Spring Bucket List

Spring has been here some time now and I have lots of things in mind that I'd like to do, like those in my bucket list. What do you have plan this spring?

Shrimp Zesty Quinoa

For months now I've been wanting to try Quinoa and today that day finally came. I had several recipes pinned and bookmarked so I went through it all and came up with this plate. It was a big hit with the hubby, so much so that he don't mind having it for dinner twice a week. Jackpot! my salad making days are over, Hallelujah.

Ingredients:

2 cup quinoa

4 cup water (extra for washing

1/2 bag raw shrimp (use more/less on your preference)

1 can black bean

1 can corn

1 1/2 Tbs olive oil

1/2 green pepper diced 

1/2 red pepper diced

1Tbs chili powder

1 Tbs ground cumin

1/2 lemon juice

salt & pepper to taste

cilantro for garnishing

Cooking Directions:

~rinse quinoa w/ water 

~bring 2cup of water to boil

~add quinoa, lower heat, let simmer while covered, stirring frequently

(when quinoa is all dried up it's ready. usually 15-18mins)

~peel shrimp while quinoa is cooking 

~add oil to sauce pan. when hot add & cook shrimp, about 5mis

~add all vegetables to shrimp and stir

~add chili powder, cumin, salt & pepper, and lemon juice and stir

~adjust seasoning to your liking, let cook for 5-10 mins

~once both things are done combine quinoa with shrimp and vegetables

~serve, garnish, and enjoy!

All of this took 30 mins or less to make and I will definitely be making this again :)

You can add or substitute the vegetables, make it with other kind of meat or without, add fruits and brown sugar and eat as if it was oatmeal. The options are endless, I cannot wait to try it differently next week :)

Note to self

Dear Pame,

Today was your first Mary Kay party and fyi it was scary! You were not ready and basically jumped in too fast. You need to pace yourself because if you don't you'll just be setting yourself up for failure. As you well know you are a BIG procrastinator and in order to succeed in life you need to set yourself straight! Just relax, get organize, and don't get ahead of yourself. Everything in life takes time and you need to be patient. So don't give up and just be yourself, you have potential and are a lot better than what you give yourself credit for ;) hang in there lovey.

On another note, Jen and Mia are fabulous girlfriends. Hang on to them, they're worth it.

Marriage is hard...

But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I don't care what anyone says or pretends to be, marriage is hard and it takes a lot to not give up. I feel as if you are tested more once you are married and is no fun. As a teenager I fantasized on how married life would be. Today I can honestly say that this is another full time job to have. Add kids in the mix and you have overtime jejeje. I can also say that the good always outweighs the bad and just as a reminder here are some quotes I've mentioned on my monthly wedding anniversary post.

1. "I didn't married you because you were perfect. I didn't even married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage". - Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth

2. "More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse.
~Doug Larson

3. For better or worse,
For richer or poorer,
In sickness and in health, 
To love and to cherish,
Until death do us part.

4. "Love like you'll never get Hurt" 

5. "The kind of marriage you make depends on the kind of person you are. If you are a happy, well-adjusted person, the chances are your marriage will be a happy one. If you have made adjustments so far with more satisfaction than distress, you are likely to make your marriage and family adjustments satisfactory. If you are discontented and bitter about your lot in life, you will have to change before you can expect to live happily ever after". -Evelyn Duvall and Reuben Hill

6. "There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer, no disease that enough love will not heal, no door that enough love will not bridge, no wall that enough love will not throw down, no sin that enough love will not redeem... It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. If only you could love enough, you could be the happiest and most powerful being in the world..." Emmet Fox

7."Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years". -Simone Signoret

8. "The quality of love and the duration of a relationship are in direct proportion to the depth of the commitment by both people to making the relationship successful. Commit yourself wholeheartedly and unconditionally to the most important people in your life". -Brian Tracy

9. "In marriage, each partner is to be an encourager rather than a critic, a forgiver rather than a collector of hurts, an enabler rather than a reformer". -H. Norman Wright and Gary J. Oliver

10. "Love seems the swiftest but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century". ~Mark Twain

Now go give your husband a kiss for choosing you.

Just Because... Mary Kay

 Call me crazy but I started my own business with Mary Kay as a consultant.

As I sit around thinking about what I just did I wonder if it was a good move. I mean I'm not the most social or talkative gal. As mentioned many times before I'm very shy and this kind of job requires me to be the complete opposite. As if that's not all where do I suppose I have the time to do this? Not only did I welcome a new child into my already hectic life but I just keep on adding more and more. Am I setting myself for failure? Oh Jesus have mercy on me please.

Well. The reason why I decided to do this is because I want to be more bold, more social and outgoing, and build up confidence. I think that's what keeps me from being a go-getter. So I hope that doing this gives me the push that I need to feel like I can tackle anything I set my mind to. I want less negativity in my life and focus more in the Positive. Ain't no body got time to be negative or to be surrounded by so much negativity.

