Approved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Approved! Approved! Approved!!!!!!!!

It's official!  I have a visa stamp in my passport! I am now legally allowed to enter and reside in the United Kingdom with my fabulously wonderful British husband!!!

We were chatting on webcam this morning and just happened to be commiserating on the worry that we both have over the whole process. Even if you have all of your paperwork in order, it is impossible not to fret over things when they are so out of your control. So we were in the middle of discussing how we need to stay positive when I got a phone call from the Courier.

And she said those magic words:  Your visa has been approved!

I immediately shouted "We're Approved" and Pete was shouting on his side and grinning like a fool and we were punching the air and celebrating and wishing more than anything we could hug eachother right then and there. It was a fabulous moment. Such amazing news!!!

So the Courier will be posting my visa back to me today via FedEx, and I should have it sometime on Monday or Tuesday (depending on how motivated the island delivery guy feels like being). And then it will be time to jump in the next plane heading towards England....and my whole new life as an American Expat in Britain will begin.

Joy!

Thanks to everyone who crossed their fingers for me!

The mad rush of April

Wheeew.

There has been SO much that has happened this month. A wedding, a honeymoon, saying goodbye to my husband, quitting my job, applying for a spousal visa, moving out of my apartment.......I think the only life change I didn't experience this month was popping out a kid.

I just didn't have time to fit that in.

Anyway, the final move out day for my apartment is tomorrow. I'm going to be crashing at my friend's house for a few days. Well, until the British Consulate deems me worthy of entry into England, that is. If everyone can cross their fingers for me that the decision comes sooner rather than later, I would be ever so grateful.

It is strange how my existence can now can be summed up in the grand total of four suitcases and a carry on. Talk about purging! Salvation Army can open a new wing in their building now, thanks to me.

More later.....now that I am an unemployed homeless woman, I'll have more time to post. :)

Yippeee!!!

Look at what I got in the mail!

Finally....my marriage certificate! If you've been following along, that is the one piece of the puzzle that was missing from my application for a spousal visa. Now that I have it, it's going right into my packet and I can finally apply to the British Consulate for permission to go and live with my husband.

After we were told that it was going to take so much longer than expected to arrive, we got a little......ummmm...."creative".....with our request. Hahaahaa. Hey, sometimes you need to be more clever than the system, right?

At any rate, I got the piece of paper in my hot little hand, and the packet goes out at 1:00 on Tuesday afternoon.

Whoop Whoop!!!!!
Everyone do a happy dance with me!

My day...in pictures

I'm not much up for talking tonight, so instead I'm posting some random photos from my day today.....

A cruise ship was drifting lazily out in the harbor in Lahaina town this afternoon:

One of my resident moth-eaters was hanging out on my bedroom window, cleaning up the riffraff:

I organized all of my camping equipment so that I can sell it on Craigslist.

I ate nothing but crap all day today.... (mom would be so proud)

A quick trip to the clinic resulted in a prescription for this persistent sinus infection that I've been battling:

I finished the final chapters of this fine novel, even though I still can't pronounce a single Swedish name:

And, finally, after months and months of parking on the next block, I was actually able to park in front of my own damn house today. My neighbor got off his ass and moved the ancient monstrosity that's been sitting there stewing in it's own rot and blocking my parking space. I'm uber thrilled.

A right moan.....

Ok, so I'm a bit of a wet sheet lately. Or a wet noodle. Or whatever the expression is.
Suffice to say, I feel crap.

Not physically of course...but mentally I'm just drained. Almost like I can't be bothered to get out of bed....in my brain, of course. I've showered. Ok, maybe not today. But I do remember showering recently.

I knew of course that there would be time between our wedding and my eventual move...time where I wouldn't live with my brand new husband. But to tell you the truth, I kindof thought it would be no big deal. I mean, if anyone is used to living separate from their loved one, it would be me and Pete. Right?

Well, I have to say....I was very wrong.

This sucks. And I don't mean in a "shucks this is inconvenient" kind of way. I mean in a "fuck, this blows" sort of way. Our honeymoon lasted all of three seconds, and now Pete is whisked all the way back to the other side of the globe (luckily missing the ash-in-the-sky catastrophe by a mere few hours) and I've never felt so alone. I find myself constantly checking down at my ring finger to assure myself that it really did happen. I didn't dream it all.

