ScooterMac

I got really lucky; our mortgage broker accepted my (great) Canadian credit history at face value, while I've never had so much as a US credit card. I figure the mortgage should be good for building US credit.

Did I mention we bought a house? We bought a house.

You should also mention that other mortgage brokers you spoke to were completely flabbergasted by what to do with your (Canadian) credit and offered to give us a loan based on my income/credit alone (which wasn't going to get us anywhere). Our realtor was great at helping us find a mortgage company who would work with our situation.

Hail, hail, the gang's all here....good to see some familiars! We're just starting to pull our stuff together, back to the USCIS grind...

I originially posted this in the off-topic thread, but the wise and mighty krikit assured me it was okay to make my own thread about it!

Please vote for my youth center in the refresh everything contest (http://www.refresheverything.com/nwyouthcenter or text 102945 to 73774). We run on ~40K/yr and provide services to 400+ kids in grades K-12. I'll give more details if anyone wants them, please just ask. We're going to be adding a quiet study area (have you ever tried to do homework with 50 kids running around you? ), making a bathroom handicap accessible, adding a summer learning program for middle/high school age group, and a whooole bunch of other stuff.

Please please please please vote if you're in the US (or get your sweetie to vote, if they're the USC!). We're in 84th place and need to get into the top 10.

Oh, and the kids get to dye my hair whatever color(s) they want if we win. I promise pictureeeeesssss!

Actually, there are three ways to vote:

Online: http://www.refresheverything.com/nwyouthcenter

By Text: 102945 to 73774

On facebook: Install the "pepsi refresh voting app" and search for "Northwestern" - we'll be the first one that pops up!

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to help!! This means a lot to the kids and the community!

Hey guys, if you all get a chance, please vote for my youth center in the refresh everything contest (http://www.refresheverything.com/nwyouthcenter or text 102945 to 73774). We run on ~40K/yr and provide services to 400+ kids in grades K-12. I'll give more details if anyone wants them, please just ask. We're going to be adding a quiet study area (have you ever tried to do homework with 50 kids running around you? ), making a bathroom handicap accessible, adding a summer learning program for middle/high school age group, and a whooole bunch of other stuff.

Sorry if this isn't kosher to post this here - I tried to ask a mod yesterday, but didn't get a response

Please please please please vote if you're in the US (or get your sweetie to vote, if they're the USC!). We're in 84th place and need to get into the top 10.

Oh, and the kids get to dye my hair whatever color(s) they want if we win. I promise pictureeeeesssss!

Spoom and I will head to London to visit his family, thanks to the US Dep't of State getting my (expensively expedited) passport to me on time!

We're going up Friday night, spending the night at Niagara Falls, spending the next day doing Niagara Falls things (it's one of our favorite places, used to be our "halfway" meetup point when he was still in Canada), and then going to his folks' place Saturday night.

WOO HOO for getting turkey two months in a row! I love having two Thanksgivings! (and visiting my in-laws, of couse )

Hey folks,

For those of you who've never heard of me (which would probably be most outside the Canada forum ), I've been on this site for what seems like forever working through the K-1 visa process to bring my amazing (now) husband to the US.

But enough about that!

I run a youth center in a rural town by the name of Albion, in Pennsylvania. We run on a shoestring budget (~40K/yr) and don't have much left over at the end of the month to do renovations, repairs, and upgrades to our equipment. We serve over 400 students a year between our afterschool middle and high school program (3-6pm is kind of a "danger zone" for unsupervised teens), monthly elementary days, and a 2-week summer learning program at a local park.

We have entered the refresh everything grant contest to try to win $50K of additional funding to renovate a current storage area into a quiet study room with computers and learning software, make one of our bathrooms handicap accessible, upgrade the equipment currently available to the students, and add a summer learning program for the middle/high school age teens. Grants are distributed based on the number of votes received by each project, and the top 10 grants in our category will each win $50,000. Unfortunatey, only those in the US are able to vote at this time.

There are 3 ways to vote, and you can vote each way once daily! You will have 9 other votes to use as well to use on other projects.

