THE INFAMOUS COVER OF VOGUE.

Saturday I was talking to Amner about the latest cover of Vogue. Yeah, you know! that one that everybody is talking about with those two people on the cover, Yep that one!

I have been very critical of the choices the magazine has make in the last couple of years but I usually just laughed it out and if I don't agree with the cover I just don't buy the magazine. But this weekend was different I couldn't get the damn cover out of my mind, I keep thinking about my two girls idolizing a woman that became famous thanks to a sex tape and I cannot let that happen.

See my favorite thing to do growing up was hiding in my mom's closet wearing her red platforms, a pearl necklace and reading her Vogue magazines that was my very first taste of fashion. I would get lost for hours and their beautiful fashion editorials, that was way back then when Vogue meant class, elegance and style.

Now almost 20 years later, thanks to the culture we live in now, my Bella and Azul don't even have a chance to do such harmless childish things like I used to do.

After woman have fight so hard and for so long to have equal rights, and even though there is so many beautiful, intelligent woman doing awesome stuff for the environment, poverty, politics etc, we fail them and instead we glamorize trash like Miley Cirus, Lindsay Lohan, The Kardashians and all of the other ones. We are passing the wrong message to our daugthers.

See, my husband and I are working very hard in raising independent and why not world changing woman, we tell them how incredible smart and powerful they can be, we share our culture with them, I read books about how to talk to them, Amner has a great relationship with them, we show them positive and realistic role models and my favorite one with Bella as of this morning is how she doesn't have to wait to be "rescue" by the handsome prince, I told her "I believe in you and you should believe it too, that you can do anything, anything you want" 

But sometimes it doesn't matter how hard parents work when we live in a society that calls a couple like this an "Icon couple" they are not an icon they are one of the reasons why our world is so messed up. 

The country has no lasting respect for people like them because they haven't earned it, if what Vogue wanted to do was to put a couple that has impact our society they sure are a lot more deserving couples out there.

I do love fashion and I used to have tremendous admiration for Anna Wintour then this happen and for the life of me I can't understand how an editor of her stature could jeopardize the reputation of such a magazine by putting these two, they are not even fashion trendsetters, they are cheap and tasteless fashionwise, but then I remember that the reason why I love fashion is other and that before Wintour there was Diana Vreeland, the real reason why I love the magazine.

As of this last cover I would not be purchasing Vogue anymore if I did, it would be against what I believe in and the most important one is that I can't expose my beautiful girls to anymore trash, I love my family and as a mom is my duty to protect them, my girls have a beautiful mind and a beautiful inside and I will fight to keep it that way.

Laura.

NEGATIVITY VS POSITIVITY.

I been thinking about this post for a couple days now but somehow I can't seem to be able to write it the way it feels in my heart, at the beginning my idea was to just let my heart out and complain about my life and everything that happened last week but then it came to me that I am not that only human in this earth so I am obviously not the only one having a shitty week am I right? and at the moment it hit me that I didn't wanted to be another damn negative person that brings people down. But you know what I am a very negative person I don't want to be one, but man, sometimes it's hard to stay up bit when you are home alone with three year old twins all the time and you can't take them outside to play because it doesn't stop snowing and it's freezing outside see here I go with my negativity, so let's stop.

You see last week was one for the books, I'm not going to give you the details to not bored you, but it was so bad and I was such a mess that I cried Friday when my sewing machine broke down (yes, real tears) I mean that sewing machine had been with me for the last 8 years c'mon we did three fashion shows together but oh well she is dead now and like my husband told me that same Friday night instead of thinking about how bad it is that it broke down why don't you start looking for the new machine you want because we are going to buy you a new one an awesome one that one that has all the stitches you need (Why does he always says the right things?) my man really knows that way to my heart.

Saturday morning I got up with kids I made my coffee and I look through the window and it was snowing, yes more snow! so I laughed and then I sat down in the couch with my kids to watch cartoons.

