I went to Pennypack Park yesterday in Northeast Philadelphia. Sadly none of the trees have really changed color so I didn't get any really beautiful fall pictures. I took Jasmine, Poppy and Clover with me. Jasmine was a little brat and didn't want to sit still for pictures so I didn't get very many of her.

Poppy:


Clover:



Jasmine:


Flowers:



My mini pumpkins from the grocery:




I also made homemade banana bread yesterday using this recipe. It turned out really good! (I added a dash of cinnamon to the recipe.)

And I am now on Twitter! You can follow me at: tunaynamahal82.

Our immigration case is still with the National Visa Center. We are currently on step 4 of 6 with the NVC. Our lawyer contacted us yesterday to request more paperwork so we can complete F.B.'s DS-230 forms. (Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration.)

F.B. needs to email our lawyer a questionnaire he sent and then mail, certified copies of our marriage certificate, his birth certificate, 3 passport photos and a copy of his passport. He also needs clearance from the NBI. (Record Clearance for Travel Abroad Purposes from the National Bureau of Investigation.) F.B. hopes to have all the paperwork mailed to our immigration lawyer by next week.

So we are getting closer! We have two more steps with the NVC.

Step 5 is: Review and Interview Scheduling by the NVC. 

Step 6 is: Visa Interview at the U.S. Embassy/Consulate Abroad.

We can't strike off a step on our immigration process list yet but we're getting closer!!!

10/23/10 edited to add: F.B. got NBI clearance and mailed off all the required documents to our immigration lawyer. He should have them by 10/26/10.

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia. 

One of my very good blogging friends Patty from NYC Girl At Heart is having a giveaway. A few months ago she attended the BlogHer conference in New York City. Kodak invited her to take a bus tour of NYC and snap photos with the Kodak Easyshare M580 Camera she was given. One of her submitted photos was selected by Kodak as a winning photo and she was awarded a purple Kodak Easyshare M580 Camera and a Kodak Pulse Digital Picture Frame to use in a giveaway on her blog!














For all the details on how to enter please visit NYC Girl At Heart!

It's my husband's 31st birthday today! Happy Birthday! I love you and I miss you. F.B.'s birthday gifts already arrived on the 5th in the Philippines. Sent him Butterscotch & Banana Tastykake's, Andy Capp Hot Fries and 2 PC games he wanted. Oh and the bestest birthday card ever! One with Spongebob on it, lol! (Hey Walmart only had 2 sucky husband birthday cards!)

I was lucky enough to be with F.B. on his 29th birthday a few years ago. Hopefully next year when our immigration process is finished we'll get to celebrate both our birthday's TOGETHER!



From F.B.'s 29th Birthday:

We had leftover spaghetti noodles but no red sauce ( I'm not so fond of red sauce anyway.) I decided to throw together a single serving of white sauce to go with my pasta noodles and wanted to share the recipe.

Single Serving of homemade White Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

2-3 Tablespoons of flour (Not heaping.)

1/3 cup of Milk

1 Tablespoon of Sour Cream

1-2 pats of Butter or Margarine

1 Teaspoon of Parmesan cheese (I used the kind in the shaky jar.)

Spices: I used; Oregano, Goya Adobe All Purpose Seasoning, Garlic Salt. You can use whatever Italian spices you would like. Give a few shakes of each.

(You can add or decrease any of these ingredients to your liking.)

Directions:

Use a whisk to mix everything together really well. (It's important to keep whisking while you heat the sauce or else the flour will thicken up into a dough and you don't want that!)

You can heat on the stove on low-medium heat while whisking until thick. Or the shortcut I used was to put the bowl in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, take out- whisk really well and place back in the microwave. (I repeated this about 4 x's). Then I heated my pasta noodles and poured the sauce on top. Perfect single serving!

Yesterday was my last day of work for awhile. Its furlough time again. I'm a seasonal employee and 3-4 months out of the year we are furloughed until they recall us back to work. When I return to work we will be located across from 30th Street Station in center city Philadelphia. I've worked 8 years in Northeast Philadelphia with a 10 minute commute. And now I'll be making an hour long commute on the train whenever I'm recalled back to work. I guess it will work out because when our immigration process is finished and F.B. is in the USA he will need the car to commute to work and if I'm taking the train I won't need it.

Yesterday evening after some grocery shopping I stopped at Petco with my brother. Ever since I got my 3 girls from SRR and ended up with 11 ratties, I've wanted to make it an even dozen!

