Survived The Memorial, Now Walt's Birthday!!

 

This is how DH and I feel today!!  Exhausted!!  Tomorrow is Walt's 55th Birthday!!

Hey Ya'll,

Well we managed to make it through yesterday, barely!  The Memorial turned out really nice & we had a nice turnout.  Walt & I arrived at the Church at noon in order to start getting the Reception Hall setup for the dinner.  This took almost 4 hours to do, and we finished with just about 15 minutes left to get ready to go into the Chapel for the Memorial.  Luckily, our Daughter's Christa, Kat & Walt's Sister Susan arrived to help us out!!  Without their help, we would not have finished in time!!


Obviously, once the Memorial was over, we moved the group over to the Reception Hall for the dinner.  This too turned out well, but of course, we easily had at least twice as much food as was necessary!!  But we figured, it is better to have too much food, than not enough!!  And you never know exactly how many will turn up.

But just as I feared, my Mom wasn't feeling well enough to make it!!  She can barely walk anymore & is in constant, severe pain.  Because of this, I am actually glad that she didn't try to make it.  It takes her most of the day to get ready when she does occasionally leave their house to go to the Doctor, etc.  So she would have put on a brave face & tried not to show her pain, while all the while, wishing she were in her own bed!  But I do know that she really wanted to be there, and had intended to be there.  My Dad did come though.  He came with my Brother Kenny, & Sister-In-Law Robin.  My Dad always liked my FIL very much.  My DH, Walt told me that when he was at the Pulpit saying what his Dad meant to him, he could see that my Dad was crying too!!

The dinner went on for quite some time!!  The majority of the guests didn't leave until about 7:30-8 pm!  Then, came the daunting task of cleaning up & getting everything repackaged & ready to take home!  Luckily, Christa & her husband Mark, Kat, Susan & Carolyn helped out!!  Even with so many of us doing the clean up, we still didn't leave until almost 9 pm!!  Then, Christa, Mark & the kids followed us to our house as they were helping out by taking some of the supplies in their van too, due to the rain!!  Walt & I drove there in our truck to accommodate my painting table, so we could use it as an additional table for food, etc & it was too long to fit in my Honda CRV.

After getting to our house, we ended up looking at photos & talking for quite some time & they didn't leave until about 11:30!!  I must say that we were all physically & emotionally exhausted!  But we really did appreciate all the help we got.  We couldn't have done this without them all!!!

I am going to insert some photos now for your viewing enjoyment, but unfortunately, most of them didn't turn out so well!!  And the photos that I was in, I had wanted Walt to take them where they showed more of my body.  Not that I like what I look like, but at least we can start to see any changes in my appearance.  But he forgets & always takes the photos from the chest up.....oh well, here goes.  Oh yea, I almost forgot!  He had changed out of his nice suit without telling me.  I had wanted to have a nice photo taken of the two of us, nicely dressed first!!!  Then, he not only changed, he didn't put on the other nice shirt.  He stayed in just the under shirt, until just before we left!!  So all photos of him are in his undershirt!!  Wahhhh!

You can really see in this photo how my poor Walt & his Mom, Shirley are haggard.  Walt's Nephew Matthew was with them in this photo as well.

 Again, this is Walt & his Nephew Matthew.  If you enlarge the photo, you can see the stress in Walt's face.  He was all red & blotchy in the face all day long.  In fact, many people asked him if he was ok.  They were concerned his Blood Pressure was sky high.  Which of course, we had no idea if it was or not.

Kat & Carolyn (Kat's Mom, Walt's Ex-Wife)!!

My "Sister" Carolyn & I.  Sorry it is out of focus!  It is a point & shoot camera, but photos taken of me by my DH almost always turns out, out of focus!!  This is where I had wished he had taken a longer shot that showed our legs!!  He was far enough away to do it, so I assumed he did until I downloaded them today!!

I only included this photo because it shows a bit more than my chest & face!!  This is my Daughter Christa with me.

Again, Christa & myself.  I 'm not really that much taller than her, but I was wearing shoes with some heal!!  I am actually only 1 inch taller.  Because of these "new" shoes, my feet were killing me by the time we left!  Both Walt & I had been on our feet for most of the day!!!

One of Walt's Sister's, Elizabeth (Betsy) & her Daughter, Maria.

Another of Walt's Sisters, Susan with Carolyn & myself (we call ourselves "The Sisterhood").  I didn't get a photo of Walt's other Sister, Carol as her family left before I could get to my camera.  It was locked away in a closet & I didn't get to it before the guests had left & only a few family members remained.  Damn!

Walt with Betsy & Maria!

Maria with Susan's youngest Son, John.  Her other children had already left.  That open door behind them is the closet where my purse was locked in at.

And last but certainly not least, my Daughter Christa, her husband Mark & my Grand Kids, Walker (9) & Emily (6).

Well, I better go for now, I am tired & have tons to do!!  Till next time.

Aloha My Friends  :)