Another year has passed...

Today is the start of my 30th year of life. Yes, 30! It's hard for me to believe it. It seems like just yesterday I was 20 years old. But i'm excited to be entering into this new decade of my life. :) I'm happier than i've ever been. Life is good!

I had a wonderful day, and Abhay spoiled me thoroughly. I'm so lucky to have a husband like him. The started off by him giving me 6 place settings of Fiestaware. I've wanted Fiestaware for as long as I can remember. It's just something I've never bought. I was quite excited. A little later in the morning he left, and came back with a huge bunch of flowers for me and a birthday cake. Now, this is not just any cake. It's an ice cream cake made by our favorite little ice cream place here in town. He had it special made for me: coffee/brownie ice cream. :) This evening we went to downtown Indianapolis to do some shopping and have dinner at my favorite restaurant, PF Chang's. YUMMY!!

All in all, a great kick off to my 30's! :)

( My new dishes)

(Birthday Blooms)

Me and my cake

--MMR

Diwali

Saturday, October 17 was Diwali: The Festival of Lights. Diwali is a HUGE festival in India. It's a celebration of good over evil. We celebrated by lighting Diyas, having lights outside our house, wearing new clothes, eating sweets, and celebrating with friends.

Indian Mithai (sweets). Barfi and Laddu

Abhay holding the Diya

Diyas lit

--MMR

My Namesake...

This is my namesake, Mandie Johnson. He was my mom's maternal Grandfather. Hi name was actually Carl Emmanuel Johnson. The neighborhood Swedes in Swedish called him "Manne" -the common nickname for anyone called Emmanuel. Most Swedish men went by their middle name. The non-Swedish, English-speaking people, thought they heard a "d" when people called him "Manne,"--hence Mandie was born so. He Americanize it and started spelling it with a "d."

I think it's so very cool that my parents named me after him. My mom regrets not spelling my name MANDIE. She thought Mandy would be easier for me, and others. He was gone, long before I was born, but I'm proud to have his name live on through me. This may explain why my Swedish heritage is so important to me.

Flip Flop Sofa

After much "looking around" we finally purchased a futon for our office. (Technically it's a Ashley Flip Flop sofa.) We have lots of company coming in November for Thanksgiving so it was a big push for us to finally get one. We're happy we waited, and looked around at nearly every furniture store. This one fits in the room perfectly and is comfy both to sit on and lay on.

--MMR

Helicopters and such...

This weekend marked 1 year living in our house. Man, it's hard to believe. In one aspect it feels like we've lived here forever--we cannot remember anything else. On the other hand it just feels like yesterday that we were going through the bidding process to buy the house. We love our house. We are so lucky to find a place that we love living in so much. It's not just a house, it's a home.

Yesterday we enjoyed a fun afternoon/evening with our friends Swetha and Suresh at the Ethnic Expo in downtown Columbus. There was tons and tons and ton of food to choose to eat from 61 different countries. We ended up having Indian (of course), Pakistani (which is a whole lot like Indian) and Vietnamese. YUM!!

Today, Sunday, we went an met our friend's new baby. Little Soham was born Monday, Sept 28. He's a handsome little guy...perfect in every way. Congrats again to Shailesh and Sarika!

I'm looking forward to a short week of work. I have Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday and all day Friday off for fall break. :) Too bad Abhay can't have the same days off. While it's nice to have time off, it's always a bummer when he has to work when I'm off. Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Abhay's new toy: a remote control helicopter

Our house decorated for Halloween/Diwali

--MMR

Wordless Wednesday

Our traditional Indian wedding reception
India, July 2005

Sept 28-Oct 4

Another busy week has come and gone...

Things with my job are going quite well. I've fallen into a good routine and really like it. It's super busy, i'm running all day long. By the time I get home, I'm exhausted. I'm thankful for a husband that cooks: when I get home from work at around 6 dinner is ready and waiting for me. :) Abhay is very busy with work as well. Projects keep coming his way. He loves being able to run tests on new and cool cars. It's seriously right up his alley!

We enjoyed a weekend in town, for once. Friday night I had a Fall Fun Fair at school. Abhay and I both volunteered to help. We supervised and took tickets for a blow-up obstacle course. This sounds nuts, but we were exhausted when the two hours of the fun fair were up. We had HUNDREDS of kids go through our line to run/climb the course. It was SO great to see so many families and kids come out for the positive, fun event!

Saturday we spent the day shopping, sleeping, pottery painting, chowing down on good food (mmmm, Chinese), and watching movies. We went to the theather and saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We both really enjoyed it. It was a fun twist on the beloved children's book. At home we watched a hindi movie called Khosla Ka Ghosla. It was an ok movie, Abhay enjoyed it more than I. We finally re-activated our Netflix account so we can watch Hindi movies once again. :)

We are both wishing we were in India right now with our family. Abhay's cousin Ashish is getting married tomorrow. It's hard to be so far away from family when celebrations occur. But we are looking forward to being in India in Dec/Jan!!

Here are wishes for a GREAT week!

--MMR