I was tagged by Jessi at The Juici Life and although I don't do many of this lists, I decided to give this one a try.
List of Fours
1. Four shows that you watch: (I don't watch much TV but I like these shows)
~ Family Guy
~ The Simpsons
~ Bones
~ any CSI
2. Four things you are passionate about:
~ Living my life grateful to God
~ My family (including my husband and dogs) & Friends
~ Animals
~ Photography
3. Four words/phrases you say a lot:
~ Okely dokely neighbor
~ Eeeexcellent!
~ Cool!
~
4. Four things you've learned from the past:
~ Don't sweat the small things. ~The past is history, the future is a mystery so we need to live in the present
~ What goes around comes around.
~ Don't take things personally.
5. Four places you would like to go:
~ Hawaii
~ Iceland
~ Australia
~ Madagascar
6. Four things you did yesterday:
~ Had breakfast
~Made this list
~Went to the beach
~ Started a new crochet amigurumi
7. Four things you are looking forward to:
~ time off during the Holidays
~ New Year's Party at our house
~ More sales at work
~ Not gaining much weight during the Holidays!
It's already Friday Dec. 10th so if by now, the lights, decorated trees, ornaments, the smells and even the music are not helping you get into Christmas Spirit, I am sure this wonderful song will do the trick.
Isn't it amazing how people can make such great videos? I wish I had the imagination to come up with stuff like that and get about a million hits on you tube.
In case anybody noticed I changed a little widget (I think that's what it's called) on my blog that says "your comments feed my blog". Well, after I changed it then I started thinking that if I really want a lot of comments, maybe I should go for a stronger approach and make another widget instead, one that says "your comments feed my DOG"!!! I bet I would get a whole lot of people into the "comment spirit" that way, LOL... just kidding, my dogs have a big 'ol bag of dog food and treats right here, whether you guys comment or not!!!
Tomorrow Sat. we have a little get together at home with the girls from work and their spouses, it should be a fun little reunion, I will try to take some pictures and then share the love...
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the little video I just posted, I am sure somebody spent a lot of hours of their precious day to put it together for our enjoyment, so to them I say Thank You, I really enjoyed it!
I've been meaning to post about a little weekend project I had about 2 weekends ago.
A few months ago I bought a cheap outdoors plastic thermometer, but one day the rain or the wind knocked it down and broke the plastic part around the actual thermometer.
So, my husband that likes to take on some carpenter project made a new "holder" for the thermometer, he did a wonderful job making it new...
Then my part of the project was to paint it nicely... Finally I got around to do my part about 2 weekends ago, I think it came out alright... what do you think?
I love to sleep, to me sleeping is a wonderful state, one in which we can rest, we can dream and even gives us a moment of sanity within ourselves.
For my husband on the other hand, sleep is a waste of time and if he could go without sleeping he would, although lately he is being going to bed waaay to early (around 8pm) and then wakes up around 3am and he's wide awake...
If I am good at something, but like "really good", I am good at sleeping. I am one of those that insomnia visit but once every few months if not maybe about 3 times a year. To me going to sleep is easy and very rarely problems bother me enough to loose some sleep, dunno how I do it, but I know it just comes natural.
Now, my problem right now is not so much about lack of sleep, but lack of comfortable sleep. We moved to our new house in April 2008 and when we moved we bought a brand new mattress, unfortunately it was a very bad quality one because in less than 3 years it looks and feels as if a rhinoceros have been sleeping on it while we go on with our day. Both sides (mine and my husbands) have a huge dent the size of the Grand Canyon.
So, besides the terrible mattress situation I still have a bulge disk on my back which makes my sleeping and specially the waking up after hours laying down, just unbearable.
And that's why we have decided to look for a good FIRM mattress like my physiotherapist recommended. So, of course we look on the maybe 5 or 6 furniture stores on the islands, and guess what? A nice, simple, firm mattress is not less than $1,800KYD which is more than 2K US... Inconceivable and crazey!!!!
