Baby proof

This is what happens when Vinny does the dishes lol. I suspect it could two reasons a) He doesn't want to do the dishes (passive agressive approach i guess) or b) Its a defense mechanism so if we are burglared the burglar will go for the laptop and tv but hopefully leave us the kitchen utensils. I don't know what it is, but every time he stacks the knives like that an image appears in my head of a naive 3 year old reaching up to grab for a spoon and end up slicing his hand. That thought horrifies me for the 2 seconds that it occupies my brain. And now I get a small understanding of why mum always told us not to lick the knife after using it lol.

Is it just me? I don't know but for some reason I don't think this is something I will get use to...time for an intervention!

I'll have the Fillet Mignon

Well I think I have been pretty good at maintaining a once a month post! I really wish i could write more often but when i see other blogs and their abundance of pictures to go along with their stories i think woah mines nothing like that! So what do i do before I start this post...go into fb and copy vinny's most recent pictures of us and paste them into a folder so I can stick them on this post haha so lame...

Whats new? Well I am probably going to jinx myself now for mentioning it but work has been great (tomorow may hold a whole different story but we shall worry about that when tomorow comes). According to Jeanne (via Nancy) I am 'finally getting it'...I wouldn't exactly say it in those words myself. I like to think of it as 'my work is finally paying off'. After months of trying to figure out the way Jeanne likes things to be done and learning from my mistakes I feel like I am being rewarded some gold medal for my efforts. I do try really hard to take care of the plants, make sure I have the shopping list down, filing cabinet memorized from contracts to medical to insurance. It doesn't sound like much to know but everything is so detailed and I have had to learn how to be a detailed person.

Okay enough about work I am excited to write about the night Vinny wanted to take me out somewhere special...So the whole week (I think last week) he was saying don't worry I have it all planned out, I have made reservations and everything you just worry about dressing up and I will take care of the rest. Friday comes and Im so excited, it doesnt even bother me that I just worked a full day and I wont get a chance to rest before going out (which is what i would preferably like to do on any other friday night). We get in the car and Im so excited I just want to know where we are going already, so i ask where is it and all he says is punchbowl. I am familiar with that street since it is where I use to intern at the governors office, I know that its not a street lined with restaurants so my mind starts working...I finally think i got it and ask him its Ruths Chris Steakhouse! He was like 'how did you know?!' and little did he know it was a place I had been dying to go to for years now and every single time I drove past it along punchbowl (on the corner of alamoana blvd) I would just stare at it like a kid passing a candy store, I wanted so badly to go there but knew it was wayyyy outta my budget range, (can I loathe the fact that some people can just go there as if it was some sort of mcdonalds and order the fillet mignon as if they were ordering from the dollar menu?)



So here we are, but the ride to Ruths Chris was should I say much more different than actually being in Ruths Chris (which is not what I intended but you will realize why in a minute). Im over the moon excited to eat, Im staring lovingly into my husbands eyes (as he drives lol) thinking he is the sweetest thing that ever walked the earth for treating me to such a costly restaurant (as poor married students these kinda occasions are only saved for anniversaries or when your rich relatives just happen to be in town and treat you...but since when did we have rich relatives?) Knowing full well how much the meal will cost (equivalent to one return trip to the Big Island). We walk in the restaurant, its super classy, waitstaff are super friendly (i felt like a con artist, they think we are high rollerz but little did they kno we are poor college students just about to spend our years savings for an 8 ounce steak and some veges I could've bought at foodland for a 10th of their price). Waiter gives us our menus, Vinny takes one look and goes "omg this is way more than I expected to pay".I knew he really was caught off guard by the pricing cos he couldnt think properly after that. It was like his mind was somewhere else, he probably immediatly went into survival mode and started making calculations in his head 'okay if order just a steak, no potatoes or vegez and skip the drink that will leave me with...." Okay I have to admit I was a little bit bummed when I realized it was outta his budget, cos I thought he would've atleast tried to do his research since this was suppose to be a special night which to me equals extra effort to make it perfect. I understand that both of us have not eaten here before and he should be let off the hook for not knowing the prices, so after a few minutes I tried to cheer him up a bit and reassure him that we can afford it for this one night (and i mean ONE and ONLY night).

