I never get to __________ anymore.

There are quite a few things that i don't get to do as often as I'd like here in NYC, that's one of the reasons I don't like living in NY so much. And those things are Bowling, Swimming and Roller Skating.

Those are some of my favorite activities. I totally love them! When we move to Florida I will totally love to do these things with the girls more often, it is not only great exercise it is so much fun!!

When I was little I would live with my skates permanently affixed to my feet, I would even walk up and down the stairs with them. As an adult I bought a pair of Red Sketcher Skates. They are so heavy! But they are very comfortable, and I love them. Although since they are so heavy it takes much more effort to skate with them. But it gives you a better workout.

With Swimming, I have never had a lot of chance to swim often, not even when I was living in PR. I always dreamed of living somewhere with access to a pool. Hopefully in Florida I'll have that chance. I love pools so much that in January when I went to celebrate my friend's birthday party at Spa Castle, I spent 5 hours in the pool! The only downside to that was my hear felt so horrible for days afterwards.

And with bowling, I used to be on a Bowling League when I was in middle school. I had some trophies and everything. i would participate every week and went on tournaments. It was a moment when I felt really good.

These 3 things not only bring back memories from my childhood, they are great forms of fun exercise and I can't wait to have the opportunity to do all three more frequently again, I'm sure the girls will enjoy them too!

Is there anything that you wish you did more often that you don't get to do anymore?

If I were alone on a train -- I would be heading...

If I were alone on a train I would be heading HOME.

I don't think I would ever want to be heading anywhere alone on a train unless that train is taking me right home where my family is.

I don't recall ever being in a train, subway trains yes, but not train, trains.

I have not traveled much, but just the premise seems so sad. Not my idea of something I would want to do.

Have you ever traveled by train? Where did you go? Who did you go with?
If you had the chance where would you go?

My goals this Spring are...

 

Many people make the same goal in Spring and that is of Spring Cleaning. But for me it is more than just a common Spring Cleaning, it is about getting rid of most of my stuff so that when I move to Florida I don't take any junk or anything that I don't need. I am going to get rid of all the clutter, and everything that I don't need or love.

I am expecting to only take half my clothing, a small box with books, (the ones that don't come for the Kindle or that have been autographed), a copy of all the articles I have written in Magazines and of course my computer and personal documents.

For the girls I also I am going to weed out their clothing to about half, and their toys as well. And I will give them each a small box to choose their favorite books.  In the house there are so many more things that when I think about it we can totally do without them.

I know this is a lot of work, but I am confident that by June we will be done with most of the work.

So what is your goal for this Spring? Is it getting rid of clutter? Maybe something else?

Please share.

What if you dind't have to worry about...

What if we didn't have to worry about money?
If I didn't have to worry about money I would be buying a large house with a minimum of 5 bedrooms, a terrace, a pool, a game room, a media room, a gym, an office, a recording studio for my husband, a laundry room, a 2 car garage...

If I didn't have to worry about money I would have a housekeeper come every week, so my house could stay spotless.

I would travel all over the world and give to charities and volunteer, I would adopt 2 more kids, I would give my grandparents a new home, I would help my family to live a nice life. I would create a charity for kids, I would have my own company, I would put my kids in piano lessons, and art classes.

I would work for myself, and be happy. I would visit my family several times a year.

What would you do if you didn't have to worry about money?

Who is your inspiration?

My family is my inspiration. Especially my girls.They inspire me to be a better person, to be more humble. My family inspires me to work hard at being my best because I want to give them the best that I have to offer. Because they mean the world to me.

Look at that picture! Aren't they the most gorgeous people on the planet? Well, I'm sure that each of us have in our families the most gorgeous people in the planet. We are all so blessed!

But there are also other people in this world that inspire me, like Oprah, I look up to her so much! She is also an inspiration in my life because she is dedicating her life to help others and I admire that, and aspire to that in a smaller scale of course.

How about you? Is there anyone that inspires you?