We were lied to told, before the wedding, that the waiting period for the visa process would be roughly three weeks. Suddenly, after we were married the time frame has magically morphed into a heart-wrenching 6-8 weeks. And I'm feeling broken and miserable.

But I did get out of bed. Yesterday. To fix some dinner.

I'll be fine. I'm just trying to wrap my head around having to wait so long. Pete keeps telling me that we will look back on this time in our early marriage and laugh. Personally, I'm highly doubting there will be any giggling. I'm thinking this blows and I'm sad.

If anyone needs me, I'll be on my bed crying and eating oreos.

I made the cut.....

For those of you who were holding their breaths in anticipation.....

I went ahead and did the chop. My hair is now chin length and I'm loving it!

Pete is.......well, let's just say he's adjusting to my new look. After our first webcam date following my appointment, I kindly requested that he work on his husbandly dialog skills for the future. I even gave him some helpful suggestions for what he could say:
"Honey, Vogue is on the phone and they want to know if you're available for next months cover"
or
"I never realized how sexy short hair is before. Angelina Jolie has got it all wrong!"

You know....something simple like that.

Anyway...here's how it looks now:

I'm hankering for a change....

I'm thinking about cutting my hair. You know...the whole post-wedding chop. Here's they styles I'm looking at:

Did I say "styles"? 

I meant style.

I really don't have that much variety in my repertoire. My hair is either long and straight....or it's a chin length bob.

I'm so predictable.

Anyway, I'm thinking about chopping it all off again.

Our first wedding photos!!!!

Ok.....here they are! Finally.

I'm super duper pleased with our choice of photographers. She had us doing all sorts of fun poses and activities. If the two teaser photos she sent us are anything to go by, I'm sure I'll love the rest of the pics.

I wanted one or two good shots to hang on my wall for the rest of my life. But in total, we had an hour and a half of non-stop camera clicks and I'm thinking that I'll probably have a hard time keeping it to just one or two. Hahaaa

We ended up getting married on Shipwreck beach. It was Pete's first choice, and in the end, it was the ONLY beach we could use. It was raining everywhere else. Go figure. But we ended up being really pleased with the location. The water was a gorgeous turquoise blue, the sand was white and warm, the sunset was mango to match my flowers, and because it was slightly cloudy, we didn't have to squint in any bright sunlight...... couldn't have asked for more.

And for those of you wondering....you probably won't be able to tell it from these photos, but I went with the vintage button clip in my hair instead of the tulle flower. :)   I had purchased a bracelet and fancy earings to wear with my dress. But they were forgotten on the counter at home by mistake. (Woops.) Oh well!

Tell me what you think of the photos, wont you?

Honeymoon Photos.....

As promised....here are some pictures:

Pete enjoying his half of a milkshake. He really enjoyed the fifties diner side of cool cats. Very American Grafitti. :)

Beautiful Wailua Waterfall:

The breathtaking Napali coastline - as seen from the helicopter:

I suppose we could have taken off the emergency air bags before taking this picture.....so sexy, no?

Waiting on my ribs at Duke's....(yes, that's right. I ordered ribs. I'm married now. I don't have to look sexy while I eat anymore. Hahaha)

Someone was sharing the beach with us at Poipu....

We hiked down into the canyon and had lunch out on a little ledge overlooking the valley. What a view!

Zip-lining was a BLAST!!!

And the sun setting into a sea of clouds up on Haleakala volcano:

A cornucopia of awesomeness

Would you look at that?!?!?!

My FABULOUS girlfriend Danielle mailed me all of that goodiness and it was waiting for me upon my arrival back to Maui. What is it, you ask? I shall describe.

First up we have two huge bags of cinnamon bears. It came to our attention recently that cinnamon bears are (apparently) a regional treat. You can find them easily in certain parts of the US, and they are completely non-existent in others. (Who knew?) In fact, when I asked some locals both on Oahu and Maui where I could go to buy a bag, they had no idea what cinnamon bears even were.  Danielle to the rescue. They are definitely hitting the spot!

