Well, last time I was here was in 2011, so... a lot has happened since then! I'm not even going to try to play catch-up and write posts about everything that has happened in our lives over the last two and a half years, but I’ll do a few re-caps, just for histories sake.
I think my last post was before I even knew I was pregnant with our precious little girl. I found out that I was pregnant in January, and we couldn't stand waiting to tell our family and friends so I pretty much announced it right away. I know "they" say you shouldn't tell people until you're past the first trimester, but we were too excited to wait. I thought I was going to have an easy pregnancy (both my mom and oldest sister had little to no "morning sickness" issues), but that wasn't in the cards for me! I still remember exactly when it started, February 13, 2011. We had gone up to Lake Arrowhead for our community group, and I got sick as soon as we got home. I thought it was just because of the drive, but I woke up the next day and was sick about every 15-30 minutes the entire day. Being the hypochondriac that I am, I thought for sure I was going to die! It was a miserable day, and the next 4-5 months didn’t get much better. I was sick pretty much all day long for the first 5 months of my pregnancy. Luckily it was not every day; otherwise I don’t know what I would have done. The days I was sick I spent the majority of my day running back and forth between my desk at work and the bathroom, which was not a short run when you’re sick!
Thankfully the sickness subsided and the rest of my pregnancy went pretty well. Willy and I took a birth class to help us get prepared, which was fun because my cousin Scott and his wife Jeanny were also in the class, along with two other couples we knew from church. I found a room design idea online that I really liked, so Willy got to work and did an awesome job, especially with painting the design I wanted on the walls. Mom and Dad bought the crib and mattress, and Grandpa and Grammy Martin helped us buy the dresser, which we planned to use as the changing table too. It was fun getting the room ready for our little girl.
On May 27th we lost my sweet and wonderful Grandpa Martin, who had been battling cancer for several years. It was so hard to see him suffering, especially at the end when he was getting really confused and didn’t seem to know what was going on. Thankfully we were able to spend a lot of time with him and Grammy in the last few months of his life since they relocated to Yucaipa from Oregon. He was such a wonderful grandpa; I can still hear the sound of his whistling and his quiet laugh. Just a few hours before he passed away, he was still his normal self, making some joke about Willy eating all the leftovers or something. He died at home with the people he loved the most with him. Family came from all over California, even as far as Florida, to celebrate Grandpa’s life. We had a service at the funeral home in Redlands, then a graveside service at Forest Lawn in Covina, where he was buried close to Nana and Bapa Lane’s grave.
It was so hard for all of us losing Grandpa, but I know it was the hardest for Grammy. They had been married for about 50 years, and had really never been apart. I remember her saying that she would need someone to teach her how to pump gas for her car, because Grandpa had always done that for her. She was so sad that he was gone; we all think she died of a broken heart just 13 days later on June 9th. As hard as it was, I’m so happy that I was right next to her while she lay in the hospital emergency room bed and passed away. Willy had gone back to Guatemala to visit his family so he wasn’t able to be there, but a lot of the same family members were able to come back, and we had a service for her at the same Redlands funeral home, and a similar graveside service at Forest Lawn. She was buried with Grandpa, close to her mom and dad. I miss both of them so much. Part of the reason we decided to get pregnant when we did is because I knew all of my grandparents were getting older and I wanted my kids to meet and know them. Even though they never will get to Grandpa and Grammy Martin them, I talk about both of them often because I want to be sure they will know how wonderful they were.
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