all caught up

It's not very often that I comment on the blog itself, but I wanted to take a second and mention the little milestone I accomplished.  Due to the hustle and bustle of life, I usually don't take as much time as is needed to keep this thing up to date.  In fact, for the past 5-8 years I have been so far behind that i'm posting about stuff that happened as many as 12-13 months before I actually write about it...  Oops.  Well, with all this extra time we've got due to the quarantine, I am proud to say that I've actually gotten all caught up!  I've poured dozens of hours into this thing over the past few weeks and it is now current.  I haven't been able to say that in years- all it took was a worldwide pandemic!  Anyway, I will try to keep it caught up so it doesn't get backlogged again.  It's been fun writing about all this stuff for the past 15 years (yes, this blog is actually 15 years old- started back in 2005!) and I look forward to continuing.
I hope you enjoy!

destructors return!

The Destructors return!  Ledger has been asking, almost every day since we last went out, when we are going to do some more destructoring.  Well, the day finally came!  Ledger and I went out there to finish the job of getting rid of the chicken shed.  I had borrowed my dad's handsaw, so the first order of business was to clear out the scraps from our last adventure.  Ledge helped out with this for a little while but soon grew bored.  He wandered around outside for a while and then went inside.  Once I had the scraps all cleaned up and sorted, I went in to ask him if he wanted to push the framework down.  With big eyes he jumped out of his chair!  We gave it a few good heave ho's and it started to bend and collapse.  It took some work with the crowbar and hammer, but we eventually leveled the whole thing and now have an unobstructed view of the woods!  Goodbye rotted out chicken shed, good riddance!
(more pics)

zoom with family

Its been too long since we have gone to see Diana's family.  In order to fix this, Alanna suggested that we have a whole family zoom meeting.  We all made sure our different devices were all logged in and met up for an online get together!  We thought it would be fun to each log in separately from our house, Diana, Ledger, and I.  This worked really well except for the feedback we got when we first tried it while all sitting at the same table!  Once we realized that we needed to spread out, Ledger went to the living room and Diana went to our bedroom.  That worked considerably better!  We were joined by Barbara, Alanna and Tavish (sometimes on the same device, other times Tavish was in with his own), Mom, and David.  It was really neat to see everyone and talk a bit.  There are some limitations with the app, but it's certainly better than nothing!

the complete living room

We have been, little by little, making our home look exactly how we want it.  The last piece of the house that needed to be taken care of was the area under the tv.  When We had the old tv we had to have the tv stand there, but since we've gotten the new one we now have it mounted on the wall.  With no need for a tv stand, we improvised by putting an old end table there.  It was always meant to be just a space filler with the goal of getting a much better piece of furniture when we were able.  Well, I guess we are able now because we ordered a brand new console table to put there!  This is one of the first new pieces of furniture we've ever gotten for ourselves, so we were pretty proud of ourselves, feeling very adultish.  Now that we have a permanent solution, it was finally time to take care of the cords that were hanging down from the tv.  I hid them in the wall and now it looks perfect!  Diana has been wandering around the living room saying 'it just looks so nice in here!' all day...

destructors

The old chicken coop in our backyard is a bit of an eyesore.  Ever since we first moved in we have wanted to take it down.  I'm sure it was nice once upon a time, but at this point its so full of chicken poop and rotting wood that there's no way it could be used for anything good anymore.  Well, now that I've got almost all the leaves cleared, I needed a new project.  Whenever I'm outside working Ledger always seems to find his way outside as well to check on me and see if he's missing out on any fun.  This time he certainly was!  So, as expected, he came tromping out and wanting to see what I was up to.  Tearing down a shed, little guy!  Needless to say, He wanted to give it a try too.  I gave him the crowbar and sent him up the ladder.  He was pretty nervous being up there, but thrilled at the same time...  I had already tore down one side and part of the roof, so he got to help take off the rest of the roof and all the plywood.  He loved being up high and also getting to hit stuff with a hammer.  After we cleaned up and brought in all our tools he ran in to tell Mama that he got to be a destructor with Daddy!  Ever since then he has been asking when we get to go out again and do some more 'destructoring!'
(more pics: 1, 2)

surprise picnic

Our thoughtful little boy planned a little special adventure for us.  Diana and I were busy doing little things around the house he was plotting and planning, asking for random items for the adventure.  Finally he called us into the living room and told us to follow the arrow that was on the floor...  We weren't entirely sure what to make of it at first, but we did as he said and followed it to the next arrow, and then the next.  Where did it take us?  you will have to see the journey in pictures here!

candy cats!

