Missouri weekend

We went to Missouri this weekend for Uncle Ted's funeral and it was such a special funeral and it was wonderful to see family! Friday was a travel day, and we left Burley at 8 am to head to Boise airport with a connection in Salt Lake City to land in St. Louis just to rent a car and drive the hour to Sullivan. After a 5 hour delay in Salt Lake, I took happy pictures of us on the plane then turned on and listened to my Relaxation Exercise which I promptly conked out and slept for an hour :). We were pretty darn tired when we finally landed in St. Louis, and the lady at Alamo Rental Car was super nice and added an extra driver for no extra charge. We headed to Aunt LaWana's house first and thankfully there were still family awake, so we got hugs to finish off our very long, exhausting, irritating, five-adults-in-very-tiny-planes-and-cars day.

Saturday was the funeral and graveside service. What I remember most from the funeral was the music. Todd shared a few facets of Uncle Ted's life and shared stories and songs. The sisters sang "Blue Bird Bonnie Bird" and the whole family sang a camping song, “That Good Ol' Mountain Dew" (something that Uncle Ted INSISTED be part of the funeral! :) They had a men's choir for the hymn "Brightly Beams our Father’s Mercy," and then the brothers sang "The Test," which was a real tear-jerker but oh-so beautiful. One of my favorite parts was when Noble and Liz shared some of Uncle Ted's qualities that the grandchildren carry on as a legacy. At the graveside they honored Uncle Ted as a former marine with a flag and a gun salute. I wish you could see, but the line of cars circles all the way back across the tree line at the cemetery. The Hamblins were shown a lot of support from both their earthly family as well as their church family. I got a few pictures of family with some solemn and some silly. Tricia started it with the silly faces and the boys didn't need much encouragement. That's kind of my family in a nut shell :).

Sunday was wonderfully relaxing. We got lots of visiting and games and messing around squeezed in. After church we congregated at John's beautiful house but most importantly beautifully BIG house. I think the final count was 86 people. To keep down on the foot traffic, we kicked our shoes off and piled our coats near the door. Amanda made a DVD of photos and then added some live action at the end. They have video of him singing and some moments of his last week and the interview for the two missionaries out right now. The missionaries sent in some questions about life they wanted his advice on: marriage, service in the military, etc. Sunday was David's birthday. We wanted to make sure he had some good memories to associate with his birthday. Do you love the bonfire that is his cake with strategic candle placement by Tricia Brown? Can you imagine 80 people singing you, "Happy Birthday"? It was crazy! One funny story is the wrestling match. What started out as an arm wrestling match between my sweet, funny cousin Wendy and my tough, gentle giant cousin Jeff turned into a wrestling match involving a chilly ice cube with Wendy, Katie, Jeff, his daughter, Kelsey and few other little ones mixed in :). Aunt Mary reminded Jeff that Wendy has a bad back, but Tricia was sure to yell out when Katie joined the tussling that Katie's back is just fine. Here's a good action shot of Jeff getting the ice into Katie's MOUTH! ewww! My favorite was when Jeff had Katie pinned and Tricia yells at Katie to keep her mouth closed.... and then laughs because he went for the nose! He he he. Maybe you had to be there but we laughed and laughed and laughed and people would dog pile on Jeff and he would just roll over and get four of them pinned at once. sigh. That was a good day.

Monday was a good day too but it started early. Our flight left St. Louis at 7:30 am so we spent the night in St. Louis at Linda's house. We had to be up by 5:00 am so we could return our car and go through security at the airport. I think we pulled into Burley at about 4 pm and I'm pretty sure we all just crashed after that. With the Hamblins you play hard and sleep when you get home. I'm exhausted but it was so worth it!

Hamblin, Theo Dewayne

Theo Dewayne Hamblin of Sullivan, MO, passed away on Monday, February 8, 2010, at the age of 72 years.

He is survived by his wife, LaWana Hamblin (nee Mackley) of the family home; four sons, Todd Alec Hamblin and wife Shana of Dayton, Nevada, John Mark Hamblin and wife Mary of Sullivan, Jeff Boyd Hamblin and wife Rebecca of Sullivan, and David Scott Hamblin and wife Amanda of Sullivan; three daughters, Paula Hamblin-Rice of California, Karyn Manumaleuna and husband Lafi of Eureka, MO and Linda Voelkel and husband Benjamin of Overland, MO; a sister, Donna Hatch and husband Eldon of Spanish Fork, Utah; 27 grandchildren; other relatives and friends.

