Byaheng Pinay

Travel Alert

2013-08-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

If you are planning to travel abroad please check this travel alert information issued by the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs.

August 02, 2013

The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the continued potential for terrorist attacks, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and possibly occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula. Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August. This Travel Alert expires on August 31, 2013.

Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Terrorists have targeted and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime services. U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling.

We continue to work closely with other nations on the threat from international terrorism, including from al-Qa'ida. Information is routinely shared between the U.S. and our key partners in order to disrupt terrorist plotting, identify and take action against potential operatives, and strengthen our defenses against potential threats.

We recommend U.S. citizens register their travel plans with the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy through the State Department's travel registration website. We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens Traveling abroad enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. If you don't have Internet access, enroll directly with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

For the latest security information, U.S. citizens traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department of State's Internet website attravel.state.gov where the Worldwide Caution, Country Specific Information, Travel Warnings, and Travel Alerts can be found. Follow us on Twitter and the Bureau of Consular Affairs page on Facebook as well. Download our free Smart Traveler app, available through iTunes or Google Play, to have travel information at your fingertips.

In addition to information on the internet, travelers may obtain up-to-date information on security conditions by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or, from other countries, on a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Monday through Friday, Eastern Time (except U.S. federal holidays).

Source

Travel Warning

2013-08-13T09:21:00.001-07:00

Travel Warnings are issued when long-term, protracted conditions that make a country dangerous or unstable lead the State Department to recommend that Americans avoid or consider the risk of travel to that country. A Travel Warning is also issued when the U.S. Government's ability to assist American citizens is constrained due to the closure of an embassy or consulate or because of a drawdown of its staff.

The countries listed below meet those criteria.

El Salvador    08/09/2013
Pakistan    08/09/2013
Yemen   08/06/2013
Saudi Arabia   07/25/2013
Mali    07/18/2013
Niger    07/15/2013
Mexico    07/12/2013
Philippines    07/05/2013
Kenya    07/05/2013
Egypt    07/03/2013
Somalia    06/21/2013
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza    06/19/2013
Honduras   06/17/2013
Chad    06/11/2013
Libya    06/07/2013
Nigeria    06/03/2013
Iran    05/24/2013
Mauritania    05/21/2013
Cote d'Ivoire   05/16/2013
Eritrea    05/10/2013
Central African Republic    05/10/2013
Congo, Democratic Republic of the    04/24/2013
Burundi    04/22/2013
Sudan    04/16/2013
Colombia    04/11/2013
Pakistan    04/09/2013
Lebanon    04/01/2013
Republic of South Sudan   03/29/2013
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of    03/14/2013
Guinea    03/14/2013
Tunisia    03/13/2013
Syria    03/01/2013
Iraq    02/25/2013
Algeria    02/19/2013
Afghanistan    01/29/2013
Haiti    12/28/2012

Source

My Aunt

2012-04-06T18:14:00.002-07:00

This guest post from Edgardo Rosa

I recently moved in with my aunt. She lives near the school I am going to and so to save time and money, I decided to take her up on her offer to let me live with her rent free. I only have six more months of school, so I decided it was probably a good idea. Although my aunt is getting older and we do not have much in common, I thought I would be able to handle it for six months. That is until I got there and found out that she does not have cable. I did not know how I was going to survive without watching all of my shows. I decided to try and talk my aunt into setting up cable. I told her about all of the shows I watched and she actually thought she might be interested in some of them. I decided to google expertsatellite to try and find a package that my aunt would be willing to set up. She gave in and we have started watching all of my shows together. Looks like we have more in common than I thought.

Missing Philippines

2012-04-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

It's been five years since I left the Philippines and I am missing it a lot. Sometimes homesickness hits me wishing that I could be able to spend vacation with my family even for just two weeks but it is not possible anytime soon because it cost a lot just for the round trip ticket to fly to the Philippines. I miss a lot of things aside from being with my parents, I miss the food, my friends, going to the malls shopping and everything. I am hoping I could be able to go back to the Philippines this year but I have to save some money for the trip.

The hair is the last part of the prom puzzle

2012-03-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

Guest post written by Kara Chaston

With all my other daughters, it seemed like they put off what they were going to do with their hair until the very last minute. I guess it's not that surprising because none of them really cared about doing anything to their hair on any average day. But my youngest daughter is very particular about her hair so it doesn't surprise me that she started figuring out what she was going to do with her hair as soon as she bought the dress.
I've been helping her look for hairstyles and when we were finding some really good updos about a week or so ago, I found the website www.debtconsolidation.me/. Once I read through it some I decided to go to them to see about consolidating our family's debt, which is something that we need to do regardless.
I think that she's all but decided on this really neat braided updo that the girl from The Big Bang Theory wore to an awards show. It's very princess-y, which is what she was looking for in a hairstyle, so I think that it will be perfect!