So, it's either the break your back mattress of the break your wallet new mattresses. I know I really need it, but I also need those 2K for many other things...
Finally after some research we decided to buy a 5inch Firm mattress topper (that have some very good reviews) and give it a try before we decide to break our piggy bank for good.
I order it on amazon.com last night and it should be here in about a week, plus I order a mattress cover big enough for the bed and the topper, the best part was that the total order was less than $200 USD with Free 2 day shipping...
I can't wait to get it and finally get a very nice sleep and I am keeping my fingers crossed that this topper is good and will improve our sleeping quality and eventually quantity!!!
On Saturday we watch the movie "Revolutionary Road" and I was deeply moved by the whole concept as well as the outcome of the whole story.
The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, (she being one of my favorite actresses), once again both actors did a fabulous job on their own character, although at some point I was kind of missing Kate's British accent.
This movie is a drama about a young couple that meets, gets married and down the road in their marriage when they are living the "perfect suburban life" (movie is based in USA, 1955) they start having all sorts of questions about if they are happy, then they start questioning themselves about having a better life where they can still pursuit the dreams they once had and thinking that maybe they still have the time to do it...
To me this is a very compelling story that makes you check the reality of your goals, dreams and the life you are living. Many people live their daily life not satisfying with what they got or what they've accomplished; their job, relationships, daily routine, etc...
Life is only one and needs to be lived to the fullest, when a dream is only directly affected by the monetary part, I believe it is the kind of dream that needs to be pursuit even harder, don't you agree? But the most important part is to be true to yourself and not to go around living a lie or life unfulfilled.
The book that I am reading right now has a very interesting quote from The Bhagavad Gita (and ancient India Yogic Text) that says: "It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live and imitation of somebody else's life life with perfection". And that's exactly was happened to April's character in the movie, she was living a life that was not her, one that she did not intended to have and then she was too frustrated to stay in it...
I really recommend this movie, it might give you a warm fuzzy feeling of happiness when you finish watching it, but it's one that gets inside of you and makes you think and remember that we are here to live life to the fullest, that it's important to pursuit our happiness and dreams no matter what (well, as long as that doesn't involve hurting yourself or any other living being), and if we have found somebody to live those dreams with, them we need to always respect their own dreams and choose our right sacrifices to walk this paths of live together in happiness.
Pretty deep post for a Monday, uh? Well... just some food for thought, have a wonderful week!!!
Our dogs love going on car rides, if I ever call them to go out of the house and they see me carrying my car keys they get so excited that something they even cry a little of the anticipation.
I really enjoy it when I ride with them in the car, but it also makes me so happy every time I see other people with their dogs in the car.
To me, once a dog gets to ride in a car whether is just a joy ride or even going to the vet, it is like we give them a certain status and a place as part of our family.
But, when people have animals tide up in their yard, it's is like they give them a "life sentence" verdict and make them pay for a crime that they didn't commit. I think even some human inmates that have committed so horrible crime have better life situations that some abused animals.
Anyway, on a lighter much happier note, it's Friday and the weekend in finally here, this week feels so long, I've been super busy at work so can't wait to some nice quiet time for Saturday and Sunday.
Oh, almost forgot, today I am thinking and dedicating this post to a wonderful puppy (Cooper) arriving today to his brand new family and home, may they all have a wonderful life together and Debbie the proud mother enjoys every minute of this new doggy chapter. Happy riding :)
I'm an early bird this year, it's only December 2nd but as of last night the mini Christmas tree that we have is all light up and ready to rotate for a whole month (at least).
Last year on every Thursday I posted a picture of a local Christmas tree to share with you all, the way Christmas is "decorated" around this little Caribbean Island. Well, this year I am starting with a little video of my very own tree...
Being that I am far away from family to me it's kind of hard to get into the whole Christmas spirit.
One thing I do love about this season is the smell of a real Christmas tree, but living in the Caribbean buying one of those is just out of the question (although they sell them around and lots of people buy them each year, fly them from the US and pay BIG $$$ for it!).
