September: Return to Normalcy

Hey homies.

September wasn't as crazy as August, but it was much busier than usual (like I said last month, this is definitely due to both of our girls being high schoolers, and their school, work, and extracurricular schedules are daunting to say the least.) The return to somewhat of a normal schedule was a godsend, and even though we were busy every, single evening of the month, at least with a routine in place it wasn't day-to-day stressing like last month. We always knew how our weeks were going to look way in advance.

The conversion of our front yard from grass to garden a few weeks. . .

One thing of note: it was hotter than normal this month, hovering in the low-mid '80s the first half of the month, which made teaching in a brick classroom with thirty students and no air conditioning just as miserable as it sounds. It dropped into the mid-70's the latter half of the month, which wouldn't be out of the ordinary for, say, August, but September? It's FALL, for Christ's sake - once school starts I'm over the whole 'summer temperatures' thing. Doesn't really feel all 'fall-ish,' even if the leaves are falling, when you're sweating bullets outside and wearing shorts to work.

#climatechangeisf***ingscience

Anyway, now with the Back to School period over and done with, we've officially found ourselves back into The Grind - work, school, extracurriculars, games, social get-togethers, etc. I can't see our months lightening up at all in the foreseeable future, seeing how all of our obligations are year-round. Should make for a pretty fast school year, I guess.

Anyway, here's September '24, gang - knock yourselves out. . .

So our buddy Tom created a website for The Kings of the Hill (here) for golf spreadsheets, organizing, and picture sharing, among other things. He used a shitload of AI to create the images and write body text, and one day while I was visiting the site to check on something, I saw that he had created a 'Meet the Kings of the Hill' section (which he has since taken down, maybe he's editing it.) Figured I'd share since these guys pop up throughout this blog pretty regularly. 

For weeks in advance, Alayna and her friends have been dress-shopping for Homecoming, which took place later in the month.

Amelia, Lexi and the Cannonball. We had told Alayna that she had to keep her budget simple this year, since she's already had two Homecomings already and would be doing a more grander - and much more expensive - Prom later in the school year. The first few times she went out dress-shopping she didn't find anything she liked (I'm super grateful she didn't pull the trigger on that purple Muppet dress she's wearing in this pic.)

Abby and a bunch of other kids at school. Not sure what the deal is with this pic, I just grab stuff off the kids' phones to include in here each month.

So this process has been going on for a couple weeks now (like I said earlier in this post) - we tried for years to keep grass full and thick in this shaded area of our front yard, but our two maple trees suck all of the nutrients of the ground. After we had spent some days raking up all the vegetation in preparation of converting the area into a garden instead, the company that replaced our sump (and consequently had to tear up a big part of our yard) came back by and had a lawn care company spray grass seed all over the place, which is standard procedure. Considering we were trying to rid ourselves of all grass in this area, this was far from ideal. Oh well, the chances of it surviving are slim to none.

Dead dog hanging out in Alayna's room.

One Saturday, Abby was invited along to an all-day birthday hangout with her friend, Nica (far right.) 

They hit up Costco at one point for pizza, which sounds totally random but I guess that's a thing these days, who knows.

Later in the afternoon, they drove out to Freeland to hit up Bayne's Apple Farm (which I drive past every day on my way to and from work.)

The girls took full advantage of the photo ops, apparently.

Punk rock.

Pretty sure this is for little kids, but whatever.

A much more fitting photo of these pommers.

Later that evening. . .

The next evening, Collier invited some guys over to hang out in his backyard around the fire pit to watch a Lions game on that TV rig he put together last year. Weather was decent and my lesson plan wasn't too strenuous the following day, so I made a rare 'school night' appearance (going out on school nights isn't my favorite.)

Rare McPeak sighting.

Another Midland High random pic.

Another dress shopping venture out with Alayna, this time without friends and just with Kris. 

She ultimately ended up pulling the trigger on this one, which I thought was the right choice (not as short as some of her previous ones, which is surprising - the current trends see the length of these dresses shortening every year it seems.)

Came back from my monthly Commandery (Knights Templar) meeting the second Wednesday of the month and had to show off my newly-acquired Chapeau (the traditional Templar hat.) These usually cost upwards of $500, but our Lodge has some really nice ones that date back up to 100 years (seriously.) This one is probably 50 years old, while the sword I'm using - which is far nicer than the ones you can buy now for $1,000 - is from the 1920's. It's gonna take years in order to piece together this entire uniform, but since our Lodge is rebuilding our Commandery Chapter (its hey-day was in the 1920s/30s) anyway from the ground up - and it'll be years before we have enough guys to fill out a Chapter in order to do degrees and events - I've got the time.

The next night, Abby had another home game for the Freshman and JV Football teams, where her JV Pom team performed at Halftime for both games (I told you guys all about how this works a few weeks ago.)

Abby, Nica, and that other kid who I've now seen in a few pics so far.

The next day, Abby walking through the halls with Ella and Harper.

