A child's prayer

This little child of mine is very blessed, a little prayer of hers was answered just minutes ago.

Let me explain. She wanted to go back to taking ballet so we've been looking at the schools in the area and decided on one of them just a couple of days back. The only class for her level was offered on Thursdays overlapping with her current  piano class.  :( We knew her piano teacher was already booked solid but had hoped somehow something would work out. Yesterday we decided to make it part of our daily prayers to be able to continue piano with Ms. Samantha on a day other than Thursday.

And one day later her prayer was answered. The music school director just called me, telling me that she found someone willing to switch their lesson time with Ms. Samantha, first person she called!! Hurray!! He surely loves her.

And so do we.

About the hard things

No, this is not a complain/feel-sorry-for-myself type post. Just a little bit of the not-so-bright-and-happy parts of our life. We all have enjoyed our new life in Houston. For Hrishi, it brought the professional growth, well-sought after challenges but also well-deserved satisfaction. For me, it enabled one of my dreams to become reality, working from home, that is. For Ella, it opened doors for new opportunities as far as her equine interests and swimming. It's been really a great move overall. But this move has been quite a challenge on the medical front: finding an allergy and asthma doctor, in particular. Being refused care because your child is participating in a study with non-conventional food allergy treatment (well, THERE IS NO TREATMENT yet, conventional or not), having to take off from work for doctor appointments only to be told several days after, that they can't treat your child because of... just that. How about the wasted time and money, the emotional stress (because oh boy, this child of mine does not like doctors and gets almost sick to her stomach every time we have an appointment)??

Then looking hard to find another doctor and hope they will accept her as their patient...! This has been time consuming and stressful beyond my imagination. Having to work with multiple doctors' offices to get records transferred over, the red tape of it all, the incompetency, just not pleasant at all. But I have hope that once all these records make their way through and get to the new doctor's office, and we have that first appointment, things will get back to normal on this front. At least that's the plan.

We always put our best foot forward, smile, stay active, do our best and try to forget the rest but life is hard and there are challenges. My heart breaks for her not being able to enjoy a lot of typical things other kids get to enjoy. My heart almost jumps out of my chest when I see her school's phone number calling my phone. But then I remind myself of all the many OTHER things that she CAN have and do. And that are many others out there less fortunate than she is. That doesn't change anything for her though or for us, it just helps us to be happy and grateful with our lot.

I thank God for helping me stay positive through the darker times, for reminding me to be grateful, to be hopeful, to be faithful.

Fishing, 4th of July, and others

With a beautiful lake right across the street from our house and some avid outdoor lovers, we've taken up fishing. More precisely, Hrishi and Ella have. They go out there pretty much every chance they get. They're getting really good at it, too. They caught a lot of different fish, some big, some small. They do the catch-and-release thing, so to my disappointment I haven't yet gotten a chance to gut and cook any (yes, I love to gut and clean fish, weird, I know.) Back in Romania this was one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen with my dad.

I go with them but run around the lake.

(I love this picture because it captures the moment quite beautifully.)

Aren't they cute??!!!

These pictures make me crave for some fish right now! :)


4th of July was a fun day, started off with fishing, running, some shopping, then went on to cleaning, grilling, fireworks watching, all in all great break and celebration in the middle of the work week.

Ella had a 4th of July parade a school where they sang patriotic songs.

With her cute friend, Riley.

And with one of their favorite teachers, Ms. Teena:

 

Horseback riding has been going well. She's riding a new horse, Jenkins, and loves her already. And the horse loves her back. It's a nice round comfy quarter horse, very gentle and slow (too slow sometimes, it seems to me), but quite good at jumping, according to her trainer.

After their lesson, I was priviledged to find them bonding, Ella petting and talking sweetly and Jenkins giving some sweet looks and nudges back. 

They are very good friends already.

And we've been taking advantage of the sunny weather at the community pool.

I'm so in love with that smile!!!!!!

(And with the guy next to her! :))

We had company this week, our dear friends Andrea and Shu, who are moving to Houston, hurray!!!!!!  We were at their wedding in McAllen not too long ago!! They are the cutest couple!

Andrea got to experience first hand Hrishi's and Ella's fishing, lol! They caught this big catfish and then hard the toughest time unhooking it. It was quite something! We laughed so hard!!!

It was so heavy that it broke the line. Pull Hrishi, pull!! :)

My brother-in-law had something very clever to say about this picture, I'll borrow his caption:

"When a hunter goes fishing...!!" :)
(He was trying to pull the fish back so he can get the hook out first.)

We had a great time with them althought it was hectic being a work week they were here for. Everyone had a lot of stuff to get done, them to starting a new job, interviewing for jobs, looking for housing, and us carrying on with our busy every day life.

