StressBash '22

Hey gang.

God, I hate September.  If August is truly the Sunday of the Summer, than it should go without saying that this butthole of a month is the Monday of the calendar year, folks.  And I'll fight you if you disagree with me.

Sure, maybe that's just for kids and us folks in the education field, but still.

I inherited this horse skull for my classroom this year.  Pretty rad.

This September was fairly busy, seeing how Alayna's involvement in school now that she's a Freshman is considerably higher.  Between her drama engagements (she's a stagehand again this year, along with several of her close friends) and Abby's pom practices and performances, our weekdays were filled with shuttling kids back and forth between various schools and performance centers.  Our social calendar took a big hit this month, as all of our friends' families equally took a hit this month with Back to School nonsense.  As such, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot to document this month, and, as such, this month's post is pretty sparse.

But here's some weird shit for you guys to check out anyway. . .

Kris and her coworker, Nicole, along with their kids. . . somewhere.  I forget where this was and what they were doing, because I was not involved.  But here you go anyway.

Kris' church - First United Methodist, downtown - held their annual Fall Kickoff for families towards the beginning of the month, with a bounce house and a ton of other such carnival attractions for kids. . . but then it decided to rain (again) and everyone was forced indoors.  As such, the turnout was dramatically lower than anticipated.

Abby and Gabby square off in whatever the hell these things are.

First fall beer of the season.  It was decent, but I wouldn't go out of my way to order it again.  I'm kinda 'meh' when it comes to most German-style beers.

Both girls are pretty heavily involved in orchestra these days, and have improved quite a bit over the years.  These evening practices are like mini-concerts now.

Abby and Ella - and some other random kid - take a selfie during one of Northeast's first home football games.  As always, the pom team performs their routine during the games' half-times.

Our buddy Mitch recently put in a backyard swimming pool, and had his whole backyard renovated.  He bought some pre-fab gazebo thing from Costco, and needed a whole team of strong dads to assemble.  Enter the Fighting Hellfish. . .

This was fairly simple to put together, it just required a lot of hands on deck to do so - not sure how someone could have managed it with only two or three guys.  It was definitely a multi-day job.

For every guy working, you need at least two standing around with a beer telling others what they should be doing.  That's how dads do construction, folks.

Mitch photobombs once again. . .

The moms came out to 'help', too - thank God they were all there. . .

My brother recently returned home to Midland, buying a house up by the Chippewa Nature Center.  We had planned a Saturday evening hangout over at their place one weekend, but Nora decided to puke up all over the place and they sent us this pic to see if we were still comfortable coming over if someone in the house was sick.  At the time we were like 'screw it,' it's fine, but probably should have passed in hindsight - Chris and I would later both catch whatever it was Nora had, and I'd end up taking a day and a half off of work for it.  Not fun.

Later that morning, I returned to the Bos residence where Tom and I helped Mitch construct the roof panels for his gazebo.  It was slow, tedious work assembling the panels - way more confusing than the initial framing had been.

Mitch consults the Holy Instruction Manual. . .

I had to leave in the early evening so Kris and I could head out to my brother's place for our scheduled hangout, but we had managed to assemble all four panels.

In-laws

As much as I like to give my kids shit for things, they're both ridiculously intelligent (that's from my genes, mind you, not the Farwell side of their make-up.)  Alayna's NWEA scores for ELA and Math are off the charts.

Kris accompanied Alayna to Midland High one evening for a parent/student drama event where the crew assembled props and stage crap for an upcoming play based on The Outsiders.  Here Alayna spray paints some barrel for a scene. . . I guess. 

She also decided to spray paint the soles of her shoes.  'Cause why not.

Abby's old glasses broke multiple times - because we were idiots and allowed her to get wire frames, as that's what she wanted at the time - so this time when it came time to get new glasses, we made sure she got some sturdy-ass frames.

One Friday, before I got home from work, Kris got up on the roof of the house in order to use a foam sealer around the chimney in order to prevent a minor drip from continuing.  Abby, of course, wanted to join her (you definitely won't catch me up there, that's for damn sure.)