My weekend was everything that my week was not, it was relaxing, fun, with lots of delicious food, with a lot of cuddles it was very low key we didn't got out of the house more than twice one to work and another one to get bagels it was the perfect reminder for me that we have a beautiful family, that I really don't have anything to complain about, I'm the mother of two little ones and so I cannot afford to ruin everything with my negativity, my monsters need me, Amner needs me and I need to be better for them.

Sunday morning I wrote a list I tittled it "10 ways to defend myself against negativity" is on the front page of my planner as a reminder so I don't fall off the positive wagon again. I will share it with you here just in case, maybe one day you will need it too!

1. Don't take other's people negativity personal.
2. Spend more time with positive people.
3. Be the positivity you want to see in the world.
4. Change the way you think.
5. FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS. 
6. Love whoever is around to be loved.
7. Provide support to whoever needs it.
8. Realize that life is a serious of ups and downs
9. Concentrate in TODAY.
10. Let go and move on when you must.

Lots of love and positive vibes from me to you! 

BESOS!!!

LOVELY SPACES.

Remember I kind of mention that we were moving? well, we found a place, the thing is that if you ask me if I love it? my answer would be; it will do for the next year! what can I say I'm hard to please or like my husband would say "impossible to please".

Not so impossible because we did look into a lot of places, places that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE but guess what? none of those places accept dogs and in case you don't remember we happen to have a very fat dog named Frida. What I am about to say it's kind of cruel but if I don't tell you Amner is going to call me on it, I told Amner and Bella that I was going to leave our front door open so Frida would run away and now they say that I am a horrible human beign. Trust me if you saw the lofts and apartments that we were looking at you would of said the same thing, there for a second I tough about getting ride of the twins and Amner too, just so I could live there (joke).

Our family has come long ways, we have lived in not so pretty apartments and houses but we are always together and somehow we always figure out how to make it a happy place for us to live in, Amner always makes me look at things into perspective and this new place is exactly what we need right now, it may not be the place of my dreams but moving there means that in about a year we can start building the house of our dreams and that makes me really excited about our future.

So I am moving to the two bedroom apartment and I am not going to complain about it instead I'm going to focus my energy into making it a lovely space for us.

Have a wonderful day!!

Laura.

P.S Maybe a few complaints like, fuck packing and fuck moving. Ok now I am done.

ADVENTURE AWAITS...

This book has move with me to five different places in the last five years(I am the queen of moving)and it has never been read, once way before the babies, when I live in a tiny studio with wood floors and french doors I started reading it but I never made it pass page eight, I folded the corner of the page the last time I read it and stills there. 

As we get ready to move out of our little green house with orange doors, I made a promise to myself to read it before I move once again. 

I have mix feelings about our new move, I know is a new adventure but I have a feeling that I am always going to miss this house, I mean my kids called "home" oh well is just a place right? what matters is the people inside my home and so we will follow Amner to whatever he take us even if is a two bedroom apartment because at the end "life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful".


Let the adventure begin...



Laura.


You can find the book here  

AU REVOIR 2013...

A couple days ago I told Amner that 2013 was going to go on our books as an epic year, he agreed with me, today is the last day of 2013 and I couldn't be happier that the damn year is over. 

Don't get me wrong 2013 was pretty sweet, I mean I married the love of my life and I potty train the kids (can I get a hell yeah for that??) but our family kind of had more downs then ups, from Amner going to jail, car problems, money problems and me making the biggest mistakes of my life. Today I don't feel like going into details of all that happen because going back to everything hurts me and it's not like I can travel on time and change it right? but believe me if I could, I would do it.

This morning at breakfast surrounded by my little family, I came to the realization that life happens and even do we screw up a little, I do feel that I've learned and I've grown and that on 2014 I will try harder every day to be and do better. Tonight at midnight I will laugh about everything and leave it behind and you better believe that I'm going to make 2014 my year!! 


