It's Not Easy Getting Green - Part 1

The time has come to tell of the drama of becoming legal in the USA.  It all started when I came here as a missionary.  I got a visa which allowed me to work with a specified organisation, doing a specified job but did not allow me to live permanently or work any other paid employment.  I was allowed to stay for up to 5 years.  No problem, I thought, probably wouldn’t want to stay that long anyway.

Then James entered on the scene and all that changed.  When we got engaged I called the immigration people and asked if we needed to get married inside the US or if it would be ok to get married back in New Zealand as we had planned.  They assured me that it was ok to travel back once we were married in New Zealand.  As it turned out, this was not precisely true.  

Going Solo

I have officially (well almost) survived being a solo mum for 4 and a bit days.  I am quite proud of myself actually.  I dropped James at the airport on Sunday afternoon and only got lost 4 or 5 times on the way home.  Three of those times were inside the parking lot at the airport and poor Ben, my kiwi voice on the GPS, was getting rather frustrated with me I think.   During one of those getting lost moments the kids wondered aloud what was going on since Ben kept saying “Mate, turn around when possible”.  I told them that I was a little bit lost but it was ok we had Ben.  Emily then pipes up and says “Mummy, if we’re lost and we’re in Boston could we get lost near the cupcake shop?  Then could we maybe go in and buy a cupcake?”  I let her know that the chances of me getting lost near anything familiar would be quite remote and that the chances of me finding the cupcake shop on purpose were even more remote.  

Becoming Licenced

When I moved from NZ to the USA back in 2003 I was especially terrified of driving over here.  Some friends with experience had told me that although at first driving on the wrong side of the road was rather exciting and without mishap that after a few weeks you sort of relaxed and started drifting to the side you were more used to.  That would be the American wrong side of the road.  Otherwise known as the left side.

For this reason it was a few weeks before I was ready to jump into the drivers seat and have a go.  Then I had to get out, go round to the other side (previously known to me as the passenger side) and start again.  I got out on the road and drove.  Nothing happened.  I didn’t feel a magnet like force drawing me to the left side.  I didn’t forget myself at intersections and veer suddenly into the oncoming traffic.  A few weeks went past and still no magnets or veering.  I had assimilated.  

Lollipops

This morning I was reminded about an incident that happened over the summer.  Quite a while ago (not quite sure when) Emily and Kaitlyn were given a giant lollipop each.  The kind that are like a swirl with all kinds of different colours.  They looked like everyone imagines a lollipop to look.

Actually I remember getting one of these when I was a child, it must have been for Christmas I think because I’m pretty sure all us kids had them.  At the time I remember it being such a special treat because we didn’t have lollies and junk food unless it was a special occasion like Christmas or a birthday.  In fact up until I was about 9 years old I thought that you could only buy that kind of stuff when it was Christmas or a birthday.  I’m not quite sure how I thought the logistics of this idea would have worked since its someone’s birthday everyday but since I didn’t typically go to the shops with Mum (clever Mum) I didn’t know there were whole aisles devoted to such forbidden fruits.

James' Super Power

So James has a special talent. I’m not certain that it is necessarily God given but he has such an enormous helping of it that it is amazing.  You see he has the ability to break, destroy, smash, annihilate, pulverize and generally render unusable anything that is even slightly precious.  Even when he is not physically present.  I will elaborate.

From the moment I met James, he has been systematically destroying all things that are precious to me.  It started before we were even married so I guess I can’t really say I didn’t know about it but I really thought it would get better with time.  I can’t remember the first thing that he broke of mine but one that really sticks out early on in our relationship was the time that he borrowed my sleeping bag and pack to go on a missions trip that involved extreme camping.  He came home after a month and delivered the pack and sleeping bag back to me.  He had managed to rip a small hole in the day pack part of my pack and also rip a small hole in my sleeping bag.  Add to that the fact that the sleeping bag smelled like it had been inhabited by a pack of skunks with questionable personal hygiene and I should have been warned.

Zucchini Bread

A few weeks ago I went to the local vege stand (which is actually way bigger than a stand).  Its owned by this old guy called Gary who is a bit of a hard case.  The first time I went there the shop assistant introduced me to Gary who was quick to point out that his corn is the best in the area and that since he had fathered triplets after eating it that I should try it too.  That was a no thanks on the corn but I did buy 3 enormous zucchinis.

I had decided that it was time to make a supply of zucchini bread for the freezer (and to eat warm from the oven of course).  I had first made it way back when I was a newlywed in my In Laws kitchen (not that I wasn’t a newlywed in other places too it was just that I made it in their kitchen at the time I was a newlywed everywhere).  I had used a recipe I came across in a recipe book there and by a stroke of good fortune I had been talking to my Dad about it and he had requested the recipe.  I had dutifully emailed it to him and now since that old recipe book is no longer with us (having succumbed to one of my mother in laws spring cleaning sprees) I was able to use that old and extremely yummy recipe after rummaging through my old emails.

Getting Even

I awoke the other morning to the not so dulcet tones of Kaitlyn screeching.  She wasn’t upset, mad or stuck anywhere.  She was just awake.  It wasn’t even at the top of her lungs, she has quite a large capacity for loud noises and this was certainly not her loudest.  We’ve tried to teach her about the perils of making such noises anywhere near a person who has yet to consume their first cup of coffee but to no avail.

It seems she has been conducting secret training sessions because Abigail is also becoming quite proficient at the loud screechy noises.  In fact I am wondering if perhaps the student might yet become the master in this ear piercing art.