The End of Summer

So sad, so true.

What's up, players.

Well, this is it:  the End of Another Summer.

So we ended up doing a hell of a lot this summer, far more than we have the previous few years, and as such this summer flew by in record speed.  No one feels quite ready to return to the Grind of work/school just yet, as there's been zero wind-down from all of the adventures we've had over the last two months.  From Disney World to flooded tents, from youth camps to lake retreats, from VBS weeks to summer classes, we've done a hell of a lot.  And now we have to set our sights on the approaching school year, which will see Yours Truly once more assume his U.S. History mantle, Abby enter the Fourth Grade, and the Cannonball heads off into. . . MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Holy f***ing Hell.

Anyway, August was slower than its predecessors, but we still kept relatively busy:  the weeks were filled with different VBS and community center classes for the girls (and yard work for me), with the weekends were designated outings with our social group of moms and dads.  Almost like clockwork.  We'd squeeze in shopping trips for Back to School here or there, and I had to set up my classroom again, but there were some other random things we did from time to time.

Without further ado, here's what our August - the End of Summer itself - looked like for the Houghs.  Enjoy:

One day Kris and I took the kids out to some local blueberry farm (orchard?) to work picking crops like a couple of field hands.  You know, 'cause Family Fun and all that bullshit.

Kris selects our buckets.

The girls show great enthusiasm for this kinda thing.  At first.

Alayna was funned out after about twenty minutes.  I think that's a new record for her.

I can't imagine picking cotton.  I mean, blueberries are easy to pick and you can eat them while you pick them.  Cotton's sticky and stringy and there are prickers that stab you and you can't even it.  Being a slave in the 1800s would've SUCKED.

One family member refuses to throw in the towel.

Waiting for Mom to check out.

Over fifteen pounds of blueberries (and some jam) later, Kris was finally ready to leave.

Kris puts on her Mom Face during a Back-to-School shopping trip for the girls.  Her and Alayna butt heads on an almost constant basis every year.

Some overhaul was done to the Dining Room and Kitchen this month.  Kris had been wanting to repaint the Dining Room for a few months, and finally got around to doing it (with my help.)  It went from a tan to a Dovetail grey.  I can't tell the difference, to be honest, but the wife is happy.  So there's that.

Ripped out the overhead vent/light to our stove in order to make room for a microwave we had purchased (ours broke earlier in the summer, so we've been living microwave-free like a bunch of Amish people all summer long - it's been Hell.)  Taking this out and reinstalling a new microwave was a pain in the ass, but John came over and gave us a hand.

Happy Wife, Happy Life.  There's a reason that's a saying, folks.

The Great Kondo Purge of 2019 continues.  We've hauled out so much crap  (like this furniture, here) it's ridiculous - I don't think I could've undergone this endeavor a year ago, as I used to be somewhat of a hoarder, but this has completely changed my penchant for 'stuff.'

I wanted to buy some Rough Riders (my favorite cigar) for our camping trip to the Jellystone in Silverlake, so I asked our buddy Brad (a cigar rep who sells them) where in town I could buy some.  He gave me this huge freezer bag full of $10 cigars for FREE.  I f***ing love that guy.

Taking the kids out for an afternoon lunch at Plymouth Park for Midland's Meet Up and Eat Up program.

Watson got stung by a bee in the face this month.  That was kinda hilarious.

Abby, showing off her new backpack.  We splurged a little on the kids' backpacks this year, each one cost about $40 and were legit, 5-star-rated backpacks off of Amazon, but we wanted them to get something that would last more than one school year.  They both understand they're not getting new backpacks for awhile now.

Sizing up bikes at Meijer.  Both kids are in need of new bikes.  I hate how fast kids grow.

We got this bike that someone was getting rid of, and I was able to polish it up to make it look new.  Had to fix the tire and inner tube, but its running smooth now.  It's a 26", mint-green, beach cruiser, so it's too big for the girls and difficult for them to ride (no hand brakes), but c'mon. . . it's a free bike.  You're damn right we took it.

Watson.  Always in your face.

We took Alayna to Northeast towards the middle of the month in order to pick up her school schedule and check out her locker.  She's been so excited to start Middle School and have her own locker, and has been counting down the days until she could get in to Northeast and check it out. 

We were convinced she'd have difficulty mastering her locker combination, so you can imagine our shock when she opened it on the first try.  Apparently locker combinations are her thing.  Who knew.

These are far bigger (and nicer) than the ones my students have at our school.

Sizing it up.

She's a Hough.  What do you expect.

Speaking of Hough-ness, check out this old letter I found from my 3rd Grade teacher as I was Marie Kondo'ing an old tote filled with past school work in the basement.  Sounds pretty legit to me.

More Back-to-School shopping.  Here's Abby trying on some not-at-all-practical women's shoes on at a Marshall's.

