I wrote a little bit about our trip to Orlando a few weeks ago, but today I’d love to share with you the beauty that is Gaylord Palms Resort.

We woke up the next morning and set off to explore the humongous indoor “jungle”. It was time to get some breakfast and since our favorite Villa De Flora was closed, we settled for a really nice decaf tea and pastry in the courtyard.

In case you’re wondering, Andrew is using the non-toxic natural hand sanitizing Cleanwell wipes to disinfect the table and Lexi’s hands.

It’s really hard to describe the hotel. It’s like a mixture of Disney intricasies, whimsical decorations, country swamp decor, twinkling lights, tuscan architechture, wet green jungle and the grandeur of a glass domed greenhouse.

 Where else would you find balconies overlooking the depth of the jungle? Or  a moss covered tree in the middle of a wooden swamp restaurant?

Or an ancient vine covered castle inside a resort?

Countless waterfalls and exotic plants?

And then you walk outside through the “swampland” area of the resort, past the tranquil looking spa, down the a few steps and through the glass doors, you walk out into the clean looking Arizona style pool oasis.

We didn’t spent much time at the pool, we didn’t have our swim suit with us, but Lexi started bouncing in Andrew’s arms at the sight of these little fountains covering the shallow walk-in edges of the pool. So we tried them out.

She was so hilariously focused on grabbing one of them. Fountains are fun :)

Besides the big kid friendly pool with slides and water features, Gaylord’s had an adult only area with cabanas, lounges and a rectangular pool. That’s the area you would usually see us hanging out at, sipping drinks and laughing at each other’s jokes. Not this time though. We looked at what 1 year ago would be “our spot” and happily took our beautiful and tired daughter back to the room.

I know we will continue visiting Gaylord Palms whenever we are in the area, whether it’s to have dinner, go to the yearly ICE exhibit with Lexi, or just show off this gem to friends out of state. I don’t know if we’d stay there again. Not because it wasn’t fabulous, but because I just can’t pass up staying on Disney campus whenever in Orlando.

Hope you enjoyed the photo journey through Gaylord’s as much as we enjoyed visiting.

Dear baby girl,

You are 7 months old. The number blows my mind. I remember reading other people’s blogs and thinking how big their babies were at 7 months. And here you are, exactly 7 months old, and yet you’re still so little and at the same time so grown. You’ve gone such a long way. I could never imagine myself as a mom to a 7 months old and yet in a blink of an eye, you are 7 WHOLE MONTHS OLD!

I am most likely repeating myself saying that this month has been the most amazing one so far. When I day-dreamed about you, when you were in my belly, I couldn’t imagine that we would have times like this where every single day is unbearably precious and unfathomably fun.

There have been so many changes this month that I had to start a list, not to forget a single thing when it was time to write this letter. But the biggest change is that you enjoy life to the extent that I have not seen you do up until now. YOU ARE FUN! It sums up your whole being!  There hasn’t been a day this month that you didn’t wake up and gift me the most amazing day of them all. Each day, every day. I am not saying this to be sappy or poetic. I am not either of those. I am saying that because it is true.

You day ALWAYS starts the same. At 6 or 7 am you start moving around next to me, looking for my breast. Once you find it, you nurse for a bit until it wakes you up. You open your eyes suddenly- and there, you’re awake! Instantly a slew of babbles and laughs and screeches comes out of your cute little mouth, making it evident for anyone in the room that THE PRINCESS IS AWAKE!

Both mommy and daddy are usually way too tired from a poor night’s sleep to react to it immidiately. You continue playing with your toes and attempt to engage me by grabbing my hair or my earrings. At some point you get me to open my eyes and THERE- you give me the brightest happiest smile of them all! “MORNIN’, MOMMY! IT IS TIME TO HAVE FUN!” – it says!

Who can resist that? So we get up, and groggily change you and put some clothes on to go for a walk with you. In the meantime, you’re just a ball of ENERGY! You pump your legs, you smile, you laugh, ready to start the day. You look at me with a sly smile, jumping from joy every time I smile back at you. There’s just no way to resist that kind of positive energy- it wakes us up!

