Intentions.. 2011

I came across a really great blog by some lovely person named Evelyn yesterday, and it gave me a boost to deal with some of the stuff I've just been avoiding and really set intentions forward for (deep breath) the future.

It's just that I was allowing myself to have this bleak outlook of the future. Ironic, sunshine daily right? I was just sinking and it's definitely a major impact of being far from my only home for 20 years, my family, my friends. I felt disconnected from the Source. 

So, I woke up yesterday and went outside for a walk and looked and the sky and started talking, first to the sky and then to myself. I need to get used to being my own best friend. Sounds crazy but I am so happy living for the people in my life that I don't realize I'm not planning anything for myself. I'm too hesitant to think it will work out after opportunities that I have missed, left in the past.

Of course, there it is. IN THE PAST. I just need to let it go. 

Thankfully, I realize I have the support of a great guy that wants me to just find my way for me. I am going to really make the conscious effort to show him he's great.

 I am happy to say that I actually picked myself 3 Power Words for 2011. Because my birthday is coming up in this lovely April that's approaching, I'm considering them applying to the year according to my life. This is me getting a head start.

  communicate 

with myself, with my partner 

with honesty and patience and realizing that 

if there is something wrong, we need to be willing to root around until its fixed 

inspire 

I must search for this

what inspires me? for myself, because I want it..

this year will be about seeking this out

love

to myself, to everyone around me

accepting and receiving it from the Univers, each day in a million possible ways

 

 So, today is a great day. I am looking forward to the future. One day at a time ...

 

 

FRIDAY
oh, how i love fridays..

except when I find out I need to stay an extra hour at work..
boo, blah, boo..

still, tomorrow my glorious 48 hrs of nothing begins again..

I am blessed. I feel love surrounding me and the opportunities of today are in front of my feet.

Day 3

Got another great workout in this morning. My 3rd in 5 days. 

I can't quite give up my lazy Sundays yet. So I am completely changing my original plan.

Obviously I already made it clear I've been out of shape recently.

 Maybe next week.

I think I'm severely dehydrated though and really need to put the effort in to drink more water.

I'm like a camel, I can go half a day without a sip of anything and that's I know it's bad.

Once the summer kicks in I get better but it's been relatively chill here in LV.

Hope the weather perks up soon so we can get some nice spring days in before the insatiable heat commences.

Just stopped one of my puppies from humping his sister.

Naughty little things. 

Anyway, It's Tuesday! Not one of my favorites. 

Planning on making it a good one though. 

Affirmation: Every choice that I make, every choice that I have ever made is the absolute perfect choice. 

Reminder #1!

Just finished my first day back in the gym. Just 30 minutes. Wasn't killing myself.

And my face is BEET RED right now but I feel great!!

I've been really un-fit the last few weeks and I'm pretty ashamed. I'm pretty strong for my size I think but that's because I had been consistently working out for the last yr and a half, so what has changed.

Well, I guess to be honest regardless of who may ever come across this blog that I know: I went on a birth control that made me CRAZY.  Super hormonal. SUPER.

And I kinda fell into a blue zone for awhile. But woo, 2 weeks ago I am on a much better one and I feel finally back in control.

So anyway, back to the beginning. I'm trying a simple plan to slowly get my heart back into shape that I saw over at ZenHabits. 30 minutes. 30 days. Blog about it for accountability and reminders that the endorphins are real!

I feel the spring approaching already and all this new energy..

Starting with.. FOOD!

I can't wait to try this Homemade Naan..

What a Girl wants..

Valentine's Day

Peter and I had our first date on February 17th.

The following year, Peter was already living in Las Vegas since Jan. 1st.

I didn't move out here until the 23rd of February.

So, this year.. we will actually spend Valentine's Day together AND our 2nd (1st) Anniversary.

Peter doesn't believe Valentine's Day is a real holiday.

I still decided to gift him by finally putting up a picture frame we bought months ago with LOVE pictures.

And I planned a special dinner last night.

Just something to remind him, I love you.

The recipe for the Quattro Formaggi was adapted from PioneerWoman here.

UFC

I've realized the fun in UFC weeks at work.

This week I got to meet Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto.

He was quiet and his entourage was nice.

I actually yelled at him to say he couldn't wear sneakers on the mat.

I felt a little bad after.

Sometimes I yell when I could walk over and say it.

The gym is loud.  

So the second day he came in and said, "No shoes." 

Glad he had a sense of humor. 

I also really appreciated his fashion sense.

He was wearing a lovely deep blue velour hoodie sweat suit and some nice Nikes.

I would love the suit he wore. LOVE.

Later he told me the suit is actually from his own fashion line 

and he bought the sneakers on his visit.

Which means he took time to go shopping here.

Vegas must be good.

Regret? ..Nah

This post is for those two little bundles of chaos that are now depending on me.

These are my first puppies. We had a dog in my family but I didn't consider him "my dog".

