The Year of Corona Virus

We are now in 2021 and it has been year since I visited or posted on this blog. I landed here once more, after being in the process of organizing my filing cabinet and finding a paper with this blog on it. So where I am 4 years later. We are now back in Trinidad and Tobago. Funny thing is, on my profile I have "can't wait to move back to Trinidad!" Well guess what? We have been back in Trinidad for a little less than 4 years now and you know what? I am ready to move again! I have had my fill of Trinidad. Corona virus has robbed us of about 1 year and half of normal life. We have been in lockdown since March 2020. It's a life of online school, cooking a million times a day which means washing dishes a million times a day, and just enjoying our home. Literally, the insides of our home. Not homeland. 

Well now I am once more ready to move to another country. Have new experiences. Continue travelling, seeing the world with my Micah. However, seems like the world has other plans for us. Who knows when things will get back to normal? I am vaccinated and hoping that that will make a change but so many people are not getting vaccinated and I know it is a personal choice but as a person trained in the sciences, I made my choice - to be vaccinated. Are you? 

Well let me get back to my filing and organizing... all within in the confines of my home. I anxiously await our government opening back beaches, rivers, retail and inhouse dining. The things we never thought we would have to live without. Come on corona time to move on.. get the heck out of here!

Have a great day people! And please, say hi in the comments. Will love to hear from you. Where you are saying hello from? How is life.. anything!

Luv Leandra 

Micah Turns 5!

And just like that ... I have a 5 year old son. It feels like just the other day he was only one day old.. then three years and now my gosh.. I am the mother of a five year old active and wonderful boy! I've never done this before but I've decided to write about his 5th birthday party. A lot of planning and work went into it and it turned out to be a great party with the kids having so much fun. So here goes.

Micah decided that for his fifth birthday party he wanted a Spider-Man pool party in Trinidad & Tobago. We were going to be in Trinidad for school vacation so he would get to spend time with his family and friends. So once I got the theme I started planning. I bought all the stuff in Houston from Party city and I did my creative stuff and made personalized things for the party. I designed his party invite with input from his daddy, I made personalized party favor bags with each kid name cut out from spider-man paper I got from Michael's. I designed water bottle labels and the thing I'm most proud of is the covering of the number 5 I got from Hobby Lobby with spider-man paper. I used mod podge and then I painted it. These were just my little contributions to the party to make add a special touch. The birthday boy picked out his birthday cake and cake pops which I ordered months in advance. I booked a fantastic photographer and asked my brother to use his house as the venue for the party. Things were all organized.



As usual there was a lot of stress leading up to the party. Tension with family, issues with the rain and general tiredness and anxiety, especially since my husband was not around to help me. He was busy micro managing from Houston! Ha!

On the day of the party, the weather forecast was rain! rain! rain. Nothing new.. on our wedding day it poured so much that I thought it was going to be a disaster but it turned out fine and eight years later we are still happily married... so bring on the rain! Blessings for my son on his 5th birthday! It ended up turning out fantastic. The rain stopped and held up for the party which I am thankful for. The kids all had a ball. I even wore a Spider-Man dress which I got sewn in Trinidad. And the most fun party was Spider-Man even made an appearance at the party. Mom win! :)

See some pictures below and if anyone wants help planning a birthday party or ideas just contact me via this blog post and I will be happy to help.

Time Flies

Boy how time does fly!

My last post was since 2014 and we are now in 2017. Somehow, life gets hectic and things get left unattended and since my blog was created as a way to just share a little something about myself and sometimes about my family, I neglected it for other things. In the past two years a lot has happened to my little family - husband, son and me.

My son is now four and a half years old! Imagine that! I've been a mama for 4 years already. I still fondly remember my days in Brazil with just my hubby and me enjoying life one day at a time. The saying "time sure does fly" is so true! Fast forward to four years later and we are once more back in Houston. Micah is growing up to be a wonderful, little energetic bundle of pure love and joy. He has us on the go with little time left to recover from our hectic days but I won't have it any other way.

Anyways, over the last two years we moved from Houston, back to Trinidad and then back to Houston. I just read my blog profile that says there's no place like home and I can't wait to move back to Trinidad to live. I am sorry to say that this is no longer true. Don't get me wrong. The year I spent in Trinidad was lovely. We got to spend time with family and friends, create memories and reconnect with people. However, the crime that is happening in our beloved country is scary and downright atrocious. I shudder to think what it will be like for my son growing up in that environment and I hope and pray that things change soon even though nothing points to that happening under the present government. My husband is determined to one day go back home and settle down but I am less inclined to readily agree with that unless the environment changes.