When we’re finally out, around 7-8 am, we take a nice 30-40 minute long walk, during which you relax and enjoy the views. By the end of it, you start to fuss indicating that you’ve had enough and you are getting hot ( which we have since remedied by buying a much better stroller fan).

You get hydrated, and then play a little bit and soon it is time for your first nap.

Your big achievement this month is growing out of having to be rocked. One day you just up and fell asleep while nursing, lying on the bed, and then you did it again and again. We stopped rocking you completely and now you purposefully turn to me to nurse to sleep for each nap and bedtime. I am absolutely over the moon about this big step you’ve made and I am so happy we’ve had the patience to let you do it on your own.

What’s next, girl?

I know what’s next! Next, you decided that you will gift me with normal sized naps for a few days. I am talking- napping for 1.5 hrs, without or, possibly, with one wake up. We are still working these out, but I have never had you just sleep for an hour on your own, so it’s a big deal for me. I have hope that with a few tweaks here and there, you will be napping good 1.5-2 hrs at a time. I can see you stir at the 30 minute mark on the monitor, but 80% of the time you’re able to fall back asleep. Hooray for that! {edit: you went back to 30 minute naps for a few days and then back again to 1.5hrs. }

After you wake up with babbles and big smiles  again, we get to play with your favorite toys. You love talking to them and playing, with me in the vicinity cleaning or doing a few things.  Your favorite toy of the moment is the Fish and Splish by BToys.

This whole month we’ve had different out of town guests  and you’ve been loving the attention and all the impromptu trips we’ve been taking.

Around this time of the day, we make lunch and something for you. You had started BLW last month and it’s going really well. You’ve been going through the “I’m not interested in eating, I am interested in playing, throwing food, dropping dishes and making a mess of myself” stages in the last two weeks. You have so much fun doing it that we don’t mind the mess and the waste- it’s all a part of learning. Even when I serve you a whole bowl of split pea soup and you promptly pick up the bowl and pour the soup over your head. Yeah…. That has happened! In the last few days, you suddenly started actually eating again. I cannot wait to write a post about your BLW adventure.

You LOVE drinking out of a cup or a glass! You’re obsessed with it! I’ve decided not to introduce you to a sippy cup, but instead wait till you learn to drink from a cup, since you love doing it so much. You need our help right now not to spill the whole thing on yourself, but you grab it with both your hands like a big girl and let us tilt it a bit.

You JUST figured out why we keep handing you a spoon and how to use it. Sometimes you get confused as to which end to use, but most of the time you actually get the right end with food into your mouth (and squint from the unexpected taste).

You’ve gone to restaurants with us on multiple occasions and each time I’ve ordered you steamed vegetables or  a bowl of soup and you’ve eaten them like a big girl, enjoying the taste of everything that gets served.

To my surprise and joy, you’ve become that proverbial baby that can be taken ANYWHERE! What a change from just 2 months ago when we couldn’t even take a car ride with you. Now? Phew! You go on boats, long car trips (not without some fussing), to restaurants, late night dinners, stay up happy and engaged till 10pm, beach, stores, you name it! You barely ever have a problem, you never want to sleep and will stay up as long as there is interesting things to look at and do. Again, Disney just can’t come soon enough. Seeing your personality you’re going to enjoy the heck out of it. Like one of my IG peeps said “Looks like you have gotten that baby you can take anywhere that you dreamed about!”. YES!  I know it can change, so for now I am enjoying every moment.

This month we’ve had the privilege to celebrate both our birthdays with you and you did so great! We had a blast dressing you up, staying at the beachside hotel, going to the ocean the next morning.

Speaking of ocean, this month signified your official beginning of becoming a water baby. You’ve been Floridified! You’ve had your first ocean swim, and second, and third, and ….. You get the point! You LOVED IT! Squealed from joy, mouth open, drinking salt water, kicking your legs, attempting to swim. Sand? You thought it was the coolest thing ever! Burying your toes into it, grabbing fistfuls and attempting to eat it. No fear of sand here so far.

Aaaand, get this, YOU FELL ASLEEP AT THE BEACH! And not once, but twice! Whoa! Must be the sound of the waves, but it was so cool to watch you sleeping while we’re out.

