Artistic

Ok, so I got this link to a page where you can draw and paint with your mouse using different tools. I saw a lot of different pictures that other people had drawn so I decided to give it a shot. Mine looks more like something a 5 year old would finger paint in art class, but I had fun anyways! Let me know if you can figure out what it is.

http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?kc27st1i3ch4

Since it's the Christmas season I thought I would share with you some of my fav things to look at. Christmas lights are always nice, but I think it's just a little more special when people take the time to put on a big show just because they are in the spirit! here are some of my favorite videos that I have come across this year. John and I always look for new ones on the web, so if you happen across one feel free to send me the link!

I cant help but be reminded of August 2005.

In August of 2005 my grandfather passed away. It wasa devastating to me because I had lived with him for my entire life. HE was not only my grandpa, but one of my best friends. It may be weird for a girl of my age, 19 at the time, to call her grandpa her best friend, but I told him things that I couldnt tell my friends or my parents. I used to drive around with him and we would experence road rage together while he uttered the familiar fraise "ram in to the jerk" when some one cut me off. He always had Pepsi and butterscotch candies with him. And I still have a hole in my heart from the day I got the news that he had passes away.

Now today I find my self in that same situation with another man I have come to call
Grandpa. While he will never replace my grandpa, he was a different kind of grandpa. Everytime I talked to him I felt on the verg of finding out something completely life changing, like the meaning of life. But I was never fully able to grasp the message that he was trying to get to me. He was Sam Howard, Johns grandfather. He passed away just over four hours ago and it hurts no less now then the moment I found out that it happend. We wil be going down south on thursday to go to his memorial service. There is so much that I wish I had had time to tell him but didnt get a chance to. I wish I could have sat in the office with him one last time and just talked about buisness and chocolate. We both had a verry bad sweet tooth. He always made sure there were chocolate cookies and Hershey Kisses waiting for when we came to visit. He paid for John and I to move to Fresno so we could get back on our feet. He gave john the opertunity to learn the family buisness, but most importantly, he gave us unconditional love. Im just glad that he lived long enough to see his first great grand son be born. His oldest granddaughter gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Dylan Patrick Steece on October 8th of this year. He was a wonderful man, and I know he was beyond proud of his children and grandchildren. His jokes were great and sometimes dirty. He didnt have to rais his voice to be heard because he new that people will shut up and listen when someone has something of importance to say. He served our contry in WWII and Korea and he served his family as the greatest husbend, father, and grandfather there ever was. I will truely will miss him, and allthough I just talked to him last tuesday, just to make sure that he had voted, I wished I would have called him yesterday just so I could say good bye.

Rest In Peace Grandpa. I love you.

Tag

I got Tagged on myspace, so here we go


Here are 6 quirky things about me:

1)When I find something I really like to eat, Thats the only thing I will eat! Right now Im on a corn bread kick. It drives John nuts. No matter what we get at the store I'll only eat the one thing. He is adapting though. Every time he goes shopping now he orders two corn breads for my at the bakery!

2) I am slightly obsessive compulsive.I have to have all the soda cans and drink bottles facing forward, and all the food containers have to be lined up from biggest to smallest. It really, REALLY bugs me if they aren't!

3) I refuse to do my hair or makeup to go to work. I know that I need to make a good impression since I work with the public, but I can not justify spending an hour and a half getting ready just to go to work and be covered in concrete and sometimes manure... ick..

4) I hate email. I actually like sitting down and writing a regular letter. I just don't do It because I never get a letter back. Lol, everyone sends me emails saying how silly I am for sending them a letter. I'm a little old fashioned

5) I love to read! I will spend days reading my favorite book to the exclusion of everything else!

6) I always have to have a pillow with me in the car. I can not travel more then thirty minutes before my back starts hurts, so to stop that i just always travel with one. Ive even made john stop at walmart so I can buy a new one because I forgot mine at home!

The rest of our engagement pictures

Here are the rest! I hope you all like them. Announcements will be going out in about 4-6 weeks and I need addresses for everyone. Please email me at mdgroves1@yahoo.com so I can make sure you get them!

