All I Really Want - UPDATED!

Knowing that we'll be in the US soon makes enduring the food here easier. Even though Jeremy is an excellent chef, there are times when I have simply had my fill of Chinese food and need something that is comfort food by MY standards.

So now, I got to thinking about all the things I can't wait to sink my teeth into when we get there. Here's my ultimate wish list. I'd tell my Mom to take note but I can pretty much bet she's thought of everything on here. None of this will surprise her in the slightest. I can see her saying, "Well, DUH, Jennifer!" Thanks, Mom! I love you!

Jennifer's American Foodie Dreams:

Key lime pie. A whole one. Not so I can eat the whole thing but so my husband can see what he's been missing his whole life.
Conch fritters.
Stone crabs.
Crab cakes.
Chocolate chip pancakes from IHOP. With whipped cream and strawberry syrup on top. And a side of hashbrowns.
Mozzarella sticks.
A roast beef sandwich.
Corned beef on rye.
A reuben.
All kinds of deli meats piled high on rye. Or challah. Or both. With cheese. And good mustard. 
An everything bagel, toasted, with chive cream cheese, chopped onions, capers and smoked salmon.
Home fries.
Biscuits and gravy.
A cheese platter with all kinds of cheeses on it (especially brie and Gorgonzola).
Gorgonzola burgers.
Guacamole. Guacamole. GUACAMOLE!!!!
Nachos from Moe's with extra guacamole.
Burritos from Chipotle with, you guessed it, extra guacamole.
Carrot cake.
Tuna salad from Stuart Fine Foods (or whatever they call it now...oh God...it's STILL there I hope, yes?).
An Italian Special sub from LaSpada's if we go down to Ft. Lauderdale. If not, Publix Boars Head version please.
Pizza from the little place down the street from my folks'.
A Mexican fiesta, or at the very least, a meal at the awesome Mexican place by my parents' house.
EVERYTHING my mom cooks, especially her Boursin chicken and prime rib roast. Oooh! And her chicken noodle soup. Oooh! Oooh! And her lasagna! And brisket! And meatloaf! *drool*
Barbecue. Burgers, steaks, chicken...the works. American-style.
Bloody Mary's.
Mojitos.
Mimosas.
Gin and tonics.
Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls. Oatmeal pies. The zebra cakes. Oh God. One of everything, please.
Caramellos.
Broccoli and cheese soup.
French onion soup.
Lobster bisque.
Publix subs. Especially the chicken tender sub.
Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. And Half Baked. And any of those new ones with the cores of awesomeness in them, especially if the core is caramel.
Arby's. Beef n' cheddar. Curly fries. Horsey sauce. Jamocha shake.
Hot off the line glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme.
Dunkin Donuts. Chocolate glazed and Boston cream.
Potato skins.
Buffalo wings. With bleu cheese dressing. And bacon cheese fries with a side of ranch.
Bar food...onion rings, jalapeno poppers and all that fried nonsense.
A Nathan's hot dog with sauerkraut and mustard.
Chili! With cheese on top!
Americanized Chinese food - shrimp with lobster sauce, egg foo young, mushu pork, garlic eggplant...what? I said I'm sick of Chinese food here in CHINA. Americanized Chinese food is totally different. I need it. Especially shrimp with lobster sauce.
Bratwurst.
Italian sausages.
Baked stuffed artichokes. Oh artichokes, how I love thee!
Philly cheese steak.
Gyro. With extra tzatziki sauce.
Miami Subs. It's still around, right?
Cheese ravioli. And tortellini. Lobster ones wouldn't suck either.
And speaking of lobster...
Oh yeah. Boiled. With a side of drawn butter.
Oysters on the half shell.
Cannollis. 
Fish without bones. I'm so sick of spitting bones out with every bite over here. Gah!
Shrimp cocktail. I miss cocktail sauce!!!! I'd lick it off my own arm if I had it right now.
Cupcakes.
Those soft sugar cookies with the frosting on them. From Publix.
Pizza rolls and bagel bites!
Boston Market! OMG! Creamed spinach. Mashed potatoes with gravy.
Homemade mac n' cheese. NO BOXES!
Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!
BLT! BLT! BLT!
Buttery popcorn. Doritos. Cheetos.

UPDATE!
Some of my friends were quick to point out some very wonderful items that I'd stupidly neglected to put on this list. It's not like I haven't thought of them or told Jeremy tales of them but rather, as I was writing this list, I just forgot to put it on there. My apologies Cuban cuisine, because you I do so deeply miss. Black beans and rice. Cuban sandwiches. Cafe con leche. Guava and cheese pastries. Fried plantains. EVERYTHING. OMG. No, I did not forget you in my heart. Just on my list. 

