Counting calories

I’ve never been a dieter–I tend to be quite comfortable in my own skin. But with a family history of weight-related health issues (diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure), I knew I needed to keep wight gain in check. I do have a tendency to be overweight, but with a bit of attention (and a trip abroad) I can usually keep myself at healthy weight. However, since getting pregnant and having a baby, my weight had crept up into an unhealthy range.

This week, I decided to do something about it. I don’t like the way clothes fit. I don’t like feeling winded after climbing 4 flights of stairs. I hate the feeling of being addicted to sweets (the cravings for sweets & the high and low from sugar intake). So I’ve decided to put more physical activity into my life and control portion sizes better. I want to think more consciously about my health, rather than an abstract ‘I wanna eat better.’

I found this really cool app for my iPhone called MyFitnessPal that helps me track the calories in what I eat and the physical activity I do. Based on my current weight, goal weight, and target weight loss rate, it gives me a net calorie goal for the day.There are thousands of foods already entered so it is super easy to enter what I eat & most physical activities are already in there too. It has become almost a game to stay at or under my calorie goal–if I wanna indulge, I need to get active. I’ve started taking the bus more (saving money) and getting off several stops early so I can walk. I’m adding physical activity wherever I can so that its sustainable and not a big hassle I can talk myself out of.

Also the app shows nutritional information so I can see how (un)healthy my diet is. I still have too much sugar in my diet, as well as too much salt and cholesterol. I do well on protein and keeping carbs under control. I need more vegetables to increase other vitamins.

I’ve only been using it a few days, but I can already see it becoming a habit. If all goes well, I’ll be back in the single-digit clothing sizes (and can go back into some cute clothes I’ve saved) and more importantly, I can build new sustainable health habits for my little family.

Heatwave

This weekend we had quite the heatwave–it was in the upper 70s and today it broke 80 degrees. Quite the feat for a Pacific Northwest spring!

Because of the heat (and a toddler who wakes at 9am on the dot) we spent a lot of time outside at the park.

Here’s a little bit from our weekend:it was Orthodox Easter Sunday so we celebrated that with eggs and Russian BBQ

The path to citizenship

This week my dear husband became an American citizen!

It has been a process 6+ years in the making. We still can’t quite believe we’re done with all the bureaucracy and we officially are an American family! Since much of our history isn’t on this blog, I figured I’d fill in a bit of the back-story here…

We met in January 2005 while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine. Our dating quickly became serious, enjoying a wonderful vacation to the Black Sea that summer. He did try to break up with me once, but I wouldn’t let him because his only reason was that he was busy with ‘work.’  When my Peace Corps time was up in December, I went home, which left our relationship up in the air. Hubs wouldn’t commit, but after losing me he was quick to miss me and beg me to come back.

By the end of February 2006 I was back in Ukraine and together we were trying to figure out his future. I had applied to grad schools in the US and in Hungary (there’s a great international university in Budapest). I was admitted to my two best options, so we really needed to decide whether we would stay together, or end it for good.

We got married in August

Planning a Ukrainian wedding was quite the process. It wasn’t filled with table settings, floral decor, and guest lists. . .instead it was getting legal approval to marry, finding a dress that wasn’t too tacky, and choosing a location at the last minute that we didn’t hate. Ukrainians don’t plan weddings too far ahead of time–things just dont’ work that way. We did virtually all of our planning in the last 2 months, once we had official approval from the US Embassy and Ukrainian civil registry to marry. I also got baptized Russian Orthodox in May so we could marry in the church.Hubs’s parents, sister Ruslana, and her (ex-) boyfriend, Vasya. Vasya and Ruslana are my Godparents.  Our Orthodox wedding.

During the wedding planning, I decided to begin my Masters degree at Central European University in Budapest. I would be heading to Budapest one month after our wedding to study Political Science for a year. I knew it would be hard, but it was my way to balance my own future and my independence with keeping this relationship that was so important to me. From day one, hubs had no interest in moving to America. He had his own career (first lieutenant in the police department, legal degree, ten years already spent there). He always said he fell in love not because I was American, but in spite of me being American. When we married, we planned to stay in Europe. We didn’t have a specific plan, but my studying in Budapest was in part to advance my education and make connections that could maybe lead to a job at an NGO or embassy or something somewhere near Ukraine.