Back to the present. We are now in Trump country .... 2017 seems to have started off with some resemblence of happenings from 2016. So much hate and troubles that seems to have leaked over into 2017 but let's hope that somehow people start loving one another again and stop this shit! Enough is enough. We have become such a destructive society that we no longer seem to know where we are headed. I try to stay positive, to enjoy the time with my family and continue to make our memories.

I am excited for this year because my best friend Samantha is getting married. I am her maid of honour and even though I suck at that, I am super excited for her. She found a really great guy and I wish them all the best. So I am excited to go home for that wedding. Other things to look forward to are the family vacations we have planned. The unknown for this year will be where we might get moved to next.

Okay I think I will start posting more pictures and find topics to share. Let me just end by saying, stay positive people... hate less, love more. God knows we need more love.

Have a good night,
Love Leandra 

So many things...

Hello All,

I'm sure everyone is excited that today is Friday and in some parts of the world it's already Saturday morning. I have so many little things to do that I keep making lists, scratching out completed tasks, amending and organizing but more and more things keep cropping up. I am presently sitting here with the list in front of me and what do I decide to do? I decided to write a blog post about the many things I have to do, instead of just getting down to it, especially since my son is asleep and I have some peace and quiet to think. Procrastination to the highest! Oh well, maybe I should go have something to drink and a snack. :)

Happy Friday all! Have a great weekend.
Leandra

A friend posted this on facebook and it's so true

The Little things in Life

Good morning all! Happy Monday

Right now I am super excited! Got me thinking about the little things in life that make us happy. Living away from home, away from our family and friends is not easy. Trinidad and all that it represents is always on our mind. However, life here with our little family unit is great. We spend a lot of time playing, teaching and loving our son and each other. This morning my husband booked our tickets for a little getaway for us to go visit some family, spend some time on the beach and even do a little shopping. Something to look forward to. That keeps me going! Sad? I don't know but who cares! Now at least I can plan our trip, talk about it incessantly and consume myself with all things vacation related! 

Have fun people, I'm off to cook and tidy up and dream my dreams!

Luv ya
Lee 

Changes

As you might know by now, I have a toddler. And we love him so much. Over the years I've become a homebody, mainly stemming from Brazil and then following through in Houston. Well this week I decided to change that and start finally making new friends up here and not just relying on my friends back home. After all, those back home can only contact me via the many social outlets. So I bravely took up an invitation and took my son on not one but two play dates this week. Back to back! One day we spent some time with a really fantastic girl and her son. It was so nice talking to another adult who's not my husband! And a girl at that! She was really nice and made me feel so comfortable and shared so much with me. Inspired, I took up another invitation and went out the next evening to meet up with not one but about seven other mothers and their nine kids. What fun!! It was so good to see my son interacting with other kids - kind of! Well now that I've gotten a taste of the "outside" world, I can't wait for next week for our next play date! YAY me! :-) I am only doing this for our son, otherwise I think I would have continued just staying indoors and you know what, I would have missed out on meeting so many lovely gals! I can't wait for when I have to carry him to football practice and swimming etc. I would love to be a "soccer mom" :) 

Disney!

Morning Folks,

How you are this fine, slightly chilly Friday morning? I love Fridays cause it means my husband is going to be home with us on the weekend and it's fun time. I shouldn't sound like that cause every evening is fun time for this little munchkin we have. It's either park, walks, football in the apartment or something for him. Anyways, I digress. So we decided to go to Disney for a mini vacation and my gosh, since I got that in my head I've been busy trying to plan, read up on everything and guess what.. it's stressing me out! Sometimes I think that the internet has too much information. Is that possible? Or is there even a thing as too much information? I think there is. It takes a lot to filter through some of the nonsense to get to the gist of things. Anyways, if you have any advice on anything Disney related, like maybe hotel suggestions, please feel free to drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

Have a great Friday and fantastic weekend.
Lee! 

Such is life

Good morning World,

I decided to visit my blog this morning for a quick post. Just made my son's breakfast for him and I want to go make eggs from a recipe I saw this weekend. I recently lost someone I've always considered to be a very good friend. I didn't lose this friend to death, but to me to something worst. It's taking me some time but I am realizing that I can't always be the one to make the grand gesture, the one who has to always be the one try and keep the friendship going. If you keep battling to keep something that doesn't want to be kept, what's the point?