It went awesome, we enjoyed our amazingly delish fillet mignon and creamed spinach and sweet potato casserole (which tasted like a decadent dessert for a nice cold winter night, even though it was meant for the potatoes part of the main meal not the dessert). The sweet potato casserole was so rich and sweet and creamy and it made your insides warm with every bite, not to mention the steak ofcourse, it was super tender and cooked to perfection. We were so excited when the food came that we forgot to take pictures of it...although to be honest I was a little self concious about taking so many photos around other high rollerz that were use to this sort of treatment lol, we probly wouldve looked like some japanese tourists in a foreign country taking pictures of everything from the glass of water to the silverware...we wouldnt wana blow our cover and come accross as amateurs now, so pictures were kept to a minimum.

What I loved about the night was we were able to overcome discouragments with optimism and didnt let that ruin the whole night which was meant to be special. I don't mind if another occasion like this doesnt come up till another year or two, Im glad to say we experienced it, and it was awesome! I have the most awesome husband in the whole world! I love you babe.

Its Been a Long Time

Life is great :)

Im not working as many hours each week, most afternoons I have off and I don't know what to do with my time, next thing you know its time for bed and Im thinking what did I do with my time? Vinny on the other hand has been busy, he doesn't come home at 1pm for lunch anymore now that he has classes and work. I don't see him as much but in a way its good cos when I do see him in the afternoon after his classes and work its nice. He stays for a couple of hours then heads to the library to finish assignments for a couple of hours at night, by 10.30 he is back. One thing that I am trying to get use to is us going to bed at different times.

It was so funny cos for the past month I had been trying to wake up 4.30am to catch a ride with Makena who conveniently lives next door, we go together to campus for insanity at 5am. For the first week I went consistently like about 4 days out of 6. Then after that it just started to get harder and harder to wake up. I like insanity, but I wish I had the diligence to go every single day. And now for the past two weeks I have only gone 2 times out of the week.


We have been thinking of more things to do on the weekend. Pool is one of the things we like to play. Pool wasnt really a game i cared much for, but vinny loved it and while we dated it was something we played often in the hale's lol. Well i mean, vinny was good at it, and it was free to play so why not. Now that I have gotten considerably better I'd like to think I give him a run for his money every now and then, and it feels good to win lol.

It was suprising for vinny to want to watch new zealand's next top model with me last weekend lol! I asked him to come over to watch one scene, then next thing i know we are both watching episodes. It didnt last long, I think he only watched like one or two episodes but it was fun, and not something we normally do together.

I should write more often, but our life is wonderfully normal...not exactly wonderfully exciting. We are both homebody's to be honest, when the weekend comes its not suprising that we go to foodland and rent a movie and thats the highlight of the weekend. Although vinny does love the idea of going out for the weekend, its just a matter of doing what that we cant seem to agree on. I'd say camping, he would say go to the movies, I'd say go hiking, he would say going to the mall... I'd say eating out, he would say dressing up and going somewhere special for dinner (i usually rule that option out cos we dont have the budget and i dont have the energy to dress up, these are not good exuses i know, if i was a typical gurly gurl i would jump at his choice but i guess im different)...Decisions, decisions and more decisions..whats a couple to do! We will have to wait and see...

B. Murahwa xoxox

Memorial Day!

It has been so long since I have written in here, I am contemplating making another blog... I feel somewhat bad because this is meant to be the life of the Murahwa's but everything is told through the eyes of me lol so we will see.... but until then just keep in mind this is the wife speaking and the story may alter depending on whos telling....:P

I was looking for this holiday for almost a week! Im big on being spontaneous, its so exciting to just up and get frozen yogurt even if its a 45minute drive, or even to somehow find we both have an afternoon off and making a drive to the beach. I dunno its just exciting and keeps you guessing what next.

So I had to go to work today which to be honest I wished I didn't have to go, when I woke up this morning it was Vince who got up and he had no work today lol. I could've kept sleeping till midday if I didn't have to work, I just gotta remember that its all worth it when I get my paycheck :) Its funny cos during work I will start to get hungry and will think of things I can quickly and easily make at home once i get home. I knew we had avocados that we hadnt touched for almost a week and had meat patties that I cooked up the other night...so I got the most genius thought to toast some bread, spread some avocado, add a heated up meat pattie and cheese and a bit of lettuce then voila! you got a tasty burger prep time 10 minutes, eating time less than 2 minutes :P

After our tasty lunch we started getting ready to go to the beach, I had been waiting so long to be able to go to the beach with the hubby so I was sooo ready to get out the door already. Im probably the one who wants to go the most yet im the LAST one out the door haha! I gotta make sure I have everything! Sunblock check, sunglasses check, lipgloss check, spare hair band check, CAMERA check (that was the one thing my hubby was sure to remind me about) okay we are gud to go.

