Those of you who have known me for a while know that while I lived in Los Angeles I did a lot of extra work, commercials, modeling and some acting.. (we are talking about 20 years ago)..I loved that part of my life and sometimes miss how free and exciting that type of work is (as well as very hard work)…

Well, the other day I got a call to be an extra in a new movie being shot here in Ciudad de la Luz Movie Studios called El Diario de Carlota. It was a night shoot and since my mom is here visiting from Madrid and could stay with the kids I said what the hell.

We were only 6 extras and were to be in one of the night shoots inside a bus.  One by one they started to tell all of us where to sit inside the bus except for me.. I was told to just sit outside and wait.. Everyone was just starring at me, I think sort of feeling sorry for me.. probably thinking “poor girl she wasn’t chosen for the shot”.. I sat on a bench and just kept telling myself.. Well, I guess I’m just too glamorous to be on a bus… hahahaha.. trying to make myself feel better.. All kind of thoughts entered my brain.. but after a few minutes I could hear someone yelling “Where is the girl?, where is the girl?” and one of the movie assistance came running up to me and said please come with me right away….

I was told to go inside the bus and sit down where they indicated.. I did just that and as I sat down all the way in the back of the bus, I could see everyone starring at me.. They had sat me down directly behind the two main young actors of the scene... Long story short.. I think if not cut I will probably come out for at least a couple of seconds in the movie.. In the end the other 6 were told to get off the bus and were only in one shot, while I sat there for about 6 hours…

It brought back great memories and kind of lifted my moral a little which at this point in my life I needed….

You all know how I love innovative ideas and products, and how when I find them I always share them with all of you.. Well, my friends, today I want to introduce to you Bugaboo.. (I love the name). Some of you may be very familiar with this company (those of you who are new mommies) and some may not have a clue as to what I’m talking about.. but here goes..

Bugaboo is a car seat and stroller company. But not just any company, their products are exclusive, innovative and trendy. Their website is also one of the most informative sites I have seen in a long time. I specially love their video section, where you can see mini videos of actual customers and how the Bugaboo products fit in to their lives, and their day trip section where a different city is featured and you can follow their map on an adventurous day trip. They have stores all over the world so anywhere you go you will find them.

Their product range is awesome. For example their 3 in 1 style called Cameleon can be adapted as a car seat, a reversible carrycot, and reversable seat. So you pretty much could go anywhere you want and do whatever you need, with just one product. It comes with the chasis (the frame base), the seat , the carrycot, a fabric set, mosquito net, rain cover, underseat bag plus a 2 year warrantee. It comes in variety of colors that you can just mix and match to your needs. Perfect for newborns up to 17 kilos (37.5 pounds).  The Bugaboo bee is a compact stroller for parents on the go. It is compact, and easy to use. With it you get, the chasis, sun canopy, underseat basket, rain cover, DVD, and of course the 2 year warantee.

You can view and compare all the products in their website and choose the best one for you. And next year they will feature their new Paul Frank 2009 collection, you just can’t miss..So there you have it, if you haven’t chosen the right stroller or car seat for your little one yet, I suggest you give Bugaboo a look, I’m sure you will be convinced and will  not need to look any more…

 
I’m seriously thinking of ending this blog due to lack of activity. I first started this blog so that all my friends and family could stay up to date with all our adventures here in Spain, but I could see by the stats that only a handful of poeple get here and by the looks of it, get here by accident and  most are not here long enough to possibly read anything. It takes a lot of effort to write everyday (well, I don’t do that anymore), and so I will see what happens in the rest of the year and make a decision.

Anyway, to the matter of this post..the winner of the “Guess Matt’s age” contest is... You guess it, my only loyal reader, the only one who ever dares leave comments… the only one who did leave a comment…..the very own Mary Tery!! Although she did not guess right, by default, since she was the only one to leave a comment she wins.. (Matt’s age is..does it really matter now?)

I will be setting up M.T with her very own blog which I hope has more success than mine.

Bella learns how to crawl, check, learns how to walk, check, learns how to ride a bicycle, check, and now we can say bella learns how to swim, check!! Yes, a 15 day intensive swimming course and she is ready to go… Isabella is a very quick learner and our neighbors joke around that if the Olympics were not next month she could have easily entered and won a medal..hahaha, other predict she will be walking on water by the end of the summer.. But for now we are just happy she knows how to swim.

She is very scared of the water (we think, it’s the only thing she is afraid of), so it took her longer to let go and get swimming, but her fears are slowly going away, so let’s see what she will do next week!!.. Above is a quick video of her new achievement..

Ok, so I have a couple of geeky teckie friends who come up with all sorts of neat things. This one was sent from an ex co worker who is always thinking of something new… I actually think this was a work project. Click HERE and enjoy!!!

Anyway, for those of you who don’t speak Spanish all you need to do is enter two names…. and the rest you will see..

I had heard of Facebook but I haven’t really had time to join or play with it, but today Maruchy (thanks) invited me to join and I said why not! I don’t have anything else to do..hahahaa… other than study for the Spanish driver’s test, pick up the kids from school (now at  pm) cook lunch, take them to their friends house, clean the house, write on this blog, actually work!! anyway, I’m all signed up, click here to join Facebook ..See you there.

When I first heard this word, I thought to myself, Twitter? Is that a bird sound? But, little by little I came to find out it is actually another way to stay in touch with friends through the internet. You basically sign up, fill in your profile and then now and then you write a little note about what you are doing during the day. You can look up all your friends and communicate with them this way.. Sort of like this blog but on a more constant basis…

I know, I know …way too much information.. Well, its the tecnology age so you are either in it or your are on your way out..For now, I have chosen to join this community and chat away with my buddies… Give it a try it’s fun…

When talking to different people who are not as “obseesed” as I’m with the computer, I realize that there are certain programs I use that are very useful (thanks to my tech friends who pass along all their knowledge) that most people are not aware of.. So, I would like to dedicate this post to some of those….

First things first I currently use Firefox instead of internet explorer because it has a lot of cool extensions that you can easily add such as a multi language spell checker. Another great tool is del.icio.us an online favorites saver where you can store your favorite websites and be able to retrieve them from any computer. Google Reader is also a must for me to gather all my favorite blogs. I also change to google mail because within it you have access to online calendar, spreadsheets, word, notebook and presentation tools.., so you don’t need to take your own computer everywhere, everything is saved as you go..As far as online picture storage I’m currently using Picasa but I might change to flickr because the offer a lot more storage space for free, where in Picasa once you reach a limit you must pay a yearly fee.

Not to mention all the tools I use for my blogs.. but that is another post I think. I leave you with the above to see if there is anything in there that might help you speed things up a bit in your life.

I must say that this idea of changing my blog was not such a bright one, I didn’t realize how much work it was going to be and how difficult. I’m very lucky to have a couple of people who are helping me and putting up with all my questions and more questions…You know who you are..and Thank You.

I hope to finish setting up this blog in a couple of weeks and then finishing up others I have on the works.. As soon as they are complete I will let everyone know..

Please leave me comments and let me know what you think…And a big Thank You to Denise, who was brave enough to leave a comment!!

photo flickr by red

This is not really news but for Isabella it is a big deal, she finally got the hang of swinging herself on a swing and now she just loves to swing as high as she can. We can’t get her down, she feels very grown up. I realize that everyday that passes by the kids learn one more thing. It is so hard to keep up with all of their achievements now.

This summer we have to major tasks to achieve the first one is teaching Bella how to swim and the second is taking Marco’s training wheels off, although I think at the pace we are going, Isabella will take hers off way before Marco. But for now we will concentrate on these two wonderful things and I will report at the end of the summer how we did