Baked my first white bread today and I am very proud :) Ro just loves it and Rishu said it was good!! Wish I had taken the pic of the bread before cutting, Ro was too eager to try it!

I know I have been very lazy, but this is a promise that I will be more prompt on posting from now on!! A lot of things have happened since the last post I made. I worked again at Avaya for a year and half! Had a summer trip to US for 6 weeks, now thinking seriously about moving back to US. We celebrated Rohan's 7th birthday party! Rohan has been off his training wheels. He has lost 8 teeth already. Rishabh will be in 7th grade now. He is going to be a tween soon! It's kind of scary thinking of things to handle :) I quit my job end of Feb 2013. Not sure if it was a wise decision, considering the fact that we are moving back to US. But if we do move, I would love to spend as much time as possible with my parents now. I am enjoying cooking which seems to be so much fun, never realized that cooking can be so relaxing. I think what's more relaxing is that my kids are enjoying it. It's totally worth spending time in the kitchen:)

Rohan's 5th Birthday Party

Rohan had been invited to so many of his classmates bday parties over the past year!! He was really excited to have his own party as well and invite all of them. But the problem was his birthday was right when the older kids had exams. So we had to move up his birthday by 2 weeks. He was very specific that he wanted a pizza party. So we had his party at Pizza hut. There was a guy who came and did tattoos for the kids. And there were couple of caricature artists who drew the kids caricatures on the glass mugs. The kids had a blast. Even some parents got the caricatures done. Even I got one done:) The kids played a game called paper dance.

Had called a photographer to click away the pics. This is one of the advantages of being in India. I would have paid a fortune to get a photographer in the US. And here it was dirt cheap:)

The cake was a Tom & Jerry theme. Unfortunately the cake design got damaged a little. But it tasted awesome....

Summer 2011

It's been almost 6 months since I added my last post. Time has been flying not sure on what?? Kids have finished a whole school year in India, YEAH!! Summer vacations have started. It's getting HOT. I hope this time around I keep updating my blog with what's happening in my life on a regular basis.

We are going on a trip to Shimla, Manali, Chandigarh, Delhi and Mumbai. Looking forward to seeing some new places in India. Have traveled to a whole bunch of places in US and some places in Europe. Now that we are in India, would love to explore here. Looking forward to some change.

Had an interesting 9 months here in India. Still have this unsettled feeling in spite of making so many new friends. I am still in this state, where I keep thinking to myself, "not sure for how long I will stay here". I think it's a carry over from my life in US. Every time we would go shopping, I would decide to buy based on whether it would be useful in India or not. Now it's the other way. I am trying really hard to convince myself that this is it but not sure when my heart will listen to my mind:(

My one week vacation??? to US

Right after Prasad reached US, he realized there was a lot to do before he could ship our things. Since I was so eager to go back, I was more than happy to book the tickets and join him to help. My mom agreed to take care of the kids while I was gone for almost 10 days.
I was happy since I wanted to squeeze in a visit to a couple of places in my hectic schedule.
But, the day I reached, Rishabh got really sick and had to be hospitalized for almost 4 days. It was a nightmare. Staying so far away when my baby was sick was something I hadn't even dreamed about. We were glad when he was finally discharged and sent home. But by then my week was almost over. Learnt my lesson: don't leave the kids with anyone for more than a day!!

The first 3 weeks

The first 3 weeks since we move has been a breeze. We went straight to our new house in Bangalore from the airport. My parents had done a great job getting the house ready for us to move in. We already had a refrigeration, gas and kitchen was almost equipped with the basic necessities to start cooking.

Kids had already got admissions in a very good school(it's our perception). We went to the kids schools, talked to the teachers, found out that they had already missed around 3-4 weeks of school. So decided to send them to school from that Monday. I felt really bad for Rishabh. He had just finished his school in the US. He must have had a week of summer vacation and there he was again going through the grueling school work, catching up for the past 4 weeks of missed school. Rohan, on the other hand, was loving it. It was more fun for him than work:)

Everyday we would have an agenda to get things for the house so it would be comfortable for me and the kids.

I think Prasad was really happy that he would be back in the US and didn't have to deal with the day-to-day issues in the new house (atleast that's what I would like to think:))

Moving to India

12 & 1/2 years ago when I got married to my dearest hubby, little did I know that he was very serious about moving back to India in the future. I had hoped that it's a phase and as time will pass we will decide to stay in the US forever. Eventually over the years as I started making trips to India every summer to visit my parents, I realized that as a daughter(-in-law), the priceless gift I can give to our parents was the joys of spending their time with the grand kids. The kids got so attached to the grand parents, that I didn't think it was such a bad idea to move back. After all this is where I spent the first 21 years of my life.

As the time to move back was approaching, I wanted to trap all of my priceless memories in NJ from the past 12 & 1/2 years. Didn't know that I would get so attached to that foreign land, that I would be thinking so much before returning back to my homeland. I think more than the place itself, it was what I was leaving behind. I had made some really good friends. And I was sure I would miss them a lot. Although the world has become one big global nation, it's still not the same like sharing a conversation over coffee with some of my closest friends. And though I would hate to admit, I think somewhere in my heart I thought moving back was like going back in the past instead of moving on into the future.

It's been 2 & 1/2 months since we moved here in Bangalore, I am still not settled. The kids are definitely settling in. I am glad they are. I don't want them to go through the same emotional turmoil that I am going through. I am still trying to find my solace and happiness here. Prasad says give it some time. I am just not sure how much....