As the Dust Settles

It ain't the Dairy Phil, but it'll do. . .

Hi again, readers.

We've been back in the grind of School/Work/Shittiness for about five weeks now, and so the weekly routine is beyond established.  Our day-to-day around these parts basically revolves around getting ready for school/work, going to school/work, coming home from school/work and trying to cram feeding, bathing, and getting ready for bed in a two-hour window.  We do this for five days, take a half of Saturday sitting around the house in our pajamas in a dazed stupor, attempt to go out and 'do something' in the afternoon/evening on Saturday, take care of yard work and/or go to church Sunday morning, work on house chores/lesson planning/keeping kids entertained Sunday afternoon/evening, and repeat.

Thug life.

So, consequently, we don't update this blog very much.  But, 'cause I'm nice, here's some pictures from over the course of the last few weeks.

BAM:

The Cannonball is on a mission to feed ducks. . .

The pond at Eagle Park is beyond disgusting.

Eagle Park's new playground renovations.  The cushion-y rubber/padded ground is cool (it used to be sand), but they got ride of the canopy that shielded all us lazy parents from the scorching Florida sun.  Damn you very much, Eagle Park Association.

This picture would be really, really alarming if you saw three creepy guys standing behind Abby with paint-covered hands.

At Twisty Treat, down the road from our house.

Kris tried asking for a Boston Cooler, but the lady working the window had never heard of it.  Kris then tried explaining how it's made - with Vernor's and ice cream - but the lady didn't know what Vernor's was, and probably thought Kris was on drugs.

. . . so she more or less just finished the ice cream Alayna ordered and ate two bites out of.

Alayna's big enough to sit in a booster seat now, which she's pretty excited about.  I'm pretty excited about this, too, 'cause now - with two seats in my car - I don't have to switch vehicles every time I pick the kids up from school.  Cowabunga.

Attempting to teach Alayna how to ride a bike without training wheels. . .

(. . . it didn't work.)

Abby, brushing her teeth.  She's been making attempts at brushing better 'cause she has her second appointment at the end of the month. . . and we may or may not have been using the dentist's fictional stern demeanor as a way of motivating her to spend more time at the sink.

Went in to Alayna's classroom at John Young Elementary for Open House and found a bunch of these things hanging on her teacher's door.  This one's Alayna's (obviously) - I guess on the first day of school she was supposed to write down things that describe her personality.  Not sure why she didn't include words like 'loud-mouthed,' 'diva,' or 'drama-prone.'

Sassy bakers.

Posing before school.  Again.

You don't see many cars like this down here in America's Wang.

Yes, we bought our dog a Lions jersey.  Yes, we know we're 'those people.'  Shut up.

It's rare the local Fox affiliate broadcasts a Lions game, but they were today (probably 'cause we were playing a 'real' team like the Packers). . . so I actually got to watch a football game for once (first time since last Thanksgiving, actually.)  Alayna wanted to watch, too, once I told her it was Michigan's home team playing.  And to top it off, Detroit (surprisingly enough) actually beat Green Bay.

Alayna really wants a Lions shirt now. . .

It's still raining like a motherf***er down here.  And showing NO signs of letting up any time soon. . .

When you ride in Kris' beast of a van, you're guaranteed a stop at Dunkin Donuts.

So I taught Alayna how to play Chess the other day, on a whim.  She asked me if we could play Checkers - as she had learned it at Clubhouse after school awhile ago - and I told her that while we didn't have Checkers, we did have a game called Chess.  Once she saw the pieces, she was intrigued.  Over the course of an hour, we played a game and she not only memorized all the pieces' names and moves, but also picked up a little bit of strategy along the way.  She needed some help organizing her pieces to put me in Checkmate (which ultimately she never did, despite me obviously letting her win the entire time - we ended up in a stalemate), but besides that she did really well.  Abby?  Not so much.  She just wanted to play pretend with the pieces.

And here's some random guy screwing around with Garageband.  There may or may not have been a picture of him in a blog post some months back, I'm not sure.

- Brian

Grandma and Papa John, Pt. I

Picking up tourists from the airport. . .

Welcome back, readers.

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, and for we union-loving, baby-sitters, that means a week off of work.

I'm sort of looking forward to this.

Thankskilling. Check it out. It rules.

