Any Dutch/American couples??

[paul. 0]

Argh, but the one bonus is it is dry heat, which I can cope with over humidity.

[lizandpat 0]

Argh, but the one bonus is it is dry heat, which I can cope with over humidity.

I hope your talking about Oklahoma..LOL!

Summer here it's usually 90+ degree heat with 90+ % humidity...hehe!

[paul. 0]

No way! Yeah, our neck of the woods is real dry from the time I have spent there. I've done a Jan-April, a March-Jun and a Nov-Jan, so I haven't yet experienced the full summer, but my friends do tell me it remains dry hot. Fingers crossed, or my aircon is gonna be working overtime.

Getting nervous now about Tuesday lol. Have just packd up my stuff and will be on the train to a friends just outside London tonight, so I'm within and hour and a half of London center. I need to be there at 730am, so I'll be getting out of bed for about 5am, urgh!

off-topic, tomorrow will be exactly a year since I started my visa journey!

Edited April 24, 2009 by paul.

[lizandpat 0]

No way! Yeah, our neck of the woods is real dry from the time I have spent there. I've done a Jan-April, a March-Jun and a Nov-Jan, so I haven't yet experienced the full summer, but my friends do tell me it remains dry hot. Fingers crossed, or my aircon is gonna be working overtime.

Getting nervous now about Tuesday lol. Have just packd up my stuff and will be on the train to a friends just outside London tonight, so I'm within and hour and a half of London center. I need to be there at 730am, so I'll be getting out of bed for about 5am, urgh!

off-topic, tomorrow will be exactly a year since I started my visa journey!

Yep...Pat about died with the humidity and heat last summer! Hopefully he'll get used to it soon!!

Oh wow...it's almost here!!!! You'll do great and soon be with Kourtni!!!! I can't wait to hear how it went on Tuesday night!!

WOW...a year...it's just sad that it takes that long!

TGIF everyone!!!!

[Daniel and Rianne 0]

Oh, Oklahoma is 88F today. I am gonna pass out so bad, I grew up on Scheveningen beach, but 88F/31C would be a few days in August maybe, not April that's for sure.

Peet, hope your flight goes well and you have a great time!

Jeanine, hope you get everything sorted soon, it's been cool flying next to you through our visa journey, you as K and me as CR!

Rianne, I understand how you feel. I spent 11 years in the Army and ultimately left as Kourtni had spent time in England and was ready to go home. I decided that I was ready to leave the Army and find something else in the USA. I still have friends in the USMC in 29 Palms and Camp Pendleton, whom I served in Iraq with and/or who are friends locally in Oklahoma. But of all my deployments, this 5 month "short" one has been the hardest as I am civilian and I thought I'd never have to leave her for that long again! Argh! Anyway, if you need support or help, PM me as it emails me, so I'll get to it faster. I can't see myself checking in on VJ more than twice a month once this is all done, as I'll be enjoying that 88F/30C

weather as I have to keep training hard for my Police training course. A year of being civilian made me out of shape hehe!!

Hey Paul,

Wow, 11 years in the Army. My husband is now in the Marines since 2001. He went to Iraq and got injured there but that was all before i knew him. He trained hard to be back in the Marines.

He did go to Camp Pendleton, he loves that place, guess all military people like it a lot over there! ;-)

I have been there a couple weeks ago, it is nice, its different as here.

Did you do a lot of deployments? Yep i can see its harder now!

Wow, police training course? Sounds interesting! Yep, you need to train again, guess you are missing all those trainings, the things you do together.

Paul, Thank you so much for your reply, I can see that you will not be at VJ that much after you are done with the visa part. Thanks for inviting me that i can email you if i need support!

Soon you will be by Kourtny!

Yep, I can understand that you are a bit nervous!

It is really to bad that it took you a year! It is sad!

