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!