April: The Crappiest Month of the Year (feat. Abby)

Guys, I may have said this before, who knows, but I hate the month of April.

It's about the same, temperature-wise, as March - sometimes slightly warmer, mostly just rainier - but the elusive heat and freedom of Summer is still weeks away. April, with its lack of snow, means you can see just how much work your yard is going to need in the coming months, but the weather hovering in the low-50s - with insane wind and (usually) damp ground - means that unless you're some die-hard lawn enthusiast, you're not getting a whole hell of a lot done outdoors.

And school? Don't get me started with that bullshit. It's standardized testing month in public schools, folks, so that means we get the infamous PSAT, followed by two MSTEP's and two additional NWEA's. The kids are checked out, as they can sense the coming summer like a pool of sharks (reading three grades below level, of course) smelling blood in the water. The misbehavior is off the charts, and all of the staff are exhausted with fighting against it for the last seven or eight months.

There's no end in sight.

And then there's Easter, the lamest holiday of the year. On a f***ing Sunday, with church involved, and it's over after a couple hours of family small talk and over-indulging in food you shouldn't be eating. 

Then, you know, you have to get up early the next morning for work.

So yeah. NOT a huge fan of April by any means, but here's a crap-load of pics and video for you regardless (about 80% of which are selfies Abby took with her phone, be forewarned.)

Enjoy (or not, I don't care - f*** this month.)

This year, the girls' Spring Break fell on a different week as mine (they had the first week of April off, I had the last week in March.) As they've done every Spring Break for the last four years or so, the Johnsons decided to cash in on Erik's stockpile of Big E's reward points - accumulated through a year's worth of nights out eating and drinking at the sports bar - and get a hotel room at the neighboring Holiday Inn. They always invite folks to meet them at the hotel for the evening in order to take advantage of the pool, and we end up hanging out for a few hours eating and drinking poolside while the kids swim.

Abby and Ella in the half-indoor/half-outdoor hot tub thing they have there (where they hung out most of the evening.)

Colliers, Houghs, and Johnsons on hand tonight. Oh, and Mitch - his wife always has a headache anymore.

A couple hours in to the poolside hangout. Alayna swung out after her Delta College class had wrapped up.

Getting later on in the evening. At this point, most of the other families had vacated the premises and we more or less had this place to ourselves.

Hey look - I'm here, too.

Of course Abby ended up staying the night with the Johnsons in their hotel room. Not like she has school in the morning or anything. . .

Another day, another date. These kids are straight-up boy crazy these days.

(I'm not entirely sure where this picture was taken - looks like some kinda store, but I have no idea where.)

Some creepy-asf filter on the Cannonball's phone.

One weeknight, towards the beginning of the month, Kris ran the girls out to Bay City to that VooDoo Tattoo. Both girls had been hankerin' to get their upper ears pierced, and this is the best place around to get a piercing done (Alayna had her belly-button pierced here, and both girls - along with Ella - have gotten previous ear piercings done here.)

This time around didn't hurt nearly as bad as the ol' belly button, though.

You can barely see it, but it's that little stud at the top left of her ear.

Abby's turn in the chair.

Shot of both girls' inflamed ears.

Gotta get a pic of the sign out front while you're getting work done. That's, like, Photo Taking 101.

The next morning - following my night out at the Loons game with the guys - Alayna thought it was hilarious that I had to use my reading glasses in order to see something on my phone. . . while already using my regular set of glasses. I don't care if I look dumb as hell, I hate putting in contacts first thing in the morning.

Had a chill day around the house the rest of the day, as me and the dads had hit it pretty hard the evening before. While I spun records in the Study, Kris and Abby colored in some random coloring books we have lying around the house.

Farting Animals. We're a sophisticated family, folks.

The Angelotti's installed a privacy fence this month. Not so much as a defensive barrier protecting them against my family of barbarians as much as a courtesy to spare the neighbors having to continue listening to their Pomeranian's (Hercules) incessant barking.

Now we get to look forward to staining this thing once the weather warms up a bit. That should be fun.

I've seen The Karate Kid a whole bunch of times, I know how to handle a fence.

This is where you'll find the dogs on any sunny afternoon. Either here or in the dining room where we get another big patch of sunlight.

