Our Time Line.

I made a timeline of my relationship with F.B. over the years. Our relationship hasn't been the typical one, but it's been an amazing experience & adventure so far and more to come in the future.

✯ Our Timeline: F.B. & Sarah ✯

✯ 2003 ✯

September 2003: Crossed paths online at Lindsay Fan's Forum. (Lindsay Lohan.)

✯ 2004 ✯

January 2004: Began talking at Lindsay Fan's Forum.

February 14th 2004: First "Valentines" Together. F.B. sent me a picture of roses through a pm message.

March 18th, 2004: First emails exchanged outside the forum.

March, 2004: F.B. saw a photo of me for the very first time.

April 1st, 2004: The first time we ever said, "I love you.", and defined our relationship as a couple.

April 2004: Exchanged Addresses & Phone Numbers. We called each other & sent letters that month. The Lindsay Fan forum closed. We also broke up for about a week or so because of stress, family issues & distance…

June, 2004: I saw F.B.'s photo for the very first time.

✯ 2005 ✯

February 14th 2005: Our first "official" Valentines together as a couple.

April 1st, 2005: Our 1st Anniversary.

✯ 2006 ✯ 

January, 2006: We nearly broke up again. Long distance is so hard sometimes…

February 14th, 2006: Technically our 3rd Valentines Day together.

March 17th, 2006: I bought my 1st plane ticket for the Philippines.

April 1st, 2006: Our 2nd Anniversary.

December 13th, 2006: I left for the Philippines.

December 14th, 2006: The first time we met. The first time we looked in each other's eyes. The first time we hugged & held hands.

December 15th, 2006: The first time we kissed. Our first date out to the mall- we ate at 'Tokyo Tokyo' for Japanese food. Our first movie, 'Happy Feet'. First time we "made out" at the movies- (cuddling & holding hands.)

December 18th-21st, 2006: Our first couple vacation together in Makati City. Our first kiss in public outside on the bench in Greenbelt.

December 25th, 2006: The First Christmas we spent together. F.B. gave me the ring for Christmas that would become my engagement ring.

December 27-29th, 2006: We took another couple vacation to Tagaytay City, Philippines.

✯ 2007 ✯

January 1st, 2007: Our first New Years together.

January 3rd, 2007: I had to leave the Philippines to go home… that was the hardest thing I ever did… (I miss you baby).

January 10th, 2007: The day we got engaged!

April 1st, 2007: Our 3rd Anniversary.

March 2007: Bought my plane ticket for the Philippines!

✯ 2008 ✯

January 2nd, 2008: I left for the Philippines.

January 3rd, 2008: I arrive in the Philippines.

January 7th, 2008: We arrive in Makati City to spend a week. (A special date for us that we won't forget.)

January 10th, 2008: We share our 1 year engagement anniversary together in Makati City and get to go to Saisaki buffet.

January 11th, 2008: We see our first play together at Greenbelt in Makati City. 'Tuesday's with Morrie'

January 20th, 2008: We went to see a Philippine Basketball Game together at the Cuneta Astrodome. Our first sports game together.

January 24th, 2008: I return home from the Philippines.

March 10th, 2008: I buy another ticket to the Philippines. Staying 8 weeks this time!

April 1st, 2008: Our 4th Anniversary.

October 6th, 2008: I leave for the Philippines for an 8 week stay.

October 7th, 2008: I arrive in Philippines. F.B. gives me a red rose.

October 9th, 2008: I get to spend F.B.'s birthday with him and his family. Saisaki Buffet!

November 16th, 2008: For F.B.'s dad's birthday we take a family trip to Baguio for the day.

November 27th, 2008: I celebrate "Thanksgiving" in the Philippines with F.B.

December 4th, 2008: I arrive home from the Philippines

✯ 2009 ✯ 

January 10th, 2009: Our 2 year engagement.

April 1st, 2009: Our 5 year anniversary.

November 24, 2009: I leave for the Philippines

December 19, 2009: F.B. & I were married!

December 19th-21st 2009: Our Honeymoon!

December 25th, 2009: Our first Christmas as a married couple.

✯ 2010 ✯ 

January 1st, 2010: Our First New Years, married!

January 19th, 2010: Our 1st Monthiversary!

January 23rd, 2010: I leave the Philippines.

April 1st, 2010: Our 6 year anniversary!

✯ 2011 ✯ 

February 4th, 2011: F.B.'s visa interview at the US Embassy in Manila. His visa is approved to come to the USA!

March 6th, 2011: F.B. arrived in Philadelphia, PA!

April 1st, 2011: Seven Year Anniversary!

July 4th, 2011: F.B.'s 1st Independence Day in the USA

Aug 31st- Sept 1st, 2011: Our Philadelphia Getaway

September 4th, 2011: The 1st birthday F.B. spent with me.

October 9th, 2011: F.B.'s 1st birthday in the USA

October 30th, 2011: F.B.'s 1st Halloween in the USA

December 9th, 2011: F.B. & I get our own place.

December 19th, 2011: 2 Year anniversary!

December 25th, 2011: 1st Christmas in the USA.

