Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Random Tuesdays 02/25/2014


The Flatiron Building in New York City, NY in 2012

Sunday, February 23, 2014

R is for RFE, S is for sickness and T is for thesis...

Add one e in there and you get rest, which is exactly what I need right now :D

First, a sucky part, we received a Request for Further Evidence on our spousal visa petition :( It really sucked, since it's soon been 10 months since we submitted our petition and now after all that time USCIS decided they weren't going to accept out Finnish Marriage Certificate. Needless to say, we were baffled and so was the USCIS customer service representative, when we called to ask about it. They just suggested sending the Marriage Certificate again with an explanation that this is the valid Marriage Certificate. Husband also went to the local Registrar's office (Maistraatti) and got an excerpt from the population system to add some more documentation to our response. There is nothing else we can do, and if they don't accept the Marriage Certificate with the supporting evidence, then they will deny our visa and that's it.


Another sucky thing is that I'm rather sick now :( Husband and lil man got sick first and now it's my turn. I always get the worst case of every sickness that the boys drag in :D Hopefully it'll pass soon, since I have some stuff to take care of at work tomorrow, and cannot stay home and rest.


As for the last letter, I've submitted my Master of Arts thesis, woot woot! I cannot even begin to describe how relieved I feel. It wasn't perfect and I wasn't happy with it, but it's submitted and hopefully I can move on with my life now :) I'll know in a few weeks time what grade the professors who read it suggest and then I have still a chance to withdraw it from the final inspection and submit a fixed version. Unless I get the poorest or second poorest grade, I'm not going withdraw it. If all goes well, I will graduate in June the latest.

I've also worked on my Master of Business Administration thesis and if I work very hard for the next month or so, I might be able to return it in April. The MBA thesis is a lot easier to write than my MA thesis, so I'm not stressing too much about it.

Photos from weheartit.com


I'm off to get some more rest, hopefully everyone is having a wonderful weekend! :)


Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Random Tuesdays 02/18/2014

Southern Finland in 2006. 
It's not very cheery outside at this time of the year, since the snow is melting and it's still dark. 
But here's a cheery photo of the beautiful Finnish countryside :) 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Random Tuesdays 02/11/2014

Happy Birthday to lil man!
Our lovemuffin had a birthday the other day and we had a birthday party for him at the local gym with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme :)

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Keeping busy

"Oh, I've been keeping busy" or "I know he likes to keep busy" or "we're just trying to keep busy"

Those sentences baffle me. I don't understand why someone chooses to keep busy and apparently a lot of people like to keep busy. I love my quiet times, which I don't have very often, and wish I could just be more often.

So maybe it's just a phrase people say, when you're asking how they're doing. But I know some people who actually really like to keep busy. They start businesses, hobbies, studying etc. just for the sake of keeping busy. I've tried to understand, but I guess I'm just not open-minded enough to understand why those people would choose "keeping busy" over being with their family, children, friends etc. What is so important about "keeping busy"? So that you won't appear lazy or that you at least feel productive, even when you're really not?

I guess I'm just baffled about this need to keep busy, because I'm extremely busy and I really wish I wasn't. I wish I had more time to be with my family and friends. I'd like to occasionally spend weekends doing nothing. I'd like to be lazy. It's just not possible right now. But I've made the choice to be busy, only temporarily though.

Maybe what I'm doing is "keeping busy"? I'm finishing up my MA thesis (I submitted the preliminary version for inspection yesterday, yikes!) and after I'm done with that, I'll have to focus more on my MBA thesis. And I work 40 hours a week. So I'm busy, but I really don't want to be. I can't wait for the summer when I'll hopefully have more time to just be. No "just keeping busy" for this girl!

I know I'm a lazy person at heart and I don't mind that one bit :) What I do mind is that I don't have time for this blog and I really hope that I can resume blogging a bit more next month.

Until then...
Keep Calm & Look Busy picture on VisualizeUs
from weheartit.com

or don't. Do whatever floats your particular boat :)

Random Tuesdays 02/04/2014

Lake Michigan in Chicago, IL :)