We put a second floor on our (former) ranch house....oh....5 years ago now. And, since the day they dug the footer there has been a pile of rocks and dirt sitting in my front yard where the backhoe dropped it.

I eyed that pile of dirt when we were done with the major construction and gave my husband my trademark sideways glance and said, "so, what are you doing with that? You're moving that right? Because I don't want that sitting in the yard for a year. I know how you are about the details..."

He responded with his trademark eye roll and an audible sigh (and one hand up in a "stop" gesture) and said "Don't worry about it. It will be gone. I will take care of it. Seriously. Soon. Don't worry about it."

I took a silent vow not to nag about it and to see how long it would go before he "took care of it."

5 years.

FIVE YEARS.

Over the years, weeds grew over the pile and a shumac tree took root. The dirt pile had become the topic of conversation among the neighbors who were well aware of my annoyance about "the pile" and never missed an opportunity to ride Dan about it, thereby doing my dirty work (nagging by proxy).

At Christmastime, the shumac tree had twinkling lights strung on it. Dan thought I did it to mock him. I thought he did it to irritate me. We found out later it was a friend of Dan's from work (a guy who was also privy to the ongoing dirt-pile war in our house) stoking the fire.

On a Monday, two weeks ago, the girls and I came up from a walk in the creek out back to find the pile gone and the backhoe guy smoothing out our new front lawn. It took backhoe Bob about two full days of work to even out the land, tear up the weeds that had taken over, plant new seed and lay down straw.

And, then, we were blessed with last week -- a week filled with daily rain and sunshine -- perfect for growing grass. I figure it's my reward for biting my tongue (mostly) for five years. Perhaps it's Dan's reward for finally getting the job done.

Regardless, the grass is growing up now and, if you look at the lawn sideways you can see whole patches of grass poking up from under the straw. It's just a matter of time before it takes over and we have the lush, green lawn I've been dreaming of for five years now.

When Dan saw the first blades of grass coming up, he rushed me outside to look at them. As we admired our little lawn-to-be, I gave him my trademark sideways glance and said, "you know a nice lawn like this requires maintenance..."

He responded with his trademark eye roll and an audible sigh (and one hand up in a "stop" gesture) and said "Don't worry about it. I will take care of it. Seriously. Don't worry about it."

Now where have I heard that before?