✯ 2012 ✯  

January 1st, 2012: 1st New Years in the USA. 

February 14th, 2012: Our 1st Valentines Day together!  

March 6th, 2012: F.B.'s 1 year anniversary in the USA  

April 1st, 2012: 8 year anniversary!

October 9th, 2012: F.B.'s 2nd birthday in the USA.

November 2012: 1st Thanksgiving in our new place & starting immigration again.

December 19th, 2012: Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

December 25th 2012: 2nd Christmas in our apartment.

✯ 2013 ✯  

January 2013: 2nd New Years Eve in our apartment.

March 6th, 2013: F.B.'s 2 year anniversary in the USA. 

April 1st 2013: It's been 9 years since F.B. & I started dating.

May 2013: Immigration is finished! 

October 9th, 2013: F.B.'s 3rd birthday in the USA.

December 19th, 2013: Our 4th Wedding Anniversary

✯ 2014 ✯  

January 2014: 3rd New Years Eve in our apartment.

March 6th, 2014: F.B.'s 3 year anniversary in the USA. 

April 1st 2014: It's been 10 years since F.B. & I started dating!

December 19th, 2014: Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

✯ 2015 ✯  

March 6th, 2015: F.B.'s 4 year anniversary in the USA.

April 1st 2015: It's been 11 years since F.B. & I started dating!

December 19th, 2015: Our 6th Wedding Anniversary 

✯ 2016 ✯  

March 6th, 2016: F.B.'s 5 year anniversary in the USA. 

April 1st 2016: It's been 12 years since F.B. & I started dating!

December 19th, 2016: Our 7th Wedding Anniversary

✯ 2017 ✯  

March 6th, 2017: F.B.'s 6 year anniversary in the USA. 

April 1st 2017: It's been 13 years since F.B. & I started dating.

December 19th, 2017: Our 8th Wedding Anniversary

✯ 2018 ✯  

March 6th, 2018: F.B.'s 7 year anniversary in the USA. 

April 1st 2018: It's been 14 years since F.B. & I started dating.

December 19th, 2017: Our 9th Wedding Anniversary

✯ 2019 ✯ 

March 6th, 2018: F.B.'s 8 year anniversary in the USA. 

April 1st 2018: It's been 15 years since F.B. & I started dating.

December 19th, 2017: Our 10th Wedding Anniversary!

✯ 2020 ✯ 

March 6th, 2020: F.B.'s 9 year anniversary in the USA. 

March, 15th, 2020: Filed N-400 with USCIS to begin F.B.'s naturalization process!

April 1st 2020: It's been 16 years since F.B. & I started dating.

December 19th, 2020: Our 11th Wedding Anniversary!

✯ 2021 ✯ 

June 23, 2021: F.B. becomes a naturalized United States citizen!

(I'll try to keep this up to date by adding in new things from time to time.)

I got my Helmer! :)

Thursday was my birthday, and one of my gifts this year was an Ikea Helmer! Coveted and utilized by almost every nail polish blogger in the blogging world. The Helmer is capable of holding 500-600 bottles of nail polish.

Picture Heavy, so more after the jump! ;-)

10 Year Anniversary!

My husband & I first started dating 10 years ago today! Yes... on April Fool's Day... lol! 04/01/2004. I can't believe it's been a decade already.... absolutely crazy...

I've cataloged our relationship over the years on my blog so check out: Our Time Line.

And, since I'm feeling nostalgic today, here's a preview of our Mahal Mix Tape. (Song preview links on Amazon).

P.S. I'm a bit incapacitated this week... I somehow strained/sprained my middle finger using the touch pad on my laptop while editing photos... it's extremely painful and my knuckle is all swollen. Never had this happen. :-( I still have quite a few photo's I need to edit, but I don't have many blog posts scheduled. Blah... but don't worry, there will be another nail polish post up on Thursday... Enchanted Polish... so stay tuned! :-)

Painted Polish & Happy Holidays!

These are early Christmas presents from my husband. They arrived today and I couldn't wait to play with them, especially because I wanted to do holiday nails for tomorrow when we go out to lunch and go over my parents house for Christmas Eve. After seeing gorgeous swatches on Instagram, I needed 'Girl on Fire' and 'Kiss me Teal Midnight'.

'Girl on Fire' is from the Painted Polish Hunger Games collection. (I still want Effie & District 12!) It's a gorgeous red jelly polish with red glitter and holographic circle glitter. I needed 3 coats, and one thick coat of Seche Vite to give it that gorgeous shiny look. I did have to go fishing for the circle glitters. I placed a few on each of my nails in between coats. Isn't it gorgeous? I stamped snowflakes with Winstonia Store plate W120.

'Kiss Me Teal Midnight' is a turquoise jelly, with all different colors of glitter. Blue, Green, Purple, Orange... it reminds me of confetti on New Year's Eve! There's also different colors of holographic circles. I used 3 coats & placed the circle glitters in between coats, plus 1 coat of Seche Vite. 

Also, 12/19/2013 was my 4th wedding anniversary. 

