Momma Domm

Today marks five years since the beautiful, hilarious, loving, and sassy Annette Orilla Domm passed away.  For anyone that ever knew her knows she is just the best... and definitely one of a kind.  She was the most real, tell it like it is woman I have ever known, but in between her daily doses of sarcasm and humor, she was also one of the most caring and loving people in the world. 

My mom is my soul mate and I have never felt my soul so connected to another person in my entire life. For this I feel so blessed, even though losing someone with that bond is excruciating, I am so lucky that I had the time with her that I did.  As hard as it is to know that I won't see her until my time on this earth is up, I know that she is with me, guiding me and rooting for me to make good choices and not be an idiot.  I know I will be reunited with her again and it will be one of the most blessed reunions I could ever hope for. Within the last five years our family not only lost my mom, but also my sister Dottie and her husband Paul, and our family friend Reid (pretty much family).  Sometimes in order to cope, I choose not to think about all of the family that we've lost in such a short window of time, because even though I will see them again, it really sucks not having them here now.  I'm sure anyone that has gone through loss of a loved one can relate that when we know we will see them again, the pain and sometimes anger of not being able to see them or just pick up the phone and call them is just too much. What gives me some peace is knowing that my mom is up there with my family that has passed on, probably laughing at all the silly stuff our crazy family is doing, and guiding us along on this hard journey.  I hope that my nieces and nephew read this and know that their Grandma Domm loves them with all her heart and that she is so pleased with the good choices they are making, even when it's difficult.

Instead of making this entire post all sad and sappy, I would rather focus on remembering the fun and happy person she is, and how many lives she touched.  I wish I had taken more pictures of her with friends and family, and I'm sorry I don't have more.  She loved so many of you, so I am I'm posting what I have here, for anyone that knew her and wants to take a walk down memory lane and reminisce about the great times they've had with momma domm.  At the end there is a short family video of mom with Hailey as a baby. I love it because her comments are in true Annette Domm fashion.  Mom, I love you and miss you. In your honor I watched "Bridget Jones' Diary" last night.  That Collin Firth...hubba hubba! :) :) :). Still wish I could watch the 8 hour Pride and Prejudice with you again though. :).  It's just not the same watching it without you.

PS. I am not a great blogger and don't really have patience for it, especially the photo placement. It's annoying and I gave up, so sorry the layout is not especially appealing to the eye. But at least momma domm is easy to look at!

Me and my BFF

 

 Mom and the munchkin Hailey

 Mom and Dad always supporting me at my fashion shows 

little Jonny and Grandma!

 

Nikki and Grandma :)

                

 

              Gaby, Reid, mom

I love this picture of mom. She was such a great cook!!

 

                     Mom and Dad cutting a rug

Dottie, mom, me 

         Mom and Diane, and Hailey and mom. So sweet. 

Hailey's sealing at the Oakland temple.

Eat, Pray, Love, Happiness & Jayaraj

"...and when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt-- this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life, it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.    -Eat, Pray, Love

Confession time, the only book I read all the way through during my six months in India was “Eat, Pray, Love”.  This is surprising to me considering I fell asleep within the first ten minutes of the movie a year prior.  Nevertheless, I read it, and ended up loving every page.  There were so many things that I could relate to in the book, but one quote (above) stood out to me the most because of an amazing Southern Indian man named Jayaraj.

If you have ever volunteered at Rising Star Outreach, then chances are you have already met Jayaraj and know why this quote above embodies everything this spectacular human being is about.  If you haven’t met Jayaraj, believe me when I say that if you do meet him, he will leave a lasting impression on you and you will become a happier person by just being in his presence. 



Jayaraj getting a medical checkup...and cracking up as usual!!

 

Jayaraj with his wife and Dance Master Catherine

Jayaraj has leprosy and lives with his wife in a small Leprosy colony a few hours from Chennai called Mogalvadi, or Moot.  I don't know his entire story, but I do know that people with leprosy in India are forced out of normal society to live in leprosy colonies away from others who do not have the disease.  They suffer from not only major physical ailments (such open infected ulcers and losing finger/toes/etc...), but they also can suffer emotionally.  Many people all over the world still think of people with leprosy as "cursed" people, or that they have leprosy because they are not clean (which is obviously false!). If you would like to learn more about leprosy, I would encourage you to read on Rising Star Outreach's website at http://risingstaroutreach.org/menu/about-leprosy.php for a more in depth explanation. 



