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Hi all from wonderfull Birmingham, Alabama!!! I had a great time on the trip with my mom and wouldn't trade the time spend with her for ANYTHING!!!!!! Love you mom!!!!!

I am still processing the trip. I am working on uploading the public and private pictures. I will blog more tomorrow when I am more rested.

Friday Update

Well, mother is asleep in an Indiana hotel room whilst I have been crying my eyes out for an hour or so. I appreciate the time alone to cry.

I am moving pics from the SD cards to my laptop and will try to upload some tonight. I will have a private album for the boat pics where I scattered his ashes. I will be mailing the password out to those who knew Allen as I am sure you will want to feel as if you participated.

Mother and I had some good times in the midst of a sad purpose. I still can not articulate everything too well at the moment. I will probably blog in more detail on Sunday after my arrival home.

I will say that I was impressed with the hotel that Kim from the travel agency picked for mother and I. It was nice. I dreaded carrying our luggage to our hotel but found out that the Lake View had porter service to and from the ferry. Whew!! What a relief that was!!!!!

I got to see the Grand Hotel, Baxter's coin shop, and scattered Allen's ashes off the shore in the water by the lighthouse from the movie Somewhere in Time. Mother bought me a framed picture of Richard and Elise on the lighthouse shore which will promptly be hung in my living room upon my arrival home.

It is getting late and I need to burn these pics to a cd for mother before we get up at the crack of dawn for our journey home tomorrow.

A special note for Dianna: It is very beautiful on the island. I thought about you and how much you liked Allen. I will be mailing you the password on Facebook.

Night all.

Mother and i had our first musical clash. LD, she hates Hinder and Flor ida..... Haha... We settled on Garth Brooks.

I am texting from the road. Talk to everyone from Indiana.

I am extremely sad. I will blog later. Big hugs to my friends.

I scattered his ashes today. It was hard. I will be emailing some private pictures from the time on the boat. It was a very personal and emotional time. Will update more later.

My hotel has bad internet but I was able to upload pics from my cell. We went to the Grand Hotel while we were waiting for our room to be ready. I had his ashes with me. All I could think was I wish he was there to see it. But, we made it together!!!! That was a dream of ours. After scattering his ashes this morning, I will have completed his desires. I am saddened and happy all at the same time. Many thanks to all who are thinking of me today; especially, Dianna. I am updating via my cell and will check in later.

We are on the island eating lunch. Mother is taking me to lunch at the Grand Hotel on Thursday.

Today

Mother and I are in the hotel room getting ready to head to the ferry. The Lake View will carry our luggage to the hotel and hold it until check in time at 3 pm. Kudos to Kim at the travel agency!!! Good pick of hotels.

I've called the boat captain who will take us out on Lake Huron tomorrow to scatter Allen's ashes. He has set some free stuff up for me that rocks. All I can say is that we are being watched over on our trip.

I want to give a special thank you to Dianna Platt for praying. I know you know how much this means to me and Allen. Even though we don't talk anymore, thank you.

I will try to update later from the Island. Our hotel in the city has a lousy internet connection and would not let me upload pics last night.

In Mackinac City

Mother and I arrived in Mackinac City, MI. Our hotel is really close to the ferry we take to the island tomorrow. I wanted to look at the water first, so we went to the beach at the hotel...... I sat and looked at the water.... I knew I made a good decision to scatter Allen's ashes at our special location. But, I am saddened beyond words because this represents a closure of a 20 year relationship.

Everyone be thinking about mother because I've been a bit moody as I'm dealing with heavy emotions leading up to Wednesday.

NOTE of interested: This is the first time in my life I have drank in front of my mom... Geeze that felt weird. lol

Good night all.........

Mother and I have stopped to eat 100 miles out from the hotel.

Hello from somewhere mear MI. We started out our day with rain. I have pics to upload from starbucks and cracker barrel. Lol, people up north are getting a kick out of my southern drawl!!!!!!

Hitting the road!

We are off!!! I'll blog and take pics from the road to MI.... Love to all my friends and family....

Plan changes!!!!!

After arriving at the hotel, I mapped the rest of our trip. We can make it to Mackinac City in about 8 hours. We are driving straight there tomorrow. Upon our waking up on Tuesday morning, we are going to go golfing before taking the ferry to the Island.

