break time! day 1

Hey y’all! 

I realized last summer that just the three of us (juan, ladybug, and myself) hadn’t taken a real family vacay since ladybug was a toddler! Yes, we travel, and travel quite a bit, but it was always family related and mainly to Atlanta, which is where Juan is from and where I finished school. We always have a blast when we go ‘home’ because, well, it’s home. Most of my college friends are still in the area, and do I need to even mention all the good eating to be had there? Plus Juan and ladybug get to spend time with the family.  Even though it’s home, it’s still just home.

 

the fountain at Balboa Park

Upon my vacation realization I told Juan we had to fix this asap! So being the man of action that he is, he started looking for somewhere other than Atlanta for us to visit. But the question was when. Do we sacrifice our Christmas vacation in Atlanta for our family get a way? We don’t get home as much as we used to; it’s dwindled down to only once or twice each year ($650 has been the average price per ticket!) at most, and his family’s not happy about it. Thanksgiving? It required more thought, and time, but ultimately Christmas break won and the Atlanta lost. San Diego here we come!

We left that Thursday before Christmas and returned late Christmas Eve. Thirty minutes into the flight I began to panic because I realized that I hadn't done ANY shopping!! Nope. Not even one little gift card for ANYONE! And we were returning too late for me to get anything at least for ladybug. In addition to my own anxiety, ladybug had to contribute hers as well - would we get back in time to make Santas cookies? how will Santa find her if we didn't have a tree? and on and on...!  Well thank God for friends like Glo! She saved the day by doing all my shopping for ladybug! I could exhale and really enjoy the trip.

And boy did we have a much needed blast filled with lots of food, walking (and no wheelchair or motor scooter mind you!!), and uncontrollable laughter. It was just wonderful and just what we needed and we will be doing this more often! 

Day one was all about rest and relaxation. But day two was full of museums at Balboa Park. This place is a museum freaks heaven! There are museums for every possible interest, with fountains and historic mission style buildings all nestled in a beautiful park setting. There are people everywhere selling churros and balloon animals, protesting the civil situation or another, passing out info on religious and sexual rights to expression (not necessarily the one in the same, lol!) all throughout the place. Our favorites where the ones with animals. 

she loves dinosaurs, reptiles, and sharks!

As for museums, we found ourselves in the natural history museum... ladybug LOVES dinosaurs, sharks, and other creatures. 

this creeped me out

she got a real kick out of this giant shark!

telling her dad 'what's what'

we had fun at the natural history museum

Day 1 was so much fun, so STAY TUNED for day 2!

Be well ♥

hot fun part deux

hey everyone! still in atlanta so i'm sending lots of father's day love from here. i hope all you dads, grand dads, god fathers, uncles and all father figures are enjoying this day meant to celebrate you. as you all know, ladybug has a great dad. an amazing dad. sometimes a little too hands on... "that outfit looks too small to me" or " are those panty lines i see", but we wouldn't trade him in for the world because he is our world.

we normally don't make a big fuss for him because he doesn't like it at all, so it's always been low key, no big deal. but this year, he had to head home early to handle some things at the office, so we're not together, and interestingly enough, lauren camille and i feel it. even though we don't woop it up, we miss his presence. i love him.

anyway, back to vacation!! so as i was saying in the previous post, we surprised ladybug by heading down to disney world in orlando with all of juans family - it was great! but all the kids really wanted to do was hang out at the resort pools! so here are more pics...

first the sheer mass of people there was overwhelming at times! at the entrance there were people landing from almost every possible form of transportation sans air - trains, buses, ferry boats, cars, you name it!

i'll post the last round of disney pics tomorrow of all the fun at the pool. stay tunned!

this picture doesn't do justice the sheer mass of people swarming the entrance!

bodies everywhere!

here's the 'kid' gang

break time! that's me in the scooter

you know what this is, right?

hot fun in the summer time!

greetings!
hope all is well with you and yours. i'm on vacation with the family, a much needed one at that. no track this season so we don't know what to do with yourselves... no getting up before the crack of dawn to drive 100 miles in any given direction, sit in the heat, wind, cold, rain for on average 10-12 hours, just to see my baby run 3-4 races for a total of 10 minutes. geez, we really don't know what to do with ourselves every weekend til august.... just kidding!

we are at the tail end of a two week jaunt in atlanta with disneyworld in the middle. i had a quick side trip to the emergency room and overnight stay at emery university hospital, but all is well! ladybug got to enjoy her cousins - 2 boys that she's in the middle of in age, and an older girl cousin who she admires because she's a high schooler. she's so cute with them. all they cared about was getting in the pool at the resort, which is a whole nother story - it was AMAZING! i don't remember the name of it, wilderness something i think, i'm not sure, but it was amazing. it had a beach and several pools, some with waterfalls and slides. i kinda didn't blame them. the resort was so relaxing. we were in the vacation club section which is separate from the hotel, but still on property.

we flew into atlanta at sunrise

as we pull up to the resort

here are some pictures of our first few days and i'll post more tomorrow. after this trip, i'll be putting together a list of things for us to to this summer. please let me know what you all are doing with your time off - any fun stay-cations? anything to do at home? please let me know

this is heading to the timeshare area of the resort

be well :)

