I stand by traditional marriage, always.

While personal choices are what they are... personal, I fail to understand why some fight to make them generally acceptable and common place. Marriage is between a man and a woman and no law of the land (no matter how fair it professes to be) can EVER change that. This statement does not come out of intolerance or hatred. It is simply my knowledge and testimony that God speaks the truth and His law is eternal. His law, as written in ancient and modern scripture, I always want to live and sustain.

"The Church remains irrevocably committed to strengthening traditional marriage between a man and a woman." That is all I need to know.

I know that we are ALL children of our Heavenly Father and while I say and know deep in my heart that He loves us ALL, I will never truly know the depth of the love that HE truly feels for each and every one of us, straight or gay. I leave it to Him to judge and understand. As for me and my house, I will strive to follow Him and His law.

I explained some of this to my not-even-eight-years-old daughter. I think she understood that while God is loving and merciful, He is just and His law is unchangeable.

Our sweet darling loving her new set of scriptures. This is in fact my quad that I've had for years and I am now passing down to her. She loves all the notes and the pretty highlights and underlining I've done in there over the years. She calls it her "Baptism scriptures" and loves to read from it. Last night we had a very nice time reading and sharing. This is true happiness.

And before I close, from The Family: A Proclamation To the World:

"THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."

Good-bye 1st Grade and Hello Summer Break!!

What a wonderful school year this was! In my books, it was successful and blessed first and foremost because we didn't have to use the Epi-pen at school and that we were able to make great progress with Ella's 504 plan or allergies at school. Our accomplishments on this front lay the foundation for hopefully many more safe school years in regards to food allergens. (I am very grateful for a couple of other parents like us, who fought and continue to fight for our children's rights for a safe and inclusive environment at school.)

On the awards front, Ella got quite a few and needless to say, we are very proud of her!! She did great in math (currently working on 2nd grade math), and is a super start in reading/writing/comprehension. Her DRA is 28 (of a third grader based on the standard.) I am not surprised, this kid loves to read and discuss what she reads. She loves to make connections and interpret things in the most creative and funny way.

She delighted us with her classroom projects and play they put together for awards day. But what she touched our hearts the most with, was her asking a friend, whose parents were not present for the classroom ceremonies, to share his work with us. That was the children's way to show pride in their beautiful year-long projects. (Her friend is a special needs child.)

Awards ceremony:

Aside from the school awards, she received special recognition for her art piece exhibited at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, yay!

We love it that summer break is here. Ella is enjoying her free time after the daily math/reading/spelling drills faithfully administered by her mother. Ha-ha! And I love having her home with me. We asked her about summer camp but she refused saying she loved being home with momma. :) She is almost in horse camp though as she gets to ride three or four times a week, lucky girl!! So this summer we're living and breathing horses and riding. We all love it. We're at Sienna almost every day. I recognize that we are very blessed with this wonderful opportunity to own, care for, and watch our pony grow. along with watching Ella go through the same amazing process, as she progresses as a rider and horse lover. As Heather pointed out, it is a great sacrifice that we are making for her to grow as a rider and without any shadow of doubt, it is all worth it. In Hrishi's words, "this is a personal and family enriching experience." And it is. Every ride, every visit, every interaction with him, or between Ella and him, is a new experience. Every conversation with Heather, every little bit o knowledge she is generously sharing, are all wonderful experiences.

Some shots from tonight's Sienna experience. Tonight Hrishi also put into practice his amazing engineering skills and mounted a fan for one of Heather's beautiful horses, Duende or Dew how we like to call him.

Here with Scioban, a wonderful young lady, future MD and stem cell researcher, and Heather's assistant. She helps us a great deal too with Remi.

They stirred up some dust tonight. They started cross rail jumping.

Tonight, Hrishi was also able to place the bridle on, almost by himself. Yay for milestones!! (I'm usually responsible for putting on his polo wraps.)

 

New Baby

We love him so much. He came into our family on May 31st, 2013. He is (already) twelve years old, potty trained, and well behaved. He is getting additional training to become a top notch competition pony.

Say hello to Rembrandt, formerly known as Khaki! We call him Remi. He is cute as a button and handsome as no other pony at the barn.

Ella is the happiest little girl and will be for many years to come. We had a surprise party for her on May 31st when we introduced her to him as her new owner. She was ecstatic, as one can imagine. That day will forever stay special to her and to all of us and deserves its own entry (whenever I get to it, ha!)

