A Forced March

March is usually pretty similar to October around these parts:  every weekend is chock-full of social plans and obligations, while the weekdays drag on maddeningly slow.

My students this year, as much as I love them, have been driving me crazy this month.  Testing season is in full-force, and Summer is so far off in the distance that it feels like it's never going to show up.  Everyone is burnt out with school, and I feel like a slave driver constantly forcing them forward through curriculum.  Spring Break could have very well lasted two weeks this year.  I'm sure all parties involved would have been cool with it.

Aside from St. Patrick's Day, a slew of Girl Scout crap, play dates, and house-hunting, not much else happened.  My brother Chris announced he and his wife, Nicole, were expecting twins, I sold my first record on Discogs (a Pearl Jam LP) for a cool $200 (seriously), and. . . that's about it.

Check out this month's assortment of randomness from the Hough Family:

One of my students gave me this autographed poster from a concert he and a few other kids performed at with some rock and roll has-beens.  In case you needed validated proof that I 'rawk,' the guitarist from Boston said so.  Tell your friends.

Found this one day after a class left.  I should probably invest in some cleaning supplies at work one of these days. . .

New additions to the House clan:  Chris and Nicole's thumb-sized twins.

Found this old chestnut in one of my boxes of books.  Figured Chris has far more use for it now than I do.

Kris took the girls to Clare one day to visit her mom, so Yours Truly took the opportunity to kick some more ass in Mass Effect 3 -  a rarity these days.

One Saturday, taking the girls out to the Roll Arena for the afternoon (featuring a rare glimpse of Alayna actually rollerskating instead of playing arcade games.)

Abby racing around the track

One day during the middle of the month, Kris and I were dumb enough to take the girls out mattress shopping with us.  NO idea why we thought that would be a good idea.  Here's our kids screwing around on a mattress we didn't end up buying, at Dan Dan the Mattress Man in Midland.

Guess how much these animal-loving girls loved seeing this dead, stuffed wolf?

I picked this up for St. Patrick's Day. . . I'm a big fan of craft beer and Jameson, so I was hoping this shit would go together as well as Chocolate and Peanut Butter.  Sure, it was good, but not worth the increase in price from a normal bottle of Jameson. You could barely taste the difference.

St. Patrick's Day technically fell on a Friday this year, so here's the girls all Irish'ed up and ready for school.

There was a carnival at Chestnut Hill after school, so Kris took the girls back up to that and let them play a few crappy carney games while I packed up for our annual St. Patty's stint in Clare.  Surprisingly enough, Alayna won a cake in the cake walk. . . something Yours Truly repeatedly tried to do back during my Elementary years, but to no avail.

Healthy dinner.

After Kris and the girls returned from the Carnival at their school, we dropped the girls off with Mom and met up with Chris and Nicole at the Midland Center for the Arts.  We had bought tickets for a one man production of - no joke - the entire original Star Wars trilogy.  I had a quick tinge of anxiety when someone asked me which Star Wars trilogy I was going to see, but fortunately I was spared having to sit through some random dude interpreting the God-awful Prequels.  They even had Bell's Two Hearted on tap, which they served in a bizarre sippy-cup sorta thing, but it was appreciated.  In the end, the guy did a pretty good one man show of the trilogy (but the beer definitely helped.) 

More selfies with Mom. . .

Playing with Shopkins, surrounded by mountains of cardboard (we're still packing, and still looking for a new home - it's LOADS of fun. . .)

At some Girl Scout cultural. . . thing.  I don't know, I wasn't there.  Here we have the Cannonball along with two of her friends, Madi and Samantha.  I'm guessing they're playing the part of Guatemalans. . .

Es muy bueno.

Seloske gave me this in 2006.  As a member of the Pearl Jam Fan Club, he received merch from the band once and awhile, and they accidentally sent him two identical LPs of this, so he gave me one.  Had he known that the record was incredibly rare, he probably wouldn't have done so.  I only listened to it once or twice, so decided to sell it on Discogs.  Some guy in Colorado ended up buying it for $200, which was good news for both of us:  he ended up scoring a great record in perfect condition (the cover had a little wear, as you can see, but that's it) and I ended up with a decent chunk of change.  Too bad I don't have more of these lying around in the collection. . .

- Brian

Across One April

So. . . how was everybody's April?  Pretty good, pretty crappy, pretty meh?  Ours was busy.

One Easter barnstorms the Hough House, it seems like the last two months of the school year take place in a matter of days.  Suddenly, every single weekend has plans (unlike, say, January or February, where I think one or two things happened, and the rest of the time we just stayed indoors, away from the cold, and watched Netflix.)

Birthdays, weddings, play dates, girl scout troop outings, camping trips (see later post), and tons of illnesses (both human and canine.)  Weekends are now social obligations, separated by a few days of school and work.  This will only grow more hectic as we enter the May/June gauntlet comprised of the girls' birthday parties, end of the school year, holidays, and God knows what else.

Of course, I'll bitch about that at a later time, I'm sure.

In the meantime, here's a look back on some of the day-to-day randomness that transpired throughout the month of April, not previously discussed or displayed.

Slainté.

