Hi everyone!! I hope you are all having a great morning....looks like it is going to be a sunny day here... I have to go renew my license...good times - at least I am having a good hair day for that crappy photo..hahaha.....

I wish you all the best today and I pray for each of you who continue to be separated that a happy reunion is coming soon......

have a great day, Melinda:)

thanks for good words and positive mood and support
have a wonderfull day

Have a great day all! I'm at work today all tired and worn out. My husband has adapted to our time and has now started staying up late here. He had me outside at midnight last night talking about religion but let me sleep when the baby woke so I guess I forgive him for keeping me up so late. We are still suffering through the food issue at our house. I am telling you that I want to scream sometimes. He now sees why Americans are overweight he says...too many preservatives and preboxed foods. I agree but I am losing my mind with him trying to eat and not hearing him complain. I almost feel dread going home to cook dinner. Ok, enough about me!

I hope we hear some good news this week for those that are waiting still. I am so glad that Cairo is getting a lot of the old visas taken care of. Everybody take care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tasha

Good morning everyone! Congratulations on the new visa's!!!
Have a great Tuesday with lots of sunshine, health and good news!!

happy tuesday! i know what u mean melinda about those hair days for the DMV!i hate every single pic on my drivers license!glad to hear that its a good hair day for u!

tasha, i hope the dinner times get better for you, why dont you suggest that he cook something for dinner since u are gone all day at work im at work all day too and i am no fancy chef by no means, i simply dont have the time to be so creative, if i were, i think dinner time would be around 10pm..lol i do use my crockpot quite a bit though.

Happy Tuesday everyone.... I'm still hanging dont know yet which visa will i proceed with! my husband called NVC and a woman answered saying that the I-129 is not updated yet and that he shud keep calling till it gets there!! I'm over the pain that it might be CR-1 at the end but i just want to know where i stand at least! This feeling sux... i cant stand any suprises. Anyways i am praying for the best insha Allah.

Tasha im so sorry ur husband is having a hard time with American food.... try to learn more egyptian food (but its not like its healthier by any means lol egyptians can be fat too( but i can imagine what a load that is with the baby and work! but insha Allah everything takes time.

HAPPY TUESDAY!!!! May you all have a blessed day!

Morning everyone!!! I am up ready for work, but want to go back to bed so so bad. I didn't fall asleep til about 4 am and woke up to my husband screaming in a dream. Its gonna be nice and warm here today, everyone have a good day.

Well i am off to work! I wish everyone a blessed, and beautiful day today!!




AJ1

Thank you, I desire the same for all of us K3 Oct filers still waiting for our nA2 and all others who just started this dehumanizing process in that the USA could improve process if that had the desire to, we are a great nation but treat immigrants as an afterthought. Sorry, may the sun shine lift your spirits. and GOD bless us all.

g'morning all!

Good morning everyone It's after 9 am here and I'm already chin deep in paperwork.. It looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day in the North East too - I'd like to get outside but I'm not guessing that's going to happen any time soon heheh



Has anyone seen my stapler?

Good morning everyone! Have a great Tuesday, and praying for many more visas this week insha Allah.

Hugs,

Ayesha

Tasha,
I have the same exact issue with food in my house. OMG its hard sometimes. If, in fact, urs is like mine... the only way its gonna get better is to have him show u the way he likes things cooked, take notes if u have to, and start cooking stuff u know he'll eat. It's either do that or spend weeks fighting over it. In the end, it was just so much more worth it and made my life easier.

good luck
amal


oh, and happy Tuesday.

Good morning everyone

Happy Tuesday!

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday, everyone!

I hope y'all get blessed today , either in a big way or a small one.

T and A , Count it all joy in the end. Remember all that time you were going through this hellish process? Im sure your husband is going through some major adjustments here. Just give it some time and patience. I know it is aggrevating, but at the same token you are adjusting too... in more ways than one. I know, more hurdles to jump , but by God's grace, you both will be able to overcome them.

Maybe it's time to nip this one in the bud before it becomes a major problem. Sit down and have a heart to heart with him and tell him how much this is frustrating to you. See if he'll teach you how to cook the things that he likes but let him know that compromise should be in order as well, since you work fulltime. Does he take care of the baby during the day? Maybe he could do the prep work so that when you get home you just have to throw the already chopped up stuff in a pot? I hope this gets better for you.