Broke this one out on a warmer-than-it-should-be Friday night. Founders' Mas Agave series does some great salty beers, perfect for summer nights. I had been sitting on this one for a few years, figured it was high time to enjoy it. 

Friday, while I was at work, Kris contracted this gravel/dirt/whatever company to drop off 8 cubic yards of top soil to our front yard in order to build up our eventual garden beds. Cost was decent, and the soil was great, only downside was that the amount of labor that we had to put into it ourselves was daunting. It doesn't look like much, but it took hours to shovel out, level, and finalize the topography of the bed, which takes up half our front yard. Kris took these before-and-after pics for your viewing pleasure.

As a reward to treat ourselves after an entire day of yard work, Kris and I drove out to Bay City to check out this fabled Mexican restaurant - Los Pinos Tacos - which is supposed to be the best in Central Michigan.

This place lived up to the hype: this was the best Mexican food I've had since we lived in Florida, hands down. Reasonably priced, too. Only downside was they don't sell booze, and a Mexican lager - like Modelo or Corona - would've made the meal all the more awesome. Minor gripe, though.

Kris wanted a selfie in front of the restaurant. Because it's Kris.

Saturday evening, settling in to The Two Towers. The Lord of the Rings, as you well know by now I'm sure, is my favorite movies and my favorite books.

This entire weekend - while Kris and I were doing yard work, and eating out at cool restaurants, and watching bad-ass movies, the girls were spending their entire days at Midland High for the annual Orchestra Camp. I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before: basically every fall, the orchestra teacher for Northeast and Midland High gets a bunch of alumni, collegiate orchestra people, and fellow orchestra teachers together and host a two-day, intense orchestra practice (rehearsal, whatever) with additional teambuilding, activities, etc. in order to boost community and involvement among the orchestra students.  Alayna has done it twice now, and has loved it both times - Friday evening, all day Saturday, then a full-blown concert Sunday morning. This was Abby's first time with it, and she, too, had a blast with it.

I'm not entirely sure what these pictures are, they were off one of the kids' phones. I'm guessing this is more teambuilding and less 'practice.'

I'm not sure how we got roped into this, but Saturday evening, once the kids all wrapped up with orchestra camp on Saturday (around 8/9pm-ish), about twenty random teenagers from orchestra descended on our house for a last-minute karaoke party in the Hough family basement. Kris and I bought a bunch of snacks and drinks for them, and let kids enter into our house from the garage so we didn't have to deal with teenagers coming through our living room and riling up our dogs constantly. Believe it or not, even with all this loud-ass 'singing' emanating from our basement - and Watson occasionally losing his damn mind -Kris and I were able to watch a movie in the living room.

We had told Alayna, who was hosting the evening, to try and get people out of the house by midnight, but around 1am I had to go down there and drive out the stragglers. We had about three girls from concert and symphonic orchestras stay the night, but we at least got all the boys out of there.

The next morning, all the parents showed up to Midland High's gym to watch the various orchestras play through the songs they had learned over the course of the previous 36 hours. It's pretty impressive to see them drill and perform brand new pieces of music like that, but they run the camp like clockwork. 

Abby and the Concert Orchestra. Alayna and the more advanced Symphonic Orchestra went next, but, being the advanced ensemble, their song was a lot longer and as a result I couldn't upload it here, as it exceeded the file size limits.

Once both concerts had performed, they brought both back up onto the 'stage' for a combined performance, doing two songs (this was the second one, the first video was, again, too big to upload.)

Another Orchestra Camp in the books.

Later that week, someone captured this pic of Samson gazing longingly out of the front window while the fam hung out around the TV in the evening. Whenever the blinds are open, this is where you'll find him. Longing for freedom.

Once and awhile, Alayna and some of the advanced orchestra kids will pick up a local community gig for volunteer hours. Sometimes it's at an old folks home (like this one, where Alayna, Amelia, and some of the other Honors musicians nabbed a selfie in one of the hallways), sometimes it's at farmer's market, or a restaurant, etc. Kind of a pick-what-you-want-to-perform-at sorta thing.

Kris has been planting hostas in the front. We're not entirely sure what the end game with this whole front garden is going to be quite yet - neither of us are really what you could call 'gardeners,' but it's a start. We'll see how it looks in the Spring.

Alayna takes yet another close-up pic of one of her dogs.

Alayna, Abby and Ella on the way to school one morning. Like I've said before, Alayna has been driving her sister and Ella every day this year on the way to school - so far it seems to be working okay, but we'll see how long it lasts.

My step count was a little creepy one evening when I checked my watch (appreciate the vintage '80s theme of this watch, kids.)

One of my students 3D-printed this wolf statue for me for my classroom. As much of a pain in the ass as my students can be (on an almost daily basis), they're a pretty solid group.

More hostas go in. Kris has been planting tons of them lately. Again, we'll see how all this looks come April/May.

Couple of lazy wiener dogs, lounging wherever the sun ends up.