I LOVE MAY!

hello friends

this is by far my favorite month, with august and december coming in close seconds. as always, a lot but not has transpired in the last month. it's been a busy 2 months for me actually - ladybug was in a play and talent show; i hosted our family's Easter dinner and threw it together at the LAST minute; and then had a few rounds of chemo, of which i'm just finishing up, and now getting ready for vacation which we leave for in exactly one week. whew!

so where do i begin? i'll start with ladybug since so many have been looking for pictures. so here they are. and ladybug was AMAZING! she had a major part in her schools production of "Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as Fenris Ulf the queens (witch) trusty captain. she practically stole the show and i'm not being prejudice (i promise, lol!). we had a small party for her between shows on saturday where the whole family and tons of friends came; juans family even flew out from atlanta - it was just a wonderful day full of love, laughter, and food.... and i was exhausted. then i started chemo the following week, but not before her solo performance in the schools talent show! i can't wait til the school year's over!

** as i go to upload ladybug's pictures, i see that i don't actually have any of her!! juan only took video!! stay tuned i will update this with her pics tomorrow ** 

next up is our vacation. heading to atlanta for a nice break. will be surprising ladybug with a quick trip to disneyworld. i can't wait, we need a vacay so bad. it was around the holidays when i realized that we've never taken a family vacation before - ever! we've done tons of trips all related to track, and yes, we go to atlanta every year, but that's our second home - literally. that's not a vacation.

i'm so glad the valley is so close

i just adore him.

so pretty

the day my chemo quarantine ended (last saturday), juan was thoughtful enough to whisk me off to the napa valley (yountville/oakville/st. helena) for lunch and to hang out while ladybug was of on a play date. the weather was nice so we grabbed some sandwiches from Dean & DeLucca then headed to one of my favorite wineries, V. Sattui , and had an impromptu picnic. we had a grand time flirting, eating, and kidding around. then headed down to yountville, home of the famous The French Laundry, and grabbed some dessert at Bouchon Bakery then he took me shopping. it's a wonderful thing when you have a someone in your life who enjoys food as much as you do, but also enjoys you enjoying it, AND actually wants you to shop! jealous?

this is what all the fuss is about!

beautiful 6ft foxglove

yes, i'm still gardening and it's going well. i'm off to a late start though due to the wet cold spring we've had. i'm just now pulling out my cabbage and broccoli! i'm at the tail end of my last patch of carrots, and am about to put in my zucchini and sweet pepper starts (all from seed). my green beans (haricort verts) are coming up now, and i'll be putting in my tomatoes this weekend - roma's, sweet 100's for sure, and maybe early girls, not sure yet. i've got lots of flowers going this spring/summer too - dahlias, gladiola's, and lillies from bulbs (my first time!), and hostas, gardenias, and more bouganvillea are waiting to go in. i'm excited!

under miscellaneous is that i'm finally getting back into photography. i used to develop my own film 'back in the day', and have put up my SLR (Cannon EOS) for a bit to play with my Nikon D5100. so i'll be posting even more pics, so definitely stay tuned!

be well my friends

i'm back. no, really...

hey there. yes, i'm back.

had to take a break and i have no real reason for it really, other than my issues with truly exposing myself in this type of platform. interesting. i have no problem sharing myself, but i am very particular about with whom i do. and i don't like sharing me in any way that leaves me feeling vulnerable.

that's a feeling i'm still trying to get comfy with. you see, i'm the go to person, and that doesn't require me to reveal myself in any meaningful way, unless it's of my choosing. so that puts me at an unfair advantage, get it? also, and this is key, because self disclosure is not required of me during these exchanges, i've gotten comfortable with not doing it.

don't get me wrong. i've got exceptional interpersonal communication skills (hence my thriving and fulfilling life coaching practice - site still under construction!), and can bare it all without hesitation. well no, there is hesitation. there's always hesitation. because there's the possibility of judgment. and who likes that?

i'm blessed with having a way of making people feel connected to me in a very personal and intimate way, so they tend to share everything with me. and sometimes it's more than i need to know. you know what i mean?? i hope that doesn't sound mean because that's now how it's meant. i continue to be honored by the fact that people feel able to confide to me in such a personal way. i treasure that and hold it sacred.

it's just that i'm struggling with this type of exposure, and it's taken me by surprise. so bare with me as i add this to my list of things i'm working through.

as for everything else....

my family is doing well. ladybug is growing like a weed... literally! to see her now you'd never believe that she was a preemie. she's still an amazing sweetheart - easy and easy going, helpful, gentle, caring, empathetic, with an incredible sens of humor and timing for it. now don't get me wrong... she's still an 8 year old kid and has now entered the phase of juan and i having to tell her things over and over and over and over again. basic stuff! "did you brush your teeth?"; "wash your face?"; "did you finish your homework?"; "do you have your clothes ready?". she wonders off into 'la-la land' and sometimes you can actually see her leaving, lol! i sure do hope this is just a phase!

