After a long wait and then some, it's finally here!!!

My permanent resident card that is! As the date for us to get on that jet plane and leave for Kuala Lumpur fast approaches [3 more days!!!!], this comes just in time! Although I wasn't really thinking about it too much, this definitely reduces the hassle and hopefully makes travel a whole less cumbersome... I am not so sure how the process went for the rest of you but for me, it seemed that it took a long time... when I was first issued my green card in August 2005, it was for 2 years or 'conditional' and 3 months before the 2 years were up, you were supposed to file USCIS Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence.

Forseeing my impending trip back home in December 2007, I decided that sooner was better as I didn't want to take any chances so in January of this year, I gathered all my documents and filed my petition. I received a Notice of Receipt early February and immediately scheduled to get my biometrics done and this was completed at the end of February. Then the wait began, I received a letter in March saying that my petition has been filed and the letter extended my current greencard for a year from its current expiration date. I later read that some processing centers had backlogs up to 18 months! In any case, I was not looking forward to traveling with an expired greencard despite the letter of extension because who knows what sort of delays to expect.

It took 9 months since the date of filing to receive my new green card in the mail, thankfully the next time I need to renew it is in 2017! Overall though, it wasn't too bad, everyone in the processing center were so friendly and cheerful and my only advice is to read every single thing on the form, answer all questions [mark N/A if not applicable so that they know you've addressed the question], provide as many of the requested supporting documents and I like to be organized and list everything on a cover letter and attach all supporting as appendices. That has never failed me to date as I've not gotten any forms returned for insufficient support or incomplete forms. Lastly, be HONEST!!! Honesty goes a long way and will work towards you favor in the end. For those of you who are initiating this process or awaiting for approval, good luck and don't worry too much about it, it'll take time but will come through!

Under the weather

Despite all the Airborne, Zicam, vitamin C and gallons of water, I STILL fell sick!!! I guess no running away from the typical wintery blues!

Nevertheless, I found a little cheer from one of my fellow blogger friends,
She sent me this....



Are these little cute Shar-Pei's cute or what??? More importantly is thank you to all my blogger friends out there who share their semangat muhibbah and of course allow me to share in the funny/cute antics their little ones are up to!!!

It is nice to come home to...

A spotless house! Dishes washed and put away, 2 loads of laundry washed and dried, the mountain of shopping from the previous day all put away, sheets washed, pillows fluffed... spotless :) And I owe this all to JJ. He had to work this weekend but went out of his way because he knew I was stressed out with all the shopping I needed to get done before we left for Malaysia.

Some of you who read this may think that the man doing housework is normal... BUT this man is a little different... he usually does his 'clean up' of his designated 'areas' but the rest, he will usually help with when I ask him to, 'ask' being the operative word so the abovementioned tasks we beyond his 'job-description'... thank you honey, that was so thoughtful and sweet!

Anyways, I am glad this weekend is over! I was dreading it to begin with but after 16 hours of braving holiday shoppers, traffic, rain and $3,000 poorer, it is DONE!!!!! We're all set to get on that plane, hopefully relax and enjoy our families!

I never thought the day will come when...

I'd say I am TIRED of shopping!!! Today was pretty much a full work day with an update event for the Firm from 8 am to 3 pm. During some down time during the update, I took the opportunity to jot down all the errands we need to complete before we leave... so far, I have 47!!!!! So I headed out and started on it.... it's 9.30pm now, bone weary with my legs propped up on the sofa, I am about ready to call it quits!!! I only managed to cross off 4 things... oh well, tomorrow is another day, nothing warm clothes, comfy shoes and a venti non-fat green tea latte from Starbucks won't fix!

Sometimes I have to sit and wonder if everyone who's in love or having a baby or getting married feels like they are the first to experience such emotions... in as much as I am freaking out about getting things ready in time, I know it'll work out in the end.

For those of you who are fighting in the throngs of crazy holiday shopping, good luck and hold on to your kids [at one of the stores earlier this evening, they announced over the PA system that 3 kids were left unattended... it amazes me to think that some parents can be so careless... especially with all the the scary things you read/watch on the news these days!]