Fears and thankfulness.

About a month ago, we lost a dear friend of ours. He was brutally murdered in fender bender fight. He was young, a great husband and a wonderful father.

Ever since this episode happened, I am trying to enjoy every single moment with the people I love and I thank God every day for all the blessings that I have.

I am sorry I won´t be able to see my family before my trip to France, I am sorry I can´t spend more time with Pau*lo, since he is traveling all week, until God knows when. I long to be closer to my friends, that most of the time have crazy lives like I do.

Sometimes, I am just afraid that I am so happy, that something bad will happen with me or someone I love. I pray for God to protect us and to keep sending blessings in our lives.

So, I am trying to live my life as best as I can, enjoying every single moments with simple things, because we don´t know what are HIS plans for us.

Love,

Fabiola

Le Project Français – Part II

As you can see from my title, the French Project is really taking over my life. It is cutting my blog time way too short. Actually, it is cutting my free time to almost none.

I put myself on a really strict schedule during the week. I am trying to squeeze all types of errands during the week so I can have a weekend free of errands. This is my second week on my crazy schedule and it has been working so far. The basic schedule goes as follow:

5:00 am – Get up, shower, eat breakfast, get ready for work

6:00 am – Study French

7:00 am – Leave the house for work.

8:00 am – 6:30 pm – Work

7:30 pm – Curves

8:15 pm – Get home back from the gym

8:30 pm – Shower

8:45 pm – Dinner, TV and a little reading to slow down

10:00 pm – Bed

I don´t have time to make mistakes, but I found out that if I follow the items with discipline, my French will improve, I will be more fit and lean, I am more productive at work and I will have free time on weekends. So, I just have to keep up with the schedule until I fly to Paris in about a month.

Talking about Paris, I will be leaving Brazil on June 20^th and I will fly back on July 18^th. I will have a crazy month over there, due to a lot of work, but I am hoping for some free time, so I can see my friends who live there and I can go back to my favorite places.

Have a niece weekend,

Fabiola

My kitchen and Laundry Room

Here is my kitchen....

If your are wondering, why I have a niche on my kitchen.It is the place for a dishwasher ; )
This other niche is for a new microwave. When we got our stuff out of storage, ours was in such a bad shape that we gave it away and we were left with a empty niche.

As Laural from Laural out Loud wisely put, the laundry rooms in Brazil are always put right on the side of the kitchen.... and mine follows the rule. My laundry room is really small, but it has been very effective for us. I hope you enjoyed my kitchen.



I will be back with pictures of my bedroom, living room and dinning room.

Fabiola

São Paulo and our house

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and South America, and is the 3rd out of the largest metropolitan regions of the world. The city is the capital of the State of São Paulo, the most populous Brazilian state. It is also the richest city of Brazil. The name means Saint Paul in Portuguese. São Paulo exerts strong regional influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment. The city has many renowned landmarks. The Immigrant's Hostel greeted millions of immigrants as they came to Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Paulista Avenue, in Downtown, is the most important financial center of the country and South America.
The city is home to the São Paulo Stock Exchange (BOVESPA). São Paulo has been home to several of the tallest buildings in Brazil, including the Mirante do Vale Building. With an estimated population of 11,105,249 residents within an area of 1,523 square kilometres (588 sq mi), São Paulo is the most populous city in the Southern hemisphere. The city also lies at the center of the heavily urbanized São Paulo metropolitan area, which, with an estimated 21,616,060 people in 2008 over 7,944 square kilometres (3,067.2 sq mi), is the largest metropolitan area in the nation.
Depending on which definition is used, the São Paulo metropolitan area is ranked as either the first or second most populous in the Americas, just comparable to Mexico City.
People from the city of São Paulo are known as paulistanos, while paulistas designates anyone from the whole of São Paulo state, including the paulistanos.
The city's Latin motto, which it has shared with the battleship and the aircraft carrier named after it, is Non ducor, duco, which translates as "I am not led, I lead". A famous nickname for the city is "Sampa". São Paulo is also known for its unreliable weather, the size of its helicopter fleet, architecture and multitude of skyscrapers.
The population density ranks around 7,216 people per kilometer square, it is around (18,689.4/sq mi).
With that said, the cardinal rule is for families to live in apartment buildings and it is becoming harder and harder for people to live in actual houses. They became such luxury items that when you find one house, they hardly fit in your pocket (at least for the middle working class).
So, when we started house hunting in 2007, we dreamed with a house. Pau*lo didn´t want to hear the word apartment. Everything we saw was way out of our league. I was ready for an apartment, but Pau*lo was really strong minded and today I am so glad he was.
So we found our beautiful condo. The houses are small, if you compare with the American standard, but they are quite big if you compare with the average European houses. Our subdivision has 72 houses, if you look at them, you will think they are one house, but they are actually 2 houses. The house on the left is ours. We don´t have neighbors yet. There are a few renovations going on over the house on the right, so we hope we will have neighbors soon.


