Green Card has arrived

After our trip to Alabama, I checked our mail and found my spanking new green card in our mailbox.. Excellent~~

Christmas in July (2009)

Andy's family from his mom's side decided a few years ago that it is way too difficult for everyone to get together during Christmas holidays. The solution is to have our Christmas "mid-year". The last couple of years we all got together during the Memorial Day weekend in Texas. This year, Fourth of July fell on a Saturday and we all decided it'd be fun to do our Christmas on Fourth of July weekend instead.

I took two days off and Andy just finished his project. We rented a car and left town on July 1st, stayed overnight in Salem, Virginia and drove all the way down to Attalla, Alabama. Andy's aunt, Cheryl and her husband just built a new house on a 95-acre land. It was very nice and the yard was large enough they put up a valleyball net and horse shoe game setup. We had lots of Blue Bell ice cream, and stopped at Sonic every single day. I guess family gathering simply means "Lots of Food".

On Fourth of July, we had lunch and we sat downa and did our "Christmas" gift exchange. My sister-in-law, Raeann, got my name and she got me a board game off my Amazon wish list. It is called "Tickets to Ride". I played the game once during our YA retreat, and it was a lot of fun. It is even available on Xbox 360, too. Andy's cousin Hunter got Andy's name and being an artist that he is, he did three pictures based on our glamour shots. Hunter is actually going to New York to study at an art institute. Andy and I both look forward to his moving up north east.

After we all got our presents, of course we will have to do some group picture, and here they are..

On the Fifth, everyone had to leave and go home from the holidays. Andy and I did not leave Attalla until almost 10 in the morning. There was serious thunderstorm going the whole time we were in Alabama. The rain was not as bad when we got to Georgia. When we got to Tennessee, we saw a "Lodge" cast iron store off the highway and decided to stop. Man, what a stupid decision it was. The exit was actually to Pigeon Forge. After we pulled off the highway, we look across and saw the lines of cars waiting to get back on. The store was 4 miles off the highway, and the cars going the other direction was lined up all the way to the store. Andy and I decided since it'd be extremely difficult to get back on the highway, we'd just keep going toward Pigeon Forge and Gaitlinburg and through the Great Smoky National Park and see where that'd take us.

We drove through Gaitlinburg and then Pigeon Forge, and finally into the National Park. It was a lot of fun driving in the fog. It was about 33 miles to drive from Pigeon Forge, TN to Cherokee, NC, but it took us about an hour to get out of the mountain. We stopped in Asheville, NC to get some BBQ at Ed Boudreaux's Bayou Bar-B-Que (16 different types of BBQ sauce). Asheville in general is very interesting. Even though we got there on a Sunday, there were still a lot of people in the downtown area and lots of people with interesting hair and outfits... Just my opinion..

After dinner, we drove on to Johnson City, TN to stop for the night. The "future" I-26 was an interesting highway. Three-lane highway with serious uphill and downhill grade right in the mountains. There are also a couple of "Runaway truck ramps". It was a good thing that I only saw one 18-wheeler the whole time I was driving.

The next morning we got up pretty early and started driving back toward Virginia on I-81. Stopped at Apple House and had some lunch and got back home around 2pm.. We totally enjoyed our road trip, and hopefully next time we can actually do a longer trip, rather than only 5 days.

Removal of Conditions Part 2

Wow.. It's been almost a year since I posted something on this blog. How lazy can I be?

Anyway, since last year, there are some new updates on my "Removal of Conditions" front. I got my biometrics test done and went with Andy to Fredericksburg to get some Sonics.

In February 2009, I got a notice from USCIS that my application for the "removal of conditions" was moved from the Vermont Service Center to the California Service Center. I was totally confused and googled online to see what exactly this is about. One great web site came up, which is Visa Journey. The web site also provide great information on any visa/immigration related issues. In the Forum I found out that a lot of people are going through the same thing as I am. So once I saw the posts of people with similar experience, I relaxed a little bit and started to wait patiently to see what would come up next.

In April 2009, I got a letter from USCIS notifying me the approval of my removal of conditions. That was exciting. Last week, I got an notice that my green card has been ordered and I should get it within 30 days. I just hope that it gets here before my driver's license expires. I am totally not looking forward to another couple of hours sitting in the DMV trying to get my license renewed.

So my next step is to apply for naturalization. How exciting~~

Removal of Conditions Part 1

It's been awhile since I posted anything here. I guess it is because I get distracted easily. Anyway, I do have something that I want to talk about, hence the title.

