The Old Arbor

It's that time of year again.... Keith has been busy getting our old arbor re-built! Every year we say we are going to retire that poor old thing (It was cheap to begin with and nine years of bad weather has just about done it in!) and every year I can't bring myself to let it go. Have you ever noticed how some "things" suddenly become "family" they have been around so long? That's how this old arbor has became to us. Each time I look at it I think how excited we were when we bought it and how many family pictures have been taken in front of it. One only has to look at the old gate to remember our "babies" standing there so shortly after we adopted them to have their pictures taken on their first days of school. It's seen proms, high school graduations, romantic shots of young love and soon it will have a college graduation picture taken in front of it. To let it go would be like saying good-bye to a very dear friend. So, once again Keith will try to repair it and once again we will say, "Next year we'll replace it." I have a feeling "next year" will never come and our children will be tearing it down when we have left this old farm for good!