Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina
Life is short. Live it well.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2008
I am so sorry I have been absent from this report for SO long. I should have taken the time to pop in long before now and let you know what's been keeping me too busy to post, and for that I sincerely apologize. All is well . Crazy nutty chaotic, but good.
I actually had so many things on my personal to-do list after January 1st that I was feeling a bit buried for a while. I decided it was best for my sanity and productivity if I took a step back from all things that could wait and focused on taking care of a few of the tasks that were tops in priority. While I consider keeping up with my report to be important, alas it had to be one of the things I set aside while I took care of business.
So, over the last two weeks I've made some strides in getting caught up a wee bit. Our green card applications, which were the #1 thing we wanted to get done, have been completely filled out (all 33 pages....for EACH of us ) and submitted to the legal department at Steve's company's corporate office for initial processing. It's a LONG process to apply for permanent residency here in the States (we have been told to be prepared for a 3-year wait) so it was essential that we not delay any more than was necessary to get things started. Next will be getting everything together to renew our work Visas and my Employment Authorization Card, but thankfully we have a few months before those tasks rise to the top of the pile.
A few other things that have been keeping us hopping for the first half of January:
Steve bought himself a new vehicle (and I am shocked at how much time we ended up sinking in to researching our options and negotiating a good price!!):
.....we have committed to a couple of small home renovation/redecorating projects, including a full update of our guest room (please say a prayer that the new king bedroom suite we have ordered fits in the room!! ) and custom clear glass doors on our master bath tub and shower. I can't believe how much time was sunk into dealing with contractors for the bathroom! All of them needed in-home visits to measure in order to provide quotations, and then there were SO MANY OPTIONS (Glass protection? Frameless, semi-frameless, or full frame? Fixtures color? Glass height? OMG, my brain hurt). We finally made our decision and the glass is now on order. It should be ready to install sometime around the end of the month or early February.
I have finally finished off our photo book from our October trip (another to-do that was really bothering me) and am 90% completed on our general 2018 book. My goal is to wrap up that second book by the end of this week, assuming nothing unexpected arises.
We've managed to find someone qualified to file our 2018 taxes, have made a commitment to get back to the pool at least a couple of times a week (our May trip is roaring up and I don't want to be TOO flabby for that!!), and have scheduled our overdue dental appointments.
I'm actually quite pleased with what we've accomplished, especially since I've been running the show at work for the last two weeks while the owners have been away (one week on business, the other on vacation). My hours have been longer than I'd like, and I've been at the office pretty much every day, even last Saturday for a bit. I expect to have inventory complete by the end of this week, which will be another HUGE load off my shoulders.
Planning for October continues behind the scenes as well. We purchased our Universal annual passes , have secured a more reasonable car rental rate (on a larger vehicle, so double yay there ), and I've ordered a couple of fun custom shirts for us from some very talented Etsy crafters. We've pretty much narrowed down our general itinerary, so as soon as a couple of the meals we want to do (the Marvel Dinner and the Minions breakfast) open up, we can go ahead and book those as well.
So.....with a little luck (and no more unexpected surprises, such as the plumbing emergency we had three days ago ) I should be back to posting some decent updates within the next few days. I'm going to have to get cracking when I DO get back to things, since we will be doing the double digit dance for May by later this coming week .
I hope all of you have had a good couple of weeks. Anyone who is being hit by the big storm this weekend, stay in and stay safe!