If I had known how annoying it would be at first,

I would have seriously reconsidered.

Meet our very own Wailers, Tosh and Marley

They believe they fit in one lap.

They love to play really rough.

Sometimes they lick the wall like it's so delicious.

Or bite your toes the minute you hit the floor.

Or pee as your staring at them and have already put on their collar.

But they are just babies. Official birthday for both is November 3, 2010. 

Home here for just about 3 weeks tomorrow. 

They will calm down if you're there.

They are my favorite nap buddies. 

Even though I can only imagine how bad they may get in the next stage,

I guess we're all in it for the long haul anyway.

Love is most important in the memory..

I love pictures.. so to keep this short and sweet.

 Here is some of the most important people to me:

My niece, Lei Alba. Born last year on July 3rd. 

The day before I flew home to be there just to see her. 

We were totally in sync even 2,000 miles away.  

She's Nana (2nd sister) and Jojo's first born. 

She is Colompino. (Colombian and Filipino)

This was part of our last photo shoot on Jan. 2,  2011. 

Every day I spent with her I treated as a photo shoot. You have to when it's only 1 week out of the year that I am there with her.

Didn't see her well enough? No worries..

Check out the beautiful blue eyes. Just like Nana when she was a baby.

Nana, the lucky wench got the green eyes out of the Montoya/Galvis genes. 

 

That's her Abuelo Rodrigo, my dad. We happen to share a birthday, me and him. One time he was in the next room and I don't remember why it came up but I heard him say out loud to my mother "Cuando fue que nacio Ana Paula?" Translation: When was it that she was born?

Same day as you, Dad! I knew he was being serious too. 

He just laughed. Burn.

Meet my gordo divino, Julian David! Born April 17th, 2009.

He is my middle nephew, second son of Sarah (the 3rd sister) and Robinson. 

So delicious (and pale like her) that I just want to eat him. 

Alexander Daniel, firstborn of S & R. I honestly can't remember his exact birthday but I do remember I had to run to the hospital after my one of my first days of HS. 

We were all so excited for the first of the next generation. Can't believe now there are 3.

 I couldn't believe how much he'd grown just from July to December. 

Talking so much, just wanted to me to play with him. 

Breaks my heart to miss so much of his life but can't focus on that now can I..

this is a happy post.

  

This was Alexander.. long before Julian came around. I love this picture of my parents.

Think it was their anniversary. August.

This is my mama, Alba Lucia. Mother of 4 girls. Love her to death.

Wish I told her that more to her face.

Alexander, even a little further back.

Julian. At the same park and in the same swing. 

I love/hurt watching these little babies grow so fast and now so far. 

Can't focus on what I'm missing though.

Just how much I love them. 

That's all for today. 

I love books!

It's taken awhile for me to find what I want in this blog. I want to write about what I love.

I love reading. I can curl up with a book for hours at a time. 

I used to spend so much time reading when I was in school. I devoured books.

Libraries are still a place I can stay for hours.

 I can't even estimate how many books I have read but I know it's been a lot. A lot.

(SHOUT OUT: Thanks Mom for keeping cable out of our house until I was 17!)

Right now I can't keep 5 books going at one time like I used to. 

Maybe that's exaggerating.. more often 3.. or 4. 

So the one book I am focusing my little time on now was provided by my eldest sister, Nino.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

 I wish I could create an extra hour every day so I could spend it with this book! 

(Remember the puppies have arrived! & I've come to fully realize: PUPPIES ARE BABIES!) 

But getting back to the book. It is so well written and the characters are amazing.

Here is the synopsis.

Get the book from a library. All females should read this.

I give it a 5 and I'm only halfway there at 200 pages. I'm glad it's lasting so long actually.

I love food.

Two deep down wishes are just jumping out of me this morning.

I want to share those here.

(Good afternoon Tastespotting! You wonderful place.)

Those wishes are:

1. to be able to stay home and cook all these delicious meals in my favorites.

*(but how will I afford the delicious ingredients?.)

2. to learn how to make my own clothing. MY OWN.

e.g. look at this fabric, must have it, snip, sew, drape and 

tada! here's the dress that's been in my head now in person!

Project Runway is directly responsible for this wish.

*( but when I can take the time off to first learn, then to DO.)

I don't usually like to share so much dreaming because I'm a bit more of a pessimistic realist about some things. 

Which is why maybe I have to find the time to enjoy my own pieces of these dreams..

What would I do without the Internet to provide these inspirations? 

I don't know but thankfully I don't have to find out.

On to the most important question of my day:

What are we having for dinner?

I'm such a lucky duck to be able to ask that.

I can't forget it's a blessing to have a full kitchen and someone to share it with.

Just to end on a great note.

Scampi Stuffed and Roasted Shrimp at Can You Stay for Dinner?

or perhaps,

Pappardelle alla Bolognese at Making Life Delicious

I could eat pappardelle every day. 