Toby and Tyler

2012-03-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

Here they are my two handsome boys. Tyler and Toby are growing so fast. Tyler will be 3 yrs old in June and Toby will be 1 yr old. I can't believe how the days go by so fast. Tyler has been toilet trained and is doing very well. Toby is learning to walk by holding on to the furniture and we are hoping that he will be walking by before he gets 1 year. They are sweet and happy boys but can be handful sometimes. These two look a like but are way different in many ways. I love my boys so much!

Leaving Home

2011-08-24T20:39:00.001-07:00

Guest post of the week by Brittany Booker

Apart from getting out of the house to get groceries I rarely have a chance to get out and relieve all the stress that builds throughout the day. Most of the time my day consist of the exact same thing, waking up, dropping the kids of at school, coming home and doing laundry, cleaning the house and then making my grocery list for the day. Some times half of my day gets taken up by paying bills. Thankfully, I stumbled across Click HERE and now I at least our energy needs are met and delivered at a fixed rate every month. Every now and then I just want to take a break from the normal routine of life. I’ve been trying to find some yoga classesin the afternoon before the kids need to be picked up at school, it’s hard to find time to break away. Maybe I could do a yoga class every morning before the kids are up for school, which might be some way to relax before the stressful day begins.

Toby at 4 months

2011-08-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

Toby is 4 mos old now and he is growing fast. He can roll over on his tummy and jumps while he is in his jumper. His development is doing great. He is very opposite of his older brother Tyler. Tyler didn't roll over until he was 7 mos old. We think that Toby will learn to crawl pretty soon and starts walking earlier than Tyler was. Toby is such as happy boy for the most part.

Splashing around at the water park

2011-06-22T11:12:00.002-07:00

Guest post written by Ian Sampson

This summer is really hectic for me because I was recently promoted to work which means that I've been travelling a whole lot more. But I'm really making an effort to make up for that by spending as much time as possible with my kids while I am at home. I planned a trip to the water park last Saturday and I think that we had a whole lot of fun.
While I was looking up ticketing information and figuring out exactly how much we needed to budget for our big water park trip, I ran across the site more info. After I looked through it some I decided to change over our home internet service to it and I'm glad that I did.
I took the kids onto all of the slides that were too big and scary for my wife's taste, which made it that much more fun because we teased her about not going on them. But she's always been like that and maybe it's better that way that we're opposites in that way.

Busy Mom

2011-06-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

I have been busy taking care of my 2 little ones that I don't have much time to update my blogs. Things are doing very well despite of being busy and some challenges going on. Tyler and Toby are growing healthy. Tyler is doing well with Toby, he gives him hugs and kisses and sometimes asks me to put Toby on his lap with my help. Tyler will be 2 yrs old tomorrow and it will be a double birthday celebration since him and hubby has the same birth date. Toby will be 3 mos next month. I can't believe how fast the day goes by and how quick my boys are growing up!

A Bit of New Technology

2011-04-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

Guest post written by Bob Naples

This past weekend, my wife finally got me to sign up for a social networking site. I was hesitant because I thought that social networks for mostly just for young folks, but my wife showed me just how many of our friends use the site. It was really interesting to see. It seems as though everyone is getting involved with it these days. After giving it a try, I actually like it a lot. I know better than anyone that it's incredibly easy for good friends and relatives to drift apart with time. I think it's nice that such sites exist so that people can see the people close to them are up to. I've found some people online that I haven't talked to in years. I can't believe it.
Aside from the social networks, my wife finds all kinds of helpful stuff for me online: coupons, HearingAidsReviews, news, etc. Perhaps I should invest in a laptop before too long. It's really amazing to see just how far technology has come in recent years. It's absolutely incredible.

New Bundle of Joy

2011-04-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

I just gave birth to my second baby last April 8th. A new bundle of joy has been added to our family. He was born 2 weeks early though but thank God he is very healthy and normal. Toby was born at 5:05 am on April 8 through C-section. He was 8 lbs and 3 oz in weight which is kind a big for a tiny mom like me. He is 20 inches in length. If he had stayed until my scheduled C-section which was supposedly April 22nd. He would have been almost 10 lbs I think but I'm glad that she is home with us and my pregnancy was over because I was so miserable dealing with all the pains and aches because I was carrying my baby so low and my tummy was so huge. Right now I'm just recuperating from my major surgery. I feel better each day and hopefully will be able to recover very soon.

