A Special Visit - Special Birthday

The rest of our summer was pretty boring.  Other than the house updates and our trip to Arkansas not much happened.  I guess in August I spent the week as a waitress over the Sturgis Rally.  Which was quite interesting!  Nine days of long 12+ hours on my feet and great money!  Not only that, but I got to meet some very cool people.  I really enjoyed it.  A change of pace from my day job that is for sure!

A lot of events occurred in October.  Some sad and some wonderful.  I will start with the wonderful first!  Raymond's parents made the long trip from Arkansas to South Dakota for a visit.  And a very very special precious boy turned 2 years old.  Bet you can guess who that was!

Raymond's parents got to town on 10/7/11 and stayed until 10/10/11.  It was so fun to see them.  This was the first time Raymond's Dad (Robert) came and the second time his Mom (Judy) was here.  I was excited to show Mom Judy all the changes we made to the house since her last visit.  I think Raymond was excited to show Dad Robert the house and yard.  Especially all his accomplishments in the yard.  Raymond is very proud of the yard!  Which he should be!  Dad Robert has a beautiful rose garden in Arkansas........and is a rose garden expert to say the least.  When Raymond was landscaping the flower bed area this summer he wanted to plant a rose bush to be like his Dad I think.  Raymond was nervous about the rose bush dying - and being a rose gardener failure.....haha!  Ironically, that is one of the only plants in the flower bed that lived.  Not only did it live, but it was the only one that grew and ended the summer looking better than when it started :)  The other plants that lived, well, they didn't look as nice as they did first planted.  They were hanging on by a thread.  We hope they come back next year.......  That rose bush stood tall and proud though!  It must be a natural Brunson rose bush green thumb thing?  Ha!

Raymond's parents got us a meat smoker for a gift (thank you - we love it).  Raymond was so so so excited!  In fact, he is still excited and I eat smoked meat every single weekend.  Ribs, Pork, Chicken, etc.  Raymond is obsessed with trumping his last creation.   Now he is planning our Thanksgiving turkey.  Apparently this is going to be a 3 day $100 deal.  I hope it's the greatest turkey I've ever ate.

Otherwise, we just did a lot of eating and visiting.  Which is always wonderful!

On October 17th at 11:32am central time my amazing baby boy turned 2 yrs old!  I can't believe it has been 2 yrs already!  Because of a family emergency I wasn't able to have his elmo birthday party, but next year for sure!  Lucky for me and Joe, his daycare lady threw him a awesome birthday party and made him a cake that looked like a pumpkin :)  She said he ate tons and all the kids had fun.

I think back to that day 2 yrs ago........I cannot believe all Joe has overcome......and he does it with a smile on his face.  He is amazing, truly, and he doesn't even realize it.  I look up to my Joe - despite all the obstacles in front of him, he has fought through them with a smile! Joe has proved to me what life is all about.  What is important......what isn't.  He has forever changed me in such a good way.  He is the first time I have experienced what it means to love someone so much it hurts.  Raymond and I talk all the time about how Joe has changed us, made us better people, and that God gave us these babies for a reason.  A very special one.  Each day we discover another reason why he did.  It's like pieces of a puzzle - a piece falls into place each day, week, month, year.......we slowly start to understand.   Not only did it make us love our children and appreciate everything we do have - it made us appreciate and love each other.  We are so close and survived the worst.  We know we can make it through anything now.........

So happy belated birthday to my little Joe.........I look forward to each year we get to celebrate such a special boys life!