I found the attached photo online. It's a quote from friendship quotes on twitter. And it's so true, I can't always be the one to keep fighting. At times people do indeed need to fight for you and if they don't, then you have to learn to live with the result. Which is what I now need to learn to do, frankly because I'm tired. I'm done. I don't have any fight left in me anymore for this relationship. It was great while it lasted, but I think that my family needs more attention more than time wasted on this. I wish my friend all the best, as well as all the luck in the world. Sorry things had to turn out this way but maybe a little loyalty would have been great.

Okay enough on this topic. I'm off to try that egg recipe. It looked so delicious in the pics. Let's hope mine come out like that. Have a great day people. Life can't always be ups. 

Luv Lee

Twitter

I joined twitter a long time ago but only started tweeting when a friend of mine encouraged me to. I hardly tweet but I think maybe I should get more into it. Just another thing to waste time :-) You can find me on twitter @Leandraluv I think! See I don't even know how to properly use the darn thing. Anyways people keep in touch. It's a new year HAPPY NEW YEAR. All the best for the upcoming year.. at least the next 10 months that are left. Geez time flying so fast. Just now will be my son's two year birthday. Time sure does fly. And oh year I'll be getting older like everyone else. Somehow it's not so exciting looking forward to a birthday when it's in your 30's. Maybe I should embrace it and change my thinking. Okay back to child rearing. Have a good day people

I took that photo in Micah's doctor office. I rotated it but not sure why it showing up there. Oh well turn your head and read it.

Lee

Laugh for the day

Hello World,

I came across this and thought I'd share it just to give you guys a laugh. I think it's hilarious. I got it from facebook a while back but unfortunately I did not save the source. My apologies. Okay time to laugh! Enjoy

Okay Okay I know it's simple but I think it's hilarious!

Lee

America...Environmentally Conscious?

I spent all morning trying to clean our apartment in anticipation of a friend visiting. With a baby in the house that's not such an easy task ... not to mention all the baby stuff around the house. So much garbage accumulates it's not even funny. However, my mind wanders to the paper trash that accumulates. It makes me wonder - is America really that environmentally conscious? I know as a developed country they are always looking at developing countries and their environmental standards but I think they should look within their own lands first. The burden should not be placed on developing countries. So what exactly am I referring to? 

Well as you may know - this is a consumer country. Everything you can imagine is available at the tip of your finger. Most stores have fully functioning websites with all their merchandise just a click away from being purchased. Yet, almost on a daily basis our physical mail box (not internet email) is filled with flyers, pamphlets and booklets from stores advertising their merchandise on sale. Mind you - every other day there is a sale here. So why is it necessary for the grocery stores and clothing stores etc to send constant reminders whilst using up valuable paper and not to mention ink etc. So much waste. So much paper just being thrown away for what reason? A total waste of time, energy and not to mention trees. Come on people, in this day an age - no need for so much advertising using valuable paper. Just show it on tv or put it on your website or just bombard people with emails. 

Okay the baby is calling. Got to go. 

Lee 

Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you guys had a great Easter. I know Trini's for one would have enjoyed their long weekend! Lucky! In Trinidad, Easter weekend is always a long weekend with the Holy Friday and Easter Monday being holidays. Whereas, in the USA - no holiday whatsoever! So as you can imagine, Trinis make full use of the long weekend and it's always a great time spent with family and friends. Well our weekend wasn't so bad even though no holiday. I didn't get any Easter Eggs though. I sincerely hope that next year we will be all settled in back home in Trinidad and enjoying Easter with everyone else. But in the meantime, thank you God for all we have.

Good night folks. I'm off to read!

Luv Lee

Shutterfly

I am totally obsessed with Shutterfly, especially since we had our son. I am always on that website uploading photos and making photobooks when I get the time. For Christmas I ordered a ton of calendars from them as presents and everyone loved it! I got instant requests for that next year! I made each one individualised to the person receiving them. But mind you - I did get jokes about giving everyone a calendar! Typical Trinis though - love it but still need to harass me about it!

