Happy Easter!

Easter for me has mostly been a religious holiday filled with chocolate eggs :) I've spent most Easters singing at churches, but after lil man was born, I gave up on performing; I simply don't have time to rehearse and don't feel that passionate about singing anymore. I sing a lot of nursery rhymes to lil man though, and I also sing show tunes to my husband just for the fun of it :) 

As I've previously mentioned in this blog, I'm not much of an interior decorator. I don't have the skills or the funds, but that doesn't stop me from trying to create some sort of festive atmosphere at our home. Here's an Easter decorations photo flood, taken with my Blackberry:

Traditional Easter chick

Easter cards!

Lil man doesn't eat chocolate, so these chocolate eggs are for husband and I, courtesy of my Mom actually :)

Snow, please melt away

Inflatable Easter chick, from Nebraska

Glitter Easter eggs...

Husband wants to organize an Easter egg hunt for lil man on Sunday, so we've bought a couple of cardboard-eggs and will fill them with little surprises :)

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Random Tuesdays 03/26/2013

Stockholm, Sweden in 2013 (last Sunday actually)

Random Tuesdays 03/19/2013

Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado in 2009

Plans and immigration

In a previous entry I pondered on whether we should stay in Finland or move back to the U.S. It seems the latter option is now on the winning side and we have started collecting the paperwork needed for my visa. It's a long and arduous project, so it'll take us quite a bit of time and we won't be moving to the U.S this year.

Since I've been married to my American husband for over two years by the time of the planned move, he'll be petitioning an IR1 visa (Immigrant Visa for a Spouse of a U.S. Citizen) for me. Getting an immigrant visa to the United States is no small feat, it takes time and money. I've previously had four U.S student visas and applying for those was a piece of cake compared to what an IR1 applicant will have to do. Not to mention that it takes 8-12 months to get the immigrant visa. On the other hand, I had to reapply for student visas several times, whereas the IR1 gains me the so called green card for the next 10 years. After 3 years of permanent residency in the U.S, I'm allowed to apply for a citizenship. I'll be posting more on the visa process as we move ahead with it.

As to where we are moving, it is still under debate. I would like to move somewhere where my family could easily travel to (mainly the east coast), but where we are moving depends on where my husband finds a lucrative job. We've been checking out the job situation and it seems Florida has a lot of jobs that would interest my husband. 

source: wikipedia

My husband's current employer has a Chicago office, so he might ask to be transferred there, although it is very unlikely that they would agree to that. The location is something we'll have to seriously start thinking later this year, when the visa process goes forward. After I receive the visa, we have 6 months to move to the U.S, giving us ample time to get things sorted here in Finland, so I'm not too worried about that.

Hope everyone's having the most amazing weekend! :)

Random Tuesdays 03/12/2013

Some gators near Everglades National Park, Florida in 2006.

A quick update

Here's a quick recap about what's going on in my life right now:

- I managed to acquire some sort of lung virus so I've been resting the last couple of weeks, breathing has been a bit challenging to say the least. Having a lung virus is no fun, but it's a better alternative than the the blood clot in my lung that the doctor first thought I might have

-For the above mentioned reason, no thesis has been written in the last couple of weeks...so bummed

-Lil man started bilingual daycare last month and while the daycare seemed very nice in the beginning, it has turned out to be a huge disappointment. I won't go into specifics, but let's just say we are trying to terminate our contract with the daycare provider as soon as possible due to breach of contract. We'll see if they'll agree to it or try to fight it. We already paid for this month, but lil man is no longer going there. We are now looking into finding a new daycare for him

-For the above mentioned reason, no thesis is going to be written this month...so so bummed

Photo from weheartit.com

I'm sure everything will work out soon though.

Hope everyone has been having a better week than us! :)

Random Tuesdays 03/05/2013

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2006. 

p.s I've been out of commission lately, some virus decided to attack my lungs, but I will hopefully be able to post something later this week. Hope everyone is having a wonderful beginning of March!