Well, we're in North Carolina now. After a loooong drive up here. We stopped by the house in Ashland first to pick up part of our couch and a dresser.
Right now I'm stuck in a hotel for 3 weeks til we can move into our rental house on the 21st. I'm hoping the guy moves out early, but we're most likely not that lucky. But I really really wanna be for once! Living in a hotel sucks. The internet is kinda unreliable (though it seems better now that they had a tech guy looks at it), we are stuck living off sandwiches and crappy microwave meals, cause ofcourse we can't cook here. Add to that having had nothing but fast food on the trip here and you have a very bad diet.... Sigh...

So yeah I'll update with the address and some pictures once we move into the house.

Oh and just to check if this is worth updating still, I'd like anyone reading this to comment please. Thanks in advance. :)

So Pete graduates from AIT on the 19th this month. Finally done with this stupid training shit, where we both get treated like shit.
He leaves for Airborne training supposedly on the 25th though that's not 100% sure since we still don't have his official orders with the official dates and stuff.
After Airborne which is only 2.5 weeks, we got to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Heard good and bad things about it, we'll have to see for ourselves. Supposedly a lot of crime and drugs business around the base. But we'll only be about an hour from the ocean! I miss the ocean... and the beach... sigh.
Housing is an issue right now since we can't do anything til we get his damn orders. I hate not knowing where I'm gonna be living in a month... We'll most likely have to get on post housing at first cause of the short time we have to get stuff done. It'd be the easiest way to get a place. (If there's even housing available) From there we'll have the time to look for a nice rental home that we both like.
Once in the regular army things'll supposedly be different. So everyone tells me. It'll be like a normal life. Except for the fact that Pete could easily get deployed for 9 freaking months whenever they want him to.... /cry

So yeah.. good and bad news as usual. Sigh.. only 5 years........

I hate army life......

I may get to see pete a lil more now, but at the end of the day I'm still alone. He usually doesn't get to sleep over on Saturday either, cause there's always someone around him that screws up and makes everyone lose their weekend pass.
December 19 he'll be off for 2 weeks to celebrate x-mas and New years though. We definitely need it. The 3,5 days he had off for Thanksgiving were over way too fast.

Everyone keeps telling him things will be better once he's out of the training stage, but I don't know. We get told a lot of crap.
And there's still that deployment thing.. He will get deployed once in his service time for sure. For 6 months to a year.
And the only way i won't be sitting alone for that long is if they send him to Korea. Which is the only deployment place I'm allowed to join him at since it's not a war zone. He put in a special request and all the jazz for it, but I have no clue how much that will do.
With a new president.. and new war threats everywhere, the chance might be small. US forces may be leaving Iraq, but there's plenty of new places to go.
Sigh.... I don't know what i'd do if I end up alone for that long.
I'd go to stay with my mom in Holland, but I also have a dog and cat to think about. Them two mean a lot to me and I'm not just dropping them off at the nearest shelter (like I had to do with my other 2 cats before the move here. That broke my heart even though I wasn't so close to them)

Anyways, I'm still alive.. somehow.. Though not the happiest. And neither is Pete by the way. Army life sucks...

So I went to see Pete last week. Long trip for only seeing him a day and a half. And on the way back home of course everything went wrong. Bad weather in Atlanta got me and my mom stuck there for the night, flying back in the morning. It sucked.

And as good as it was too see pete, it was also so hard.. Having to say goodbye again.. not knowing when I'd see him again.

He is now in Arizona at Fort Huachuca for his AIT. Which will be about 18 weeks. And according to the army this is too short for them to care about me and letting me live there. On base housing is out of the question. Him living with me in any way is not happening.. And even seeing him will be hard.
But I am still moving there, cause staying here is boring and cold Ashland alone will drive me insane for sure. We have an apartment set up, move in date set at Nov 7. So some time next week his parents are supposed to cvome up here to help me move there.
We plan on it being a one way move, instead of our original plan where we'd go back to Ashland afterwards. Why pay for moving twice? It's expensive enough and we can't even fully afford it ourselves right now. So his parents will have to help pay.
The trip to his graduation was really expensive and the fact he's not getting paid as much as he should (he's E-2 paygrade, only getting E-1) is making us miss out on about 600 bucks a month. Quite a bit of money for us at the moment. He hopes to get that fixed sometime this week, so around Nov 15 we should get a nice amount of money in our account. Hopefully....

