Hell on Wheels

Happy Memorial Day, Internet.

That guy in front - armed with a mere handgun and a pair of khaki shorts - is a bonafide badass.

Somewhat relieved this happened 60 years before I was born. . . 

All joking aside (seriously), I'd like to spend a sentence or two commemorating all those who fought and died for our country, whether it be for independence (the Revolution), unity (the Civil War), asserting our sovereignty in our own backyard (1812, Mexican/American and Spanish/American Wars) helping out our buddies (WWI), stopping evil from taking over the world (WWII), or sticking our nose where it doesn't belong for political or financial gain (everything since.)

A couple thugs from my grandmother's side. . .

Fortunately, the Houghs have been lucky enough to have never lost a family member in war (all my grandfathers and their fathers and their fathers before them have a tendency of coming home sans coffin), so really this is for all of those who were less fortunate.

Anyway, we tend to fall in with the majority of Americans who view Memorial Day as a three-day weekend, and little more.  It's not intentional, of course, it's just the end of the school year, and our lives are hectic these days (what with the move to Michigan and all.)  This weekend, as it were, we were up to the hilt in puking children - first Abby, then Alayna - firing projectiles out of both ends.

Not awesome.

While Kris focused on tending to our sickly offspring, Yours Truly spent the majority of my extended weekend attending to various nerdy side projects (finessing iTunes playlists and syncing my iPod, cleaning up my iPhoto library, backing up all media onto DVDs. . . you know, man stuff) and packing, packing, packing.

After a day or two of sitting off to the sidelines, watching her family pack boxes and tend a sickly sibling, Abby developed some serious cabin-fever.  Consequently, Kris and I deemed it an appropriate time to try our hand at that age-old parenting right-of-passage:

The eradication of training wheels.

We didn't expect Abby to learn how to ride a bike in a day, but, honestly, that's exactly what happened.

One down, one to go.

- Brian

As the Dust Settles

It ain't the Dairy Phil, but it'll do. . .

Hi again, readers.

We've been back in the grind of School/Work/Shittiness for about five weeks now, and so the weekly routine is beyond established.  Our day-to-day around these parts basically revolves around getting ready for school/work, going to school/work, coming home from school/work and trying to cram feeding, bathing, and getting ready for bed in a two-hour window.  We do this for five days, take a half of Saturday sitting around the house in our pajamas in a dazed stupor, attempt to go out and 'do something' in the afternoon/evening on Saturday, take care of yard work and/or go to church Sunday morning, work on house chores/lesson planning/keeping kids entertained Sunday afternoon/evening, and repeat.

Thug life.

So, consequently, we don't update this blog very much.  But, 'cause I'm nice, here's some pictures from over the course of the last few weeks.

BAM:

The Cannonball is on a mission to feed ducks. . .

The pond at Eagle Park is beyond disgusting.

Eagle Park's new playground renovations.  The cushion-y rubber/padded ground is cool (it used to be sand), but they got ride of the canopy that shielded all us lazy parents from the scorching Florida sun.  Damn you very much, Eagle Park Association.

This picture would be really, really alarming if you saw three creepy guys standing behind Abby with paint-covered hands.

At Twisty Treat, down the road from our house.

Kris tried asking for a Boston Cooler, but the lady working the window had never heard of it.  Kris then tried explaining how it's made - with Vernor's and ice cream - but the lady didn't know what Vernor's was, and probably thought Kris was on drugs.

. . . so she more or less just finished the ice cream Alayna ordered and ate two bites out of.

Alayna's big enough to sit in a booster seat now, which she's pretty excited about.  I'm pretty excited about this, too, 'cause now - with two seats in my car - I don't have to switch vehicles every time I pick the kids up from school.  Cowabunga.

Attempting to teach Alayna how to ride a bike without training wheels. . .

(. . . it didn't work.)

Abby, brushing her teeth.  She's been making attempts at brushing better 'cause she has her second appointment at the end of the month. . . and we may or may not have been using the dentist's fictional stern demeanor as a way of motivating her to spend more time at the sink.

Went in to Alayna's classroom at John Young Elementary for Open House and found a bunch of these things hanging on her teacher's door.  This one's Alayna's (obviously) - I guess on the first day of school she was supposed to write down things that describe her personality.  Not sure why she didn't include words like 'loud-mouthed,' 'diva,' or 'drama-prone.'

Sassy bakers.

Posing before school.  Again.

You don't see many cars like this down here in America's Wang.

Yes, we bought our dog a Lions jersey.  Yes, we know we're 'those people.'  Shut up.

It's rare the local Fox affiliate broadcasts a Lions game, but they were today (probably 'cause we were playing a 'real' team like the Packers). . . so I actually got to watch a football game for once (first time since last Thanksgiving, actually.)  Alayna wanted to watch, too, once I told her it was Michigan's home team playing.  And to top it off, Detroit (surprisingly enough) actually beat Green Bay.

Alayna really wants a Lions shirt now. . .

It's still raining like a motherf***er down here.  And showing NO signs of letting up any time soon. . .

When you ride in Kris' beast of a van, you're guaranteed a stop at Dunkin Donuts.

So I taught Alayna how to play Chess the other day, on a whim.  She asked me if we could play Checkers - as she had learned it at Clubhouse after school awhile ago - and I told her that while we didn't have Checkers, we did have a game called Chess.  Once she saw the pieces, she was intrigued.  Over the course of an hour, we played a game and she not only memorized all the pieces' names and moves, but also picked up a little bit of strategy along the way.  She needed some help organizing her pieces to put me in Checkmate (which ultimately she never did, despite me obviously letting her win the entire time - we ended up in a stalemate), but besides that she did really well.  Abby?  Not so much.  She just wanted to play pretend with the pieces.

And here's some random guy screwing around with Garageband.  There may or may not have been a picture of him in a blog post some months back, I'm not sure.

- Brian