Team Pride

Andrew competed in the championship meet for swimming Saturday in WoodRiver.

This is what the poor swimmers behind him  had for reading material.

Andrew did really well and came in the top three in most of his heats.  He competed in the fastest heats for his age group and was influential in his relay team earning first place.

Steve and I did not realize we had an athlete for a son.

We are proud of his hard work and are excited he has found something he loves to do.

A few of his teammates and him had a mother tattoo them with permanent marker in the name of team pride.

He is hilarious.  

But I still think tattoos are trashy.

And speaking of trashy...I have been meaning to post pictures of our yard to document how trashy we really are.  I think admitting my shame publicly makes it easier to swallow.

Here goes nothing.

1.  The Gnome.

We bought it over a year ago to use for a gag gift.  The gnome still lives in our yard and sometimes shows up in the middle of the lawn face down surrounded with soda cans.  I guess the joke is on us.

2.  The Idaho windproof umbrella holder.  

Steve came up with a brilliant idea to encase our shade umbrella in a tree bucket with cement.  It worked a little too well.  This bugger hardly ever gets blown over, but is also almost impossible to move.  I also wonder if Steve has connections with the mob...because really, who else would give an innocent umbrella cement shoes.

3.  The porch mess.

4.  The $35 inflatable pool still sitting on our lawn a month after we purchased it and various lawn chairs and other toys left out.  I believe we lack the genetic ability to put anything away.

And please note the dead lawn patch behind the lawn chairs.  The identity of who actually spilled the weed killer on the lawn will not be revealed.   (But his name does rhyme with the word weave.)

5.  The garden.

Not entirely trashy, but seriously overgrown with weeds and my corn looks like it hasn't seen water in days.

6.  The RC car track.

Need I say more.

A picture of it the mess in its entirety.

I feel bad for our neighbors.

7.  I almost forgot the best one.  The tadpole.

We have a nasty tadpole living in a bucket in our backyard.  It is hiding between the two rocks.

...and I have no idea how all the dead earwigs got in the water.