Adventures around Belconnen

I went over to Belconnen early to head over to Westfield before meeting Rohan. I had a couple things to get and he wanted me to pick up a thank you present for his flatmate because she is moving out tomorrow. He wanted me to pick her up an Australian cookbook. I ended up getting the same one that Michelle, Rohan's mum, got me two years ago for Christmas. I also got a white nail polish. I broke my rule of not getting any more nail polish until I had a job but I made an exception because my white was the only one that kind of spilled everywhere in transit from Michigan to here and I needed it quite a bit for the July nail art challenge. I'm just glad that my nail polishes were all individually bubble wrapped so that the white one spilling didn't affect the other bottles! That would have been a mess!

Then Rohan and I met at his apartment and he had lunch. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching stuff on my parents' DVR while doing my nails. July has a challenge where there's a new theme everyday. Since I'll be busy/gone for three weeks for my wedding and honeymoon, I'm trying to get as many as I can done early. So what I'm doing is a different manicure on either hand. I'm trying to do ones that at least somewhat tie together, even if it is just colour schemes instead of themes.

I also went to donate a box of stuff in the afternoon. Rohan asked me to go pick up a package for him at the post office and the donating place was right by it. I figured that since I had to take a trolley over that way anyway, I might as well dump off the old kitchen stuff that we didn't need. That box was really heavy and Belconnen is really hilly so that was not a smart idea. Then I went to the post office. Rohan gets stuff all the time, so the woman that works that there said that know she's going to get to know my face, too. (He's also a well known regular at EB games and the butcher in Westfield, so I'm sure they'll get to know me to.) The box I picked up there was really light by comparison and was so easy to bring back.

Rohan came home from work and we had an adventure finding dinner. He wanted to go to a new Chinese place which put a pamphlet in the mailbox last week or so. So we went off to try to find that. We found another place that had just opened that was also Chinese, but it was a different place. We decided to keep walking because maybe it was just a bit ahead. Well, we didn't end up finding it. So then Rohan asked if I'd rather go back to the other Chinese place, which he did want to try sometime anyway, or if I wanted to go to Outback Jack's since we were about in the middle of the two places.

I chose Outback Jack's. We kept walking because Rohan had an app for coupons that gave a map of where it was supposed to be. That was not the location at all. We were walking around and all that was there was a bunch of apartments and the lake. So then Rohan looked up the Outback Jack's website to see where it was. The website said that it was at Westfield. We both thought that was odd because neither of us have seen it there. Then we checked the Westfield site just to make sure. They said it was there and on the third floor, so we went over to Westfield, which wasn't there far from where we had been walking anyway.

Apparently the reason that Rohan nor I had ever seen it was that it is in a really bad location at Westfield. It's down a little side path where there isn't really anything else. I had only been down there once because we went to MadMex, which is like a fast food Mexican place similar to Chipotle or Qdoba in the states, before I left last year. I thought that Outback Jack's was good. I got a steak, which is really no surprise. I love steak. Rohan got some ribs and we had calamari as an appetizer. While we were eating, I was playing with the spinny thing on the table that said some of their deals. Apparently they have both crocodile and camel burgers. I thought that was very interesting. I had never really heard of either as a burger, although I have heard of crocodile being eaten.

We went back to his place after we ate. Rohan called his parents' house to wish his sister, Justine, a happy birthday. We also talked to his mum a lot about wedding stuff. Then I went home kind of early because Rohan wanted to get to bed since he has an early morning tomorrow.

Oh bus time tables!

I woke up early to go to church.  Rebecca and Pete picked me up again since Greg comes back tonight. After church, we went to eat lunch at Westfield. Rebecca's parents were here so it was fun to meet them. They even prayed with Rohan and I for our upcoming marriage.

After lunch, we picked up Rohan's suit for the wedding. Then we stopped at Rohan's. He made up a meal plan for the week and I caught up with stuff online.
After he finished his list, we went back to Westfield to buy the stuff.  He managed to get distracted before we left and forgot his list. We were half way there before he realised it. Luckily he only lives about 7 minutes away.

