Our HR department brought in cupcakes and delivered them to everyone this morning. I am waiting until I get back from lunch to eat it. It is chocolate with white icing with little candy hearts sprinkled over top. YUM.

I am taking Alex out for dinner, Los Aztecas mexican restaurant. Since he is not working I am not expecting anything. I would love for him to just write me a little note, but knowing him, he is just vegging in front of the TV watching Mexican game shows and soap operas.

Have any of you experienced anything simular to the following: Normally I get off at 4pm and get Emily and I am home before 5pm. Yesterday we had a 3pm conference call with New Zealand (7am their time), well it went late and I did not leave here until 5pm. Sure enough at 5:10 Alex calls the cell phone, "WHERE ARE YOU"? When I tried to expain, he just hung up the phone. I don't know what he thinks I am doing? Does he really think I would rather be stuck at work then home with him. I think this is mainly because he feels a little trapped. We have been studying so that he can take him drivers license test, but he is not that thrilled about it, he hated school and especially tests. I told him it was multiple choice, that did not change his openion.

Benita…there are definite changes when coming home. Sure most everything fell into place for us and it did seem surreal, as if he never left…except for a few things. Miguel started getting really depressed about the 2nd week he was back because he still wasn’t working. He is so used to working (except, of course those 6.5 months in Mexico…hmmm) and having his own money that I think it started getting to him. He’d be asleep when I left in the morning, would drive to his cousin’s house, watch tv and come home and be asleep when I got home. I’d ask him to do a few tasks like fold the laundry and do the dishes, things that take 15 minutes total. And they didn’t get done. It totally pissed me off. I was busting my a** at work, doing the laundry, making dinner, doing the grocery shopping and the dude couldn’t wash a few dishes? Turns out he was just depressed. Once he found a job, everything seemed to lighten up. Maybe Alex is just bummed because you are busy all day and he doesn’t have anything to do?

Miguel also didn’t do swell in school and hates tests too. He took the drivers written test part 3 times before he passed…mostly because he was too impatient to study for the test and….read the whole question and read all the options…and he was also too impatient to read the correct answer the comp displayed when you get one wrong. The actual driving test he passed on the first try because he had been driving forever without a license.

Hang in there.

Benita: Some things are a little different for us too. Like Stephanie said, in some ways it feels like he never left. But in some ways it's like we are starting all over. Trying to get used to each other again. The first few days Javier didn't want to get in the bed when I was ready to go to bed. He wanted to stay up and watch tv or play on the computer. Then he wouldn't get out of bed in the morning. It has taken us a while to get back on schedule with each other.

Javier is the same way about me not getting home when he thinks I should. I usually try and call him to let him know where I am but sometimes I forget. Even though he knows I ride to work with my mom he still calls me and asks where I am. Like me and my mom are out scoping out the guys or something.

Javier wasn't really like that. He doesn't freak out too much if I'm late or miss calling him or whatever. Of course, in turn, he thinks I should be the same way. I anticipate everything will be fine whenever he comes back (IF he comes back) He typically just does whatever I need him or want him to do and we're happy that way!!

Wait a minute, I thought Alex only had 2 brothers. At least I did not think he had one named Miguel. Must just be that Mexican blood and environment. Gives them all very simular traits.
Thanks for the heads up. I know Alex gets depresses about not working. Especially when he thinks about what we have here compared to what his family has. He wants to send them money and with just my income we can not afford to send them anything right now. It is always good to know that other people understand what you are going through.
I am not worried about the road test, Alex has been driving for a while as well, I just wonder if the person in the car with him will speak Spanish. I know the written test is offered in several languages, so as long as we study and he takes his time he should be fine.
THANKS

I think the hardest thing for Javier is going to be not working. He has been constantly working for so many years (it's one of the first things he got into when he went back to Mexico). I know he'll find a way to keep busy though. My dad already said he'll put him to work. Yes, gotta love my workaholic sweetie. Also, Javier actually likes to clean and stuff so I'm sure he'll be keeping the place looking nice while I'm not around. He can't stand for there to be a mess.