What is the best aspect of your life?

What is the best aspect of my life? My girls, no questions asked! There is nothing more valuable in my life than my two beautiful daughters.
Another thing that I appreciate in my life is that even if it is now at the age of 36, that I have been able to find myself.
One of the mistakes of my youth was that I never took the time to really try and look for myself, love myself the way I do now. I went by my life just getting really good at being content, content with every aspect of my life. I was OK with whatever life threw at me, but I did not have goals, dreams, I did not pursue anything, I just survived.
It is said that one cannot truly love anyone else if we can't love our own self. And today as I showered I thought about this question. Do I really love myself? Am I happy with who I am today? And I answered to myself. Absolutely! No questions asked, hands down I am very happy for the person I have become. The person I am. And I do love myself. I feel beautiful, even if I could stand to loose a few pounds.
My life might be a roller coaster right now, but I am learning new things every day, I am growing as a person, intellectually and emotionally. I am walking straight to the path I am supposed to be walking into.
This is a new beginning. It is a brand new me. And I love every minute of it!

So, how about you? What is the best aspect of your life?

Ten years ago...

Me and Gaby

Gaby and Daddy!

Ten years ago we were just learning to be parents. Our first baby was only one and we were getting the hang of it.  We were new to New York City, just had moved here about 2 years before and we were raising our first daughter in a new city with very little family to help us, and we did a pretty good job at it.

Ten Years ago, my step-dad and my mother in-law where still with us.

Ten years ago I was about 45 lbs less than I am today and had only one daughter.

Ten years ago I had a dog named Ozzy.

Ten years ago, I was more naive, more insecure, less confident. I dressed somewhat different and my husband had longer hair.

Ten years ago I had not met Robert Downey Jr yet.

Ten years ago was very different from today, in many deep ways that are hard to explain.

How where you ten years ago? Do you ever look back and reminiscence? What life do you like better? The one you live now or the one you had 10 years ago?

I'm afraid to try...

Continuing this Blog Dare 2012 I am faced with the question of what am I afraid to try?
I am sure that if I think about this, long and hard I will come up with a different answer, but the first thing that came to mind is: escargot.

The moment has never presented itself, I have never been in a restaurant or place that even remotely sold this, but if I ever was presented with the opportunity I would probably be afraid to try it.  Mostly because I imagine it to be slimy and yucky, and I really think slugs and snails are kinda cute, so I would feel bad trying them.

Another thing that I would eb afraid to try is Bungee Jumping

First of all I get vertigo very easily and I believe I would throw up if I ever do this, and another thing that makes me afraid to try it is just being nervous that the cord would break.

Have you ever tried escargot? How does it taste? Is it slimy?
Is there anything you would be afraid to try? Food or otherwise? How about bungee jumping? Have you ever done it?

Mom never gets a sick day...

When Cold season arrives, it is mom who usually ends up taking care of everyone in the family, all the kids and daddy too if he gets it too.

But who takes care of mom when she gets sick? Many times dad will be able to, but if he goes to work, mom tends to stay home just taking care of herself and the kids when they get home from school, but if the kids are not in school yet, then mom only has the baby's nap time to rest.  And she has to get up, take care of the baby, make breakfast and make sure everything runs smoothly.

So when does it all change? I would hope that when the kids are teenagers they would give mom a bit more of restful time to recover since they would be capable of taking care of most things by themselves, but one must only hope.

How is it in your home? Do you get someone to take care of you when you are sick? Or do you have to do everything yourself even when you are sick?

An appliance I could not live without.

 I'm not sure I can say that there's an appliance that I couldn't live without since I feel like there's always an alternative way to do things.  The refrigerator is the closest thing that I can think of to be an appliance I couldn't live without, yet if I ever found myself without a refrigerator, I would just buy only what I was going to be consuming that day and go about my day.


Another appliance I am fond of is the stove and oven, yet if I didn't have that I would use the microwave or Bar B Q. When I first got married we had a propane BarBQ that we used instead of a stove, it was totally crazy but it did the job.

