For my Job this week, we are camped out at Sammy's Cafe in Rexburg to buy books off of Students and anyone, really, who wants to sell a book worth any value. I come every morning at 9 am on the dot and leave around 6 pm-ish. It isn't too bad. What I love though, is that I get to associate with people and with my cousin Heather Megan. Usually everyday, I am by myself from about 11 am -5 pm. It is a little lonely but I am soooo busy that I sometimes I am lucky enough to not notice how lonely it actually is.
Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about wanting to have things to look forward to. I feel like it makes a really big difference to have some kind of Goal, something that gets your heart beating fast with excitement. I remember as a student I would get excited with the thought of Graduation, Going home on school breaks, or something like getting a good grade on a test. It was like there was something to keep me going. Right now, I have a lot of mundane, uneventful things that keep me going like: work, my calling (not that it isn't eventful but it is not like traveling), work some more.... cleaning house, working out....you get the idea. I have this desire to want to have a calendar to write things down that we are doing... but when I pull up a calendar, its like I remember, "Oh yeah... my life is kind of boring right now"... So I am determined to make it fun! Summer is here and the sun is out!!!
A few things I have to look forward to is my cousin's retreat in May!!! YAY!!!!! I cannot wait for this! It is where all the girls in the family, inlaws and sisters, gather for a weekend to basically play and renew themselves. They come without Children and they have to be 21 or older to come. We have a blast every single time! It keeps us all really close. Also this summer, John's mom is going on a tour for her book and she asked me to come with her. I can't wait for that! Also, like I mentioned in the earlier post, we will be going to Canada and there we will be going to see friends like Nate and Emily and Brittany and Kyle!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH! Also, I have never been to Niagra Falls, we will most likely be visting there. :)
And then there is Turkey. For like literally, 2 WHOLE MONTHS. Who even knows where we will travel and what we will be doing!!!!! (That is, if we for sure go... we haven't made "official" arrangements yet but there has been some serious discussion) But back to Going to Turkey, I know that we will be staying in Istanbol, and visiting Troy possibly. I am just going to die. K? Are you kidding me??? Troy?? And Istanbol???? yeah... neither of them mean too much to me right now, but they sound totally cool and I want to go there.
Also, I am anxious to get my tan on this summer. That is something to look forward to for this super white body of mine. It's begging, pleading with me to get some sun and color on it! I have the devil/ angel thing on my shoulders going on while I tan. My fair skin and my blonde hair (The devils advocate) make me question whether tanning is the best idea for my skin and I often wonder if I will get Skin Cancer from that "One time" I decided to lay out. While the sun (The Angel's advocate) is smiling at me and welcoming me to its warmth and rays. It's almost irresistible! I know that if my cousin Buffy were reading this she would shudder to think that I would even let my beautiful skin be in the sun! haha... But she has taught me well, I wear sunscreen EV-ER-Y-DAY! (on my face at least)...SO Sun!- Bring. It. On!
Alright, I'll stop rambling. PEACE!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
What it's like becoming legal....
As most of you know, I married a Canadian man. And in doing so, we had to worry about how we were going to get him to be legal for fear of him getting kicked out and banned from the United States of America for up to 5 years. (We both actually know 2 people that this happened to. Scary, I know). So we decided to be as careful as possible. We spoke with a Lawyer who stated that the best and most correct way to do this carefully and along government policy would be to get married and then immediately John would have had to go back to Canada to wait for his Green Card. That would have been months... HELLO! How crazy. We were NOT going to do that. So we tried the next best thing, which is stay under the radar so that John could stay here but not do anything like work or anything until he got his green card. In this process we were counseled by a Lawyer to wait 90 days after we had gotten married to apply. So we did.
We applied in October 2011. It was a tedious process in the beginning. We had to make sure we had all the correct documentation and that we filled EVERYTHING out in the proper format and manner. It is a little insane what they make you go through. Once we got everything in, we had to wait. and wait. and wait. Finally, John got approved for his "employment card"! We were ecstatic! But they did not issue him a SSN. We were a little confused, if the US wants him to work, wouldn't they want him to pay taxes?? hmmmmm... anyway... so that was an issue. Then the paper came telling us that we had an interview with the government in Boise, Idaho and we had to be there at 8:30 am on a thursday morning.
On our list of things to bring were pictures proving that we were legit and loved each other, all the serious documentation like birth certificates, marriage certificate, passports... etc. One of the things they wanted was correspondence between John and I. I thought that was interesting. So I prepared and gathered as many things as I could think of that would show that we were serious. Utility bills, rental agreement, insurance, phone bill, bank statements... everything.
I also called a friend who had been through this same thing and spoke with her and her husband about what it would be like. They did this process in Salt Lake City, Utah and the advice that they gave us was- Do NOT joke, Tell the truth, Answer honestly, Do not laugh... etc. You bet we got a little more nervous! What if it didn't work out!?? We had heard awful things about people being denied etc. We had to start talking about a back up plan. Would we need to move to Canada? If we did what would the plan be? Where would we live? How would I get a job? All these issues began to make me very minutely vexed, but vexed none the less. The requests that the government were demanding were just obsurd to me. John isn't someone they should be worried about. He isn't just trying to get into the US. He really does love me and we can prove it just by walking in the room. BUT the government has a protocol, I know. And they do not know him and have no idea if we are faking it or what.
