Breast Cancer Fund Raiser Tee-Shirts For Sale!!

Greetings Everyone!

Above is a picture of Kari in one of our custom "Captain Susan's Pirates" breast cancer 3 day tee's. We are taking orders for these to raise money for the "cure" in Susan's honor. If you are interested please email Kaylee or Kari at the following email addresses with your size and we will ship them to you!! Thanks so much for your help! They are available in Petite, Small, Medium, Large, X-Lg at $25 each and 2XL for $35. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Kaylee kayleewalstad@msn.com

Kari kfrangos@hicks-thomas.com

Thanks so much for all of your phone calls, cards, emails and support. It has meant the world to all of us!

It's Been One Month...

Well. it's been a month since Susan departed our world for Heaven....and it feels like it was yesterday, still very fresh and still very painful. I decided to put a few pics of Sue on the blog because I thought some unseen pics might help us all remember Sue before she got breast cancer. I am so surprised at the amount of people still going ot the blog....it was really a daily habit for many of us, and hard to imagine it is over...we planted a beautiful flowering crab tree for Sue's birthday and Ray and mom and sister came up from TX and we had our Pastor dedicate it, and then we let 70 purple and silver balloons into the air...it was so cool! It's really hard to believe I will not see her again until my time here is over. I miss her terribly, I think I always will. My sister in law, Lisa gave me abook which I am reading right now called HEAVEN, by Randy Alcorn that is awesome. It is quite interesting in case any of you want to know what Heaven might be like....

Also, this blog was given some note of "art" distinction here on blogger....I thought that was cool. Take care and I am sure Ray and I will be blogging occasionally still....so stick around friends!



Kari, our sister dragged us to a "Cat Show" in Houston, even Ray had to go!! He drove us! Ray LOVED it...(wink, wink) We even got our pic taken with a celebrity cat!! We laughed about that for ever!!

Alex, Sue, Reed Herman & my brother in law Donovan Saba, what's interesting about this pic is that it is Easter and Sue called me to see if she could bring 2 friends who had no place to go for Easter..I said sure, the more the merrier...Reed entertained all of us with his various tattoo's and stories and the other guest was Lonnie, a magician who was also fabulously entertaining. She always was making sure everyone was ok and had somewhere to go....I will miss her interesting friends and mystery visitors...

See Sue on the left, she always helped plan and entertain for my daughter Ashlee's (her niece) birthdays, as Sue LOVED birthdays and loved helping!! See how happy she looks as she leads a game of duck duck gray duck!!

I took this pic of Sue in our office on a sunny day, it was one of her favorite's because the sunlight on her face wasn't so obvious until we looked at the pic!!

Take care til I see you again.

XOXOXO Kaylee

O’, The Places Sue Will Go

Susan won’t be far from us; but o’ the places she will go.

She’ll be as close to our hearts as near as her name is to our lips. She’ll soar with angels and learn their odd and curious ways. But she’ll also walk with us when our tread is heavy and our minds baffled by God’s confusing Plans.

She’ll sit in a great Hall of Learning while great Masters teach the ways of Heaven and Creation. She can’t wait till she’s a teacher herself and share her knowledge with her family and friends when it is our time. She’ll maneuver us all through the avenues and passages of the Kingdom on a grand road trip with her familiarity of Heaven’s short cuts and scenic stops. I'm sure there will be a farmer's market to browse and sushi to dine.

Till then she’ll sail to the far end of the galaxy on a pirate ship, with the Jolly Roger flapping on the breeze of gamma rays and solar winds, crossing swords with Black Beard and Captain Morgan – a mischievous wink behind her eye patch and a laugh to be heard all the way back into our dreams.

She will sit with Edgar Allan Poe and attempt to lift his spirits with quotes from a Will Ferrell movie. The dark poet will chuckle from “Old man, I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey!” Sunset turns to night and back to morning as the laughter goes on for a very long time.

Johnny Cash will pluck a tune just for her; and he will point to earth and says: “I wrote that for you to share with your man below.” I will hear it in my sleep as she strokes my hair softly as she did when she was with me.

As far away as she seems to be she’ll always be by our sides for every Christmas and Halloween, in times of rain and warm spring breezes, birthdays and anniversaries, graduations and every precious moment coming to us. When we think we’re alone with our sighs and tears and the yearning to fill the Susan-shaped hole inside of us, she’ll be close to us to remind us of all the good times and her love for us that will never wither on the vine.