Alayna, hanging out in Abby's bedroom one night (not sure why this was deemed 'photo-worthy,' but figured I'd share it anyway - I take a ton of weird stuff off the girls' phones these days, I don't get half of it.)

Abby and Ella have school night sleepovers sometimes over at the Johnson's house. Believe it or not, they actually help each other get around in the morning faster - not sure how that's possible, but it's true. They must treat it like spas, because whenever they take pictures it's always doing facials and wearing hair nets and crap like that (like you see here, in the Johnson's bathroom.)

Not sure the point of putting on lip gloss before bed, but whatever - you do you, kids.

Nica, Abby, and Kiersten in one of Midland High's bathrooms. Bathroom selfies are all the rage, these days.

Thank God she didn't want to go with a smaller, easier-to-manage instrument. It's a ton of fun dealing with a five-foot cello everyday.

Midland Varsity Pom highlights a different pommer from their team every week on their team's Instagram account. This week was Abby, so I screenshot all of the pictures from the post (for your viewing pleasure.)

They must have completed a worksheet or something for this, because each pommer in previous weeks have answered the same set of questions. The responses you're seeing in these pics are all Abby's (and you'll probably recognize most of the pics from previous blog posts, too - they're all ours.)

From the SVSU Performance.

From September, during the height of Football Season.

At that Pom Camp, back in July at Northwood University.

At Pom Regionals, at Heritage High School, back in January.

Last night as a JV Pommer, at the Pom Banquet a month or two ago.

The inside of AlayAlayna has been driving Ella and Abby to school all year, and they've got it dialed in like a well-oiled machine these days. A well-oiled machine that's habitually tardy for 1st Hour, that is. These girls are regularly late to class, as they frequently make morning pit-stops at Bigby or Starbucks for fancy coffees.

Abby and her friends - who comprise probably 80% of this month's pics, by the looks of things - are huge fans of taking pictures in the bathroom at school.

Nothing about carrying a cello around all day sounds fun.

Kris happened to catch Abby on the road during one of her Driver's Training 'road' sessions one weeknight. Abby started the first session of Driver's Training this month, and had three, full weeks of in-class lessons, plus something like five or six two-hour road sessions.

Spotted in action.

Once she passes her test - she scored 52 out of 60 on her practice test without studying, and knows which ones she got wrong, so it's a given at this point - she'll have to log X amount of driving hours in before she gets to start the second, more road-focused aspect of the training process.

Alayna's backseat. Looks like a bunch of gypsies live back there, for Christ's sake.

Another Abby selfies, again in some Midland High bathroom. No idea where she got that Bucee's hoodie - God knows we've never been to one of those.

Collier was playing around with AI one morning and apparently decided to create a Brian Hough action figure. He texted us these pics in our Kings of the Hill text thread. Pretty accurate, if you ask me - he must've shown the AI bot pics of me to base the figure off of, because the outfits are identical to what I'd wear.

The accessories are spot-on. Gear bag, sword, History book, an Alexa speaker (the joke being that often at our parties I'll start yelling at it when it screws up a playlist or plays the wrong song or whatever.) 

One Friday, after work, Kris wanted to have a few of the moms over for some drinks in the basement. Eventually this led to me inviting some of the dads over as well (the Inner Circle, minus Morgan and Kelli.)

We dads obviously hung out in the Study, where we drank bourbon and listened to records all night.

Kris whips up some margaritas for the ladies.

Mees, Danielle, Kris and Courtney, clucking about chick stuff.

Collier and Mitch.

Abby selfies not enough for you?  How about Abby selfies videos?

Our old pal Brad (who used to be in our friend group, but slowly faded away following his divorce with Amy) lost both his parents in the course of like eight or nine days back in December, and a joint celebration of life was scheduled for a Saturday one weekend in the middle of the month. It was all the way out in Evart - where his family originates - so on my drive out that way from Midland I was consequently forced to travel through the absolute shittiest village in the State of Michigan. . .

Downtown Evart. Before we headed over to the Celebration of Life, those of us dads that ended up going - me, Erik and Mitch - met up for lunch at Ruckle's in Clare. Afterwards, we realized we were still sort of early for the event, so we stopped off at some random hole-in-the-wall bar in Evart for one more beer.

