Good News!

My green card arrived on Saturday! Yay! Not bad really, 9 days after my interview - can't complain at all! It feels great to have it, it's a big milestone. Now we can relax until November 2012, when we'll have to apply to have the conditions removed. Because it's a marriage-based green card, they only issue the card for 2 years - then you send in more paperwork to have the conditions removed, and you get a new, 10 year green card. In 3 years time from now I'll be eligible to apply for citizenship, so I'll most likely do that when the time comes - it'll save a lot of hassle!

The weekend was a bit miserable weather-wise, really. We had a short hail storm and quite a bit of rain Saturday, then yesterday it rained again. It's pretty big news here when it rains - it still makes me laugh. By UK standards the rain really wasn't that big of a deal, but for the desert I guess it was a lot!

I cleaned the whole house on Friday, then hubby's brother came round for dinner so I cooked pasta. The house looks a mess again now - seriously, having 2 dogs rather than 1 makes a big difference to the state of the house. I'm gonna clean again tomorrow I think.

Tonight we're taking Suzie to her first ever agility class! We got the idea last week, that she might enjoy it and it would be good for her. I found a class and emailed the people who run it, and there's a class starting tonight which is a 5 week course. It's only for an hour each time, on Monday evenings. I think it'll be fun! We'll probably get laughed at by the other people there for bringing a pug to an agility class, but I don't see any reason why she couldn't be good at it. She's clever and she learns quickly, and she's got lots of energy. It'll be cool to see her do that! I'm taking my camera along, of course. :-)

We haven't been sleeping well these past 2 or 3 nights - Gracie has been acting odd, barking at something (no idea what) and getting out of her bed constantly. She comes to the side of the bed and whines, and when she's not doing that she's going under our bed. Weird! Hubby got up early this morning at like 4 a.m. to try to let her outside, thinking she needed to go potty - nope! I don't know what her problem is!!! I'm knackered now, and I'm sure hubby is too. I might take a nap, actually!

Great News!

I had my AOS interview this morning and it went extremely well - I've been approved for my green card! Woo-hoo!!!

I took 2 folders full of stuff - all our documents in one and correspondence (cards, letters, emails) in another, to show proof of our marriage. I also took 3 photo albums and the officer looked through all of them. I was very well prepared and it was easy to find all our documents when they were requested, as I made sure there were easy to read tabs on everything. My appointment was for 8.40 a.m. but we were seen about 5 minutes early, and we left the building at 8.55 a.m. so it was only about 20 minutes. It wasn't very stressful, the officer made us feel at ease and even joked around with us a bit which was nice. When he said he was approving me I was just so happy! No more immigration stuff to do now until 90 days before my conditional 2 year green card expires (we'll have to send in some more forms and evidence that we're still married etc. and then I'll get a 10 year green card). What a huge relief! I can actually relax now. Last night I got a bit upset because I couldn't help but wonder, what if they don't approve me... I couldn't bear to be apart from my lovely hubby and our pug girls! We were long-distance for a long time, about 19 months, before I finally had my visa and came to live here, and I couldn't bear to be in that position again. I knew that the interview would most likely go well, but until the officer said that he was approving me I didn't want to get too carried away! I'm so so happy now. I called my mom and my dad (who said he'll call me next week, so I asked if he really would call me this time!!!) and we also called hubby's mom too - she was really happy for us too! It's just wonderful news, it really is! Tonight hubby and I are going out for a nice meal, it'll be lovely. We don't tend to eat out often so when we do, it's a nice treat!

We got up at 6 this morning and with all that nervous energy I'm pretty tired now - I think I'll take the pugs for a nap, they can sleep with me since it'll only be for an hour or so. :-)

An unexpected call... and interview preparation!

We were eating lunch when the phone rang - it was my cousin! Yes, the one who hasn't replied to any of my emails. He said he hasn't been ignoring me, but I'd disagree really! Anyway, it was nice to speak to him. It would've been nice if he'd just replied to my emails in the first place, but what can you do?

I've been getting all our documents etc. ready for my AOS interview, I think we're good. We probably have too much stuff but I'd rather be over-prepared than be missing something important. My appointment letter says to take evidence of your relationship, such as correspondence and anything that's in both our names - I have loads of cards, letters, emails, photos, our joint medical and dental insurance cards, the lease for the house in both our names, our joint bank account statements... Of course we're also taking the documents they want, such as financial support information, our marriage certificate, birth certificates, passports, my employment authorization card, my travel document... I definitely think we're good! I'll just be so glad when it's all over with, it's been on my mind for a whole month now (since I got the letter). I feel the way I did right before my visa interview - like I shouldn't have anything to worry about, and everything will most likely go great. Should do, anyway!

