Friday's Family Foto

First of all let me say I am sorry this post is sooo late, we had a drunk driver take out a light pole last night about 10:30, the power company had it fixed by 2:00 this morning, but No Internet...no Internet of my goodness what am I going to do? How will I survive until the repairman gets here?... I sobbing wildly, Thank goodness I live in a small town and know most everyone here, our Bell South repairman Graduated with BB, so he was here by 12:00PM. It is now up and running, the power surge had blew out the modem. So, I'm back...
Deborah over at http://picturespotspens.blogspot.com/ is hosting Favorite Family Foto. You get to see lots of family photos, hop on over and check them out.

Last week I told you about my son Chuck, this week I'd like to tell you about my middle son, Ronnie ...born Aug. 27, 1968. We just knew he was going to wait till the 28th and come on his Daddy's Birthday, but he had other plans. I had cooked Supper the 27th for DH for his birthday because I felt so good and figured I'd be in the hospital on his Birthday...giving birth...wrong, just as we set down to eat about 6:15 I had that one sharp pain, at 7:00 we had our sweet little boy...lol..he just couldn't wait 5 more hrs. He is 40 yrs old and his little life hasn't been easy, but he never complains, and lives life at full speed..we should have been alerted to his need for speed when he was 2 yrs old. He'd stand on the seat beside me...(now before anyone has a heart attack or calls me a bad Momma, in 1970 no car had seat belts and kids actually stood on the seat beside their parents..).. and pull on the seat, yelling doe Momma, doe....he loved for me to drive fast, but I'm afraid I didn't . Sorry Ronnie...lol...

Ronnie was my baby, not because I loved him more than my other 2, there's no way. But Ronnie picked me, he was a Momma's baby big time, Until he was 4 yrs old he wouldn't go to sleep unless he was touching me, my arm, hand, leg...I could always tell, if he was playing on the floor when he was getting sleepy cause I'd feel him rubbing my foot, lol, he just had to be touching his Momma. When he was 6 weeks old, the Dr discovered what he called a blood tumor under his little neck, we were told that we had to watch him very carefully, that it could dry up and go away or it could rupture, if it ruptured he could hemorrhage to death before we could get him to the Hospital, so for 3 years I didn't work and we were inseparable. Praise God it dissolved on it's on, but our time together made us very close..

Ronnie was the happiest baby of the 3, he was always smiling, and knowing what I found out later that fact just breaks my heart.....he was asleep by 8 every night until he was 12 but you better be ready to get up by 6 cause he was...lol...(his only fault) and he always woke up with a smile. As soon as his little eyes open the smile came...

This is a picture taken 5 days before the surgery to remove his tonsils, he's the one in the middle, always smiling, they were going on a trip to the zoo and even though he had a fever of 100 and I know felt so bad, he begged to go on the trip, so we went. He never complained, never did and still doesn't. The little girl behind him is my little niece, Kim, they were very close, we lost Kim last Oct, @ age 40, from a blood clot passing through her heart..Ronnie really took it hard.

His 2d grade picture, all went well for the next 7 yrs, he love to help his Daddy cut fire wood and plant the garden. You never had to ask him he always asked you if you needed help first. He loved football and played PeeWee football, waiting for Jr High when he could play..as he called it..Real Football, he was tough, as I said he never complained and could take hits that other PeeWee players couldn't, Coach German couldn't wait for him to get to the 7th grade..

Don't he look good in his uniform, he was so happy and proud. One day about 4 weeks into practice, the Coach, told Ronnie to have me come see him, when I went to his office I could tell something was wrong, by the look on the Coach's face. He asked me if we'd ever had Ronnie's back xrayed or if he said anything about it hurting, no, he hadn't. The Coach said he's noticed when they had a scrimmage, when Ronnie got hit and was on the ground, he would have to crawl over to a bench or the nearest player to pull himself up. So off to the Dr we go, my heart just broke, he was born with a birth defect that we didn't know about, it is not uncommon, but his playing football and all the getting hit and knocked around had aggravated it, he was born without a muscle holding his vertebra in place, it was the last one next to his tail bone and it had been knocked into the nerves that control his legs, plus he had numerous spurs on his spine. The Dr asked him how did he stand the pain that he had to have been in for years, he looked at the Dr and this is when my heart just snapped into, and said "I though it was normal to hurt". the thought of my beautiful, smiling, happy little boy, who never hurt anyone and always helped anyone who needed help, this tenderhearted little one, who never complained had suffered for years alone, just tore me apart..they did surgery on his back and that ended his football, but his Sr. year he was allowed to play soccer.

