I'm here to help...

[Great2BThin 5]

So here I sit almost midnight and can't sleep and have to get up at 4am. GRRRR I am going to Denver for the day to see Grandma and have a 630 flight. I wasn't getting email updates on the thread today and thought it was quiet. NOT! LOL Glad I checked.

Arlene, congrats on the new grandbaby! Thanks for sharing with us.

Julie, if you see this before you go, good luck at mayo.

Apples, fortunately I've not had to deal with many funerals, just 2 grandparents of people I was super close with. I do think cremation makes it easier and it is what I want. DH has had to go to lots of funerals for folks at his job as a representative of the company. One was a Sikh funeral in CA and he said that was really different. The men were on one side and the women on the other. Then after the service the women did this wailing while the men went to the furnace and the casket and body were put into the fire right there. I don't think I could handle that. I love your comment about DH marrying and the picture and urn. And agree life should be celebrated.

Well gonna go try and get some shut eye.

[Charlene K 1]

Good Morning Gang.....Did a Mack truck roll over me last night?......feel like it. Oh, no, it is just my DGD. She was still crying......so yes, she slept with us. She is going to Mommy's Day Out this morning and we are going to go hold our new DGD. I have to stop by the grocery store and get some roses for DD.....and some muffins. DD is so happy there weren't complications. We are thankful!

Apples, what started the funeral thing? Now we know your plans. We will back you up! I started paying for our funerals nine years ago. I know....weird, but my inlaws bought theirs(saved us a ton when they passed) and sent the guy to our house. I have a brown casket with pink interior and little embroidered flowers. DH's is blue with light blue interior and I think a cross. I don't even remember the songs I picked out. We both want to be buried at Veterans Memorial in Houston. Servicemen and their spouses are FREE....and they decorate the graves at Christmas. It is beautiful. I think cremation with a memorial service is fine. I would have done it had I not purchased these plans. Back in biblical times cremation was only for those who didn't have familiy. I think that is why the Catholic Church frowned on it. They don't anymore. Okay, that's my two cents on furnerals. The upside of this is in heaven we will be totally fit.......the way God created us to be. YAY!

I have DGD for another night.....then mommy and daddy will be home tomorrow and she can sleep in her bed.

Thanks for all the best wishes !! I am really happy.....tired, but happy!

[Apples2 19]

Arlene....was not being morbid with the funeral thing. Had just been to a wake with an open casket and was just throwing the question out there and asking your opinions. I'm just not as weepy and seem to not connect it all to death the way I do with an open casket. Make sense?

So, it just got me thinking of my boys and DH (if I ever leave this world....I might not). Would they have the closure they needed???? Is it more difficult to move on????

Sounds like you have all plans in place if/when you pass on. Nice your children will not have to deal with so many details. Ours our simple...

1. Call the funeral home to come and get us

2. Dig through my CD's and find my songs

3. Order up those 2 cases of Johnny Walker Black

4. Go to the freezer and pull out the food I prepared for my funeral so our guests do not starve.

5. Smile....I have lived a good life

[Apples2 19]

So here I sit almost midnight and can't sleep and have to get up at 4am. GRRRR I am going to Denver for the day to see Grandma and have a 630 flight. I wasn't getting email updates on the thread today and thought it was quiet. NOT! LOL Glad I checked.

Arlene, congrats on the new grandbaby! Thanks for sharing with us.

Julie, if you see this before you go, good luck at mayo.

Apples, fortunately I've not had to deal with many funerals, just 2 grandparents of people I was super close with. I do think cremation makes it easier and it is what I want. DH has had to go to lots of funerals for folks at his job as a representative of the company. One was a Sikh funeral in CA and he said that was really different. The men were on one side and the women on the other. Then after the service the women did this wailing while the men went to the furnace and the casket and body were put into the fire right there. I don't think I could handle that. I love your comment about DH marrying and the picture and urn. And agree life should be celebrated.

Well gonna go try and get some shut eye.

Great..sorry you couldn't sleep....hope you finally got some.

Your story reminds me of the Hutterite clans I grew up close to. They dig a horizontal hole and bury them standing up.

Arlene....maybe you can sneak a nap in when DGD takes one today. Take care and enjoy that new bundle of joy.

[Apples2 19]

I've been out of the loop so much with these Vegas plans....could someone please fill me in this morning b/4 I leave for appt. Who is actually going to be out there?????

