So much...

Let's see I've asked for a raise at my job last week. We'll see how that goes. I have been training more. I've been good about doing my laundry and keeping my purse clean of clutter....oooh it's so nice! I feel good about how things are going so far. I've not been great these past two weeks about blogging. But it was a bit crazy with work and all and I've been tired. Anyway it hasn't kept me from reading the blogs I love!

The baby fever still persists. I have a fitness competition to do first and that's in August. So first things first. I also want to make time for my creativity. I want to use my sewing machine that's still in the box from last year! First, I have to learn how to use it :) So I think a friend and I will got to a sewing class.

I just have to make sure to not put too much on my plate. But rather finish what I start. That's
something I can always work on! But hey! I've been getting my laundry done..start to
finish..even folding it and putting it away! wooohooo!

Brrrr...it's cold outside!

Ok..maybe it seems like I'm always talking about the weather. But the temperature is always fluctuating. Last week I'm wearing flip-flops and I'm turning on the air conditioning in my car. Today there's frost followed by slow flurries..and I'm wearing three layers all day! What in the heck! I really think it's global warming. Some would object and say it's a mini ice age coming our way. Well I'm all about the snow. I love cold weather! So bring on the snow!

I got a crock pot today. Sounds a bit old school. But I can't keep my oven on all day while I'm at work. So I got the next best thing to a dutch oven, I guess. I'm very excited to use it. First meal with it shall be beef stew. I'm looking forward to this whole concept of throw it all in the pot and come home to a yummy smelling house. I dig it! I'll report the taste later.

American Idol is on tonight. Although I don't watch every episode. The audition process is pretty humorous!

Ciao for now

Je suis chill'en

(My blog is acting funky and It's cramming all my paragraphs together.)

This morning I woke up kicking the covers off because it was hot! 65 degree out side! Thank goodness some cooler weather is headed our way this Tuesday. Now it's raining and I'm a happy girl. I don't mind the rain, except when I'm on a Caribbean vacation!

My honey and I dropped off our Christmas tree at the park to be recycled. We put it with the other trees. I told the tree we'll never forget it. It was kinda sad to see all the other Christmas tree's piled up on concrete. But I know they will be put to good use, mulch I guess. We came home and had a lunch. Then I watched Venus Beauty Institute, c'est film de Francais. I hope I wrote that correctly.

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Anyway, I enjoyed the film. It helps me with my French. And any love drama movie is good for this chicky! After that I got on the computer to read the blogs I fancy.

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On the other blogs I love to see the beautiful photography and pictures of oil paintings. And of course I love the cooking blogs. I want to take more pictures. But I would love to learn oil painting. There's so much I want to do. I often get lost with all the things I want to do. So many interests I have and once I start on something I get interested in another thing. I don't think anything is necessarily wrong with that. However, I do think I get a bit crazy sometimes and lose my focus when my interests change all the time. Hmmm, note to self, need to work on that too.

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Bonne Nuit

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ps..I can't take credit for some of the pictures on my blog. Thanks to Flickr.com I find pictures I like and post them. So thank you to all the Flickr photogs out there that will remain anonymous.

Thoughts

So things have been so far so good on my keeping up with my laundry and trying a new recipes.

The new recipe was sort of out of desperation. I had cooked some chicken wanted to make a mushroom white wine sauce. Found that I had neither mushroom, wine, or chicke broth. So I found a can of tortilla chicken soup and I reduced that down with some cream and butter. I called it, Ani's Fiesta Chicken. Surprisingly it didn't taste bad..and my honey liked it. Go figure!

Hi, I'm back! I wrote the above and saved the draft. I got caught up in something. Probably laundry:)

So so far so good this week. I feel pretty good about studying and practicing my French. I love when the French and I noticed Italians do it too, they say, What do you do in life? I don't know how they say it their languages. Que faites-vous dans la vie? I don't know.
But I think it's a nice way of just asking more about you then specifically, What do you do for a living? That's so boring. And can get one answer..therefore not leading to much conversation. Ya know what if the person doesn't like their job? Or if they do, yes it can lead to interesting questions. But saying it the way the French and Italians do can lead to talking about your hobbies, travels, etc. I'm not Ani-American...it's just that I would love for our country to adopt some great things from other cultures.

Which leads me to why do we need the malls and stores open on Sunday? When I visited my belle-mere's house in Provence, I loved standing in line at the boulangerie for my baguette. I didn't need to shop on Sunday.

Oh.. and when I went on the TGV from Paris to Aix-en provence. Of course I loved the dogs on the train. I saw these grandparent with their grandchildren. And this grand-mere was stunning. Her make-up, hair, and her outfit, she was so put together! I saw the daughter drop off the kids to the grandparents on the tgv and I was thinking..."that's the grandma!".

Yes..I loved the dogs everywhere. That part was great! Ok..I'm off on a tangent again. But I had a wonderful trip and that was summer 05. I'm looking forward to my trip this March! Can't wait! And I'm stocking up on all my lotions and french shampoo's when I'm there.

Alright. Back to studying. I still haven't decided on what I would like to focus on as far as some type of certification goes. But I'm doing good things in the mean time.

Baby Fever

So today my honey worked and I had the day to myself. Got some laundry done and some other household chores. Then I decided to go see the movie, Little Children (more one that later).
I killed some time at the mall just going in the different stores and looking at clothes. There is nothing special right now on the racks.

I love fashion, don't get me wrong. But I just don't get the same rush from buying clothes as I once did when I was younger. Maybe it's the whole learning a lesson from paying off debt from that once bad shopping habit that set me straight. Or I'm into other things now. Yes, I like walking into home stores or Williams Sonoma.