Back at Northeast, about a week later, installing some of her locker accessories (white board, pen/pencil caddies, mirrors, magnets, etc.)  The girl does love to accessorize. . . 

I took Alayna and her friend, Christina, up to the Great Lakes Ice Creamery for a cone one afternoon.  Anything for sugar, folks.

Throughout this whole Kondo process, we've had to bid farewell to quite a few things that were hard to get rid of, due to sentimental or nostalgic reasons.  My grandfather's jewelry box, for example, was pretty hard to get say goodbye to, but it wasn't very practical for me anymore (I needed a bigger one with more space, that was of higher quality), so I decided to let it go.

Fortunately, my little brother, Jeff, wanted it, so at least it's staying in the family (which is obviously preferable.)

Abby's bedroom has been getting an overhaul this summer, piece by piece.  She no longer wanted a Star Wars-themed bedroom - she's sadly outgrown the franchise - and instead wants a tropical/beach-themed bedroom.  Kris sold all her Star Wars room decor on Facebook Marketplace and used the money she got from that (which was substantial) to purchase new tropical bedding and some room decor (like the backpack hook, shown here.)  Eventually we're going to repaint this purple accent wall a coral color, and put in a loft bed with a desk to giver her more room.

Making some lunch with our live-in neighborhood kid, Ella.

I've been named a Top Fan for Radio Wasteland, my local record store here in town.  I've been a regular of their establishment since Day One, but this is another accolade I happily accept.  It's nice being rewarded for all of your hard work over the years.

Another Friday, another Fast Food dinner with our three girls.

- Brian

So Long, Summer.

Hi Internet.

All good things must come to an end, sadly, and thus was the case with the Summer of 2017.  Moving into a new home, family vacations, work trips, social obligations, swimming lessons, youth camps, and countless day trips, family outings, bike rides, and play dates.  And, more than any of those other things, plenty of time sitting around on our butts and not doing anything whatsoever but enjoying the time not being at a school.

Well, now that's all over.  We're preparing for the Grind once more, and are mentally and physically preparing our tanned, lazy bodies for 6am alarms, homework, and - in my case, at least - lesson planning and teenager-wrangling.

It was fun while it lasted. . .

For Kris' birthday this year, which falls on the 3rd of August, Alayna finally learned how to ride a bike.  She's more stubborn than the rest of her family combined, so it wasn't too surprising at all when Alayna dug in her heels while first learning to ride a bike some four or five years ago and adamantly refused to even try to learn how to ride.  

Abby learned how to ride a bike years before, down in Orlando, and nowadays practically does handstands on the back of her bike as she zooms down the sidewalk, but Alayna had always been content walking along behind her.  This summer, as we moved into this new neighborhood closer to Alayna's friends from school, she was around more bike-riders her own age, and it started to get to her.  Kris was able to coerce her into five-minute practice sessions every evening for about two weeks prior to this particular session, when everything FINALLY clicked into place. 

The fact that this momentous occasion just so happened to fall on Kris' birthday was purely coincidental, but definitely appreciated.

Earlier that day, following another outing to my favorite local haunt, Radio Wasteland (which individually personalizes their own item bags upon checkout - definitely cool.)  I picked up these five (three single-LPs and two double-LPs) for a mere $18.  Hell yes.

The girls each picked out a birthday card for Kris and decorated the outside envelope all by themselves.  Abby apparently wasn't 'feeling it' this year.

Later on in the week, taking the kids down to Saginaw to hit up a dozen or so stores for Back to School shopping (Children's Place, Once Upon a Child, Target, Marshall's, T.J. Maxx, etc. - all the usual.)

The kids are definitely starting to dress more their age (the Cannonball especially.)

Wait. . . I thought the whole purpose of leather was that animals were supposed to be harmed?   Isn't that what makes leather totally awesome?  'Vegan Leather' is just plastic, folks.

Kris and I recently repainted two of the walls in The Study a light blue-ish grey color, as the lighter beige on those walls was in pretty bad shape (paint chips, stains, rough edges, etc.)  I opted to keep the darker brown wall in the room (the one that my vinyl collection is up against), as that paint job was recent and pretty legit, and matched the shade we picked out.  Took about a day to paint, and after it was dry I finally got around to framing three pieces from Granny's old antique, piano sheet music collection (three propaganda songs from World War I, so 1916 - 1918, thereabouts) and hanging them over the piano.  The antique war theme looks very fitting in the Study (especially against the wall's new color.)

Abby's really been into gymnastics lately (to the point where it's no longer cute, and we're instead telling her to stop before she breaks her neck.)  This has been her go-to move these last couple of weeks.

Coming back home following an evening block party in the neighborhood (note the Guard Dog standing vigilantly at his post in the living room window.)