[IndioGirl55 32]

I've been out of the loop so much with these Vegas plans....could someone please fill me in this morning b/4 I leave for appt. Who is actually going to be out there?????

Here we go I may be wrong but there are 11 of us

Me Phyl Apples Great Charlene Linda Julie Joyce Cheri Jodi Eva

.

[Apples2 19]

Thanks, Janet....now I know

[IndioGirl55 32]

Good Morning Peeps

Great sorry you couldn't sleep... I hate when that happens.. But usually the way it is for me before a trip ;0) - I didn't got to bed till after 11 and up at 5..

Charlene - Is GD missing Mommy - is that's why she is crying.. Poor thing - Here in Cali they keep you 24 hrs and then send you home - Remember when we had our kids - they kept you in the hospital for 3 days..

Well it's almost 6 - headed for the shower....

CBL

[ocotillo 0]

Morning....fly by, couldn't get on again last night and I have to go to work right now.

Arlene, congratulations!!

See you all later.

Eva

[llkb4me 1]

Apples,

Weekend was, state softball finals, two teams we know were playing so we got to watch both. That was Saturday. Sunday left for Mackinaw City to meet his bro and sil, stayed in Indian River for the night. Went back to Mackinaw to walk the Mackinaw Bridge. It is the only day you can walk on the bridge. They figure there were 50,000 to 60, 000 people who walk it. Back to Indian River and out on the boat for a float with our friends.

I think cremation is so much easier. I think I cry at funerals because you are thinking of all the people close to you who have passed. In one yrs time my Ex H & I lost 5 grand parents and I lost 2 cousins.

I love your idea about your service. I'll be there but it will be many moons from now.

My BF & I have been talking a lot about this topic. We both want to be cremated & tossed in a lake some where. I just want to float...

LauraK

[ladykcusa 1]

Yippee - I won. But I insist that I buy for you Arlene. Another blessed grandchild.

[ladykcusa 1]

Karen - sorry the wake was so painful for you. In answer to your question, closed casket causes less pain for me. However, not wishing to offend anyone - just my opinion - I believe the whole burial ritual in America is barbaric. Fill the body up with fluids and putting on makeup and closes - why. Why not P.J's, if we are sleeping.< /p>

I always said I wanted a tennis dress, racket and a couple cans (new) of balls.

Please - not meaning to offend anyone - just my thoughts.

Our bodies are just the vessel to take us thru this life. Really have nothing to do with the soul/spirit of the person. I've told my girls, when I'm gone - don't visit the gravesite, I won't be there. I'll be in the wind, the sound of the chimes on the deck, the invisible person riding in the convertible that passes them on the highway, the traveler boarding the flight, that small voice in their hearts and that warmth wrapping arms around them while they sleep.< /p>

ry -

[ladykcusa 1]

Karen - I love the idea of EXACT instructions about your funeral. Makes it easier for the loved ones to make the plans. Very thoughtful.

And, Janet - I agree - I want SOCKS. Always have cold feet.

[IndioGirl55 32]

Joyce

My real mom was buried in a night gown ;0) at least that's what I remember when I went to see her - but my sis says i was in there a whole 10 seconds then I ran from the room crying - I was 15 and my mom committed sucide - she was always a blond but the had done a reverse frost on her - maybe cuz of the blood - but she looked like she was asleep but mad - that was the 1st dead person I had ever seen. That memory will stick with me forever.. But now that I'm older it didn't bother me to see the rest of my family they looked pretty good for being dead.. Except my Bro Jimmy who had an autopsy - and he had short hair so you could see the cuts in his head..

I don't go to the cementay - it's too sad - if I want to talk to them - i do it where ever I'm at - just like God - When I see a butterfly I think it means it's one of your love ones visiting ;0) is it a butterfly or a dragon fly??

I don't understand pple who go to the cementary on a daily weekly monthly bases and the decorate the grave site depending on the holiday... Strange imho

My Aunt Dot said the Wrights aren't cementary pple - so I guess she felt the same way..

[llkb4me 1]

I don't go to the cemetery either. Any time I have went to my Dad's grave it gets freaky out, weather wise. Just tells me he don't want me there, so I am like you Janet where ever when ever.

My Dad had this thing about never giving a purse or wallet without some money in it. So, my sister made sure he had money in his pocket when they buried him. I put in a wedding pic as he had died 2 days after I got married.

Isn't it funny the things we do.

LauraK