i wish

i wish ...

that you can buy anything you see on pinterest immediately. i.e. that american flag shirt. i need. it.

i wish ...

that i had unlimited miles. fly home for a weekend with the girls? done. fly home for thanksgiving dinner, oh yeah.

i wish ... 

my parents didn't lose their power from silly sandy. i have things to talk about and questions to ask!

i wish ... 

my computer's cooling fan wasn't broken and my battery lasted more than 15 seconds unplugged. grrr technology.

those are my current little wishes. what are you wishing for?


linking up with here.

source

playa herradura: the non beach weekend part 2

just thought i'd throw a few more pictures up from our weekend.

how cool is that lookout spot we went to? the sunset was beautiful and i'm glad i got to capture some of it!

i'll be honest, beach weekends usually wear me out more than i'd like to admit. however this was one of my favorites so far :)

in costa rica we dont go to the beach

i've been in costa rica for over a year now and there is something that i've come to realize

when paris and his friends say they want to go to the beach .. they really don't. they want to go to a pool, near the beach. every time we have thought of staying the night at the beach, one of the requirements has been: it must have a pool.

i thought to myself, yeah i like pools .. but what about the beach? and now i know. in their minds pool trumps beach.  maybe it is because not all of the beaches here have long stretches of soft sand but instead a ton of rocks and sticks. or maybe because there is constantly the threat of people stealing your belongings. either way .. we spent the majority of our weekend at the pool!

those pictures were taken in the ten minutes we went exploring when we first arrived, and the other ten minutes we spent watching the sunset. i almost had to drag everyone out of the car saying .. aren't we going to get out and enjoy for a little while??? and once we were out, i think it did them some good :)

DIY ... can i?

i haven't ever really shown any pictures of my apartment here in costa rica because it is just so tiny....and dark. but once school gets out (in less than two months!) i want to devote some time to making this place a little more homey and a little more space efficient.

one thing that i definitely want to do is organize my jewelry! since i do not have a vanity i decided i want something to hang on my wall where i can put all of my necklaces and some bracelets.

i've been searching in pinterest (obviously) and this is what i've come up with

this first one is very simple and very me! if i could get those little nails in a stick somehow without breaking it, then i could definitely pull this off. 

i also found this idea, which is already done

this option is from a little shop called SwishProductions. like the first option, its pretty simple and the best part is, it comes already finished. you can even customize the board covering. can you tell i'm already leaning towards this option?

anyone else have any (easy) ideas for hanging up my jewelry??

meet my personal trainer

okay okay .. don't get jealous. he's not just my personal trainer .. he probably trains a few tens of thousands of others. and no he's not just some piece of eye candy with ripped abs...

he's shaun t! creator of insanity.

in the past two weeks i have mentioned a few times that i started the insanity workouts. if you haven't heard anything about them let me just tell you that they are hard. i had been thinking about getting the p90x dvds for christmas because i needed some kind of workout that i could do at home.

well magically one of paris's sisters got her hands in the insanity dvds and lent them to me! now, i used to be someone who worked out a lot.  oh wait .. used to be. the first day of these workouts .. the fitness test .. i died. i just died.

the first four days of my new workout plan i literally could not get out of bed in the morning. everything from my back down to the bottoms of my feet was killing me.

but then slowly it stopped hurting.

and then one day last week .. i completed a workout .. and was still standing!

okay maybe i looked a little something like this...

but seriously, these workouts will kick your butt. 

and its totally worth it.

source 1.2

dear lovely coworker,

dear thursday: sushi, grey's anatomy, and scandal. i like you a lot. dear insanity workout: yesterday, i kicked your butt. granted, the past week and a half you have kicked my butt. but now i got you. dear random stains that magically pop up on my favorite shirts: stop. dear the anatomy of peace: i really want to read you. dear lovely coworker: thank you for bringing me skippy extra chunky peanut butter from the lovely U.S.A.!! you are the sweetest for remembering when i said i ran out of the stash i brought back from july. a little taste of home :)

i hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

don't mind my lack of video taking skills...

rocco and the grass from Britta on Vimeo.

so i clearly don't know how to take video correctly or how to upload it correctly. but either way, here is a video of rocco meeting the grass for maybe the 7th time in his life. i think he gets on his feet after a good 45 seconds.