As the months passed, a few things happened. Hubs’ job got worse–he was always under-paid, over-worked, and under-appreciated (as in, $100/month, sometimes working shifts 24-hrs on, 24hrs off, and all kinds of bribes, scandals, etc). The final straw was having to guard several prisoners with active tuberculosis without any kind of protective precautions. The last thing anyone needs is to deal with TB!

SO, we decided to move to the US. It would have been a huge hassle for hubs to join me in Budapest (though that would have been a dream! I love that city!). Money was tight, visas would have been necessary, and I didn’t love my program–I loved CEU just not political science. I finished out the semester and moved back to Ukraine in December when I applied for permission for Hubs to apply for a visa. It’s a slightly convoluted process, but that’s how it works if you’re married and living abroad. I apply and have an interview. Then hubs was granted permission to apply for a green card. He was scheduled for an interview in January and we set up the medical screening the day before in Kyiv. He needed to have a general medical exam and a screening for communicable diseases (like TB!). He HATES needles, so it was quite the nerve-wracking day for him. As we were awaiting the results, the embassy called. The Department of Homeland Security changed its procedures that day and his application would need to be re-screened at the regional office in Moscow. The interview was off, it would be sometime in the future.

We were devastated! We hadn’t yet bought tickets to the US, but we were ready to go. I only had a few more weeks on my time in Ukraine (they have a 90-day visa free policy for Americans. At that time, you could do 90-days in country, cross the border, and have another 90 days. That has since changed: you can have 90 days in, 90 days out, 90 days in, and so on). So, we planned a trip to Poland. Hubs had never been out of the country and we needed a vacation. So we got him a visa to Poland and we headed to Krakow for a long weekend in February.

In Krakow

Just after getting back from Poland, we got the news: Hubs was scheduled for an interview at the end of March!  It was a shockingly easy interview. The consular officer apologized for the delay, had Hubs swear that his application was the truth. . . and that was it. No questions about our relationship, what we’d be doing in the US. He said that Peace Corps marriages were pretty legit and wished us well.

We stayed for Ukrainian Easter and headed to America on April 12th. Hubs had a green card in his hands a month later.

From then on, we built our American life. Hubs opened his business. I had a job and then went back to school. We renewed his green card once (after the first 2 years of a ‘conditional’ permanent residency via spouse, you need to confirm your relationship and renew the green card for a proper full permanent residency). We had a baby. . . and finally we got around to applying for citizenship. Since he got his green card via marriage, he was eligible to apply after only 3 years (2 years temporary green card, 1 year permanent). But at first we were busy, then pregnant and busy, and then very busy with a newborn. And, we didn’t have the extra money (it’s $680 in fees to apply). While pregnant, I applied for medicaid and WIC to help with baby costs, and it turns out that if you’re receiving means-based government support, you can get a fee waiver. I simply sent a copy of our most recent WIC update and a fee waiver form along with his citizenship application and we were able to process it for free. One less worry!

We applied at the end of February. At the end of March, he had his fingerprints & picture taken for a background check. And May 1st was his interview. Super fast processing!

We spent about a month practicing the civics questions for the exam (there’s 100 of them, from which the interviewer will ask 10). We practiced the reading and writing part the weekend before. Hubs was really nervous and I was too–I worried about having all our paperwork in order while he worried about his performance.

On Wednesday, we got there nice and early. Instead of being on the first floor where they do the fingerprinting and visa interviews, the citizenship stuff was on the second floor. We were shocked when we got up there–there were so many people!! He was scheduled for 9:55 am, and we probably got up there at 9:40. He was finally called at 10:30. So it was a fair amount of waiting. Babe was really good, though

The interview itself took about 20 minutes, and hubs passed with flying colors! The only complication was that he had hoped to change his first name from the Ukrainian spelling to a more widely accepted Russian/American spelling. I guess they couldn’t change it, so he’s stuck. But it meant that he would be naturalized that day.

