Happy 2011

Bridgedette's Thoughts:

HAPPY 2011!!!

Okay, now that thats been said...WHO'S READY FOR A NAP!?!?!?


The week of Christmas was busy for us, so for our New Years Eve, Larry and I decided to keep it local. We cleaned our apartment and had dinner BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/. We came home and watched all the celebrations, from NYC to SA on TV...and we had our first dance of the new year.....Estelle Feat. Kanye West - American Boy.

Estelle |MTV Music

Looking back at 2010, it was a rough year with the loss of Popo and us being sick (at the same time), yet it ended with Larry and I dancing. I am thankful for all that I have and all the good and bad that I have experienced, because without it, I would not be who I am today.

The best and most memoriable event of 2010 is definitely experiencing love. Larry has asked me to be his wife and is willing to spend his life with me.

WOW! Me?.

How lucky am I to have such a honest, sincere and noble man to express his love for me as we strolled through downtown San Antonio on a horse drawn carriage ride.
Lucky me! (The ring is BEAUTIFUL! Simple and classic, he did GREAT!)



2011 comes with much planning (especially for the upcoming wedding), but also a resolution to have more fun. I resolve to socialize more....even if Im tired, I will not use that as an excuse. Watch out SA, here we come!

Bridgedette's Thoughts:



Yesterday, Nov. 24th, we attended a mass, hosted by the Knights of Columbus at Little Flower, to remember Popo. The Knights of Columbus presented a beautiful bible, blessed by the priest during the mass, for Larry's Grandma to keep. It was very moving to watch.



As I was watching the presentation of the Bible to Larry's Grandma, a wave of emotion came over me. To think that she survived the loss of the man she loved and is still going on with life, is something amazing to see. You see, I have another friend who lost her husband not too long ago, and is reacting very different to the loss. She has lost her love for life. When I knew her, she was this AMAZING, vibrant and loud woman...now she is just going though the motions and seems to have lost her ove for life. I hope that she finds herself again, it will take time, but I know that she can do it.



Its an intersting way how humans react to what life throws at them. I hope to be as strong as Larry's Grandma is. the strength I see in her is that old school values of "keep working, and keep living."

There is something to be said about the way today's generations view hardships. The values of hard work seem to have left the building, and enter the "I need it now." I hope that my generation can learn from the older generation and gain back that fighting spirit.

An Interesting 10 months

Bridgedette's Thoughts:



WOW! Where has the time gone? 10 months flew by quickly, but I have not forgotten about our blog, life just took over. I hope I can recap all that has happend to us over the past few months.




Popo's passing left us both in a tail spin. For me, it was hard to see Larry hurting so much, yet all I could do was wait and just respond to his needs. After Popo's funeral, Larry and I became very busy at work, and even with working long hours we carved out some time for a mini vacation. We had planned to go to Corpus at the beginning of summer, but I ended up getting the shingles and Larry ended up getting a staph infection. Yes, it is the running joke in my family, that Larry and I do EVERYTHING together...even getting sick! lol. We have now both recoved, Hooray!!



Here are a few pictures with some commentary.



Road Trip to Corpus, End of August:

Corpus is the place Larry and I love to go for a quick get away. The sounds of the water crashing upon the shore with the sand between our toes was the best and most relaxing vacation ever! We like to see the HOOKS play when we are down there too, we even had our photo take with the mascott Sammy the Seagull.






Bridgedette's 29th birthday, September 25, 2010:

As August slipped away we became consumed with the registration of students for the Fall semester and with the implementation of a new registration process we were TOAST! But, we survived with enough energy to celebrate my 29th birthday!! WOW, 29, what can I say about being 29 other than I am SO THANKFUL for the good genes I have! I still look young, just like my Mom and sometimes I look back and cant believe all that Ive accomplished. The best part was celebrating with Larry. My world would not be as bright without him.



Larry wrapped this present himself; it was a Yankees jersey!! The man has good taste (lol).






Class Reunion, September 25, 2010:
Speaking of being "young," I have been out of high school for 10 years! Larry and I celebrated my birthday evening attending my high school reunion. High school was so much fun for me, it was SO EASY! I had finished all my credits by the time I began my Senior year (plus all of my classes were honors), but I was only on campus since I was Student Council President (this kept me busy in the Fall) and because I was waiting for the softball season to start in the Spring. In high school, I was Class Vice President, I did the morning announcements, the football half time announcements, a member of the PALS (peer assisted leaders), part of the Art club, and I was a 3 year letterman in softball....Did I mention that I also worked too. lol. I liked to stay busy and was involed in anything I could squeeze into my schedule. My poor parents were all over the place with me, school banquets, PTA meetings not to mention in the hot sun watching me play all over the state of Texas! THANKS MOM AND DAD!

The Reunion was a big success and looking over over old photos brought back such good memories. It was even better to share them with Larry....and Go figure Larry would work with one of my HS classmates at his job! Small, small world.





Road Trip to Yorktown, October 15, 2010:


My Mom, Dad and I took the day off and drove to Yorktown, Texas. Why Yourktown you ask? Since I've never met my Grandma, the closest I can do to get to know her is finding documents about her. My Grandma was born in Yorktown, Texas. Yorktown is so small that there are only 2 traffic lights in the whole town and we did not get very much cell phone reception!

There were no official "birth certificates" back then, all records were done though the church and all we could find was a baptismal certificate. This is my Mom, waiting for the church record to be looked up.

Here is a link to the history of Yorktown, Texas:

http://www.yorktowntx.com/history.htm

Larry's 35th Birthday, October 19, 2010: HOORAY, 35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The celebration of Larry's 35th birthday MONTH was fun! There were 4 cakes, 3 dinners and 12 gifts to celebrate Larry's big day! I decorated our apartment with streamers and batman balloons....which are still up till this day, ha ha. I know that the 35th will be his best year yet!

