Butler Family Diaries

This weekend was so busy for us. We had two parties to prepare for. My nephew John Bratton is home from Iraq for 10 days, so we threw him a welcome home party. I had told him that we could have it at my house or his grandmothers house and he response was...I've been checking out your blog and your pool looks like fun. I want to have it at your house.

They were the last ones to leave Saturday night around 10 PM. John said that we were having the ultimate RedNeck party, because...wait for it.....wait for it....we sat around the BUG ZAPPER and watched the bugs make smoke, oh, we also had the boy on the dirt bike. I did not include that picture, I thought that Josh would be mad at me. We had fireworks for him, my pictures of the fireworks did not show up very well.

Sunday my niece, Alyssa had her birthday party at my house, she turns 5 on Thursday.

John and his girlfriend Katherine were the last ones to leave Sunday too. I enjoyed our "alone time" visit with John and Katherine. He told me that the exchange rate for money was 1.67 of American for 1.00 of Euros. I asked if he had been in combat yet and he said that he has been "out" a couple of times and nothing happened.

He said that the city looks just like the city in the Disney Movie Aladdin, with little peddler shops in the streets. The reference to the Disney Movie was all John. The second he said this...all I could see sitting in front of me was the little boy with the shaved head, sitting in front of my TV, Indian style, calling out, "hey, Kaye Kaye, come look at this..." (We had probably had seen this movie 100 times) This child could only be torn away from the TV to hunt frogs, snakes and turtles. Otherwise he was glued to the TV watching...Aladdin, 101 Dalmations, The Little Mermaid, etc. All of these movies were released when John was probably in the 1st grade.

I blink, and realize, this is no child...he has become a man. A man that anyone would be proud of. My heart breaks for John having to go back to that place and my heart breaks for his parents who have to live those sleepless nights....waiting for that one phone call, hoping its John on the other end and not the worst.