Today is Joe’s one year anniversary of his stroke. We are so blessed to have him with us. It has been a journey for sure. I wanted to share his updated status. He is walking around the house without his cane now. He still uses a cane outside of the house. He still has to wear a brace on his leg which therapy is still working on.  He can move his shoulder and arm but can’t always straighten his arm all the way. His hand still doesn’t work much, he can squeeze but can’t open it.  His speech is still improving all the time. It’s much easier to have conversations now.  He still has issues with word finding and some short term memory. He’s doing exercises everyday and just accomplished last week walking to the end of our street which was super exciting. He has a lot of leg pain but he pushes through. He has started tinkering a little in the garage. He painted part of a wall, he cut some branches down with help. He cooked his first meal Saturday with a little help. For anyone who has had his cooking than you know how enjoyable it was for us to eat it!! (I sure have missed his cooking) He does dishes sometimes! He is still doing therapy off and on. We are always in search of any other stroke recovery programs so if anyone knows any please share. He really is wanting to get back to driving and hunting again. He also said he wants to get in the fire truck again. So all you firefighters he wants to work with therapy some more and hope he can get in one otherwise throw him up and take him on a ride:)  We love hangin as a family and all trying to make joe laugh. He gets his grin that we all love than will laugh. We still have a long way to go but he has come so far and to watch him push through the pain and the uncertainty is amazing. We are all so proud of him and want to say thank you again to everyone for all the help and kind words and support over this past year!! We are blessed!!!