juan is hanging in there. just got a new position at work and he's not too happy about it and neither am i. it seriously cuts into his flexibility and ties him down to the office which is not his thing. and when he's not happy at work, then we're not happy at home.

my extended family? on my daddy's side they're just as fantastic as ever. i just love them! now mommy dearests side, well, there's been alot of drama since november. i'm still shaking my head over it. and it all has to do with mommy dearest. well sort of. my beloved granny passed away (maternal grandmother) and we buried her just 2 days before thanksgiving. and all throughout, mommy dearest showed her ass. and really... that's a whole different post. and i have to post it because i've got to get it out of me. so stay tuned for that one, maybe tomorrow...

now on to my health. well, hmm, let's see... i'm still here!! i've had some ups and downs, and right now, i'm having some downs. actually i'm blogging to you from the hospital while getting day 2 of round 2 of my chemo treatments (cytoxan today...yum! - NOT!). but i'm just about done and hopefully this will do the trick!

so with all that said, what have i been up to? well, with all the drama with mommy dearest and my granny passing, juan decided that we three desperately needed to get away as a family, so we escaped to beautiful lake tahoe. just the three of us. and it was so fabulous! we had 4 days of giggles, good food, relaxing, more giggles and outright gut busting laughter, more good music, some snow (not very much thankfully for driving!) and great weather. and yes, that's me on that inner tube!! i drove juan crazy because he said no, and then i did it anyway!! he was pissed but it was sooo worth it!! enjoy the pics!






then juan surprised me for my christmas birthday with a trip for just the two of us to chicago!! i know, i know... chicago? in january? well yes! and it was FABULOUS!! i just LOVE chicago. the food, the people, the shopping, the people, the food! our hotel was just behind oprah's apartment building there by the drake hotel. i've been there before on many occasions, usually for work though, and have always liked it. i have an uncle and family there. but for some reason, on this trip... i fell in love. i mean deeply in love. new york has always been my luvah, france my divine and ultimate mistress - no one to come close! but now i feel like i'm cheating on them with chicago. and it was so hard to choose which pics to share with you, because i love every one!! sorry...well, enjoy! (ps... had trouble with sizing the pics, not sure if its user error or blogger, so here are some of my chicago picture comments: from top to bottom - that's us heading out for the day, and yes, it was cold!; we walked up and down the gold coast doing one of juans favorite things - shopping for me (i could care less really, give me some food and a good bottle of wine!) - and i guess i should be happy about that. he loves for me to wear nice things. now i did find a pair of killer purple anke boots at brooks brothers and i almost single handedly bought them out along with many boutiques, which i prefer, such as Ikram, Ultimo, and Calypso Christine Celle.then moved on brooks brothers, j.crew, kate spade, and saks where i could fine some of my faves like celine and carolina herrara. but honestly, i really don't like to shop. really. i just extremely admire nice things... thanks daddy and mommy dearest, and now juan :)
it started snowing so we than moved on to the famous giordanos pizza and honestly, we've had better (slanderous i know!), maybe it was the location? or could it have been the fact that i had my wheelchair and they acted like they really didn't want us there because if it. maybe if i had brought my own tricked out set of wheels? just sayin'....; speaking of wheelchairs, i was so ticked off that juan made me stop in the middle of our march to get out of chicago cold, windy snowy night while i was hungry, to take a daggone picture! but anyway, the food overall was just simply amazing!! that alone deserves it's own post!! i have only one regret - i didn't get to go to a cupcake restaurant (i can't think of the name this minute, it's late and everyone's upstairs sleep) because i had had a seizure and juan was not letting me outta that hotel, so he and my uncle went and got some delish outta this world goodies, but didn't tell the guy that i was a good friend of babz!! UHG!! he promised me a second trip back just so i can say hi to him (darius i think). the next day was filled with sightseeing around town and omg was it cold! the high was 26*. i know, that's nothing!; our last night there we spent having late snacks and nightcaps at the observatory in the john hancock building, and it was just magical! as cold as it was, i really didn't want it to end..... sigh


be well

GO LADYBUG, GOOOH !!!!!!!

so this time last week we were packing up and heading to reno, nv for the junior olympic trials. ladybug had a great track season, made it to the sub bantam championships, and did surprisingly well at the junior olympic trials - she actually made it to the JUNIOR OLYMPICS in des moine, iowa!!! we are still in shock!! she placed in the 100 meter and 200 meter!! this post is nothing but pics of the reno meet.... enjoy!




she ran saturday, then she qualified for the finals which were sunday. we didn't think she'd qualify because the competition was so seasoned, so we had planned to hand out and play at the resort. poor thing, we had to get her back to the hotel and in the bed, but she and her buddy was not having that! we were staying at the this fabulous resort that had EVERYTHING - a beach, arcades, shopping, go-carts, golf, bungie/sky diving, and sooo much more! so we let them get some swimming in along with some arcade time too!
















overall, we had a blast! it was a a neat get way and we are so proud! she placed 2nd and 5 overall, getting a gold and and bronze medales. i had juan take a pic with those medals because he deserves them just as much as ladybug does. he's a great track dad! boy are we proud of our girl-go ladybug, GO!!

be well :)