Time flies...

I just looked at my last blog post, and wow, time flies! I have already been in Germany for more than 3 weeks! I am leaving in 5 days with my sister, her husband and my niece back to Canada. Home. :) The whole family is gonna be together for Christmas at home this year plus 2 new extra family members now. The whole fam hasn't been together for Christmas (my personal favourite holiday) in years! 
                                                                               Anyways, I feel so bad about not blogging more while being here, BUT I have done so much in the short time being here! Some things about Germany that I love: There are so many castles here! The one closest to where I'm staying, the people that live here just use it for their daily use! teenagers study in it, elderly people read/sit in there, and they have youth retreats where you can stay in the castle for a weekend!

- *(I didn't end up finishing this blog the same day like I was wanting to, and now I'm back! Kind of kicking myself right now. But I'm going to have lots to write about for the next while.)
                                                                        Another thing I love is how many old building there are that they keep up to maintenance so they can still use them. We went to the next city closest to us and in the city center there was this store that sold beautiful antiques, the building was over 160 years old! Europe in general has so much history with all the wars that happened there, the old buildings, castles, heritage, religion, the huge old Catholic churches. I am personally a huge history nerd so Germany was amazing to me.
                             I got to do a lot of traveling around when I was there, I got to go to the Netherlands for afternoon, Cologne for a day which included going to Cologne City shopping center, The love lock bridge, and the famous cathedral. I went to Amsterdam, Dortmund for one weekend staying with Tasha's sister in-law. While I was in Germany I rode on a train for the first time! It was an amazing experience for me because where I live we don't really use trains for traveling, but in Germany it's normal.
I will be blogging a lot more but for now this is good.

~Always love, Mikayla

25 more days!

Guess where I'm heading October 28?! I am heading across the ocean to Germany for a little over a month! By myself! No one can comprehend how excited I am for this trip! I mean if you had told me when I was 13 I would be heading across the ocean by myself to Germany of all places for a month to stay with my sister and my niece while I was 16, I wouldn't have believed you.

                               Life is crazy, and God is SO good. This has been an insane hard year for me but things are finally looking up. I wouldn't have thought earlier this year that I would be thankful for all that happened to me, it was some pretty terrible stuff, but I'm starting to think that stuff had to happen to get me where I am now.
                     
              A fact about me, I love to travel. I want to travel the world and go everywhere and learn about different cultures, see amazing places, and meet new people. I can not say I have wanted to go to Germany for a long time, but I think that's just because I never really looked into the country and it's sights and it's history. There is actually so much going for that country that I probably would've never learned about if my sister didn't marry a German and moved there. There are castles! Just in the area where my sister lives there are 7! Milka chocolate, beautiful old buildings, The autobahn, the lock bridge, gorgeous mountains and so much more I will experience when I get there. :) I am planning to blog a lot while I am there so I will get to keep you all updated with how it's going. And so the countdown begins: 25 days!


Auschwitz- Really hoping I will get a chance to go there. It would be so sobering to go see it. It's on my bucket list to go there.
 This is in Berlin
-When My sisters inlaws came to Canada for her wedding they brought so much Milka brand chocolate for my family (the yogurt one was my favourite.)

My bucket list

Life is to short. Live life to the maximum and do
everything you want to do and then more. :) Here are some things
 I want to do before I die:

1. Swim with dolphins
2. Get married
3. Go to Germany
4. Go on a missions trip with Samaritans purse
5. Adopt a child
6. Own a pair of TOMS
7. Go to Cambodia to work at a orphanage
8. Watch Disney movies for a whole day
9. Make a 5 course meal just for me of my favourite foods
10. Be part of a flash mob
11. Play hide and seek in IKEA
12. Ride in a helicopter
13. Carve a pumpkin
14. Throw a dart at a map and travel to wherever it lands
15. Float in the dead sea
16. Visit Auschwitz
17. Try dog sledding
18. Drink from a coconut
19. Bungee jump
20. Be on the show Say yes to the dress
21. Break a world record- Check
22. Skydive
23. Learn fluent sign language
24. Learn how to do a cartwheel
25. Kiss under mistletoe
26. learn how to skateboard
27. Ride in a limo-Check
28. Open a Cupcakery-(I got dreams)
29. Jump in a pool fully clothed-Checked more than once
30. Try gelato-Check!
31. Buy flowers for someone for no reason-check more than once
32. Spend New years in Times Square
33. Sleep under the stars-Check :)
34. Go scuba diving
35. Hold a Koala
36. Go zip lining-Check more than once
37. Get a tattoo with meaning
38. Be in 2 places at once
39. Let go of a floating lantern

