Fun With Mom

Before I head to Australia to finally be with my husband, he is being generous and allowing me to spend a month with my mom. I came out to New Mexico a week early so that we could see the balloon festival, but bad weather made it not as great as we would have liked. When we realized we would have to spend upward of 2+ hours sitting in traffic to get to the 7am liftoff (and likely miss it sitting in said traffic), we decided to go to Denny's for breakfast. It turned out the Denny's was on a hill, and we sat in the parking lot and watched the balloons for over an hour.

There weren't that many, so we finally gave up and decided to see what random things my "Roadside America" app on my GPS had for us. Among the strange and unusual things to be found in and around Albuquerque, we saw a car mounted on an archway,

a house built to look like a bug,

a dragon in a playground,

a giant red arrow,

a "green" dinosaur,

a giant pink ribbon (appropriate for Breast Cancer Awareness Month),

a really cool painted house,

the "Madonna of the Plains" in honor of all the Pioneer mothers (thought of you, Sharon Gourlay),

satellite coffee,

Frontier Restaurant, the ONLY place for tortillas in Albuquerque (that one's for you, Jen Mahon),

and last but most definitely not least, our favorite sight of the day - a giant rattlesnake in the median:

After a busy day of running around, we had some lovely soup for a late lunch and back home for a nap! Loving this time with mom. <3

We're on our way!!!

The day we have been praying for is finally here - we got word from the Australian embassy that my visa has been approved! We made the decision back in July for me to come over on a tourist visa, with hopes that it would be approved within the year that the visa covers (when we inquired about how to go about the tourist visa, we were told that our timeframe was pushed back, so we weren't expecting approval until between April and July 2015). What this means is that when I arrive in Australia on November 6, 2014, I won't have to leave the country every 3 months to renew my visa as I will be a provisional permanent resident (ie, they'll review my case in 2 years and make me permanent). I will also be able to look for work as soon as I get there. Thank you to everyone who has helped us - financially, with prayers, and everyone who has been rooting for us and sending love and good thoughts. More to follow soon, but wanted you all to know. <3