I am in Seattle!!!! born and raised, other than that last year in England we live in Shoreline now....you???

I agree....things do happen, sort of creep up on you (I always approach really scary things with the perspective that a year from now I will look back on all this, tests, visas, interviews, etc etc and smile - hopefully!!!! - and that usually keeps me calmer) but the courage to allow the creeping to happen, not backing out or running away, takes great courage! we have all been through a lot - and that should be celebrated!!!

The envelope with the visa just arrived!!!!!

So in terms of updating my timeline... do I enter today's date for Date Visa Received, or is that for the day we activate it at the border? My guess is today but I just wanted to check with you all.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Yep, you use today as the 'day visa arrived' in your timeline.

Thank you!

I'm excited!! One week till the move.

woohoo!

you have permission to dance and sing

whew, good thing! I was keeping still till you said that.

:D

Congratulations Is Scott all ready for the move now? Packed and stuff?

Well we can all meet up in Sedona if you want, or we can come down to Tucson and visit - it's up to you! We'll be in the area and passing near Phoenix too so we can always meet there as well - sooo many options You'll recognise me a mile off - I'll be the lobster red person who has been in Palm Springs for a month or so


You know - you are SO right... I mean - I wouldn't DREAM of doing something so silly!!!!


Gratzies!!!! So when's the big move!?

Three weeks from now I am going to be on a big birdie in the sky with my lovely OH and my poor kitty

not one single item has been packed yet. He hasn't even brought home boxes yet! I'm tempted to go out and get some and start packing his stuff myself, but if it were the other way around, I'd want to go through everything and get rid of stuff at the same time. But then again, it's not the other way around, and Scott is not nearly as anal or organized as I am.


I imagine we'll spend all of Saturday packing. That night we pick up the Uhaul and Sunday we'll load. We'll start the drive early Monday morning and hopefully it won't take more than 10 hours to get to Brooklyn.
Aww, your poor kitty. I mean, I'm sure she'll be fine, but I know mine hates to travel, and I've never taken her on a plane, only in cars a few times.


When does Jeremy arrive in the UK?

He gets here next Wednesday evening - that is just soooo soon that it is really beginning to sink in now... mum told me she had a few tears on her way home from work this evening and I had some this morning so goodness knows what we will be like in a couple of weeks!!!

Probably lots more tears but also tears of happiness and lots of excitement.

Yeah - it all just feels so unreal - i can't believe he will be here next week - we haven't seen each other for almost four months

oh man, I know what that's like... standing out at Sydney airport waiting for Dave was SO surreal; the last time I'd seen him had been for three days at New Year, in Paris, and before that ten days in September... a tiny part of me toyed with the idea of just running away

I'm glad I didn't

i am a married woman

everything was beautiful on friday when we had the actual ceremony in borough hall, and then went out to dinner

i cried a little right after we said 'i do' and my daddy gave me a hug and said 'i just want you to be happy'

everything was wonderful, except that i almost put his ring on his right hand, before he corrected me lol...but it was evened out when he almost put my ring on my middle finger he got confused and was like 'why would you put two rings on one finger?!'

all in all everything was beautiful

yesterday was even more fun, with the party and all...everyone danced, drank and had a grand old time

so now on to the next phase, we are moving in less than a week and haven't packed a single item!

im getting really really excited about the new place, and decorating it with all of our new gifts that we got from the registry!!

rae - we ended up getting a budget truck, because the other companies had restrictions as to where the vehicles could be driven...indiana wasnt on the list of permissible states, in other words...budget had the best price with unlimited miles, and we even sprung for the gps, for when we get lost in south bend

wish us luck!!

congrats susie!!!

I'm so glad everything sounded just beautiful and lots of fun.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe you move in just a week! That's quite a lot to have going on in such a short period of time! Budget is good; way better than Uhaul so I'm sure it'll all go smoothly.

Congrats again, and lots of luck!

Yaaaaaay, CONGRATS Susie.

Susie that sounds so wonderful Congratulations You put tears in my eyes

Rae, I hope he doesn´t have too much stuff so you also get some sleep at the weekend

oh, congratulations, Susie

SO SO happy for you guys

And your wedding is round the corner

yes... still need to work out what to wear

haha, actually he doesn't have *that* much stuff, and we are leaving a lot here (like furniture, stuff I already have). But I can just see him putting it off and us getting like 3 hours of sleep b/c we're busy packing & loading. It's hard when you know your partner will do this sort of thing but it's going to happen anyway!



any ideas?

I assume you are a serious woman and don´t wanna wear big white dress

So is he staying at his parents or something, that you are able to leave the furniture behind?

I have a nice skirt I got in England... sort of natural coloured linen with a gold ferny pattern stamped all over it... it's Monsoon, so it's a lovely cut and design
trouble is, I have no idea what might go with it

and no, no white dress for me

What colour is natural colour? Skin or grass or something else?

He has a roommate who luckily doesn't mind keeping the stuff Scott will be leaving. Kinda works out for everybody.


Good excuse to go shopping.

But I thought in Texas, they only sell cowboy stuff

I don't mind teaming it with a Stetson

and the natural colour of linen, Marta you loon

Do it! That would be awesome!! (I thought about wearing cowboy boots with my summer dress but I don't actually own them and they're usually not cheap.)

I wore a cowboy hat for my Vegas wedding. You can take at peek at it in my photos.

Awesome!

Is the veil actually part of the hat?

Yep, this is a link from the place I got it. I found it by accident while looking for something else and once I saw it I just KNEW I had to get married in it.

