What Randoms June Hath Wrought

In honor of our ol' pal Juno - Roman goddess of something-or-other, we present to you all a brief collection of visual randomness for the month that honors Her.

(You're welcome.)

Hard to believe this was only a few weeks ago - feels like another lifetime, honestly.  This bare, empty, shell of a room is all that remained of my classroom during the last week of school.  No books, no posters, no decor, no technology, no nothing.  The room gutted, my souvenirs from eight years of teaching boxed up and loaded into my car.  See ya later, Teaching.

Our last trip over the Scary Bridge, en route to the Voigts for one, final visit with the girls' honorary aunt and uncle (and cousins.)

Play-dopes.

Our girls decided to crash Jack's bedtime story sesson with Adam. . .

Some of Alayna's awards from First Grade that she brought home the last week of school.

Can't say I miss these guys running about the house.  Michigan doesn't seem to believe in cockroaches (like the poor, unfortunate soul shown here, who didn't realize who's house he was trespassing in.)

Had an awesome send-off with my buddies from work on our way home from my school, the last day of my employment.  This place is called the Fox and Hound pub - a British-styled pub that I could very well live in for the rest of my life.  These few pints to honor the close of my babysitting teaching career were very much needed (and appreciated.)

Just some paper puppets.  Cuddling under a blanket on our living room couch.  Why not.

The coolest thing about packing up your dishes a week before you have to load them onto the back of a moving truck?  Drinking chardonnay out of a plastic cup.  Classiness.  Defined.

A make-shift entertainment center in what was left of my Study, a few days before departure.  The Wii U from the living room, the TV from our master bedroom, and the remaining shelving that used to house my record collection.  It worked well in a pinch.

After Kris, the girls, Watson, Mom and John took our two cars north back to Michigan, Yours Truly got to indulge in more than a few no-kids-allowed pursuits, as shown here.

First full day back in Michigan, crashing at Mom and John's house in Midland.  Nothing spells 'success' like being in your mid-30s, unemployed and living with your parents. 

Oh Captain, My Captain.

In all the hub-ub and confusion of moving, Alayna's birthday kinda got pushed back onto the ol' back-burner, so she never got to finish opening her presents from us until four days after her birthday.  We'd eventually have the rest of her presents opened at Dad and Cindy's house in Clare, but we at least wanted her to open up the ones from us (including this Monster High Dracu-locker, which she had been asking for for months. . .)

We were a little worried about Alayna opening up a bunch of presents in front of her five-year-old sister, but Abby was pretty good about it this year.

A Guardians of the Galaxy playset for their Wii U Disney Infinity game - came with a full game and two additional figures for their Infinity Base (StarLord and Gamora.)

Checking out the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library (they frequent the joint a few times a week, as they have this incentive program where if you read for twenty minutes a day for a week - which our kids do - you get prizes, etc.)

Plymouth Park has been a godsend during this whole moving-in process.  Kris takes the girls up there late in the morning every day for scheduled group activities and games, sponsored by local businesses, churches, and other random organizations.

Superheroes and popsicles.

Not two days into our new Ivy House, we were besieged by an army of bike-riding blonde children, that evidently roam about the neighborhood in packs.  It's like living on the set of The Burbs, honestly - at any given time you see bands of three, four, five, six white kids all riding up and down the street, and it was only a matter of time before our two kids were brought into their fold.  Once the neighborhood kids found out we owned a small arsenal of Nerf guns, it was all over. . .

We had to intervene when they started shooting the darts across the street and running through traffic to retrieve them.  Miraculously, we only lost one dart (and no kids.)

Another incentive to take the kids up to Plymouth Park every day - besides to get them out of my hair while I lift heavy boxes up and down stairs, etc. - is the free picnic lunches they provide.  Can't argue with free healthy food.

Off on another family bike ride with the kids.  This neighborhood is so much more ideal for this than the last one - we live in a very quiet area of town, with little traffic, well-maintained sidewalks, and lots of enormous, shady trees.  We're all pretty big fans of the change.

As I said before, Dad had to spend a few days here, at the Mid-Michigan Regional Medical Center in Midland.  We visited him a couple times during his stay, including on Father's Day.

Jeff and his family also showed up (didn't get a pic with them in it - my apologies.)

Another perk of living in Michigan?  Miller Lite - my preferred, cheap 'sidearm beer' comes in a 15-pack for the same price a Florida 12-pack costs.  Can't argue with that. 

. . . AND it has good taste in baseball.  Cowabunga.

The Hough Line continues.  Jeff's son, Owen.  The first male of the Next Generation.

Our family and Jeff's went over to Mom and John's house towards the end of the month in order to have dinner and visit with Grandma and Grandpa Chinery.

Jeff cleans up some of his daughter Scarlet's handiwork. . .

The kids really liked spending time with their Great-Grandma. . .

. . . and between the two of them they about killed a snack tray of vegetables and ranch that had been out for everyone.

Mom sat herself down at the Kid Table.  Because she's insane.

The Grown Up Table.

Rocking cousin Owen

Kris attempts to figure out her new iPhone.  We had to switch providers after nearly twelve years with T-Mobile, as they're coverage is pure shit up here in Mid-Michigan.  After talking with lots of people, we ended up going with Verizon, but unfortunately our old phones - being T-Mobile phones - wouldn't work with the new carrier, so we had to upgrade.  Kris got herself an iphone, and I upgraded from the Samsung Galaxy 3 to the Galaxy 6.  Probably the greatest phone in humanity's existence, but I'll have to sell one of the kids to help pay it off.

As the dust settles from moving and unpacking, things are beginning to look a lot more like old times around here.  So now we can do all those things we like to do in our free time,  like listen to records, play videogames (see Abby above), and school each other at chess (Alayna got a new chess set from Papa and Nana for her birthday this year - which she loves.)

- Brian

The Ivy House

Our new rental home

Hi guys.

Well, we've been back in Michigan for almost a week now, but it definitely doesn't feel like it - it feels more like ten minutes.  We've had those 'moving blinders' on, and have been focused solely on moving our belongings into our new home.  It's been pretty easy going, though, so I really can't complain (as usual, I've done about 90% of the moving, while Kris handles 90% of the cleaning.)  All in all, we're making headway and moved the majority of the items from Mom's garage and the moving truck into our house (though there's some larger furniture items still over there we're waiting on.)

Here's a brief tour:

Our front entrance.  Remember Mary?  I ended up taking her from the last house because I had to balance something heavy in the moving truck (she's made of cement, so she's a heavy chick.)  Sacrilegiously, she's currently serving as an impromptu door stopper when the need arises.

Living room

We're pretty stoked about having two fireplaces (there's another one in the basement, that one being a traditional wood-burning fireplace and this one pictured here being gas with fake logs.)  Evidently we need to have it inspected before we use it, which I'm 100% cool with - I don't want my house burning down.

I'm a big fan of theses space ship windows in this living room, how they angle out like that.  The house was built in 1957, so I guess that was somewhat common back then.  Still kinda weird, though.

Dining room (to actually be used as a real-life dining room in this house, so says the Warden.)

From the dining room, you enter the kitchen (cupboards on the left, there.)  Straight ahead is the garage, with a half-bathroom on the right and stairs leading down to a basement on the left.

A kitchen without drawers.  Seriously.  Who designs a kitchen without f***ing drawers?

The half bathroom. . . also known as the Shitting Room.

Leading down into the Basement.

The basement is HUGE.  This is welcome news, indeed - although houses in Michigan tend to have basements, the bedrooms seem to be smaller.  This proved a dilemma at first, because we're having to figure out how to juggle all of our stuff around (for example, my Study is going to be split up into multiple rooms, with retro video games going in the basement, my vinyl going in the living room, and my office stuff going into a co-office with Kris' computer and desk.)  Not an ideal situation, surely, but one I can live with for the next twelve months.

