'Ello again! Spring Break is almost up which is pretty sad but school's also almost over and that beats everything!

So starting with Spring Break...

The Wilderness Trip exceeded  my expectations by far! It was really amazing but it also seems like it flew by really quickly. My team was: Me, Abby Landes, Emily Randoll, Debbie Randoll, Brandon Cross, Will and Zac Luth, Julie Brown (Will & Zac's mom), Tabitha Troutman, Aaron Schoenecke, Taylor Petree, Rachel Young, my dad adn then our leaders, Amy and Kristin.

It took us a long time to get out to Georgia because we apparently only had a Google map and then with several wrong turns along the way, we ended up getting there after about 13 hours instead of 8. So we left Aldersgate at about 1 Friday afternoon and got there about 3 Saturday morning where we were led into our glamorous tents by our leaders and got to sleep in until 8 the next morning. SO after 5 hours of sleep we woke up and got all of stuff loaded into the rental vans. Then we headed to the trail head where we loaded our 40-50 pound packs up and then split into our 2 groups then my group went down the 1st mountain and then other team drove to a different trail head and went up.

Over the next week the routine was, wake up call at 8, get out of the tent and grab your bible and your Trip Devotion book, spend the next 45 minutes trying to stay warm and do your devotion then kitchen crew start breakfast which is basically boiling water over a little Bunsen Burner in a pail, add it to granola, cream of wheat, or oatmeal with dried fruit. During B-fast you tlak and laugh or whatever and then the leaders announce which  of the boys and girls is going to be the leaders of the day.  (each day you have 2 students lead. 1boy, 1 girl who have to make sure you're on the rigth trail and use the compass and tell you when to take breaks and everything) oh and no need to change because you sleep in the same clothes you hiked in and you basically do that every single day changing about once the whole trip.

 After or during the time when kitchen crew's making b-fast, you start taking down your either 2 or 3 man tent with your either 1 or 2 tentmates and then once the food is down being used then entire team starts grabbing the team supplies which include food sacks, rope for hanging a bear bag to keep food off of the ground and away from bears (yes we saw bears, 2 actually. I nearly had a heart-attack when i saw our first one) and the TP and highlighter orange shovel. (TP stands for Toilet Paper and the shovel is the way you dig your toilet. Yes it HAD to be bright orange!lol) SO you grab your supplies that you're carrying and then start loading up all of your stuff onto your pack that straps around your waist and chest (it was so comfortable lol) and then follow your leaders of the day and the two main leaders (in my case Amy and Kristin) and you start on the trail.  We did about 7-8 miles everyday except our last day and that normally took us about til 4 to complete if we left at 11. (it sounds like a long ime for a short distance but with a pack and going up several mountains, trust me, it's hard work!) After you finish hiking for the day and reach the campsite you set up tents and whatever then the kitchen crew that the 2 leaders of the day choose start on dinner and you talk and then do a group devotion over what you studied in your own individual devotion that morning and you give out beads. Bead came in 4 different colors

Red- Leadership

Blue- Risk-taking 

White- Service

Green - Compassion

You got to give one of these beads away every night to someone who really stood out to you and what trait they showed. It was amazing hearing all of the things that people I see everyday just came out and said. A lot of it awas really deep and I loved hearing it! I learned to love all of the people in my team which wasn't hard because they all have amazing and different personalities!

What we studied over the week was the life of John the Baptist and what an amazing life that he led! In fact once, right before he was killed, he was mistaken for Jesus by King Herod, the very man who had him beheaded. How close to God would you have to be just to be mistaken for His own son? When asked who he was by the Pharisees, John answered by quoting the prophecy that Gabriel the angel had told his father, Zachariah along with the news of his birth that he was indeed going to be "the voice crying out in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord and make His paths straight." John let his relationship with God be his defining trait and he lived for God only. I decided that that's what i want. I want my defining trait to be my relationship with God. I want that to be who I am and what i'm all about. So all together it was a really moving week and I hipe that you all see a difference in me! I love you guys!

Kelsey 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a MIRACLE! YES I AM UPDATING!!!!!

wow okay sry about the past little bit. I was getting my myspace up and running and also having a hard time getting Xanga and then everything else between school, CATS, church, phone, friends, and my hair straightner breaking  it's been NUTS! ( yeah the straightner breaking is bad for everyone who sees me everyday because now, i have to go curly!)  

Oh yeah the high school came and sang at our school promoting the musical High School Musical which I'm not really sure if I'm going to yet but I shoud probably make up my mind very soon! And then tonight I have a mother /daughter baskeball game which I'm playing in even though my mom and sister are in Colorado skiing since me and my dad are toughing it up and going on the Wilderness Trip which is in 2 WEEKS BABY!!!!! WOOHOOO!!!!!! if you can't tell i'm a little excited about that!So that's a smidge of what's kicking in my life so leave my lot of comments! I love you guys!

Kelsey~!

Hey guys! I gave in and got a myspace so check it out!

www.myspace.com/kelselu

well it's set to private but add me and i'll add you!

ok that's about all and obviously i'm alive and doing good so talk to ya'll later!

Kelsey Leigh

I'm so TIRED!

Me and Alina were up til like 4ever last night and then went thrift store shopping this morning really early so I'm running off of like a total of 4 hours of sleep! So I'm not really at my best right now...

Anywho, a  couple of counselors came from the high school last Friday and TRIED to help us figure out what we want to take in high school. It was more confusing than it was helpful but the lady did her best.

Now that I've got one of the biggest scares of my life: that i'm going to high school in a few months! I'm really confused. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, where I want to live, go to college, work (obviously, since I don't know what job I want), IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS!!  I don't really want to think about it but I want to know what's in store for me-kind of... make sense? Guess not.

Ok, my deep thought for the night is over and I'm actually really bored because it seems like NOTHING is going on! Except for my sister having like 7 girls over. Oh and the Men in Black 2 is on! It's pretty sad when that's the highlight of your Saturday night. But oh well! HAHAHA! YES! my phone is ringing! I do have a life! Ok well I gotta take this BYE!BYE!

Kelsey Leigh~!

Hallelujah!!!!!

Again I say HALLELUJAH!

My computer is fixed! I accidentally let a virus on here when I was dowloading some music by Mark Shults and so I was off of it for like 3-4 weeks. It was a nightmare!

Moving on! I changed my layout from snowy horses to this because I think it's safe to say that we aren't getting any snow this year. Bummer. However the Colts made the Superbowl which totally makes up for it!

We are done finally done dissecting the disgusting sharks in Science which I'm totally excited about bcause it was seriously gross. I'm not really a squeamish person but let's face it, I didn't really want to meet a shark's spleen.

So stuff that going to right now is Cats of course and then track starts up in a little while and I'm thinking about doing pole-vaulting! Crazy since I keep having visions of me just flying off of the pole or getting it stuck like straight in the air or something but I think that or the high jump is by far the funnest thing out on the track or field, track-field? whatever.

Oh yeah and the Australian Open started up recently so I'm going for either Roger Federer or James Blake or Raphael Nadal & for the chix of tennis either, Peer- I can't remember her 1st name, or Dementieva- and I can't remember her first name either.

Wilderness trip in around 6 WEEKS! GET EXCITED ALINA! For those of you who don't know, ALina Schoenecke, Abby Landes, Emily Randoll and a bunch of other people are going to be spending Spring Break hiking in the mountains of Georgia... I'm so excited that I can't stand it! Just pray that it doesn't rain...

Kelsey Leigh~!