Relax - Beach & Gelish...

{Image by Ju Ju}

Hello!! I hope you all had a lovely weekend and havig a great week! My weekend was filled with fun activities - one of them was to go to our favorite Lido beach with my girls and friends. As you can see, my new photographer Ju Ju snapped me while I was slaving myself, carrying all kinds of stuff to the beach. Funny thing is that we all smile for camera, yes?

You may not see it in this photo, but I was carrying a beach bag on my shoulder stuffed with towels, magazines and makeup bag as well as a cooler bag (green one that you see in the pic), two goza mats and a starbucks. Mom is strong when she has to carry stuff for her kids.

What I am truly grateful is that the BP oil spill is finally contained and we can now focus on clean up. It will take years and years, but our Gulf will be back. I know it.

{Image By Me}

Also, I work Monday and Tuesday every week (remember, I haven't given my boss two weeks notice!) Last week, my salon got this new Soak Off Gel called Gelish. It is a new type of polish for people who don't wear artificial nail. I have never worn artificial nail, thank goodness, the trait that I got from my mom's beautiful hands that my nails are thick and healthy and long.... The only problem that I had was that I use my hands so much that my color does't last three days even if I get a great manicure by my boss - it started to chip immediately. But this new Soak Off Gell is not acrylic, so it's easy on my nail bed just like I use regular polish, but it stays put like gel. If what they promise is true, this color is supposed to stay without chipping for two weeks. So, I can't wait to see if my color lasts longer than a week.

As much as I get depressed with my work, I can't stop staring at my nails every time my boss works on my hands. He's so great! I guess, getting free manicure is not bad after all!

Every Mom deserves a nice time like going to beach and getting pedicure/manicure:)

xoxo

A New Kind Of Freedom

Monday was my daughters JuJu and Soapy's first day of school. JuJu was promoted to the 1st grade and it was Soapy's very first day as a pre-kindergartner. As most of you know, I've been working for the past two years part time, but my work schedule has gone down to two days a week. I worked Monday and Tuesday, so even when my girls were at school, I didn't get to enjoy the luxury of spending time alone. But today was different.

I was going to head to the gym after I dropped the girls to their schools, but it's been raining non-stop in FL that I decided to go home and..... SLEEP! Oh my goodness, what a great joy of crawling back to bed and taking a nap - listening to the sound of rain made it even better. The house was really quiet and honestly I didn't know what to do. No matter what, I really didn't have the time to enjoy my time alone for the past six years. I'm not complaining, that's what it is to be a mother - give everything you have to your children.

I can't say that I couldn't wait for my youngest Soapy to go to school. Yes, I was excited for her because she gets to make her own friends, not JuJu's friends. Soapy is my little baby, and somehow I really wanted her to stay as a baby. Well, that's impossible, but it's a bittersweet to see her all growing up.

The thing is Soapy has been having tough time adjusting to the new routine. The first day was kind of easy because she was thrilled with the idea of having a teacher and classmates. Now, she is afraid that she's not making any friends and today, she even cried the minute she woke up until we left the house. "I don't want to go to school, Mommy!!!!!" - Oh my god, I was freaking out. I know why she says the things she says and why she's scared of going to school, so if I could, I would have said, "Okay, Soapy, you don't have to go to school. Stay with Mommy and play with me." But I know I can't say that. I have to tell her she's going to be okay and the school is fun. It's tough because in her tiny little head and mind, she's still timid and nervous. Thank goodness for her older sister JuJu - her school starts at 8:30am, so we drove her to school while Soapy was crying in the car. We walked her to her class in the ferocious rain and looking at all the kids going to school, like her big sister, I think Soapy realized that she wasn't the only one going to school.... She finally calmed down. By the time I drove Soapy to her school at 9am, she was okay. Kinda.

Anyway, I was able to enjoy the very first day of freedom with no serious incident. And I hope I'll get used to my new kind of routine......

So, what was it like for you, when you went to school for the first time? Were you like, "Bye Bye Mommy!" and run to the school or were you the one who's holding onto your mama's legs?


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My New Photographer...

Hello my sweet friends! Hope you had a lovely weekend! As you know, I've been totally slacking on this blogging thing, but I think I'm getting my mojo back. I feel like I want to post and share many good things again...

First of all, I've found a new photographer who can take my picture. I tend to shy away when it comes to taking self-portrait. I can't take my own pictures unless it's 100% necessary because iI feel like I'm being self-important. I can smile at the camera as long as there's someone on the other side, telling me to smile....

Anyway, my oldest Ju Ju was playing with my phone the other day and called my name. "Mommy!" - I looked and there she was taking pictures of me. She took about 5 of them and one came out pretty good. So, I declared Ju Ju as my new photographer!!!! And she loves it. Maybe she can take my pictures of dress up. LOL.


Also, I have two Starbucks I frequent - one has a drive through. A good friend of mine works there and when I picked up my iced-latte, I realized she put a smiley face on the lid. She does this type of trick all the time, but I thought I'd snap a pic and share it.... It definitely put a smile on my face...

