Here it comes... A Beautiful Collision

The name of the Blog is from a David Crowder Band song from their new album called A Collision! Wanna hear a funny story? well read it anyway! on saturday night (actually it was pretty early Sunday morning!) i was giving Alastair, Oonagh and Fiona a lift home, when we got in the car Alastair asked if we could have 'A Collision', i felt it would only be fair to ask the others, so i said to Oonagh and fiona 'would it be ok if we had a collision'. Alastair and i were of course meaning the DCB cd, but i wonder what the others thought! hehehe!

So in this blog, i'm going to have a bit of a moan (am just looking for sympathy, but don't feel you need to give me any! i probably don't deserve it!) but then i'll end on a nice high note!

So my moan is that at the moment I'm working 40+ hours a week as a teacher. I'm in school everyday from about 8:30 until 3:30 and then at least an hours worth of work each night at home. Which is fine, i don't really mind it (even though a lot of it is a waste of time, i have to do it to pass my course!) but on top of my 40+ hours i work part time at Tesco! So i do about 50 hours of work a week!

Away from the moan now, moan ended! Saturday night was a Games night at Katie and Alisons flat (Louise's flat too, but she wasnt there!) so there was about 25 - 30 people there playing some really random games! For example i came second in giant snakes and ladders, my team came first in Cranium, Alastair and I won a game of Monopoly (see Alastairs blog for all the brilliant details of our game! :D ), then i came first or second at a card game called Bum (or bung or something!). There was also other card games, twister, scategories and goodness knows what else! It was a gr8 nite which ended at 3:30am when i think i finally fell asleep.

Tonight was another shift at Tesco, which wasn't too bad, other than two different customers called me 'darling'. grr i'm not their darling, im not anybody's darling! lol! the other thing that scares and annoys me is when customers refer to me by name e.g. 'Thanks Jillian' or 'Do you think you'll still be working here when you're 65 Jillian?' In my opinion the name badge is for the team leaders and managers, so that they can pretend to know exactly who you are by calling you by name, when of course they have absolutely no idea who you are!

And so it is off to bed to watch Babe, I'm doing listening lessons on Babe. I was looking for a picture of the front cover of the video, so typed 'Babe' into a google image search. Very Bad Idea! It doesn't come up with a picture of a cute little sheep dog pig, not that i stayed on the results long enough to find out! now that's a lesson to learn at home and not in a classroom full of kids!!

The service i was at last night was on the Good Samaritan and i shall leave you with a thought that i got from the sermon, for you to think about as well!
We shouldn't ask ourselves 'Who is my neighbour?', but 'who can i be a neighbour to?'

"It is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can't do anything else, read all that you can."

The title is a quote by an author called Jane Hamilton. (please note i haven't read any of her books, i just like the quote!) or how about this quote from Sir John Harrington "Books give not wisdome where none was before, but where some is, there reading makes it more."

I thought i would recommend some books for you all to read, they are all books that i have read within the past couple of years.

A couple of 'girly' ones first, not that guys can't read them, but it probably doesnt interest many guys!

"Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers. This book is based on the book of Hosea in the Bible and is the story of a girl who had a trouble childhood and was sold into prostitution at a very young age. When Michael Hosea meets 'Angel', God tells him that she is to be his wife. The story then continues with Michael loving Angel no matter what she does, or how hard her heart is. It is a remarkable love story not only about the love that Michael has for Angel, but the neverending, incomprehendable love that God has for each one of us!

"The Atonement Child" by Francine Rivers. This is the fictional story of a girl called Dynah, who has a great life - she's a Christian with a Christian Fiance who loves her, she's doing well at university, has great friends, family and job. One night she gets raped, the rest of the story goes on to look at how Dynah and everyone around her copes with what has happened. I thouroughly enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down, my mum read it within 24 hours (she didn't get out of bed until she had finished it!)

Now a couple of books for guys and gals!