^^JANUARY^^

^^FEBRUARY^^

^^MARCH^^

^^APRIL^^

^^MAY^^

^^JUNE^^

^^JULY^^

^^AUGUST^^

^^SEPTEMBER^^

^^OCTOBER^^

^^NOVEMBER^^

^^DECEMBER^^

Happy New Years my dear friends, I wish I could hug everyone of you that read us!!

Laura.

CINCO THINGS THAT ARE MAKING ME VERY HAPPY TODAY.

1. Forever and always my amazing husband, he makes me a very happy woman!

2. My children telling each other that they are cool, I don't know who they get that from!

3. This commercial for coke, showing parenthood at it's best found via house of habit. 

4. Looking at this and thisand wishing Santa brings them to mama ;)

5. A strong cup of coffee while I watch my kids dance to born to be alive.


Adios!

Laura.

TUESDAY MORNING INTENTIONS.

"BE YOU, BUT COOLER"

FIVE THINGS THAT MAKE US HORRIBLE PARENTS.

 1. We feed our kids donuts a lot of donuts! You see I'm a donut junkie and since Amner is being with me for 6 years he has become a huge donut fan too, so it's only normal that my kids drug of choice are donuts. We believe that you can't buy happiness, But you can buy donuts. And that's kind of the same thing isn't? Once I told Amner that my only wish in life will be to eat a donut for breakfast everyday and never get fat, can you imagine that? that would be such a good life.

2. We don't take them to the Pumpkin patch, I know that sounds so horrible right? well if people wouldn't annoyed the crap out of us by filling our IG feed with "the perfect" pumpkin patch pictures maybe we would considered it. But c'mon who ever posts those pictures you know there is a whole other story behind it, like your kid crying bloody murder because he wanted the cute little pumpkin, not the big one that you want for "the perfect" picture. This is what we did we went to walmart and bought them six little pumpkins they like them so much that Luca even kisses his good night.

3. We don't get them crazy expensive store bought Halloween costumes, we just make them ourselves. We have fun coming up with ideas and then we let our imagination do the rest, plus if you know us you know that everyday is Halloween in this house.

4. We failed on teaching them Spanish first :( but hey they speak very good Spanglish.

5. We played The doors, pink floyd, Wu Tang, Frankie Lymon, Beethoven, Taylor Swift and we let them played drums with pots and pans and guitar with the broom because we like to believe that's how rockstars got started.

I can probably come out with like ten other horrible things that we do as parents but I am going to just live it at that. I guess the point of this post it's just to tell everybody out there that it's ok if your kid is not on private school, it's ok if you co-sleep, it's ok if they don't have the latest wood toy, it's ok if you yelled sometimes, it's ok if you have a beer or a glass of wine, it's ok because parenting it's not easy. You know the more people that try to judge us as parents the prouder I feel about being the parent that I am, because I seriously DO NOT GIVE A DAMN about what people think, as a mom I believe that I have developed my own style with my kids, I don't care for tips from other perfect mothers, I'll rather trust my own instincts, my kids are going to be complicated, they are going to have bad days and they probably would make me cry but they will be amazing too, just like every other human. 

ahhhh! venting feels really good!! 

Laura.
XO

TUESDAY MORNING INTENTIONS.

"Be Daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary."

Cecil Beaton.

BUY ONE GET ONE FREE.

Monday morning at 6:15 am alarm clock  starts beeping,  awww! you horrible thing shut up! all I wanted  to do was cover my head with the blankets and keep sleeping. I am usually always ready for Mondays but not yesterday.

I got out of bed with a horrible headache, my throat hurt actually everything hurt even my nails. There is nothing that I hate more than being sick, I don't  take any  medicine so I relay on vitamin C, and lots, lots of teas and soups sometimes my recovery takes a little longer but I rather suffer a little more than putting all the crap in my body.

