A review of the last few weeks because I fail!

I've failed you all. I said that I wouldn't be blogging everyday but instead only blog when exciting stuff happens. Well, I haven't done a very good job of that! Lots of exciting and/or interesting stuff has happened since my last blog post. But since I'm too lazy to figure out what days they happened, I'll just write them down by category.  (And sorry I never finished my CA blog posts. I swear I wrote notes and I'll try to get them done sometime!)

Cedar Point:

My dad and I went to Cedar Point on Labor Day. We were in Sandusky on the Sunday before because my cousin, Shaina, had a baby shower, so we figured that Monday would be a great time to go. Plus it was one of the few weekends that we would be able to because it is football season and so my dad goes to the Michigan game every weekend.

It ended up being a great day for Cedar Point. It looked like it was going to rain and it was the day before school starts for a lot of schools, so it wasn't very crowded. It was also Platinum Passholder Appreciation Day. My dad has a platinum pass, so that meant that I could get in for $20 and I could get in an hour earlier than the general public because that's one of the advantages of a platinum pass.

We got there just a few minutes after 9, which is when it opened, because I was google chatting with Rohan. But since there were almost no lines, we got on Gatekeeper, the new ride, pretty quickly. We ended up waiting to get in the front seat since it was such a short line and it was pretty awesome. The concept of the ride is that you aren't over the tracks, but rather spread out like wings. I had the far seat in the front and it didn't feel like a normal roller coaster at all. We got in line to go one it again right afterward.

We went on some more coasters during the day, including Top Thrill Dragster, which I hadn't been on in years. It was closed the first time that we went there, but it was back up later in the day. Unfortunately, my favourite ride, Maverick, was closed for mechanical reasons all day.

A little after an early/light lunch, Jillian, Brit, the kids, and my mom came for a while. We spent some time with them, but then they went home. My dad and I were then hungry again, since we just shared a sandwich earlier because we were really hungry and it was kind of early. This time we went to the sports bar. After eating, we got really tired, so we went out to the car to take a nap before going back in. Well, that didn't happen. We kind of fell asleep for a long time. When we woke up, we decided that we had gone on all of the rides that we wanted to, besides Maverick which was shut down, so we left. We went back to Jillian's house and then went to get ice cream at Tofts with them before going back home.

Mathnasium:

I needed to get a job because I have no money and I really need some. I was looking for some temporary employment since I plan to be going back to Australia soon. My dad suggested Mathnasium since I have tutoring experience and math is my favourite subject to tutor.

The interview was awful. Well, the actual talking to my boss part went fine, but that was short. I had to take a math test, which I did not know about before I went there. It was a long math test. It was math that I hadn't done in years because I was not tutoring at that level. It took me a couple of hours and it was absolutely horrible. I didn't really finish, but I knew that I couldn't get the ones that I didn't answer. It was the SAT math review and I hadn't done that stuff since I took the ACT, which was about 5 1/2 years ago! And to top it all off I had been sick the past few days and I didn't get a calculator. I sort of gave up after a while because it was getting late and my dad was outside to pick me up. We were going out to dinner with my mom, Jacki, and the Shaheens.

She had me come back the next day as an observation day or something like that. I went around and watched the other tutors and saw how they do things around Mathnasium. Then Grace had me go into her office to talk. Apparently I did do really badly on the test. She said that she was going to talk to Rachel, the manager, to see how I did and if they should hire me. If so, I would just be working with the younger kids. That was fine with me because there seemed to be mostly younger kids anyway.

Somehow I did get the job. They had a "Mathnasium University 101" binder that they have the newbies read so that we know how we are supposed to teach certain concepts. That actually has helped me a lot in being able to do math more quickly. I wish they taught that when I was in school!

My first day of actually tutoring kids went horribly. I'm not really sure what happened. We have about four kids at a time, so juggling them can be difficult. At the end of the day, Grace called me into her office to talk. She asked me how I thought it was going and I said good. Apparently it wasn't. Grace had stopped by my table toward the end of the day to watch me. Apparently that was the one time that I told the girl something that was wrong. She also told me that one of my first kids that day had gone to Vera, the other boss, and asked for a different tutor. I think the reason there was that he was doing his worksheet wrong and he got really upset with me when I tried to make him go up to the beginning problems when he thought that he should be at the end.

