My baby & I with cousin Ricky & Irene's baby Maria
Our hotel overlooking the future Ground Zero memorial
Me with Allison & my coach 5x Miss Fitness Olympia Adela Garcia
2 amazing chicas!
Following the Pittsburgh show I entered the New York pro which was scheduled on May25th 2011. With only 3 weeks to prepare from the Pittsburgh pro I worked hard to make the suggested improvements I needed to on my physique and presentation. A week out from the New York pro and I was ready and fired up to hit that stage. I love competing in New York. I competed there last year as a bikini pro and it was my best placing as a pro ever (5th) and I had such a great experience there in New York as it had been my first time there ever. Riding the subway, the energy of the city, the sights the sounds the food, spending time with my husband's cousin & his wife, the food, sight seeing, did I mention the amazing food? haha! well it is definitely a competition of choice that I like to do every year if I can. So I was ready to go & then I received a phone call that would forever change my life on the Sunday evening May 22nd. My paternal grandmother's life had been taken with the Joplin tornado that hit her church that evening during their service. I would not find out if my Dad was still alive until that early Wednesday morning. Thank God he was spared with a crushed foot but I was devastated with the news of my Grams being taken so suddenly from me. We had a special bond that comes from a long story of when I was born but I'll spare you the details and just say that I was born on her birthday and we had a special connection. She never missed a dance recital of mine and made every Christmas dinner special at her house. She was the one who led me to know Jesus & I know that it was because of her I am a christian today. She lived in CA where I grew up before my Gramps retired & during my childhood there wouldn't be 3 weekends go by when we didn't go to their house or they to ours. Even with my competitions she was a big supporter and she would text me little messages cheering me on & congratulating me after each one. She had just texted me the day before how proud she was of how well I had done in Pittsburgh and that she would be coming to visit us in June after the kids got out of school. But that visit would never come....
I'll have to wait (hopefully a long time) for those hugs and kisses again and to hear her warm familiar voice. But after thinking and praying about it I new that I had to go forward with my competition in New York. I knew in my heart that that's what she would want me to do so I did and I finished 4th, my best placing EVER in the pros!