Waimea was packed as usual! If it was me and my friends I would be disappointed and turn the car right around and just go to sunset beach instead, but vince teaches me patience and that things are not as bad as they seem which i am grateful for. We couldn't find parking, the original me would be irritated but just sitting there in the car with my hubby who wasnt stressed or mad just sorta kept me in chek. Like, how can you let no parking affect you when the purpose for the beach trip was to enjoy it with your hubby? So I just learnt to sit back and enjoy just being with my otha half wether it be in a car or sitting on the beach its all the same. We eventually found parking over the next coast, and it was a 5-10 minute walk to waimea beach from where we parked...I was dreading the walk with the sun beating down on us but when I got out of the car the ocean breeze was cool and refreshing, apart from the carz zooming past me on my right side the walk was awesome and the coastal view on my left was beautiful!



Thats me and the hubby when we got out of the water, the waves wur so much fun to swim in!! Vince made it more fun just seeing him enjoying swimming around and playing in the big waves LOL, i know it sounds childish but its fun to play around in the water and besides the waves wurnt small..they wur pretty big actually and strong too.

Okay embarrassing story as I was getting out one of the waves hit me from behind and I just went down and as I tried to get up (cos the water was only up to my waist) as I tried to get to my feet the wave was washing back out to sea and as I was trying to fight the wave it almost pulled my bikini bottom right off hahahaa as well as the water level decreasing! I was so embarrased...if somebody had their eye on me the whole time they might have seen something lol...but im sure people got other things to look at on the beach than to be watching some silly girl getting knocked about by a wave haha...

Well after the swim we rested and dried off for bout half an hour, took photos aswell and then packed up our things and went home. What a fun day! I cant wait for the next public holiday...its july 4th isnt it.....hehe not long to go!

Murahwa's xoxox

Date Night Rollercoaster ride

Well it has been a loong time since I have posted something, I either haven't had the time or when I do have time I've been too exausted to come on the computer and write something. Well I can't say I have been too busy, I'd say vinny and I have been about average busy, but its just this silly old laptop that we have...it's sooooo slow and it probably has a million viruses on it so anti-virus websites pop up every second click i make so it makes it not worth the hassel to go online most times. But I'm here now and ready to ramble on about our shenanigans of the month.
Oh and this pic is just a picture we took today after church, I was wearing his "Africa" t-shirt for fun and he said I looked like mama africa...he was just joking i think...

It's sunday evening and vinny is testing out his new oil paintings in the study room so I am ultimately bored out of my brains and refuse to turn on the t.v since I have tried to put my foot down on "No T.V on Sundays!" thats my motto and I will try to stick to it as best I can, wether it means I be bored out of my mind!! It is really hard cos we watched t.v on sundays at home growing up cos dad loves tv. I like watching movies (on normal days) and vinny especially loves tv too, he always asks to turn on the tv on sundays and I cringe at the thort of it because the thing is...as soon as the tv comes on the noise just takes away from that peaceful calm reverence that you have been feeling the whole day and I don't like it at all.

Anyway, so since moving into our new house and with better work opportunities Vinny and I have decided that we want to try and have a date night every friday nights. We have been married four months now and have ONLY just started. Winter semester just ended and our schedules could not permit us to have the time together on the weekends to have a date night so it really reall sucked! But its spring time now, things have changed and we now are able to go out friday nights which is music to my ears!

I would have to admit our first date night was one week ago, last friday, not this friday gone but the one before it, well it didn't go the way we planned. We had planned to catch the bus into ala moana,go shopping and get a list of important things for the house such as printing out wedding photo's and buying frames to put up around the house, then going to Rosses cos Vinny wanted to look around in there, then we go looking in sum shops in ala moana for me cos I am lacking in the clothes department and really need to amp up my wardrobe just a tiny bit, THEN go eat at the top floor of ala moana THEN catch the last bus at 10.13pm back to Laie.

