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From my sister-in-law, stranded/living in North Dakota: Our day starts out trying to find a place to buy trees for our yard because "You don't have ANY trees." Imagine that The Northern Plains is treeless, what a shock. So I call the two nurseries in town to see if they have anything in stock that will be large enough to make it through the winter. And having forewarned them that these trees may be expensive because we can't plant small ones right before winter I find a place and we're ready to go. Did I mention there was silence in the room when I told them the price of the trees? Can you imagine? Suzy and Edith silent and just nodding. They can't rescend the gesture now, but they obviously weren't expecting that much. But now it's time to go and the circus begins. We have a pickup truck to put the trees in, but since they sprung this on us it was full of scrap metal for the recycling center. God forbid they should have not surprised us. So let's take the pickup to the recycling place first, but we have to take another vehicle as well. So I suggest Geek take one of the kids and I'll take the other with Suzy and Edith (what was I thinking!). But of course my suggestion was shot down. Edith says, "Let Suzy go with Geek so she can spend some time alone with him before he goes off. She needs to spend time with her baby." This is a direct quote. He just celebrated his 30th birthday! And go off where? He went to a tropical island! It's sooooo dangerous, maybe one of those wild donkeys will come out and bite him! Not to mention if she wanted to spend time with him maybe she could have spent more than ONE day with us. So I kept the chuckles to myself all the while thinking, we could just use that SUV Suzy bought, trees would fit, or there'd be more room for all of us. But no wait, the back has suit cases opened up and stuff spread out all over the place. What a usefull truck she has. So, we're on our way finally, all of us off to the recycling center. We drive out our dirt road and Edith says, "Do they bring your mail all the way up to your house?" I say, "No, the mailbox is at the highway, but we go someplace every day, so it's not a problem." We get to the recycling center, after much driving in circles get it unloaded, and Geek and Suzy go in to collect our 3 dollars. They come back out and the truck won't start. So here I am sitting in my car fortunately with a/c for about an hour while Geek tries to fix the truck. This was not eventful, and I'll save you the boredom of an hour of conversation with a 2 yr old 4 yr old and Grandma Edith. Finally, deciding the truck can't be fixed and we need a part, we decide to leave it and come back tomorrow. So how are we going to work this? Oh yeah, 6 of us get in my car. Two kids in car seats and Edith in the back, Geek, me, and Suzy in the front. I decided we need to go to lunch. The kids are cranky, I'm hot and tired and cranky. So off to lunch and back to our house, I'm blocking this part out. As we drive up Edith says, "So do they bring your mail all the way up to your house?" I just role my eyes as Geek says, "No we get our mail at the highway." So now we get our other truck, still can't use that nice new SUV with a/c, it's only 95 outside. In North Dakota that means the grass is catching fire it's so freakin' hot. And no one is outside because we reached a record high. And of course as we drive up the highway Edith says, "Do they bring your mail all the way up to your house?" How many times do I have to say no, as we drive passed my mailbox? This time I just decide to check the mail as we go. We successfully make it to the nursery and pick out trees. Not too much other than, we're standing in the sun, Suzy says, "Let's move over hear to the shade, Mom needs to get out of the sun." No problem. Then two minutes later, I go to help Geek and the guy from the nursery. They all follow and soon we find ourselves standing in the sun. I say let's move back to the shade. No problem. Then two minutes later, I go to help Geek and the guy from the nursery. They all follow and soon we find ourselves standing in the sun. I say let's move back to the shade. No problem. Then two minutes later, I go to help Geek and the guy from the nursery. They all follow and soon we find ourselves standing in the sun. I say let's move back to the shade. No problem. Then two minutes later, I go to help Geek and the guy from the nursery. They all follow and soon we find ourselves standing in the sun. I say let's move back to the shade. Do you get the idea? Finally we go inside to pay. Suzy and Edith see a sign that says, "Gift Certificates Available." We've been discussing all summer that next year Geek and I intend to plant a windbreak row of pine trees. And that they suggested we also plant lilacs because they'll grow faster and supplement while the pine trees are growing. But Geek is allergic to lilacs and we plan to plant something else and I've already talked to the people at this nursery about it. We'll plant in the spring and I'll make the final decisions then. Great. So Edith says, "What do you recommend for a windbreak?" The guy says pine trees with lilacs in front. Duh. Then she's on to, "Do you deliver?" He answers. Edith, "Oh, but I'd want them to pick out the trees anyway." Then why do you care if they deliver? And didn't you notice we have a couple of trucks? We'll be picking up our trees thanks. The poor guy got grilled on what we should plant for a wind break by both Suzy and Edith. The whole while, I'm standing there saying, that's what they told me when I asked before. But we can't plant sapplings this late in the year. And the guy saying, yes, we'll have them in in the spring. And me saying, yes, that's what I was told before. The poor guy. Are you getting the picture of how my day went? And guess what, when we were on our way home and we drove past the mail box, I bet you can guess what Edith said, come on, say it with me, "Do they bring your mail all the way up to your house?" Just roll your eyes for me. I think that's about it because I just made dinner and tried to stay out of the way for the rest of the day. But just for the record, I have to drive 2 miles to the highway on the only road out from my house to pick up my mail.

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