NOA2 - One Week Later

(I copy and pasted this entry from Chris and I's shared blog, which will explain at least the first paragraph. :) I don't want to share the address to the new blog with the world at large, so if you want a link to it let me know and I'll email it to you. Thanks!)


Chris and I have spent the past week going back and forth about who needed to write this blog update. I said he did because his posts are much more entertaining than mine; he has more of a flair for words, which is, frankly, kind of annoying since I have a degree in creative writing. ;) His opinion was that I needed to write it, mostly because he’s already written more entries on here than I have. I tried to stand my ground for the past week, but it’s finally become apparent that he won’t give in and write it. So here it goes, my attempt to be as entertaining in an entry as Chris!

One week ago today, we received the news that our petition for a fiance visa was approved by the USCIS! I had spent about an hour that night researching information about the visa, and I had a funny feeling that that day could be the day. When I logged into the USCIS website, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the words “post-decision activity” under our status. As Chris and I often do, we had a video chat still going even though Chris had gone to sleep. I tried yelling at him several times, even tried annoying him with the ringing noise from another messenger service, but nothing shook him from his sleep. I was so excited to share the news!! But after a few attempts of annoying him, I gave up and decided to just spread the news to my family and friends via Facebook, text, and email. I called my mom and was bawling (tears of joy, of course), telling her the news. Chris finally woke up a couple of hours later and I was able to tell him. It almost seemed like a dream. It feels like it’s been AGES since we submitted our petition. In reality, it was almost four months to the day since it had been received. But our long unsure wait is over!

According to Chris’ timeline in his very first post on here, we are now at step 3 (shown here as step 1). As a refresher, this is what we still have to do:

1. Once petition is approved, the actual visa application process is started.
2. Wait.
3. Have medical check.
4. Have interview.
5. Get approved (hopefully!)

We should hopefully be getting a date for the interview in the next week or two, which will give us a much more concrete idea of when the visa will be approved. From what we’ve read, it shouldn’t be more than 2-3 months now.

I think that the excitement of this news is lost on some people. When I first started saying the petition had been approved, it was understandably confusing to some. I got comments on Facebook about how they thought that meant Chris would actually be coming here and it was sad that wasn’t the case. Personally I took that as a bit of raining on my parade. Unless you’ve been in this situation, where you’ve been waiting for four very long months just to get word of whether or not your vision of the future has a possibility of happening…well, you just can’t understand the excitement of moving to the next step in that scenario. No, Chris can’t come right now. Yes, we still have a few months ahead of us. But the important thing is it’s moving forward! And we will have more concrete dates to work with now, rather than guessing when something may happen.

All in all, Chris and I couldn’t be happier! We figured late May would be the latest the petition would get approved so we are a month ahead of schedule. We should be able to keep our wedding date (September 23rd) now, and hopefully be able to stick to the plan of having him come out in August.



*Disclaimer: “knock on wood” about this entire blog post and it’s statements regarding dates when things should happen.

Days of Scream

Watching Scream was one of my first openly rebellious act against my mother. I remember I was eleven years old when the first Scream came out. I begged my mom to let me see it, but of course she said no. Being as clever as I am, I decided I simply had to bide my time. Once it was on video I asked my dad if we could see it while I was at his house for the weekend. He said yes, and the rest is history!

I fell in love with Scream immediately. I’m not sure why exactly…maybe it was partly because of the small thrill I got out of doing something bad or maybe it was because of the excitement of seeing my first real scary movie, but Scream has led to a life long love of the horror genre. Yes, there are lots of horrible scary movies, I’m the first to admit, but it’s for that very reason that finding a good one gives me a real feeling of accomplishment, like I’ve found a diamond in the rough.

But back to Scream! It’s influence on my life has been somewhat extensive. Pretty much anyone who knows me well knows that I love the series. I own all three movies on both VHS and DVD, as well as owning all three soundtracks. I started writing a horror screenplay at age 12, with the original intent of trying to write what might be a first scene for the next Scream movie and then seeing how close I was to the actual opening. My mom and sister convinced me to turn that scene into it’s own story and, to date, it is the only writing project of length that I’ve ever completed…although completed might be the wrong word, since it still needs some major revision. My first (and current) email address is woodsborogirl, after to fictional town of Woodsboro that Scream is set in. I dressed up as Sidney Prescott for Halloween a few times. I even used to have the goal of watching Scream 100 times before I turned 16; I kept a little tally paper inside the VHS sleeve so I could track it. I never reached that lofty goal, but I do still remember sitting in my bedroom, the little TV flickering those familiar images, while I ate Jiffy Pop and drank root beer in an homage to the movie.

Scream connected with me in a way no other movie has, so as you can imagine, my excitement for a new installment in my beloved series is very high. I remember taking the afternoon off of school my senior year to see Scream 3. Now, 10 years later, I will be taking the afternoon off of work to be one of the first to see Scream 4. I don’t really expect the same kind of magic I experienced 15 years ago when I saw the first, but something that reminds me of it would be nice.

Paul McKenna

So about a month or so ago my mom told me she was trying to find a book about weight loss that included hypnosis. I kind of just rolled my eyes and said "yeah, okay...good luck finding it." But when I went to her house on Wednesday last week, it had arrived in the mail. I still rolled my eyes but took the book and figured what the heck. I'd been doing Weight Watchers for about 2 weeks prior to this and had only lost 2 pounds, so I figured McKenna deserved a shot...especially once I saw he was British! :)

I read the whole book on Friday night. It's pretty short and I was done within 2-3 hours. It set forward a simple guide for eating, along with suggestions of how to overcome common problems like emotional eating, which I am totally guilty of. I also listened to the hypnosis CD that night. It's about 25 minutes long, and McKenna has a sexy voice so I don't mind listening to it (haha).

I am supposed to listen to the CD every night for two weeks, and refrain from weighing myself until then. However, I've been following his system for four days now and I can already tell you I love it! No more eye rolling from me! I haven't been mindlessly snacking, or had my usual overwhelming cravings for sweet things. Best of all, he's somehow hypnotized me into not hating exercise! :) He presents exercise as being simple things you can add to your routine, even just trying to take 2000 more steps every day. So Saturday my mom and I went and wandered the mall (I couldn't believe I could count that as exercise), then on Sunday we took a walk to a nearby park. Yesterday I did about an hour of cleaning after work and today I walked to a nearby fast food place to grab lunch, rather than driving. I am also eating so much less but not suffering! I really can't believe it. I don't know for sure what the scales will show next Friday, but I love how this is making me feel and I think I'm going to stick with it, rather than going back to Weight Watchers. Yes, I am a hypnosis convert.

Here is a very basic summary of the program...his four "golden rules" to follow:

1. When you are hungry, EAT.
2. EAT WHAT YOU WANT, not what you think you should.
3. Eat CONSCIOUSLY and enjoy every mouthful.
4. When you think you are full, STOP eating.

Simple as that! Of course there is more to it but that's the core. It also really focuses on turning your negative feelings towards yourself, food, and exercise into positive feelings that will help you reach your goal, rather than undermining your progress. Yes, I'm only four days in so you may want to wait until you hear some real results, but I would definitely recommend this book to anyone trying to lose weight! Thanks Paul McKenna! (yes, I know that sounded really corny :))

A link if you want to check out another summary for the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Can-Make-You-Thin-Revolutionary/dp/1402765711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302061075&sr=8-1