Back to Jayaraj and his AMAZING SPIRIT.  I was lucky enough to go out with the medical team at Rising Star Outreach many times to the Moot Colony, which I always looked forward to!  I realize we were going out to the colonies to give aid to the leprosy afflicted, but I truly feel I received so much more from this happy man than I could ever imagine giving him. 

Jayaraj LOVES to dance, and a dance party was a must every time we visited.  He obviously has better moves then me.  I just look ridiculous, but we can't all be as cool as Jayaraj.   

 

Jayaraj finds beauty in life, in his surroundings, and even in his trials. "You were given life, it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life". Jayaraj helps me to see the beauty in my own life just by his positive attitude.  Now, when I think of my trials, I just say to myself, "what would Jayaraj do?".  And the answer is obvious.  DANCE and BE HAPPY!

 

A Day in The Pink City

My entire life I've had the travel bug.  I blame this solely on my parents.  They loved travel and raised me to love it.  Whether we were flying to Canada or just driving the coast to Half Moon Bay, we loved to explore new places.  Before I came to India, I was told that the kids at Rising Star would have a few weeks off in September where they would go home and spend time with their families.  I took this as an opportunity to see part of the world I never imagined I would be in.  Callie and I decided to plan our trip so we would be in Northern India for a week, and then Sri Lanka relaxing on a beach for the rest of our vacation.  This was the PERFECT plan.   With the help of our awesome travel agent, Benson at Abish Travels (http://abishtravels.com/), we flew into Jaipur and began our adventures in Northern India! 

Benson knew Callie and I were on a "volunteers budget", but he somehow managed to set us up in the coolest hotels.

Here are some photos of the first hotel we were in, in Jaipur.  This used to be an old palace and is packed with history...none of which I can remember at the moment (which is how it usually goes for me... I love hearing about anything historical, and then I promptly forget everything I was told) 

 

 

 

If I could go back in time, I would have spent more time in Jaipur. This place was breathtaking!  We spent about a day and a half here, and this is what we did:

 

My first taste of Jaipur was having a nasty cobra put on my neck. From the pictures you can tell I was THRILLED about this.  Thank you Jaipur and gross snakes for some of the most unflattering photos of myself.  Thank you. 

 

 

 

Here we are at the City Palace in Jaipur. I am now going to tell you about it by copy and pasting from Wikipedia cause that's how I roll.  "City Palace, Jaipur, which includes the Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal palaces and other buildings, is a palace complex in Jaipur, the capital of the Rajasthan state, India. It was the seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur, the head of the Kachwaha Rajput clan. The Chandra Mahal palace now houses a museum but the greatest part of it is still a royal residence. The palace complex, which is located northeast of the centre of the grid patterned Jaipur city, incorporates an impressive and vast array of courtyards, gardens and buildings. The palace was built between 1729 and 1732, initially by Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber. He planned and built the outer walls, and later additions were made by successive rulers right up to the 20th century."

 

 

 

Next we went across the street to Jantar Mantar.  This place was SUPER COOL.  It was built in 1727 by Maharaja Jai Singh II and is filled with astronomical architecture.  This Maharaja was a genius. 

 

 

I don't remember what this next place is, but it looked pretty amazing from far away.

 

And now, drum roll please, MY FAVORITE PART!!  It was nearing the end of the day and we had already seen so much of Jaipur already, I had no idea what was in store for us later in the day.  The next million pictures are of the Amber (also known as Amer) Fort/Palace.  If you want to know all the history on this, just look it up, but just know this, it will take your breath away. 

 

We got to ride an elephant to the top!

 

 

Yeayyyyy!! "I'm so freakin excited!"

 

 

Shesh Mahal (Hall of Mirrors)

 

Weirdos.

 

I am pretty impressed with my photography skills on this one

 

 

Dinner is served. 

 

 

Lastly, because our tour guide knew I liked textiles, took us to a place where they make traditional Indian block printed fabrics.  They let us make one, which looked like crap but was a lot of fun.

 If you are considering traveling India even just a little bit, JUST DO IT!  I don't know why it took me so long to get out here, but I am so glad I did.  I heart Jaipurrrrr!