"Boy meets Girl" by Joshua Harris. This is one of those Christian life books. I can take or leave Christian life books, (and more often than not leave them, especially ones like this! lol!) but this book was being passed round our youth group a few years ago. "Its an honest, romantic and refreshingly biblical look at relationships" (taken from the back cover). It was an easy enjoyable read, not too 'lovey dovey'. A lot of stuff i agreed with, other stuff i didnt and just laughed at (his rules on 'conduct during a relationship' were quite amusing!). a good book nonetheless.

"Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose" by Janet & Geoff Benge. This was another of those 'really hard to put down books!' It told the story of the Missionary Jim Elliot and his work in Ecuador. In the blurb about the book on YWAMs (the publishers!) website it said the book was for ages 10 and up! which explains why it didn't go into too much detail about his last days and what his wife and the other missionaries wives went through.

I'm now beginning to read "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis, i don't think it looks particularly interesting, but it's meant to be a really good book, so here's hoping! I'm also going to order "Through Gates of Splendour" by Elisabeth Elliot, which goes into more detail about her and her husband's lives. (Her husband being Jim Elliot). I have own the last 3 books that i mentioned, so if you want to borrow one, then let me know!

I shall end on an extract from the Boy Meets Girl book:
"In his commentry on Genesis, Matthew Henry explained it [the story Eve] beautifully: 'Eve was not taken out of Adams' head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him and near his heart to be loved by him".

Got that Friday feeling!

I've done it, i've survived a full week at school! I'll tell you some of the high and low points of the week.

It started pretty low, tried group work with th class, lets just say it was a 'nightmare'. Ever have one of those days where you just want to cry, well Wednesday was it! I had been out late the night before (but, yay, it was CU small group!!) and its never good to teach whilst tired! Actually my lesson went ok, i got the children to write a diary as if they had experienced an earthquake. Some of them were excellent about how they fainted, or how they had to go to another country and at the airport reporters kept asking them questions! Thursday was made much better with the comments of one of the girls. She said 'Miss Annan, are you married?' and i said 'no' and she went 'aww' sympathising for me because i was not married. Then she asked if i lived with somebody, or who did i live with. So i told her i lived with my mum and dad and big brother, then she told me that she was glad i didn't live alone because that would be sad! Don't you just love kids!

Ooh, today i had my crit! Twas soooo horrible, i really didn't like it! The first i saw of my tutors was when they walked into the class at 1.15. I had the children on my own from 1 till about 2.20. My tutors sat in the corner and looked through my file, pulled out sheets made notes, showed things to each other. I didn't know whether it was a good thing or not! But, don't worry i have survived and got satisfactory in all of the sections. In my chat with them afterwards they gave me a few action points to look at, so all is good! :)

ok, so here's some pointers to look for to see if you are stressed. (all of which were experienced by me this week!)

you know your stressed when:
* you buy Irn Bru, take it for your lunch, forget about it and not drink it!
* you make yourself bread and butter sandwiches for lunch!
* go to the shop to buy comfort food (popcorn!) and then not eat it!
* ask and then offer to get somebody something (a Mars Bar for my Bro) and then completely forget about it until you walk back in the drive!
* you give a child into trouble using the wrong name!
* you forget that you're not at school, and start using your teacher voice with other members of your family!
* you fill yet another blog with useless rubbish which nobody really cares about!

One day i will write a blog with real meaning, and everybody will say 'she knows what she's talking about!' so keep a look out for it!

Verse for blog:~ " O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I am saying" Psalm 78:1 (NLT) hehehe! honestly, im not big headed! :D

No calories on Fridays!