But I wasn't fired. Somehow miraculously! It's gotten a lot better, though. I'm better at handling working with that many kids, which I think it a huge problem in the Mathnasium way of doing things. I've also gotten to know some of the kids pretty well and they like me. I just get nervous every time that I see Grace because I'm convinced that she thinks I'm an idiot. Luckily she isn't in most days, though.

Say "Yes" to the Dress:

I had been looking at different wedding dresses online and my mom found one that I really liked and wanted to try on. She looked up the locations and they didn't have any near us, but they did at a shop in Toledo called Atlas. We were taking the kids for the weekend and meeting Jillian in Toledo, which is the halfway point between Ann Arbor and Sandusky. Instead of meeting near a hotel or something like we usually do, we decided to meet at the bridal salon. My dad was then going to take the kids out to do something else.

My parents and I got there a little before Jillian, so we started looking at dresses and trying them on. The first one that I tried on was the one that I had wanted to try on. It was so beautiful. Jillian came while I was still trying on that dress. My dad took the kids out for dinner and I tried on more dresses for my mom and Jillian. I think all of the dresses, or at least most of them, were Alfred Angelo. I love his dresses! Then my dad came back with the kids when we were still trying on dresses. Adri loved watching and was even putting on my tiara when I wasn't wearing it. (I only put on the tiara when it was a dress that was a contender.) I had narrowed it down to two dresses. I knew that the one that I came there to try on was definitely the one that I had to get. (Which is funny because when my mom first showed me she said that it was way to expensive. I don't think she knew just how much my dress was going to be because I wanted a beaded bodice and a ball gown. It ended up being one of the cheaper ones that I tried on.) But there was more than one reason that I knew this had to be my dress, but I might explain that after the wedding.

When we were done trying on my dresses, my dad paid for it since he hasn't given me the money yet. Jillian, my mom, and I took that time to look at the selection of bridesmaid dresses. There were a few that I liked that I had Jillian try on. Rohan wanted to be involved in the picking of the dresses, especially the colour, so we took pictures of them so that I could have them to send to Rohan as well as the bridesmaids. My two sisters will be the Matrons of Honour and his sisters will be my bridesmaids. After a few weeks, I decided on which dress I wanted to choose. One of the ones that Jillian tried on that everyone liked comes in a halter top, instead of the strapless that Jillian tried on, so we're going to go with that. Plus we get a discount if we order the bridesmaid dresses where I got my dress. It was a pretty successful trip!

The next day I got an email from Alfred Angelo's fan page, because I had just liked them, that said if you ordered that month or something and brought in that email you could get a signed sketch of your dress. I emailed Atlas and they talked to the designer and were able to order that for me! So I'll be getting a signed sketch when I get my dress. I thought that was pretty cool.

Wedding plans:

I'm not sure if I had mentioned the date before, but we are going to be getting married on 19 July 2014. Rohan's mum has been awesome in helping us which is great since neither of us are in Perth and I'm not even in Australia.

After booking the church, she sent us a bunch of ideas of the reception. I had no idea where to start and it was good that she got us thinking about it early so that we could get a really nice place. We decided to go with the Bluewater Grill. She went there to talk to them and figure out if they were available and everything. They were, so we got that booked. We also decided on a lunch reception. The reason is that we are going to be having an early ceremony so that we can have a livestream for people who cannot attend, ie most of my family, can still watch. Gotta love technology!

I also have ordered my dress, as said before, decided what I want the bridesmaids to wear, and got my wedding shoes, which are blue. So I got my new and blue taken care of. My mom is planning on getting some new sapphire jewellery, which is her birthstone and our wedding colour, and I hope to have that as my borrowed for the wedding. I'm still trying to convince her to make my garter out of the lace from her wedding dress for my something old, but we'll see how that works out. Otherwise I'm not sure what my old thing will be.

Visa progress:

I've made a lot of progress on my prospective marriage visa. I've written out my statement of relationship for the government to judge. Then I had to go get that notarized at the bank. I also needed to get my passport request notarized. I'm still waiting for that to get back so that I can send it off to our migration agent. I sent off my statement of relationship and birth certificate to him, though.

