Road Trip Planning

Ben and I have been trying to make sure that we see as much of the US as we possibly can whilst we are here. We are still in the early stages of the green card process and it is not a forgone conclusion that we will be successful. (I am keeping my fingers crossed though.)

All of the places we have been to so far, we have driven to. Our vacation this year involves us flying, but we are normally found on the Interstate working our way towards somewhere new.

I got Ben a book for his birthday that I have been looking through and I think a trip along historic Route 66 is possible. I really hope we can do it as I think it would be fun and we would see a lot of weird and wonderful things, see a lot of the country and go through several states.

Now I have to work out how feasible it is and how long would be sufficient.

Um, has a month really gone by?!

Sorry for the silence. I have been a very bad blogger. I could lie and say
that I/we have not done anything so that is why I have not posted anything. However, if you follow me on Twitter, or are my friend on the Book of Face, then you will know that things have indeed been happening.

So, what has being going on? Well, the biggest thing is that the PWD was finally issued so now Ben's job can be advertised and then after the PERM application can be submitted. Ben cannot be involved in ANY part of the recruitment process. All he can do it wait until he is told the process is complete and that a PERM application is going to be submitted. Once that is in, then we can really start biting our nails. Hopefully it will not take too long but asking how long it will take is like asking how long a piece of string is. As soon as we have any news, I will post it here, there or somewhere.
required steps have been completed, and we move onto the next stage. The I-140 and I-485.


Another big thing is that the 'slut mobile' is gone. The bane of my life has been taken away and I can now drive around in a much safer and much more environmentally car! We now have a Toyota Camry Hybrid. It is not brand new but it looks it. It rates your driving so you know how economical you are being. We managed to have a tank of gas last us 2 weeks, which would be impossible in the Kia, unless we didn't go anywhere in it. We filled up yesterday and a full tank of unleaded cost $40. In the Kia it cost around $20 for a quarter tank.

I have been keeping busy with learning to make bread. The poor kids have not had a sandwich made with store bought bread for almost a month. I have made white bread , bloomers, rolls and also ice cream bread. Yes that last one is supposed to be ice cream bread. It is very therapeutic kneading bread and knocking it back. The bread you buy in stores in America is very different to bread you buy in stores in the UK. It is sweeter here and quite flimsy. It tears easily so when trying to make pb & j sandwiches I generally ended up with peanut butter all over my hands.

Another thing is that I have started running again. Yeah. I thought the same thing. Why?! Why would I want to do that? The main reason is I want to get fitter and lose weight. I have lost a couple pounds and I am started to tone up in my legs. I've been doing it for a month and I have been reminded just how out of shape I am. I'm using Nike+ to track my progress and since I started on April 30th, I am already getting faster and 'running' longer. I am not wanting to break any records but just improve my general fitness without injuring myself. The fact that you drive pretty much everywhere here and in late Spring and throughout Summer, it is just too hot to walk anywhere, I am trying to get out to one of the County Parks to have a run early every other morning during the week. The pic below is a view I get on my run most mornings.

I went to another baseball game at The Joe. I still have little interest in baseball but it is a popular past-time here in the US so I want to make sure I am not dismissing stuff without giving it a fair shot.

An ice cream van has started coming round the neighborhood during the week and it looks nothing like ice cream vans I saw when I was a kid. If I'm honest it looks a little creepy!

The kids did the school Science Fair and some of the projects the kids did were amazing! We now have lots of ideas for future projects!

It was Mothers Day here yesterday and seeing as it was sunny and warm we headed off to the beach. It seems rude not too really. We will be spending a lot of time at the beach in the coming weeks and months as the weather heats up.

Before I go, I want to introduce you to a new addition in our garden. I don't think I have mentioned them before. There is a brown creeper bird in our backyard who has made a nest in our old Christmas Tree stand and has laid at least 5 eggs. We are monitoring it and will be checking on the eggs and waiting to see if they hatch.

Not long until the kids break up for summer. 15 full days and 2 half days left of school and then we have 11 weeks off. 2 of those 11 weeks will be spent in California though.