Yes according to the latest chat in the staffroom, there are no calories in chocolates or any other food items on a Friday! Which leads me on to apologise (in advanced!) for all my weird and hyper (or depressed!) words and behaviour in the next 7/8 weeks! I'm on placement and it takes it out of u completely! there is so much bloomin paper work to be done! so yes i apologise for any weird behaviour (even more out of the ordinary for me!) in the next few weeks! I can't believe that i repeated the same thing twice within like 3 sentences! repeating myself in the spce of a few sentences is something that i would never believe myself to do!

ooh, what to blog about today! hmm, i was at Catalyst tonight, a youth event on the south side of Glasgow, it was at Newton Mearns Baptist tonight! and i had to drive there, on the motorway! There was 5 of us in the car, 3 who don't drive and the other person who can drive hasnt driven on the motorway, and i don't think has driven since she passed her test. But, i think i am coming round to liking the idea of driving on the motorway, it was a very quick route!

Im sure there were so many things that i was going to complain about, but i cant remember them! i'm in that 'im so tired that my brain hurts' mood! ooh i remembered what else my gran complained about! she complained that i had bought first class stamps instead of second class stamps! wot is with that?? lol! I like first class stamps! they're gold, n 30p is such a nice round number! (i also like the colour blue tho, and the thought of saving money is always good! even if it is just 9p!) Ooh talking about saving money, i bought a new skirt! it's long and black and cord! and it cost me an astonishing £3.50! yay go Tesco!

I have 2 favours to ask you all!
1. please be on the look out for Malteaser ice cream! i'd really like some and Tesco and Sainsbury's didnt have any! (i need it for to relieve the stress lol! during standard grades and highers when i was ill with stress it was Lucozade and black jacks that got me through! i'm not that bad tho, but would really like Malteaser ice cream! i might have to resort to malteaser ice cream lollys!

2. Come to a ceilidh! 18th February, feel good about spending money and having a good time coz the money is for a great cause! a hospital in Craiova! (yes i am going to pester you as much as i can until u buy a ticket! :D and they say im innocent moahahahaha!)

I remembered an exciting bit of news! I beat Chris at pool! In the first 3 games that we played, i won the first two and then in the third game i potted the black! those of you who have seen me play pool, and who have also seen Chris play pool, will know how truely amazing that is! and i think i only hit the white ball off the table once, which is always good!

Bed is calling! Need sleep to get energy to face a whole week in school! with my tutor visit on Friday! please pray for me on Friday! its when my tutor (in my case, tutors!) come and watch me teach and then tell me where im going wrong, and where im going right! its apparently a really scary thing and this is my first crit ever, so prayers would be much appreciated! thanks! :)

Verse for the blog:~ "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. " Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV) these verses were talked about briefly tonight at Catalyst, and i love them! so keep on keeping on!

A Wake Up Call

I was watching the Scottish News tonight, which i don't normally watch. Anyway there was a report on about a girl who had been abducted from a bus stop in Glasgow on Saturday night and then dropped off there again on Sunday morning. You can see the article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4621944.stm or at http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=10165
I have waited by myself at that bus stop quite a few times later on at night. In the links there are photos of the street, Cathedral Street, which is where Strathclyde University buildings and Halls of Residences are. In the photos the bus stop is on the right hand side. The Strathclyde CU meet in a building which is just out of picture on the left, and the Strathclyde Union is a little further along on the right hand side. It was really scary (for my mum as well as me!) to watch the report because we both knew that i had waited for buses there on a number of occasions!

In the comments section for the previous post i mentioned that i was no longer going to buy an Ipod. Instead i am going to buy an A3 laminator, which will come in very useful for teaching materials! and will save up the money to go to Romania in September with the 1st Bearsden Boy's Brigade Romania Project, of which i am a committee member. This is our third Project to raise money for a hospital in Craiova. we do lots of fundraising activities including a Ceilidh coming up on the 18th of February, 7 for 7:30 start at Kessington Hall in Bearsden. Adult tickets £10, Student tickets £8, school aged children tickets £ 6, toddlers free! For more info. speak to me or wait until i pester you about coming along to the ceilidh! I fought hard to get student prices, and your tickets includes a 'light buffet supper' and a live ceilidh band. There will also be an auction and a raffle, and remember it is a fundraising ceilidh! :D Plug over!

Well, with that aside, it's back to forward planning! I couldnt find any good ideas on the internet, so i have made up my own worksheet on the Earth's Layers.