Ledger has never been very interested in board games, so we were a bit surprised when he asked for a piece of cardboard.  'Why do you need cardboard, buddy?' we asked, 'I want to make my own board game!' he replied.  All right, we've got a bunch of boxes downstairs so we headed down to find a piece big enough.  We brought one up and he disappeared into his room.  About 10 minutes later he asked for another piece because he 'did it wrong'.  We got him another one and he went right back to work making the perfect board game.  Almost a half hour later he came out excited to show us his completed creation: the new game Candy Cats! (yes, the exclamation point is in the name).  He was so proud of it that he could hardly spit out the rules of the game.  We found some dice and he, Diana, and I all sat down to play the inaugural game of Candy Cats!  I've got to tell you, he was so pumped about his creation that it was literally impossible for him to sit down- he spend the whole game standing up, dancing, and laughing hysterically!  He was so delighted in what he had made that he was actually sweating while we played.
I'm sure we will have the good fortune to be able to play it a few more times in the coming days. We are so excited...

inspired by the wizard

We recently watched part of that old 80's movie 'The Wizard'.  If you are my age then you are probably very familiar with it, its the one that starred Fred Savage and was a glorified Nintendo commercial.  My wife somehow had never seen it before.  I was talking about the scene were they show off the Power Glove and how terrible it was.  I popped on that scene and we had a really good laugh at how the character was so '80s cool and then announced 'I love the Power Glove, it's so bad'.  Ledger was apparently inspired by this and wanted to create his own version with Rolly, and I've got to tell you, its hilarious!  (click on the photo to see it better)

busy during quarantine

All this extra time at home has really sparked Ledger's creativity!  Usually he complains about having to go to school because it cuts into his drawing time.  Now that he is unencumbered by such trivialities as school, he can just go nuts with his drawings!  As you can see from this photo of his desk, there has been a flurry off activity!  This kid never runs dry of new things to draw, it's kind of amazing really.  There have been so many new little critters he's drawn and comic books he's made.  I am making sure that I keep some of the highlights, but if we tried to keep everything he makes we would need to rent out a storage unit just to house it all!
(some examples of his work)

onward movie night

Before all of this quarantine thing happened, Ledger and I had planned to go see the movie 'Onward' in the theater.  Unfortunately we weren't able to make it to the theater before they all closed.  Now that it's already on Disney Plus, we decided to make it into a special event.  We got popcorn and drinks, I even picked up some theater candy when I was at the gas station last, turned out the lights, and fired it up!  It was a really special night- all three of us enjoyed the movie and Ledger was pleased that we made the whole thing into a special event for us!  He really loved the movie too, he spend the next couple days being inspired by it in his drawings.
It takes a little bit more effort, but having these sorts of special events during this quarantine are helping to make it more bearable.

bike rider

For some reason Ledger has always been averse to riding his bike.  He has gone out in the past when we lived at the apartment and rode around on it a little bit, but after about five minutes he's sick of it and lost interest.  The main reason, I think, is because he isn't confident on it.  But that's the rub, he won't be confident until he spends more time doing it!  Well, with the nice weather we've been having, we finally talked him in to giving it another try.  We all three went out there and helped him get the hang of it.  As he tried it he was getting to feel a bit better about it and after about 15 minutes he was really starting to like it!  'look at me!' he kept yelling as he went up and down our little cul-de-sac, pleased with himself that he wasn't falling over.
Now we just need to get him off those training wheels...

