Randoms of October

Alayna and cousin Louis, playing in Mom's backyard.

 What's up, kids.

Well, October has more or less been a steady continuation of September.  So far the school year is going good for all of us (all things considered, what with the ongoing pandemic and everything.)  Both girls are keeping their masks on and their grades up, and Yours Truly is still seeing his students once every four days (a horrible schedule, but the only way to do it while keeping people safe and socially distanced.)  The upcoming election is growing more and more tumultuous, and we're all really looking forward to November 3rd.  Leaves are piling up in horrendous amounts, to the point where you spend hours raking your yard and then in a couple more hours can't tell you did anything.  And, last but not least, we're all counting down the days until Halloween. . . and crossing our fingers we can actually celebrate this year with Covid-19 cases starting to skyrocket . .)

Anyway, here's your monthly installment of pictures and video from this month's day-to-day. . .

My brother, Chris, and his family drove up from Indiana for the first weekend of the month in order to show off the latest addition to their family (Nora, our new niece.)  They spent the majority of their Michigan visit at Mom's, so we drove over a few times to hang out with them.  The cousins get along well.

Nora Grace, the newest Hough (pic courtesy of the Cannonball.)

Alayna brings the ruckus to Mom's house. . .

That same weekend, we hosted a few families over at our house one evening.  As usual, the dads hung out in the study and the moms occupied themselves with drinks and card games.

That Sunday morning, the girls - with Sophie and Ella in tow - dressed up for some church thing (they wanted to go as "trash princesses.")  I have no idea what any of this was for, I didn't go with them.

I think it was some kind of 'wacky costume' day at church or something, and the girls ended up winning some kind of a contest therein, and each scored a Starbucks gift card (which Kris and Courtney redeemed for them on the way home.)

Chris was going to bring his twins over to our house later on that day (Nicole and Nora had already departed for her family, downstate) so I dusted off an old tote filled with Abby's old Star Wars toys so they'd have something to play with.  In the background, you can see Abby busting out her cello - at the last minute, she decided to join orchestra this year instead of band (joining her close friends, Ella and Jackson, who took up the violin and cello, respectfully.)

It's crazy to think of just how much Abby was into Star Wars - you almost forget about it - she was like obsessed with it for years.  Unfortunately, that was a phase she grew out of (God knows I never did.)

Hough cousins, digging into some Duplo blocks in the basement, some time later.

Later on in the week, the trees in our out lawn already starting to turn color.

One of the teachers on my team made these up for us one day.  Heavy emphasis on the 'Sanitize' aspect of the job this year. . .

Look who made it to '14,' folks. . .

While hanging out with the Larsons one Saturday, the kids all decided to have a concerto in the living room (yes, Jackson insisted on bringing his cello over to our house as well.)

Sophie, who's a grade behind Abby and Jackson, consequently hasn't joined orchestra yet, so she served as conductor.  At one point she got a chair to use as a podium, and had to make sure she was taller than her old man, Morgan.

 

(I've heard better.)

While riding back from somewhere in Kris' van, Abby fell asleep. . . and Alayna couldn't resist messing with her sister.

I don't understand this subculture at all.

A bunch of the offspring of the families in our social group - the moms of which are all actively involved in the Chestnut Hill PTO  - posing with a new piece of playground equipment that the PTO was able to purchase for the school.  You'll probably recognize most of these kids from various social get-togethers (parties, camping trips, etc.) we've posted over the last couple years.

While the moms were busy taking pictures of their kids 'enjoying' the playground equipment they had just funded, I was trying out some new Halloween decor I had picked up at Marshall's.  God, I f***ing love Halloween. . .

Kris' fall display this year.  This year, as you can tell, she really said 'f*** it.'

Now, I'm a huge fan of the changing colors here, don't get me wrong.  Fall is by far my favorite season, I love everything about it. . . until all these picturesque leaves start falling onto my property.  I'd rather be shoveling snow.

Enjoying some Arby's and some Mariokart over at the Johnson residence. . .

Kris bought some new fleece blankets for this season.  They're a big hit with both her and the girls. . . and the dogs.