Candy recall

I know many of you have kids that will be trick or treating on Halloween. Please be careful and check their bags for little chocolate coins

For those of you with little ghosts and goblins in your lives.





Hello everyone: the following recall is confirmed by snopes. Read and pass on especially if you have or know little ones.....

Don't eat these!

The little chocolate coins are not safe for kids to eat this Halloween.






They are made in China and contain the Melamine that childrens deaths were
related to recently.





!!!!!!!

With Halloween coming soon, pass this on to your family and friends.








Sherwood's Milk Chocolate Pirate's Gold Coins from China contain
melamine.





It is true, Read the full story at the following link from Snopes:

http://www. snopes. com/food/warnings/coins. asp


These were basically distributed in Canada, however they were sold through the Costco stores, so some may have found thier way in bulk to the stores here in the United States

What our great Nation has come to...

I was sent this in a bulletin on myspace by a good friend and I think it pulls everything into perspective

You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this:

Boy am I confused.

I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the
Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us.



I now find that to be RIDICULOUS.



I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they
are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them.

I have
included the URL's for verification of all the following facts

1.

$11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each
year.


Verify at: .. http://...com/zob77

2. $2.

2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as
food stamps, WIC, and free school
lunches for illegal aliens.


&n bsp; Verify at: ..
http://www.
cis. org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.
html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.


Verify at: ..
http://www.
cis. org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.
html

4 $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school
education for children here illegally and they
cannot speak a word of English!
Verify at: ..
http://transcriptscnn.
com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt. 0.
html

5.

$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born
children of illegal aliens, known as anchor
babies.


Verify at ..
http://transcripts.
cnn. com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt. 01.
html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.


Verify at:
..
http://transcripts.
cnn. com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt. 01. html..

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.


Verify at:
..
http://transcripts.
cnn. com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt. 01.
html

8.

$90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare &
social services by the American taxpayers.


Verify at: ..
http://premium.
cnn. com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.
01html

9.

$200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by
the illegal aliens.


Verify at:
..
http://transcripts.
cnn. com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt. 01.
html

10.

The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and
a half times that of white non-illegal aliens.


& nbsp; In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional
crime problem in the US
Verify at:
..
http://transcripts.
cnn. com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt. 01.
html

11 During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that
crossed our Southern Border also, as many as
19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries.

Millions of pounds of
drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed
into the U. S from the Southern border.


Verify at: Homeland Security Report: ..
http://...com/t9sht

12.

The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of mass
deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion
or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five
year period.

'
Verify at:
..
http://www.
nationalpolicyinstitute. org/pdf/deportation.
pdf

13.

In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to
their countries of origin.


Verify at: ..
http://www.
rense. com/general75/niht.
htm

14.

'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Near ly One Million Sex Crimes
Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United
States '
Verify at: ..
http://www.
drdsk.
com/articleshtml

The total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

Are we THAT
stupid?

If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message.

If, on the other
hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward
it to every legal resident in the country including every representative in
Washington, D.C.

- five times a week for as long as it takes to restore some
semblance of intelligence in our policies and enforcement thereof.

A sneek peek at our engagement photo shoot

While talking to a friend of mine on myspace about our wedding plans (he is getting married on november first) he asked me what we still had left to book for our wedding. I told him that the one thing we were worried about was the photographer, because we still hadn't found one that we liked. He offered me the contact information for a woman named Melissa Palomo who would be sooting their wedding and had also done their engagement photos. After looking at their pictures and the pictures on her web site www.melissapalomo.com I was very impressed and decided that this was the person that I wanted to shoot my pictures for my wedding.

Low and behold, after looking through more of her site I found that I had known her from junior high and that she dated one of my best friends! I was so excited to contact her and set up an appointment so that we could meet. With in seconds of seeing her, I had made my decision. I was going to hire her to be my photographer. My mom came with me to the meeting and was equally impressed. So without any further edu, here are our sneek peek of our engagement photos! With out hesitation I would recomend her to all my family and friends. She is a wonderful person, and she made us feel very at ease. She even managed to get john to crack a smile, which is almost impossible to do when taking a picture of him!


