Emily gets Married!!

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach."
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"True love stories never have endings." ~Richard Bach

"There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage." ~Martin Luther



I know I have been missing from my blog a lot in the last few weeks.. I have been busy getting ready for the biggest day so far in my Baby girl's life..


Emily~ around 4 months old.. so sweet.. I wanted to squeeze you tight and hold you down so that you would never grow up!


At five years old you had just made a bargain with Anthony and Cooper that they had to give you a dollar if you could stay clean until time to go.. you outsmarted them by pulling your dress off and Coopers shirt on! They swore you
cheated.. You all fought about it and I would have made you kiss through the chair crack but the hotel room only had plush chairs..


Look at you holding tight to your Daddy's arm.. I wanted to yell RUN EMILY RUN!!! but in my heart I knew you were in Love.. You were a very beautiful bride!

Emily with Cooper and her siblings from other Mothers
David and Jennifer and George... we were missing two brothers and their families... I will have to ask what David said that made everyone laugh.. did I need to bring my switch to the wedding?


Emily.. Luke.. and Kirstin.. what a beautiful picture.. I love seeing the three of you together.. the three of you always seem so happy together.. rather it is at home or out shopping or even just watching TV I love the way you interact with each other.. I always hoped Emily would find a handsome prince....

and speaking of a handsome prince.. several people asked me who this guy was.. It is none other than my own handsome prince.. Dave almost looked like a stranger with a shave and a haircut..



I am Happy to have a new son and two new Grand- Daughters.. welcome to our family Luke.. Kirstin.. and Trinity..


This is where I have been.. I have been busy planning menu's and shopping for food for a wedding reception.. Chicken salad.. little smokies.. 150 devilled eggs... I made the food myself.. or at least most of it and I was told that it was delicious.. I was way to busy to eat.. when I came home all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and snuggle up and try not to cry..

I have so many wonderful memories of my children growing up.. as a single stay at home Mom for a few years I didn't miss much that my children did.. I went on school trips and always had a crowd of other children here.. some who even lived here.. I am so lucky to have shared so much of their lives.. Every day was a blessing.. I will honestly say that Emily was a beautiful bride.. I only hope that none of the other children decides to get married any time soon.. I will need to rest before I can do this again!..


I will be back on here soon with my normal posts of poems and stories and a photo or two.. Have a great Night!
Patsy

Three for Thursday!

"Most people who succeed n the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don't know how to quit." - Robert H. Schuller

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dreams of yesterday are the hopes of today and the reality of tomorrow." - Robert H. Goddard

"To achieve the impossible, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought."
- Tom Robbins





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#1~ a few Haiku for you!

Seaside

daylight emerging
sleepy harbor roars to life
fishwife hawks her wares

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
1-10-2010

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A Winter Day

gray morning skies
empty of sweet bird song~
I carry fire wood

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
1-10-2010

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Waiting on Sunrise

at the distant shore
a bathing blue heron~
my cork vanishes


Written By: Patricia Sawyer
10-16-2009











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#2~The Thursday Challenge for today is the theme "ROUND" (Circle, Sphere, Curves, Moon, Clock, Coins,...) Snowballs?!

This is Kirstin with her ~almost~ round snow ball


that she made when we had a rare snow a few weeks ago.. she is so funny.. I asked her where the rest of her snowman was and she said she only needed a ball to have her picture made with and that there was really no need to finish him because he would melt anyway! Children are way to smart!!


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#3~ Just a thought~ all of tonight's quotes deal with the word impossible.. It seems to me that almost every day now we are faced with more and more things that seem impossible to overcome.. Jobs are so hard to find and lets face it bosses can be picky.. they ask for the nearly impossible and if you can't measure up they can dive right back into the pool of job seekers just on the slim... if not the impossible chance of finding someone who can do what they want done.. and eventually they will find someone desperate enough to do what they want the way they want it done.. My electric bill is impossible!.. I held my breath as I carefully tore it open... IMPOSSIBLE!! How can it keep going higher and higher? I have nothing left to turn off..Every one I know is talking about the impossible electric bills.... Food prices are continually on the rise.. The store thought I would pay almost four dollars for one tomato.. I left It there and guess what.. it is possible to have just a bacon and lettuce sandwich.. Soon I will have tomatoes growing here and it will seem impossible to get them all fixed and packed into jars but somehow I will manage to do it.. I am hoping for a good harvest.. Reading over the quotes I thought about all the times in my life that I thought something was impossible.. many of those things seem silly now.. I guess that the thought I would like to share is that nothing is as impossible as it may seem at this moment.. impossible things will be accomplished with hard work and sometimes with more than one try.. but one does have to try! If you have a dream that seems impossible find out all you can about what it will take to set your dream in motion.. many times it is a simple solution that is needed to accomplish the impossible! Have a great day!
Patsy

No Green on this Gray Day!

