Sad news...

I am very sad to report that I had someone very dear to me pass away. My mom's aunt Phyllis passed away yesterday after being in a coma since Jan 8th. Phyllis was more of a Grandmother to me, not just a great aunt. She stepped in after my grandparents were gone. My heart truly aches. But I am thankful that she is in a better place...

I thankful that it's going to work out for me to go back to Minnesota to give support and attend the funeral. I will be flying out of Indianapolis tomorrow (Friday Jan 30) morning at 7:15am and will come back next Thursday Feb 5th around 10pm. When I booked last night, and still now, the actual memorial service date had not been set...I'm just hoping and praying it will be within one of those days (which there's a very, very good chance it will be). I didn't think I'd be coming "home" again this soon. I feel bad it's for such an event. But nonetheless I will get to enjoy some quality time with my family.

Abhay will stay here in Columbus. Which is a very weird thing. Most of you know that the two of us are attached at the hip, and rarely ever apart (besides at work). This will be the longest we've been away from each other since Feb. 2006. He's my rock and it will be hard to go through all this without him. Be he will stay here, keep watch on the house, work, and live a bachelor life for 6 days. He'll be fine. :)

If you pray, please keep my family in your prayers. It's never easy to lose someone you love. If you don't pray, pass along good thoughts, strength, and peace their way. Thank you!

--Mandy

And it goes on....

It continued to storm all through the day yesterday, all night, and until around 10am today. During the afternoon/evening yesterday freezing rain was pouring down. YUCK!!! Now it's the dig out process. I'm waiting for the plow to plow out the street before I shovel the driveway. Abhay did it at 7:15 this morning...but it's totally covered again. I still haven't attempted to go anywhere. THANK GOD for our garage where my car is nice and toasty warm--free of snow and ice. I love being a teacher and having snow days. Abhay is one of the only people at his work-place today. :)

I took a couple more pics today...

Our boxes and looking down the street

Our patio view! :)

Snow!!

I've been wishing for a snow storm here in Columbus since October, and I finally got it. Last night we got 5 or 6 glorious inches of snow. It's supposed to snowing/sleeting all through the day and then hit us again tonight with a few more inches. I was so sick and tired of looking at the brown yucky grass and fields. Now it's all nice and bright. Looks so clean. It had snowed a few times this winter season, but just melted right away the same day.

I even managed to get a snow day from school today. Third of the school year. The first was for icy roads (which were all pretty much melted by 10am that morning) and a couple weeks ago for cold temps (-10 below. *snicker* The same day in my hometown it was -60 with windchill and they ran school ON TIME). I'm spending the day at home. Catching up on reading, laundry, and DVR. No plows have been out, and probably won't be until morning. Which is crazy to me. I know I could drive just fine in this weather, it's the other scary drivers around here that I worry about. They are bad enough drivers when there isn't any snow.

Here's a couple of picture of our house with the snow. I think it looks so pretty...

--Mandy

Windy City Fun

We enjoyed a weekend trip to Chicago this past weekend. It was so nice to get away and see friends. It's not a bad drive for us at all...4 hours. The great thing about going there is that we gain an hour! We were oh-so-happy to be able to spend time with good friends!!!

We stayed with our friends Rajat and Shruti, it was so nice to chat and spend quality time with them. (Abhay and Rajat are old friends from their undergrad in Pune, India) Saturday we all went into the city and met up with Abhay and I's friend Carrie and her boyfriend Josh. It was SOOO good to see her and meet him. We truly miss our Minnesota friends. We went to Shedd's Aquarium (which was awesome)and ate a lovely dinner at Maggianos Little Italy downtown. Abhay and I got our first experience on riding the "el" train in Chicago. It was so convenient and so much easier than driving a car downtown. Plus not to mention cheaper (parking is INSANE). Abhay and I also got to enjoy some fantastic Indian food at India House downtown with Rajat and Shruti for brunch Sunday before leaving town. Great food and fantastic fun atmosphere. Abhay thought the lamb was "divine" and I loved the chicken tikka masala.

I loved seeing snow once again!! I also enjoyed the cold, just not the 7 blocks of walking in it to catch the "el". I'll forever be a snow lover.

The crew outside of Shedd's--What an awesome view of the city!!

Cost of War

I was looking online to figure out how much money is being spent in Iraq. I found a very interesting website http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home. The website has a running counter for how much is actually being spent right now. Also, you can check how much each state is spending. Just to put it in perspective, the small state of Indiana could be doing the following with all the money Indiana has spent so far on the war (On the website you can check your state too):

Taxpayers in Indiana will pay $10 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

2,959,263 People with Health Care for One Year
OR
9,495,120 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year
OR
246,365 Public Safety Officers for One year
OR
155,518 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year
OR
1,339,154 Scholarships for University Students for One Year
OR
104,598 Affordable Housing Units
OR
4,730,759 Children with Health Care for One Year
OR
1,494,180 Head Start Places for Children for One Year
OR
174,996 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
OR
136,968 Port Container Inspectors for One year

Makes us wonder how many people would still have jobs with only part of this money. Oh!! Also check Michigan the total amount of money spent by MI so far is $17.4 billion. coincidently thats the same amount as the auto bailout and it has been said over and over again that hopefully 1.4 million jobs will be saved with this bail out.

I know people will argue that they are doing this for security reasons. But there are many more means to keep a country safe. War is not a solution it is only a temporary band-aid.

Abhay

Proud day

Today was a big day. History was made in the United States of American. I was so very happy to have the fine privilege of watching the inauguration of the 44th president, Barack Obama, today. What made watching even better was that I got to share it with 40 5th grade students. I feel proud that I was able to sit with America's tomorrow and watch history in the making. I will remember it for the rest of my life. (as cheesy as that sounds...;))

It's no surprise to any of you that Abhay and I are both huge supporters of Obama. We're both excited to see the changes that will take place with him in office...

I'll leave you with a quote Obama made in his acceptance speech:
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

--Mandy

Home Warranty

Just a note to say how thankful we are that the previous owners of our house purchased a one year home warranty for us when bought the house!!

We were having some issues with our garbage disposal when we got back from our Minnesota trip. Monday, it quit all together. Most of you know the story of how our garbage disposal in the townhouse in TRF backed up and leaked raw sewage everywhere (just days before our wedding), so needless were say we're pretty gun shy when it comes to garbage disposals. We contacted the warranty company and yesterday they sent out a plumbing agency to fix it. It ended up it was just clogged badly, but not something we could have fixed ourselves. Our portion to fix this was a measly 60 bucks. I asked the plumber how much it would have cost if we didn't have the warranty...and he shared it would have been SIGNIFICANTLY more than 60 bucks.

YAY!!! We're hoping we never have to use it again but we are even more so grateful that we have it.

--Mandy