A New Year has come!

New Years Eve

The past week has been an emotional roller coaster for me that is for certain...I left last Sunday to fly up to Indiana to be with my parents and extended family for my grandparents joint funeral. It was a time for healing and crying, but it was also a time to remember all the wonderful memories we all had with my gramma and grandpa. It was amazing to see all the people who are here on earth just because two people in love decided to start a family. It made me realize just how important family really is. I was sad that both my sister and brother could not make the trip up, and I was even more sad when I stood up at the funeral and began reading the letters they had written for our grandparents (that I so quickly offered to read). If I had known what a complete wreck I would be I would have probably declined the favor...it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Besides reading their letters, I also read one of my own. When I was a young girl, my mom and I would take a trip every summer around July or August and go stay with my grandparents at their cabin in the woods in the upper peninsula of Michigan. One of the things I remember most about my time up there is that I loved to write in my journal and I loved to act like I was going to be a famous writer one day. I would sit around and write poems all day and I thought they were spectacular of course :-) So when I knew I wanted to honor my grandparents and speak at the funeral I decided that instead of reading a generic poem or writing a letter to them, I would attempt to write them a poem. So on my United flight up north I sobbed and cried on the plane writing, while the guy sitting next to me awkwardly looked away and pretended to not notice my depressed state. At the funeral after I had read my sister and brother's letters I read my poem. Unfortunately by the time I got to my own reading I was a terrible mess and I laugh now that I was like a little kid with snot bubbles and crying hiccups. In the end even though it was sad, it was extremely special to celebrate their lives...oh how long and fulfilled they were!
I woke up on New Years Eve to over an inch of snow in Elkhart, Indiana, which was nice for a change...then by that evening I was back in balmy Houston with my husband. We enjoyed the night by going to dinner with our close friend Denise who was in town and then went downtown to ring in the new year at a bar with a few other friends. We headed back to Austin yesterday and thus the new year of 2009 is upon us! I am looking forward to this year...focusing on family and making sure those who mean the most to me know it! Dustin and I are anxious to travel of course and have already started talking about where we may venture off to...Europe perhaps or back to Hawaii maybe? I will close this blog post with the poem I read to my grandparents.


Love to all in 2009!

I love you more than you love me

That's what Gramma would say to me

We'd go back and forth repeating this

Then I'd look at my Grandpa and he'd blow me a kiss

Now that they are gone our times together come flooding back

Memories with them I know I will never lack

Playing cards, fishing, and looking for deer

The letters from Grandpa I'll always hold so dear

My collection of pennies, wheel of fortune, vanilla ice cream

Grandpa scratching my back and watching Gramma put on face cream

Road trips to the cabin, looking for seashells in the Florida sand

Circus peanuts and necco wafers, they were their biggest fans

Grammy playing with my hair and singing softly to me

By the sea, By the sea, By the beautiful sea

But what has meant most was their desire to be invlolved in my life

I'll never forget calling them first when Dustin asked me to become his wife

My hope was to have them there when I finally said "I do"

When they danced at our wedding reception, my dream had really come true

So, I'll blow you both a kiss now and say I love you more than you love me

I'll be forever missing you, your little love bug I'll always be

I love you...Emily Sue