Thank you Melissa for taking such wonderful photos of us!

Birthday weekend rundown

Oh the wonderful memories we made!!!

John's brother brian
The Guys being dorks
Jayson, being his patriotic self yelling "God belss America" out the window in traffic on the 91 freeway

Me and John <3
Me and Jayson

The whole group on my birthday

Bryan, John's Brother
Me and Brian On my birthday. 10/10/2008
Chanin, My niece's friend Heather, and My Niece Elysia
John, His Cousin Jayson, and Brian doing the Captain Morgan
And me being a goober

We came down to Southern California for my birthday this weekend and boy, did we have a Blast! Lots of wonderful times and lots of wonderful gifts. I got a new digital camera from my mom this weekend for my birthday and I am so excited. I don't think that thing has been more then 6 inches from me since I pulled it out of the box! We also went to Knotts Scarry Farm on Saturday night. John's brother Brian, His cousin Jayson, Jayson's girlfriend Yvonne and Yvonne's friend Karissa went along with us. I was a little disappointed because It took us over Two hours to get through the gates once we got in line, and we only got to ride Boomerang and the Log Ride by the time we got in to the park. I got to get my funnel cake finally though, so that made it all worth it! We all had a blast, and I'm so grateful that I'm surrounded by such wonderful people who did everything in their power to make my birthday great!

Birthday in T -9 days

I have come to realize that my 23rd birthday is in 9 days. lol, who am I kidding?! I start counting down to my birthday with in seconds of it being over. I love my birthday and I love making a big deal of it, be it with a party, a big group event somewhere, or a lot of people watching me crawl across my best friends front yard because I cant seem to remember how to walk (21st birthday at Tammy's house anyone?)

Any who, I very excited this year because John is taking me down south for it. Its been hard being away from everyone, and I never in my life thought that I would say this, but I REALLY enjoy vacationing in Lake Elsinore!

To top things off, on the night of the 11th John is taking me to Knotts Scary Farm. As anyone who has known me for more then thirty seconds will know, I love Halloween Haunt! Its been a tradition for some time now to go every year, and untill 2005 I had not missed a single Haunt since the age of 8. Im so excited that we are going to this. John doesnt particulary like going, but he knows how much I love it, and it makes this that much more special to me because of that.

As far as other things go, I think I have a photographer picked out, and Im very impressed by the caliber of her work. I didnt realize it until after I had requested a quote from her that we attended Junior High and High School together. We didnt float in the same circles, but we did exchange the occasional hello. Her website is www.melissapalomo.com
Go check it out if you have a second.

I also have all of my brides maids, and they know what their dresses look like. I dont see a real need to have them get them right this secound. The wedding isnt until April, and I think that January would be soon enough.

Other then that, I've been stuck at home for the last few days (only missing one day of work, thank goodness) with some kind of bug. Sore throat, BAD headache, sore all over and an upset tummy too boot. John has had something close to this, but he is without the sore throat. Even though he has been sick also, he has made sure that I have eaten, that I'm getting plenty of fluids, lots of hugs and kisses, lots of "I love you"s and lots of giggles. He even went out and rented a chick flick that I had really been wanting to see! He is so wonderful, and I dont know what I would do with out him! I am truely blessed to have him in my life, and to have him be my future husband!

Finally!

Ok, so we finally have an official date, time and place for our wedding! Im so excited since the deposit was put down on Sunday!

http://www.falknerwinery.com/

We are doing the garden wedding.

The date is going to be April 262008. We picked the date because it is the day after my grand parents got married, and If they were still alive this would have been their 63 year of marriage, I think. Dont quote me on that lol.

We have everything done, but the brides maids dresses, the photographer, the minister, and the cake. Im so excited! I just cant wait!