Liz, good that you are walking! Would be fun to walk together ;-)

I am running every day in the morning, i started 4 weeks ago but now i can run 20 minutes, yeah! first i had to walk and run and walk and run but it feels good now. LOL. But the running trip i make doesn't take 20 minutes anymore i think its about 15 minutes now.

My husband bought P90X so it are DVD's and you can do the training at home and so he don't need to go to the gym after work and he will be earlier home this way. We did it twice, i do it for fun but not the pull-ups and push-ups ;-) I like the jumping and all much better but oh i had such a sore muscles! :-p

Summers in CA are normally Hot (can be 110 F) but it is dry and not humid and at night it cool down. We are living in the desert here. So I never been here in the summer yet, and now i have to fly back May 4 to NL and can't be here in the summer either. Have to be in NL for 3 months before i can fly back to USA. It all depends how our VISA thing is going.

But i am still waiting for my return receipt from the USCIS, i know from the USPS that they delivered it on April 19, I did send it out on April 15, Daniel checked his bankaccount but the check isn't cashed either.

So i think it will take a long time. URGH...

Jeanine, glad you got your VISA wooah! Guess you are so excited! July 31 sounds good! FUN!

Well I wish you all a nice weekend. For us it will be a home-work weekend but thats ok, just the last things we can do while i am here, hope we can finish a lot.

Take care!

[paul. 0]

1 more day! It's 6am and I can't wait for tomorrow hehe.

Yeah, I do miss the camaraderie a lot. I went out with some old friends on Saturday to say goodbye, which was cool.

I did the obvious deployments this decade and in the late 90's went to Former Yugoslavia on 2 tours. I was lucky though, I never got injured on tour (although I had bad dysentery in Iraq in 2003, which sucked lol). But I have a friend who was the same rank in the US Marines as me, same age and had served the same length. We both have shot knees and back and groan like old men when getting up from chairs haha, which we thought was quite funny. It doesn't matter which Infantry you're in, it's pretty hard on the body and training just helps overcome that, so I just can't wait to be near a gym and be able to take my dogs running.

[lizandpat 0]

Morning everyone...have a great week

[Daniel and Rianne 0]

1 more day! It's 6am and I can't wait for tomorrow hehe.

Yeah, I do miss the camaraderie a lot. I went out with some old friends on Saturday to say goodbye, which was cool.

I did the obvious deployments this decade and in the late 90's went to Former Yugoslavia on 2 tours. I was lucky though, I never got injured on tour (although I had bad dysentery in Iraq in 2003, which sucked lol). But I have a friend who was the same rank in the US Marines as me, same age and had served the same length. We both have shot knees and back and groan like old men when getting up from chairs haha, which we thought was quite funny. It doesn't matter which Infantry you're in, it's pretty hard on the body and training just helps overcome that, so I just can't wait to be near a gym and be able to take my dogs running.

Hey All!

Yeah Paul, tomorrow!! Guess you are counting down!

I can see that you miss the kameraadschap ;-) Daniel is missing that here sometimes.

He was always in the infantery and that is so different as the helicopters.

Last year he did resign and they took his 3th choice helicopter mechanic. He is a sergeant and he is so used to drilling and all that and here they don't really drill, but i think he is a real drilling type ;-) (he really want to have "good" marines, which take care for each, do things together etc. so he loves to drill them to that but he do it with more "love" and not how it is in bootcamp etc.) but its so important to have a good camaraderie.

Glad you never got enjured! But urgh dysentery is not fun! Did you know your wife already when you were on your deployments?

Gun that you have a friend in the USMC, same rank same age, same served length, LOL! than you have enough to talk about! ;-) a lot in common!

Thats fun that you had a great time saturday to say goodbye.

So i have been thinking about you, you grow up in Scheveningen and than you moved to England? Were you in the army there or maybe i need to read the first notes in this forum to read your story? ;-) LOL

Ah jah you military people can act so funny ;-) LOL! Like old men yes ;-) haha but fun to do that together!