So we caught the bus ontime and arrived in Ala moana around 7pm, we had already determined a budget but I wanted to go over everything again in my head so I was thinking out loud and was saying stuff like 'okay we have this money put away for groceries.....we have this amount put away for tithing...we have this much put away for etc...." you get the picture, so anyway vinny gets annoyed because to him we had already gone thru where all our money needed to go and we had already determined how much we could spend tonight. I didn't realize it had annoyed him so much so i kept processing the budget in my mind (but out loud) when I came to the conclusion that we had enough I felt fine and we could go to walmart and check off the first thing on our list to print wedding photo's. I felt we were strapped for time since it was already 7pm...we only had 2 hours to go to walmart, Rosses, Ala moana mall so I start booking it to Walmart and doing what I'm gud at..and thats ducking and weaving thru pedestrian traffic to get to my destination. I look behind me and vinny is lagging wayyy behind so I stop for a minute to let him catchup but he is jus strolling along like he has no care in the world and im like "we need to hurry up". We get to Walmart and I see he is annoyed, I honestly have no idea why...i start to think that its because he is tired since he had worked a full 8 hours that day so I try to let it pass and get on with our business.

By the time we get done with choosing which foto's to develope its like 7.45pm and we had to be back in walmart to pick up our foto's at 8.30pm. We then come to the conclusion that we wont have time to go to ala moana shops and will have to just go to Rosses instead, which to be honest i was really really disappointed about because I didn't want to go to Rosses in the first place. I feel that sometimes vinny doesn't quite realize the things he says to me sometimes and what kind of impression he makes on me. Leading up to our friday date night he was like 'yeah you should buy you a nice outfit for church or something' and stuff like 'we should go shopping in ala moana friday night for you for clothes and then go eat afterwards' SOOOOO i guess i took him too literally and believed that we were going to do that, I knew we wouldnt get to ala moana till after 7pm so i knew we would have hardly any time to really go shopping and so for him to add in that he wanted to go to Rosses 'just to look around' made me pissed cos im like duude i wana go to ala moana to shop and spend my time wisely on looking for clothes that I need, not waste time in a huge store just for your convenience and with the 50/50 chance that you MIGHT buy something...I know im sounding like a selfish brat right now but you need to understand that vinny has a wardrobe of clothes that is rediculously huge in comparison to some other peoples such as mine.....I mean...I have to wash my clothes at the end of the week cos I don't have enough to last for the next week...i'm hoping this blog is so long right now that people would've quit reading at this point so they don't have to hear me confess that lol.....

So anyway either you feel my pain or you don't that doesn't matter, all that matters is how I was feeling at the time. And if you ask Vinny he will say 'but you said lets just go to Rosses' ...and yes that was my mistake...I said it at the time where it was 7.45pm and we had to sacrifice doing some things we had planned to do cos we just clearly could not get everything done...and since I got the impression that he was annoyed at me I wanted to make him happy and sacrifice my shopping time at ala moana to go to Rosses for him. (He would say we had a very low budget aswell but he doesn't believe me when I say I can find something worthwhile without spending a whole lot of money...its a girls instinct.) So off to Rosses we go, with hardly any time to spend I try to get there as fast as we can but he slows me down and wants to take his time.

Rosses was nice, don't get me wrong I got nothing against shopping there (i even found me a pretty top to wear) its just....if I had a choice between that and a mall...the mall would be the first choice for sure.


(thats me in the middle with the top I bought at Rosses :P) Anyway moving on with the story we pick up our photo's, buy visine for vinny's eyes cos they were really badly itching. We then eat at some hawaiian burger place which had awesomely yummy burgers and ALL YOU CAN EAT fries!! AND bottomless drinks!!!!! I thought I was in heaven lol.


We sit down and he then probably felt it safe for him to tell me wat was annoying him, which I wished he could have told me earlier and would've saved me a whole lot of hassel. Firstly it was me revising our budget when we had already planned it before we came here...okay fine. Secondly I was taking off everywhere to get everything done I wasn't slowing down to take in the fresh polluted city air and the great views of the cars passing by..ya know...being in the moment with a grumpy husband. I get wot he is saying, but for all you husbands out there who have these similar feelings... DONT WAIT, just pull us aside and tell us, dont wait and make me wonder the whole night what is bothering you, it just sucks and if you have a problem say it to me sooner rather than later so that our night doesnt get ruined over something that could have been avoided.

