A Poem for RJ

I'll never forget all those warm summer nights that followed the days of cold water fights.

Or the man at the center of every one, my dad's older brother, gramps oldest son.

you could see that big smile all over his face as his Harley pulled up to visit our place.

And it wasn't to long before he got hold of you and each of us knew what we had to do.

We cried,

Mercy mercy uncle J I think that's all I can handle today, I'll be ready for more when you come back again but until then I love you my friend.

I have never felt pain like I did on the day that I learned from my sister he had been taken away.

I fell to my knees and begged the lord please, don't let him be gone without one final tease.

I thought of my aunt and my cousins too, My heart swells with love and sorrow for you.

As we carried his body aloft in the air past the uniformed brothers and sister all there.

I thought of the times he held me in the air and tossed me higher than any would dare.

With a mind full of memories and soul of unrest I removed the flower that was pinned to my chest.

I placed it back on top of the box dyed tan, near the truest of banners "The most Wonderful Man"

And I cried,

Mercy mercy uncle J I think that's all I can handle today You'll be waiting for me when I come back again but until then I love you my friend.

~ Mark Walker~

Thanks Mark for putting into words what I couldn't!!

Here goes something?!?!

Just a few updates for each of us--

Joe and Mandy--last Friday Joe and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary, we headed down to Florida with the kids and had a blast going to the beach and a movie and just hanging out as a little family, had so much fun that oops--I didn't even take one picture, sorry! Joe has been super busy with work and school and church responsibilities and of course us! I am grateful for all he does--he is our own SUPERMAN and we all love him so much.

Chase--this kid is amazing he is doing so well in school and loves loves loves to read, anything, to anyone who will listen.  He also likes to write sentences and show off his spelling abilities.  He has been doing so much better in his communication and has started to be able to carry on conversations with us without getting sidetracked as much! You have no idea how excited we are about this--he is simply amazing!!!

Jimmy--today we started a new therapy with our cute little big Jimmy--it's called Wilbarger Brushing Protocol, we are so ready to see how this will work, so far today he has loved it, can't say that I see many changes but that is to be expected at the beginning. We (his teachers, therapist, and us) are very optimistic!

School is almost out and we are excited about our upcoming visit to Utah! And to a fun summer-I'm just not sure I'm ready for the heat and humidity!