Dual for a Dual

Did you know that some countries recognize dual citizenship and others don't. Yes, I am quite sure you knew that. Well SJ was born in England to English parents and lived there until he was 16 at which time his father asked him if we wanted to move to the US. The ever adventurous soul that is he is, of course said yes! So that is how SJ came to be on this side of the pond and thus how he met the love of his life, ME.

Now that we have children it has come to our attention that once a British citizen always a British citizen unless you do something like denounce your country or threaten the Queen. AND to boot, your children regardless of where they are born are also British citizens by birth. AHHH... now we're getting somewhere. Are your synapses firing yet??? Yes, my children are entitled to British passports through their father's citizenship. Now if your synapses are indeed firing AND you have had your coffee this morning you will have already realized that not only will they be entitled to live and work in the UK with said passport but they will also have access to the entire EU. Lucky, Lucky Dogs!


All you have to do is fill out an application and include the passport number of their British parent. HUM. This is where things go a muck. About four years ago it went something like this:

SPY "Sweetie, where is your UK passport"
SJY "How the hell would I know?"
SPY "Well what did you do with it when you got your US citizenship?"
SJY "Not sure, lets call my mother."
Phone call to mum who says she gave it to him when he moved out to go to college. Which pretty much means it is G.O.N.E.

So four years ago I started working on getting his birth certificate from England, filled out a lost passport claim, got identity witnesses to sign photos and forms, and filled out and paid for a new passport application. At the end of the 8 month ordeal of papers being mailed back and forth between here and England we got a letter stating they wanted further evidence of his US citizenship and identity. Photocopies of drivers license and passport along with more letters from people stating that you are who you say you are were now required. This is when the slow moving train went completely off track with 7 simple words from SJ, "Honey, I can handle it from here." About a month later I got a large manila envelope from the British Passport office in Washington, DC. I ripped it open thinking his brand spanking new UK passport was inside but alas it was all of our forms being returned with a letter stating that due to the fact that we had not followed up on their last request they now consider our file ABANDONED and have returned not only our paperwork but refunded our fees.

I was so angry I had to put the whole thing down for a few years. Then this spring I thought to myself, I have filled out paperwork up the wazoo for the adoption and jumped through so many government hoops that redoing the paperwork for his UK passport will be easy. Plus, I have most of those crazy British documents already on file for the adoption so why not take another stab. So in June I started the paperwork again, got all my witnesses testifying that SJ is who he says he is, and today I am mailing everything off. Will let you know when the hoop jumping starts again!

Encore!

AHHH I am a happy woman. Sj just booked flights so we can go visit my brother and SIL in their new digs. We will also get to see another John Mayer show with them. For the past who knows how many years the four of us have been going to JM concerts together each summer. As I mentioned in a prior post, we saw JM here on July 12th.(pics here) It was bittersweet. I loved the concert but got very sad that we were not with J & C. Luckily, J & C's seats are MUCH better than our seats were up here on the 12th. Like 5th row center good. Don't you worry, I'll be screaming like a 15 year old!

A Fresh New Look

Our website More Pickles just got a makeover! Finally I have a mac that has iWeb and was able to not only give the website a new style but also include tons more pictures. I've got a bunch of recent albums up now and will be adding a new one every day for a while. Visit us over there and keep checking back.

John

Everyone in our household is a huge fan of John Mayer. Even L as a baby at 18 months would say "more john" after one of his songs played in the car. He is affectionately just called John here. We go to this concert every summer and are part of the fan club. This year we are excited that 6 other couples are coming with us. I can't wait. I am even more pleased now that I have heard directly from John about what to expect!

Summertime strides!

We are very pleased to be a bubble-free household! B decided to kick it up a notch in the pool today and went from barely holding his head above water doing the doggie-paddle to a full on, horizontal, kicking with a splash, face in the water crawl. He is so funny that way. He literally in one moment will decide to do something and does it. He did it with skiing this winter too. I am so proud of him and unfortunately did not have my camera with me. Oh well.

Two Years!

Twenty four months. One hundred and four weeks. Seven hundred and thirty days.

No matter how you cut it is has been a VERY long wait and we only look to be at the half way point. That is a long time to be answering the question "Where is my sister?".