I had to show this picture though he'd probably kill me

...lol..it's funny now but it sure wasn't at the time, look closely at his front teeth...and I'll tell you a story Lance would rather forget...Ronnie was 11 when Lance came along and he just fell in love with him instantly every where Ronnie was Lance was, he took him to town with him when he got old enough to drive...he laughingly said Lance was a chick magnet...but any how, one day when Lance was about 4 and Ronnie was 15, I had hung some pictures in Ronnie's room about a week before and had laid the hammer down in the window and forgot about it. Well, I was in the kitchen fixing supper, when I heard this God awful scream, not I'm telling you this was a scream like nothing I'd ever heard before and just as I turn to run to see what happened I heard words coming out of my son's mouth that I didn't know, much less think he would know...oh, my a sailor would have blushed...I heard a door slam open and a boggity, boogity of little feet running for dear life, Lance flew around the corner into the kitchen, now this child was as white as a ghost and just shaking like a leaf, poor baby I though...what is wrong, just about that time Ronnie came around the corner, hammer in hand and blood pouring out of his mouth...and half of the front tooth missing......Awwww..it seems he had been sleeping peacefully not bothering a soul when all of a sudden his life flashed in front of his face, stars flew every where. Did the whole ceiling came crashing down? Nope...it was just Lance and my trusty little hammer I'd left in the window, It seems Ronnie wouldn't wake up and play with him, so he hit him, in the mouth ,with the hammer, but he didn't think it would hurt him. Ronnie say's even today he's gonna pay the little sh** back when he least expects it...lol..He had to wear the tooth just repaired until he turned 18, before the Dentist would put a crown on it.

He graduated in 1986 at 18, 1 years later in '87 he fell head over heels in love with Lisa, a girl that was 7 yrs older, no problem there if she'd been the right person for him, but you can't tell your kids what to do. She had 2 children by another marriage, a son the Same age as Lance who we don't see, he is having a hard time straightening his life out and a sweet little girl Stevie, who is 25, now. She is married and she called Ronnie last week to let him know that he is going to be Grandpa. They still love each other dearly, she was 4 when he married her Mom and she was 12 when they divorced but like he told her I divorced your Mom, not you.. when Ronnie and Lisa had been married 2 yrs Keifer can in to there lives, Ronnie fell in love instantly and was wrapped around his little finger...

When Keifer was 6 yrs old his Mom decided she didn't want to be married anymore it Devi stated Ronnie, . It took him 5 yrs to decide it was time to move on. You'll never know how happy I was when I received the phone call from Johnson City, TN, where he was working telling me that he thought it was time to move on and remarry, and he brought Mindy home to be his wife, they have their ups and downs, she is 10 yrs younger than him and was only 21 when she had to take on a 11 yr old son, by this time Ronnie had full custody of Keifer, then Marrisa came along and made the family complete. Ronnie, Keifer, Marissa and Stevie (his step-daughter)

When they first got married, it was in front of a Preacher in my living room, with just Charles and me there, so on their 5th Anniverary they had the wedding Mindy had always wanted, Marissa was a Mini-Bride and Keifer was Best Man.

He loves these 2 more than life itself, but he and Keifer have a bond like none I've ever seen before. for that story read my post on Keifer.
Ronnie has been plagued with pain for the last 7 yrs non-stop, he has always had problems with spurs on his spine, but the Dr says that they are now in his spinal cord in such a spot that he could be paralyzed if they try to remove them. They have tried everything they can to help releve the pain, the pain pump worked for awhile, until the calcium built around the tube and cut it, this happen 3 times so they were forced to remove the pump. Nothing else has helped, but like the little boy who thought it was normal to hurt, he never complains and never misses work. I worry about him so much, he has aged 10 yrs in the last 3. He looks so tired all the time, and because of the meds his weight goes up and down, this isn't healthy, but I know it is the pain and the meds they are having to give him.
We don't wonderstand why our 2 older boys have to suffer from Spine problems, we have been told it is inherited. They get it from both sides of the family, but instead of giving in and quiting, the pain just seems to make them both strongr and more determined to make it..