I took these pictures of my daughters last week after Ju Ju had the Back to School Night. Ju Ju is going to be the 1st grader tomorrow and Soapy is going to be a pre-K. This will be Soapy's first school. That means, I'm going to have handful of free time for the first time in six years! I can't believe it. I'm excited, but kind of sad at the same time.

I only work two days a week and I've been trying to find the timing to tell my boss that I'm quitting in a few weeks. I know I need to give them 2 week notice which gives me only a week left to give them the news. I'm so dreaded about that, but I want to focus my energy on my paintings and my kids, so that's what I have to do....

So how was your weekend? What's been going on with your life?????

Inception...

I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!!

Honestly, it was 20 times better than Matrix.

The story sounded so complicated, and yet it totally made sense!

The visual and sound effects were stunning and storyline was so clever.

It was unbelieveable!!

And seeing it in IMAX made the whole experience so much better, too.

I'm usually not a big fan of SciFi films, but this one, I give two thumbs up plus toes up!

BTW, I have tried to post an entry which I talked about my husband and Bachelorette, but it keeps giving me error, so I decided to write about this movie.

Oh man, I want to see it again!!!

Have you seen it?

Anyway, I know I have been pretty awful about posting - and I figured out why.

1. My husband being here made it difficult.

2. Kids are out of school = summer. I thought kids being home would make it easy for me to blog, but I was wrong. I think I feel bad about not paying attention to my girls and facing the computer all the time. But when I try to blog after the girls go to bed, I must say, I'm usually exhausted.

I sit down in front of my computer, but the idea of having to type, upload pics or vids and write a post kind of stress me out. I tell myself, I'll finish it tomorrow and 6 days go by. Not good.

3. Work - I only work twice a week now, but my work wouldn't let me go online, so I can never post while I'm there at the salon. Oh yes, I'm trying to quit and will need your advise on it, too.

Miss you all so much..

xoxo

10 Days with Daddy - Part 1

Hello my friends! It's been almost two weeks since my last entry and I almost gave up typing this post too. It sucked because I wanted to post all the happy things that happened while my husband was here on daily basis, but I was simply too busy to even sit down in front of the computer..


As you know from the previous post that my husband was home for ten days. Acutally it was supposted to be six days, but he extended his stay and left last Saturday evening. I have to admit, the house is less chaotic, but quiet.

Seriously, my husband, the girls and I had so many things we wanted to do together and it seemed never enough time. We were non-stop on the Go, and when I wanted to sit down and compose a post, JT often told me, "You can sit next to me and watch TV together."


He is never against me having my own blog. He often reads it when he's away, but I think he wanted me to cherish our time together as a husband and a wife, and focus my energy to my family while he's back in his own home. And he was right about that. That's why I barely sat down in front of pc for the past 12 days. Of course, writing a post or visiting all of your blogs have always been back on my mind, but I was totally tired by the time we get home from our activities. I haven't uploaded any videos or photos, but I will make sure to post them this week.

Anyway, it's taken me forever to tell you what happened after my husband came home as a surprise to our daughters, or all the things we did for the past 12 days, but I thought it's never too late to share.

July 29 (Thu) - JT arrives at Tampa Intl @ 12:30am. I pick him up and drive home together while our girls are sound asleep. Our youngest daughter wakes up in the wee hours while JT and I were chatting and watching TV together. Oh boy, the look on Soapy's face. She totally believes she is dreaming. She goes back to bed and comes out minutes later saying, "Daddy???"

Sooo cute. She slowly walks towards him, lays down and puts her head against Daddy's chest. Daddy asks her if she's surprised and she smiles and nods, "yes..."

JT decides that we all should sleep together in the same bed. On the other hand, his wife Maki thinks, "Are you kidding me?" - we have a queen size bed, not the king size bed. But Soapy thinks it's a fabulous idea and jumps on to our bed right away. JT scoops his oldest daughter Ju Ju up and tries to bring her to our room when she says, "Daddy..." Her eyes are still closed and she is too sleepy to wake up. When we're finally in bed together, Daddy whispered to the girl's ear, "Daddy is so happy to be home, close to you girls..." Ju Ju whispered back, "Me too..." We went to bed together that night.

The next morning, JT and I woke up at 8:30am after having five hours of sleep with stiff neck. The girls were jumping on bed screaming and cheering, "Yaaay, Daddy's home, Daddy's home!!!" - it was one of those scenes that I see in movies. Dadd and Mommy were so happy to see the girls' smiles on their faces. BUT, We both couldn't sleep well because Ju Ju and Soapy moved around like worms and took our space. We both decided that the girls were to sleep in their bed. Good idea!!!

This was the beginning of great family time - and I'm so happy that the girls and I got to spend time with Daddy a lot longer that we expected.

I will post more about JT's stay tomorrow - Hope all is well with you!!

xoxo