Bye Rachel

My sister is leaving for the Philippines today! Rachel is going on a mission trip to the Philippines for 3 months to work at an orphanage in Anti Polo, she is going to be helping out a lot there, there is 18 kids at the orphanage right now.
So My two sisters, a friend, and myself our driving up with Rachel to the airport to wish here farewell and goodluck this afternoon, we are leaving around 1pm.
I'm gonna miss ya Rach!:) <3

Please have my sister and the orphanage in your prayers.

-Always love, Mikayla

It's been a long week.

The word "tired doesn't" even mean something to me anymore, I am always tired. This renovation has been a really long process for my family and myself, but I am VERY happy to announce that we are weeks away from finishing! Of course there is still the bathroom downstairs, and the living room on the main floor, those are minor compared to what we have been doing. For those of you that don't know much about my family's renovation, we added on to our house making the kitchen and dining room a whole lot bigger than what they used to be! Also we have made a room downstairs underneath the kitchen/dining room which we don't quite know what it is going to be yet, but it has a ton of possibilities.
                         So, here is the status of my house:

• No kitchen sink, so we (mostly Rachel) have been doing the dishes in the bathtub
• Mess Everywhere! If any of you have had a renovation I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about...
• We have tools and appliances laying all about-New fridge in the dining room, new dishwasher and microwave in the living room, built shelves in the new kitchen/dining room, a scafholder in the old kitchen holding tools and such.

We started to put shelves up and floor down on Saturday and Sunday, It looks really good. :)
Painted the walls in the kitchen/dining room last week this color-



Other stuff I have been doing in my life:

• School
• Youthgroup
• hanging out with my friends
• Chores/ helping with reno
• hanging out with my sisters

Yesterday My family and myself went up to Lloyd to celebrate Julia's birthday. We went out to eat at Tony Roma's, I got Ribling with fries. :) We were planning to go shopping afterwards but decided to go home early and stop at co-op and get icecream. We came home and got the icecream dished up and watched 'In Time'. Here is the movie trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fdadZ_KrZVw

It was a great day. :)  

8 more days till Christmas

Christmas to me, is THE most BEAUTIFUL time of the year.
There's a special joy that I feel in the Christmas season.
   I like so many things about Christmas and there are a ton of things that make Christmas special to me.
  A few things that come to mind that I like about Christmas are:

-I like decorating Christmas cookies and giving them to someone I know and saying I was thinking of that them

-Decorating the house for Christmas

-putting the angel or star on the tree

-Driving around town looking at X-mas lights

-Going outside when it first snows

-Wrapping presents while listening to Christmas music

-Spending time with family

-That special moment when you look at your Christmas tree on Christmas Eve before you go to bed and you feel peace and joy
-Drinking hot chocolate on a cold December day

-Shopping for Christmas presents

-Listening to X-mas music

-Watching Christmas movies

-Helping with Christmas dinner
-Not being able to fall asleep on X-mas Eve

 -Going to the Christmas Eve service at my church
-sledding

I LOVE Weddings.

           

Just engaged? 5 things to do first!
Source: http://weddinggawker.com/popular/favorites/7-days/

 1: Set a budget

You really shouldn’t do anything before deciding on your budget. I know it’s a tough conversation, but it needs to be discussed and decided on before anything else. Figure out who is contributing, how much they can contribute, and what your total budget will be. Then you can move on to…

 2: Choose 2-3 possible dates

Yep, to be safe, choose 2-3 possible dates to have your wedding. Think of what time of year you like, the weather, work schedules/vacation time, holidays, and yes, even football (or whatever sport your fiance is crazy about) schedules. Then choose your #1 preferred date, and have a #2 and #3 available in case your preferred date isn’t available. Because I’m going to be honest- venues don’t wait around for you to get engaged and decide on your perfect wedding date. Some venues even book up to a year and half in advance!

 3: Start your guest list

This is another toughie because yes, of course you want to invite everyone and their uncles to your wedding. I’m warning you. You’re going to list everyone you know, friends you haven’t seen in years but still “know” thanks to Facebook, coworkers you don’t even like, and I’m sure your mom will want her friend Sue to be on the list too. But in reality, the more people you have, the more you have to spend. This is why you do your budget first.

Example: You want to have 200 guests. Your budget is $20,000. This means that you will have $100 per guest. Well, that really ritzy hotel you love? Yeah they’re not even going to be close to $100 per person- and that’s not including flowers, dress, and all your other vendors.

So starting your guest list and knowing your estimated count early on is imperative. And keep in mind- nothing is set in stone. Guest counts normally go down by the time the wedding day comes around anyways- and believe me… it’ll get reeeeeally easy to cut those people you haven’t talked to in forever. But it’s crucial to have an estimation of how many people you’re planning on so you can make some decisions! :)

 4: Decide on your wedding’s style

Ah, there I go again on wedding styles. If you’re new here, you’ll find out that I’m HUGE on knowing what style of wedding you want. Vintage, modern, classic, eclectic, punk, rustic… there are SO many styles. Most styles also coincide with decor and details too. But none of that has to be decided on right away. Just know the general “gist” of the style of how you want your wedding to be. Once you know that, it’ll be easier to decide on your venue. Which brings us to…

 5: Decide on your venue

So all of the previous 4 steps, like I said earlier, can essentially be done all in one sitting. Pretty cool, right? Once you’ve laid the “foundation” for your wedding, you can start researching and touring venues. When you’re researching and you’ve found one you like, I recommend emailing or calling and asking if they have any of your possible dates available. If they do, then go ahead and schedule a meeting to tour the venue! Give yourself a few (1 to 3 max) weeks to tour all of your possibilities (depending on how long you have before your wedding date of course), crunch numbers, envision and dream of your wedding, and then pull the trigger on your venue! Once you have your venue booked (meaning deposit made) and your date secured… well woo hoo! You are getting MARRIED! ;)

    

http://piteiraphotography.com/2011/11/28/catia-pedro/

Wedding decor ideas:

http://www.bellethemagazine.com/2011/10/wedding-trendshanging-wedding-decor.html

 

Awesome wedding website:  http://weddinggawker.com/

I Love, love and I love weddings, I can't wait to be married one day. :)

Damien Walters

 This is Damien Walters, he is amazing! He can do the most crazy, insane, out of this world stunts that just blow your mind!



                      
                                             2010 promo video    
                                      
                                                          2011 promo video

Life is so good! Here is what is going on in my life right now:

• My sister Natasha came home last weekend after a long 3 years overseas doing missions - It is so great to have her back! :)
• Homeschooling is also going really good
• Going on winter vacation to the United States with my Family in a little over a week! :D
• My room was clean 3 days ago but then all of a sudden there was like a hurricane of chaos that hit my room
• Hanging out with friends, youthgroup, and fusion
• Went to a wedding shower last night, that was pretty great. :)
• This Friday I am going to my Auntie's house to have a Christmas decorating party with Julia and Natasha.

I am looking forward to:

• Christmas!!
• Rachel coming home from Denver

                    Jill and Kevin's Big Day :)

                                Jordan Jansen -My sister said she thinks he is gonna be the next Justin Bieber :p

Always love, Mikayla

Christmas Countdown 2011 - Find out how many days until Christmas 2011

Christmas Countdown 2011 - Find out how many days until Christmas 2011: Set www.xmasclock.com as your homepage to count the number of days until Christmas 2011!