I can find a replacement for almost any appliance, or I can do without. I use a broom instead of a Vacuum, I use a fork for beating eggs and mixing cake batter. My mom even taught me to make brownies in the sandwich maker instead of the oven. And almost anything can be made in the microwave these days, and if you don't have a microwave, you can do everything in the stove or oven. I even make my coffee in one of those cloth coffee filters, nothing mechanical in that.

This is not about being earth friendly or any other alternate way of doing things, it is just that in my life I have had to do without at some points in my life so I learned to find alternate ways of doing things and it's not a big deal.

How about you? Do you have an appliance that you couldn't do without? What is it?

Overcoming fear.

Many years ago I was overwhelmed by fear. Fear of absolutely everything. Fear of abandonment, of failure, of not being good enough, of not having enough money, of getting hurt...

My life was not happy, it was miserable, all I could think of was on all the bad things that could happen to me and how miserable I was going to be if all those what if's where to happen. Until I realized that I didn't have to wait until my fears came true in order to be unhappy, I was unhappy waiting for my fears to come true.

It wasn't until my friend April gave me the book the Secret by Rhonda Byrne that I realized that all these fears where only keeping me down and I was attracting bad things into my life.  That's when I decided to take a stand and work hard to control my emotions and take away fear from my life.

Every time I would start to freak out and start being afraid of something I would distract myself with something funny, be it TV show or funny pictures or a movie or a song. Anything as long as it made me laugh. The thing was to keep my mind off any bad thoughts until I was able to control my thoughts and emotions better.

It is something that takes effort, and perseverance, but it is something that it is very possible. Once you gain control of your emotions and your thoughts your life will change for the better and you will never go back.

I thought I would hate...

I'm a very picky eater and I always thought I would hate many things. As I grew up I learned to give new tastes a try and with that came the love of many foods I thought I would always hate.

Those foods include:

Broccoli
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Yellow and Green Zuchinni
Pears

Pear Cake
Banana Bran Muffins
Mocha Coffee
Brazil Nut Milk in Coffee
Pork Gyoza
Eel
Shark
Pad Thai
Lo Mein
Medium Rare Steak
Onions
Peppers

There are many more foods that I eat now that I would have never even tried when I was a child, or even a teenager. But I must say that our palates mature and we are more open to eating things that taste different.
Now I am trying to include fish in my diet, more sea food. I don't normally eat sea food, unless it's chunk light tuna from a can, but the other day I ate fish, made at home, by myself. I ate it slowly, it is not something I'm used to eating, but it didn't taste bad. I want to give my daughters a good example, they where shocked!

-Mommy! What are you eating?
-Fish
-Fish and what else? You are not eating chicken?
-no, no chicken.
-Just fish?
-yup, just fish.

My daughters looked at me in disbelief, but it felt good. They know I am a picky eater like them and by me taking the fist step and eating something that I claim not to like I am opening the doors for them to try new and different things in the future, and that makes me feel proud.

Is there something you tried that you thought you would hate, but didn't?
Tell me about it.

A place from my past that felt like home

This post might seem redundant, since the only place from my past that felt like home has been my grandparents house. I'm not sure what other people may write about of this particular prompt, but when I think of my past I think about growing up in Puerto Rico, and spending the summers and then most of my teenage years and college years in San German with my grandparents, yet that past doesn't seem so long ago either. 

I've moved a lot since I was little and every one of my houses felt like home, even if that was for a short period of time.

Is there some where in your past that felt like home? What made it special?

My Volunteer Work

I have not been one to volunteer too many times, in fact officially I have only volunteered once, and it was for New York Cares when they came over to paint my daughter's school a few years ago.

But unofficially I have always been a volunteer at my children's schools, in PTA, helping out in the school Christmas Play, and on several School Trips.

This picture is from my daughter's Christmas Play at her school. The Nutcracker. My daughter was Marie, she became an instant celebrity at school. I helped with the decorations and the children's makeup and costumes.

