Janus Randoms

The Christmas decor resiliently stays up in this house. . .

Welcome back, everyone.

So January tends to be a pretty chill month (no winter pun intended) - it takes nearly a full thirty days to decompress from the two-month, holiday juggernaut that proceeds it.  We Houghs tend to not do anything during this period in time besides getting readjusted to the Grind, as it were.

With that in mind, here's another installment of around-the-house randomness from the Roman god Janus, their god of new beginnings, transitions, and doorways.

Yes, doorways.

Enjoy.

After years of suffering from listening lackluster radio stations and meh segments on NPR, following the untimely demise of my mp3 CD player in my car, I finally got around to installing an old CD player a buddy of mine from work handed down to me.  Nothing fancy, of course, but it does have an auxiliary jack (see above). . . which means now Yours Truly can finally listen to his iPod in his car, and proudly join the 21st century.  Of course, I won't go into the fact I've had this radio for about a year, and haven't gotten around to doing this before due to my own laziness. . .

You know you work at an awesome school when crap like this is allowed to happen. . .

Fortunately, this turned out to NOT be an alien invasion akin to that shown in Independence Day. . .

Alayna has been having to write short stories in her class lately, using a set of her weekly spelling words for each one (usually ones that have the same vowel sound or word structure - you know how first grade rolls.)  This one here, as well as the one that follows, are apparently about Papa. . .

I don't know about you, but I think these things have Wes Anderson written all over them. . .

Another piece of writing from Alayna - this one found in her backpack.  Clearly a love letter to a boy in her class (I'm glad she  changed her mind and scaled it back a little bit in the revision process - guys hate clingy chicks.)

Following the success of the girls' introduction to Star Wars via the Machete Order, they've since become hooked fans, and we watch the movies on a regular basis (all except Episode I, obviously.)

Thankfully, the originals still get more viewing than the prequels - the girls like the main characters in those movies much better than the cardboard cutouts from II and III. . .

Alayna, not-quite-enjoying her celebratory ice cream and pizza from a week of good work at school. . .

No idea what's happening her.

Or here.  Kris took these.  Obviously has something to do with Girl Scouts, since she's wearing her vest. . .

Yes, we're at that age now.

Playing at the neighbor kids' house.

Everyone in my family is lazy.

Everyone.

Bubblebathin

Alayna playing - and apparently acting out - the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for the SNES.

16 bits of awesome

You'll be good to note that my Study (shown here) looks a hell of a lot different than in previous posts - over the course of the last few weeks, following the Holiday season, Kris and I (well, just me, really) have been been boxing up crap around the house for the upcoming move back to Michigan.  While the garage is basically full of stuff to take in the first truck to head north (the first week of April), some items have to be stored inside - like the boxes full of vinyl records shown here.  I don't want any of the records warped from sitting in the garage, and you can't stack them either.  I'm still not sure if I'm sending these boxes back in April or June. . .

Target practice

- Brian

Easter Warm-Up and March Randoms

Hi gang,

So here's some pictures of around the house as the Houghs begin to get ready for Easter.

(Get ready for crap-loads of kid pictures). . .

I helped her with the word 'different' and 'going,' otherwise Alayna wrote that herself (bizarro cat-and-telescope  picture courtesy of Yours Truly).

Little did the Fisher Price Loving Family know that, at that moment, German SS gunmen were sneaking around the ledge of their manor. . .

Alayna has shown interest in playing the Sega Genesis lately.  I picked it up at a garage sale a couple years ago with a crap ton of games and accessories (for $10, thank you), and the previous owner must've had little girls 'cause there's a lot of kid-friendly (and girly) games Alayna enjoys 'playing' (she hasn't quite mastered it yet). 

This Barbie game is horrifying.

Kris and a couple of her homegirls, on their way out to see that Wicked play chicks seem so obsessed with.

Fever time.  Once again.

Easter Care Packages from the Grandparents. . .

Easter Glasses (which - THANK GOD -  have lids)

BUBBLES!

Chalk time on the driveway (you'll notice I removed the stones lining the driveway - I got sick of hitting them with my tires.  Hopefully soon the edges will fill in with grass soon. . .)

Abby always looks like a hobo.

An Easter Basket, an asterisk, and a chick - my kid has Easter Art down to a science.

Easter crafts at Peace United Methodist Church

Kris should really be the one writing captions here, as I wasn't here for this.  So I'm just going to title this one 'Kids with Empty Plastic Bowl.'

Thankfully, there were no crucifixions scheduled for the day.  That would've made Easter Egg hunting somewhat awkward. . .

Hunting down Easter Eggs. . .

What kid doesn't like a good chain-link fence?  Right?

Abby's a big fan of collecting sugar.

More plunder.

Signing the Cross (something I'm pretty sure was not done by the Romans - just going out on a limb, here.)

We don't really know what the hell this thing's growing, but we're guessing it might be peaches. . .

Keeping Abby from climbing the tree is a pain in the ass.

Flower Power.

Hanging out, playing in the dirt.  A Hough household staple.

Preparing to decorate Easter Eggs with Mommy. . .

Snack break on the patio. . .

- Brian