I should also get a new phone this week. The damn tracphone we have now is getting way too expensive. (For you Dutchies who don't know what it is, with a tracphone you have no monthly cost, however you have to buy minutes. And every call whether you call or receive a call, you lose minutes. So it adds up fast.. ) With this new phone we hsould be able to call and txt each other for free.. Which in the end will save us a lot sicne we've been talking a lot on the phone lately.

Soon as I got my phone and new adrress I'll be sure to let those who want it know. Just poke me on msn or mail me.

So in short, the only good news in here:
- Cheaper phone
- No winter for me this year

Sigh.....

Only 9 days to go til I see Pete again. I'm going to family day/graduation the 23rd and 24th. And so is my mom. It was an expensive decision, but we said what the hell, seeing each other is more important.

After that he goes to AZ for AIt and I get to sit alone in Ashland for a lil longer til we figure out the housing situation. I should have an apartment secured as a back up for the move in date of Nov 7. However, we were told Pete is not allowed to live off base and that apartment is. Which would mean me living alone yet again for another 5 months. Not something we want. So we're gonna try and get on base housing, however we can't set anything up until Pete gets to the base. Stupid army rules...
So fingers crossed we can get that..

I just need to be able to sleep again....

Well I suppose it's time to update eh?

So me and Pete got married March 7.. And pretty soon after that filed the immigration papers. We heard back not too long after, I had to go in for fingerprints. So we did that.
Then in July we got letters back. One saying I needed to go in for a full physical. Costing 300 dollars.. cash.  For what? to get felt up (breast inspection...) have my blood drawn for HIV and some other test I forgot.. and get one vaccine(tetanus). I get told I have to get 2 more vaccines and have my TB test read 2 days after. The said I could get all this done i Ashland, instead of having to go all the way back to Duluth (an hour drive).
So we get to the ashland clinic, the read the test and give me one vaccine. The other apparently can't be given out to me cause I'm over 19.. It's that new HPV shot (gardasil or whatever) which is supposedly a free choice to get for US residents, but immigrants suddenly need it. The nurses there and everyone else I know thought it was ridiculous.
So they help us find out how I can get this without having to pay 150 dollars for it... In Duluth.. a clinic that only does it on certain dates. Can't go in till August 18. Great..

The other letter from immigrations stated Pete doesn't make enough money to support us both. We need to be 125% of the poverty line.. which is 6000 a year more than he makes.
The fact we live in a free house, no rent just electric, water and internet bills.. and that we were able to afford a new computer and 2000 dollar couch.. (don't ask, it's pretty... :P), do not get taken into account.
So we're stuck with 2 options.. Pete gets a second job, or he joins the army (which means we'd only have to make 100% of the poverty line, 4000 less). with the current job market in the area or anywhere for that matter, option one just didn't happen.
So we had no choice, he had to join the army.
So now he's been gone of to basic since August 13. Done Oct 24. Then needs to be in Arizona Oct 27 for his AIT (advanced individual training) his job training which is 19 weeks. For which I can be present.  after that 2 weeks airborne training (gave more money :P and the option to be stationed in Italy, close to Holland :)) for which i'll have to be stuck in Arizona cause i can't accompany him there.
Now his job will be intelligence analyst, for which he needs a security clearance. Me not being from the US originally already gave some problems, but eventually got a waiver for that. But he won't hear if this goes through till end of basic, leaving him 2 days to really get stuff together. And he won't be able to come home and pack most likely, leaving me at the mercy of his parents...*sigh*

So here I've been alone since he left, not really knowing anyone here, besides his old co-worker Ken and his wife Roxanne, who are our neighbors a few houses down. Who have been great in helping me with things (like driving me to Duluth for my last vaccine and stuff).

