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This morning I found out that one of my photos entered into the above mentioned contest at Six Cherries was picked as a part of top two. I’m new at this , blogging, challenges and stuff, so it’d be very nice to win …or get into the top 4.

I am asking you to go to Six Cherries and vote for me there. It’d mean a lot to me. My photo is third from the top and voting is below the post. It takes only one vote from each person, so that’s all you’ll have to do. I won’t bug you from then on.

Thanks, guys! I appreciate your help!

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Valentine’s Day also happens to be our wedding anniversary, which makes it very hard to celebrate. You never know whether to keep saying “Happy Valentine’s day” or to correct yourself and add “and anniversary”. The fact that it’s our anniversary gets lost in a slew of heart shaped candy and red and pink madness. As romantic as it had seemed to get married on Valentine’s Day, it’s really more of a hassle.

But you deal with it.

We used to try and separate the  holidays and celebrate them apart in its own special way, but after a few years it was just too much work.

So now, we call it Valentine’s/Anniversary and make it one thing. The whole gift gifting thing stopped after a few years simply because, well if there’s something each one of us needs/wants we buy it. If we hadn’t bought it until now, then it’s too expensive and neither one of us would approve the expenditure. So we take trips: sometimes big ones, sometimes small ones, sometimes day trips.

This year, since I am back on the photography kick and we couldn’t get away for long, we decided to go to Universal Studios in Orlando, and then for VDAY Sarasota and Central Florida and spend the day touring their beautiful gardens and taking pictures. I was given a green light to take as many pictures as my little pink heart desires. AJ was wonderful and put up with all the pictures taking and participated in it like a champ with only a few pissy/exasperated comments that we, photography people, are oh so used to from our spouses regarding our picture taking habit.

The result is 948 breathtakingly beautiful pictures. The place we went to was out of this world. As we were walking out of it after a day of strolling around and taking pictures, I sighed “This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life”.

We both agreed that OUR day was spent in the best way possible.

As soon as I get done editing all the pictures and sifting through a thousand of them, you will get to enjoy the special day with me.

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It is our 8th year together. Our 8th Valentine’s Day together and our 8th year of marriage.
Eight years seem like a lifetime and a blink of an eye. I know you so well, sometimes it seems we are one person.

You have grown so much in these 8 years, as a man, a husband and a friend.
We complete each other, and each other’s sentences.
We’re always on the same page.
We think the same thoughts, we fear the same things, we love the same stuff.

I absolutely love it when you come to me each morning and give me “morning kisses”, and then rush down to cut my “morning fruit”. It has become our routine, however it is never going to get boring.

I love how we have special names for each other, which evolved into more complicated and more adorable names over the years, and transformed into unpronounceable words that only you and I can undertstand and say.

I love how we know each other strengths and weaknesses and help each other do things we don’t like. I am good at research and marketing, you are great at sales. I’m a planner, you’re a procrastinator. I hate doing dishes, you don’t mind taking it over for me.

I love how we have the exact same parenting styles, even though we don’t have kids yet.

I love how you put up with my picture taking and actually get into it once in a while.

You are my best and my only one.
From the day we spoke on the phone for the first time at 3 am my time for 3 hours to this moment on.

I can’t imagine a more perfect man for me.

I LOVE YOU!

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Linking up with Say Hi Sunday and Sunday Snapshot

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Aaaawwww!! I was going through my past pictures to find good examples of couples self portraiture for the upcoming week’s challenge and I stumbled upon this photo I don’t remember seeing. The photo in itself is no big deal, but seeing and remembering that first morning of sailing up to St Thomas with the sun barely peaking from above the mountain and me still in my nightie holding a cup of coffee on the balcony.
I just love that shot and that feeling!
I love taking leisurely cruises!
I love exploring the islands on our own rather than taking tours.
I love the first moments of the morning as we slowly move toward the mountainous mass that will become our adventurous hostess for that day.

I think the coolest thing about being an amateur photographer is having those little unexpected memories waiting for you every time you open Lightroom.