On this picture you can see my daughter's school trip to Build A Bear.


As a mom, this seems like just things that we should do, just another part of motherhood. But not everyone does it, not everyone can.

I like to Volunteer for things related to my daughter's school, and I would like to some day volunteer in bigger ways, and teach my daughter's the power of helping others. As of now, I tend to help out more by donating to different causes.
Do you volunteer? How? What do you usually do to give back?

Carpe diem

Carpe Diem or Seize the Day, is not an expression I use but in the past few months I believe I have done just that.
It has been little things that most people might take for granted, or that some others will think it's not a big deal, like going to the movies on a Tuesday afternoon after school, or taking a road trip to a different state with the girls, going Ice Skating, even daring to go to Spa Castle!

The daring things about Spa Castle is that they have an outdoor pool that is heated, however to get to it you have to go outside in 30 degree weather and run to the pool to keep warm. We were freezing that day but we ran to the pool and stayed there all nice and warm. The bad part was getting out!

I have always been one to live carefully, try not to shake things up too much, and even though it might seem like simple things, they are experiences way outside my comfort zone. And what I have gotten out of it is a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment and enough courage to keep doing things I have never tried before.

Have you ever seized the day? What did you do and how did it feel?

A tough decision.

Picture from www.buzzle.com

A tough decision I've had to make... well, that's a tough one. LOL Pun totally intended.
But seriously speaking, I used to have a very hard time making decisions. I couldn't make a decision if my life depended on it. I had the tendency to just over think things, I would recreate in my head every possible scenario, and unless I was sure that I could handle even the worst case scenarios then I would not even make a decision, I would say to myself that I couldn't take action on something that I was not confident about, so I did nothing. i would wait and wait for things to resolve themselves however . I would let things play out by themselves.

With time I realized that I was not really living my own life, I was just letting things happen, I did not achieve anything I wanted because I had even stopped having dreams and wishes, I lost all desire to have anything at all and that was not gratifying. When I learned that I had the capability to achieve everything I wanted, the only thing I had to do is believe I could have it, work toward it, and have faith, and the most important of it all, was wanting something in the first place.

Once I took charge of my life, I started making decisions based on the things I wanted for myself, and I started allowing myself the pleasure of wanting something, and working for it and achieving it.

This Blog is in itself a fruit of that. I have it because I dared to want it, and I took action and made it all real.

Have you ever had to make a tough decision? How did it turn out?

Words people use incorrectly.

In these new times of computers, and texting, and tweeting, many people especially kids have started to use words incorrectly.

There is the very common and acceptable texting terms, like u instead of you, ur instead of your, etc and then there are those terms that are completely wrong, like the misuse of the your, you're words.

Another thing that kids do lately, especially in Facebook is alternating between cap letters and lower case letters, plus replacing the z for the s, k for the c and adding extra letters etc. Like:
Boutt Tuu play Dha wii w mii siztaa
This means I am about to play the Wii with my sister.

I really don't like this kind of writing because it makes it difficult to understand, and it doesn't serve a purpose like when you are texting or tweeting that you need to abbreviate.

But the truth is that being annoyed by typo's has paid off since I am currently helping out editing a book and my name will be mentioned! I'm excited because it helps me build a portfolio of editing jobs, and then I can get more work doing that too.

Do you feel annoyed when you see words being used incorrectly or mistyped? Or are you one to do that all the time?

I wish ____________ would happen...

What do I wish could happen?

I wish that me and my husband where in the same state right now, that we could be closer every day, without having to wait for that.  I wish we could spend Valentine's Day together, and my birthday, and his birthday. But these are things that unfortunately won't happen this year.

I have never been away from my husband this long, and I wish know that after this transition we will be able to be together without having another period of being apart for so long.

I wish know we could can buy a house together in the near future, make a lot of money doing what we both love.

I wish know my daughters would will be in really good schools that will help them develop their best qualities and that they become very successful and happy.