In a way I think it was a good thing for me to have surgery a week after my husband got here because it literally forced him to do things he never had to do before like laundry, cooking, etc. Now he pitches in whenever he sees the need. If I wasn't incapacitated for a week I'm not sure it would have been that easy for him to do all of this but I feel good that now I can count on him. Maybe fake the flu for a few days and see what he does. LOL

Awesome sunny day again today. It's my late night at work so hubster's going to explore Boston this afternoon once he's done with the career center and then meet me here when my day is done. Hope he doesn't get lost!

Tasha and Amal, when nothing can be agreed upon to cook....He gets a plate of eggs and hummus, olives, etc...throw a few pitas in the oven and bam....dinner is served.....try that

Hope everyone has a great day!

LOL that alarm clock!!! Hubby said to me last night "honey, can you please only let the alarm ring ONCE tomorrow instead of all morning long?"


this morning I must have hit the snooze button about 15 times........

stopping by to say hello.... *waves*

nessa kinda said the same thing to me.

good morning all, have a great day!

I hope you're feeling better today!

Today is my wednesday! yay!

Good morning all! Wishing everyone a wonderful day!!!!!
It's actually pretty nice out and I can't wait to get outside.

Dorothy

Has anyone seen Olivia lately?

I was thinking about her the other day. it's finals, she is probably really busy.

Good question Jeanne! I vaguely recall her mentioning that she had lots of schoolwork keeping her busy and away from VJ for a while. Hope that she is doing well.

Good morning MENA I started summer school last night (work full-time too) and my hubby was already in pajamas when I got home and my dinner in the microwave ready to be reheated

We'll see how long this lasts before he starts complaining about the house being a mess and how I never cook anymore

I'm enjoying a cloudy day. They are saying storms. Supposed to have bad storms tomorrow. That girl who died when the tree fell on her lives like 25 minutes from me. We just got a loud storm, not the sheer wind. I'm always protected by the mountains.

I am going to maybe go out and plant some seeds today! Yay! I got seeds for lots of things... jumbo pink banana squash, butternut squash, cinderella pumpkins, crimson sweet watermelons, trombocino squash, boston pickling cucumbers, santa claus melons, hale's best canteloupe, kentucky wonder pole beans, burpee's best mix of morning glories, moonflowers, birdhouse gourds, oregon giant snow peas, contender beans, and lemon cucumbers. I already have out 2 eggplants (ichiban and green goddess), 4 tomatoes (cherokee purple, yellow marble, jetstar, and arkansas traveler), and a red bell pepper. i have seeds for hot peppers. I think I may stuff them in by a bean or something.

Hey Nagi, how are you feeling this morning?

Hey everyone! I haven't posted much lately, but I have been popping in from time to time to see what is going on. It's so great to see so many new babies around, and so many people finally getting their visas!

I have been super busy lately. We are leaving tomorrow to go to Paris for a week and then we're leaving Paris to go to Algeria for another week. It will be my first trip to Algeria, and I'm so excited! It's also my dad's first trip overseas. He travels quite a bit for work, but it will be his first time using his passport. I've been trying to get my dad to go to France for 7 years, so this is a really big deal.

We've just been trying to get everything ready these past few weeks. We've been buying presents for Amed's family for months now, and we were still out at the mall last night trying to get some last minute things. Plus, I've been trying to find weather-appropriate clothes that I can wear in Algeria and still be covered enough to be respectful. I'm pretty conservative as it is, but I am used to wearing short sleeved shirts when it's hot out. For those of you who have visited the family in ME/NA after you were married, did you wear your normal clothes, or did you have to modify your wardrobe a little bit? For those of you who don't normally cover your head, did you do this when you went to your husband's ME/NA country? I think that's an interesting topic.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!!

I and my husband are really conservative... I wore my regular clothes or an abaya with long sleeves under (to not show my wrists). I did cover my hair a lot, but when I was working I didn;t wear a scarf-- I wore a big hat. I was excavating. A scarf would have killed me but the big hat covered my hair. I'd say I wore an abaya 99% of the time and a scarf 99% of the time when i saw his family. The one time I didn't, I ended up feeling naked. That was totally my choice though and not at all dependant on anything or a recommendation. I'd take clues from how HIS family dresses if you want to cover appropriately. All of my husband's family covers except one sister, and she is a part-time coverer. None of them wear short sleeves when people are over except for siblings and girls. So I saw the short sleeves, btu they always had a jacket to put on over it. I couldn't stand the idea of wearing a jacket, so I just wore my 2-layer chiffon abaya with a tank top underneath and some wrist/forearm covers. I have a crew-neck tank so nothing was showing.