Sleep? What's that?

Wow... We had a terrible night's sleep last night! Hubby and I woke repeatedly because of the pugs: Suzie was lying right against hubby (she's like a hot water bottle when she does that, so he kept waking up as he was too hot). Gracie snores so loud I'm starting to think we should've named her Nora (The Snorer!) and she was right next to me. I lost count of how many times I woke up to get her to stop snoring! Hubby left the bedroom at around 4.40 a.m. and went to lie on the couch; I followed him 10 minutes later and told him to go back to bed, and that I would move to the couch with the girls. He can't sleep on the couch, and he has to work at 7 a.m. I can sleep on the couch normally (although it turned out not this morning!) and I don't have a job, so it was only right that hubby could have the bed to himself. We've also decided that no longer are the girls sleeping on the bed with us. Even when it was just Suzie, we weren't sleeping that well. I like having them on the bed with us but I don't like the lack of sleep, and it's not something we should be doing long-term if it's impacting negatively on our lives! Tonight we'll go to PetSmart or Petco and get a nice big comfy dog bed that they can share. They'll still sleep in our room, but at least we'll be comfy in our (very comfy) bed and actually sleep. Gracie will still snore like a big fat man, but at least it won't be right next to our ears!

I feel really bad for hubby, because he's going to feel like absolute crap all day now. I'll make him a nice breakfast and some coffee - maybe I'll make extra coffee today, I think we could both use it to be honest! He's on-call all of this week, which usually means he gets called at like 4 a.m. and he has to get up and get on the computer to solve whatever the problem is (he's a programmer). His on-call weeks are always shitty, but at least if we have the bed back to ourselves then we'll have a better chance of sleeping well until he's called. I hope he doesn't get called on Thursday morning, because we have my AOS interview which is important and I don't want us to be like zombies. I hope the girls will be OK when we're gone, we haven't left them alone together yet but we'll have to do a trial run before Thursday and see how they are when we're gone for an hour or so. I think they'll be OK, but you never know do you? If they're not OK then we'll have to crate Suzie while we're out on Thursday morning, but I hope it doesn't come to that. We shouldn't be gone for too long hopefully, maybe 2 hours or so including travel time. The interview is at 8.40 a.m. so hopefully it'll be on time - they can't open much before that, maybe the first interviews would be at like 8 a.m. It's not like we're near the end of the day or anything - hopefully they won't have had time to get behind by my appointment time!

God, I am so tired. So so tired. You should see the very dark circles under my eyes - shocking! Thank goodness I don't have anywhere to be today - it's times like this I'm even more grateful to be a housewife!

It's been a while!

OK, where do I start? A lot of things have happened since I last posted!

My Dad's visit was both good and bad. It was nice to see him, but really nothing much has changed and he still rarely listens to me, still thinks I should live my life according to his ideas and is pretty selfish all around. He annoyed me a lot by not cleaning up after himself. He had a cold and would leave snotty tissues laying all over the place, such as on the coffee table. Not cool! He would leave dirty socks on the couch - also not cool! He somehow managed to completely mess up our huge bathroom mirror within about a day of his arrival. He would leave coffee cups in the bathroom. I told him the night he arrived that he could help himself to anything he wanted - yet he would still demand cups of tea constantly, he wouldn't even get himself a glass of water or juice. Oh, and with this constant stream of cups of tea he would forget he had one and then get me to microwave it to heat it up 'cos he'd let it go cold! No, he couldn't possibly do it himself, that's really too much to expect from a grown man! He would sit on the couch and pug-pug would want to go outside to go potty, so instead of getting off his ass and walking 10 feet or so to the door, he would shout for me to come (when I was doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom). He was constantly expecting me to do laundry, like seriously, every friggin' day. He arrived Thursday night, I did laundry Sunday morning, then the next day because he had a couple of items that needed washing he was asking me if I was doing more laundry! NO! I mean, yes, we have a washer and a dryer, but I'm not going to put 2 small items in! What is the point? I ended up doing more laundry before he left, just to shut him up really. He didn't bring many clothes with him so he had this big suitcase which was only about a third full at most. He must live in a different world if he really expected me to be doing laundry every day - what a waste of water and electricity!

