Wednesday, December 31, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008 will be remembered in more one few way ... Junior arrived and completed our family. Cantaloupe's language has grown exponentially in both English and Kannada. My sister had her first baby ... mom spent a good part of the year with us.
My grandpa passed away, causing a lot of pain to all of us. I felt especially helpless ....

Hope 2009 will be fun filled and bring joy and satisfaction to one and all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Winter 2008

So our office is closed down for the Holidays (politically correct way of saying Christmas break). I had been waiting for this opportunity to relax and be home with the kids and not worry about some proposal / deliverables at work.
Turns out, I am not all that lucky ... I need to clear some certification exams to continue to get my pay check. Our company came up with this idea of having all its employees clear atleast 2 certification exams in a year ... failure of which will lead in serious actions. Failure to do so 3 consecutive years may lead to job termination. While I understand the need to be update with the industry standards and technology, I think they need to relax this policy to some extend. I can rant about this for days together, but the bottom line is I have not completed all 6 certificates in 3 years and now I am pressurised to do so before end of 2008. Lazy cow that I am about these things, I have scheduled to give one exam, which means, most of my Christmas break will be spent on preparing for the exams.
Well ... thats my story.
Moving on Cantaloupe ... she gave a spirited Winter program at school ... I loved the way little kids could match tunes and sang wonderfully those lovely Christmas songs. (Rudolf the reindeer, Frosty the snowman, You better watch out and of course Jingle bells and many others) They collect an insane amount of money as fees but ended up giving the kids just ONE CANDY STICK. Cantaloupe remembered our house rule of "No Candy" during weekdays and promptly gave the Candy to me. Of course, she got her candy during the weekend.
We also set up some lighting and Christmas decorations neat the fireplace. We went out shopping for a Christmas tree ... but it was not in our price range and we ended up decorating one of our potted plants. Cantaloupe was thrilled decorating the plant all by herself. We also bought small gifts for our daughters and another one for my nephew.
Cantaloupe got her first assessment card from school and I was thrilled to see all "A"s. She can now read uncomplicated words by herself ... is pretty good at addition and subtraction. Can tell the time pretty well ... and sings to her heart content, enjoys painting and playing pretend games with her toys.
Junior is already 7 months and is the darling of the house. She is at peace with family members which includes dad, mom, sister, grandma, uncle and aunt. Anybody else is a stranger and is not welcome. So it came a surprise when she was calm and happy when UTBT cuddled her. She can sit comfortably and is showing little interest in crawling. BP thinks she may skip that and walk someday. She has mastered the art of drawing attention when her loud "Hey" and loves the lullaby and "Ganesha Stutis". She loves watching her sister and dad play badminton and her favourite toy happens to be "Badminton Birdie". We have been putting off piecering her ears in our laziness ... hopefully she'll have those lovely studs in her ears soon.
Its been rather cold in the bay area. The snow tip mountains we can see from our patio look just lovely.
So thats the news from our household ... HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE !!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

My acceptance Speech

I got awarded by Pixie ... it feels so good to be awarded. Thank you girl.



These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to more bloggers who must choose more and include this text into the body of their award.


I'd like pass this award to:
* Kodi's mom
* Noon
* Tharini
* CeeKay
* Boo

Thanks Again Pixie ... I am truly touched and Honored.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Zoom in ... Zoom out ...

Thanks Pixie for tagging me ... it was fun working on it !

Answer the questions below and do a Google image search on your answer,pick a picture from the results on the first page, with minimal explanation


1. The age you will be in your next birthday: 32
I didn't know I was so cute :)  


2. A place you’d like to travel to: Fiji
Are you listening BP ??


3. Your Favorite place: Mysore Ofcourse !!!
I miss you ... I truly miss you !!!!



4. Your favorite food/drink: Masala Dose / Hot Tea
I am drooling at just the thought ...





5. Your Favorite pet: No pets
I have two kids ... pets ?? No thank you !!

6. Your favorite color combination:
Don't you love this color combination?


7. Your favorite piece of clothing: Night Suit
You will find me in the same 75% of the time when home :)



8. Your all time favorite song: Kisi Ki Muskurahaton pe ho nisaar
Lyrics are simple, philosophical and music is just soothing !!


9. Your favorite TV show: Buniyaad
First serial I followed .... precious moments spent with family !



10. Full name of your significant other: No image close to his name :(

11.The town in which you live in: Guess ??

Friday, December 5, 2008

I am learning to let go ....

I was brought up in a house which was spotlessly clean. Guests flowed in any time of the day and were welcomed to a warm lovely house which made them relax instantly. My mother always believed in "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". Dad fully supported this idea. When I was young, I shared the room with my sister and grandparents. Dad always spread the mattresses / beds out and ensured that there was not a single crease after the sheets were set. Our blankets were neatly set. We promptly fell asleep with the ceiling fan running full speed. Dad again folded back everything and neatly arranged them in the cupboard.
My mom never hired a maid because she was never satisfied with the quality of work done by any one of them. My sister and I always asked her to hire some help ... but she wouldn't. Even today, she does everything herself from mopping, washing, sweeping to cooking. Having grown up in a house where cleanliness was top priority, I have felt strongly about it.

On the other hand, BP comes from exactly opposite background. I was surprised when I stayed in my in-laws house for the first time. The maid came in the morning, washed some utensils and left without mopping or sweeping since most folks were still asleep. The dried clothes were left on the terrance and no one had bothered to bring them back and fold them. The washed utensils were left on the dining table and were used directly from that place. No one kept it back in the kitchen ... I observed many other things which were totally different from the way I was brought up. I did not reason with them and tried to do some chores myself ... but then again they wouldn't allow me to do anything since I was the new bride.

When I came to live in the US, I found it extremely difficult during the initial days to manage all chores by myself. It irked me when BP threw a wet towel on the bed or walked into the bed room with shoes on. Later I learnt the reason why cleaning was not priority in BP's place. Until the time BP was 13, they had stayed in joint family of about 25 members, in a 2 bedroom house. They were not financially well off and each adult tried to work and contribute to the family. While the men went out to work, some of the women tried to stitch, grind coffee and earn some money. My MIL along with her MIL (BP's grandma) cooked for everyone. There were about 10 kids of various ages moving in and around the house. No matter how much they tried they could never keep the house clean. And they got adjusted to this way of living. So even when they separated out of the joint family, cleanliness never come to them as it had not become a habit.

Why now all this ramblings about cleanliness ... well, with spending time with kids, office work, cooking etc cleaning seems to have taken a back seat in our house these days. Its not like we are living in a junkyard of a house ... but it is not the same it used to be. I can occasionally see a bag of un-ironed clothes in the cupboard, couple of dishes in the sink, toys in the kids' room and the biggest culprit ... MAILS .... they are on the kitchen counter !!!!!!
It used to be extremely irritating and I'd yell at BP and sometimes at Cantaloupe too .... I wanted a spotlessly clean home and could hardly keep one. No matter how much I tried, either there was not enough time OR I'd be exhausted to do it myself. (BP pitched in ... but then someone was to take care of the kids and he would end up doing that most of the times) Then one day BP reminded me that though our house was not perfect, it was still our home where we needed to RELAX and enjoy as a family. I thought about it for few days and started believing in what he said.
Now, I still try to keep the house clean ... but the occasional wet towel on the bed OR the small truck under the stairs no longer irritate me ... I am learning to let go.
 

My circle of life with BP, Cantaloupe and Junior and much more | Desenvolvido por EMPORIUM DIGITAL