So I took it all in so that next time I know what to do to not annoy him, and as far as dinner was concerned we both had a blast. It was only later when we got to the bus earlier than we expected and I was soooo bloated and full I couldnt walk any further where as he wanted to walk his dinner off and I was like no way! Then as we got on the bus he sat at the back by the window but I thought it only fair that since he sat by the window last time that I sit there this time so I ask him to move and he refused and i was like so annoyed!! All he does is point to the seat next to him and was like 'take a seat', that was it! I just didn't have much patience for him much more so I sat all the way on the other side of the back seat next to the opposite window. I realized I had the ipod so I switched it on and fell to sleep most of the way home. I guess I had just had such a rocky night that I really needed my own space, I started to imagin how peaceful it would be to just to curl up on the couch with my own blanket and my own pillow and teddy called Tweety and fall to sleep, so thats exactly what I did when we got home. We hadn't said anything since the whole window incident and I just grabbed my blanket and pillow and teddy and slept out on the couch. It was the first time I had ever voluntarily slept in a different bed to him(while in the same house). The only other time we slept apart in the same house was when we had a big argument in our studio apartment and I made him sleep on the floor hehe. I think everyone has experienced it before and im just keepin it real wit you bout our relationship, we are just a normal couple that has there good and bad moments ya know.

Well anyway there it is, our first night out and wat a rollercoaster of a ride that was. We have now since had our second date night and let me tell you it was a million times better than the first thats for sure. I guess the good thing about having a sort of sucky first date night is the fact that its so much easier to make the next one a lot better. I deffinitley look forward to what we are gunna do next time!

First Outing with OCD Queen!

Okay so I am now HAPPILY re-united with my husband in Hawaii and loving it. I arrived friday morning and Vinny was able to pick me up in his friends car. The weekend was awesome, we spent all day friday together, and part of saturday (vinny had work) then all day sunday together cos it was general conference weekend. By sunday we were looking forward to Monday because we were starting to feel claustrophobic just the two of us in our studio apartment, his face was practically the only face i'd seen all weekend...it was just getting a bit much for me (and probably him). So due to personal reasons I will mention my work as being in "Jeanne's world" or "jeanne land"....if you are confused as to why I may explain at a later date, but for now thats just how Im going to refer to it.

So in Jeanne's world she likes to go out every Tuesdays, I have only been in Jeanne Land since monday and tuesday came way too quickly for me to get use to her yet and so now I'm freaking out because I have to spend one on one time with her and take her everywhere she wants to go, I was so nervous. I was told that 'usually' she tells me where she wants to go Monday so I have a whole day to map quest etc... But at the end of monday she just said we were going up the Northshore and said something about the hospital.

Everything seemed good to go Tuesday morning, we took off to the hospital, thank goodness for Lindsay cos I knew exactly where to park to get her into her wheelchair, I knew to wheel her into the office while I go back outside and park the car, then go into the emergency entrance office to pick up paperwork for miss Jeanne to fill out and sign. It all seemed smooth sailing, but it didnt quite turn out the way I had hoped it would. Firstly, when I parked I hadn't parked close enough to the ramp for Jeanne to get into her wheelchair so she was totally annoyed with me about that. Next she wanted to wait and watch me park the car, probably to make sure I had done it right. As I was driving to the parking lot I realized she had pressed the hazard lights on the car and I had no idea how to turn them off! I panicked and called Lindsay on hur cell but realized that would be no use so I just tried to figure it out on my own. I opened the door and heard Jeanne yelling from the hospital entrance "ON THE RIGHT OF THE STEERING WHEEL!!!" Okay thanks a lot Jeanne.

Next thing I take Jeanne into the entrance office while I go around to the emergency entrance for her paperwork. Then Jeanne demands that the "head technician" be the one to draw the blood sample since she has no easily visible veins. When the nurse comes Jeanne demands "are you the head technician?" the nurse says "no Miss Rand but I have done you before" she thinks for a bit and is like "oh...okay...but I would much prefer the head technician, you see these arms they have no veins ya know, the last nurse poked me 16 times and still could not find the vein". The nurse took it like a pro and was like "you will be safe with me, you will be out in no time". I wheel her into the tiny room and wait for the nurse to fill out last minute paperwork, Jeanne comments "you know I don't know if you are allowed to stay during this procedure, Lindsay was not allowed to stay" I'm actually relieved to hear that and happily leave her in the room waiting for the nurse.

