Farewell to our elm

It's funny, I was all set to write a long post about our construction woes and then we got away for a weekend and it all started to seem like less of a big deal. So I'll try to keep it short.

Last week, we started a pretty big project to replace the pipes running under our yard. We got a permit from the city and hired a company that said they could do the work without us losing any of our trees.

But as anyone who watches HGTV knows, nothing is ever that simple.

Apparently, we had the wrong permit and ended up getting too close to our big elm tree. Jason had to spend the rest of the week running around getting new permits and meeting with inspectors and tree removal companies. And at the end of it all, we have a yard full of dirt and now have to pay a whole bunch of money to take down a tree that we love. Wah!

But like I said, a nice long holiday weekend in Cincinnati kind of took the sting out of all of it. We had a super relaxing time at Dana's, hanging out at the pool and catching up with friends. We're driving back to Chicago now, in 80-degree weather with the sun shining and Molly coloring happily in the back seat. We'll miss the tree, but can always plant a new one. A new tree for Molly that she can grow up with. I kind of like the sound of that.