Visa: It’s Everywhere You Want to Be.
How does the competitor’s commercial go?
Trans-Atlantic flights to maintain a five-year long distance relationship: Several thousand dollars.
Rejected job offer in Newport Beach in favor of thankless temp jobs in the UK: I try not to think about it.
Finally getting to live with the love of your life in the country where you were born and raised: priceless.
GREAT NEWS!
Hubby got his visa to live in the US!
We are so, so happy. This has been a very longtime coming for us and I can’t believe it is actually happening now! We are hoping to be out by Christmas but it could be as late as January.
The wonderful day started with a 6 am workout and some Nutella-swirled oatbran.
Mmmm. I have all of my empty glass nut butter jars saved up for oat bran days. Thanks Heather 
It turns out that I have been able to pop home at lunch and do my own thing. I love it! How else could I have a lunch like this?
Not your mom’s leftovers.
NEW DISCOVERY!
I know what you’re thinking: licorice? But this tea does not taste like licorice. It tastes sweet and spicy and actually creamy.
I just love it!
Later, a filling smoothie.
I forgot to specify the contents of my smoothie the other day. A few of you emailed me to ask what was in it. It’s the same smoothie I always have:
- < 1 cup (200mL) Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (or soymilk)
- 1/2 frozen banana
- ~1/4 cup frozen blueberries
- ~4 cups spinach
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
It’s a great combination: sweet, creamy, filling, and pretty low-cal.
Best of all, it balances out celebratory drinks.
I love a glass of wine while I’m making dinner! What’s the saying? I love to cook with wine…sometimes I even put it in the food.
On the menu: Easy Ratatouille with chicken sausage
Sauté zucchini, onion, garlic, bell pepper, and Italian herbs in EVOO (I also throw in mushrooms if I have them). Add tomatoes and cook down. If serving with meat, add in cooked meat (tonight I used chicken sausage but normally I use shrimp). Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and serve with parmesan cheese.
Don’t forget the salad. Be sure it’s a big as your head if you are looking to re-create this meal.
Dessert was consumed in the form of popcorn and two GS cookies. Yum.
Thank you for all the positive feedback on the new blog look! Cory (AKA Zesty Cook) has been hard at work on it and plans to reveal it on his blog tomorrow. Please be sure to check it out!
For those of you who are bloggers and want a new look (or maybe you are not a blogger but want to start a blog), I definitely recommend Cory’s design services. He is very knowledgeable and easy to work with. Best of all, he is happy to do the technical stuff, suggest his ideas, and then let you make the fun decisions I won this blog makeover in a giveaway he held last summer, so I am especially grateful to him for following through and giving me great service despite it being complimentary. THANK YOU, CORY!
One of my favorite features of the new layout is the comments section. I can now interact so much easier! So please come back and check the comments section for replies and conversations!
Well guys, I am pooped! It has been a very long day and the weeks ahead are going to get very busy, very quick. Now that we have the visa, I am anticipating things to move very quickly with the move. Please cross your fingers for me! I am ready to go home!
Do you believe that home is one place, or that it can be many places? I am especially attached to “home,” because I was born in the same house I lived in until I was 18 and left for college. Even then, I stayed in California. Being away from that has been wonderful but also hard. Some people tell me that home is wherever you have felt happiest. But I have come to agree with this quote:
My home is not a place, it is people.
-Lois McMaster Bujold
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Yayyyy!!! I’m so happy you two can finally start your life in California soon!
I never knew moving to the US was so freakin’ hard for a foreigner. It seems like it’s been quite the process!
I moved around a lot as a kid, but it was always within the same city. Basically, my home is anywhere where my mom has her knick knacks set up
I love love love the new look!!!
Congratulations!!! That’s so exciting!
And I love the new blog look
Congrats to your husband! LOVE the new rice header.. so great! Thanks for the smoothie recipe.. I really need to spruce up mine .. I tend to get repetitive!
Congrats on the happy news, Lara!!
I followed over from Zesty – LOVE the fresh, cool, crisp, GORGEOUS new design!! Yay!!!
And that green smoothie? YUM! It looks delish!!!
*smiles*
Michele
Congrats on the Visa!!!!! It’s been a long time coming, I’m sure! Love the new layout, too!
Toodles,
Erin
So exciting Lara. Can’t wait to have a blogger meet-up with you and Deb someday in CA!
I’ll bring the empty nut butter jars.
Oh Larabee!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I’m so happy for your family and your hubby and YOU of course!!! This Visa was meant to happen and even january is soon! I definitely believe home can be in many places – as long as there’s family there.
I plan on trying your smoothie, but I have to go get me some spinach to make my smoothie green.
Thank you for the ingredients! (Do you put ice as well?)
Loving the new look! Zesty knows what he’s doing, that’s for sure!
And a huge congrats to the hubs for finally getting the VISA! I’m excited for you!
congrats lara! i am just so happy for the two of you!!!!! now we will meet up one day for sure
So happy!!! I know how you feel to be away from family, especially really far away for you. My mom came to visit and now I miss her terribly and she lives in NC. That quote is so perfect and really what I believe too
Love the new look! I’m going to try to get a new template soon
Oh gawsh. I’m jealous of your lunch. Really, I am. I want that. (Show off!) hehehe. Om-Nom-Nom.
Congratulations on getting his visa! That is wonderful.
Home is wherever we want it to be. I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, just like both of my parents, but we are all American. I’ve traveled all over the world, more than 40 countries, and at this point I don’t really have one home. My immediate family is spread out on 3 different continents and I am still not sure where I will ever settle down.
And can I just say YUM about that licorice tea? It looks scrumptious.
congrats to your hubby! that is so amazingly great
so happy for both of you!
i believe home can bbe in mutiple places. my parents have a house that I grew up in and they also have a house in cape cod. My dad would certaintly move there in a second! They both love both places and call both ‘home’
OMGGGG i want that tea, I am obsessed with licorice, everyone always thought i was strange because good and plentys were my fav halloween candy! But I LOVE LOVE licorice!!!
Where do you find your chicken sausage in the UK? I’ve looked in the major stores in London for chicken and turkey sausage but haven’t found any..
thanks!!
Hi Jackie. I bought my chicken sausages at the local farmer’s market. It is the only place I have been able to find them in the UK, as well. Good luck!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! I got chills when I saw that pic. I just knew it was going to be great news. Yay
Ok, so I’ve been thinking about nutella oats all morning today, thinking I’m going to be all original about it. Guess not
Hooray! So excited for your guys – yes, it is “priceless!”
Congratulations!
I went through the uscis welcome wagon myself over the last couple of years, and there’s nothing better than being done with it, at least for a little while!
Congratulations Lara!!! That is fantastic!! I’m really trying to catch up on blogs but I’m not doing a very good job. I can’t even keep up with my own!
Anyway, I wanted to tell you how happy I am for you!
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH