hikergirl

Couldn’t catch up on all of the reading on the thread.

Sad to read about Deb’s job. Just when she got back to working. Saw a quick blurb but not what happened.

My sock story: I buy all matching white sport socks for myself. If one gets a hole, I will throw just one in the garbage. Drives hubby nuts. p.s. he is also the household launderer for all but the teen’s clothes. She’s supposed to do her own but has gotten backlogged and has asked for my help. Oh, and he does most of the dishes. I have been a slug with the new job. Long hours and different shifts have thrown my sleep pattern all to ####### and I’m having trouble with it.

I like to cook all meals from scratch. No boxed or processed food. Having a hard time with working a lot in the evening and not being able to have a good home cooked meal on the table for the family. On the other hand, I have been making soups and the basics for some of their meals and they just have to do a last minute heating/prepping. Still, I think I like being a homemaker, but I’d need to do some volunteering or part-time out of the house work. Maybe in the future...

The good thing about me working in the evening is that the teen and hubby are becoming in her words “friends”. She talks to him about things and asks him for advice and such as well. He was pretty excited that she wants to do a workout program with him as he wants to get in shape and it’ll give him some motivation.

I can’t imagine being stuck here without any status.

I was thinking that something like the fees being owed prior to arrival but refundable if they don’t get married and head home instead...

Hi Everyone

I do still exist and I do think of you guys!

Fun fact: Had really bad heartburn/nausea during pregnancy and voilà the teen (then a newborn clearly) came out with hair.

So very happy not to be enduring the Canadian winter this year and so is the teen.

DWheels - glad you made it past the psychos!

I have supper for tonight all made and in the fridge (Shepherd’s Pie). Made it yesterday on my day off.

I’ve been having trouble managing working a weird schedule and the housework & cooking.

Any tips?

p.s. hubby is definitely helping out but they tend not to eat meals if I don’t cook ahead (or plan something simple) and I’m working over dinner.

Does any of you play Words With Friends on Facebook?

Are you good?

I play. I think I’m about average. Some games I get lucky with the extra point spots though.

HE'S HEREEEEEEEEEE.

Congrats! I hope you never lose the excitement/appreciation of finally being together!

Caryh I used to have to buy Halloween costumes much bigger so they would fit over the kids snowsuits, hats and mitts.

We were talking about this at work and how kids here can wear the pretty princess costumes and such.

I can’t say I miss that bitter cold that happens at home.

hiker! Glad to hear you are well. Hope the housework goes alright!

Thanks.

Got my spaghetti squash in cooking for a healthy lunch for the teen when she gets home.

I should be able to get away with just some tidying and light cleaning.

All is well with you?

I am enjoying it.

I like Fresh Market so it’s easier to work somewhere where I like the atmosphere and product.

I like the majority of the people I work with so far and I just try to keep out of the little bits of girl drama.

Are you looking at moving Steve?

Hello everyone. Decided to not try to catch up on all I have missed. Too much.

Work is going well. I’m getting used to the long hours and all of the standing.

The weather here has been chillier than normal and I think brrrr….then I look at the weather reports back home and think YAY! I’m here.

I hope everyone is in good health.

Going to get some home cooking and housework done today as I feel like my family has been neglected by my weird shifts and long hours.

Congratulations on the appointments and best wishes for the interviews!

So my day shift yesterday got turned into a 12:30-9:30 shift because one of the others wanted the evening off. Which gives me 3 close shifts this week. Hubby is sad. He misses me when I am gone in the evenings. I did get to check out a celebrity during said shift though - very thrilled to report that she was nice and acted like a normal person. She being Meg Ryan. Another good thing to come out of my close shifts is that the teen is starting to bond with hubby and talk with him and such.

Feeling homesick for the mountains and Canadian health care system. This HC being big business feels just way to weird for me. Trying to get our Health Insurance set-up is a PITA with the questioning phone calls starting to drive me up the wall.

Congrats on the new job, hiker! We miss you!

In other news, Ali was approoooooooooved!

Congratulations!

That’s awesome news.

Hello Everyone

I still exist. My job went from part-time (17 hrs/week) to full-time (40 hrs/week) after only a couple of training shifts.

Haven’t read up on what’s been happening in the old thread or new thread. Will try and catch up tomorrow.

But you guys have been thought of and missed.

Finally got email notification and status online has changed!

"On October 4, 2013, the production of your new card began. Please allow 30 days for your card to be mailed to you. If we need something from you we will contact you. If you move while this card is being created, call customer service at 1-800-375-5283."

Yay!

Congrats. Hope it comes quickly in the mail for you

You already did legally change your name by getting married. The marriage certificate is the legal proof. It doesn't matter if you new married name actually appears on the marriage certificate or not. It's still all the proof you need of your new married name. The rest is just updating various organisations of the name change.

However, this applies only to the US. I don't know if it also applies in Canada. For me, the US marriage certificate was accepted as proof of my name change within the US, but not in Australia. I had to do an official name change in Australia.

For Canada (i.e. passport, SIN, etc) your marriage certificate is proof. You don’t need to go to court or anything to change your name.

There are a couple of on-going threads on both subjects (where to stay & what to do). I’ll try and find them and bump them up.

We did some boat tour that was a nice way of passing the time and Old Montreal was nice to walk around.

First day of work today.

I’m a little nervous as I’m not quite sure what to expect.

I’ll find out more about my hours, benefits, etc I imagine. Should have asked more questions but they all come to me in the middle of the night.

