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The Voice

I strongly believe in following your intuition. This year, for some reason, my intuition told me that I should audition for The Voice. After 10 seasons of being on the air, and even more years of me going on these crazy auditions, now was the time for me to try this out. Why now?

I know myself well enough now to understand that I don’t need to answer the question Why. The answer to that question will reveal itself if I identify, listen and act on my inner voice’s calling. When your inner voice speaks you must listen!

Stressing about your soul’s calling will ultimately push it away and give you more stress. That’s why we have to act! Luckily I was able to identify it on time and I acted. I knew something good would come out of this no matter the outcome.

I picked my audition city and song and here I am. As I write this I am sitting on a park bench at Centennial Park in Atlanta, Georgia. My audition is tomorrow at 11 AM only two blocks from where I stand now, and two blocks from my hotel. Continue reading “The Voice”

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Why I Made the Transition from Full Time Working Mom to Stay at Home Mom

After being a full-time working girl for over 11 years, I am now dedicating my life to being a wife and mom. Whaaat?! After giving birth and coming to terms with motherhood, it’s crazy how priorities change. Everyone tells you about it but you can’t feel the weight of it all until it happens to you.

At first, I was hesitant about making this change. Can we afford it? Am I sabotaging my career’s future? What will I do with my time (what time?) It was a real internal struggle. There were a lot of tears, self fabricated excuses and countless conversations with my incredibly supportive husband who kept saying “whatever you want to do is fine with me”. How I love that man! I wanted him to give me the answer since I was so indecisive, but of course he knows better. The decision was entirely up to me.

The more I thought about it, the more sense leaving my job made. I wanted to enjoy my baby boy and my situation at the moment wasn’t allowing me to embrace that wholeheartedly. Work was stressing me out a lot and I had already experienced several instances or “signs” telling me that a change in career/life was coming.

Alfie and I at my previous job
Alfie and I at my previous job

I started digging deep and and asked myself some juicy questions like; Do I want to continue down this career path? What is the right thing to do? Will I be able to survive emotionally/mentally, without a full-time job? And then ultimately taking a deep breath and asking myself; Is this how I want to live my life? The answer was simply NO. Continue reading “Why I Made the Transition from Full Time Working Mom to Stay at Home Mom”

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Why do we lie?

Why do we lie? There are tons of reason why… For a lot of us, it is the pressure of being good enough. It is hard enough during our teenage years and into your early 20’s but somehow we still do it. I know lots of people, especially women, who struggle with this on a daily basis. Sometimes we can’t help but feel powerless and inferior in certain situations so in turn, we embellish.

Whenever someone would ask me what my favorite book was, for years I would respond with “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Lie. Not my favorite book. On top of that, I wouldn’t say “The Little Prince” or “El Principito” in my two most fluent languages… Instead, I chose to say it in French because it made me sound worldly and intriguing. Thank God no one ever really asked me “why?” I never really read the whole book in any of the three languages and to this day, I can’t tell you what really happens, partly because my memory sucks and also because I read most of it in AP French class focusing more on pronunciation and grammar than the actual plot.

Continue reading “Why do we lie?”

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We Bought a House!

I’m sure you’ve heard that buying a home can be very stressful. We just went through the arduous process of buying a home on a short sale which made this process even more difficult. We waited 7 months for this house and finally closed on February 2015. We couldn’t be happier. We have yet to move in, but at least we can call ourselves homeowners. That’s one dream I can check off my list!

We had been researching the market for about 1.5 years and when we were finally ready to start looking, we already had a very good idea of what we wanted and what we could afford. This made the actual home search much easier. If you’ve never bought a home before but you’re looking into it, I have some tips below. If you are not looking for a home now, but want to read a bit more about our experience then you are welcome to read on. Continue reading “We Bought a House!”

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Shifting Gears

Hello 2015!

Well hello there! It’s been a very long while!! Lots to talk about and wonderful things to share.
This blog became a huge part of my life for about a year and a half and after starting a new job in June of 2014 I purposely stopped blogging. Why? My priorities shifted and blogging was not in the forefront. That leads me to this post’s topic…

 

Priorities and goals can change. Have you noticed that sometimes we insist on focusing our time and energy on following through with certain goals that no longer make us feel excited and happy? Instead they feel like an obligation. This can happen with small situations like making green smoothies on a daily basis, to more significant life-altering events such as a career change. The instant you feel that pressure weighing you down, then that’s the moment when you have to decide if continuing to pursue that goal is worth your time and energy. While your answers may vary, it is only you who can make that decision.

