May Days

Watson and the Cannonball

Welcome back, readers.

So May turned out to be pretty busy.  I tend to think that, on a day-to-day basis, the Houghs are a pretty chill lot and we don't have much going on.  Generally, that's the case; May, alas, has proven otherwise.

Birthdays, social engagements, school plays, camping trips, a boatload of Girl Scout outings, you name it - we did it all in the month of May.  A far cry indeed from the month of August or February.

Anyway, some of it I've already told you folks about, but here's the rest of all the randomness that happened in the month of May. . .

Kris had her hands full while Yours Truly was off galavanting through the woods with my old high school compatriots, so she was constantly taking the kids places in order to keep them sated.  Like McDonald's, which we rarely do. . . 'cause, you know, it's NOT FOOD.

Apparently she's learned gang signage in second grade.  So that's cool.

A selfie Kris sent me one night while I was away camping. . .

While I was still deep in the woods, Kris took the girls up to Clare to visit Grandma and Papa Jordan.  No idea what the hell's going on with the bread crumbs.  I'm assuming it's duck-related, but who knows.

Everyone was away at church when I finally returned to Civilization from my weekend away in the Wild, but I did come home to find these two doves trapped in my back screen room.  It took several attempts at shooing them away, and having them fly around smacking into the screens, before they finally found the WIDE-OPEN door on the far end of the patio.  Stupid birds. . .

This girl loves her animals.

Another month, another Girl Scout outing with Abby's troop (of which Kris is co-leader.)  No idea what they're doing at the Grace A. Dow Library (I should really have Kris caption some of these pics.)

The Troop (Abby's at far left.) 

Alayna brought back this spice 'rack,' made from an old egg container, one night following her girl scout meeting.  So now this is hanging around our house.  Awesome.

This is the thing of nightmares.

A girl named Katie lives in the house directly behind ours, and she's between Alayna and Abby in terms of age, so needless to say we see a lot of her throughout the neighborhood.  Both girls were invited to her birthday party at the Midland Gymnastics Center, which was a big hit with the girls (for obvious reasons.)

(That's Alayna doing the Tarzan routine on the rope.)

. . . and that's Abby in the foreground in the orange tank top.

Out of nowhere, Alayna showed us that she could, in fact, Hula Hoop. . . something, as far as we were concerned, she was never able to do before.

Swingin' Abby

. . . what the hell is the point of this?

Kris and her doppleganger on the way into church

Kids rule.

After church on Mother's Day, Kris wanted to drive up to Clare to visit her Mom.  Coincidentally, Grandma and Grandpa Jordan live in the apartment directly below the apartment Kris and I used to live in.

The Hough Home, 2005 - 2006.

After returning to Midland, we met Chris, Jeff, and their families over at Mom's to celebrate Mother's Day with her.  As good sons do.  Scarlett was in a mood, having just woken up from a nap, so we had the girls keep her entertained.

These toys used to belong to me and my brothers back in the early 80s.  We're hoarders in this family.

Scarlett attacks

One of the great joys about raising kids in the near-inevitability that your child, while in Elementary school, will catch head lice.  Kids are gross, and they're constantly in each other's faces, so it's only a matter of time.  Sure enough, one morning, while we were combing Alayna's hair before school, Kris spotted a louse.  There went the rest of the next two days. . .

Fortunately, Alayna was the only one who contracted it - we totally dodged that bullet.  Looking back, we're pretty sure she either contracted the lice from a.) some asshole in her classroom, or b.) Katie's birthday party at the Gymnastics Center.  Either way, it cost us $30 and two days off work to thoroughly treat our house.

Besides combing hair, this is what else one has to do when treating a house for lice:  quarantine all 'soft,' unwashable items the child had direct contact with.  This includes sleeping bags, plush, rugs, etc.  They go in a plastic bag, out on the back patio, for two weeks until the lice that hatch in the laid eggs die off.  All bedding clothes are routinely washed in hot water, and hopefully - as was the case this time around - everything goes away almost immediately.  Long story short, we got REAL lucky.

Watson takes a stroll through his dumping ground.

Some poor grasshopper, caught up in one of our screen room spiders' webs. 

The girls have been really getting into Wii Sports Resort, an old Wii game that we used to play back in 2010-2011, thereabouts.  They're a big fan of the Wii Pad (whatever it's called) and the motion controls.

Wii Fitness Plus is another big favorite around these parts.  The kids love their yoga.

The Cannonball works on homework from school (since getting the piano, we moved the sewing table into the girls' room to serve as a desk, seeing how Kris doesn't show any indication she wants to learn how to sew any time soon.)

Harlots.

Another girl scout outing (Abby at far right.)  Again. . . no idea where they are or what they're doing, here.

After a couple nights in the freezer, following a week in a bag on the back patio, Turtle - Alayna's favorite stuffed animal, that Nana bought her from Epcot a month before she was born - was ready to climb back into her bed.  The overnight freezer treatment speeds up the process of quarantining stuffed animals, but due to limited space we only did it with a handful of them.

Saving the cushions on the front porch from a sudden monsoon. . .

I'm so proud I raised a well-rounded Star Wars fan who loathes the Prequels. . .

The tree in our side yard bloomed these pink flowers for a couple weeks, which was a nice distraction from our otherwise hobo-esque, weed-infested yard.  Usually, I'm more than willing to dump tons of money into making my grass look immaculate, but seeing how this is a rental and our landlord clearly doesn't care about the yard, I'm abstaining. 

Flowers, too.  Considering the state of our yard, this is kinda like a frilly, pink bow on a fresh turd.

Um. . . hell yes?

Another school morning in the neighborhood. . .

Found this one morning while going to retrieve my ladder.  Looks like I won't be using it for awhile. . .

Snack time

The aftermath of a terrible, terrible battle over a 'magic princess treehouse,' which tops religion, power and money as the most common cause of all bloodshed around the world.

Kimmel sent me this pic the other day: looks like he finally received my RSVP to his wedding.

Taking Dr. Watson for a walk around the block. . .

- Brian