So this year I found myself the closest thing to a Christmas tree smell, a Frasier Fir scent oil diffuser and it smell just wonderful, as soon as you enter the room you are already looking around to spot the Christmas tree. We bought one for the gallery and after a day of having it I had to run to store and get one for me.
If you see one around I highly recommend it for the season, you would love it!
In other news, high season for tourism is picking up, sales are going up as well and I already made some very good ones this week. People are finally walking around with a better "shopping attitude" so I am excited about that...
Here is one my latest amigurumi creations, I made this one for my brother and his wife, they are both dive instructors so they love "all things underwater"
Manta Ray-mond!!!
Not much else to post about today. Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!
Last night we went to the movies to watch the latest Harry Potter flick, "Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1".
So again my question is: Why is it after reading 7 books, watching 7 movies + 1 more due out next year, I still cannot do magic??? What's the catch here? Maybe I should ask the guys from America?
Now, seriously back to HP7, it was a good movie, but the plot on that very last book is so dense that putting it on film must be hard. As I mentioned before I read the whole series and even though I am almost convinced my husband read the last book, he said he didn't.
Last night I had this idea, if I go and get the last book, me and husband could read it (me again- he for the first time!) before the next movie even makes out to the theater, I am seriously consider doing that to give the Harry Potter saga a proper goodbye.
P.S. The best part of the movie, was my hot date, I heart u baby!!!
Over the weekend I had a very weird dream, it was in Italian.
I guess now I after that dream I've realized that I can speak 2 1/2 languages. Spanish, English and Italian being the half language, it's kind of sad when I think about it, because I feel that I have lost most of my Italian speaking skills since I just don't practice.
I know that the reason why I had this dream is cause before I went to bed I read a few more chapters of the book I am reading now "Eat, Pray, Love" and during this first chapters of the book the main character is in Rome studying Italian.
But anyway, back to my dream. I was in an Italian class and it was way too advanced for me, so after the lesson, me and two other friends went straight to the administration and asked them to change us to another level. Well, it turn out that it wasn't even Italian lesson I was taking, but coffee lessons, and the only one other class that had space did not have enough water for all 3 of us to join, crazy, uh? So they offered us to just skip this one lesson and had some free time instead.
Can't remember much else besides that at this point, early in the morning when I told my husband about it was much clearer to me. Still pretty weird dream.
As for the book I am reading, so far so good, even the name is kind of cool because those are 3 activities that I enjoy and are essential parts of my life, as it should be in anybody's life, don't you think?
Besides my weird dream my weekend was very interesting, parts of it not so good with some stuff that I don't want to talk about or even write about it. It's all good, just some rough patches in this road of life...
On Sat. I had an all girls day with my sister in law and her Mom, we had a great time, went shopping, to some sort of flea market (didn't find anything good), went snorkeling, spent the afternoon at the beach; in the sun, reading a book and then we had a late lunch, great times!!!
Me & Gaylene, after snorkeling in Cemetery Beach
Now, it's Monday, so back to work. My boss should be back today, so I am looking forward to some busy days and some good sales. Have a great week!!!
Food- I am sure many people last night had lots of it!!!
Family or Friends- were for many people also on the menu last night.
Fantastic- is the fact that today is another day and it's
FRIDAY!!!
Whether you find yourself some great deals on Black Friday or just take some time to share more quality time with your loved ones; be there and be thankful for another Thanksgiving has come and gone.
So many things come to mind when I think about what to be thankful for.
It's true that Thanksgiving only comes once a year, but in my case there is not a day in the year that I am not constantly thankful for things I have, that still doesn't change the fact that there are so many others that I don't quite acknowledge every day...
Of course the main blessings I have in my life are the easy ones to be thankful for; my life, health, my wonderful husband/best friend Mark, my amazing family, our faithful adorable dogs, our house, my job and all of my relations, whether there are strong and long ones or even short and light encounters...
I am thankful for this blog; for the education my parents worked so hard to be to achieve and that gives me then tools to communicate through a computer with people from all over the world, for my mind that creates wonderful ideas everyday.