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: It’s been so busy at work! My husband and I work in real estate and things are booming. I don’t have time to even think about posting.. OK no, that’s a lie, I can’t stop thinking about posting and that completely distracts me from working. I’ve been getting up at 8 am, doing some cleaning , making breakfast and working up until 8 or 9 pm, while all I really want to do is post on my blog. Due to that, I’ve been really very ineffective at work. Things just don’t get done. Sometimes I think about how much I wish I was a stay at home mom without deadlines and crunchtime rather than a stay at home workaholic, but then realize that I’d miss being productive if I wasn’t working.

WORK

BABIES: I keep having people ask me if we have started TTCing, and I have to tell them the whole story about this health insurance bullshit. I wonder what’s going to happen if we start trying and it takes us a while… Hahaha! I bet I’ll have everyone wondering if we’ve conceived yet. But I’m such a NOT secretive person. I just don’t care to keep things to myself.

FUN: Last weekend we had a nice yacht trip with some friends of ours. I will be posting pictures soon (HOPEFULLY). And this weekend we’re taking off to Universal with neighbors. That will mean more pictures (that I have to edit- fun!)

MSC: In the meantime, i have been posting on my photography blog, because it’s easier to upload a beautiful picture with a handful of words, than try to come up with a whole post worth of vowels and consonants. If you aren’t subscribed, you better go and do that, because all the “pretties” go there.

BAD: I haven’t had any time to practice drums this week. When I am done with work and too tired to blog, hubs wants to watch movies/shows. We’re on the latest DVD season of DH and United States of Tara ( Love it!)

WEIRD: I’ve been also watching SOS MI VIDA, an Argentinian soap opera with Natalia Oreiro, in Spanish. I understand about 30% from my Spanish knowledge and another 30% from context. It’s fun and it helps me learn Spanish when I am too exhausted to study.

Disclosure: all photos taken by me, except for the last one.

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Have you guys noticed how vacations and little trips disrupt normal day-to day activities? It’s like we go away for a few days and when we come back, our “used to be clean’ house is a mess of suitcases, dirty laundry mixed with clean stuff, our phone is ringing off the hook, no work is done, blog is abandoned. And you spend a week or two just catching up. In those moments you wonder why on earth you ever leave the house.  But then you settle back in, clean the house, give some loving to the cats (kids), catch up on work, edit all the photos from the trip and sit down to write about it. And that’s when you sigh and think “Aaaaaaahhh!!! The trip was really nice!”
Do you have that? Do you?

So I am finally back in the groove ( ignoring all the work, I might say). I have been working hard on a blog post I am very excited about where I talk about MEAT and being vegan and vegetarian and healthy and all that good stuff. I am virtually done with it, just need to proofread it and add pictures. So in the meantime I am happy to share some photos from our Colorado trip.
Just a little background on it:  I have this weird luck with meeting people on the Internet. My husband and I fell in love over the web, I met some of my best and most cherished friends on the Internet, so needless to say, I spend hours online ( the first 8 hours of the day working, the rest “playing”). What does it have to do with my Colorado trip? Here’s what: we went there to visit one of my Internet girlfriends…for the first time! Yay! those are always fun! Never awkward- always super duper exciting. She’d just gotten married and moved to Denver to her hubby and we were trying to plan how to meet before i get knocked up and can’t travel and such. We happened to have free airline tickets, they happened to have a house in Vail available to them for a week. I say SCORE!
So we planned it out and with my “complaining scared of snow and cold and skiing” husband took off  to Colorado.  Now, we have lived in Florida for 6 years now and the prospect of going ANYWHERE where the word snow exists in local vocabulary has been out of question until 2 years ago when I spent a week in the French Alps skiing for the first time in my life. Hubby wasn’t present since this was a modelling job i was hired for, that took 1 day to shoot and 5 days to have fun: 3 or 4 out of which I spent skiing my butt off. I fell in love with skiing. It was so much fun! I had this cute pink ski outfit they bought all of the girls and i was NOT afraid to use it again. So for the past 2 years I have been nagging my hubby to go skiing. I wanted to share the awesomeness of going 30 miles an hour downhill and actually being in control. Such a rush! He kept making excuses, such as we don’t have money, it’d be an expensive trip, we can’t leave work, why can’t we just go on a cruise instead? I realized later he just really really really hates cold that much! And so do I! But skiing makes it up for me. I know, strange for a boy from Cleveland, Ohio and a girl from Russia.

