pixiegunn

My husband is constantly reading, and he's looking at the Nook. Something about the Kindle only being able to read things from Amazon's specific format, whereas the Nook has some type of open format that can read books from other sellers or locations. I guess with the Nook you can 'borrow' or rent books instead of purchase also, and you can get free books from some websites.

We are running out of shelf space in our house, so this is great for eliminating the copious number of trade paperback book purchases and keeping the purchases to just the hardcover, reference, or more collectible books.

I teach as well, and it has come to my attention several times in the past year that Walter Reed is *not* accepting mail addressed to a recovering soldier due to security reasons. An alternate address to send to is:

Holiday Mail for Heroes

PO Box 5456

Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Apparently, they want their mail sent by the 10th!!

The full information on the Walter Reed issue can be found here (Snopes found the rumour to be true):

http://www.snopes.com/politics/christmas/soldiercards.asp

and is also described here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1923523/posts

It's a great idea, regardless of what route it needs to go through to get to the heroes!

There is a different form to fill out if you are living outside Canada or residing in Canada. Fill out the one you need, because the main difference is who can vouch for your photographs (the guarantor list is different).

If you are back in Canada, and can drop it off at an office and pay the fees, it can take a couple weeks or less. Otherwise, you have to mail it off, and it can be gone awhile (I think mine was close to 2 months). The bottom line is that you send your old passport off, so there is a period where you will not have your passport and thus cannot travel via airplanes out of the US. I remember I took mine in person in Ontario, thinking it would be quick, but they couldn't guarantee it within the week, and I needed to fly home at the end of the week, so I was out of luck.

Sending off the old passport/leaving you a period without a passport isn't a very good system, but that is what they were still operating off of early last year.

Chrissy:

These might help.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ukreside...lity/relatives/

http://britishexpats.com/ <--this one has forums, mostly about how to leave the UK for other countries, but there is a forum called 'Moving to the UK' or 'Returning to the UK' or something similar.

Count me in! Like Julia, I am in my Masters and doing my full time internship in first grade. I graduate in December and will be looking for a job soon. I love it!

Wacken

I've worked with a lot of dual language learners at the preschool level (around age 3) and from what I've seen, they will code switch (back and forth, mix the two languages they know) with people who know both (like their parents), but once they are in an environment like a daycare where only one is spoken, they will begin to understand the 'home' language and the 'outside' language. For these children, their English vocab is usually behind English only speakers, and their grammar is less perfect (more 'Her is going...', 'What is him said...' type things past the age many others peers have stopped), but as a whole those are minor issues. I always encouraged parents who were concerned about their child's English that what is most important is they stick with speaking their home language at home, because going to school and living here in the states will more than take care of the child's English. Stick with it. It will be an awesome part of your child's growth that not many of us get!

Kaffy,

I was required to have my transcript 'translated' for grad school here in the US and I went to school in Canada! I'm guessing it depends on the school, but for the cost/saving the hassle I just got it done and ordered a couple copies of it just in case I needed it again in the future.

My husband went on unemployment after returning from Iraq about 3 months ago. It was painless and shockingly quick. They needed a copy of one form, and they were able to look up all the income-related documents themselves. About two weeks (in MA) until the first payment. I think to qualify, you cannot have had a commission-only job that you were laid off from, and there is a minimum amount of time you could have been in that job before being let go (I want to say 6 months, but I can't find anything to back that up so maybe that's myth).

I cannot believe they contact paper-ed the walls!

Just my perspective. Here in Massachusetts, the cut-off date is September first. Growing up in Ontario, it was whatever year you were born (so I was born in '81, and those born in January were the oldest in the class and those born in December were the babies of the class), so this whole cut-off thing is a bit odd to me still.

I teach preschool, and parents of summer babies often want to know whether they should hold their child back a year (start kindergarten at 6 rather than be the youngest 5 in the class).

My biggest consideration for parents asking that question is not academic by any stretch: it's behavioral and social (barring, of course, any developmental disabilities or other similar factors). If a child can handle sitting for extended periods of time, get involved in activities for extended periods of time, has appropriate social skills and seems like a five year old (no more tantrums, comfortable away from parents etc.) then I generally have few qualms about their child entering kindergarten. Their emotional and behavioral development trumps their academic skills, as once they are interested and ready, learning letters, numbers and core concepts are a snap. I wish you luck finding the best placement....there are lots of good PreK programs around here, but I suppose no public PreK's in your area?

It's quite possible it's a change in her diet. Studies have shown that other cultures who eat lots of fish, grains, and fruits and vegetables tend to develop conditions like acne when they adopt a more Westernized diet (high fat, high salt, milk).

(The Clear Skin Diet is a good, science-y look at all the possible reasons for bad skin, if anyone is interested).

I would suggest looking at the changes in her diet. If she is no longer eating something she typically did, or is eating something she never was before, it can certainly contribute. A blood screening for deficiencies in minerals could also be beneficial as it could point out what she's missing. My skin became disgusting in September, and it took until December for me to realize I have a zinc deficiency and that's how my body chooses to show it.

Or it could be stress, or hard water. Unfortunately the options are endless!

We're trying to save for a house, but in this part of Mass a 20% downpayment is likely $70,000 or more, even with the sad market right now. I like to think that somewhere in the country, we really would be paying in cash for our house with that money! Glad to find other Dave listeners out there. I don't really know any in my immediate surroundings.