Mitch and Kelli had wanted to have their pool up and running at the beginning of the summer so that the friend group could utilize it for months.  Multiple pool parties, grill outs, etc.  Unfortunately, due to labor and supply shortages - and many, many delays - it wasn't until late August that the pool was finally finished, and by then the weather was starting too cool off.  Mitch had tried to plan at least one pool party towards the beginning of the month, but in the days leading up to it the temperature plummeted, and that idea was sadly nixed.  Instead, we just had our usual meat fest with multiple dead animals charring up on various grills and smokers. There was also sushi on hand, which is always appreciated by this group.

Omkar and Mitch hanging out by the grills under the recently-completed gazebo.

A bunch of dead animals.

This is a pretty good cider, right here.  Fall is definitely cider weather.

Abby and I went out to the local Halloween store (which opened up in the old Yonkers area of the Midland Mall) in order to give Abby some costume ideas, but the store sucked and they didn't have much (the Spirit store in Saginaw is definitely better.)  While we were there, however, we did find some sword/shield combos for Chris' twins, Louis and Sam, who are going as knights this Halloween.  So the trip wasn't a total loss.

Kris has been working on sanding down and removing rust from the whiskey barrel that we got from her Uncle Wayne upon returning from Florida back in June. It's one hell of a process, but it'll look pretty awesome once it's completed.

We had asked the girls to empty the dishwasher and put the dirty dishes from the sink into the dishwasher one afternoon after school, when Kris and I would be coming home later in the evening.  Instead, the girls continued to pile up dirty dishes in the sink, and this is what we came home to.  Teenagers suck.

I made this chicken pot pie all by myself, believe it or not.  But it ended up being more like chicken soup with a crust.  Still, it was edible.

At a recent Fellowcraft degree put on by our lodge's Past Masters.  A rare look inside a Masonic meeting (I figured I could share this because our Worshipful Master - the guy who runs our lodge for a year-long term - already did on Facebook.)

One Friday, towards the end of the month, I met Kris and Abby over at the Spirit Halloween store (this year it was over in the mall) in Saginaw.  This is by far the best Halloween store in the area, and we bought multiple new home decorations and a few costume pieces while we were there, including this cavalier hat for my upcoming costume (which you'll see pics of in a future post.)  See ya next month, Internet. . .

- Brian

Across One April

 How's it going, Internet.

April was pretty typical this year - kinda busy, kinda not.  It's testing season in schools right now, so our weeknights were pretty chill, with occasional weekends being packed full of events.  The big difference this month was Abby's continual involvement in basketball, having practices and games a couple times per week (which you'll see here in a sec.)  

Anyway, here's a quick rundown of what April looked around these parts.  Enjoy. . .

At the beginning of the month, with so many kids out for Spring Break and what-not, the team that was supposed to play against Abby's didn't have enough girls to field a team (or whatever the basketball equivalent for that is) and consequently forfeited  the game.  Not wanting to waste an evening in front of parents and other spectators, Abby's coach decided that their team would scrimmage against itself instead. So Abby and half her team faced off against the other half of team (including her BFF, Ella.) The result was surprisingly awesome:  totally relaxed and just there to have fun, the girls played better than they ever had before.  Abby hit multiple shots, whereas before she was reluctant to even handle the ball at all. 

Abby taking some penalty shots (or whatever they're called in basketball. . . I don't know sports, guys.)

Ella drives it back down the court.

Seriously. . .  so much better than they've played all season.

After the rousing game, the Colliers and Johnsons came back to our place for a few drinks afterwards.  Pretty low-key, but better than nothing.

Oh yeah, and Mitch was there, too.

Later that weekend, Mitch hosted everyone over at his house for a big grill-fest.

Bacon-wrapped jalapenos and tri-tips are fan favorites in this group.

This right here - and the beer, admittedly, is why I can't ever lose weight.

Ryan and Tom

Chicken wings, pork loins. . .  more of the usual for this group.

Cigars (shown here in my to-go cigar caddy) to chase down the meat sweats.

The kids have annexed Mitch's basement.

Even a slight drizzle can't stop these dudes.

Packing up at the end of the night.

Kris has Abby try. . . something. . . someone showed her on Tik Tok.  I think.

Having some Grove Tea on the weekend.  This place is a favorite among the moms and kids.

And one with Abby.

The following week, Kris' niece asked if we'd watch her son, Julian, while she was at work.  She dropped him off on a Friday while I was at work and would be picking him up later that evening once she was done (she lives in Bay City, so we were legally responsible for him until like midnight or so.)

