How terrible am I?

While reading through my big cousin Amber's blog (love you Ambee!) I thought that it would be a good time to update everyone on whats been going on up here in Fresno. For starters, since my last post on August 30th, I have returned to the wonderful world of Home Depot. My back isnt 100%, but it is getting better every day, and I'm so thankful for that. John really helped out while I was going through the bad parts. He even did the laundry for me. I was so shocked that I had to laugh through tears. That is his most hated chore.

Hooray for great husbands!

Also while I was off work we helped John's mom do an audition video for The Amazing Race. Her and John's Aunt Vikki are hoping to make it on to the next season.
Good luck to Lisa and Aunt Vikki!


As of right now we are just getting ready for the holidays. I especially love this time of the year. There is just something about the cold weather and peoples attitudes that makes this time worth waiting for. We were lucky enough to be able to go down south for Thanksgiving. We had dinner at both the Groves and Thornton's houses. Needless to say, we were stuffed!





















The center piece John's dad made out of plants and flowers from their back yard.


























Scott(John's Dad) Carving the turkey.



The awesome cheese cake I made the night before. I love to bake!


I'll update again (hopefully) before Christmas. If not, God bless, Merry Christmas and a very happy new year to you all!

-Mist

If its not one thing....

While working a closing shift on Thursday night I came up against a situation that unfortunately happens on a regular basis. A customer needed to have three 50lb bags of cement loaded into their car for them. The customers were a very sweet elderly couple. The husband had recently had knee surgery and his wife looked as if she would break in half if she tried to lift more then 10 lbs. My cashiers did everything they could to find someone to load. They called for building and lumber, but as always they were no where to be found. They paged over head and on the radio for anyone that was available to help but no one answered. When I walked up to the register my cashier Emmanual looked at me with a very distressed look on his face and said that he couldnt find anyone to help. I offered to load the customers my self.

I have loaded 50lb bags thousands of times in the three and a half years that I have worked for Home Depot. I didnt think much of it and assured the customers that it wasnt a problem. We got out to the parking lot and I got the first bag into the truck with out incident. On the second bag, however, I started to loose my balance and the bag started to fall. As I started to try to get everything back together, it happened. I felt a "pop" and then my lower back started tingling the way your foot does when it falls asleep. Then it "popped" again and thats when the pain started.

I managed to make it back inside and get a hold of the manager on duty. Next thing I know Im sitting in the emergency room at St. Agnes Medical Center. The doctor had to give me three full syringes of pain killers before they could take me to x-ray to see if I had fractured my spine. The x-rays look good she said, but she thinks I may have one or more slipped or herniated disks. As it stands right now I'm not allowed to drive, I can not walk on my own, sitting or standing is a challenge and I can only sleep on my left side. I never realized how much I loved sleeping on my stomach!

When all this went down I was by my self. John had left earlier in the day to go to Long Beach to pick up a shipment for work, and our nearest friends live at least an hour away. I ended up having to go through the emergency situation alone, but I had two wonderful nurses that stayed with me until John's uncle could get there from O' Neals to take me back to their house so I would have help until John could get back.

I'll be going to an occupational therapist on Monday to find out if I will be able to return to work. I'm really hoping its soon. I'm already going stir crazy not being able to do anything.

John has been wonderful. He has been taking care of all the things I normally do like dishes, laundry, moping and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen and so forth. He checks on me every few minutes to make sure Im comfortable and that I have enough apple juice or chocolate milk :)

I'll keep you all posted on what happens on Monday and how things are progressing. Wish us luck!

Quitting

John and I sat down today and decided that we are both going to quit smoking. WE saved our receipts from the last month and tallied up how much we were spending on cigarettes. It was almost $600! between the two of us. I was going at just over a pack a day, and John was at almost 2 packs per day. Our day to start quitting is next Friday. I plan to use the patch/gum approach and he is going to try using just gum while doing this. The last time I tried quitting I got very moody and tried killing everyone around me so I'm hoping for a better outcome this time. John has already managed to get down to less then a pack per day, and I am so proud of him! It takes a lot of will power to be able to to this. My goal is to be smoke free by my birthday. 10/10/2009. Im going to need a lot of support and I know I have John backing me 100% of the way. If you guys find any information that may be helpful in this endeavor feel free to send me an email. mdgroves1@yahoo.com. I could use all the help I can get. Wish us luck!

Misty

"On the road again, do do do do do On the road again..."

Yay! Looks like John and I might be heading down to So Cal next weekend for a quick visit! We will most likely leave on friday, arriving sometime Friday evening, and will head back up on sunday night. Yay!

