dear grey's anatomy,

this past weekend at p's birthday dinner

dear paris: thank you so much for taking me to get sushi last night. when this girl is just having one of those days .. sushi is the exact cure :) you da best. dear grey's anatomy: what the what?? you are in your 9th season i thought we had seen everything but last night? yikes. now you're just reminding me how much i want to buy all of your seasons that i dont already own... still love you though. dear pitbull: i'm coming to see you this weekend! sunday night to be exact .. this is like 10 years in the making so i have some high expectations. dear three days of vacation in october: are you here yet?

happy weekending everyone!

hotwheels

so a few weeks ago, paris's car kind of broke ... on the highway. okay so it didn't just like shut down on the highway. however something clearly broke and then started making this ugly noise every time paris accelerated. needless to say we were then out of a car.

however, around the same time, paris's dad had bought a fixer upper that he was going to give to paris. it looked something like this.

yes, i said a fixer upper. when i first saw this i thought .. greeeat it's going to be just like the one we just broke. but apparently paris's dad is a car guru. i mean, he really loves playing with cars. and on sunday, p's birthday .. he got this

you should have seen his face. such a happy guy! so needless to say he has been showing everyone. and we've finally been able to get around a little bit more. hallelujah!

a fake post

how can you not just instantly fall in love with this little guy?? he melts my heart.

i don't really have a post for today .. and i may not have one for tomorrow. the end of the school year is kiiind of already killing me over here! it feels like we just had exams and now i am getting ready for another round. just 8 more weeks until finals and then i'm done with my first year of teaching.

i hope everyone is having a lovely week :)

birthday boy

 

so someone had a little birthday this weekend! we spent the whole weekend celebrating. on friday i took him out to a nice romantic dinner and saturday we celebrated with all of paris's friends. and sunday we had a cute family dinner at his sister's house. and it was a really great time.

happy birthday, love!

swap with me

hey guys! i thought i would give an official shoutout to anyone who is interested in swapping buttons with me!

i've been swapping with some great ladies for a while now and have loved getting to know them. we've kind of grown our blogs together over the past few months and i've loved reading and commenting with them along the way!

so if anyone is interested in swapping please send me an e-mail at
thebootsparade{at}gmail{dot}com
and i would love to have you on my sidebar :)

dear young adult books,

dear friday: thank goodness you are here. this week has dragged on for what seems like 5 years instead of 5 months. i am going to take a big nap this afternoon in honor of your coming. dear persistent heat: ahh stop!! it is so hot here all the time and no matter what i do i am always sweating. i dont like it! i would love just a few cool nights or even a few cool afternoons so i can curl up in my bed with a blanket and not feel like i'm going to melt. dear young adult books: why do i like you so much? the hunger games, the divergent series .. they're just too good to put down. dear paris: it is finally your birthday this weekend! happy birthday! i hope you have the best time on your special day

it may be a little early for this

 

so yesterday i got really excited for it to be december. wait ... december? yes i'm skipping a few months.

you see, november 15th, classes finish up then we have exams and the first week of december we wrap up some teacher things at school and then vacation. on december 9th (who's keeping track?) i fly home!

you're probably thinking, this girl lives in costa rica and all she ever talks about is missing home! i swear, i enjoy my life here in costa rica! i love love love being here with paris and i really do love my job .. but this girl misses home a lot too!

well anyway, some things have already been coming together for my 5 week visit home including brunch dates, a few weekend trips, an exciting christmas present to myself, wedding things!! and lots and lots of time with my girl frans.

get excited you home people!


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someone had a rough day

 i know that based on my hair in this picture your're probably thinking that i'm the one who had a rough day. but no .. it was rocco.

rocco went to his 5 month check up at the vet the other day. lets just say that he knows what it means now when we get in the car and end up at the vet. he doesn't even let all four of his feet stay on that table. and at one point there were four hands holding down that little dog just so the doctor could do his thing. it's a good thing my rocco is pretty cute.

he was pretty reserved for the rest of the evening that day so we made sure to give him extra belly kisses .. he just loves 'em :)

afternoon adventures

the other day paris and i went with some of his friends up the mountain to see where they are putting the new wind turbines close to where we live. okay, let me say that again .. we went up.the.mountain.