This blog is not really specifically about being an Expat in America. It is just sort of a diary about what we get up to here. I am considering moving over to WordPress and adjusting the theme and topics slightly.If anyone reads this and would like to share their opinion on what they think I should do and what sort of theme/topics I should aim for, I would appreciate it.

Why Do I Have A Happy Son?

Well, it's very simple really. He wrote a letter to one of his heroes, the amazing Sir David Attenborough, and he got a reply!

We were not expecting a reply because we had had problems getting an International Reply Coupon so I put a note in saying we couldn't get one and would understand if Sir David didn't reply.

The fact that he relied with a handwritten note is just amazing and really made Z happy. We are going to frame it so he can keep it safe and put it up on his bedroom wall, along with the reply he got from Sir David's daughter in January.

(He is pretty happy all of the time so this is not a new experience for him!)

I did find it rather apt that he got this letter on the same day his latest issue of National Geographic Kids arrived in the mail.

He wants to write to him again to say thank you for replying.

Focus and Concentration

Z was diagnosed with ADD just over a year ago and he started taking Adderall and it has just been slightly increased. He was put on the lowest dose, 10mg, of medication for it just before school started in August last year. We will see how he does with the higher dose of 15mg and if it doesn't work out for him then he will go back down to 10mg.

I have had several meetings with his teacher and she has sent me several texts and email messages telling me about his focus and concentration problems in class. His grades are fine. He is not failing
and scores quite highly most of the time. However, his lack of focus and
attention are clearly an issue, possibly more for the teacher than for him. He is always reading in class. He reads encyclopedias and dictionary's  He knows a lot of facts and he has corrected his teacher on a few occasions. She has
complemented him on his extensive vocabulary and that he uses words that some of his classmates do not use and some don't even know what the words mean. He was doing some

homework the other week and couldn't answer one of the questions. He said it was because the question
didn't make sense. I read it and he was right, it didn't make the slightest bit of sense. When he told the teacher she said it was "a problem with the printer." He is also taking part in his first ever Science Fair at school and will be building a model dinosaur and labeling all its parts and explaining what they would have done to catch prey etc. K is going to build a volcano.

When he does focus himself it is almost always on something that interests him. Some people call this 'hyperfocus'. He is interested in Lego, dinosaurs, making clay models and animation. Both Ben and I have time lapse camera apps on our phones, I have Lapse It, and Z has been making stop motion animation. Yesterday he sat for almost 2 hours making several little movies with his Lego and playdoh. I posted one to my YouTube and to my Facebook page to show people how amazing and creative Z is. If he doesn't end up as a paleontolgist or a Marine Biologist he may end up working for Pixar.

Influenster

Being on the glorious H4 visa I cannot work so I have to find other things to entertain myself with. I use social media a lot and have connected with lots of different people from all over the place. I sign up to various web sites and get coupons and free samples in the mail. It really is amazing what offers there are out there for getting stuff to try for free. (Please note that Apple is NEVER going to offer something for free, despite what you may see online, specifically and currently on Facebook as a 'for example'!)

One site I signed up for a while ago was Influenster. A few days ago I got my first VoxBox in the mail and was very happy to see it was stuff that I would use and buy. The VoxBox I got was the Sugar 'n' Spice box. This blog post is about the products I received in that box.

Of course no sooner had I opened it than my kids snagged the belVita breakfast biscuit. I have had them before so I know how yummy they are but come on kids! Give me a chance!

Getting Colegate Optic White toothbrush, toothpaste and mouthwash to try is a great deal too. Always need toothpaste and Optic White is one I would use and buy again. The US is known for people having ridiculously white teeth and I can't remember the last time I didn't use a toothpaste without whitening in it. I am planning on getting my teeth straightened and sorted out at a dentist here in Mount Pleasant so if I can go in with whiter teeth then that will be a good start.

