2008: A Review

I suppose it is that time of year again where we sit back and reflect on everything that has happened, and everything we want to happen in the upcoming new year.

For me, the biggest thing that happened was I finally married the man I love dearly. We were married on May 9th, which was the year anniversary of the day we first met. To us, that day was so special because it changed our lives and getting married on that day was just icing on the cake. We didn't have a big ceremony, the justice of the peace was fine with us, because all that matter is we took our vows and committed our lives to each other. Being married is something I had always hoped for myself, and wasn't sure I was going to get. But I love being married, and being a wife. Sure, married life isn't perfect, trust me, there are those days when I could just kill him (haha), but I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

We also were blessed in 2008 to move into our new apartment, which was brand new, never lived in, as the apartment complex was just built. This place is so much nicer then our first apartment together, and now that we are finally done with living in a mess of boxes and chaos, the place looks and feels like home.

I was also lucky this year to be able to go back to work and help out my new family financially. I got the job working at Walmart as a greeter, and as much as I would love to say that the job is amazing and I love going to work everyday, well, it's Walmart and for anyone who has worked there, you know how it is. I do enjoy meeting new people, and the greeters I work with are all so nice and we have a good time, but just like any job there are politics and rules and regulations and let's just say the famous family company really doesn't care about its employees as much as they say they do. But, its a paycheck, and I can't complain about that.

Phil decided this year to go back to school, which is something I am very proud of him about. He started ITT Tech in Tempe, AZ, and he is going to be getting his degree in Drafting and Design and Construction Management. So far after his first semester he has a 4.0 GPA and he is really enjoying the whole program.

Now, like everyone, we have had our downs too, but I try not to dwell on that and think about the positive, because dwelling on the negative does us no good, and I want 2009 to be a better year for us, with more successes and hopefully, a little addition to our family.

Merry Christmas

First, I hope all of you had a very safe and Merry Christmas!

My Christmas was very nice. Christmas Eve I had to work from 2:30-6:30p. Our store closed at 6p, but we had to make sure everyone was out of the store before we could lock the doors. I couldn't believe all the people coming in thinking we were open 24 hours and getting so mad when we told them we weren't. The manager had to keep turning people away from the door. But luckily I was able to clock out at 6:30p, and then change and head over to Grandma Joan's for dinner. Everyone else had already eaten by the time we got there, but we each had a plate waiting, so we had a good dinner, and then go to open presents and spend time with family. My grandma bought us a Kitchen Aid knife set, so very nice and it will last us a lifetime. She also gave us a really nice stainless steel spice rack that swivels and has 20 different spices. I love to cook and can't wait to try some of the new spices in my recipes! She also made me a lap blanket, and also a dog toy for Brandi.

Yesterday we had dinner at my mom and dad's. Mom made lasagna, since we had ham and turkey at my grandma's the night before and it was soo good! They bought Phil a GPS for his truck, since he never knows where he is going (lol), and for me I got a Creative ZEN MP3 player that is so nice, it holds 4000 songs, pics, and videos, has a big screen, even a calendar and organizer. It is what I have been wanting because my other mp3 player died on me.

As much as I love Christmas, I am very glad that now it is over, and we can go back to everything being back to normal.

Workin the night shift....

The past few weeks I've been getting more and more night shifts on the schedule, and at first, I hated it. I had thought it was much better to get the day over with by working first, then having the night to myself. But the more nights I've worked, the more I've started to enjoy it. I've also noticed that with the cold weather, and just my arthritis in general, working nights is a lot better for me because I can get the rest I need in the morning and get my joints up and running for the day, so when I do go to work later on I feel a lot better.

The hard part was knowing that in order for to change my availability to nights only, I was going to have to talk to my manager, and she can be intimidating. I wasn't sure if she was going to be upset that I was changing to nights, and some other associates had said that meeting with her wasn't easy. Needless to say, I was very nervous, not knowing that to expect.

She called me into her office around 8pm, and I explained why I wanted to switch to nights, and she said it was no problem at all, and in fact even went through my schedule for the next two weeks and changed the day shifts I had (just 3) to night shifts, then we went in back to change the schedule on the schedule board. She totally understood my situation, and even told me I was doing really good at being a greeter.

