Yard of the Month

Yes, you are looking at the Yard of the Month winners for the month of July. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Since day one of home ownership, my husband has had his mind set on winning this coveted prize. At the beginning of each month, we would drive through the streets of our neighborhood seeking out "the" sign. Usually, we would critique the winner's grass or flower beds and reluctantly agree that their yard is worthy of the honor.

It's been a long road, and we've had our share of obstacles. Our first challenge was the grass. We didn't have a sprinkler system when we moved into the house. So Josh would have to manually water by hooking up the sprinkler to several spouts around the sides of the house. To water the entire yard took half a day. So, of course, we quit watering, and our grass did what any living thing would without water: it died. We hoped we wouldn't get fined or evicted by the homeowner's association because of our brown yard. A year later, sights still set on the goal, we had a sprinkler system put in.

Obstacle number two: our flower beds were full of those yucky prickly bushes. You know the kind that can grow up and engulf the entire house if left unkept. And that's pretty much how they looked. Something had to be done. We got some guys in the neighborhood to landscape and add some stone trim around the walkway. It was definitely an improvement. But the tree they put in the front flowerbed, I HATED. No offense to any of you who love the wax myrtle, but I couldn't stand it. It looked like an overgrown bush rather than a tree. They were supposed to put in a Japanese maple, but the guys insisted it would get too much sun. When they asked me if I liked the wax myrtle, I held back my true feelings and said, "Yeah, it's fine." I guess it was that fear of man again keeping me from being honest. So I felt like the Lord was going to let me live with that wax myrtle as a reminder.

Then just a couple months ago, our friend Brad who knows landscaping and Josh (and some buddies) totally revamped the flowerbeds. Now we actually had beautiful colorful flowers rather than just bushes. And Brad even said we could try out the Japanese maple. So long wax myrtle. Good riddance.

The YOM judge came by and knocked on our door last week right after Josh left to get a haircut. She told me that she'd been considering our yard for several months, but it hadn't seemed ready until now. She asked if we would accept the honor and keep the sign in our yard for the month of July. I said, "Heck, yeah. My husband is going to FREAK OUT. She stuck the sign in the yard and took some pictures and left. I considered how to tell Josh. Finally, I decided I'd just wait for him to drive up and see it. And because I document everything on video camera, I called him to find out where he was on his way home. I even called on my drama background to fake that I was still upset from our earlier argument to see how far out he was. He bit the bait. Just before we ended the call, he said "I'm turning onto Morriss." Perfect. I knew right where he was. Lily and I both waited out front for him to turn the corner. A few mintues later, as he came into sight, I saw his arms flailing out the window and then heard him yelling in excitement. And I caught it all on videotape. At least the first few seconds before the battery died.