Life is a wink, a snap of the fingers in the eyes of Eternity. It really won’t be that long till we’re together again to continue the love and company we had before we were momentarily separated. It just seems that way for us mortals. We miss our Susan, our Sue, beloved daughter, sister, friend, love of my life. But we have wonderful memories of her that supersede the ones we want to forget. Those good memories will connect us to her keenly and without fail.

So to remember her with fondness and the moments we shared with her, let the final words of the great master Dr. Seuss sink the truth within us and have it take root: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

Ray

Some Pix from Sue's Services

Greetings to Everyone-

I miss blogging about my wonderful sister so much and the updates and pics, and how all the comments made her feel so great. She could never believe how any people read, and visited the blog and cared and prayed. I am so thankful for all of you and the hope and prayers that kept her lifted up.I have gone back so many times just to look at it, I just haven't been able to bring myself to write in it and share pics. My dad, Ashlee& I made it back to MN in 23 hrs floating in his boat otherwise known as a Buick RoadMaster. There is a reasone they named it that...it really is the "master" of the road. I hope everyone is doing well and I have thought of everyone often and how much so many of you helped me and supported me while I was planning the services for Sue and in the midst of the horrible pain and realization that she was gone forever.

There is a permanent slide show set to music at http://www.mem.com/ for Sue that was playing during her visitation that you can go to and see. Just enter Her last and first name in the search and it pulls it up and then click on movie. It is really nice.

Here are the service pics:

Earthman Funeral Home Chapel- where her visitation was - thanks to all who sent beautiful flowers. You can see the two sceeens which played the slide show set to music continually throughout the visitation.

Sue's silver casket, Pallbearers are Mike Walstad, Eric Pickett, Alex Walstad, Reuben Arryoa (sorry I can't spell it!) , Steve Wilson, and Jessica Martinez, RAy's sister.

The gravesite, it is in a beautiful cemetary, WoodLawn, and she buried beneath a tree which was filled with wind chimes, which Sue loved and collected. Ray will bring one for Sue to hang in the tree. On the other side were huge blooming flowering bushes.


The chapel at 2nd Baptist where Sue's memorial service was held. It was filled with beautiful stained glass each depicting a scene from the bible. There was about 150-175 people in attendance.

Steve Wilson, Eric Pickett & me (I look horrible and at this point had been crying straight for 6 days.) The 11x14 framed photo of Sue was atthe front of the chapel and also at the visitation. Eric and I spoke at the memorial service about Sue's impact on our lives and the lives of so many others.

Ray gave my mom Sue's car, Greenie. I threw this in here as my mom hasn't driven since 2004 because she hates driving and always has and thought she could retire...but her two main drivers Sue and my dad are both gone, so she has decided she could drive Sue's car and she has been. She said she can feel Sue's presence when she drives. Keep my mom in your prayers....:)

I am also going to get Eric's speech and copy it here and also a copy of mine for all of you to read if you so desire. Please take care and i will post "stuff" here, I just don't want it to become Kaylee's Journey .....

XOXOX Kaylee

Thank You

Just a quick post to thank everyone who attended Sue's visitation, burial and/or funeral. Everyone of you helped so much to give us all the strength to get through these few tough days. All of your prayers, kind words, hugs and stories really did help lift the heavy sorrow. Thanks so much to Pastor Jeff Calhoun, for his amazing kindness and family visits and prayers and for going the extra mile and making Sue's memorial service so special and memorable. We will be eternally thankful for your presence.

It has been the hardest time in life so far, but I am going to start each day like Sue did, finding something to be thankful for and thanking the Lord. I am thankful to have had a sister as great as Sue, even though her loss right now is unbearable, it is true, it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.

SUsan's company, Thomas Properties was also out in great numbers to show their respect and freindship, and we are all so impressed by everyone. Thank you all for your support, food, kindness, stories...you were all amazing. Thanks for following the blog and for your prayers. I will never forget any of you.

The burial and service today went beautifully, and when it was all done I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I am sorry for the people I didn't get to talk to. Thanks again for coming and showing support for Susan and Ray.