The front of the bar was clearly a private house originally. When you first walked in, they had this staircase off to the left that led up to a frickin' ceiling (which makes a lot of sense.) I wanted to check it out, but the staircase was guarded by a chain and a brace of creepy Easter Bunnies.

After our beer, we headed back towards the cars in order to head over to the celebration of life (of which I took no pics, obviously.)

Abby, meanwhile, had gone to watch her boyfriend, PeterMan, at one of his soccer games. They then went back to his house, and while he was showering off the game, she made friends with his dog in the living room.

I had driven separately to Brad's folks' celebration of life because I had to peace out about an hour earlier than Erik and Mitch, due to some play that Kris wanted to check out. It was a murder mystery comedy thing at Delta College, and while it wasn't a 'real' play by any means, it was quasi-entertaining I guess. A click above a high school production, kind of on the same level as a community production.

Abby coming home after a date with PeterMan.

Abby, rocking her boyfriend's hoodie (the current custom, I guess, since I don't see girls wearing their boyfriends' class rings these days.)

Some social media campaign going on at Midland High - these posters are hung up all over the hallways of the school.

And there's Abby's.

One of my coworkers didn't believe that I had a hemp necklace made from my own, extracted Wisdom Teeth (which I had made my senior year at WMU back in 2002.) I had to prove that I am indeed a man of my word.

I'm not sure why Abby's lips are done up like this. I assume it's pre-blending or something along those lines.

Another school night sleepover over at the Johnson residence.

Not sure I need to caption each and every one of these Abby selfies at this point - you've seen one, you've seen 'em all.

Not sure what's happening here. Sure the custodian is gonna be thrilled.

Makeup process. Looks exhausting.

The Cannonball and Samson.

Alayna and some of her friends (Cristina, Rita, and Lexi) at school.

And one with Kiersten and Ella.

Alayna asked if she could borrow my phone so that she could take this pic of the dogs. They literally do this ALL THE DAMN TIME, so I'm not sure why she felt this particularly time around it was photo-worthy.

Watson and his beloved Pickle.

A locker selfie of Abby and Ella one afternoon.

Looks comfortable.

One of my students drew a pic of me and asked to hang it up in the classroom. I don't see the resemblance, but whatever. . .

Collier invited folks over for a last-minute bonfire at his house the night before Good Friday (most of us had  the next day off work, so it was basically the start of the weekend.) I finally broke open this bourbon barrel-aged ale I'd been sitting on for over a yea (if you'll recall, me and the boys visited this specific distillery back on Brocation '23. )It was pretty good, but not mind-blowingly so.

Kind of a light turnout for a Collier bonfire, but it was on a Thursday and the weather was hovering in the upper 40s/low-50s.

Mitch, Ryan, Mees, Courtney and Alicia (Kris was at home and didn't feel like coming out this evening.)

Getting chilly out. . .

Sebastian asked Alayna to prom that weekend, and - since it's 2025 and this has become the new normal for kids these days - he had to create some elaborate proposal board and everything. His was clearly aimed at Alayna's Taco Bell job.

Sebastian is friends with Kyle, Alayna's friend Lexi's boyfriend, so they orchestrated all of this when they took the girls out on a Good Friday afternoon double date.

Practicing her cello in her room.

Alayna's prom proposal flowers (dozen red roses, of course - those are her favorites.)

I've had this beer in my fridge for like five years, and finally decided to crack it open Friday night while listening to vinyl in the Study (seemed only fitting.)

Abby and Alayna, later that evening, went out on a double date to the Dow Diamond to watch the Loons. This was Alayna's second double date of the day - the earlier one being with Lexi and Kyle, when they were both asked to Prom by their respective boyfriends.

Why would you take a pic inside the womens' bathroom?

It just so happened that the Johnsons and Larsons were also out at the Loons game this evening, and - just like we did at the beginning of the month - towards the end of the game they got bored with baseball and decided to venture downtown. This will play into things in a sec. . .

The kids also got bored at the stadium and went down to the Tridge to walk around downtown, and hit up some playground while they were down there.

I totally forgot they light up the Tridge at night.

Our friends happened to run into the girls and their boyfriends' while everyone was walking around, and made it a point to take a selfie with everyone. Frickin' hilarious.