I forgot to tell you guys that the fish died... When I got to my room yesterday after work, his little dead body was hiding in the plant. I had to flush him. Now he's on his way to the cielo-the little fishy heaven. It was very traumatic for me. Just ask Charity. Luckily, Javier wasn't too mad.

Oh my gosh! You should have heard her. I thought I was on the phone with a little girl. She was screaming. It was so funny. I told her to just pick it up and flush it. Then she started chanting over and over again, that was a dead body, that was a dead body. I know I shouldn't say it was funny under the circumstances, but you really should have heard her.

Well the moment I screamed was when I was dumping the water into the toilet. It was the moment when the little corpse thumped out of the tank and into the toilet. It was freaky.

RIP Jimmy.

Not to change the subject but I just downloaded some pictures to my computer and wanted to see if I could post one on here. So here goes.

Okay so it's really big but at least it's there. Now I just need to figure out how to make them smaller.

OMG you guys are tooo funny!!! RIP JIMMY

AWWW Charity! you guys make such a cute couple. That is a beautiful picture.

Elvia: Thanks, that was El Tajin in Vera Cruz. I have some more if you all would be interested in seeing them. I need to figure out how to make them smaller though.

Such a great picture! You should definitely post more.

Here's Javier flexing his muscles.

And here he is flashing the I love you sign.

Here's my dad at the Juarez Central Market.

Yes Benita...Alex and Miguel must be long lost brothers! I know Miguel took the 2nd and 3rd written test in Spanish (he didn't ask for it the first time) but the actual driving test was in English.

Charity...Awww you guys are super cute. How fun!

Melissa...and a correction...JAVIER IS COMING BACK. Not "if". Sorry about Jimmy.

Here's my little Daisy.

Here's my infamous Christmas tree.

And here we are when we got married.

Can't see the wedding one. Make it bigger!!

Okay here is another wedding one since the other one was so small.

Okay so now that one is huge.

Huge, but cute!! Your flowers are purple and yellow. The colors of my wedding. We must talk about this. I might need to copy your bouquet.

Oh my gosh my bouquet was beautiful. I loved it. I dried it and it is hanging in our bedroom. It was purple and white lisianthus and white roses. Plus some green thorny thing. I am not sure what it was called. I loved it.
This is my ring and an up close of the bouquet.

Oh it's white...it looked kinda yellow. Well, no worries. Wasn't the yellow flowers I was worried about. I wanted to know about the purple ones.

Yea, the purple ones are really pretty. They look like roses but they aren't. I think they are about the only purple flowers you can find. There aren't many out there. They hold up really well too. We bought the bouquet here at a florist and hauled it all the way to Florida. We put it in a portable refrigerator. We even stayed the night in St. Augustine and then drove the rest of the way to Orlando the next day. I was surprised at how well it stayed. It looked just as fresh when we went to the courthouse to get married as it did when I picked it up at the florist.

Benita tacho has been the same way since he has been back. At first he was really voicy about it stating that he felt something went on. Like if I was late or if i said i was going somewhere he would question it. It is waring off a little.

Somethings are the same but some are different . It has been truly getting re aquainted. Another issue is now alot of his friends treat him differently. He overheard some saying he thought he was la mera pipa! because he has papers. His family is constantly telling us send money . are there jobs there in florida? as if he has had any time to save money!!!!!!!!!! it will take a while but well get back in the kick of things and so will you guys!

Charity - Those photos are great, your dad is very handsome, your pooch is cute and you and Javier make a beautiful couple. (You are going to have cute babies, when you are ready).


Thanks everyone else for your words of wisdom. I will try to be more patient with Alex, but I wish he would try to be more understanding with me as well.


I think it was Asoler that came in on the K-3 visa (I-129f) so I have sent her an e-mail asking how things are going. I will let you know.

This is strange, when you make another post, if no one has posted between your last post and next post. It puts the new one at the bottom of your last one.

This is a regular repy, not a fast reply. I just want to see if it adds this to my last post.

Benita: Thank you! I am ready now. We were trying before he left so we just picked up where we left off. I hope it doesn't take long. I get all obsessive about it. I hated being that way before so I hope I don't get that way again. After I had my miscarriage it was all I thought about. I hope with all this immigration stuff over with our stress levels won't be so high and it won't be as hard as it was before. I know I can get pregnant, I just don't know how long it will take.

