100 Days

We’ve been living in the USA for 100 Days

How are we doing?

This past Saturday, April 27 was our 100th day since moving back to the United States! We celebrated that night with a nice dinner! You might have seen my post on Facebook, we cooked a slab of pork ribs, some fried sweet onions, and corn on the cob. It was delicious! an All-American meal to celebrate our return to the United States!

So, I thought this would be a good time to take a look at what we have accomplished in the past 100 days, things that we are aiming to accomplish in the next 100 days (or less), and just generally report about how we are feeling about the move.

Major Accomplishments

Frankly, we have accomplished so much! More than we ever expected.

In mid-January, we landed in Dallas-Fort Worth with nothing but 6 Suitcases and 3 Carry-on bags. That was everything we owned. We did not even know for sure where we would sleep that night!

We traveled that afternoon to Indianapolis, Indiana, and on to our new home in Logansport, Indiana.

1 Week in the Hotel

Our friend, LeRoy, picked us up at the airport in Indianapolis and brought us to Logansport. He suggested that the Holiday Inn in Logansport would serve us well as a place to stay until we found a more permanent place. So, we checked in at the Holiday Inn.

We found a rental

We stayed at the Holiday Inn for 8 nights. During those days, we were spending the majority of our time searching for a house to rent. We intend to buy a house, but we will rent for the first year or so, while we learn the area, get our feet firmly on the ground, and make sure that this is going to be our home for the coming years.

We got Real IDs

I wrote early in our move that getting ID was difficult after being out of the country for 2 decades. Thankfully, all of us (myself, Feyma, and Chris) all have Real IDs now. I got mine back in March, then Feyma got hers in early April, and Chris got his Real ID last week.

It really was not all that hard to get the Real ID, we just had to make sure we had the required documents. It took 2 months to gather the required documents.

For Identification and Proof of Citizenship, all of us presented our US Passports.

For proof of actual residence in the town where we live, we presented Utility bills in our name, mailed to our local address.

Having passports made things quite easy.

Establishing Credit

Another thing that I was worried about was personal credit. Not really for being able to or wanting to borrow, but having credit is just something that is important. Since we had lived outside the country for so long, we really had nothing at all current on our credit reports.

Thankfully, there was a very old account that we had left open, but was closed several years ago because of inactivity. That account was still on our credit reports, and we had always paid on time, so that helped us.

Back in March, I applied for a Cash Rewards credit card. I had to prove that I lived at the address that I put on the application, because they had no record of that, but it was easy to do that, and I received the credit card.

Now, both Feyma and I have credit scores in the “Excellent” range. So, we feel good about our ability to have established credit, and being very high on the scale too.

Jobs for Feyma and Chris

Within about 2 weeks of our arrival, both Feyma and Chris were hired at Tyson Foods. They are still working for Tyson, and are now established as regular employees. During the first 90 days they were classified as in training, but as of this coming Friday, they will be part of the regular workforce there.

Both Feyma and Chris are liking their work, and seem to be liked by their bosses and co-workers. In fact, Feyma is already training for another job at Tyson, they said she was doing very well there, and want to train her to work in different areas.

Chris is also doing great! In fact, a new-hire started yesterday, and Chris is assisting with his training since he is assigned to the same job that Chris does.

Good job, guys!

My Work

A few weeks back I purchased a pallet of electronics items that were being liquidated and established my retail arbitrage business. I have pretty much sold out of the goods that I bought and made a nice profit.

Right now, I am shopping pretty hard to find the right pallet of goods to buy next. I thought I had a couple of pallets today, but I felt that the auction bidding went too high, and I did not want to take it any higher myself. I have to make money on the stuff, after all!

I am enjoying what I am doing, and am just in the “getting started” phase. Good things to come, I am quite sure!

What are our future goals?

Driving

Right now, neither Feyma or I drive. We have State IDs, but not driver’s licenses.

I did not apply for a driver’s license, because my eyes have been bad for several years, despite treatments that I have been getting. However, last week I went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and took the eye exam and I passed! Right now, I am waiting for my Washington State drivers records (that is the last US location where I had a driver’s license). Once I get those, I can take a driver’s test and driving to get a license!

Feyma did not drive in the Philippines, so she wants to do some refresher driving before taking the exam.

Both of us are hoping to have a driver’s license soon!

Buying a Car

As soon as at least one of us has a driver’s license, we will buy a car. We have already been shopping and have found some good deals.

We had been leaning toward buying a used car for our first vehicle after moving back, but I think we will buy a new vehicle, most likely. We found a great deal on a new SUV last week, so hopefully, that will still be available by the time we have driver’s licenses.

Public transportation has been good, but I can’t wait to have the freedom of our own vehicle!

Buying a House

As I mentioned earlier in this article, we are renting right now. Probably sometime in 2020, we will purchase a house here in Logansport.

We have really come to love it here, Logansport is a small town, and we enjoy the friendliness here, and most everything about the area. So, it is most likely that we will be ready to buy a house in the next year or so. We are looking forward to that.

Company Benefits

Starting after this Friday, we will be covered by Tyson company benefits. That will include Health Insurance, Dental Insurance, and Vision too. That will be a relief, as we have been living with no coverage for the past 3 months or so. Well, we do still have coverage in the Philippines, so in the event of something happening we could have traveled back to take advantage of our health coverage there, but I am happy that it was not necessary to do so.

Keep enjoying life

I guess the most important “to-do” on our list is to just keep enjoying our new life back here in the United States. So far, we have very few complaints and a lot of things we are liking.