The Confirmation Ceremony

Last Friday night, my whole family wanted to go to bed early (around 7 o clock) because we were all pretty exhausted from the incident that happened to me the night before. Secondly, me and my dad had to wake up at 3am to start getting ready for the flight to Houston at 5am from Denver International  Airport. From my personal belief, I don't really like to wake up during that time because honestly I feel like its the devil hour even though, sometimes I wish that I can somehow punish the devil out of my struggles. Anyway, after my dad packed his bag, we said goodbye to my mom and Caleryn. We all hugged and kissed each other. Here's the thing, whenever my mom wants to kiss me on the lips I always get excited and start smiling and would laugh at the worst time for no apparent reason! The result for my clumsiness, my mom sometimes gets teeth on her lips. Luckily, most of the time I back away before I mess it up. After we got done with saying goodbye to each other, my dad and I walked to the car and started the forty minute drive to the airport. It's kinda weird because everything seems around under forty minutes from Lakewood, except if you want to go Colorado Springs. That takes a hour and a half to get there. Once we got to the airport and got padded down, I wanted something to eat before we had to board the plane. So my dad led me where all of the fast food restaurants were since he'd been in that airport so much from coming down to Texas every weekend to visit us. He pretty much knows every nook and cranny of that place. The fast food place that caught my eye was a pizza joint. I don't remember what it was called but whatever it was I thought that it was pretty good. The flight to Houston went smooth. Although, I had to sit by somebody to the left of me during the plane ride. When we officially landed at Houston Intercontinental after the three hour flight, my Nanna and Papa picked both of us up with their truck and drove us to the hotel they were staying at, in the Woodlands. My dad and I wanted to stay in their hotel room for a little bit until our room was ready. Our room that we got was a handicapped accessible room and it was right next to Nanna's and Papa's room too! At around 11:45 all of us had to get ready because I had to be at the church by 12:30. We were a little bit late. My friends were super excited to see me again especially Ms. Jeanne. As we were all waiting for Bishop Lopes, Ms. Jeanne led me to a place to park my wheelchair. We all said some vows and later on in the mass Bishop Lopes called all of the confirmands, including me, to line up to receive the Holy Chrism. Once it was my turn to receive the Holy Chrism, the Bishop put the oil on my head and then did the sign of the cross. While I was driving my wheelchair back to where I was suppose to park it at, I was just hoping that I could hold my emotions together but I couldn't. Once I got parked, all of my emotions unleashed because it was so cool being close to a Bishop! The reason why receiving the Holy Chrism from a Bishop or a Cardinal is so important is because it completes your baptism and, it protects you from the devil trying to pull you away from God. Then everybody came up to receive holy communion. Ms. Jeanne told me just to stay there so that somebody who is giving out the body of Christ can come and give it to me. But after five minutes of waiting for a person to come to me, everyone else had already received the body and blood of Christ. I think they forgot about me. When the ceremony was over, my dad and I asked my godparents, Jim and Amalia, if they wanted to go and eat at Mamacitas with us and they said yes. Before I talk about how the dinner went, I want to talk about the history between me and Mamacitas. When I was just a baby, I wasn't the greatest eater at all. The only thing that I ate good without spitting it out was milk and a fajita burrito from Mamacitas. The funny thing is that after sixteen years of going to that Mexican restaurant I still get the same thing. The dinner went very good. I almost thought that I was in heaven because it has been so long since I had actually ate good Mexican food. The other two places we go to are La Loma and On the Border. La Loma is really good but it's in downtown Denver, expensive and you have to pay to park and make reservation. On the Border, is close and cheap but we go to as a last resort when we're desperate for our Mexican fix. My mom says Denver is definitely not a foodie town, which is probably good for us because we're hogs! I kinda felt bad for my mom because she had to stay home with the hog and dog and miss out on the gourmet food! Can you tell Mexican is my favorite?? Anyway, even though dad and I were super exhausted and kinda out of it, it was really nice to see my Godparents again, Jim and Amalia who came all the way from Spain for me and of course my Nanna and Papa. It was a very momentous weekend for me and I'm glad that I was able to finish out my confirmation at my church home..St. Anthony's! 