I went back to work so relieved that the meeting went well, and really grateful that my manager understands my situation and knows I am not just trying to get out of doing my work, but working into a schedule that allows me to not miss anymore days due to flare ups. I didn't want to lose my job over my arthritis, that has happened to me before in the past, and it is nice to know that at least now I am at a place that is being accommodating.

I do have to work this morning, she couldn't put me on a night tonight because she needed me, but she did say I could come in an hour later, which works well for me. So after I post this I'll be heading off for work, and then will have a nice big day off tomorrow. Which reminds me, I have a new Tales From a Walmart Greeter to post tomorrow, the holidays have given me some good material to share....

My good deed

Last night we had my friend Jeanine over, with her 3 year old daughter Megan. It was a lot of fun to finally get to entertain now that the house is finally unpacked, looks like home, and is decorated for Christmas.

Jeanine and Megan stayed for dinner, I made pork chops and chicken, grilled cheese for Megan, then once Megan was used to Phil and I, Jeanine went to visit her husband Nathan in the hospital. She is such a cute, adorable little 3 year old, and was perfect for us, she even fell asleep about 9:45 watching Noggin. We got to bed late, after 1am, which meant we only got a few hours sleep before Phil had to wake up and get ready for school.

The alarm went off at 6:45a, much to my dismay, and I was all set to go back to bed when Phil came in and said there was a German Shepherd running in the parking lot. Turns out he must have been lost or abandoned, and his hind legs looked hurt, since he was walking very funny. This was at 7:30a, and the emergency line to the Humane Society didn't open until 8, so I waited and finally got a hold of someone, and they said they were sending over Maricopa County Animal Control to pick up the dog. I got off the phone and decided to head outside to make sure the dog stayed over here. I went outside and the dog came right over to me, super friendly, but obviously needing help. About 2 mins later Animal Control was here, and he went right over to the lady, where she got him on a leash and started an IV and checked him out, and then they were on their way. So that was my good deed of the day, making sure the dog was OK and knowing he is going to get treatment and get adopted to a good family. Brandi was a rescue dog, and I have a special place in my heart for them.

Now I am sitting here with Megan, Jeanine needed to go to the hospital this morning and talk to her husband's doctor, and since he is in ICU right now for seizures he is having, Megan isn't allowed back there. I had no problem watching her, she is such a good little girl and she is sitting next to me right now as I type this, playing "Where is the clown?", where she took one of my clown ornaments and is hiding it from me, and then I say where is the clown and she says I don't know! This definitely is making me want to have kids even more then I have been.

OK, time to go for now, now we are playing let's make the clowns dance....

Black Friday Madness

Today was the infamous Black Friday, and I was scheduled to work from 5am to 2pm. I knew, with it being Walmart, that is was going to be packed with people, but I had no idea the insanity that awaited me when I arrived at work at 4:45am.

First off, the parking lot was full, there wasn't a parking spot available unless you parked way over by the Staples and Petco, and even that was filling up quick. Sheriff SUV's were parked outside, patrolling the area inside and out, and people will just filing in. The first thing I noticed is that all the carts were gone and the poor cart pushers were out there running around trying to bring in whatever carts they could find around the parking lot. When I got into the store, however, is when the real madness began.

Around the store areas were roped off and there was displays all around that were covered in plastic. The sale started at 5am and people were just piled around these displays and roped off areas, just waiting. Trying to get to the back of the store to the time clock was almost impossible and seeing as where we clock in at is right by Electronics, where they were selling 32" flat screen TV's for $388, it was like a zoo! I finally got clocked in and headed out to check it and see which door I was needed at and I had just passed Electronics when someone yelled "ITS 5!". Suddenly people were screaming at the top of their lungs and ripping off plastic around the displays and throwing things in the air...like literally, I couldn't see the TV's on the wall in Electronics because there was just stuff flying around in the air as people sorted through what they wanted and filled their carts. It was insanity!! I've never seen anything like it!

They ended up putting me in the Garden Center to watch the door and check all receipts that came through. The line was backed up through the garden center and out into the store, and inside the lines were backed up from the registers to the back of the store. I had to check every receipt, highlight the large items they bought, and initial it. The bad thing was that it was freezing cold, and being garden center, it is open air. I was shivering all morning.

It finally started to slow down around 8am, but there always a steady stream of people. Three guys were arrested for fighting over one of those video game chairs, and one lady smacked another lady in the face over trying to get to sale items early. And one manager was even accosted by a customer. It is amazing what people will do for a stupid toy or TV. Nothing is that important to me that I would fight someone over it, or cause such a pandemonium over it.

