The random but good life

This morning's preferred method of transporation! I have the feeling that in a few days, it'll be the bike. (I know she's looking forward to it but thinks it's still pretty hard to get rid of those side wheelies. :))

Practiced that a little bit with daddy.



(I don't think daddy needs any practice but it's sure fun watching him goof around! He and bikes have a love-hate relationship, he used to bike 20 km/day while growing up.)

One more:

Pretty portrait:

Post-it morning-before-school art:

On Saturday, we planned on going to the only zPizza restaurant in Houston (and the only one that has vegan cheese available as topping) for lunch and arrange for them to cater pizza for Ella's birthday party (since I can't bring homemade treats to where we're having it.) But they weren't opening until 4 pm so we decided to try Red Robin as we learned at the FAAN event that they accomodate clients with food allergies. We had a great experience there, the manager was really nice and prepared the food we ordered safely for Ella. Needless to say that she thought it was the best food ever (hamburger, sweet potato fries, brocolli, and apple slices)!!! I'm sure it was just that little fact that she was happy to be able to eat out and enjoy the food almost without a worry.

Here she is after almost licking her plate. :-) (And of course, here's the goofy dad. :))

Encore:

Sunday before-church pictures:

Isn't this...

cute??

Meet Arthur, one of her favorite TV show characters.

She's been drawing more lately and this is what I found when I was "playing" assistant teacher/classroom volunteer putting the kids' new writing folders together:

Beautiful masterpiece, my dear Ella!
(She's been asking when she can start taking art classes as she is not quite sure she's satisfied with that they're learning so far in art at school... I told her to be patient as I'm sure they'll get to do and learn more than drawing geometric shapes on little pieces of paper. :)) As far as art classes, it'll have to somehow be mashed-up with horse camp next summer, time permitting.

I have a few more to add still on my phone, but I think I'm ready to go to bed, it's been a very long day but much better than yesterday. But before that some more... pictures!!

(Little chef made French toast with little help from mommy.)

The traditional Sunday after-church picture:

FAAN Walk

A couple of weeks ago we got to do the FAAN walk in downtown Houston, an event that is becoming a fall family tradition. It was a perfect day with perfect weather, perfect crowd, all these awesome families affected by food allergies and their friends and supporters, one big group of people united by one cause, our cause: fighting against food allergies by bringing awareness to those around us, educating, and raising funds for research with hopes of a cure or advancements toward a cure.

We were blessed to have Andrea and Shu, our dear friends come walk with us. It sure felt good to share in the joy, excitement, and the cause. That evening they had us over for dinner and prepared everything so that Ella could eat too. That's huge for us and I am so thankful for their friendship and to know they deeply care.

After the two-mile walk, we made some rounds picking up safe snacks and treats, and coupons. Boy, those are sure nice as allergen free foods (I almost call them "special" foods) tend to be pricey. Then Ella had a blast on the slides and other kiddie rides and games they had.  It was a lot of fun but also reassuring for Ella (and us) to see so many other children just like her, who are dealing daily with the same fears, concerns, restrictions, but who also share the same hopes.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Yes, the one and only boy in the family, daddy, had a birthday... on Friday!!! Yahooo!! We celebrated with a delicious lunch at Tradiciao, a Brazillian steakhouse close-by, where aside from having some really nice meats, we got a kick out of how hard it was to understand the native brazillians' servers accent.

\

The food and company was great! (Aside from the yummy steak, we both loved the deep fried banana, haha!! That's probably because we haven't had any deep fried food in ages.)

Then, in the evening we celebrated with pizza (daddy made a really artistic one!!) and with a visit to a very nice Hindu temple. It rained cats and dogs until we got there, and we got just enough time to walk around and soak in the peace and serenity of that place and of course, take pictures, before the rain started again.  We came home and cut a delicious red velvet cake!!

The pizza:

The Hindu temple:

 

Our Indian princess

(My favorite)

Ummm, where should I cut??!! :)

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!!

I love you so much and am grateful beyond measure for your love and everything that you do for me and Ella, for us as a family.

Aeons of happiness and joy to you, my darling!!!

Good bye milk...!