You can splash and jump on command now, you understand what those words are. You love going to the pool. Every time we swim, you get really sneaky. You pretend like you are splashing, but really what you’re doing is trying to grab some water in your palm and carry it straight to your mouth! It’s hilarious! If you’re lucky enough to be put into a floatie, you make no bones about just lowering your mouth and drinking the water pooled on the float.

We try to read a ton of books to you. Every morning, afternoon and evening, before every nap. Between me and daddy, we probably go through 6 full length books ( Cat in the Hat length) and 6 shorter baby books a day. And you love it. It’s by far your favorite activity to do. No matter what kind of mood you’re in, if we pull out a book, you’re all smiles and attention. You have to have a book or two before naptime, it primes you for sleep. I love watching you react to what we are reading. You are not a passive listener, either. You attentively study every single picture in the book and react to our tone and certain words, smile, wiggle, kick legs, frown. You have favorite books, favorite pages of books, favorite words. You get a kick out of the word “GOO-GOO GOGGLES!” and you laugh each time. I can tell you’re going to have a huge love for reading when you grow up. I just ordered you 15 different Disney books from Amazon and a bunch of Russian books and you just have no idea what you’re in for.

You also love reading books with activities in them. You turn pages of board books and pull on tabs, touch the fussy parts, tear off heads of the paper puppets that stick out.

The car seat is no longer your enemy. You do pretty well in it, and I am starting to get a feeling that you get excited when we take you to the car, because you know we’re going somewhere. Again and again, every time I think about your car seat relationship, I want to kick myself in the butt for not getting you the one we have now, right away. It could have saved us a lot of stress and tears.

You’re almost exclusively in cloth diapers. We still use disposables for the night as we try to figure out what works for us, but I can see us switching to cloth for the night within a month. I love seeing your fluffy butt around the house.

You POSE! Oh how you pose! With the right lighting, I can take the most amazing photos of you. You’ve gotten into this cute little habit of twiddling your thumb on your leg whenever you’re feeling shy or contemplative and it looks adorable in photos.

You still play with your gym, but now instead of passively lying under it like you did at three months, you FIGHT with it! It’s hilarious to watch you struggle trying to push the arches above your head.

You’re the most expressive baby I know (I don’t know that many babies, though)! You go through a million expressions per second and, your arms, oh, your arms fly around like you’re on stage performing Cats. And those little hands… you make cute gestures with them that make me melt. You talk to yourself, me, daddy, your toys- using a trillion of sounds you invented, smacking your lips in a million cute ways. And those faces! Once in a while I’ll catch a face that I just can’t bring myself to delete, so I’ve started a FUNNY FACES folder for you to laugh at when you’re a teenager.

You know the word Kitty in Russian (KISA), and daddy in Russian (PAPA) and you always look for them if I ask where they are. You understand that very well. Kitties are your favorite things EVER! Like, seriously, you LOVE cats! Oh boy, do they not know what’s coming when you finally start crawling…. Brrrr….! And you think dad is alright too! LOL! No, you really adore him! If you see him somewhere in the distance, you stop doing whatever you are doing and just stare. Or if he’s close enough to see you, you put your hands in your mouth and smile shyly, sometimes hiding behind mommy’s shoulder. And then your eyes meet and it’s a giggle/kick fest.

Like I wrote in the mid-month post, you said your first word: MAMA! I have still not digested what happened, but it’s pretty darn cool. You haven’t said it again since then, so it’s quite possible it was just a sound you were making, but I will know that once you say it for real. For now, THAT seemed pretty real and different from a similar MAMAMAMAMA sound. I also think ( though here I am not sure) that you MIGHT have signed your first sign. I didn’t recognize it at the time, but you might have signed MILK. I am yet to confirm that, because signs are sometimes very hard to recognize. You keep signing it, but I am not 100% positive that you know what you mean. I think you’re just copying a gesture that you often see me doing.

Your sound repertoire includes the following: MAMA, DADADADADADA, TATATATATA, TITITITITITITI, PAPAPAPAPAPA, BABABABABA, BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH, WAWAWAWAWA, GOO-GOO, Ge-GE-Ge, AhGOO and a million others I can’t even repeat. But your favorite sound, by far, is BAH-BAH-BAH! You make it by smacking your lips together and I just DIE!