I want to change all these I wish with I know. Because having faith is the only way that we can really make our dreams come true.

That's when I got caught...

This post might be embarrassing to my grandma, so Mami if you read this, sorry!

But this is the story of how my family found out I had a tongue piercing.

When I was in my early 20's I got a tongue piercing and tried to hide it from my family. I was still living at home, with my grandparents, and my aunt. I had managed to hide it through the first few days and I was surprised, since my tongue was really swollen and I could barely eat. But I ate soup and kept to myself, I tend to be quiet so they didn't think anything was strange.

My grandma is much shorter than me so I think that made it easier to hide, and I wasn't really concerned about my aunt finding out, although I'm not even sure if she already knew or not. But anyway, what I remember of that faithful day was that my grandma and my aunt where in the room with me, they are joking around and all of a sudden my grandma grabs her boob and asks my aunt if she wants "teta" it was a joke as if she was offering her grownup child if she wanted to breastfeed. It was totally playful and they where laughing but it totally caught me off guard and I gasped and opened my mouth in shock that my grandma had done that! All of a sudden my grandma asks: What's that in your mouth?! And that's when I got caught!

My grandma freaked out, and told me I was going to get cancer and would never get a job, and my grandfather stopped talking to me for a whole day. I remember crying and asking my grandpa to talk to me and he did and all was forgiven.

Have you ever tried to hide something and gotten caught? How did you get caught?

I admit, I enjoy... 80's Movies

I love 80's movies, the romantic comedies, the teenage movies, comedies, horror, etc.
I have shared some of these movies with my daughters who in turn learn to love them as well, at least some of them.
Some of my favorite movies from the 80's are, in no particular order:

• Shag (1989)
• Satisfaction (1988)
• Chances Are (1989)
• Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
• Goonies (1985)
• Never Ending Story (1984)
• Beetle Juice (1998)
• E.T. (1982)
• Weird Science (1985)
• Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Annie (1982)
• The Karate Kid (1984)
• Mannequin (1987)
• Splash (1984)
• Back to the Future (1985)
• Big (1988)
• Terminator (1984)
• Die Hard (1988)
• Lethal Weapon (1987)
• Commando (1985)
• American Ninja (1985)
• Poltergeist (1982)
• Aliens (1986)
• Ghost Busters (1984)
• *Batteries Not Included (1987)
• Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
• Fright Night (1985)
• Gremlins (1984)
• Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
• Innerspace (1987)
• Caveman (1981)
• Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
• 48 Hrs (1982)
• Summer School (1987)
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
• Sixteen Candles (1984)
• The Breakfast Club (1985)
• Pretty in Pink (1986)
• The Pick Up Artist (1987)
• For Keeps? (1988)
• Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985)
• Three Fugitives (1989)
• Cloak and Dagger (1984)
• Firestarter (1984)
• Cat's Eye (1985)
• Babes in Toyland (1986)
• Tuff Turf (1985)
• The Man with two brains (1983)
• Three Amigos (1986)
• Roxanne (1987)
• Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
• When Harry Met Sally (1989)
• Back to School (1986)
• Johnny Be Good (1988)
• Great Balls of Fire (1989)

And I am sure this is not all of them, but just a few that I still remember. But it seemed that back in the 80's when I was a pre-teen I spent most of my time watching TV and Movies. It was an obsession, and even when the 90's where starting I would continue going to the Video Rental Place and choosing 80's movies. I remember there was a time, maybe a particular summer when my aunt would go to the video rental place and we would choose about 7 movies and we would watch them back to back to back. It was crazy, but I loved it, and it is part of many fond memories of my childhood.

This post made me realize how different movies where back then and I also realized how many of these movies I liked and they where action movies. Currently I don't watch many action movies anymore, mainly because it's just one explosion after the other and the high tech capabilities of this decade makes them way too much. I don't know, maybe I should give action movies of today a little brake, who knows, I might like them.

What are your favorite 80's movies?