Meriem_DZ

We will be celebrating 6 yrs of marriage in Sept. After Hachemi got here he adapted really well. I survived teaching him to drive. lol. That was a hoot. I thought I was gonna die several times. We did have a horrible wreck when he had his permit but it wasnt his fault. Our car was totaled, but we were ok. Cant say that for the motorcycle that was crushed between us and the dude that hit us. He was hurt pretty bad, but survived. Hachemi is now a great driver and goes anywhere he wants.
He was hired with his first application after getting his green card at a boat manufacturing plant. He worked there one yr before he decided to go back to school. He already had a computer science degree. He went to the community college and got an associate degree in computer networking. He graduated with special honors and had a 3.96 gpa. While he was going to school he would visit the convenience store down the street to get coffee when he was studying late. They asked him if he needed a job. He told them he would work if he could get hours around his classes. He worked there for 3 years.
Toyota was building a huge manufacturing plant about 45 miles from our house. He thought about applying but we had made plans to go visit his family in Algeria November of 2010. We stayed for a month and when we came home he decided to apply and was hired. There were 43,000 applications and they hired 1200. It is a wonderful company to work for and they have the best insurance I have ever had. We put our house up for sale and bought a house in the town closer to his work. Thank God it only took 45 days to sell!
I had already had a hysterectomy when we married. I would most likely been to old to have kids, but I know several women that had kids in their 40's. It just wasnt meant to be. We had discussed this fact prior to marrying. Hachemi has crohn's disease which is well controlled with medication but he always worried about having kids because he didnt want to pass it on. We have kitties as our kids. He loves his kitty cats!
My husband is now a citizen and is very happy living in the US. He misses his family, but not Algeria. He talks to them on Skype every Sunday for a couple of hours. Hachemi is still the sweet loving man I first married. He hasn't changed a bit. He just adores me and I feel so lucky to have him. Hachemi does not cook or clean. He really doesnt know how. Thanks to his mom and sisters who did everything for him. Every once in a while he will run the vacuum. I dont work so it's all up to me and I don't mind. He works so hard at his job, I just don't ask him to help. I also do the yard work because I am afraid he will run over my flowers. I am very particular about my plants and flowers LOl. I didnt even let my son do it because he is so careless. I let my next door neighbor borrow my riding mower last week and when I got home I almost had a heart attack because he mowed my yard in return for letting him use the mower.
If I had any advice for your SO's, It would be that taking any job, even though it is not what they want to do, will build work history. Just be patient and hang in there. It took Hachemi about 5 years to finally get a great paying job with wonderful benefits.
Meriem

I had a garden last year. I had made some raised beds with a variety of vegetables. When Hachemi got his new job, we put our house up for sale and bought a cute little house closer to his work. The lady that lived here passed away at the hospice place. She loved to garden and it has been so much fun watching her flowers bloom. Everyday I go out to see what is blooming. I have a huge pear tree full of pears, 2 peach trees, 2 apple trees, and a big ole pecan tree. I have added a few things. A couple of grape vines, a pomegranate tree and a little fig tree that I had rooted and transferred from the other house. I did get to transfer some of my flowers from our old house before it sold. We were so happy to sell our other house in only 45 days. I built a little gold fish pond at the new house. I had one at my other house and I missed my little fishies. I didnt get it done before it sold it so didnt get to transfer my koi, but I bought some new babies for the new pond. LOl My new pond is about 5 x 7 feet. It is only a third of the size of the one at the other house.
I planted some herbs in a big pot and did transfer some of my mint from my other house. It's growing really quick. I am not going to plant vegetables this year. Maybe next year.

I just don't think the consulate in Casablanca will share your love for whimsy, that's all. They're mostly a stodgy bunch IIRC. They don't even appreciate that there are SO MANY different kinds of Yahoo! Smileys out there these days!!

People! I know! I guess it is about time for that once yearly check in. Nothing much has changed since last year. Or even 3 years ago. Married going on too many years. Husband has been a US citizen for 3 years. Squeaky is still the most adorable fat cat in the world. I still work too much.
The only real exciting thing is that I went on umrah a month ago. T didn't have the necessary time off, so I jumped through a loophole that allows under 45 female converts to make umrah without a mahram. It was an amazing experience, despite the troubles. About halfway through, on our last day in Makkah, I missed a step in the Haram and fell at 3 am. Being a stubborn midwesterner, I continued on my way and sat until fajr time. When I stood up, I realized I had made a big mistake. Hobbled back to the hotel (thank God we had one literally right outside the haram) and found one of the bazillion doctors in my tour group. Rather than waste the last day in Makkah in the hospital, we decided just to watch it and re-evaluate the next day. Next day, after having half a dozen doctors poke at it, the verdict was that it couldn't be broken, since I was walking around without screaming in pain.
Fast foward to home, I go to the doctor just to be on the safe side. Um yeah, I walked all over Medina on a broken foot :/ I got a walking cast last week and alhamdulilah it was literally the best day of my life. You don't realize how wonderful it is to be able to get around until you can't.
The other downer part of my adventure was that the Saudis almost didn't let me go home since I didn't have a mahram with me. Um yeah no, you give me a visa, you let me in, now you tell the airline to issue me my freakin tickets and let me go home! I was rather undignified and reduced myself to a tearful mess at the airport. In my defense, it was 4 am, I hadn't slept in 24 hours and they pulled me out of line without letting me grab anyone from my tour group for help. Next time, I'll make sure to bring a mahram.
But despite it all, I really really miss Makkah and Medina. I wouldn't ever want to live there, but there was just so much sakina in the air in the 2 mosques that I could sit there forever.
I haven't been blogging much - no time or energy after work - but I do have a tumblr. Been doing short little things on umrah, in case anyone is interested - http://umms.tumblr.com/tagged/umrah
One of the highlights of the trip was being invited to dinner at Sh. Abdullah bin Bayyah's house. Alas, it was late at night by the time he started to talk, and my foot was killing me (having broken it earlier that day). But alhamdulilah, the talk is on youtube - at 42 seconds in, there's a head in a hot pink hijab that may or may not be UmmS.