Verse for the blog:~ "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah" Psalm 32:7 (NIV)

Peace with You

Peace with you is the name of the Ten Shekel Shirt song i'm listening to at the moment! It's a nice quiet calming song, tis good.

Don't you just love grandparents?! my mum's parents died before i was born, and my dad's dad died 10 years ago, so i've just got my grandma (my dad's mum)! So yesterday i decided to go in and pay her a visit, say hello, see how she was getting on, ok so i forgot my house key and wanted to borrow hers, but was more than happy to sit and chat awhile over a cup of tea! but then it got onto the concerns that only grandparents can have for their grandchildren, 'you should really eat something more substantial for breakfast, its the most important meal of the day you know', and 'oh dear, you should get more sleep at night, i always try to get up at the same time every day, 8am. Then i got to defend myself, by explaining that i was most likely out of the house at 8am when she got up! (if im at uni, then i meet Cat at Anniesland at 8ish, and i start work on saturdays at 8!). Then it got onto eat 5 pieces of fruit and veg a day, and eating a fish 'because its very good for you, you should try and eat it once a week', and as you all know form 'food glorious food' i can't stand fish, and wont eat it even if it is good for me! and then it got onto the 'why do you want to buy an Ipod, you should be saving all your money to buy a house or a car or something!'
I find in these situations if you nod, smile and agree, then you usually get by without too much fuss! It made me laugh and it does my gran good to 'sort out the world'!

yeah, so most exciting news for me is that i'm probably going to buy myself an Ipod! so if anybody has one, or knows about them, or has some piece of advice about which one to get then your help would be much appreciated! ta chucks!

Ooh, i've finished all my uni work at the moment, 2 exams and 2 assignments done and dusted (until the results come out! :) ). Now im just about to start my forward planning for the lessons im going to teach on placement! I'm going to be doing 8 lessons on listening focussed on Babe (as in the pig!) and 16 lessons on Volcanoes! so by tomorrow night you can ask me anything you want about volcanoes and i should be able to answer it!

Happy 'ditch your New Years resolutions day' by the way! Hope you're managing to keep your resolutions! :D

Verse for the blog:~ "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. " John 14:27 (NIV)

What a week!

As I'm sure many of you know, it has been exam week for me! Out of the past 9 days i have spent at least part of 7 of them in the Library studying! I had my language exam on Tuesday we had to write 2 essays from a choice of 3 subjects. Would anybody like to know about Creative Writing or Structuring Talking and Listening Tasks? :) The thing i really like about essay writing exams is that you can show off everything you've learned from all of your studying, hopefully i was was 'showing off' the correct stuff! Thursday was the maths exam, i opened the paper, looked at question 1 and was like, oh dear!

"In a village there are 3 straight streets which may or may not cross each other. If there are traffic lights at every junction, what is the greatest number of traffic lights that could be needed? What about 4 streets, 5 streets?"

It's taken from the 5-14 National Guidelines, and is a problem that primary 7s would normally get. I think it was the exam pressure that made me think 'i have absolutely no idea what the question is asking me never mind answering it!' Lots of people (i won't name any names!) think that Primary Teaching is an easy course and that our maths exams will be really easy, yes we do get some primary maths like the problem above, but we also get questions like this one:

"Explain what is meant by the 'principle of transitivity' and why transitivity is important in learning to measure."

We also needed to know things like Pascal's trainagle, prime numbers (and easy ways to find them!), conservation of mass, 2 different meanings for a fraction, M.A.B. material and how to use it to demonstrate numbers to one decimal place. Ok, so im just putting those things in because they're things that most people won't know, and i can pretend to be all knowledgeable! :)

This morning i attended the funeral of Joan, her son Jonathan was one of the boys who had been at the camp that i went to with the Boy's Brigade company during the summer in Wisconsin. I had worked with Joan on some fundraising events and on costumes for the BB Concert. She was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago, at the beginning of last year she was told that she had 6 months to live. She kept setting herself targets and was able to celebrate her 50th birthday in December, sadly she died last week. This was the first funeral i had been to, and it really made me realise how insignificant my problems are. It also confirmed to me one of the worst feelings in the world, knowing or seeing that somebody is upset or hurt and you can't do anything about it. It's a horrible feeling, i hate seeing people upset, it makes me upset, it was really hard to see Jonathan coming into the church this morning, i cant even begin to imagine what he's going through, but with time and prayers he will get through the greif and be able to remember all the great times that he spent with his mum.

