September Randoms

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

The first month of the new School Year is at an end, and miraculously nobody's dead. 

I survived my first few weeks in a new school system with new kids and a new team of colleagues, the girls have thus far managed to stay out of too much trouble in first and third grade.  Keep your fingers crossed these calm seas prevail.

So here's a look back at the last few weeks, as the Houghs returned to the Grind and otherwise kept the ship afloat.

Enjoy. . .

Back to School supply drive with the Girl Scouts

At Dow Gardens, checking out a Dr. Seuss exhibit with their friend (and our next-door neighbor), Katie.

Watering some plants

. . .sweeping water?  (I don't know what the hell's going on in any of these pictures - I wasn't present for any of this.)

Pointing out a grasshopper

Abby's soccer squad

My classroom, at the end of the day

Dad gave the girls this old, vintage Magnastiks toy from the early '60s that used to belong to him, and that had been in Granny's basement when she passed away.  Still in pretty decent shape, considering its nearly 60 years old.

More vinyl that I got rid of recently.  Kris and I have a rule set in place in order to curb further expansion of my record collection:  for every album I bring into the house, I have to get rid of one.  I've been buying a crapload of new LPs lately, so I've been hard at work trimming the fat out of my collection lately.  Some of these I didn't even know I owned. . .

At the annual Chestnut Hill Ice Cream Social

Some uncooperative photo ops with the girls

All.  Out.  Chaos.

Smitty and Rita swung up for a Saturday visit at the end of the month, and Smitty was good enough to toss our kids around for awhile.

To break up the day a bit we took Watson down to the Dog Park, on the other side of the Tridge

Smitty makes a new friend

This is a dog toy, but it seems to entertain these two. . .

On our way back across the Tridge.

Since it was only a day or two before the beginning of October, we decided we'd be nice and let the girls break out some of the Halloween decor.  'Cause, you know, they weren't hyper enough already. . .

Once the kids went to bed, we broke out the old VHS game, Nightmare.  As usual, it was comically awful. . . and awesome.

Kris gets an earful from the Gatekeeper.

Pissed

Trying on some of their mom's old prom and bridesmaid dresses

Kris sent me this pic one day while I was at work.  We had a clog in the sink, and instead of buying Draino like I had recommended, she took apart the pipe and found. . . whatever the hell this is.

Fast food dinner with the neighborhood kids

Seriously.

The girls' new Reading Nook.  Since we set up Alayna's furry lounge chair underneath this lamp, and set up a bunch of book boxes underneath it, the amount of time the girls spend reading on a daily basis has skyrocketed.  Kinda wish I had done this years ago. . .

During a high-energy play session with a bunch of the neighborhood girls, Abby somehow got this remote-controlled car stuck in her hair.  It was wrapped pretty tight around the wheels, and instead of getting a grown-up for assistance, Abby just Hulk'd out and ripped the damn car out of her hair by force.  This is what she brought to us.

At one of Abby's soccer practices

The Champions

- Brian

Randoms from the Month of Caesar

Hi America,

Summer's winding down, and no one feels the impending doom that is the coming school year more than I.  While I don't start back until the 18th of August, I generally switch back into 'work mode' as of August 4th - the day after Kris' birthday, if only to prove to myself that I didn't do anything productive throughout the month of July.

Though, as you can see from the pictures below, I did manage to accomplish a few things.

Check it out:

Due to crap-load of circumstances that I won't delve in to at present, I've decided that this will be the last year I teach at my current school.  Over the eight years I've been there, I've accumulated a library of books large enough to facilitate a small town (not joking.)  As such, I felt that it was time to bring all of my books back to the house and start sorting through what I wanted to keep, what I wanted to sell, and what I still needed for work, and what I wanted to donate to charity.  What you see in those boxes above is about half of what I brought back to the house.

My work library is about 1/2 the size of my home library, so when combined, it's enough to make my wife foam at the mouth.  Over the course of two days, I whittled down my personal library by about 20% and my work library down by about 70%.  Now I have mountains of books piled up in the garage waiting to be sold or donated, and Kris finally has room to put stupid stuff like 'statues' and 'picture frames' on some of the bookshelves.  Lame.

Abby loves anything she's not supposed to be playing with.  Especially if it belongs to Kris.

Rosining up the bow.

I have the ugliest palm tree in Florida.  Prove me wrong, America.

Kris plays the Card Cheat

The Houghs make a Rainbow Connection (Zack Smith must be nearby.)

I bought MarioKart 8 for our Wii U a couple weeks ago - Nintendo was running a promotion where if you bought MarioKart during the months of June/July, they'd let you choose a free game download (your choices were Super Mario Bros. U, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Pikmin 3, and WiiU Play - all which retail for about $50.)  This was obviously too good a deal to pass up - two games for the price of one - so I found MarioKart online for $45 (its usually $60) and ordered Pikmin 3 (I already own Wind Waker, and Pikmin has won rave reviews for its graphics and puzzle-based gameplay.)  MarioKart, of course, doesn't disappoint either - the kids (especially Alayna) has really taken a shine to it.

She's not great at it - usually places last - but she's improving, and loves using the Wii U's Gamepad controller.

Kris puts on her 'race face.'

Homework and reading time.  I could lie and say this happens all the time, but we're more of a video game and Netflix sort of family over the summer.

Alayna at her second annual eye appointment. . .

. . . and catching up on some articles in Wired.

Good to see our H.O.A. dues going to good use. . .

The kids were pretty stoked that they had to take turns swinging down at our subdivision's park. . .

Watson Rutherford Hough

Everyone Poops.  A new Hough Family favorite.

Makin' snakes.

(That red thing's a mouse so the snake has something to eat.)

Alayna and some of her gift card plunder from Justice - an overpriced store designed to whip elementary-aged girls into a frenzy.

See the cat with a surfboard shirt? That may be the creepiest shirt I've ever seen, but that's what Alayna picked out.

Watching a movie

Some summer samplers that have accumulated over the last month or so (the Woodchuck's Kris' - give me some credit.)

I brought four or five of my better fake trees home, seeing how I was cleaning out my classroom clutter and everything.  I managed to convince Kris into letting me keep them, but I think the remaining four or five at work may have to go.

- Brian