May 24th at 8:20 p.m.

We are still keeping Jess very busy. He handles it pretty well and stays awake now most of the day. He has a lot of therapies, rides the horse 2 days a week and goes to school 3 half days a week.

Joey is leaving in a couple of weeks to return to Minneapolis. We have enjoyed and appreciated his humor, his never complaining willingness to help, his sincere love for his little brother, his companionship for Jess at home, school and during horse therapy, his card playing with his grandparents, his picking me up and making me laugh and his constant love and attention to all of us. We will miss him terribly. Three months has gone way too fast.

What will we do now...everyone asks? We will continue to look for someone to help us this summer and the school is looking for a CNA to accompany Jess to summer school and to school next year. We are also trying to get a ceiling lift for the house so I can move Jess by myself. We just have to trust it will all work out.

School is almost over and graduation is next week. They have invited Jess , Chris and I to attend the celebration of the senior class graduating. We have decided to decline. It was a hard decision but we feel if Jess did understand that his class is graduating it could be very depressing for him. If he doesn't understand it would be too overwhelming for him to attend. And, Chris and know it would be extremely emotional for us. It is a day of celebration for his friends and we want them to indeed "Celebrate". Please be so careful...you are not invinceable and your life can change from having a great time to struggling to survive in an instant. We want to wish the entire graduating class of 2005 the best always! Know that Jess would give anything to be walking down that path with all of you. Here is one of his favorite sayings:

"Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps...more interesing because of them." -Robert R. Updegraff (author of "Be Thankful for your Troubles")

I have so missed having 3 or 4 boys sleeping on Jess' floor 2 or 3 days a week this year. I have had kids in my house for 31 years now and I really miss them. Hopefully as Jess recovers a little more, his friends will be more comfortable to visit and spend time with him again. I'm sure he will look forward to hear about all he has missed.

May 17th, 9:30 p.m.

It has been eleven months today since Jess was hurt in the accident. I don't even know what to say tonight. We have come a long way...but just a short way on this road to his recovery. I know the only place to be is right here in the present and I really do try so hard to stay there. If I venture into the past I focus on the way things were and if I go into the future I ponder on the way things could be and not on the way things are. So, it is just another day in our journey. Jess is fine and he is going to continue to get a little better every day. And, we are going to keep praying.

Love to all...

May 9th at 3:20 p.m.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I had all of my kids and my mom here with me. The only gift I did not receive was Jess saying "Hi Mom". I was hoping so much to hear those words.

He is doing well. Joey and I took him to the high school play "Guys and Dolls". He loved to help the drama class build the sets and seemed to know where he was in the auditorium and looked so intently at the lights, the audience and especially perked up when he heard his best friend, Curtis, singing. I know he missed being apart of the the gala event.

We have had to try a different way of riding at the horse arena. Charlie Brown got a little to "spunky" and worried everyone regarding Jess' safety so Charlie is in training right now. Jess has been riding another horse "Camo" but cannot have a back rider so we had to position Jess laying on his back on the horses back. Very interesting....but it works. Jess' neck is getting stronger and he turns it frequently left and right but he still cannot sit alone or hold his head up. We just need more time and patience on all our parts.

School is going well too. Jess goes 3 days a week from 12:30 to 4:30. He attends a fun class with a lot of his old friends or goes to his computer class, then 4 of his friends (Billy, Reno, Morgan and Dillon) meet with him and hang out discussing important issues I'm sure. At the end of the day he works out with the school speech and occupational therapists for an hour. He and Joey ride the bus home. We are hoping he will remember how much he didn't want to ride the bus and wanted to drive his own car. Stimulation is the key!

So, we are still hanging in there. Chris and I have our good positive days and are hard questioning days. We don't understand a lot of this whole journey. We miss our son and we want so much for him to be able to enjoy life, friends and family again. We will wait for how ever long it takes...what other choice do we have. Life is interesting, isn't it?