These are just a few things I want to do before I die plus some I have already done.
Life is to short for it to be anything but spectacular

 

Stronger

I am stronger than my past. I am stronger than my temptations. I am stronger than the things that bring me down.
 
                 I am unique, beautiful and funny. I am not going to let people bring me down. You are always going to have negative people in your life who are going to discourage you or hurt you, etc. Unless you choose to sincerely ignore them or just not really have much of them in your life.

People are going to let you down. They are just human, they are going to make mistakes.

REMEMBER THOUGH: You are stronger! YOU are courageous, beautiful and amazing!
(*And sometimes we give up to soon...)
                                                              God is watching over you and he is there for you and he knows all your struggles and mistakes and the stuff you have done, but he loves you no less!

This video is for all the moms out there:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4Rnba85o8&feature=youtu.be
(Happy belated mom's Day!)

YC is in 9 days!! I'm getting so excited!

I am going shopping all day tomorrow in Lloyd with my younger sister and my mom. Going to get some new summer clothes and some make-up and stuff. :)
                                               (-Also help my mom with some grocery shopping.)

The snow has just completely recently melted and I am so happy about this! Now I can wear shorts and go outside without a winter jacket! That was a ridiculously long winter. This has been an interesting year so far. To be honest I didn't know my feeling about the year when it first started like I usually do. Usually I get some kind of feeling of the year ahead of me so it kind of freaked me out when I didn't. I can't even start to explain all this year has brought me.

                                     I turned 16 in February and that is still just crazy to me! I am 16 for crying out loud! This is like the prime time of my life or that's what the movies make it look like! YC Alberta is in 14 days!! I am so crazy excited for this! YC is a huge Christian youth conference held in Edmonton, Alberta each year that has around 10,000 or so people attend, over 3 days. It renews me each year I go and makes me stronger.

Here is the promo video for YC this year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWcJM9S1vbQ&list=PL22C61A8E81C08E0B

YC Alberta 2012 kick-off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq-W85zQ5uc&list=PL22C61A8E81C08E0B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k53uWOoHedY&list=PL22C61A8E81C08E0B

I'm going to be an auntie soon! Ahh! I can't believe how this went by, it seemed to go by so slow waiting and now that it is almost here I can't believe how fast that was. I will write another post when my sweet niece is born and tell you all about her. :)

On my closing note I have been reading this book series "Diary of a teenage girl" by Melody Carlson. I strongly recommend it to any teenage girl between the ages of 14-19.

21 things that make me happy

 

 Here are 21 things that make me happy:     

1. A God who loves me :)

   
2. Being confident
3. making cupcakes

4. FALL
 I used to not really like autumn because I thought
of it as everything dying/going away and it was somewhat depressing to me but I don't think that anymore. There are so many things about fall that make me happy, like: Beautiful colors, warm nights, cozy days, sweaters, the smell of fall air :)
 
5. Swings :)

6. Smartie cookies
Smartie cookies are a childhood memory for me, I used to get them from a local grocery store bakery everytime I went to help my mom get groceries, they were the best!

7.learning from the past/mistakes
8. Words people should use more often

9. Cheesy/cute things

 

  
10. Random awesome things
  
11. Peaceful nights/Beautiful starry nights


12. Dream bedrooms


13. Quotes


14. Finding Cute hair styles on pinterest


15. Ballroom Dancing

16. Delicious hot chocolate on cold winter days

17. Eating fruit


18. Inspiring people

 

                                                                                                                          
19. Big cities

20. Snow pictures
21. Cute kids