So we put on a brave face and took our flight up to Denver with a connection in Minnesota. I was actually really excited to see my friend and her new hubby. In Minnesota, we were honestly shocked- ALL THAT SNOW! It looked MISERABLE! When we landed in Denver, it was a completely different scenery: blue skies, blinding sun and relatively warm. Not too bad.

We found each other at the airport and like always, it was completely normal and comfortable, like we’ve known each other forever. The second we opened our mouths, we started laughing and joking and just had an amazing time hanging out and cracking each other up the first day.

The city of Denver really reminded me of Cleveland: lots of concrete and bricks and bare trees. To those who say they’d miss seasons in Florida, I say “I’d miss not having seasons!“. Of course, as soon as I could get my hand on that awesome sticky snow, my hubby got a snowball in his chest!

Later that day, Chris and Anastasia took us to  Boulder for dinner. I have to say, Boulder is freaking beautiful! I’d totally live there…or go to school there when I was younger. What an awesome place for young single people!

 It was starting to get really cold as the evening approached, so while we were walking back to the car, I spotted a SKATING RINK! Ohhhh, I had to try skating! It was so cool and romantic looking.

Anastasia was apprehensive at first, citing not wanting to break a leg before she actually goes skiing for the first time, and it took 3 of us to convince her to try it out. We rented skates and went to town.

You should have seen this little girl. The one, who didn’t think she could skate, was doing pirouettes in the first 10 minutes of skating. She kept trying to skate backwards, in circles, with one leg up, as if normal skating wasn’t enough. We had a blast!

The next few days we spent up in Vail. A few other couples friends of Chris and Anastasia made their way to the cabin, and were all a great company. Of course everyone gave us crap about being vegetarian haha! But we’re used to it, honestly, and don’t really care :) I did sneak in a salami piece under pressure, which i feel really bad about, especially while writing the post about meat. But otherwise, we cooked healthy and ate healthy.

A special word about the cabin: it was absolutely the best cabin i could imagine staying in. I mean I had stayed in a big chalet in the French Alps, but it has been more like a rented hotel with a chef and maids. Here it felt like home, a very comfortable cosy home with many bedrooms, and walls thin enough to hear other couple having morning sex…(twice :), a hottub and a beautiful dining room table… oh and don’t forget the mandatory dead animals on the walls that kept freaking me out, especially a skunk on our bed. I have nothing against hunting, but anything dead creeps me out and makes me sad.

Now, the skiing turned out to be a bit more… hhmmm… unexpected.  I pictured taking about an hour to teach Andrew how to ski and then skiing with him down the green slopes. In reality it was more like this: him getting pissed at me cuz he wasn’t getting it and  wasn’t able to do it. Once he’d “get it”, and we’d start moving down the slopes, he’d “forget” the technique again and I’d get  more bitching and complaining about how this is no fun and it’s hard and why did i even drag him onto the mountain. By the end of the first run, he seemed to have gotten a hang of going down steeper hills, so I suggested we do another run. He agreed, though i will never know whether that was to not look like a wuss or because he truly felt more comfortable skiing. The second run down was no better. In the end, I spent the whole day going down the mountain at half speed to make sure i don’t lose him, which KILLED my knees. I got an earful of complaints and swearing, lots of pouting and resolving to never ever ski again. He HATED it! I was honestly shocked. I thought he’d pick it up faster and enjoy it just like I did the first time.
At the end of the trip, his hatred towards the mountain faded and he seemed to consider going again when we have kids and just spending the whole day at the kiddie slope to really “get a hang of  it”. I wonder if it’s like pregnancy amnesia. It took just a day for him to forget how miserable he was and consider doing it again. But honestly, I have NEVER seen my husband so defeated, frustrated and bitter. Good to finally know that side of him. Or more like “NOW I KNOOOOW and can hold it against you!!!” Just kidding of course!

