As Jim and I approach the 6 month mark to the wedding tomorrow, it is interesting to see how far we have come. Technically, we have not even been officially dating for a year yet. We reach that milestone next month. But those of us who know our story, know that we have been 'together' on and off for a lot longer than that.
Recently, I have been reflecting on not only how far Jim and I have come as a couple, but how far each of us has come individually. I will let Jim guest blog one day to explain just how much his life has changed, but for now, I thought I would look back on mine. I look back on my life 3-4 years ago and realize just how drastically it has changed. About 4 years ago, I decided to enter the world of online dating. I was too cheap to pay for a site at first so I spent some time on plenty of fish. I quickly realized that you had to really search on this site, because lets just say most of the men were not my type.
I did manage to go on some coffee dates with men I met on plenty of fish. Almost all of them were horrible. One guy, when he asked me to explain exactly what I did for a living told me, "Yeah, I have had enough of that religious crap shoved down my throat for 12 years in school." I wasn't really sure what to say to that. Needless to say I didn't see that guy again.
Another guy on paper was totally my type and really should have been a match for me, but I ended up doing 95% of the talking. I gave him a chance and went on a few dates with him, but when it didn't get better I realized that it was pointless.
It was around this time I got serious about Catholic Match. I was ready to meet someone who shared my faith and my beliefs. I realized quickly, while Catholic Match was a great site, it didn't really have a ton of local guys. I foolishly though I would go online and a plethora of men would be waiting for me from the Windsor area. Well, what actually happened was there were probably 10 guys from the Windsor area, and most of them were not paying members. I participated in the forums and made friends so I stayed for the good discussions and nice people. I was definitely not looking for a long distance relationship. But, when I met Jim, I was at the point where I was at least willing to give it a try.
I never thought I would be one who could make a long distance relationship work. How wrong I was. While it has been challenging not to be together all the time, we have grown so much as a couple. If you would have told me 4 years ago that I would be moving away from not only home, but from my country for love, I would have laughed at you. But, now I could not imagine my life without Jim in it.
I can't believe in 6 short months, I will be embarking on a new life. A new husband, a new country and new experiences. I can't wait!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Chicago....
This past weekend, my whole family headed up to Chicago. My sister, mom and I headed up on Friday night after work and my brother-in-law and nephews came the day after. This was the weekend that my family met Jim's family for the first time. This was also the weekend that we got a lot checked off our wedding list.
Jim flew in late Friday night and headed to his mom and dad's house. On Saturday, Jim and his mom came to pick up my sister, mom and I to go to our cake tasting. We got to try our yummy cake and decide on a design. This is the fun part of the wedding planning for sure! I won't spoil the surprise and let you know what we got, but it is going to be delish! On the way up to the cake tasting our moms got acquainted. Once our cake tasting was over, we had time to kill and were right in the neighbourhood of where Jim's brother lives, so we had arranged to meet him and his fiance for a snack. We had a great time catching up with them, and they were able to meet Maggie and my mom.
Soon it was off to go to our food tasting at the hotel where we will be having the wedding reception. I didn't really know what to expect, but I wasn't prepared for how great this tasting was going to be. We got there and met the banquet manager, Jean. She brought us to the room where will be tasting the food. When we entered the room, there was a table fully set up with all the linens that will be at our wedding. Our first choice we had to make was what napkin design we wanted for the wedding. We had 5 choices. Again I won't spoil it for you, but they will be cute. We were introduced to our server for the tasting, Pedro who promptly offered us wine. I wasn't expecting a server at all! I just thought we would have a bunch of things on the table to eat and they would each give us a fork. It was so not the case. We had previously chosen two starters to try and Pedro brought all five of us out full samples of each starter. We ate them both and chose our favorite. We were pretty unanimous on our choice which was great! Next up was the salad course. Again, we had previously chosen two to try and they brought out full versions of each. We also got to choose 2 salad dressing (we had 4 to choose from). Jim doesn't like salad, so he sat this one out. When we told Jean that Jim didn't like salad she offered on the wedding day to bring him out a fruit plate at that course!
