Monday, December 26, 2016

A Taco Bell Story

During the summer my husband decided he was due for a yearly physical exam. The results were not what he expected, diagnosis, fatty liver and good cholesterol was low. These results were enough for him to make drastic life changes with his diet. He changed his eating habits eliminating many delicious bad foods from his diet. My husband has always been very active so the combination of exercise and better eating habits resulted in major weight loss. Meanwhile, I continue to struggle to adopt all of these drastic changes. You guys! I crave all the bad stuff, chips, cookies, tacos, burritos, soda, pizza, Starbucks, Mc Donalds and Taco Bell to name a few.  Here is a little story of how I feel lately, I'll tell you guys later about this rooster. 


Me: when someone invites me to Taco Bell.


Ordering at the counter.


 When they ask if I'm going to eat all that food.



When they call my number.


When I'm done eating a mexican pizza, taco supremes, mini melt, cheesy potatos, and cinnabon delights


Walking out of Taco Bell.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Baseball Loyalty








Back in August my husband and I took a tour of our beloved Dodger Stadium. We've been coming to this stadium on a yearly basis for many, many years now and not until this year we did the actual tour. This post would've of been ideal when baseball season was in full swing or before all chances for the World Series were crushed. As an angeleno, I remind myself of the definition of 'Loyalty' at the end of every baseball season. I shouldn't complain, the poor cubs have suffered for 108 years.  This makes it less bitter.

Would you continue to be loyal to a team if 108 years go by with no championship? I think it depends on certain factors, for instance hometown team, family ties, great stadium and of course great team colors & logo (that's the girl in me). Most importantly, how you feel when your team wins. It such an awesome feeling when your team plays a great game that takes you on an emotional roller coaster. I have all of those feelings being a Dodger fan so I guess, there's always next year!

 Anyways, back to the tour. The tour was so awesome!! We did the Clubhouse Tour and were able to see the bullpen, clubhouse, press box, interview room, weight room and batting cages.  Oh and we walked on the field! Aside from access to all these areas, we got to see all the awards this organization has received throughout the years, so impressive. If you are a Dodger fan or a baseball fan you should definitely do this tour.

p.s. Congrats Cubs!!! That was such a great game!! 

Sunday, October 30, 2016

I'm Back!


Its been exactly 30 days since my last post. I wish I could say I was busy traveling the world snapping beautiful pictures, but that's far from the truth! I've been home trying to de-clutter my life. De-cluttering my life has been a lot of work and I realize its not as quick and easy as I anticipated. I had a yard sale, donated stuff and signed up for an app to sell some of my clothes. I spent two days cleaning out a closet and I still have 4 more closets to do!! 

Now, this hasn't been the only reason for my absence, I was having major computer problems. I wasn't able to upload pictures to my computer nor access the USB. Since I wasn't sure if this problem would get resolved or if I would need to purchase a new computer I just stopped doing anything related to photography or blogging.  Looking back, this was dumb! I should have still practiced my photography and when my computer problem was fixed I would've had all sorts on content to post. I guess I wasn't thinking, or was I being lazy? Well whatever the case was, I'm back! I just bought a new laptop and I'm excited to get back to practicing my photography and blogging. 

Friday, September 30, 2016

Transition



It's that time of year again, when the weather starts to feel chilly and the leaves start to turn colors and pumpkin flavor has invaded all shops. Well that seems to be the norm everywhere except for here in Southern California, its still hot here! But we are pretty much set with everything else. It's been so hot here lately that we are still rocking the short shorts and sandals, but this is normal for us. September is usually warm. However, we still feel the transition. 

Lately, I've been feeling a need for transition. I've been feeling like I'm living a cluttered life and I need to do something about it ASAP before it consumes me. I feel like I have too much stuff, too much clothes, too  many shoes (wait I don't think you can ever have to many shoes), and too much stuff that is unnecessary. I feel like my life is a big mess because of all this unnecessary stuff I have. I also feel like I can't move forward until I rid myself of all this stuff. I don't know how I got to this point but I'm trying to find a way out of it. I decided I'm diving in head first and hope it all works out. 

Has this ever happened to you? If so, let me know what you did to resolve it.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Sea Creatures in the Desert




I went to the desert and saw sea creatures! I did, I did! Last week my husband, sis and mom packed up our truck and headed to Scottsdale, Arizona. Our itinerary for this trip was hang out by the pool and chill at my uncles house. While there, my uncle told us about a new aquarium that just opened up and was next to a butterfly sanctuary we've visited in our previous trip. You can read more about that here. Since we didn't have anything to do but chill, we decided to pay the aquarium a visit. Its so so new that they were still putting some of the finishing touches like sign decals on the walls. We saw little bit of everything including sharks, alligators, turtles, penguins, piranhas, sting rays, etc, etc. Also they have a room that moves! Think of it as a carousel! That was really cool, relaxing and a little bit scary at the same time.  If you find yourself in Scottsdale, the aquarium and the butterfly sanctuary are worth visiting. For information on the aquarium click here.