Watching a Travel Program on Television

2011-02-17T20:24:00.002-08:00

Contributed by Cameron Hodge

I love traveling and normally go on different trips all of the time. It's not uncommon for me to go on a trip at least once a month or so. I love hiking and just going sightseeing and so I normally go to areas that I am not familiar with. It's even better if I get lost while on my trip since I can really go to areas I don't know while I am lost and driving on unfamiliar roads. My boyfriend and I love going traveling all of the time and even like to watch travel programs on our Directv TV Satellite Specials when we come home from a trip. These types of programs really give me some good ideas about where to go when we choose to go traveling again.
As I've said, we normally go traveling about once a month and I absolutely love looking for new places to go to. The travel programs we watch are really beneficial when we are stumped about where to go. For the most part, we like to stay in the country when we go traveling. This ensures that we are not gone for too long since we have animals at home and can not leave them for very long while we go visiting new areas around the country. When we get home, we're already planning out our next trip.

Pregnancy Update

2011-02-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile to be able to post here. Been busy with family. I'm on my 30 weeks of pregnancy, still feeling a lot of pain in my back and my sciatic. I can't wait to see this baby and be able to get away with all the discomforts I'm having right now. Tyler is doing great and learning a lot. His been talking and wanting to be more independent. He is a sweet, smart boy but sometimes he can be a handful. He is learning the sounds of the letters as he keeps watching his video "The Letter Factory" from Leapfrog. He can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds and he is only 19 months.

Winter Boots for Tyler

2010-11-27T02:23:00.000-08:00

When we were shopping for Black Friday’s biggest sale. I kept looking for shoes and boots for me and Tyler but couldn’t find the ones I really liked. I told hubby that we would need winter shoes for Tyler so he could enjoy the snow. It will be Tyler’s second winter but will be his first to enjoy the winter since he can understand what is going on around because he is now 17 mos old and he can walk around. He was only 5 mos last year when he had his first winter. So we are excited for this year’s winter season for Tyler.

Hubby told me that we could take Tyler to the Grand Mesa, Colorado which is about 45 minutes from where we live if we wanted Tyler to see and feel the snow coz the Grand Mesa receives a lot of snow during the winter than here in the Valley. But before we can do that we need to get Tyler winter outfit that would keep him warm for the snow.

So, now I’m still looking for good shoes for my baby. I am searching online now to check if I could find some good deals for Tyler’s boots. I found some sites and came across with zappos.com. Seems like they have a lot of kid’s shoes to choose from. I am looking at the different brands they carry like UGG, Dansko and so much more.

Still Up at 2 am

2010-11-27T02:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still up at this time while everyone in the family is asleep. I went to bed around 9:30 pm with Tyler as I laid him down to bed while he had his bottle for the night to put him to sleep. He usually liked it when I lay down with him then when he is asleep I move him into his crib. I went back to bed then and fell asleep but woke up around 2 am. Actually, I been awake every now and then because of my sciatic pain that keeps bothering which started when I got pregnant. I'm only 19 weeks but boy my sciatic started so early with this pregnancy. I tried to position myself to bed but it hurts every time I turn to my side either left or right. I can't think of any position that makes me comfortable and not feel the pain. I still have couple of months to wait and I know as I get further and nearer to my due date my sciatic is gonna get worst. Hmmm, the joys and pains of pregnancy. I can take all the pains as long as I have a healthy and normal baby.

Black Friday

2010-11-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

It's Black Friday and it's the biggest sale of the year! Did you get good deals? I think, I did. Got good deals on clothes which is mostly for Tyler. We hopped from one store to another but didn't go out to shop til past 9 in the morning. We never planned to wake up early though as most shoppers did. Did that once but don't wanna do it again. Ha,ha,... it's so cold and freezing this morning and I think that didn't stopped most of the shoppers from waking up early to fall in line in front of the stores as early as 3 am. So, we got winter clothes for Tyler, got some for mine too, I bought hubby a wireless mouse for his computer and he was happy about it and we also got toys for Tyler and some stuff for Christmas presents. It was fun shopping. We ended up hungry and starving and went to Golden Corral as our final destination. It was all good!

Back to blogging

2010-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, I am back to blogging after a year since my last post. Wow! has it been a year since then? I can't believe how the days go by so fast. A lot of things have happened within that year. I will try to enumerate what I have been up to from October 2009 to present.

