Birthday's.

The majority of the staff that I work with stay at the hotel in staff accomodation. Last weekend we had two birthdays to celebrate. I can't imagine what it would be like to be away from family and friends on your birthday so I was really keen to make an effort for them! So I organised a night out for them and got together all the staff to come. Ainslee (birthday girl) was telling her boyfriend all day that she was sad that she didn't have a cake...sooo off I went to the kitchen to bake a cake for her and Branislav (birthdy boy!) Each night at work they have different entertainment for the guests so we got the entertainer to announce their birthdays and we sang to them and brought the cake out! I think they were a bit embarassed because it was in front of all the guests! I think they enjoyed it though. I loved being able to play a part in their day. They are just lovely and I am thankful that I have been lucky enough to meet them get to know them! ♥

Smile.

My friend recently gave me a book with different quotes in it by Audrey Hepburn. Everytime I read them they make me smile. So I have decided that I am going to try and post at least one a week. I hope they make you smile too!

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." - Audrey Hepburn ♥

Happy Birthday, Fin!

My baby brother turned 17 last week! I can't believe it!! I have so many memories of him throughout the years. I just love being a big sister so him. He is wonderful. He got these awesome jumpy-things, they are like stilts but you can walk and jump in them. They are pretty cool, but they also scare me! He already has a few scars to show for his gift. I made him a Birthday cake, and chocolate marble one. It was very yummy, I have to admit! And I decorated it with lots of chocolate sweets, the more choc the better with this boy!! It makes me feel old knowing that my baby brother is 17. I love him dearly.

Railway Station.

My sister and I just came back from Edinburgh yesterday. We were waiting for our train to Pitlochry, and had a lot of time to kill. The sun was shining and I had my camera with me! There were some really cool old buildings that I found so interesting, so I decided to take a few snaps! Take a look.

Introducing...

MY NEW WELLIES!!

They are just lovely. A pretty blue with the outlines of flowers on them.

And...good-bye my beautiful, "holey" wellies. They have been very good to me through this winter and I will miss them.

Let the sunshine in.

It has been far too long since my last post so I am going to try and fill you in on what has changed in the past month..and a bit!

It has finally stopped snowing! I am one of snow's biggest fans but this winter our friendship has been tested. It started snowing Mid December and a couple of weeks ago it was still snowing. I am very thankful that the snow has finally decided to save some for next year!! I had to walk to work in a blizzard one day - that was interesting. The snow was so deep that I could barely walk in it. And right in the middle of this little treat my beautiful wellies decided that they had had enough and I discovered I had several holes in them! And how do you find out who have holes in your wellies? When you are walking through a slushy puddle and when you get out of it your feet aren't dry. Lovely. So, thank you for stopping by snow but I am fine for you to be gone now. I will look forward to seeing you next time. HELLO sunshine and daffodils.

I have now been working at y new job for nearly 2 months. It has gone very quickly. I have had quite a few jobs since I was 13 but this is very different to anything I have done before so I am enjoying learning something new. Most people know that I am very clumsy. I used to fall up and down stairs at least once a day, and I can also trip over air! So when I heard that at my new waitressing job I was going to have to carry 4 plates at a time I nearly had a heart-attack. I was willing to give a go but I honestly that that I would have to find a different job because there is no way I would be able to do that. My family were all worried for me too. Much to my delight, and surprise, I was able to carry 4 plates after my first week working there. I guess when you have to do something you just get on and do it! I am very proud of myself.

When I first saw my uniform I was mortified. I have to wear black trousers (pants to you Americans and Aussies!) a white shirt - these 2 are fine. But look out, aswell as this I have to wear a very fetching tartan bowtie. I have yet to get a photo of me in my uniform but don't worry - I will give you all the pleasure of that soon! And just when I thought the uniform couldn't get any worse I was introduced to my new velcro kilt. We have to wear this outfit when the guests have a ceilidh night at the Hotel. This would also be a good time to inform you that I am much taller than most of the people I work with. We got a photo of us all in our ceilidh outfits and I look like a giant. My kilt sits about an inch above my knee and on all the other girls it comes about mid calf! I will need to get some photos to put up because the guys outfits are much worse. Everytime I saw one of them I couldn't help but laugh. They look hilarious.

