A REALLY GREAT WEEKEND.

and so, we went to my mom's place at the ozarks this weekend. and it was lovely.

 

it worked out that dave had a sound job down there and could join our water festivities. and barb + melissa and kids were down that weekend too, so we did some shuttling and a good time was had by all.

 

we also celebrated dave, hallie and henry's birthdays with an apple pie and lots of pool time. henry is obsessed with the pool and toodle-ing (it's a word - look it up) around in the duck boat. he could have "swam" around in the pool all day.

 

btw - swimming for henry means going up and down the steps, and then having me "swim" him around the pool. i'll take it!

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

also, the sound job was for pam tillis and lorri morgan at a local winery. and who knew, but they rocked my world. and so did the fireworks show afterwards. amazing!

 

the end.

I'M NOT SURE WHERE I LEFT OFF.

this has been a really sad weekend.

 

i think reality is sinking in. he's really dead, not returning. I'm so sad for barb. i'm sad for dave and melissa too, but man, i am so so sad for barb.

 

these were the two songs we played at the funeral. the first, 'abide with thee' was chosen by lucille. this was the hymn she wanted. however, the version the funeral home had was warbling and ....just not mike. so, we found this version and it was perfect. simple with some steel guitar. just, perfect.

 

 

the second was chris tomlin's 'amazing grace, my chains are gone.' such a pretty song.

the mason sound guys were honorary pallbearers and all wore their mason shirts. henry laid on the floor and stared up at mike. so many people came and stayed for the committal at the cemetery. it was a blazing hot day, and all of those guys in black shirts, i can only imagine.

 

mike was buried at arcadia cemetery, a beautiful, peaceful community cemetery. the funeral procession made its way out of town and the route was such that mike was able to go by his home once more. we had a semi parked in front of the house and the neighbor blew the horn as we drove by. dave, melissa and lucille rode with barb in mike's black dodge, which chad and i and the (antsy) kids drove in their durango. i'm glad i wasn't with barb. i would have lost it driving by that house.

 

the pallbearers drove the fly-by-night, mason tour bus to the cemetery, and it made quite a statement. but so perfect.

 

the casket spray was white roses. we are having jewelry made from it. it was beautiful.

 

we had a hard time leaving the cemetery.

 

 

A STATE OF THE HENRY ADDRESS.

so, henry.

I tell ya.

we had him evaluated last tuesday for some eating and sensory issues to see if there was anything WRONG or if it was just him being an exceptionally picking three-year old.

well.

it turns out there ARE things that are "wrong" (<<<not the right word, but you know what i mean)with him that we are going to address with some therapy.

we are going to work on his whole "breathing through is mouth instead of his nose while he's eating" thing that is apparently something that gets in the way of eating/tasting/everything. go figure.

so it's that, plus the muscles around his perfect mouth aren't developed and neither is his chewing.

all things that can be FIXED, which is great. he has some mild sensory stuff, but will be addressed during the session, as will his delay in speech.

the team is fabulous and henry has them wrapped around his little finger already.

so there's that.

A FRESH WEEK. AND A FEW MEMORIES OF THE VISITATION.

this week is better. much better. we had a good weekend. we're pulling through. dave is still swamped, but seems less overwhelmed. we're figuring out normal.

 

a few things i don't want to forget:

 

*picking out a casket - this was nuts. we had to pick out a casket. and a grave liner and things that you don't want to do when you are grieving from a very unexpected loss. the entire time, there's this feeling of, is this for real? are we really doing this? picking out a casket spray for MIKE'S casket? i look back now and i still can't believe that it happened. it still doesn't feel real. we picked out a gunmetal gray that had chrome on it that reminded us of the semi. we wanted black, but they didn't have the one that we wanted.

 

*as sick as it sounds, everything was perfect. so many people worked behind the scenes for us, taking care of a million details that made the visitation and funeral "how mike would have wanted it." whatever. that sounds ridiculous.

 

*we wore mason sound shirts and jeans at the funeral. of course we did. it was perfect.

 

*dave set up a speaker on a stand (pickle on a stick!) outside so people waiting had something the listen to. good thing because the line was insane.

 

*we stood for nine hours at the visitation. dave, lucille and barb didn't leave the line a single time. the last person went thru line at 11:15pm.

 

*the amount of flowers was overwhelming. and now, so are the thank you notes (haha). we had four arrangements from eric church's bunch, some from 38 special, john michael montgomery, Kentucky headhunters, confederate railroad, justin moore, etc. i mean, tons.

 

*the rough old sound guys cried the most.

 

*kentucky headhunters came through the visitation. well, they cut in front of a ton of people, but that was okay.

 

*so did leroy vandyke...but he waited in the four hour line.

 

*we had mike's guitar set up at the head of the casket. henry was obsessed and kept playing it while it sat on the stand. every so often he would back up and say, "papa!" and point. so emotional.

 

*people came from all over. i can't begin to thank everyone who came and waited through the line. and thank you to everyone who came and couldn't wait. we totally understand. it was crazy and an amazing testament to the sheer amount of people who mike impacted.

 

there's so much more. i can't even begin to get it all out.