We finished up the trip with an awesome group-cooked dinner and a super heavy but tasty breakfast.

I have to say it was a lot of fun and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I do want to have a ski re-do, because I didn’t really get to enjoy myself while skiing. But I guess, what won’t we do for our loved ones, right, girls?

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I realize this is about a month too late, however time doesn’t really mean much to me when it comes to things I want to do or write about.

New Year celebrations have a very special place in my heart. In Russia , Christmas is a true religious holiday, not commercialized by the people, and it takes place mid January. New Year’s, however, is the time when we see Santa, decorate a tree, gather the whole family around a table that is barely standing under the weight of all that fattening delicious food. It’s the time of gifts under the tree, and kids having to read a poem or dance or sing for Santa in order to get their presents. And while after 8 years of living in America I have completely “switched over” to this all happening on Christmas, New Year’s Eve is still pretty special for me, and not just an excuse to go out and get drunk.

And when I actually think about it, Russian way is a much better way of doing it. What does Santa and free presents have to do with the actual birth of Christ? How about the fact that Christ wasn’t born on December 25th but it was a pagan holiday celebrating the God of Sun? Seems really hypocritical, doesn’t it? It’s a holy holiday but we’re going to celebrate it on a pagan holiday rather than on a real birthday of Christ and we’re going to inundate it with free gifts and a fat bearded man who falls through the chimney to deliver them. Haha! 

So honestly, I much rather have my children celebrate true Christmas, if they choose to be religious and then receive gifts and the whole Santa experience on NYE. However I am a strong believer in not making our kids’ social life more difficult than it has to be, so I reckon we will do it exactly like the rest of America does ( no reason to have them be “that weird kid whose family has Santa come on New Years Eve), however I do like the idea of  adopting the whole sing/dance thing for the presents. So rather than them getting presents just because, they’d have to  do something creative in order to get them: make something for Santa ( even if it’s baking cookies for cookies and milk for Santa) and leave it under the tree, come up with a song or dance that we’d record and leave under the tree, learn a poem, etc

All that being said, we have been celebrating New Year’s the typical American way which is go out, party, get drunk, throw up all over the cab. Except for we don’t drink. So for us New Year’s has been a lot of water drunk from champagne glasses. This year we have been invited to attend a yearly Casa Tua All White party by a good friend of mine and his father. Casa Tua is this uber-cool restaurant/lounge/private house in South Beach and this year the theme was Brazilian ( while still being all white).

We all gathered at Robert’s house to get ready. One bathroom and  4 girls was brutal but we survived to tell the story.

On our way to Casa Tua in 5 inch heels on uneven dirty streets of South Beach

I absolutely loved the decor of the outside area where our table was: candles, crystal, flowers, palm trees.

All four of us sort of believed in horoscopes. Not the daily or yearly bullshit but the description of every sign ( for example, I am a textbook Leo), so in the midst of a horoscope discussion this photo was born!

Every menu on the table had a little band that by Brazilian tradition we were supposed to put on our wrists and tie three knots on it while making three wishes. My husband’s and mine were the same three wishes. It’s nice to be on the same page.

This is a great example of what my husband cares about when it comes to me. Boobs and ass :)

Check out the bright purple bougainvilleas in the back. It totally spiced up the white theme!

My two favorite men: hubby and Robert

That’s typical me.

Look at who’s kissing in the back. Haha! Caught in the act!

And finally, tired and winding down.

So  see? No drunken throw ups in the car.