On a happy note: Hubby went to Starbucks and brought me back a coffee. Yay!

K-1s do not pay the Immigrant Fee of $165 at all. They are exempt as they are not granted an Immigrant Visa. They Adjust Status after marriage in the US and pay those fees.

The Immigrant Fee is supposed to be paid prior to POE to expedite the issuance of the Green Card however we have up to a year after arrival to pay the fee.

There were a lot of measles cases in Canada this summer and they’re showing a rise in Pertussis (including deaths) as well which lends credence to our being checked for our vaccinations.

I know all of our (Canadian) soldiers are checked for TB when coming home from the various deployments so I’m thinking that it’s our wealthiness and ability to be able to afford travel is one more reason. A lot of Canadians can afford to travel to places where some of the diseases they are checking for are more prevalent and the symptoms for adults aren’t necessarily intense enough for us to consider a Dr’s visit necessary but we can still be carriers.

I didn’t realize that a lot of these things are getting missed in our annual checkups at home. Things like the boosters because it’s seen as something for travel clinics or the public health nurses but the nurses ready access to patients is mainly in school.

In the past on VJ there have been lots of K-1s waiting for appointment times to open up for Montréal. They would post on here as soon as appointments opened up so the other VJers could book appointments as well. I believe they PM’d each other their contact info as well for texting purposes - whatever you guys feel comfortable with.

Good luck in getting your appointments!

Tiff's OCD tales.........

I usually leave my car keys on top of the kitchen counter top when I come home. Tiff promptly stashes them away in a little paper box on the counter top.

Last night she fell asleep without stashing them. I stayed up till 2ish. saw keys there. I woke up at 8:30 (before Tiff). The car keys are stashed.

When questioned. She said she got up to go to the bathroom (which is in our bedroom) then she roamed out to the kitchen to see what needed her OCDing......at 3AM, in the middle of her sleep.......

You leave your keys on the counter, why? To frustrate Tiff??

how long have you wait until you got approve in Charleston Fied office?

Ours only took 4 1/2 months. (Sorry Atlanta filers )

It was frustrating for me because other Field Offices at the time were only taking 2 months or so and ours probably would have as well but Charleston gave us the NOID for my Birth Certificate - which wasn’t even supposed to go in the initial filing. Transferring to FO was a new thing when our files were transferred and things were going very quickly for most places until the FO started getting more and more files.

As you well know, Atlanta chose to do the opposite of the other FOs and just sat on the transferred files and chose not to work on them AT ALL. Who knows what the person in charge was thinking but I hope that they got a reprimand and a demotion for their decision.

Anyways, if your hubby doesn’t have time for an InfoPass it’s not the end of the world. We really didn’t find out much at either appointment. The first one the guy read on the computer that our reply to the NOID had arrived at the FO and told hubby that our adjudicator was not in the office that day. At the 2nd appointment was a month later and the guy at the counter looked us up in the computer and then went to the back and looked at our files and verified that my BC had been added to my file and that our files were still together (CR-1 and CR-2). Also that the Adjudicator was once again not in the office that day. We were approved shortly after the 2nd InfoPass but I can’t honestly say it made a difference.

Good luck to you with Charleston and to all of the Atlanta filers!

So, tonight begins my "31 Horror Movies in 31 Days" marathon. You all deserve to know how I waste my non-work time, obviously. I'll be watching whichever version I haven't seen of a film, and if I've seen both, I will pick the one I like more (aka totes not watching Ringu again because lol subtitles). Here's the rundown:

1. Night of the Living Dead 1968/1990
2. Dawn Of The Dead 1978/2004
3. Day Of The Dead 1985/2008
4. Halloween 1978/2007
5. Halloween 2 1981/2009
6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974/2003/House of 1000 Corpses
7. Friday the 13th 1980/2009
8. The Wicker Man 1973/2006
9. A Nightmare On Elm Street 1984/2010
10. The Ring
11. The Grudge
12. Amityville Horror
13. [Rec]/Quarantine
14. Silent House
15. Evil Dead
16. Let The Right One In
17. The Crazies
18. Last House On The Left
19. I Spit On Your Grave
20. I Still Spit On Your Grave
21. The Fly
22. Fright Night
23. Frankenstein
24. Dracula
25. The Hills Have Eyes
26. The Thing From Another World/The Thing
27. House Of Wax
28. The Blob
29. Black Christmas
30. Prom Night
31. My Bloody Valentine
32. Silent Night Deadly Night/Silent Night
33. Children Of The Corn
34. April Fools Day
35. Carrie (do this on Halloween and take wifey to the theater for the remake )
36. Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark
37. The Fog
38. The Omen
39. Maniac
40. House On Haunted Hill
41. House Of Wax
42. The Hitcher
43. Piranha/Piranha/Piranha 3D
44. Psycho
45. 13 Ghosts
46. When A Stranger Calls
47. The Wolf Man

That’s quite the list.

My teen categorizes our movie collection by genre. She put Coraline with the scary movies and refuses to watch it again...

A whole bunch of us ended up with cards with a 10 year expiry date instead of a 2 year expiry date.

The replacement cards didn’t take very long at all to get re-done.

hi, did you had an infopass? ours was sent to Charleston Field Office and still nothing, its been 9months of waiting..

My husband went to two infopass appointments after we received a NOID for not including my Birth Certificate with the initial package.

The man at the counter physically went to check on the files to make sure everything was together the second time he went in. The first visit he just looked us up on the computer.