DIY

Titlen på dette indlæg dækker over en hel del men jeg starter ud I den knap så trælse afdeling. I søndags havde vi besøg af Allen og Michelle fra vores kirke som vi havde inviteret til frokost og en solid omgang DIY julepynt. Vi har ikke rigtig noget julepynt med herover, men et juletræ VIL vi altså ha’, så vi tog I “The Scrap Box” – et fantastisk lokalt koncept hvor de sælger produktionsrester mm af alt mellem himmel og jord der kan bruges til at dimse med. Der er paprør, tæppeprøver, gamle julekort, flamingo, papir osv osv. Det er svinebilligt (vi fyldte en stor papirspose for 7$) men man skal give sig god tid da man ikke på forhånd kan vide hvad de har (og hvis man ellers undlader at hoppe op I skumgummi kassen, skulle det heller ikke være et problem at få lov til at blive hængende…..):

The title of this blogpost covers a few things, but I’ll start out easy. This Sunday we had visitors: Michelle and Allen from our church who we invited over for lunch and DIY Christmas ornaments. We didn’t really bring any Christmas gear with us, but we HAVE to get a tree! Off we went to “the scrap box” which is a cool local shop selling leftovers from factories etc which means they have all sorts of gizmos that can be used for crafts. There are cardboard tubes, carpet tryouts, old Christmas cards, flamingo boxes, paper scraps etc etc. It is incredibly cheap (we filled a giant paperbag for only 7$) but one has to expect to spend quite some time in there as you’ll never know what they have this time around (and unless you are tempted to go sit in the foam box it shouldn’t be an issue staying as long as you like…..):

Michelle havde lovet at tage noget glimmer og dims med . OG hun havde limspray og Martha Stewart glimmer! Uuuuuuh. Luca og Teresa var HELT oppe at ringe over det koncept (jeg var selvfølgeligt overhovedet ikke spor begejstret og fik I hvert fald slet ikke glimmer overdoseret på et par ornamenter – eller noget…..). Det var simpelthen SÅ hyggelig en dag og lige hvad vi trængte til (det kommer der mere om længere nede). Teresa ville lave en nisse, der endte med et blive til en jule minion. Kristian fulgte straks trop og lavede en hula dansende nissehue beklædt eenøjet minion (????) mens jeg klippede I julekort til den store guldmedalje og fik bl.a. produceret “psychobird” (den ondt udseende mejse nede I højre hjørne på billedet, der skal hænge lige over slikstokkene og sende onde øjne efter børn, der måske finder på et hapse een uden at få lov!). Jeg er nu også ret stolt af mit hjorte ornament!:

Michelle promised to bring glitter and additional craft supplies. AND she actually had a glue spray and Martha Stewart glitter! Uuuuuuuh. Luca and Teresa were all excited about that concept (I of course kept totally cool and did not overdo the glitter on any ornaments…. ahem). It was SUCH a nice afternoon and just what we needed (more about that later in this post). Teresa set out to make an elf, that ended up as a christmas style minion. Kristian immediately took to crafting his own and created a hula dancing, santa hat wearing, Cyclops version of a minion (???) while I cut out old Christmas cards and among other things crafted “psycho bird” (the evil looking finch in the lower right corner of the picture. It will hang on the Christmas tree and look with its evil eyes for kids trying to snatch candy canes off the tree!). And honestly I am quite fond of the deer ornament as well:

Luca kom ret hurtigt I nærkontakt med limpistolen og så var han sat lidt ud af spil desværre.

Luca had a close encounter with the hot glue unfortunately:

Allen er ikke lige til glimmer og flitterstads så han nøjedes med at kigge på - OG fyre en hel del usandsynligt dårlige jokes af – han KAN ikke lade være – og selvfoelgeligt kunne vi ikke lade vaere med at grine….. (For en god ordens skyld vil jeg lige nævne at grunden til at han sidder med en computer, er, at han bruger den til at kommunikere med, da han er stum efter en trafikulykke).

