Here we go again!

And it's off!

That right there is our next giant packet of fun (aka: immigration paperwork) on its way to the Vermont filing center! After 2 years of being a permanent resident of the United States, Leo's about to get his next Green Card.

Basically, his first card is only good for 2 years, and this paperwork (and the ginormous enclosed check) will hopefully bring us one that's good for another 10 years. But as part of the process, we have to prove once again that we actually like each other and are a real-live married couple who entered into matrimonial bliss for love's sake- and not just to keep him in America. We included tax documents and bills and apartment leases and insurance claims and sworn affadavits from family and friends (thanks guys!!) and lots of other boring stuff that proves we live under the same roof and pay the same bills and have the same credit cards and are even covered under the same car insurance! We even threw in several cards and envelopes that were addressed jointly to both of us. Who knew your kind greetings would go to such good use?? :)

But by far, my most favorite pieces of "evidence" are the pictures. They're not even considered hard evidence, because apparently we can easily hire people to pose for us... But I can vouch for the validity of these and the people in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



That's even more pictures than we sent in with all of our original applications back in 2010! But they make me smile, and I hope they'll do the same for the sad USCIS official whose job it is to go through all the paperwork... Such fun times over the past 2+ years! With just a touch of: "Man, we've come so far." Oh, and I included the one of us, the bear and the longhorns as pure comedic relief. Who would fake a picture like that?!

It feels good to have it sent, but it's a little terrifying at the same time. All we can do now is wait. And while we hope and pray that all of this goes through without incident, we can start dreaming up ideas for the epic CITIZENSHIP party we get to throw next year! Ohhhhh yes.

For the love of reuse.

I am downright giddy to share my latest purchase with you all!

Everyone, meet our new reusable produce bags--

And produce bags, meet everyone. :)

Aren't they fantastic?!

They're functional and they make me happy and they equal less plastic use at the grocery store- and therefore, I love them! I rarely use produce bags for anything anymore... Do you really need a plastic bag to keep 4 apples together? And letting your oranges and mangos interact won't hurt anything... But for things like broccoli and onions- which tend to shed- these little guys come in very handy. Machine washable, big enough to hold whatever, color-coded tabs for whatever the heck I decide to color-code. Seriously, they're awesome.

Even the checkout girl today complimented me on them! And this was at Wal-Mart, people... where they hate pretty much anything reusable at the bagging carousel.

It's the little things.

Holiday Happiness

I started writing this back on December 12th-- our 2nd wedding anniversary (yay!) and also my last day of school for the Fall semester (double yay!). And yes, it's taken me THIS LONG to finish it. This Christmas break has gone by freakishly fast... It's been a blur of family and excitement and relaxation and fun and eating and all things wonderful. But even before that, Thanksgiving kicked things off right.

Leo and I realized we had about four days off together over Thanksgiving, and in true Rangira fashion, we hit the road and found a new place to explore. Neither of us had ever been to the Texas panhandle, and I'd heard stories of a magical place called Palo Duro Canyon just outside of Amarillo. Coupled with Cadillac Ranch and a chance to see real, live Texan cowboys, we decided to head west.

To get there, we drove through oil country, and then through cotton country (who knew Texas had cotton?!), and then through cattle country. To help break up the drive, we stopped in Wichita Falls and visited the World's Smallest Skyscraper and a pretty waterfall.

The "skyscraper" was built by a conman in Wichita Falls back almost 100 years ago. Basically, he drew up the blueprints in inches instead of feet and gave the rich oil tycoons a tiny 40 ft structure instead of the promised 480 ft. He was long gone before they figured it out, but the building still stands. It makes me giggle every time!

Amarillo smelled faintly like manure mixed with oil for most of our stay, but that in no way hindered the fun. We hiked Palo Duro Canyon on Thanksgiving day and enjoyed a couple of turkey sandwiches at Lighthouse Peak (its signature rock formation).

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Big Texan that night and stuffed ourselves silly, and then left our mark at Cadillac Ranch the next day...

...and got back home just in time to conquer our finals and start off Christmas break!