Swimming and summer camp

Ella's been doing really well in her swim class but there was one thing she'd been struggling with, her freestyle log roll. That until  last week when we were at the neighborhood pool. She finally got it. This girl's got some speed and now good technique too. She swims almost an entire lap without stopping. Needless to say that she's very happy with her feat and especially that her instructor whom she loves, Ms. Kim, gave her some good news on Saturday: she gets to move up to the next level. 401, here we come! :)

Summer camp is in full-swing. They have two-to-three field trips every week, fun but sometimes exhausting especially when you have other classes afterwards like swimming, horsebackriding, or piano.  So far she got to go go some neat places such as art studios, museums, wildlife retreats, stadiums, etc. They even kicked off the Olympics!! :) Sprinting was her favorite.

She's been enjoying her piano practice at home a little more lately, especially when she gets it and makes it sound so beautiful. She cracked me up yesterday when she put her nice hat on and went to practice. Jazz anyone??

Romanian peasant girl:

Then daddy came home with this: we were overdue to replace one of our cars so this is a nice addition to our family. :) Yup, we are a Honda family.

I love the skies and clouds, and I just could not pass this one up. Beautiful.

New place

I got back from my Omaha work trip late Friday night and started operation "Move" on Saturday morning after Ella's swim lessons. And we've been moving every since, well today is Monday and pretty much everything we had in the apartment is now in the new home, situated where it belongs for the most part. The rest of our stuff from storage is scheduled to be delivered on Friday, so you know what we're doing next weekend... ! It's all good though, Hrishi is amazing and made my job so much easier. We love the house, it's really perfect for what we need right now.

Saturday between moves, we checked out the community pool and boy it looks like a little resort: slides for all age groups, lounge chairs, umbrellas, really beautiful. A big plus is that there is a park next to it. In fact, there a couple pools and several parks throughout the neighborhood, but this one is right next door to us, and someone is very happy about that. 

(Just can't get over these beautiful big blue skies.)

And my little ballerina who found her recital costume from last year and did a little demo for me requesting that I take pictures.

And big breakthrough at swimming: she's got the logroll going good!! She was proud and happy with herself. I was itching to take pictures or better, a video but I was in the water with her. Love her spirit!!

A good time

As much as I miss my sweethearts, Ella and Hrishi, I have to admit that I am kind of enjoying my time away from home. You see, once in a while I get to travel for work; most of the times to Omaha. And even if my pre-trip days are very hectic, trying to plan, cook, and leave all the instructions for Hrishi, once I leave town and get to my destination, I discover this nice little thing called freedom. And boy, it's a good feeling! :) I miss her to pieces though... but I'm so happy to hear that she's being such a big girl and doing so well for daddy.

Inspite of having a very long day yesterday with getting up at 4 am, getting on a plane, and working til 5:30 pm (and having lots of meetings), I managed to somehow make it fun. First off, it was great seeing co-workers friends and catching up with them. I had a nice dinner at one of my favorite places in Omaha, and even ordered a dessert. YES!!! I had a delicious bread pudding. I ate the very last bit and didn't feel any remorse or regret! Lol! :-) This is big for me as every time I've deviated from my diet, I would go on this self-induced guilt-trip. But I did hit the gym before dinner. I guess that helped. :) After dinner I got a pedicure, a very rare event in my life. It was nice and calming. I finished the day up with a little bit of gift shopping for Ella.

Tonight is gym time, dinner, and window shopping.

Tomorrow afternoon: team outing, going to a College World Series game, the biggest thing in town and not only. There are so many folks at my hotel that came in town just for that. That is passion.

Flying back to Houston on Friday. Until then, I'll enjoy this different kind of fun away from my daily chores and responsibilities.

Turn it upside down

I was just telling Hrishi over the weekend how all my days have been so great lately, infused with tons of good things, making and keeping my spirit up and happy all the time. I must have jinxed it because yesterday was a pretty tough one, at work, at home, every single direction I could look, there were challenges and issues to solve. I felt a bit overwhelmed but kept my chin up and decided that I was not going to give in and let the hard stuff bring me down, wipe me off, and overcast my sunny skies. Luckily, with a good attitude, help from above, and lots of work things turned around.

It's during the hard moments that I need to draw in all the wonderful things happening in my life, and use them to counteract anything negative.
Plus, this girl's smile and sweetness will always change up any sads in happies in a matter of seconds.

Dazzling smile aside, this girl has strong hands, legs, and overall body balance. Buzz was a bit of a naugthy on Monday when he almost threw her off her saddle. She held on tight though and didn't fall. We came to find later, when the trainer "took him to the principle's office" (that is, she rode him around the arena), that there were some noises adjacent to the ground that apparently were bothering Buzz.

I held my breath for a few seconds, it happened very fast and I gasped because it really looked like she was going to fall (Funny that we were talking about helmets and safety that very day on the way to her lesson...!) Proud of my little rider. Ms. Jacqueline told her that she'd be switching horses starting next week so she can continue to learn and not have to work so much on getting Buzz to listen while learning too! :)That same day, on the way there she told me something that made me realize how deep her love and interest in horses and riding really run. She said that she'll ride til she dies.