I recently decided that I need to have a different view toward life and start looking at the glass as half full instead of half empty. I guess this is out of my element and a great way to start working toward my new goal. So yea, I'm a Mary Kay Consultant and would love to tell you more about it just shoot me an email.

Dedication Is Key

In order for you to succeed at something you need to be motivated and dedicated. Not only that but you must "want to" do it not just "need to". I've found that if I'm motivated to do something no matter what gets in my way I don't give up and that makes me very proud of myself.

Lets take for example breastfeeding. My goal is to breastfed for a year (fingers crossed). It all started fine and was going great until the second month when I ran into some issues. I nipped that right on the butt. Then baby boy was giving us a hard time taking a bottle (and still is) and hubby was not too happy about it and even suggested I stop breastfeeding -*gasp* how dare he! I was very disappointed in him but I didn't let that bring me down because the bond I share with my sweet boy is so much more than just feeding and so worth it. Now were into the third month and my supply is just awesome, I'm feeling great about myself, and I feel I'm prepared to fix any breastfeeding issues that arises in the future. Therefore I'm pretty confident on achieving my goal and it only look dedication.

Cloth diapering is another one. When I told close friends and family about my plans they guaranteed me that I would fail. They put so much doubt in me that I almost didn't even start it and was ready to throw that out the window. Thank god I didn't though because I can't see not having cloth diapers in my life at this point. Now mind you that is only been about six weeks but we've had a good experience thus far. And the hubby is even on board now. I remember telling him we needed to get disposables because our washer was messed up and I didn't have clean dipes and he almost lost it. He's gotten too used to not spending money on diapers. I'm sure that's why he doesn't mind it but hey I don't care what his motives are as long as he continues to support me with it.

Currently I'm working on my eating habits. I'm not the type to diet, my motto is "if you eat in moderation you can have it all". Problem is I.Love.Food! So is hard to eat a small portion of rice and beans, 2 slices of pizza, or 1 serving of lasagna. Lately I've been using the "out of sight out of mind" attitude. I don't buy juice or soda for home because I won't miss what I don't have, unless we expect visitors. That right there forces me and the family to drink more water. I've also been serving myself smaller portion at meal times, eating more fruits, and snacking often. Since I'm back at work I don't want to mess up my supply or gain weight because is not like winter is next in line where I can just hide my goods under sweatshirts and coats. It'll be summer before we know it and I want to work on my beach body ;)

Now only if I can find a bit of motivation for exercising. That way I can tone up my post pregnancy body. This is what I find hardest to work on. As long as I go to the gym daily I'm good. But as soon that I miss a day it quickly turns into two and three and before I know it its been a month. That's where I am right now, it's been a month since I last visited the gym and I'm ashamed of myself for that because in order to get to my beach body I'm going to need motivation to be dedicated to working out routinely.  I only need 10 lbs to be back to my pre pregnancy weight so why am I having such a hard time letting go of it. Is it the breastfeeding? Am I going to have to pick between the two? Ha! Never that. But I truly would love to find just a tiny bit of motivation to became dedicated at accomplishing this task. If I can just last 21 days going I'm sure it'll get easier to work it into my life as a routine. You would think that having a gym freak at home would be enough, I guess not.

Wish me luck that this month will be The month :)

 

 

Date night gone bad

What a night.

Is a proven fact that once kids enter a marriage if you don't take out time for you and your spouse things can start going downhill without you even realizing it. In our case daddy is always working and mommy is taking care of the home, the kids, her school work, and has recently returned to work. Needless to say that I need to pay close attention to my marriage because if not before I know it we'll be living like roommates.

 

 I honestly cannot remember the last time the hubby and I had a date night. And being that I want to keep the sparks in this marriage alive I told him we should have date nights at least twice a month. Just us. No talks about the kids, work, school, or anything that does not pertain to our relationship. Tonight was suppose to be our first date night in who knows how long. I had a sexy outfit picked out. Bought a new lipstick. And had my sister over to help curl my hair. We planned to go out for sushi and enjoy some us time.

Well destiny had a different plan for us.

Our little peanut had rough nights the past three nights and caught a cough. Today he started with a fever and was very whiney . I started having doubts about going out for date night and by 6p it was a given fact that date night was no more. At 9p AJ had a fever of 100.8 and I got worried as I called the doctor kid started vomiting like no body's business. A few Q&As later and we were on our way to the children's ER to find out my poor baby had a left ear infection. Oh boy, poor hubby was all I thought. I work the next three nights so he's going to have to take care of AJ at night and during the day while I sleep.

Sick and all my sweet baby was all giggles from the moment we walked through the ER doors. It made me feel a little better knowing that he was at least acting like himself from time to time. The worse part about being a parent the feeling of not being able to prevent your child from getting sick.

This was very bad timing x2. But at last, this is parenthood and the rewards are far more and better. For now we'll just worry about making sure our peanut gets better soon. After all we have a lifetime to do date nights :) 

  

 

Linkin' Up

More adventures are headed my way.