For those who love music

A friend of mine whom I used to work with at Home Depot has recently launched his first Myspace Music page and has his first song uploaded. It is a wonderful song. He is the composer and performer of the piece, and I am very proud of his talent. Please stop by his site and take a listen. I think you all will enjoy what you hear!


http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=410923928

This has nothing to do with the wedding, but it does have something to do with things that I am passionate about

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Time_Warner

Go to this page and memorize as many of the company and channels as you can.

WB has just announced that they are pushing back the release date of the next installment of the Harry Potter series from November of this year to July of next year. Check Yahoo and www.mugglenet.com to confirm.

I plan to boycott as many, if not all of the company's as possible. Their reasoning for this is that the writers strike this year slowed the market for releases of movies and T.V shows this year, and that they can reach a broader audience by waiting till next summer to release the movie.

1: The writers strike did not effect any movie being produced in the UK
2: Any one who has ever gone to a midnight release of the movies or books knows that people will find a way to be there opening day even if it were on Christmas morning. I know that after working a 14 hour shift I went to the release of the 7th book full well knowing that I had to be up at 3am that morning to be back at work for another 14 hour shift.
3: The only reason they are doing this is to they can make a couple million extra dollars.


It is pitiful to me that they are willing to do this to litterer hundreds of millions of fans just to make a few extra bucks. I dont think they realize the back lash that they are about to incur due to this terrible mistake that is being driven solely by greed.

Think about it. If the Potter fan base shuns the release of the last two movies, that will be done in three installments, and and all of their subsidiary company's, they could very easily loose billions of dollars. I already refuse to go to Six Flags because they are over priced. ($5 dollars for a small soda and $8 for a small fry, give me a break!)

Several of the channels that they list happen to be favorites of mine, and I am willing to not watch any of the programing offered there because of this.

Some people believe that this is so they can make a killing when the Twilight series releases their first movie next year. And that may be right. But due to their blatant disregard of the fan base which drives this market, I will not go see that or any other movie put out by WB or New line Cinema. It panes me because I was truely looking forward to both releases, but if this is what it takes to make this giant of a corporation realize that it can not treat its consumers this way, then I will do it. Even if it means that I do end up missing out on wonderful movies and great TV shows from now on.

I know that most of you will not follow my lead, and that you are not willing to give you some of the fun stuff that you look forward to, but I feel that it is nessisary to show them that the company does not rule the market, but it is the consumer that decides weather a buisness will succed or fail.

It takes years to gain a loyal customer, and only seconds and a stupid mistake to loose them forever. This is their stupid mistake, and they have lost this consumer and her family's loyalty and money forever.

Boycott Warner Brothers...

Frustration and giggles

Planning is still going slowly, but I think we have finally picked a date. Looks do be April 8th, 2009.

I'm getting very excited but I didnt realize that weddings cost so much money! Granted that ours is very small, and no where near what some of my friends and family have spent on theirs, but its still a lot of money.

On a different note, I got the promotion at work! Ive felt totally giddy since I found out. It meant more money and better benefits and more chances to move up through the Home Depot higher Archy. Some days I complain about my job, but all and all I really love it. I have the attention span of a gold fish, and things are always changing so it keeps me busy. Home Depot gets a bad rap in the media, But what a lot of people dont realize is that all of the "horror" stories you hear about or watch on 60 minutes were completely avoidable.

