Oxford College - Basketball team of 2024

General Ana Chatter

For the record, my dog did not just poop in the park! It is merely Ana's favourite thing to do to check people's butts, accuse them of pooping, and try to change them. I'm not sure why!


Ana chatting from jasmin hutchinson on Vimeo.

Damn, she is a smart one!

Today our cat wandered in with a mangled ear. I guess he got in a fight.

I was looking at him and asking him "Hey, what happened buddy? Did you get in a fight?" and Ana said "Mummy, the kitty cat doesn't talk".

Oh yeah, thanks!

Getting a workout in!

Ana and I went to the park this morning and had a lot of fun! I was away at a conference this week so it was nice to catch up and spend some time with her. While at my conference I attended a presentation of data indicating that children aged 2-5 are not meeting physical activity guidelines. So Ana got put through her paces today!

We started with some strides

A little climbing


Balance activities

Some hill running

Some eccentric muscle action

Cross-country running
And some dog pulling!



A super cute picture of Ana and her workout partner!!

And just for comparison, here we are at the same park last year!!

Who said parenting is like Groundhog day??

Learning an important lesson

Mmmm, I think I'll drink my bubble bath. Mummy just said no, but I'm feeling defiant!


What the hell???


Mummy, I don't liiiiiiike it!


Washing her mouth out!


Lesson learned - Mummy is always right!

Swimming

We took Ana to the pool today. She LOVES swimming. We had to tell her to stop laughing so much because she was swallowing water! She swam 100 meters!! She was in her floatsuit obviously, but the fact that she propelled herself that far on her own was amazing! That is further than her Daddy can swim!!

We're going to make an effort to take her every weekend so she can keep up her mad skillz.

Becoming an American

I became an American citizen today. It feels odd to be equally as American as I am English! My journey began back in 1998 when I came to America (allegedly for just a year) to play rugby and get my Masters degree at Eastern Illinois University. I was 21 when I left the UK. Of all the places one might fall in love with, Charleston, IL surely does not rank too highly! But I had the time of my life there. I made some amazing friends and fell in love with the American way of life….which consisted of going to class in the morning, either playing rugby or laying about drinking corona in the sun in the afternoon, and partying it up at night. Weekends were for matches, road trips to Chicago, or more laying about and drinking. You can see why I decided to stick around.

Next it was on to Tallahassee, Florida. All credit to Tracy for this! She was going to do her PhD in Florida and, not having much of a life plan at this point, I decided to do the same! Leaving my friends from Illinois was hard, just as hard as it had been to leave my friends in England. I doubted I’d get lucky enough to make such amazing friends for the third time in my life, but did I ever! Jim Smith…I owe you man! During the 5 years I spent in Tallahassee I was a bartender, and at various other times a research assistant, a personal fitness trainer, a teacher, a tomato wrestler (just one time, unpaid), and for six inexplicable months I worked for the Partnership for Alcohol Responsibility!! It was during this time I met my hubby. A goofy, skinny smoker, living in a trailer and managing a bar. My parents must have been thrilled! But those of you who know James know I got really lucky. He’s an amazing guy, and now an even more amazing father. And so a wedding was planned. Not one, not two, but three hen (bachelorette) nights were attended around the world. The wildest and craziest of all being when 7 bartenders drove from Florida to Atlanta for a weekend of complete debauchery. Word up to the Tallahassee Seven! James and I moved into a double wide trailer with Pony (that’s a friend, not a pet, in case you were wondering…..although sometimes I’m not sure) and we hosted such classy events as The Great Gallon of Milk Chugging Contest of 2003. Dave Sacks won – that guy has a stomach of steel! A stray cat found us and left us 3 bundles of joy. Two of them still live here, with the apparent sole life purpose of covering my entire house in fur. Eventually all good things must come to an end and James and I left Tallahassee to get real jobs.

Of all the places, Oxford, GA was our next stop. Here maturity caught up with us (a little), so the stories will probably get a little less entertaining. In 2005 we bought a house and took a foray into adult responsibility by getting a dog. Yes, I was one of those people who think owning a dog will prepare you for parenthood. Yeah, ok! Call me next time you put your kid out in the yard because it is making noise, or when you drop $9000 a year for your dog to go to pre-school! Also in 2005 I because a permanent resident of the US. At our green card interview James put the stamp of approval on my file by fluffing the interviewer’s questions about my birthday and my middle name, and completely forgetting where I was born. Yes officer, clearly we are REALLY married. No faux husband would show up this unprepared! Then on the 11th August 2006 a brand new, and not so little, bundle of joy we named Ana Elizabeth joined our family. Everything changed. Somehow this little creature that has taken my freedom, my sleep, my time, my paycheck, and quite often my sanity, became the best thing that ever happened to us, and the crux of our existence. And so I was outnumbered 2:1, or 5:1 if you count the animals, on the citizen front. Try as I might to recruit back-up by bringing my sister to live here (damn you US immigration) I was being outnumbered my Americans in my own home. Time to join the dark side. I simply cannot tell you how many hours or how much money it has taken to get to this point, mostly because if I start adding it up I might cry. Long drives to Jacksonville, often involving overnight stops. Fingerprints, photographs, interviews, more fingerprints, a bazillion forms, background checks, yet more fingerprints (they don’t change people – stop taking them!!). For a person as cluttered and disorganized as myself (remember I’ve lost 3 passports and a greencard) all this keeping of INS documentation has caused more stress than you can imagine. “You want to see what? My original marriage certificate? Are you joking?? Tax returns going back 5 years – hahahaha. Ok, I’ll get those right to you”. Poor, poor James has turned our house upside down looking for misplaced documents. He now handles all such affairs, and he puts everything in its rightful place. Of course, I can’t help myself but to move them for some reason or other and kick off the whole cycle again. Anyway, all that doesn’t matter now because I’m AMERICAN! And replacing lost American documentation while living in America will be a cinch compared to trying to replace a UK passport 3 days before I need it from a far away continent.