It is over in 5 minutes and she hasn't confirmed to me what we are doing next. She comes out and is like "we need to hurry to catch the turtle bay breakfast" and I'm thinking well gee thanks for confirming with me earlier about this (although I already knew because Lindsay told me, but it bugged me to have Jeanne keep me guessing like this all the time). We go thru security and he gives us a parking ticket that we needed to validate before we leave. She takes it from me and is like "here I will hold it for you for now since its your first day and you dont know what you are doing, but after this I expect you to know how to do these things and I will not be doing them for you" Thanks for the heads up :P

We get to the breakfast buffet and Im pushing her everywhere while she is holding her plate thinking about what else she wants to pile on her plate, she says 'take me to the quiches' in my mind im thinking duuude I told you I've never been here before I don't know where they are! She points to the right and I take her, she then says "take me to the scrambled eggs" duude once again I dont knowwwww! She points to the left and I take her to what I think are the scrambled eggs. We then take a seat at a table and shes pretty sweet by then since shez got her food n all, shez just like "now you can go and get your plate, and remember you can have anything you want and as much as you want". Its sorta cute she sounds like she is talking to her grandchild, i guess literally I could be her grandchild but definitely glad that im not!!!

We then get outta there and I'm thinking well she hasn't mentioned what we are going to do next so we must be going home...wrong, once we go through all the shenanigans of getting her into the car (it was a long stressful process since everybody chose to check in at that time so cars were blocking the ramp she uses to get get from her wheelchair into the car. She was so upset with the whole ordeal she told me not to tip the valle man, oh well he misses out on 2 bux :P

She then says we should take a drive down to Sunset beach, there is a nursery she wants to have a look at...Little did I know it would change and once we passed Sunset beach she is like "look for Sunset Elementary, we can take our recycling there" (once again, the guessing game begins). I tell her I don't know where that is and she is like 'oh dont worry its coming somewhere on the left hand side. Gee that helps alot. Anyway she tells me to slow down cos its coming up 'pretty soon' but it was annoying because we were in a 35mile zone going 20miles an hour so I was was like 'no jeanne it isn't coming up' she is like 'yes it is' im like "no its not, we are not in the school zone yet, the signs will tell us once we are inside the school zone and that we need to go 25miles an hour" she signs and says under her breath 'ahwell i hope you know wat your talking about' Two minutes later LO and BEHOLD the 25mile an hour School Zone road sign came up and she is like 'ahh i guess your right' Yep thanx, thats one hurdle under my belt, im ready for the next challenge!

We go to the recycling windows and I start dropping the bottles in, I tell her I've never done this before, I then start dropping them in. Next thing i hear her yelling from the car "Take the bottle tops off! Take the bottle tops off!" She wasn't content until I had to show her every bottle to let her know that there was no bottle top on it, I then dropped it into the window. Recycling down, one more step closer to returning home!

I get in the car and I think we are going home because to the best of my knowledge we are done...I know we usually do shopping Tuesdays but she never specifically told me, its my first day remember. So once I start heading to the main road she is like "now we are going to make a left and go to the foodland at sunset beach and pick up a few things" guessing game again...thanks for the warning. Lucky for me I know where foodland is.

So we get into foodland and I get a trolley, she then tells me that "Lindsay usually pushes me as well as the shopping cart, I don't know how your going to do it but you can figure it out im sure". Oh man that had to top it off, I was truly relieved that this was going to be a short day because pushing Jeanne as well as dragging the shopping cart behind me was a skill I quickly learnt and one I hope I don't have to use ever again. Besides the fact that she isn't the smallest old lady but she buys so many groceries it could feed me and my husband for a month! My arms and legs wur so sore afterwards because it was just the millions of times she wanted to stop and look at a product then go again, once we were moving it was fine because of momentum, it was just the starting and stopping that I had to use all my effort. Now I understand why Lindsay says she just cannot take her out anymore, even I was having difficulty and I'm not even pregnant!

The one enjoyable thing I got out of going to foodland was all the workers looking at me and smiling, they knew who she was and must've guessed I was the newby and probly had a lot to learn. So it made me smile to see them smiling at me, dunno why i guess it was just comforting to know that others around me are familiar with the Jeanne Rand traits and that I will somehow make it out alive, after all I'm not the first one to be in Jeanne's World.