even more yard work

Yup, back outside for me!  Now that we've got most of the leaves cleaned up, I moved on to the wood pile behind our shed.  Most of the wood is pretty well rotten, so my plan was to just move the pile to our yard line and go through and pull out the pieces that we could still use in a campfire.  As I began to work I realized that the wood pile was covering up a big ten by ten slab of concrete!  Why is there a huge slab of concrete out there?  the shed is on dirt when five feet away there's a concrete slab?  None of this makes any sense... Either way, I cleared it off and now we have a huge slab in our back yard for some reason.  Maybe we'll get a new shed?
(more pics)

snuggins

We've got nothing else to do, we might as well snug!  One of our favorite things to do is snuggle with our little boy, and he loves it just about as much as Diana and I.  With no school and no work, we have been spending a lot of time lately snuggling up and just loving each other.  It's been hard at times to manage the chaos of the pandemic going on around us, but it's times like these that recharge our batteries and let us grow closer as a family.  We've even created different versions of snugging: there's the 'regular snug', which is just getting cozy together on the couch, the 'techno snug' where we lay in bed together and play on our phones and tablet, the 'reading snug' where we all grab a book and read together in bed, and then there's the 'classic snug' where we just lay in bed and chat.  My favorite? All of them!

more yard work

Well, I've clearly got nothing else to do, I might as well keep going on the yard work, right?  I headed back out there to continue the clean up effort in the back yard.  As I cleared the leaves it became apparent that there was a broken down fence going down the whole length of our property- who knew?  We couldn't see it before because it was all covered up from the years of leaves falling on it!  I uncovered it and tidied up the edge line of our yard and boy does it look nice.  It looks like a whole new yard!  I'm sure I'll have plenty more time in the coming weeks to see what other treasures I can uncover back there...

zoom zoom!

As the new reality of the quarantine sets in, we are finding new ways to stay connected.  One of the most popular ways to stay connected is an app called Zoom.  It's basically facetime for groups.  Ledger's 2nd grade teacher, Mr. Nash, was missing the kids and looking for an opportunity to keep the kids connected, so he planned a group zoom meeting that invited all the kids to log in and see him and each other.  This is exactly what Ledger needed- especially after having to cancel his birthday party!  We logged on as well as 6 or 7 of his classmates.  It was pretty funny to see the chaos that unfolded- each of them trying to talk over each other and everyone wanting to show off their house or pets.  There was certainly nothing productive about it, but that didn't matter, just the kids seeing their teacher and each other was enough of a moral boost that Ledger was amped up for the rest of the day!

ledger's birthday

We had big plans for his 8th birthday for Ledger, but with the quarantine, we had to improvise.  He was understandably heartbroken about the whole thing.  He was sure that the virus did this to him personally...  We did the best we could to make it a special day none the less.  Fortunately we had been planning ahead and had gifts for him already, but we didn't have any birthday wrapping paper- so we used the left over Christmas paper!  He has always been obsessed with snowmans, so he didn't really mind at all.
As a way to make it a little more special, I contacted a bunch of people and asked them to send a quick little video wishing him a happy birthday.  We ended up getting more than a dozen videos from his classmates, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and all his cousins!  We all gathered together in the living room and I was able to show them up on our big tv.  He was surprised and delighted by all the people who were thinking about him even though they couldn't be here with us.  It really helped make the day as special as could be for him.  He opened his gifts and was very excited about the different prizes.  his favorite part, of course, was the delicious cake we had for him!
Though it wasn't at all what we had all hoped, it ended up being a very special birthday after all!
(more pics: 1, 2)

yard work

I guess we've got to do something with all this extra time on our hands, right?  After binging on tv and movies for a few days, we made out way outside to work on the lawn.  More accurately, the weather finally broke so we were able to be outside working without coat and gloves!  We didn't exactly do a great job of cleaning up all the leaves this past fall, so now is our chance to fix that problem.  I went out there and did a bit of work, which always means that Ledger will soon be following to see what I'm up to- so I put him to work as well!  We cleared out the side yard of all the leaves and weeds.  If this keeps up, the lawn is going to be looking pretty great soon!
(more pics)

quarantine begins

So this is kind of strange.  The state of Michigan has cancelled Ledger's school for the next 4 weeks and closed up almost all businesses.  The covid-19 virus has been sweeping the world and our best way to deal with it is for the country to put 'stay at home' orders in place.  A lot of this is hard to process as we are going through it.  Almost everyone is of two minds: sad for those who have the virus or lost someone, but also kinda excited because this means I don't have to go to work!  Ledge is especially excited, he doesn't exactly understand the full scope of this thing, but he's glad that he gets an extra month off of school!
These next few months are going to get pretty weird...

