Visa Obtaining

Getting our visas has been the most anti climactic event ever regarding this move. I had drafted a post about it, thinking that I would have a lot to say about it...and I really don't! 

First, we had to fill out ALL of this information online. The questionairee was loooonnnnggggg and asked all sorts of strange questions, like where all we had traveled in the past 10 years, where our parents were from, how much money we make a year, etc. Took about a week to fill out. 

Next, we had to schedule an appointment to get our visa picture taken and fingerprints. It was actually very costly, so I am thankful that Daniel's work paid for it. We also had to pay extra to expedite the process, since we are moving in a month and a half (wow!!!)

Today was the day for our appointment. I already had a half day because of field day, so I left work right at 11:30 to come home for our 1:00 appointment. I figured it would take forever, so I brought Daniel's PSP to play Lumines (I'm obsessed with Lumines and can play for hours....in fact, I will probably go play it after I'm finished with this post!)

We left way earlier than necessary because the weather was terrible and we didn't know where we were going, so we arrived about 30 minutes early. It was in a shady stripmall next to an Aquarium shop...totally not what I was expecting. I'm not sure why we had to make an appointment...once we got there, we just took a number and waited. They wouldn't let me play Lumines and they had to check our phones to make sure they were turned off, but thankfully it was a quick wait. This place was about a step above the social security office and DMV- not the nicest.  

We took our pics and fingerprints then ended up leaving before our actual appointment even was supposed to start. See? Very anticlimactic, but a part of the processes so that's why I'm writing about it.

Afterwards we went to Trader Joe's and bought way too many snacks...I sure wish that there were a Trader Joe's in London!  

Too much stuff

So, what does one do before moving from a Texas-sized (though not really- our house is pretty small for being in Texas) to a teeny tiny 600 sq feet flat? Basically, purge. Everything. I ask myself these two questions:

1. Will I need it in London?

2. Will I still want it when/ if we move back? 

Usually, the answer is no. So far, I have made some good junk change selling old books and DVDs to Half Price Books. I also got rid of almost all of our clothes, since we certainly won't have a walk in closet in London. 

I never realized how much "stuff" we had until starting to pack up. It's really pretty disgusting. I'm hoping that London will teach us to be less materialistic, since we won't have any room to store our materials! 

What is giving me trouble is trying to decide what to bring with us. We know we will live somewhere furnished, but we don't know how furnished it will be. Of course, appliances and actual furniture is a given, but flats vary on whether they have kitchen utensils, towels, sheets, etc. Do I bring our own household things at a risk of not needing them and having no room to store them? Do we bring nothing and just buy stuff once we get there...stuff that we might not use for that long? Hmmmmmmm....

Packing is one of the many things we need to do. But it is probably the most overwhelming.

If you were wondering...

First of all, thank you everyone for your encouraging comments about our move! It means a lot to me, and I know especially when I am away from all of our family and friends, I will appreciate your comments even more!

These are questions that I get asked a lot, and I just want to lay them out there for y'all in case you were wondering the same things.

1. Why are you moving? We are moving for my husband's job. He works in oil and gas as a trading systems analyst.

2. What will you do? As of now, I will be able to work while we are in London if I want to. I do not want to do anything full time. Daniel will have a lot more vacation time while we are there, and I don't want a job to hold me back from being able to travel (usually if you start a new job, you do not get your vacation time until after a year). Ideally, I would love to substitute teach, work at a boutique, or at a yoga/ health club. A lot of people have jokingly suggested becoming a nanny- after looking into it, I've realized this job isn't ideal, since usually the hours are in the afternoon. If I find a job, I want it to be at normal working hours! If I am unable to find a job, then I will volunteer, do lots of yoga, be our own travel agent, and tour the city!