After that we get Starbucks, Jeanne clearly let them know that I was not allowed anything with coffee in it and to give me the menu of all 'non coffee' drinks I could choose. We then make the trek home and each minute I'm getting happier and happier. yay in half an hour its going to be over and I can go home and have a nice long rest with the nice cool fan beating down on me! Hopefully next Tuesday will be a better day....

Visa Woes

So I'm in Perth at the moment trying to apply for a student dependant visa (F-2) so I can be with Vinny while he goes to school in Hawaii. Its been such a long and drawn out process I would never wish it upon anyone! Vinny and I were told by the school (no names this world is too small to pin-point the person but lets just say they are ligit) ANYWAY we were told for me to come in to Hawaii on a tourist visa and get married and the school would help me change my status to an F-2 visa so I was able to stay for the whole year that vinny has left of school. So thats wat we do, although key word here was 'tourist visa'. See, there are two ways you can enter the U.S, a proper 'tourist visa' (B-2) OR a 'waiver' where you can enter the country for 90 days as a tourist but you have to leave, you need to provide documents to show that you have a return ticket out of the country. So here's me thinking well ofcourse they must surely know that Im entering in on a 'waiver', and this will give me 90 days to change my status to F-2, Im also thinking well I know I have to have a return ticket back to Australia but its all good cos I wont need to use it (you can't put a price on love). My worst nightmare was for me having to actually use that return ticket and leave my husband of only 3 months!!

Well 2 months into our marriage we were told that I was not able to change my status to an F-2 visa because I entered in on a Waiver and you cannot change status if you enter in on a Waiver. If I had've gone thru the process, filled out the proper forms and went to the US consulate in Perth and applied for a B-2 (tourist Visa) It wouldve been a totally different story!..so anyway I guess my worst nightmare was actually coming true, I had to leave my husband and return back to auzzie. Honestly when I first found out the news I cried, if only you knew mine and vinny's history in leading up to our wedding you would understand. We had been apart for 20 months before the wedding and I came to Hawaii only 2 days before the actual wedding so there wasn't any time for catching up it was just straight planning and doing last minute errands, then on the plane to Kona to get married. Inside I promised myself never did I want to leave Vinny ever again. When the news came it felt like something in my chest pulling me down, like something caught in the back of my throat and my eyes stinging from tears that wanted to come out. At night it was the worst, I remember one night we were laying there facing each other and I couldnt help it I curled up and he put his arms around me and I just cried...urghhhhhh! Why did things have to be so friggen hard and complicated!!!

I had two weeks to get use to the idea of leaving, plus it wasn't like I was going forever...I knew that I would only be in Auzzie for 2-3 weeks sorting out my proper visa that would allow me to enter the country for the WHOLE time vinny is at school and not just for 90 days. But still!! I felt like I couldnt even keep that promise to myself that I wished sooooooo much that I didnt have to break (never to leave vinny again) man I felt so helpless! Cos as soon as I was told I had to go I just knew.... I had to go and do it the right way..back in Auzzie.

My date was set for monday 29th March at 9.20am and I had all my documents ready, or so I thought I did! I had this checklist that I had printed just to make sure I had everything,

• filled out the DS-120 form online and printed the confirmation page with an uploaded photo, (which sounded technical but totally wasnt!!) check
• did I pay the non-refundable application fee at auzzie post and have the original reciept,check
• do I have my I-20 signed by the school and my husband,check
• have I the correct size photograph taken,check
• have I scheduled an appointment through the VisaPoint service (which gave me the biggest headache trying to accomplish!!) and printed out the confirmation page,check
• have I remembered to bring all of my required supporting documentation (marriage certificate and nz passport with old student visa in it) check
• have I prepared a registered return envelope for the Consulate to return my passport by registered mail,check
• have I read the Consulate's Security Notice,check

