My Grandma Welker

This blog post is dedicated to the memory of my Grandmother: Wyona Louvina Powell- Welker who passed away on Wednesday September 23, 2009 after suffering from dementia and alzheimers disease. I love and miss my grandmother very much. The past few years have been very rough for everyone involved. She moved into a manufactured home next dorr to my mom and dad's house in Pomerene back in 1997 when I was attending college at Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher. I was able to go and spend quite a bit of time with her when I was there at EAC before she moved. She was an independent and strong woman with a beautiful smile. Her favorite color was lavendar. In preparation for her funeral I have been putting together posterboards with lavendar scrapbook paper, flowers and pictures of my grandma. A lot of tears were spilled in working on this project. There were some pictures of my grandma that I had never even seen before. It was hard to see the pictures of when she was with my grandpa and not put them on there, but I really don't know if she would have wanted those on there, so out of respect for her I kept them off. There's a few pics of her with him on there but they're respectful of her feelings and of the situation. There's this one picture that I love, it is a newspaper clipping of when they used to square dance and she just has this HUGE and beautiful smile on her face in this picture.
My son David is having a really rough time with her passing away, even though he's been prepared for it for quite a while, when I told him the news he cried a lot. He used to go over and talk with her a lot when she lived next to my mom and dad before she went to live in the care facility up in Peoria, AZ. He would go over and watch television with her, speak with her about life, geography, etc.... He has such a kind and sweet spirit and was so patient with her when she would say things over and over again and ask the same questions over and over again. I remember one time he had gone over to my grandma's with my mom and my mom came back cracking up so hard. And we wondered why she was laughing. She came into the room using her walker and he asks her "Great Grandma, what's wrong with your legs?" and she smiles and giggles a little bit and says "Oh they're just getting old, David" so he contemplates this for a bit and says "Oh, like your face?" He doesn't like me telling that story but it's so hilarious and so cute.
I used to love to go to my Grandmas, she was an awesome cook. I remember her cooking fried rabbit or dove that one of my brothers or cousins had shot with Grandpa. We used to spend a lot of time out at the old farm that they used to have and I have MANY MANY fond memories of that farm. After she and my grandpa divorced, I remember helping her move into town on Relation Street in Safford. I went by that place recently and the trailer she had lived in was torn down. Then I remember her moving into a manufactured home over in the Lexington Pines Mobile Home park.
I remember her cookies. I remember helping her make those cookies. I remember her telling me to make sure I chewed all my food and getting after me if I didn't. :o)
I remember the organ that she had and playing it along with my cousins.
I remember how her dementia started. She had surgery on her Cyatic (sp) nerve in her back and after then was when she started repeating herself. And over the last few years it progressed into dementia and eventually I believe it turned into full on Alzheimers. It was really hard to see her like that and to have to tell her over and over again things that happened. She would ask where my uncle dallas was or if I had seen him and I'd tell her he passed away and it was like telling her for the first time, she never remembered what you told her. One time I went to go take care of her while my mom and dad were busy taking care of things for her to prepare to take her to the Assisted Living Facility and she asked me "Have you seen my kids? I can't find my kids anywhere, they're supposed to get ready for a birthday party." And so I would tell her "Grandma, my dad is next door" and she said "Who's your dad?" and I would say "Randall" and she'd say "Randall's got kids?" And she'd ask "Well have you seen Dallas?" So finally I just started saying "Nope, I haven't seen him in a long time." It was just way too heart breaking to tell her over and over again that my uncle had died back in 07. One time she had asked about him and said "A little boy died?" And I said "Grandma, he's a grown man with children and grandchildren of his own." Sometimes she would mistakingly call me by my cousin Kris Ann's name. Which I didn't mind because there's been several relatives that have mistaken me for her.
Anyway not long after we moved her into the care facility she fell and broke her hip and had to have it operated on, and it seemed from then on was when she started to really slip away. We were told several times over the last few months it could be anytime that she passed away and so we were prepared.... there towards the end we found ourselves just praying that she would go just so that she wouldn't suffer anymore and so that we would all be at peace. Well on Wednesday, I was at my ex's mom's house waiting for his grandparents to come over and visit the boys when my mom called me and told me that she had passed away. I cried a lot but it was more of a letting go cry. I kind of lost it when I drove by the mobile home she lived in next to my moms house which is being rented by a young family.
I know my grandmother is happy and is in a better place and I know without a shadow of a doubt that she is with my uncle now and that she is not suffering anymore and that she is watching over all of us. The other day David said "Mommy when we go to Great Grandma's funeral I am going to wear my black tie because I know that Great Grandma will be watching over me and will think that I look nice in my black tie." The faith of children huh? Danny has cried a little bit over it. We will be going to her funeral on Monday in Pima. I love you Grandma Welker and miss you very very much. Love Always, Your grand-daughter... Lori Welker

Soccer Season Has Begun!

Fall is upon us and so is Soccer season in the welker/mendoza family!!!!!! Danny's first game with the Y-10 Soccer was Saturday 9/19 at 9 am and they won!!!! 2-1 against the Blue Demons. Sorry Howe family I have to brag a lil even though it wasn't my son making the goals! SHEESH there's some boys on our team who have been in soccer since they were little bitty so they are GOOOOOD! Good job to the other team! You've got some AWESOME soccer players there!!!!! We will play each team 4 times. Soccer season here ends the week before Thanksgiving. So we're looking forward to a great season!!!!!! :)

Getting Excited For DISNEYLAND!

