Growing Up...

Well, a lot has changed since the last time I've posted.  Grandpa's memorial was scheduled for the Saturday morning of Homecoming, so plans changed there a little bit...and while I'm on the topic of "change", I would say that Homecoming itself has changed quite a bit.  BUT, not to get ahead of myself...

I don't want to get in to Grandpa's memorial too much, because a lot of what was said and what was heard was personal.  I can say that I was comforted by something that one of the grave diggers said to the family as we were wrapping things up.  He said that, before anyone had arrived and while they were setting things up for us to get there, a Monarch butterfly had come and landed on my grandpa's urn.  It sat there for a few seconds and then fluttered away.  I know in my heart that it was a sign...it was my Grandpa's deceased daughter, my Aunt Kookie (who I've never met) greeting my Grandpa and showing us that he's not alone and that they are happy together again in heaven.  I don't think the grave digger realized just how much it meant for us to hear that.  We were all able to follow the memorial with an authentic Mexican lunch at Rancho Grande in Saginaw.  My Grandpa really liked that restaurant, my Grandma was able to get some real Mexican food for the first time in a while (she's been asking for tortillas and chili pepper at her assisted living home) and we were able to see the massive black and white photographs of my Grandma Garcia that adorned the restaurant walls.  I'm sure Grandpa was smiling down on us while watching us enjoy some of his favorite foods...Grandpa loved to eat...maybe that's where I get it from!

From there, we were off to Mount Pleasant.  We didn't get to tailgate but we were able to go out to O'Kelly's on Saturday night.  Boy oh boy...we're O-L-D.  Again, not to get into too many details, I will just describe the experience as brutal.  In a nutshell my mother-in-law had to pick us up in her PJ's at 1:30a.m., there was some puking involved, some late-night strolls up Forest Lane to "walk off" the spins, and binge eating a chicken salad sandwich.  Yup, it was like that.  My husband and I both learned that as the years go on it becomes harder and harder to find a familiar face in the crowd and it becomes harder and harder for our bodies to recuperate.  We had a great time but we also wasted most of our Sunday on nursing our angry organs.  Not really worth it.  Ouch.

CMU Homecoming 2010

A neat little Homecoming themed tidbit tonight and something that I just recently learned about my Grandma Garcia (via those wall photos at Rancho Grande):  A) My Grandma Garcia was a classic beauty, GORGEOUS, I've never really seen any pictures of her as a teenager before....and B) my Grandma Garcia was on Homecoming Court!  That means my Grandma Garcia was on Homecoming Court, my mom was on Homecoming Court AND I was on Homecoming Court/Queen!  How cool is that?  I told Danny (who's mother was Homecoming Queen too!) that if we're blessed with a daughter then maybe someday she could carry on that tradition.  Enjoy your week, and as my mother would say:  "Night! Night!"