This area here (comprising the half of the basement closest to the stairs) will be the girls' Play Room.  We won't be using that fireplace, obviously.  There's a huge storage wing if you go down the hall to the right (I'll show you that in a sec), and pictured on the left you have a closet door under the stairs.  If you continue around that corner to the left you enter a utility room, pictured below. . .

Kris' work area

That utility sink is disgusting - we won't be using that

The clutter under the stairs - random junk from the house we won't be using

My work bench - pretty nice having it inside for a change, and not in a humid garage

Pretty sure that AC/DC converter box there is a remnant of the Dharma Initiative

The Storage room - runs nearly the whole length of the basement, and more than enough space to house all the seasonal totes and boxes of stuff we won't be unpacking for the next twelve months.  What's not pictured is a wall of wooden shelving on the left wall to handle smaller items, too.  I'll be putting up additional shelving from our previous home's back patio, as well. . . if only to keep everything off the floor, as Michigan basements can sometimes flood.

More shelving.  Another feature I like concerning this room is the fact that it has a door that locks, preventing little kids from sneaking back in here and messing around with stuff they shouldn't be.

Back upstairs, standing in the Dining Room and facing away from the kitchen.  Straight ahead is our bedroom, with the full bathroom on the left, and the hallway continuing around the corner to the right.

Kris chose to keep the wall decals in the display cases, here.

Following the hallway around the corner you have the girls' room to the left and me and Kris' office straight ahead.

What will eventually be me and Kris' office.

The Office (the rooms here are all 11 x 11, or 11 x 12. . . I think the biggest is 12 x 13 - all pretty small, about the same size as the girls' room in our old house.)  But, as I've said before, we have tons of storage space and this is only temporary.

What will become the girls' bedroom (notice the wear on the floor's finish?  Hopefully that's not remnants of a gruesome blood stain.)

More of the girls' room.

They were big fans of the leftover wall mirrors. . .

Our bedroom (it'll hold the dresser, bed and night stands, but our armoire is going to have to go in the basement and serve as the basement entertainment center for the next year.  So no TV in bed.  God damn it.)

Coming back out into the dining room and living room.

The bathroom.

Here's where our whole family is going to have to share limited space while getting ready in the morning.  Should be awesome.  The tub needs to be re-glazed before folks can use it, so in the meantime we're all showering over at my mom's. . . which is just as cool as it sounds.

If you continue through the dining room's sliding door that leads outside, you come out into a large, screened-in patio.  Surrounded by a thick, jungle mess of overgrown weeds.

Again, the windows look like the bridge of a space ship.

Stairs leading back up into the Dining Room.

A gap in the fence in the backyard - I'm going to have to block it off with a rock or chicken wire or something to prevent the dog from getting out. . .

We've been assured that they're going to get someone to come out and cut all this crap down soon, which is great news for us 'cause I sure as hell didn't want to deal with it.  The whole backyard is covered in rocks and gravel, and will be used solely as a place for Watson to go to the bathroom - our kids won't be using it anyway, so I don't care what the grass (or lack thereof) looks like.

The door to the left leads into the screened-in patio, while the door straight ahead leads into the garage.  To the right is a shed, connected to the garage, while directly overhead is a ceiling similar to that which covers the screened-in patio.

The move-in begins. . .

Taking a much-needed movie break (with Star Wars, of course.)

Our patio.  Large and shaded, this will be my new designated pipe-smoking area.

The garage.  That fridge in the back isn't staying, and it'll only fit one car anyway (I'll store the bikes in that back area where the fridge currently is so that I can pull my car in - Kris' beast of a van probably won't fit.)

To the right, you have your screened-in patio, to the left is the shed (I'm standing in the doorway leading from the garage into the back yard, which has just been cut down and weeded. . . somewhat.)

Other angle of the garage.

The record collection, set up.

Slowly but surely, the house is coming together - we'll post more pictures as we progress from here.  Stay tuned, folks.

- Brian