Category: Personal

Health & Wellness, Sincerely, Karina

When your week off from work becomes more work than actual work!

I had this week off as I transition into my new job next Monday and I think I may of got a good dose of what it means to be a housewife! 

Being at home is work – a lot of work! You know, it could have something to do with the fact that I can’t help myself but over commit to everything or maybe you just do not realize how much your personal life is put on hold when you have a 8-5 work life or…. how can you just take a nap when the laundry has been piling up for weeks and well it’s right there and you’re right there!

Sleeping in on your week off is not really an option either….when you have a 5 month old puppy… I mean who doesn’t love getting woken up to a fluffy pup literally stretched out on the top of your head kissing your face so you wake up? (who let him on the bed?– maybe I did when I was asleep??)  I met my friend, Steph to pick up her wedding dress (yay!) the other day and she gave me this off leash dog book… Here are some pages from it…so appropriate for this post!

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So I’m up way earlier than I want to be – but its good. My fiance also got a new job which requires him to travel more – sigh— so he is leaving the same week I start my new job. {picture small bombs exploding in my head}  I need a day care for Fred now.. because who knows if I can come home on lunch anymore —defiantly not on my first week – I know I can figure that small detail out – the real reason is, I cringe every time he has to travel far and for more than 2 days. I know I should be excited for him that he gets to experience different places and better his career – and I am happy – deep deep down I am – but on the surface I guess I am a little selfish— is that what its called when you want him here and not there? Well, I’m working on it …. I am <3 as long as I get some souvenirs, it evens out? HA

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BUT!! I got the world done*[some] accomplishments: Freddy is eating his (dog) food again- on a schedule!, after seeing 5 different places – I found Fred a day care for next week, re-org the guest room (huge step), vacuumed and polished the whole house, repainted dining room table, nightly dinner made, Christmas returns done, laundry washed/folded/put away (3 loads), gave Fred a bath, Groomer appt sched, drug test (for new job), photography class HW done, 4 products under review for blog, created a video post for a new recipe!!(posting soon), caught up with 3 diff groups of friends (finally), found new gym, new bank account, bridal shower gift picked and wrapped, Fred started 1st grade, fixed modeling agency(for me), work on Fred’s 3rd modeling gig (hello J-crew, call me back =), security cam installed (well, yes if some stranger is picking up my precious pup)……..

That’s my little spiel – I’m not even going to go into FULL details because this post would take up half this site- but at 26, I am prepared for children and housewife duties one day{no joke}… Be it my first year owning a home with my fiance(still cant believe I’m engaged!) and owning a dog… some good preparation right there [get yourself those 3 things before you get married and have kids.. amazing practice!!] —a future husband, a furry child and a maintained home! oh and of course, a career!! duh

…and reservation is made for dinner — I am so not cooking tonight!

Happy Friday!!! This week flew by!

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Our Holiday Greeting

This is our Holiday greeting card! Another thing about growing up and living on your own — is sending out these cards to the special people in your life… I love doing that. I even sent one to Freddy’s breeder with a small note updating her about him =) I know its something I would appreciate, so I hope she did too. Merry Merry!How Fred slept after our Christmas Eve-Eve ugly Sweater party. PAWS up!IMG_1617

Monthly Subscription Boxes!

There are so many boxes out there lately – it’s the new thing (or I’m just jumping on the bandwagon now). I’m talking a monthly subscription box filled with makeup,  filled with bras, a box from a stylist (I got Nico trunk club), a box for your cat, a box for your fishing loving brother (Mystery Tackle Box), a box for shaving (Dollar Shave club), food boxes (Plated), natural product boxes, Vegan snack boxes… the list goes on!

So I haven’t got a box for myself (yet), but I’m loving getting them for other people, especially those on my Christmas list— Because seriously it is already in a box – you just need a bow to go on it!

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Freddy is a model puppy or a “Celebripup” for PUPBOX. You can use his special code and get 15% off (Freddy15). So, this is his first month with the box and so far, we’re loving it. In his Holiday Box, he got 2 toys, puppy vitamins (chicken liver flavor), differnt types of healthy training treats, and the best part is it is targeted to his age group – so Freddy being 5 months old, I got tons of training tips geared to his age — practicing Come When Called, for example!

It’s so cute when he gets it and I let him open it himself –totally need to take a video next month =)

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What box will you try this month? Or what have you tried already? Let me know – I am sure there are a thousand more out there that I haven’t even heard of yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My puppy stopped peeing under the dining room table and 13 other little things I’m thankful for.

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With Thanksgiving just around the corner and the madness I’m about to encounter with prepping food, baking pies cleaning up and the bouncing between 2 households (mine and the boys), I am trying to stop myself and not only be grateful for the insanely large amounts of food my family always prepares or that we have a warm house filled with love to eat it all in. I am thankful to spend it with the people I love dearly. I am thankful for having good friends who listen to me vent and always have my back. I am thankful to have a job, although I may not like it, I am glad for all that I have learned and continue to learn. I am thankful for my Prius, which doesn’t cost me a day’s work of pay to fill up and is very reliable. I am thankful for my boyfriend and my puppy, who I get to spend every morning and night with.