Maybe you think I'm kidding.

I'm really not.

EVERY DAY.

Puppies..

Today.. we're bringing our puppies home. I am very, very excited. I've been home from NY since Sunday and badly need these bundles of fur to give me something else to focus on. I will post pictures from home soon. It really was the best time.

I didn't want to go out. Although I did, the night before NYE..(why? I didn't think it through).. I just wanted to stay home, warm and inside, cuddling with my little niece. Why is my family so far? Who brought me here?

Oh right. I did. For some guy ;)

He better be treating me right. I better be happy. I'm trying to think back to when I first moved here.
It feels like a long time ago. It's only been 10 and a half months. Unreal.

I'm bad on New Year Resolutions. One trip I must make is to the San Diego Zoo. There is no way I'm staying in Las Vegas and not seeing the beach on the other end of NY.
I will make this trip happen.

Home for the Holidays

This year is the first that I no longer live in my home of forever (NY) but I will be home for the holidays. Though I never used to care if it was a snowy Christmas or New Years because my family didn't celebrate, this year I'm more and more excited to get to NY for it to feel like the season that it is.
Something about sunshine and (very recent) rain here in Las Vegas has made the month of December come unnoticed. Once I'm freezing my butt of in NY then it will really sink in that 2010 is out and 2011 is in.

I'm blessed that my boyfriend's parents were sweet enough to get us tickets home. It's going to be an extra special end of the Year. God, I can't wait to get there and see everyone!

Puppies.

After several months of hinting that I wanted a puppy. We got the perfect opportunity!
Free Puppies that just need a home! HOW CAN YOU SAY NO?
ARE YOU LOOKING AT THEM?
I plan to become a proud mama of two in the New Year.
Yes, two. I know it's going to be crazy hard at first but I'm not alone. fell in love with them and now I can't wait to bring them home.
Here they are..

Can you say adorable? I'm so excited to have them at home with me. The white one is a male and the brown one is a female. Tosh & Marley.

Good week..

Just keeping the momentum going.. It's been good news here and good news there.
Wand Fight Team recently won "Gym of the Year" at the World MMA Awards hosted by Fighter's Only Magazine here in Las Vegas. Check out the great new website that goes with it at http://www.wandfightteam.com/.
Went out to celebrate with everyone who works here. It's a huge accomplishment and I'm very happy to be a part of it.

I have to say working here is pretty great when you never know who may be in town to visit. Yesterday it was Verdum. Last week it was Shogun and Demian. Not to mention the boss himself is Wanderlei. Coolest guy ever. Really. Nicest man and nicest family. People stop by every day to meet him and when they do they're so happy. It's nice to see.

Also, Dave Mathews and Tim Reynolds concert this Friday at Planet Hollywood with my babe.
Then, GSP vs. Koscheck on Saturday. GSP GSP GSP. Guess who I'll be screaming for?
Then going home for a week! To finally see my beautiful niece who was just 2 weeks old when I last visited and nephews and my wonderful sisters, mother and friends.
Best December in a while. Remember to smile!

Photos

I got my brand new camera in the mail and I am so excited. It's been years since my own camera and I love pictures! My mom always kept the fridge and walls covered in photos. I guess with 4 girls you get a lot of photo opportunities.
These are my pictures of what I see everyday and on special occasions. I won't live here forever, this is for today and now.. which means that one day all these pictures will be a moment of my history.


The sign I see everyday : Tropicana Avenue , if you've ever been to Las Vegas or plan on stopping by then Hello! you're just a few minutes down the road from me.

This is the view from the bottom of my doorstep.. Good morning sunny Las Vegas! Really it is sunny everyday. No complaints here. 

I never said it didn't feel cold. It does! But it's balanced by the hundred degree summers. I do love that I see at least a few trees. It was very strange to me seeing all this flat desert coming from Westchester County, NY. Hint: lots of green. I stared up for a few days and kept wondering 'is the sky just bigger here?'

 

Chaitanya's prayer

I pray not for wealth, I pray not for honours, I pray not for pleasures, or even the joys of poetry. I only pray that during all my life I may have love: that I may have pure love to love Thee.

It happened..

Fights are over. Win by split decision. I was just waiting for the time to come. It was surreal just being a bystander of someone you love on tv. But a win! Actually 4 to be exact! All the guys did great when you consider they get their asses to the gym everyday to get better at about a million different skills. Hats off to them! Glad this is a day that has happily come and gone. Greatful to watch it with friends and that the next month is starting with some wonderful momentum and I already know where we'll be for New Years.. Home <3

E.T.A. 1 day!

Oh my goodness.. I cannot believe the day is here for my honey to fight..
His fight night is less than 24 hours a day.. This is the first time I will be able to see him as he competes.. Terrifying!
I'm hopefully going to be surrounded by friends as this happens.