Feeling GREEN....finally!!

Yes, it is true. We finally got our green cards for the USA. It was a crazy, long, expensive, hard, annoying process. (fyi-apparently I say process wrong here in the USA. I say pro-cess not praaacess...weird!)
Anyway our immigration journey was a crazy one. I was on my parents papers when I was a child and aged off them. Then I got married which then made my husband my immediate family and kinda removed me from my parents..to a degree.(which makes the process longer) So my dear parents, little brother recieved their papers in about 1994ish. They followed my brother to Utah where he lived with his wife. My husband also has a brother and sister who lived in Utah with thier spouses. We wanted to follow but couldn't. So began the wait. I had to wait 5 years for my Mom to be a new immigrant then she could apply for citizenship. Once she had citizenship she could finally apply for me.(If I wasn't married she could have applied earlier...gov't stops many people from getting married I'd guess) So that took about a year to get all her paperwork worked out. Then finally my papers went in about Aug.2001. Then the wait came. When we started people's wait time was about 4 years in our catagory. Not bad we thought. So we kinda planned on about 4 years. That was a joke. The wait times just got longer and longer. Finally Aug.2010 we could start sending in the final visa papers. Each person in our family needed a thick stack of papers filled out. Truckloads of documents when there was 6 of us. We had to go to doctor's appointments, fingerprinting and the final interview. It was stressful. You hear horror stories of people's paperwork tossed because they are missing info. My husband was like a crazy man checking and rechecking them. And when we got to the interview we still had a problem...typical. They wouldn't except his birth certificate because it was a small one. They want one with his parents on it and full info. And after 17 years of marriage we found out that the certicate that we had for marrige was a church one not a "real" one. I was blown away. I am sure that is what I used to change my name and proved we were married in Canada. Well the immigration would not take it. So I was approved for a green card and so were the kids. But my dear hubby now had to prove that he was married to me. Haha!!
I had visions of my marriage not being registered and having to face that we in the eyes of the law have been *gasp* living together for 17 years!! But luckily that didn't happen. Apparently my husband still loves me and sent away to Washington state and got our marriage certificate. He also sent away for a new Canadian birth certificate. Boy they are fancy and I think they have fixed any prolems with fakes cause they are just amazing. Clear parts, holograms, plastic-y weird paper. Very cool.Oops sorry got off topic there!
So about a week later -Green cards came in the mail. Only took over 9 years from when our papers went in. Only over 16 since my parents came. Crazy!
All this time waiting...it's hard to believe that they are here. It's hard to know what we will do now. We finally are here when the economy tanks. Mortgages are hard to get. Jobs are really hard to get. But we are happy and know we should be here. Utah is home but we still miss our other home, Beautiful British Columbia.
To all my BC friend -please continue to complain about the rain frequently...it really helps me not miss there.

