all ready

hey all i am leaving for kilimanjaro, tomorrow at 5 a.m. i am off till the 13th of january.

see you guys in the new year! when i return i will come back with tons and tons of pictures..till then enjoy your new year.

jm

here is a picture from a friend's wedding in b-more city also known as my love affair place with crab dip!!

happy holidays

hey all--i wanted to wish you all a merry xmas, happy hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa and a happy new year.

i am still packing for kilimanjaro. i think i am almost done...lord blessed, i just want to be all packed, done and sitting on a plane...for 16 hours! lol.

also my new camera is busted, i will be running over to best buy tomorrow..lord help me to return it. good thing i checked it before i took off to africa.

other than that i had a great christmas i spent the holiday with my two best friends eva and gina and their familes. thank you again loves!!

can't wait to see the bulls play the lakers!

here is mariah carey and john legend wishing you the best.

do you pinterest?

i totally love pinterest and you should try it. if you don't know about it..i think you should totally google it.

i just found this and i needed to share it

my family

i love my family so much,not going home for christmas stinks but i am trying to keep it positive here so instead of getting down in the dumps. here is a picture of my favorite people:
my nephew marco, i mean how could you not love the most amazing cutest little kid in the world??


marco's dad is my brother luis, he has become one of the most amazing father and even better brother. i love him dearly and i am so so proud of him and all the decisions he has made.


this is my little brother fat boy, little monkey also known as benny. he just turned 21 years old and i still can't believe it.


then there is my sister sabrina, isn't she pretty? i know she is right. she is an amazing cook and i always love test tasting her stuff even when she doesn't let me.


these are my siblings and my nephew. in no particular order..well maybe for my nephew he comes in first on all of our list's.

i hope you are spending your holiday's with those you love and if you are not embrace it and don't look at the negative think about the positive. happy holidays.

love jm

in love...

currently i have the biggest crush on all of the above and then some :)...i am watching the notebook before going out...i love this movie, i really am a hopeless romantic at heart..noah, where are you??

happy weekend all

jm

thoughts

ele

worth watching...please watch

happy 21st birthday little benny!

today is my little brother benny's 21st birthday.

21, wow i can't even believe your 21 today. i remember when mom told me you were in her belly. i was living in california and mom wanted you to be born in mexico, but dad found out he was surprised and made he maid mom, luis and sabrina move to chicago. i soon followed back to chicago.

its safe to say that you brought our whole family back together. we were all over the moon when you were born. luis was so excited to have a little brother to play with. and now now your 21, a man in college and you turning into a man. you are doing so great in school getting amazing grades but to me you will still be my little ham of a brother.

benny i tell you all the time but i love you and i so proud of you. you are an amazing man and i know you are going to be great in whatever path you select.

once again happy birthday i love you. your big sister.








xoxo
jm

hopeless

i admit it.
i am a hopeless romantic, and i mean serious hopeless romantic. the type that every.single.time the notebook is on, i watch it and still cry and get the goosebumps when he tells her "it wasnt over, it still isnt over and kissing in the rain..love.
i have love jones on dvd and a vcr tape because i love that move. i do not even own a vcr player anymore but i cant get myself to throw it.
i love love and basketball, and how about the original amazing movie gone with the wind.

here are some of my favorite clips...i.e. what i would love to experience ;)

i found this

on my friends blog you should check it out

and as she asked her readers "what's your passion"

thankful

this year i am thankful for so much...
my family, my mom especially.
my friends, i really do not know where i would be without them.
god, i am thankful to have found faith in him again.
myself, i am grateful that i realized my mistakes and am working on them.


the things i am looking forward too... :)
kilimanjaro
a new romantic relationship, and i mean one that is going to knock me off my feet. a true love from an amazing man.
a career, that i know is close to finding me and i finding it.
my faith, i know only more amazing things are on the horizon.
a better version of myself for my family, brothers and sisters, and nephew

....and i think mr.thicke is back....

i now proudly present "love after war"

starting this week

i will be adding more personal pictures of mine. i have events everyday till thanksgiving so i will update you all on friday!

happy thanksgiving wishing all of you the very best the start of this holiday season.

xoxoxo

jacks

a book everyone should read is...one day it will all make sense by common

if you haven't picked up his book i highly suggest you get it asap! it is probably one of the best memoirs i have read.

can we talk about how sexy this man is??


here are some of my favorite parts:

"growing up in chicago, you learn how to survive- some people call it a hustle. rick or poor, educated or uneducated, black or white, you'll find hustlers of all kinds in chicago. for me hustling meant that even as i grew older and got more education, i was able to relate to people on the streets. it meant that i could make a way out of no way, even it if meant bending or even breaking the rules sometimes" --mahalia ann brown (common's mom)

"no longer am i going to dim my light for anyone or anything. i'm going to let it shine. that is what god gave me, so i'm going to wear this. i'm going to wear my greatness" --common

i would give you more but as i mentioned earlier "i highly recommend that you go out and buy and read this book!"

here are some more pictures because he is that fine!! where is my "common"??

happy birthday!!

this post is for my nephew. my little munchkin just turned four. wow four years old, i cant even grasp that you are four. you are my world and i love you so much, i know that you mean the world to your father and i know he is always there for you but i want you to know that i am always going to be here for you mr. man!! i love you so much.

i want you to know that although i am in new york, i want you to know that i think about you daily. i miss you so much. i miss watching you grow up, i miss kissing you endlessly and just loving you.

it makes me happy that you have an amazing father that loves you more than anything.

i am going home in december to see you and i cannot wait!!


this makes me realize that i clearly need more pictures of him and i!! :)

need to find your mojo?

hey all!!

