Thursday, August 25, 2011

August Update on the Coneses

Well this month has been a tough one.  However, it has been filled with great things! First of all, Garett's arm is healing up pretty well.  He got another x-ray done on his arm two weeks ago and the doctor said it was healing just fine. He never got a cast on it but we are kind of glad of that cuz it would have been very inconvenient. He seems to be almost back to normal now! It has been hard for him though to deal with the pain.

On August 9th, I got my tonsils out! My mom came for the entire week to help me out while I was recuperating.  It was such a blessing to have her here during that time.  My mother is AMAZING! She helped me so much since Garett couldn't be home for me and he was very grateful that she was there because it helped him feel like I was being taken care of. The day before my surgery, she and I went for a walk so I could show her where to pick up Garett if she ever needed to.  On that walk, Mom searched for the apartment that Dad and her stayed in while they were here.  She found it!!! It was really cool to see it.  Dad came to get her and take her back but he stayed the weekend too and brought Mark with him.  So, while they were all here we all went to their old apartment and took pictures.  We had a lot of fun except for the fact that I was still on drugs and I couldn't eat any real food.  Mom blended everything I ate so it was like eating baby food.  It was very interesting at times.  Mom and Dad left on Sunday but Mark stayed for a few more days.  We were able to go to the Aquarium and Mark got to explore a little bit. I was still feeling pretty crappy unfortunately so I wasn't able to do much with him.  Liz and Cameron then came to visit us for a few days. I started to feel better but I still wasn't eating regular food so I wasn't as fun as usual.  It was really hard for me to be feeling that way when everyone decided to come visit us because I was no fun!  That was really difficult for me and Garett usually feels pretty bad that he doesn't ever get time to spend with people because he has to be at school all day. 

Garett has been doing so well in class lately.  I am so proud of him.  He was feeling pretty good about handling the Portuguese language before he broke his arm.  When he broke it, he had a hard time getting back on his feet because of the drugs and dealing with the pain.  He is doing so much better now! He is getting wonderful grades on his tests and he feels like he is doing very well in learning the language.  Of course, his Spanish is failing erroneously. Every time he tries to speak it, it comes out as Portuguese.  Hopefully, he'll be able to get it back someday.

Also, about a week after I started working at The Inn at Del Monte Beach, I was told to stop coming in to work until further notice.  The Inn is owned by a man and his sister.  His sister is married but her husband is in Saudi Arabia for another year.  I was supposed to start work so that she could have time off.  However, after I was all trained, she decided that she never wanted any time off except for Saturdays(which is one of the only days Garett has off) so the manager told me that they would call me if they needed me again after my surgery.  I'm still recuperating though and the doctor told me not to go back to work until next week.  We'll see what happens I guess.  The job was really just something for me to do during the day and to give us a little extra money to play around with but wasn't necessary.  It was good experience, I just hope it doesn't look too bad on my resume that I worked there for only a week.

Garett graduates on October 6th! He is so close to being done here and we are happy for it.  We are kind of hating the cold here and Garett can't stand some of the people he has to deal with everyday.  We will be glad to get out but we are enjoying our time here as much as we can.  It has been sunny here a couple days this week and on Tuesday, the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta came to the DLI and gave a speech.  Garett had to be in formation with his platoon but I was able to sit in the stands and listen.  It was a pretty cool experience and he thanked the troops for their service. 

Last week, Garett and I found out that the DeLorean from Back to the Future was at the Museum of Monterey so we tried to go see it during Garett's lunch hour while he was in uniform.  Unfortunately, we didn't really have time during the lunch and we decided to go the next evening.  While we were there though, we asked if they gave a military discount and a man that was there said he would pay for his ticket in and he thanked Garett for his service.  It really touches my heart when people thank Garett for his service.  He really has done a lot for this country and sometimes I think he feels that no one appreciates it.  It is times like those that really make him feel that he is appreciated for what he does.  It is a big sacrifice not only for him but for me too.  Although Garett is well paid, the military demands a lot from him.  I am so proud of him though and he is so determined to do well.  Anyway, so we went back and we had a great time! There pretty much wasn't anyone else there at the time we went so the owner of the DeLorean talked to us for a really long time and he put our wedding date in the time machine so we went back and watched our wedding again! If you didn't notice, Garett and I were sitting in the sealing room behind everyone else. Gotcha! No but he really did put our wedding date and time into the DeLorean and then he took a picture of us with it.  It was pretty awesome.  We also learned that he was a co-owner of the car and that the other owner was the guy that paid for Garett to get in!  We talked to them for a really long time and we made friends with them because they were really cool. 

We were also able to go to Garett's best friend Jacob and his wife Cherie's wedding reception in Tracy, CA which was really great because Garett was the best man!  He got to wear a vest and bow tie and everything!  We had a lot of fun and Garett was kind of the emcee for it.  He also gave a speech for a toast which he did wonderfully at! It was a really great time and we had fun.

