"It's a brand new day"!

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

~ Winston Churchill


Tuesday night June 29th, 2010
I sent Ethan off to Scouts, while Tracy and Jade went and did service projects for needy people in our ward.
I headed outside to enjoy the calm and peaceful night air and was enjoying watering my plants and trees in our yard. It was a gorgeous night. About 30 minutes into my watering, dark clouds rolled in and the winds picked up and it started raining and lots of thunder and lightning. I was really getting nervous thinking about the sweet men in my life being outside in this nasty weather mowing widows lawns in our area and hoping they were okay.

Ethan showed up around 7:45 from Scouts and the winds were so strong they were blowing our trees all around. Rachel (Ethan's leader) said: "look at your tree". I looked and a branch had broken off. She also commented:
"Boy it looks like a tornado out here".
All I remember is I grabbed my camera as I couldn't believe the intense storm we were experiencing and right before my eyes, a swirling black cloud came through our yard and swirled around our tree and broke it all apart into 4 pieces...right down to the stump.

The view as I opened the front door...

A moment later...
our tree being blown in every which way.

...and then being torn apart.

I was stunned, I felt sick...I SOBBED!!
As I realized that the tree that I had loved and nurtured for 10 years was gone.

I felt like Buzz Lightyear
did on "Toy Story" when he said the following line:
(insanely) "Gone! It's all gone! All of it's gone! Bye-bye! Whoo! See ya"!

It seems like such a silly thing to get so sad about losing a tree, but that tree was "The Giving Tree" and filled our lives with SO many wonderful things and memories.

**************************************
What a week we had!
It ended with coming home from work on Friday and, snuggling on the couch/bean bag with my kiddos and Mr. Smith and watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie while the kids fought over whose back I got to tickle next...feeding the kids lunch and then heading on an early afternoon DATE with Mr. Smith. Shortly after leaving on our date he looked at me and said: "I bought a song today on iTunes that is perfect for our event that happened this week...(to hear it click here)

The song was the "Forrest Gump Suite"
(aka "The Feather Theme")
The feather that floats around at the end of the movie is kind of like the things in life that we have no control over... not that we don't have control over many things but there are certainly times when you are at the whim of the winds in life and you just have to hang on and be ready to pick up the pieces and move on when things calm down!

We both got a little teary eyed while listening to it
and then Tracy made me laugh when he said:
"Sorry I get a little "Verklempt" and Sentimental".

That is one of my favorite things about Tracy, he is good at making me cry one minute (in a good way) and then he will have me laughing the next!
This happens all the time.
He doesn't like for a "down moment" to last too long.

Life is just too good to spend very much of it down and sad.

Laughter is a much better emotion!

So, after our "verklempt moment", we then talked about the JOY that our awesome tree brought to our life, and how "It's a brand new day"...
There is no such thing as having a pity party over the past...nothing you do will change it and so we will replace our tree with something just as good that we will love and nurture and it will grow and flourish and fill our lives with much beauty and JOY as well.

I feel SO blessed to be married to a husband who is as optimistic and sometimes more positive then I am. It doesn't matter what trials come our way, Tracy's and my motto is: "Always look on the Bright Side of Life"!

The aftermath...

I walk out my front door and it feels hot and dry and I miss our shade and beauty.
All that is left is a stump.

I miss my view as I drive up the driveway and walk up our front sidewalk.

"It's a brand new day"...and what a gorgeous day it is!
Tracy, getting to work trying to figure out how to dig up the stump.

Here is a post I did last year showing how gorgeous our tree is and how much we LOVED it! (click here)

And last of all...
here is a tribute to our tree for my journal.

I still remember the day we purchased plants for our yard.
I LOVED that little tree.

And it grew...

and Grew...

and GREW!!

And it was a home for many
sweet Robins and Yellow Finch birds.

And was a backdrop,
for MANY photos of our family...

and adorable photos of my boys!

And it provided LOTS of shade
as we played in the yard as a family!

And it was BEAUTIFUL,
no matter what Season it was!

Blossoms May 2010

It was the favorite feature of our yard!

The view from our porch...

My kids had the most stunning view of our tree...

WOW!!

We were STUNNED each day
when we walked down the hallway and looked in the kids room and saw the gorgeous white beauty of the spring blossoms!

The view from our TV room!

I didn't know that Monday
when I was snapping photos of my yard that this would be the last photo taken of our tree standing!

BUT...we are feeling SO happy
that we have another "Spring Snow Crab" tree in our back yard, that we are going to dig up this Fall and move to it's new home to give it LOTS of love so it can make our porch area beautiful once again!

This is the view of my front sidewalk
today, July 3rd, 2010.
Enjoying that I can display our flag and I love watching it move in the wind and reflecting on the Freedom that the Flag represents!
Looking forward to singing
"The Star Spangled Banner" and
"America the Beautiful" in church tomorrow.
(I'm the chorister and I LOVE these songs and love leading the singing!)
What a blessing it is to live in America!

I'm feeling SO happy and blessed that our family and house is safe from the storm and feeling HAPPY that I get 4 wonderful days off to spend with my family!
Looking forward to creating many more wonderful memories and having LOTS of family fun!

Happy
Independence Day 2010!