It also means serious horribleness is about to go down for the Houghs; it always seems to around Turkey Day.  The Hough Family has always suffered from a terrible Thanksgiving Curse, dating back several hundred years when an ancestor of ours had an extramarital affair with a prominent turkey's wife.

I'm pretty sure how all that crap started.

Anyway, this year, we're sharing our time off with my folks - Grandma and Papa John - who flew in from Michigan on Saturday and are staying at Hough Manor until Thursday morning.  They were eager to spend a laid-back week with their granddaughters, relaxing in great weather, etc. etc. . . but holy shit have we ever put these two to work over the last couple of days.

Check it out:

Alayna shows Pinky the Orlando International Airport as we wait in the nearby Cell Phone Lot for Mom and John to clear the baggage claim area . . .

. . . you will be seeing plenty of Pinky over the next couple posts.  Alayna was selected to 'babysit' Pinky for her classroom this week.  I guess each kid in her class gets a week-long turn at home with the soiled stuffed bear.  (I desperately wanted to give this thing a bath in Clorox).

After picking up the grandparents, we bought some Chinese and ate out on the patio. . . (Papa John didn't get much eating done).

Papa John does floor exercises with Abby while Grandma and the Cannonball work on friendship bracelets. . .

Breaking in Papa John's knee. . .

At the end of Pinky's stay with us, we have to document his stay with us with pictures, notes, etc.  (I've had to reel in the inappropriateness like crazy this week. . .)

Pre-coffee interrogations

Fancyin' up Papa John's feet

Primed for a neighborhood constitutional

Wackiness ensues in the Playhouse of Terror

The Cannonball has mastered the Vulcan Death Grip

Pickin' peppers

The fruit trees had been growing out of control long before we even moved in to the house, and while they were bearing more than enough fruit, they weren't growing the right way.  Papa John was fortunately able to swoop in and prune the bejesus out of our fruit trees so that, in a year or two, they will be pumping out even more fruit and growing healthier.

See ya in Hell, conifer.

The Apple Tree meets its maker (. . .which I'm assuming is Johnny Appleseed, but I'm not a fruitologist.)

We also decided it was time to clear out the brush from behind the house, but every time I opened the door to weed-whack, mow, and raze back there, I was accosted by three pit bulls.  Apparently the cool thing to do down here is own pit bulls.  And apparently its really cool to let them roam about the neighborhood without a leash.  Awesome.

Farewell, Pineapple Pear Tree. . .

Grandma stands lookout for ravenous pit bulls. . .

Trimming up the Orange Tree (unfortunately, we had to tear out the Pepper Bush growing underneath it)

They may not look it, but these oranges were ripe.  Who knew.

Picking off fruits and peppers from discarded branches.

Tackling the root system from Hell with the trusty ol' pickaxe.

Kris was at this for about three hours.

Some of the salvaged peppers.  They're spicy, but also have a sweetness to them.  So far I've been using them a lot in eggs.

Consider this foe vanquished.

The Mandorin Tree.  Pruned to shape.

Shaping up the Lemon Bush.

Not sure what type of fruit tree this was.  But it's dead now.

I'll definitely have a lot more room to mow now.

Helping Grandma rake up the aftermath.

Besides laboring in the yard like a couple of field hands, we also employed my folks to help us with a few house projects.  Having someone around that actually knows what they're doing when it comes to house construction definitely comes in handy.

The Living Room has become a war zone.  Next up on the docket:  the Bookcase (stay tuned)

Behold Monster Bush.

This was taken over a month ago, after I trimmed it for over an hour.  This stupid bush fell over sideways, as the previous owner had bound the bottom of the bush with that white, plastic grating, forcing the branches to grow sideways.  This increasingly unbalanced weight caused the bush to eventually break through the grate and crash down onto the ground.

. . . and a few weeks ago, it came into bloom again.  So then we had ourselves a big Purple Monster Bush.

. . . but then Papa John and I went to war with the damn thing.

This probably took a solid 2 - 3 hours, with John and I trimming it back into a somewhat reasonable shape and Grandma and Kris hauling away debris.

It looks a little sparse now, but by Spring it should fill in those holes that we had to create in order to break apart the renegade branches. . .

More to come - stay tuned. . .

- Brian