February: a Snowy Hellscape

Michigan doesn't play.

Holy Mother of God was this ever a crapshow of a winter.

I mean, right out of the gate, February came in raging - on the tail end of the biggest blizzard this state has seen in years, we saw a temperature drop that rivaled those from the winter of 2015.  It was a solid week-off of work, to be sure - and no one's complaining about that on this end - but it was still some pretty nasty weather to deal with (shoveling, etc. - especially being as sick as I was.)

Alas, this one stormy week of nonsense was only the tip of the ol' iceberg.  Two more weeks would follow, each with multiple snow and/or ice days (though, thankfully, no more 'cold days' - those are rough.)  Consequently, the girls and I spent a LOT of time bundled up indoors and not going to our respective schools.

Snowmaggedon aside, this month featured several weekends in a row where we had scheduled engagements - something we don't generally get a lot of in February.  A few different parties and get-togethers, Abby's gymnastics exhibition, a few Girl Scout outings and events - just enough to keep our minds off the usual drudgery of a brutal Michigan winter.

So yeah. . . here's a quick look at the Hough's February '19.  Enjoy, folks. . .

Killing time indoors with a bunch of Our Generation stuff. . .

After spending nearly two months of sorting through my vinyl collection, testing which LPs sounded too rough to keep and which ones I otherwise no longer wanted, I came out with a pretty big stack of used stuff I was ready to sell.  Over the last two years, I've done this about a dozen times before, each time taking in five or six albums to Radio Wasteland, and each time getting about $30 in store credit, and then buying one or two new LPs that I'd much rather have.  It's way of trimming fat and saving shelf space, but also of rounding out my collection and increasing it's overall worth.  This month, I ended up getting nearly $50 in store credit, and bought a few limited edition, colored-LP repressings, such as this live album from Chicago. . .

And this score.  Aside from these two, I picked up six Irish LPs (Clancy Brothers, etc. - in preparation for St. Patrick's Day) and a handful of Best Of's. . . both vintage and new.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

SuperBowl Sunday found the Houghs watching the game with our usual group of seven or eight families, this time over at the Johnson residence.  Morgan, Pete and I claimed the couch.

This was pretty good.  I'm always skeptical when it comes to this label, but they came through with this one.

I've seen this in stores for $30, and always thought it looked cool, but couldn't justify spending that much on something I can play for free on the ol' Internet (despite the awesomeness factor of it's aesthetics and packaging.)  When a recent Slickdeals.net posting featured this on sale for $10, I decided to finally pull the trigger.  Now I look forward to countless bouts of dysentery in the near future.

Out on a lunch date with Mom.

Abby, in the zone.

Gotta love Michigan winters. . .

  

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not, but the Houghs are returning to Florida in June for nine days - gonna take the kids and do the whole Disney World/Universal Studios vacation, be good parents, that sorta thing.  We recently reassessed our luggage situation and realized that we needed to pick up a few additional pieces:  a stow-able carry-on for each kid (for their clothes and personal stuff), and a large, heavy-duty suitcase we can check at the gate for some of our clothes/shoes, the family's toiletries, as well as souvenirs and additional crap we pick up on vacation.  We started taking the kids around with us to look at suitcases, and it was just as much fun as you could imagine.  At Marshall's, Abby found a decent carry-on piece. . . though we ended up buying a better-rated one from a more reputable brand that looked nearly identical online.

Alayna decided to throw a tween-tantrum when we told her that she couldn't buy a huge white suitcase because it wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment (we nabbed ourselves a super-nice condo through airbnb with a washer and dryer, so the girls don't need to take a full-size suitcase filled with clothing, despite what they may think.)  Just look at her face in this pic. . . God, I hate children.

After picking up Abby's new glasses from Midland Eye Associates (the second time we've had to brave a blizzard in order to do so), the girls and I barely made it back into the driveway - had to gun it just to get out of the street.  Just check out my tire tracks, there. . . frickin' ridiculous.

Abby's fancy new specs. . . that she barely wears.

Later that day.  The driveway and walkways shoveled.  In your face, Winter.

More sledding down the driveway.  It's been that kinda winter, folks.

Girls and glasses.

The third week of the month, we got slammed - yet again - with a third blizzard:  there were four in a system that was moving sluggishly across the Midwest, so by this point in time we were all pretty sick of Michigan's bullshit.

Snowing.  Still.

You can't really tell from the picture, but the snow's well over a foot-deep here - it was up to the second step, leading into the house.

After a couple hours, the driveway, sidewalk, and walkways have been shoveled out.  Again.

Lately our mail carrier has been leaving our mail on the front door.  Can't say I blame him - he'd need twelve-foot arms to reach our mailbox.

 

The plus side of having so much frickin' snow dump on us all at once is that you can create some pretty impressive snow structures.  The girls dug out an igloo as I piled up snow around the outside.

Earlier on in the process. . .

I turned one of their Suicide Sleds upside down and wedged it in to serve as a ceiling.

This kept them busy for a long, long time. . .