I got my husband & I new titanium wedding bands (I like titanium because it's light and doesn't tarnish. Our original bands are titanium too). On the inside of the rings they are engraved with 'Tunay Na Mahal' and our wedding date: 12/19/09. Tunay Na Mahal means "True Love" in Tagalog, my husband is Filipino and we were married in the Philippines.

Happy Holidays!

Visiting the Santa Catharina Cargo Ship.

On Tuesday we got to visit my Father in law here in Philadelphia. My Father in law is a ship captain and gets to travel the world. (He goes back home to the Philippines for around 6 months every year). The ship he is on right now is trading between Costa Rica, Columbia and Philadelphia.

So on Tuesday my husband and I drove down to Pier 82 at Coloumbus Blvd, on the Delaware River to meet up with my Father in law. (The last time I saw my Father in law was January 2010, and F.B. hasn't seen his Dad since he came to the USA in 2011).

The ship was docked until the next morning. They were unloading lots and lots of bananas, (that are probably in almost every supermarket in Philadelphia right now.) My Father in law gave us a tour of the ship and we got to visit for about 2 hours. I should have worn my sneakers, instead of flip flops though! Lot's of stairs in the ship!

We needed guest passes to tour the ship.

They were unloading bananas.

Map of the Delaware River

My husband pretending to "drive" the ship.

My Father in law showing us the ships radar.

All of us.

Up on the deck. You could see the sport stadiums, etc in the distance from up there.

Historic ship also down at Pier 82, that Philadelphia is trying to restore. The SS United States.

In my Father in laws office on the ship.

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the way home, stuck in traffic on I-95.

My husband got some Pringles from his Dad, from the ships private stash. Lol.

Immigration Update: APPROVED!

I got some great news today! An email from our immigration lawyer saying Vermont USCIS had finally processed our immigration paperwork for the removal of my husband's conditional status. It took them 5 months to process everything. (Which was better than the estimate of 8 months to 1 year we were given because they were backlogged).

He is approved! And we are done immigration for a good long while! He will get his permanent resident card in the mail soon and we won't have to renew that for quite some time. His card will be good for 10 years. (And renewing won't be half the paperwork it took to get this far!)

 Approved Yay! (Important information blurred obviously)

Below are some key blog posts documenting our entire immigration process up until now. (If you want to see all the posts you can click here: Immigration Process).

Our immigration process started back in 2008. We started doing research the year before we were married because we knew we would have to save money for the fee's.

8-20-2008: Immigration Lawyers 

12-19-2009: F.B. & I were married in the Philippines. After we were married I came back to the USA so we could start our immigration process.

01-31-2010: 1st Meeting: Immigration Lawyer

02-24-2010: Moving along in our immigration process

04-11-2010: The Waiting Game...

06-01-2010: Now we're getting somewhere!

07-23-2010: Finally completed our I-864

10-14-2010: NVC: Step 4 of 6.

01-12-2011: Immigration Update

01-19-2011: Yikes! Just 2 weeks until.... (F.B.'s Visa Interview in Manila, Philippines). 

02-03-2011: WHOO HOO! (Visa Approved!)

03-06-2011: Busy First Week! (F.B. arrived in the USA)

03-06-2012: 1 Year in the USA!

10-10-2012: Hubby's birthday & getting immigration started again.

12-01-2012: Thanksgiving and Immigration... (Removing conditional status from F.B.'s resident card).

12-20-2012: 3 Year Anniversary! (Immigration & the Holidays)

05-09-2013: Immigration Update: Approved!

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, and still located in Philadelphia.

Shannon Stanton lawyer profile on on Avvo.com

Peter J. Gonzales lawyer profile on Avvo.com

 

Easter, an Anniversary & other ramblings.

It's been 9 years since F.B. & I defined our long distance relationship, back on April 1st, 2004! (See our Relationship Timeline). The picture above is the card he got me. :-)

We had a quiet Easter dinner here at home. I made homemade pound cake, (using this recipe). It turned out gorgeous!

Our Easter Dinner. Roast Beef, Onions & Mushrooms, Roasted Seasoned Potatoes, Creamed Corn & Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider. We still have leftovers.

I also made lemon butter cream icing to go with our pound cake. 

Peeps & the Little Chick are from my co-worker. 

Also, I'm now obsessed with these iced & frozen cappuccinos from Wawa. They have a specialty drink bar now and you can customize your coffee drink. Soooo good.

I took advantage of the 20% off coupon L'Occitane sent me in the mail.  I got Almond soap, Verbena soap & Rose soap. Love them.

I've been having green smoothies in the morning for breakfast now. I do 1 whole banana, 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt, Half cup of almond milk, Big handful of fresh spinach, tablespoon of PB2 powder, & some protein powder. Might do some strawberry or blueberry, fruit smoothies this week too.

New favorite wine (Besides Sutter Home Sweet Red). I never had Pink Moscato before! It's really fruity and tangy. LOVE!

Typical commuting to work week. I ride these trains 2 times a day, 5 times a week. 45min to 1 hour commute...

Pictures are from my Instagram: @tunaynamahal82