Anyways, I am presently working on yet another photobook for our son. I think it's an obsession now and I really need to try and stop - maybe after his first birthday. I thought I'd blog about Shutterfly in case someone stumbles onto this post and has never heard of this wonderful site! You can do so many things with photos on it and make really great gifts. Oh and they are forever offering discounts and specials. I just wish I could get a $20 off right about now because I have this really great book I worked on but waiting to order cause it's really big and costing a bit much.

Also I think the company Shutterfly is a great one. I am a fan of the Ellen DeGeneres show and on it Ellen is forever giving away money to people in need an lately the money has been donated by Shutterfly. So they are very charitable as well.

Anyways enough about that. I'm off to order a free 8x8 book that I am getting :-)

Have a great day ppl.
Luv Lee

One Year Later

I am writing this post one year and ten days after my last post on my blog. I know. Seems like I've been very busy. So let's see, how do I condense one year of events into a few sentences so that I can simply bring you guys up to date?

Well, I am now a happy mother to a handsome happy little 8 month old baby boy. Yes! I'm a mom now! A whole new world of adventures. We no longer live in Brazil and even though I was so desperate to leave that Portuguese land... suffering from the 'greener pastures syndrome', I now somewhat regret ever leaving. We are now in Houston, Texas and my oh my, we can't wait to get back to sweet Trinidad & Tobago. Island life is definitely better than anything else. Okay so there you go - you are all updated!

I decided that I would like to get back to blogging whenever my son gives me the chance to go by my computer for more than five minutes.

Well world, I do hope all of you are doing okay. Life has had its up's and down's and right now I am praying to St. Jude for more ups than downs. Take care and hope to write soon!

Leandraluv 

KONY 2012

Take a look at this video. Let me know what you think.

Hilarious - A WOMAN'S WEEK AT THE GYM

Oh my gosh! I can't believe the last time I posted something on this blog was a year ago! I feel so bad! I know I keep saying that but really - give me a month or two and I'd get back into the swing of things. Great news - I will be leaving Brazil after 3 long years .... so maybe when my new adventure starts I'll start back blogging. 

I got this email from a friend (thanks Trisha!) and had to share it because it was too hilarious! Enjoy - it's great for a morning laugh. I am sorry but I am not sure about the original author/source. No plagiarism intended. 

If you read this without laughing out loud, there is something wrong with you. This is dedicated to everyone who ever attempted to get into a regular workout routine

Dear Diary,
For my birthday this year, I purchased a week of personal training at the local health club. Although I am still in great shape since being a high school football cheerleader 43 years ago, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a try.

I called the club and made my reservations with a personal trainer named Christo, who identified himself as a 26-year-old aerobics instructor and model for athletic clothing and swim wear.

Friends seemed pleased with my enthusiasm to get started! The club encouraged me to keep a diary to chart my progress.
________________________________
MONDAY:
Started my day at 6:00 am. Tough to get out of bed, but found it was well worth it when I arrived at the health club to find Christo waiting for me. He is something of a Greek god-- with blond hair, dancing eyes, and a dazzling white smile.  Woo Hoo!!

Christo gave me a tour and showed me the machines. I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which he conducted his aerobics class after my workout today. Very inspiring!

Christo was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time he was around.

This is going to be a FANTASTIC week!!
________________________________
TUESDAY:
I drank a whole pot of coffee, but I finally made it out the door. Christo made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air then he put weights on it!  My legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made the full mile.  His rewarding smile made it all worthwhile. I feel GREAT!  It's a whole new life for me.
_______________________________
WEDNESDAY:
The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it.  I believe I have a hernia in both pectorals.  Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer or stop. I parked on top of a GEO in the club parking lot.
Christo was impatient with me, insisting that my screams bothered other club members.His voice is a little too perky for that early in the morning and when he scolds, he gets this nasally whine that is VERY annoying. 

My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Christo put me on the stair monster.  Why the hell would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by elevators?  Christo told me it would help me get in shape and enjoy life.  He said some other shit too.
_______________________________
THURSDAY:
The ???? was waiting for me with his vampire-like teeth exposed as his thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl.  I couldn't help being a half an hour late-- it took me that long to tie my shoes. 

He took me to work out with dumbbells. When he was not looking, I ran and hid in the restroom.  He sent some skinny bitch to find me. 

Then, as punishment, he put me on the rowing machine-- which I sank.
_________________________________
FRIDAY:
I hate that bastard Christo more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. Stupid, skinny, anemic, anorexic, little aerobics instructor. If there was a part of my body I could move without unbearable pain, I would beat him with it. 