Overall, this month has been pretty good with a few minor setbacks but we are buggering on still and we'll never stop buggering on!

Well this post is getting pretty lengthy so I think I'll stop it now....hahaha gotcha again....OK it's really ending....now.






Thursday, July 21, 2011

Our new life together

Garett and I(Mary) recently got married on April 30th 2011.  We were married in the Sacramento California LDS temple.  Since then, we have been very happy with our lives here in Monterey, Ca.  Garett is stationed here through the military at the Defensive Language Institute(DLI) and is learning Portuguese.  We live about a block away from the beach which is amazing but also makes it so the weather here is usually pretty cold.  We are happy here though.  If nothing changes, we will be here until October of this year.  After we leave here, Garett will be going to Texas for some qualification training and such.

Our wedding was wonderful and we want to thank everyone that came and made it so great.  The pictures are now posted on Facebook in my (Mary's) photo albums.

We decided to make this blog so that everyone in our life can be updated on what's going on with us.  This week has not been too good for us because on Tuesday, Garett was hit by a car while riding his bicycle home.  When he was riding on the road, he was riding between the parked cars on the side of the road and some cars that were stopped at a red light.  When he got to the back bumper of one of the cars at the stop light, the person in the car decided they wanted to park on the side of the road so they turned their wheels and hit the gas.  Since Garett was at their back bumper when they did this, the front of the car hit the handlebars of his bike and he went flying over the car.  He was wearing a helmet and a backpack which padded his fall on his back but he also landed on his arm.  He was in somewhat of a shock after it happened.  The woman driving the car immediately got out and asked if he was okay.  She was not worried about her car only if he was okay.  Luckily, there wasn't any damage to Garett's bike and he only left a small dent on the front of her car but she didn't care.  After that happened, they talked for a bit and then Garett rode home on his bicycle.  He thought he was totally fine aside from a few scrapes on his legs from the bike falling on him after the fall.  When he got home, I had no idea that anything was wrong. I just gave him a kiss and went back to unloading the dishwasher! I wish I was more observant sometimes.  We talked for a few minutes and I asked him how his day went.  He said "It was good until some lady ran into me on my bike."  I was immediately worried about what had happened but Garett still thought he was fine except that his arm hurt a little bit.  Neither of us knew what a broken bone felt like because we are lame and have never broken anything. We decided not to risk it though and we went to the ER.  He was hit at about 5:30pm and we got to the ER at about 6pm.  We didn't get out of there until about 10:30pm.  It was ridiculous! So they did x-rays on his arm and they told us that his radius was broken right underneath the head of the radius which is right by the elbow.  This happened to be his right arm by the way.  So, the ER put his arm in a splint and told us we had to go to the clinic on base because he was an active duty and find out what we needed to do for his arm.  So, the next day we went to the clinic early in the morning.  We waited there for about an hour and a half before we could see the nurses and all they did was make an appointment for us to see the doctor the next day.  It was very frustrating.  The ER had given Garett Percocet for the pain.  But, because Percocet is so strong, it was making him throw up.  On Wednesday he threw up twice and today he threw up again.  And, he was still in a lot of pain.  So today we went to the clinic to see the doctor for our appointment and we discovered that the appointment was never made!!!  Luckily though, the doctor was able to see us about half an hour after we got there. The doctor on base  then referred us to an orthopedic and we got an appointment with him for later.  We went to see the orthopedic but we were very unsatisfied.  Garett has Tricare Prime for insurance which is government insurance so a lot of doctors wont take it because it doesn't pay very well.  When we got in to see the orthopedic, the told us that Garett'sGarett to take so hopefully they will not make him throw up anymore. Otherwise, he is doing good and he is a trooper.  His arm hurts him but he is being strong just like the Garett I know.  He is amazing.  We aren't sure about what will happen with his schooling and everything since it was his right arm that is broken and the one that he writes with.

On a higher note, I got a job at The Inn at Del Monte beach which is right by our apartment.  I'm pretty excited about it but for now it is just a job where I'll probably be doing a little bit of everything.  I'll be helping make breakfast and maybe be doing some receptionist work and happy hour at the bar.  The owner was thinking about training me to do some accounting work for him and his office in Salinas but is afraid to train me because I'll be leaving soon.  So, I just will be doing this stuff until he decides on if he wants to train me or not.  If we stay longer here because of Garett's injury then that might be a really good opportunity for me.  If Garett has to be slipped back to a class that starts later then we will get more money and he will be able to learn Portuguese really really well.  We think that this injury might be a blessing in disguise but we are not getting our hopes up yet.  We are just happy that he is alive and well and that I have been able to get a job.