"Wise Mother"

Feeling a bit smug so I figured I should post about it. It is that time of year when all hell breaks loose and you can barely figure out which way is up. Yes, I am referring to the "end of school" insanity season. Being a new kindergarten mom, I was unaware things could get more out of control than the Christmas season but in fact they have. I have loved every minute of celebrating the end of the year but boy I feel totally spun around. Tomorrow is the official last day of school here and I for one am very much looking forward to the lazy days of summer. So what may you ask am I feeling so smug about. Well, I'll tell you, it's the teacher presents I got for L's teachers. I managed to find a really good deal on great white bathrobes a while back around the same time I got a new sewing machine that embroiders large enough to MONOGRAM! Well I have been largely afraid of said machine until realizing on Monday that I needed to figure the damn thing out. Well after destroying several wash cloths and countless choice words, I got the hang of the settings and was able to create this...

How psyched would you be to get this as a random gift?? Added to that I found these inexpensive bags at my local favorite paper store to use as the gift wrap. Tell me, are these not great looking gifts???








So added to all that gift glory, I also learned on the back of my milk bottle this morning that I am a "Wise Mother". Gosh that was reassuring. I recently headed over to this dairy to try out the milk that so many people seem to be using and boy oh boy was it tasty! It of course has no added hormones and comes in glass bottles. (I have become very wary of plastic these days) And to boot they deliver. So here we go with weekly and probably expensive milk delivery! Can't wait.

Birthday Amazing Race

This is a tribute to some of the people I love the most in the world. My husband, family and dearest friends all LOVE the show THE AMAZING RACE. Stephie down in T&T - this ones for you baby! Someday we'll do our own AR!

SJ turned the big 4 0 on March 31st and we have had a whirlwind of celebrations. Today is one of parties I have planned for my hubbie. This one is a private party that starts with an Amazing Race designed just for the birthday boy. Here is how I have planned it...

He got a clue on his birthday that stated he would be receiving his second clue on April 29th at Noon. I then coordinated with someone in his office to hand him this clue today at Noon. He has instructions to leave the office at 3 pm and travel by taxi to the Prudential Mall where he will find his next clue at the registers of Sephora.He will be receiving $20 for that leg of the race. I am going to go in a buy him some new cologne and leave the bag with the third clue at the registers for him to pick up. From there he has been told to travel by foot to the Copley Place Mall and go to the Gap for his next clue. Again, I will purchase something and leave it with the clue at the registers. From there he has been told to go to the Copley Marriott and find his next clue at the registration desk. In this clue bag he will get a room key and a Travelocity Roaming Gnome!!! On the underside of the Gnome will be the room # and hopefully he will know to go up to the room. Once in the room he will be faced with a Road Block which will instruct him to find several things in the room including a Beer I have placed in the fridge with the tell-tale amazing race colors taped to it. Part of the Road Block will be to shower and get dressed in certain clothes I have left in the closet. His next clue will tell him to head to Troquet (a wine & food pairing restaurant) and to arrive at 6:00 pm sharp. I will be waiting there at our table with his final clue envelope. Inside the final envelope will be a pair of tickets to Eddie Izzard live in Boston. Eddie Izzard is SJ's FAVORITE FAVORITE comedian. He quotes him all the time. I hope he doesn't already know EI is coming to town or he'll know that is what we are up to. I know he is going to LOVE this present. I just hope he gets through the race!!! Here are some photos of the materials I have made up for this little event...







*******NOTES******
I could not get this up yesterday b/c I had to leave the house around Noon and SJ was starting the race around 3pm and I was afraid he'd get a sneak peek at his private party!

Everything went really really well. I hid the clues and everyone was really eager to help with the race. Well, the people at the Gap had zero personality but they got him the clue and his gift bag. The people at the Marriott were so sweet to me and gave me a corner room with an amazing view over the Charles river. That is the Longfellow bridge you see in the distance- we like to call it the Salt & Pepper bridge. Across the river for all you non-Bostonians out there is Cambridge.



At dinner I gave him his last yellow clue envelope which had the tickets to the Eddie Izzard show and you should have seen his face when he opened it. He could not believe EI was in town and he didn't know and he was so psyched to be going. Finally, I have actually pulled off a surprise!! The show was great. Eddie was totally hilarious and for all you EI fans out there, I got a black T-shirt with a cupcake on the front and below it are the words "Cake or death". Ha! love it. For those of you who don't know EI- you will not get that joke and you NEED TO RIGHT NOW GO TO BLOCKBUSTER AND RENT THE "DRESSED TO KILL" VIDEO!!!!