Speaking of Ray, he was also amazing and courageous and strong. I am so proud of you Ray. FOr everything, for wanting to do the very best to memorialize Sue. Everything was perfect and you planned it from the start to finish. I felt really good about everything when it was all done, more than good-so so so happy by how nice it all was and how well it all went and how many people came to show their love. I was amazed by how many people Sue had touched in her time in Houston. It is going to be hard to go back to my life and not have Sue to talk to and laugh with...but I will see her again, I KNOW IT!

Thank also to Deb for the beautiful songs and to Eric for his very funny and poignant eulogy today, let me know if the jury comes in on the ghost thing...!! Thanks to Steve & RUben for being pallbearers and for just being there to support our families. You guys were awesome!! Mary, Mo and the others who chipped in and brought us food, and then showed up for everything and stayed til the end to offer your support, you are awesome!! I know I am forgetting people, and I am sorry...I am a little brain dead from all this and Ashlee and I are leaving tomorrow with my dad to drive his car back to MN.

Oh...thank you for all the beautiful flowers, phone calls from my friends and family back home and for your breast cancer donations!!!!!!! The flowers were beautiful and there were so many!! I will add more, but I just want all of you to know how much each and everyone of your prayers and care meant to all of our family!! Take care and may God bless each and everyone of you.

XOXO Kaylee

Visitation, Burial & Memorial Service Information for Susan

Greetings-

Following is the burial and memorial service informationfor Susan. Everyone is invited and welcome, so if you can come we would LOVE it and welcome you to Houston.

Flowers may be sent to: or in lieu of flowers we will have Susan G. Klomen Breast cancer donation paperwork for you to donate in Susan's name.

Earthman Funeral Home
8303 Katy Freeway
Houston, TX 77024 (713)465-8900

Susan's Visitation will be Sunday, June 22nd from 5pm to 9pm at Earthman Funeral Home, flowers can begin to arrive on Saturday if you wish, they are located at:
8303 Katy Freeway; Houston (713)465-8900 for directions

Susan's Burial will be at 10:00 am at Woodlawn Cemetary on Monday June 23rd the address is:
1101 Antoine Drive; Houston (713)682-3663 for directions

Susan's Memorial Service and Luncheon following will be at Second Baptist Church at 11:00 am:
The church is located at Woodridge & Voss , right off of Woodway. We are hoping all of you can make it.

Thanks again for following Sue's progression through this horrible disease and for praying for her and for your care and concern. Thanks so much to her work here in Houston and in Philadelphia and LA for all you did to help her and care for her. You made her feel so special and so successful and all she wanted to do was "get back to work", she loved her job and the people she worked with. Thank you for making a difference in her life. You really did. Thanks to her manager and better yet, great friend Eric Pickett, for your hospital and home visits and for caring about her fully, she had the time of her life and thought herself to be luckiest person because she knew you. And there are so many of you out there. Too many to name, but you know who you are. Sue had a way of making you feel special and I just don't know how I will manage without my little angel sister. Thanks again for everything, we are all indebted to you. God Bless you and remember we are not angry at God for our loss as He has a plan for all of us, we do not understand why sometimes, but we need to trust Him and that is why it is called faith. I have faith to know Sue will have heaven figured out so when I get there she will greet me and show me the ropes and I can once again be with my beloved angel I called my sister.

XOXO Kaylee

Susan's Journey

Susan and Ray in January 2008


Beautiful Susan at Pappadeaux restaurant when she could finally go out to dinner with everyone!



Susan's Journey with cancer ended today at 7:50am this morning. Susan was surrounded by Ray, her parents Doug and Kay, Kari, Ray's parents Janie and Raymond Martinez and Ray's sister Jessica and family friend and adopted sister Gloria. I was praying to God she would be able to hang on until I got there at 10am, but sadly I missed saying goodbye to my beloved sister. Our family had Sue's body remain in the room and my parents and Kari and Ray took me to the hospital so I could say goodbye to her and hug and kiss her one more time.

Susan's system began to shutdown due to the excessive tumors and acidic fluid put out by them. Her journey ended quickly in a cardiac arrest. Ray, his mother and I are going to be meeting with the funeral home, church and cemetary tomorrow to set up all the details. We will be posting the funeral details and where to send flowers/memorials should you be interested. Thanks for all your prayers and care and concern. We are also looking for pics you may have of Sue to use in a memorial for her. Please email to either Kaylee : kayleewalstad@msn.com or Ray : dalquiel@hotmail.com . Thanks again for keeping Sue in your prayers. This has been absolutely devastating.