The End of Summer

So sad, so true.

What's up, players.

Well, this is it:  the End of Another Summer.

So we ended up doing a hell of a lot this summer, far more than we have the previous few years, and as such this summer flew by in record speed.  No one feels quite ready to return to the Grind of work/school just yet, as there's been zero wind-down from all of the adventures we've had over the last two months.  From Disney World to flooded tents, from youth camps to lake retreats, from VBS weeks to summer classes, we've done a hell of a lot.  And now we have to set our sights on the approaching school year, which will see Yours Truly once more assume his U.S. History mantle, Abby enter the Fourth Grade, and the Cannonball heads off into. . . MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Holy f***ing Hell.

Anyway, August was slower than its predecessors, but we still kept relatively busy:  the weeks were filled with different VBS and community center classes for the girls (and yard work for me), with the weekends were designated outings with our social group of moms and dads.  Almost like clockwork.  We'd squeeze in shopping trips for Back to School here or there, and I had to set up my classroom again, but there were some other random things we did from time to time.

Without further ado, here's what our August - the End of Summer itself - looked like for the Houghs.  Enjoy:

One day Kris and I took the kids out to some local blueberry farm (orchard?) to work picking crops like a couple of field hands.  You know, 'cause Family Fun and all that bullshit.

Kris selects our buckets.

The girls show great enthusiasm for this kinda thing.  At first.

Alayna was funned out after about twenty minutes.  I think that's a new record for her.

I can't imagine picking cotton.  I mean, blueberries are easy to pick and you can eat them while you pick them.  Cotton's sticky and stringy and there are prickers that stab you and you can't even it.  Being a slave in the 1800s would've SUCKED.

One family member refuses to throw in the towel.

Waiting for Mom to check out.

Over fifteen pounds of blueberries (and some jam) later, Kris was finally ready to leave.

Kris puts on her Mom Face during a Back-to-School shopping trip for the girls.  Her and Alayna butt heads on an almost constant basis every year.

Some overhaul was done to the Dining Room and Kitchen this month.  Kris had been wanting to repaint the Dining Room for a few months, and finally got around to doing it (with my help.)  It went from a tan to a Dovetail grey.  I can't tell the difference, to be honest, but the wife is happy.  So there's that.

Ripped out the overhead vent/light to our stove in order to make room for a microwave we had purchased (ours broke earlier in the summer, so we've been living microwave-free like a bunch of Amish people all summer long - it's been Hell.)  Taking this out and reinstalling a new microwave was a pain in the ass, but John came over and gave us a hand.

Happy Wife, Happy Life.  There's a reason that's a saying, folks.

The Great Kondo Purge of 2019 continues.  We've hauled out so much crap  (like this furniture, here) it's ridiculous - I don't think I could've undergone this endeavor a year ago, as I used to be somewhat of a hoarder, but this has completely changed my penchant for 'stuff.'

I wanted to buy some Rough Riders (my favorite cigar) for our camping trip to the Jellystone in Silverlake, so I asked our buddy Brad (a cigar rep who sells them) where in town I could buy some.  He gave me this huge freezer bag full of $10 cigars for FREE.  I f***ing love that guy.

Taking the kids out for an afternoon lunch at Plymouth Park for Midland's Meet Up and Eat Up program.

Watson got stung by a bee in the face this month.  That was kinda hilarious.

Abby, showing off her new backpack.  We splurged a little on the kids' backpacks this year, each one cost about $40 and were legit, 5-star-rated backpacks off of Amazon, but we wanted them to get something that would last more than one school year.  They both understand they're not getting new backpacks for awhile now.

Sizing up bikes at Meijer.  Both kids are in need of new bikes.  I hate how fast kids grow.

We got this bike that someone was getting rid of, and I was able to polish it up to make it look new.  Had to fix the tire and inner tube, but its running smooth now.  It's a 26", mint-green, beach cruiser, so it's too big for the girls and difficult for them to ride (no hand brakes), but c'mon. . . it's a free bike.  You're damn right we took it.

Watson.  Always in your face.

We took Alayna to Northeast towards the middle of the month in order to pick up her school schedule and check out her locker.  She's been so excited to start Middle School and have her own locker, and has been counting down the days until she could get in to Northeast and check it out. 

We were convinced she'd have difficulty mastering her locker combination, so you can imagine our shock when she opened it on the first try.  Apparently locker combinations are her thing.  Who knew.

These are far bigger (and nicer) than the ones my students have at our school.

Sizing it up.

She's a Hough.  What do you expect.

