Awards and More from the Dawn of Summer

FINALLY.

Holy God, those last two weeks of school felt like two months.  Overall the year flew by - ridiculously so - but damn did it ever grind to a halt after FCAT testing. . .

The Cannonball's last day of school (it was pajama day - we're not that bad as parents)

With Ms. Adriana, her After School teacher.

Alayna finished school on Wed-nesday, while I wrapped up with students on Thursday and had to go in today in order to submit grades, finish boxing up my room, and turning in my keys - all of which I finished by 9:30am.  The rest of my teacher workday was spent playing a Nintendo I hooked up in a coworker's office and putting together a puzzle.

Thug life.

After work myself and a few other guys I work with stopped off at a dive-pub along 192 in Kissimmee called the Fox and Hounds (fortunately that name references British fox hunting, and not the depressing Disney cartoon of the same name. . . you know, the one that make you want to kill yourself.) 

Not a stellar selection of beers on hand (mostly low ABV British ales), but decent.  And you can't smoke inside like you can at Stogies (our usual hangout spot), but the decor and atmosphere inside is awesome - very British:

 Another commencement ceremony this week that featured the Houghs was Alayna's 'patch ceremony' (I'm not sure what it's called exactly, as this is really more of Kris' thing - I'd ask her to write a blog post about it, and she'd say 'sure,' and then nothing would ever come of it.  You know how wives are.)  Anyway, Alayna was awarded her 'Daisy' peddles (patches, not real ones), and Kris ironed them on to her vest for the last meeting/award ceremony of her Daisy Troop.

Here's some pictures (that Kris took - I wasn't there, so I'm just going to go ahead and wing these captions):

Making. . . baked goods?

Ah, they're cupcakes.  I see.

(My kid's the one screwing around with her shoe while the of her platoon is focused on the task at hand.)

. . . and now she's lying on the floor, which is I guess totally permitted.

Officially a Daisy.

The Squad

. . .gang initiations?

Okay, that's weird.

. . . aaaaand, in closing, here are some random shots from around the house from the last week or two of May:

The night before her big book review project was due, Kris attempted to have Alayna pose with her finished project.

In front of Ms. Billiterri's portable classroom.

The girls being introduced to the '80s classic, The Goonies.  Abby grew bored watching it after the first hour, but Alayna sat through the entire thing and loved it.  Thank Jesus.

Abby's real birthday (5/21) fell on a Wednesday, so Kris bought another balloon and brought cupcakes into Abby's class at Sunchild.  Why Alayna's there, I forget.

After school that day, letting Abby open some presents from Grandma and Papa John on the back patio (couldn't Skype with the grandparents, unfortunately, as Mom had laryngitis and sounded like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.) 

Without the distractions of a resort hotel room and a ton of relatives about, Alayna didn't do so well sitting aside and watching her sister open a ton of presents.

I had prepared for this, so I bought them both a couple pity books.

Staying at home on a school day, taking care of a sick kid with a fever.  Of course, when she's napping, what's a dad to do?

Kris recently taught Alayna how to braid hair.  Sadly enough, Alayna's already better at it than I am.

Anyone for a gratuitous crotch shot?

Playing with dolls. . . who are taking turns puking into a garbage can.  'Cause that's how Hough kids roll.

Late-evening park session in Ginger Mill with the fam and dog

Every time I see the kids' panel, I get pissed - had I not been holding onto a squirming child, I would've put more thought and effort into this.  There's a shit-ton of negative space in that upper-right hand corner of the square.  And it kills me.

- Brian

The Houghs Throw an Ad Hoc Garage Sale, and Other Tales

I've been stuck in a portable during FCAT Testing.

How's it going, America?

Well, the school year's starting to slow down a bit as we enter that final gauntlet towards Summer.  It's been a pretty hectic year - not stressful, but busy.

Holy crap has it been busy.

Usually school-related warfare is limited to Yours Truly, but since Alayna's now in kindergarten, we've doubled the load of homework around here. . . which, believe me, sucks.

Setting up shop

We're still three weeks or so away from being able to breathe, and lately our weekends have been packed with social obligations, other kids' birthdays, field trips, girl scouts outings, and tons of other crap that robs me of my sitting-in-the-sun-and-reading-a-book-and-having-a-pipe time.

Time to sell some crap. . .

Like community garage sales, if you will.

Kris and Watson.  Having a blast.

We knew our subdivision hosted an annual garage sale sometime in May, but - for whatever reason - our HOA decided not to advertise said event.  Nor did they bother telling their own residents when this event would be - Kris had to email the director (leader?) of the HOA in order to get an answer.

Turns out it was today.  Hurrah.

We had about four days notice to decide what crap around the house we were willing to get rid of on the fly, which wasn't much time really at all.  That barely gave us time to clear out space in the garage to sort through all of our crap we were willing to part with, and so it was to no surprise that we didn't end up raking in a fortune this time around.  There was barely any traffic to speak of, and from 8am to 11am, when we called it quits, we took in a profit of about $70.

Ka - ching.

$40 of that was the kids' PowerWheel, which we bought for $65 three years prior.  Not bad.  Another $10 was made by selling two really shitty N64 games that I haven't played since I was 15.  The rest was old kids books (because our house is a library and we have mountains of books), some puzzles and games, old toys, and a Brita filter/pitcher that some Indian family spent ten minutes analyzing before buying it for $2.

Clean water is really, really important to some people.

All in all, it was pretty meh day. . . but at least we got some fresh air, I guess.  And we cleared a huge space out of our garage, which was cool.

And I suppose that $70 could buy us a coffee at Starbucks, or a small popcorn the next time we take our kids to the movies.  So there's that.

Here's some other pictures for you.  Enjoy:

Waiting for Dr. Eckert at All-Star Pediatrics (Abby was bit by mosquitos awhile ago and scratched the bites so much that they became infected - hooray)

I had to leave work early to take her to the doctor.  I hate taking time off when a kid's not even that sick.

This looks like Abby's lighting a cigarette (she wasn't.)

Kris helps Alayna finish a project for her class.  She had to make a book review presentation on her favorite book, which - inexplicably - is Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham (which she never reads.)

Gossip time.

Selfies

We knew we had a peach tree in the backyard, but the previous two years we haven't seen much from it in terms of a harvest crop.  This year made up for it.  And then some.

My backyard, somewhat resurrected.  Many hours of sweat and toil went into the weed holocaust that I orchestrated here.

Millions of peaches. . .

Ol' Ma Kris, up in the tree, bringin' in the peach harvest. . .

We're growing so many Goddamn peaches that they're falling on the ground and rotting before we can pick them off the tree.  We try in the evenings, after work, but by then countless dozens have fallen on the ground and been ransacked by insects.  You can imagine how awesome that smells.

Those peaches that do survive and find their way into our kitchen are pretty good, though.

- Brian