3 years on

The last three years have gone by so quick. Exactly three years ago we would have just landed at SFO. I was super stressed and worried about the dogs and eager to get through immigration and customs and go get them. Our immigration process was quick but felt like it took forever, and we then had to get various paperwork signed before we could pick the dogs up. They were so pleased to see us as we were to see they were alive and well (yes I did have moments on the flight where I imagined going to get them only to be told they didn't survive the flight!)

We are now living in our third house and third location since moving to USA. Our first house was in Burlingame, then we lived in San Francisco (well the outskirts of SF) and now we are living in North Oakland (the nice part!), I think the house we are living in now is probably my favorite and the area is really really nice too, even with all the hills!

When we moved here we were on 3 year visas with the option to renew them, so there was a slim chance that if things didn't go to plan I would have been writing this post from England. Luckily things have gone great and earlier on this year we both got our green cards and became Permanent US residents :) 

Now I am a GC holder I am allowed to work, but so far I have been keeping myself busy volunteering 4 days a week at various organizations.], and doing lots of baking.

A few questions I constantly seem to be asked.

What is different here than in England?  ironically I normally say the weather! but today it is cold and chucking it down just like in England! Yes the weather here is a lot nicer and I think people in general are a lot friendlier too. 

Would I ever move back to England? I'm not saying never, right now life is good here and we have no plans to go back, we have been back each year for a visit and had lots of people come to visit us too. In two weeks we are going back for a visit to celebrate an early Christmas.

Does the home sickness get easier with time? This is a good question, and it's this time of year that I normally feeling it the most, you associate Christmas with families and it is hard when we wake up Christmas morning and we know we won't be seeing anyone (except for on skype), I think that is a feeling that will probably never go away.

Do you consider here your home now? I guess the answer to this would be yes it does now feel like home here, but England will also always be my home too, I spent almost 33 years of my life there, and that accounts for a whole lot for sure. 

What do you miss the most about England? I definitely miss friends and family the most, and appreciate that people do spend time and money coming to visit us. It can be tough when we go back for a visit to see everyone, but we do try our best and we do stay in touch on facebook and skype with people. Yes we have made new friends here, but will never forget our friends back home :) and of course proper cadburys chocolate and Greggs sausage rolls!!

Here's to many more years here (well at least 9.5 as that is how long we have until our GC need renewing)

Love you all xxx

Catch Up time

Hello :)

Yes I know other than my challenge blog posts (well done to all the participants) I've been AWOL - apologies.

Life has been busy, I moved house and have had lots of visitors staying. My mother in law has been here for the last two weeks and flew home today, so I will be resuming normal service again shortly :)

So what have I been upto...

We took my mother in law to South Lake Tahoe for her 60th birthday and had lots of fun, we got there on the Friday afternoon and it was 99 degrees, when we left on the Monday it was 55 degrees, heavy rain and there was snow showers expected. Such strange weather. We had the heat the whole weekend we were there, which made it even nicer, we went to a Renaissance fair which was awesome, although not sure Dave was too impressed, as I got them to arrest him for walking off and abandoning me (they have lots of people in character walking around the event acting things out) and they put him in jail and he ended up getting drenched in the water barrel - those of you who are my friends on Facebook can see the photos from the event.

The biggest news for the last few weeks, which I'm sure that most of you would have read on twitter on Facebook, was that Dave and I became permanent residents of the US. We now have our green cards, so you are stuck with us for at least the next 10 years :) and it also means I'm now allowed to go and get a job (which is a scary thought after not working for almost 3 years). Although first I have the fun job of going to the social security office to get issued with a social security number - for those of you in the US - you know what a mundane task this is (much like a trip to the DMV!!). 

As most of you will know I signed up to do the Susan G Komen 3 day, 60 mile walk this September, which I was really looking forward to and had just started the official training (until the day I fell off the treadmill!!). Well unfortunately I am longer going to be taking part :( For those of you who didnt know, I have two herniated discs in my lower spine, I recently had an epidural injection to help with the pain, which worked great, but the last few weeks I have been in some pain again :( I went to see my spine doctor last week and he has said that he thinks I will need a second epidural injection soon, but there is no guarantee it will work, and there is still a good chance I will need surgery on my spine/discs, which can have a long recovery period. I discussed the walk with him, and he advised me against doing it with my back in it's current condition, as he said it would put too much pressure on my discs and possibly do more damage :( So I am no longer taking part. A special thanks again to everyone who did donate to such a great cause. I am still planning to do the two 5k walks next month, which my doctor said shouldn't be an issue as long as I stretch plenty and take it easy. So I will be doing the Do Life walk on July10th and The Color Run on July 14th.

I'm still busy sending and receiving postcards through Postcrossing, I have sent a total of o 20 cards and have received 16 so far, I look forward to the mailman coming each day now in case he has a postcard for me :) It's interesting hearing from people all over the world. I plan to make some kind of collage out of them when I get 20. Not sure exactly what or how, but there will be photos.

Weight watchers - erm........ well...... I haven't pointed in weeks :( and as a result I have gained a total of 5lbs in the last three weeks, taking my total weight loss since the beginning of the year to a measly 6.8lbs. So I now have no excuse to get back on track, I have no more visitors planned until October, and nothing else planned that I can use as an excuse to not track. Plus I joined my local gym yesterday and plan to start swimming again and attending aqua aerobics classes. Feel free to harass me on twitter and Facebook, and any other ways to keep me on track - it will be much appreciated.

Oh and I booked tickets to see The Lion King in SF for my birthday in November :)

If you have made it to the end of my lengthy blog post - pat yourself on the back you deserve it :)