Thank you Tracey

A big thank you to Tracey who taught me how to add a personal signature. I love visiting her blog. She is so creative and talented. Her blog is http://tj-runningwithscissors.blogspot.com/. Be sure to check it out. Tracey your directions worked. I appreciate the tips.

out to lunch

Hello,

Today I visited a dear friend Suzanne. We met almost three years ago at 2am. Yes 2am. No we were not bar hopping.I was about six months pregnant with Priyasha and we met the morning after Thanksgiving in line outside the scrapbook store. We are scrapping buddies and I am so blessed to have her as a friend. She drives me nuts at times but my scrapping world will not be the same without her. She is a sweetheart and made me a delicious lunch. Not sure what it was called but it was baked chicken with curry powder , honey and yellow mustard. It was delicious and Priyasha loved it too.

She watched my kids while I ran off to the scrapbook store. I have a class to teach on Friday night and I needed to gather my supplies to put the kits together. This is a crazy week and I am so thankful she did me that favor as I could not fit that must do item of my daily chore list any other time. Well I have 3 people signed up and I am so excited to teach this awesome class on two mini books. Tomorrow is another crazy day and I feel like my juggling skills are being sharpened this week. The house is clean and I am ready to entertain some friends and their 5 year old boys as well. I will also have Suzanne's kids and still babysit Keara. Tomorrow will be a zoo in my house but the trampoline will tire them all out , or so I hope.

Today Priyasha wore a cute dress with POKA BOKS as she calls the polka dots. It is the cutest thing from her mouth. I took some pics again. These dresses are so cute I cannot resist. Well all these photo shoots of Priyasha has left Pravan feeling left out. I promised him that I will take some pictures of him climbing a tree or something. Well it is almost 10pm my dear husband is at a late night meeting. Sex and the City is about to begin and a martini with my name and a salty snack awaits me. Tonight I am just exhausted so I will chill for a while and if I get a second wind at 11pm I will start on the kits for class. Well hubby just called to say he is going to grab a bite to eat with some colleagues so it will be another two hours before he gets home. I just love all this peace and quiet and time to myself. Too bad I do not get this earlier in the day or all day.I look forward to this time of day every night. I will post some pics when i get a chance later this week. Take care !

My flower garden

My husband loves to garden and he bought some pretty flowers for the front of the house. My favorite flower is the dahlia and my husband bought me some. The kids love to water the flowers. It is so adorable to watch my budding gardeners. Take care ! Free Spirit !

Dangles

As some of you might know I have a ton of bangles and it is a very Indian tradition. Well being in America was not going to change that for my daughter. A short trip to Sacramento to the Indian stores and getting some hand me downs from another mom who is from Pakistan Priyasha now has dangles as she calls it in all colors to match every outfit. She and I can now wear similar bangles. I just love that the kids can have some of the Indian traditions and culture. Here are some cute pics of her showing off.

Miss Independent

The other day Priyasha wanted soem water and I was in the middle of loading the dryer. Pravan was busy watching Scooby Doo and little missy took it upon herself to get water. I walked into the kitchen and caught her helping herself. She is just too smart for her own good. I could not get mad as she did not make a mess. It was just so cute to watch. Here are some pictures.

Happy father's day

My sweet sweet husband puts up with me and my photo shoots. Here are some shots I got with him and the kids.