I was sooooo ready to go! So how it works is, I get to the Consulate building, I go to the 4th floor where security is waiting to screen me (just like going through security at an airport), I put my phone and bag in a locker, holding all my documents and passport the security guard escorts me to the elevator and inserts his security key to allow me to go to the top floor where the interviews being held. I get to the top floor and another security check is held, the security guard then swipes his key at the entrance door and he opens it and lets me go inside where I sit and wait for my turn to be interviewed. There were about 10 people in the room all together and about 4 people ahead of me in the line, only 2 windows were open. Window 1 is where the actual interview is held by a man, and window 2 is where you first get called to show all your documents to a lady and she tells you if you have all the documents required for the interview or if you are missing some. The girl right before me only got as far as Window 2 and she had to leave because she hadn't filled out a certain form required for the visa that she was applying for, once that happened I really got nervous...what if I didn't realise that I was missing a document? or what if there was a form I didn't know I had to fill out?? I just wasn't sure at all. I had been praying so hard to help me get through okay and to help me not be so nervous. I had fasted Sunday and was going onto my second day of fasting (monday morning)..it was only the morning so I wasn't really feeling the effects of only one meal for the past day and a half so it was fine.

My number gets called up and I approach the lady in window 2. I hand her my VisaPoint confirmation page, then my I-20, then my DS-120 confirmation page, then my auzzie post reciept, then my auzzie passport. I wait......She then asks for my SEVIS fee reciept...my mind is blank...I'm like "my what?" she is like "its a fee you needed to pay online, you would know if you paid it because you need to fill out a form to go along with it" my mind is still blank!! She then goes to a shelf on her side of the window and comes back with a form, by then my face is hot, my heart is pounding and I feel my body go weak I wanted to faint, no..I wanted to cry. She then circles 2 fees I had to pay before I have my interview...I had only paid 1 because I was only aware of 1 fee NOT 2!!! I try to speak but i couldn't, there was no explanation...well there was...but it hurt too much to say the words 'i didnt know' because I knew that those words weren't going to change a thing! So I didnt say anything, she didn't appear to want an explanation anyway she just told me to go have a seat and wait.

I waited, it seemed like forever but I just sat there trying not to cry...im such a big baby! But seriously I had my heart set on getting this visa!! I had to look at the ground and then up at the ceiling to stop the tears from wanting to come out, I also tried to keep my mind occupied so that I didnt have to think about my situation. The man at window 1 calls out my name and I approach him. He looks over my documents that the lady at window 2 had taken from me and prepared them in an orderly way for him to quickly look over and see why I was standing before him. He goes 'oh so you got married, when did you get married?' in a chirpy voice and I'm like "um december, 19th" with a little smile, when people are happy you cant help but get a bit happy yourself. I then show him my marriage certificate. He then goes "I see that you also studied in Hawaii and graduated?", I was then like "yep, in Political science...would you like to see my visa??" he thinks for a second then is like "sure" so I get out my nz passport and show him my old student visa. He then goes "so what are your plans after your husband graduates?" he seemed genuinly interested, it didn't seem like a test at all, and I go "well we want to come back here for sure, I'm not sure about zimbabwe just yet...but we will see" he is then like "yeah" (agreeing and smiling) he then ends "your visa will come in the mail and I will just get you to step aside to the next window to pay your fee" Im like yayyyyyy! I did it!! Huge sigh of relief!! Although I was a little sceptical about getting my visa in the mail knowing that the man didnt ask me about the SEVIS fee I forgot to pay online......I thought...maybe he will come accross the error while doing my paper work and call me back for another interview or something....So i couldn't exactly feel relieved.

It wasn't until that night where I searched online to find out how to pay my SEVIS fee that I found out everything I needed to know, Firstly it costs $200USD!!!! I was like oh my goodness...yeahh now I understand why the lady at the window said 'you would know if you paid this online fee or not' and secondly there are people who are exempt from paying the fee including spouses and children applying for an F-2 visa which was me!!!! Its funny cos that was the point where I was just totally relieved, my guard was down and I just felt like all this weight lifted from my shoulders! I was honestly soooooooooooo relieved to know that I did everything right and I didn't have to worry anymore! I guess the lady at the window saw my application and thought I was applying for an F-1 visa (in which case I would've definitely been screwd at the interview if I hadn't paid!)

In saying all of this the worst is over, I now just have to be patient and enjoy my last days here in Perth before I fly back to my poor husband who is in much need of a good home cooked meal and heaps of hugs and kisses!!! Although he never asks for the hugs and kisses I know he loves them just as much as I love giving them :P Thank you to our friends who have invited him over for a meal and some company he tells me he appreciates them! And thank you for all the prayers and concern for me at this time, it has truly been a long process and as I say I would NEVER wish it upon anyone!!!!

until next time... :)