Living in America 2011

[MmeBucket]

We were a few messages away from being closed on the other one. Hope everyone finds me here.

Sorry about the foot! That sounds so painful. Hope you get to rest it and it heals quickly.

Are there thanksgiving sales?!

Silence from our end due to DD being born - just after thanksgiving, 2:54am on 25th November. Maggie Juliet, weighing in at a hefty 8lb 9oz. Now to get her passport done, add her onto DH's visa application then we can finally book our flights once he's had his interview....

Loads of congratulations mousey! What a lovely name. Hope she is settling in nicely with you. We got ds1's passport pretty quickly so we could go on a recce to Oregon. I am sure it will go smoothly for you.

Black Friday is the equivalent to the Boxing Day Sales, except shops are opening at midnight now! Traditionally it is the day when retailers go into the black, hence the name. There are definitely some bargains to be had.

Been a while since I last posted. DH and I have decided to get some help for 3 evenings a week (6-9pm) and on Saturdays starting in January. I have put an ad up on sittercity.com and our local town website. I was thinking there must be other places I can go look. I won't be home until 9pm midweek or so and will be working on Saturdays. DH has to study in the evenings and Saturdays and can't do that and look after DD (aged 5 months). We are in Northern New Jersey.

Anywhere else I can post/look? I feel like I am missing a resource....

Congrats on the arrival of baby Mousey.

I try to avoid Black Friday sales here. I did, however, go to my local Fred Meyer (Tad will know what that is) and manage to get my $350 bill down to $180, get a free turkey, and almost finish my Christmas shopping the Monday before Thanksgiving. DD really wants that Angry Birds game that seems to be this season's favorite toy, and I've been trying to find a place that isn't out to no luck, but DH sent a message out to all his other store manager friends, and one of them had one last one in their stockroom, so thanks to DH's lovely friend, my shopping is done as of today.

Want2be, I wish I knew how to help, but we just do a lot of babysitting swapping with families of DC's friends, so I don't know the answer to that one.

Eeeeeeee! Baby! Congratulations Girlwith - and what beautiful names!
And yes, the day after Thanksgiving is kinda like boxing day, most people take advantage of the sales to do lots of Christmas shopping.

Want2B one option might be tapping into some good students who want a reliable early-evening gig. Is there a college near you? In Hoboken Stevens' College had a sort of sitter list, I recall.

Good call, blackurrants. I forgot about that. Pretty much every high school around here has a babysitter list that they derive from students who have taken some sort of child development class through the school, and come out of it with Red Cross certification.

Thanks guys!

blackcurrants I called Seton Hall to ask abouting hiring students and the lady was very unhelpful. They have a very good nursing program so I was wanting to put something up on their noticeboard. Didn't go over too well! Hoboken is not easy as no direct trains on Saturdays but will def give them a shout. You never know... student might have a car.

MmeBucket I can't really do swapping. Wish we could but no ability to reciprocate.

oh right - is that where the amazon black friday thing comes from? Well more useful for sales to happen before Christmas! Am already planning on American hampers for the family next Christmas...

Thanks for the congrats, now to focus on Christmas then on the move, eeeeek!!

Hello other mums in America! I am new to MN and just thought I'd pop into this thread and introduce myself. Couldn't read the whole thread. Just wondering if there are any other mums living in Pennsylvania?

Also Black Friday STILL terrifies me. I pin all my hopes on Cyber Monday. I'm rather a slight woman and there have been times during sales where I honestly believed I was going to be killed by women much much taller and well muscled than me.

I am so dumb - Mousey Congrats on DD. Hope you get passports etc all in order quickly and without problems! (one can but hope!)

hi Tiny! I lived in Central PA a few years back - in South Carolina now, where the weather is more to my liking.
I can't think of anything I want bad enough to face the craziness that is Black Friday!

Tiny I wasn't brave enough either - I think if I wanted one 'big-ticket' item I might have tried it, as DS wakes me up pretty early anyway - but stories about people pepper spraying each other for xboxes just makes me sad for humanity.

Plus, I quite like my 5am-with-elmo-and-toddler-cuddles. not as much as I like sleep, but quite a lot more than I'd like driving to a mall to be assaulted ! :)

I'm in NJ, but there are other North Eastern USA dwellers on here, we might have some PA mums!

HELP!! I'm in a total tiz over vaccinations. Trying to get things sorted out this end for our move in March. Do kids have to have all 3 HepB vaccinations before they can go to pre-K or Kindergarten? I've been told the HepB's will have to be done over 6 months, which would mean no school for DD1, who's 5 and NEEDS to go to school, till June

The chickenpox one probably won't be an issue now, as DD1 has gone down with it today. So DD2 and DS will get it like dominos. Why didn't I get them vaccinated sooner at the private GP's?!! ARGHHH!!!

