Memorial Day Weekend 2010

I haven't updated recently so I figured I'd post an update about last weekend. On Thursday (5/27) Brian & I left for Iowa. We drove to Indianola to visit with my Grandma. We stayed over night & on Friday morning we made gum drop cookies & Brian helped! That was a lot of fun. I wasn't thinking about it when we were there but I'm gonna have to get the recipe from Grandma's book so we can make them here at home. Anyway, later in the day on Friday we met one of Brian's video game friends & his wife & son for supper on the way to Iowa Falls. We had a great time there too. We got to Iowa Falls around 9 or 9:30 at night so all we pretty much did was go to bed. I'm normally a night owl but Tom goes to bed early & it had been a long day driving so I was pretty tuckered out anyway.

On Saturday morning I started going through some of my Mom's things. The main reason for taking this trip at this time is that Mom's ashes were buried on the day before Memorial Day. So Saturday was spent going through her things & deciding what to keep & what to get rid of & so on & so forth. It was hard but I think I held up rather well. Saturday night we packed up the van..... ended up bringing back WAY more of Mom's things than I had originally planned but it's alright. At least it'll stay in the family instead of going to strangers. There is still a lot to go through that is out in the shed but we just didn't have time so we'll have to do that next time we go down there. Not sure when it will be but I hope it will be soon.

Sunday was the burial service for Mom & since Brian had to work on Monday we had to leave yet on Sunday. The service was absolutely beautiful. My Mom's brother Don headed up the organizing & carrying out of everything & he did a wonderful job. A good family friend the Stensons came to the burial. They had found out too late about the funeral otherwise they would have come to that too. I hadn't seen the Stensons in about 10 years I think. It had been a super long time. They had met up with Mom & Tom last summer for a little bit. At the end of the service when it was time to inter my Mom's ashes, my brother Jonathan & I got to lower Mom's urn into the ground together. I was doing ok up until we did that.... That's when I completely lost it. When I looked up at Jonathan he had a tear running down his cheek so I know he's been struggling with it too. Brian tried to take video of the service but I'm not sure if he got Jonathan & I with Mom's urn. I wasn't really paying much attention to where he was aiming the camera. After the service we went to Pizza Ranch in Emmetsburg & then came home. It was a relatively short drive home compared to the drive to Indianola.

Not really ready to share pictures yet. I tried to make a slideshow/video of some pictures to share but I can't seem to get it to work right so I guess I'll just keep trying. Maybe it's not working cuz I'm really not ready to show pics yet, idk.

As of today it has been about 6 days since the burial & I'm doing better than I thought I would be doing right now. I still have my moments but I didn't break down crying watching the videos or looking at the pictures of the service. I'm sure there will be some rough times ahead but I believe burying Mom's ashes gave me some much needed closure that I was missing in my grieving.