3 Words!

As some of you already know, my Friend Melissa, has suggested we all start what she is calling 3 word Sunday. She got the idea from watching Good Morning America, which I used to ALWAYS watch, until I had kids. So, anyway what we are suppose to do is think of three words that described our week, then either write them down, use pictures, sing it or whatever you can think of to tell your 3 words.
Now, since my little experience with the USCIS in Atlanta, I will dedicate my first 3 words to the lovely lady who ticked me off Thursday, and for those of you wondering what the outcome was, she has not responded back yet.
Melissa, this was a great idea, and now at least I'll be posting once a week!

WHAT!!! Somebody hold me back!

OMG people! Remember the post about us having issues with trying to renew our I-171?

To refresh, I sent in our new I-600a way back at the first of August. We received our fingerprint appointment, and it was scheduled for Saturday September 1st. We asked for a Saturday, simply because it would be easier for both of us to get down there (over an hours drive) on the weekend now that Lily is in school. We drove down, got there early, and wondered why there were no other cars around AT ALL!!!

Well, they were closed, for the Labor Day weekend! WTF, Please excuse my French.

We got a new appt, and went in on September 22.

Then I get a letter from them saying that they needed an updated homestudy. I sent the one that we did in January 2007, well that was not new enough for them, so we had to get our social worker to do ANOTHER one before the end of the year.
The state sent it to the Atlanta USCIS office on December 21, so I'm guessing they got it by Christmas. Now I have not heard anything since then, I was starting to wonder. So this morning I sent them an email, asking for information on our file. You would not believe the response I received!

Have you been fingerprinted, or did you reschedule your fingerprint appointment?

WHAT!!!

I am beyond mad right now, and how come I always get emails or the like either on the weekends or at night when every office is CLOSED!

I certainly hope y'all are having a better evening than I am!

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope y'all had a great one.

My day started out like all others, until my girls gave me my Valentine cards, thank you sweeties!
Funny thing about today, you see I got to go somewhere this morning, and well, let's just say that my husband was not the only man to see my "goodies" today. Yeah that, and all I really want to say about it is yuck! But we all must go once a year to make sure all the parts are still there and in working order. Well, mine are there, and we'll find out in a few weeks if they are still in working order. It was quite funny joking with my DH about that!
Now on to something more fun shall we. I went to the grocery store yesterday, and as soon as we walked in the door these were screaming my name.














Who doesn't love Krispy Kreme doughnuts? They were so yummy too, the only thing I would have changed would be to have them cream filled. Yeah, I'm gonna start my diet again one of these days, but NOT TODAY! hee, hee snort!

Lily was so excited to go to school today, so she could pass out her Valentines. I remember when I was little and we would go around the class and put them in a box that we decorated. Ah, the memories. I was so glad to hear that they would still be doing this, these days you just never know.

It was actually nice outside today, so when we got back from picking Lily up from school, we went out in the back yard. Looked over my flower beds, and spring is right around the corner. I finally got around to trimming my rose bushes down, and I need to try to figure out where I can squeeze another one (or two, or three) in this year.

Sorry for the boring post, I'll leave you now (before I tell any more about the lovely experiences of the day) with a few pics of the girls.

***Sorry if I gave out too much information*** I hope you all take your happy little selves in to see your DR on a regular basis.

Oh No!!!

O.K. maybe I got a little carried away! You remember when I said that we were about to start some home remodeling/knocking down walls? Yeah about that, well how can I say oops!!!

From everything I've read about knocking down walls, they say that if the attic joists are in line and parallel with the wall, then it is not a load bearring wall. Well, a while ago, I went up in the attic, and looked around. From what I could see, the posts were going the same way the walls that we want to take out are, so this week I started tearing down the sheet rock.




















Let me back up a little. When we bought this house, we did not really know what to do with the two front rooms. We don't have formal dinning room furniture, nor did we really care to purchase any, and have a formal dinning room. We are pretty much relaxed, and it would probably never get much use. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE furniture, and if we ever won the lottery, and could build our dream house, well then sure I'd have a nice dinning room with a big ol' table, but for know we're doing just fine without it!

So, back to the story. The house originally was a one story house, but at some point there was an addition put on over the garage and laundry room area. So they had to add stairs right, to be able to get up there. So, some really smart guy thought they could put them here:



BLOCKING THE DOORWAY!!!

(PLEASE excuse the mess in the background, that is my new stove, still in it's box, and our new flooring!)













Well, yeah, that's what we thought too when we first looked at this house, but we knew we could change the layout, and the price was good for the amount of space, so we bought it. Why not?

When they put in the stairs, it is in the room that was originally the dinning room. But now it makes the room just too small to use it for that. The other room was I guess the formal living room. It's kind of on the smallish side too. So, we thought we could knock the wall down that is separating the two, and whalla we have a nice long, much more usable space, right?

Plus, when I started doing some measuring, I noticed that the walls in these two rooms plus the walls in our kitchen and den, do not match up. I had figured that there was a hidden space in between our kitchen and the front living room. From my (expert, HA!) calculations, it was about 2 feet wide by 5 feet long.

So, our thinking would be to open up this space, and add square footage to our living space, this is where I had planned to put this:

Our old T.V. cabinet that I just finished painting and distressing!




















Well, the good news was that I was right, there is a hidden space back there, and gosh darnet if it wasn't 2x5! I was so excited! But then when I chipped a little off of the wall that is behind our fridge, the wall that we were planning on openning up for the doorway, and closing off the one in front of the strairs, I noticed that the water pipe, the one for the ice maker, is coming from under the slab. BIG FAT CRAP!!! Right smack dab in the middle of where the new door will be! We knew this could be the case, but we hoped that they had ran it through the walls. Now we need to do some figuring out which way to move the water line, either dig a channel in the concrete, or cap off that one, and run a new one from the launry room.

AND FOR THE REALLY BAD NEWS! While DH was up in the attic figuring out where the plug wiring runs, he noticed that the one spot where our walls are, you know, the ones we are gonna tear down, yeah those. The attic joists turn for some stupid reason, and those walls are load bearing! Crap turds! Might I relay the message about me already taking the sheet rock off?

Yep, all gone!






































Well, I pretty much felt like total horsey poo for the rest of the morning!

Now, what to do? Well, we are probably not gonna be able to open up that little space, the one that was hidden, we might could open up part of it, and make it into a built in and a T.V. could go there, which is what I had originally planned, but NOT what DH wants to do. He wants to close it back up, except for the end, and put a skinny little access panel, and keep it back there for storage/wiring for computers/T.V.'s and such.

As for the other walls, they are still coming down by golly, there are ways! We can either put up a major support beam (I did not really want a beam going across the middle of the ceiling , but if that's our only option so be it) or maybe we can put supports up in the attic. I dunno, my brother in law is a builder, and he will have to climb up there and check it out to see what way to go. This, what I thought we could do ourselves, and save the $$$, will now be a little bit more complicated, and I assume a little more expensive, but it will be done. My original goal for all of this was by this summer.

We shall see!