I took Bella to school and on the way back home I made a list on my mind of things that I was going to do to make me feel better it look something like these:

• Drink lots of tea.
• Make a veggie soup, maybe my favorite southwest bean soup yum!!
• Grab a couple blankets and make the sofa comfortable.
• Start reading my new Frida Kahlo book.
• SLEEP, SLEEP AND SLEEP.
• Don't forget to drink lots of water.
• Call my mom, she always makes me feel better.

Then I got home, look at the back of my car and there they were, a couple of monsters full of energy, and then I remember oh shut! they are my kids, the list I made in my mind was dumb, there was no possible way I was going to be able to read or sleep, because I happen to have kids and a very fat dog,  which was already waiting at the door for me to feed her. Instead of tea I made myself a second cup of coffee to be able to keep up with them, I made the kids breakfast, well that's actually a lie because I just handle each one a bowl of cereal.

After they were done, I ask them if they wanted to watch a movie of course they say yes (this was my opportunity for the hot cup of tea and to park it on my sofa) to my surprise they didn't care for the movie, they keep fighting about the smallest stuff, it was war between the two of them. I scream a few times, that only made my throat hurt even more but didn't fix the problem between them.

For a moment there I found myself shouting at Luca "I'm going to sell you on Craigslist" on my mind I could see the add, the tittle will be  "BUY ONE GET ONE FREE"  and It would say something like these: cute, little twins for sale, they are driving me crazy and I can't do it anymore. If you pay for one you can have the other for free. call or email if interested.

I got a giggle out of my imaginary add and then I felt bad for even thinking that, but I didn't meant that or did I?? I mean my life would absolutely suck without them. 

I ask myself WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU WOMAN? why are you screaming? why are you trying to sell your kids? I freaked out and called my mom, she offer right away to bring us real food and she told me that I wasn't a horrible mom that I was just sick and maybe a little tired. Oh the woman, I tell you she is my SUPERHERO! my everything!!

After I ate, I email Amner and I told him that I was miserable and that I wish he was home with me, to my surprise he left work and he came home to me, I felt really bad at first because he left work and here he was taking care of the kids and now me. He made me soup and kiss my forehead alot but I couldn't help to I feel weak and lazy, I was mad at myself for making him come home, what kind of mom am I? 

I have a problem with  asking for help, I don't like it, I never have. I don't think I am super mom NOT AT ALL! but I do try every single day to be the best mom, wife, friend, sister and daughter.

I sometimes drive myself crazy, with cleaning the house, laundry, making dinner, work, bathing the kids, putting them down for naps, reading stories, taking Frida out, I hope you are aware that I am just venting right now ;) yeah, it may be a lot sometimes but I bid there is other mom's that do even more than me, so why am I even complaining right? I don't know why I'm  complaining, I actually love it, I love making dinner every night so we can enjoy it together, I like cleaning the house, I like it when smells pretty and it looks pretty, everything about my life is pretty darn awesome right now but I must tell you that all the spoiling by my mom and man yesterday felt so good, I could definitely get used to it.

I feel a lot better than yesterday now, and I am about to go read some books with my "NOT FOR SALE" kids.

Wishing you all a happy healthy week!!

XO

LAU.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Is it Friday yet? this week is been kind of slow around these parts, so I have found myself daydreaming about packing the basics and putting the kids on the car and take them on a road trip to the desert. Just like last spring, we literally packed our bags, woke up the kids Saturday morning and drove off with no place in mind, we end up spending the weekend in Chicago and if you ask me, that has been one of my favorite adventures. It's a weekend I will never forget.

A road trip sounds nice doesn't? but since that is not an option that we have right now, I can tell you my plans for this weekend are to take a bike ride with my little family, maybe get my mom to watch my monsters so I can go sit down on a patio with my handsome man and sip on margaritas, go see my Abuelita that is here visiting from Mexico and do some thrifting.

I'm glad we still have good weather to do it all! 

I love pinterest but I still grab my magazines at night and rip the pages for inspiration.