This New Year’s Eve party turned out as good as my all time best in 2008 ( below). I hope that is a sign of things to come ( but of course i realize it has nothing to do with my 2011 year. I’m not superstitious in the least)

To finish up this post I’d like to list a few things I want to accomplish in 2011:

1.Our most important goal is a 2011 Pregnancy. We will starting in March ( or so) and we’ll see how long it takes us. I’ll be chronicling everything here, of course.

2. Get our taxes straightened out. When you own two or three corporations, taxes aren’t an easy matter. I want to work out a system that will keep it more streamlined during the year, so that it wasn’t such a horrible ordeal come tax season.

3.  Finish 2 websites I am working on for our businesses and move onto the other 5 ( Yikes!)

4.Exercise EVERY DAY ( i pretty much do that now)

5. Finish my Minerals table ( i have a Vitamins table that I spent 2 days working on, where it lists every food i tend to eat and the amount of each vitamin in it).

6. Take my last trip to Ecuador before I get pregnant

7. Organize my work desktop better

8. Go through all the old files and organize, organize, organize

9. Finally clean out the office closet and bathroom

10. Prepare the nursery room

Not too glamorous, I know, but very productive and I LOVE organizing! :)

What did you guys do for New Year’s?

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Sorry for being MIA. I’m in Colorado visiting friends and having a blast skiing. Still reading everyone. I can’t wait to get back and publish some posts I’ve been writing. Plus I have to do a New Years post, my goals for 2011 post, and Colorado trip.
Miss You all!

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Some people don’t know this about me, but I used to be a huge fan of a game called Rockband. If you have teenage kids, you know what it is, or if you’re a teenager at heart yourself, you will most likely know what it is, as well.
For those who are neither, it’s a “rhythm” game that simulates a rock band experience. You have a little 4 tom drum set, a fake guitar with 5 colored buttons and a similar bass, and a microphone.
When I first bought it, my German friend Felicitas was visiting, so her and I were the first ones to try it out and I have to say she was a great sport. We customized our characters to look like ourselves and went to town learning the ropes of Rockbanding. The way I ended up being the drummer was because after poor attempts of both my husband and Felicitas to keep up with the beat, I turned out to be the better of the three at learning the drums fast. And that’s where I stayed for the next year. I was quite good at drums, I have to say. It was sort of a natural thing for me. My arms just moved without my brain processing what I am supposed to do.
We had a blast learning the game that first day. We played from 4pm to 4 am non stop except for bathroom breaks, and the next morning, as I open my eyes at 10 am, I see Felicitas standing in my bedroom doorway, disheveled looking and tired from the lack of sleep. She looks at me with the look of a mad woman and asks “Do you want to play?”

I just close my eyes and nod not having the energy to utter a word.
And that was my introduction to Rockband. We spent the rest of her vacation here in Florida, locked up in my movie room playing Rockband and the last three days shooting a fake music video for our fake rock band that we named Sexy Zombie.

So that being said ( and shown), about a year later, I’m still a big fan of Rockband, and I am really good at my 4 tom drums, however the time has come to buy a REAL LIFE drumset.
What prompted me to do that is the release of Rockband 3, that is designed in a way where you can hook up real MIDI instruments to it and play the real drum/guitar/keyboard parts of any song you choose. You can also go into training mode and learn to play an instrument or a specific song if you’re already proficient. It’s basically a kick ass learning tool. They have also improved vocals, where besides it being more precise, you get pitch correction, vocal reduction and a pitch guide ( which is a life savior, if you’ve ever tried singing with one).
So I am super duper excited to finally play the real drums. I have relatively decent skills from months of playing rockband and now I’m moving onto the real thing.

The day the the drums arrived from Amazon.com, DH was out on an appointment and I had to wait for him to get home to assemble it.

Our movie/game room: I set the drums  up in the movie room where we play video games and watch movie, since I’ll be playing the drums along with Rockband 3 pretty often.

My 7.1 surround sound system, iPod dock, Wii, PS3 and 4 microphones.