"It is with our passions as it is with fire and water, they are good servants, but bad masters.

~ Aesop

"I lived in a small town. It was 2,000 people in Canada. A little river that went through it and we swam in the - you know, there was a lot of water around. Niagara Falls was about four or five miles away." ~ James Cameron

"A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them." ~ Michel de Montaigne

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Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

What a gray day.. the sound of water splashing in the pool around the flowing well was the only sound we heard for a long time as we stood looking over the gray river.. everything was gray and dreary.. looking out through the trees at the water lines higher than my head I was a little shocked at how quiet it was here.. Last time I drove down here I had Cooper and Emily with me.. they laughed and joked as they swam out to the flowing well that appeared to be boiling in the middle of the slow moving river.. Today the water level was down.. the lines on the old trees showing that it had been up high.. overflowing the banks of the river here and filling up the swamps..... the flowing well was bubbling quiet happily even though someone has removed a large part of the pipe that made it into a shower.. where people often played or even a few times washed the muddy river water from their hair..

When I stood beside the trees here I was just a little shorter than where the water lines are on these old oak trees.. It was a little bit spooky looking out through the trees at the gray dreary lines for miles and miles out across the swamp.. Last year there were palms and other green things out there.. today it was all gray and dreary..

I had hoped that I might be lucky enough to spot a leprechan with a pot full of gold today..but instead we only found gray water and a muddy gray bank...and a drizzle of cold nasty rain..

I hope your luck today was better than mine.. Have a great day!

Patsy

Friday Shoot Outs..... Photo's from My Town!

"As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion."
~ Antisthenes

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend."
~ King Solomon


"Idleness is to the human mind like rust to iron."
~ Ezra Cornell


This weeks theme for Friday Shoot Outs is WROUGHT IRON....

Wrought iron is so named because it is worked from a bloom of porous iron mixed with slag and other impurities. The word "wrought" is an archaic past tense form of the verb "to work". "Wrought iron" literally means "worked iron".

Wrought iron is formed by heating and beating steel. This term is also used to describe a style of furniture and/or metalwork. Wrought iron is no longer in wide production.. having last been manufactured as "charcoal iron" in Sweden in 1968.. most items that are termed "wrought iron" today are actually "mild steel".


Hand forged and made to last almost forever.. most of the fences found around family graveyards or family plots with in a bigger cemetery are made from wrought Iron.. This fence is actually rather simple compared to some of the ones I have seen in Church yards here.. I was taken with this one because the gate is always open.. I once closed it thinking that maybe some one had left it open by mistake.. a few days later I passed by and noticed that it was open again.. when I saw wrought iron on the list for today's theme I hurried to make a photo of my favorite wrought iron fence! Though the newest of the graves is dated 1867.. someone undoubtedly still visits here and leaves the gate open as a welcome to other visitors..


Not to far away from the peaceful resting place of a family who leaves their gate open in welcome... I spotted this gate.. It appears to also be wrought iron... I'm betting that it is made from steel and only made to look like iron.. as you can see this gate is a part of a high board fence that guards something that you can't see.. even if you get very close and peak through the gate.. I guess it may be a house.. while I was standing there looking up at the head high fence that blocks all sight I noticed a small red light flashing on and off on the top of the wall and then I heard a click.. at first I thought someone was about to open the gate.. maybe even to welcome little old me to their so very private world.. But it was not to be.. I was not welcome.. in fact the click that I heard three times before I spotted it's source... turned out to be a camera hidden in a tree just inside the gate.. Dave begged me to return to the car as I waved and posed for the camera that I believe made my picture four times as it turned and moved up and down on it's stand.. I don't know what hides behind this fence and this fancy gate but I wanted them to know that I came in peace.. a pity I didn't know I'd be photographed.. I might have worn a better shirt or have brushed my hair... I wanted to leave them a note in their mailbox that poked through a tiny hole in the fence.. I wanted to walk right up and knock on their fancy gate.. but after I saw the flashing red light I wondered if it was electrified.. I even threatened to moon them but thankfully good sense returned to me just before I dropped my pants.. I could hear the camera clicking away as I pranced my way back to the car where Dave waited with the motor running.. I know that we live in a time where people are robbed and thieves could be just around the next bend.. But I am thankful to be a person who does not live in constant fear.. locked in behind a tall wooden wall with a wrought iron gate to keep the world outside...
Thanks for sharing a little bit of my Town.. Have a great Night!
Patsy

Write a What?? What?? What??

"Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what's wrong with it."

~ Rex Harrison

"No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place."

~ Isaac Babel


"Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words."

~ Ecclesiastics

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I think you will agree that these forms of acrostic poems might make you stop and say ..

"write a WHAT!"

That was my first thought when I glanced at the assignment for my on-line poetry writing class at Allpoetry.com..

they were actually very easy to write and I'll bet that most of you could even write your own..

each one has a hidden word or message in them.

The first one.. a mesostich~ has a word hidden right down the middle.. I chose my own name and then wrote the poem to fit what I feel about my own name..

The second one was even easier.. known as a Telestich~ it has a message or a word along the ending letters of each line.. for this one I used the word spider as I sat and gazed at one out the window.. I am quiet fond of spiders.. especially the giant green garden spiders that share the spaces beneath the trees here with us.. I do in fact have a spider tattoo on my shoulder..

The final form for this assignment was called a Cross acrostic.. it has a message or word spread across the poem.. the first letter of the first line.. the second letter on the second line and so on and so on and so on.. I have a saying.. I don't get angry.. I get even.. and this third acrostic talks about the pleasure we can get from plotting a new evenness!

I hope you enjoy the short poems for tonight and I hope today was a good day for you..

I know I have been missing a lot lately.. I continue to plan for Emily's upcoming wedding..

Have a great Night!

Patsy

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mesostich~ word- Patsy


I am~

honey Perhaps
please not patty nor pat
sweetheart if you must
it is easy to say
give it a try say my name

written BY: Patricia Sawyer
2-1-2010

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telestich~ word-spider

A Tangled Web

sunrise glitters on dewy drops
that rest on the lace... bottom and top
am I afraid.. oh no not I
I would never raise my hand
not to slap nor swipe
one just like you adorns my shoulder.

written By: Patricia Sawyer
2-1-2010

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cross acrostic~ word revenge

I Never Anger~

Reality sparks
feelings of anger
waves of hatred
sweet thoughts
we can plot
seeing a new way
even the score


Written By:
Patricia Sawyer
2-1-2010

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Moody Monday!

"Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing." ~ Denis Waitley

"Making eye contact with adults while dressed as a clown is risky."
~ Doug Coupland

"Marrying for love may be a bit risky, but it is so honest that God can't help but smile on it."
~ Josh Billings
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Today's word for Moody Monday is Risk Taking

(or what I personally would call risky!) Taking risks is defined as~

•exposure to the chance of injury or loss; hazard:
•put oneself in danger
•hazard; venture

Tana and Maya bravely climb to the top of the ancient sight where the Pueblo people once lived.. Maya doesn't seem to be afraid of anything at all.. At least not of heights.. she is an excellent climber of rocks and waterfalls as well as ladders!

Here are Anthony and Cooper also at Bandelier National Monument.. I was quick to inform them that I would have loved to have gone there... having read a book about the people who once lived there I would have loved to have seen it too.. on the other hand I am old and a lot less likely to take risks.. I may have just slowed them down.. maybe I'm getting to old for risky living..

New Mexico has a lot of rocks and I seem to have sons who think they need to climb every single one.. aside from being risky.. this photograph of Cooper standing on a giant rock reminds me just how small each of us are in the grand scheme of things..

I guess it is safe to say that I would never be able to climb to the top of those rocks.. but I do admit that the view from there has got to be spectacular.. I wonder if my sons could carry me up there? Or would that be too risky?

Have a great night!

Patsy

Wednesday Arrives in a Whirlwind !!

"As long as you hate, there will be people to hate." ~ George Harrison

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that one is loved; loved for oneself, or better yet, loved despite oneself." ~ Victor Hugo

"People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately."
~ Oscar Wilde

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In the deepest shade of the cemetery.. just a few feet from the daily rush of traffic.. this barefoot angel gazes down onto the graves of a Mother and several tiny babes.. I found it odd that though someone cared enough to erect this beautiful statue and added wonderful words of love along the bottom.. that there is no husband buried here.. unless he would be 200 years old he was buried somewhere else.. a second wife perhaps?.. a wife who survived childbirth?.. As I stood there gazing up into the sweet face of this stone angel I silently said a prayer of thanksgiving that very few babies die these days trying to come into our world.. medical technology has improved a great deal in that area!

