She touched my life from the moment that I met her back in 1989.  She welcomed me with open arms even though at the time, there was another girl in Glenn’s life.  Glenn’s mom and the girl’s mom had their hearts set on an engagement announcement coming from them eventually.  But, as luck would have it, I stepped in and changed their future, as we know it.  The other girl was his best friend in high school and Glenn was hesitant to really let his feelings show for her, but he was so in love with her.  His plan for me was to hopefully make his best friend jealous and then he could make his feelings known to her and I’d be out of the picture.  But, this was not to be.  From our first date, we both were smitten with each other and the rest is history. 

From that point on, Glenn and I were inseparable.  We were together every weekend.  If he wasn’t driving to town to see me, I was driving down to Western Grove to see him.  Some days I would even skip out of Geometry class, head to his school and hang out with his English class.  I can’t believe that I got away with it, but I did.  Those were the days!  I cherish those carefree days. 

Eva took me under her wing when it looked like I was going to become her daughter-in-law and taught me a few life lessons, including cooking, patience, the word of God, and loving her son.  I’m still working on patience because it wasn’t an inherited trait in my family.  She taught me how to cook wonderful meals and even helped me plan and cook a surprise meal for my mom’s birthday one year.  It turned out pretty delicious and thanks to her it all went smoothly.  Every Sunday morning I would drive down and join them in church. Afterward, like clockwork, we would drive back to their home and cook a wonderful lunch.  I eventually joined her in the kitchen every Sunday learning a new cooking lesson, technique, or a lesson on the word of God.  Many meals I learned in her kitchen and many lessons I will cherish in my heart forever. 

As I grew to love her son, I grew to love Eva not as Glenn’s mom, but as a mother figure of my own.  She was a special lady with a big heart and she allowed me into her life unconditionally.  This I shall remember always.

My mind is flooded with memories now, since Eva has passed because I don’t want to forget her in my mind.  I don’t want to forget her beautiful face, her warming smile, her laugh and the twinkle in her blue eyes.  It’s still hard to fathom that she’s not around because my mind still expects to see her come around the corner of a room in her house with a smile on her face.  But, my heart knows that this is only to be seen in my mind. 

Thank you God, for allowing us to have her while we did, even though it was a short time, we learned a lot from her and will cherish her memory forever.

Here’s what happened to cause the accident-all of us students were lined up in two parallel lines facing each other and we were practicing our kicks.  My partner was none other than my instructor, Troy Holton.  I was doing well with my kicks and after awhile, I did one last kick and stepped back to get in my stance for another kick.  When I did, my ankle rolled and that’s when I heard three pops that I wished I’d never heard.  I winced in pain and at the same time I became so frustrated with myself because I knew it in my mind that I was down for the count and more than likely it would be for several weeks.  At least it’s not broken, it’s just partially torn and my doctor says it should heal back but it will just take time. He even said to me, “I know you know how to shoot a gun, you don’t need Jiu Jitsu.”

I’m still frustrated with myself because now I can’t be in class and I’m like a dog on crack jerking at the end of my leash trying to join in on the fun.  I have continued to go to class and watch, trying not to get behind on learning new moves and I want so bad to join in, it’s just not even funny.  In my mind, I’m trying to figure out ways that I can join in and just watch my foot or protect it from my opponent…but I know in reality it just isn’t going to work out.  I don’t want to rush the recovery either because I don’t want to prolong it and be out of class that much longer.  I will be back, I will prevail, and I will conquer this thing called Jiu Jitsu…I’m so hooked.  I’m ready to roll!  Peace out my brotha Troy!

HOLY FREAKIN’ COW!!!  Does that sum it up good enough for you?  The first exercise of “sparring” with gloves was a little awkward for me because I’m not used to actually punching/kicking/blocking with a live person, or at least not someone who is going to give back what I dish out.  I honestly felt silly because I’m sure my punches were absolutely sissified and my blocks were absent on many punches and kicks.  I felt a few of the punches (Troy-you got me in the face-the other men got me in the stomach a few times) but I am but a student learning from the master.  Oh, and I have to remember to keep my guard up.  I guess I had better stop yelling at Zane when he lets his down because I do the same thing.  Oops. 

Next exercise was learning some moves.  Now for some learning and practicing over and over.  They were some cool moves, I caught on pretty fast, but I have a few things to work on like tightening up my grip on some moves, keeping my elbows in, and making sure that I put all my weight on my opponent.  I enjoyed class and I really got in to the moves and learning the counter moves to the counter moves.  Jessica didn’t hold back when it came time to roll over on me with all her weight and slide her knee across my leg (OUCH!)  My one downfall that I can see right away is that my legs aren’t long enough to wrap around and lock with my feet.  That may kick my butt later..??  But, I assure you, I will get better with time because I have now become intrigued and somewhat challenged to keep going.  If I learn nothing from this, I’ll at least lose weight from sweating so much.

Our next exercise was ”rolling” with your partner.  This is where you put to use what you just learned and anything else you can think of to get out the hold you just got yourself into.  My first roll, I made the mistake of going to a double-leg take down.  Jess is a smart cookie because my head was down and she put me in a choke hold and I didn’t last long on that one.  Yes, I tapped out on that one.  As a matter of fact, I tapped out on each roll we did, but I held my own as much as I could.  I used some of the moves we learned and Jess talked me through some.  This part of the class really wears you out-I was totally spent!

I walked away from class today with a good feeling of learning some good moves, positive feedback from the Master and Jessica, sore muscles and a bruise or two.  I can do this.  I have to work on my strength though because if I am tiring out on Jessica, that just ain’t going to cut it in the ring when that time comes. 

THANKS TROY FOR CONVINCING ME THAT I COULD DO IT BECAUSE I DID AND I LIKE IT!

We made it back to the house with an eager little boy who was jumping up and down with excitement wanting to hunt eggs.  So, while he was begging and jumping up and down, Beth was outside hiding them.  Of course they were in obvious locations so he didn’t get frustrated and give up.  Which he does so well.  He has no patience, just like his momma.  After he found all the eggs, we sat around and visited on the front porch for a bit, but it was windy and starting to get a little cooler so we moved inside and sat in the living room and looked at old pictures in her photo albums and visited.  It was so relaxing to be able to sit down and visit with her again.  We all let life get so hectic that we don’t make time to visit with our families and it’s a shame because so much heritage and memory/storytelling is lost, never to be shared again to future generations. 

They rented a limo for the night and had reservations to eat at Olive Garden.  Later I found out that Olive Garden had cancelled their reservations for some reason without the knowledge of the group and upon arrival, they were turned down.  How awful was that?  HORRIBLE!!!  They went to eat at Rocky’s instead and still had an awesome time.

See what pictures I could get from her below: