Aberystwyth Comes to an End...

These past three years have been amazing and have meant so much to me... Let's take a walk through my time at Uni.

First Year

First year brought the joy of a new place, new people and lots of excitement...

'Anti-Halloween Party' (for scaredy-cats)

The St.Mikes' Ball

CU House Party

Whilst I really enjoyed moving to Aber, didn't find moving away from home too hard, and thoroughly enjoyed making new friends and having a new adventure, November 2009 saw my family break up. 

After a difficult Christmas I was thrown into depression. All I can say is a massive thank you to everyone that stuck with me and showed me such amazing love and support over the year! Especially to the amazing Hannah Sweeney... 

and my fantastic boyfriend, Tom Lott...

Thankfully, through His love and grace, God broke my depression in June 2009!

Second Year

Second year was full of change and the joys of cracking down a little bit more with work and growing closer to different people... now for the pictures!

Isaac, Toby, Laura and Me

Me and Laura

Phil, Ben, and Mark - Ali's birthday celebration

Laura and I go to Marseilles

Harry, Dan and Tom playing FIFA

Josh, Tom, Rachel and I welcome the summer with a walk along the sea-front

Third Year

So, third year saw me become a bit more of a hermit :P  I really put a considerable more amount of time and effort into doing my work, but I have had so much fun! I've learnt so much and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with such amazing friends! So, here comes another year in photos...

Katie

Isaac eating cake off the floor!

Amy and Amy

Laughter in the house with Kirsty, Jo and Chris

Surprise!! Kirsty's 21st

Isaac and Toby in the SUN!

Me and Tom on my 21st

J-Wo!

 

So now all that is left to do is to say thank you to all the amazing people that have made my time at Aber what it has been. 

Thank you so much to all my friends for providing so much fun and laughter over the past three years! It's been a joy :)

And a massive thank you to St.Mikes (both staff and the congregation) for growing with me and encouraging me in my walk with God and being a support in times of hardship. 

Bye bye Aberystwyth... 

Drive time

Tuesday (23rd) I got to spend nearly a whole day with my sisters, it was wonderful!

I had to collect them from a little cottage half an hour outside of Aberystwyth where they were staying with my grandparents then drive them home to Nottinghamshire to my mum... my granddad had welled up when we were getting ready to leave and told to me to make sure I drove very carefully as if anything happened to us it'd kill him... no pressure!! (Of course, I do tend to drive carefully and wouldn't want anything to happen anyway)

After I picked them up we drove back to Aberystwyth. I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye again yet and wanted to show my sisters my new house... we then went to the beach for a while...

After playing around for a bit we then set off to Nottingham... However, not long out of Aber, we had to make another photo stop!

The journey back was hilarious. The three of us sang at the top of our voices for close to 5 hours non-stop! Our throats were starting to hurt by the end... but it was worth it!

Esther also took lots of photos of the Welsh countryside on the way back, but they're her photos so I shan't put them up here as I don't want to get done for copyright! :P

I really enjoyed the drive back, and while it is always scary driving with both of them in the car (all mum's eggs in one basket), it was wonderful spending some fun time with them. I definitely feel like I'm growing closer to them! :) 

My wonderful family :)

I have a wonderful family! :)

Show Off Your Shot

A few friends of mine take part in photo competitions/shares... I thought I'd start having a go too :)

The idea for Show off Your Shot is simply that... a photo that you want to show off! :)

So here it is... my entry for this week...

I took this photo at the Belvior Castle 2011 firework competition. It was a really beautiful night, but this photo has got to be my favourite! I love the way the fireworks look like stars and the effect of the smoke behind the tree.

Moving House

One piece of advice I have for all of you is; do not, if you can help it, move house when you are ill. I sadly, could not help it. I had no choice but to move house with a fever.

After finishing exams and enjoying a break I was planning on receiving keys to my new house on the Sunday 5^th June with the intentions of enjoying a slow moving process throughout the week after. However, on the Friday before, I received some wonderful news; I was to move out of my old house on the 5^th June. Joys! So I had 2 days to pack up my stuff, clean around and move out.

The stress of it all sadly got to me a bit more than I had hoped and expected. The Saturday night saw very little sleep as I tossed and turned boiling up and needing a lot of water both in me and on me to cool down. This made moving day a wonderfully exciting prospect...?!

Sunday arrived and I drove my car to the new house full of wonderfully heavy items ready to move into the house. After church we went along to our new house to be spoken to about fire, gas, electricity, water etc and to receive our keys. My health was probably most evident while we were listening to the landlord explain everything when I suddenly had to make my way to the stairs to take a seat to stop myself from either throwing up or collapsing. Then for moving the stuff in!

Thankfully I did receive some help moving in, and later moving out (next car load) which was very much needed!

After moving in completely, moving out completely, and cleaning up completely, it was really nice to be able to enjoy the evening in the house with most of the housemates for the first night.

Although moving in was a bit stressful, I am very much so looking forward to next year, and it really is a very nice house!

Birthday weekends

My birthday is on 4th May, my cousin's is on the 6th May. It was tradition that every year we would have a birthday weekend on the May Day Bank Holiday, however as I moved to Aber last year we weren't able to do so.

On Thursday I came home for the weekend as a surprise as it was mum's birthday on Sunday. I texted my youngest sister and asked her to postpone tea for me and make sure mum didn't know. However, by the time I had arrived it was pretty clear that I was coming as Esther had asked for an extra place setting to be set for her imaginary friend... oh dear... 

We were all ready for a birthday weekend for me and mum when on Friday my aunt asked whether they should be arriving on the Friday night or the Saturday morning. My other sister (Rebekah) had invited them, which was 100% fine, but had not told mum that they had said yes! 

So Esther and myself, after a lovely walk in the grounds.... 

set to tidying the house! 

My Aunt, Uncle and two cousins were here for the Friday night and Saturday and it was a lovely day :) We sat and had a picnic breakfast and lunch in the garden while our Uncle practised his first aid for a test on us - Rebekah was awfully good at playing dead! After that we went for another walk in the grounds... there's a beautiful bit with a lake that I've never been to which shows just how lazy I am! They hold weddings by the lake - its so beautiful! We collected pine cones as well for the fire :) 

It's been a wonderful weekend, yesterday (Mum'd birthday) was wonderful too with lots of food, puzzles and a lovely walk :) 

It's been a really nice weekend just relaxing at home :)