A friend once said that dairy is overrated. It might be. For us, being able to tolerate/eat it, was going to be a matter of being more normal and definitely more safe. It was going to allow us to travel without worries of what we'd be eating for breakfast/lunch/dinner, of renting a hotel room without a kitchenette, etc. It was going to be nice, and that whenever Ella was going to successfully complete her desensitization program (in one or two years.)

But it was not meant to be and until they find a cure, we will stay away from milk and any dairy. (And of course, from peanuts and treenuts too.)

Tummy problems returned a few weeks ago and we made the decision to stop the treatment. She has enough to worry and be aware of foods and others eating food around her as it is, and dealing with upset stomach at school, or first thing in the morning was just not another worry I was going to allow.

So bye-bye milk!

We'll stick with the soy, thank you!

And speaking of soy, I took this picture to celebrate Ella's finally starting to enjoy her soy yogurt and granola!!!! She used to kind of hate it, and granola was off-limits as so many types out there had allergens.  But I found this kind by "Back to Nature" and she loves it. (P.S. Food allergies ARE EXPENSIVE!!! But I'm grateful that we can afford the things that are out there that she can eat.)



(I do have to write a post about our awesome FAAN walk event last Saturday in downtown and the generous few friends who donated, some I never met in person.)

Word is out!

So our little equine girl will be participating in three different classes, the Walk/Trot division, Figure 8, and Pole obstacles. She's so excited to practice and get her show gear (a black velvet helmet cover and maybe even a Hunter jacket, she's hoping!) We'll have to see how good the sales are on that. :)
(I put together this little invitation last night and she was so happy this morning when she saw it. We printed a few copies for her to hand out to her teachers. She's already spread the word. I think she's got a future in advertising, lol!! :))

On Monday she gave good old Jenkins a quick but nice bath. And she's talking about Jenkins pretty much all the time, she's in love with this horse. It's "her" horse, you see.

School is going well, bringing more "smiley's" grades home than "straight faces" and plugging along with additions and subtractions.  

We picked the Christmas/winter recital piece and will be starting practice soon. The piece is called "Jesu, Joy, Man's Desiring." And I didn't realize this is the song until I looked it up on youtube. Angelic! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPeVIuRjUi4

I love being able to go pick up Ella from school every day and then have her with me at home. It's such a blessing I missed having all these years up to this point. She comes home to a nice little snack, and a quick run-down of what her day was like after which, she either does homework or art, or practices piano, while I get back to work at my desk.

Otherwise life is good, challenges, prayers answered, more challenges, more fears, more hopes but it's all part of life, I guess. And I choose to be happy and hopeful.

Being a Hill Seeker

Inspiration is everywhere around us.
I came across this on my Facebook news feed.

It's interesting that it came when it did: I was sitting by the door behind which my Ella was auditioning for a part in the Nutcracker at her new ballet school. I'm proud of how she takes on challenges and puts herself out there. A little background for this particular event is in order. She started ballet last Thursday. The first five minutes of watching class were a clear indicator that she was in a more advanced class than her current ballet skills. She hung on the whole 60 minutes watching intently her instructor's every single move (her instructor is of course a very seasoned ballerina, age and skill wise; truly amazing to watch!) I thought that after class she was going to "throw in the towel" but instead, she was happy and pleased with her work although she admitted it was much harder than she expected. First time for her to work at the bar.

Through His tender mercies I was able to slightly adjust my Thursday work schedule going forward and take her to a lower class level matching her skill earlier in the day.

Now some pictures of my little ballerina:

 

 

I really like that the instructor takes time to have each of the girls demonstrate the newly learned skill and correct them.

 

 

That little quote up there speaks volumes to me: about being better in every way, stretching myself a little farther to be kinder, to be calmer, to be more organized, more spiritual, more loving, more willing to take on hard things. Because after the hard stuff is done, after that mountain is climbed, the feeling is indeed so so sweet and worth every effort.

And now back to that Nutcracker audition: today finally we got the long-awaited letter in the mail!!!! I took it to school to Ella to open herself! She made the NUTCRAKER CAST!!!! Yay!!!

She was is so happy about it!! It's interesting that while opening it, she was saying "let's see what role I made", not wondering if she made it or not... ha-ha!! She will be an angel. She said she wants to be in the Nutcracker every year.

 

 

 

 

That's indeed exciting!!! And rehearsal are starting TOMORROW. It'll be a lot of hard work for sure.

 

 

Ella darling, you are my inspiration.