I also needed to get a police check from America and Australia. For the American one, it is an FBI check and I needed to be fingerprinted. I googled where I can get fingerprinted in Ann Arbor, and they said that only people under arrest can be fingerprinted at the police station downtown and I had to go to some address. I didn't want to take the bus there, so I waited until my dad could take me. I was glad that my dad took me. It was a jail. (On a side note, the parking lot was funny. They had the normal handicap parking, but they also had spots reserved for carpool and fuel efficient vehicles.) As we walked into the building from the parking lot, we crossed a bunch of women, one of which was wearing an ankle monitor! I went up to the window inside and they told me to fill out the form that they gave me. Then I went back in some door, which was right next to the phones and glass to talk to prisonsers, and she fingerprinted me. She kept telling me to relax my hand, but it's hard to relax your hand when someone is grabbing it and moving it to fingerprint you!

The Australian police check was much easier. They just needed some scanned copies of IDs and I filled out a form and mailed it to them. I didn't need to be fingerprinted or get stuff notarized. I was glad that I had brought my ANU ID home and it was still valid, though, because that was worth enough points that I needed after my passport to get the minimum number of ID points. I just got an email a day or so ago saying that they finished my check and are sending the results to my migration agent.

Now I'm just waiting for everything to go through, Rohan to do his parts, and our migration agent to give us the filled out forms to check. Once we have those forms we can submit our application. I still need to get a health check, but you need to wait until after you submit the application because they will give you a coding number that the doctor files your examination under on the computer so that they can link it without mailing the information all the way to Australia. The really annoying part, though, is that you need to go to a certified Australian panel doctor and there isn't one in Michigan or Ohio. The closest one is in Canada and the next closest is in Chicago. At least the one is Canada is just in Windsor which is about 30-40 minutes from my house.

Organise room:

I decided to rearrange my room. For a long time I didn't like how my room was set up. I have a bed that kind of cuts the room awkwardly because it's so big. Instead of having a large empty space in my room, I had a few small ones and it was a hassel trying to move around my room  to clean it. When I was little and we lived in Holland, I used to always rearrange my room, but I wasn't able to here because my TV had to be in one spot and I had the bed so that I could watch TV. Well, now my parents no longer pay for that TV to have dish access, so there's no point in having the bed face it. I moved my bed and I was finally able to clean my room easily. I now have this huge empty spot in the middle to organize things. The room looks so much bigger! I was able to go through my room and get rid of the stuff that I know I don't want and never will want. I still need to go through my stuff and sort it into stuff I want to take with me when I go back, stuff I want my family to bring to Australia when the come for the wedding, and stuff that I don't want now but may want in the future/don't want my parents to get rid of yet.

(I Do at the) Zoo:

For Grandparents' Day, the Toldedo Zoo was having a special that grandparents could get in free. The kids and Jillian were in Ann Arbor because she went to the Notre Dame-Michigan football game with my dad. (Brit had just left for Sweden on Saturday for work.) We decided to go to the Toledo Zoo on that Sunday when Jillian and the kids were going back to Sandusky. I ended up getting in free, too, because they let me in under Brit's pass.

It was a fun morning and the kids left a little bit after lunch. My parents and I stayed, though, because there was a bridal show called I Do at the Zoo going on in the afternoon. My dad went and napped in the car while my mom and I went to it. I thought it was fun, but she was a bit overwhelmed. There were bakeries that were there, so we got some free cake and there were photobooths, so we took silly pictures together. There was even a salon's booth that was letting people get their hair done. I got my done. It was fun.

My mom also signed me up for every drawing, that wasn't for a specific reception place or photographer since our wedding will be in Australia and not here. Later that night, I got a call saying that I won something, but I had just missed the call. The voicemail gave me a number to call back and said they'd be there until 9 that night. I called them about 4 times, until it was 9, and never got through. I left a voicemail, but they never called me back. I also got another call that I won two toasting glasses and a 3 day/2 night hotel stay. He was talking though the whole thing and I was getting excited because I never win anything, except this time but I think that's because my mom filled out the forms and she's lucky. Then they got to the point about picking it up. My fiance and I both had to be there. Well, that's a problem. I explained that Rohan is in Australia and therefore unable to pick it up with me. He said that the only thing that he could think of was if I was able to go to the next bridal show in January. Yet another problem, I plan to be back in Australia in December, assuming that my visa stuff all gets worked out in time. He told me to call back if anything else happens, but I guess we're out of luck. No winning stuff for us!