Moth balls

When we moved into this house it was infested with moth balls. Oh yes, moth balls. My husband's friend lived here before us and he put moth balls in the cabinets, behind the fridge, in the closets, behind the couch, and everywhere else he could possibly think of. I can't diss on him too much because this is sort of HIS house and everything but what the heck?! I think he was trying to scare off an army of mice or something! I'm not too worried about mice so I went around picking up the moth balls and throwing them away. That was the first weekend of November and the scent is still haunting us. The moth ball scent will probably never go away, although it has gone down quite a bit.

We went to my dad's for Christmas and as we started unpacking our clothes all we could smell was moth balls. I had to rewash all of our clothes. Honestly, it's kind of funny. That experience definitely reminded that after you live somewhere for awhile you don't really notice the bad smells and what not.

Last night I was cooking supper. As I reached deep into the spice cabinet I noticed that it even smells like moth balls. GEESH. I'm really worried about when we move out. I'm going to have to deep clean all of our belongings and rewash EVERYTHING to get rid of the smell. Speaking of, we are moving out veryyy soon. More on that later! pssst, we're trying to buy a house!

Anyway, I've been studying all morning and decided to eat lunch. The easiest thing was a chicken pot pie so I opened it, stuck it in the microwave, and then attempted to eat it. The chicken pot pie tasted like freakin' moth balls. What the heck?!?! Please don't get me wrong. I don't know what moth balls taste like, but the taste was moth ball. I had to throw away my chicken pot pie and eat 2 oranges for lunch. Darn.

Our Interview

Our immigration interview was Tuesday, January 18th. We left Monday for the long drive to Chicago. I ended up driving the whole way because my husband was too nervous to concentrate. I found our hotel with ease, talked him into relaxing, and we went out for the night.

Before we left the hotel, I did a google search for malls in Chicago. What I found on google ended up being a downtown Chicago mall. We ended up paying $18.00 to park for 2 hours..yikes! I'm from a relatively small midwest town, not a big city like Chicago. Our downtown traffic was slightly hectic, but nothing in comparison to Chicago. I can't tell you how many times I heard people honking their horns. How rude! Seriously, give me time to get my foot off the freakin' brake and on the gas before you honk!!

Anyway...

We went to the mall, got incredibly lost, and fortunately made it out alive.

Next stop? back to the hotel to drop off the car and head out to Fogo De Chao. http://www.fogodechao.com/ ...we were both dying to eat good food. We avoided paying a ridiculous amount to park by walking.

My husband got a little tipsy drinking caipirinhas, I had a billion pieces of palmito and picanha, and then we walked back to the hotel to organize everything for the interview.

(picanha-YUMMY!)

(mouth-watering palmito)

                               

(my husband's favorite-caipirinha)

(us before the interview)

Here's the point of this entry. Our interview was a complete nightmare and I'm still recovering. I'm sure our interview was handled the same way as they all are, but I was so stressed I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. My husband had entered and departed the U.S. so many times that the officer kept questioning him. She even questioned me about the times he had entered and departed and I've only been with him since the last time he entered! Thank God for all the long nights we spent talking about our lives when we first started dating. She questioned why he had worked for one guy, then another, then back to the first. Why did we get married when we did? All kinds of random questions. Nothing like, "what color is his toothbrush?!" She kept trying to trick me, which I expected. This officer meant business and she held us for just a few minutes shy of an hour. I still can't remember all the questions she asked. I can barely remember what the building looked like. How sad.

I know the above sounds dramatic, but the interview meant a lot to us.

In the end everything was fine. We were approved, she made some copies of pictures, bills, and bank statements. He already has his work permit so now we're waiting for his green card.

This whole process has been a whirlwind. Everything fell into place after we submitted our paperwork. Everything took about 3 months. Maybe that's a potential blog entry...the papers we submitted, and so on. But only after I swim my way out of the piles of articles, books, and notes for school!!

Oh, the nerves!

On Tuesday, my husband and I have our immigration interview, which determines whether or not he is approved to adjust his status. Holy nerves! We have so much information to take with us. I think I'm nervous mainly because I don't know what to expect. I've read stuff online and talked with our lawyer a million times (which does help A LOT), but I'm still nervous. My husband keeps having nightmares about it and he feels like he's begging the officers to stay in America! hahah, cracks me up.

The emotions finally hit me today. I have class all day, studying to do tonight, I work all day Saturday and Sunday, Monday is a holiday so no class, interview is Tuesday. That means I will spend Monday studying what I will miss Tuesday and preparing all of our documents, then we will head to Chicago.

Neither of us have been to Chicago so we don't know what to expect. I still need to book a hotel!! On a good note, we are eating at a Brazilian restaurant, Fogo De Chao. I'm VERY excited about that! There was a Brazilian restaurant near the university I went to prior to moving. You can only imagine how much money we dropped there! Yum-O!