our film critic

Movies have always been my interest, my hobby, and my obsession.  I have not been shy about trying to get my boy to share that passion with me, but it doesn't always work.  Sometimes he's interested in movies, but usually his time is spent thinking about and playing Minecraft and Roblox.  He does always like to go to the movie theater, and I take him to every single kid's movie that comes out.
Well, he recently brought something home from school that is a bit of a milestone for me as a proud father: his first movie review!  His subject? The Pixar animated film 'Wall-E'.  In case you can't read it in the picture, he wrote 'Ratings- I would give Wall-e five out of five starts.  It was a really good movie.  Repetition: Wall-E was simply great.  Comparison: If you like robots and spaceships, you will like Wall-e'.  Genius! Perhaps the new Ebert?

hallway decor

I'm finally getting around to putting the finishing touches on the place.  One of the last pieces was putting up our family pictures.  We had put them up before at our apartment, but I had gotten some really cheap looking frames, so I wanted to get something a little bit nicer before I put them up.  We made a trip to the craft store recently and I had planned ahead enough to get a bunch of frames.  After culling through a bunch of our photos, I found 10 good ones to display.
I pulled out the tape measure, hammer, and the level and got to work!  It turned out really nice, definitely a step up from the set-up we had at the old place.
(more pics)

goodbye, mikey

One of my buddies, and a guy I work with, made the big decision to move.  He is taking his family all the way to Tennessee.  We are certainly going to miss him, he's got a little boy only a couple years younger than Ledger, so the two of them have played together a few times.  One of the other guys at work offered to have everyone over so we could all hang out for the afternoon and say our goodbyes.  it's sad to see him go, but we all wish him luck down south.

birthday countdown

With our little boy's 8th birthday coming up at the end of the month, Diana and I decided to make it a special one.  Lately he's been really in to collecting the little mini figures from Minecraft.  I happened to find about 30 of them for really cheap, so the plan is to dole them out one by one so each one can be special.  Our thought was to give him one each day leading up to his birthday.  I made a cute little way to reveal them for him each morning when he wakes up.  The figure goes under the egg and the post-it gets updated each night. That first morning it came as quite a surprise to him and he was delighted!  For the rest of the month he would get up a little earlier so he could see what was under that egg, often followed by racing into our room, waking us up, to tell us what his newest figure was!

valentines concert

Our final destination for this romantical valentine's day was an intimate concert at the new music venue called the Listening Room.  It's a cool lounge bar type place that only seats about 100 or so.  I saw a couple months ago that one of our favorite musicians, Brian Vander Ark, would be playing a romantic valentine's day show, I knew we needed to go.  I got the tickets back in December but didn't tell Diana anything about it.  As we walked in Diana correctly guessed who we were there to see and got excited about the show.  The theme for the evening was 'love songs', so Brian had planned a full night of romance and fun for us.  The concert was fantastic, as he always is, and the chance to spend an hour or two listening to romantic music with the love of my life is always a special time.
At the end of the night Diana was quite pleased with all the romantic-ness of the night's events.  I don't know guys, I think she might be falling for me- fingers crossed!
(more pics)