3. What about your pets? This is honestly the hardest part. Anyone that knows us, knows that our dogs and cat are our babies. They are such a huge part of our lives. Well, we can't bring them. First of all, Cole has pit mixed in her. This breed is not allowed in the UK and she would be euthanized.  Can't bring Dakota and leave Cole- they are best friends and they won't even go to a different room than the other...I don't think they can handle being half a world away. Even if we could bring our dogs, they would hate it. They need a backyard, places to run off their leashes- they would be so unhappy being confined to a small, crowded, backyard-less flat all day. So, Daniel's parents have graciously agreed to  adopt them while we are away. People who don't have pets will think that this is absolutely ridiculous, but we almost said no to London because we couldn't bring our pets. Then we figured that (please pet lovers don't hate me) that we really can't let our pets hold Daniel back in his career.

4. Where will you live? We don't know this yet. When we move, we will be placed in temporary housing while we try to figure this out. Daniel will work in Canary Wharf (yuck), which is East London. We have several different areas on our radar to live- Clapham, London Bridge, Chelsea...but we really won't know until we look. We need to live somewhere that is a short tube ride to Daniel's work. I, of course, want something old and with good character. What can I say, I love old homes!

5. Have you been there before? Daniel lived in Canary Wharf from October 2009-December 2009. I foolishly stayed in Houston to work. I guess I shouldn't say foolishly- I knew Daniel was going to be there for a short while and I just starting teaching and didn't want to quit midyear. During that time, I went and visited for about a week. Gotta say, I didn't love it. It was cold, windy, gray, and wet. Hopefully others that have been to London will get this: I felt like my feet were constantly cold and wet because it didn't matter what kind of shoes I wore...after being outside for awhile, I always came back with soaked through socks and shoes. BUT I think living there will be different than just visiting, and being in a nicer neighborhood will make a huge difference!

6. When will you come back?Who knows? If we love it, then I want to stay. And if we miss Houston too badly, we will come back after a year.

7. What about your house? We are going to rent our home out furnished. It's too meaningful to us for us to sell it!

OK...I think that's it. But please, if you have any other questions, ASK!

New Meaning

I started this blog after a year of marriage when we bought my great grandparent's home in the historic Heights. It was in pretty bad condition and all of our weekends were devoted to sanding, drilling, cleaning, and general de-grossifying. When I started bloggin', it was to chronicle our home renovations.  I pretty much gave this blog the lamest and corniest name - No Place Like Home. I figured that title summed up what the content of this blog would generally be about- home.

If only I would have known at that time what the title No Place Like Home would mean for Daniel and me.

I figured home was going to always be in Texas, let alone Houston. Daniel did a stint in London in 2009 and in the back of our mind, we always knew that we had the option of moving there if we wanted to. But Houston is home- our family is here, the job that I love is here, our dogs are here, and we wanted to start a family here.

Something clicked for us in November. We still didn't have a baby. Although I loved my job, I knew that this probably wouldn't be what I would do forever. Daniel was hearing a lot more at work that they wanted us to move. And we finally thought "Ok....let's do this!"

And that brings us here.

We have two more months in Houston, and then we are moving to London. We don't really know how long we will be there for- at least a year, but probably longer if we enjoy it. There is also the possibility of moving somewhere other than Houston (most likely in Europe) if we decide we want to. Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that travel was important to me and that I wanted to see the world. This is the right decision for us and our life.

So, No Place Like Home will no longer be about our house in Houston. Home is with Daniel...as long as we are together, that's home. So Home will now be London, and this blog will now serve to chronicle our preparations to move, life in London, and hopefully lots of travels.

I will blog more about logistics later, I just wanted to share our news now! I hope if you do not follow this blog, you will begin to!

Lizard-Skin Cure

My skin is always painfully dry. When I was in college, my skin would constantly break into dry, itchy hives. The doctor diagnosed it as eczema and gave me prescription lotion, which never really worked well.

No lotion seems to work. I do like Vaseline or Euciderm, but the both seem to just sit on the skin so I rarely use them. Extremely dry skin is not only very uncomfortable, but also makes my skin (especially my legs) look like I just got out of a fight with barbed wire because I scratch all of the time. This often times keeps me from wearing anything that shows my legs.

