Nov 22, 2011

We had snow here a couple of days ago that even managed to stick around for a few days. Last night we had one heck of a rain and wind storm that washed it away which was fortunate, because I had a BUNCH of tulip, crocus, iris, anemone, hyacinth and allium bulbs/corms that needed to get into the ground. I planted most of them this morning before getting ready to go to work. While I was outside enjoying the bright sunshine and relatively warm temperatures, a bunch of geese honked their way overhead, then there were 3 bald eagles squawking and chirping while they flew around the neighborhood for awhile.

My thoughts are with my family down south right now, my aunt has just received a diagnosis of ovarian cancer (This is the aunt who recently lost a husband and sister to lung Ca). "They" think she has about 5 years . . . I'm sure it could have been a worse diagnosis, but it is still not something anyone would have chosen. Fortunately, my Mom and her friend Debbie (a former oncology nurse) are there to give her the physical and emotional support she will need.

Adam will be 20 tomorrow, so we will be doing the American Thanksgiving thing in conjunction with his birthday celebration tomorrow evening.

A citizen of North America. . .

So my mom says I'm "bi" now- I prefer to refer to my status as dual, or even better. . . a Citizen of North America.

Yesterday Elizabeth and I completed our 7 year journey through the immigration process and received our Canadian Citizenship. I had spent much of last week doing as many practice quizzes as possible and re-reading the study guide that was sent to me at this time last year. I still felt like I was going to throw-up while waiting to write the test yesterday morning (apparently I passed). After writing the test and going over the paperwork with an immigration officer, I was told to come back in the afternoon to take the Oath of Citizenship. I was still feeling a little nervous about whether everything would go through or not. I was missing some of Elizabeth's paperwork, but apparently they weren't crucial pieces.

After Ron picked the kids up from school, we put on some nice clothes and went to the ceremony. Out of the 72 candidates that had interviews or tests in the morning, 60 of us were there to take the oath in the afternoon. After some final paperwork, we took It was a very moving experience and I teared-up a couple of times. Elizabeth had the honor of leading everyone in the singing of O' Canada at the conclusion of the ceremony.


The Knights of Columbus provided everyone with cake, coffee, tea and lemonade afterwards. We took the family (minus Adam, who was at work) out to Boston Pizza to celebrate -anyone else see a bit of irony here?


Now to get 4 Canadian passports and enough money together to be able to use them. . .