We came back and after a little bit he started to make dinner because the buses don't run as late on Sunday.  I checked the bus time on my computer and it was 6:10. Then halfway through making dinner I checked it again on my phone. It was actually about 7, so Rohan didn't feel so rushed cooking. We had eaten and were about to clean when I looked at my phone again to check the bus time. That's when I realised that I had the bus route in my phone backwards. I had it that I was leaving Greg and Rachel's place and going to Rohan's instead of leaving Rohan's place.  I felt dumb.

We cleaned up before deciding who we were going to nicely ask if they could please pick me up. Before we decided, one of Rohan's friends that comes over for DnD came over because Rohan hadn't mentioned to him in time that no one else was going to make it. He said that he'll be able to take me home. We're currently still at Rohan's place but I wanted to blog now because I won't have Internet later and I might as well do it now instead of tomorrow.

We also found out tonight that Rohan's flatmate found somewhere else to stay the last month that she is here. So she's leaving here on Tuesday and Rohan and I can rearrange our apartment and move our stuff into our room which is where she is currently staying. That makes life much less complicated for us since there is no way that all my stuff would fit into the room that he's currently in.

Now might be a good time to tell you that Darren Criss sings that song on Glee...

Rohan was at a mental health seminar workshoppy thing all day so he gave me his keys on Friday so that I was able to come over to do stuff. I came over around lunch and I did the pre-marriage survey thing for our pre-marriage counselling next week. I also just did some regular internet browsing to catch up since I don't have internet where I'm staying due to using my data.

Then Rohan came home and we played some video games. He forgot that he had planned to make the meal he wanted for dinner earlier in the week, so some of the ingredients went bad and we instead had some frozen food. That's a rare thing to happen when Rohan's around, but that's what my eating is like when I'm by myself. We also had some ice cream. I love being able to have Caramello ice cream again. It's so good. I'm definitely going to have to introduce my family to it when they get here.

We wrapped up the night by playing the game Lips. First we made a playlist of the songs that we both knew and liked so that we didn't have to keep skipping through them. I was actually able to beat Rohan at some of the songs! It's always a big achievement to beat him. It was mostly because I got lots of extra points for vibrato. He called that the Elise method, named for his sister. I did really awesome on the song Somewhere Only We Know. I never heard the original song before, but Darren Criss sings it on Glee and he's my favourite musician. (And of course that's probably pretty largely due to the fact that he played Harry Potter in A Very Potter Musical, but he's awesomely talented apart from that, too.)

My phone case also already broke. I was sad but at least it wasn't my actual phone that broke. Now I need to get a new one. Anyone have any suggestions? I have a Samsung Galaxy 5S.

Warm if you're from Michigan, cold if you're from Grenada

I went to feed the bunny, Hami, and it was actually quite warm outside. I was just wearing a t-shirt! I was pleasantly surprised that didn't need to wear a sweatshirt, in addition to my Northface and Rain coat, when I left the house.

I was going to ANU to eat lunch and meet up with Karemah, who thought it was ridiculously cold. We were initially going to meet on Wednesday, but then I didn't feel well so we rescheduled. It was strange being back at ANU since it's been almost a year since I lived on campus. 

It was really good to catch up with Karemah. She doesn't have facebook and we only exchanged a few emails while I was in America, so I got to explain all of my visa troubles and everything else that's been happening in my life. She was really obsessed with my nails. I told her before that I had started a nail blog but she hadn't been following it, so I showed her the pictures of the other ones that I did, in addition to my current peacock nails. She was amazed by them and kept telling me that I need to spread my blog around and use it as a side business. She was sounding like my business manager. It was funny. I would love to have nail polish companies pay me to try out nail polishes or even just send me free ones, but I don't see that happening. I don't think that my nail art is that good and I don't know how to publicize it, so it was an interesting conversation.