I won’t be posting any videos of me playing until I get better at it and get all the right cables to hook it up to my sound system properly. But I’m sure some time in the future you will see me drumming away on here :)

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I spent half the day today watching this amazing man Jim live and play in a real lion’s den. This guy, who owns (???) a wildlife refuge and rehabilitates wild animals that were injured or are unwanted, is running out of money and is holding  sort of an unconventional  ”fundraiser”. He will spend the whole month of January living, sleeping and playing in a cage with two 250 pound  lions, 1 year old Ed and 2 year old Lea. This man is amazing , because he has such a rapport going with the animals. He plays with them, feeds them, wrestles with them, pats them on the back, kisses them all over their face and mouth. It’s really adorable to watch.  He’s doing a live video stream for the whole month while he’s in the cage for people to watch and hopefully donate money. His teenage daughter Chelsey brings him food and helps around the refuge, feeding other animals. She’s not allowed in the cage with the lions because they’re too big now. But up until recently she was caring for them too. Little Ed is really missing her. So this evening I actually saw him feeding the lions. The cats were roaring and growling waiting for food. It’s such a sight, so humbling! I recommend you go and watch them play  on his website, where you can also donate some money. The lions love him to death and it’s just adorable to see them interact. An article and a TV spot about it here.{this picture is not of the lions mentioned above}

Also, we assembled my new drum set and I’ve been killing it playing along to Green Day’s “21 Guns” and Pink’s “Who Knew”, solely because they’re the easiest songs to play to and I semi-knew the beat from my Rock Band drums days. Pretty cool I gotta tell you, pretty cool!

Aside from lion watching and drum playing, I started my new exercise program (in addition to my daily pilates), designed specifically to increase strength and endurance of the muscles necessary for pregnancy, labor and recovery. I did a fitness test to see where my muscles are at and everything was above par ( abs, lower back, upper back, shoulders, legs, thighs, arms), except for ankles (whaaaat?) and PC muscles ( the figure eight that encompasses your urethra,vagina and anus- excuse my bluntness). In order to have strong PC muscles, that would be very beneficial in labor and recovery, you’d have to be able to “hold” it for at least 10 seconds. I’ve never done kegels before and I guess it shows. The good news is that  the muscle is easy to train. So there I go, squeezing my vageygey any chance I get.

…….
It was kind of funny, because DH and I were working out and while he was doing some man arm exercises, I stood on my hands and knees and started doing my kegels. After a while, I look at him with a smirk and ask: “Hey, do you know what I am doing?”, cuz really it didn’t look like I was doing anything besides standing on my hands and knees. How would he know that I am working my vagina muscles??? :)
And he goes:” Squeezing IT?”
We both burst out laughing! I guess there will be a lot more grosser things we’ll be going through during pregnancy than my husband “guessing” that I’m working out his favorite part of my body.
…….

Ok, here’s a test for ya’ll fit ladies out there. Apparently I have weak (-er?) ankles, the punishment for which will be me tripping and spraying my ankles when I get as big as a hippopotamus on fast food. I want to know if it’s just my weak spot or if it’s really something most of us seem to  have in an underdeveloped state ( my hubby couldn’t do it either). Would you all please squat for me?  No, I won’t make you squeeze your lady parts. We’re talking about ankles here. Squat if you can and then sit in the squatting position for at least 15 seconds while ( and THIS IS KEY!) making sure that your HEELS are flat on the floor. So, you cannot be on your toes! That doesn’t count. Only flat on your heels for 15 seconds. Can anyone do it? Anyone?

If you can, I envy your flexible strong ankles

For those who are interested ( whether you are or are not planning on having a baby in the next year or two), I will attempt to post a scan of the pre-pregnancy strength and flexibility test. I wish I had read this book, like, a year ago, and now I’d be walking around with a strong crotch that could suffocate an elephant and ankles that  allow me to sit in a squatting position for hours….you know…in case I have to take a dump in the middle of the road and I’m experiencing some pregnancy induced “blockage”.

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