We went outside to get some fresh air, get out of the building, and let N run. After an hour we went back in for the naturalization ceremony, but N had had it. He was at that last hour before he needed a nap and he was tired of that place. So when I brought him into the auditorium, he went crazy. He didn’t want to sit and eat, he didn’t want to play in the accepted area. He wanted to explore and if I intervened in his exploration, he shrieked! So I went out the nearest door to let him calm down a bit, and it led outside. Outside of the security area. And my ID was inside  After N ran around for 10 minutes, he wanted back inside. It was really cute–he kept running up to the doors to go back in. I asked the security guard if he’d let me pass, and he said no–ID is required I was SO disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to see hubs take his oath!! I called my mommy to cry, but after a couple minutes I saw a couple police officers and asked them for help. They asked the main security guy to let me in and he happily did. I didn’t go back into the auditorium, but I was able to look through a window and see everyone go up to get their certificates while N ran around. So it all worked out.

We’re so happy this bureaucratic hurdle is over and that our little family is now all-American. Hubs is relieved to finally, really, belong here. I still can’t believe it that my husband is an American citizen

We celebrated by having a BBQ in the backyard and enjoying the weather. It was a wonderful day!!!

The funny thing about citizenship is that it just re-affirms our relationship. When we married, we took a big risk on our relationship since we had only known each other for 1 1/2 years and hubs had never met my family, never been to the US. When we immigrated, he took a leap of faith. Year by year our relationship has grown and deepened as we have built a life and built a family together. It has been a huge transition for hubs and I am so proud of him!!

Dream Job(s)

The last few months we’ve been talking a lot about what comes next. I’ve been in school for 5 years and we’ve been living in the US for 6. Hubs is getting citizenship soon (Interview on Wednesday!) and babe is getting older. . . we’re ready for a change.

A couple of opportunities have come up that have gotten me thinking about my dream job. I love to travel (nothing makes my soul soar like getting on an airplane…) and this is the longest stretch of my adult life that I haven’t been abroad. I’m ready to go somewhere new! I have a secret dream to join the foreign service, and there’s one way to bring my education and my secret dream together: State Department English Language Officer. They only take applications sometimes, and in February one of those calls for applications opened and I spent a weekend preparing my application. If there’s anything I learned from my time in the Peace Corps is that successful government workers need to have a high tolerance for bureaucracy, and just applying for the job took a lot of patience. I had to fill in two full applications with work history, education, etc: one for the federal jobs database and a second one for the state department. There were also several essays I had to prepare for the job posting which took a lot of reflection about my goals and strategizing how my experiences fit the job profile. I’m not sure how many people they hire for this specialist position (i.e. I don’t know if they only hire super experienced English language teachers or if they want to bring people in with some experience and give them training to then climb the ranks). If they’re looking to cultivate someone, I think I’d be an ideal candidate: I’ve already lived in 3 countries, including a year in Great Britain and over 2 years in Ukraine. I have a Masters, I’m a PhD candidate and with luck I’ll complete my dissertation in the next year or so. I’m young and adventurous yet tolerant of bureaucracy and excited to work in diplomacy. They closed the job posting last week and I passed the first qualifications test, so I have one set of fingers crossed that I’ll get an interview for that job.

Out of the blue a few days ago a Peace Corps friend emailed me about a different job. She’s a professor of Russian at a small liberal arts college and she is working with the Dean and President of the university to open an English Language Institute at the college. The are imagining that they would bring a cohort of 50 students to the college to study English for a year and then enter that college as freshmen (or potentially go elsewhere). She asked if I was interested in such a job. . . and if so, what kind of feedback I could give for the position. Just emailing with her got me excited about what such an English Language institute could be – what I’ve learned working at a big university with tons of international students and all the growing pains we’ve had. If I were to build a program from scratch, what would it look like? If I were to travel across the US to take a job on the East Coast, what would it take? What kind of status should the job hold. It was fun to think that through–and I emailed her a document with my thoughts and she forwarded it to the dean and he liked what I had to say. The position is still being formed and they’d need to go through a full job search, but I could definitely be a candidate for the job. So my other set of fingers is crossed that I get an offer for a great job as director of that program.