Right now Pete's mom is here to keep me company for 2.5 to 3 weeks. it's not as weird as I feared, since we barely know each other. My mom is coming up here Oct 11-25, around my b-day. The fact she's staying till the 25th could cause problems for me to get to Arizona though.. and i wont be able to go to Pete's graduation from basic. But we'll figure something out. I just really need his parents to confirm they'll drive me to Arizona. Since it's 19 weeks, we'll be needing to bring some stuff, like our computers. and the 4 pets.. if we can bring them all..

So yeah... fun times... *sarcasm* Being alone sucks. I'm not made to be away from the person i love most... Plus barely being able to talk to him doesn't help.
But as his mom keeps saying "we'll see what happens".... bah...


Oh btw, our wedding pictures suck.. our friend who came up to be witness took them with a disposable camera sicne mine's being stupid. The other witness (a coworker of Pete took good ones but i don't have those on my computer yet)

Once we're out of the army (in 5 years...) we'll be having a real wedding to which everyone who wants to come is invited. :)
So here's the best i got...

Wow ... May 1st was my last post... wow... *sigh*

Well anyways, for those that care, I'm still alive and such.... Just a big WoW geek...
I honestly have nothing of interest to mention.. that's sad... *sigh*

Yup yup we now have a kitty too! And a pretty one too. Name's Ozzie. He had the name at the shelter and we thought it kinda fit with Diablo.
He's about a year old and not very well fed right now. He's got a lot of hair to diguise it, but he's skinny. He has the built to become bigthough and we'll make sure he will. Plus he's very cuddly, loves to get attention.











And Dioblo's been playing a lot now. Well maybe not today though. He's sick, worms. They said he'd been dewormed when we got him, but either it didn't work very well or it's already back. So Pete will get dewormer when he comes home from work this morning. Poor thing's been throwing up and lifeless all day.

Yeah that's right, we got a puppy! He's a black purebred labrador and we named him Diablo. :P







And a lil video.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v42/shivy/?action=view&current=DSCF0071.flv

More pics to come for sure. :D

And with a bit of luck we might be able to get a cat too. Go us!



And a two nights ago we had a lil thunderstorm and the sky was so pretty I took pictures.

For those who didn't see my invite e-mail in their inbox (probably in your junkmail): join facebook now! www.facebook.com 
Make me not feel so alone there. :P


Anyways, things are still good. Not much happening. It looks like we're finally gonna get some better weather here, spring is in the air!

Oh and something else. Someone at Pete's work has puppies! Most of them purebred chocolate Labradors. But a couple are not so chocolate, but more yellowish. And those won't sell for much then. So maybe, just maybe we can arrange something... :D Would be great to have a puppy, It'd give me some company when Pete's at work.

Well Peter got the job. ^^ He'll be starting on Wednesday.

First three weeks are gonne be for training and then his normal schedule starts.
Hours first week: 6am-2pm... Which is gonna suck big time. Especially since he'll keep McDonald's for a bit too. Not full time, but still..
Next week'll be eveings and then nightshift.

Other than that, nothing new on my end.

*hugs all* I miss you!

Yes that's right, snowstorms have finally hit our little town. It's supposedly been a very mild winter, with little snow. But yesterday it hit us. Badly...




It comes up to Pete's knees...




And buries big cars....


Aside from that, all is well over here. Peter has a jobinterview on Monday to work nightshifts at a motel. Which would most likely pay more than McDonald's and be less annoying and smelly. So fingers crossed.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention how Peter made the most amazing brownies last week. They were godly.

Alright, I'm just going to say it then.
Peter and I are engaged!

Yup yup we are and we're serious about this. Even though it was an impulsive thing to do and such.
But yeah, that's the big news. Go us. ^^

No worries about wedding stuff and such yet. We don't even have enough money for a engagement ring right now.