Zip Lining, October 23, 2010:

As part of Larry's birthday celebration I bought us a zip lining adventure. And because I love Larry so much agreeded to do it...too bad im AFARID of heights!!!! At first I was unsure, but after arriving I felt like the facility was safe and I did managed to go zip lining. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! Im glad I got over my fears and made a great memory with Larry.




Larry's Graduate School_Passing of Knowlege Ceremony, October 30, 2010:

Graduate Leadership Convocation honors students
On Oct. 30, students in the Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and PhD in Leadership Studies programs celebrated their academic progress during a convocation ceremony that included a symbolic candle ceremony representing the "Passing of the Light of Knowledge."Faculty, friends and family members filled Sacred Heart Chapel as the graduate and doctoral students were recognized. Board of Trustees Chairman Roy Terracina served as convocation speaker and Dr. Helen Streubert, vice president for academic affairs welcomed the students and reminded them that they now belong to an elite group who hold advanced degrees.The students were blessed and welcomed into their new academic community, including: doctoral candidates, doctoral luminaries, master's candidates, and the new doctoral and new master's students.

This was a fun and moving event to see. Watching and listening as Larry's name was called made me SO very proud of him and all that he has done to enter Graduate school. Im glad that I can be part of this journey in his persuit of higher education, as well as being able to be invloved with his Graduate school classmates at this event.

Amtrak, November 6, 2010:

The Amtrak was a journey that never crossed my mind to experience. I am so glad Larry is adventerous! Riding the Amtrak was a very fun and relaxing experience. There was so much to see between here and Austin, sometimes you just have to get a new perspective to appreciate what you drive by every day.

After getting off the train in Austin, Larry and I spent the whole day walking and going to museums. It was a ton of fun, I can now say that I have traveled by foot, plane, automobile and train!

The Passing of Buddy the dog, November 5, 2010:
"Buddy Face," thats what I called him. His face was too cute to resist! From the first time I met him I knew he was going to be my friend. When Popo passed it seemed as if Buddy knew that he was no longer with us, he too was sad. But as Larry and I visited each weekend we all sat in the living room and visited with Larry's Grandma, it seemed as if Buddy was going to be just fine. But Buddy had an accident and fell off the bed one night, we all thought that he was going to be fine, it just wasnt in the cards. Thank God Larry was off that day that Buddy passed; Larry had the hard task of telling his Grandma that Buddy was no longer alive, so very hard for the both of them. Thankfully my parents allowed Buddy to have his final resting palace on their property, right next to my Chihuahua (Mr. Big), under a tree. I hope that Buddy has found Popo and is keeping him company.




General thoughts:

As we enter the holiday season, it was good for me to look back on all that has happened in our lives. I am thankful for all that I have. I hope that I never take anything or anyone for granted and that I learn to overcome my fears. Each day I am growing into a better person, I will always be a work in progress.

Time

Bridgedette's thoughts::

Time. We all think that tomorrow will come when we open our eyes in the morning, but we forget that opening our eyes is not guaranteed.

Yesterday Larry, his family and I spent all day at St. Luke's Baptist Hospital. We were praying and hoping for Popo to have some more time. We were waiting for him to open his eyes, to move, to acknowledge that he knew we were there for him....we were waiting for any sign or response to know that he was getting better.......we are still waiting.

While we have been waiting I have met and heard some interesting stories from the ICU. One woman was waiting on the outcome of her 87 year old fathers surgery. Another was waiting the outcome of their mother's brain aneurysm. An another was waiting for her father to wake up too. They were from all over; California, Del Rio and San Antonio.

We all somehow connected in the waiting room of the ICU. We all could feel the pain and the heartache each other was expierencing. But most of all, we all knew that each of our loved ones needed a lot of help and time.

Myself, Larry and his cousin Vanessa and I spent out time last night trying our best to sleep in the most uncomfortable chairs ever. We twisted and turned, we tried to prop our feet up, we slept at an angle....finally pure exhaustion just set in and we just slept; in the ICU waiting room...waiting for some better news.

From all this pain, I have seen Larry's family come together, spent some quailty time together and shared in the pain of what is about to come.

But I too have learned that sometimes you JUST need to be present. When I left for St. Louis I used all but 30 minutes of my leave. I had no more leave to really be here for Larry Friday, what was worse, It was the end of the month and I was under major deadlines and had a lot of time sensitve work to complete. I did go to work that friday morning thinking that I would get everything I needed to get done...by 9am I was doing great! but then I got a text that said Popo was not doing well. Thats when things changed. Work was no longer the priority. People and their feelings became the priority. I let Larry know that I was leaving my job at 1115 to bring him and his grandmother lunch, before the 12 noon visitation time. I thought I was going to staty for a few minutes and then leave to get back to my work. But what I have learned is that work is not there for you to expierence life with...people are.

People can tell you what its like, but until you are present, you will never fully understand. I wanted to be here with Larry to expierence what he was feeling. I called work and let them know what was going on, and I was cleared to stay with Larry...my work would be taken care of for me.

As people accepted Popo's condition, the stories of his life began to come out. Larry's family would speak of how he loved them unconditionally, of how he loved his Chihuahua Buddy, of how Popo and Grandma have been married for 59 years......not once did people mention how he spent all his time at work, concerned about deadlines and meetings...it was all the time he spent with his family, just loving and being there for them.

I am gald that I chose to be here for the past 24 hours with Larry. That is time I can never get back but was well spent.