We had a fair few arguments while he was here, mainly when we were driving places, because he refused to listen to what I was saying regarding directions. For example, I said to him that we were staying on the freeway for another 13 miles, and he took the next exit because I said "That's a nice house on the mountain over there". Seriously?! Then he shouted at me as though I'm an imbecile, and couldn't understand why I got in a mood with him. Another time he had a go at me and said I "could at least make an effort!" - excuse me? We went out and bought an airbed because he was staying with us, I gave him plenty of bedding, made him countless cups of tea, made him breakfast, coffee, you name it. I rented him DVDs that I'd seen before because he wanted to see them (even ones that weren't very good!). Before he arrived I recorded loads of movies that I knew he'd enjoy, so he could watch them, even though I'd seen them already. I was constantly suggesting things for us to do, with virtually no feedback from him and no ideas of what he wanted to do because he wouldn't say! He criticized my lifestyle because I'm not working, when I'm not able to work yet because I don't have my green card! He criticized me for not taking pug-pug on 5 walks a day, when she goes to the dog park every day for 1.5-2 hours and usually gets a 30-40 minute walk on a morning. He wouldn't shut up about what an "amazing" life we could have if I went back to college for 18 months so that I could work in radiology over here. You know what? That's between me and my hubby. Hubby earns plenty for the lifestyle we lead. We don't want for anything, we have a lovely home and we're very happy. Just because my Dad is obsessed with money doesn't mean we all should be. He's very much obsessed with status symbols - the big house in the country, his Mercedes and his wife's BMW... Personally I couldn't care less about that crap! At the same time as being obsessed with all those material things, he's constantly saying how 'skint' he is. Hmmm, I wonder why! Most of the time he was here I was having to bite my tongue. So when he accused me of not making any effort, I was really mad. It was very offensive, when I'd been trying really hard. It made me wonder why I'd bothered at all. I don't wish to sound mean, but it also made me glad that I don't see him much these days. He can really be one of those people who saps the life out of you - everything's always about him, he's constantly moaning about his life, he hates his (part time) job, his neck hurts (but he won't stop doing the things that aggravate his condition), he's supposedly skint but spends money like it's going out of fashion - and he doesn't have an interest in anything anyone else has to say. Most of the time when we'd be having a conversation I could look at him and tell he wasn't listening to a single word I was saying - I could even say as much, which proved my point perfectly. So after a while of this, I couldn't be bothered to start a conversation because there was no point in doing so! I swear, pug-pug listens to me more, and I know she can't even understand most of what I'm saying!

He was supposed to call me the middle of last week, and I'm still waiting. I'm not going to call him, it's his turn to call me. No doubt he's too busy being self-absorbed to notice we haven't spoken for 2 weeks. On Saturday night hubby and I went round to the in-laws' house for dinner, and his Mom asked me if I speak to my Dad every day - I couldn't help but laugh! I was like, "No, he never calls me when he says he will and I'm fed up of being the only one who makes an effort, so I'm waiting for him to get in touch" - I don't want to talk to him every day, I don't think there would be much point, but once a week would be nice. At least then we'd have something to say to each other. Maybe I just have to accept that he's never, ever going to call me close to the time he says he will - it's usually about 10 days afterwards. I don't think I should have to accept that, but it looks like I do. I mean, he's an adult, his schedule isn't that crazy, he has plenty of time to call me even if it's just for a 5 minute chat (4 minutes of that will be him moaning about his life, of course).

I like the arrangement I have with my Mom - we talk every Sunday, and we take it in turns to call each other. It works really well, and we speak every Sunday without fail. I don't know why my Dad couldn't make the effort to do something similar - maybe on a Wednesday or some other day he's not busy. I feel as though he doesn't even want to be bothered. He still hasn't got his laptop, so all that talk of us chatting on Skype before I left the UK was bullshit. It's only been like 5 fucking months now!

Anyway, moving on...

The day my Dad left (January 8th) I received an appointment letter for my AOS interview. Both hubby and I need to go together, so they can have a look at our 'relationship evidence' and verify that we're a proper married couple. It should just be a formality, there's nothing 'shady' about us! I'm in the process of preparing a folder to take with us to the interview, it'll contain all the documents / evidence they need, and probably much more! The interview is February 10th - I'm kinda nervous but only because it's so important. Just like when I was about to have my visa interview, I'm almost 100% sure there's nothing that will cause any problems, but until I hear the words "you're approved" I have this uneasy feeling in my tummy. I'll just be happy when it's over with, so I don't have to think about it anymore! Right from the beginning of this whole immigration thing I've been stressed about each stage - I don't like being that way but I totally am! I couldn't even bear to think about what would happen if they don't approve me for my green card - I can't possibly leave hubby now, it would be devastating. I don't even want to go back to the UK on vacation without him!

