Easter Sunday, my Grandmother (my mom’s mom) was sent home from a rehab center with hospice. The doctors were not able to accurately diagnosis or determine a treatment plan after a week or so of being in the hospital and then rehab. They had a long list of symptoms but no real diagnosis or solution for all the symptoms. Her main concern being that the oxygen level in her blood is very low and, despite different treatments, was not improving.

Our Pastor came and prayed with my Grandmother to help her make the decision about what she wanted to do and she said that she was ready to go home to heaven.

My Uncle came in from New Jersey and spent a couple of days here. It was great to see him again and I’m so glad he had the opportunity to say goodbye. I think my Grandmother was very happy to see him.

My sister also flew in for a short trip (the day after my Uncle left). It was very hard to see her say goodbye. I don’t think I’ve seen my Grandmother cry in a long time.

Joey took a picture of all of us together – too bad he couldn’t be in the picture:

But here he is with her and me:

This last week has been very busy with lots of late nights. We’ve been spending lots of time with my family after work but I am so glad we are able to. However, I might gain a few extra pounds spending this much time with my family. My Grandmother really loves desserts so every day we ask her what she would like. Today she requested cream puffs, which Christene made from scratch. They were delicious!

I can see that my Grandmother is getting closer to dying. Besides being so weak, she has said many profound statements to us and will just break out in prayer quite frequently. I am definitely going to miss my Grandmother. I have so many memories of her and I just can’t imagine my life without her – especially all her prayers!

Please pray for my family.

Joey and I went on a short Baja Mexico cruise this month. We left the Thursday before Easter and came home on Easter Sunday. It was a nice spring break vacation.

It was windy when we embarked from San Diego (can you tell from this picture?) and it stayed windy pretty much the entire cruise.

The staff on the ship were great. Our room steward did a great job tidying up our room every day and night. We especially liked the towel animals he left us:

Our headwaiter was great and the food was delicious. However, there was more silverware than I knew what to do with on the table:

We stopped at Mexico the second day of our trip. Joey and I took a shuttle with a very entertaining tour guide to a town called La Bufadora to see the blowhole. It was very interesting. Joey actually got wet trying to get pictures/video of it. When I saw that the ground was wet I didn’t want to get too close.

On our walk to and from the blowhole, we walked through a strip of little shops where everybody wanted you to come in their shop. I wish I would have taken some pictures or video of this. It was very, very interesting. Every shop we walked buy they’d say:

“Ma’am (or sir) just a mexican minute to look at my store. You don’t have to buy anything, just look…you need a watch? look at these watches…”

They sold mostly jewelry, watches, purses, wallets, churros, fresh fruit and candy. Oh, and you can’t forget all the pharmacies that were there. They handed us lists of medications we could buy without a prescription. Just crazy.

As it was getting closer to the time our shuttle was leaving, we started telling the people that we didn’t have much time so, they proceeded to say:

“Just a mexican second to look at my store”

They just wouldn’t stop! Ahh! Anyway. I ended up buying a nice shell necklace for $10. Not bad I guess. We had authentic mexican food – carne asada taco, fish taco and a shrimp taco – before getting on the shuttle. Yummy!

After we saw the blowhole we went to the oldest winery in Mexcio and tasted a couple of wines. They were delicious. A nice couple at our table took this picture for us:

After we got back to the ship we changed into our bathing suits hoping to get in the hot tubs (since it was too cold to go swiming) and they ended up being full for quite a long time. So, this was about as much as we did in our bathing suits – sat by the window and had a margarita.

That night was formal night. It was fun to get dressed up and go to a nice dinner. They even sang happy birthday to me.

The next day was our “Fun Day a Sea”. They had different activities all day long. So, we went to a towel folding class. It was a lot of fun to learn how they make all those towel animals. Now when we have guests we can leave them a towel animal on their bed Here is Joey making the puppy dog:

I think he liked making the elephant the best:

Here are a just couple pictures of us on the ship:

Sunday morning we had breakfast and then sat on deck for two hours waiting to debark. We were the last group of people to debark. I think that was the most sun I got the entire cruise.

All in all, it was a great cruise. I think my next cruise will be longer, warmer (Caribbean maybe?) and with more people. Anybody interested? In a couple of years of course.