Updates and I booked my trip! omg!

I booked my trip to Egypt. June 17 until July 7. I will be gone for 21 days. I'm freaking out just thinking about leaving Doug and Amelia here at home but this has been the biggest dream of mine. Doug surprised me with the tour package with Princess Farhana and I just booked the airline. I will be staying with Yaz and family for a few days but then I'll be staying in a old Egyptian Palace overlooking the pyramids. Ahhhhh.....And I get to fly to Luxor and take a cruise on the Nile and I'll get to see Aswan and all kinds of neat things like the valley of the kings. Cool!!! My sister just booked a ticket to go along and she will be staying with Yaz and family the whole time. She is so excited!! I'm excited! We get to fly into Amsterdam and will get to see that cool airport....let's just hope the volcano stops before June! I thought about all the things I've wanted to accomplish in life and I have done everything on my list except Egypt. It's the last thing on my list. I can't believe that I'm 35 and I have accomplished my list. I guess it's time to start thinking of new dreams and goals.



I turned the big 3-5 this year. It's a pretty big milestone. I had my birthday party along with Shawn at Ali Baba's in Little Rock. There ended up being 30+ people at the party. Shannon performed for us, we had our food catered by Ali Baba's and it was one hell of a party. We did debke dance with the Arabs and just had a good time. It is definitely one party I won't forget!


This is me and Ebony in Eureka Springs. We had such a good outing. Ebony is a photographer and belly dancer, too!


This is on a Fayetteville trip a few weeks back. Met some of my friends at Racha Thai food. So good to see everyone!


This is part of my family. My dad is wearing the sunglasses. My uncle Enrique is on the other side of me along with his wife and daughter. Also pictured is my Amelia and Antonio (my brother's son)


Me and Mom! yay!

Amelia

Amelia is now taking gymnastics and belly dance. She has really started liking belly dance again and has been asking to go to classes to learn. She has picked it up very quickly!

Clubhouse! Amelia has a room she plays in with her friends. They store the Barbie's in there and they draw on the walls. Wished I had something like that when I was a kid!

Amelia at the UALR library. She goes to school with me when she is out. For some reason she just loved my reasoning across the disciplines class!

I gave Amelia a haircut....it was just time to do it. I bought some hair scissors at the wig shop and commenced to cutting!

A few updates.

Amelia is back in gymnastics. She'll probably eventully move from gymnastics to cheerastics but for now she does the traditional gymnastics. I take Zumba class while she does gymnastics.

Amelia got her ears pierced! She is growing up!

Amelia's clubhouse. We have a room in our house that is just ....well....we aren't sure. So Amelia has claimed it as her clubhouse. She has her Barbies in there and she loves to draw on the walls! I wished I had a clubhouse when I was a kid!

At Ali Baba's Hookah Cafe. The place gets packed later in the night. All the tables get full and it gets harder to dance with all the smoke and patrons. It's a blast! I'm having a fun time and I am making some extra dollars doing something that I love!

Snow! Egypt! Working Out!

Catching snowflakes!

Amelia and Dougie!

Let it snow!

Sweet Amelia!

Snowball fight!

All the neighbors came out and we had a snowball fight!

Too slick to drive....we hiked over to EZ Mart to get some junk food and some milk!

Laundry baskets work great!

Amelia having so much fun and Sheba chasing after her!

We got slammed with snow and rain! They are calling for more tomorrow! Amelia and I are on day 2 of no school Doug hasn't been to work (thank goodness for personal time!) We have been having so much fun playing outside! We have a new neighbor and she has a 7 year old daughter and she and Amelia have been attached at the hip. Lots of good play time!

After much loooooong discussion, pros & cons, etc etc........I decided I will go to Egypt in June 25 thru July 9 with Princess Farhana's Eternal Egyptian tour. It will be amazing. It includes the hotel which is an old palace. The Ahlan Wa Sahlan festival, opening gala show, fabulous morning buffets, Guided Tour of the Pyramids, Sphinx, and Cairo Museum (including lunch), Cairo By Night Dinner Cruise on the luxurious 5 Star Nile Maxim floating supper club (with lots of belly dance),5 Star Nile Cruise to Upper Egypt which includes the airline, then sail to Kom Ombo, Edfu, Esna, and Luxor Guided tours in air-conditioned coaches will take us to the High Dam, Temple of Philae (Isis Temple), Temple of Sobek and Haroeies, and to the West Bank for the Valley Of The Kings and the exquisite Deir El Bahari of Queen Hatshepsut which includes all meals! Plus side trips to the ancient Khan El Khalili Bazaar, Al Tanoura Egyptian Heritage Troupe whirling Dervish show and optional additional trips to monuments and antiquities in and around Cairo, such as Memphis and Sakkara, The Citadel of Mohammed Ali, Coptic Cairo, City of The Dead, Manial Palace and more!

...........oh I can't wait! And the cool part is that I'll be doing belly dancer's portraits in the old palace. I can't wait to be the "it girl" doing photos for all the dancers from around the world!

And I'm now on week 5 of my workouts. I have to workout even MORE since I know I'll be going to Egypt. I need to be in the best shape so I can keep up with all the dancers for 2 weeks! I'm on day 40 of NO pop and I love it. I don't miss it anymore.

Life is good.

Day 15

Day 15, no soda pop. None. Only water and some juice. I still miss Pepsi. I wonder how long it takes to just completely forget about it.

I'm on day 2 of my workouts. I park as far away from campus as I can so I can get in a 1/2 mile walk in each day when I'm not lifting weights.

School has begun again. This semester I have physical anthropology, family violence, cultures of the middle east and reasoning across the disciplines. I hope to maintain my 3.7 gpa....so if I get a C in something that will bring me down. So only A's and B's again, thanks. HA!

This semester seems like it may be a bit harder, more homework and more reading. I like all my instructors except the reasoning class....he's a bit dry.

I have 13 more hours to go until graduation. Then I guess I'm gonna go get my masters. I might as well do it. Hell maybe I'll go past that and be "Dr. Marshall" and teach college level classes. Who knows. But for now....I gotta get that paper that says "YOU did it when so many didn't think you could!"

2010, Day 1

So today is a new decade. A new decade for new goals in life. I don't call them resolutions but I am more goal oriented. Accomplishing something.

Today Amelia and I went to counseling. Amelia has been going for awhile and I go as well. Amelia and I have been through some pretty rough things in life.

#1 goal for 2010 is forgiveness. THAT in itself is 1 goal to strive for. To work towards so that I can put 2009 in the past.

Counselor recommended this book: Forgiving and Reconciling: Bridges to Wholeness and Hope which I have ordered off of Amazon. I like reading so this will be a good book. I want to learn to forgive.

2010 will be the year of healing.

Among other goals....I want to graduate and maintain my 3.7 gpa or get it higher. I want to figure out what I'm doing after graduation, I want to go on a trip, I want to get my bike out a lot more and stay away from soda pop.

I don't think they are big unrealistic goals. I think they are attainable for 2010.

Here's to a new year!

Christmas!

So today was the big day....the day Amelia looks forward to!

This year we didn't do much and I really enjoyed that.

We slept in. I made biscuits and gravy. Amelia opened her stocking and found all the goodies inside!

We actually opened gifts on the 24th. Amelia got some Wii games and the movie UP. She also got computer speakers. I gave her $100 bucks for her birthday which she spent on cute clothes and lots of Hot Wheels and accessories. We had a good time shopping around!

I got Doug some tools. He got me some clothes. We promised each other not to spend much on each other. We prefer to get things together for the house. So we did some small gifts. I really don't need much and didn't really want much. BUT Doug's aunt got me a Razorback snuggie and I'm just totally giggly over it.

Today I made an apple pie from scratch. Peeled the apples, sliced them and mixed all the ingredients. I also made dinner rolls from scratch. I've never used yeast before! I made all kinds of food. Turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed taters and not that powdered crap. I also made orange and cranberry bread from scratch. I was playing Martha Stewart today. Things from scratch taste so much better than stuff from the box!!

Overall we had a nice pleasant and relaxing day.

!

Slumber Party!

http://www.youtube.com/user/lenaregina#p/u/0/4kxHwAVK2X4

This is from Amelia's birthday party! Lots of fun ;-)

She's turning 10!

My little baby is becoming a tween. She turns 10 on the 22nd. TEN! She walks around the house and says "I'm going to be double digits." I promised her when she was 5 that she could pierce her ears when she turned 10 and she has not forgotten. I'm really really sad that she is turning 10 but at the same time I am really really happy. I cannot believe that time is going by so quickly. In 8 years she will be 18. I can't even imagine how fast 8 years will fly by. She will be all grown up and starting her grown-up life. It's so hard for me to fathom.

Adventures in Estate Sales!

http://www.lenaregina.blog.com/

This is a new blog just about estate sales. Amelia and I really enjoy going to them!

New photos of me!

It seems like it has been forever since I have been in front of the camera. I typically don't as I really enjoy shooting. I decided I needed a reminder of what it was like and I felt lost. Josh Barron came by and took these of me. He's a pretty danged cool person and I love hanging out with him. I felt so weird being in front of the lens again....honestly I'm just getting too old for my sillyness but then when I think about it - that is what makes me - ME! Never too old to be silly and I appreciate Josh helping me find my inner-Lena.

Timothy

Timothy has 2 agencies that are really interested in him. One in NYC and another in PA. He needed a clean headshot to send, we did that but we also did some fun stuff as well. Timothy is 6 foot 7! Oh my! Tall, gorgeous and nice!