Both of our kids have taken an intense interest in writing lately, and this is a piece Alayna did recently.   The ending here sounds like a lot like the last sentence of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms (not sure if she intentionally plagiarized that or not. . . I guess that'd be weird if our 9-year-old was reading Hemingway.)

As I started to head back into my classroom in early August, I had no choice but to drag the girls along with me (Kris was working, after all.)  Granted, I didn't have nearly as much crap to do in my room this time around, as most of my posters, decor, and supplies were right where I left them at the end of last year, but I still had a lot of work to do before the start of the new school year.  So it should go without saying that having my kids hanging out with me all day while I was trying to get stuff accomplished was far from desirable. . .

Another day, another session of trying to piece my room back together while keeping this Dynamic Duo from killing each other.

Another bowling session at Northern Lanes.

Lunch at Plymouth Park.  Kris and her Order of Moms tend to plan their day around this outing, as kids get free nutritious meals, courtesy of the City of Midland, and they get to meet up with their friends and play on the park's enormous play structure.

I had a repressing of Led Zeppelin's II and an original pressing Led Zeppelin's IV that I had been wanting to sell off to Radio Wasteland for store credit, as the albums had some surface noise that irritated me and I planned on buying new 180gm pressings of both albums in the near future.  I drove over and was able to sell both for much more than I had anticipated, so I used some of my store credit on this double-LP soundtrack that had been sitting on my Amazon wish list for a few weeks (I even paid the same amount for it in store, too - usually they charge a couple bucks more than Amazon for brand-new LPs.)

This was a last-minute impulse buy, but I'm glad I spent the $5 on it. It's a dramatized radio program from the 1930s and 40s of various Sherlock Holmes adventures.  It has a surprisingly good production quality, and the actors are impressive.  Not something you want to put on an rock out to, obviously, but it's nice to have in the background while you're cleaning or organizing stuff.

Another day in the classroom

Hiking the trails of Midland's City Forest.

Watson came along with us this time around.

Checkin' out a bridge.

My roommates.

Bizarro roommates.

Heading back to our entry point.  We hiked about two miles in, explored around a bit, then began the two-mile trek back.  We hadn't really loaded ourselves up on bug spray, so we wanted to cut our hike short before the mosquitoes got too bad out.

At one point, the girls thought it'd be funny to venture off atop a hill path that went parallel to the main road.  They were goofing around and not responding to our directions to come back to the road, so I just yelled 'CLOWNS' really loud and they came running back, shrieking and crying (shown here.)  I'm an awesome parent.

A week or so later, Kris took the girls out to a local farm to pick blueberries (I was up to my neck in back-to-school crap, and, as usual, was spending my day in my classroom preparing for the coming school year.)

Is she shocked it's a blueberry?  What did she expect she'd be picking at a frickin' blueberry farm?

Field hands, hard at work.

These berries were huge, and all organic - a much better deal than you find in the stores (the downside being, of course, that there's manual labor involved to get them.)

They filled up a couple buckets of blueberries, and it was surprisingly cheap.  Kris ended up freezing most of them, so we'll be eating blueberries for the next few years.

Girl selfie.

(Not sure why she looks freaked out here.)

Out at Big E's bar and grill for a friend's birthday party, Kris shows off her frog-shootin' skills (she's from Farwell, so she's pretty proficient in all things Redneck.)

Weird  selfies while watching a movie. . .

Photo courtesy of the Cannonball.

Kris and the girls make a very, very sloppy blueberry pie.

A eerily chill morning in the Hough household. . .

She's eager to start 2nd grade, so she's been voluntarily filling out her Grade 2 workbooks to prepare for the coming school year. 

Watson assumes his vantage point.

One of the days I had to go in to my classroom just so happened to be the day of the year's big Solar Eclipse (the biggest one in a few decades or so, I think.)  Dad gave me a couple extra pairs of glasses so the girls and I could enjoy the show.  Kris ended up driving down to Saginaw to meet up with us once she got out of work, and was able to catch the eclipse as well.  Of course, from Michigan's viewpoint, we only had something like 80% totality, but it's still pretty impressive to see something like that.

My kids left some quality artwork on my white board for my incoming 8th graders. . .

Hough girls, spending some quality time together.

Yet another day in Mr. Hough's classroom (you noticing a pattern this month, Internet?)

Bein' weird in the 'hood.

Some random day Kris took the girls out on a play date to Dow Gardens (of all the time her and the girls have been there, I've yet to set foot in the place.)

Post slumber-party play date with her friend Sophie (one of our neighbors from Ivy Lane.)

BFFs

We're starting to find pictures like this on the girls' cameras - they take turns photographing one another in these pre-teen poses.  It's frickin' hilarious.

Hanging out in the Study

- Brian