Gearing up for Halloween and others...

We are yet to carve our pumpkins and get some more candy but we do have a Spook-tacular concert planned for Sunday after church at the Dallas Symphony. They'll have instruments petting zoo, trick-or-treating, and costume contest before the concert, hope this will be a good introduction to classical music in a concert hall for Ella. I know I'm looking forward to it. We actually got a family subscription for 3 or 4 concerts. I'm just so excited and I just hope Ella will like going just as much as Hrishi and I do. But before Sunday, we have a Halloween Costume Parade at Primrose and someone is so very excited about it! That someone was so sweet the other day, she asked me if she could take cookies to school for her to share with her friends. Since they don't allow homemade foods/treats into the school, we got the frozen Pillsbury Seasonal sugar cookies, of course with a Halloween theme and she was over the moon for being able to bring something that all her friends will enjoy (of course, she was able to eat those too as they didn't have dairy.) Another sweet thing about this is that as she realized two of her teachers from last year whom she dearly loves, Ms. Ashley and Ms. Brenda didn't get to taste the cookies yesterday, this morning she asked me if we could pack some for them today. So we did! I just love this wonderful sharing kid of mine!

So things have been great lately, they just have. Or maybe my outlook on life and everything has improved dramatically, I have a ton more energy and spring in my step and is mostly because "mommy has started doing something for herself", as Hrishi put it this morning. He is right-- I've gotten serious about my fitness and I've been working out 5 days a week at the gym. I never thought I'd enjoy this but I do madly. These past three weeks have been just eye-opening.  Didn't realize I can do so much of something I've never done before, like lifting weights or doing functional training. My new trainer's exercises and motivation have already worked wonders. I'm so grateful for that. I didn't realize getting fitter and stronger can have such an amazing effect on one's well-being. Getting physically stronger has improved my mental and spiritual well-being. I just don't feel overwhelmed anymore! Wow, can this last please?!!!???!! Because I sure want it to!

Birthday FUN

Someone very very special turned 5 on Saturday!!!! To follow the old cliche, here are (only) 5 of the tons of things we love about this sweet girl!!!

She is ....

**Beaming with love and enthusiasm

**Full of creativity

**Sharp as tack

**Loves to dance and play the piano

**Loves her stuffed animals and most recently, her newly acquired "My Little Ponies" figurines.
AND SHE IS THE APPLE OF OUR EYE!

She had tons of fun at her party which we were hoping for. A little collage from HER BIG DAY:



A while and a lot

It's been a while I know...we've been through a lot of good and not so good things. First the good: I took a short business trip out to Omaha (the first one since we moved) and was happy that Ella did so well being just with daddy, and both did such a great job being happy and good while I was gone. I had to leave amidst a bad sinus cold but luckily within two weeks of misery it cleared out and I'm well now.

Now the not-so-good: our sweet Ella has been sick since last Tue but is now on the upswing... she's gone through a lot but we are so grateful and happy that she's doing so much better now. A bad asthma flare-up (she hasn't gotten one in years), coupled with strep throat, and pneumonia... not a fun combo. She is such a trooper though. We've so very proud of her how she handled all the doctor visits (and we've made quite a few of those), antibiotic shots, breathing through the peek flow meters trying to get "her best number" in, etc. Lots and lots of prayers had been said in her behalf and we're so grateful for that. I cherished the time we spent together at home trying to get her to feel better, although most of the time we have just been doing nebulizer treatments, dispensing tylenol, motrin and oral antibiotics. We've develped a common love though for the "Olivia" show on Nick Jr. We just love her to death! (And yes, we did watch a lot of TV this past week and a half!) And did some pretty cool things with modeling clay!

Through all this I learned patience and hope. I've learned that Heavenly Father answers prayers in ways we sometimes may not realize.

I'm grateful for patient bosses that understood our situation, for wonderful parents (her grandparents) who have been worried sick for her and have been praying fervently that she improves, and for friends' prayers. And I'm grateful that after so many sleepless nights, we were able to sleep well last night. I'm not so grateful though for a couple of the doctors we had to see esp. in ER and who did nothing to help. And you know how those ER bills are...

She's been missing her friends and teacher at school and she's excited to go back tomorrow. She's super dupper excited for her BiG Birthday on Saturday! She'll meet her friends at Pump It Up! (her favorite jumping place) for fun and cake! Yesterday, she helped me put together the goodie bags for the kids and you could just feel her enthusiasm and hope that she'll be well enough by Saturday. The doctor assured us she will, based on her progress so far. We love you sweetie and are so proud of you! We'll make this a day to remember!
(Well, I am a bit nervous though about the cake which I'll be making and decorating. Last year I had help from mamaie, this year I'm on my own. Hrishi asssured he can help as he is very artsy and detailed oriented. I'm still nervous, 'cause that's just me!)

Some more of the good: we've potted some beautiful mums, begonia, and grasses on our deck and it's just so much more pleasant to sit out there and enjoy the lovely TX fall weather, or just look our the window and see the beautiful vibrant colors. I love gardening and although I've never seriously taken it up, I think there's plenty opportunies with this home to get knee deep into it. We'll see. To Ella's delight, we also put up some Halloween decor in our front yard. I'm not so big into Halloween, especially into the dark gory parts so I try to keep that to a minimum every year but still give her a taste of the spirit of the holiday.

Some other thoughts that've been on my mind: I really really loved the Relief Soc. General Meeting (more on that here) and inspired me to be a better visiting teacher, to reach out and be there, make that effort and not just "check it off" my list every month.

Some more of the good: I changed my personal trainer (through an interesting course of events I'm so happy for) and now I'm more confident that I'll reach my goal. Thanks sweetie for "pestering" me that I need someone who I can look up to, who will really push me hard. What do you think about this John Lee guy read his interview at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/college-fitness-john-lee-interview.htm  ? I think he qualifies!!!

And that's it for now, I know a lot of random things but that's just how life is. Glad to be back to writing!