Well, we are about 3 months away from our trip to Disneyland and it is really hard to tell who is more excited about going... me or the kids. It's been a long time since I have been there. The last time I went was for my Senior Trip back in 1996 and they were just building California Adventure... so I've never been to that! It was a memorable experience to be able to go for my senior trip! I remember having so much fun, even though I was a teenager! You know, Disneyland is for people of all ages, if you don't like Disneyland you're CRAZY! This will of course be my kids' first time going! We've been meaning to go for 3 years now. But something always happened. The first time we didn't go was because of health concerns for me, 2nd the same and we didn't go last year because they had closed down Small World ride for repairs.... HELLO! You CANNOT go to Disneyland without experiencing Small World! It's just IMPOSSIBLE! lol! Here is a list of what I am excited for and in NO particular order....

Electric Light Parade
Splash Mountain
Space Mountain
Thunder Mountain
Pirates of the Carribean
Haunted Mansion
Tower of Terror
Grizzly River Run Rapids (did I get that wrong?) lol
You know I'm pretty much excited for it all!!!! We leave home the morning of December 6 (early) and drive straight up to Anaheim where we will check into our hotel. Spend monday, tuesday and wednesday at Disneyland and California Adventure. Thursday and Friday we will be in San Diego visiting Sea World (I've been once when I was 11). We in a hotel right on the Marina which the boys are so excited about!!! and we will also go and see the San Diego Temple at David's request! And then we will leave to come home on Saturday. We were told by my cousin that the best time to visit Disneyland is the first 2 weeks of December. Not as crowded and the weather will be great!!!! I'm hoping to get down 2 sizes by the time we go. I've been working hard at it! Sometime in that week we will also take the kids to the beach. I know david would freak out about swimming in it anyway so we will just go and let them build sand castles and let them collect sea shells and of course take pictures. I hate swimming at the beach because you bring the sand in your swimming suit and it gets into the shower. I haven't been to an actual beach since 1991 that is a LONG LONG time! The last time I went to a beach was when we went to Florida. My dad had a business trip up there and it just so happened that my Uncle Gerald did too so we made a vacation out of it and it was My dad, Gerald, my Aunt Judy, my Mom, my cousin Angie and myself. We had SO much fun! We went to Disneyworld, Universal Studios Orlando and I'm thinking we went somewhere else too.... one of our hotels was on the beach and it was soooo awesome!

Is it November 20th yet??????

Oh my gosh! You all know how deeply in love with the Twilight saga that I am. I am so looking forward to the newest movie to come out. I was looking at a blog that I've been following and she has this video on it!!!! holy crap! I am soooooo excited for the movie to come out you don't even understand! :) I have posted this to my blog! Anyone want to go watch it with me when it first comes out??????? I have a cousin who is going to the Midnight showing of it!!!!

First Day Of School

Well the boys survived their first day of school! Danny's teacher is really nice. Her name is Mrs. Reece. She taught 1st grade last year and was a teacher in St. David for a few years before that. They have had to add another 3rd grade classroom this year. Danny's class has always been HUGE. When he graduates he will probably have graduated from Benson's largest class ever!!!!

They've always had to adjust and add teachers for his class, they did that in Kindergarten and I'm assuming they did it for first and second even though we werent there, we were in Pomerene.

And The Final Answer Is NOT Pomerene

Well after a whole Summer of worrying where my kids were going to go to school at this year we got our answer this morning. It is Benson. I am not happy with it but everything happens for a reason. Maybe it'll be a great thing and I may just be reverting to my terrible time at Benson Middle School. Even walking down the paths with David yesterday brought back some not so fond memories for me. To clear up some confusion this may cause my kids were going to Benson until David was in 2nd grade and there was a big mess, their dad tried to take em from school... it was not pretty.... and I took them out and homeschooled them (well mostly my mom did), then we put the boys into Pomerene and they were wonderful for my boys. David is just convinced Pomerene School is "evil" because kids teased him and the teacher well just don't get me started on her.... but what he doesn't realize is how much the school actually did for him especially the principal. I really admire Dan Bailey a lot. Not that Shad Housley will be a bad principal because I'm not saying that at all... he's married to my cousin and I think he's a great guy..... My mom seems to think that maybe someone will be there to help David. I hope so because the school therapist we dealt with was not one of my most favorite people in the world. Before we knew David's diagnosis hetried to give david a diagnosis of his own without doing the tests and "labeled" him with Mild Mental Retardation. Well as you could probably see what happened next I went rip roaring on him and told him I knew without a doubt that he was wrong and that I knew David had Autism. He asked me how I knew and I told him "Well because I've done research on it and because my nephew is Autistic and he is a lot like him in many ways". Needless to say I was not happy with him (putting it very lightly). And then there is also the issue of the kids being cruel. Some of the kids in Pomerene were very cruel to him because of the fact that he's different. Now I know that David starts a lot of it, it's his defense mechanism.... he tries to stop people from doing something even if they didn't do it. So anyway..... there's some of my venting of the day. I really hope and pray that there is a good reason for this decision. It just so happened that 8 kids moved into pomerene school during Summer Vacation and we are not in district. So..... Here we are back in Benson School.

Where Did The Summer Go????

Holy Cow! There are only 11 days of Summer left for my kids! They start school on August 13th this year! I'm so ready to be sending them back but then again I am kind of having a hard time with the fact that I now have a middle schooler! Yes you read it right! My oldest, David will be in 5TH GRADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is getting so big! He comes up to my shoulders! Where did the time go??? So not fair! But then again I'm tall and so was my biological father so it doesn't surprise me that they are both going to be big ol buffalo squad members. If any of you went to High School with me you'll know what the Buffalo Squad means. It was all the big huge guys that were on the Football team that took us all the way to the last game of State Champions and we lost that game to I believe St. John's. Who knows? it was way too long ago! I'm trying hard to grasp onto the fact that my 20th year High School reunion will be coming up here in a few years time!