September Randomness

Hi gang.

Here we are again at the end of another month.  This month saw quite a few changes come about - Kris and I returned to the work force, the girls started school, and the trees started flaking their dandruff all over our lawn.  September was a whirlwind (unlike boring ol' August, if you'll remember), so we'll leave you now with a sampling of randomness from the last thirty days.

Enjoy.

This is what I've been reading for the last two weeks.  Being an avid fan of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books, and having sampled other tales (like the Silmarillion and sagas of Hurin, etc.), this was a pretty cool read.  Not the easiest read, but a good once-and-awhile book to have on hand during one's afternoon pipe session.

A generational portrait with Mom's side of the family.

Grandma Chinery and our niece, Scarlett (Jeff and Annie's oldest)

Kris took the girls to check out the local dinosaur exhibit and the Midland Center for the Arts one day.  Neither kid is really all that into dinosaurs, but they had a good time checking everything out. . .

. . . as you can see, here.

No, our basement isn't being overrun with trees.  We took the six or seven fake trees from my old classroom and created a wall of foliage to separate 'my' side of the basement from the girls' side.

You can't really tell from this picture, on account of the low light, but I pulled out a bunch of my creepy Halloween decorations and lights to set the appropriate atmosphere for a game night Chris and I have been planning for a few weeks now. . .

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Nightmare - a classic, campy horror game from the early 1990s that we used to play at Mom's house growing up.  We decided to play this, over cocktails, when Nicole (Chris' girlfriend) was in town, so she and Kris could experience this game in all its campy gloriousness.

The novelty of this game is that you play a VHS tape when you begin the game, and randomly throughout the game this creepy dude called the Gatekeeper pops up on the screen to yell at you and tell different players to do different things.  It's comically awful.

Hilarity ensues.  I don't think anyone collected the six keys necessary to win the game. . . which means the creepy VHS guy won.  Go figure.

A couple weeks later, there was an ice cream social at the girls' school in the evening.  So, since we didn't have anything else going on, we swung by to check it out. . .

Abby always manages to eat her ice cream in a manner of minutes, while Alayna takes forever to eat half of hers while Abby sits there impatiently.  Then, Alayna declares she no longer wants any, at which point Abby volunteers to finish off her sister's ice cream.  They have a system.

. . . aaaaand this pretty much sums it up.

Voguing at the ice cream social.  They had a few 'activities' for the kids set up around the place, but our kids just wanted to screw around in the costume bin. . . not surprisingly.

Heading out.

Emulating Princess Leia - her favorite Star Wars character.

Baking muffins with mom.

Chestnut Hill's 2015 Balloon Racing Team.  They have to circumvent the globe in 80 days in order to receive a passing grade.  Stupid Common Core. . .

Alayna's 2nd grade class (not sure which one's Alayna.)

We have a really, really lazy dog.  A good fit for this family.

I appreciate my wife.  Just not when it comes to helping me out with yard work.

Abby sometimes demands her picture taken.  We oblige.

We picked up Abby's Halloween costume for this year, via Amazon - Princess Leia from A New Hope.  Better quality than I expected, but I think we're going to need Mom to hem it up a little bit on the bottom so Abby doesn't trip all over it.  And I don't think that wig is going to make it.

Abby wanted a picture taken with some of her artwork that she did for her friends at school.

The kids were super excited to try out some of their new jackets they've acquired since moving back up here to Michigan.  We had bought them super pretty fancy Colombia jackets for the hardcore winter times, and have since then amassed a collection of cool fall, cold fall, warm winter, cold winter, and everything-in-between jackets and coats.  From us, from Mom, from our friends who have kids, you name it.  Pretty cool for the kids, but a bitch for the coat closet.

"Karate Baby," according to the girls.  I spent a day cleaning up the garage in order to make room for Kris' van (we want to make sure we can keep it warmer in the mornings for when temperatures start to plummet and we have to load the kids up for school.)  I hung Karate Baby here up as a marker for the van, as I was fresh out of tennis balls and needed an indicator for when to stop pulling in the van.  I think it's a much better solution.

Finally got these stupid things off the ground. . .

Haven't hung up the bikes yet - that came later.

I know you can't really tell, but I cleaned and reorganized the shed while I was at it.  

. . . and now Kris can pull her van in.  'Cause I'm awesome.

Abby was SUPER excited that this cereal exists, and demanded a picture of her 'feeding' Darth Vader a red lightsaber marshmallow.

Uncle Chris and Tucker swung by one night for some beers.  Tucker's incredibly popular around these parts (though he doesn't care for Watson as much as Bailey does.)

Abby's 2015-2016 School Picture.  Turned out pretty good.

(We're ordering retakes.)

Typical Sunday morning around here.  Netflix and blankets.

Watson's typical hangout spot.  We gave up trying to keep him off the back of the couch.  I think he likes the vantage point.

And, finally, there's this.  Doesn't look like much, you would have thought I had severed an artery with the amount of blood that poured out of it.  I was bent down to pick up a towel (I was going to go downstairs and exercise on the spin bike), and didn't see the cupboard door open (the lights were off.)  The corner of the door punched a wedge-shaped cut in my forehead, and I had to go to a local Urgent Care in order for them to glue it shut: the cut wasn't deep, but the wedge-shape prevented it from closing.  Long story short, I now have a scar on my forehead, which is kinda cool.  It's smaller than I'd like - I mean, if I'm going to have a prominent scar on my forehead, I'd like it to be bigger - but, after all, chicks dig scars.

- Brian

Random Late-Winter Updates, etc.

Hey creepers,

Not much has changed over the last week or so - whenever the hell I last updated this thing, I don't know.  We're both still working a lot, keeping our heads down and killing time until those fun things on the horizon (Wicked for Kris, Italy for Yours Truly, St. Patrick's Day for all of us) finally decide to get their lazy asses in gear and show up.

The weather down here lately has been horrible - in the morning it's 40 degrees, and by noon it's in the low 80s.  There's no way in Hell one can prepare themselves for this, either physically or clothing-ly.  All this hot/cold/hot/cold crap is making everyone sick - allergies are running rampant, kids are walking around with smoker's cough, snot rags litter the floors, and nobody knows how to dress themselves.  At this point, I'd be totally cool with winter weather if it would just stay winter weather long enough so that I could get used to it.

I hate Florida.

Anyway, now that I've grumbled about the weather like some 76-year-old man, here's some random pictures from over the last two weeks or so.

Enjoy.

- Brian

Sunchild Spring 2013 Portraits 

The Little Rocks Kids Choir, performing at the Osceola County Fair (the Cannonball's the short one)

Exit, Stage Left.

I don't know who this other kid is.

After the concert. . .

I hate camels.

At the Heavy Petting Zoo. . .

Alayna, petting some kind of furry quadruped.

I'm not sure, but it looks like this cow's head is stuck. . .

Pumped.

The Cannonball apparently loved this (she's second from the back)

Alayna wanted to be dressed up like Pocahontas.  Abby just hates wearing clothes.

Alayna's last day with Ms. Virginia, the teacher who is primarily responsible for teaching her how to read.  Ms. Virginia is moving back to Ecuador, so the VPK kids are going to be getting a new teacher, who will hopefully be just as good at teaching reading and writing.

For the last few years, the kids have monopolized our living room TV - I guess that sorta thing happens when you have kids.  On Saturday, however, I wanted to use the Wii (something I never get to do anymore) while having my morning coffee, so I rigged up a VCR to an old TV we had in the garage and set the girls up in their bedroom for the morning.  This may have to be a weekend ritual from this point forward. . .

While shopping in the Loop, the girls get distracted with a fountain. . .

Seizing other folks' wishes. . .

Stopover at Menchies - the kids' favorite ice creamery 

One of our lilly clusters, back from a winter nap. . .

If you ever want to keep preschoolers occupied and out of your hair, give them a big pile of dirt and a shovel.

Field hands.

Kris wanted these plastic things gone.  Personally, I'd like to ring the smaller fruit trees with stones - not sure why the previous owner was so obsessed with all the white plastic in his backyard. . .

The Cannonball attempts to water the grass. . . which, as you can see, is REALLY thirsty.

I have a shit-load of rocks.  No idea what I'm doing with all of this crap. . .

Sunset over Ginger Mill. . .

I decided to break out the old Playmobile sets so the girls could play with something new. . . I forgot this stuff was like plastic heroin.

Back for action, after 20 years. . .

Loving sisters.

Kris should really know better, sitting in the Splash Zone. . .