Graduation

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry I have not been around for a while. Life is just crazy. All of a sudden I am getting calls to set up play dates. If my son is not at someone else's house then I have other kids here. This week he went to a friends house yesterday and I had the girls. Priyasha and sweet Keara the baby I babysit. It was nice just having the babies. Today we went to story time and having three kids seems to be getting easier. Keara loved the songs and Priyasha and Pravan seem to be so independent and sat up front with the storyteller. Today I am cooking a delicious dinner in the crock pot. Short ribs with veggies and nutty rice. I love watching the food network when I get a chance. I saw this the other day and I am giving it a try. It smells so good.Try it out. Let me know what you think. It was quick and easy to throw together this morning. Smoke House Short Ribs Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee, 2008 2 tablespoons olive oil 8 short ribs Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 large onion, thickly sliced 1 (12-ounce) bag baby carrots 1 cup celery, thickly sliced, about 2 stalks 1 teaspoon minced garlic 2 teaspoons smoked paprika 2 teaspoons smoked ground black pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose seasoning salt 1 cup red wine 1 (10.5-ounce) can beef stock Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over high heat. Season short ribs with, salt and pepper. Sear the short ribs on all side until brown and caramelized. In the bottom of a 5-quart slow cooker place the onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Then add smoked paprika, smoked ground black pepper, and all-purpose seasoning salt. Pour in wine and beef stock. Place short ribs, meat side up, on top of vegetables. Cover and cook on LOW setting for 8 hours. Strain and defat the cooking liquid. Serve as sauce on the side. Recipe Summary Difficulty: Easy Prep Time: 3 minutes Cook Time: 8 hours Yield: 4 servings Tomorrow I have a play date schedule at a friends house. Thursday I have company and Friday night I am teaching a class at www.scrapbooksatelier.com It is a class on spring books. Check out the link to see some pictures. I have some new pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/sausa. Go ahead and check them out. I will try to make some slides for the blog. I have many many other things to get done and I honestly feel like the kids secretary. Hopefully next week won't be so overwhelming. Have a great day and stay cool ! Free Spirit !

I'm Back

Wow ! Life got in the way of my blogging. No seriously, I have been busy, busy being a mom, wife, teacher and everything else in between. Pravan graduated kindergarten and we are very proud of him. I have taken a million pictures and need to upload them for you all to see. I successfully taught my beach album. It is still at Treasured memories on display. http://www.tmtreno.com/ I promise to post tons of pictures for you to enjoy. I have a long list of Need to Do's. Every year I send out a letter talking about the kids accomplishments along with their picture and now I am late in getting out Priyasha's and she turned two in March. I am working on sending thank you cards and graduation announcements. Going to birthday parties and rescheduling play dates.Yes rescheduling so i can keep up with laundry that somehow seems to multiply every night. There are days when I feel I need a secretary. When I am on the phone and have someone on hold and then my cell phone rings and another person on hold. Four lines now going and the doorbell rings while my two year old screams that she has to go pee. SSHHHH!!! Way too crazy to deal with.I am crazy busy with planning several classes at two different stores. I am also now babysitting a cute six month old baby on Mondays and Tuesdays. You think life can get any crazier ? Well I would not have it any other way. My phone is not on overtime everyday but today boy was life crazy ? That's it for now. I will post some pictures soon. Free Spirit

If at first you don't suceed try,try , try again ...

How many of you remember being told this as a kid ? When I was little I loved the poem "Don't Quit ". Today I attempted to explain something to my son. It has been a very sore journey since x-mas with the trampoline. We have put it together 4 times and it takes about 3 hours to do each time and every time it warped. We exchange the whole unit, we got replacement mats and springs twice and finally I had little to no hope that there was any hope left in getting it to work. My kids have been very patiently waiting and have not once nagged or whined to get it to work right. I believe that they knew we were trying. Today we decided to give it one last try. So I explained to Pravan that if it does not work we were going to take it to the dump. I also said that we tried and tried and tried again but there are some things you have to give up on if it never works. I also said that when you learn to ride your bike without training wheels you try and try and try again. He said " then you give up if you don't get it " I replied " no you keep trying " He said " But mommy you said you should eventually give up " I then changed what I was trying to say from " try , try, try again " to " practice makes perfect " He is so sweet he said " mommy you should keep practicing to fix the trampoline " . I laughed and I said " daddy and I will attempt it once more." I am so happy that it finally worked . We had a great time jumping on it.The cherry on top was when he said " Mommy I told you , you will succeed if you keep practicing" I rest my case ! Today has been a day full of success simply because I kept trying or as Pravan said "Keep practicing." I finally completed the slide show to my satisfaction. It is on a DVD disc ready for graduation on Monday. Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day as I am going to the movies to watch " Sex in the City " I am very excited and looking forward to that. Take care and don't give up !