Diwali

Thought I'd post a link for more information about Diwali, India's largest festival that is going on right now.

Chick here to learn more about Diwali

Pretty neat stuff!!

The last couple of days

Many of you know, Friday was my 29th birthday. I had a very good day. Abhay sent me a gorgeous bunch of white/yellow daises, and a birthday balloon. (my "real" present from him took place about 2 weeks ago in the form of a dress clothes shopping spree) My dear, dear friends Matt, Heather, and Carrie sent me a beautiful peace Lilly. It was such a nice surprise! For dinner Abhay and I headed to Indianapolis and went to a restaurant called Cheeseburger in Paradise.
We had some awesome food and the restaurant had a great atmosphere! Afterwards we stopped off and did some shopping and then headed home and I made chocolate molten cakes for us to enjoy. They turned out fantastic, if I do say so myself. All in all, it was a really good day. Thanks for all the love you showed me that day. I'm very grateful to have such wonderful friends and family.

Saturday we finally got the apartment cleaned. YAY!! We are now officially all finished with that place. It feels great to be rid of it. We put a few more touches on our house....we purchased new curtains for almost every room in the house. It makes things look more "put together." I am happy to say we are done with everything....for now. Ask me in another week or two and I'm sure there will be some project we're working on.

We both are really wishing we were in India right now. Festival season is going on (the largest one, Diwali happens Tuesday), and we wish we were there with our family and friends celebrating. We promise to come during festival season sometime within the next few years! I want to experience it first hand!

Have a great week all!
--Mandy

Here's the flowers and lilly! :)

Far, far away

Kindergarten student: Mrs Rawal, your necklace is pretty. Where did you get it?
Me: I got it in a country called India.
Kindergarten student: Is that a long ways away?
Me: It's a very long ways away.
Kindergarten student: Like Wal-Mart?
Me: No, no....much further. You have to ride on an airplane for a whole day.
Kindergarten student: Yeah, like Wal-Mart!!!!!

I find it so amusing how some children have no concept of time, or space. This convo made my day!

Fall breezes

I am so happy that we are finally feeling fall weather here in Indiana. Up until just a couple of days ago it's gotten up to the 80's everyday. I love waking up in the morning and feeling the house chilly. I love the aroma outdoors. I love the feel of the cool wind on my face. I love fall clothing...it's my favorite season to dress. I even like the fact that I cannot wear flip/flops anymore and have moved onto shoes. I also really enjoying the fact knowing that after fall comes winter. I'm excited to experience a not so harsh winter for once in my lifetime. I have a feeling I'll be saying "What, this temp?? This is nothing....this is WARM."

--Mandy

Anyone out there?

I'm just doin' a little check to see who reads this (besides Michelle....love ya girl) blog. I'm just curious to see who stops by and checks it out. Leave me a comment and let me know if you do.

Thanks!

ps. I put in my first day of subbing today. It went super well. :)

Smells

Smells have played a big part of our life lately, in good ways and bad ways.

Many of you know the previous owners of our house had pets. A DUCK and a cat. The cat ran amuck throughout the house, and left fur everywhere it went. Abhay and I seriously doubt they ever cleaned up cat hair in the 2 years that they lived in the house. Abhay is SERIOUSLY allergic to cat and dog fur...so it created a little issue for us. The carpets were the biggest chore for us. After vacuuming 4 or 5 times, shampooing 2 x, febreezing everything, and oil scented plug ins, we have it under control. Oh, and cleaning enough fur from baseboards, vents, etc... to make a cat hair blanket. Poor guy, can finally live in here without running a temp. and sneezing his head off.

While opening boxes and bags, we ran across smells from many places in our lives. My wedding dress smelled like TRF, our traditional Indian clothes smelled like India, school boxes smelled like Red Lake, some garage items smelled like Bemidji, bedding smelled like our apt. It's amazing how a smell can bring you back to a time and place in your life. Almost like how a song can bring you to a certain time and place in your life. I always love those experiences.

Abhay and I walked in the house from running errands yesterday and Abhay exclaimed "This smells like OUR house!!" He's so right, it finally does. It feels so good to say OUR HOUSE.

Changes are happening!

I quit my job at Cummins Child Development Center. YES, I finally quit...after months and months of being unhappy. My last day will be Oct 15th.

Last Thursday I FINALLY received my Indiana teaching license. (yes, I had a few hang ups) Monday I went straight to the Bartholomew County School Corp. office and got info on subbing...and got singed up for subbing the next day. I'll start that Oct 20. I know subbing can be a bit scary. There are really no guarantees on hours/days with subbing. But I've been told by many people that most subs in this district can work everyday (there are 10 elementary schools within the disrtict). It's a chance I'm going to have to take in order to get my own classroom again one day, which is something I want so desperately . Since nobody knows me, my name, or my work subbing will get my foot in the door.

So here's to new beginnings!!!! A new house, and a new job!!

Busy, busy!!

We had a very nice relaxing weekend, well knowing that would be the last one in a very long time!

Sunday afternoon came, and we received the keys to the house from the previous owners. We were so very excited. We got the keys, stepped in the door, and this rush of emotion hit both of us. It was pure exhilaration...and overwhelming. It's times like this that we both wish our families lived closer. Just for that moral support...even though we know they are supporting us from afar. And via phone. I swear, I call my parents multiple times a day to ask questions about things.

Monday I went into work, and was sent home 30 minutes later due to low child numbers. I was more than pleased to leave!!! I came home changed clothes and headed straight to the house. Although the previous owners did an OK job cleaning, it wasn't how I wanted it. So I went straight to work cleaning. It took me 2 1/2, YES 2 1/2 hours, to clean the fridge. I swear it hadn't been cleaned since they purchased the fridge. After scrubbing with soap and water the fridge still smelled horrible. I knew about the whole baking powder thing, but i knew this fridge needed something more. I got home, scoured the web, and found many sites suggesting coffee grounds. I did that, and it worked fantastically! I don't recommend it for people that don't like the smell of coffee though. Monday I also scrubbed all 3 bathrooms...which took 4.5 hours!!!!!

Tuesday we both worked, met at the house after work, and did a few things. Nothing too big.

I had today off of work again. Today was spent cleaning out the nasty oven/stove, clean and wipe down all the cupboards. I also got one of the rooms prepped for painting. When Abhay got done with work, we set to taking down the wallpaper in the 1/2 bathroom. Man alive, what a pain!!! Wallpaper is awful stuff. I will NEVER put it up...in any form. It took us 3 hours to get about 85% of it down. We're both totally exhausted and sore. We used muscles we're not use to using. But it feels good that it's ALMOST all down. We'll finish the rest tomorrow after work.

This weekend we will be painting. I'm excited to get that done. We will have our dear friends over helping us. We're only painting 1 bedroom and the 1/2 bathroom. BUT every room needs some sort of touch up. Let's just say the people that painted it were not very experienced.

It's a lot of work, but will be so worth it in the end!! :)

--Mandy