as a runner sometimes you hit that "wall" during a race and sometimes you just hit a running wall.

i hit the wall in a way that made me hate running. i dreaded my long runs, i didn't look forward to speed workouts, and the bridle path...dear lord did i dislike/hate/dread/wanted to kill my self if i had to run on the bridle path.

thankfully after a long time off i got my mojo back. how? well, i ran with my friend's (b-bop) mom jill. we ran from brooklyn (my favorite part) over two bridges, and onto fist avenue to the 18th mile. jumping in on marathon sunday is not the best idea but i was there for support. my goal was to get jill through the tough parts. it was jill's first and probably only marathon and she was so nervous and i was so happy to pick her up in brooklyn and run with her.



today i went on my first run in central park in what seems like forever. it was a nice 5 miler (slow) but it was glorious!! it was so much fun running and running in my park. it had been so long that i forgot about the rolling hills on the west side, but i finished and it felt amazing to run in my park again.

Here is a picture of jill and i just after the 59th street bridge.


ok that is it for now. peace out

New York City Marathon

do you know what tomorrow is? i will give you a hint...its the first sunday in november and in new york that only means one thing....its marathon sunday!

after running quite possibly the most amazing race ever i decided to take a break from new york.


i did get the chance to volunteer with my charity team for kids on thursday. that had to be the best day. i had the chance to talk to first time marathoners, experienced ones, nervous ones, ones that could not stop asking questions and i loved it.

running the new york city marathon is by far the most amazing race. i have also run paris and berlin but new york, new york is just breath taking.

starting at the verizzano bridge, before the gun goes off they play frank sinatra's new york new york. when you cross over the bridge you are in what i think is the best boro brooklyn. you smell bacon right off the bridge, then you hit 4th avenue and the people..ohhh the people on 4th avenue are amazing. there were times i had to hold back my tears because it was so emotional. from brooklyn to queens over the 59th street bridge which has to be the quietest place, it could be a good thing or a bad thing. then you are hit with the "wall of noise" first avenue. it is pretty awesome but brooklyn you are still in the top spot. its a quick stop in the bronx and then onto harlem where the choirs are out singing to each runner..after that its 5th avenue. you gotta keep it going all the way up a hill...which no one tells you about. then its back into the park down cat hill, out to the street and back into the park..you can see the finish but you want to take it in because once you cross that finish its done. the people cheering your name, the emotion is amazing. if you only run one marathon...make sure its new york you will be carried by the city the whole way.

i am so excited for all the first time marathon runners, the experienced runners and the professionals. i wish you all the best of luck and i will be in brooklyn cheering you all on!!

this here is mr. fred lebow...everyone should know who he is, and this is his best friend the only woman to win 9 nyc marathons, greta. both of them are now on to better places but they were such amazing people that have added so much to the nyc marathon


why did i defer my entry again??? lol

happy birthday luis

luis is my younger/older brother. he is an amazing father to my one and only nephew marco. growing up we clearly didnt get along the whole time. because we were siblings, i wanted a sister, he wanted a brother was one of our many arguments :). he has always been a quiet guy, the guy that didnt talk much but you always knew he was there for you.

my favorite memory of my brother is a recent one, it is just watching him with my nephew. i have never seen so much love between a father and a son. marco is very lucky to have such an amazing father.


luis, i hope you know that i love you so much and i look up to you in so many ways. you are an amazing person, brother, friend, son and father.

happy birthday to one of my favorite brother. :)

my sister

yesterday my sister turned 25.

my sister sabrina is an amazing sister, friend, cook, and i love the way she lives her life.

for a while my sister and i were not close, that broke my heart and it hurt everyone in our family. sadly we were not the closest of families but we are trying to fix that. because as we all learn family is the most amazing thing.


today is not about the past today is about my sister. my sister sabrina, who my brother wanted to name samantha, because of alyssia milano from who's the boss. but because i looked up to a girl by the same name i begged my mom named her sabrina. she did and i dont think that my brother or sister have forgiven me for that. that is one of my favorite memory of her..anyway here are some pictures of my lovely little sister sabrina. i love her and i am so happy to be working on our sisterhood.

oh yeah and she is silly!

loving life

this past weekend was awesome.

what did i do? volunteered with kids that reminded me that life is pretty darn good. i enjoyed my friends. we laughed and i am again reminded how lucky i am to have amazing friends in my life.



my good----no its actually amazing.




also i have an interview with lululemon this week....wish me luck!

aye dios mio...

ever feel a little lost?


that is how i feel right now. do not get me wrong i have so much going for me i have a job, is it the best ehhhh the people i work for somehow believe that we save the world...but we don't.

i have great amazing friends...clearly my saving grace.

but there is something missing. i am going to try some new things this weekend. i know that i am going to find my way...sooner than later.

here is to a positive, loving and amazing weekend.

this past week an amazing person i never meet passed away. steve jobs was a great person and his perspective on life is amazing...i am going to try to find what i love.

berlin update

the berlin marathon has come and gone...and i stuck to the plan of drinking beer, eating such amazing food and running.

this marathon was probably my hardest one thus far. i ended up getting two blisters while running (that has never happened), my left foot somehow got bruised. clearly it was not good---also my time....well i finished a lot slower than i thought, 5:54:34----that is my gun time and that's what i am sticking to. lol


the rest of the trip was amazing my rode buddies vane and e-nessy were the best combo for an amazing time. we rode bikes, drank beer and ate.

oh yeah did i mention that i meet and took a picture with the winner of the berlin marathon patrick?? Oh yeah..proof to come. here are some pictures from my trip...enjoy!

now i get to take a year off from running and i am looking for it! :)