valentines day dinner

We don't usually do anything special on valentine's day.  Well, this year I decided to change that...  I had been plotting and planning for a few weeks without Diana's knowledge, hoping the whole thing would be a surprise for her.  I got out a few hours early from work and headed home, which she was very pleased about.  When I got home I told her she should probably get dressed up.  She was a little confused.  'Why?' she asked. 'You'll see...' I mysteriously answered.  She got all dressed up and so did I.  I complimented her on how she looked, but said it needed something, so I handed her a little jewelry box.  She delightedly opened it up and saw the special necklace I had gotten for her.  It was a purple labradorite- her favorite!  Her excitement grew!  We went and picked up Ledger from school and headed to Grand Rapids.  She was still clueless.  We stopped at my parent's place and dropped of Ledge.  Mom and Papa were in on the plans and were delighted to take our little one for the evening.  We said goodbye and drove off.  Diana was still excitedly confused about what was going on, which was exactly as planned.  I took her downtown Grand Rapids and we found a parking spot.  It was pretty cold, so we quickly walked over to our destination, the tapas restaurant San Chez.  I had booked us a reservation, which are pretty hard to come by for valentines day.  Diana was quite delighted, we have been here a few times and really love it.  About five years ago we had a special anniversary dinner together there, which was magical.  We had a really wonderful time eating amazing food and getting a little time together just the two of us.  The food really was outstanding, and we even splurged on their tasty dessert.  The whole thing was really lovely and Diana was about as pleased as could be about the necklace and the special dinner.  As we finished eating she said that she was so thankful and impressed with how much I had planned for her.  That's when I let her know the night had only just begun...
(more pics)

oscars!

My favorite day of the year isn't a holiday, but it should be!  The Oscars is my favorite event all year.  My hobby through out the year is keeping up on all the Oscar gossip and making sure I do everything I can to see all the movies that might be nominated.  I get up early so I can watch the nominations announced on tv, and listen to hours and hours of podcasts about the Oscars leading up to the big day.  Ever since I was little I've watched the ceremony; it was always a big deal for me and my mom and dad humored me and it would be the one day of the year where I could stay up until it was done, which usually meant 11:30pm or later- which is a pretty big deal to an 11 year old!
Every year I tend to watch it alone, not because I'm anti-social, but because it's really hard to find anyone else who loves it as much as me.  Since getting married, I've roped Diana in to watching it with me, but we've never gotten a group bigger than that together... until this year!  On a whim, we invited Barbara and James- and they accepted!  Well, this calls for a party!  I spent the first part of the day putting together a packet of all the nominees of lesser known categories like 'best animated short' and the like.  I also printed off some extra ballots so everyone could make their guesses before the ceremony and follow along as we watch.  Since we so rarely get to host guests, we went all out and got a bunch of party snacks and hors d'oeurves.
The night went smashingly and we were treated to an amazing show with some great twists and turns at the end.  I was able to see eight of the nine nominees (sorry, JoJo Rabbit...) and even went to see all the short films, live action and animated, in the theater this year!  This was certainly one of the best Oscar days ever!
(more pics)

see the art in me

This past fall Diana and I had come across an art studio called Design Street in Otsego (about 20 minutes from home) that offers classes for kids.  We looked up their class schedule and saw that they had a new one starting in February.  We figured with our kid being so artistically minded, he would probably benefit from a little structured learning in that area.  The first day of class we walk in and his eyes were wide with excitement 'this place is so cool!' he said as he raced around checking everything out!  The instructor was so kind and sweet welcoming him to class.  Ledger, as always, was super talkative and wanted to tell her all about his artwork and the characters he created.  As class started, I left him to it and went to get groceries.  The class is once a week for an hour and a half.  When I picked him up he and the rest of the class had started their painting in the style of Claude Monet.  He was really excited about what they had made so far and the whole way home he raved about how fun it was.  I'm pretty sure we will be enrolling him for the rest of the spring!
(more pics)

