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.

New year, new job, new path.

2010 is going to be a year of big change for me, and I am very excited about this. I am going to try my best to fill everyone on where I am at just now.

For the past year and half I have been working at the YMCA in Perth and relevant course alongside this. I enjoyed this experience and totally believe that this was what God had planned for me for that period of my life. Summer 2008 I was lucky enought to spend another summer with my American family in California. I have often felt that I would move to America "when I am older" and when having a conversation about this my friends over there they asked me why I wouldn't just stay then.

On the journey to the airport when I was leaving I had a challenging conversation with Tim. He is someone who's opinion I really value and I really listen to what he has to say to me. He told me that he was speaking to his good friend and they had the feeling that I really belonged in California. When I heard this I was pretty scared, maybe scared isn't the right word but I was definitely challenged. Deep down I think it frightened me because it was something I also believed was true. Last summer I was fortunate enough to spend more time in California. As soon as I stepped off the plane I felt like I was at home. The whole summer I felt like God was confirming for me what I had been praying about for over a year.



Since coming back there have been little things that have happened that have again confirmed what I believe God has been trying to tell me. So I made the decision last month to finish at the YMCA and finish my course. I felt really lead to do this by God. I moved back home with no real idea of what I would be doing as far as work, but completely trusting in God. I am plan to be moved out to America by this summer. I now have a job, which I start tonight, at the Hotel just 15 mins away.

I just love being at a point in my life where I am learning to completely trust God in every aspect of my life and rely on Him. I don't know exactly what I will be doing in California yet but I know that God has a perfect plan for me and I am excited to see what this will be!

"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

My week in words.

I have had a lovely week. It was a friend of our family's birthday and they had a small party to celebrate! It was really lovely to see some old friends and catch up with them. There was also some firework, actually there were hundreds of fireworks. My baby brother was in charge of lighting them and that totally terrified me! Every firework that went off scared me and made me jump, but Fin just casually walked away as the fireworks went off behind him - almost like the hero in a movie walking away as an explosion goes off right behing them! Any party that is held at their house usually involves everyone doing a "party piece". We somehow managed to avoid having to do it this year. We are going to work on something amazing for the next party though!

I was babysitting for a family from our Church last weekend. They have 3 boys. I have been babysitting for YEARS but this is the first time I have been outnumbered by boys!! I had a blast with them. They are so sweet. They had a chocolate cake to share with me when I got there and the gave me some strawberry bonbons. They were also very excited to play a game of cluedo with me. I hadn't played this for a long time but the boys helped me! I was warned by their parents that they like to cheat - big style! It was hilarious, I had to be on my guard at all times. It was a lot of fun. They had this cool book with a bible story for each day of the year, so we read the next story. Then we watched a movie, Dr Seuss - Horton hears a Who! They were so excited that I wanted to watch this with them, I had never heard of it. We had watched about 5 minutes of it and I thought it was terrible! But as we watched some more I started to enjoy it, probably because I thought it was really cute that they were laughing at it! I hope I get to babysit these wee guys soon - they are awesome!

On Sunday I got to spend the day with my sister. We have been planning to spend a day together since Christmas but this is the first time we were both free. We watched 27 dresses, we could hardly stay awake while we were watching it. It was pretty late, about 3pm! HA. We had dinner with my mum and Fin which was nice. It's not often that we all get to sit down to have a meal together. After this we decided that we would watch The Butterfly Effect. I don't know why I would watch this again. It really freaks me out everytime. I'm much more of a romantic comedy girl! It was nice just to spend time with my sister. :)

Something very exciting happened today. The coal arrived!! Exciting news for me because it means that my fires will now be even more amazing! Yay.

Baking with Foy Vance.

I had a fun day combining two of my favourite things - baking and singing!

I have to admit that they are all very yummy! I now need to decide who I am going to share these with. I absolutely love baking but I make such a mess while I am doing it!

Today I was also backing singer to Foy Vance, well in my kitchen I was anyway! If you have not already heard of him you HAVE to download some of his music. I love it! A few months ago my sister and I went with some friends to his concert at Kenmore. He was incredible. This is the album cover of his debut album, Hope. I can't tell you how good it is. You will not regret listening to this!