Unlike Hall and Oates, I could go for that. Totally. ALL of that. There's probably more stuff too that I'm forgetting. If you'd been away from your home country for a long time, what would you want to eat? Is there anything in the US that you think I've been missing? Tell me in the comments, either here, on my FB fan page or tweet at me.

Look out, America! Here we come!

Completely Clueless

When you know you're moving away from your moron in-laws, life seems rosier. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. And you tend to overlook some of the annoying things, reasoning with your brain that soon, very soon, you will be flying over 8,000 miles away from them. Of course, my in-laws seem to really want to help...help me go completely insane before we leave that is.

Today, I came home and discovered this...

Yes, that's part of a green bell pepper on our dish drying rack. Why? Lord knows what ever goes through the head troll's empty head except a constant swirl of sawdust.

As I took the baby back into our bedroom, I noticed something less amusing...amongst all the toys in there, there was an open box of Raid plug-in mosquito repellent discs. Really? Because she has absolutely nothing else to play with. Let's give her a freaking box of poison! I holler to MIL and ask her what the hell is up with this being in the crib and she of course blames her idiot husband. OF COURSE! Not that I doubt he's probably the culprit but if you see your nutsy husband giving the baby something unsafe like that, how about telling him NOT to do that? Or taking it away? No, this couldn't possibly occur to MIL because she has such an alarming lack of common sense it's frightening.

But soon I will have the last laugh. It turns out that maybe they don't know quite when we are moving away. Jeremy confessed that he simply told them we were leaving this summer. So that will be interesting. I told him not to tell them until the day we leave. Ha! Bye Felicia!

They Know

I thought I'd mentioned it in one of my recent posts but a quick glance through them tells me that I neglected to write about it after all. What is that crazy broad abroad talking about now? Why, I'm talking about how my husband didn't tell his parents when we were moving away. Yes, really.

Jeremy told them that he was issued a visa to the US. He told them we needed to be inside the US before the date on the visa. But he did not tell them WHEN that would be. Even after we booked and paid for the flight, he still didn't tell them. He was putting it off, trying to figure out when he'd say something. Surely, they had to have an inkling.

But this weekend, after packing up 2 of our suitcases (leaving me to wonder how the heck to fit the rest of our crap in the remaining 4 suitcases, but that's a story for another time...), we had nowhere to put those heavy badboys. We shoved them out of the center of the floor but it's quite obvious the process of moving has begun for us. So Jeremy manned up and told them when we're leaving.

And MIL seems cool with it. They will come live in this apartment when we're gone because all the appliances are better. And we have internet that we paid for already. We'll get them a new computer so we can Skype with them too. Most of all though, MIL insisted we sell the car. I told Jeremy we should sell the car but he said he wanted to leave it for his parents. Which pissed me off because THEY CAN'T DRIVE! After exhausting myself explaining about depreciation in regards to motor vehicles and how maintenance is still mega-important even when you don't drive a car for a long time, this lecture plus what his mom said got through to his man-brain and now we'll be selling the car.

I kind of feel sad about the car. It's been a member of our family. Even though I never drove it personally, it's been our little car for most of the time we've lived here. I will miss it. I mean, remember when Jeremy first started driving? If you don't, it's worth checking out here and here. He's come a long way from those days, back when his English name was "Lane" and he'd decided to change it to "Jeremy." Hahaha!

Anyway, now that the in-laws know exactly when we are leaving, I am sure they will constantly be in our faces even more so than they already are. Which will be even more annoying but at least I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and when I feel like I'm going to snap, I'll just remind myself that we'll be leaving in just under 2 months. And I won't have to deal with them for a good long while after that. Ahhhhh...splendid!

You Can't Take It With You

By now you probably know that we are moving to the US this summer. It sounds so far away, yet when you look at the calendar, you'll see that it's really about 9 weeks away. 9 WEEKS. Oh hells yes, I'm excited. I cannot wait to see my family and friends and enjoy all the things I've missed about America and to share it all with my husband and daughters.

But it comes with a big price, and we're not talking airfare here (which, as you may have guessed, is not cheap). We're talking about our things and how to get them to the US.

Originally, Jeremy and I had discussed shipping our favorite books, winter clothes and the children's toys through the mail. But when we recently sent gifts to my family, it became quite clear that if we had to ship a heavy box of books, the cost would be astronomical. Jeremy said we should just get rid of most of our stuff and start fresh. I know it makes the most sense. Especially since we sent 2 giant boxes of our stuff from Korea over here to China when we first moved. And what we found was that we really didn't use the stuff we sent. Well, my husband didn't. I'd shipped over my books. But shipping to China from Korea is MUCH cheaper than shipping from China to America. Plus, when we moved to China, we knew we were staying in one place for a bit. When we get to the US, we'll be staying with my parents for a short while until we get situated and get our own place. Which means if we move out of Florida, we'll need to ship whatever we've shipped from China again. And that, my friends, was the tipping point for me. Jeremy is 100% right. We can't take it with us.

