"Go Pull up that Tree!"

So, April is a big birthday month for my family. April 4th is my birthday, April 22nd is my sister's day, April 24th is Mike's twin brother and sister's birthday and today, April 27th is my brother-in-law, David's birthday. And it's a BIG one! He's the big 4-0 today!

I was sitting here this morning thinking back on some funny stories that have included David over the years and just had to post this one in particular. Deb and David have known each other since they were really young. We all grew up in the same church. It wasn't until they were in college though that they started dating. Deb went away to college for a couple of years and then came back home to live and finish out the last couple of years at a local University. David went to college not too far from St. Louis and would always come home on the weekends to see Deb.

This one weekend in particular, David happened to be driving my awesome blue Ford Escort. (It had automatic seat belts. You know the kind that came up and over the window when you turned on the car. I was basically awesome.) I don't know what was up with David's car and why he had mine, but his car was a stick shift and mine was an automatic. Being his usual "excited to see my sister" self, he came flying up my mom and dad's hill, into the driveway, "parked" my car, and came running inside to see his love. Now, I don't know where my mom and dad were, but it was just me and Deb at the house. We saw him coming up the hill from the front door and as he walked inside, one of us looked out only to see my car rolling backwards down the hill. It was on its way over the neighbors retaining wall and into what could have only been described as a potential disaster. Deb screamed, David tore out the door and ran like I've never seen that scrawny boy run toward the car to try and stop it.

Thankfully, my mom and dad have a tree in the yard and the car rolled right into it. Leaving tire tracks in the grass all along the way. David hopped in the car, pulled it back into the driveway, PUT IT IN PARK this time, and pulled the emergency brake. So, this is where it gets funny.

When he got the car back into the driveway, we look out and notice that the tree is now like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's not a giant tree, but it's a pretty good size. We all kind of stand there and stare at each other wondering how we are going to eradicate the situation before mom and dad get home and see it. So, being the leader of the group, Deb tells me and David to "GET OUT THERE and GO PULL UP THAT TREE!" Now, why she thought we could do that and why we listened to her is beyond me, but out we both went (she's standing inside yelling orders out the door), and the 2 of us start pulling with all our might to stand this tree back up straight.

It's. Not. Budging. She's yelling, "PULL HARDER!" So, without any arguing, we pull harder. Nothing. At this point, you'd think we would be done with Deb and her brilliant ideas, but OH NO, we weren't. She yells out the door, "Ok, maybe mom and dad won't notice the tree if the tire tracks in the grass are covered up!" "Go grab up some leaves and spread them in the tracks!" (Why are we agreeing to this?). So, out the 2 idiots go to collect our leaves. We scatter them all over the tire tracks and come inside, pretty proud of ourselves. We now have two lines of leaves in the grass and a leaning tree. Surely mom and dad will never notice this.

A little bit of time goes by and we see mom and dad coming up the hill. David was nervous. How do you explain this to your girlfriend's parents? (Why we thought they'd be mad is beyond me. My mom and dad don't get upset about much.) But, still, we were a little nervous. They walk in the door and dad goes, "What happened to the tree? Why is it leaning?" Oh what dad, you mean you weren't thrown off by the leaves covering the tire tracks?! How on earth did Deb's wondrous plan not work?

We begin laughing and tell them the story, to which they also laughed. The more we talked about it, the funnier it got. And the more we talked about it, the more David and I wondered why we listened to Deb in the first place and why wasn't she out there "pulling the tree" with us?!

Dad did some kind of rigging to the tree and was able to pull it back up straight. It did take a while for David to live that one down though. Even nearly 20 years later it's still funny. I can still picture the look of panic on David's face when he saw the car rolling, still picture us pulling up the tree and collecting our leaves and still picture Deb at the front door telling us what we needed to do.

Happy 40th Birthday, David. Don't forget in your old age to put your car in park. You are way too old to be pulling up any trees.

:)