The kids' hang-out section of our basement.  Kids are the worst.

Can your kid recite every, last book of the Christian Bible, IN ORDER?  'Cause ours can.

Abby's favorite past time (aside from standing on her head.)

Dr. Hough breaks out another science experiment. . .

(No idea what she's up to, here. . . I was at work.)

Alayna's devoured nearly ten Rick Riordan books over the last few months: the Percy Jackson series, the Heroes of Olympus series, and now she's on to the Trials of Apollo series (each series contains five books, and each book in a series is between 300 - 500 pages.)  This kid reads like it's nobody's business, and unless you stop her, she'll keep going for hours (seriously, we've tested it.)  I'm not complaining, though - her knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology and lore is pretty impressive.

During a lesson on Westward Expansion, one day I let my students try their hand at the old school classic, Oregon Trail (see the picture I included earlier in this post, folks - it's too good a game to pass up.)  On our Google Classroom, I posted the link to a website where they could play the game for free, and gave them an accompanying handout to complete.  While they played through the game and answered content-related questions that went along with the game, I played my own game via my Promethean Board as a means of modeling the activity for them.  I named my party after a few of my coworkers.  It didn't go well.

A couple new LPs, all ready to roll for St. Patrick's Day. . .

And, to round out the wintery month of February, we have here - once again - the Girl Scouts.  Kris and Courtney's troop, actually, this time as a scenic water treatment plant (where they turn poop and pee into drinking water. . . or something.)  When I asked Abby how the outing was, later that evening, she told me it smelled like 'a bathroom at school.'  Who in their right mind takes a group of kids to a shit factory?  My wife does, folks.  My wife does.

- Brian

The Curse Returneth: Christmas

Happy Holidays, Internet!

Christmas morning in the Hough House, as the girls tear into stockings.

Well, we pulled off another frickin' Christmas, despite the Hough Family Curse's best efforts to thwart us at every turn. 

Like we've done in previous years, the plan was (originally) to have our immediate family Christmas in the morning, then, sometime around lunch, head over to Mom's in order to celebrate the holiday with Mom, Grandpa Chinery, and Chris, Jeff and their respective families.

Buuuut that's not how things panned out.

10 hours of a roaring fireplace in HD, courtesy of Youtube.  'Cause the Season.

The Curse decided to ravage my brothers' kids with a variety of illnesses that prevented them from coming out to Mom's for Christmas.  Chris' sons, who recently started going to a local daycare center, came down with cases of Chicken Pox (which, I'm told, is a pretty rare thing with infants), and since Grandpa's at risk for contracting it (I guess he never had it growing up, and it's somewhat dangerous for the elderly to get it), they couldn't go over to Mom's.  In addition, Jeff's kids were all running fevers at various stages, and so no one wanted his branch of the family over.

So, in the end, Christmas just ended up being us and Grandpa over at Mom's, but in the evening we decided to head out over to Chris and Nicole's to pay them a Holiday visit (and bring over some much needed mimosa reinforcements.)

Get ready for some holly jolly curse-thwarting, people. . .

The girls shot out of their bedrooms at 6am.  Like last year, we set a rule that the girls couldn't leave their bedrooms until that time, and so far it's worked out really well.  I got up about ten minutes before they did, and was able to turn everything on and establish the appropriate 'atmosphere' before they set upon their stockings like Viking raiders.  Hatchimals (shown here) were both on the girls' request lists for Santa, so they found their way into their stockings.

Alayna helps Watson open his stocking (which, sadly, had no Hatchimals in it.)

This dog will go to town on a frickin' rawhide bone, folks.

'Santa' has gotten pretty good at my stockings over the years.

Kris definitely had the nicest-smelling stocking - she's big into smells.

I'm using an external flash with my new 24-105 lens, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Definitely a step up from the usual whited-out faces you get from a traditional in-camera flash.

. . . although you have to be more careful with lighting, as you can see here.  Abby's decently lit, because the flash zeroed in on the edge of the box, but Alayna's far too dark.  It's going to take some time getting used to.  Oh, and these two gifts here were from 'Santa' - things they asked him for when we saw him earlier in the month.

I've said it before, but this chick isn't all that big on toys - she's 9 going on 16.

Abby, on the other hand, takes more after her old man.  Bring on the big toys, motherf***ers. . .

Harry Potter headband set (came with four, one for each House.)  She wears headbands like crazy, unlike her sister, who despises them.

Another year, another science kit.  Anything experiment-based is a win in Alayna's book.

Kris got a hand-decorated mason jar from the girls this year.  They had this craft fair thing at the girls' elementary school, and people came in and sold all kinds of shit so long that it was under $7 per item.  We gave each girl $5 per family member to pick out something for one another and their parents.  It was a headache, to be sure, but a lot easier than unleashing them in a store like Target or Meijer.

Star Wars underwear - a practical, if not hilarious, gift.

Alayna apparently got some granny panties, though, so we'll have to return them to the store.  That, or save them for when she's in high school - they'd probably fit her then.

