"There are two dilemmas that rattle the human skull: How do you hang on to someone who won't stay? And how do you get rid of someone who won't go?" - Danny DeVito ,The War of the Roses
This past weekend I went home to the Valley for my cousin Isra's wedding and for Mother's Day. I left after work for my 5 hour drive. Here are the Flickr pictures from the weekend in general. Isra's Wedding and Mother's Day Weekend. It was a good weekend and I got a lot of family time in.
Saturday morning I visited with my mom and got dressed for the wedding. I had invited Bekkah to come with me so that I wouldn't go alone. I picked her up and we talked about her Drum Major tryouts for Band that were coming up. I really do hope she gets it. I think band has been a good influence in her life and she seems to really enjoy it. We drove to Harlingen the back way, which is about 20-30 miles or so away. It was the same trip I would take every other weekend growing up with my family to go and visit my grandparents. Since the wedding was at a church just a street behind the old house, the trip was pretty much exactly the same. I will say that not much changed on the route.
We arrived at the church about 10:45am for an 11:00am wedding. I wasn't sure if we were going to be on Mexican time or regular time, but we waited quite some time. It was good though, we got to visit with extended family that I hadn't seen in years. The church was quaint, but had a real religious feel to it. We met up with Rino and Jess there and my Tio Cama joined us later. The ceremony was nice and traditional. The bride has a classic dress and Isra looked genuinely happy to be getting married. I think I would have been more scared. 
I took pictures so that my family that wasn't able to make it could get a feel for the moment. The ceremony was in Spanish, which was nice, but when they said "I Do," I think they just said, "Si." I don't know why, but I just expected the words I do anyway. It was different. It was a very good experience. After, I left my gift and headed back to Edinburg with Bex. There was a reception that happened later that evening, but I wasn't able to make it. Here is a picture of my cousin Rino and I before I left.
May 9th was also the one year anniversary of the day that my grandfather passed away. I should of dropped by the cemetery while I was in Harlingen, but I didn't. It feels a lot longer than a year, but that is probably because the last few years we couldn't really communicate well when he was in the nursing home. I miss him and I know my grandmother misses him very much as well.
I took pictures so that my family that wasn't able to make it could get a feel for the moment. The ceremony was in Spanish, which was nice, but when they said "I Do," I think they just said, "Si." I don't know why, but I just expected the words I do anyway. It was different. It was a very good experience. After, I left my gift and headed back to Edinburg with Bex. There was a reception that happened later that evening, but I wasn't able to make it. Here is a picture of my cousin Rino and I before I left.May 9th was also the one year anniversary of the day that my grandfather passed away. I should of dropped by the cemetery while I was in Harlingen, but I didn't. It feels a lot longer than a year, but that is probably because the last few years we couldn't really communicate well when he was in the nursing home. I miss him and I know my grandmother misses him very much as well.
Once I arrived back in Edinburg, I picked up some Churches chicken and took it over to Ana's house. I haven't had Churches in at least 8 years I'm thinking. We had a late lunch there with everyone...including my mother, father, Ana, Bekkah, Jamie, Sarah and Michael. It was some nice catching up and another chance to see Ana's new apartment.
Afterwards, I went with my father to visit San Juan. He took me to the cemetery where his parent's were buried. His mother died when he was 2 and his father died when he was 12. I'm impressed with how much he remembers about his father. The cemetery was very Mexican, in the way that there were no rules and some people had extravagant graves and others very poor ones. For example.
The cross on my grandfather's grave was made by my dad's brother who cast it in concrete and then my father engraved the name on the Cross. 
There were some real poor crosses there that caught my eye. Here is one, but I have more on my flickr page. 
After that cemetery, we went to the new RGV Veteran's cemetery where my father told me he wants to be buried. It was very nice and classy and very new. I didn't get any pictures while I was there, but I need to look into how all that works. Hopefully it will be a very long time before we have to worry about things like that.
The cross on my grandfather's grave was made by my dad's brother who cast it in concrete and then my father engraved the name on the Cross. There were some real poor crosses there that caught my eye. Here is one, but I have more on my flickr page. After that cemetery, we went to the new RGV Veteran's cemetery where my father told me he wants to be buried. It was very nice and classy and very new. I didn't get any pictures while I was there, but I need to look into how all that works. Hopefully it will be a very long time before we have to worry about things like that.I later went to see the movie Star Trek. I had been really wanting to see it. It was great. If you haven't seen it, you should. I was more than impressed, but to be honest, I'm more of a Next Generation fan and forward, so I didn't catch all the references to the old show. You really didn't need to know much about the series to enjoy the movie. I heard that the actors have all signed on for two more movies.
On Mother's Day, my mother and Bekkah returned home from Church while I was working on setting up wireless internet for the mother. I gave her my router and after much work was able to get it working. This means she can now use her laptop anywhere in the house, as can anyone else who is visiting with a computer. 
My sisters bought her flowers that they delivered to her work on Friday. My official gift to her was a Radio/CD/Tape player stereo she had wanted that she could use around the house to listen to her music since her older one had given out. She also liked the camera I had just purchased for the weddings I was going to attend, so I gave it to her for mother's day as well. I hope she learns how to use and makes good use of it. I tried to teach her how to download a picture to her computer and then email it, but she couldn't really remember her email password, so that slowed us down. I guess like anything, it takes practice.
My sisters bought her flowers that they delivered to her work on Friday. My official gift to her was a Radio/CD/Tape player stereo she had wanted that she could use around the house to listen to her music since her older one had given out. She also liked the camera I had just purchased for the weddings I was going to attend, so I gave it to her for mother's day as well. I hope she learns how to use and makes good use of it. I tried to teach her how to download a picture to her computer and then email it, but she couldn't really remember her email password, so that slowed us down. I guess like anything, it takes practice. We had a BBQ at my mom's house and my dad made fajitas. The food was great and I stayed around for much longer than I had planned. At one point, Ana took Jamie to the cemetery to leave flowers for Vero for Mother's Day. I was so focused on the day being about my mother I almost forgot that it was also about Vero, Ana and Eliza. Overall, it was a very nice time.
Abram was driving down from Austin, but I left for Austin before he got back. I'm sure we crossed paths at some point. The trip back up seemed much longer than usual. I talked to my grandmother and wished her a happy mother's day as well. That was a long and eventful weekend.
he never learns
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