Um, yeah...

So, I know that it has been a while since I last wrote and to be completely honest, I am not sure where to start. I guess from the top. Hang on, this is going to be a long one.

Two weeks ago - May 15th through the 19th
The first half of the week was pretty typical. Work, chores, bible study, hanging out, etc. The second half was anything, but normal. We had dinner at some friends on Wednesday and really enjoyed catching up with them. It has been way too long since we just sat and visited. On Thursday the weather was so awesome! Mom and I took L and all of the kiddos to the park for a picnic. At some point in the week I got an email about a foreclosure listed in our area. G and I have been keeping an eye out for a larger home (without a larger mortgage) for a few months, so we decided to go see it. I called an old, school friend of mine, who is a real estate agent and she arranged for us to see it on Friday morning. We were up and at the house by 8:30'ish, which is a real feat for us, early morning challenged folks. We toured the house and really liked it. It is a 4 bedroom house with a game room and a huge office. The office is at least twice the size of the office G is currently in. Since he only works from home, this is a real seller for us. After seeing the house and making Natalie (the agent) late for her other job, L and I went with our playgroup to Pump It Up.

It is an indoor, inflatable gym place. The kids played really hard for at least two hours. The weather was beautiful and we decided to go pick up lunch and head to a local park to continue playing there. While we were walking across the parking lot, L fell and busted open her knee. We were headed to our house to make some sandwiches and somewhere between Pump It Up and the house (not even 2 miles apart) I received a call from my mother.

I could tell she was hysterical, but couldn't understand what she was saying over the screaming child in my back seat. I finally caught enough to hear that my grandmother had just passed away. I threw L out the door at G and rushed down to the home my grandma had been living in. I guess when my mom had called it had just happened. My grandma had a stroke 6 years ago when she and my grandpa came to Texas from Arkansas for my wedding. They were thankfully at my parents house when it happened and continued to live there on and off until two years ago, when my grandpa passed away. She was currently living in a private home with 3 other Alzheimer's ladies.

I rushed in and found my mom in the bedroom next to my grandma. Grandma was laying in the bed and looked just like she always does when she is napping. She still had all of her color and was warm. It was so surreal. I guess because it happened so quickly, she didn't look dead at all. I kept watching her chest to see it rise and was ready to tell my mom she had mistaken and grandma was just asleep. It wasn't tell they asked me to remove her jewelry and I had a lot of trouble getting her rings off that it sunk in. She really was gone.

We have all prayed that God would just take her home many times in the past 2 years. She wasn't herself after the stroke and after grandpa passed away, she became even more unhappy. Even though this was our prayer, God's timing never seems to amaze me. It was still a shock. The way it all happened was very beautiful. She went quickly and didn't suffer much. The fact that my mom was there when it happened was amazing too. She had been to see her on Thursday and just woke up Friday feeling like she ought to go back. She had been visiting with Grandma at the breakfast table for about 10 minutes when it happened. My mom got to hold her in her arms through the whole thing. The hospice nurses said it was a major stroke. I am so thankful that mom was there and that she didn't suffer. God is so good! Most of the afternoon was spent loving on family and making arrangements. Friday evening we spent some time with the Judd's, just relaxing.

Saturday morning we had our belt test for Tae Kwon Do. They decided to change the time for this test and we had to be there at 8:45... AM... on a Saturday. I almost quit. Everything went really well with it and we are now green belts. It is pretty similar to yellow belts, only green. And we get to start sparring, which should be interesting with a bunch of siblings. It's like legalized sibling rivalry. Why didn't we do this when I was younger?

After the belt test, we went back to see the house again. This time we took my mom (my dad was in NY) and G's dad (his mom was out of town) to get their opinions on it. They really like it as well. So far so good. We got a call from N (our agent) on Saturday afternoon, letting us know she had spoken with the listing agent and there were other offers put on the property. She said if we wanted a chance at getting it, we needed to get an offer in ASAP. She came over and we signed papers that night. We also had Micah and Lisa over for dinner, since we hadn't seen a whole lot of them lately.

Saturday was my parents 34th anniversary and also the two year anniversary of my little brother, Jorge, passing away. He left this place for a much better one on May 19th, 2005. He fought a long, hard battle with Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy. I have no doubt he is in a better place and has loved having his "legs" back the past two years. He was, by far, one of the most amazing people to walk the face of this earth. He was, and is, my modern day example of Jesus. We miss him so much, but are so happy he is not in pain anymore. I can't wait to see him again in Heaven.

This week - May 20th through the 26th

Monday morning we went back to see the house again (at 8:00...AGH!). This time we took G's mom, L and Jim, a friend of my dad's, whom he arranged to have inspect the house. My dad is an amazing handy man and it was absolutely killing him that we had place an offer on a house that he hadn't been able to inspect. It was very thoughtful of him to arrange someone in his place. Susie and Lisa really liked the house, I think, and Jim didn't find anything that we hadn't already seen wrong with the house. So that was good news.

Wednesday my mom, the kids, L and I went bowling and to lunch before Tae Kwon Do. We had a wonderful time bowling and just being silly. I love hanging out with that crew. They are some awesome kids. Wednesday night was spent watching the season finale of LOST with the older kids. We started having them (Andrew, Isaac, Ruthie, Chrisat, Caleb and sometimes Michelle) over every Wednesday night this season. We have really enjoyed that time together and are sad that this season is over. The girls even made "fish biscuits" shaped cookies. It was lots of fun!

Thursday was spent getting my parents house ready for the memorial service. We cleaned and set up and cleaned some more. Since our church is temporarily meeting in a school building, we decided we would just have a small service at my parents house. Friday night we went to The McCathran's house for dinner and to hang out. We had a wonderful visit and L loved playing with baby Jake. He's a real cutie!

Saturday we spent the morning being lazy and staying out of the rain...or at least I did. G got the yard done and then joined me in doing nothing. Early in the afternoon we headed out to my parents place to finish getting things ready and to help them with the cooking. We decided to have a Mexican food dinner in honor of Grandma, followed by a little memorial service. I don't think I ever visited my grandparents without having Mexican food. My cousin actually thought my grandma was, indeed Mexican. The service was very nice. We had about 50 people show up, mostly family and a few good friends. By the time we finished the service and got the house back to normal and all cleaned up it was about 11 o'clock. We came home and crashed.

Today, we went to church (late service) and lunch with the Judd's and Chris' parents (who were visiting from NM) and then came home and rested. L slept through the church service, so she didn't want a nap. She instead used me as a trampoline while I tried to nap on the couch. We then went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Chris and Kelsey. We just got home from that and I think I am now ready to crash!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. I just haven't had a chance that I felt like catching up on everything. I have pictures to go along with most of this, but the network isn't working right now. I will make a post of them soon.