Be sure to start the tour in the bathroom, you'll be amazed! 

Monday, August 22, 2016

Mundo Autentico (Authentic World)














Mundo Autentico is a shopping center in Punta Cana that consist of four museums, that give you a little taste of the Dominican Republic. At Mundo Autentico you will have the opportunity to smoke a cigar, take rum shots, sip on coffee and give into your sweet tooth with some delicious chocolate. The shopping center is not your typical shopping center, its strictly consist of these four mini museums.  

My only regret during our trip to the Dominican Republic was that we didn't have the opportunity to walk around the town, check out the local shops and  taste some local street food. Visiting Mundo Autentico was the only opportunity we had to shop. Nice place to visit for 2 hours max but I'm still hungry for some local culture. 

This wraps up my posts for the Dominican Republic, it was such a beautiful and relaxing vacation. I wasn't able to take as many pictures  as I wanted because of the humidity. The humidity was so bad it would fog up my camera lens and all I could do was take some mental pictures but I'm happy with the memories my husband and I created.   

Monday, August 15, 2016

A Trip of Many "First"








The Punta Cana trip was filled with many "first". First time flying for more than 5 hours, first time swimming in the Atlantic ocean, first time feeding a monkey, etc., etc.  Well it was also my first time swimming with a Dolphin! I also, danced and kissed a dolphin.  It didn't stop there, I held a sting ray, let a sea lion kiss me and held a tropical bird! It was such a fun experience that I will remember for the rest of my life and can honestly say I put a check mark on my bucket list! The location was beyond beautiful and I honestly felt like a I was in a photo you see on screen saver. 

Unfortunately we were not permitted to take photographs of any of these activities because they have employees photographing you through out the park and then sell you a dvd  movie and cd with all your photos and footage for a very high price. We paid it because we figured we didn't pay for the entrance so why not? For information on the Dolphin Explorer Experience click here.


Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Monkeys & Maria's House

As mentioned in my first post of my recent trip to the Dominican Republic, the trip was free. My husband won this trip at his job due to his performance through out the year. Part of the complete package included two activities, we were given the options to choose from Zip lining, visiting an island, monkey experience, a dolphin experience, snorkeling, and one more but I can't think of it right now. We choose the monkey and dolphin experience.  Our first activity was the monkey experience. I was so busy with work that I never really had time to research the monkey experience and really know what the experience consisted of. Well when I arrived I was informed that we would be visiting a monkey sanctuary where we would be able to feed and touch monkeys. Needless to say, I was a little scared!
View from the monkey exposure






I was scared of a monkey attacking or biting us, these our wild animals after all. I was nervous of how it would feel to have a monkey actually touch my skin. I'm just a big scaredy cat!   After a 45 minute ride we arrived at the monkey sanctuary and it was like we were in the jungle!  I held it together and made my way into the sanctuary. It was so beautiful and green! Oh it was super duper HUMID!

As soon as we walked in, monkeys started to come out of the trees and before you know it they were on top of our heads, backs,shoulders and arms. We were given small bowls with fruits and seeds to feed the monkeys. We didn't really reach out to touch the monkeys but rather let the monkeys come up to us. I felt so nervous and tense that I didn't really take many pictures. My husband was so entertained with the monkeys the he also didn't take any pictures of me with a monkey on my head.  After a few monkeys jumping on me I was finally able to relax a little and take these pictures. I was literally scared for nothing, these are 2 lb monkeys that are just looking for a piece of banana from each bowl.

The actual time with the monkeys was very short, probably 25-30 minutes. Once we were done with the monkeys they loaded us back on a bus and drove us to our next destination.

The view outside of Maria's house.

We were taken to a typical house to see how locals live. It's hard to pick a highlight from my trip because there were so many, but I gotta say, visiting this home was up there. The house is small, bright pink and very humble but in paradise.  The owner of this house is Maria who is married with grown children and grandchildren. The house is surrounded by lush green trees, coffee trees, cinnamon trees, cacao trees, and beautiful plants and flowers. They brought us to this house so we can see how natives use their land to grow a variety of resources that they can consume or sell for income.

This photo was taken from a speeding van.


coffee beans






Maria's daughter


Roasted coffee beans

Cacao

The inside of the cacao.

While we were at Maria's house they showed us how they grow coffee beans, roast and grind coffee.  They let us taste the cacao, which has a fruity taste to it. It was such a cool experience. They also let us taste Cacao Cinnamon tea, which is made at Maria's house as well. At the end of the visit they sell you some of the products that they produce. We bought some of the delicious cacao tea. Its like a smooth chocolate tea!


Driving away from Maria's house.

If you will be visiting Punta Cana and are interested in these activities, I've linked some of the sites where you can learn a little more about them.

*Monkey Experience
Casa Maria

I'm not done with Punta Cana, so come back soon for more.