Dave Ramsey's debt snowball isn't about trying to save you money while you pay off debt, so the 'bad at math' article in that regard would be true. His point is outlined in the second last paragraph/sentence of that article. These people AREN'T paying off any of their debt in any sort of meaningful way, so it isn't an issue of paying of the highest to lowest interest rate to save money. They are paying minimums and getting nowhere. His plan is to start with the smallest debt and work your way up, and the reason it works is because it's a mindset. As you begin to pay off debt, even the smallest one, you have the motivation to continue because you see progress is being made, whereas starting with the 20 month car loan takes alot longer to feel like you're getting anywhere. He's the first to say he has nothing new to give you that grandma didn't tell you a million times about money. But fortunately, unlike with grandma, people seem to be taking his advice.

I've recently fallen for Dave Ramsey and have become very anti-debt. We've done the deep in credit card debt twice now, and after we're out of it this time that's it. I'm with Gary and the scissors on this one.

I work in a child care setting, and I have to say it's about 50-50 or 40 (un)-60 (circumcised) with boys between the ages of 2 and 5 currently. It doesn't seem to be that common anymore. I think the health/pain of the child issue has overrun most other people's reasons for getting it done (unless for religlious reasons).

My husband and I did six years long distance before we got married, had three years of wedded bliss together, and now he's gone for a year to Iraq. W

What I have noticed is this separation is not as difficult as the previous ones. Even though now the distance is more, the communication is less, and the situation should be more stressful, in reality this year is feeling really manageable. I don't know if it is because there is an end date to hold on to, whereas with six years of long distance there wasn't a firm one for many years, or if it's because I now know we 'made it', but the year of separation is really just a chance to remember again what is important to us, and for us, to continue our relationship.

I don't want to say it's a blessing, because it does suck in a lot of ways, but it's just another blip in life's plan. A lost year, not a lost lifetime. That's how I think you need to view your separation. You might miss this Christmas together, but you know he'll be back for next Christmas. And the Christmas after that. And that. And then the missed year just becomes a footnote in your pitifully lacking photo album for 2007!

Very cool! I got to 1500 grains before needing a break. The higher your vocabulary level, the better your vocabulary (it goes up to 50). It keeps going up or down based on how you're doing. Pretty neat idea and simple way to have major corporations agree to help others in need.

All this talk about it is making me re-visit it tonight. Surely the bank thanks you, Cassie! But truly, good luck!

Around Christmas last year, there were a number of items I wanted to buy that a day later were already claimed and sold! I couldn't believe how quickly some things went! In the 'off months' (pretty much February til now) there doesn't seem to be too much activity, either in buying or selling (the quantity and variety sellers have is certainly smaller) but I did buy a number of items for reasonable prices last winter, and felt good about supporting local (and not so local) artists. Give it a try! It's a really fun website...you can search by colour, or by last posted, and it's all presented in an appealing way that makes you want to look further.

Every place is very different....the one I was sent to in Boston had in my ASC letter that I could reschedule by mailing it back, for either a Wednesday afternoon or a Saturday morning. From the sounds of it, some other agencies are just drop-ins/open all week.

Mine was on a Saturday in Boston. If I recall, they only had two days they did it, Saturday or Wednesday.

Hey everyone!

Joining the crew that has recently had their VSC application approved! I received my card in the mail today, no errors (although I can't believe they used the pictures they took at the biometrics appointment -- smiling!! -- rather than the 'good' and grim ones I paid for and mailed in with my application!) NOA was Dec 21 (? look in my timeline!) so it's just under 6 months for me.

Happy filing! Hope others waits are over soon.

~Nicole

Just regarding the notarized bit:

We didn't send any friend/family letters, just one from our landlord because we did not have a current lease. It wasn't notarized, and in our case, we just found out we were approved without any setbacks.

As far as I know, though, notarization can be done at most (all?) banks though, so if you need to have it done, you could try there. That's what we did for our I-130's back in the day.

This is an article from last night about the fee increase as of July 30...some hefty fees!...

Citizenship and green card fees to rise

Tue May 29, 7:01 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Immigration officials said Tuesday they will proceed with plans to double the cost of applying to become a U.S. citizen and triple the fee for seeking legal permanent residency.

The fee increases will take effect July 30. Citizenship fees will rise from $330 to $595, plus $80 for required electronic fingerprints, an increase of $10. For legal permanent residency and fingerprints the cost will be $1,010 for those over 14. The cost now is $325.

Officials with Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, said the increases are needed to improve service, hire 1,500 workers, improve offices, equipment and systems to process applications.

"This agency is fee based, 99 percent of our budget comes from user fees. We need to be the agency people expect us to be. We need to undertake reforms .... The only way to get from there to here is to have the financial resources to do that," CIS Director Emilio Gonzalez said Tuesday.

Many immigration groups and some Democratic members of Congress have protested the fee increases, saying they will put citizenship and legal immigration out of reach of many immigrants. They also question whether better service will follow.

The new fees were to be published this week in the Federal Register and also were posted on the CIS Web site.

(Edited because I thought I fell in that period, but I don't! I actually didn't know my NOA was dated so late when I filed in November!!)

No word at all. I'll let you know when I do though, that's for sure! I'm pretty anxious with only an almost-expired passport as my link to both Canada & the US, and want a new PR card quickly!! Good luck to you!