Next up was sorbet to cleanse our palates. It was a yummy refreshing treat.
Finally, our entrees we had previously chosen came out along with different starch options and vegetable options. They brought out full entrees for us to share. We made all of our decisions pretty quickly and unanimously. With 5 of us present this was a great thing! At the end of the tasting the chef came out to talk to us and see if we had any questions or concerns. It was amazing how much care the hotel took to make sure we will be happy on our wedding day!
We could not have had a better time. We had plenty of food, lots of wine and a great feel for how our wedding food will taste. We are so excited to try it again on our wedding day!
After the tasting, the florist we are working with met us right at the hotel. When it comes to flowers, I am not one to know a chrysanthemum from a gardenia. So this was a pretty easy appointment. I just told her what I liked, and brought some pictures and made sure we had all the flowers accounted for that we wanted on our wedding. She had done the flowers for Jim's sister's wedding and they looked so beautiful so I know that mine will look great on the wedding day too. It was so great that my mom, his mom and Maggie could share in the planning and see the banquet room where we will be getting married and share in some of the preparations of the wedding.
That night, my nephews and brother-in-law Dave arrived. Jim and I decided, after hanging out with my family for awhile, to go for a date night. We didn't have much alone time, so we took what we could get. It was nice to be able to just talk about how everything went that day and how excited we were that things were coming together!
The next day my whole family and Jim and his mom headed to church. This church is his mom's church and the church we will be getting married in. It was so nice for my family to be able to see where the wedding will happen. My little nephew Alex was feeling under the weather, but he managed to make it to mass. After mass, we all headed for brunch where we met Jim's sister and her husband, Jim's brother and his fiance and Jim's dad. It was VERY surreal for Jim and I to have our WHOLE families in the same room together! Everyone got along well and were able to get to know each other. It was great!
After brunch, some of us headed back to Jim's parents house. It was great for my family to see Jim's parents house and experience their wonderful hospitality. All in all it was a great weekend! It went by very quickly but it was awesome that our families got to meet!
Only 198 days til the wedding! :)
Jim flew in late Friday night and headed to his mom and dad's house. On Saturday, Jim and his mom came to pick up my sister, mom and I to go to our cake tasting. We got to try our yummy cake and decide on a design. This is the fun part of the wedding planning for sure! I won't spoil the surprise and let you know what we got, but it is going to be delish! On the way up to the cake tasting our moms got acquainted. Once our cake tasting was over, we had time to kill and were right in the neighbourhood of where Jim's brother lives, so we had arranged to meet him and his fiance for a snack. We had a great time catching up with them, and they were able to meet Maggie and my mom.
Soon it was off to go to our food tasting at the hotel where we will be having the wedding reception. I didn't really know what to expect, but I wasn't prepared for how great this tasting was going to be. We got there and met the banquet manager, Jean. She brought us to the room where will be tasting the food. When we entered the room, there was a table fully set up with all the linens that will be at our wedding. Our first choice we had to make was what napkin design we wanted for the wedding. We had 5 choices. Again I won't spoil it for you, but they will be cute. We were introduced to our server for the tasting, Pedro who promptly offered us wine. I wasn't expecting a server at all! I just thought we would have a bunch of things on the table to eat and they would each give us a fork. It was so not the case. We had previously chosen two starters to try and Pedro brought all five of us out full samples of each starter. We ate them both and chose our favorite. We were pretty unanimous on our choice which was great! Next up was the salad course. Again, we had previously chosen two to try and they brought out full versions of each. We also got to choose 2 salad dressing (we had 4 to choose from). Jim doesn't like salad, so he sat this one out. When we told Jean that Jim didn't like salad she offered on the wedding day to bring him out a fruit plate at that course!
Next up was sorbet to cleanse our palates. It was a yummy refreshing treat.