Thankful that everyday I can see, smell, taste and hear the wonderful things in life, that I wake up every morning in a comfy bed and I have water to bathe, to drink and for the food I have to cook and eat.
I am thankful for all animals; beautiful colored birds, the fish, for many wild amazing animals, little cute cuddly ones, for the ones that scare me and even for those annoying ones like mosquitoes. I know God in his perfection created them for a reason and even for them I am thankful.
For the clouds, the rain, the rainbow, the sand, the surf and the beautiful majestic ocean that is out there. The trees, the plants the forest, the beaches and even for the rocks I am thankful.
photo by Frank Tozier
For my country, my culture, my travels, the opportunity to live where I am, to meet people of other cultures that can teach me so much about their way of life, respect, acceptance and tolerance towards other believes.
For my faith and the way I see you GOD as well as all beings.
When I lived in Mexico back in 2003 I meet this amazing couple (Mayra & Rudy) that practices some sort of Japanese religion/cult called Mahikari. I don't remember exactly what the elements of this religions beliefs are but I do remember that she was constantly Thanking for everything, but I mean EVERYTHING. For example when she was tired of walking she would thank God for giving her legs that worked so good that the got tired of walking, when she had doubts she will give thanks for having a spirit in constant movement and growth. So her thankfulness was always present, it was a very nice experience to be around her as her "thankfulness" was also contagious.... That is another reason to be thankful for, meeting her and teaching me a little of her ways of life.
See what I told you? There are so many things to be thankful that it's hard to put them all out in writing.
So the point I am trying to make today is that
So today, Happy "Official" Thanksgiving day, may you always have, many days, many ways and many reasons to be thankful for!!!
Thank you God for everyday and everything you gives us, Amen.
It's Wednesday already and we are getting very close to Thanksgiving, so I am thinking of the people getting ready to spend the holiday with their families and or friends.
Last night we did our own little version of Thanksgiving. We had over for dinner; my brother Mau, his wife Gaylene, Gayle (who is Gaylene's mom visiting from Canada) and Dave another friend of my brothers who is also Canadian, so in reality only my husband Mark was the American!.
Dinner was great, but instead of Turkey we had Tender Loin and instead of stuffing we had cheesy potatoes and corn. For dessert I made a delicious Chocolate Cheesecake.
So maybe it wasn't your traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but at least the intention, love and thankfulness of it all was present. Now, tomorrow we will go to an acquaintances dinner that we get invited to every year, he has over 80 people there and everybody brings something to the cause, so it's more like a potluck holiday kind of a thing, this year I am baking some mozzarella stick.
And that is what's on my mind today and right this minute while I write this... Happy Hump Day!!!
It's already Tuesday and I just realized that I haven't posted about my weekend.
We went boat diving with my friend Natalia and with the dive company that both my brother and sister in law work for. I ended up not doing the first deep dive because my ear was still giving me problems (I guess cause of the remains of the sinus/flu episode of the past weeks).
But before we went diving, on Saturday, I got myself a new wet suit. It is so nice, but besides being cute I think it's the most comfortable one I have ever owned, plus I look pretty good wearing it, don't you think???? (Picture was taking by my husband with his phone).
Any who... Yesterday's second dive was pretty nice, I took some pictures as well as a little video of us going through some swim-through's, in the video I am following my brother.
Here are also a couple of pictures of the same dive. In the afternoon I was feeling kind of dizzy and weird, I think it might just be something is still not quite right with my ear/sinus, so I need to take it easy.
Mark taking a picture of a little stingray
fish and coral
Yesterday (Monday evening) my back was pretty bad as well, I think that diving is still not quite right for it, so I need to think it twice next time before I decide to jump back into it with full force. I have more pictures and although I would like to share them, I now have to be very selective and save some of my new photo blog, so stay tuned...
Tonight we are having our version of Thanksgiving dinner with my brother, his wife and her mom that is visiting from Canada plus another friend of them that is visiting as well. I made some chocolate cheesecake and I hope it turns out good...