1) I got my first job here in the US as a Certified Nurse Aid at a nursing home. I worked full-time that time, that's why I didn't have a chance to update my blog.
2) I got my 10 year Green Card in October 2009. My removal of condition was approved without interview. Which was really great!
3) We moved to a different place here in Grand Junction.
4) I was working full time and taking care of my baby after work.
5) In May 2010 we found a bigger house and moved again still in Grand Junction area.
6) I decided to enroll one class ( Dietary and Nutrition) in June 2010. It's a pre-requisite class to get into the LPN Program in July 2011. I went to school and work part-time.
7) I submitted my US Naturalization application in May 2010. Got my interview and test in August and got approved at the same time. Took my Citizenship Oath in the same month and become a US Citizen.
8) I got pregnant in July and I am now 14 weeks and hoping for a baby girl.
9) I resigned form work this month due to my pregnancy.
10) At present I am taking another class (Anatomy and Physiology) which is the last class I need to get done for my prerequisite.

Seems like I have accomplished a lot of things within a year. Things are doing well so far. The family is doing great. My baby Tyler is growing fast seems like.

Great News from the US Immigration

2009-10-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

When I checked my email last night after I got home from work. I received an email notification from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding my status on my I-751 (Removing of Condition as Permanent Resident) application that they have ordered a production of my new "Green Card" which means that it will be a 10 year permanent residence card tell me if that isn't a great news!

After reading the email, I went to the USCIS website to check my case status online and this is what it said;

On October 2, 2009, we ordered production of your new card. Please allow 30 days for your card to be mailed to you. If we need something from you we will contact you. If you move before you receive the card, call customer service at 1-800-375-5283.

This step applies to applications that result in an applicant receiving a card (such as a green card) or other document (such as a naturalization certificate, refugee travel documents or advance parole). Applications will be in this step from the time the order to produce the card/document is given until the card/document is produced and mailed to the applicant. You can expect to receive your card/document within 30 days of the approval of your application.

If you do not receive your document, please contact our National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283.

Hubby's passion

2009-09-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hubby loves bicycle and that is one of his passions. It has been four years since hubby sold his bike and from then on he has been wanting to have another bike. He keeps telling me that he would get one in the future when he can afford. I told him if I got a job I would save and buy him a motorcycle. He got so excited about what I told him. When he sold his bike, he sold also his helmet, motorcycle jackets and other bike accessories. So, for sure he would like to have a complete accessories for his bike riding. I can get these items online at ridegear.com which is a member of the Cruiser Customizing Inc.

Biometric

2009-09-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Just did my biometric (fingerprinting) for my green card renewal yesterday. Hopefully it won't take long for my application and won't undergo interview to get approved. A friend of mine got her 10 year green card without any interview and was approved in less than three months which was really quick. So, I'm hoping that mine will be processed quickly too.

Update on my I-751 Application

2009-08-24T19:10:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile that I haven't updated this blog. I have been very busy now that I have my baby. Just an update about my I-751 ( Petition to Remove the Conditions of Residence) application since my 2 year Green Card expired July 11, 2009. I got a Notice of Action letter in the mail June 26, 2009 from USCIS informing me that they have received my application. The said letter also served as a one year extension of my Green Card. I also got another letter the other day August 22nd which contained the date of my Biometric (finger printing) schedule which will be on September 1, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. here in Grand Junction.

Humming bird feeders

2009-06-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

The other week, we visited hubby’s brother and his family in Delta. It was a good visit, hubby’s brother was busy gardening in their front yard. His children were so excited to show me their humming bird feeders that were hanging outside their house. I told them they got the best humming bird feeders surely humming birds would love to hang out. I was thinking about putting up bird feeders for humming birds in our backyard since I often see them every now and then. Will probably check for good humming bird feeders online and see if there is one that I would like.

Removal of Condition

2009-06-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am able to send out my I-751 application to Remove Conditional Status as Permanent Resident last June 13, 2009. Last Saturday I got a letter from the Department of Homeland Security - US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) telling me that they got my application on June 19th. The letter I got also served as a Receipt Notice and served as an extension of my conditional resident status for one year. Hopefully, it won't take long to receive the approval notice from them and be able to get my 10 year Green Card.

Pregnancy Update

2009-04-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

I'm on my 27 weeks and 4 days of my pregnancy. Things are doing well so far except for some discomforts that I am feeling like back pains. My tummy has gotten bigger and bigger each day. Just had my Glucose challenge screening test for Gestational diabetes and the result was ok. My blood sugar level is normal and I am happy to know about that. My baby is very active inside my tummy. I always feel him move around, kicking, punching and squirming like almost all the time. Days are passing by so fast, I only have less than 13 weeks and I able to see my baby. Hubby and I are so excited.