She went back to work after a couple of hours because she had a meeting that she needed to go to. I went to the Canberra Centre to do some shopping. I was just looking around casually for some stuff that Rohan and I need for our apartment but what I really needed to get was a ring bearer pillow and bras. I did end up finding a ring bearer pillow, so that was good. I also can't explain how happy I was to get bras because that was the first time that I've been to a store that actually has my size. I was ordering them online from England before. But I don't feel like my blog is the place to talk about my enthusiasm with bra shopping.

Then I went back to Belconnen to meet up with Rohan. He was still at work, so I went to Westfield to walk around and kill time. I was initially just going to go over to his place to eat because I left my pizza leftovers there and he was going to work late. Then he texted me that he changed his mind about working late. I went to meet him at work and then we walked over to the post office to pick up a package. It was part of the wedding present from his aunt and her family. It was strange because the present was in two boxes but one came by courier and one by mail even though they were from the same place.

When we got back to his place, I wrote my blog post from the day before. I found out that I've used almost all of my phone data without realising it. That's why I'm writing this post now instead of last night. I usually just did them with my phone at night before going to bed but now I have my phone data turned off.

Then we ate our leftover pizza for dinner and played Wii Party U. We played a fashion game. You go around the board trying to collect different parts of different outfits and when you get around the board you are graded on your outfit. Rohan and I were pretty close in score for the entire game, but I somehow managed to win the last mini game which meant that I got to get my outfit graded one more time and I won the game by 1 point.

After that, Rohan wanted me to try another video game. I chose Viva Pinata which is a really weird game where you raise pinatas and have a garden and stuff to attract them to visit, live, and mate. It's strange. Then I went back to Greg and Rachel's place and read a bit before going to bed.

Because colonising is so much more peaceful than warfare

So this post is really late because I was too tired to write it last night and I had no time today until now.

I went over to Rohan's place for lunch. Then I watched So You Think You Can Dance. I love that my parents have it so that I can watch my American shows on their dvr online.

When Rohan came home he decided that he wanted to teach me a new board game. I usually don't pay games when I don't know them whenever we're at some kind of party where people play board games because it stresses me out.  So he wanted to teach me when we're alone so that I can play with others without getting stressed about learning rules.

The game he taught me was called Eminent Domain. It's a game where you take over planets. Apparently the makers of the game think that colonising somewhere is more peaceful than using warfare. Clearly they've never studied history and have little understanding of rounds line small pox.

I still wasn't feeling all that well, so I wanted to eat in for dinner. Rohan went to get Crust and brought it back for us to eat.  Then we finished the night by playing Wii Party U before I went home.

Zzzz

I still felt sick today, so I spent almost all day in bed. I was going to meet Karemah for lunch but we had to reschedule since I didn't feel well enough to leave around midday.  After sleeping all day, I'm feeling much better.

*insert nose joke here*

I went over to Rohan's place at lunch time. I spent the afternoon doing my nails and cleaning up because Daniel and Sarah were coming over for dinner.

Rohan got home around 5:15 and started cooking while I finished cleaning the stuff that I didn't know where it belonged because he could tell me.

At 6:30, they came over. It was fun catching upworth them. They got married this past January, which was obviously when I was still gone so it was nice to catch up. When Rohan finished cooking, we ate. He made Honduran food and it was yummy. Then we played some Wii Party U. It was a lot more fun playing with more than 2 people. We played the button version of twister again and I actually had to use my nose for it because it was the only way for me to press one of the buttons. Now that's dedication.  Then we had ice cream for dessert before they left.

I helped Rohan clean up and then I started to feel sick. My stomach and head hurt and I had some kind of weird bump on my right ring finger that was really itchy and causing pain. I felt really tired but I still made it home alright. I just went straight to bed which is why I didn't blog last night.

Rohan broke it

I spent the morning at Greg and Rachel's place and went over to Rohan's at lunch. I didn't feel like eating the hot wings that I have here, so I went to the store before meeting up with Rohan.

He went back to work and I spent the afternoon at his place. I told him that I wanted to clean his room because it's really messy and I love to organize. He said that I could, so I started working on it. Started being the key word. I was too overwhelmed to finish since there's very little room in there to even move. Hopefully it'll be easier to clean once we move the stuff into our room and his current roommate moves out.

I spent the rest of the time playing Mario Kart. Then Rohan came home for a bit and we quickly did some wedding stuff before he headed out again. There was an arcade night for some of his friends. I stayed back because I don't really like arcades.

Rohan was going to call me when they were going to get dinner but I decided to just go over there at about 7:15 because there was a break in the rain. It was raining all afternoon and evening so I didn't know if I'd get another break.

He was still playing when I got there. That's when he broke stuff, apparently nothing happened before except they did lose an air hockey puck. The first thing that broke was fruit ninja. It was on a big screen, like the size of most tvs, and somehow it stopped showing the game. I think a chord came loose. Then Rohan played on the bumper cars and managed to get a bunch of them stuck.  (The area for this bumper cars had a boulevard thing in the middle to make it more like a track instead of the free for all ones in used to seeing.) That one wasn't all his fault, but funny nonetheless since the girl running it had to stop the cars and manually push them out.

Rohan and I then went to the Turkish place to grab dinner. It was one of the only places still open at Westfield. Then he went back to the arcade and I waited for the bus. I ended up taking a different route than I usually do because of the timing. I was glad that I still got home safely.

Even the mundane is better when I'm in Australia

I was too tired and lazy to blog last night.

I got up early to shower before church since I got home late last night.  Then Rebecca and Pete came to pick me up since Rachel and Greg are gone this week. We also picked up another American but she's only here for a few months.

We went to church and I got to see Rohan again. Then we went to lunch. One of the guys that also goes is a vet but he has his masters in epidemiology. We've had some interesting conversations the past two weeks.

Then I went to Rohan's place. He headed off to play board games with some friends, which happens regularly, but that's not really my thing. Instead I stayed at his place and played Mario Kart 8 for a few hours before going home. The bus stops running early on Sundays so I got home around 6:30.

I then ate, watched tv, and did my laundry. Most people in Australia don't have driers which I think makes doing laundry so much worse. I hung it up to dry in my room since I was going to have the heater in there on anyway and it would have frozen outside.

I spent the rest of the night reading before I went to bed.

Why do I keep getting pants? What do I do with them?

I went over to Rohan's place around midday after he had finished his shopping. We went to Westfield to grab some lunch at Nando's.

We met with Daniel after that to look for suits for the wedding. He was the token groomsman since the rest are in WA. Rohan and I really had no opinions on the suits and no idea what we wanted other than black. I've watched plenty of shows about bridal gowns, but none about suits. I think that the saleswoman probably thought that we were crazy. Daniel might have thought so too, but he's known Rohan his whole life so he's used to it. We just went with the first one that the saleswoman showed us. We liked that one and it looked formal enough for a wedding.

After that, Rohan and I went back to his place and played some video games. Then he made dinner. After dinner, we watched Heston's Feasts, which is a cooking show where he makes crazy meals to represent an era and serves them at a dinner party. I can't really begin to describe the show, but one course was lamprey and the dessert involved live pigeons.

We spent the rest of the night playing Wii Party. It was so much fun! The title of my post came from one of the mini games. It was kind of like tic tac toe except that you needed to get a head, a shirt, and pants in a row to earn a point. I kept getting pants and was frustrated because I didn't have anywhere good to put them. Rohan won that mini game, but I did win a couple of games. Of course one was because he kept scoring for me by accident at a Foosball type game and the other one was a cross between baseball and pinball. The highlight of the game had to be the game that was like twister except that you had to press buttons on the wii remote and game pad. It was hilarious.

Then I took the bus back. I even got off at the right spot tonight! Rachel and Greg are gone for the week to celebrate their anniversary, so I have the house to myself. I just need to make sure that I take care of their rabbit. Now I'm off to bed so I can wake up for church tomorrow.

Watch the bus stops!

I decided that I wad going to go over to Rohan's during the day to do stuff, so I was actually productive in the morning. I was ready to leave before noon!

I went to Belconnen and he met me in the lobby of the ABS, which is where he works. We went back to his place and he ate lunch. I spent the afternoon doing wedding stuff and cleaning the stuff that I left at his place when I went back to America last year. We have a whole bunch of kitchen stuff that's going to be donated when I get around to it. For right now it's free for the taking if anyone is interested.

I also watched some of my American tv. I'm so glad that my parents have a system thingy where I can watch their DVR online and it actually works! Well, some of the time. I did need to download Firefox because it wouldn't work on Chrome and there was no way that I was using IE. It also had a few other bugs with getting a show started, but once it did it was great!

Then Rohan came home and cooked us dinner. We ate, played Mario Kart 8, and just hung out the rest of the evening.

I went to take the bus home and I was not paying close attention to where we were. I was talking to my dad on Facebook and only looked up every few minutes. I did, however, look to see about what time the bus was supposed to get to my stop. Well clearly I was not paying close enough attention. I thought it was my stop because it looked similar, at least at 11pm, and it was about the time my stop should have been there. 

Well, it was not even close. Luckily I had my phone so I could look at the map and get back safely. It was almost a 15 minute walk, at least I got off early so it was easier to follow. But at least I did get home safely and a little extra exercise is always good, even though the circumstances weren't ideal.

I forgot again...

It's all too easy to forget to blog when you do absolutely nothing exciting and you are only blogging because you feel obligated.

I didn't leave the house at all today. Other than the usual 3DS and tv, I also cooked hot wings and started reading a book. They have a bunch of books and I was interested in reading The Little Princess because that was one of my favourite movies as a child, but I never read the book.

Time travel

I spent the morning playing my ds. In the afternoon, I read my bible in preparation for growth group. Rohan told me in advance what they are reading through so that I could catch up today. I spent the rest of the day watching TV and painting my nails. I just painted them a single colour so I'm not going to post to my nail blog.

When Rachel and Greg got home, we ate dinner and then went to growth group so I got to see Rohan again. It is at Tim and Priya's house. They have a cute dog named Solomon that's 18 months old. You can tell he still thinks he's a little puppy because he was jumping all over me and didn't realise his size. He's a pretty big dog!

After discussing the Bible, we started talking about other random things and had quite an extensive discussion on time travel and how best to become really rich.  Then we found out that lottery earnings aren't taxed in Australia! They also pay  your winnings all at once, unlike America, or at least some of them in America.

Now I'm back at Rachel and Greg's house and will probably just lay in bed for a while before sleeping.

I hate when I forget to blog

The morning was pretty relaxed.  I just played my 3DS. In the afternoon I went to Westfield to do some shopping.

I needed to get a few things that I got at Kmart. Then I got a new phone case and screen protector. Now I don't need to worry about it as much. I also got some food. I was happy that they had Frank's RedHot and it was on sale as a promotion. They first started selling Frank's a couple weeks before I left last year, so this was my first time buying it. I was happy.

When I was waiting for the bus, I realised that I was supposed to go talk to my bank about my phone change. Luckily the bus that I knew how to take back to Rachel and Greg's place, which is where in staying before Rohan and I get married, would be quite a while longer.  I ran back inside and of course my bank is completely the opposite area of Westfield from the bus stop. I still made it back well before the bus that I knew was scheduled to leave.

I didn't do much else in the afternoon. When Rachel came home, she made spaghetti and asked if I wanted some. Greg was out at the movies. Then we watched tv until it was time to go to bed. 

Gelato on a winter's night

Today was a pretty relaxed day.  I mostly spent the day unpacking my clothes. I also painted my nails.  I'm glad that bubble wrap is see-through so I didn't need to open all of my nail polish bottles to find what I wanted! Trust me, there's a lot and they took forever to all individually wrap.

Rohan and I were going to go out to dinner tonight so I had to find my way on the bus to get to Belconnen. It was actually really easy. I headed over to Westfield just to walk around a bit before meeting Rohan.