I work with lots of lovely people and I have heaps of fun working with them. We have had a few different days out together and I honestly don't remember laughing so much. OK, I do but it has been a long time. There are some Thai girls that work there and they are just adorable. They are so sweet and bring so much joy wherever they go. I am sad that they will be leaving at the end of this month. I will really miss them. We had a Valentine's day trip and this is what I had for my lunch. I was pretty excited!!

A love-heart shaped chicken burger! It made my day. :)

Look at this lovely Hot Chocolate. Always have time to have hot chocolate with the girls.

After about 4 years of having my hair very short, I have decided that I am going to let it grow out a bit. So I am letting it do it's own thing and it is looking prett wild. I have my mother to thank for that. My curly locks are coming back. I love being able to tie my hair back again but sometimes I do miss my short hair and want to just get it all chopped off. I have just found the cable for my phone so I have been enjoying looking at all the photos I have collected over the past couple of years on it. I came across this photo that one of the young people I used to work with took. My hair was so short. I remember hating how short it was, but this photo actually made me want to go out and get my hair cut!!

I will finish with a photo that I took yesterday with my mum, so you can see how different my
hair looks and how much it looks like my mum's! I will try to make sure it isn't another month before my next post.

Wish you were here, or I was there.

These past couple of weeks I have really been missing my lovely family and friends. The people that I miss most are people that live so far away from me, in America and Australia. I find it really hard being so far away from people I love, this is something that I have just had to get used to though! I am going to post a few photos of some of the people that I am really missing right now.

My lovely Nikki. We met nearly 6 years now, when my sister and I were invited over to spend the summer with them. For those of you who don't know this story I will fill you in now because I love sharing this story! My mum's college friend, from Australia, was teaching in Germany and he had got in contact with her and spend a few holidays with us in Scotland. While Peter was teaching in Germany he met lovely Lori who was from California. In October 2003 Peter and Lori got married in Weem Church, Scotland. At this beautiful wedding we met Tim and Margie Allen and were able to spend a bit of time with them. Much to our surprise, in November that year we received a letter from The Allen's inviting us to share the summer with them. This was the first time that we met Nikki too, and I have to say that we were a bit aprehensive about it! It would have been a really long 6 weeks if we didn't get on with each other!! Thankfully, within about an hour of meeting each other we hit it off. I love spending time with this girl. We have spent, 3 summers..or 4 summers together. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the weeks leading up to her wedding with her. I loved being able to share her excitement as the days to the wedding got closer. And the best part, I got to stand beside her as she married the wonderful Zach! I am looking forward to living closer to this girl one day soon. I miss her lots.

Tim and Margie Allen. I love these two, and miss them lots. They encourage me daily and I just love chatting with them. Margie makes me laugh SO much and I love spending time cooking and singing and dancing with her! Tim loves taking the "mic" and does this any chance he can get, and there are lots of opportunities to do this with me! But I do love him for this. I have been lucky enough to make many memories with this family and they are very dear to me. I have laughed lots with them, and cried. I am very thankful that God brought this family into my life. I can't wait to be living in the same country as them.

My boo. Last summer I had an absolute blast with this lady! She is hilarious. We have lots of funny memories that no one else understand, which makes them funnier! We managed to carry on laughing with each other, even though we are in different countries, through the wonderful Skype. I am her "imaginary friend", everyone thinks that she is just speaking to her computer screen!! I can't wait to make more memories with her, we are already making some plans!

My wonderful family in Australia. In 2008 I was lucky enough to get to spend a few months with my family and really got to know them. I love them dearly. It has been great getting to know my cousins and become close to them again. I really miss not living near them and not being able to meet up with them. But I am thankful that we can keep in touch through email and I know that when we do see each other again, it will be a great day! It has been wonderful spending time with them in the past few years and having lovely memories to look back on and smile about. I hope there will be many more to come. Tom, we will always be in the "McKenzie Middle children" club. I miss you all so much.

So, these are some of the people that I am missing right now. There are more but I think this post is long enough, and I'm not sure if I have the patience to wait for more photos to upload.

I can't wait for the day that I see everyone again. I am praying that it will be sooner rather than later. I love you all dearly. You are all such a blessing to me and I am very thankful for you all.