I love me!

Today was the funeral for one of our dear friends... Ralph. He had a photo on his program of him riding a 4 wheeler and it said... I love me!!! What a great example he was to me growing up. He loved life and everyone. He was always helping others and laughing. He was so sweet on his cute wife of 60 years. I got the chance to have a long visit with him in March at my moms 60th birthday. I loved how they kept their lights on all night. When I would get home late my house would be dark but the Walkers was always bright. I loved having sleepovers, Lake Powell trips and having them as neighbors. One memory that stands out was when I was about 7 years old. Bret and I snuck out of church and walked up to the 7-11 to buy penny candy... yes they used to have penny candy. Bret was a day older than me. While we were making our selections we heard his dad laugh. We froze-- what to do what to do. He said lets army crawl out and run back to church. I peeked through the candy rows and saw my dad and Ralph getting sodas. WOW-- did we have them trapped. In order to keep us quite and not tell Mom and Donna they bribed us with Slurpee's and candy. Another was during Christmas. I was shoveling the sidewalk and he came out and threw snowballs at me. Then he helped me finish the walk while we sang Christmas carols. His wife is an angel. I loved that at his service all 8 kids spoke, 43 grand kids sang and 23 great grand kids cried. He loved his family and everyone he knew. I'll miss being called a BRAT. I'll miss his big hugs, jokes, teasing and funny Christmas cards.