These two jobs are so different and yet they both utilize the experience I have been building. I see our family happy in both situations: small town in Pennsylvania, building a program, making friends, and raising a happy boy vs. living in various countries for 2-3 years each, travelling widely, doing language outreach, and raising a happy multicultural boy.  There are scary things about both jobs, but exciting things as well… and both jobs have calendars that could begin this fall. . .so I may not even be living here in a year. Scary and exciting to think about! It is strange to contrast those thoughts with the gardening we’ve been doing. . but that’s another thing Peace Corps taught me: a year or two is both a blink of the eye and long and important. Even if you’re only spending a year somewhere, it is important to put down roots (sometimes literally) in order to enjoy daily life. It is important to make the place you are living “home” however temporary that may be.

Kissy-kissy

N’s new skill is giving kisses!!

He loves to play games: I’ll pucker my lips and make a kissy noise and he’ll either run to me and give me a big open-mouthed kiss on the lips, or he’ll squeal and run away. It is sooooooo funny!
He is such a delight!

In other news, he’s sleeping well (generally – we have had a rash of not so great nights, but I think he either had a cold or has allergies so that’s affecting his sleep). His schedule is very consistent: Wake up during the 9 o’clock hour. Go down for a nap sometime between 1:30 and 2:30 and sleep for 2-21/2 hours. Bed between 8:30 and 9:30. He now asks to go outside by pointing to his shoes, coat and/or hat. He’s a good eater, loves his independence, and is shy and serious when in new places, with new people, and when doing new things. When he’s with us, he’s a funny, funny boy.

N is 19 months and 2 weeks!

In my yard – Part II

This week we have had some beautiful weather (high 60s-low 70s, blue skies) so we have been spending a lot of time outside. After mowing the lawn and generally creating some order in the yard over the weekend, we did another round of yard work today. We decided to try and re-seed some empty spots in our (uneven) lawn and maybe even it out a bit. I also bought some pretty flowers when we went to Lowes the other day, so I needed to get them into the ground.

 They grey-blue spots are combo mulch/fertilizer/lawn seed meant for shade and the pacific NW. I hope they’ll take and we can have a nice green lawn!  After hubs dug out these beds, I planted a peony that was left by the prevous tenants, as well as some daisies and a dahlia. Underneath the soil I also added some freesia bulbs! I LOVE bulbs because they grow into beautiful little surprises! While digging out another bed to put some gladiolas next to the fence, N played in the dirt and checked out the daffodils. They’re down to just leaves so he had a grand ‘ol time beating them down

It was WONDERFUL to spend a day in the sun with my family! We’re trying not to spend too much money to improve the yard since we’re just renting, but we are living here for a while so we may as well enjoy it! We cleared off the porch area as well and cleaned off our barbecue and both last night and tonight we grilled our dinner–yummmmm!

In my yard

I really love living in a house. The place we’re renting is old and pretty rundown/maintained without care, but it is a good fit for us in size and location and has a huge (uneven) yard. We moved in this past autumn as fruits fell and leaves changed color, so it has been fun to watch nature ‘wake up’ and see our yard come to life.

I planted some daffodils, crocuses, and tulips last fall, so it had been fun to see how they turn out–as well as some new surprises from the previous renters like snowdrops and some pretty blue flowers.

We go out every day, sometimes twice or more. N likes to practice walking and exploring outside and I like to see what new treasures have emerged.  I love these daffodils I planted!!pear tree in bloom  can’t wait to see what these tulips will look like!!!  Spring is such a beautiful season, especially around here! It was cold and wet this morning, so baby was all bundled up. By afternoon, though, it was almost a nice day.  A little bit of lawn mowing–only had to do the whole yard 2 times, the grass was so long!