Sharon Superville

Most mornings, when I get into work and see a red light on my answering machine, more often than not, the message would say, “I am feeling worse after therapy and would like to work from home or will be late to work”.
That's a voice message from a lady who worked for me in New York, trying to manage her work life and cancer. On Saturday, August 28th, the world lost yet another beautiful soul to cancer.

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Friday Casuals

I was debating on wearing a coat to work on a 105F day. Glad I did, as the gentlemen from NY who came to meet me, were in their entire ensemble - suit, tie and all. I hardly know them, but was all exited about the prospect of getting dressed up. I sometimes wonder, does that little girl inside every women ever grow up? or is it just me?

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Champion Trails

Now that summer break is over for the kids, we are down to biking once a week. The biking path in Champion Trails in Las Colinas is 12 foot wide enabling Ri and myself to ride side by side, which  means tons of mom-daughter talk time. Ro is still on the tandem bike with M.
We biked for an hour and its still not much of a workout as the bikes move with very little effort. How ever finding an activity that the whole family likes to do and just being outdoors more than makes up for the lack of calories spent.

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Eleven Years

 
Belgian Truffles, milk chocolates, a dozen and a half roses,
a glass of wine in the backyard,
some chaat for dinner and "Blessed" is the word of the day.
Its this day, eleven years ago M and I got married.

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Happy Rakshabandhan

A few years ago, Riya made Rakhis for a school project; thus began her love for this festival. Every year since then we buy a rakhi from the Indian store and she ties it on Rohan.
This post is dedicated to my two wonderful brothers for all the good times, the fun ones, the times we ganged up on one another and for those extra special ones when we fought like there is no tomorrow.

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Time Capsule

My dearest Rohan, as you start Kindergarten, the beginning of yet another wonderful journey; here are a few I would add to your time capsule, in the essence of capturing, the way you are at 5 before school, time and life in general touched you.
Strengths
Your smile has the power to take me from super mad (obviously for something you did) to hysterically laughing in a couple of seconds. This is one lesson you learnt early in your life, leveraging the power of your smile.

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Onam Ashamsakal !!!

The kids and I decorated the center table with flowers, Kerala lamps and urulis. The uruli in this picture belongs to my grandmother and it took a lot of convincing, for Riya to believe my grandma actually used this as a cooking utensil.
The sadaya was simple and included avial, olan, sambar, potato fry and carrot payasam. M does not care much for Kerala style food but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

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The Divine Face

The end of August is the beginning of a series of festivities starting with Varalakshmi Vratham. How ever this Vratham is not popular in the part of Tamilnadu / Kerala we originate from.
One of our friends invited us over to join them in this simple yet culturally rich tradition.
When good friends get together there's always laughter, stimulating conversation, tons of playtime for the kids and not to forget good food.

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Happy Friday

I love to leave the flowers in the garden. But with the summer heat, these seem to last longer indoors than outdoors. Enjoy these fresh blooms from my garden.

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Back to School and for some Back to India ....

No more lounging in their PJs late in the mornings or late evening swims with dinners at 9 and in their beds at 10. We are gradually getting into the back to school routine.
Tomorrow is 'Meet the Teacher' day and for the kids, its translates to 'Meet their friends after summer break' day. I am sure the day will end in a play date at somebody's house.

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Salute India 2010

On one of my work related trips to New York City, I happened to meet a very sweet girl. Prior to meeting her in person, we had minimal interaction via tele-conferences, but when we met in person, we hit right off and one evening, we went around the city for a fun girls nite out.
Now that she reads my blog, she shared with me pictures of the Indian Independence Day celebrations in NYC for my blog. So here is "Salute India", 2010 in pictures.

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Canals and Rides

We are back to riding our bikes, now that the temperatures dropped from 105s to high 90s in the evenings. The trail is not long, but the water and trees around make the ride a pleasant one.
The canals are located in Valley Ranch, Irving and if you are planning to drive to get here, you might have to park in one of the businesses on MacArthur Blvd.

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Fruits of Labor

Cucumbers, cucumbers and more cucumbers harvested from our vegetable garden. I am sure it is going to find its place in everything I cook next week.
Does anything beat raw cucumbers with chilli powder and salt?

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Of Balancing and Letting Go

My sense of balance and flexibility has increased quite a bit since I started yoga. Balance to me comes with strengthening the core and increasing our abilities to focus.
The Ardha Chandrasana/half moon pose is an excellent pose to improve balance. 
At times I add a pinch of grace to balance and get into the Natarajasana or the Lord of the Dancer’s pose. 

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Pho

As much as I like to try out new places, there are times I prefer predictability. Pho Que Huong is a local fast food chain that offers quick, healthy and great tasting pho or Vietnamese noodle soups. 
A perfect place to head to on lazy summer evenings after a swim when I am in no mood to cook.

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Colorful Bubbles

We worked on Ri's room this weekend and moved some of Ro's stuff into her room. She will be sharing the room with him for a while until he is ready to move to his own, which I don't think is too far from now.
I painted Ri's room purple a while ago and this weekend, we added a border of circles or colorful bubbles as the kids call it. I drew the circles with a pencil on the wall and Ri filled it with color. For Ro, I painted an outline as well, so he could paint the inside of the bubble.

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Yoga Poses - 1

I enjoy practicing Yoga as it is my own mind and body that drives the entire session and not by what other yoginis in the group can or cannot do. At times, my body starts off rigid at the beginning of the pose. A few moments and breaths later, I find myself deeper into the pose.
The Bridge pose or Setu Bandha Sarvangasana,is not new to me but for some reason, the pose had a profound effect on my neck and back. I guess it helped ease the ill-effects of all those long hours of looking into the monitor and talking on head sets.

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When life gives you lemons ....

It is the third week in succession where we have had max temperatures hit over 100F. The kids and I make lemonade almost every afternoon before their evening swim.
Yesterday, we made pink lemonade by adding just a couple of frozen blue berries. Today we added freshly squeezed juice of an orange and a table spoon of watermelon juice to make a wonderful sunset lemonade.

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Organizing and Re-Organizing

Not sure how productive I was at work this week, but was definitely at the home front. I re-organized my entire closet, trashing the old ones and setting aside some for charity. The blouses are grouped by color and the winter clothes tucked away in a storage box.
I bought a jewelery storage rack (the thing in black right) at Stein Mart to store earrings, simple chains, my watch and any accessory I need to get ready in the morning. Stuffed my bags with old dupattas (or scarves) to maintain their structure and stored in an upright position in the pink bag.

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