Leftovers, July Edition

Hi fellas (and fellettes.)

July was a pretty decent month, if I don't say so myself.  Weather was awesome, and so I kinda wish I didn't have to work as much.  I felt like my summer didn't really start until our stint at Eight Point Lake, in the third/fourth week of the month (I continued my week-long workshop marathon at Delta College, teaching Animation, Photoshop, and STEM exploration right up until that vacation, so these last two months have really flown by.)  Hooray for adulthood.

Anyway, here's a little bit of what we managed to document from this last month. . .

This neighborhood kid practically lives at our house.

Birthday sampler.  My family gets me.

I may have consumed this entire thing within 24 hours.

Educating the offspring in some fundamental music history. . .

I've had a stack of 45s that have been collecting dust, and I decided this month to finally get off my ass and sort through them.  I have no idea how/when I acquired half of them (most without sleeves of any kind), and in the end I donated the sound majority to Goodwill.  Dad scored a handful - along with the LP shown here - that were from Granny's and part of his childhood.  I kept, like, eight 45s, I think.

One of the days I was off teaching at Delta, Kris took the girls out to the Midland Center for the Arts to check out their Dr. Seuss exhibit. 

Arts and crafts is always a big hit with our tax deductions. . .

Way to reach for the stars, kid.

Emulating her old man (I really need to buy a new drum set. . .)

Not sure what the news story's about, but I'm sure she's off-script.

She's got the posture down, I'll give her that.

That's one of the Cannonball's friends, Samantha - some day they had a play date or something.  Who knows, I was at work.

Kids playing banging on my grandmother's piano.

After years and years and years of her growing out, Kris had finally had enough of Alayna's hair reaching down to her ass.  One of our neighbors just so happens to cut hair on the side, having a salon set up in her house, so the Cannonball finally had her hair did.

(She had about eight or nine inches taken off - looks a hell of a lot better.)

Delta College, where I've spent the majority of my summer so far.  I've been teaching week-long courses in Animation, Cartooning/Illustration, Photoshop, Storytelling, STEM exploration, etc.  A crap-load of planning, but the kids are well-behaved and the pay is good. . . it just eats up a lot of my summer, which kinda sucks.  I'll probably scale it back a bit next summer.

These computers were AWESOME.  This was my classroom for my Animation and Photoshop classes.  I want one these iMacs for my home office. . .

The annual Ivy/Rapanos/Dina neighborhood picnic.  We knew a lot more people this time around, but once again opted against eating/bringing a dish (it had been pouring rain up until twenty minutes or so before the picnic was supposed to start, so a lot of people didn't know if they'd still have it.)

Another year, another water balloon fight.

Riverdays at the Tridge Park (whatever that place is called.)

Kris wanted to check out these dueling pianos, which, as could be expected, featured a lot of Billy Joel.  Way to be original, fellas.

The kids weren't thrilled with it, and we ended up having to split earlier than anticipated.

They did have a playground nearby, so we let the kids scamper about that for awhile to burn off some of their pent-up energy.

The Tridge

On the way back, Kris and I decided to hit up the Cork and Ale party store (formerly Valley Produce) - in my opinion the best craft beer store in town.  She wanted me to pick her out a sixer of random ciders (the only beer she'll drink), and while I was in the store getting some local ciders for her - and mixing up a sixer of my own - this is what my roommates were up to in the van.

They thought it'd be funny to move their parking spot while I was in the store.  They're hilarious.

At the beginning of another STEM workshop at Delta, I was given a brand new room to use.  Upon entering the room for the first time, I found this scribbled across the front white board.  Obviously kinda creepy.

Yes, of course they knocked it all down.  All over the floor.

Bunch of chicks, gettin' their nails did.

Seriously.  This chick lives here.

Abby felt it was necessary to warn her friends of the swords in our office.  'Cause, you know, we let the kids run in there and play with them all the time.

One day we came out side and saw that - SOMEHOW - a bird had impaled itself on the radio antennae of my car.  It soon became big neighborhood news with the kids.

Every time Kris got close to touching it, it started flapping its wings all over the damn place in fear.  And then Kris would recoil, freaked out, and the whole process would repeat itself.  This went on for about ten minutes.

(Eventually she got it off and the bird awkwardly flew away. In definitive defiance of God's Will.)

- 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