Oh dear GOd, how I despise these frickin' Shopkins. . .

Kris got me a couple more volumes from Barnes and Noble's Collector's Edition collection for the Study library.  I have about ten so far, they're awesome - heavy duty leather-bound construction, with gilded gold pages and satin bookmarks.  This is a collection of seven of Jules Verne's most famous works (I'm a sucker for classic literature, it's my favorite genre.) 

And this one was Victor Hugo's Les Miserables - although I'm quite familiar with the play, I've always wanted to read the book.

Alayna got some Ivory bar soap in her stocking (she'd been asking for it so she could do an experiment she saw online.)  While Kris and I were distracted in the living room, she quietly put the bar of soap into the microwave and. . . . this happened.  Who the hell knew soap did this in the microwave?

You can imagine how much fun this was to clean up.  Although, I will say, it did smell nice.

Plunder.

Kris gets to work in her office.

Abby, not-so-patiently awaiting the time when she can open up another present

A wine-glass-shaped travel thermos.  For the wine-drinkin' mom on the go.

Abby made this for me in art class.

It's some kind of bird.  That's purple.

Aaaaand we got this, too.  It's to both of us.  It'll probably end up on Kris' side of the dresser.

Our girls are both huge Harry Potter fans, so this game - which they've never played before - will probably go over real well.

Candy for breakfast.  F*** it, it's Christmas.

Coloring books.  Can't go wrong with coloring books.

After seeing the girls' fleece robes they got for Christmas Eve, Dad sent me this picture from 1959 of him and my Aunt Lucy. . . . who just so happened to be wearing strikingly similar pajamas.

So we recreated the picture to the best of our ability.

Christmas cookies.  It should go without saying that I've put on weight this month.

Both kids got slime this year, as that's some new thing kids these days are obsessed with, I guess. Everybody wants to make gross-ass slime that they can then destroy furniture and carpet with.  It's a blast. 

I wrapped a 'mystery' gift under the tree this year, and Kris volunteered to open it up.  It's an old Westinghouse iron that I found up in our attic, way in the back.  It's brand new in the box, and, based on the fabric cord and old-fashioned box, was probably a top-of-the-line product in the early 1960s.

(I don't think Kris appreciated it.)

A festively sunny Christmas morning.

Bacon haze in the kitchen - you can bet your ass Alayna's a happy kid (bacon's her favorite food.)

Again.  This is why we're all putting on weight this season.

After a late-morning nap, we headed over to Mom's house for Christmas (and lunch.)

The girls picked out an ornament for her at Bronner's.  We had also taken her out to Genji (an up-scale hibachi sushi restaurant in town) one night a few weeks ago, as she keeps telling us not to buy her any presents.

They found a s'more snowman (s'moreman?), because 'Grandma likes camping.'  They had several different kinds, but this one has a cup of coffee ('cause Grandma likes her coffee.)  

Some LED lights for her bedroom (it came with a bunch of letters and numbers so you can personalize the message along the light string.)

One of the things she got us this year was a Halloween-themed runner, as she knows we're big into hosting Halloween costume parties.  She figured we could use it on the table, but it's so nice I think it'd be better suited atop the piano in the Study.

Some quill pens for the girls.  Alayna's is a genuine ink-bottle quill, and is a licensed Harry Potter item, while Abby's is a more age-appropriate ballpoint feather pen (but her feather is huge to compensate.)  Fortunately both girls were cool with what they got - I was nervous Abby would throw a bitch-fit upon discovering she didn't have a bottle of ink to dip into (and spill everywhere.)

Wouldn't be a true Christmas at Mom's without an appearance from Leon.

Around 4:30pm, Mom took Grandpa Chinery back to his house and we headed over to Chris and Nicole's to hang out with them and have a few mimosas.  The girls had never met the twins, so we all figured it was high-time that finally happened.

Tucker is incredibly starved for attention.  Whereas before he could usually be found hovering around Chris for dear life, he now throws himself at every possible person.  Can't say I blame him.

Louis couldn't take his eyes off the girls

If there's a baby on hand, you can bet your ass Kris will hold the hell out of it.

Chris' old cat, Sneeze, and Abby

Mom showed up about a half-hour after we did.  Here she's going through a box of pictures Chris and Nicole had taken of the twins.

Snack time.  You'll notice that these are all pictures of Louis:  Sam was in the room, too, but was covered with the Pox - I didn't want to take pictures of him looking like that (probably wouldn't have been appropriate.)

Time for a dance party. . .

Abby was really into hanging out with infants.  I think Alayna was more into the pets.  Totally not a surprise to anyone, honestly.

After a couple hours at the other Hough house, we came back to our own home, and - THANK GOD - there was none of Watson's usual post-Christmas diarrhea or vomit puddles awaiting us.  Truly, a Christmas Miracle.  We decided to end the Most Wonderful Time of the Year with a round of 'Nog and yet another Holiday movie.

Er, It's the Most Wonderful Time for a Beer.

- Brian