Verse for the blog:~ "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. " John 14:1-3 (NIV)

A kick in the right direction!

So i had a really busy weekend! i worked sat morning and sunday afternoon at Tesco, worked saturday night (8pm till 1am) at the golf club, i went to church twice on Sunday, both services were about Narnia and similarities to the Bible! twas really interesting! on saturday afternoon my aunt Helene, Uncle Jim, and my cousins Daniel and Craig were round! It was really really good to catch up with them! and i hate to say it, but my cousins have grown up so much (which is bad for me to say since im only like 4 and 7 years older than them!)

Monday was back to Studying (and a shift at Tesco!) before i started to study this morning in the library, i thought 'i have a bible in my bag, i'll read a psalm, but which psalm should i read?' One of the books that i had out of the library had the number 428.07 on it, so i decided to read psalm 28! when i turned to it, this is the psalm i found! (and also doubles as my verse for the blog!)

Psalm 28 A Prayer for Troubled Times
1 To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I shall be like those who have gone down to the pit.

2 Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands towards your Most Holy Place.
3Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbours but harbour malice in their hearts.

4 Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve.

5 Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again.

6Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy.
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

8The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
9 Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them for ever


I read the title 'A Prayer for Troubled Times' and laughed, will my exams really be that bad? course not, coz (another little singsong!) 'God is on our side, who can be against us? thought mountains may fall and the skies will crumble, there ain't nothing gonna stand in our way!' (The lyrics are from Chris Tomlin's song 'God is on our Side'.)

I'm going to leave you with with the last verse from the song.

Come on down to the riverside
Wash it all away
Leave behind your troubled mind
For an uncloudy day
Nothing's gonna separate us from the Father's love
I can't help but celebrate
'Cause we're not alone

Food, Glorious Food!

Food! For some reason being a Christian and food goes together, there is rarely a gathering of Christians without food! after all it does say in the Bible 'Man shall not live by Bread alone!' (and yes i know im completely taking that out of context, and that it really means that we've got to live every day following Jesus and living by what his word says!)

Apparently i have some weird eating habbits! I don't eat orange smarties, they taste different to the other ones (the difference in taste is only with the British Smarties, the American Smarties there is no difference in taste!) If im eating a packet of Wine Gums, i have to put them in order of how i want to eat them! (even in the cinema!) the order is yellow, orange, black, green and then red, with red being eaten last! I've also got into the habbit of dipping crisps into soup! Plain crisps and tomato soup is really good, as is cheesy Quavers dipped in tomato soup. I don't eat meat off the bone, i don't like handling raw meat (even if it is in a bag and im putting it through the checkout at Tesco!) and i dont like fish at all (except tuna!) The smell of fish makes me feel sick! I love vegetables! and would sometimes (most times!) rather have more veggies than pudding! Good example of this was at Scoughall during the summer, where i had a bowl of carrots instead of trifle! (oh yeah i dont like trifle!)

I only drink flavoured coffees, guess what? Starbucks have stopped doing their Christmas flavoured lattes, and i never got to have my Egnog latte! :( maybe next year! I never really drink normal coffee, only because tea is normally on offer as well! I can drink tea anytime anywhere! hmmm (i have a cup beside me at the moment!)

Im trying to think of weird food things that my friends do! Salt on anything is weird, there's enough salt in food already. Chris eats Ham and marmalade sandwiches. Sharon had a nice crusty roll with a Galaxy Caramel in it! Then there's all the guys (im not going to try and name you all, coz theres a lot of you!) who have had Mars Bar toasties at toastie Bar!