Finally, our entrees we had previously chosen came out along with different starch options and vegetable options. They brought out full entrees for us to share. We made all of our decisions pretty quickly and unanimously. With 5 of us present this was a great thing! At the end of the tasting the chef came out to talk to us and see if we had any questions or concerns. It was amazing how much care the hotel took to make sure we will be happy on our wedding day!
We could not have had a better time. We had plenty of food, lots of wine and a great feel for how our wedding food will taste. We are so excited to try it again on our wedding day!
After the tasting, the florist we are working with met us right at the hotel. When it comes to flowers, I am not one to know a chrysanthemum from a gardenia. So this was a pretty easy appointment. I just told her what I liked, and brought some pictures and made sure we had all the flowers accounted for that we wanted on our wedding. She had done the flowers for Jim's sister's wedding and they looked so beautiful so I know that mine will look great on the wedding day too. It was so great that my mom, his mom and Maggie could share in the planning and see the banquet room where we will be getting married and share in some of the preparations of the wedding.
That night, my nephews and brother-in-law Dave arrived. Jim and I decided, after hanging out with my family for awhile, to go for a date night. We didn't have much alone time, so we took what we could get. It was nice to be able to just talk about how everything went that day and how excited we were that things were coming together!
The next day my whole family and Jim and his mom headed to church. This church is his mom's church and the church we will be getting married in. It was so nice for my family to be able to see where the wedding will happen. My little nephew Alex was feeling under the weather, but he managed to make it to mass. After mass, we all headed for brunch where we met Jim's sister and her husband, Jim's brother and his fiance and Jim's dad. It was VERY surreal for Jim and I to have our WHOLE families in the same room together! Everyone got along well and were able to get to know each other. It was great!
After brunch, some of us headed back to Jim's parents house. It was great for my family to see Jim's parents house and experience their wonderful hospitality. All in all it was a great weekend! It went by very quickly but it was awesome that our families got to meet!
Only 198 days til the wedding! :)
Thursday, March 8, 2012
We are Family....
I am really excited! Why, you ask? Three reasons.
1) I am heading to Chicago this weekend and Jim and I are going to get a few more things checked off on our wedding to-do list. We will be doing our cake tasting, food tasting and we are meeting with the florist. But the best part is that this time we get to have our families involved. You see, this week is March Break (spring break for you Americans) and my whole family is coming up to the Chicago area with me. We are taking this opportunity for Jim's family and my family to meet. Our moms and my sister will be joining us for all of our wedding errands. Then on Sunday, our whole families (all siblings, nephews and parents included) will be going to brunch. It should be a great time.
2) I got word that we are cleared to schedule an interview! We have to go to a website and try to get an interview from the times they have available. The only problem is that there are no interviews available at this time. This is a common occurrence because they only open up a certain number of interviews at a time to keep it controlled and to not get too far ahead. Lucky for us, we have some time to wait, since the wedding is not until September and the interview is the last step of this part of the process to get me over to the USA. Hopefully new interview slots will open up soon. I am really excited that things are moving at the pace we anticipated.
3) I spent some time this week figuring out how certain things will work when I move countries. I was concerned with my life insurance and pension plans and what would happen to them. I contacted the agencies and they were very helpful and explained all I would have to do which is not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. So my stress levels surrounding these issues has decreased significantly.
Hope you all have a great weekend! :)
1) I am heading to Chicago this weekend and Jim and I are going to get a few more things checked off on our wedding to-do list. We will be doing our cake tasting, food tasting and we are meeting with the florist. But the best part is that this time we get to have our families involved. You see, this week is March Break (spring break for you Americans) and my whole family is coming up to the Chicago area with me. We are taking this opportunity for Jim's family and my family to meet. Our moms and my sister will be joining us for all of our wedding errands. Then on Sunday, our whole families (all siblings, nephews and parents included) will be going to brunch. It should be a great time.
