Happy Birthday my Sweet Emily!!

"If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

"Because time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on your birthday each year: The same energy that God invested in you at birth is present once again."
~Menachem Mendel Schneerson

"Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself."
~Tom Wilson

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Twenty years ago..in a few more hours.. I rolled over in the hospital bed and coughed.. with just that cough Emily burst into the world.. the next few minutes were a blur.. she had managed to tangle her neck and one arm up in her cord.. she had decided to come into the world in a big way..I was surrounded by Doctors and Nurses and I think she and I were turned inside..outside and upside down before they were satisfied and she was safely delivered.. I heard a nurse call

6-11.. I hadn't a clue what that was.. I later found out it was her supposed weight.. I say supposed because when they weighed her in the nursery they said she only weighed 3 pounds and 11 ounces. They whisked her away to the incubator where she lay under the blue lights and sucked up their oxygen with her thumb tucked tightly into her tiny pursed lips..

Emily 6 weeks old... though you really can't tell from this picture she is still very tiny.. I stole her dress from a doll.. her hairband is actually a regular baby hair band cut in half.. If you look close at the bow on her head it appears to be giant for a baby hair bow.. She was a happy happy baby... sweet as sugar!!

Emily... 3 years old! She.. with Cooper's help... cut her own hair for the photo shoot.. can you tell? I was so mad with them both and she smiled and said.. But I will make a pretty picture.. I had a green Velvet dress picked out for her to wear too but she wasn't having that.. finally I decided that since the haircut was going to ruin the Pictures anyway I would just let them wear what they wanted.. she was right she made a great picture.. this is one of my favorite photo's of Emily..

Emily.. 5 years old.. one of the very few pictures of her by herself... she was proving she could stay clean for three hours.. what you don't see here is that as soon as we slid her ruffled dress back on she grabbed a cup of cool-aid and spilled it all over Cooper and Anthony./. but she did stay clean!

This is a recent picture of Emily along with her beloved.. Luke.. Happy Birthday Emily! I love You!

Emily brought a new chapter to my life.. one where we sat in hospitals and cancer clinics and drove for hours everyday for years and years... but one where I was in awe of her ability to smile even when she was in great pain.. The doctors would do a painful procedure to her and when they were done she would hug them tight.. She once told one of our very favorite doctor's.. Dr Red.. because he had red hair.. that she was "forgiving" him with a hug.. he and I both cried.. she was a good child if you over looked the hair cuts.. the painting of the walls .. the floors.. herself.. she always had a willing and ready partner for her mischief.. Cooper would do anything she said and then say it was all his idea... I am sure he had some idea's of his own and in those she was a willing accomplice....she loves to talk and has to have the last word.. were she here right now she would prove it by saying.." No I don't have to have the last word Mama..!"

smart.. and beautiful.. funny I always thought she was more like her Father but that last part sounds more like me!! Happy Birthday Emily Suzanne!! I love you!

I hope you enjoy my poem....Have a wonderful night!

Patsy

My Baby Girl!

Barrettes and ribbons
Baby dolls and lace.
Ah my baby girl
Such a sweet face.

Tea parties and Teddy bears
Tree climbing, Let's race.
She might be the smallest
But she demands her own space.

Schoolwork and Boyfriends
A Friday night date.
Hey mama don't worry
I just might be out late.

Ruffles on prom gowns
A mind of her own.
I'm not sure I like this
My baby girl is grown!

Written By: Patricia Sawyer

3-13-2008

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If I had a Hammer... I'd build ...build ..build!

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it. "
~ Benjamin Franklinq

"Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blue print, and begin to build." ~ Robert Collier

"We build too many walls and not enough bridges. " ~ Isaac Newton

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The theme for this weeks Heads or Tails on Tuesday is "Build"... It is heads so I am allowed to choose what I post.. I can choose a poem or a short story or some thoughts of my own or even a photo.. Being that this week it is heads I can choose.. If it was tails I would have to do a more specific task and would likely be given instructions on exactly what to post...

