Living in Munchkinland

This last week has been a whirlwind. I am grieving, but it is hard to find time and space to grieve. There are too many changes and activities going on. It's just a lump that lives in my throat and a pervasive exhaustion. Life has been moving at a frantic pace since the memorial service. We found a renter and signed a lease. We attended a final ranch happy hour. We attended a final pool party at Casa Pacifica where we drank margaritas and swam. We have packed up our house, we stayed with my mom for three nights. Mom and the boys and I scrubbed out our house. The moving truck came and mom and Davis and Samuel brought lemonade and brownies for the crew and Michael worked and I followed them around with a broom. The moving truck left. Michael flew to Denver. We spent another night with mama, staying up late and singing songs with her in the living room. The next morning we got up early and loaded a very, very full car with three dogs and two kids and drove off for Dumas fo...

Over the last two weeks, things have been a blur. During the nine days while my dad was leaving us, I spent every day with him and my mom and the last four nights I slept at their house. During this time, my kids got a stomach bug and stayed home from school, Michael spent a week working in Denver, my cell phone fell and the screen cracked, we postponed our move, I lost my renter at the last minute, we bought a car and sold a car and the kids had two award ceremonies, several field trips and many end of year activities. We hosted family, planned a celebration of life, hosted the celebration, had an impromptu pool party, Michael left for Florida and finally settled down again. Things were happening and I don't know how they actually happened. However, because this is a record of our family and my kids are doing their very best, I want to note here their awesome-ness. Samuel's award ceremony happened one hour after my dad passed. I had promised him I wouldn't miss it a...

wrote a lovely tribute post for my dad and published it yesterday. By Richard Skanse Anthony “Lucky” Tomblin was 58 years old by the time he released his first full-length album, 2001’s Lucky Club Music (credited to the band Lucky 13). But it wasn’t a late start so much as it was a case of a life full-lived coming full circle — and beginning anew. “Lucky had been singing since he was a kid,” says Redd Volkaert, the celebrated Austin Telecaster master who spent a decade playing and recording in the Lucky Tomblin Band, the all-star honky-tonk ensemble Tomblin started a couple years later. “So it wasn’t like he got to a point in his life where he was like, ‘Hey, I think I want a band.’ He was in bands 40 years ago. But I guess he just got kind of, you know … sidetracked.” Lucky Tomblin (center) with his all-star Lucky Tomblin Band (from left, Earl Poole Ball, John X Reed, Bobby Arnold, Jon Hawn, Sarah Brown, and Redd Volkaert. (Photo by Rodney Bursiel) Lucky Tomblin (center) with...

My brother in law wrote this about my dad and posted it on Facebook. I love it so much. He really captured who my dad was and I am very blessed to be able to share it with you as my own words will not come. First off, thanks to all the friends and family who have offered their thoughts and support to the Tomblin, Davis, Carnes and Walter families. The FB posts, calls, and texts are greatly appreciated a truly helpful during this time. I’m not much of a FB poster, however, I think this may be the best way to be heard on this subject. As many of you know, my Father-in-law Lucky Tomblin passed away on Tuesday. What you may not know is due to his fight with Lewy Body Disease we really lost a little bit of Lucky’s true essence every year then month then day due to this brutal form of dementia. I, like so many of you, was fortunate enough to know Lucky several years before the disease really took hold. And, although I will cherish every moment I spent with him, those are the years that r...

My dad died yesterday. My mom and sister and I were with him as his spirit flew free. I can't talk about it yet. My heart is broken into a thousand little pieces. But I am so happy he is finally free and I feel his spirit all around me. Born October 24th, 1943, he was named Anthony Wayne Tomblin, but even as a boy he knew that he was different from all the rest. He was living with his eight siblings and mother in a two-bedroom apartment in San Antonio when he found a bike. He decided he was Lucky. And with that, he decided that he’d direct his own fate. Friends, family, even his mother called him Lucky. The name suited him as he made his way through a challenging childhood. He was brought up by his loving mother with the help of the nuns at his Catholic school, but still ran the streets of “south side” San Antonio at night. He put himself through college at Southwest Texas, where he met and fell for a beautiful, dark haired girl named Rebecca. Never one to be deterred, he f...

I found this letter while going through a box of old papers. I cannot express how much it meant to me to find it and read his words to me in his own handwriting. I must have been about to leave for college at NYU when he wrote it. I cried so hard when I found it, that I smudged the letters, which I hate, but you can still read it. It is priceless.

Our Friends got together and threw us a lovely party. Every family had to participate in the show and we had so many wonderful acts! We even had a video performance from the Liffords! The rain poured down as the guests arrived, but the kids spread out in the big room and played games and the grownups sipped wine and prepared then performance area. The show was fabulous in every act. It was SO MUCH FUN. Davis and Michael and Samuel performed Eleanor Rigby with Sam on guitar, Davis on keyboards and vocals and M on bass. They were great and I was very proud. Samuel was so nervous. He ended up under the table afterwards and I was worried for him, but I soon let it go, because I saw my mom disappear under the table with him and I knew he was in the very best hands. Michael also played with Nacho Mama, the band formerly known as Pappy Hour and they were great. I am a total groupie. We had a dramatic reading of poetry and a beautiful essay on Friendship. We had lots of upbeat a...