If Alex is anything like Javier, he expects you to be patient and understanding but he doesn't think he has to be that way. It will be okay though. We will all get back in the groove of things soon.

Absolutely Beautiful pictures Charity!

Benita... Hang in there girl, they will get re-adjusted and it will be like the good ole days... and hey if you need to vent... carry on sista!

Miss Liss... I will also want your pictures when you are ready to show....

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentines day my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello, everyone and happy valentines day!!! I frequent this forum quite a bit and tried to stay posted on everyone's journey and all have touched me dearly. I think, because today is Valentines Day, is the reason why i'm finally posting. Luis and I are just starting our journey thru this loooong drawn out (BS!!!). Charity, your pics are beautiful! your wedding pic brought tears to my eyes!!! I'm really happy for those whose husbands are back to share this romantic day!!! I'm really envying you all right now!!!

but anyway.....i'm gonna try to do my timeline and keep you ladies (and gents?) posted. Thank you all for your support and sharing your experiances. Oh yea, one thing.... for those who have done the biometrics exam, what kind of shots did your husbands/wives have to get?

thanks again and happy valentines day!!!

ok....I tried to attch my timeline from a file.....but that didn't work....so i guess i'll have to type it in manually!!!

-----------------------------------------------------
Sept. 1995 Husband EWI
July 2005 Husband returned to Mexico
Nov. 2005 Married
Jan. 25 2006 I-130 Sent
Feb. 14 2006 Rec'd NOA

Hi there girl... Welcome to the club... the ones that have been through the exam will be able to post more tomorrow and if I am right I think they already answered your question on IM2US too. Hang in there we are all here to support each other. Again Welcome

Good Morning ladies. I want to welcome our newest addition Gabay, feel free to ask anything hopefully if one of us doesn't have the answer another one will or will tell you where to find it.

Did everyone have an enjoyable Valentine's day? Hopefully the one's who are apart at least got to talk to their SO.

Well I have a million things to do here at work. It has been so busy recently, I feel like I am in quick sand.
Everyone take it easy today, I will be in when I can.

Hello Gabay!!! Welcome to the Homeskillets club!

My husband just had his shots when we went back to pick up his visa. He had three shots, MMR, chicken pox, and tetanus. He had his shot record so there may have been other shots that he didn't need to have because he had them already. I hope this helps. Thanks for the compliments on my pictures.

Benita: We had an excellent Valentine's Day. When we got home I was giving Javier a hard time about not getting me anything. We took a shower to get ready to go eat. His shirt needed ironed so I started ironing it and he disappeared into the living room. I could hear him in there messing around but I didn't know what he was doing. I finished ironing his shirt and my brother knocked on the door. Javier told me to go answer the door because he was fixing his hair. When I went into the dining room there was a bouquet of roses, a balloon, and a note that said, Te Amo Mi Amor. It was so sweet and such a surprise. I don't know when he bought it. He must have left work early because he got home at the same time as he always does. Then we went to dinner and had a really great dinner and a great time too. We didn't get home from dinner until 10 so we went straight to bed. It was really nice.

I hope everyone else had a great Valentine's Day too.

Gabay: I notice from your profile your husband is from Puebla Mexico. Javier is from there also. What part of Puebla is he from? Javier lived in Huauchinango.

Good morning everyone. Hi Gabay! Nice to see you again. I think you posted a while back. Hopefully you will stick around. We like to talk about much more than Waivers so please feel free to post whatever. We like pics!

Well, today is the BIG day. Move-in day. I was very pleased when I went in yesterday to sign the lease to find out that I'm getting brand new carpet. So I decided that today I'm going to move some stuff in at lunch time rather than after work. I have my car loaded down. That way, after work, I'll have plenty of time to get more stuff together and not miss American Idol. Last night was good. Sad to see the little cowboy guy go. His performance wasn't great though. Those twin guys are so obnoxious aren't they??

Melissa: I didn't get to see it. I can't believe the little cowboy had to go. I really felt sorry for him. He was so sheltered. And yes, the twins are obnoxious. Bad obnoxious. I really liked them to begin with but not anymore. I am so proud of you taking some stuff to the apartment at lunch. Good for you. Glad you are moving out finally after all the mess you have been through.