Oh I have decided on bridesmaid and best girl kinda things already though. Wasn't a very hard decision. Lidy's agreed to be my best girl. And for bridesmaids I want Marlo (my oldest friend, have yet to tell her though :P). And Lisu-chan, would you be my second bridesmaid?

*hugs all*


Oh and one other thing, could you people tell me your birthdates? I don't know all of them and I'd like to be able to wish you a happy day and such. :D


Oh and another thing, we have internet and phone of our own now.
Number is: (001)715 682 2089.

Pete was having fun with his breakfast and I just had to take a picture.
So behold: the smiling pancake!




More important update will follow... some time soon... Something big... And no I'm not pregnant! *glares at everyone who thought that*
But it's happy news nonetheless. Even though you probably won't believe me...

But not now...
Later...
When we're ready to share...


Oh yeah, it's our 5 months aniversary today! Woot! ^^
I've only been here a month and a half, but it feels like I've been here so much longer. It really feels like home you know? Even though I miss my friends, specially now that Pete has started work... Oh if anyone wants to see more of our house or just simply see me when talking I have Pete's webcam installed on my comp, so just poke me on MSN. I'll gladly give people a tour of our little house. ^^

Our luck seems to be going up and down these days.

Peter finally got a job, he'll be hopefully starting next week. We'll know for sure on Friday. It's a last resort job, but it'll pay the bills and feed us. He'll be working at McDonald's and yes he'll be wearing one of those famous hats.... :P

So yeah, that's the good thing.
Also my computer's running a lot more smoothly, Peter messed around with it a bit (struggling through the Dutch) and fixed it up.
His computer's still slowly dying. We're afraid to shut it off 'cause most of the time it won't start up again for a while.. (He's actually been putting it in the fridge a couple times just to cool it)

And then there's our heater. Yesterday it suddenly started rattling like crazy. Pete went in, messed around with it and it seemed to be working fine. Until this morning when a new noise replaced the other one. And this afternoon we could actually smell it.... So we made an appointment for tomorrow morning to hopefully get it fixed.
And his parents will be paying for it luckily. 'Cause we're kinda broke... I still have a little bit of money in my account, but I also have my phone and health insurance and stuff... (Damn our government for making that health insurance so goddamn expensive!!!)

Oh and temperature is -23 degrees C. So going outside and do stuff is not really and option either. So it's been a lil boring. Can't play my PS2 games yet, waiting on a cable.
Peter went out today 'cause he's been insisting on getting me Final Fantasy 12, which I've been refusing 'cause it's too expensive. Today I finally gave up the struggle and whadda you know? It's sold out!! *cries*

Anyways, not counting all that shit, life is pretty good. Still happy together and all. Soon we'll have some money again and hopefully the rest will get better as well.

I have internet at home! Well... sorta. Technically it's not our internet, but out neighbour's.. Their wireless network is not secured, so we can access it. Took us a bit, since we've been able to pick up their signal since we moved in, but only since 3 days have we been able to actually connect and get online. The first two days were kinda unstable, but now I've been online since last night with no problems. So yay! Let's see how long it'll last... :P

Other than that I don't really have much to update about. No job yet. Things still good between us.
And right now I've been up since around 12pm yesterday, trying to stay up to get back into a normal sleep rhythm, that does not consist of staying awake till 4-6am and then sleep till2-4 pm. :/

Oh and Peter's computer's being an ass... It's on the verge of completely breaking down I'm afraid. And mine's been having some problems lately too.. :(

Kitchen before.
 
Livingroom before.


diningroom before.


Bathroom.


working on our bedroom.


Guest bedroom before (after picture will follow soon).


Back of the house.


Our bedroom after. ^^


Front of the house.


Ugly couch, cute guy. :P


Our shower in the basement...


Livingroom after.


More livingroom after. TV's huge but not really working the way it's supposed to yet... :(


Diningroom after.


Kitchen after.


So yeah that's it for now. More pictures when I have more to show.
Still no internet at home, but that will be there soon hopefully.

Later! *hug*