Andy and I have been married for two years and half. About two years ago, we went to the field office of United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Fairfax for an interview for me to get my Conditional Permanent Residency, which was good for two years. To remove the condition, Andy and I have to apply for the "Removal of Conditions" within 90 days of the expiration date of the Conditional Permanent Residency (August 17, 2008).

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, one needs to prove his/her legal status in the US to get an identification card or driver's license. The length of the id/license is only as good as the status, for example, my driver's license would have expired on the day my residency expires. For the longest time, I wonder about how I will renew my license after my residency expires since I cannot renew my green card. I can only apply to remove the conditions.

So the two-year anniversary of my residency came up quickly. Andy and I submitted our application to remove the conditions late July, 2008 and about a week later, I got a receipt notice letting me know that my residency has been extended for a year, but with no dates. I assumed that the new expiration date would be August 17, 2009, since the old expiration date was August 17, 2008.

I took a long lunch break to visit our local DMV with all my documentations hoping the notice with no dates will be enough. After my number was called, the DMV lady examined the documents that I brought, and she had to walk away to talk to her supervisor. She came back telling me that the new license will only be good for a year based on the issue date. I thought, "OK, it's not too bad, August 13, 2009 is only 4 days from August 17, 2009". But when I got the actual card, the expiration date was July 21, 2009. Apparently, they used the receipt notice date as the day the one year extension started. I was not thrilled. I can only hope our application will not take that long to be processed.

The next step is the "Biometrics" - in short, fingerprints. My appointment with the USCIS is August 26, 2008. I will have to take a half day off in order to get to Alexandria in the middle of the day. Maybe Andy and I can take a mini-road trip to Fredericksburg for some Sonic..

Need Sleep

I think I have been getting about 5-6 hours of sleep lately due to my habit of not wanting to go to bed at bed time. The Xbox 360 certainly is not helping the situation. Andy and I only have one game, but it's enough to keep us playing two hours every night right around bedtime. I actually fell asleep while we played last night. I think I want to get some shooting games to get my blood pumping so I won't feel so sleepy...

Summary.......

Andy is more active in his blogging than I am. I simply can't think of much to write about. I guess I can summarize my life with some bullet points because that is pretty much the way I talk to my mother-in-law to keep her up to date on what Andy and I have been doing.

• Andy, I and his parents plus my five other relatives all went to Taiwan for a two-week visit in March. What a production it was.. After the trip, my co-workers called me anti-social because I didn't talke for about two weeks at work. I guess I talked myself out during the two-week Taiwan Trip.



• I bought a used PSP that I found on Craigslist. The story went this way, I talked to the guy who was selling the PSP and set up to meet in a public place. I did not have time to get cash so I had to stop by Safeway trying to get some money. Long story short, I still couldn't get enough money in Safeway and the scary thunderstorm was about to hit us, so I asked the guy to drive me to the bank to get the rest of the money. When Andy found out about my adventure, he wasn't too pleased about it since I took a ride with a stranger. The thing is, this was not the first time I hitched rides with strangers...



• On Memorial Weekend, Andy and I flew down to Texas for Trey and Holly's wedding and our annual "Mid-Christmas" gift exchange. All I can say is, it was really hot and I stopped at Sonic almost every single day....



• Andy and I went to the new Nationals Ball Park for free not just once, but twice. I also got to go again with my office outing and got a Ryan Zimmerman Bobble head. I guess working in my office still does have its perks.



• I won an Xbox 360 Elite system in a Microsoft Live Officespace Sweepstake. That was pretty cool.. Andy and I got the Legos Indiana Jones game for the system and it looks great on our TV.



• My co-worker Ashley went with me yesterday to see a prescreening of the musical-turned-movie, Mamma Mia, at Tyson's. Great movie and great music. It was worth waiting for in the wrapped around line at the theater.

I guess I do have a lot of things to say.... I may have more to say later because our summer seems to become very busy...

What's going on?

Life seems to settle to a pattern of going to work, eating, cleaning, doing laundry, going to church and going to small group. I miss the days that I can just go somewhere without having to worry about my obligations and daily chores.

Since we came back from Taiwan, we spent five days in Texas, four days in New York, and half a day in Fredericksburg. When did we become so boring? We are probably too young to complain about life weighing us down, but it seems to be true. It's getting harder to spontaneously drop everything and go on a road trip.

Living in the richest area in the country does not help. God says, "You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour." I try hard to not think about what I do not have, but it is a struggle.

Well, it is just life.