I am a great builder.. When I was a little girl I would build elaborate playhouses with many rooms.. they didn't have real walls but were instead marked out with sticks driven into the ground and then wrapped with string.. I Loved my string playhouses.. We even built one at My grandma's house in the woods.. Years later I went back there and found some of the sticks and strings still there.. the remains of my childhood playhouse still hidden in the woods.... I even picked up two pieces of a tea set that I must have abandoned there.. I was a great string playhouse builder....

When Anthony was a child he loved to climb trees.. He and I would build him a tree house everywhere we lived.. we once were so excited about our building that we forgot to leave a way down.. we covered the whole floor with no hole to go back through to get out of the tree.. we also didn't had a claw hammer.. I had to lower him over the side and to the ground.. he ran to get help from the neighbor.. they came laughing and rolling along with a hammer that would pull nails out.. It had been dark for nearly an hour before I was back on the ground....

When I lived in the trailer park I hated that people just walked straight through your yard.. I tried to plant a few flowers to set my space apart...but the kids rode right over them with their bikes.. I yelled at them and they yelled back.. "It's free space!" Oh NO!!! I was not living in free space.. I had to build a fence... Talking to the landlord I was told that I couldn't actually erect a fence.. I could mark my line with string and could in fact plant flowers as long as I understood that they stayed even after I went... I didn't care.. seeds were cheap at the dollar store and I had to build.. I didn't own a hammer back then.. I owned a few hammer heads but somehow the
handle kept getting broke out of them.. I guess I used them too much.. I called my brother David and he promised to bring me a hammer when he brought his kids the next morning.. They were with me every day for the summer.. along with all the other nieces and nephews who's parents worked.. I needed my fence.. I could already imagine that it would help keep them in my yard and other kids out!!

Daylight saw me standing with my back pressed tight against my own trailer.. I wanted to be fair with the guy who lived in front of me.. I didn't want to take any of his space either.. I just didn't want his grill and table in my part of the space between us.. I needed my space for flowers and some buckets of Veggies.. I walked and counted the steps from my house to his.. Next I turned around and walked back half of those steps..Right there I drove down a stick.. a fat round stick.. it was a fence post .. it had to be sturdy.... I carefully measured up and down the line between he and I.. I had to get some of the neighbor kids to help me as we shoved his big picnic table back onto his own space.. I could tell the kids were thinking I was nuts.. One even said that they could step right over a string fence.. I gave him one of my "Oh NO you Didn't!" looks.. he ran and in a few minutes came back with some longer and stronger posts.. With in a few minutes I had half of the trailer park kids out there helping me measure and drive in sticks for my fence.. we went around all three sides of the small lot.. the side that edged the road would be left open on the back side and would turn and go up a walkway to the door on the front side.. the end would be left unfenced as a place to park.. We finished the fence by wrapping and stringing some yellow string in three rows.. then we toted some buckets of dirt out there and sat them along the "fence".. next we planted flower seeds in the rich black dirt.. we would have flowers and veggies in Our space in just s few weeks.. Not a single soul ever stepped over my string fence.. One young fellow started to once and I yelled at him not to climb my fence.. "come on up the "sidewalk" like normal folks" .. There really was no sidewalk.. just a path between some string fences.. But his Mama had sent him to borrow some eggs and he must have decided to do what the crazy lady asked.. he hurried around the string fence and came to the door to knock politely... After he went home ..his Mom.. Baybay.. came over to see my new fence.. she said everyone was talking about it.. she acted like it was a real honest to goodness fence.. Before dark that night Baybay had built a string fence between her and the woman who lived in front of her.. with in a month there were string fences all over the trailer park..

I had a hammer for a while when I moved here.. Me and the kids built a fire pit ..and two tree houses....and fences... yes real fences with post and boards.. I think Dave or maybe one of the kids.. threw my hammer away..

I don't build much any more.. Now I say Dave we need to build and he does all the work.. we have built tree houses and birdhouses and table and benches.... he will build what ever I ask for pretty much.. Last week I said Dave we need to build a pantry.. And he did.. this week I have said we need to build three different times.. he has so far this week built two chicken pens and tomorrow will finish a pig pen between the two .. it will be our new pig and chicken combo pen design..
This is Dave building...building... building...
I am lucky to have a man that will build.. he does frown on sting fences but other than that he will get the hammer and give it his best shot... Have a great day!
Patsy