Happy Anniversary

Wow, it has been so long since I last blogged that the whole blogger layout is different and I'm going to have to spend some serious time exploring it.

So, here we are... May 26th.  Happy Anniversary to me.  Marco and I have now been married 5 years.  I wish that we could be together.... hopefully next year.

Lots of things have happened during my blogging sabbatical.....
     We are progressing on the immigration front.... slowly but surely.  I'm still hopeful that Marco will be here sometime this summer, but sometimes it seems like it is never going to happen.  We are SO ready for Daddy to come home.  August 15th it will have been a whole year since we have seen Marco face to face..... I hope it doesn't get that far.  Our papers have passed through the immigration gauntlet and are now going through the visa one.  I can't seem to find any processing times which is discouraging.... I like being able to have even the slightest hint of a time frame.

     The kids and I moved.  Remember the project that my parents were involved in starting at the end of last summer.... the remodeling of the old hotel into apartments.  Well, I am the new manager.  We are loving it here.  There is a great park one block away (the spray park is supposed to open this weekend, but the weather is completely miserable right now!!), the library is 6 blocks away and they have these kid-friendly computers that Cooper is OBSESSED with, he cries when it is time to go.  Maria is in the pre-school up at the university, which is a pretty cool program, she is really enjoying it.  Managing the apartments is fun.  The guys we manage are all so nice.... a really great group of guys.  I love having the self-fulfillment that working gives me.

     My brother lives here in the same town, and his oldest son will be 8 later this summer.  He is playing little league baseball right now and we love going to the games.  Maria and Cooper love playing with the balls and bats, they don't know exactly what to do, but they enjoy themselves. 

     Today, being such a yucky, dark, windy, rainy day.... we are staying inside.  We made play dough this morning, it's pretty amazing how long they are happy playing with play dough.  Then I screwed some mini-picture framing hooks into the ceiling, attached a piece of yarn to them and tied a balloon to the end... I hung two on opposite sides of the living room and the kids are LOVING practicing hitting the balloons with their bats.  Now I just have to figure out activities for this evening.

Immigration Update

Hello all.  Here is an immigration update for those of you who care.  

Marco is STILL in Honduras.  The kids and I are in Washington but will be moving to Idaho to manage some apartments.  I am very torn about the move.... I will be leaving a lot of security in the form of family and friends, but this will hopefully set us up better for the future when Marco returns.

On my birthday my petition for my spouse was approved.  Oh happy day.  I didn't find out about it until March 5th due to speed of mail, but we are happy about this.  I was at the gym with my mom when the letter came in the mail.  My dad called and opened it for me and I started crying happy tears. this means that we are one step closer to being reunited as a family.  

The downside of this is there was some confusion earlier on in our case and now we have to submit another application to get USCIS (United States Citizen & Immigration Services) to transfer our case to the NVC (National Visa Center).  The processing times for this movement of paper looks to be around 3 months..... and I don't believe that that time frame includes the NVC's processing times.  But we are hopeful that this will progress quickly.  We received the petition for spouse approval in 4 months, 2 months quicker than we expected, so hopefully the rest will also be processed quickly.

I am OK most of the time.  Today has been a rough day, and I expect that it will get worse before it gets better.  I know it could be worse, which helps me keep things in perspective.  I also have a LOT of things to be thankful for.  I am thankful for my 3 1/2 year old who is a very nice little girl, who brings me tissues when I am crying, who makes me laugh and worry about the future when she sticks her hip out and her nose in the air.  I'm thankful for an almost 2 year old little boy who wakes up from his naps with only one sock on his hand because he can't figure out how to get the second sock on, who, I'm sure, says "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA, MAMA........." over and over and over again just to hear himself talk.  I'm thankful for their lovely little hugs and kisses.  I'm so thankful for parents who put up with my little "wild indians" and let us crash at their house rent free for months and months and months at a time.  I'm thankful for a father who does all he can do to get me little odd-jobs doing what I love here and there so that I can provide a meager income for my little ones.  I'm thankful for a mother who tolerates my priorities (as in cleaning isn't ever my first priority) and jokes about them with me.  I'm thankful for a husband who calls EVERYDAY.  I'm thankful for old friends who keep in contact with me, even though I suck at keeping in contact with them.  I'm thankful for new friends just calling to say hi.  I am thankful for the big move that is coming up..... and although many great things will be coming to an end, I believe that many wonderful things are going to begin......

Things I Want to Remember...

Cooper fell asleep before Maria one night.... he was SOOO tired, it took him maybe 2 minutes to fall asleep.  He was dead to the world.  After a few minutes I could hear Maria on the baby monitor saying "Cooooper..... Coooooopeeerrr.... Hey Coop.  Wake up Cooper??  Wake up Cooper!!"  It was so funny.  She said things off and on to him for about 5 minutes.  He did not wake up.


Put both kids to bed after a long day.  Maria was overtired and cranky.  On the baby monitor I could hear Cooper talking to himself and then Maria said "Cooper, it's time to be quiet"  and then Coop was quiet.  It was so funny!

Maria and I went and saw Beauty and the Beast in 3D at the theater.  After we left the theater (which opens into the food court at the mall) Maria said "Mommy, I'm hungry, I need some food"  I told her no, that we were going to look for something and then go home and have dinner.....  We went into Claire's for some stick-on or clip on ear rings.  We got the stick-on variety.  After leaving the store she stuck up her index finger and asked "Can we go to just ONE more store?"  That girl LOVES to shop!!

Winter Storm 2012

About a week ago the snow started coming down... it is still here.  When it first arrived it was that magical fluff that quiets the world... now it is just cold.  The kids have loved having the snow.  They love eating it, making snowmen, throwing snowballs, putting it into containers, running in it..... they still think it is wonderful, as long as they have their gloves on.  If they don't have their gloves on they don't want to touch it.... it's pretty funny.

Here we have an enclosed 2nd story porch off of the living room..... it is the perfect outdoor playpen.  In the summer we put the baby pool out there for the kids to play in.... this week we bundled them up in their winter garb and let them loose with plastic containers and wooden spoons.  They LOVED it.

I took a bunch of pictures of the kids...  they are SO wonderful, and beautiful, and smart, and full of spunk & personality.

Cooper LOVES hats.... and he is getting really good at putting them on himself.  Maria's hair is getting SO long.... I've been tempted to cut it when there are a million and one knots to get out, BUT I want to wait until Marco is here with us....

Here are our winter storm pictures.............