Isabella, Giselle and Bax!: LOVE makes EVERYTHING GROW

You may or may not remember a post that I wrote on Monday, April 21, 2014. Let me refresh your memory……

This is an excerpt from that blog on that particular day in 2014….

Today, we feel super sad and it is all because of a 30 something year old tree and a BUG! Who knew something could make several family members feel sad! The Emerald ash borer bug that is, that infects trees. OUR ash tree. When I woke up today, I took the girls out at 6:45 a.m. to play on their FAVORITE TREE. One last time. As I drove down the road after playing on the tree with them and taking pictures, I passed the tree service coming to our house, and my heart and stomach sank to the ground immediately. All of the memories of my girls and this tree were flashing through my mind at that moment. And those that know me, know that there are very FEW things that I get sappy about. This particular tree was an ash tree and when we moved in to our house, 3 years ago, it instantly became their favorite because it had a swing on one of the branches. It was UNIQUE. NOSTALGIC, to say the least. Forget that we had a play set in the back with swings. THIS WAS THE ONE. That they played on, all day every day, for 3 plus hours. And I, as well as Bob, smiled from ear to ear watching their ENJOYMENT.

What a BEAUTIFUL tree that had to be cut down!

The last photo with the ASH tree in 2014

Fast forward 3 years. I am outside in the yard, right before Mother’s Day. It was very late in the day and it was time to call it a wrap! Yet, I was daydreaming about the beautiful weather and I caught myself staring at A TREE! You know you are tired when you are staring at a tree!! It was in that moment that I had an AHA MOMENT! You know those moments. Where something just DAWNS on YOU! I ran to the barn and grabbed that tree limb with the swing attached that once housed so many memories and LOVE for the girls, and for us. And the wheels were still turning….HOW can I hang this swing for the girls to this ASH tree that we have desperately been trying to save. It’s the last one of 13 trees that we have NOT had to cut down. I ran to ACE hardware with both girls in tow, as they grabbed every paint card imaginable in the paint section to make a craft, AND I got the tools necessary to get the job done! YEAH!!! Meanwhile, they had NO IDEA what I was doing.

Bob came home and we had 40 minutes before we had to head to a soccer practice on a Friday night. All dolled up in his suit and tie…..I said…Can YOU pretty please hang this swing…..it will only take 5 minutes!!! And he laughed at me, as he always does. Does anything ever only take 5 minutes? In two shakes of a rabbit’s tale, he had the swing hung up! VICTORY! After it was hung, I decided it needed to be beautiful and magical for the girls, as it once was. I started drilling holes in tree limbs to hang baskets of flowers. Put a few pots around the tree with annuals. Included a sign that says “Love makes everything grow” from my 70-year old neighbor that moved. LOVED HER! I put Giselle’s old monkey rain boots in front of the tree that she wore when she was 3 years old and stuck some flowers in there too.

WHO was the first daughter to run out there and her EYES lit up like Christmas when she saw her old swing back? It was Giselle! And what did she say? MOMMY!!! OUR OLD SWING IS BACK! YOU DON’T NEED TO MAKE IT ANYMORE BEAUTIFUL…the SWING IS ENOUGH!!! And Isabella was the second to notice it. NOW? They both continue to fight over their old friend that has been re-introduced again. Endless hours of LOVE and MEMORIES to be once yet re-created on a NEW tree………….The saying goes…Life is not measured by TIME….It is measured by creating Memories….Here are a few pictures of the ash tree that was over 30 years old and had to be cut down and here are a few pictures of the ash tree that now houses that swing that is LOVED so much!