I just wore white jeans, white t-shirt and white cowboy boots with it - it was a very inexpensive wedding outfit.

http://www.sheplers.com/hats/womens_hats/096986.html

That is awesome. I just sent that link to my friend who's getting married in Vegas in July.

I don't think it would suit me
great for you though

so far this morning: had root canal, got marriage license
what's on this afternoon, you ask? stay tuned...

A root canal! Wow, am I ever envious!!! To think I only will have my teeth cleaned at the dentist tonight!!!

As for wedding attire, keep is simple. The skirt sounds lovely, so maybe just pair it with a pale gold top. I wore pale gold and ivory for my nuptials, as you may recall!!

And for the record, I am always interested in the goings-on of your days StP!! You seem to have a very interesting life, and I do mean interesting in a good way!!

so far this morning: I woke up and ate....I have many more plans for today though...one of them is eat again and again and again

since the skirt already has a pattern I agree that the top should only be plain colour

I think my life is no more or less interesting than anyone else's, but I sometimes have a knack of making it SOUND otherwise

certainly my slobbering attempts to eat yoghurt with a spoon and a rubber mouth are not exactly the height of fascination


yes, I think your advice is good, re the clothes... gold would be lovely, or maybe a brown top
it's funny, even though I have NO interest in perpetuating wedding tradition, I still feel odd to be talking about wearing anything other than white... gad, it's so ingrained

So as soon as the date passed my predicted adjudication date (which was like 3 weeks ago) the dates in my timeline started moving and moving. Now for my AP it says it should have been adjudicated between May 30 and June 9 (which was yesterday so they are late with that again) and EAD should be adjudicated between June 7 and June 21. So I am slowly moving onto the 90 day mark while the average is around 60 days So they should just give me my GC tomorrow like they give it to everybody else if they don´t wanna give me those other two things in a timely manner

Oh Marta, every time I see you post about your lack of AOS progress I feel so guilty! Why should we be so fortunate and your case just drag on and on??? I really hope you hear something soon! I just can't understand why you don't, at minimum, have your AP and EAD. hang in there and keep venting to us! That's what we're here for! *hugs to you and the wee babe*

Hehe Julez Don´t feel bad it´s not your fault. To be honest I don´t really care about it that much. I just want it to be done so I can close boxes and not think about it for 2 years. Only thing I am really going to need is the AP cuz I´m gonna go to my brother´s wedding in summer and so I wanna have that just in case the GC takes forever. If I wasn´t planning to go anywhere I wouldn´t care about that either. It´s just so weird. We have to go through all that hassle for K1 and then we are in prison called USA, cuz we can´t go anywhere And with the EAD...the later I get it the less chance I´ll try to get a job cuz the belly is growing so I don´t know what´s gonna happen with that Not really feel like trying to fit in a new job and learn new stuff while having to deal with my own preggy troubles and then look like an idiot there Other than that, everything is fine

Concerning the prison, it really is. And the worst thing is I keep forgetting about it. Now when we were in Key West last week, this is what happened. I like to explore, cuz that´s my nature. So I see the sign "Cuba 90 miles". So I ask Scott how it is for an American to go to Cuba and he says he thinks it´s not really that restricted, just thinks we can´t transport any goods. So I say it would be cool if we went on a boat trip to Cuba And then I realize, oh wait a minute...we didn´t take Scott´s passport. Oh well. And then I realize, oh wait a minute, I can´t leave USA!

Marta, you can leave at any time you want....its the coming back that will be a problem!!!

As for Cuba, visiting it not as easy as getting on a boat for US citizens:

Most everybody in the world, EXCEPT Cuban-born-non-Cuban citizens, and EVERYBODY under United States jurisdiction, can travel to and from Cuba freely. If you are a Cuban-born non-Cuban citizen, you will need to apply for a visa at a Cuban Embassy. For all other North American and EEC citizens, traveling to Cuba as short-term visitors, you need a passport and the tourist cards that is issued with your plane ticket to Cuba. Cuba welcomes non-Cuban born U.S. tourists with no red tape.

For everybody under United States jurisdiction (if you are a U.S. resident, regardless of your passport) there is one additional level of complexity. The U.S. has a partial embargo of trade with Cuba. The embargo is enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as part of their work as a lead agency against terrorism (in 2005, 1/6th of their anti-terrorism work is focused on going after Americans who visit Cuba.) In conjunction with this, OFAC is increasingly limiting people's opportunities to learn about Cuba. For the official word on US policies go to http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/o...cuba/cuba.shtml.

I know I can leave But I wanna be able to come back I don´t wanna go through months of K3 and then have to go through the whole AOS again

So Scott is non-Cuban born U.S. tourist right? So he is welcome in Cuba?

The US prohibits your Average Joe USC from traveling to Cuba. There is a lot of long boring info in the link I provided above!!

I REALLY want to go to Cuba too
have wanted to for ages... and here we are so close, and can't go

bloody US

I think YOU could still go!

I keep hoping with the younger Castro now in power that these bans will be lifted sooner, rather than later.

here is a link to an interesting news article on the issue:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/02/12/usat-cuba.htm

wow, yes; very interesting! I didn't know they were actually FINING people

but I thought that now I'm a resident of the US I'd come under the same laws...?

But would anyone find out if you traveled there as an Australian citizen, which you are? I dunno I mean, if an Australian citizen flies to Cuba from Mexico, how does the U.S. Treasure department get to those information?

So according to the article it´s not illegal to travel there, it´s only illegal to spend money there. So how about going there and then begging for money in the streets and then only spending those money (if someone ever gives you any money there)? Then what can they fine you for?

somehow, with what I know of the US government, that wouldn't stop them