The biggest change in how you play is that I see SO MUCH purpose in it now. Everything you do is done with an idea or goal in mind. You’ve had such a jump in cognitive development this month, it’s crazy!

You play so fabulously on your own! It’s definitely something that happened this month. You talk to your toys, you bang them together, you grab plastic cups and make sounds. If you are holding one toy, you try to hit it on something that will make a sound.

Your favorite game is when you pull one toy after another out of the bucket, inspect it, and chew on it, and then put it back. You love fishing in the full bucket, making sounds, until you find THE toy you were looking for. And no other toy would do. Other times, you take the bucket and just EMPTY the whole thing on the floor.

You have so much dexterity. You reach, pull, bang, grab, move in any way and direction you want. You get from sitting position into crawling, you flip from sitting up to your tummy and play there for a bit. You pull up on your knees, you try to crawl but you just haven’t figured out how to do it yet. You get to your toys one way or another: shimming down the carpet, reaching while straining, squrming- anything to get to your goal, especially if that goal is kitties. You do this hilarious move when you’re sitting and see kitties and you want to get to them. You basically attempt to move while sitting, shimmying really fast. You do the same thing when you’re on your tummy. So funny!

You hold your arms to be picked up, you say NE NE NE NE or AH-YA-YA-YA-YA-YA when you’re upset. You laugh when I laugh. Like literally, we’d be lying on the bed together and you’ll look at me and laugh and I’ll laugh back and you’ll laugh back… And we’ll just lie there laughing at each other for no apparent reason :) I really love when you laugh and smile- your eyes sparkle and you get the most adorable look  on your face. You say “Eh! Eh! Eh!’ at the end of each giggle and I just can’t handle the cuteness.

You play all kinds of silly games with me. Our favorite is Rumble- Tumble that we play after each nap.

When your daddy holds you, you sometimes twist and turn until you find me. And when I run up to you excitedly and get my face into yours, you grab it with your little hands and then happily “slap” me all over!

You’ve dropped your third nap completely, unless your first two sucked, and then you do need a cat nap around 5 pm.

A recent development is you’ve figured out how to take your clothes off. It’s virtually impossible to put anything over your head, because you will fight and fight to take it off! I was dying watching it the first time.

You love using your open palm, splashing, banging on the table, aaaand CLAPPING! You now clap! It’s so cute to see! Sometimes you clap on your own when you’re excited, other times you copy us! But you definitely know it’s a happy thing! You smile and laugh when you see us clapping. Just in the last 2 days, you’ve been clapping to the songs “If you’re happy and you know it” and “Ladushki” (russian clapping rhyme) whenever we recite it. You even clapped with grandma over skype when she sang Ladushki to you and completely blew her mind and made her eternally happy (it’s something she did with you when she was here). You clap on your own when you hear Ladushki rhyme too. You are one smart cookie, let me tell you!

Most of your “achievements” are recorded on video and played over and over again by different family member ( aka Grandma from Russia). {Click here to watch}

For readers:

Items seen in this post:

Blue boat with toys: Fish N Splish BToys

Yellow Giraffe: Lamaze

White tank top onesie: Polarn O Pyret 

Hairbows: Hopscotch Boutique

Highchair: Boon Flair

Chemical Free Rashguards: Tuga

Red Romper: Polarn O Pyret

 

STATS:

Baby size: Corn. She’s rapidly gaining weight, lung tissue and brain cells.

How far along: 24 weeks. VIABILITY! YAY!

Both hubby and I are happy to be finally hitting the viability milestone. It seems like the weeks have slowed down again, dragging along. But it’s great to think that if something unfortunate were to happen, Alexis would have a chance of survival. I don’t even want to think about it, but I do, because I know things happen. I’ve seen them happen.

On a happier note….

