Grandma's 81st Birthday

"Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it." - Colin Powell

I went home for the weekend to visit my family. It takes me 5 hours to make the trip and I am not really sure about how often I'll get to visit home. Saturday morning I drove down from Austin to Edinburg. The trip was long and a bit lonely, but it wasn't too bad. I arrived at about 6pm and spent some time with my father. My grandmother was celebrating her 81st birthday and the family was going out to dinner. Bekkah and Jamie were there and we met up with my aunt Sarah, my cousin Sonya, Tio Cama and Tia Priss at a Mexican restaurant. We had a nice dinner, took pictures and caught up. I got big news from my sister Eliza, she is expecting a baby. It was very exciting and since I haven't had a new niece or nephew in nine years or so, it came very unexpected.

After dinner, I took Bekka, Jamie and Tori to rent some movies. We then went to Walmart to get Jamie a bathing suit for her trip to the beach while I picked up my Harry Potter (7) book. I have been waiting to read it.

I tend to watch movies that are more educational than exciting so I hope I'm not making a bad impression with the girls. We watched Jesus Camp. My mother watched it with us. The girls seemed to get the moral of documentary, but my mom and later my aunt didn't see any of the concerns I had and instead saw the brainwashing as a sign of how impressive the faith of those kids was. I could not believe it, but it doesn't mean I'll give up.

Sunday morning I slept in and after a late breakfast, I took the girls to the movies to watch Harry Potter (5) with me. I'm starting to catch up on the movies I have missed. I had a good time talking and spending time with the girls and it felt good to be the uncle that can take them to the movies or get them things they otherwise wouldn't have.

I dropped Bekka off at home and Jamie left with my aunt Sarah to leave for the beach the next day. I then met up with Rick at Chili's for some drinks. I talked to him up about what I have been up to and he caught me up on what was going on with him.

When I got home, my sister Ana was there and I ended up keeping her up late just chatting away. I talk a lot, but I don't mind it, but I am trying to make sure I work on listening as well.

Monday morning I left for Harlingen to visit my grandmother. I took little Sarah and Tori with me in my truck. It is always good to get alone time with them in small groups. Sarah shared me with how things were going and both little girls taught me all about the music on Sarah's PSP we were playing over the speakers. I did get lost, which is sad considering I've made that trip so many times, but the girls helped me find my way.

At my grandmother's house, everyone got ready to go to the beach and my grandmother and I stayed behind to go and visit my grandfather. We spent a few hours at the nursing home. My grandfather has Alzheimer's and sometimes he can remember me, others he can't. He can act very loving or get really pissed off. He gave me a lecture about how much he hated being in bed, which made me feel terrible, but taking him out to work like he wanted just wasn't an option. I hate that he has to go through that. I'll take what I can get and do appreciate having him there to spend time with.

I came home a bit late and Eliza was hanging out at the house. We waited for my mother and Tori and then Eliza headed home. She had forgotten her cell phone and worried she would be without a phone, my mother and I went over to her place to drop it off late at night. My mom told me the wrong place ("the first place..." "no not the first place from where we are, the other first place.") So I wake a guy up at midnight and felt kind of bad about that.

Once I got home, I fixed my mom's computer and the girl's laptop. I removed some viruses and spyware. I also set up a router, which ended up being harder than I expected.

On Tuesday, my dad came over so we could have lunch. We first went over to the cemetary to visit Vero's grave and I wanted to drop by and visit's Rick's sister's tombstone to pay my respects. My dad dropped by to visit a young boy's (about 18 or 19) grave nearby who died in Iraq and who my dad used to know from my sister Vero's neighborhood.

After, I went into the front office to talk to them about purchasing a tombstone for my sister. It has been over four years and they told me they couldn't let do it without consent of my brother in law. Before I take legal action, I thought it would be better to just work it out instead. I got the promise of consent from him on the phone, but hopefully I can get the paper signed and get this ordeal past me and my family. I'm going to leave most of my anger out of this, but it is hard not to be inflamed.

My dad and I had lunch and talked since I don't usually get to spend a lot of time with him.

The drive back up felt shorter, but I did spent a large part of it on the phone. That really helps pass the time.

My pictures have been moved to flickr and I'm working on trying to organize them and make the links to my page correspond with the correct sets. Right now the All Pictures link works and hopefully soon all links will be working.

I'm added the headlines section since I run across a lot of articles I find interesting, but don't really ever blog about.

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