nplove Land

If last week wasn't stressful enough, my computer crashed, just to drive in the point of how bleak the days were. :(

Being the family geek, I took it upon myself to create the "typical" collage of photos for my nana's visitation/rosary and funeral. But did I create a normal, tape the pictures one-by-one? No, of course not. I wound up scanning over 200 pictures (some front and back), and was using Publisher to create posters: one for kids (my mom's brothers and sisters), one for grandkids (including great- and great-great-grandkids), and one for my nana's brothers, sisters, and parents. I created, saved, and printed two of them. But as I finished the grandkids poster, I hit save one last time and ..... CRASH!

Frozen computer. After a forced restart...nothing. Missing "hal.dll" and missing "boot.ini" files. I've been in a funk ever since.

I'm sad to say that my nana, Esperanza Leyvas, my Nana Hope, passed away this weekend.

She hadn't been feeling well and had even visited the doctor, who gave her a shot and sent her home. Friday night, she called my mom to tell her she didn't feel "well." My mom immediately went over. Kayla had to jump the fence, go into the house and look for a key to unlock the gate. The paramedics arrived and diagnosed her with pnemonia and a bad lung. She was taken to the hospital in El Centro.

The doctors there determined instead that she had had a heart attack. They tried several drugs to help save her and to remove the big clot in her artery, but nothing worked. Nothing was able to elevate her blood pressure or diminish her pain and she passed away around 1 am. Some of the family was able to be there with her in the ER. Others just missed her.

Most of the family are here in town now, working out details for the services. The rosary will be Wednesday night 12/21/05 at the Hems Mortuary from 6 to 9 pm. Mass on Thursday morning 12/22/05 at the Catholic Church at 9:00 am, burial following at the Calexico cemetery. My grandmother was well known and a pioneer of Calexico, so there should be tons of people around. It's even been announced on the radio in Mexicali if you can believe it!

I miss her already. It hits me every once in a while, how I won't be able to walk over to say hi (she lived around the corner), or to tease her by inviting her to the movies (which she never would take me up on). I won't get to sit next to her at future Calexico events, eat with her at Carrow's, or see her sitting on my living room couch ("Hey, you here again?").

My mother has been staying away from the hubbub at the house, preferring instead to busy herself cooking and visiting with family members who drop by. She just doesn't want to interfere in the planning, the searching for important documents. Nana was such a private person. However, I was over there this weekend and choose to collect photos and gather all the ones I found into a shoe box. I've been busy scanning them, fixing some up, to post on the family website. I also want to archive them all, give my family each a CD. I'm also working on the usual collage for the visitation. That's my therapy.

Love you Nana.
Cindy

I just bought 4 new shirts from Threadless, two to give away as Christmas gifts. :)

2 for me:


and



and two for gifts (which I will display here since people don't read my blog ANYWAY!?!?!?)

for my niece:


and my girl:


I really wanted to buy the Scrabble one, but they sold out of the reprint again!!

Our little household has had quite an adventure this week.

Short story (or as short as I get) - Last Saturday, while shopping at the mall, I got a call from mom saying that our water heater was busted and had leaked water all over the place. Too expensive at Sears, plus they don't deliver water heaters and wanted to charge $250 to install it! What?!?

Went to Lowe's. Much cheaper there, $65 to deliver, but still $250 to install. Called some friends (thanks guys!), then my uncle Corny, who said he could do it. Bought the Lowe's water heater for $199 took it home. Next morning, while unloading from truck, my sister noticed that it was an ELECTRIC water heater. Wrong one. Took it back to Lowe's, came back with $279 natural gas one.

Monday morning (I was off), gas company comes to inspect. Nope, doesn't pass because of something wrong with the exhaust pipe. Mom buys a pipe the next day, wrong one. I buy a pipe at Home Depot Wednesday during lunch, take it home. Uncle Corny puts it on (after some trouble because of the angle, the smoking (which we learned was due to some lubricant on the pipe). Done!

Friday morning, gas company comes again. Passes exhaust pipe connection, but he decides now that the 40 gallon water heater is too big for the space. Doesn't pass inspection, again. I'm at work, Mom calls, tells me. Uncle comes over, disconnects. I go to Lowe's (again) during lunch break, check inventory. 2:00 pm, uncle brings water heater to Lowe's, I meet him there, get it returned, buy new 30 gallon tank, he takes it home.

Now, I'm on my way home. Let's see what happens!