kev_n_jena

I haven't found any local liquor that didn't give me a terrible hangover. My wife has been in the US since 07 and we visit Phil's about every 3 years. I find it best to send a balikbayan box with plenty of assorted liquors ahead of time, we like to go during Fiesta. We also send "ladies drink" so everyone can enjoy. I've sent boxed wine, scotch, rum, tequila,  vodka, and brandy. The men in my wife's family and the neighbors really enjoy trying new selections. I also send shot glasses to avoid sharing one glass around the party table. A dart board and decks of cards are popular too. 

I'm glad my son isn't old enough to understand what's going on in Ferguson. For that matter, I'm not sure I understand what's happening. Now I see a lot of people blaming the police and other officials for the violence!
Lizz Brown is standing there telling me that the cop shot the thug when he was walking away with his hands up! The grand jury did not see it that way after reviewing all the evidence. These people need to get that through their heads.
The people that thought our current president would help race relations in this country were dead wrong. Obama, Holder, and others have increased racial tensions with their comments and advice.

So what do we take away from this? For me, I think I'm going to try to teach my son not to rob stores and attack police officers. I had never thought of that before. I guess it was all worth it.

I'm glad my son isn't old enough to understand what's going on in Ferguson. For that matter, I'm not sure I understand what's happening. Now I see a lot of people blaming the police and other officials for the violence!
Lizz Brown is standing there telling me that the cop shot the thug when he was walking away with his hands up! The grand jury did not see it that way after reviewing all the evidence. These people need to get that through their heads.
The people that thought our current president would help race relations in this country were dead wrong. Obama, Holder, and others have increased racial tensions with their comments and advice.

I'm glad my son isn't old enough to understand what's going on in Ferguson. For that matter, I'm not sure I understand what's happening. Now I see a lot of people blaming the police and other officials for the violence!
Lizz Brown is standing there telling me that the cop shot the thug when he was walking away with his hands up! The grand jury did not see it that way after reviewing all the evidence. These people need to get that through their heads.
The people that thought our current president would help race relations in this country were dead wrong. Obama, Holder, and others have increased racial tensions with their comments and advice.

I'm glad my son isn't old enough to understand what's going on in Ferguson. For that matter, I'm not sure I understand what's happening. Now I see a lot of people blaming the police and other officials for the violence!
Lizz Brown is standing there telling me that the cop shot the thug when he was walking away with his hands up! The grand jury did not see it that way after reviewing all the evidence. These people need to get that through their heads.
The people that thought our current president would help race relations in this country were dead wrong. Obama, Holder, and others have increased racial tensions with their comments and advice.

I'm glad my son isn't old enough to understand what's going on in Ferguson. For that matter, I'm not sure I understand what's happening. Now I see a lot of people blaming the police and other officials for the violence!
Lizz Brown is standing there telling me that the cop shot the thug when he was walking away with his hands up! The grand jury did not see it that way after reviewing all the evidence. These people need to get that through their heads.
The people that thought our current president would help race relations in this country were dead wrong. Obama, Holder, and others have increased racial tensions with their comments and advice.

I'm glad my son isn't old enough to understand what's going on in Ferguson. For that matter, I'm not sure I understand what's happening. Now I see a lot of people blaming the police and other officials for the violence!
Lizz Brown is standing there telling me that the cop shot the thug when he was walking away with his hands up! The grand jury did not see it that way after reviewing all the evidence. These people need to get that through their heads.
The people that thought our current president would help race relations in this country were dead wrong. Obama, Holder, and others have increased racial tensions with their comments and advice.

So what do we take away from this? For me, I think I'm going to try to teach my son not to rob stores and attack police officers. I had never thought of that before. I guess it was all worth it.

No indictment. Believe that grand jury has given this due consideration and probably sided on the side of indicting given the publicity and climate leading up to the decision. The fact that they have not handed down an indictment tells me that there's nothing there to base the indictment on. Time to move on.

I guess your reply is a dig at other posters in this forum but I'll address it. I'm sure more white people are receiving benefits from the ACA than non white, the same goes for most government programs. I really don't understand all the race talk in this forum. To me it's just a distraction and a way to avoid the topics being discussed. We are a mixed race family.
On topic, how do the people Obama has decided not to prosecute prove that they've been here longer than five years?
Kevin

As usual we're off the original topic but I can't resist.
My wife and son had a perfectly good insurance policy before the ACA took effect. We paid about $300 per month, it had a $1000 deductible and covered everything we needed it to. He was covered from birth and it was working perfectly. After the ACA started we were notified that we could no longer keep that plan, but wait, the president came to the rescue and told the insurance companies to let us keep the plan. Well, they did, but the price went to about $450 per month (now) and the deductible is $3000.
In addition, both of my son's doctors quit their practices, they were a father son team. The father retired and the son went back to school one month before the ACA started. My mother and father also had to change doctors since they would no longer accept their new insurance.
The only people that I know of that benefit from this act are low income people that don't have insurance provided by an employer. In my opinion, it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Kevin