Abby and Nica, hanging out in Eyeball Corridor (not sure why they call the front hallway of the school that) the Friday before some Hawaiian-themed Home football game.

So for this Hawaiian-themed football game (each home game gets a theme for students, for some reason - I assume to drive up the whole 'school spirit' thing) Kris and I, along with the Johnsons and a few other Pom parents volunteered to work the Concession Stand. For volunteering for home football game, proceeds from concession sales goes to the MHS team of your choice. Kris wasn't rolling in until like 6:30/7pm-ish, so from 5:45 until then Alayna and Amelia helped out instead. There were several thunder/lightning delays, so we got slammed with customers whenever there was a pause in the game (because buying concessions beats sitting and waiting on cold, metal bleachers), but the girls still found time to take selfies.

After Kris showed up and the game picked back up, the kids left and continued to take selfies.

Sky was definitely perilous this evening.

Abby, Kaden, and some other kids.

(You're going to see a lot of selfies here, folks.)

Abby stole my Hawaiian shirt (without asking.) That's pretty nice of her.

After the game, as usual, kids swarmed the field for more pics and whatever. That's Lexi's boyfriend, Kyle, in the jersey.

The shoe pic. We have lots of these.

Bunch of Freshmen.

Wasn't surprised to see Abby jumping on Kaden's back - this was about a week before Homecoming, where those two ended up frickin' slow-dancing. . .

Kris and I left shortly after we wrapped up the Concession Stand at 9:30pm, so we weren't here for all these stupid selfie pics. It's nice having Alayna able to drive her and her sister home once the game's over and kids are still lingering around.

The next morning, a bunch of Orchestra kids gathered down at the Farmer's Market for another 'gig.'

(Our kids are in there somewhere.)

The dogs lounge out in the backyard, after I was done mowing the grass (at this time of the season it's an every-other-week sorta job.)

That evening, Samson doing the usual on the couch in the living room.

There was another Pom Team building event Saturday night, with the girls all going over to one of the coach's houses for an outdoor, projector movie and hangout in the backyard.

Some current Tik Tok trend (I'm told.) I don't get this generation at all.

Want a pic of some kids' food? Of course you do.

Abby and some fellow JV teammate.

Pommers.

Once they had wrapped up with food and their movie, the kids were all dropped off at the Johnson's residence for a team sleepover in their basement. We offered to hang out in their driveway with them for awhile while the girls settled in and hung out.

For the most part the kids all stayed in the basement, but would run outside to bug us from time to time. Kris and I hung out until like 1am before heading home (right around the corner.)

Emma, Nica and Abby

Samson and Abby, taking it easy on the couch the following day.

The following week at work, we had our Spirit Week in the lead up to my school district's Homecoming (which was the same weekend as Midland High's.) The first day of Spirit Week, for my school, was Hawaiian Day, and I walked into my coworker's class one morning and stopped dead in my tracks: she was wearing the EXACT SAME SHIRT that I had donated to a Goodwill a few years ago. I had purchased this shirt back in 2009 from a small shop in Florida, but had donated it back in like 2020 or something. So this wasn't some mass-produced shirt offered at Target or Walmart or something - this was my shirt. Same exact size, same exact pattern - the odds of something like this happening are insane. We had to get a side-by-side of it, it was too crazy.

Another weeknight hangout in the living room, with the dogs doing their usual vegging out alongside the kids.

The girls and some of their friends, hanging out in the school cafeteria at some point. You'd probably recognize Alayna and her friends (Lexi, Cristina, and Kyle) and Abby and her buddies (Ella, Abigail C., and Kaden.) Not sure who the others are.

After eleven years of playing The Simpsons Tapped Out on various phones of mine, the creators of the game - written and produced by the same people in charge of the long-running TV show - decided to bring it to a close. I don't play a lot of games on my phone, but as an avid Simpsons fan (it's been my favorite show since 1989, when I was in 4th Grade), this was indeed a sad day.

Alayna took this pic of the cloud cover outside of the drive-thru window at her work one evening. She's been loving having a job where she can rake in extra money, the fast food thing doesn't seem to bug her at all - but she doesn't have to do with the grease stink that those of us that used to work in burger joints had to deal with (like when I did back in High School while working at Wendy's.)

Seriously. These dogs will lounge anywhere. . .

Midland High's 'Blitz Night' has parent volunteers shuttling van-loads of kids thoughout the city (each group has a section of blocks they're responsible for hitting up) in order to sell $25 Chemic Cards as a fundraising effort for the band and orchestras. Kris took Alayna and five or six other kids around for a couple hours and sold a bunch.

This filter is terrifying.

Our buddy Mitch ended up in the hospital for a week for a stomach issue, but fortunately it wasn't anything too serious and he didn't require surgery or anything. I went over there the last Sunday of the month - the day after Homecoming - to make sure the crusty old bastard was doing alright, watched a little football with him. But yeah, that's our September, folks - busier than usual, but that's what happens when you have two high schoolers involved in a whole bunch of crap. See ya next month. . .

- Brian