I want to go ahead and say my thank you's on here since it's easier for me and I know they read my blog...Thank you again to my godparents for coming so far to be with me on that special day and the gifts you brought! Thank you to Ms. Garthwaite for being not only my sponsor but also my teacher and helping me get closer to God and of course the gifts! Thank you to Ms. Shelly for allowing me to be in the confirmation class with my buddies even though I missed too many classes last year and for the gifts! Thank you to Michael and my group for being so caring and making the class fun and interesting. Thank you to Nanna and Papa for coming on my special day and of course my gifts! Thank you dad for taking me and not embarrassing me! Thank you Momma for making me study so that I am more confident in my faith. Also, for getting up at 3am to make sure I looked good for the day... because she knows that my dad will never care enough to make me look decent!

Little Setback

It all started two nights before the day l was confirmed Catholic. I was having a small seizure that night and my left leg was having muscle spasms, I was trying to get my parents attention and I fell off of my bed and hit my top lip on the metal footplate on my F-Five power chair. My dad came in my room and put me back to bed. Now you have to understand that I don't really remember any of this after it happened, I was later told. I fell back to sleep and around 12:30am started having a big seizure (bigger than I've ever had). I fell off the bed again! My dad came in and tried to help me them my mom came in. This was definitely a different experience than I've ever had. My whole body was spastic and my teeth were clenched so hard. My mom and dad noticed that my body was going limp and I wasn't breathing or was way too shallow and my mom started calling 911. Then the next thing that I remember happening is getting into the ambulance and driving off to the hospital. The physician was really nice. Once I got to the hospital, they wanted to do a CT scan on my brain. They also wanted to do a chest x-ray to make sure I didn't aspirate or swallow any vomit in my lungs. Luckily, the x-ray showed that I didn't. After that, they gave me a I.V which is my least favorite part because I have to get poked but, every time after they do that I feel so much better because I have a lot more fluids in my body. All the tests came back okay but my oxygen levels was really low, not sure if this is because of the altitude or not but I might need to start taking oxygen. I think I'm going to have to get a g-button as well just because it's even more important that I get enough fluids in this altitude. I've been off my seizure medicine for a little over a year and haven't really had one until now so the dr. recommended that I start taking them again which sucks but I guess needed. My face didn't look too good for confirmation because I had some rug burns and a big fat lips!

Going on a train ride/Going to the Denver Zoo

Since my dad and I aren't going to be home on Mother's day weekend because I'm getting confirmed, we wanted to celebrate Mother's day by going on a train ride in Georgetown. The town was really kinda neat because it looked like a town on the northeastern coast. Aparantly, it was established back in the 1800's because we saw the dates on some of the buildings. I think there may be a convent or something there because we saw a few nuns as well. We didn't really see too much on the train ride, all we saw was streams and mountains. I think that the train ride in Alaska was a lot better because there were more sites to look at and of course we stopped at the gold mine to pan for gold. After the train ride, my dad saw a nice size lake on the side of the road and of course we had to stop so he could drop a line in the water. Caleryn wanted to go too but my mom kept on telling her not to go because it was too cold outside and she had a tank top and shorts on. That's what's funny about living here, it's 80 degrees in Denver then when you go up in the mountains it's like 20-30 degrees colder. Caleryn of course didn't listen and went outside anyway. Five minutes later she came back to the car because she was too cold! When she got into the car, she started whining and running around like she had to pee. Then Caleryn got all quiet and squatted down and peed in her pants in moms car!! She had to take off her pants and put on my new shirt that I just bought from the train store to cover her up. All this wouldn't have happened if my dad didn't need to always stop to go fishing, however it made him happy because he caught one. But to me it was kinda funny to see my sister do that instead of me because I am usually the one who pees in his pants, especially when my dad starts making me laugh!  I'm starting to get a little worried about him because he's really becoming a professional at it. On the next day after church, we went to the Denver Zoo. It is much nicer than the Houston Zoo. My mom was happy because they had her favorite creepy animal, a hyena, because she always makes fun of the sounds they make. My favorite animal to see was the bears because one bear was lying on a rock while the other bear was walking back and forth like he was guarding his mate or, the mate was telling him to do his exercises. We only explored half of the zoo because my parents were getting tired and we had to go shopping at Target afterwards. My mom really liked the train, I think she just enjoys the scenery. Maybe we will go on a more exciting train ride next time since there are so many around here.