Apparently there was a miscommunication. We were going to the city for dinner but he hadn't realised that I was already in Belconnen. I then went to the city to meet up with him instead of going there together.

We were going to go to one restaurant for dinner but then we walled by and it was closed. That was awkward.  On our way to a different restaurant, we saw Daniel and Sarah. They were eating dinner, so we just waved through the window.  I was wondering how long it would be before I ran into someone that I knew.

The place we ate was the Waldorf hotel. I got a steak and Rohan got pork.  It was really good. Then we got gelato, which is really no surprise to anyone that knows Rohan or saw the picture I posted on Facebook when I first got here. I did think that I was too cold to get gelato, but that changed when I got there.

We finished the night by going over to his place. He gave me some DS games to take back to occupy myself and we played some Mario Kart 8 online against his friends. I really suck so I counted just finishing the races as a win since the person in last place doesn't get to finish after the person before them crosses the finish line.

Then I took the bus home. Thank God for smart phones so I could make sure that I was going the right way. I got here fine, but I forgot what the outside of their house looked like from the front and I didn't see any house numbers. But I thought it was this one, I tried the keys, and it was right.  That could have been pretty awkward if it wasn't. (Not like anyone in my family has ever done that! *cough dad cough*)

Climbing a fence... life is never boring

I slept alright last night, but I woke up pretty early.  Rohan had organised for some of his friends to pick me up for church because the friend that I am staying with doesn't have the car this weekend since her husband had it in Sydney.

She was already at church when they came to pick me up. Then I found out that I was locked inside! The only way out of the house was through the front door but there was a fence around the yard.  I ended up using a lawn chair and climbing over it.

We were late getting to church, but at least we got there.  After the service, Rohan and I had to fill out a form to get married and we needed a witness when we signed it, so we had the minister do it.

Then we went to lunch at Westfield. A bunch of the young adults eat together at the food court after church every week.  I got some Mexican.  It's fast food, so it hardly counts as real Mexican food, but it was good.

When everyone else left, Rohan and I did some shopping. We even got our wedding rings! Mine didn't really fit, but my hands are really swollen right now. I just hope that the swelling goes down by the time of the wedding or it might be awkward.

Then we went back to his place to spend the rest of the day.  At 7, a bunch of people came over for Dungeons and Dragons. I was just going to watch, but after they were done playing they decided to make me a character. That's when I am writing this, since I'm probably going to bed as soon as I get back.

I'm finally back!

I'm going to try to keep this short because I'm on my new phone instead of my computer because my Australian charger for my computer is still at Rohan's place and I don't have the code for where I'm staying.  But knowing me I can never have a short post and it does cover 2 days...

Anyway, my trip here was good.  I went through the express scan at security in Detroit.  The flight to LA was fine. It was pretty boring because I couldn't see the screen well, but I mostly slept.

I had a five hour layover in LA.  That pretty much stunk but it's better than having to rush or having more connections. I spent most of the time doing word searches. I had to buy a pen because I always forget one. There was also some kind of military person that died or something because there were a bunch of people in uniform lined up outside of one of the terminals by me and a man by me said he saw a casket. That was sad.

The flight to Sydney wasn't too bad.  I had a harder time falling asleep than I usually do but at least the seat next to me was open so I could sit more comfortably.

I got through customs right away. Then I went to find the bus that I needed to take to Canberra and waited about 45 minutes for it to arrive.

I was really excited when we finally passed the sign that said Australian Capital Territory. Rohan met me at the bus terminal and then his friend came and we walked back to his place to drop off my stuff to his car since he would take me to where I'm staying later.

Then Rohan and I went to the Canberra Centre to get me a new phone. He put it under his name to make the process a lot easier.  I got the Samsung Galaxy S5. I like it but it will take some getting used to after using my horrible blackberry for the past 10 months!