I've been blogging for almost two years now and although this blog is a public blog I haven't really "branched out" to meet other bloggers or share my life with other readers. I've had my reservations with this because you never know who you'll find out there and people can be Mean! Not to mention that my Hispanics friends and family wouldn't "get" why I blog. Just thinking about their reactions literally makes me laugh out loud. I could hear them now, "You do what?" "But why?" "You're so weird".

I told myself, so what if they think I'm weird? Whose weird life is it anyways? As long as I'm happy that's all that matters. So I decided to get a new look, a more welcoming and friendly look -Thanks to the wonderful Stephanie from Stephanie G Designs for the beautiful work she did for me.



Being 26 has really changed my aspect on my life and how I want to live it. After all I was weird for planning a destination wedding that is still talked about this day and I'm the weird one who takes road trips with complete strangers to meet more strangers and celebrate life and I didn't died or got kidnap (thank god). How bad can really becoming public be? I hope I'm not jinxing myself here.

I love documenting my life and being able to read back on the events I document. I like being different from those I interact with day in and day out. I look forward to the next five years of my life and being able to remember what happened this day word for word. Even more I like knowing that there are others like me. That like sharing their life and having friends around the globe.

After thinking about it for a several weeks I went for it and joined a "link up"to meet more bloggers. This was the perfect opportunity since rumors has it that there'll be no more google reader and I needed to find a way to stay connected to my favorite blogs.

Click here to join!

I also joined this other link up just because ;)

Enough with my shyness. That's not going to take me places in life. I want to be bold and have no regrets once I reach old age. So welcome to my married life, lets be friends, and follow me on bloglovin :)

Adrian 3 Months

Adrián,

It seem like it was just last week when you were living inside my body. Being comforted by the sound of my heart beating. Getting nourished by what I ate. Being formed to the precious little boy that you are today. And today here you are, growing and learning more and more each day.

This month you've had lots of firsts and many smiles. Right around nine weeks you started to belly laugh, it is the cutest little thing. You started doing it while sleeping and I couldn't help but wonder what you must have been dreaming about. Is obviously something good and funny :) Now you do it when we talk to you.

You've also started to coo and even tried to roll over. When I put you on your belly for belly time, which by the way you find so amusing, you spin yourself around the bed and eventually end up on your back. The doctor says that being that you are tiny in weight ( you were 10lbs 8oz on your 2 months check up) you're able to handle your weight more and will probably do things a little earlier. But don't let the word "tiny" fool you. You are right were you need to be.

It seems that this month you found your voice because all you do is talk talk talk. Baby cooing I mean of course. You swear you understand what we are telling you. One of my favorite things to watch is when you have conversations with people. Seriously, you do. Or at least you think you are. It's so funny. They talk and you coo back like if you're responding to what they're saying and it continues back and forth. I read this is a great way to develop and improve speech and communication skills. If that's true I have a feeling your going to be very talkative, another point for daddy.

When it comes to nursing you're a champ! You can eat all day everyday if it was up to you. Anytime I hold you you think is feeding time and you just start routing. You dislike the bottle very much and no matter what we do you will not take it. At least not from daddy or me. You do take it for both grandmas, eventually. You require a lot of patience my boy but I don't mind, you have taught me a lot this second time around :). I ordered some breast flow bottles from Amazon and I hope they do the trick because if not we're going to have a hard time getting friends and family to babysit for us.

(a little sick here)

Sleeping has been going very good still. We haven't swaddle you in months. You just hate to be all wrapped up and immobile. You like sleeping your own way whether is with your hands freely over your head or nice and warm under your chin. By 8pm you start getting a bit fuzzy because you know that it's bed time. We've started somewhat of a routine by taking you a bath first, giving you a little massage, sometimes we read you books, and then nursing. You usually fall asleep while you nurse so we don't really put you to bed while you're still awake. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. We need to start working on self soothing. We both need you to develop that skill for our own sake. You dislike the pacifier and want nothing to do with it. You do however like the taste of your fist. You put that thing in your mouth like no joke. I guess that's a starting point right?

You love when I sing to you, although I know I'm not the greatest singer. I guess it gives you comfort just hearing my voice and knowing that you're safe. Because you are safe with me, as safe as you can be that is. You enjoy time in your swing and being rocked. But I think your absolute favorite is being held, Oh how you love being held facing front and looking at your surroundings.

Another milestone include your motor skills. You reach for things now and when you get a hold of it you hold on to it for dear life. It helps that you can see more clearly now and you're developing very good eye-hand coordination. I love your reaction when we get close to your face is like the sun shinning in the early morning, full of life and happy. You have definitely started to recognize who your loved ones are.

We celebrated your first Easter by going to church then spending time with both grandmas. We had an egg hunt planned for big brother but the weather didn't allow it so we just relaxed and watched movies. Big brother got a nice basket with some candy, toys, and a couple of books and you got 4 new books and socks. I'm sure next year Easter will be more fun since you'll be at least walking.

I'm looking forward to summer clothes shopping for you. Hello warm weather and summer fun :)