Christo wanted me to work on my triceps.  I don't have any triceps! And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me the damn barbells or anything that weighs more than a sandwich. 

The treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutrition teacher.  Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like the drama coach or the choir director?
________________________________
SATURDAY:
Satan left a message on my answering machine in his grating, shrilly voice wondering why I did not show up today.  Just hearing his voice made me want to smash the machine with my planner; however, I lacked the strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching eleven straight hours of the Weather Channel..
________________________________
SUNDAY:
I'm having the Church van pick me up for services today so I can go and thank GOD that this week is over.  I will also pray that next year my husband will choose a gift for me that is fun-- like a root canal or a hysterectomy.  I still say if God had wanted me to bend over, he would have sprinkled the floor with diamonds!!!

Top 50 books I should read before I die

The last hub I wrote for hubpages was back in July 2010 ... and since then I kept writing down hubs I should work on and never got around to it ... until recently when I started thinking that I should be doing something more productive with my life on my off time instead of watching so much junk on television. I decided to make a list of the Top 100 books I should read before I die... then brought that down to the Top 50 books...lazy Leandra style :-) 


Anyways go check out my hub... maybe some of the novels will interest you! 

Check it out here - Top 50 books I should read before I die

Well have a great day folks!
Leandraluv

The Story of Stuff

I had homework to do this weekend - look at a video - The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard and come up with discussion questions for College Prep on Monday with the high school students. Well the video was very interesting and it is thought provoking. It definitely made me think about all the stuff I buy and if I really need them and the time, effort, energy put into producing these things and the negative effects on the environment and people etc. It's about a System in Crisis - the Materials Economy which involves a flawed linear system from Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption and finally to Disposal.


Take a look at the video





The students had a great discussion on this video ranging from some of them understanding the concepts and what Annie is trying to say to one student saying "She's high on drugs!" Ah, the young minds off today! 


Anyways so my view on this is that I understand where she is coming from, but I don't necessarily agree with all that she is saying. It's a good video to be used as a "Wake up call" to all of us who fall mainly in the CONSUMER category. It's food for thought for when next you are going to upgrade your electronics or dispose of something improperly and before it's lifespan is up! 


For a great review you can see here 

Annie Leonard’s “The Story of Stuff” review and analysis

Well enjoy and I hope we all learn a thing or two!

Have a great day everyone. 

Leandra 

In need of another holiday....or so I feel!

Oh boy, 


After having a fantastic vacation home for Christmas 2010, we came back to Brazil and I was happy to be home doing nothing, and then spending time in a hotel in Rio and riding the bus around Rio de Janeiro city center to Ipaema etc. Then reality set back in, and I had to start back my teaching thingy ... which I am not sure I told any of you about ... and after two weeks... I feel like I am in need of another holiday! 


These kids are very talkative this year and I am also next to a music classroom with little 4 year olds playing the drums.... can you imagine what that sounds like!! I am happy though ... being out of the house and spending time with some great kids...just can't help looking forward to Carnival time in March where I'll get the week off and could stay home and scratch my ..... you know what!


So I spent a lot of time back on webanswers and I am seeing my earnings starting to slowly increase once more. I have not written a thing on hubpages in months and I really need to get back to that...if you guys would like to suggest any topics for me to write about then that would be great! I could do with some ideas! 
I am really trying to manage my time better - even downloaded a "time management app" for my Christmas present - my iPod touch ... but I need to make time to read what it says :-) 


Well have a great weekend guys - I know I can't wait for it ... just to chill. Last weekend we went to Buzios for the entire day on Saturday and Sunday just flew on by.... so this weekend I just want to chill a bit. It's Carnival time in this country though so the streets are littered with people and music and loads of Brasilians trying to take in the sun on the beach before summer time comes to a halt .. it's already getting chilly here! 


Have a great day. 
Luv Lee 

Try Webanswers Today

Okay folks, 

I'm off to bed soon but I wanted to share this with you. If anyone is interested in earning money online - I would recommend Webanswers. It is fun, you get to help people, learn new things all the time and even get help if you want by simply asking questions and off course answering! I've been blogging about it for quite some time now and I earn money on a monthly basis that comes in pretty handy for all kinds of things - a nice dinner out, buying stuff from Amazon, and even paying for clothes online. So don't drag your feet. You can sign up by clicking on this WEBANSWERS link. Enjoy! 


Lee