Total weight gain: 1 pound (152lb) this week. After gaining 2 pounds a week for the last two weeks and then seeing a strange 1.5 lbs come out of nowhere, I decided to see where my food intake was at ( I had stopped inputting all my food for a bit). And instantly I saw the problem. I was going off of my 1st trimester mentality, where regardless of how much I ate, I still needed to eat more to meet my calorie goal. So now that I am in my 2nd trimester, and food isn’t so gross to me,I get the necessary amount of calories by eating normally. However in my mind, I still think that I hadn’t had enough and want make sure I get in one last nutritious meal before bed like I did in the first trimester ( does that make sense?). And that’s exactly where that extra pound a week was coming from. I don’t want to continue gaining double each week , thank you very much, I am very happy with my 1 pound that is necessary and recommended- it’s not good for Alexis and it’s not going to be good for me.  So now that I know what’s happening, I am back in the “1 lb a week” game

Sleep: Strangely, it’s been good. I’m loving my pillows. I still get up 3-4 times a night, but I learned to keep my mind blank while I go to the bathroom, otherwise a flurry of thoughts wake me up. Alexis has been kicking a lot during the night, which isn’t normal for her. I attribute it to the fact that I am more active during the day than I was before and the night is now the only time when she gets to be awake.

Maternity Clothes: Yoga pants, maternity jeans, maternity tops. I have found a few maternity companies I really like and I am loving their clothes.

Food cravings : Anything fresh- fruit, vegetables, salads

Food aversions: None

Symptoms:

Heartburn – It’s been much better. I am still not taking anything for it, but I’ve found tomatoes give me heartburn so I’ve been more careful with them.
Rash – It’s less itchy, more manageable. I really think it’s because of the detergent.
Fatigue – I swear there are days/weeks when Alexis must be growing a lot, because I’d be EXHAUSTED for no real reason and she’s pretty quiet. And then a few days later I am fine and she’s all active and kicking.

Exercise: I have been doing pregnancy ab exercises to strengthen my core, kegels and certain hip stretchers daily. We also go walking every day. So I’ve been feeling really good about it.

Movement:

She has one very active day, one quieter day. She totally kicks “on command” now. All I have to do is put my hands on my belly and start talking to her, or have Andrew talk to her. She loves when daddy talks :)
This afternoon I was laying on my side and she literally LIFTED UP my belly off the couch by pushing off of it with her body. That was the freakiest feeling EVER!
Oh and her favorite pastime is, obviously, bouncing on my bladder. How fun!

Belly Button: Still  an innie but it’s totally itching to come out. If I sit in a certain position, I can almost say it becomes an outie.

Gender: GIRL!

What I’m looking forward to:
My glucose test ( is that weird?)

What I miss:
Having good hair :( I HATE my hair right now. It’s  weak and stringy and just yuck. And I can’t even highlight it until I give birth. Back before pregnancy, it would get bleached in the sun when I’d be going to the beach constantly. But that’s not happening now, so I am stuck with grubby hair.

 And hey, you guys, would you do me a favor?

The stats are TOP BABY BLOGS seemed to have been reset, so would every single one of you, pretty please, click on the button below to vote? ( it takes 1 click + 1 to confirm)

 

I was thinking….
I like posting about my pregnancy.
I love showing you cute purchases, whether it’s clothing or baby stuff (believe me so much more of that is coming)
I feel somewhat obligated to share any marginally useful information I find about pregnancy related things.

 

But what I have always really really LOVED doing the most is photography. More specifically sharing photos from my life.
I even started a blog just for photography in hopes of NOT junking up this blog. But there are times I feel this blog doesn’t get enough of photo love. I always have to hold myself back from posting pictures I looked at last night or photos I took a few days ago. I feel like I should be working on more important but difficult posts like nursery updates (coming) or write about my feelings (ugh!) or write about products I love. So I push away the need to share photos. I contemplate posting more on the photography blog but that site is reserved for photos I shoot. And what about a ton of pictures shot by friends and hubby? I can’t post them under MY photography blog.

Now, we all know that onceAlexis comes this will be full of her photos, so hold onto your panties, people. Plus, when I am no longer pregnant and can resume semi-normal life with regular beach outtings, and friends, and boats, zoos, gardens, Disney, etc- you’ll see a lot more of my life on here. But for now….

I think I’m going to start a PHOTO SHARE TUESDAY. Not a professional photography link up but simply a day where I  post ANY and as many pictures as I wish, whether they are taken by me or someone else. No pressure, no time commitments- just any photos I am “feeling” at the moment. Just a Photo Share Tuesday!