I am admit I can be a weird person. Odd things bother me at times. Like elbows. Elbows that are all dry and  scaly. Yuck. They really bother me. See, weird. I have a big bottle of Vaseline Cocoa Butter moisturizer in my bedroom and I use it every day, as I'm not getting any younger I need all the help I can get to keep my skin smooth and moisturized. I specifically put it on my elbows, knees and feet (heels) to stop them drying out. As it is generally warm here for a lot of time, I am wearing t-shirts, vests and sleeveless tops a lot of the time. No one wants to be looking at gross elbows so I want them to look nice and smooth. Even though my kids are young I am trying to get them to make sure places like elbows, knees, feet are moisturized. Now, as many parents know even trying to get sunscreen on kids can be a challenge. I find myself saying "Will you stand still" over and over again when putting sunscreen on them before they go out to play or whilst we are at the beach. When spray sunscreen came on the market I was a very happy camper. It made it so much easier getting it on the kids. When I saw I had a spray moisturizer from Vaseline in my VoxBox I was very happy as it meant both of my kids would not complain and I can give them a quick spray of it and rub it in before the moaning started. Now they don't moan and I get what I want. I win.

I have been doing Weight Watchers for a while and so far I have lost just over 10lbs. I want to lose a bit more and I have cut out a lot of junk from my diet and portion sizes have shrunk too. One thing I haven't changed is how I drink my tea. I can't drink coffee as it makes me ill, so I have tea with milk and 2 sugars. Oooh, sugar. 2 teaspoons of sugar is 1 points in Weight Watchers land. If I have 3 or 4 cups of tea in a day it adds up pretty quickly. So I was very intrigued to see Nectresse in my VoxBox. Nectresse is 0 points for the same amount I would put in my tea so I would instantly have a points saving. So far so good and I am liking it as a substitute. Lets see if it helps on the scales at Weight Watchers.

I have a confession, I am in my mid 30s and I haven't got a clue what to do with regards to make up. Mascara I can handle but beyond that I am stuck. I do know how to take it off though. I am an expert at that. I know I have to clean my skin and not sleep with make up on. I think the fact I don't wear much make up, always wear sunscreen and moisturize has helped me keep my face in decent nick. Ok there are a few laughter lines and wrinkles but I don't think I look like I am knocking on 40 in a couple years. I got some Dickinson's Oil Controlling Towlettes which have witch hazel in them. Like the spray moisturizer I am all for something that is quick and easy to use. As someone who's skin can't decide if it is dry or oily or normal but definitley sensitive, I am very glad to use something that covers all bases.

"I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes."

St Patrick's Day

What do you do when it is snowing where you used to live in the UK and the weather in the town you lived in Indiana is cold and having wintry weather, and the weather you have is warm and sunny with the temps around 24°C/75°F?

You go out for (green) ice cream and spend the afternoon at the beach, of course.

It was a bit breezy so the people out wind boarding, I think that's what it is called, were going at quite a speed along the water.

Girl Scout Camp

K has gone away again.

We've sent her packing.

Well, until Sunday morning anyway.

She's gone on a Girl Scout 'Outdoor Skills' Camp. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go but decided on the deadline day of handing in permission slips that she did want to go.

This camp out is not near a beach so she shouldn't come home with sand  in everything. She may come home mucky though. It is going to be sunny and about 24°C/75°F so not too bad for sleeping in a tent!

She was happy and smiling when we left her. Even after a visit to the port-a-potty.

When we pick her up on Sunday she will have her Brownie vest back with some new badges added to it as one of her troop leaders offered to do it for all the girls.

I Hate the DMV

I do. I really do. It's always something that causes a problem. This time I thought I would be clever. I would check before I went that my documents would be acceptable. As my visa expired in September I did not want to have to get into an argument with someone and not get my drivers licence renewed. So I emailed them, twice, to check that my I-797C, valid passport, expired passport with expired visa, letter from SSA, current drivers licence and letter from husbands work would suffice to get my licence renewed. They said yes. I also dug out a copy of our lease to take to prove SC residency.  I put everything in a box in our bookcase yesterday. I was all prepared for a conversation about why I don't have a valid visa in my passport. "A visa is an entry document and I have not left the country so I do not need an entry document so therefore I do not need a new visa."

This morning Ben gets everything out that I put in the box, I thought, and we head off to the DMV. It opens at 8.30 am and we get there at 8 am so we do not have to sit and wait in the waiting room with all the 'happy' people. If you can avoid spending anymore time that absolutely necessary then you do what you can.