cut it out

Our boy has been having hearing problems for a while now.  At first we thought it might just be 'selective hearing'- he never seems to hear us when we ask him to do anything, so we thought maybe it was on purpose because he didn't want to do what we were asking.  We took him to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist and she took one look at him and said 'wow!  He needs his adenoids removed!'  She told us that he had some of the biggest adenoids she had ever seen.  They were so big that they were causing the hardness of hearing, runny noses, bad breath, and even the reason that he would snore and not be able to sleep through the night.  yikes, who knew adenoids could affect so much!  He went in to get an x-ray, and the doctor was able to show us how his looked compared to normal adenoids.  yup, they were huge.  We set a date for him to have surgery.  That date was finally here.  We let school know ahead of time, apparently he would need to be out of school for two full weeks after the surgery.  That was the part that he was pretty excited about... That morning we got up and headed down to Kalamazoo.  He wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything, so fortunately we had an appointment at 8am.  The called us back and were told what to expect.  He was getting a bit nervous, but at least he got to wear his pajamas and bring his stuffed animal friend Leonard.  They hooked up the IV, which was the part that scared him the most, but once that was done he felt pretty good.  After he was out they rolled him away and Diana and I waited in the lobby.  About 45 minutes later the nurse came out and told us that everything went perfectly and we could go back to see him in about 30 minutes.  Finally we were reunited with him and he was doing great!  It was kind of funny because he was definitely a bit loopy from being put under.  He started shivering, but the doctor said that is normal as the body works out the drugs.  He got some juice and cookies as we talked with him about how it went.  At first he asked 'is it done already?'  Since he was unconscious, he hadn't realized that the whole thing had even happened!  After about 20-30 minutes he was feeling great and the doctor said we were free to take him home.  He got a little wheelchair ride out to the car and Diana sat in the back with him to hold him all the way home.  He did amazingly well- a very brave boy!
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wii have fun

Now that I've got a whole new living room set up in the basement, that means I've been able to pull out a bunch of stuff that had been in storage for the past five years- including my video game systems!  I took out all of them- every Nintendo system that has ever been made (except WiiU, I never bothered with that one...).  Once I had them all set up I figured I'd give 'em a try, right?  I started with the Wii, cause that one was the most fun.  As I was setting it up Ledger came down to see what I was up to.  Oh buddy, have I got something to show you!  We dusted off the ol' Wii Sports and I showed him how to play Wii bowling.  He was so excited to try it for himself!  I remember how awesome it was when it first came out, lo those 14 years ago (wow, has it really been that long?!?).  Having never seen it before, Ledger was just as amazed as I was back then!  He was giddy with excitement as he threw each ball!  He called up to Mama to come see this incredible thing!  We played a few games and by the end of his first game he totally got the hang of it.  In fact, by the second game he was doing better than me!  Wow, he's only seven and he's already better at it than his dad...  Eventually we went through and I showed him some of the other Wii games I have in the collection.  There were a couple that he liked, but nothing quite compared to the fun of bowling.  You know, I always felt the same way...
(more pics)

real life rolly!

The last Christmas present finally came.  Ledger knew this one was coming, so he's been anticipating it for a while now.  Ledger has this character that he loves to draw, his name is Rolly and he's a donut with wings.  He's been drawing him and his adventures for almost three years (not that long, granted, but that's almost half of Ledger's life!).  Way back in October we came across this website that takes a child's drawing and turns it into a stuffed animal.  As soon as Ledge heard about that he wanted us to order him a Rolly.  They are very expensive and take a few months, so we told him maybe.  Hoping it would come in time for Christmas, we decided to do it.  Ledge drew us a nice big picture of Rolly and we had him color it too.  We took a picture of it and sent it in for them to work their magic on.  We didn't quite get it in time for Christmas, but when it finally came he was beyond excited!
We brought it in and all sat around him while he opened the box.  We unwrapped the tissue paper and there he was- in the flesh! (or, more accurately, 'in the plush').  It looked fantastic- exactly like he was supposed to!  Now our boy had his very own Rolly in real life!
(more pics)

the captain

posted here without comment.

snowmans!