Anyone is welcome to join of course if they want. It can be any photos, point and shoot, phone cam, professional, personal- anything you haven’t posted before and would like to share!

I’ll create a button for it next week.

So here we go.

Today’s pictures are from May 2009. My friend Leeka was visiting with her daughter Gabby and we were spending every day the best way possible: at the beach

{All photos are taken by either Leeka, me or husband}

 {Linking up with The Happiness Project}

I remember how much fun it was playing “house” with little Gabby. At that point we weren’t ready to have our own, but we loved stealing moments like this once in a while. It was the best of both worlds.

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I absolutely adore light! I love flare! I love 5 pm on any given day because of the golden light it produces. I was taking a picture of my new drumset when the sun was just STREAMING through the window. Sun is LOVE and BEAUTY!

Also for the Touch Up Tuesday and Shutter Love, my last year’s Bubbles Photo. Do you know how FREAKING hard it is to shoot bubble self portraits??? It was probably one of the most challenging self-portraits I have ever done and that’s considering I’ve done blowing fans ( that’s tough too), Avatar/Na’vi, jump and clone self portraits. And I still have to say bubbles is a bitch when you’re shooting yourself, because of all the multitasking you have to do with the remote and blowing bubbles at the same time. This was the only accpetable shot out of hundreds. I didn’t help that I look like a moron blowing bubbles. haha!

 

SOOC
What I did was some split toning in Lightroom ( yellow on highlights and blue on shadows), brightened it up, upped saturation, added some clarity, and touched up the background to look slightly darker with the brush tool.

AFTER

I also loved this shot below so much that I combined the two, and I think it really improves both the photos.

The Final Product. I hate how when I post bigger photos, they go way outside of the area where they have to be. So I am forced to post small ones. I will be redesigning the template even more to fit larger photos, since this is turning into more of a photography blog than I thought.

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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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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!

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Linking up with:

I have been waiting for this particular challenge from Crosbie Crew, because there’s nothing I love more than goofy funny pictures. I’m usually the one staring in them. If i had a movie the gag reel would be full of me making silly faces and acting like an idiot :)
 This year has been pretty short on pictures. After all the rejects were removed from Lightroom, I had about 7400 pictures. Picking out funny ones wasn’t that difficult. What was difficult is choosing which funny ones to share with you. I had 146 funny shots. Getting them down to reasonable amount was awful! I still think that I posted too many but if you have a second, it’ll be worth it, I promise! In additon, I am playing Simplicity and Sweet Shot Tuesday
  Can’t wait to read your comments! But here are the winners in no particular order: 

  

  

On the way to Universal with friends and Hubby having too much fun withLeeka’s  fish eye lens. 

 

 

This was done for a Flickr project in the beginning of the year. Don’t remember the theme but it took 5 jugs of water and a ton of towels to mop up the mess :) 

 

Those who read my blog might have seen this photo. It was taken after finding out the news about a particular test   that was done on DH 

 

Just being goofy with Leeka. Fish eye is just too much fun! 

Taken late late night on my cell phone camera. My yawning babies :) 

Yes, it’s Sunday again and I cannot believe it! Seriously weeks fly and I seem to get nothing done.
As usual, I promise myself to be more productive and not waste time this week. I’ve been feeling like crap honestly. Not sure why- probably the cold- but I’ve been slacking on my pilates, or cleaning or even working half-heartedly.

So here’s my Scavenger Hunt items for today and let’s hope for a better week ahead.

1. WINTER

It’s sort of hard to portray winter when you live in South Florida. Here are a few pointers to distinguish Florida’s winter from Florida’s summer.
Summer: always clouds in the sky, afternoon thunderstorms, green lush grass, temperatures in the high 80s
Winter: cloudless sky ALL THE TIME, No rain WHATSOEVER, grass has this greenish-yellowish tint and grows really slow, temperatures in high 70s ( except for the last two stinking cold years)

2. SELECTIVE COLORING

I’m not a fan of selective coloring. To me it speaks of amateur photographer ( no offense to anyone), but sometimes selective coloring can be done tastefully. As long as it doesn’t stand out, and feels like it’s natural (-ish) coloring, I’m fine with it ( like Ashley’s shot here). This shot is of the flag on the golf course that we live on: Valencia.