So we get there and wait until 8.30 and when we get in we go straight to a desk. The woman gives us a form to fill our for a renewal of our licences and we duly fill it out. She looks at everything and then I find out that I cannot get my licence renewed. Ben can but I can't. Everything we have is fine, except for the fact that the letter from his company confirming he works for them does not mention me. It also transpires that Ben did not bring our lease, but he gets out of trouble by the woman saying that a lease is not accepted as proof of SC residency. The letter from his company can be used as proof of SC residency but only for him as it has his name on it. He needs to get another letter for me that says the exact same thing as the one he is showing the woman on the desk but it needs to say that I am his dependent. Even if I had a copy of my bank/credit card statement to prove SC residency I would still need an amended letter from his work. (Let's not mention the letter we have is the exact same as the one we used last year!)

I need to go back to the DMV on Monday. I can't go to the DMV here in Mount Pleasant as they only deal with US citizens. I need to go back to Leeds Ave. (Check bottom of page where it says "DMV Offices")

Now do I drag Ben back to the DMV with me on Monday? Even if he'd brought the lease with him, I still wouldn't have gotten a licence due to the letter from his work, so it is not really his fault.

Hoping ...but not holding my breath.

A couple weeks ago I tried to get tickets to Comic Con in San Diego.

The site crashed and I got an error screen.

It took ages for the page to finally load for me to get into the waiting room.

The page was supposed to refresh itself every 120 seconds.

Mine stayed as it was for over 45 minutes. (Picture was taken at about 11am Pacific after getting into the waiting room at 9:04am Pacific.). I heard of some peoples screen not refreshing for hours and it showing them still in line even though tickets sold out hours before hand.

My number in line did not change. So I made the rookie error of refreshing the page myself and I got chucked out of the waiting room.

I was not able to get ticket to go to Comic Con. I am still going to go to NerdHQ though. I am all booked for a 2 week vacation in California. Hotel rooms that have been blocked off for Comic Con go on sale today at 9am Pacific. Is it bad of me that I hope that some people who got tickets for Comic Con don't get hotel rooms and they end up returning their badges and those badges go on re-sale? I have a hotel room all sorted after all.

Girl Scout Cookies & Chris Moyles & Twitter

K is selling cookies again and we went to pick up her initial order yesterday. She will be doing a booth sale in a couple weeks at a store in town and is still taking orders from anyone who wants cookies. We were rather controlled this year and only ordered one of each flavor, unlike previous years where I got slightly carried away. If you're in the area and want some cookies, just drop me a message and I'll get them sorted for you.

If any of you are on twitter and you want to see your twitter @ mentions column go mental, all you need to do is get a RT or reply from a celebrity. If said celebrity has over 2 million followers, like Chris Moyles has, then it goes really, really mental!

Speaking of twitter, my celebrity followers have gone very odd recently.

I've added Matt Goss and Vanilla Ice into the mix. Along with Barack Obama, Jaime Oliver, Philip Schofield, Coldplay, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez.

Brownie Girl Scout & Sir David Attenborough & Yogurt

K is back to selling Girl Scout cookies again. There is a new flavor out this year and we have ordered 1 box of each flavor. Just 1 box of each. K finally got the badges she has earned so far for Fall Sales and whilst on the camp out she went on in November. I am so thankful for iron on patches! Only one didn't iron on and I had to put a little stitch in the middle of it to hold it on.

Z has been watching Sir David Attenborough's "Africa" with me and after discussing it for a while, he decided he wanted to write to him and also send a drawing. He wrong a long letter and included 2 drawings. Being the good mother I am, I went to the post office and got an International Reply Coupon and mailed his letter to Sir David's production company in England. Yesterday when I was getting the mail I noticed and international airmail envelope addressed to Z. It was not on this occasion a reply from Sir David but a lovely letter from his daughter Susan saying he was out of the country filming and would see Z's letter and drawings when he got back to the UK. It made Z very happy and he is still hopeful he will get a reply from the man himself.

So, K is getting Girl Scout badges and Z is on the precipice of getting a reply from one of the most inspiring educators of our time who also happens to be a Knight, am I getting anything? Well, nothing that exciting. Ben got me a new pair of running shoes and I bought some biscuits for when I have some tea and yogurt. Such excitement was had by all. (You'd better believe the excitement that was had in the grocery store when I spied the yogurt!)