Life As I Live It

17 April 2009

WEEK 16

17 april 2009
i love this taebo advance. let me give you a little bit of history here. i first saw billy blanks and his taebo workout on home tv shopping. and i ordered my copy from there... 9 years ago. i got a complete taebo workout from beginners to advance. after my first pregnancy, that helped me trim down. after doing it for a month (i think..) i stopped. i got into it again a year after when my niece (jake) moved back to the philippines. we did it together! i was really motivated. then we stopped again after a couple of weeks of doing it. another year passed and me and my niece decided to do it again! after 2 weeks of taebo we stopped again. since then i never worked out again. i lost my vcd copies. i think last year me and my niece talked about doing taebo again(she in the states and me here in paris) and i asked her if she could find a copy of the taebo advance. september last year she sent me the file. i have been meaning to start it then...but i have lots of excuses. so today i finally decided i will do it! if i cannot do it daily...at least every other day. my weight today is 49 kilos (107.8 pounds)!!!! my goal is to lose at least 10 pounds or just bring my weight to 100 pounds (and keep it there!!). so do you think i can do it???? now that i have posted this here i think it will be shameful if i will not do it. i will take it slow.... here is my target: lose half a kilo per week!! i will keep you posted....

16 april 2009
i really don't know if she is comfortable in that stroller but she loves sitting there! the seat is not strong enough to hold her, she is actually sitting on the bottom frame of the stroller. can you believe that there are times when she would try to buckle up?!!! it made me laugh the first time i saw her putting on the 'safety belt'...hahaha.

15 april 2009
i stayed up really late finishing the weekly layouts. i needed to post them so i could qualify for w&w incentives. (and just to let you know...i did qualify!!yipeee!!). it was half past twelve when i finished. my dh and dd were already fast asleep... and my dd was sleeping on my dh's arm!! isn't that really sweet! this is one thing i really appreciate about my dh, no matter how tiring his day is, he cuddles sofia til she falls asleep.... love seeing them like this. so before i went to bed, i took my camera to capture this moment.

14 april 2009
nowadays we leave some of our windows open because it is not that cold anymore. since our apartment is on a street corner, we hear the busy streets outside. i really don't mind the noise, it keeps me company actually believe it or not. but particularly today i was surprised by the music i heard from outside the apartment. at first i thought i was coming from a car (but it was old music i heard so i assumed an old man/woman driving his/her car with windows down and with music this loud...hmmmm not really!!!). so i looked out and tried to see where the music was coming from. then i saw 2 gentlemen playing horns! their music was beautiful!! then i saw some other people from the nearby apartments throwing coins. (our apartment is across the street so i can't just throw money...). i enjoyed the music...and i think it is a decent way of earning/asking for money.

13 april 2009
i love these pictures of my daughter feeding the sheep. i couldn't believe she was not scared at all!! i tried feeding it myself and i have to admit i had to pull my hand quick because i was scared it might bite me or something... but with my daughter, she just stood there with her palm open for the sheep to feed. i guess she doesn't know the concept of 'fear' yet.

15 April 2009

... and Easter Monday!!

easter monday is a holiday here!! my dh has no work and for my children it is the start of their spring vacation (2 weeks of no school!! well actually after every 2 months of school they have 2 weeks of vacation). we were invited for lunch by our friend cecile who moved to her new apartment outside paris. it was a bit far but easy to find. she and than, her boyfriend, prepared a wonderful lunch for us. after lunch they took us to the park in that area. Parc de Sceaux is a large park (2 sq km) where the famous Chateau of Sceaux stands. it was a wonderful experience to walk around the park and feel nature.
here are our pictures!!

Easter Sunday....

what did we do last easter...? well, we didn't have easter egg hunt or any planned easter celebration actually. what is really important for us is to hear mass because Christ has risen from the dead!! we heard mass the night before so sunday we just spent time together. we decided to just eat out. we went to bistro roman at victor hugo. it was a beautiful day and it was perfect to eat outside the restaurant. there was sunshine and the wind was not cold anymore. we had a wonderful lunch!!
rafael ordered steak and fries...he really enjoyed his plate!

and as for the rest of us, we had (clockwise) linguine aux gambas, carpacio,dessert sampler, and saint-jacques et gambas a la planca !!

WEEK 14 and 15

this is my second post for today so for all of you reading my blog, please don't forget to read all the way down and to the post before this one. here are my layouts for week 14 (march 30 - april 5) and week 15 (april 6-12). i am so motivated in keeping up with this project 365 because of the incentives the w&w give. they are so generous and kind!! anyway..so let me share you my layouts.

so i hope you enjoyed my photos...
oh...and i want to let you know i didn't make it to the guest CT of w&w.i was so looking forward to it...but the winners do deserve it. i will just try again next time.

BELGIUM

ok..as usual this is a little bit late but nonetheless let me share with you our trip to belgium. last april 4 we drove to belgium. it is a little over 300km from paris so it is not that far. kuya tongtong and family wanted to see another country and belgium is one of the closest. my mother-in-law went to belgium but she only visited brugge, so we thought it was this was a good time for her to see another place in belgium. here are some of my favorite pictures.
so our first stop is the 'grande place' in brussels.
the grote markt (Dutch) or grande place (French) is the central market square of brussels. it is surrounded by guild houses, the city's town hall, and the bread house. it is considered one of the most beautiful medieval squares in europe.
we also saw the famous manneken pis and the europe miniature.
after brussels we drove to antwerp, another city in belgium. we went back to paris april 5.
ok, so here are the pictures!!

11 April 2009

'LIFE' layouts

hello again to everyone!!! happy easter to all!!
i have a couple of news to share... first of all my son is number 1 in his class for this grading period!! i am really so pround of him. i have to give him all the credits because he studies by himself all the time. i know i should be helping him out...but i am not good in french. but i always tell him that if he needs help on something, he can ask his papa (my dh is fluent in french). but somehow he manages on his own. so you might be wondering what his prize is/are? well, i bought him some dragon ball books (now he only needs 1 to complete his collection of 42 books), and i think his papa will buy him a new ds game. i am really proud of rafael.

secondly, let me share with you 2 layouts i made for Weeds & Wildflower's anniversary challenge. they are looking for a guest ct member and i have been wanting to be part of their team. there are so many applicants and i think it will not be that easy to get in. but it is worth the try...so here are my layouts!! i will let you know if i get in or not..

08 April 2009

WEEK 14 & 15: guests in paris...and our trip to belgium!!

time flies really fast....
i had visitors and they left this morning. they arrived april 2, 6 days here in europe. i think they were able to see most of paris, and we took them to belgium too. it was such a busy week that i didn't get the chance to post anything here... but anyway here i am updating you with everything.
let me just share with you some photos of our guests in paris and belgium.

7 april 2009: chateau de versailles