Like the couple that said Home Depot's installers ruined their house by installing their roof wrong. We have to go through a lengthy process to get a pig project like that started in the first place. First we go out and take measurements and have city officials with us to make sure that everything is up to code and will be done in the safest manner possible. Then while the install process is being done, there are several people there to answer every question you have and also many you would never think of asking. After everything is finished, the person who takes your order follows up with you a one week, one month, three months, six months and one year post install.there are also inspections at those times by both home depot and an out side contractor to make sure that there were no mistakes and that everything is on the up and up. What 60 minutes doesnt tell you is that that couple decided that after the install of their new roof they had a different contracting company come in and tear off half of their roof to add an additional room to thier house. or that this other company already had numerous OSHA violations as well a 2 seperate class action law suits against them. They wanted to blame home depot when their roof fell in. They didnt want to admit that they tried to go the cheeper rout and hire someone who was not experenced, didnot have the correct tools, and frankly, didnt care to take the time to do things the right way. It just makes me mad that they paint Home Depot as this giant man eating corporation. I have been treated very well by this company and there is nothing that makes me beleave that this will change in the future. Where else will you find an employer that will pay half of your college tuition up $50,000 each year? How about if your husbend or wife or child is killed in a car accident? I have watched as Home depot raised money for my former head cashier to be able to bury both her mother and husbend who died one week apart and make it so she would be able to pay off her mortage. Home Depot pays above avarage wages and gives full bennifits to part time employees. They dont support Day laborers, contrary to what you may have heard. In Realto, Compton, San Diego, San Burnidino and North Hollywood you may have heard of Home Depot "putting up buildings in their parking lots with AC and water for Illegal Immigrents to wait for work in." This is bogus. The city's passed an ordinance stating that it was un constitutional to force these people to sit out in the heat trying to get work. Those buildings came out of tax payers money, not Home depot's, They were put in some cases 15 miles from the nearest home depot. Home Depot ownes all the land that it sits on. Parking lot and all. Nothing can be errected there unless there is a federal order to do so. So if your going to be mad at someone for allowing this problem to persist, be angry at the citys that are using your tax dollars to support people that come to this contry and want all the right that american citizens have but dont want to contribute anything to the contry that is now protecting them. Vote at every election, go to city meetings and tell them you dont want these kinds of things happening. Write your congressmen, informe your church of the issue. Tell everyone to stand up against these kinds of thing happening. But dont blame a corporation that builds houses for habatat for humanity, play grounds for citys that cant seem to find the funding to do so, donated more money and supplys to huricane Katrina then FEMA and the Red Cross combined and still manage to take care of thier employees that are sick or taking care of a sick family member even though they are not able to work.


Sorry for the wall of text, but i do feel better now that I have gotten this off my chest. :)

Plans so far and updates as to regular things around here

Ok, so I know I have been slacking on updating this thing. So far not a whole lot has happened with the wedding plans. I'm just enjoying being engaged! What has happened is as follows.

-I have my dress picked out and, thanks to Johns wonderful mom, partially paid for
-We have a tentative date.
-I DO have pictures of me in my dress, but since we dont have a scanner I havent been able to post them yet :(
-We have our favors picked out
-We have a base line set up as to what everything is hopefully going to cost
-And we may have a location figured out

Other then that things have been wonderful. We're going down to Elsinore this coming weekend. I'm so excited! We havent been back since we moved up here. While I'm so glad that we did move, I didnt realize how much I, or John, would miss it. This is our home and our hearts are here in Fresno, but a big chunk of our lives are still in Lake Elsinore with our family and friends.


Things are going great at work. I'm interviewing for a promotion at work this coming week, and things are looking hopeful! John is still enjoying working with his uncle, and some of the stories I hear about day to day goings on are very funny and heart warming. I think this is a great fit for him up here. While I have finally talked him out of wearing his fishing gear to the wedding (although I seriously doubt he was seriously about doing it) it hasnt stopped either one of us from going fishing! I think that is our favorite part about living up here!

Always,
Misty

Surprise!!!!

Surprise everyone!!! Its been a long time coming, but John and I are finally engaged! I dont have any pictures yet (we had to take the ring back to get it resized. it was too big) but with in the next week or so I'll try to get some up on here for everyone to see. It was so sweet, John surprised me at work today by bringing me lunch and a little something extra. Lol, then he made me stay at work for the rest of my shift! The ring is beautiful and we couldnt be happier! I'll let you all know, via this blog, whats going on like when we pick a date and when I plan on killing John cause he wants to wear hip waiters and his fishing vest for the wedding. Yes, he is already trying to talk me into letting him fish during our wedding/reception. I love you all and I'll talk to you soon!!!