Just in Time

Well, I took every one's very good advice and arranged with Eric to get our nasty tree cut down last Saturday. We did some of it Friday night and Eric and Taylor spent most of the day on Saturday trying to get the trunk/roots out. Finally, in a desperate attempt to get as much of it on the trailer and to the dump before closing-time as possible, Eric sawed through the base of the trunk with his circular saw. Not exactly the right tool for the job, but the chainsaw had crapped out halfway through the day and chopping it by hand with an axe was taking forever! We still have a stump to pull out and dispose of, but that will have to wait (again) since it's raining outside today... maybe Monday... fitting job for Labor Day, right?



Sunday morning, we woke up to find this "gift" in our front yard.


We've never been TP'd in this house, and given the amount of thorny bushes in AZ landscapes, I always thought I'd be really angry if this ever happened to me. But, in the LDS culture, being TP'd is a sign of affection or admiration. Growing up, all the popular kids houses got TP'd on a regular basis. Mine did not. I don't know if it has to do with where I sat on the popularity scale OR if it was more influenced by the fact that my dad was a well known city Police Officer. But, I can tell you, I TP'd a lot of houses in my day. It was fun, and a way to feel rebellious without really doing anything wrong. (Again, LDS teens justify this practice because everyone in the church knows it's a "good thing" to get TP'd....)
The Priests Quorum in our ward is darn lucky we had just taken the other tree out. This tree was easy to clean up. What we couldn't pull down by hand, a nice wind blew out within the next day or so.

Even though, I feel loved, I also feel the itch to retaliate... watch your backs, people... watch your backs!