I'm sure you can imagine what my next few days will consist of. I'm going to be a nervous wreck and my husband is going to be a nervous, crabby, pain in the ***, areyousurewearen'tforgettinganypapersbecauseIwillbepissed!, type of person. Ohh nerves, bring it on.

Brazilian Dentistry

Last year at college was a stressful adventure. I began the fall semester soon after meeting my husband, and at winter break was faced with him possibly having to leave the states thanks to his boss failing to file the appropriate papers for his extension. All worked out in the end, but only after my husband (boyfriend at the time) had to go 500 miles away to work. Oh well, at least he was still within driving distance!

Anyway, the stress from everything being so unpredictable led me to sitting in front of my laptop blasting music, drinking cherry pepsi, and eating all sorts of candy and junk food for hours, which turned into months. When I arrived home for the summer I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning. I was not surprised one single bit when the dentist told me I had 3 cavities that needed to be filled. So, I immediately scheduled an appointment and was back in his office a couple weeks later.

The dentist and his assistant argued the whole time. They argued about how they were going to use their new tools, which methods were best, blah blah blah. I knew that was a terrible sign. The dentist was new and had replaced my old retired dentist. I had a feeling something was going to be wrong...

...as I assumed, something IS wrong. I can't eat anything sweet or chew gum on one side of my mouth. When I do, pain gets shot up through my mouth. How lovely. While home for Christmas I asked my dad what I should do about this problem. He pretty much had no advice so that's when my husband said, "Tuesday, don't pay to get your teeth fixed by another gringo. My friend in my town will do it for you!"

I obviously questioned him. Like, who is this friend? Is he any good? Has he done work on your teeth? Apparently it's one of his "best friends" and he is good..and yes, he's done all the work on my husband's teeth. I have yet to understand how this man is my husband's friend. Probably because he's his dentist and my husband thinks everybody he comes in contact with his friend.

After all this nonsense, I have a question. Has anybody seen a Brazilian dentist? Would you recommend me waiting a few months and having the work done in Brazil? Would it actually be cheaper than me having it done in the states? I'm seriously considering waiting until we are in Brazil to have them fixed. What an adventure that will be! I won't understand half of what the dentist is saying, but heck, if he gets the job done I don't mind!

Interview time!

Woohoo! I checked the mail on Wednesday and we received our notice from immigration for our interview. It is set for January 18th in Chicago. Yikes. I'm absolutely terrified. Although I'm scared to death, I'm ready to get the interview behind us so I can stop stressing and stop being a mad freak about saving every single piece of paper, envelope, picture, blah blah blah. This process has been moving extremely fast. It feels like it was just yesterday when we filed our paperwork. I hope the interview and everything after the interview goes just as smooth.

p.s. Neither of us are British, but I got a kick out of the cartoon..

Things I've Learned...

During the time that I've been with my husband, I have "learned" many things.

1. You can't cut a watermelon 10 minutes or more before eating it. You must cut it RIGHT BEFORE you eat it.  The watermelon has to be cut into large pieces. Any other way makes the watermelon taste nasty and your Brazilian husband will refuse to eat it.
2. Avocados make you fat.
3. Americans are pigs because we don't always shower at night. You know, some of us prefer a daily morning shower, not a night shower. This makes Americans pigs because you sweat when you sleep and bacteria will infect you. 
4. The cat is absolutely not allowed anywhere near the bedroom. If your Brazilian husband sees a little bit of fuzz on his shirt it will automatically be blamed on the cat. 
5. Cleaning means shoving everything where nobody can see it.
6. No matter how busy you have been the car has to be squeaky clean before picking up a Brazilian friend. If it's not clean, the Brazilian friend will apparently think you're a lazy pig.
7. Drinking old milk in your coffee is not a problem.
8. 25 degrees is not 25 degrees. It is -15 degrees, and gosh darn it! Without an Arctic extreme conditions sport boot he will freeze to death!
9. Nobody has been through what your Brazilian husband has been through. Nobody has as much experience as him....not even your 80-year-old grandpa.
10. Everything Brazilian is better. Everything American is crap. That includes the food, music, clothes, cologne, and probably toilet paper.

I could keep going but for now I will stop. I love the man dearly, but sometimes I have to laugh at the way he thinks.  Of course his culture is much different than mine. Not to mention, we were raised in much different ways. Things from his Brazilian culture are rather shocking to me, just like things from my American culture are shocking to him.

Webcams are a beautiful thing!

Last night my husband and I spent 2 hours webcamming with his family in Brazil. We haven't been able to do this recently because he's always working and with the time difference it just doesn't work out. Also, their internet connection is terrible where his family lives. Luckily enough we were able to visit for 2 hours, which never happens! His mom, little cousin, and 2 of his aunts were there. I love his family. They are always soo happy! This past summer my parents went through a divorce and it's childishly forced me to not talk with my mom. It's great to feel a motherly connection with his mom. Hmm..I wonder if I will feel that way when we are her neighbor?!  Anyway, webcams are a wonderful thing. It's WAY cheaper than calling and a lot of fun! I can't wait for the next opportunity to webcam with them.