Services for Theo Hamblin will be conducted at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 13, 2010, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Sullivan. Visitation will be held from 4 – 8 p.m. on Friday, February 12, 2010, at the Chapel of the Eaton Funeral Home in Sullivan and from 9 – 10 a.m. on Saturday at the church.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested memorials to the American Cancer Society or St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

blurb.com

I did it. I finished editing together this blog into a book and ordered it from blurb. It should arrive next week. Oooo! I'm excited!  With tax and shipping, it worked out to be a little less than $1 a page.  Take that scrapbooking! :)

Uncle Ted

I have an uncle that has been very sick. He has had several health concerns. Not that I understand them all but his family says that he's diabetic, has a pacemaker, on blood thinners, and seizure medication, a cancer survivor, and has myelodysplastic syndrome. MDS is like pre leukemia and is a result of his chemo and radiation treatments from cancer. He is not making enough healthy blood cells and his immune system is weakened. He get's blood transfusions frequently and it makes him feel better and he has energy again. But the blood transfusions are becoming more frequent and aren't really working anymore. He cannot get a bone marrow transplant so they are managing the disease with medications (to which his body is building a resistance). Anyway, last Thursday we found out that preleukemia is no longer in the "pre" stage. They're giving him a few weeks.

I want to weep every time I think about it. Then I think, "Snap out of it. He's not gone yet. Remember the time..." I'll share one with you. My favorite story is not really a story but a memory. My family went back to Missouri to visit for a cousin's wedding and we decided to make a trip out of it. There are lots of early Church history sites in Missouri when the Church was first organized and Nauvoo and Carthage Jail are not very far away. They also dedicated several temples locations but only one of them was ever finished because of the persecution and they had to leave. Well, my memory is at Far West where they had dedicated some ground for a temple. We had reached the plot for the temple at Far West right about sundown and everything was kind of rosy and orange. It was beautiful! I had been taught that temples are a special and holy place, and the only way I could think to show my respect and reverence before exploring the temple grounds was to slip off my shoes like Moses did on his mountain. This is a special memory to me because it wasn't long before someone asked a question, and Uncle Ted pulled out his scriptures, and we were all gathered in a circle as a family with our shoes off on the temple grounds. President Hinckley said, "How beautiful is that home where lives a man of godly manner, who loves those for whose nurture he is responsible, who stands before them as an example of integrity and goodness, who teaches industry and loyalty, not spoiling his children by indulging their every wish, but rather setting before them a pattern of work ...and service which will underpin their lives forever." He IS such a wonderful example of love and courage and joy.

Lately, I've become a Facebook addict watching for updates and to see what adventures and special moments he and the family have had. Uncle Ted made a Bucket List. As in, things you want to do before you kick the bucket :).   The first thing they did was go and see Avatar Saturday morning. One of my cousins' wife works as a manager at the movie theater, so they got permission for a special viewing for the family early Saturday. The boys took his recliner and put it in the back of a truck and delivered both the recliner and Uncle Ted to the movie theater. Since they set it up like his living room, he was able to see all three hours without problems. Needless to say, he LOVED it!! Sunday they had people come and visit and phone calls and shared stories and it was a regular ol' party at the Hamblin house. Uncle Ted has only a sister living now (from California) and two kids that live in the west (Nevada and California) and everyone else lives in Missouri within about an hour of the house. Sunday they were all together: Aunt Donna and all his seven kids all home. Talk about packing in a lot of activities into a week! One of their friends wrote, "This time is so precious, and I love that there's such positive energy over there, not as much mourning as just enjoying the time left. Not that there aren't times of mourning too, but we've all been blessed to be able to share in the great atmosphere of support! We'll hope that it gets to last a while longer!" I couldn't agree more! Tuesday they all went to the temple. Uncle Ted got sick, but the temple workers helped take care of him. The sons got him cleaned up and the temple helped them with new clothes. Then they attended the next session. It wasn't until later in the celestial room they were talking about how the session had only had their family when they realized the temple had done a special session for them. Yesterday John posted on Facebook that "Dad decided that he is having too much fun to die today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring..."  But, I know.  Love.  And lots of it.

Tricia's commericial

Check out Tricia's 'commercial' she made for her Therapeutic Recreation class. It-is-awe-some!