Roll Out the Red Carpet, the Family is in Town!!!

:SSSQQQQQUUEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!!:

That's the sound of my excitement about the fact that my family is coming to visit this weekend!

So, in honor of that, I decided to post some pics of them from our wedding:

I can't wait to finally be able to show them all around Sac! However they are only going to be here for a long weekend, so I'm not quite sure how much we're going to be able to cram in. Regardless, I could not be happier about their visit! I'll post again after our exciting weekend!

The Great Groff Furniture Extravaganza!!!!!

Hello to my loyal fanbase (all 3 of you)!!!

Happy Friday morning to everyone! Today is going to be a wonderful, perfect, absolutely amazing day! Why, you ask??

Because today we will finally be getting our new couch that was purchased over 2 weeks ago!

Yes, that's right, we have been couchless for 2 whole weeks! I now understand the meaning of the phrase, "You never know what you have until it's gone." That quote has never rang truer for me than in these last couple weeks. This may seem silly to some, but you never realize how much you actually do use your couch until it's no longer there for your tv-viewing pleasure. We have endured countless hours of sitting on the hard, cold floor, watching hours of tv and finding no comfort whatsoever. Ok, I suppose I should correct myself. "We" haven't been suffering on the floor; Pat has been suffering on the floor. Randi gets too aggravated after about 10 minutes and usually ends up enjoying these mindless hours of tv watching in the comfort of her own bed. This has made for some very early bedtimes in the last couple weeks (I always associate bed with sleep, so if I'm in bed, I get tired). But I am pleased to report that, starting today, we will no longer take such seemingly silly things as living room furniture for granted. For today, we have seen the light. Here's the pics of the couch and area rug that we purchased:







In other, non-furniture related news, I have officially completed my first full week of work. It's been slightly overwhelming and very busy, but overall I can breathe one huge sigh of relief because I can honestly (and finally) say that I love my job. It is such a breath of fresh air to be in a supportive environment, doing something I love, and making pretty good money doing it.

Have a fantastic weekend, all. Hubbs and I will be relaxing on our brand new couches for the majority of the weekend. Be jealous.

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

I just received a call from the Placer County Office of Education and I am happy to report that I am officially a permanent employee!!! I have an orientation tomorrow to go over benefits, and I'll be starting on Wednesday morning! I've known for a couple weeks now that I would be receiving the job offer, but was waiting for the paperwork to clear with HR. I am ecstatic!!! For all of you who have been with me throughout this difficult journey over the last 9 months and who have listened to endless hours of venting about how much I detest my job, THANK YOU!!! I am so blessed to have such patient family and friends. :) From this day forward, I promise to be a more optimistic and overall pleasant person to be around. I'll post again after my first day.

Here's the link to the county's website, if anyone wants to check it out:
http://www.placercoe.k12.ca.us/Pages/default.aspx

Dear Starbucks

Dear Starbucks,
Please stop correcting me when I come in to order a drink and don't use the "proper Starbucks lingo". Starbucks is not true Italian coffee, and therefor the use of such words as "grande" and "venti" just sounds plain ridiculous. Having worked in coffee for quite a few years myself, I fully understand what the word "skinny" means. However, refusing to conform to the Starbucks corporate moguls' attempt to re-program my coffee-ordering habits, I prefer to say "nonfat milk" and "sugar-free syrup". As long as the barista can translate my drink order into Starbucks-ese (which was no doubt drilled into her head during her tedious training at Starbucks College), please do not patronize me by "correcting" my order. Thank you kindly.
~A True Coffee Lover

Rain again???

I recognize that we are spoiled here in California (where the sun always shines). When it does rain, people here tend to get, well, whiny. I used to make fun of those people, being that I come from the land of 4 seasons and frigid, bone-chilling winters. Now, I have become one of them. It has been raining since last Thursday, with only about a day and a half of nice weather between the storms. And this is not just a light drizzle. This is a drenching, streets-getting-flooded, puddles-past-your-ankles, pounding, blowing rain. I guess this is winter in California.

Changes, they are a comin'

After almost a full year of waiting, it is with great excitement that I announce that I officially have a job with Placer County Office of Education!!!! I am starting a position as a Foster Youth Services Tutor in early March, and I will have a caseload of 12-13 students who I will spend about an hour per week with. The best part of this job (wait for it)........ a full summer off (2 whole months)--PAID!!!!

On another note, Patrick and I found out yesterday that we will be moving this weekend. It's quite a long, dramatic story (of which the details are not important), but we will be moving to a newer, nicer, larger apartment this weekend. We are so excited to be moving to this area (albeit earlier than we had planned), but overall, we're ready for an upgrade. It has been complete chaos around here, with boxes in every corner and our home in shambles. Coupled with my interview today, and the good news I received about getting the job, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Life is pretty dang good around the Groff house!!!!

Well, off to dinner to celebrate all of the wonderful things happening in our lives right now. In parting, I would like to say one thing:

YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

The end.

Lethargic.

Ok, so picture this:
I sit down today to work on our new computer (ok, so only the screen is new, but it all feels new to me since I haven't been able to use it for months due to the fact that our monitor was on the fritz). Let me tell you, the resolution and picture qualityon this brand-new screen are nothing short of incredible!! So I start looking through old pictures and run across some pictures from college. As I see photo after photo of my "old" self with beautiful golden blonde locks, I start to feel this longing from deep down in my heart. It's the softest, slightest murmur from within. And do know what it says??

It says, "What exactly are you running from???? You are a natural blonde."

[Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I probably don't even know my real hair color after so many years of highlighting, lowlighting, and dying. But I still believe that I'm a "natural" blonde and you can't tell me otherwise!]

Anyways, it goes on to continue, "Stop running from your roots, go back to blonde!"

[No pun intended. Ok, maybe actually just a twinge of pun...]

Just goes to show that if there were such a thing as Hair ADD, I wouldn't even have to see a specialist to know that I have fallen victim to this sad disease.

Time to step away from the hair dye.