We're still deciding on flights but we know we can have 6 checked bags and each bag has a weight limit of 23 kg. And so we must now decide what is important enough to go with us. And for what isn't, we must decide to sell, give away or throw away. This is not going to be easy.

This is going to be so hard! My books! My precious fucking books! Gah! My shoes! Oh my GOD! My shoes! Help! How do I choose? Clothes are easy. In 2 weeks, if I can't get into it, out it goes. Jeremy's made that decision easier by promising a shopping excursion when we get to the US. That's a good bonus. But still. My handbags. My Gucci! My Coach! Oh no no no. Those are coming with me.

It's Beginning...

I can't contain my excitement so I simply must post about this. Today, when we came home from church, there was a letter addressed to Jeremy on the door. His name and address were all written in Chinese but the envelope had some English printed on it at the bottom that said U.S. Consulate General along with the Guangzhou address.

We just went to Guangzhou a few weeks ago and filed for Seoul's US Citizenship along with Jeremy's immigrant visa. They had emailed us late last week to tell us Seoul's passport was now ready for pickup, and Jeremy's booked a flight out on Tuesday night so he can go pick it up on Wednesday. It's just easier for him to go solo as one of us parents must pick up her passport. We could have a third party do it but we don't know anyone in Guangzhou and we fear if we hire someone, they could be shifty and steal it or lose it. Or charge even more than the flight there and back costs. A train ride takes 30 hours one way and costs only a little less, so my husband decided flying was the easiest. Will he enjoy the peace and quiet of being away from his 2 noisy children? I'll let you know. In the meantime, send some good vibes for his safe trip there and back home to us, won't you?

Ok, I'll quit stalling. I know you're wondering what was inside the envelope, aren't you? It was a letter. More specifically, THIS letter...

Did you see that? We've been approved! APPROVED! They approved us just the day after we filed! We are so happy right now. We cried because we were so happy. Of course, this doesn't mean we get to pack up all our shit and move out of this place right now. No, no, no. This just means we're approved to begin the immigrant visa process for Jeremy. Thankfully, I have a good friend at work who is also currently processing his wife's immigrant visa and he's just a step ahead of me so having someone I can talk to about what's happening and what forms and documents are needed is a huge help. It makes it seem less of a daunting task.

But this will all be worth it soon enough if we can make it through the whole process and get approved. Every day I'm praying for it. I just want to take my girls and my husband home to the most beautiful land I know...America!

Welcome Home, New Couch!

Finally, I can declare with confidence that I actually like our home. I still don't like WHERE it is located or that it is a wee bit small, but for now, I can feel at home here until we must move to a larger place. Someday, Raelynn will be bigger and this little place won't lend enough privacy. Terrified of her candidly (and loudly) asking us while out for ice cream or something why Lane and I were making loud noises the night before, we have both agreed that moving to another home is best.

For now though, we'll be staying here while we save up and plan for that phase of our lives. And this is okay with me now because we just bought a new couch. It was delivered on Friday and with its' arrival came the departure of the last burdensome thing from my in-laws...THE WOOD COUCH AND CHAIRS. Remember those?

For fun, I included this above shot first since it's so old. It's fun to go back and look at the atrocities we gradually replaced. It has those gross granny flower pillows from yester-year and this photo was also taken long before we replaced that 70s curtain and the frosted glass panes with the privacy door, truly showing just how much we've changed this home over the last year.

Here is the old wooden couch, sans ugly flower pillows, in a more recent shot. I must stress here that the wooden furniture is quite lovely. However, sitting on it for any length is pure hell. And it takes up so much space. When trollzilla and her husband (MIL and FIL) moved closer to us earlier this month, they said they would take this wood crap for their living room. Fine by us! Lane and I had been wanting to change this setup for a while. Not only was it uncomfortable and consuming too much space, but it also posed a huge threat to Raelynn who has just started crawling. Not wanting to chance having our daughter clunk her cute little head into this monstrosity, we went looking for a new couch.

And we found it. Oh we found it! Do you want to see? OF COURSE you do! Presenting Jennifer and Lane's (and Raelynn's!) living room, 5.0:

Improvement MAJOR, am I right?!? I loooooove this thing. It's very comfortable, we can sit together on it, it won't cause any unnecessary bruising, it doesn't take up the whole house and it looks great. Here it is from different angles:

No more horrid in-law decor! It's all gone. All of it. Now this house just reflects our style.

A closer shot. The fruit basket is new too, incidentally, though we eat so much fruit between us that it never stays very full.

Yes, this place now says "home sweet home" when we walk in instead of "look at all the stuff we got for free from the Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of the poor part of town that got shut down by the grace of God for contaminated food in a country that doesn't care about those sorts of things to even go check it out." Now if you'll excuse me, Lane and I are off to enjoy the couch!