The dogs didn't know what to think of this dude.

Abby enjoyed taking care of him throughout the afternoon.  Her sister. . . not so much.

The girls had another basketball game later that evening, so before the game Ella swung by to hang out for a bit and to check out the kid.

Kris finally got around to taking basketball pictures of our kid.  Now that the season is just about over.

Besties.

I have a way with small children.

At the basketball game - the last one of the season - Alayna sat outside of the gym so the loud noises wouldn't mess with the kid too much.

This game was a blood-bath.  The team we were playing on this night was one that Abby's team had previously destroyed, but evidently they had practiced their asses off between then and now.

Erik was out of town for this last game, but his family showed up to support Ella.  They should have made more signs, though - we got our asses handed to us.

The following evening, they had an hour-long awards ceremony at a neighboring church, which was more or less them displaying the names of each team while the kids ran out and took their seats.  It was pretty boring, but, then again, so is quite a lot of the shit we get stuck doing as parents.

Kris had the girls sewing these blankets for some church drive they were doing at First United Methodist for the homeless (or something.)  The dogs were big fans.

Ella came over to help out one evening.  'Cause why not.

The next morning, Kris (and Yours Truly, by proxy), took up a position downtown for some church Easter Egg scavenger hunt.  At least the weather was decent.

Kris and the girls headed over to the Midland Center for the Arts to check out a local production of Seussical the Musical.  Abby recognized a few kids she knew that were acting in it.

Kris' friend, Kim, came along with her kid as well.

Abby and some chick she knew from the show.

Out for an evening stroll with the Johnsons.  A throwback to our Quarantine days.

Abby has really exploded with drawing the last couple years, and one of her recent assignments - a drawing of the Midland Center for the Arts - was chosen for display at the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library.  Kris asked me to drive her out there to check it out, and you can see how thrilled Abby was to have her picture taken with it. 

Sewing blankets for hobos at Kris' church.  You can see how thrilled I am to be doing this.

Drawing/writing messages for soldiers stationed overseas.

Abby's letter to our armed servicemen.  Hope he, um, likes it.

One day Abby decided to 'bake cookies.'  This is what she came up with.

I was in the market for new glasses, and finally pulled the trigger on ordering some online, something I had always been hesitant to do in the past.  Went with a place called Warbyparker.com (after researching it extensively), and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.  I got my Rx from my optometrist, selected five to 'try on,' picked out the winning frames, and sent the box back to the company, free of charge.  Two weeks later, I had new glasses  Definitely using this company in the future.

As the weather heats up, Yours Truly had to undergo the annual trial of getting all of our family bikes up and running.  This year we ended up scrapping and replacing two - Abby's and Kris' - buying new beach cruisers that were way better than what they had before.

(I'm still rockin' my '76 Schwinn Varsity, in case anyone out there was curious.)

Watching another movie on the projector for Family Movie Night.

Erik, myself, and some brothers from Midland's Masonic lodge met up with some of the guys from Bay City's lodge at a cigar bar in Bay City for a night of hanging out, having a few drinks, and burning down a few cigars.  This one was pretty damn good.

Should have just stopped at the one, but all the other guys got a second one.  It took days to get the nasty taste out of my mouth, I don't smoke cigars often. . .  for good reason.

One of my students snapped this filtered pic of me with their phone at the end of the day.  Teenagers are weird.

Alayna's friend, Cristina, was also featured in the library's annual art thing, and her piece that was selected was one she painted from a picture taken at our family lake house on Eight Point Lake (you might recognize the handsome gentleman driving the jet ski.)

The skeleton poised at the front of my classroom has collected a ton of bling throughout the school year.  Every year it's interesting to see how much random crap this guy obtains over the course of nine months.

My building custodian has clearly had it with 8th graders trashing the Boys Bathroom. . .

Samson tries making a friend with a squirrel in the backyard.

Off to another sleepover with her gang of friends.

Kris and Abby, out at a dinner date at Proper Taco.

They're gonna blow-out a couple toilets later, that's for damn sure.

Kris took Alayna to the mall in order to get second piercings in each of her ears.  She said it didn't hurt as bad as she thought it would, but I think it hurt worse than she let on.

And, in closing, here's some random artifact I found tucked up above an air vent above the basement drop ceiling of our house.  Apparently it's been up there a bit.  See ya next month, folks.

- Brian