I think when you have been in the military you always love the gym and the camaraderie!

Hey Liz, good week to you too!

Hope all is well!

Wow, i just opened the mail here and guess what...NOA1 from California Service Center!

My husband is right...i need patience! Who can give me that? ;-)

I will be such a crybaby when i have to leave next week monday...urgh...its hanging above my head as a dark sky!

We did do a lot of work last saturday in our house, so I am very happy with that! The masterbedroom is almost finished, the garagedoor is working, we took the walls out of the garage (those people before us made bedrooms in the garage), the sprinklersystem is working again, the grass is planted, YEAH, 1 thing at the time!

Take care!

Love Ri

Edited April 27, 2009 by Daniel and Rianne

[Daniel and Rianne 0]

1 more day! It's 6am and I can't wait for tomorrow hehe.

Yeah, I do miss the camaraderie a lot. I went out with some old friends on Saturday to say goodbye, which was cool.

I did the obvious deployments this decade and in the late 90's went to Former Yugoslavia on 2 tours. I was lucky though, I never got injured on tour (although I had bad dysentery in Iraq in 2003, which sucked lol). But I have a friend who was the same rank in the US Marines as me, same age and had served the same length. We both have shot knees and back and groan like old men when getting up from chairs haha, which we thought was quite funny. It doesn't matter which Infantry you're in, it's pretty hard on the body and training just helps overcome that, so I just can't wait to be near a gym and be able to take my dogs running.

Hey All!

Yeah Paul, tomorrow!! Guess you are counting down!

I can see that you miss the kameraadschap ;-) Daniel is missing that here sometimes.

He was always in the infantery and that is so different as the helicopters.

Last year he did resign and they took his 3th choice helicopter mechanic. He is a sergeant and he is so used to drilling and all that and here they don't really drill, but i think he is a real drilling type ;-) (he really want to have "good" marines, which take care for each, do things together etc. so he loves to drill them to that but he do it with more "love" and not how it is in bootcamp etc.) but its so important to have a good camaraderie.

Glad you never got enjured! But urgh dysentery is not fun! Did you know your wife already when you were on your deployments?

Gun that you have a friend in the USMC, same rank same age, same served length, LOL! than you have enough to talk about! ;-) a lot in common!

Thats fun that you had a great time saturday to say goodbye.

So i have been thinking about you, you grow up in Scheveningen and than you moved to England? Were you in the army there or maybe i need to read the first notes in this forum to read your story? ;-) LOL

Ah jah you military people can act so funny ;-) LOL! Like old men yes ;-) haha but fun to do that together!

I think when you have been in the military you always love the gym and the camaraderie!

Hey Liz, good week to you too!

Hope all is well!

Wow, i just opened the mail here and guess what...NOA1 from California Service Center!

My husband is right...i need patience! Who can give me that? ;-)

I will be such a crybaby when i have to leave next week monday...urgh...its hanging above my head as a dark sky!

We did do a lot of work last saturday in our house, so I am very happy with that! The masterbedroom is almost finished, the garagedoor is working, we took the walls out of the garage (those people before us made bedrooms in the garage), the sprinklersystem is working again, the grass is planted, YEAH, 1 thing at the time!

Take care!

Love Ri

By the way how can i put our timeline under my notes?

And how can i put that at my own page?

I will load up a profile picture sometime!

[lizandpat 0]

Thanks Ri! It's kind of a blah day here today...raining again. Tomorrow should be fun though...I get to go on a field trip with my daughter! We're driving to another city about 2 hours away to tour the battleship called the Lexington! I can't wait!

And as for the timeline....you would just need to either copy it from someone else's signature or type it out in your signature area. And the same for the pictures....you'll need to load you picture(s) onto a hosting website like Photobucket and copy the code to your signature line.

[paul. 0]

I certainly am counting down, I should probably go to bed as I have to be up in 8 and a bit hours lol, but I'm not nervous, but just would rather go and wait outside the freaking embassy now already.