Today he would have been 86

Today is June 5, 2009. My Grandpa's birthday. He was a wonderful man and he loved his 6 grandchildren to distraction. I think of him often, but I have gotten to the point where it doesnt hurt as much anymore and I can think of him with a smile. It used to be that I would be so angry and burst into tears at just the mention of his name. The circumstances of the day he died still make me angry. I know it wasn't of natural causes, and I know that the Riverside county sheriffs department was wrong to not launch an investigation into the situation with his "wife" but there is nothing that I can do about that now. All I can do is remember the good times. The endless supply of Pepsi and butterscotch candies, the times that he would take me to school, watching the Dodgers blay ball, waking up to his TV blaring The Waltons because he fell asleep and rolled over on the remote. He was a wonderful man, and I know now that he is with my Macon now and that they are both happy. It saddens me that he wasn't able to see me get married, and he wont be around when John and I start our family, but he knew John, and said from the beginning that he liked him because John treated me the way he treated my Macon. So today, I will be happy and not sad, because it is his birthday. And Im going to have a Pepsi, some butterscotch candy (even though I don't really like it) and a piece of fillet for him. Its kinda silly, I think they have those things up in Heaven. I just think it is a nice gesture, :)

Professional wedding pictures

Ok, so we finally got the link to our professional pictures. Melissa worked so hard and took a lot of time to make sure everything looked good, and I have to say they didnt look good, they tooked GREAT!!! I couldnt have asked for a better photographer, and Jenny McMasters was a wonderful addition to the team for the day. Both women did a wonderful job and made the process of standing still for the pictures (especially with all the little kids) a fun and entertaining experience! I would recommend them to anyone looking for someone to shoot their wedding or engagement, maternity or family photos. Both women are professional and at the same time give you a feeling that you are with close friends who will be capturing the memories that you will cherish for a lifetime.

so here is the link to look at all of the pictures.
go to www.melissapalomo.com/proofs

There will be a little box on the left that asks for a code. The code is: grovesthornton

Once you enter that you will be able to access the gallery. She has it organized so you can see the "getting ready" photos, the "ceremony" photos, the "formal portraits" and the "reception" photos.

Have a look and I hope you all enjoy!

Copying my cousin Amber

My cousin Amber did this so I thought it would be a fun thing to do since I'm trying to procrastinate until John gets home this evening

My day (well yesterday)

7:30 am: Alarm goes off, reset it for 8 am.

7:45 Johns alarm goes off, I forgot he had a late start at work.

8:15 Am, Pound on bathroom door. John has been in there since 7:50am. He thought I had the day off. I really gotta potty.

8:45 Am: both of us out the door to work.

9:05 am: Arrive at work. Lots of traffic today

9:08am: Walk into break room, get apron out of locker, set out my drinks for the day, talk to several other associates and cashiers, talk to fellow Head Cashier about coverage (or lack there of)

9:25am: clock in and walk to the front end. Great customers on the way. Stop at warboard to find out what im covering. Get Till, do two manager approvals, sign 5 pk and sign off on a strip

9:37: head to the returns desk

9:40: tell Choua she can count out her till and go home. Jot down notes on things she thinks we all need to discuss at cashier meeting on Sunday. Grant 4 returns, Log attempt 2 returns, RTV 26 items and get Choua out the door before her 5th hour.

10:45: Pull everything out of the drawers and off the shelves and clean the ENTIRE returns desk. By 11 the knees of my pants, both my hands and a good portion of my face is completly black.

11:30: Fellow HC Maryann comes to give me a break, says we have a call out, and tells me she is already 3 breaks behind. Leave for break, call John to see how his day is going, Call mom to see how her day is going, Call John's mom to see how her day is going.

11:43. Return from break

12:15: Michael our lot associate comes to me to let me know that he found a dead snake in the parking lot and to find out if he should throw it in the compactor or if we need to do something else with it. Call MOD Hannah to find out what to do with dead snake. She says to make sure it is dead first and if it is to throw it in the compactor. If not, call animal control.

12:20: walk with Michael out to the parking lot to see if snake is really dead. It is, so Michael takes care of it while I go to special services to do an approval and a markdown

1:10: Maryann comes to tell me that her and I are both schedualed for lunch at the same time. We have to have one HC on the floor at all times so one of us is going to have to go to lunch a little early and one of us will go a little later. I go to lunch

1:47: Return to returns from lunch. Maryann goes to lunch.

2:05: Its slow, so I stand and great customers, make a list of things I want discussed at our meeting and joke around with people from other departments that walk by.

3pm Everyone and their brother shows up to return stuff

4:45: Rush is over, Returns desk is a mess, begin pussing back go backs, sweeping, whipe down counters and go to last break

6pm: head home

6:10: walk in and say hi to john help him with dinner and start playing the wii

6:30 stop playing wii so we can eat dinner. Relax and talk to John. Watch a little tv and catch up on e-mail.

10:15: shower

11:30 bed time!!!!