So Wednesday comes and we drive to Boise. It is a 4 1/2 hour drive from Rexburg, we had a lot of time to practice our stories so that they were identical so that the government couldn't trick us. How we met, where we met, how long we date, whats my tooth brush color, whats his, whats his favorite color, whats mine....
The morning came and I was so nervous, I was sweating. It was one of those cold sweats, You are hot but your finger tips are cold and your feet. It was bad. We walked into a building right about 8:30 AM and we said what we were there for and the guy was like, you are in the wrong building... we were like CRAP!!!
We took off running, I think it would have been funny to see the fear on our faces and then we took off running! haha John ran to the car and I ran towards the building. He picked me up and boom! We were there. We go in and its like going through airport security. Then we sat and waited. Again. haha
Finally we were called in by a woman who seemed nice. We got into the room and she started cracking jokes with us, laughing, giving John a hard time cause he is a man and didn't remember the exact day of my birthday. (Punk!) Then she asked how we met and basically sat there and ooohed and and ahhhhed over our story. Then I showed her our proof of pictures from our wedding, etc and she kept saying, "These are gorgeous! Oh my gosh, these are GORGEOUS!" She gave them back to me and said that the pictures were too beautiful for an immigration file and they didnt belong. We laughed. The interview lasted a total of 17 minutes. 17 minutes.. seriously? She hadn't him a document and said, You're green card will take 7-10 business days. WHAT???!?!?! That fast!!!!!
She was the nicest, most sweet woman ever. We were so lucky we had her for the interview. She loved us and we were grateful. As we were leaving she said, "Man! This is the easiest thing I have done all day!" haha
6 days later John got his green card. WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! We can travel now!! Looks like we are probably going to Canada and Turkey this summer!
Can't Wait!!!!!!
PS If you ever need advice about Green Card stuff, come to us. Not a Lawyer.
We applied in October 2011. It was a tedious process in the beginning. We had to make sure we had all the correct documentation and that we filled EVERYTHING out in the proper format and manner. It is a little insane what they make you go through. Once we got everything in, we had to wait. and wait. and wait. Finally, John got approved for his "employment card"! We were ecstatic! But they did not issue him a SSN. We were a little confused, if the US wants him to work, wouldn't they want him to pay taxes?? hmmmmm... anyway... so that was an issue. Then the paper came telling us that we had an interview with the government in Boise, Idaho and we had to be there at 8:30 am on a thursday morning.
On our list of things to bring were pictures proving that we were legit and loved each other, all the serious documentation like birth certificates, marriage certificate, passports... etc. One of the things they wanted was correspondence between John and I. I thought that was interesting. So I prepared and gathered as many things as I could think of that would show that we were serious. Utility bills, rental agreement, insurance, phone bill, bank statements... everything.
I also called a friend who had been through this same thing and spoke with her and her husband about what it would be like. They did this process in Salt Lake City, Utah and the advice that they gave us was- Do NOT joke, Tell the truth, Answer honestly, Do not laugh... etc. You bet we got a little more nervous! What if it didn't work out!?? We had heard awful things about people being denied etc. We had to start talking about a back up plan. Would we need to move to Canada? If we did what would the plan be? Where would we live? How would I get a job? All these issues began to make me very minutely vexed, but vexed none the less. The requests that the government were demanding were just obsurd to me. John isn't someone they should be worried about. He isn't just trying to get into the US. He really does love me and we can prove it just by walking in the room. BUT the government has a protocol, I know. And they do not know him and have no idea if we are faking it or what.
So Wednesday comes and we drive to Boise. It is a 4 1/2 hour drive from Rexburg, we had a lot of time to practice our stories so that they were identical so that the government couldn't trick us. How we met, where we met, how long we date, whats my tooth brush color, whats his, whats his favorite color, whats mine....
The morning came and I was so nervous, I was sweating. It was one of those cold sweats, You are hot but your finger tips are cold and your feet. It was bad. We walked into a building right about 8:30 AM and we said what we were there for and the guy was like, you are in the wrong building... we were like CRAP!!!
We took off running, I think it would have been funny to see the fear on our faces and then we took off running! haha John ran to the car and I ran towards the building. He picked me up and boom! We were there. We go in and its like going through airport security. Then we sat and waited. Again. haha
Finally we were called in by a woman who seemed nice. We got into the room and she started cracking jokes with us, laughing, giving John a hard time cause he is a man and didn't remember the exact day of my birthday. (Punk!) Then she asked how we met and basically sat there and ooohed and and ahhhhed over our story. Then I showed her our proof of pictures from our wedding, etc and she kept saying, "These are gorgeous! Oh my gosh, these are GORGEOUS!" She gave them back to me and said that the pictures were too beautiful for an immigration file and they didnt belong. We laughed. The interview lasted a total of 17 minutes. 17 minutes.. seriously? She hadn't him a document and said, You're green card will take 7-10 business days. WHAT???!?!?! That fast!!!!!
She was the nicest, most sweet woman ever. We were so lucky we had her for the interview. She loved us and we were grateful. As we were leaving she said, "Man! This is the easiest thing I have done all day!" haha
6 days later John got his green card. WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! We can travel now!! Looks like we are probably going to Canada and Turkey this summer!
Can't Wait!!!!!!
PS If you ever need advice about Green Card stuff, come to us. Not a Lawyer.
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