp rules in america were so chill...the weirdest thing for me though was that before entering any of the buildings the rule was you had to take your shoes off!!! And I was like WHAAAAT, I am going to get a foot fungus from someone! I didn't. But it was so awkward. I was not a fan haha. But now I have some swedish friends which is cool. I met a girl from Finland. OH! One of the teens that went with us is from Estonia. Which I did not know exsisted but I will have you know I passed geography with an A lol. I am starting to miss home. Mostly because Kimberly is leaving. We have gotten really close the past two weeks and it is gonna be much more bland without her here. She is amazingly fun and she loves God so much. We are actually a lot a lot alike. Loud and American. Haha. But I miss my mom and dad and brother a lot. And I miss Chris. I also miss Sara. I didn't even get to spend much time with her this year but we texted each other about everything and sent each other music videos constantly. I miss my daycare kids like crazzzzzy. I really miss PUC food. or mom/grandma food. Now if I am hungry I have to walk to the store. And then cook it. When I lived with crystal for the summer I ate frozen grapes and beans and rice. Now I don't even have the motivation to make beans and rice haha. I had my first fish n chips yesterday. it was so good until I realized I was eating an actual fish. like there was the tail !! do we do that in America? Cause all the times I have gotten them in America (okay so only a few times) it was pieces of fish not a whole fish haha. anyways. keep me in your prayers please and you guys are all in mine! PS guy in coconut picture is youth pastor, Dejan (day-ann) from serbia, he also lives in the flat, he is really funny and an AWESOME speaker.

Monday Mania

Today I:

went shopping with Rima and Kimberly. We went to look for swimming stuff for our Sweden trip, I was looking for a cover up since I didn't think I would be swimming in the UK I didn't bring much for that...I mostly brought winter clothes lol...so anyways I found nothing just so you know but we went to the Harlequin mall, I almost bought a shirt for 11 pounds but converted it to dollars in my head and said no (like 18 dollars or something). But I did cave and buy tofu. 3 packages. and some dark chocolate-YUM. Then I had yet another road incident it was raining so we were running back to Rimas car and my tofu bag broke but I realized it after crossing the street! And I look back and there is a tofu trail! In the street and I was like noooooo not the tofu!!!!! Luckily I was able to save it from english road rage :). Then we went to a sports store, and borders where I got a book for 6 pounds of "speeches that changed the world" I thought it would be good knowledge and if you are wondering, yes, I have a Dream is in there!..Then we went to hobby craft which is like hobby lobby and I was massively ecstatic but made myself walk out with as much money as I walked in with (amazing for me). Then we came back to the flat and I wanted to nap but didn't and instead went on a cleaning spree in our kitchen. I swept and mopped the floor, I wiped down everything, I washed one of the couch covers, I scoured the utensil holder which needed it, I spent serious TLC time with the stove and it still isn't sparkling (ugh) I even busted out the bleach for this. It was serious I am telling you. Then Kimberly made a delicious healthy lemon pieish thing. Then she took me on an adventure walk so I would know how to...and we ended up at ASDA (wal mart) where I purchased a prayer notebook...an idea notebook...a dish scrubber...a floor scrubber...3 containers of greek yogurt mmmm...vegan parmesan cheese...wheat noodles...and thats it. I did so good. oh wait I got laundry detergent and softener which took literally 25 minutes to figure out. Crazzzzy England. oh and clothespins for drying the couch cover outside. which amounted to 19 pounds. don't convert it to dollars cause that is depressing to do. (35).

xoxoxoxoxoxo thanks for listening to my life ramblings :)

PS the picture is to show you that here in England they don't say soy they say soya. I eat this on my granola in the mornings :).

audrey.