Allen was not a big fan of all the glittery crafty stuff, so he just watched – AND came up with quite a few immensely corny jokes – he just cannot seem to help it – and of course they were so bad that they made us crack up…. (just for info he is sitting with a computer as he is mute after a car crash and need his computer to communicate)

Som antydet ovenfor har vi også gang I et andet DIY project – at søge Green Card! Kristian kan simpelthen ikke få hul igennem til et arbejde herovre og han bliver kun kaldt til samtale hvis de har glemt at tjekke på ansøgningsformularen om han nu også har en arbejdstilladelse, selvom der er masser af jobs at få. Det er til at blive idiot af og jeg skal nok skåne jer for en længere udredning af det amerikanske immigrations system, men alle vi har snakket med har sagt “så søg dog det skide green  card” på mere eller mindre elegant formulerede måder. Var det ikke fordi det er en temmeligt dyr affære, var vi nok gået I gang for en måned siden, men det kommer til at kost os ca 9000$ alt inkl (gebyrer og advokat hjælp) og vi har ikke haft lyst til at skulle brænde hele vores backup opsparing af I Danmark. Men endnu en gang er der dukket penge op på kontoen, vi ikke havde regnet med, og jeg tror det er et vink med en vognstang fra Gud om at vi bare skal se at komme I gang. Havde vi haft jobs vi kunne komme tilbage til hjemme I Danmark og et sted at bo, tror jeg vi havde givet op nu. Men vi føler at dørene bagud er lukket og at vi er nødt til igen igen igen at gå ud hvor vi ikke ved om vi kan bunde. Det har ærlig talt været en noget hårdere omgang at komme herover end vi havde regnet med. Arbejdsløshed, en mega stram økonomi og vinter I Michigan på een gang er langt fra de oplevelser vi havde sidst vi var afsted. 

As hinted above we have also started another DIY project – applying for a Green Card! Kristian is just not able to get a job and he is only called for interviews if the employer missed the part on the application form where you check a box if you need a work permit even though there are plenty of jobs available. It is making us crazy and I promise I will not exhaust you by taking you through a detailed list of people we have talked to in order to get this situation solved. Yet everybody has told us “why don’t you just apply for that freakin’ green card?” in more or less elegantly stated ways. Was it not for the price we would most likely have started a month ago, but it will end up being around 9000$ total (filing and attorney fees) and we have been scared to sacrifice our back up funds back in Denmark if everything fails and we need to go home and pay a deposit for a place to live. But once more money that we did not expect has appeared on our bank account and we feel like this is a pretty solid statement from God that we should just keep going. Have we had jobs and a place to live back in Denmark we would have probably given up by now.  But we feel that the doors behind us are closed and that we have step way out of our comfort zone over and over. Honestly it’s been quite tough arriving here. Unemployment, a really tight budget, and a Michigan winter all at once is far from the experience we had last time in the US. 

Men vi er taknemmelige for at ungerne stortrives, at der trods alt ER mulighed for at få det hele til at hænge sammen, og at vi har inviteret os selv på 5 dages juleferie I North Carolina hos Kristians grandtanter. Juhuuuu. Jeg havde ikke lige orket at tilbringe et par ugers juleferie spærret inde I lejligheden (og ja, I læste rigtigt: på university of Michigan har man tvungent fri mellem jul og nytår, så der er faktisk næsten 2 ugers betalt ferie til mor her!).

But we are grateful for how the kids seem to thrive, that there actually seems possible to “make it” still, and that we have invited ourselves for 5 days of Christmas get away in North Carolina where Kristians great-aunts are living. Whoop whoop! It is awesome that we don’t have to spent 2 weeks of Christmas holidays in our apartment not really being to afford to go anywhere (and yep! at University of Michigan you are entitled to time off between Christmas and new years, so I actually get almost two weeks off on top of my other vacation days!).