So – the interview. Last week I went in for my Citizenship test. After nowhere near as much waiting time as I had come to expect I was called into an office. The immigration officer had an alarmingly thick file with copies of everything to do with me and James – birth certificates, marriage license, passports, greencard, fingerprints, photographs, etc. Everything checked out and everything was accounted for. Yay! Next, the English language test. I was handed a piece of paper and asked to read the sentence aloud: “When is Columbus Day?” Then I was asked to write down a sentence dictated by the immigration officer: “Columbus Day is in October.” So far so good. Even Mr Stone Face had to crack a partial smile and say “I bet that was hard for you, eh?” The civics test consisted of 10 questions; I had to get 6 right. This was an oral test, not multiple choice as I was hoping for! Oh well.

Q1. What does the cabinet do?

Q2. How many supreme court justices are there?

Q3. What did the declaration of independence do?

Q4. For how long do we elect US senators?

Q5. If the president and vice president are unable to serve who takes over?

Q6. Name one of the three branches of our government

I don’t know what the other questions were because I got the first 6 right. Boo-ya! I’ve always been an overachiever like that. And that was that! I went back out to wait for TWO HOURS while they verified my file, then I was given an appointment to come back and take the Oath of Allegiance a week later. I was hoping I’d get to take it the same day, as James had come along to watch, but no cigar. I had missed the ceremony for that day. Probably because I was waiting for TWO HOURS, but I’m not bitter. What the hell, let’s take another entire day of my time. Really, it’s a drop in the ocean after the amount of time spent waiting on the INS for the last 10 years. Still, James was there so we decided to celebrate that day. We engaged in the great American past-times of Starbucks coffee, shopping, and eating out. Sushi. Mmmmm. Then we went home and popped some champagne! And so today, the last step. I went to swear my oath. I arrived as instructed at 1pm (actually I was there at 12:30) only to discover the ceremony was at 2:30. Why did you tell me to come at 1:00 then you asshats? Is this like when I tell my husband something starts an hour before it actually does in the hope I can get there on time? I guess so.

Anyway, the wait passed by fairly quickly and all the new citizens-to-be were called into a room. There were 91 of us, we were told, from 43 different countries. Cool! I looked around the room at the sea of faces and wondered what their story was. How did they get here? How did these different paths lead us all to be receiving citizenship at the same time in the same place? I didn’t expect to feel as emotional as I did, but it was very cool. A lady spoke about, well shit, I’ve forgotten what she said now, but it was very stirring. LOL. Most people there had family members with them, snapping pictures and looking giddy. I felt a bit alone, so I tried to picture James stood there, Ana on his hip, smiling his broad grin. Then, it was odd, but I felt that if I turned around I would see everyone. Family, friends, everyone! Dad would be looking around all proud and pinchy-like (that’s an inside joke). Mum would be smiling some kind of big-eyed, wide-mouthed smile, craning her neck like a mearcat to see me. Then I imagined Mel, looking stylish, smiling, waving and probably flipping me the subtle finger. Warren next to her smiling his kind of head down smile and holding Mia, his little clone. Grandma looking hot and flustered because she doesn’t like crowds, but telling people she was ok. My friends looking on, smiling, waving, chatting to each other, laughing. It was one of the most vivid things I’ve ever envisioned. I’m not an imaginative person, at all, but I really felt like if I turned around this is what I would see. So I turned around…and I saw some Indian fella, a German looking couple, and an old Chinese guy recording everything on a camcorder. Ha! Oh well. In my mind everyone was there.

Each country was called individually and the citizens of that country stood up. The German looking couple were actually Canadian. Who knew? The United Kingdom was near the end of the alphabetical list, so that was nice. Less standing time for me! We all raised our right hand and said the Oath of Allegiance. I may or may not have mumbled the bit about renouncing my allegiance to my native country. I’m neither confirming nor denying this. Then everyone joined in as we faced the flag and recited the Pledge of allegiance. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." There was no anthem. Bummer, I love the anthem.

And then it was over. We were supposed to hear a message from the President and get a letter from him, but apparently they don’t have them yet. Umm, ok. Obama, I campaigned for you! Get your ass in gear son! Apparently we can go back in 2 months and get our letter if we want them. I really want one, but maybe not quite enough to voluntarily go back into an INS building. We shall see.

And then we left. I got my certificate of citizenship and walked out. People congratulated each other quietly, but really there was not much fanfare. Surprising for a country that loves its fanfare. Guess that is just the native born Americans then. The immigrants must not be as heavily into their fireworks and whooping. Or maybe they were still shit scared of being in an INS building and the realization that they were safe now wouldn’t fully sink in until they got out!

So here I am, freezing my ass off in front of the INS building with my flags! Woo Hoo!

(it was insanely windy today - hence the hair)