I just had this in Oregon where dd had to have a catch-up MMR jab as she'd only had two in the UK, or she would have had to leave school. I think if your paperwork is good and you can show that she's due to have another one they are ok. Generally they have to send off the paperwork to the State (well they do in ours) which gives you a bit of leeway. Not much point in your dd going to school in June as they break up then! Hope the chickenpox isn't too serious for you.

Thanks all, that's reassuring that there can be some leeway. The idea of DD1 having to leave school and then have nowhere to go to was horrible.

Everything's a huge nightmare here. DH's job keep changing their minds about when he can start, and with me having to work 3 months to avoid paying back maternity pay and no green card yet it means I've got a few months of single parenthood ahead .

My MIL insists she's going to fly over to help with the packing up and the flight, which is lovely but not the same as having DH here.

I just hope this is going to work out. It's very hard not to feel thoroughly miserable about the whole thing, especially as I don't want to do it and am only going ahead with this move to keep DH happy. Must cheer up!!

nicobean When doing an international relocation the moving company should be packing up everything for you. If you are staying back to finish up your maternity leave then make sure you arrange for your moving package to be split into two loads so you don't end up paying for one half of the move.

Also, have your DH's employer pay for a professional cleaning company to come in after the moving company pack everything up. I always get a cleaning company in on the other side to arrange for a cleaning company to do a professional clean before the furniture is moved into the new place too. I get the moving company to add it to their bill. I then have the moving company bill the company direct so we are not out thousands when in the middle of moving between currencies. I had kick back on the cleaning bill but told DH's employer that I couldn't clean myself as the moving company had packed up my cleaning tools and products!

I can't imagine it is easy relocating with children. I would try to outsource and expense it when possible. Ask your DH for the company policy and follow it. You will often find the company policy is quite generous as it is written with upper management in mind. When moving over I was able to expense dr appointments for vacinations etc.

congrats mousy, hi tiny, & nico - don't worry about the shots. you can sign some kind of 'waiver' saying no to immunisations. it's meant to be to allow for religious freedoms (ie if your religion doesn't allow shots, they can't stop your kid from going to school) but was useful for us.

be careful about dates though - dd's school nurse just couldn't get the dates right, even though we wrote them all out in american for her by longhand, and kept threatening that dd couldn't go to school any more. I just kept going back to the school office (nurse never there or answered phone) & they were fine for dd to be there.

when choosing a house, find out which school district it's in - it fairly rigidly lays down the school your dc's will go to.

hope you don't find it too bad. i was ambivalent about coming, hated the first couple of years, now I'd really not be happy to go back to the UK!

Thanks for all the great advice kickass and want2b, that's made me feel much better.

I do honestly have times when this move seems like a good idea; it's when I'm tired and grouchy it's harder. Told my boss today, so guess it's really happening!

Anyone else got a green card thru the London embassy lately? How long it'd take?

Before I forget, look for provision for helping you find a job in your DH's company policy. Friends of ours relocated from South America and the company ended up paying for her DH to take some classes to help him find a job. If you need help navigating the job market pm me and I can try to help you.

Hello there. I'm a Uk dwelling Psychiatric nurse married to a Psych nurse also.

We are interested in working in the USA for a few years now our kids are flying the nest.

Does anybody here work in the psych system? Will I have the professional autonomy that I enjoy in the UK? Have community (CPN) experience, acute adult inpatient and forensic (special hospital) experience. Do US Psych Nurses practice therapies such as CBT, RET, DBT, Family therapy etc? Or does the medical profession sew all that side up?

I am leaning towards the Southern states especially around the Smokies or the Southern Appalachians (!). Also interested in NY State and Idaho, Oregon or Washington state.

All advice gratefully received.

I live in Oregon and it is lovely! I have no experience with the psych system here but I imagine that each state has its own rules and you should be able to find out what you want with a bit of internet digging. It sounds like an adventure!

Thank you tadjennyp- I had heard that there are no totally uniform systems like the CPA (Care Programme System) in the UK and that each state can vary widely.

I want to live in the 'leafier' parts of the US even though as a child i was brought up in a Central American country and desert scenery is in my soul. DH needs big things too climb hence our list of potential states.

Well... I actually live on the High Desert next to the Cascade Mountains. Not a sandy desert, more sagebrush scrub, but pretty high mountains that my dh loves to climb too. It is beautiful, though I'm really not sure what kind of psych provision there is here. There are around 130 000 people in this region.