All that thankfulness should be more than enough—and it is—but I also wanted to think of the little things that we take for granted. Well— because they occur all the time, like every day or so – we may not appreciate them. I know we aren’t the Pilgrims and don’t really look at Thanksgiving as a time to be thankful – it’s become more about the 3 F’s (food, family, football), but It’s good to realize some of the  day-to-day things going on that we may have become accustomed to without even realizing  until, well you make a list of thankfulness!

Here is my quick list I jotted down – (in no particular order)

I am thankful….

–that the dog stopped peeing under the dining room table – as our house has a small slant to it, that is most noticeable when he pees under there and it slides down to the other end of the room…

–for my amazing boyfriend: who sees me with no makeup, hair a mess, in my sweats and still loves me. And for how hard he works along with getting his MBA at Boston College (late nights) yet still remembers to give me a kiss when he walks in the door.

–for my mom and dad – especially for my mom who has done a complete 180 with Freddy and is not only accepting being a pet-gramma but embracing it. My dad has always been on my side =)

–for my cousin, Jaclyn who always makes sure we stay connected – and keeps calling- even if our conversations are via voicemails.

–that my friends have a group chat going about only things we would laugh at (Bridesmaid quotes, they never get old)

–for chocolate and my spontaneous baking that always comes out delicious. (thank you grandma for that skill)

–for the dog park (so I can have a few minutes to myself after without Freddy attacking me to play)

–that I tried to volunteer at 5 different shelters and they didn’t need my help because they were overwhelmed with the amount of volunteers helping! (It’s always good to know people care about people or about animals)

–that football season is half way over (My boyfriend is a huge fan, I am only because I want to win Fantasy  – but I would rather spend our Sundays doing other things together)

–that my mother likes to shop as much as me and that we have the same size foot!

–for Sunday morning acoustic radio

–that my brother is into golf and wants to go with me!  Also that even though he’s 16, I’m thankful that he still gives me a kiss goodbye in public.

–that my sister keeps our g-chat going with random fun stuff to get us both through those longggg days.

Writing this down- made me realize how many more things I could add to it- and how we tend to focus on what’s missing in our life instead of what’s already there in front of us.

Try it out for yourself – maybe when you finally get the pie in the oven – or you can put the recipe book away- takes a few minutes, but means the world to realize how good you actually have it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Book Club: Choices for Book #3

Happy Friday! Happy Halloween!

We are getting ready to select the next book to read for the Book Club. I can’t believe we are already on book #3, I feel like we just started this club a week ago! It is great to make reading a fun part of your life, even when you feel like there is no time in the day for you to read- trust me, I know! I had to push out our last book discussion a week because I literally had NO time to read with the new puppy and all… but I managed and I loved the last book and I love being a part of such an intellectual conversation about life, happiness, sorrow,love and everything else in between. So, my message to you all -there are millions of books out there…GO READ! …..or better yet, help us choose a book and Read With Us!

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Choices with summaries:

Frog Music – Emma Donoghue

Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead.

The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny’s murderer to justice–if he doesn’t track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers, and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women, and damaged children. It’s the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts.

The Goldfinch– Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch is told in retrospective first-person narration by Theodore “Theo” Decker, who recounts the story of his life thus far. As a thirteen-year-old boy in New York City, Theo adores his energetic, beautiful mother — as do many other people in Manhattan. He thinks of his father, who had walked out on them a year earlier, as an alcoholic, abusive thief. Theo’s life is turned upside down when he and his mother visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see an exhibition of Dutch masterpieces, including her favorite painting, Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch. There, he falls in love at first sight with a red-headed girl who is accompanied by an elderly man. But then a terrorist bomb kills his mother and dozens of other art-loving citizens. Selected of 10 Best Books of 2013 NYTimes Review.

Where’d you go, Bernadette?  Selected 11/3/14

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence–creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

This is Where I Leave You -Jonathan Tropper

The death of Judd Foxman’s father marks the first time that the entire Foxman clan has congregated in years. There is, however, one conspicuous absence: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose affair with his radio- shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva-and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out of control as longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed and old passions are reawakened. Then Jen delivers the clincher: she’s pregnant.

This Is Where I Leave You is Jonathan Tropper’s (One Last Thing Before I Go) most accomplished work to date, and a riotously funny, emotionally raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind-whether we like it or not.

Book to be selected by next week!

Breakfast and Boston Book Festival

image1 (3)After breakfast, I took my Little Sister to the Boston Book Festival at Copley Plaza on Saturday. This is an annual event where readers and writers of all ages can get together to inspire and be inspired by the power of words. This was also a Big For a Day Event, where the Big Sisters Association of Boston organized all the “littles and “bigs” to get together to enjoy the day! I am proud to say I am a volunteer for this wonderful organization and a Big Sister. We did a creative writing workshop where we both got to show our creative side and learned how to use an old fashioned type writer.. those things were hard to type on.. you really need to press down hard – not like the touch sensitive technology we have today…times have changed, for sure!

I had a great day with my little learning about each other and learning about books, aspirations, and dreams. We got some lunch together at the event and I also treated her to… fried oreos! Every kid needs to try these!

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