MY WEDDING and VISA NEWS

Now here are some real news: Jon told me that he received the NOA 1 (Notice of Action) for the second package of documents that he had sent out about 10 days ago. This was the application for the spouse visa (K-3) whereas the first package that we sent out was the application for the immigration visa (CR-1).

We are basically pursuing two ways of action and will take whatever will be processed sooner. The difference is that with the CR-1 (which usually takes longer to process) I would be a permanent resident and have a work permit upon entering the country. With the K-3 (which usually is issued faster) I will have a temporary permanent resident status [for 2 years] and will have to apply for a work permit upon entry.

Friday I picked up the paper that I had ordered for my wedding invitation envelopes and then I went over to my aunt’s place in the evening and started folding them while she was painting.
My cousin had 15 (!) friends over to celebrate into his 15th birthday that night and I thought I would keep my aunt some company and look out for the teenagers ;)
I must say that they really behaved well for hanging out in a room of only 15 square meters.

Yesterday I pretty much slept and hung out most of the day, because I had a bad headache. I am pretty sure it was because of that weird weather – snow flurry and some rain in between. I know, technically it’s still winter and spring won’t start before the 21st, but I really think we [and especially the people in Southern Germany] had enough snow for this season and it should start getting warmer soon.
In the evening, I worked on the envelopes some more and then I worked on my quilting project and watched some TV.

The most “exciting” project [not] of this weekend was my tax return :( I really wanted to sit down and do it and I thought it would be really easy, because I still had the forms from last year and thought I would just change the numbers. But since I got married on the last day of 2005, I am considered “married” for the whole tax year which means I have to do my tax return differently and fill out different forms from last year :( not fun! I spent almost the whole day on this.
I just took a break in the afternoon and went over to my sister’s place for some waffles with hot cherries :) We talked about some wedding stuff as well, since we’re both trying to figure out what our bridal bouquet and the decoration for the church and the restaurant should look like. Man, there are so many choices!