Grandma's Funeral

THIS GOING TO BE A LONG POST!!!

This weekend was my grandma Ipsons funeral. The day of the funeral was my grandparents anniversary. I can't remember which one, but it's over 60 years. Everybody was saying they were on their second honeymoon. These pictures are backwards, I haven't gotten this blogging thing down yet. These 2 pictures were at the family dinner, me and Travis in the top one and D.J. and my aunt Mary in the below picture(my parents camera sucks and we forgot to change the date stamp).

This is at the cemetery, Trent and John putting the pallbearer boutonnieres on the casket.

Aunt Linda with my great aunts Mary and Viola(they are my grandpa's sisters- both in there 80's)

Me and my dad.

The casket was so pretty, I was there when they picked it out in Richfield. I was there when my aunts Linda, Ruethella and Mary and my cousin Melinda helped dress her in her temple clothes and put make up on and Melinda did her hair. That was really good for me. To see her that way, for some reason it was healing for me.

We went to lunch with my aunt Ruethella at Wendy's. Then drove to Junction to get dinner ready and get ready for the viewing. Wade called us, saying he was in Hurricane, we had no idea that he was coming from California. That was awesome. And Cory who was planning on leaving at like 4 in the morning to get there in time for the funeral from Arizona, but he was able to leave earlier and got there that night.

The viewing was good, the cousins who were there visited and just enjoyed each others company, Melinda talked me and Emily into spending the night at our grandmas instead of at the hotel, which helped because we only had two rooms and 3 families. So they weren't so cramped in there.

It was really good for me to be able to hang out with my cousins that night, Melinda, Tom & Natalie, D.J., Jacque & Justin, Louisa, Roni and Ricky were all there, we had so much fun. Holy cow, I grew a 3rd boob- actually really funny. My grandma has this Easter chick that cheeps when you touch the two metal circles on the bottom and D.J. and Tom were being annoying, somehow I managed to get it and while they were trying to get it, I stuffed it up my shirt, it looked like I had a 3rd boob, that cheeped! It was funny.

But yeah we stayed up forever, I slept on the porch(my bed, up there).

I went back to the hotel to get ready(so there wouldn't be a million people trying to get ready in that small bathroom). I got to the viewing, Wade was there, yeah! More of my cousins were there. I was doing OK emotionally until each family got up to say a last goodbye before closing the casket, that is when I started crying, Chris even started crying. It was sad. But the funeral was really good. I made a list of things I remembered about my grandma, my aunt Linda read most of it. I looked around while she read it and could see that my cousins remembered those things too. Made a few smile too. I will post that another time.

Being at the cemetery was interesting. It was really windy, it had snowed, the ground is clay, so each step we took added another layer to our shoes and of course I was in open toe high heels, that sunk into the ground, those shoes are still in the jeep, dirty. We weren't there very long, but it was so cold and windy that it wasn't a very fun thing, we were all in a hurry to leave. My toes were white and blue, so as soon as we got some pictures, I hurried back to the jeep, turned the heater on and pulled some thick soft socks on. I had a blanket I started out wearing, but my two aunts Mary and Viola wanted to be there and were cold so I let them use it.

We went back to the church for dinner, that was good. There were a lot of my dads cousins that he hasn't seen in a really long time that were there, from Idaho, so that was fun for him. The dinner was good. The company was nice.

We went back to my grandmas to change, and my dad's siblings had a little family meeting, the rest of us talked and joked around and just had fun.

Being together with my cousins, as much as I was(Friday night and after the funeral) was very healing for me emotionally. And being able to be with them during such a sad time, them being so fun to be with, that was very good for me.

But physically this weekend was hard for me. My boss pretty much forced me to leave Tuesday night( I was crying too much), then he made me take a 3 day bereavement(which is paid). But my allergies kicked in Wednesday(horrible, it was worse that it's been ever), then I have 3 canker sores that are extremely painful, right at the front of my mouth and my braces would rub on them. Then I got a cold sore. Had very little sleep because I couldn't breath, and had other things on my mind, wasn't in my bed, stayed up hanging out with family in Junction, then again at home while Cory and Wade were here. Oh, yeah, Wade stole my favorite pillow, so I had to use another one, I had the worst stiff neck, so that was horrible all day Sunday. So yeah, I was in a really depressed, horrible mood all day Sunday!

I only watched the afternoon session of conference. I was just plain too tired and didn't feel good. I was looking forward to sleeping in today(as LONG as I could), Cory woke me up and made me go to lunch with him and Shellie(wade had left already).

Now I am starting to feel better, my canker sores, don't hurt as bad, I've been taking claretin and Wade says it takes 5 days for it to work, and my allergies aren't really that bad right now. Now I just need to get back to work and get back to my normal routine. Get Easter out of the way and everything will be OK! Yeah!!!

If you read this all, I warned you, it would be long!