I am excited to launch an idea that have been on my mind for a while, and although it is not a new idea for blogger world, it is for me.
Well, today is the day, the beginning of a new challenge (because I think having a blog some times it's a big challenge). In this new space I will be sharing a photo a day, one that catches my attention; whether it was taking by me or not. If not, the I will try my best to always give credit to the appropriate person.
A while ago I decided that when "Such life in the tropics" reached 50 "official" followers it would be time to launch my new space, now the time has come... Of course life as it is for "Such life in the Tropics" doesn't change..
So here it is, please on come over, visit me at "A photo a day" because sometimes images speak louder than words.
It's been about 2 months since the last time I went scuba diving and I am very exciting because tomorrow we have plans to get back in the water.
photo by Natalia
One of my best friends on the island, Natalia, is leaving the island for a while since she is in between jobs right now, so we are going to the East End of the islands and dive there since she's never been on that side before.
So, I will try to carry my camera and again post more pictures for your enjoyment. I am very excited, it's been so long feels like the first time all over!!!
Last night we had our annual gallery event and although we didn't sell a lot of big pieces everything was very well organized and I believe my bosses were very happy with the whole deal.
Now, today I am super tired but it was worth the hard work. I am excited because I finally feel that the flu is long gone so maybe I will be able to get back in the water and do some diving, it's been too long!
Ever feel like your dog doesn't do enough to help out around the house?
Well, maybe all they need is some useful dog tricks from Jesse? Ck out the following video and prepare to enjoy this wonderful Jack Russell Terrier, it is sure to melt your heart...
Now, if only I can make Ditto and Sheba stand still for the duration of the video I might be able to get some info and tips inside their brains.. soon they'll be doing the dishes every night and a massage at least once a week, yeah I wish! LOL.
Remember when we only used erasers to DELETE, tape to PASTE and scissors to CUT????
Well, yesterday while busy at work on the computer, I was looking for some photos to attach to an email, creating a word document that contained both images and text and then uploading all of it to the ftp site of the company, I realized how much of my day is faster because of just having good computer skills.
But of course, I am no "whiz kid" programmer kind of a person, but I do have some good skills and can pretty much get around any new program in a fairly fast amount of time.
It just sometimes it amazes me how much of my day is done with computers, even though I am on art sales. Keeping back up photos of all the pieces on the wall, customers emails, orders to the warehouse, etc, etc, etc... And I still remember when back in high school we were learning DOS and how to back up a floppy disk, used to hate computer classes, LOL!
Now, I do think it is a privilege to have been born before the World Wide Web even existed and got to see the before and after of the computer era, well, maybe not so much the after because I am sure there is much more to come...
But oh boy, am I glad a had a childhood where time outside the house was the way to go, we didn't depend of having a computer, a phone to play games or connect with friend, we just went out, hang out and play with friends. Most kids just don't do that nowadays, but they sure can work out them leapfrogs, ps3's and playstations, right????
So, how much of your day is CTRLed by a computer? Is it too much? I am trying to cut my computer time as much as possible, and this blog some times makes it pretty time consuming, so I am making double effort to not let technology take over my life... you should try it, so now, turn off the computer and go outside!!!!
Tuesday has come and the remains of last weeks nasty flu is still hanging out around me.
Yesterday was a terrible day for my sinus congestion, the pressure was so strong that I kept feeling like if my jaw was cramping all day, couldn't even swallow properly and even the bones under my eyes hurt, ouch!
When I finally got home exhausted from work and short of breath from the sinus pressure, I decided to have a more natural approach to the whole deal, (instead of only the doctors medicines) so I drank some Apple Cider Vinegar in water and also did a little chest massage with some Eucalyptus oil. After a while I felt like my head wasn't going to explode anymore!
Besides that, I guess I am slowly getting back to my 100%. This past flu was awful, for days I couldn't taste anything and then I guess because of the infection and the drugs even the water tasted terrible. Now, it's getting back to tasting good and I am very happy about that cause I love and enjoy drinking water.