So the holiday season is finally here, and seeing that I am working tomorrow, I am sure it is going to be busy from now on like today until the holidays are over. I am just glad I survived that whole mess and made it home in one piece.

A Sad Day

This time last year, I was in the hospital with a severe kidney infection that the doctors said if left untreated, could have killed me. Scary to think of how close I was to losing my life just a year ago, and then to see here, a year later, how things have changed. Phil and I got married, we have a beautiful new home, and I am working away at my little greeter job.

But what makes this a sad day for me is that it was a year ago today that I lost Peanut, which is what I called my baby. While I was in the hospital with my kidney infection, I had a miscarriage. I was 7 weeks along. It was, undoubtedly, the worst day of my life, and one that I think of constantly. I spent the entire day in terrible pain, and with incredible guilt and sadness. At the time, I felt I was the reason I lost our baby, that I didn't take good care of myself or the baby, or I had done something bad in my life to make me deserve what was happening to me.

Phil was great with me that day, he never blamed me, he just made sure I was OK, and I felt and saw his sadness as well. In fact, to this day, it is really something we don't talk about, because it is painful. But we both know what today was. There really isn't a point in dwelling over it and making ourselves upset.

It took me awhile to finally realize that it wasn't my fault for the miscarriage, that I was very sick and the baby was so fragile, and that it was nature's way. As my doctor said, every women has at least one miscarriage in her life. I've come to the point now where I've accepted what happened, that is happened for a reason, and one day we will be reunited in Heaven together. They say that when you have a miscarriage or lose a child, it goes with God and God will protect it and raise it for you until you can meet again. I can't think of a better person to be looking over my child.

I'm not as sad as I thought I would be today. I haven't shed a tear, just been reflective, and wondering what life would be like today if this day hadn't turned out the way it did a year ago. But I think of my Peanut on a daily basis, especially when I see kids coming in to work. It is a grieving process, and I know that I will always think of Peanut and what they would have been like. I may not openly talk about it all the time, because it is private to me, but that baby will always have a special place in my heart, and has forever changed me. It made me realize how badly I want to be a mom, and how wonderful an experience it is to know you have a little one growing inside you. I'm at the point where I feel very ready to experience that again and I know that one day we will when the time is right.

What was America thinking?

The election is over, and Obama won. I can't say I am really surprised, seeing as how many people seemed to latch on to his idea of change. I just think that a lot of people really didn't take a look at his whole platform and what he would really like to do to this country. I think, as what happens after a president such as Bush makes things so terrible for our country, America decides oh, well I guess we need a Democrat in there now. Four years from now, Obama could make this country even worse off then it is, and then what, will we be screaming, Now we need the Republicans back!

As you can tell, I didn't vote for Obama. It wasn't because he was black, or anything stupid like that. It is because after spending time researching the platforms of both candidates, I felt that Obama's ideas of free universal health care, and free education were along the lines of those in Socialist countries. It has been said time and again, Obama would turn us to Socialism, and I agree, he could. Now, is that going to happen, let's hope not. I believe there is enough people around him and enough obstacles he would face trying to do that, that would put a stop to it before it began. And I also strongly believe he does not have the experience needed yet to be President. He's young and hasn't spent enough time in the Senate, plus he has no military experience and we are in the middle of a war. I believe McCain would have been the better choice for us right now, and I don't believe he would have been another Bush.

Now, all this being said, I know there are those of you out there who are happy that Obama won, and that's great. I'm glad people went out there and voted and participated in what's going on in this country. I think this is the time when we should all start helping our country and letting our opinions be heard. Do I think Obama is going to be a good President...well gee, I don't know yet. I can only hope so, because if he isn't, we are going to be the ones who are suffering. Maybe he will offer the change we need, maybe he'll have the answers and turn this suffering economy back around. Who knows! A lot gets said during campaigning, about how they will change this and that, and nothing ever gets done. If free universal health care and education could be done, wouldn't it have been already???

Now, these are just my opinions in this blog, so I don't need anyone commenting and bashing my views or telling me how Obama is better because of this or that. America decided and we have to live with that decision, and now is the time were we need to put aside those party lines that divide us and unify as a country. Let's just hope Americans knew what they were thinking, and the next 4 years really do show us the change we really need.