I got a couple of emails from USCIS (the immigration people) last week stating that they've approved my employment authorization document (so I can work) and my advance parole document (which sounds like you're a criminal but it's just a document that would allow me to leave and re-enter the USA while I'm still without my green card, without them assuming I've abandoned' my immigration process... not that I plan to go anywhere, but if there was a family emergency or something then it would be handy!)

Neither document has arrived yet, and I won't need either when I get my green card as that will allow me to work and it also allows me to come and go as I please, and still be a permanent resident (well, I think there are some restrictions on how long you can stay out of the USA, but that's fine - if I do leave it'll most likely only be for a couple of weeks!).

On Saturday we went to a massive pet adopt-a-thon about 20 miles from our house. We were told about it by one of our friends we met at the dog park, who's currently fostering a dog called Max. Well, she's allegedly fostering him. I'm 95% certain she's gonna end up keeping him, and I kinda hope she does 'cos pug-pug loves him! Anyways... the Arizona Pug Adoption and Rescue Network (APARN) were there with around 20 of their pugs. We knew they'd be there and we've been wanting to get another pug for a while. So, we ended up falling in love with a beautiful brindle girl pug, she's 3 and a half years old and very very sweet. She'd only been in foster for one day when we met her, she was surrendered by her previous owners because they were downsizing and couldn't take her with them. Our pug-pug is almost 18 months old, so there's a 2 year age gap which the people at APARN seem to think is great. They did seem to like each other, although I suppose it's hard to tell for sure when they're on neutral territory. Anyway, we filled out an application form and explained our situation - basically, we're renting our house and when hubby asked the property management company to ask the landlord if we could have a dog (when we wanted to get pug-pug last January) they said the landlord doesn't really like dogs but she agreed to it. So we have to check if she'll allow us to have another dog - I'm not sure if I fancy our chances, to be honest. Hubby got in touch with the property management company this morning and they said that they'll need to come and have a quick look at the house before they ask the landlord if we can have another dog. Hopefully, since pug-pug hasn't damaged anything at all, they'll be able to convince the landlord to let us have one more. Someone from the property management company is coming tomorrow morning between 8 and 9, so I'm hoping we'll be hearing something back from the landlord shortly after that. We're fully aware that it's not our house, and obviously the landlord can flat out refuse our request, but we're hopeful that she won't. We've looked after the house really well, it's in great condition (well, there were things that were kind of worn out when we got the house but we haven't caused any additional damage whatsoever). We keep the place clean and tidy, pug-pug isn't a noise nuisance and everything's in good condition. I'm hoping that when the landlord hears from the PMC that the house is great, she'll agree to us having another pug. I don't mind if they want to come out and see the house every couple of months, or however often. We don't have anything to hide!

If, and at the moment I guess it's a big IF, our landlord agrees to us having one more dog, then APARN will come and do a home check too. I think that should go just fine. They'll bring one of their dogs and see how our dog reacts to having another dog in the house. I'm not sure how she'll be, to be honest. I hope she'll be excited like she is when she sees the dogs at the park! I have a feeling she will be, anyway. Fingers crossed. Apart from that, everything should be OK - we have a yard (not a very big one, but it's completely secure and there's no way for a dog to get out of it) and we're both home all day seeing as hubby works from home and I'm a "homemaker" as he put it on the application form! I guess I am. So the dogs wouldn't ever be left alone for very long, some days they wouldn't be left at all and others they might be left for an hour or 2 which is nothing really. Our house isn't huge but let's face it, neither are pugs! Ours is about 16 pounds and the one we're hopefully going to adopt is maybe 17 pounds, so not big at all - unless you compare them to tiny chihuahas!

The 'new' pug's name at the moment is Jessyka, which we may or may not keep. I don't mind the name, but I'd spell it the 'regular' way, Jessica. I think we'd shorten it to Jessie. It's not a name I would've chosen myself, but if we get to that point then I guess we'll see how well she knows her name and if she's not too attached to it we may rename her. I was thinking of maybe naming her Amber, I think that suits her. I'm getting way ahead of myself aren't I? It's still very possible that we won't be able to pursue this, so I know I should stop making plans etc. I just think this particular pug would fit in very well with our family and our lifestyle, and I know we can give her a loving forever home where she'll have everything she could possibly ever want. We'd look after her really well and make sure she's a happy little girl. I really hope we get the chance to do that for her. If we are allowed to have another dog, we might have her by the end of this week... that's exciting!