Anyway, it's going to be a busy week for me, lots of cruise ships in town cause the season is finally picking up, my boss in back in town and we have a big gallery event on Thursday night, so today I hope that T is for Tuesday and not for Tissue (keeping fingers crossed!).
My weekend was great and so was the start off the "2010 Pirates Week Festival".
Friday evening was the official kickoff with some amazing fireworks (unfortunately my photos don't even come close to show the beautiful display it was).
Then I took a little video that is probably a bit better...
Then on Sat. afternoon it was the "Landing" and the official parade of "floats". I dressed up for the occasion and went down with my friend Natalia... Here's a picture of us while waiting for the parade to start, don't we look like the "real deal"? LOL
Also I run into the Seattle Seafair Pirates, they were here last year and had given me a little necklace, I took them to the gallery to meet my boss and he ended up taking pictures with them and even took them for a shot of Rum, so now this year they all remembered me and we took this picture...
I have more to share but it will have to wait.... until then, have a great week!!!!
Pirates week Festival is back, the official kick off is tonight with a wonderful display of fireworks by the Georgetown Harbor and with a street dance afterward.
Then on Saturday is the big landing parade which is when the actual pirates come in land and take over the Governor and the island (of course, it is all symbolic and not actual Governors or islands are harmed in the making of this parade celebration, LOL!)
Last year I made myself a sort of pirate outfit with my own clothes, but this year I decided it was time to acquire an actual costume so I ordered the following on via amazon.com, it arrived yesterday and it fits really well, I am excited! I don't have any boots but I am planning to get some fish net stockings to complement the shoes.
Also my husband this year is participating on part of the dramatization and he will be a red coat(/pirate/zombie). I know he came into town yesterday to try on his red coat, so I'm sure he'll be posting pictures on his blog about it, so stay tune right here.
Today I realized that I still haven't even posted some pictures I took on my "flash" visit to Costa Rica, so today's post is going to be dedicated to my lovely Costarican kitty Lea...
perhaps too early for paparazzi pictures???
she loves to hang out around my mom's herbs
She loves to lay down anywhere, any time....
but I also know that she really love the attention!!
I miss having a cat, but spending a couple of days around Lea makes up for it, miss u kitty girl!
I am back to work today, unfortunately can't really say I am at full force, 100% percent performance but I am getting there, little by little.
Coming back to work was great though, last week we changed the carpet at the gallery and because of these we were able to rearrange all the fixtures as well as the set up for the sculptures in a very nice way.
Here are some pictures of the new set up.
new blue carpet
another view
The new set up with a different carpet has giving the place a much needed uplift and energy, we are having a major gallery event next week and I hope this new vibe will generate good profit to start the high season on a good note, will keep u posted!
Well, I am not feeling 100% yet, even after going to the doctor yesterday where I was "pleasantly" surprised with 2 shots and a whole bunch of medication (including antibiotics) and am as of now counting the minutes for all that stuff to kick in so I can go back to feeling like myself lately (even if its going to be on meds for a few days!).
So, today instead of having a low key, sick- kind of attitude I decided to post some nice, pretty pictures I have taken randomly here on the island... enjoy!
It's Monday already, I feel like if the weekend was just a blurry 2 days of feeling crappy.
My body hurts but it's not from physical activity, my legs hurt but not from hiking, my head hurts but not because I've been solving math problems or studying for 2 days. EVERYTHING hurts and only because I've been home, sick with the flu.
I feel as if I had wasted the entire weekend, the entire time I felt like I was dragging my husband into a very boring 2 days. Weather outside was also windy and cold, so no chance to go out and do anything with the way I felt.
Now, I know I am in for a busy week, so I need to get back on my feet asap. So, eating well, drinking plenty of fluids and rest, but how much more rest do I need? All I did was rest for 2 days. Can't wait to get back on my feet!!!
~The past is history, the future is a mystery so we need to live in the present