The two ash trees in my out lawn tend to drop their leaves first every year, and they do so practically all at once.  The last couple of years I've come home from work one day to find this.  Not a fan.

Alayna must've taken this 'artsy' pic with some of her friends at school.  This looks like the sorta shit you'd expect to see on Instagram or something, with a caption about friend goals or what not.  I don't know, I'm not 12.

So there's this artsy/craft store (think Pinterest, but in store form) in Bay City that Kris is absolutely obsessed with, called Secret Garden.  She shops there as much as she can, and her friends are equally as enthused.  Well, they had this event one weekend, about halfway through the month, called Witch's Night Out:  moms could pay a $10 cover charge, and they kept the store open later than usual, and featured a bunch of deals and discounts on their usual store wares.  They also had food, drinks, live music, etc.  Kris and her mom squad all got super excited about it, and even went so far as to get witch-ish costumes for the event.  Morgan - our friend that hooked us up with both my car and Kris' van, as well as the Expedition we took up to the U.P. for Brocation 2020 - even rented them a large van to use for their outing.  On their way out of town, they swung by our house so I could snap a pic of them in front of their ride.

Kris invited her old friend from Middle/High School, Kim, along (Kim was one of her bridesmaids, too.)

Shots?  Hell yes.

Unfortunately, for all parties involved, one of these ladies (not Kris) had Covid-19 without knowing it, and, consequently, three additional wives would soon be testing positive.  Fortunately, Kris was not among these - she tested negative - but she still had to take a week off of work and self-quarantine.  Hooray for pandemics.

Just a couple of dogs.  Sittin' around, gnawing on rawhides.

Our family - as well as the Larsons - decided to have professional family photographs taken this year (most likely for Christmas Cards), and employed the talents of our friend, Ryan, to handle the job.  We booked him for a Sunday afternoon up at Midland City Forest, and spent the better part of an hour getting the kids ready for this photo session.  Then - of course - it suddenly started raining.  Hard.  Even after it lightened into a drizzle, we were tempted to reschedule, but the Larsons - who had also spent far too much effort getting their kids around for this - wanted to push forward, so we relented.  We did a couple of extremely quick, rainy pictures, and then called it a day.  As soon as we find out how they turned out, we'll be sure to share it here, rest assured.

Another day, another Facebook Marketplace purchase.  Kris scored this solid-wood, black coffee table later on that Sunday, after our rainy photo shoot, to use in the living room.  It has since been relocated to our basement, by the kids' TV/Videogame area.

Speaking of basement videogames. . .

The Cannonball has to once and awhile submit a video like this to her orchestra teacher, via Google Classroom. . .

After six loooong months, we finally returned to our Lodge building for regular meetings.  This particular night was an Entered Apprentice Degree, the initiation step for new candidates.

The Midland Daily News, through the community initiative efforts of Erik and myself, recently did a piece on our Lodge turning 150 years old - check it out here.

In preparation for this year's annual Halloween festivities (which unfortunately, due to the recent Covid-19 outbreak that started to tear through our social group, will be a much smaller affair and held almost entirely outdoors), I cleared out and prepped our garage.  Took about two hours total, not too shabby.

The girls insisted on making Kris and I dinner one night.  It was pretty scary.

Chicken broth, asparagus, noodles, chick peas, paprika, basil, and Parmesan cheese. . . all mushed together.  Not terrible, but not something I'd ever ask to eat again my life.  Kinda like what you'd expect them to eat six hundred years ago or something.

The recently-cleaned garage, now tricked out with rotating, strobing party lights.  Lighting makes all the difference, folks.

After school one day, hanging out in a tree with Ella.

(As could be expected, these darts were all over the yard and even though they 'picked them all up' I was still finding them days later here and there.)

A shot down Mt. Vernor Street, about a block from our house.  This has been some truly awesome dog-walking weather the last week of the month, if I do say so myself.  Appreciate the hell out of this picture, folks - I had to juggle my phone, my pipe, and two dogs on leashes to capture this shot.

See ya next month, folks.

- Brian