Continue reading “Shifting Gears”

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The Stars Aligned: 2014 MLB Draft

WARNING: What you are about to read is a full-on proud baseball wife post. Enjoy!…

I was at my brother’s office farewell party talking to a friend of mine at the time when the Arizona Diamondbacks announced that they were taking my husband’s prospect in the first round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. Everyone else at the bar was paying attention to the Miami Heat play against the San Antonio Spurs and I could care less. I was focused on hitting “refresh” on my phone just about every six minutes until I saw the news; “The Arizona Diamondbacks pick Touki Toussaint RHS (right handed starter) from Coral Springs Christian Academy” as the 16th overall pick! (Actual image of that precise moment is below).

Touki_1I couldn’t believe it. I jumped out of my seat, excused myself and quickly ran out of the bar. Just as I get outside, my husband, who was at the draft room in Arizona at the time, sends me a text message that simply says, “I got him.” I could feel his shock and disbelief. I replied with ALL CAPS and numerous exclamation marks trying to somehow express my overwhelming joy and immeasurable excitement through the means of a simple text message. I then got a call from my mother-in-law and then from my mother since they had both heard and/or seen it happen too. It was amazing. I had yet to speak with my husband and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to immediately. Continue reading “The Stars Aligned: 2014 MLB Draft”

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Whoa Networking!

Hey everyone!

About a year ago, I attended the Women’s Success Summit in Miami with the intention to create connections, learn about the event’s production and find some inspiration. There, I met a wonderful young woman who was telling me all about her vintage furniture rental company. I was initially captivated. We had lunch together, sat next to each other and later met her business co-owner and husband at the cocktail party. We had a few laughs, exchanged business cards and that was that. Fast forward to today, that same woman will become my new boss. Whoa networking!

It works people! You just have to go out there and do it. If you’re the type that fears it, I’ll tell you my secret… Be yourself. That’s pretty much it. You are your own business card. Job opportunities, leads and connections are primarily driven by your personality and then by your knowledge. You may be a genius at what you do, but if you don’t tell people about it, you’re not going anywhere. Or you might tell people about it, but you sound like you are bored to death. No one wants to work with a bore! I’ll tell you a little more…

Continue reading “Whoa Networking!”

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Zania.net’s 1 Year Anniversary!

Ladies and gentlemen I am proud to say that a year ago today I posted my first blog post on Zania.net! Isn’t that crazy? Time really does fly when you’re having fun! I began to blog with the intent of keeping myself accountable and on a schedule while exploring the different career possibilities out there. While doing just that, I found this blog to be an incredibly gratifying form of self-expression.

And boy, what a difference a year makes! When I embarked on this personal journey of rediscovery last year, I was very scared. I wish I’d had a clear answer as to what I should be doing and where and how, but of course, life is not like that. It took a lot of inner work and retraining of my brain to depart from old habits and thoughts to create new ones. Fast forward to now, I’m overjoyed with my personal transformation. I am now open to any and all opportunities that may come my way (and they have) and I’m not afraid of failing or taking risks. Most importantly, I refuse to live a life of confused misery. Now I live to be joyful and purposeful.

Continue reading “Zania.net’s 1 Year Anniversary!”

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5 Things You Need to Unclutter Right Now

Hi amigos!

Let’s get Digital! You heard me right! It’s time to clear out those dreaded folders from your computer and get rid of that cute cat video you’ve kept for two years. Who knew such tiny folders could carry so much crap?! Don’t worry, I’m here to cheer you on and give you some tips to help you along the way. Tip #1 is to set out a window of time to do this. Start with 15min. See what you can do with that. Then if you feel energized and determined, go for another 15min. Let’s start with the list of 5 things you need to unclutter right now.

Continue reading “5 Things You Need to Unclutter Right Now”

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My Vision Board

Hi everyone!

Have you heard of vision boards before? If you haven’t, a vision board is an actual board meant to help you organize your goals in the form of images. You can use these boards in reference to anything: your life, a business, a specific event or project…the list goes on. You can make one at home or on your computer, with just about anything that you can imagine. If you Google “Vision boards” you will have thousands of examples at your disposal!

What do you want? Joy? Love? Abundance? A restaurant? A pet ladybug? Your board can have whatever you want on it! By putting this board together, you are turning your thoughts, intentions, and desires into concrete images. And in turn, by seeing these images on a daily basis, you can then have a clearer focus towards attaining those results.

I am a very visual person; therefore, making a “life” vision board for myself made complete sense. So I finally sat my bubble-butt down and made it happen! I’m very happy with how it turned out! Here it is (in no particular order). I have also provided explanations below. (I numbered the images from left to right). Maybe this can help you get your vision board started! Continue reading “My Vision Board”