 

pool party

on saturday p's whole family made their way to his sister's place. we spent the whole entire day outside by the pool, taking a lot of sun and eating a lot of cheeseburgers. it was the. best.

going to her house and just relaxing by the pool is one of my favorite things to do here. it is such a beautiful complex and she and her husband are so hospitable that i can only hope to live in a place like that and be such a gracious host!

and of course, rocco stole the show for the day. but i didn't mind, because while everyone else was chasing him around, i could finally get some sun and relax!

the perfect way to start a long weekend

it was a stroke of luck that p and i both had friday off (too bad he doesn't have today off too!) and we had an extremely nice/productive day!

first we hit up bagelman's, a chain restaurant that i have been wanting to try for about two years now and we finally made it there. i would pretty much compare it to a panera because it has bagels, sandwiches, and salads. however, clearly not as good as the real panera, nor my bagel emporium bagels but it certainly did the trick to tide me over until december.

next we took rocco for a little joy ride. first to the vet for his last baby check up! he behaved much much better than the last time, we were so proud! plus our little baby now weighs over 3 pounds. they grow up so fast.

finally we spent a little time at the family property up on the mountain so that paris could wash his car and rocco could spend some time outside. don't worry i'll share more of how that went later on!

hope everyone had a great weekend.

dear insanity workout,

circa october 2009

dear endicott: i sure do miss you this time of year. i miss heading down to the ocean wrapped up in thick leggings, a big scarf, and a warm fleece with my roomies and just taking in the cold ocean air. i sure wish i could go back for one more fall! dear five day weekend: you are here and i am sooo happy. dear insanity workout: you. are. hard. and my body hurts. ouch. dear new jersey: see you in two months yippee! dear readers: welcome to all of you newbies who have just signed on! also, thanks to everyone who gave me their input on my camera question! it is much appreciated :)

pinterest pretties

source: 1, 2, 3, 4

what did we do before pinterest? it's probably been just about a year since i heard about pinterest which means it has also been about a year since i started reading blogs.

its kind of crazy to me to think that it's been a full year since i got involved in the blogging world. and i'm so happy i did! i love blogging and reading blogs. i also love pinterest.

sometimes i get in these moods, like nothing is going my way. i like to go on pinterest and just look at all of the pretty pictures. you know? so many of the pictures are just so pretty. and after looking and of course pinning! sometimes i feel a little bit better :)

so these are some of my recent pinterest pretties. don't they just make you smile?

some things are just too cute

some things that have been making me smile lately:

1. this recipe .. i mean, come on! who comes up with these things?? these pies are definitely going on my must do list .. they are just too cute

2. when my students walk past me at school and give me the "live long and prosper" hand symbol and i give it right back ... no words exchanged.

3. rocco ... when i'm watching some tv on my computer and he curls up in a ball on my chest and watches with me

4.  when my dad sends me an e-mail with a link to songs like this

5.  knowing that p and i both have this friday, saturday, and sunday off

hope everyone else has been doing lots of smiling!

post idea from the lovely nicole

photo source

which to choose

alright guys, i'm trying to make this pretty important decision: canon or nikon??

this is going to be my first DSLR purchase and i'm pretty excited about it. i've had a smaller canon digital camera for a while but i think its time for an upgrade. since i've been living in another country for a while now, i've realized how important it is to me that i take pictures both here in costa rica, and during my times at home.

i know that it isn't the camera that takes the great pictures, its the person .. right?? so i want to learn! with my job i have plenty of time to teach myself a little bit about how to take a good picture.

so my question to you guys is: canon or nikon?? i've read that the only difference between canon and nikon now a days is personal preference, the way the buttons are laid out and the operating systems. so i've found two camera's that have definitely caught my attention: 

the Canon T2i, and the Nikon D3200.

i've read amazing things about both but now i just don't know what to pick! if anyone has anything to say about either camera i would love to hear your advice!

oh friday

dear pitbull concert: you were extremely entertaining. i mean, we were so close that pitbull may or may not have winked and blown me a kiss. however, you were an hour and a half long.. and that was not long enough. dear visa: what the heck? its been over 7 months since i applied for you and i am still being told to come back next month? by the time i get i will have already worked a full school year. dear students: you guys just make me smile. dear blog: i know i have been kind of neglecting you lately, but i just needed a little break. i will try to be back next week.

i just can't get enough

okay, so i know i have posted a bagillion pictures of rocco in the last few weeks but i honestly cannot get enough of him. he has been getting cuter and cuter as each week passes.

i look forward to bed time when he hops up on to bed, goes straight to wear i'm sitting and burrows under the covers until he's curled up right next to my legs.

or in the mornings when pops his head out and just starts giving me kisses.

and although he looks like he's in complete shock from his bath the other day, he was such a good sport about it. no crying, whining, nothing ;) my baby boy.

i'm really so glad i made the decision to get this little guy, makes me smile every day!

just one snapshot

just like my weeks, my weekends are flying by. this weekend especially.

paris had a bbq with a ton of his work friends on friday night and i volunteered to be the person on the grill. i figured i must have inherited at least some of my father's grilling skills and turns out .. i did! well at least i think so ... no one complained about the food.

sunday night was supposed to be our pitbull concert but unfortunately it got postponed to tonight! so we're keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes well.

hope everyone had a great weekend.