Ramble On: March 2015

Raa raa raa! What about ye?! How have you all been? I know you haven't been cold so don't try to lie to me about that. Most of you have had about as much snow as we have here in Ireland.

For Ireland it has been quite a bit, but for you mountain folk, it ain't nothin!!

We have a lot to discuss today so let's get down to business! First we will start off with the most important topics. Leo is the best deer hunter in the world. This became fact a few weeks ago when he was standing in the middle of the walking path and summoned a buck to run out of the trees and directly towards him. He was able to shoot a few blurry shots as the deer ran past him. If any of you hunters ever want to go hunting, take Leo with you. He will find the deer and then summon them right to you.

A few Mondays ago I took the missionaries up to Scrabo Tower. I felt almost like I was giving a guided tour to some American college kids. I say almost because one of the sisters is Danish. Leo loves it when she comes over and speaks in her native language. It is pretty cool and she speaks really good English. She said that a few times she has just started talking to her companion and then realized she hadn't spoken in English. I wonder if Tay and Mitch have ever done that? I'm sure Clint and Kyler could tell you if it ever happened with them. They really liked Scrabo, but I wish it had been open so we could have taken them inside.

That Saturday, after learning that NONE of the missionaries had eaten any Irishy food and two were leaving in two months, Leo and I decided to put some hair on their chests and give them a good ole Ulster Fry, or if you're super slow like me a fried Ulster! I am sure you can imagine what that tastes like. For those of you lacking in imaginary taste buds, I've included a picture of the fry so you at least know what one looks like.

A few weeks ago we got word that our passports and other documents had returned from England and were at the post office in Dundalk. In November we mailed an application packet to England to try and get me legal to be in the north. That was before we found out from a different source that I was already legal to live up here. Since then we have been trying hard to get it back but for the longest time we had no idea where it had gone to. End of January we found out even though it was suppose to go to Durham, England it ended up in Liverpool, England and when it got to Liverpool they had no idea what to do with it so they just set it aside waiting for us to call asking about it. It sat there for three months before we were able to find it. "Good grief Charlie Brown! "doesn't even begin to capture the frustration we've felt! Even though I am legal to live here I need to have proof from the government before anyone will give me a job. So as soon as we got all our documents back, we mailed them out in a different application. We got a letter confirm they had received this one and hopefully we will here from them soon, though they say that it could take up to six months to process. We are getting pretty good at playing the waiting game. By the time we move to Utah I'm sure we will nearly be pros.

One product that I really like using is Poo ~ Pourri. If you have never heard of it, well! It's about time you should! Click here to learn more. I think it works really well. I would recommend anyone looking to keep their bathrooms fresh to spritz some Poo ~ Pourri before dumping a load. I know my mom loves it. I think it's her favorite thing my dad has tried to help with his lactose-intolerance. The only time she notices his body's protests to diary is when she walks into his gas cloud of death. By the way dad, Leo thanks you for passing those genes on to me :) The one thing I don't like about Poo ~ Pourri is that it's smell reminds me of Fruit Loops. This is terrible for two reasons. The most obvious is that sitting on the john empting my bowels is a horrible time to get the munchies for a nice bowl of Fruit Loops. The second is that Fruit Loops here are terribly depressing and eating them is liking eating a bowl of soggy cat food. If Poo ~ Pourri could fix this small issue it would be the perfect product.

Last week Leo informed me that I needed to file my taxes to the US.

I am an American living and working abroad. Do I need to file a US tax return?

Regardless of where you live now, being a United States citizen requires that you file a yearly tax return with the IRS. Green card holders and all US citizens are required to file a US return, no matter where they live, as long as their income (earned in-US and abroad) is just over $9,000. Many people wrongly assume that because they have never owed money to the IRS, they simply dont have to file. Earning anything over $9,350.00 does require you to file, however. The US has treaties with many foreign countries that will reduce or even eliminate actual owed tax. You cannot, however, take advantage of these benefits if you don't file.

I also found out it would be beneficial for me to file jointly with Leo even though he is a non-resident alien because at some point we will be applying for a green card and it will be easier to get one if we file together. We didn't owe the US government anything, which was good, and I hope to be mailing in our taxes in Friday or next Monday. So if you think you can escape taxes by moving abroad you've got another thing comin, Mr. Snowden.

Which dog do you like better? Vote at the poll to the side

Australian Shepherd

Australian Cattle Dog

These are both dogs Leo and I would like someday :)

I don't know if you've ever been hiking along and realized, "Hey, I should loose some weight because I can feel my boobs bouncing around." If you have, loosing weight isn't your only option you could wear a BRO. I have a problem that is related. For those of you who were worried about my weight you no longer have to be worried because I have big boobs again. I have this curse of my boobs being the first thing to gain and loose weight. So many women have told me how lucky I am but am I really lucky? Every time my weight changes I have to buy new bras. Yes I am so lucky that my bras never seem to fit properly! I want to know why some of my other sisters didn't partake of this boob gene. Shayli took more than her fair share, but Miki and Kelcie, stop holding back! I've got enough to go around! Come on guys!

Living in Newtownards as been awesome. I am loving living here so much more than in Dundalk. We are both very happy here and have been saving roughly £200- £700 a month compared to what we were spending down south.

Have any of you Americans ever heard that if you don't have money or a credit card on you that American ambulances will just leave you on the street? Neither had I but apparently that's the view others have us our health care system because it's so expensive and money scamming. I say it's money scamming because the WHO did a survey and the US was the first in response time and most expensive but 37th in care. Paying top dollar for health care that ranks in the top five is justifiable to me but 37th?! I'm not saying I want to go to a system like they have here in the UK were public medical care is all free, because I've seen people like Leo's grandma wait a whole year before a doctor would see her about the pain she has in her leg. I don't think that we should have to pay so much for our medical care. America is a great place and I am proud to be American but this is one thing that needs to change. There has to be some kind of middle ground because 37th isn't great at all. View the list here.

If you would like to Skype or email us just post a comment below and we will get in contact with you. We will cya all soon.

Scrabo with Handsome