Let's see, what else? I took a sewing class, and once my foot is better, I plan on attempting to make some costumes. Star Wars and Doctor Who. Still a geek at heart. And I've been doing cross stitch

And finally, it wouldn't be a complete post unless I put up a picture of my cat. Here she is trying to steal my dates, despite the fact she knows she doesn't like them.

And, from yesterday, sitting on clean laundry and my star wars novel. She has good taste

I'm here. Still check in every once in a while. Mostly lurking. Class of 05-06. We will have our 6th Anniversary in Sept and still very happy "with our heads up in the clouds" lol. My DH is just as sweet and loving as when we first met. He has his citizenship and his working for Toyota Manufacturing. It took him about 5 yrs working at piddly jobs to find a great paying job with wonderful benefits. For the record, I have 2 other friends that I met here on VJ (older wife, younger Algerian husband) that are all still happily married. I met them here on VJ when I first joined. We all went through the visa process with nearly the same timelines. They just don't come around on VJ anymore.
Meriem

I'm here. Still check in every once in a while. Mostly lurking. Class of 05-06. We will have our 6th Anniversary in Sept and still very happy "with our heads up in the clouds" lol. My DH is just as sweet and loving as when we first met. He has his citizenship and his working for Toyota Manufacturing. It took him about 5 yrs working at piddly jobs to find a great paying job with wonderful benefits. For the record, I have 2 other friends that I met here on VJ (older wife, younger Algerian husband) that are all still happily married. I met them here on VJ when I first joined. We all went through the visa process with nearly the same timelines. They just don't come around on VJ anymore.
Meriem

I'm sorry Kat, but can we get back to the OP's topic, because it has turned into your story. You should start a thread about it, and that is where you can give us all updates. I'm sorry for your pain, but this topic was meant for success stories

Kat-- do the fastest one and just cut the ties.

I think what Amber meant is that if there were problems they would work them out, not give up on each other. There are always exceptions to the rule.

Ahhhh here it starts... you catty ladies never quit I swear! Oh my goodness! Do you all ever get a life??? Even after almost 2 years of being a member on this site I find you all just never quit attacking certain people but by now you all shoould know by now your not going to intimidate me. The OP asked about our own specific marriage and I am answering for MY marriage. So why don't you all just knock it off and allow others to express what they want! You all dont get theright to say what others express... hmmmmm wonder where your other buddy is? Guess it was past her bedtime eh? Anyhow OP really it is a decision we all make... knowing your husband well and seeing the red flags (the ones only you can see) from the start helps... how is he witj women in general... how is his parent's marriage...is a huge help IMO I wish you the very best! As for me I am out of the soon to follow drama these ladies thrive on... if you want to talk please feel free to message me any time.

well Mithra for US it isnt an option and for US it isnt ####### so shut your yap eh. You shared your thoughts so pipe down and let me share mine. Enough said.

This is not a second amendment issue. This is a trespassing and false arrest issue.

No I haven't converted. I said it because it's a nice thing to say, especially in the MENA forum. Why do you feel the need to be so rude? If I had said God bless would then you would have accused me of something else. This forum is about helping people on their journey, not insulting them. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. And grow up.

The consulate just called my husband. They asked if he was Mr. xxxxx xxxxx, well this is the consulate in Casa....we are setting up your interview, where do you live? He said he lived in xxxx. He said, your interview is next monday at 3 pm with the consular. Hubby asked if he needed to bring anything. They said just your passport. They also told him, don't wait with the other people waiting for interviews, just go to the secretary, and give her your passport. I can't believe our interview is in a week

Inflammatory and misleading title. The Grand Mufti can't command such a thing for the entire peninsula, nor did he.

Midway, the article takes a sudden turn. I guess this didn't make as good of a headline though.

after review, this thread has derailed from it's original intent and degenerated into a venue for badgering another member.
it will therefore remain closed. thank you for your understanding.

I'm so confused - what do medical books have to do/say about marriage risk?

Looks like you didn't read Paragraph 8:
Read more here (same source as the OP):
Translation: Israel wanted an escalation, so it instigated one.

READ STORY BEFORE YOU APOLOGIZE FOR THE IDF!!!!! They instigated the action and then they claim to be victims, PUUUULEEEEZE!!!! If the IDF ever needs a spokesman, apologist, whatever, you've got my endorsement.

Obviously, you didn't read paragraph 4. Report States clearly that Islamic Jihad launched first on Friday, which prompted the response from the IDF, to be followed by further rockets out of Gaza.
So, no, the IDF did not instigate this round of stupidity.
I would, however, be interested to find out why Islamic Jihad did.

Muslims are people too so stop judging a book by its cover.

I wonder how many white male college students are being stalked and spied on after Jared Loughner murdered 6 people and put a bullet through the brain of a US congresswoman. Or how many rafting trips with white guys are being infiltrated, or white guy blogs are getting read under police order and at police expense...

Surely the guys going on rafting trips and keeping track of how many times a day other rafters pray, or the guys farting around on the Internet reading MSA blogs didn't work for free. How much money was spent on this rubbish? How many real criminal acts could have been prevented by using these resources in a legitimate manner? How many convicted rapists could have been kept in prison instead of let out early because of budgeting issues, with the money spent stalking people for no legitimate reason?

It's not their job to spy on law abiding people.