Oh man! I am exhausted. I'm definitely no muscle woman. :p

We've had our tree for several days now. But it has stayed outside, in the freezing cold, with no water for several days now. I've been bugging Mom about it constantly, but between her job, the activities Sam and I do, and Christmas shopping we haven't had any time at all to get a recliner out of the house, the tree in the house, clipped, on the stand, and decorated. So guess what I did today?

After school I was finally fed up with that tree being left outside. But no one was home, like always at my house after school. So I called Grandpa up and asked him to come over and help me move the recliner into our "new room" (Grandpa built a room onto our house in the summertime). We upset a lot of stuff in our house-- my word, you should see how cluttered it is!! --moving the dumb chair out, but we eventually got it into the new room. We fixed everything that we had knocked over or knocked awry, and then Grandpa asked, "Is that all?"

The tree was huge. But I didn't know where the stand was, so I didn't ask him to help me move it in the house. "Yeah," I answered.

"Okay," he said, and left to continue working on Grandma's house (he is building an addition to their house, too).

I called Mom up at her work and asked her where the tree stand was. She said she didn't know, but it might be in the shed outside. So I grabbed Mom's little flashlight and journeyed out into the shed. Luckily, I found it right off. "Oh, good!" I said to myself. But it was disgusting! I pulled it out of the shed, using just a few fingers so I wouldn't have to touch the inch of dust or the cobwebs or anything. I brought it to our outdoor hose and turned on the water. It took a little bit to get going, since we haven't even used it the last 3-4 months. I sprayed off the stand and finally took it inside.

Now, the muddy dripping was going to be a problem. So I got out an old, holey towel and put it under the stand, and then cleaned it off totally with paper towels. Yay! The stand was in. Now.... For the tree.

I went back outside and looked at the huge tree.

I didn't remember it being that big when we got it.

Oh boy.

I didn't want to call Grandpa back-- he was busy, and he would ask me irritatedly, "Why didn't you just keep me here?"

So I was all by myself. Yeesh...

It took FOREVER to drag-and-carry it, even to the door to our new room! And then I had a real problem. I could pull the thing through easily for about 3 feet (this is a 6-foot-high tree). Then it was too big. Plus, there were a lot of bags and boxes of fabric and an ironing board in the way. The ironing board was easy to scoot back, but I had to leave the tree in the doorway with the 40-degree air blowing in to move the bags out of the way. After that was done with, I still had to tug and pull with all my might to get the tree through the doorway. I still had the doorway to our actual house to go through-- plus all the things Grandpa and I had knocked over previously moving the chair out. :)

After a WHOLE lot of pulling and yanking and tugging, I got the tree all the way to where the chair had been earlier! Yay Stephanie! I still had to cut the lower branches off, though, so it would fit in the stand. I had to troop over to my grandparents' house next door and get Grandpa's pruning shears in order to get the branches cut. My arms were tired as it was! But I eventually got most of the lower branches I needed cut off. There were still some I thought too thick for the pruners, but I talked to Grandpa and he said he could probably get them.

No one knows yet that I got the tree in all by myself. I'm rather proud of that fact myself. :) But I know Grandpa will think it foolish, since I'm such a weakling and all.

Whew! At least it's done. :) Now I just need Mom and Sam to help me get the tree in the stand-- oh, and Grandpa to cut the thick branches off. Yay! Our tree will live! LOL....

-Stephanie