Sounds pretty exciting - have a wonderful time and don't forget to give us an update after your return.

Sounds like you have your hands busy, Julianna! I lived in a city all of my life and always wondered if I would enjoy gardening. You are doing well with all that you are harvesting - do you have a large plot that can accommodate all of the wonderful plants and veggies?

I have about 1/20 of an acre. I could actually fit a whole lot more than this-- maybe 5xs this ammount on the plot, but Ammar would have a heart attack. he likes things to be "neat." The funny part is I don't like melons, but he does, so they are for him. Same with the hot peppers. I interplanted some beets in teh tomatoes, so we'll see how that does. Do you have a balcony or some kind of small space outside of a window (like where you could fit a window box)? You could grow things in pots.

WOW - you got the gardening gene!

I was debating about growing mint in a pot for Jamal's tea - I guess I will have to work some space om my kitchen window or the fire escape staircase but definitely just in pots...

I got my little pot growing. Mint.

LOL! I started gardening as a kid, but then when I moved out on my own I really got into it. I used to have like 600 roses, all OGRS, and a variety of perennials and herbs, etc... then recently (like past 5 years) I got into veggies. I used to always have at least a pot of tomatoes though.

Mint in a pot is good! Tomatoes can be grown in a pot too, if you like them. Peppers are another really easy pot-vegetable.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extensi.../container.html

is a decent link with pictures. I like pictures. I hate just trying to read about doing something with no pictures! With the prices of food nowdays going up, it's worth it to have a few of your own plants. Most of my seeds were the cheapie seeds for like .30/packet. So basically, if I even get ONE fruit off of the vine, I will have made my money back.

I use tons of mint, basil, cilantro and parsley in my cooking each week that I'd *love* to grow my own indoors but I just know the cat will eat it all before it has a chance to grow. I tried growing some in the summer a few times but we have pesky critters that munch on that too.

I remember you were going to grow mint before on the back porch.



Were they insects or animals (the pesky critters)? You can defend against each. The cat may not munch on them, it's hard to say. SOme cats don't like the strong smell of herbs. Others will eat anything. I have one that loves grapefruit, pickles, and mustard. Heck, *I* don't even like mustard!

Thanks for the tips and the links - I'll look into it. Having more space is one of the reasons why I fantasize about moving out from NY - but so far it's just a fantasy - I guess I don't want it bad enough to make it happen.

One day, one day....

Last year I tried to grow it from seeds and the poor little sprouts got to be about 2 inches and died. sounds like my EX

I will try again this year. The seeds are now in the little seedling dirt pellet things in the window. Also in my window are tomatoes and cucumbers. Still too cold here to plant in the ground.

Well, feel free to PM me about it or ask if you have any questions! I am sure AMmar would lvoe to switch places with you in a heartbeat-- he loves cities



You may want to start from a plant. Mint is one of those things that is actually propegated by cutting and not by seed-- seed gives an unrelaible result in flavor. That said, I have mint seeds lol.

good morning everyone
all is good here . i have wonderful time with my wife and baby . i just waiting to file for SSN and i already get EAD from jfk. and will start to look for job soon . would i be able to work be4 i get SSN or i have to wait it?
have wonderful day everyone

GOOOOD MORNING ERRBODY!

Aww my husband e-mailed be that song "Don't worry, Be Happy," seriously cracked me up

I hope everyone is goin well!

Congratulations on the new visas!

Its so funny...I was just looking at little potted herbs yesterday at the grocery store, I think I'll get one too.

Tammy

Indeed! I bought 3 mint plants from our local farmer's market a year & 1/2 ago and have a lovely flower bed full of mint that we use for tea every day. I put it in a raised flower bed so it wouldn't take over everywhere. The only other plant that shares that space is my huge rosemary bush.

ok, so he wanted to drive and i let him...

I have no words to describe the moment

my blood pressure must still be very high