Speaking of Hough-ness, check out this old letter I found from my 3rd Grade teacher as I was Marie Kondo'ing an old tote filled with past school work in the basement.  Sounds pretty legit to me.

More Back-to-School shopping.  Here's Abby trying on some not-at-all-practical women's shoes on at a Marshall's.

Back at Northeast, about a week later, installing some of her locker accessories (white board, pen/pencil caddies, mirrors, magnets, etc.)  The girl does love to accessorize. . . 

I took Alayna and her friend, Christina, up to the Great Lakes Ice Creamery for a cone one afternoon.  Anything for sugar, folks.

Throughout this whole Kondo process, we've had to bid farewell to quite a few things that were hard to get rid of, due to sentimental or nostalgic reasons.  My grandfather's jewelry box, for example, was pretty hard to get say goodbye to, but it wasn't very practical for me anymore (I needed a bigger one with more space, that was of higher quality), so I decided to let it go.

Fortunately, my little brother, Jeff, wanted it, so at least it's staying in the family (which is obviously preferable.)

Abby's bedroom has been getting an overhaul this summer, piece by piece.  She no longer wanted a Star Wars-themed bedroom - she's sadly outgrown the franchise - and instead wants a tropical/beach-themed bedroom.  Kris sold all her Star Wars room decor on Facebook Marketplace and used the money she got from that (which was substantial) to purchase new tropical bedding and some room decor (like the backpack hook, shown here.)  Eventually we're going to repaint this purple accent wall a coral color, and put in a loft bed with a desk to giver her more room.

Making some lunch with our live-in neighborhood kid, Ella.

I've been named a Top Fan for Radio Wasteland, my local record store here in town.  I've been a regular of their establishment since Day One, but this is another accolade I happily accept.  It's nice being rewarded for all of your hard work over the years.

Another Friday, another Fast Food dinner with our three girls.

- Brian

Everything Else from the Month of Caesar

Well, July is finally over. 

I can honestly say that it will surely go down as one of, if not the busiest summer months the Hough Family has ever had.  A ten-day vacation in Florida, a week at Sanford counseling at a Junior High Camp, a four-day stint up at Eight Point Lake at our family's cottage, the Fourth of July, and several social obligations with our friends.

A whole hell of a lot of July.  And while most of the aforementioned highlights I've already disclosed, there were some other notable highlights to this month as well.  Kris recently decided to undertake the infamous Marie Kondo process of purging and de-cluttering our house, which became the focus on many of our mutual days off.  Yours Truly finally interviewed with the Freemasons, after waiting two months since my initial petition to the local lodge was submitted (the lodge goes 'dark' during the summer months, and they were unable to meet with me sooner.)  Some of our good friends moved away to New Jersey, so there were multiple send-offs for the them and their family.

A crazy, blur of a month which went by in record speed, but holy hell was it a lot of fun.

So yeah.  Here's a few things that popped up here and there between all of the other crap.  Enjoy. . .

Kris kicked off our family 'Kondo'ing' process (yes, the Japanese lady's last name can be used as a verb) where one is supposed to start things:  clothing.  She spent eight hours emptying the contents of her side of the closet and dresser onto our bed, then systematically began the process of choosing which articles of clothing 'bring her joy' (a phrase they often use in the Netflix series and books.)

In the end, she ended up getting rid of nearly half her clothing.  I got rid of about a third of mine, since half of my wardrobe is work clothing, and I rely on it during the school year.  It only took me about fifteen minutes, though.  Just sayin'.

On my birthday, later in the morning, I went to Radio Wasteland to spend a couple hours perusing their wares (a tradition I've adhered to the last few years since they've been open in town.)  I walked away with two new LPs and an arm-load of vintage treasures, but left this gem behind (I took a pic to send to Kris to see if she was interested. . .  she wasn't.)

While I was gone to the record store, the girls decided they'd decorate the house up for my birthday.  Ella, shown here, has more or less moved in with us this summer.  Her parents live around the block from us, so her and Abby have been inseparable this year.

While still waiting for me to return from the record store (yes, I take my time on my birthday), Kris took them up to Plymouth Park for the daily Meet Up and Eat Up program for a late lunch, put on by Midland Public Schools.

In the afternoon, Kris let the girls swim at the neighbors' pool (they - the Angelotti's - were vacationing in Ireland and told us we could use it as often as we wanted, joking it'd be good to stir up the pool once and awhile during their time away.)  We'd end up using this pool on a nearly daily basis throughout the month.  It was awesome.

That evening, Ella's parents - Courtney and Erik (who sponsored my membership petition with the Freemasons, himself being a Master Mason) - swung over for an evening bonfire and some s'mores.  I've had far shittier birthdays.

An amazing beer.  Dragonmead does their homework.

Sending me a picture from home while I was slaving away as a camp counselor up at Sanford Lake. . .

. . . aaaaand of course there's a weird one.

Free Slurpees on 7-11 Day.

Playing Hogwarts Chess. . . with a couple stuffed animals that they picked up at Universal Studios' Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Who the hell knows why - this is while I was still at camp.

When I finally got back from camp, the second weekend of the month, Kris and the girls were out of town:  Kris was away down in Kalamazoo with the Wives, and the girls were at her mom's house in Clare.  So I went over to my buddy Ryan's house and had a few beers around a campfire.  This Founders offering tastes exactly like a margarita, it's insane.

The next morning, with our wives and children still all out of town (his wife was in Kalamazoo with Kris, as well), Ryan and I loaded up some firearms and went shooting at the Midland Sportsmans Club.  We sighted in my .22 Ruger (shown here) again - I hadn't done so in a year or so - and tried out the new .45 sub-compact my brother Chris had given me before he left for Indiana.  It kicks like a frickin' mule.

After sighting in the .22 and playing around with handguns for awhile (always a good time - I really want to buy a 9mm), we went down to a third range and played with a few larger rifles Ryan owns (he collects firearms like I collect vinyl.)  We shot several magazines worth of ammo through an AK-47 and AR-15, the latter of which was a hell of a lot of fun (the other was meh.)

Yours Truly with an AR-15.  I can see why Trumpers love them so much, they're pretty rad to shoot.

One day while I was out and about running errand with the girls, we stopped off at Target.  Afterwards, on the way back out to the van, we found this:  four identical, black Chrysler Town and Country's (one of these is Kris' - I forget which one.)  There is a serious glitch in the Matrix. . .

Another day of destroying the living room.  And of course this wasn't cleaned up right away. . .

My previously-mentioned new handgun.  For free I'm definitely not complaining. . . but it's definitely more for, say, 'stopping' someone that breaks into your home rather than target shooting.  It kicks like crazy and so is hard to aim well.

One day, while the girls were both away on play dates and Kris was at work, I went to war with the Garage - yet another step on our Kondo'ing process this summer.  The first step was sweeping and blowing out all the debris, dirt and leaves that had accumulated in all the hard-to-reach corners of the garage over the last year or so.

Chris (who, like I said, was moving to Indiana towards the end of the month) was getting rid of some bar signs, and I told him I'd take a few to hang up in my garage.  He was dumping a lot of crap, but I stuck with the larger, nicer ones, which had a beer/Ireland theme to them (fitting for a Hough Family garage, for sure.)

This one is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Cleaned, wiped down, and well-organized.  The garage now 'brings me joy.'

This seriously took an entire day.  But it was soooooo worth it.

 

 

After our vacation at the Cottage, the girls went off to their respective summer camps.  Abby, who has recently started to show a budding creative side with each passing day - writing large-scale stories, drawing, singing, etc. - took an acting camp.  Their production this week was a collection of short stories pulled from Greek Mythology.

I brought along my SLR, but didn't take many photos.  Alayna took a few from my phone, and Kris filmed a bit with hers, but most of the video files were too large to upload to Blogger (I can hook you up if you're really dying to see them, though.)

Abby was the narrator for one of the stories, and had bit parts in two of the other ones.  Here she's, um. . . a rabbit?

The set was built on one of the smaller stages at Midland's Center for the Arts.

(She did the bulk of the narrating because the other girl could barely speak English. . .)

One more dance number to close out the show.

After the play, picking her up from the dressing room.

. . . and outside the Center for the Arts.

A truly great combination.

No idea.

This is how Marie Kondo wants you to fold your clothes.  In case you were curious.

Abby reads a story to a few of her plush animal friends (including her recently-acquired dog, Fang, from Universal Studios. . . who is inexplicably wearing my camping headlight.)

The Study, Kondo'd.  I routinely go through my vinyl and purge records I no longer want/listen to in order to sell at Radio Wasteland for store credit, so the record collection wasn't in need of being Kondo'd at all.  The library, on the other hand, hadn't been purged since 2016, so it was about time to work through that again anyway.  Over the course of a few hours, I shaved off three piles similar to the size you can see there on the floor before I was done, which was really hard to do.  Now I have more room on the shelves for more decor and artwork.  And books.

- Brian