Yeah, so today has been just about awful so far. This girl at work went and told my boss that I hadn't gotten these things called Lien Waivers done. And everyone's acting weird today. It's as if I did something. I don't know.

Melissa: Sorry you are having such a hard time at work. Did you talk to your boss about it?

I don't know what to say. I'm really upset and having a hard time calming down. I feel like I'm having some kind of attack.

Just don't let her get to you this way. That is probably exactly what her intentions were. She just wants to get back at you. Don't let her think she got her way. You should definitely talk to your boss. This situation needs to be handled so it doesn't keep going on and on. There's no sense in her acting like a two year old. If she needed you to do something she should have come to you. By her going straight to your boss I really feel like she did it for spite.

Melissa--- Some people are just petty. You need to learn to ignore them. I hope that your day gets better. Did you get some stuff moved into your new apt? I hope you take lots of photos so that you can show Javier where he will be living when he returns.

New apartment is....small. Very small. I like the new carpet. I don't like the stove/oven. I don't like the cabinets. I don't like the light fixture in the hallway. I have no idea how I'm going to lay out the furniture now that the actual thing doesn't resemble exactly the floorplan picture I was working from. Have to go back after work and finish unloading the car.

Here's a little floor plan I drew up. I need help figuring out where to put stuff in the living area. (S is Sink, C is closet, B is bathroom). Disclaimer: This is nowhere near scale. Just my happy interpretation.

Okay I have a couple of questions. Is it open into the kitchen or is there a wall? What is the little square on the wall in the living room, a door or fireplace or what? Just needed to know so I can figure out where everything should go. Let me get this right, you have to have a couch and a bed all in the living room, right?

There is a wall between the kitchen and living area. The opening to the kitchen is close to the end with the closet. The kitchen is not big enough for a table so I will also need a table and chairs in the living area, in addition to the bed and sofa and desk. The cable hookup for the TV is in that little square across from the big closet. Ideally, you would be able to see the TV from the bed, the sofa, and preferably the table. The little square thing on the wall is the air blowing thing. Like what you have in a hotel except no temperature controls...

Okay I have it. I would put the bed in the corner of the living room on the kitchen wall. I am assuming the front door is between the two closets. That way when people came to the door they wouldn't be looking right at your bed. Then I would put the couch caddy corner in the corner opposite the bed. The TV has to go in the little square opening so put it there. Then put the desk in the corner next to the TV. I would put the table in front of the air blowing thingy because the table would still allow for air circulation. I think that gets it all. I would draw it out myself but I don't know how. I actually printed your drawing and drew in the furniture. It's pretty well laid out. You don't have many options.

I like your layout idea! I certainly didn't want my bed to be out in the middle of everything.

Yea, that's what I was thinking. That way if you don't make the bed, which I know you don't, if someone were to come to the door, they wouldn't see it. You may find a slightly different way once you get everything in there but it's a start. Sharron is trying to help with another layout, she wants to know if there are any and where the windows are.

There are 3 big windows along the long wall where the air blowing thing is. It sits in front of the middle one and the other two are on either side.

By the way, have I ever told you that you're an awesome friend? And tell Sharron thanks too! I'm anxious to see what she comes up with!

Well thank you! I try! Sharron quit, she couldn't come up with anything any better than what I did. Then she drew her living room so I could arrange her furniture. Well the windows wouldn't interfere with my layout then. That's good. All this talk about arranging furniture has got me thinking. I think I am going to get Javier to move ours tonight. I came up with another way to do ours that I think will look pretty good. Ours has been in the same position for about a year now. Way too long.

I think those are great ideas Charity. Melissa make sure you take some photos for us to see. Here are a few ideas off the internet on how to hide the bed.

Thanks Benita! I really like those ways of hiding the bed too. That could be of some benefit to Melissa also.

You can use some cable room dividers and use some shower hooks that will slide on the cable as well as clip on a pretty sheet for a room divider. This will give you a sense of having a bedroom. And you can push the divider back at night so that you can still watch TV.