One of my favorite things about photography ( besides DOF) is framing. I love finding cool ways to photograph things. Sometimes it takes thinking out of the box which doesn’t always happen especially if you’re shooting on the go.
SOOC.

4. WIND

That was easy. The day the scavenger hunt was announced, it was super windy. I mean like, hammocks flying everywhere, tree branches falling. Score!

And finally

This was my favorite theme this week. I love flashbacks. I have over 45000 photographs from the last 8-10 years ( literally) and I love sharing.
This was taken in the summer of 2002 when I first met my future husband. Look how young and cute we both are. We were so happy and in love ( and we still are, but a different kind of love, the kind that lasts). My best friend Elena (on the right) is now in Italy, happily married to a great Italian guy Max and we are here in US, ready to have our first baby :) It’s funny how life moves and changes.

GRAB OUR BUTTON:

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Please don’t foger to VOTE daily!

 

So during one of our rare trip out for dinner ( we try not to eat out and cook more because that way we can control the ingredients that we put into our meals and cut out anything un-healthy), we ended up at CPK ( California Pizza Kitchen). I went for the usual Tuscan White Bean Soup and Hubby decided to try this new item off the small craving menu that was basically a bean salad ( and yes that’s all we ate- if anyone ever bothered to look up the nutritional content of any restaurant dishes, they’d know that that’s more than enough calories for a light lunch).
I literally fell in love with it at the first bite. It was so light, yet substantial. Too much oil of course, but you can expect that from a restaurant and we didn’t flag the waiter in time to tell him we needed dressing on the side. So determined to make it at home, I noted all the ingredients that went into it and the next day promptly whipped up what will become my all time favorite salad.

What I love about it is that it has a perfect balance of protein rich beans, fresh and vitamins K and A abundant cucumbers and tomatoes, healthy fats from an avocado, and folate rich beets.
So do yourself a favor- don’t be lazy and make this salad ONCE. If you don’t like it- no worries, but if you do, this will be one of the most nutritional and healthy meals you will ever eat/make.
Note: since I don’t have a recipe for it, all the measurements are eyeballed and to taste. I suggest you do the same.

Ingredients:

1 cup White beans( rich in protein, Folate (64% DV in 1 cup),Thiamin, Iron and pretty much every other mineral) {I use navy beans}
2 Avocados( anti inflammatory, rich in smart fats, vitamins E, C and Folate, Potasium and Copper) {make sure it’s very ripe}
 1 cup Cherry Tomatoes( anti-inflammatory, rich in vitamins A,C and K)
1/2 Red Onion( incredibly anti-inflammatory, rich in vitamin C and Manganese)
1 Cucumber (rich in vitamin K)
1 Beet( rich in Folate and Manganese) { if you’re not a fan of beets like me, don’t use it. I personally like the beet-less version better}
3 leaves of Basil ( rich in
Croutons ( not rich in anything but damn good  in this salad)
Dressing: Olive oil and Red Wine Vinegar for dressing ( or red wine vinaigrette)

1. First prep the beans. If you bought raw beans from Whole foods like I did, soak them overnight or for at least two hours and then set them to cook for about an hour or until firm to touch but soft to taste. Don’t let them cook too long, because they’ll fall apart and that’s never good in a salad ( I let mine cook too long this time by accident)

 

Once the beans are ready drain them and set them in the salad bowl. Cut cherry tomatoes in half , cube the beets and add them to the bowl.
A note about the beets: I find this salad much more flavorful without the beets. So unless you’re a FAN of beets, skip this vegetable completely or use sparingly.

Cube your cucumber, add it to the bowl

 

Cut the avocado, basil and throw it in with the croutons ( the latter can be added later after you’ve already served if you plan on refrigerating the leftovers)

Add chopped up red onion ( I put way too much here. You need just a bit)

In the meantime, prepare the dressing: a little bit of red wine vinegar, mixed with slightly less olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper ( I’m sorry I do not have measurements, but season and mix to taste)

Season the salad with salt and pepper ( season generously- this salad like salt) and add the dressing. Voila! Healthy and Filling!

Let me know how it works out for you if you decide to make it.

 

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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!