Goodbye July

I'm sorry it took so long for me to post - July has been quite the month. Most notably, my Mema passed away. Thank you all for your support and kind words... they've been very helpful to me.

Alright, I guess I'll just go by category and focus more on pictures and less on words. Here we go.

Job #1
This month I organized nine ensemble concerts. That's a lot. Here are pictures from a few (not all).

Job #2
In all honesty, I barely worked Job #2. I usually work Tuesdays and Saturdays, but I had to find coverage for every Tuesday (because I had ensembles playing around the city on those days), and a Saturday to attend my Mema's funeral. I am VERY thankful that my coworkers were so helpful when it came to getting shift coverage, although I have missed the people I work with, as well as my paychecks.

Andy
Andy has had a ridiculously busy month with tons of concerts and teaching. I made it to a few of his performances - the Buffalo Philharmonic in a park, and the Rochester Philharmonic at a baseball games.

Sadly I don't have visual evidence of my favorite concert that Andy played - only audio, but I can't figure out how to load that to the blog. Andy was asked to play a concerto with the Lancaster Town Band. It was in a park. Birdie came to watch. It only took about 20 seconds and..... she howled her little head off!!!! It was so adorable and by far my favorite Birdie moment to date. :-)

Birdie

Oh my precious little angel face who I love so much. Sigh. She got stung by a bee, attended her first "doggie dance," had her first bath, and has generally been a sweetheart (although she's been biting recently, and that is NOT ok).

Me

I helped with my friend Lani's bridal shower, had a laser treatment on some spider veins (that hurt like a !#@&*!! and took awhile heal), went shopping for cruise clothes, and have generally been eating well and exercising a little bit. I want to look good for our vacation that is quickly approaching!

Mema

And while all of this was going on, Mema has been constantly on my mind. She finally passed on July 15th after spending two weeks in hospice. From what I understand, she was comfortable and basically sleeping, so I guess that's all you can ask for. I traveled to Texas last weekend for her funeral. I won't write much because I still get sad thinking about it, but here are a few pictures from the trip.

We stopped by Mema's house one last time. I thought it would be harder, but without her there it just didn't feel like her house anymore.

The visitation (which was a lot harder than I thought it would be) had a lot of pictures on display. Here is one of my mom (second from the left) and her siblings. I think it's such a cool picture.

After the visitation, we played dominoes with my mom's cousins. It was actually really fun!

The next morning was the funeral. The ride out to the cemetery was pretty emotional. The service was really nice. Afterwards we went back to the church for a lunch made by the church ladies. That was also really nice. 

Now as "luck" would have it, my mom's cousin's mother also died earlier in the week, so her funeral was in the exact same cemetery later that afternoon. We attended that as well, but in between lunch and the second service, we visited the house of my great great grandfather's, where Mema grew up. Or maybe I should say we visited what was left of the house... my mom and I both took a brick.

After the second service we stopped by once more to see Mema. I'm sorry if this is a weird picture to share, but I love her and I want to keep a memory of where she is now. 

 I love my Mema so much. I am so proud of her. I could not have asked for a better grandmother. I am very lucky she was mine.

Ok, tears!!! Moving on.

Road Trip
After everything was said and done in Texas, my mom, dad, and I headed up to Oklahoma City. We spent the night there and may have possibly just happened to visit a casino, haha. It isn't a reunion with my parents without a trip to the casino! And I may have also found my two most favorite slot machines of all time.

The next morning, my dad flew out and my mom and I began the drive back to Rochester. We listened to "Serial" (podcast) and that kept us pretty well entertained the entire time. We were also entertained by a billboard for the "Uranus Fudge Factory" - classy, Missouri.

All in all, the trip wasn't bad, although my skin broke out terribly and I stopped having proper bathroom functions.... clearly my body does not like sitting in a car for days.

Today
Ok! You're all caught up! I'm back at work, Andy is teaching, my mom is at home with Miss Birdie. I'm looking forward to the next two weeks having my mom here. And I promise now that everything has settled down, I will post more frequently. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Hello July - You're flying by!

Wow, where is the time going?! I've been very busy with Birdie. Job #1 has a lot going on right now. And also my Mema's health is declining very quickly - she was moved to hospice last week. So you can understand that my mind has been occupied and while I apologize for not updating my blog sooner, I trust you all understand. :-)

Alright. Let's just do a huge picture update, shall we?

Birdie came to work with me - for about 20 minutes. :-)

My friend Emily and her beautiful family came to town and I got to have FroYo with her and Alyssa. 

I got a mole removed from my lower back. And I passed out. I don't deal well with needles and things well.

We took a trip to Buffalo to visit Andy's dad in the hospital (he had neck surgery). Since we were there for awhile we didn't want to leave Birdie at home. She's a good little traveler. She mostly just sleeps in the car.

Andy's dad was in a lot of pain, so we mostly hung out in the waiting room. The view was actually really cool and all the gray reminded me of Seattle. Sigh - I miss home.

Ok, you know what? I have a ton of Birdie pictures, so let's just get them over with. Sorry this is totally out of order.

Birdie loves to get all up in your face. And I love when she does.

She discovered where we keep her treats. We no longer keep her treats there.

She also discovered where Andy goes to practice.

She looked adorable in her 4th of July T-Shirt.

We made another trip to Buffalo to check up on Andy's dad. Birdie "went swimming!"

And then she was so tuckered out, she took an afternoon snooze on my lap. She is so precious. :-)

Look at this sweet angel face!

She went for her first workout in the park.

And made her first trip to the Pet Store!

And her latest trip... this morning to the vet. Poor little girl had her second round of puppy shots, her ears cleaned, her nails clipped, and her "glands expressed."

Ok enough of Birdie. Thank you for indulging me. Moving on...

Our Fourth of July was nice. We spent the morning at the Public Market, then just lounged around the house until it was time to go downtown. Andy played in the concert downtown. The city throws a really nice reception for the orchestra, and it's something I look forward to every year. I especially enjoyed my outfit, so I included a picture of that as well, haha.

And lastly, my Mema. I mentioned above that she was moved to hospice on Wednesday. It's safe to say a LOT of tears have been shed, but I could not be more proud of my Mema. She is so brave and happy. I love her so much and hope I'm just like her when my time comes. My mom was able to get down there (Texas)... here is their selfie!

On Friday a lot of her relatives came to visit, and because she wanted to look nice, she had a haircut. How freaking cool is that.

And here she is surrounded by tons of love. :-) This picture makes me so happy.

On Saturday, Andy and I got to FaceTime with her. I am so glad we had the chance as I'm pretty sure it was the last conversation I'll have with her. At the end I told her I loved her and she replied back with more enthusiasm than I could ever have hoped for, "I love you too!" Replaying that phrase in my head over and over has really helped me through these last few days.

There you have it. I'll try to write again soon, but until I do, please keep my Mema and my family in your thoughts. xoxo