I Can't stop watching this video I love them so much!

Bella has a cute video blog she ask us to do it for her, she comes up with the video ideas, Amner records them and I upload the videos, it's a family affair.

I been trying to take care of myself a little more so I been trying some of these they are yummy!

I'm a little bit in love with a vintage dress

Obsessed over her closet.

Azul needs these boots :) and Luca needs these please papi!!

Because my story makes me special, please read it it's amazing.

I found the desert picture above in here.

I hope you have lots of plans for the weekend, but for now happy wednesday!

Besos,
Lau.

LITTLE STYLE & A LITTLE SOMETHING ABOUT THE TWINS...

Azul is wearing: a dress made by me & Tiny Tillia shoes, Luca is wearing a gap polo, Thrifted suspenders, bowtie made by me, The childrens place shorts & Tiny Tillia boots.


The most amazing part about being a stay home mama, is that I get to literally see how my kids change daily. Azul is a talking little bird I swear there is not a minute where she is quiet, She sings when she is in the bathroom and says that she is going to be a ballerina that makes me oh so very happy, I can wait to take her to her first ballet class. 

Luca, where do I start! well he is my wild one, we call him savage boy if that tells you something, he really loves super heroes, he makes me think that I may be raising an artist his favorite thing is to paint which means my walls and beige sofa are never safe, but his eyelashes and kisses kill me, so he gets away with a lot of stuff.

I had a meeting last week and I was gone for a little over 4 hours, when I came back they hug me and kiss me like if they hadn't see me for days. I read them a story and put them to bed, when I was kissing Azul she told me "no more wok mami" I kind of told her a little white lie and told her that I was not going to go to work anymore (now that I think about it, that was wrong). I don't know why I didn't just took the time to explain to her that sometimes I have to go to work, maybe because it felt so good to know that they miss me and that they still need me, because lately they like to act so big that sometimes I feel like they are not my babies anymore.


I go back to work for Quinceañeras magazine this week, which means Azul and I are going to have a little conversation, I'm very excited about working for them again, one of the things I love is that I can take the kids with me anytime, but I also know that papi is awesome with them so if they stay at home I know they will be just fine. I just have to be ready to clean the mess.


XO.
Lau.

LOVE IS NOT LOGICAL...

Let's talk about soul mates and love stuff should we? 

I have been in a relationship with Amner for 6 years, he is the best father I have ever met, he is an incredibly inspiring person and he is my biggest support. There is no secret there that I am crazy in love with him, (what can I say he has A LOT of charm) I can tell you a bunch of amazing things about him and our relationship and I can also tell you a whole other bunch of bad things, because we are not perfect but that's what makes a relationship work.

Relationship's, love, soul mates all of that can be kind of a funny thing.

I believe in soul mates, I truly believe that a soul mate is a person with whom you are unexplainable drawn to be in relationship and on my case I believe my soul mate came into my life to make me grown and expand into the best version of myself.

Now that doesn't mean that a relationship will last forever, or that is going to be a walk in the park. In fact, you can assume that you are going to come up against some challenges with your soul mate. I recently read that "Where there is potential for the greatest love there is also the potential for the greatest pain" Soul mates relationships include both.

I know, I know no one ever wants this to be true. None of us do trust me. We all want all the love without the pain, we want the most magical and romantic love story without breakdowns of course. But it isn't possible.

Many people just quit a relationship when things get tough, but after a few experiences between my Amner and I. I can assure you that challenges aren't necessarily a bad thing, I think it's supposed to happen this way, things have to come to the surface so they can be changed.

I think the way that Amner and I move beyond our issues, is by choosing love. I think that by doing that we see each other beyond our mistakes, we see the potential in each other, even when I cannot see it in my or vice versa. It means we have to be kind, compassionate, understanding and forgiving, even when it's to hard to do. It means focusing on the good in somebody else rather than the bad. It means committing to work through our stuff.