So please meet my gorgeous little blue hooded girl Jasmine!






She is so mellow and laid back and was immediately chilling on my shoulder when we got home from Petco. They also had 2 little blue rex dumbo eared girls, but since I could only get one my brother made me choose Jasmine because she looked like our Ginger. Jasmine was handled at the pet store and the girl there said she would walk around with her on her shoulder, hehe. Just like my Ginger rat, Jasmine was the star of Petco. I have 10 rats in my Ferret Nation cage. And Fennel & Barley share a smaller 2 story cage with no room for any other cage mates. So I've reached my limit! <:3 )~~~

Fall is here and that means all things pumpkin! I love pumpkin!

Besides the traditional Pumpkin Pie...


Or Pumpkin Bread that I love to bake...


There's a few other pumpkin treats this time of year!

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte!


Wawa Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino!


Tastykake Pumpkin Pies!


Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins!


 Coffee-Mate Pumpkin Spice Creamer!


International Delight Pumpkin Pie Spice Creamer!


And this is a new one... but I want to try it! Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts!

Made homemade biscuits tonight. They are very easy to make! I got the recipe from the blog: Window on the Prairie. My brothers tried them with some butter and a piece of ham in the middle. And I had mine with Apple Butter. Mmmm. :) Bet they would be amazing with gravy or as a breakfast sandwich with egg & cheese, etc.

Oh! And for a laugh- check out these Vintage Ad's! Some of them are hysterical!

9 years later...

Please view my blog from the 8th anniversary for my experience with 9/11.

I've edited the post to include a photo of me with my youth group heading to ground zero back in 2001. Photo courtesy of: Nina Krych.

I love history and I'm always fascinated by the story of Anne Frank. Lately I've bought and taken out several books from the library that go in depth and behind the diary of Anne Frank. (I own the definitive edition.)


1. Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary - A Photographic Remembrance

I bought this about a year or two ago. It's really interesting, has a lot of history facts and family photographs.




2. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition

If you have a lot of time on your hands this is an in depth guide to Anne's diary. It contains the diary as edited by her father & published, Anne's diary as written by Anne unedited & and also the published definitive edition with extra entries published after the death of her father. You can read all 3 editions side by side. It also includes the findings of a study that called into question the validity of the diary. They did document and handwriting analysis on the original diary to prove it's authenticity.


3. Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family

This is the biography and story of Miep Gies. Miep worked for Otto Frank in his office. She & her husband were just a few of the people that helped to hide the Frank family. Her story gives some background and details that go beyond Anne's Diary.


4. The Hidden Life of Otto Frank

I took this book out of the library but I also just recently ordered a copy, it was a really good book. It goes in depth about Otto Frank's life before he was a father up to when he went into hiding with his family and even after the war when Anne's Diary was published and became known worldwide. It also talks about the fact the Frank family may have known who turned them in.


5. The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank

Really loved this book. Six women that were in Westerbork, Auschwitz & Bergen-Belsen with Anne Frank after she was imprisoned tell their horror stories of the concentration camps, conditions and their memories of Anne, Margot & the Frank family. Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Goslar, one of Anne's childhood friends is one of the women that tells her story of talking with Anne at Bergen-Belsen shortly before Anne's death.


6. Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife

Interesting break down of the three. Starts off as a bit of a biography, talks about the diary and the different versions of it, and about the Holocaust.




7. Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex

Short stories, fairy tales written by Anne Frank while in hiding. Also includes some "diary entries" or observations that weren't included in the published book.




8. Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust

Very good book. Gives accounts from survivors and children that were in hiding during the Holocaust. Also gives a short biography on Anne Frank.



9. Searching for Anne Frank: Letters From Amsterdam to Iowa

I got excited about this when I took it out of the library. It is very interesting... but don't get too excited over the word "letters". Anne & Margot only exchanged 1 letter each with their pen pals in Iowa before they went into hiding during the war. Still an interesting read. And gives some history about the war and Iowa and the USA back in 1930's, 40's.

10. My Name Is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank: The Memoirs of Anne Frank's Best Friend

I just ordered this. One of Anne's best friends, Jacqueline van Maarsen tells her experiences of the war and about her friendship with Anne.




11. Anne Frank - The Whole Story (2001)

This isn't a book, but it's my favorite Anne Frank movie. It was originally a TV movie back in 2001. I think it gives the most accurate story of Anne and her family- before the war, during the war and after...