The Tree Ordeal

For Mother's Day, I got a tree. Well, really I got a gift card that was bought to buy a tree with. Every since the two pines went down this February, I kept saying I wanted a tree for my front yard.
So, this is what the kids got me and I have been real excited that I will get a tree for the front yard and I don't have to spend any of my own money. I knew that I would have to wait until Adam came home from college, to get the tree. I needed his truck to bring it home in.
This week we started on the "Tree Project". On Wednesday Adam and myself went to Lowe's (where the gift card was purchased because the kids didn't really know of a good place to buy a tree and I had said that I had seen one at Lowe's that I liked). We looked at the trees and I found a maple that I liked, but we had driven the van so we could not purchase it that day. It was only $40.00 so I found a flowering cherry tree that I thought would look good in the spot where the big pine came down. Now I am all set in my mind to what we would buy. We decide that the next day, since I have to come to Mansfield to pick up the plaque I had ordered for the memorial service we are having in June, we will drive the truck and pick up the trees on our way home.
Adam says on Wednesday night that he is getting up early to go lift at the gym and will be home by 10 or 10:30. I usually go to Curves and exercise at 10, so we will be ready to go to Mansfield by 11. I get home from Curves at 11 to find the phone ringing and Adam still in bed. Chris Hunt is on the phone for Adam. He got out of his classes early and wants to stop by to see Adam. I say O.K. because I need to make a couple of calls. Chris is still here when I am ready to leave so I ask him if he wants to go with us. He does. So we take the van again as It would be a really tight fit in the truck with all three of us.
On Thursday night, Adam says he is getting up early and he, Chris and Kyle are going to go golfing and will be home about 11 so we can go get the trees. Adam gets up late and they are just leaving as I am going to curves. I get home and wait and wait. Adam calls, says things are going real slow and he will be later than he thought.Becky took 1/2 day off , so she and I go to Mansfield looking for purses. Adam calls about 3(he just got home from golfing, glad I didn't wait all day on him) He meets us at Lowe's. My tree is gone! They have a red maple. Maybe I will get that. Just doesn't click. I find an October Maple. Really like it, but it is $62. Guess I'll only get one tree.
We follow Adam home to make sure Belinda (the name I give my tree, Heather names all her cars so I thought my tree should be named too) gets home safe. The leaves are all curled up and turned dark green so I think we may have killed her. The kids think she will be alright by tomorrow.
On Friday night Adam says he is getting up early on Saturday, and will get Belinda planted and mow Heather's lawn. At 11 I can see that it is going to rain, so I get Adam out of bed and tell him that he had better go mow Heather's yard before the rain comes. He says that he can plant the tree in just a little while and it would be a good idea to get it in the ground before it rains. So I jump on my rider to mow around the place where we are going to plant the tree. Adam starts digging the hole for the tree. It is the spot where the Blue Spruce used to be. I am still mowing when he motions for me to come over. The people who took the tree down and charged me $75 to take out the stump, had just taken the stump out about a foot below the ground. I wanted the tree in that spot. I had to go call Buckeye Tree Service but they did not answer the phone so I had to leave a message.
The tree removal called while I was still mowing and before Adam left. He said that the roots of the old tree would compete with the new tree for water for 5 Years and people usually planted grass when they took a tree down. Adam went to mow Heather's yard.
Sam came to pick up the old railroad ties that used to be around the garden, He said just dig a hole in front of the old stump and plant the tree there. My neighbor came over and said the same thing, so when Adam came back from Heather's that is what we did.
We had to take an axe and chop a few roots out but Adam finally got the hole big enough for Belinda. We sat her in the hole and it was way too deep, so we had to take her out and put dirt back in the hole. Then Adam had to stomp on it to make it level. We had to do this three times before we got her up to the place we thought she should be. By now it has started to sprinkle rain. We are getting quite wet and our tennis shoes are so heavy with mud that we can hardly lift our feet. We finally get the tree planted and are pretty wet. Adam still has to put the stakes on her to keep her growing straight. He only puts one on for now as the rain decides to come down in a pouring fashion.
We take our shoes off inside the kitchen door and have mud everywhere. We are starved and I do not want to cook. I am pooped from the tree ordeal. So we decide to clean up and go out to eat.
I hope Belinda appreciates what we did for her. And she better live if she knows what's good for her, because I'm not going thru this again.