I am impressed with mother. She is not tripping out about me having allen's scattering urn with me. My mom rocks. I think I will be okay till we go to get on the boat.

We get on the boat at noon on the 24th. We will be out about two hours and in that time, I will scatter Allen's ashes. I imagine if I am going to come undone, that is when it is going to happen. I know I lost it at the funeral home when they transferred his ashes.

I'm off for the night.

Signing off from somewhere in IN!

Update

We are in Indiana... LOL, we were stuck in CREEPING traffic for a while in KY... See my bored pictures below. I am excited and anxious about the trip.

Our travel plans are changing to who know where we will spend tomorrow night!!!! haha!

Well, we are off to Indiana where we will spend the night. I uploaded some pictures from yesterday. Enjoy!

LMAO!!!!! My uncle just arrived home from a long day at work. He is redoing the bathroom while mother and I are on our trip. He says, "you know you're tired when you get nostalgic about the toliet because it's the only thing that everyone who has been in this house has sat on." LOL, freaking hilarious and so true!!!!

My day in Chattanooga

I arrived in Chattanooga around lunch today.   I went to Wallyworld with my sister and spent way too much money but I needed the last minute stuff for the trip!   Jerry, my brother, and his wife, Tess, along with my nephew, John Francis came over to my moms.  Then my sister, Mary, showed up.   My brother Von was here as well.

LOL, there aren't words to convey the humor of what my sister did to my brother Jerry.  He was absolutely speechless!!!!!!!!!!!!  Haha!!!!!!!!  I LOVED it!  

Well I am in TN doing last minute shopping. I am a bit stressed.

Well, I am going to try blogging via my Blackjack cell. I am setting seriously stressed trying to make sure I do not forget anything. I am off! Will update tomorrow!

Trip Photos

Okay, I have tried for several hours to figure out the mobile picture upload to blogger. I finally gave up!!! So, I created a photobucket account which is at the bottom of the page. I will be uploading pictures from the trip so look towards the bottom of the page.

LOL, right now it is just two pictures of me!!!! I will add some more pictures in a bit! I am busy doing laundry, pulling out suitcases, and getting my proverbial ducks in a row.

My Birthday

Since I will be out of town on my birthday, my bosses, Lacrisha and Johnny, took me out to lunch for my birthday today. They rock!

More on my trip

This is the photo from our ceremony when we were renewed our vows in the catholic church. Father Shawn was awesome!


Anyway, Allen was 16 years older and I. We always thought that we were split-aparts; eventhough, we had such an age difference!



We were huge fans of the movie, "Somewhere in Time." We called each other "our somewhere in time." Anyone who came to the memorial would be able to recongize the music being played as the soundtrack to that movie.



As I have thought about where to get closure, what better place than where we planned to vaction on our 25th Wedding Anniversary. It was our dream to make it to Macinack Island to visit the Grand Hotel where the movie was filmed.


To the right, you can see the front of the Grand Hotel.

I am both excited and saddened at the purpose of my trip. I miss Allen so very much; however, I can choose to wallow in my loss or choose to live.

After attending two 10 week Alabama Grief Support groups, I have learned that grief work is a series of choices. One choice builds upon the other. I am choosing to live.

I was with Allen 20 years. Given that I am turning 41 next Wednesday, I was with him half of my life. I feel like I am entering into a period of birthing a new me. I have no idea what the "new me" will look like but it should be an adventure.

Mother and I leave on Sunday for our long road trip. I am chuckling because I am going to take pics along the way and post them via my Blackjack PDA.

Anyway, stay tuned for more!!!!

My Trip

I will be heading out Saturday morning to meet mother in Chattanooga. From there, we will be traveling to Mackinac Island where I will be scattering Allen's ashes.

It's been a stressful time as I have prepared myself emotionally for this trip. Actually, it's more than a trip. It's a symbol of letting go of the past and moving onto the future. My birthday is on June 24th. We wanted to get to the island before he died but never made it. I am going to scatter him off the shore lighthouse that was in the movie, "Somewhere in Time."

Right now, I am headed to the funeral home to have his ashes transferred into a scattering urn. I will update later and post some pictures of where I will be headed.

Hugs!