Online: http://www.refresheverything.com/nwyouthcenter

On facebook: Download the Refresh Everything voting app, and search for "Northwestern Community Youth Center"

By text: Text 102945 to 73774

If you can, please pass this information along to others who may be willing to help. We're currently sitting at 84th place 4 days into voting, so we've got a lot of ground to cover!!

Thank you!

Julie (Scooter)

Oh tomorrow, I wish you'd hurry up and get here.

That is just crazy!!

Seconded. You pay for what you get, in most cases (and particularly when it comes to childcare, from what I've seen).

Hooray, I remembered VJ exists! Myyyyyy bad. Sorry guys, things just got way hectic around here after we finished the AOS and I sort of dropped off the planet. I'll try to do better in the future!

Now, what is it that you find so odd about this? (Referring to your little comment in the title)

It's a universal aspect of sport.... you riot downtown after your team wins. Usually, it's when you win a championship, but seeing as Montreal hasn't won anything in 17 years, I'm sure they're extatic.

I was wondering what was "odd" as well. Having lived around OSU's campus for 8 years, I had the opportunity to witness many riots...heck, OSU's ex-president said publicly that the students liked to riot. Also, Being a lifelong WVU fan, I've seen my fair share of rioting (and couch burning ). It's not a GOOD idea, of course, but it happens alllll over the place.

Some friend on FB just put up a crapload of old pictures of us back in our raver days. I am laughing so hard I am crying. Luckily she didn't tag them and I told her if she did, I'd kill her but I am going though these things and I'm just like #######? I mean really... this was only 12 years ago at most... crazy how much things change.

This is why I made it a point to be BEHIND the camera during those years. Most of the time I got a free pass into events because I was doing photography, and I also don't have (m)any embarassing pictures to risk being put online. I'm pretty sure I own the only copy of the one picture I know about.

Some of my friends, on the other hand...well, let's just say I have a folder entitled "these pictures never go online, ever" that is full of pictures that they've mandated I never post.

Congrats!!!!

Good luck!!

I'm so tired I can barely vent....but I'll give it a shot.

I've slept maybe all of 11 hours since Friday night. I didn't do volunteer work I would've normally done this weekend because I was so exhausted - I even skipped church! I can't seem to fall asleep and stay asleep...I wake up within an hour of falling asleep, and then I'm ususally awake for awhile after that. I've also been having really terrible awful nightmares, so much so that I'm waking up having panic attacks.

Ughhhh....so sleeeeeeeepy....4.5 hours down, only 7 more hours til I'm done for the day.

I think we had about 2 weeks....we got caught in that big scheduling push they had.

Our church plays a variation on dodgeball called (hilariously enough) Murderball.

You line up the kids in two teams about 2ft. from the wall. Each kid is assigned a number. When you call out a number (or, as the game progresses, two, three, four, or all the numbers), the kids whose numbers were called run for the ball in the middle of the court. The objective is for the kid who gets the ball to hit the opposing team's wall with the ball while the kid who didn't get the ball chases/tackles/trips/etc the one with the ball.. They can throw it, kick it, run up and touch the ball to the wall, bounce it off another player, etc. The rest of the team (who isn't allowed to move off their line 2ft. from the wall) is supposed to stop the player or the ball by any means available.

This often results in some pretty beat up kids...and these are NICE kids.

Our dodgeball games are just as bad, we've got a couple high school girls who can leave welts with those things!

Then again, this kinda stuff probably wouldn't fly in the big city...living in the country seems to breed "tougher" kids and parents, at least as far as the babying kids thing goes.

I have insurance through Golden Rule...which, from what I understand, will take just about anyone. The major problem I have with them is that it's so dang expensive. I pay ~$320/month for just me. My employer (well, the "primary" employer, the non-profit) is too small to offer insurance, so I have to go throgh private insurance companies. I don't have any prescription coverage, and I pay all my own expenses until I reach my $2500 premium. What that generally means is that I can't ever afford to go to a doctor.