as we were going up, everyone was laughing and joking around .. and then there was me, gripping paris's hand trying not to make weird noises because i was scared out of my wits to literally be going straight up this mountain. it took a good twenty minutes after we got to the point where we needed to put chains on the tires to continue .. to get to the top.

once at the top, i told paris that just how freaked out that ride made me and he laughed a little and said i better get used to it because once he gets his new car he wants to go up in the mountains more often. well, i told him, we'll just see about that.

you guys it was straight up. terrifying.

anyways, once i was on flat, level ground i started to take note of the views and they were pretty stunning. it was a little hazy when we went but we still got some great pictures.

but really, who knows if i'll ever get used to driving up inclines like that.

independence day

this saturday, the 15th of september was independence day here in costa rica.

on friday i asked my students in class what they were going to do for independence day this weekend. they said "nothing." 

apparently independence day here isn't really a big deal .. not like in the united states (according to them). so then i asked them, well who is costa rica celebrating independence from? i got a short pause then .... i think spain? (yes, it is spain). oh guys!

anyway, there was a huge parade that went by the main road on the corner of my street so we went down to watch. i thought it was extremely similar to that of a 4th of july parade at home. all of the students from the schools' bands and dancing squads(?) were in the parades and even a float or two.

i also liked how both countries' colors are the same: good ol' red white and blue. :)

it was a nice patriotic start to a pretty relaxing weekend.

i hope everyone else enjoyed themselves!

dear blogland,

keeping up with old pictures: lindsey and me in NOLA 2010

dear blogland: the past few weeks it has been a little harder for me to keep up with you. sometimes i feel pressure to write interesting and thoughtful posts all the time when sometimes i just want to post a picture or two or tell you that i can't wait for grey's anatomy to start. you know .. boring stuff. i hope you don't mind. dear apartment: can you please clean yourself this weekend? dear paris: i want to go on a weekend getaway. not anywhere super fancy but just to get out of the house for a few days ... i'm thinking to a volcano ... let's plan ;) dear mumford and sons: i am patiently waiting for your new album and i am super excited. in the mean time i am just going to watch this video of your newest single, which of course my dad who always knows whats what with the newest tunes ;), showed me. and dear costa rica: happy independence day!

a little get to know me

so in the past month and a half i have had a ton of new readers join this blog! i wanted to make it known that i am so happy to have you all here! i never thought my blog would grow bigger than my 11 initial family and friends but here it is now. so i wanted to acknowledge all of my new readers and say thank you for following along. i thought i would take part in gentri lee's 7 questions today so that you all can get to know a little bit more about me :)

1. Do you have any weird food combinations that you love?

well when i was little i sure did like to dip my french fries in my milkshakes....but i dont do that anymore. other than that i'd say dipping pizza in ranch dressing is pretty normal right?

2. Have you ever written a blog post, published it, then immediately deleted it?

yes. i can't remember what it was about but most likely something that sounded way better in my head.

3. What is a hair style you wish you could pull off, but would never be brave enough to try?

a pixie cut! my bff rocks it pretty well though so i'll probably just admire her hair

4. Would you rather have to always use the sun to tell the time or directions by the stars?

i would rather have to always use the sun to tell the time. i would feel really uncomfortable not knowing where i am/how i am supposed to get where i want to go because most likely whenever i would be traveling it would probably be day time...

5. What is a fall trend that you are excited to try?

flares!!! flares are definitely making their way back and with a comfy pair of chunky heels, a girl just feels like struttin' around. okay so maybe just me?

6. Who is your style icon?

okay for those of you who already know me, this is a no brainer.... the olsen twins. i. love. them. this site is just perfect for catching up on all of their outfit choices over the years. you're welcome ;)

7. What's your favorite outdoor activity? 

 who can pick just one favorite outdoor activity? i'll make a list: going for a walk or a run, reading a book in my hammock, a good thunderstorm on someone's porch, or enjoying a nice bbq .. especially with friends.

 one of my favorite pictures from a friend filled bbq :)

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my baby is a baby

so we bought rocco from one of paris's good friends. there were also four other puppies in the litter, three of which got sold but one which was left in our friend's house.

