Allie in the South of Spain

Parents in Paris Last weekend my parents came to Paris and as I was able to find a cheap flight, I decided to meet them there. They arrived early on Thursday morning and I flew in that same night. I have been to Paris on several occasions before (once with my sister during the Christmas holidays and another with Jose during our honeymoon) but ended up having a very different experience with this visit. It was pretty great! My parents got a hotel in the Latin Quarter, one of the 20 arrondissements (neighborhoods) that is pretty close to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Since it was too expensive for my vacation budget, I decided to find a youth hostel within walking distance. I have stayed in many hostels before but it has been a while since my last time. This hostel was right on a busy street lined with bars and restaurants so it was fairly noisy at night. Add to that 5 more people in my room who came in at all hours of the night and the result was not much sleep before waking up early

FINALLY!!!! We have finally finished our bedroom. It was the last of all our projects in our apartment that we wanted to accomplish and now it is DONE! I had been holding off for a long time with hanging anything on the walls because I wasn't sure what I wanted exactly. It took one more weekend of motivation and another trip to IKEA, my Mecca, for us to finally complete our bedroom.  Here is how it all started. No furniture, no paint, recently moved in. After the paint then came the contentious construction of our wardrobes (definitely a marriage test if there ever was one). And our bed: We later added a few night stands, curtains, lamps a headboard and a dresser (for some reason I cannot find any pictures of these steps, whoops). Most recently it has been art on the walls and a chair. The final product: So there you have it (though not exactly all the angles). Done for now and no more projects on the horizon. Enjoy these other before and after

The other day I read a really good blog post about bucket lists and how if they are really to serve the purpose of helping guide your life towards goals they should be flexible, changing over time. (Read it here ). It got me thinking. I first wrote my 30 before 30 list a little over a year ago and figure it's about time to re-evaluate the things I decided I wanted to do before the big 3-0 in 2016. So far I have accomplished 12 things with a 13th in the works for next January (a trip to Turkey we have already booked). Priorities change, life throws you curve balls and some things just don't seem as important as before. That being said, I have decided to make some alterations to my original list. The things that I have completed are crossed off. Some things I have left the same, some I have explained a bit more, some will change thus eliminating others. Here goes the new and improved 30 before 30 list: 1. Go on another cruise. We are still checking into the possibilities of an

Did you know that the World Cup soccer tournament starts soon? If you live in a country which revolves around this sport (anywhere outside the US) then chances are you do. Around these parts almost all advertisements are focusing on this big event. (Mostly for televisions and team apparel so that you can follow the action in high def and sporting new duds). Jose has already let me know that he plans on watching all (or as much as he can) of the 64 games soon to be broadcasted. This is going to be my personal hell. But as a good wife I understand that the World Cup only comes around once every 4 years (thank God) and I can appreciate that Jose has been trying to get me excited for it. He first bought me a team USA t-shirt to wear while we cheer on America. Apparently they are in a pretty difficult bracket with Germany, Portugal and Ghana so he has also been preparing me for disappointment. Next game the World Cup sticker album (I wrote about Jose's obsession with these cromos bef