Amner my soul mate you are who I want to grow old with, you are the love of my life,I know it hasn't been easy and that it's been a challenge in many ways, but that's OK because all the difficultly is just an opportunity to make us grow.

The next time that you question if you have a soul mate or not, maybe you should take a look around at the person or people you are closest too. I believe they are your soul mates, Carl Jung said that "in all disorder (there is) a secret order."

People who are in our lives are there to help us become better humans, to expand and grow in love.

Just don't forget that you have to be up for a challenge.

Love, 

Laura.

ONCE UPON A TIME...

Do you remember reading books when you were a little kid and then thinking that the story was too good to be true? I do, I remember reading them and I also remember watching movies or stuff in the news and thinking that would never happen to me. But as it turns out I was wrong.

On March 14 of 2013 at 9:45 am, I received the phone call that would literally change our lifes, the house phone ring, I knew it was Amner because he was the only one that would call the house, I hurry to answer I had something to tell him about my mom's birthday. I didn't had a chance to tell him, because he was just calling to tell me that he was being detained by Immigration, because he had an order of deportation.

I remember that he told me that everything was going to be OK, that I had to be strong and that he love me, I don't remember if I even said anything to him, I just remember feeling like I was going to lose him.

Amner was in jail for 68 days, under immigration custody although he committed no crime. We were on hell for 68 days, for 68 days I lie to my kids telling them papi was at work, for 68 days I felt like the worst person in the planet because I couldn't get Amner out of there, for 68 days I didn't knew if my kids were going to grow up without a dad.

My family and Amner's family and all of our amazing friends were a huge support to us, Amner will call me everyday and tell me about his day not all of them were good most of them were very bad, you could tell that as time pass by that he missed his children more and more. He would tell me that his job was to be strong in there and that my job was to be strong outside. He started writing me letters, letters that were beautiful. He would call me "Superwoman" and he would tell me, that we were raising the next generation of "super heroes".

The first time I went to see him, he told me that he had almost forgotten how beautiful I was, and that the dress that I was wearing made me look like a "goddess". I still don't believe that I deserve him. The whole time he was in there, I kept telling myself how could this happen to us? I remember watching the news and seeing families being separated, in most of the cases the parents were always deported and the kids will go into foster care. My heart will always break for those families but I don't why I never tough it could happen to us.

We were one of the lucky and very few families that end up together. 

It's very sad to say this for me but I have live in the United States for almost 10 years and not once before Amner went to jail, I took part of an event supporting an immigration reform, but you know at least we are doing in it now, because we are not scared of our voices being heard anymore and now we get to take Luca and Azul along to teach them how to be peaceful, but powerful people and to always be very proud of where we come from.

This post is getting a little too long, so I will finish this by telling you that if you think that is unjust that families are being torn apart and that humans beings are being treated like animals please support this cause in anyway you can. We are not asking for a lot just to be treated like humans and to have the right to feed our children and not to be compared with drug smugglers or dogs.

I AM NOT A DRUG SMUGGLER OR A DOG, I AM A HARD WORKING MOTHER OF TWO YEAR OLD TWINS, SISTER OF THREE INTELLIGENT BOYS WHICH TWO OF THEM ARE DREAMERS AND DAUGHTER OF THE MOST AMAZING WOMAN, THAT LEFT ALL HER LIFE BEHIND JUST TO BRING ME TO THE USA TO HAVE A BETTER FUTURE.

I will live you with the speech that my beautiful man gave this past Saturday (I can't even tell you how proud I am of him), and I will attach links to some of  organizations that can keep you informed please feel free to add in the comments box if you have any other organizations I would really appreciate it so we can keep everyone informed. And call your senator, tell him that WE NEED A HUMANE IMMIGRATION REFORM NOW!

Laura.

American Friends Service Committee.
Iowa Citizen Action Network.
Iowa Dream Act Coalition
Move On
breakthrough
Iowa Citizens For Community Improvement
League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa