Nasturtium

The whole thing made me laugh... people and their pendejadas....

Yep! It must have been magical to see. I am sure there was nectar of the gods.

"Dur."

??

Dur. Like doy or duh.

I figure they deserve each other.

This is quite possible! Of course, voicing this sentiment (or an even shorter form, "Dur.") can be controversial.

YouTube, here I come. Julianna, you know me too, too well.

LOL! If I tried it, I am sure it would be even more spectacular Oh so today I went to the gym with a friend and I thought you would appreciate that while on the treadmill I tripped. I totally tripped and nearly smacked my face into the display. I tried to pass it off as just wanting a closer look, but somehow I have a feeling that it wasn't very believable lol.

I have the zumba for wii that I feel guilty for never trying. Maybe I will tomorrow, and send the kids to the backyard to play so they don't make fun of me.

I suggest you also possibly record this for us, you know, to show us how it's done.

I did all the levels of 30 day shred. It's nice Today I did an hour of yoga and pilates, and then 45 minutes of jogging with 20 minutes of walking. I may or may not still do some weights.

You have much higher standards of conduct than many

I feel Mithra should put this as either a member title or signature lol... " have much higher standards of conduct than many." LOL!

And yep, it it were me, I'd drop that dude. That's not cool at all.

Thanks! I'm always excited to try something new and have renewed hope that something may work. This last bit of baby weight is holding on for dear life. It's all in my midsection, too which is awesome!!

It's paired with the workouts on there... they are 45 minutes long. Cardio party is obviously cardio, turbosculpt is weights/squats/etc.

What is this 10 day diet plan? I'm thinking I need to try something new because what I'm doing is not working very well. :/

I don't do some of it, because I don't eat some of that stuff... but it's not bad. http://www.succeedatfitness.com/downloads/Turbo%20Jam%2010%20Day%20Kickstart.pdf

Still June. I've upped my workouts and cut back on my calories these last 4-5 days. I'm feeling confident that I'll reach my weight loss/fitness goal. *I'm not dreading the workout as much as I was now. How's everyone doing with your fitness goals?

Well, so far I'm not doing too badly. I'm increasing my ability to run. I feel my arms are getting pretty muscular, although there is still a padding over that I'm in my size 6 jeans, not tight, no muffin top. You know that means size 4 is coming up soon! I'm thinking to go back on my 10 day diet again.

Today i am going to leave work early, stop at home and go to the museum i need to review, then change clothes at home again and go back to campus and do yoga and cardio with a friend. Tonight I may or may not do weights. We'll see.

We met in person so it's impossible to do either one if you don't know about the other person. When we were apart, we didn't use webcams or chat. he wrote emails at work and we mostly just talked on the phone. The university blocked chats and webcam stuff, skype, etc. His village didn't have internet at the time.

Re: people staring - I never noticed that ppl were staring. I've been to China and the staring there was much more obvious than I noticed in morocco.

Staring was obvious in Jordan. Eventually, I figured out how to blend in and be invisible.

We sent in joint bank account records, utility bills, a statement from my parents that they bought my house and we lived there, pay stubs, joint tax returns, joint car titles, joint insurances, joint CCs, receipts showing a pattern of living and using these cards and whatnot in our general area, pictures from the time, any letters addressed to both of us, and a cover letter. I don't know what else we sent in. I didn't send them anything like a rock or an olive like I did the first time. I wanted to send them a 4-leaf clover I found just to continue the threat of them getting insane amount of evidence if they asked for more, but Ammar said no. I put glitter stickers on the package though to promote good will and happiness. I put those on my taxes too though.

Anyone remember how many pages of proof they sent for ROC? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm over-doing it...

I sent in a 4" binder.

We did AOS, only but I guess it's about the same since my husband received his 10 yr GC after AOS. I don't recall how many pages exactly we sent but we sent in a copy of our lease and then our tax return from the previous year. We had an interview so we brought the lease, our phone bill showing we were on a family share plan and pictures. I guess I could've sent those things in with the app.

I'm wondering - for those who front loaded AOS/ROC - did you have an interview, also? I'm wondering if we had front loaded if we wouldn't have had an interview or does that even make a difference?

We front loaded, no interview.

That sounds about right msheesha....i did not get interviewed...or wait...yes, we did lol. Maybe they weren't 100% sure on us (language issues)since this was the focus of the consulate it seemed, but we weren't scared in the least...who knows, but we passed the interview flying colors...then we did not get one for AOS, but then again, who does lol? Thanks God, we are just about doen with immigration....once we do citizenship this year or next, we are done!

I see everyone was talking diet last thread....well, i started one too, but then hubby brought home coke (my huge weakness) when he knew I specifically told him not to!!