2) I got word that we are cleared to schedule an interview! We have to go to a website and try to get an interview from the times they have available. The only problem is that there are no interviews available at this time. This is a common occurrence because they only open up a certain number of interviews at a time to keep it controlled and to not get too far ahead. Lucky for us, we have some time to wait, since the wedding is not until September and the interview is the last step of this part of the process to get me over to the USA. Hopefully new interview slots will open up soon. I am really excited that things are moving at the pace we anticipated.
3) I spent some time this week figuring out how certain things will work when I move countries. I was concerned with my life insurance and pension plans and what would happen to them. I contacted the agencies and they were very helpful and explained all I would have to do which is not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. So my stress levels surrounding these issues has decreased significantly.
Hope you all have a great weekend! :)
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Why did you have to go and make things so complicated?....
When it comes to the visa process, nothing is easy. However, I think by the end of it I will know more than most immigration lawyers. When I first realized there was a possibility Jim and I may be heading in the direction of marriage, I started looking into what it would take to get married. I looked at both possibilities; me moving to the US and Jim moving to Canada. Both of them were annoying and frustrating. However, the USA was the only one that offered the fiance visa option. In Canada, you have to be married first and then do all of your paperwork later. The US has this option too, but they also provide a way for people who want to get married an not be seperated for close to year afterward to do so.
This does not mean however that they make this process easy. It is a lot of redundant information asked over and over again on different forms in different ways. It is not hard. It is just knowing what needs to be sent that is the tricky part. This past week, we got word that Montreal had received our case file and they sent us out a packet of information. This packet is simply instructions to go to a website to download some forms. All of this information this time around is all about me. So it was easy to fill them out and send them back. Within a couple weeks we will get another package that gives us directions on booking a medical and an interview. I am excited about this possibility! The only downfall is I have read on visajourney that as of right now Montreal does not have any interviews available.
Back in the day, Montreal would assign you an interview date. However, as of a couple years ago, they stopped doing that. Now, you are the one that has to go to a certain website and try to book your date. The problem is Montreal only releases dates ever so often. Once all of those are taken, they wait awhile before opening up another block of interviews. Also, the annoying thing with this way of doing things is that you need to be near your computer all the time and checking for interviews. It is very possible a limited block could open up and people that have been waiting months could miss out and people that just tried for the first time could get those slots. I am guessing that since I have read people have been waiting a couple weeks already for interviews, that they should be opening some more up soon. Here is hoping we get one ! I looked at this time last year and they were booking into July for the interviews. This would actually work out well for us, since it will be easier to travel and easier for me to take some time off.
I am glad that this part of the process is nearing an end. After the wedding there many more forms to be filled out. I just can't wait until I can just stop worrying about visa stuff anymore! It will all be a lot less complicated!!!
This does not mean however that they make this process easy. It is a lot of redundant information asked over and over again on different forms in different ways. It is not hard. It is just knowing what needs to be sent that is the tricky part. This past week, we got word that Montreal had received our case file and they sent us out a packet of information. This packet is simply instructions to go to a website to download some forms. All of this information this time around is all about me. So it was easy to fill them out and send them back. Within a couple weeks we will get another package that gives us directions on booking a medical and an interview. I am excited about this possibility! The only downfall is I have read on visajourney that as of right now Montreal does not have any interviews available.
Back in the day, Montreal would assign you an interview date. However, as of a couple years ago, they stopped doing that. Now, you are the one that has to go to a certain website and try to book your date. The problem is Montreal only releases dates ever so often. Once all of those are taken, they wait awhile before opening up another block of interviews. Also, the annoying thing with this way of doing things is that you need to be near your computer all the time and checking for interviews. It is very possible a limited block could open up and people that have been waiting months could miss out and people that just tried for the first time could get those slots. I am guessing that since I have read people have been waiting a couple weeks already for interviews, that they should be opening some more up soon. Here is hoping we get one ! I looked at this time last year and they were booking into July for the interviews. This would actually work out well for us, since it will be easier to travel and easier for me to take some time off.
I am glad that this part of the process is nearing an end. After the wedding there many more forms to be filled out. I just can't wait until I can just stop worrying about visa stuff anymore! It will all be a lot less complicated!!!
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