Ooh which reminds me, i used to have three things on my 'to do before i die' list. They were:
1. Jump out a plane, with a parachute on!
2. Use a power drill to drill a hole through somethign!
and 3. eat a deep fried mars bar.

In September this year (i think it was after the joint CU Synergie event during Freshers week!) Rebekah and i went and got Deep Fried Mars Bars! lets just say, been there done that, really dont need to do it again in a hurry! I'll need to add somethign else onto my list! any suggestions?

Verse for the blog:~ "Locusts of all varieties, crickets, bald locusts, and grasshoppers. All these may be eaten. " Leviticus 11:22 (New Living Translation) so all those Bush tucker Trials on I'm a Celebrity get me out of here, are from the Bible? I dont think i'll add eating those to my list of things to do before i die! yuck!!

Wow, it's 2006! time flies!

Just for you Amelia, i have taken time out of very important studying and assignment writing to come and write a new blog! I hope you're happy! lol, im only joking, its been a while since i filled your lives with happiness!

I was just thinking that a heck of a lot happens in a year, far too much to write here, and i dont really do the whole looking back thing! i like to look forward, in anticipation, nervousness and excitment wondering what will happen in the year(s) ahead. (ooh just thought of my 'verse for the blog! check it out at the bottom!)

So i decided to stay home for New Year, the first time ever. I've spent every single new year since i was 2 with the same group of people, so it was quite strange not being with them. But i had great fun anyways (and they didn't miss me too much!)

so my Hogmany started off at Tesco, working. Then i had a lovely lunch with my Gran, then a shopping trip to Tesco with Angela, for clothes and the party essentials, namely Irn Bru and Haribo! After taking ages to get ready Angela and I, all dolled up got onto a bus, we must have been a sight for the Neds at the back of the bus! We got the bus and went to Chris' flat and then headed off to Johnnys flat. Much chatter and socialising was done at Johnnys as people arrived. Just after 11, the 10 of us headed to Byres Road to find a pub to welcome in the New Year. After trying a few pubs and Ashton Lane (which was a sold out ticketed event! grr!) we ended up in Booly Mardy's, its a cocktail bar just off Byres road. A round of Cocktails was bought as we awaited the Bells. at 10 to midnight they turned off the music and turned up the TV so that we could all hear Jackie Bird on the BBC. With the bells came many hugs and kisses, and not just from the people that we knew but from the slightly tipsy well wishers in the bar with us!

After a while in the bar, we went to Shane's friends party. This was a very random affair with lots of happy people that we didn't know. We had a nice time in the disco room before we headed back to Johnny's flat. I didn't know how many shops were open at that time of the night. We stopped in a newsagents at about 2:30 for chocolate, and then it was the long walk back to the flat, and i had on my high heels, and chris wouldnt give me a piggy back! twas shocking. Once back at the flat it was munching and giggling as we tried to play articulate. 5 o clock came and went, and we decided we should sleep!

Sunday morning after a cup of tea in Johnnys flat, Chris, Angela, Fiona and i started walking back to Chris flat, so he could give us a lift home! Guess What? Starbucks was open, woohoo. i've still not had my eggnog latte yet, maybe tomorrow!

Later on in the day i headed to Lenzie to have a steak pie dinner with my gran, my uncle Hamish, my auntie Christine, and the Calders (who are my aunts sisters family, but are no relation to me, as in its my dads brothers wifes sister and family! did u understand that?) The meal was soo good and i was completely stuffed after it! :)

I'm going to leave this blog here, as i will be writing a more random blog at some point in the next few days. The random blog will mull over the important things in life, so watch this space!

Verse for the blog:~ "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version) A brilliant 'January' verse i think, well a brilliant verse all year round, but maybe especially at the start of a new year with so many new opportunities and challenges ahead of us! little song for ya now, 'When the road is rough and steep (what d'ya do?) Keep your eyes upon Jesus!'