I guess that is it for today.

I will post a few pictures of my kitchen soon.

Have a nice week
Fabiola

Sunday Rituals - also called Sunday Lunches

I come from an Italian background family. So the Sunday lunches were always a big deal (they still are at my mom´s house). So, I always tried to recreate this feeling at my house. It is becoming harder and harder, since I started to work on the French Project (more on that later). So, I found that a few of my favorite recipes can be made with a lot of short cuts and they can taste as good as ever.

So, for today, I give it a shot on my Beef Stroganoff recipe….

2 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion thinly chopped

1 ¼ pound of fillet mignon cubed (by the butcher);

1 Tbs of mustard

1 Tbs of ketchup

½ cup of tomato sauce

½ cup of water

¾ cup of double cream

2 Tbs of brandy

½ cup of mushroom from a jar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown the meat with the onion and the olive oil.

Add the mustard, the ketchup, the tomato sauce and the water. Let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the brandy and “put fire” on it (I have no clue how to say this operation in English).

Add the mushrooms

When you are ready to serve it, add the cream. Serve it with white rice and a few potato chips.

Wordless Wednesday - Paulo and his mom

Weekend in Review

I think it will become a standard post on Mondays, since this is the second Weekend in Review post ; )
We had another extended weekend. Like many European countries (Germa*ny, Fran*ce) the Labor Day in Brazil is celebrated on May 1st. So that is just an explanation about another extended weekend.
So, we had my MIL for lunch on Friday. I did this wonderful dish with chicken breast and Catupiry Cheese (it is a creamy Brazilian cheese). Unfortunately, I didn´t take any pictures. But since everyone loved, I will do it again pretty soon, so I will post it later.
It was a wonderful afternoon. I talked a lot with her. As I said to her, my biggest concern with her, it that she spends a lot of time by herself and I am worried that she gets depressed. She is trying to get herself busy, but it will take some time for her to adjust in the widow life.
On Saturday, we had a few errands to run, like the standards: manicure, dry clean and grocery shop.
Since we were in the “fun mood”, we went to the mall and ended up having a wonderful lunch at Applebee*s – I love their food since I went to US for the first time back in 19??????. And we went to see “Wolve*rine”. I just loved the movie. Hugh Jackman is so handsome and the movie is great. Since I NEVER read the comic books, I felt like the pieces of the puzzle that were missing are now in place. If you like it, I recommend it .
And I bought a new cell phone. I love smart phones; I am actually addicted to them. Since I need a list for everything, they are my best friend. But I REFUSE to pay the big bucks for something that will be outdated and it will cost a fraction of the original price in just a few weeks. So I researched and I settled with the Samsung I617 Preto (Black). I am in love with it… I still have some set up to get done, but I am happy with my new toy.

Now I have to get ready for bed, because I have a plane to catch early in the morning tomorrow.

Have a nice week.

Fabiola

Just to let you know, this will be my second summer in Paris. I was there in 2007 for two months and it looks like this will be my second Parisian Summer.