The next afternoon, I met my brothers Chris and Jeff up at Whichcraft (my favorite local taproom) for a few afternoon beers. We ended up setting up shop for three hours, and I can't think of a better way to piss away one's afternoon.

At home, later that evening, Alayna was busy taking close-up shots of crap around the house (not sure why, maybe she was just experimenting with her phone's camera settings.) Anyway, here's Samson.

Some flowers Sebastian got her.

The next morning was Easter Sunday, and Kris and I - thank God - no longer trouble ourselves with Scavenger Hunts, or Eggs, or anything of that bullshit. Now, it's just a simple matter of filling a basket with teen crap and leaving it on the kitchen table for them to collect. Because it was Easter Sunday and everything, we had to go to church this morning, which started at 10am. And, because this is the Holiest day of the year and stuff, we had to get there earlier than normal, AND had to dress up to the nines (or else Jesus would get pissed, I assume.) So, consequently, the girls spent so much time in the damn bathroom this morning that they didn't have time to go through their baskets before church, and it was put off until the afternoon.

Needless to say, but Kris did NOT appreciate my artwork on the side of our fridge this morning.

The Houghs, post-service. Alayna, as you can tell, was REALLY feeling the whole 'dress up for church' thing this morning. . . . 

Of course Abby extended the invite to PeterMan to join us at church this morning, so his mom dropped him off and he met us just as the service was starting.

After getting home from church, the girls finally got to go through their Easter Baskets.

We stayed around church for about a half an hour after the service ended, waiting around for PeterMan's mom to pick him up, and were there so long that the folks cleaning up all the flower arrangements after the service gave us a bunch of free flowers (that they were pitching anyway.) Ended up with these daffodils and some lilies (in the following pic) - I'm sure we'll kill them soon enough.

A lot of the stuff we got the girls this year for Easter was stuff they either wanted - or needed - for Florida. Accessories, jewelry, lotions, sunscreens, etc., along with the usual beauty and grooming crap, candy, and junk food.

Some of Alayna's haul this year.

Church lilies.

Kris threw bead bracelet kits in the kids' baskets, because even as high schoolers they still appreciate craft stuff from time to time.

Like we do every year, we ate lunch over at my Mom's house with my brothers and their families (minus Jeff's three kids, who were staying with the Dark Lord Sauron this year.) While we were there, my mom gave us this giant ass palm plant she no longer wanted. Kris has been big into plants recently, so she was pretty stoked.

Some selfie Alayna took later that evening. I assume for Sebastian.

That Ice Bucket Challenge that made its way around social media back in, like, 2014 or something, came back with a vengeance this week, and both our girls were tagged in other folks' challenges. Alayna's was filmed in some weird format, so I was unable to include it here (she did it over at Sebastian's house, and he dumped the bucket over her head.) Here's Abby's, which she did just as it was getting cold and dark out (Alayna was the one who pitched the bucket of water at her. . . sort of.) Here's to planning.

Alayna had made a beaded bracelet for Sebastian (from that kit that Kris threw in their Easter Baskets), and I guess he wasn't overly enthusiastic about it. Picking up on the fact that he probably dropped the ball on Boyfriending 101, he made up for it by buying her another dozen red roses. 

In order to get a yard sign for the upcoming Midland High drama musical, students had to pose with random people somewhere with the sign (for social media purposes, I assume.) Alayna ran the sign up to her Taco Bell and got a pic of a bunch of her co-workers with it. Like they've done before, both our girls are involved in the Pit Orchestra this year (not like they're acting in the musical or anything.) Now we can add this production sign to our wall in the basement that has all the other school play signs on it.

Alayna got a pic of Samson rolling around in the backyard like a dumbass one afternoon after she got home from school.

Another day, another picture of Yours Truly drawn up by a student. Why do they always draw me like some haggard, old crack head?

Abby and her Drivers Ed instructor. She's had three, straight weeks of driver's training, Pit rehearsal, AND drive time on the road this month. Every day, for hours and hours after school. Thank God varsity Pom practice wasn't thrown in on top of all this other stuff as well, the kid's running herself ragged this month.

Another day of Pit practice in the days leading up to Opening Night. You can see Sebastian - the concert master - off to the left in the front, with Alayna over his shoulder.