I had a hell of a time getting insurance. I applied to probably 6 different companies before finally getting one to accept me. All of them, at least the ones offered around here, have a "height/weight ratio" requirement. If you don't fit into it, they don't insure you. They also had major concerns about my having ADHD (didn't every kid in the US in the mid 90s?).

OMG, Scooter. I'd be furious!

I am, especially since I missed our March meeting because we were out of town attending a conference (at what was mostly our own expense). I'm the only paid member of staff ("Executive Director" lulz), but I don't have the ability to do...well, pretty much anything without the board's consent. I work 12 hour days M-F (I couldn't afford to work just the non-profit, doesn't pay enough), work 4 hours one saturday a month (elementary school day), and usually a full day at least one other saturday a month (community service event, open house, cleaning day, etc). I have to go to community organizations, churches, civic clubs, etc. to BEG for food/volunteers/donations, I'd say on at least a bi-weekly basis. I usually only have one or two other volunteers (for watching 30-60 teens), and none of our board members volunteer on a regular basis. A lot of time I feel like I'm the only one putting any effort into this thing (other than my beloved husband, of course) and it wears me down and frustrates the living ####### out of me.

Thanks, VJ, for giving me a place to vent

So, our board of directors at work is supposed to meet every month, on the second thursday of the month. Our president often sends reminders, but just as often forgets. Last week (being the second thursday), I called the other board members, only to find that they all either assumed we didn't have a meeting because the reminder didn't get sent out, had made other plans, or were out of town.

Normally, I wouldn't complain about not having to sit through a meeting, but not having this meeting on time meant that I didn't have our proposal for continued funding from the school board ready when we were supposed to present it on Monday. Instead, I gave our quarterly report, and had to listen to the president of our school board crack jokes about how we were supposed to have presented our proposal, but "Surprisingly, this year, April came right after March!", which is business speak for "if you don't have this the next time you're in front of us, you're screwed."

So, our board members now know our proposal is due at the begining of May. Being that today is the middle of April, I figured, okay, our board would have their meeting toinght, since they all forgot last week.

......wrong. No meeting.

I'm not in a position to write this proposal myself - it has to be voted on by our board and I need help from our secretary and treasurer for the necessary information.

*headdesk*

Sometimes I dream of going back to a callcenter job instead of a non-profit *lol*

I read somewhere that you can do removal of conditions on your own if you can prove you entered into the marriage in good faith.

I'm sure someone with the definitive answer will come along and help you.

It's possible - my ex boyfriend and his wife dissolved their marriage amicably, and she was willing to help him collect letters from her family stating it was a good-faith marriage, as well as letters from friends/his family, a letter from the minister that married them, shared leases/utility bills from when they'd lived together, letters from both of them explaining their decision to divorce and a whole bunch of other stuff. He was granted removal of conditions, but he had a really hard time with it...he was out of work for several months because he was out of status while he was waiting for it to be resolved and had to involve a lawyer and all that fun stuff.

Good luck!

((hug))

Thanks I love my kids....but middle schoolers and april fools, on our longest day of the week, do not make for a fun afternoon!

I hate April fools.

I work with teenagers. Today is going to be hell.

Congrats!

If they're legally authorized to marry folks in whatever state - then it's legal (for all purposes).

I'm an ordained pastor through ULC and I've done a couple weddings - none for immigrant couples, but for friends of mine. As long as the person is registered with the state (and the state recognized ULC - check to make sure, not all do!), you should be fine

Sounds a lot like my town

Yo, Yo, Yo! lol

When the youth center first opened, we had a very conservative, very straight-laced pastor helping with our kids. I was taking pictures one day, and two girls crowded around him and were like "Take our picture!" He was shocked, because the kids always complained he was too strict and didn't seem to like him much. They said "Here, we'll teach you how to be cool in pictures!" and taught him the west side thing.

I have a picture with two middle school girls and the most conservative pastor you've ever seen making the symbol with both hands. I crack up every time I see it. He was mortified once I explained it!