Praying to the Visa Gods

Hi guys! I’m really just checking in to say hello, we are going a little crazy over here getting ready for our visa interview on Wednesday. We leave tomorrow morning for London and are staying there overnight so we can be sure to be at the US Embassy on time at 9am! This past weekend has been spent assembling an insane amount of paperwork to support our case.

We have two thick binders like this one below, plus two or three smaller binders with more documentation. This is the primary binder with the bulk of the case. The second one is identical and is all copies. These binders contain our life! Passports, health records, financial records, relationship documentation…you name it, it’s probably in there!

My favorite part is at the end…photos and other evidence that our relationship is genuine. Awww…

Plenty more where that came from, too! It is immensely stressful but I am crossing my fingers that it all pays off when Matthew finally becomes a permanent US resident!

I started my day off this morning with a new juice combination. This is just simple carrot-apple, with a small hint of lime. I was a little nervous to have so much carrot without much fruit, but it was surprisingly sweet.

Fresh-squeezed carrot-apple juice

A little later I set to work on a new blended breakfast creation. I had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted to try something different and beef up the protein. I started with about a cup of lowfat cottage cheese, and blended it with 1/2 frozen banana. That was tricky in my big clunky blender. Then I added a scoop of vanilla protein powder and some cinnamon and mixed it really well.

I sprinkled it with a little granola and ate it kind of like soup! That little bowl packs 36 grams of protein!

I am still boycotting the grocery store and determined to use up what we have in the house. I continue to surprise Matthew with what I’m able to whip up! For dinner tonight, I baked some chicken breasts from the freezer, sautéed a zucchini (the last piece of fresh green produce in the house—this boycott cannot last much longer!), and we had some spelt pasta on the side.

Not too shabby, eh? I enjoyed all of your tips for saving money on groceries. I am thinking of implementing the “envelope system,” where we stick a set amount of cash in an envelope each week and that is the money for groceries that week. It seems like it would force me to stay in budget. As it is, I have a “budget” that I shoot for, but I always end up going over when I throw in stuff like magazines, and fancy new grocery products!

I thought I would end this post by highlighting a comment from my last post. I think it would be fun to quote funny or insightful comments each day on the previous post.

Today’s comment highlight comes from Michelle: [regarding SPAM] “Cantonese people love it in ramen noodles. Sodium + sodium. yum.”

I love it. This made me laugh. I can laugh at something like this because I am Cantonese

SPAM is indeed sodium-licious. I was not surprised that many of you healthies have not tried it! It is definitely not something that I eat even remotely regularly, but with certain dishes, it is just a must

Off to iron my outfit for Wednesday! Please keep your fingers crossed for us that this interview goes well! I would really appreciate it

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