Soda=evil.

Did you have anyone write affadavits attesting to your relationship? We're not planning on it - I don't like to have to get others involved that deeply in our immigration process, and thinking/hoping all the other stuff will stand on its own....

I did for the first time but we never used them. My advice now would be yeah. don't get any. Use them as evidence if they request additional proof.

Well, I didn't meet him face-to-face in an airport, so I don't have a getting off the plane story.

The first time I saw him was probably when we were introduced to our Jordanian colleagues on the site. I don't really remember him there. I do remember him on the bus ride back to the university. He got on the bus and then that evening my friend mentioned he was cute. Then subsequent days of working together I thought he was a jerk because he wouldn't really talk to us and he was super short, sarcastic, and somewhat derogatory in his responses. LOL when one person handed him a thing she found that she thought was a bead, he held it, tossed it up in the air, and handed it back to her. He then said, "That? Is goat sh*t. Amazing. Call the papers." (Which actually made me LOL although she was quite upset.) It took about 2 weeks to decide otherwise when he started trying to be nice.

That's true. You guys should just move to Florida. Too many weirdos and I need that ratio evened out!!

I think that sounds like a good plan. I like it a lot!

it could be you!!

No way, that place is freezing!

That's exactly what I'm hoping for, LaL.

Or better yet, they will decide to move and in their place will come awesome new neighbors who bake brownies and give you free garden produce.

The detective said he would keep trying until he was able to question them. He told my husband that our relationship with them probably won't be so great after that. My husband said, they ruined that already so it doesn't matter. It's not like we socialized with them or anything. Also, the way they left in a hurry when the detective pulled up made them seem more suspicious and the detective commented on that.

Well, they certainly aren't doing themselves any favors.

A detective came out to talk with my husband this morning. Because of the nature of the vandalism they are investigating this further. They were going to go over and question the neighbor but conveniently as soon as the detective showed up they got in their car and drove off. He told my husband that most likely they won't be able to do anything because obviously no one is going to admit doing this but if anything else happens they will have a record of this incident. The detective said they will be watching our street more closely now.

Oh good. maybe they will catch them.

We made a police report this morning and they took photos of the hood of the car. The officer did suggest setting up a camera and that is something we are strongly considering. This is just not something we thought would happen in our neighborhood.

I think it's a good idea to set up cameras. I also think it's a good idea to set up a few so you can sort of get coverage for your yard. I don't know if you have a mailbox, but I would try to cover any mailbox area as well since they are always favorites for vandals.

i think that is something that should be reported as well.

Especially if it, Gd forbid, escalates. Having a paper trail is important.

7 miles!! u go girl. See you on the other side...I love to walk but wow

Well, I had 2 days of doing nothing and eating like crazy. So this will hopefully help with that. 2 days ago I could hardly walk my legs hurt so bad from my jogs (sore, out of shape, I suck) so i decided to rest a bit. Then i decided to eat an entire bag of dove chocolate caramels over those 2 days as well as a bunch of cheese.

Not MENA predjudice but overt ethnic intimidation. This happened yesterday, in fact. Nothing weirdly dramatic ever happens to us as we're quiet people who keep to ourselves. Well until now. We think we know who did it because of a small incident that occurred last week involving our neighbor's teenage son. Anyways, a swastika was scratched in the hood of my husband's car last night. He's upset, naturally but moreso because he never wanted trouble with anyone and he's concerned because there are children in the house. It just sucks. :/

OMG That super sucks. If it were me, i would set up motion-triggered cameras, but then that would also be just a partial excuse to get them anyway. Did you report it to the police?

that does suck mithra. and everyone else who has had that kind of ####### happen. i can't think of any specific, clear cut incidents really. my husband says sometimes people will seem more standoffish at work, when they hear his name, when they had previously seemed more friendly. but again, nothing clear cut, and he says it could have nothing to do with that at all. overall, people are more curious, and think it's cool that he's from morocco, and usually have something positive or interesting to say about the place.

Yeah, the one time Ammmar had an overt issue it was because he was called a "sand n*gger." Of course the same guy referred to the hispanics as "wetbacks" so he was sort of equal opportunity crappy.

Today I;m going to do a 7 mile hike with my friend. I am going to try to do weights and abs too.

Anyone have any experience with your spouse re: MENA prejudice?

We had an odd experience last night with a health care provider.

They did all this work on me, and then spent about 5 minutes with my husband. He felt brushed off/disregarded and was wondering if it was prejudice/racism, etc. It's always disappointing, but more so in this case because it was a health care provider we had been happy with previously.

it's only happened overtly once. Other times it was so much prejudice against him but instead favoritism for someone else.