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This week as Dave and I made the rounds looking for some good water shots I happened to think about "Our" pond... I guess I should explain that I don't actually own the pond or even any land around the pond.. all of that belongs to my uncle and a cousin or two.. But I own a share in the actual pond as does all of my cousins and kin... many many years ago a group of men decided to build a pond for private fishing and they fixed things so that legally every heir owned the right to fish or picnic or even swim if they wanted to in the muddy bottomed pond...

When I was a child this small pond was a big part of our lives.. the old red shed you can see across the pond used to be a busy concession stand where women handed hot dogs and hamburgers out through the double windows.. ice cold coke bottles crowded the washtubs on stands.. ready to quench the thirst of the handlers that waited in line to register their swimmers... excitement filled the air as the dogs barked and howled.. The swimmers were coon dogs and they were ready to race.. Uncle Oneal owned the raccoon that they would all follow across the water.. I was always so afraid that one of them would capture and eat the sweet little coon.. I was fully grown before I realized that nothing could have gotten to the fat coon that was more of a pet that anything else.. Uncle Oneal had built him a cage with it's own pontoons and he was perfectly safe behind his little box of strong wire that sat high above the water. Many times he was still dry as he was hauled onto land and hoisted into the tall pine tree where the dogs would bark and leap into the air as they tried to reach him.. They were champion hunting dogs and they put on quiet a show as they raced over and over until a winner was declared and someone was handed a handsome purse for the winning dog.. then the owners would crowd around the hitching posts to bargain for the sale or swap of a dog..

At other times Daddy and Mama would pack up a picnic and we would go down to the pond and play with our cousins and maybe even catch a few fish... No one lived back there then and we would search the sandy road from the pond to the blackberry thicket for arrow heads and bits of colored stone. I still have a pink rock in my jewelry box that I picked up there when I was about seven years old. I used to think it was a special magic rock.. Sheron assured me that it was.. and I trusted anything at all that Sheron told me.. she was and still is my hero!

Dave and I intended to just stop and make a few pictures for Watery Wednesday.. as soon as we parked under the giant pine tree I knew that I had to get out and walk around.. we walked all around the pond crossing the old damn and peeking into the old concession stand.. the rusted old wood stove still sits where it always did.. the windows have been all knocked out by vandals and it appeared that at some point someone may have taken up squatters rights there.. I was lost in thought about all the coon dog races I had been to there when Dave asked me "Why is there a rim on a pole?".... he had found the pulley that hoisted the sweet Raccoon up into the air then dragged him across the water.. I has thrilled that it was still there..

I wanted to climb up and sit on the platform where Uncle Neal used to give the signal for the dogs to be released... Dave was worried that the poles or platform could be rotten so we stayed on the ground.. and wandered around holding hands as I tried to explain Coon dog racing to him.. we looked out over the swamp from the damn and wondered what the green blobs were that were bobbing up and down along the edge of the water.. we made a few photo's and then realizing that we had been there for several hours we headed back around the pond and home.. I couldn't help but look back at the old red shed building with longing for a ice cold bottle of coke and a fire grilled hot dog.. or maybe a moon pie.....

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~ I have been feeling like I am living in a whirlwind.. Emily 's wedding day draws closer and closer and I am so NOT ready to marry off my baby.. I love Luke but Emily was just born last week wasn't she?.. I was just fishing in the old pond and picking up pink stones a few weeks before that!.. I have a reception to plan and cook for..I am told that I have to wear a dress.. I better add that to my "to do" list!. and just so I am clear on this.. Do I have to be nice to everyone at my only daughters wedding?? I mean just so I'm clear..

Spring here means babies hatching.. we had 20 chicks and 17 quail to hatch all at once this week..

Cooper and his friends were amazed at the fat chicks that rolled out of the tiny eggs.. they wondered how the chick ever fit inside the egg.. even now I smile as they chirp and peep from their warm boxes in the next room..

~ Cooper has come home from New Mexico and is here with Dave and I.. we are glad he is home but I had forgotten that other people here means noises that I had forgotten about.. every time he walks up I jump. I am used to being here alone and then at night he walks up in a hoodie with the hood on his head and scares the bejesus out of me.. and now I ask you.. what's new in your life? Have a great night!

Patsy