well the other night he brought rocco's sister over! i haven't seen the other little ones since the day we got rocco so i was so surprised when he just showed up at our door with nacha, rocco's sister.

i was really excited to see them together and see if they would remember each other .. but was immediately disappointed. rocco kept running away. running away!

i thought he would have enjoyed having another dog equal to his size since he just loves playing with isaac. but that picture up there is literally the only semi-decent picture i got of the two of them together because rocco wouldn't even get within a foot of her.

it just made me realize that my little baby is a big baby!

the right way to do a saturday

this saturday was probably one of the quickest beach trips i've ever been on. 

one of my coworker asked me to come along with her to the beach while her boyfriend went to check on a beach house that his family is building.

so they picked me up bright and early, and dropped us off at jaco beach. four hours later we were burnt to a crisp, full from some delicious fruit smoothies, and just taking cover from the rain that was about to start when her boyfriend picked us back up again to go home.

the rest of my day was spent napping and putting lotion on my roasting skin. not so bad, if i do say so myself ;)

dear earthquake,

my mom and me: may 2010

dear old pictures: i have been obsessed with looking at you lately. so friends if you get an email from me asking for some pictures you will know why! i also think i am going to use friday's letters as a little flashback post for old pictures for a while .. hope you don't mind! dear exam week: whew you are finally over and almost all of my exams are graded and out of the way! now this means just one more trimester and my first school year is over. dear paris's car: whyyyy oh why did you have to break something important? let's hope we can get you fixed soon. and finally .. dun dun dun.. dear EARTHQUAKE: yes, earthquake. you showed up wednesday in my first class of the day and i certainly was not expecting you. i mean, i'm from the east coast! we just don't have you where i'm from. but thank goodness for earthquake drills so i knew exactly what to do. not to mention, where you hit me you were actually not so strong .. but still, you had me swaying in my classroom. lets hold off our next meeting for a while, okay?

happy weekend everyone!

the coming of fall

it's that time of the year again where everyone is talking about the going of summer and the coming of fall. the time where the overly heated days turn into perfectly cool afternoons and beautifully cool nights. the time when little dresses and wedges are turned in for big sweaters and tall boots.

oh if only costa rica had a fall season! right now we are in the rainy season so sometimes it gets cool but nothing near that of a sweater and scarf combo cool. and then it usually just gets really hot and humid again.

fall is just my favorite season and i can't help but be jealous of all of you blogland people who keep talking about all of the fall clothes and boots you are going to be wearing. if you had asked me in high school if i would rather have new jersey/new england fall (oh endicott first semester how i miss you) instead of costa rica weather i would have picked costa rica by a landslide.

but after experiencing two new england autumns you just don't want anything else.

well .. i want autumn! so all of you people gearing up for my favorite season so me a favor and take it all in. don't miss a single orange leaf or pumpkin picking opportunity. i'll be watching you ;)

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help a girl out!

you guys. i need help. i need some motivation!

i love working out. okay .. usually i love working out. but the past oh, few months, i have done absolutely nothing for my fitness. nothing! for me, that is like .. unacceptable.

so you tell me .. okay b, just go workout. this is where i need help. i need some motivation! a few months ago i had joined a local gym but i just didn't like it. it was always super crowded with not enough machines and it just really turned me off. so i never went.

and running? oh running. i miss it, i really do. i'm one of those people that needs to have music while i run. and here in this country i personally do not feel comfortable going for a run by myself with my ipod. paris has told me that it would be fine but i'm not there yet.

so that leaves me with working out at home. i've been searching for some at home workouts and i found this that i thought looked interesting.

i figure i could try it for a few weeks and see how it goes. i also have access to an elliptical that i could use to warm up with. what do you guys think? worth my time?

also, if any of you have any at home workouts that you have tried and loved .. help a girl out! i would love to hear what has worked and what hasn't worked for everyone!

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king of the castle

a few times on the weekends, i've caught rocco sunbathing on our stairs in the morning. you know ... like a cat.

so we did a little furniture rearranging in the apartment this weekend and that included rocco's little area. i decided to move his bed to his favorite sun spot on the stairs and .. he loved it. i put his food container on the stair below but.... it just wasn't convenient enough for him. so i had to move it riiiight next to his bed.

i mean, his is the king in this house.