It Is Finished

Well, he's buried. It's over. I cried more during the week than I cried at the funeral. I guess I was pretty cried out. It was a very moving ceremony. All four of the daughters, the sons in law, and all eight of the grandchildren spoke. Then six friends of his got up and spoke. Not to mention the two mini-sermons from two of the preachers from our own church. It started at 2:00 and we didn't leave for the cemetery until 4:30. The gravesite was over pretty quick.

*I would like to take this moment to say that the Grove, Oklahoma police department are in dire need of some funeral etiquette skills.*

This was a very, very large funeral procession. I mean, Pastor Leon was Pastor of the same church for 30 years, longer than any other Pastor in the entire town. Eighty churches in foreign countries are there as a direct result of this man and this church. He was much beloved. The police stopped traffic for the funeral procession at the stop light and then as soon as the family limo was through the light, the cop left! The entire family was not even through the light yet! The family limo wasn't big enough to hold the whole family so they were each driving their own cars and the police just left and when the light turned, PEOPLE STARTED DRIVING THROUGH, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUNERAL PROCESSION! How completely rude! We didn't even have a police escort to the cemetery! We had some kind of VIPS escort. Volunteer In Police Service. The road that would normally be taken to the cemetery was closed due to construction, so we had to take an alternate route. But the police didn't even help at all. I was very disappointed and am hoping that they get some kind of reprimand for their behavior. People were not even pulling over to the side of the road because they had no idea that it was a funeral procession, there were people who weren't a part of the funeral procession intermingled with us, not having any idea they were in the middle of it. I wasn't upset with them, because how were they to even know? I was VERY upset with the Grove Police. Talk about rude. In the words of Captain Call : I won't tolerate rude behavior.

After the funeral, my sister and I drove on over to Jawbones. Good ole Jared was nice enough to torture me for a few minutes and I got my new tattoo. I really like it, it it totally what I wanted. Roni thought it was ultra cool, too. Afterwards, Roni was summing it up pretty good, "How anti-climatic!" So, we headed off to the casino. First I had to take Shael home (she'd sat in the car and listened to Radio Disney while I got my tat, does that make me a bad parent? HA!). I dropped her off at the house, rented a movie on pay per view for her and then left. Mike had taken off for the bike rally that I was too chicken to go to. I made it back to the casino and Roni was waiting on me wondering what was taking me so long, I'm sure. I didn't win anything to speak of. I had $40 and I lost $23 of it. I wasn't willing to walk out of there with no money, so I quit while I still had some money. But, we stayed and visited for several hours. I got home at 1:05 and Mike was home first. I gave myself a triumphant "YES!" when I saw that he got home before me. When I walked in the house, Shael was still up and said "It's about time you got home!" Mike was sound asleep in bed and I tried to be as quiet as I could when I climbed in next to him. This morning when I woke up, it was 10:05! I couldn't believe it! I haven't slept that late in a long time. Mike woke up about the same time and wanted to see my new tat. I rolled over and he was surprised that it was so small. Like I'm going to get some huge gaudy tattoo? *sings If You Don't Know Me By Now*

Mike asked me this morning what I wanted for Mother's Day. So I told him. A massage. He told me to find a place and he'd pay for it. I'm getting a massage! Woo-Hoo! Pardon me while I do my I'm-getting-a-massage-dance.

Okay, I'm done. While a massage today or tomorrow sounds great, I want my tattoo to heal up a little bit first. Next weekend we are going to Branson for a mini vacation and I told him I would find a place there and he could take me then. He agreed. That's amazing. Now, I really can hardly wait.

Normally, on Mother's Day, we head up to my Grandma's church for Mother's Day. But, due to the circumstances, I feel like I should be at my own church this Sunday. I'm not sure how my Grandma will react, but honestly, I don't care. My sister seems to think Grandma is immortal, anyway, so there's plenty of Mother's Days in the future for us. LOL. Roni, I think we should put Grandma on the next Highlander movie. After church, we are going to head on up to Joplin and meet her at the Golden Corral for lunch. That should be entertaining. You know how busy that's going to be? Fun, Fun, Fun! Can't wait.

Oy.