Hurricane Sandy is wreaking havoc all up up the Northeastern United States. It's much worse in coastal areas, but Philadelphia has been affected as well.

Picture from NASA

Sunday afternoon after reading reports online my husband & I thought it might be a good idea to pick some candles up and another larger flashlight (we only have mini travel ones), so we went out in the afternoon on Sunday. I was thinking... okay maybe there will only be really expensive flashlights left. What we saw stunned us...


This was Target. There were NO flashlights left except that tiny travel one hanging there. In fact we went to Home Depot and 4 other stores and there were NO flashlights. We ended up stopping at my Dad's to borrow a larger flashlight. Only thing with that was... we couldn't find extra D batteries at the stores ANYWHERE. Most of the stores only had Double AA batteries left. So we've got some candles, and 2 mini flashlights and a larger flashlight and praying the power doesn't go out.

My job was closed Monday and it's now also officially closed for Tuesday. (I will still get paid). It's insane, because I work for the Government and they never like to shut down, so to be closed for two days in a row is just crazy. Philadelphia closed schools, city offices, they have shut down ALL public transportation. The airport is shut down and even some of the highways & bridges have been shut down. Stores and businesses are closed.

At this point (Almost 10pm here), the rain & flooding are not especially bad in Philadelphia. What's worse is the wind. We have 44+ MPH winds in Philadelphia right now. They are quite scary. Rattling the windows, etc. Our gutter line & drainage pipe completely ripped off and was laying on the lawn in front of our apartment building. Unfortunately a piece of the gutter is still hanging in front of our bedroom window and keeps banging & scraping against the window, it's quite scary. The worst of this hurricane will be through tonight and into tomorrow.


Prayers & Thoughts for everyone that has been affected by Hurricane Sandy.

• List of Transportation Closures in Philadelphia. 
• 6abc.com's Hurricane Sandy resource guide 

Tuesday Afternoon: Piece of the gutter that ripped off our apartment building last night during the storm. There's 3 pieces laying down on the lawn and a mini piece still dangling near our living room window.

American Red Cross Donations

 

I haven't posted many recent pictures of my pet rats lately. (I have 10 at the moment. 3 boys and 7 girls.) This is isn't everyone, but I thought I'd upload some random photos and share a few videos I've posted to YouTube. :-p

Templeton

Daisy & Buttercup

Daisy

Daisy in her wheel

Pumpkin sleeping on her back in our bed.

Teddy bear having a treat.

Buttercup

Here are some of the newest nail colors I've gotten this month...yes I have a polish addiction ;-)
 

Because October has 5 Monday's this month, I somehow get three paychecks instead of two.. It's always fun when that happens, because then we get just a little bit of extra spending money. So the husband & I decided to order from Phil-Am Foods again. We ordered so much this time, it came in 2 boxes, lol.



Goodies from Phil-Am again!

Yay! More Phil-Am goodies!

Phil-Am Foods

Philippine Snack Foods

Foreign Food Cravings

Taste Testing (Asian Aisle) 

My addiction with nail polish continues... lol. I've gotten some lovely new colors again.

New China Glaze Halloween 2012 colors. These were my favorites. The gray 'Immortal' has different colors of shimmer in it. And 'Make a Spectacle' is my new favorite glitter topcoat. This blog post on The PolishAholic is what made me want these two colors so much. In the bottle, 'Make a Spectacle' looks very similar to China Glaze 'Luxe & Lush', but 'Luxe & Lush' shows up gold on your nails. 'Make a Spectacle' is iridescent and has larger circles of glitter, plus shimmer. I was lucky to get each of the new colors for $3 on ebay.


And my Layla polish obsession! I'm so glad Ninja Polish carries this brand. These are my first two non holographic Layla polishes.

I ordered Layla Softouch Effects in: Aqua Zen. I love this color and the finish is so unique from any of my other nail polishes. It's not matte, it's more a ceramic or rubber/vinyl finish. (I wore this color for 1 full week with no base or top coat and had NO CHIPS at all. Just tip wear- AMAZING polish!)


And Layla Mirror Effect in: Metal Chrome. This one is pretty neat, it's not too streaky, it does show every imperfection on your nail though, you're supposed to soft buff your nails before applying this. But what I did was do 1 coat, then a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and then 3 more coats of the Metal Chrome and it smoothed it out. It's super shiny in person like I have foil on my nails. :-)


 
Also I know I've talked about Butter London before. How it takes forever to dry and stains my nails and how I don't think it's worth the price. (Not like Layla!) Well... then I saw this picture of the Butter London Nordstrom Exclusive color 'Two Fingered Salute' and I had to have it...


Not my picture. This is from The PolishAholic blog.
 

  Actually, they were out of stock and I couldn't find the color on ebay so I thought I would never own it. But Nordstrom's finally restocked so I ordered it! It's so pretty... it reminds me of marble or stone. A subtle goldish greenish color. It's gorgeous! It's not shipping until October 20th though. :-(

P.S. Check out KJPugs blog! She received her prizes from the Krazy Candle giveaway I hosted and she blogged all about it. :-) Congrats again! *Krazy Candle is no longer open* 

It was F.B.'s birthday yesterday. It's the 2nd birthday he's spent in the USA. We went to a Chinese Buffet near Franklin Mill's Mall for lunch.




September 28th, I contacted our immigration lawyers again. It will be time to remove the conditional status from F.B.'s permanent resident card soon. Last August I asked how much it would cost to rehire the firm and was quoted $1,200. So that's what we saved towards. I also know it will cost $590 to file the form with immigration.

When I heard a reply back a week ago I was told the cost to rehire the firm was now $1,950. Wow... $750 dollars more than we were expecting. I really love our immigration lawyers and they did an amazing job last time, but that price jump definitely made me feel a bit sick in the stomach. So, I found the email where I was quoted the $1,200 and forwarded it just to ask why the fee's had increased so much. I wasn't really expecting much, just an explanation. But thankfully, (and this is why they are great lawyers!) They changed the paperwork to reflect the $1,200 we were quoted last year. (Save your old emails!)

In mid November our lawyer will begin all the paperwork. Immigration will not allow the forms to be submitted early. It has to be submitted 90 days before F.B.'s permanent resident card expires or else immigration could reject everything. Rules... rules....


We've also had to collect paperwork that proves our marriage is valid and that we live together. Some of the paperwork I've gathered is:

• Federal & State Tax copies filed jointly.
• Bank statement copies with both of our names
• Copy of our lease for our apartment in both our names
• Copy of insurance declaration in both our names
• Copies of our driver licenses showing our current address.
• Photos with family.
• Letters from Family/Friends

Speaking of that... you wouldn't think collecting letters from family & friends with a short statement saying how long they've known you & your spouse, how they've interacted with you & that your marriage appears to be valid, etc; would be that difficult to get... but it was like pulling teeth. Literally. I let so many of our friends and family know 3-4 months in advance that we would need these letters and still they've trickled in... I'm grateful for the ones who have written us letters, but we definitely expected a lot more support and a lot more letters... but enough about that.... blah. Rant over...

Anyway that's where we stand right now with immigration. In mid November our lawyers will prepare the paperwork and by December 5th, 2012 the form should be filed with immigration and then fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly so the conditional status will be removed from F.B.'s resident card. (Ugh... he will also have to get a new driver's license in March because that expires when his resident cards expires). I just can't wait until we are finished with immigration!

(I know he will have to renew his resident card every 10 years or so, but that won't be as bad compared to all the rules and paperwork over the past 3 years!)

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.