After that was the 3DS meet up.  It was at the Canberra Centre.  I just played with my street passes. My 3DS battery died after that, but holding it was uncomfortable in my muscles anyway from the traveling.  Then I just watched Rohan.

After that, his friend took us to Rohan's other friends' house.  It's a couple from his bible study and they are graciously letting me stay in their guest room until Rohan and I get married.

Now I'm just here by myself relaxing. I took a shower and realized how swollen my legs were. For those from Holland, Michigan, they looked like a Dutch dancer's ankles except that I want wearing 9 pairs of socks!

Praise the Lord! I'm coming back!

We finally did it. It finally happened. The visa was granted!!!

A couple weeks ago, I was getting annoyed that I hadn't heard anything back from my migration agent as to whether our visa had made it to medical to be processed or how it was going. I emailed him and got a response as soon as he woke up. He said that he just got an email from our case officer, at the Australian embassy in Washington DC, the night before regarding our visa. She said that she will finalise it by the end of the week. Our agent also told us that he spent a lot of time explaining our case to her and that it needed to get done ASAP. They apparently are trying to delay a lot of the applications until 1 July because that's when the new year starts for the quota, but he explained that I was coming back on a visitor visa if it wasn't granted yet because I had to get back to plan my wedding!

I waited very eagerly all week. I have a lot of anxiety as it is and have struggled with it for years, so this was a really hard time for me. I even messaged Rohan asking him to send me messages a few times a day until we heard back about the visa to remind me that it would be ok and that he loved me. He's the only one that seems to be able to calm my anxiety! He's a pretty awesome fiancé! I was also praying A LOT for God to help my anxiety and to trust him. My stomach was in knots all week. (I'm just now starting to feel better!)

So I waited all week. I knew that it would be emailed from DC to Australia and then he would need to email it back to me. Because of the time difference, that meant that I probably wouldn't hear back until about 6pm our time. I knew he was going to email me right away, so there was really no use worrying about it before that time or much later. So every time I got an email around that time, I was really nervous. I was constantly checking my phone and whenever I would get an email notification my heart would skip a beat or two. Then I would open the email just to find out that it was some sort of spam.

Friday afternoon came around and we decided to go down to Sandusky one last time. The Roth side of my family was having a big party for my Aunt Sharon, who has breast cancer. She just started chemo and her hair started falling out. They decided to have a head shaving party on Saturday. It was a very spur of the moment thing. My email still hadn't come and I knew it was going to have to come on our drive down there or at my nephew's baseball game, which was where we were going right away.

I was compulsively checking my phone. I got a notification for an email only to find out it was spam. I got another and was just about to comment to my parents about how it keeps annoying me that I would get these emails that were not what I was anticipating. Then I clicked to see what the email was. It was from my migration agent! It said,

"Congratulation.
Again, when I get back to the office I'll be writing you an official letter, but I thought this might suffice at this stage.
Start packing:)

Have a great weekend

Miklos"

It had the email and attached documents from the case officer and I skimmed those just to make sure it was real! After 10 long months, I was so incredibly happy and a bit unbelieving that the struggle to get this visa and return to Australia was finally over. I wanted to jump up and down and do a happy dance all over the place, but I couldn't. We were still in the car on our way down to Sandusky and had about 45 minutes left of the drive. I couldn't even let out a scream of excitement and relief!

I forwarded the email to Rohan right away and sent him a message but, as it was still early on Saturday there, I had to wait for him to wake up! It was so hard to wait because I wanted to tell everyone and shout it from the rooftops, or at least on facebook, but I had to wait until he knew. I called Jacki, my oldest sister, right away. I waited until we got to Sandusky to tell Jillian, my middle sister, but that was all I told until Rohan found out. (Although my mom saw my aunt at the grocery store, where we got doughnuts for national doughnut day, and told her. Oh mom!)

I still can't really believe that I'm actually going to be able to go back on Thursday and I'm allowed to stay there and everything. After all the craziness that we've gone through to get to this point, it's hard to believe. It hits me at random points throughout the day and I get really excited. I can't wait to be able to see Rohan again!