On school breaks I tend to have a few key areas of focus: Baking, Traveling & Relaxing. Oh, and reading great books that are in no way connected to my program. And this Christmas delivered in all areas. It was heavenly! In the days I wasn't working a ridiculous amount of overtime at the hospital, I baked up a storm. (My co-workers particularly appreciate this piece of my relaxation ritual.)

I did have to work Christmas day, but ended up getting sent home early. (Just in the nick of time to get out of Dallas on not-icy roads!) We arrived to San Antonio in time for dinner and more Christmas baking... And fun times ensued! Leo and I got to catch up with family and see old friends and got in some quality nephew time with Colt.

 Photo by: Sarah

We hit up the San Marcos outlets on the day after Christmas, where we actually found a parking space(!) and finally invested in a slow cooker of our very own. Of course, you never go in intending to buy a lot, but Calphalon hit us especially hard and we found some great deals.

We've only used the slow cooker a couple of times so far, but we are already head over heels IN LOVE.

We got to cheer on the Spurs and also went to the Alamo Bowl, where the UT Longhorns were playing the Oregon Beavers. And yes- I did cheer for the Beavers. They were severely outnumbered and being bullied, and frankly, I like their orange better. (Please still be my friend.)

Also, we got to celebrate Leo's 31st birthday! He got a brand new pair of Nikes and ate his weight in my Mother's banana bread... which equaled a very happy birthday boy. :)


We drove home from San Antonio on a Sunday and left Monday morning for the great state of Florida! I was feeling like crud the whole way there and never came so close to using an air sickness bag in my life, but none of it deterred me from vacation fun! First up: Miami! We got to our hotel around 5pm on New Years Eve, and took a nap. Yes- we took a NAP.  It had been a long week already and did I mention I felt like crud?? So yes, we napped up until about 8:30 and then decided to order in pizza from a great little local place right up the street. We finally got decent and stumbled out into the night around 11:15pm, because I had heard rumors of a fireworks show down on the beach at midnight.

After walking about a mile to where we thought it should be, we basically followed the crowd out to the edge of the beach. Not really knowing exactly what time it was, and what exactly to expect, both of us were completely shocked (and frightened) when the show kicked off. First off, there were no barricades or anything telling us where to stand and how far back to be, and it was darn near pitch black out there so as we wandered around in the sand with about a million of our newest friends, we had no idea where anything was going to happen. We were soooo very close and when the first big shells went off, I literally shrieked in horror- thinking the beach had exploded or South Beach was under attack!

Luckily, there was no attack in progress... we just happened to be standing wayyy too close for comfort, but once our eardrums adjusted (they may have just imploded and given up), we definitely enjoyed the kickoff to 2013!

We had such a blast in Miami (after my stomach decided to cooperate)-- we hung around South Beach, went and visited the Everglades, rode on an airboat, and even ate some alligator!

As we picked up our rental car around day four, Leo said it best: "Miami, we're not finished with you."  But it was time to head south along Highway 1 and make our way to Key West! The trip is typically around 4 hours, but we made it an all-day adventure, stopping whenever and where ever we pleased along the way.

We found the "Coral Castle" and stopped at an amazingly delicious fruit stand called "Robert is Here." We never did meet Robert, but we thoroughly enjoyed his shakes and petting zoo and then got back on the road.

Around the halfway point, we stopped at a beach-side cafe and ate lunch with our feet in the sand. Overall, the Overseas Highway did not disappoint.

After a long day of driving and sight-seeing, we made it to Key West, turned in the rental car and headed out!

Key West in a word was: delicious. We ate every ounce of seafood we could find, walked approximately 30 laps around the island, made sure the beach stayed in place by sitting on it for hours at a time, went out snorkeling and got to see pretty fish (and a shark!), and I developed a new personal motto: there's always room for anything key lime. Oh, and I also learned never to drink Cuban coffee before taking a stroll in the sun. The combination may lead to heat stroke.

It was pure, laid-back perfection. 

But alas, play time had to come to an end, and back to the grind we came. School officially started back up for us this week. And so it begins. No official plans yet for May, but if we can just make it 'til then in one piece, we'll see what comes next. :)