Has anyone heard whether or not the nurses from Texas will be allowed to treat patients, draw blood, etc. and if so, when? I hope they were being paid while they were hospitalized.
Kevin

Jena's parents tried to pull a stunt similar to that as the interview date got near too. They said she had to get married in Phils even though the K1 process was almost complete. She stood up to them and let them know that she was going through with it one way or the other and if they wanted to be in her good graces they should let her do as she pleases. She was helping to support them at the time too and was also 22 years old. Your story is giving me flashbacks
Hopefully she can talk some sense into mama.
Good Luck!

It's really depends on the individual. She won't know until she experiences it and individual results will vary. I suggest you have plenty of lotions on hand for dry skin though and conditioner for dry hair, especially if you have forced air heat.Cuddl Dud brand women's underwear are great too if you can find them.
Jena handles the cold as well as I do and she had probably never felt anything below 65 F. until her first winter here. I pulled her and our son around on a sled with our tractor last Sunday and she said she was sweating.

Happily married 6.5 years here and we have a 21 month old son who is awesome. We have 2 fil/am couples that we are close friends with too! We spent Christmas, New Years, and my birthday with them eating and singing karaoke. Despite what some might say, our age gap of 20 years hasn't been a problem. In fact, our gap is the smallest of the 3 couples in our group with the others being 27 years and 34 years. We're glad to see other couples are enjoying life as well.

Most of the items I've sent USPS never made it to my wife's parents address in Samar. The things we've sent to Iligan City did make it. I'm not going to pay Fedex $100 for a few ounces when I can send 100 lbs. for the same price.
We send everything by balakbayan now. If we're in a big hurry we just send money with Xoom.

Don't worry ladies, it's not as bad as you think. Here's my wife Jena during her first winter in Illinois. Ask you husband to buy lots of skin lotion and if that doesn't help, get a humidifier. For the cold, Cuddl Duds brand long underwear are great.

My fiancee works in Kuwait but is from Cebu, she just finally got ahold of her mom this morning and found that all of her family is ok.

"Mike & Gina here in CEBU riding the storm out. High winds but not much rain here. I'm NOT impressed!! I've been through stronger winds during tornados in Ohio"
Mike, I believe the underlined above is what he was referring to. I thought it was inappropriate when I read it too.
I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it but people are so stressed out at this point. He didn't say you were laughing at anyone, he said you were "jesting" about storms.
typo808, "My brothers, this is no laughing matter. How can you jest about storms at this time?"
Let's all pull together rather than arguing.

My brothers, this is no laughing matter. How can you jest about storms at this time?

The individual mandate is not the problem. It is a broke-a$$ government who (1) expanded medicare and (2) offered to pay premiums to buy coverage for people who can not pay for it.
Where does the money to supplement the insurance premiums come from? A family of 4/two children make 51000 (us median, us average number of children). They pay $1761 in annual income taxes. Their silver premium is $8975. Government pays $5466 as a "tax credit" for taxes never paid in the first place to supplement that premium.
Q: Where does that money come from? A: Borrowing
No wonder democrats panic when their borrowing is curtailed. You do know that this is impossible to sustain don't you? Nah, you probably don't.

It's true premiums have a long history of increases. But - increases (I experienced) prior to 2010 averaged in the low teens. Highest 1 year jump = 17%. When ACA implementation began - Insurance companies jacked my rates in the high 20% range (2010 & again in 2011). This was a result of ACA - pricing for guaranteed insurability & then preexisting condition rider restriction reduction & then elimination.
I had discussions with cohorts - 1 family example ( 2 adults , 3 children) premiums jumped from $800ish per month to over $1500 per month (2010-mid 2012). I discussed this "phenomenon" with multiple Insurance Brokers = "ACA is the driver for historical Vault" = Insurance companies increased premiums dramatically to absorb the enormous new risk.
Did you read the link I provided AJ? = It's like that movie War of the Worlds - I've been pulled up into the net & my blood is used for fertilizer...That is what they were doing with the blood ..? Regardless ...The point is clear....but...I didn't build it...right?

I'd love to see a "letter writing" campaign started and have everyone that's effected like we are write letters to their representatives.