Our front yard garden, raked free of leaves and sticks and ready for all the damn mulch we're having delivered the first week of next month. This project is going to be a work in progress for sure, but we're being optimistic with it.

Friday, towards the end of school, Abby and Ella are doing. . . something, not sure.

While Yours Truly was down at that Bouncing Souls show in Grand Rapids with BP, the girls performed in the play's opening night at Central Auditorium. Kris didn't go to this either - she was waiting to go with me when I came back on Saturday - but one of her friends went and took these pics for her. 

You can see Alayna there in the second row on violin.

Abby's in the second row on the opposite side of the conductor, on cello.

Later that night, one of the girls got this pic of the dogs. Doing what they do best.

I got back to Midland around 11am Saturday morning (BP and his fam had a soccer game to get to at like 9:30am, so I just woke up and hit the road at 9am. . . after watching the first two hours of Fellowship  of the Ring, of course - wouldn't be a hangout with BP without squeezing a little Lord of the Rings in somewhere.) Around 6pm that evening, Kris and I drove over to Central Auditorium to check out the musical.

In the entry/lobby/whatever, they had a slideshow going on these mounted screens showcasing the different students involved in the production. It was a stroke of luck that just as I was walking by the TV, it happened to be one of my kids - out of probably one hundred - that was being shown on the screen.

The pit orchestra, warming up.

The opening number - the Overture, or whatever you call it - before the musical started.

I obviously didn't record during the show, but - three hours later - I did sneak my camera up to get a pic of the closing finale.

Afterwards, while the audience was filing out, the orchestra continued playing through the closing medley and we came down tot he ground level (we had been up in the balcony in our usual first row, center spot) so Makayla could check it out a little closer to the action. Kris' friend, Kim, and come out to the show, and brought along Makayla, who's now at the age where she can sit through something like this without losing her damn mind. 

After the show, we waited for the orchestra kids to put away their instruments and joint the acting kids in the post-show party room. 

Some of the pit orchestra musicians with Mrs. Mammassian.

After the show, a bunch of the kids went out to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate, and Abby got this pic of a recently graduated, former orchestra student crashing the party (he was super interested in Alayna and Sebastian becoming a thing recently.)

The next morning, Kris and I went to war with the yard. Having recently mowed it, I decided to trim a bunch of the trees in the backyard and start a debris fire. While out picking up sticks and clutter, I noticed a weird, bit of plastic over by the trampoline. Upon further inspection, I realized it was a Harry Potter wand from our last Halloween Party. After going through the party pics, I discovered that the only kid who was dressed up like that was my nephews, Levi. I tried the button on the wand and - miraculously - it still made sound effects (which is crazy, seeing how it was buried under snow in sub-arctic temperatures for months.)

We went at this for about five hours. Trimmed all the low-hanging pine branches that get in the way when I'm on my riding mower, then we started working on a tree by the side of the house. . .

This thing had started off as a bush, but had exploded in recent years - you couldn't even use the walkway around the side of the house because it completely spilled over it. Kris was able to knock off all the branches, but the trunk was too thick for her saw. Gonna have to borrow a buddy's chainsaw this summer.

This funeral pyre burned for the rest of the day. Got a crapload taken care of.

Yard bounced back pretty well, all things considered. Still need to put some fertilizer down then spot-treat for weeds. . . but that has to wait until I mow a couple more times.

We have tulips popping up EVERYWHERE right now.

Samson melts into the couch, later that night.

So Facebook sent out a notification to try applying some of their Meta AI filters to your profile picture. I don't use Facebook much at all anymore (aside from posting to Instagram once and awhile, which simultaneously posts to Facebook as well), but figured 'what the hell' and gave it a shot.

If you haven't seen the original, it's a pic of me and Abby skateboarding up at Chestnut Hill Elementary back in May of 2020 (I haven't changed my profile pic in five years, if that's any indication as to how often I use Facebook.)

Pixar one looks weird. My eyebrows are insane.

Anime one screws everything up. I don't have black hair, what the hell.

And, in closing, here's a bunch of tulips. Like I said just a second ago, we have these things springing up everywhere. Too bad they only last a couple weeks. Oh well, see you kids next month. . .

- Brian