This past week, I needed lotion while at work and my school nurse recommended using Neutrogena Light Sesame Body Oil after the shower instead of lotion. Because I am frugal and didn't want to spend $8 on something that might not work, I bought The Target Up& Up brand that is supposed to be the same thing.



After showering, you lightly dry your skin (but you still want it to be a little moist) before applying the oil all over. I felt a little oily at first, but my skin absorbed it within a few minutes. My skin finally felt so quenched! It lasted all day. This is worth a try if you have problems with severely dry skin, too!

normal

I want to start updating my blog. I'm always hesitant about writing a blog post, because...

a. I have no children and I am not artistic, therefore does my life have meaning in the blogosphere? 

b. Life can be mediocre (aka wonderful yet, but maybe same ol? Yah.) 

Also, while reading my old posts in order to get some bloggin ( Yes, bloggiN, not bloggING) ideas, I felt so NOT me, like I was trying to pretend I was someone that I am not. So I vow...

1. I will never post about the "it" things to buy. Because all of my things are from Amazon or resale or the GAP sale section

2. Yes, I cook healthily but at the end of the day, I love me some cheese and wine on top of those healthy recipes. Know that if I ever give you healthful advice. 

3. Yes, I exercise but I also like to sit in a bubble bath and read a book until I become a wrinkly prune. That was me with  Gone Girl this weekend. 

So, after reading my vows, I'm thinking..."What am I ever going to write about?"

The other day, I got sad that I stopped chronicling our vacations, let alone our day to day life. Although it can be  mundane, I like my day to day life, and it is a sad thing to not remember the small blessings that make life special. 

So this is it. Sometimes I will blog the things that make me happy, in order to remember them. I vow to be my 100% pure self. It's not cool and it is pretty ordinary. If I bore  you, HEY GET OFF THE INTERNET!!! DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE WITH THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE!!!

I probably won't post for another 3 months. If you're lucky. And there will probably never be pictures to accompany my boring posts. 

A healthier lunch

I don't go out for lunch. I'm not trying to sound like I'm healthier-than-thou, I just don't. Of course, a lot of it has to do with only having 20 minutes for lunch, my lunch time being at 10:40, and working in an area where my choices are McDonald's, Jack in the Box, or a taco truck (not one of the cool trendy ones, either). If I worked in an environment where I could go out for lunch then I probably would (although I'd be 20 lbs heavier and a lot broker).

I sometimes find myself bringing a frozen entree for lunch if I don't have leftovers. Since I only get Amy's or Cedar Lane, this usually costs about $5 per entree, which is a little much, especially since I'm always hungry afterwards. Not to mention they are still high in sodium.

Lately I have been making satisfying and healthy lunches that are cheaper than frozen entrees and more nutritious than going out. Plus it only takes 20 min to prepare for a whole week of lunches- thats less time than it takes to microwave a weeks worth of frozen meals!

Have you ever cooked quinoa? It is an ancient South American seed that tastes similar to couscous. It is also very high in protein and fiber, low in fat and calories. I find it in bulk at krogers, heb, or whole foods.

For every cup of quinoa you cook, boil in 2 cups of water or low sodium veggie stock. I like to make 2 cups for a weeks worth of meals..Once your quinoa has cooked, just add your favorite veggies and some Siracha or lemon/ lime.

My fav concoctions:
- mix with kale, feta, and sun dried tomatoes. You can even add some egg to make it stick and cook quinoa patties in the oven.
- make an Asian one with fried egg, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, green onions, ginger, low sodium soy sauce and Siracha.
- make a Greek one with feta, olives, tomato, spinach, red onion, cucumber, and lemons
-make a tex mex with jalapeños, lime, cilantro, bell peppers, and carrots.

I love the way I feel after eating this- full yet still flat-stomached ( you know those foods that make you feel 3 months pregnant when you're not? This def isn't one of them).

Any other great lunch meals that are healthy, high in veggies, yet satisfying?