Yeah, my life story is a messed up one! My Mom is Dutch, lives in Scheveningen. Dad is English, divorced and back in England. Sister studies at Leiden on her Masters and when I finished school in Holland, I had dual nationality and could join British or Dutch military. I chose Brit because our contract is a minimum of 4 years and a maximum of 22, so you have a good job until you're 40 years old, which suited me. I left at 28, last year, to get married and settle down in one place. I did know Kourtni before, but not while I was on tour. I was actually working on Helicopters too, but training to fly them, when I met Kourtni, so we had a good year and a half where I didn't deploy and got real close and decided I'd had enough of playing with the boys overseas and would enjoy living as a couple, so the rest is history. There, mini life story lol! But yeah, now I'm a massive adrenaline junkie, she's a massive worrier and my greatest loves are flying helicopters and planes and jumping out of them lol.

Ooh, 8 hours to go now exactly!

[lizandpat 0]

GOOD LUCK, PAUL!!!! We'll be thinking of you and waiting for word on how it went!!!

[paul. 0]

And.......we're done. What an anti-climax that was. 3 questions, where did we meet? How long have we been married? Have you ever lived together? That was it, simple as pie and I have to say, the lady at counter 16 today made me realize why I love the America I have experienced-she was the most polite, helpful and friendly official I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with, as was the lady behind counter 1, who did my initial paperwork prep. I got there at 0730 and was out by 1030! BBQ time!

[lainie 0]

Howdy folks!

I haven't written in a while basically I've just been reading along, just didn't have anything exciting to add! But congrats to everyone who has been approved and has received notices! Personally I have little to no patience and admire how y'all have stuck with it all this time!

But hubby had the interview at the consulate Monday and it was a success! APPROVED!

We arrived at the consulate around 12:45, waited until 1:30. Went through security and such. We were first in line and handed over all the documents (Passport, 2 photos, marriage cert. and copy, hubby's birth cert. and copy, and the I864's) He handed back the birth and marriage cert.'s and said to have them with us when we check in for the first time at our POE. He stapled things together and prepared them for the consular. Hubby had finger prints taken (all ten fingers!) and we were told to have a seat. We were then called up to the last window to pay the fee. We were told to sit down again and wait for our name to be called. After about twenty minutes we were called up! The questions were a joke, I'm so happy I was here with him and went up to the little window when they called his name. They mostly asked ME the questions and asked hubby two! I was asked if I was indeed married to my hubby, how we felt about the economic situation in the states, who my joint-sponsor was and what he did for a living, and where we planned on moving. He only asked hubby how his medical went and what he did for a living lol too funny. Finally after some small talk about his chickenpox and shopping experiences he said 'I'm going to go ahead and approve your visa' YAY! Should be getting it in the mail in a few days!

America here we come!

[Daniel and Rianne 0]

And.......we're done. What an anti-climax that was. 3 questions, where did we meet? How long have we been married? Have you ever lived together? That was it, simple as pie and I have to say, the lady at counter 16 today made me realize why I love the America I have experienced-she was the most polite, helpful and friendly official I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with, as was the lady behind counter 1, who did my initial paperwork prep. I got there at 0730 and was out by 1030! BBQ time!

YES PAUL!

Congrats!

I am very happy for you and your wife Kourtni!

Wooah, when are you flying to the USA? Guess it depends when you get your visa by post!

Interesting life you had!

Ah, thats fun that you did work with helicopters too! My husband rather want to be the person which do the observation out of the helicopter...more fun as being a mechanic. But well, we will see.

Yep, you military people are living on adrenaline i think ;-) LOL!

So are you going in the police in the USA? Or don't know yet?

Take care and wish you both all the best!

If i have questions i will mail you! Guess i better add you as a friend ;-) LOL!

Have a nice BBQ!! WOOAH!