The first weekend of the month, Alayna randomly created a saddle - complete with stirrups - out of copy paper.  No idea why she decided to do so, nor why she felt it was 'cool' to hang a map up Delaware/DC/Maryland on our fireplace.  I don't ask questions around here anymore.

Photobomb, courtesy of Abby.

Of course she had to try out the saddle.  You know. . . just to make sure it worked.

Later that afternoon, enjoying some beers (and Mariokart 8) over at Chris and Nicole's (and Tucker's.)

Speaking of dogs, Watson decided to vomit all over our living room carpet while we were over at Chris and Nicole's house (that was an awesome thing to come home to, believe you me.)  The next morning, he continued vomiting and wouldn't eat or drink anything.  For the entire day, he remained curled up under a blanket on our living room chair.  We decided that we had no choice but to take him in to the Midland Animal Clinic Urgent Care (which, while open on weekends without appointment, ended up costing an insane amount of money - cowabunga.)

Watson and I hung out here for about two hours. . . to the tune of, oh, $500.  Can I tell you folks how happy I was to drop $500 on this stupid dog?  I could have bought two new dogs for that amount, for Christ's sake. . .

Here's an X-Ray of Watson's torso, showing. . . something.

Kris dropped this outside of the school one morning as she walked the girls in the building.  Yours Truly had to drive up there and scour the area before eventually finding it on a sidewalk (FYI - grown men loitering around an elementary school isn't something our society deems 'legit,' as it turns out.) 

Topless foot baths.

Kris sent me this pic while I was at work one day.  Apparently she found this in our office trash can.

This is a lock of Abby's hair.  Seriously.

You can see the six or seven inches removed at the right, there.  She eventually told us she got gum caught in her hair and was too afraid to tell us about it. . . so she just cut off a shit-load of her hair instead.  Which, as you know, is WAAAAY better.

Fortunately, our neighbor, Danielle, used to work in a salon and has her own hair-cutting station set up in her house.  She was able to take six inches off the rest of Abby's hair and shape it, which not only got rid of Abby's handiwork, but also made her hair look healthier in the process (the girl's been needing to have her ends exterminated for some time.)

Lesson learned.

The weekend following Kris' cousin's wedding (in scenic Romulus, if you'll remember), she had to drive down to Novi in order to attend some dental insurance coding professional development workshop with her coworkers (I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything more mind-blowingly badass than 'dental insurance coding professional development.")  Anyway, this meant Yours Truly had the house to himself (after putting the girls to sleep, of course.)  So this happened.

Kris' apartment away from home.

While Kris was still in Novi, the weather heated up dramatically (for this time of year in Michigan, that is - not like we're still in Florida or anything, people.)  Mid/High-60s and sunny, which is obviously pretty welcome in mid-April around here.  As such, Abby demanded I fill up the pool on the back patio (shown here), but the water was still pretty frigid, and after awhile the kids lost all enthusiasm.

The next day, after Kris got home, we drove up to Clare for my nephew Blake's 12th birthday.  The girls consumed their week's worth of sugar in a single sitting, as usual.

Reading her 'Blue Bag Book' from school.  Abby has skyrocketed in reading this year, and is one of the top readers in her kindergarten class (reading chapter books already.)  She doesn't really care much for these black-and-white books her teacher sends home (which are pretty boring, but are meant to boost her reading levels), so getting her to read them can be a huge pain in the ass. . .

Surprise, surprise:  another child sick.  This time it was Abby, who projectile-vomited into the toilet as we were getting to walk the kids out the door on the way to school.  So, instead, her and I stayed home and indulged in Star Wars movies (the originals, Force Awakens - not the prequels) and Playmobil.

Our neighbors across the street held a birthday party for their oldest son, Levi (Alayna's age).  You can see their lawnmower/barrel "train" thing there on the sidewalk (I've posted about that before, I'm sure.

Channeling the Statue of Liberty in their house during the party.

Alayna and Reba (Levi's little sister, Abby's age).  Dress up's a pretty big deal with these kids.

As the party wound down, the neighborhood moved on down the street to Danielle's (Abby's hairstylist I mentioned earlier in this post) house for a bonfire.  Our kids are constantly playing with their daughter, Sophie, and son, Jackson (whom, apparently, is Abby's "boyfriend". . . or so we're told.)

Playing dress up and slaving away in the kitchen.  This is the kind of shit one comes to find when walking through our house on any given day.

Not the most helpful kitchen staff in the world, I'm sure.

After nearly eight years, we're finally getting rid of the girls' crib.  We had originally decided to hold onto the crib for future use down the road (as it can be converted into a twin bed), but one of Kris' best friends, Kim, is now expecting her first child, and Kris wanted to gift this to her instead (it's still in Like New condition, and was pretty expensive in the first place.)

Hangin' out in the Focus

Helping Kris make some Chick Pea nuggets (like Chicken, only not as good) for dinner.

The verdict is good.  A rarity around these parts, I assure you.

Brushing up on her skills (despite after taking nearly a year off from her piano lessons, Alayna has basically retained everything up to where she was in early April of 2015 - basically, she lost about three lessons worth of skill, which is a hell of  a lot better than we were expecting.)

Introducing Abby to music, courtesy of Great Granny Hough's piano.

- Brian