And the other bit of fabulousness in the photo is three (That's right......THREE!) tubes of the most fab color of lipstick that has ever been invented. Flirt brand, color crave, number 12. It is only sold at Kohls. And as we all know, Kohls has yet to grace the shores of Hawaii. So I have been hoarding my last remaining smudge on the stick I still had from my mainland days, bringing it out for only the most special of occasions. But now with this abundance, I can wear it whenever I want to! I am well chuffed!

Much Mahalo to you, Danielle!!!!!

I'm back!!!!

I return.......a married woman.

How awesome is that? I am exhausted, lonely and nervous about everything that has yet to come, but I am still really happy over everything that has already happened.

Wanna hear about it? Of course you do. Here we go....

Ok, so the weather on Kauai sucked. It rained EVERY SINGLE DAY. We tried to make the best of it, and stay positive. But between you and me, I was rather peeved at my beloved Kauai for showing such a rotten side of itself during my honeymoon. We were not able to do the Hanakapiai Falls hike that I so badly wanted to take Pete on, but we substituted doing other things, like sipping umbrella drinks and shopping. And I got a chance to introduce Pete to the wonder that is Walmart. (hahaa) We adored the little jungle hideaway cabin we rented for our stay over there. It was cozy and perfect. It even had an outside shower which we enjoyed to the fullest.
There are so many, many details of both the wedding and the honeymoon I could share...but I'll try to highlight just a few of my favorite things:
1) The ceremony was so wonderful and special. It really was. I want to do it all over again. Pete and I both wrote our own vows, which were very emotional to hear and to say. It was super romantic. I'm glad I had a hankie! (Thanks Linda!)
2) I ended up LOVING my wedding dress. I was nervous for so long over it, worrying that it was too fancy for a beach wedding. But in the end I couldn't have been more pleased. It fit me perfectly and I was so comfortable in it I didn't ever want to take it off. I loved how feminine and "bridey" I felt. What a perfect choice for me! (Thanks Blake!!!) I can't wait to share pictures of it.
3) I had mango lilies picked out for my bouquet. Only, the day before the wedding, everyone was sold out of them. What to do!?!?!??!  After I got done freaking out, Pete helped me pick out some mango colored tulips, which ended up making such a gorgeous bouquet. And tulips are my second favorite flower of all time, so I was doubly happy.
4) My wedding present to Pete was a helicopter tour of the whole island. It was breathtaking! Well worth the money. It was an amazing experience to share together and I'm so glad we did it. I'll post pictures soon.
5) On his last night in Maui, we drove up to the top of Haleakala and watched the sunset from the top of the volcano crater. It was very romantic and beautiful. Definitely a highlight of the honeymoon.
6) Pretty much everything else....sharing fish tacos at Leilani's, racing eachother down the mountain on zip-lines, snorkeling hand in hand at Poipu, splitting a strawberry milkshake at Cool Cats, digging into local kine shave ice while we strolled under the banyon tree......overall an amazing honeymoon. Happy sigh.....

I'll post some pictures soon. I have lots of stuff from the honeymoon activities and two "teaser" shots from the wedding in case anyone wants to take a gander.

Thank you to everyone for all of the well wishes and congrats you sent me!  I love my friends! :)

April Fools Day update.....

Pete's finally here!   Joy!
We spent yesterday walking the boardwalk down to blackrock. Then we ate fish tacos at Leilani's. (which were AWESOME). We of course had to have a huge slice of Hula Pie as well, which completely shot my wedding dress diet and now I'm starting to freak out that I'm going to fit in it. (calm down, Corie)

After some shopping in Whalers Village we headed home and watched movies. Or rather, I watched a movie....Pete dozed off. He's still not quite settled into the time zone....but he's getting there.

Today we were supposed to do a zip-line adventure down the mountain, but we got a call telling us it was far too windy up there. Which is fine I suppose...I'd sooner not die in a freak zip-line accident. We've postponed it for a few days and I hope the wind cooporates on that day. Tomorrow we're flying to Kauai for the wedding, honeymoon, and all around adventure having.

So far, it's been awesome having him here! And it's only going to get better. I'll post pictures as soon as I get some.

Oh.....I forgot to say.....during the walk to black rock, I got a frickin sunburn on my shoulders. What a dumb ass I can be. I spend six months avoiding the sun so that I have no tan lines for the wedding. And then four days before hand, I go out and get some. What a loser.