We are beyond excited about our new addition. We're taking our new responsibility very seriously and loving and caring for him lots. That involves an hour and a half drive almost every day, brushing, hoof picking, face wiping, bubble bathing, grazing, and lots and lots of sugar cubes, carrots, apples, and homemade muffins. :-)

A couple of quick things about Remi: he is a large pony, dun and paint mix, kind and gentle, well mannered, and always inquisitive.  He loves Ella and nickers sweetly every time he hears her voice or ours. He loves his Purina feed and fresh grass. He's a very good student, quickly learning the English riding style and all the show ring requirements. Heather is very pleased with him and how quickly he is progressing, and tells us that he is very willing and hard working.

He's got a beautiful trot and smooth canter and we couldn't be happier with him.

Lots of wonderful rides ahead!! :)

Lovely days

We've been having such a wonderful time these past couple of weeks. One or two-day trips on the weekends allowed us to show parents around San Antonio, Austin, Galveston, and some local sites here in Houston.

The pictures are the best reflection of our adventures, especially when the narrator has so little time on her hands and is dealing with a cold.

Lunch at Red Robin, the one restaurant we found to have allergen-free cooking options.

Short Austin trip. Crazy traffic on Cinco de Mayo. We did make it to the Botanical Gardens there although we wanted to do the Duck tour. Next time.

Little explorers learning about plants and seeds:

Lots of pretty man-made and natural accents in the garden. I just wish there were more flowers.

Tai Chi anyone?

Love this one:

Random picture taken outside our house. Those flowers are amazingly beautiful.

Houston Zoo:

 Tikki village:

Some recent art by Ms. Ella:

Recital costume fitting and practice. This year it will be The Wizard of Oz. And the last recital for Ella.

Poster by Ms. Ella. She colored several but this one was posted out at the front desk. Why it is a bit special, is that she wrote "We love kids with food allergies."

Road trip to San Antonio:

Singing their little hearts out:

 The Shamu show, "One Ocean" never fails to impress.

Hand-feeding some beautiful ducks:

The Alamo:

The courtship candle. Loved the little story behind this. Apparently, it was quite common in the 1800's. The mother of the girl had the ability to roll the candle higher or lower based on her likes of the courting lad. So in the evenings when the lad would come by to visit, she would give them a certain amount of time measured in how long until the candle would had burned until it reached the metal spring. Pretty cool, right?

Carriage ride:

Love their serious expressions/conversations:

Going, going, gone! :)

School field day, fun but way too many water games:

Fishing:

 

Build-a-bear (or a cat, or a dog) 

Horse back riding (Maitreyee took a couple of lessons and liked so much that she'll most likely take lessons in Pune when she gets back.)

Ella riding Ben (Heather's champion pony.) Next to them is Khaki, the new pony at the barn.

They're so cute together, aren't they?

Mounting Khaki for the first time. (We will probably remember that day. We went to the barn to ride this new pony as a try-out for a family with a little girl was who interested in buying him and wanted to observe his temperament with other riders.)

Loving Khaki for the first time:

Don't these two look good together??

Beach day in Galveston (and on the way there, some beautiful coastal historical buildings):

 

  

Brazos Bend Memorial Day weekend fun (on the way there, we stopped by a Hindu temple.)

 Getting the grill started:

With my beautiful girls:

 Monkeys:

More fishing: that was a great spot, they caught a ton of fish and had a very close encounter with an alligator, really cool if you ask me! :)

That was a big bad boy!!

More horseback riding (that Khaki again! Haha)

Even the clouds and the skies knew something (see the beautiful horse shaped cloud??) But more on that later, in another post.

Ballet recital: I, once again and for the last time, I think, in Ella's dancing 'career', got to be a dressing room 'mom' taking care of ten beautiful ballerinas, getting them dressed in their costumes, securing head pieces, redoing buns, making sure all their belongings are accounted for, and that they stay quiet enough while waiting for their turn on stage. It was an exhausting day to say the least: three hours for dress rehearsal, one hour break for dinner, then back for the actual performance (another four hours.) Practically, we were at the Stafford Performance Centre the whole day. It was nice though, Ella enjoying it as she knew this was going to be her last experience as a dancer. And so did I.

Tigers in the Wizard of Oz:

 Hey Beautiful!!

Doing their "swipe"!

The Wizard of Oz:

 The dressing room is a fun place, I tell you! I loved watching them play, bond, and have fun together.

Reading fan-agrams:

With Janna M, her good friend.

Curtain call:

After the show with didi:

Happy family:

Ready for bed (aaji massaged her tired feet and legs.)

Beautiful memories that began at the Ballet Conservatory of Lewisville (Lake Cities Ballet) and ended at the Fort Bend Academy of Dance (Ballet Forte.)

Unfortunately we had to say good bye to aji, azoba, and cousin Maitreyee a couple of days ago.  We miss them dearly but we're so happy that we were blessed to spend a few great weeks together here in Houston. I love our family, everyone of them.

Fortunately, there's more fun coming this way soon, very soon. More on that in a later post.