I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last blog post! In April I was diagnosed with tendonitis in my right arm, the pain of which has kept me away from the computer...and scrapping. After 2 months of pretty good rest and steriods, it seems to be (almost) back to normal.
It's been a busy month for me. Anna had summer camp last week, which involved ALOT of traveling - it never occourred to me when I signed her up that the 30 minute drive to drop her off would actually be an hour drive for me each way, so I travelled 2 hours back and forth EVERY day so that she could attend camp for 3.5 hours. LOL - I think next year I'll think that one through a little more carefully. On top of that, we finally got Peter's belongings moved into our house, which is now in utter chaos - there are boxes and furniture everwhere. We're still in the process of figuring out what to keep, and what to get rid of which is difficult because you want to keep everything.
We finally talked Daddy into letting us get a pet! Before the girls were born John and I had 2 rabbits - an English Angora and a Holland Lop. We loved those fuzzy little faces but with a baby in the house and another one on the way it got to be too much to handle so we had to give them away. Now that the girls are old enough, we've decided to get another one. I took the girls to a local rabbitry and we picked out this little angel who will be ready to come home on July 9th. She's a "Blue Torte" Holland Lop Doe and we're going to name her Sophie.
Monday was an exciting day for me - the final stage in the process of seeking my US Citizenship. John, Audre and Anna are all dual US/Canadian Citizens so it makes sense for me to become one. We've been here for over 9 years, and I really feel like it's my home, so I'm excited that it's finally going to happen after such a long and arduous process ---- and lots of paperwork. Audre has been helping me study for the civics test portion of the interview, which I had on Monday downtown. Since my interview was scheduled for early in the morning, we decided to stay in a hotel and avoid any possible traffic problems that might make me late. We checked into the Hyatt Regency and had an awesome room on the 32nd floor overlooking the river.
We got to the office at 7:45 for my 8:20 interview. I was lucky to be the first one to check in for my time slot because they schedule about 20 people for each time. They start the interviews at 7am and then bring in a new batch of people every 20 minutes. When you do the math you know that they can't possibly get through 20 people in 20 minutes, so they start to get behind pretty quickly. There were about 30 people still waiting who had arrived for earlier interviews when I checked in. My name wasn't finally called until 9:45 and I was really wishing that we had eaten something first. The girls were starving, but very well behaved and John snuck a photo of us in the waiting room. The guard waited until after he had taken the photo before announcing to everyone that cameras and cell phones were NOT allowed in the building for security reasons, which I thought was nice of him to do.
My interviewer was a lovely african american woman named Katie McHenry who was very friendly and put me at ease right away. She remarked about the name of my town being the same as her last name and we both laughed and said that it must be fate. The interview itself was about 20 minutes, which included the test. I got 100%, which was my goal so I was thrilled about that. She congratulated me and said that if I would like to take a seat in the waiting room someone would come out in a few minutes with the information regarding my swearing in ceremony. After reading about other peoples experiences on the web, I was expecting my swearing in to be several months away. I couldn't believe my eyes when they handed me the letter with the date of July 9th! By 12:05 next Thursday, I'll be an American Citizen with all that rights and priveledges that go along with it. I get kind of choked up when I think about it.
After the interview we took the girls out for breakfast and then surprised them with a trip to the Sears Tower. Audre asks us if we can go there EVERY time we're in the city, and we never go because of the cost ($52 for the 4 of us) and the waiting time (45 minutes on a good day). We decided to splurge and they were so excited. It was a beautiful day and we could see for hundreds of miles.
Today is my last Canada Day solely as a Canadian Citizen. To be honest, I had forgotten about it until I saw it on the myStampBOX website. Bettina is introducing a brand new stamp set today called "Lots of Dots Sentiments" and is giving a set away in honor of "Canada Day".
The great thing about this stamp set is that it coordinates with the “Lots of Dots” and “Lots of Numbers” sets. These sets work great together! You can use a sentiment and customize it with your own words from the alphabet set.
To win the Lots of Dots sentiments stamp set, visit the
myStampBOX Blog. You can leave up to two comments, each entry will win you a ballot. You must do one or both of the following:
1. leave a comment, please include your first name and last initial, plus your city/country
2. on a second comment post a link to the place where you have posted about my Stamp BOX’s blog (on your own blog or in a forum), again you need to include your name and last initial, plus your city/country - Good Luck!
This contest is open until July 13, the winner will be announced on July 14. Make sure to check the blog and to send in your address, if you win!