I am a SAD blogger

Ok I haven't written forever but I still think about blogging. I have been so busy already this summer. We took a two week vacation. I felt I learned so much. So I thought I would share a few things.
#1-Went to Martin's Cove to do a pioneer trek with my family. I learnt I can walk over 7 miles and not die. But most of all I found out that pioneer life really sucked more than I ever understood. Wyoming is constantly windy and drives you crazy! I was there in summer not freaky freezing winter. I think I would have killed myself! Snaps up to all those Mormon Pioneers!
#2-South Dakota is not that far from Utah and it is so beautiful!
#3-There is a Mammoth Site in Hot Springs South Dakota. Mammoths all fell into a hole millions of years ago and now they are digging out their bones. It was so cool. GO there!
#4- Hot Springs also has a fancy hot springs pool that cost $11 a person. If you walk around town you can find a beautiful path along the creek.In certain places you can go into the same hot springs for free. Yes it is shallow but it is much prettier with trees and sky than the $11 swim indoors!
#5 Custer State Park is a hidden gem!
#6 Mt. Rushmore is an amazing feat. You see pictures and are amazed but real life is gobsmakking! And the drives through the black hills are so wild! We went through a tunnel and as we started getting to the end we realized it framed Mt. Rushmore. Super Cool!
#7 Ok...I am a loser. But as a child my bro Paul(who was with us) and I watched the movie-Close Encounters of the Third Kind. So we had to stop at Devil's Tower. I was fun and then we tortured my kids and made them watch the movie. I learned it was a pretty boring movie and the guy in it seemed a little too friendly with a women who wasn't his wife! Missed that as a kid!
#8 After that we went to Yellowstone Park. Learnt more than I wanted there. I think of Yogi Bear when I go there. Well I saw a bear but it was eating a poor little baby fawn. The Mom spent the day walking back and forth all over the meadow trying to get her baby. Where is a picnic basket when Yogi needs one??
Then the other problem was I watch the movie 2012 recently. Big Mistake! AND then I found out the whole flippin' giant park is actually in a giant volcano from long ago! AND the park has shooting steam everywhere. It could blow at anytime!! Some parking lots had some cones in spots where a steam vent blew through unexpectedly! Crap...I was risking my life for over three days!!! But at least I didn't see the freaky guy in the trailer monitoring volcano action like the movie!
#9-Don't go trying to relive your past 20 years later! 20 years ago this Aug I went to Ricks College. I spent a year there and had a great time. I wanted to share this with my kids since we were passing by. HA! What a joke that was. Yes, I knew Rick College changed to a 4 year university and they changed the name to BYU Idaho. But we parked on campus and I couldn't even figure out where we were. They added so many buildings. So I finally found the main building. There they had the place my roommate and I ate lunch everyday. Where all the dances were. The school store, bowling alley. Ya know the fun place! ANYWAY the whole place was gutted and redone. Man that is how to make a person feel dang old!! Oh...town was unrecognizable too! The dance place we spent tons of time at was gone too! But the movie theater was still there and we went! Brought back memories of many dates...better stop there...heehee
#10-So the last thing I learnt was- I need to take longer vacations because that was too much fun and I didn't want it to end!!!(I am now blocking that BYUI was once Ricks. My school is still in Rexburg Idaho and I hope to visit it one day to show my kids. BTW-Does anyone out there have a time machine?)

Money, Money, Money...

Today as I am driving my teen home from guitar lessons. He asks me,"Why do you let Jacob spend money at the school book fair?" Jacob is my 8 year old son who is so clued out to reality. Anyway, I was gobsmacked to say the least as my son started telling me about the poster Jacob bought him...and the present he bought his "girlfriend"...and the things Jacob bought for himself. So I was a little hot under the coller by the time I got home. Sorry to the school but the book fairs are a little expensive and my kids never want to buy books. They just want to buy the jacked up expensive pens, pencils and erasers. GRRRR!!!
So I get in the house and start yelling. (What happened to the lesson I gave on Sunday about being a Peacemaker at home) I swear it was a test and yes I failed. Well turns out my lovely sharing son decided buy himself two pens that cost $4 and $5, one he left at school so who knows what it is. The other is a weird "message pen" that is suppose to connect to other pens and send messages. It seems like a watch with time (for New York)and other stuff. BUT...not sure how it works because he just through the directions in the garbage. So really it is useless except as a cheapo pen that cost $5. I told him I'd sell him a fifty cent pen for a fiver!
Jacob bought his brother a poster which I actually thought was really nice. It was the other four kids he bought for that I wasn't too happy about. My loving son spent(I think) a whoppin' $30. So with his birthday and Christmas money, he got two cheapo pens.
Shaking my head is really all I can do. What can you say? He shouldn't be taking money to school for one. I should never have let him have his money because he is a money idiot!! But it is a good lesson I guess.(still trying to convince myself.)
I am questioning the school though. I know they are fundraising but I think I would be a little concerned when an 8 year old pulls out a $20. And when a gang of kids are following him around begging for money. I would wonder if the parents would be ok with it. But NO that didn't happen. The school encourages the kids to bring in their money. Are they so short of help that in a very small area they don't notice one kid is paying for a group of kids!!
ARRGGG!! I am just irritated to say the least. I'm going to bed because I think I need this day OVER!!

Olympics Days are Gone!!