"That's what friends are for."

Last week I got to spend some time with my good friend, Laura. I hadn't seen her for weeks so I was ready for my Laura fix! When I first moved to Perth I really didn't know anyone, Laura was an aswered prayer. There have been many nights that I have got a taxi home at 3am after staying at Laura's for "just a wee bit longer"! I don't know how many times we have watched the Notebook and cried every time. We have laughed so much that we can't breath and are actually in pain. She is a real treasure.

It was SO great to get to spend some time with her. She introduced me to Mamma Mia. Oh my goodness, it is wonderful. I love Abba and I'm not really sure why it has taken me so long to watch this movie. I remember being very excited about it coming out but never got round to seeing it. It honestly gave me goosebumps. I wish Abba was the soundtrack to my life! I told Laura that she needs to be ready at any point to burst into song with me!

After Mammi Mia we were in the singing mood so what better to do than Karaoke! We had so much fun. Laura is a great singer and was really showing me up! But I had the dance moves to make up for it. So much fun.

She is such a blessing. I am very thankful for her!

"I thank my God every time I remember you" - Philipians 1:3

The BIG freeze.

"The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen." Job 37:10

Those of you who live in this country will know all about the "big freeze" that we have been experiencing over the last few weeks. When it first started snowing I was so excited. I don't have any memories of snow like this before so I was loving it. Everything is just covered in snow and it does look very beautiful. We had a white Christmas which was wonderful. The drive to my Aunt's on Christmas Day was breathtaking. Clear blue sky, the sun was shining and everything was litterally sparkling. It was lovely.

My love for the snow lasted a good 2 weeks. Now, I have almost had enough. I went for a walk last week in the snow and it was freezing, really it was about -10C. I was almost in tears my feet were that cold. Everytime I go outside now I feel like this. It is just so cold. There are icicles hanging all around our house, we have some that almost reach the ground. Last week I thought this was really cool. This week I think it is cold. Everytime I step outside I am instantly reminded of how cold it is but they also really scare me. I was taking some photos today and started to get a bit worried for my life. They are so huge and I was worried that one would fall on me! There is a sheet of ice over the path at the back door. Now, most of you will know that I am a pretty clumsy girl so ice is a bit of an obstacle for me. But I have managed not too fall over once, which I think is a great achievment.

So, I am happy to have the snow here still but I have to admit I am a little fed up with it! I can't even remember what Scotland looks like without snow. There have only been two things that have got me through this winter.

1. My lovely wellies. I bought these when Mum and I got caught in a blizzard while we were Christmas shopping. This is the best money I have ever spent. I have worn these all winter.

2. This fire. A couple of months ago I learnt how to start a fire and I am so proud of myself! This has been a great skill to have this winter. I love being able to light the fire and sit by it and be all cosy. Without this fire I think I would have frostbite by now. Thank you fire!

It looks like this snow will be around for a while but as long as I have my pretty wellies and my fire-lighting skills I know I can get through this.

My First Post - Christmas 2009

"Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" Luke 2:11

It feels a little bit odd to be starting my first post in my "New Year" blog with Christmas, but that's what I am doing.

My Christmas was lovely. For the first time in about 8 years Christmas day was not spent at our home. My family and I went to my Great-Aunt's house for Christmas lunch. There was lots of laugh, love, food and presents! My sister, Lucy, my Mum and I did the cooking which turned out to be pretty fun. We had some cheesy Christmas music on in the background, we were singing and trying to peel vegetables with the most pathetic looking peeler I have ever seen! It was a lot of fun. The meal was so delicious, as it always is when my Mum is around! For dessert we had Pavlova and Chocolate ripple cheesecake. These were also so yummy. I think it goes without saying that we were all ready to fall over because we had eaten so much. Except for Fin of course, who was digging into his selection box minutes after dessert!

It was a really lovely day. It was nice to have the whole family together for the day and to enjoy each other's company. Oh, and we had a white Christmas! It was beautiful.