1) Economics. This is a multi-pronged subject. Filipinas have a cultural mandate to be a bastion of support for the family. A woman over the age of 25-30 in RP (Philippines) is considered "old" related to finding/keeping a job. This blatant age discrimination in RP affects men too, but perhaps not to the same extent. Even for Filipinas under the age of 25 job opportunities are rare. Thus the mandate to be able to support the family is difficult. Foreign lands offer less age discrimination. Foreign men, especially those who can travel to RP offer economic support. These men are also likely to be able to keep their career intact with no or little age discrimination.
2) At the risk of drawing the ire of some, Filipino males have an undesirable (broadly speaking--of course there are exceptions) set of mores. Mores are cultural/moral values. The machismo attitude runs deep in RP culture. It likely comes from RP's Spanish heritage. It is common for males to woo young females, impregnate them, and then dump them as now being worthless. Philippine men cheat. Again, though there are exceptions, the cultural mores come into play. A male who has the resources to me married and have children and who decides to maintain a second household with a kabit (mistress) is not looked down upon. Though not openly admired, most even within the family will tolerate this, and some will even clandestinely admire the male. Filipina's on the other hand rarely cheat. The book "Lust in Translation" tells that only Tibet and Ghana has women with this level of fidelity. We can ignore Ghana as a male who finds his wife cheating might kill her--a good reason to be faithful. This leaves RP's women very desirable in the eyes of many Westerners who find the mores of Western women with their "Sex in the City" attitude and their lack of fidelity undesirable.
3) Filipinas want white! It is utterly ironic that most Western women admire and try to emulate through tanning the skin color of many Filipinas. Western men enjoy women who are not pasty white--we like all shades of Filipina. Filipinas want their babies to be white and they are smart enough to know how to attain this.
4) Many Americans are culturally adaptable and most are polite and considerate (and indeed, there are exceptions). This runs in opposition to other nationalities such as the Koreans and Chinese. I apologize to those of Korean and Chinese heritage who might be here and realize again, there are exceptions--but having traveled a bit the Koreans and Chinese unless you are friends with one seem by and large simply rude and inconsiderate.
5) Filipinas crave stability. Young men, worldwide do not offer the type of stability--but older men do. (same 'ol caveat--a generalization) Filipinas are age-difference tolerant. In 1972 I remember reading an article that said that the average American woman desired a male partner 2-10 years older than them. Today if that article would be re-written the statistics would likely indicate that American women now want male partners 2-10 years younger than them. This creates a situation where RP offers what American men want, and had until the feminist movement changed things. I, at my age, am, generally speaking, not what American women want and they, especially from their attitudes/morels/mores are not what I want. And I, at my age, value a woman who wants a lifetime relationship and have found one.
6) As others have pointed out: America is a melting pot. Everyone can fit in. America has its share of problems these days, but it's still a wonderful country to move to.
7) American men want sumbissive women. Oops...who wrote that--not me, where is the erase button.
Indeed, this is a loaded subject and all too often misunderstood. To some "submissive" means that a Filipina might become a sort of slave, or second class citizen, kept barefoot and penniless down on the farm and be subjected to the sexual whims of the dominant male. Yet I believe that though this concept might exist--it is rather rare, and really not what most American men desire.
I prefer to remove the word "submissive," and as another poster here has done--interject the word "feminine."
Back in the '60's most women in America stayed home and raised kids while the husband worked. The husband made the decisions. This is far from the case today, in America most women work--indeed most have to work--such is the economics of today. But what it's really about is that the women of the sixties at least seemed happy to have a nice home, a loving husband and happy children. Women of today in America, at least to me, all too many have become "independent," or rather beyond independent. They don't need a husband--in fact millions are better off with no husband to worry about. America's nanny state gives a single mom quite a lot. Subsidized or free housing; free medical; free education (college) and oftentimes even assist the single mom in buying a car. In my opinion America's changed to where marriage is a negative thing and as girls become women in their fatherless environment--the need for keeping a husband around has taken on less importance. For me the close family values that the Philippines espouse is a treasure. That a Filipina is more likely to be happy with the basic necessities of life is a refreshing alternative to the last two American women who I dated about 5 years ago. Both, after a nice dinner, as I walked them to their car said exactly the same thing: Smiling each said: "Oh, which is your car?" I responded: "the older blue Honda Accord." Both reacted the same--there appeared an odd look on their face that might have had a bit of disgust in it. Neither asked: "Why do you drive such an old car?" (Note: It looks nice to me and runs quite nicely, but it is 11 years old) Had either asked, my answer would have been: "I don't place much status value on having to have a new car--I'd rather not have $400 a month car payments (or $800 a month with two cars) and I prefer to pay off the mortgage on my house or use the money for investing. Though I had a nice time with both of them--neither responded to further calls or emails. Sadly--if you don't have a new car in America, a large percentage of women will write you off. It's a terrible thing too as so many men become so stretched out on debt to maintain the supposed status of the new car and big "dollhouse," (a big fancy house) that eventually it is this very economic loop of debt that destroys their lives and their relationships. Filipinas tend not to be particularly materialistic. They seem to be happy with a nice house and a car that runs. I like that.
8) Filipinas don't smoke and don't like smoking. This is not the case of way too many American women.
9) We American males are astounded at how beautiful all the Filipinas are.