It seems so long ago that Vancouver was trying to get the Olympic to come to their city. 2010 seemed so futuristic to me. It is hard to believe that the games are over.
My heart is fill with love for my home country of Canada. Watching Vancouver brought back years and years of good memories.
I am not usually a huge watcher of the Olympics. I am not a sports fan. I do like watching the figure skating. This year I watched bits and pieces of everything. My husband is a junky!! And come on it was in Canada...and to top it off BC.
It was weird watching this year from Utah. They focus on the Americans... surprise..surprise. But the Olympics taught a lot about Canadians. I loved it. I loved that the news was teasing a bit about how Canada has never won a gold on Canadian soil. I loved that Canada made them eat their words by taking the most golds. A joy in my heart for sure!
I loved that I could follow the torch traveling through towns on facebook. Seeing pictures of friends watching it pass by. Seeing the pride of Canada in their faces.
I am a proud Canadian..even though I am living in the USA. I have always felt that Canada did not show pride in their nation. I am so happy that finally Canada was loud and proud. The streets were full of red and white. Maple leafs abound!
Thank you to all Canadians for being you. For making our city look great. Wish I could have been there. But my heart sure was! GO CANADA GO!!!
ps-loved that Canada took gold in hockey!! It was a memory of a lifetime!

Tubing my way.

I really have a love/hate relationship with snow. I just think you can do some really fun things in snow...like tubing. But I hate cold, wet weather and I hate feeling cold. So tonight I went tubing. I was so happy the weather was pretty warm. I wasn't cold at all. The other thing I hate about tubing is walking the flippin' hills. It is so tiring. So tonight I finally went to a hill with a tow rope. It was fabulous! Tubing without killing yourself walking up over and over dressed like a good tire blimp(remember I hate being cold). I wish that they had tow rope tubing when I was a kid. I would have loved it. The runs were long and fast. Now it was fun but had a little wipe out...oops. I now am a little sore and am definately feeling my age!

LDS New Beginnings Night

I am a leader of the Young Women in our ward at church. Every year we have an event called New Beginnings. On this night we introduce any girls who are turning 12 over the next year to our program. This year we focused on wonderful women of the old testiment. So I thought I would show the blogging world the invitations I made. Yes, I used my silhouette cutter. I wanted something simple and elegant to celebrate womenhood throughout time. Hope you like it. I also made posters to introduce each girl turning 12 to the other girls. They were very last minute, hurry, hurry because I've been crazy busy, but I hope you like them.
ps- I am totally failing at blogging. I just have hard time downloading pictures. And can't figure out how to turn them in the program I am transfering them from. Please ignore my total incompantance. It makes me not want to blog but I hate the computer beating me. I will prevail!!

Bulpitt Bucks

I hate housework. I hate fighting kids to get housework done. So last night I made Bulpitt bucks. I spent hours making currency $1, $3, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. Each person got their beautiful picture on a money amount. I'm a $50!! The kids loved it and are excited to get jobs!! It makes me happy. I actually stole the whole idea from my brother and I stole all his rules, chores and everything. Now fighting, name calling, not brushing your teeth all cost you. But good grades, helping out, brushing your teeth etc. you get money!! The kids are excited but it's a ton of organization and I am hoping I am up for it. I think I need to be charged if I don't follow through.
So right now I am trying to figure out how much to sell items for them to buy with Bulpitt bucks. My brother rips his kids off but they still work hard. My kids were already complaining about his rip off prices. I figured out he charges $25 for an fudge ice cream bar. Robbery? I don't know I guess it depends on how much they can make a day. My brother has been doing it a while and his kids make a lot of money. But mine could lose it all. For example- All the money was made and my kids wanted to have some. So they cleaned the kitchen table, stoves, counters, swept, tidied the kitchen. It was great then a little tiff broke out. My daughter hit the other daughter with the broom. I said,"that hit just cost a dollar." She got mad and hit her again. This continued for a bit and I realized that they may owe me money everyday. I may never have to pay out. And I have been stocking up on cheap stuff for them to buy in the Bulpitt store. Anybody want to buy some tiny cheapo speakers to plug into your equiptment with a headphone jack, or how about some lights that are on elastic for your fingers, or some yummy cookies. They are really cheap...just come on over and work at my house for a bit. As long as I don't have to do it...