The Best Gift Ever

We broke ground for our new home on July 11, 2005. It was a day long in coming, as we had spent months talking to our builder, making plans, etc.

That particular morning, my sister-in-law (known as AP, for Aunt Patty) called as she was leaving for work. She and Ted's brother live behind us. It was around 7:05 am, and she asked if I knew that there was activity on our lot and people there. I had no idea!

I thanked her, then jumped out of bed, got dressed, grabbed my camera and headed to the lot. Our builder, Mario, was surprised to see me, and said that he had wanted to surprise me and was going to call me in a little while. I told him that I had "people" keeping an eye on things for me, hahaha.

They had to scrape the topsoil off and move it to the back of the lot before doing anything else. That's when I first realized that I was thankful that lawn mowing is NOT in my job description. The lot seemed really deep. Of course, it's not as deep as it looks, but it seemed to go waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back.

There were different people there that day...Mario, the excavator, several of Mario's guys, and Ted stopped by for a little while too.

It was like watching a well choreographed ballet, seeing how they did all their stuff and never got in each others' way.

Soon, we had a hole dug.

That's Tim and Patty's house in the background, and that's corn growing in the field. Our new home was going to be in the middle of a corn field. 2005 was the last year for the corn. Since then alfalfa has been growing in the fields. It doesn't look like it in this picture, but the basement is pretty deep. Apparently the depth is measured by blocks, and it's at least one block deeper than normal. That wasn't my call. In fact, I had nothing to do with that decision.

The one thing that Ted was looking forward to most of all was getting a John Deere riding lawn tractor. He was so excited about that. In fact, a mere 11 days after the ground was broken, he asked me to go to the local John Deere dealership and check on the lawn tractors.

Now everything I knew, or needed to know, about riding mowers, excuse me lawn tractors, can fit in a thimble. I was pretty much at their mercy.

But off I went, and spent a good bit of time talking to a salesman. I told him we weren't in any rush, as all we had was a hole in the ground and the footer poured. He chuckled a little when I explained that my husband just felt that we absolutely HAD to get this NOW because there was always a chance that the house could be completed in the next few weeks! (Note the sarcasm.)

So after we went inside and I was sitting at his desk and he was explaining the differences in the models to me, my cell phone rang. I excused myself to see who it was. It was Ted, so I knew I had to answer it. He asked where I was and I told him.

"So you're there right now?"

"Yep."

"How do they look?"

"Like riding mowers."

"Cindi, they're LAWN TRACTORS, not mowers."

"Okay...what do you want me to do here?"

"Well BUY one!"

"Which one??"

"Whichever one you think is best."

At this point I'm just wondering if he has any clue that I am pretty much out of my element.

"So you want me to actually purchase this today?"

"Heck yes! Happy Birthday honey!"

That's right...I got a John Deere riding lawn tractor for my birthday. And I've yet to use it. And I plan on keeping it that way.

But as a little side note, it was delivered to Tim's, and kept in one of the sheds. He was so excited to finally have a John Deere, that he mowed Tim's grass for the rest of the summer and into the fall of 2005.

We moved into our new home in March of 2006 and the yard wasn't put in until late April, so it was late May before he finally got to use MY birthday gift on OUR yard...but that's okay. It keeps him out of trouble!