And then I am also PMSing so maybe I didn't want to try on clothes! I must have baby fever too or something...I was looking at all the baby's in the mall. Then I'm looking up baby strollers, etc. online. I'm not quite ready for baby yet. But probably will be thinking about one in the near future, maybe start next year. It's just funny how life is and your desires and wants change.

Ok..so the movie, Little Children. I knew this one I would see on my own since I knew it was not something my husband would be into. It's a heavy drama. And it's heavy alright. A bit disturbing too. Yeah...there's a hot guy in there..so it wasn't all bad :)
It just took me a while to get this movie out of my head...certain people in it kinda freaked me out! But if you're into dramas, think of it as a very dark and twisted Desperate Housewives with out much humor. It's not a family film, that's for sure!

I wish we had French television. On our cable we only get Spanish and English speaking stations. I have told the cable company to add a French station to their line up. That there are French speakers living in this country!But they aren't listening to me! One thing I miss about European tv is that you get the world weather. I wish our big news networks would show that! I mean why are we just so focused on our country? It drives me crazy.

Ok..I'm just having massive random thoughts about everything as you can see. I'm going to go have some ice cream :)

Meow.......
xoxoxo

Winter Rain

So I'm very chilled out right now. Got the whole work day out the way..then treated myself to a massage. It was awesome. I will continue to treat myself to these at least every other month. It's so worth it!

Today it was unseasonably warm and rainy. I like the rain, no problem with me. It's kind of like a mandatory take it easy day.

So on tonight's menu, Salmon fillet with garlic, lemon, and rosemary. With broccoli, pomme frites. For desert mixed berry crisp with vanilla ice cream.

Au revoir,

I'm gonna go shake it in the kitchen now.

Stuff a sock in it!

So from this day forward I will wear only my socks and no longer steal my husbands socks. And that's all I have to say. Oh and I will not take over his sock drawer..that is his own space! The guy deserves his own drawer since I hog everything in the house!

Ok...moving on ...Yoga was so great yesterday. I slept so well. I must go again.
I had a great workout with a girlfriend of mine today it was a kick butt session!

Tonight I'm looking forward to watching Top Chef . Yes.. I love this reality show.

And that's all today..........

Bonne nuit

Feeling Good

So today it was back to the work. I woke up this morning around 5am I just could not get comfy. Tossed and turned for a couple of hours then don't you know it I feel asleep around 7 and wake up at 7:55. I did manage to pull myself together and get out the door on time. But let's just say it was not my best hair day.

Work was fine. Strange to see the office busy again after so many people vacationed during the past two weeks. However, everyone was pretty cheery so that made it good. Thankfully I work with a lot of very nice people.

My back was so tense today. Actually it was my shoulders. So anyway...my honey had the day off and today we went to a new yoga place. It's been a while since we've been to a class. I have to say it probably was one of the best classes of my life. And I've taken yoga classes in some big cities. But this teacher was awesome. I love when they play music and just have you focus on your breathing and stretching, instead of a trying to cram in 50 different poses with all these props. I know props can help people. But back in the days with the original yogis ..they didn't have all these chairs and ropes! They just slowly but surely worked towards becoming more flexible and breathing into it. So I can say I will definitely be going back to that class. It's great for my honey and I ....and we are so relaxed right now.

Oh yeah...I need to practice some French tonight.

Slim pickings on tv tonight..unless you like a good Mama's Family marathon!

Ciao!

Blogger Virgin

So this is my first time.........blogging that is. I think it's a great way to keep track of myself! To understand a quick version of me see the "about me" section.

It's 2007 and I 'm ready to be good to me. I don't have big new years resolutions. Just permanent positive life long changes I would like to make. I need to be more accountable for myself. I know I can do this by making small positive changes everyday.

This year I plan to:

1. Train hard and compete in a fitness competition. Placing. winning, will be only secondary. I have to feel good about me and know that I trained my hardest...that's when I know I have won.

2. To speak and understand the French language better. I'm still a beginner. But I adore the language and I really want to speak it well.

3. To be more organized. I know...sounds so boring. Seriously though..I need to not let my laundry pile up like three mini volcanoes in my closet. I have to just get it done on the weekends of when time will allow during the week. So today I've done two loads! To keep my desk clean of clutter. To just throw receipts and crap away out of my purse when I'm done with them!

4. To be more flexible. To do the scissor splits.

5. To keep paying down personal debts. I've been doing it..just got to keep on trucking!

6. To cultivate my culinary skills and try new adventurous recipes.

7. To get certified in a new skill...I need to pick it and stick to it, seriously! Pilate's, Personal Training, or something else that interests me. Something so that my new skill can be beneficial to others. Must decide by Feb 1st 2007!

8. To continue to be kind to people I don't know. To not get caught up in gossip. To be more positive.

So I think that's a good list. Being there for my family and friends is something I feel pretty good about. Being kind to strangers..even a smile is something that I try to do. It's not always money that helps people. You can make someones day by holding the door for them, saying something nice about them...it's the small gestures that can brighten someones day.

Ok..yes...that's my list. I think it's all very doable and know I just have to make it happen. I don't want to be lazy with myself. I feel that I'm always there for others, which I love and will contine to do but I often put myself aside. I need to make more time for me. I don't want to be a shoulda, coulda, woulda person. Sounds cliché but it's true.

Oh! And this blog will be great for my daily/weekly adventures. Sometimes maybe I'll just write a little somedays a lot. I'm excited!

A bientôt

Till I blog again.