Crazy England

I almost died today. haha but true story: So I am walking to ASDA (wal-mart) and if you have never been to england let me warn you that they really shouldn't be allowed to drive because they are crrrrrazy drivers. In fact I am massively astonished that more people don't die in accidents over here but anyways I am crossing the street from the right side over to the left and I look both ways (thumbs up) and its all good but one car is sort of close but if I run I can totally make so thats my plan and I am almost to the other side when I realize MY FLIP FLIP HAD FELL OFF in the middle and the car was in the lane closest to me but I turned back out of instinct for my forgotten flip flop I suppose, and that car almost hits me. then I retrieve flip flop and decided to go back to where I came from (the right side of the street) so I look to the right-no cars! so I am good but I forget that HELLO I am in England and the car is coming from the other direction and yeah all of a sudden there is a horn being honked and I look left and AHHHHHHHHHH little red car! I step back just in time and they called me a pig :(-is that what they call stupid people who run across the street and leave their shoe in the middle and then almost die twice? I guess so. and anyways it took me a few minutes (or maybe like 15) to recover and work up the bravery to continue to destination. Good times. But Jesus saved my ridiculousness from death slash injury. Which is a bonus. Then tonight Kimberly, Jason, and I went to Soul Survivor which is a non-denominational church woship service I believe...but it was AWESOME I am so glad I went, it was a lot of good music and prayer and a short worship talk. Good stuff. Good Jesus time. Loved it. Going back for sure.

Bop It Worship

Well tonight was my first vespers (friday night worship) but here they call it YU (youth united). It was pretty simple actually but still nervacking being my first time talking to these kids! It is a high school aged group, ranging from 10 people to 30 ish people. Tonight there were only 10 or 11. Because Jesus wanted to make it easier on me haha. So this is what I talked about--I brought a Bop it and we played a few rounds and then I explained how before I left the states I was playing bop-it and I realized The Bible can feel like bop it. sometimes it feels like the Bible is just this book of rules telling us what to do and it's like we can't keep up with it, it gets overwhelming. But in bop it when you mess up your turn is over and it says something mean to you like "you win! not." haha but Jesus is way cooler than that because he will never say mean things to you and he always gives you another chance. So I encouraged them that when they are feeling like the Bible is a bunch of rules they will never be able to keep, to remember that Jesus always accepts us where we are at and has a never ending abundance of forgiveness. AND not only that but he has a reward for those who continue to pursue the way the Bible teaches us to live, HEAVEN. It says in Matthew 16:27 that when Jesus comes back, he will reward us for how we have lived here on earth. So anyways that was my bop it worship! ta da. I hope they got something out of it, God gave me the idea for a reason so I just have to trust that.

The kids are very nice by the way and I can tell they will be loads of fun to hang out with.

First picture.

Me in my room...after finally getting dressed and ready for the day.

my battery converter=not working well.

Can't figure out why it stops charging before my computer is fully charged. Back to 20% battery life so I better get offline.

Good news=youth pastor and other youth worker I live with (Dejan and Kimberely) are both funny and nice :). I am glad Kimberely will be here for another month.

Also good news=England has good food!!!

xoxo.

FAMILY

I leave tomorrow. crazy. At this time tomorrow night I will be on a plane. I will not sleep in my bed for a long time. And the 3 people I love most (minus Chris cause he already has a dedicated post) are going to be missed dearly.

What I will miss the most about my mother...I will miss her praying for everything. I will miss her optimism about everything. I will miss her smiling through everything. I will miss her being sooooo beautiful, in every way. I will miss her support, her hugs, her good food, her being the only one in the family that supports my eating habits haha HFCS!!!! I love you.
What I will miss most about my father...I will miss you answering every Bible question I have by making me find the answer. I will miss you being able to fix my broken stuff. I will miss going on hikes knowing that if a sabertooth tiger the size of car jumped out I would definitely be safe. I will miss your sarcasm (agh)...I will miss you telling me to stop talking about high fructose corn syrup. i will miss you telling me I never stop talking. I will miss your big bear hugs. I love you.

What I will miss the most about my brother... I will miss your smile. i will miss watching you play hockey. i will miss you eating all the food. I will miss hanging out with you, even when we don't really talk, because we're chill like that. I will miss your shananigans...and how you drive...or maybe not...I will miss telling you things you already know-like don't do drugs and girls have cooties...I will miss those random times when you decide to love me. haha. I love you.

No, You'll Never Be Alone

So I don't know if anyone has ever listened to whispers in the dark by skillet, if you haven't, be warned that it's a rock song...and its pretty hard-for me-for patrick torres who likes screamo, it would be baby stuff...but its a christian band, and it the main verse is "no, you'll never be alone". I usually don't like hard music but I really love this song because of the message. Because we aren't alone, and not only that but Jesus has endured things worse than we do. I mean people seriously hated him, enought to kill him, and it wasn't a quick death, like it was bad enough that he cried out to God to save him. crazy how much he loves us. and its reassuring.