N.O. or no citizenship

If you've read this blog at all, you most likely have noticed that I'm not on here enough to be called a regular blogger!  Sorry about that!  I do plan on taking the laptop in the car and doing updates in the hotel at night w/ pictures, but until that time, I guess you'll just have to put up with me being a really big procrastinator!

So, to get everyone caught up.......

Our Trip to New Orleans on Wed. & Thurs. -- When we found out our new assignment was AK, I decided to immediately apply for American citizenship.  If John gets sent out on a long assignment, I want the freedom to go visit my family for an extended period of time without worrying about losing my green card eligibility.  My g.c. expires in 2012 anyway, and since its only about $150 more to apply to be American, I figure, why not!  I'd have to renew my g.c. every 10 years at about $400 each time, so this is actually a financial and stress reliever choice as much as anything else. 

One thing I will look forward to is the fact that I will no longer be ridiculed by my immediate family as being the ONLY Canadian in a household of Americans.  I especially won't miss the, "Hey Daddy!  There's OUR flag, but its NOT Mommy's!", that gets pointed out every time we see an American flag......you don't realize how patriotic the American people are until you've heard this one several thousand times!!!!!!!!         

I expected the application process would take a really long time, I mean, our g.c.'s took over a year!  As of today, its been just over a month since I mailed in my stuff.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we're a military family, and as I'm married to an American in the military, they are pushing me through faster, though I'm not 100% sure that really is the reason....perhaps they've just managed to speed things up, which is a blessing for all of us who are watching our mailboxes for those lovely envelopes that give us locations and dates and times to report for the next step!

So that gets us up to date as to why the children and I were driving 4 1/2 hours to N.O., LA on Wednesday.  I had an 8:00 am report time, and I wasn't going up the morning of the appointment. We stayed at the Marriot Residence Inn which was just 5 minutes down the road.  Lovely hotel, and we pick that chain whenever possible.  Our room had a full kitchen, living area with pull out couch and queen sized bed beside the large changing area and bathroom.  After arriving and checking in, we were told that at 6 pm they were serving grilled burgers and salad for dinner!  We were planning on cooking dinner in our room, but hey, free food, why not??? 

We went to the room, changed into swimsuits and filled the time until dinner swimming at the pool.  There were lots of other kids there, so my kids had a blast and were able to work out some of the wiggles!  After dinner we went back to the pool for a while, then up to the room where the kids had a flashback to what "real" television is like.....they are so spoiled by Netflix's Instant Streaming, that they were complaining about commercials!  Residence Inn gives everyone a free bag of popcorn in your welcome basket, so we finished off the night enjoying some snuggle time in the bed with our snack.

The next morning we got up, ate a yummy breakfast (waffles (Anica), Muffins (Zane), Bacon & Egg Sandwich (Me)), and left for INS at 7:30...I didn't want to be late!  We got there at 7:40 (2 red lights added the extra 5 minutes), and went right inside.  At 7:55 am, I started the process, at 8:10 am, I finished....8 hour round trip for a 15 minute process! But I'm thankful that it was quick and I really am not complaining!

The kids swam one more time, watched a little more of that commercial filled telly and then we hit the road.  We wanted to make sure we were home before Daddy, so we left at 10:30 am.  I was using my GPS (THANKS MUM & DAD....best Christmas gift EVER!!!), but still managed to miss my turn, so we took a quick tour of downtown New Orleans....we even drove close to the Skydome (think that's what its called).  I blame it all on the torrential rains that were beating down on us, but its more user error I guess!  It rained the entire way home, but that made arriving back at the house at 4:00 pm all the sweeter.  (The trip back was laden with traffic jams, rain and miserable service at our lunch stop!)

The INS website says that citizenship takes upwards of 5 months, and yet my fingerprints were mailed to the FBI for processing on Thursday and yesterday I got an update e-mail stating that my interview has been scheduled and that I will be receiving my paperwork in the mail in the next 14 days!!!!  Yipee!!! 

God is good, and I know that He truly is the one smoothing out this process for us.  It would be amazing to be through the entire thing before we pack up and head north.  I will always be Canadian, but to be able to never worry about where my g.c. is, or having to be treated differently as I cross the border will  be so very, very, very nice!