Ledger's one demand each winter is that he gets to make a snowman.  Every time it snows he asks 'can we make one today?'  The opportunity doesn't come around very often, usually the snow is bad for packing or there isn't enough of it.  Well, today the snow was perfect, so off we went into the front lawn to make a new friend!  He had gotten a cool snowman kit from grandma last Christmas, so he was eager to use it.  We tracked it down in the basement and got to work.  The snow was absolutely perfect for packing, so it turned out really great.  We went to the backyard and found just the right branches so he could have arms.  On went the different pieces of the kit, and voila! A snowman!  Our boy was delighted, as you can tell.  We stayed out there and played with him for a while and eventually came in to warm up.  As he was at the table enjoying a hot chocolate, he kept peeking out the window to admire his handiwork.
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goodbye, cousin

As always, it's hard to say goodbye.  Ledger had so much fun with his cousin that it was really hard for him to say goodbye.  Tavish is about two years older than Ledger, but he's so patient with him and thankfully doesn't see him as a 'little kid', which can happen so easily at that age, so we were very proud of the two of them and how well they got along together.  It's so unfortunate that they live so far apart that they only get to see each other two or three times a year, but those times are always a treasure for Ledger.
Hopefully we will see you again soon!
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having a bowl

When we first went to South Bend for Christmas we knew Tavish and Alanna were there, so we wanted to let Ledger stay as long as possible so he could have tons of time to play with his cousin.  So we drove down together and I left to go to the cabin, but came back after the trip.  Now, with the rest of the weekend ahead, we got to just sit back and relax with the family.  Well, we didn't relax too long before we wanted a little adventure!  We made our way over to the fun bowling alley in town.  Ledger was really excited, he had never gone bowling before.  We met up with one of Alanna's friends (she's got three kids around the same age, so they all had a blast!).  The place was packed, but we eventually got a lane and did some good ol' fashioned bowling!  After the first ball, we realized that the kids really needed the bumpers up.  Once we had those in place, then everyone was having a great time.  Ledge really enjoyed himself with bowling and playing around with all the other kids!  The place was pretty awesome, it had a mini golf course and carts to race.  The boys were in heaven!
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off to the cabin!

Cabin time!  It's that annual tradition here again!  Every year a bunch of us guys go up north to the cabin and hand out together for a couple days.  We've been doing this so long that we've almost been doing it more of our life than haven't.  That's crazy.  Some friends have come and gone, but there's always a wonderful togetherness when we go up.  Last year Jon wasn't able to join us, but this year he made extra sure that he would have the time off without excuse!  Aaron, Jon, and I met up with Dusty in Big Rapids and, after a delicious lunch, made our way to the ol' cabin.  We never really know what to expect, some years we've had so much snow that we had to park at the road and hike in, other years we've had no problems.  This year there were a couple big trees in the way of the path!  fortunately, with a little team work, we got the path cleared with only minor delays.  We settled in and did a little big of catching up.  Unfortunately, we see each other less and less these days, so for some of us there was a lot to catch up on.  Even though we don't hang out together as much as we used to, the old friendships don't take much to rekindle.  Before we knew it we were having a blast like usual!  Of course, we did our usual Sporties visit, game playing, and deep talks.  The details of which will forever be shrouded in mystery due to the blood pact we have to make each time we go to the cabin, but it's totally worth it.
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gingerbread house contest

After the gifts we had a competition lined up: gingerbread house decorating!  Diana and Barbara had worked hard assembling a bunch of gingerbread houses for us so we could each have our own.  Everyone picked a house and we got to work.  There were a bunch of different candies and icings to choose from, so everyone had the chance to make whatever sort of creation they wanted.  It was really fun to see the different approaches to the challenge.  Some people were very focused and methodical, while others were more haphazard with their process, putting whatever they wanted wherever they wanted!  I'm sure you can guess which one of those describes Diana and which one describes Ledger...  The finished products looked quite impressive!  We couldn't decide on a winner, so everyone tied!
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South Bend Christmas

With Christmas falling on a Wednesday this year, that meant that we got to have an extra long visit down to South Bend- and Tavish and his mom were back in town too!  We drove down Thursday morning to see everyone and have our Christmas together that night.  As always, Diana's dad was able to come over for the festivities, as well as Barbara and James- even Miranda stopped by for the fun!  The boys were so pumped to see each other that they almost forgot that they were going to get more gifts... almost.  The prospect of getting to spend a long weekend together and get lots of toys was almost more than those two boys could bare!  One of the things that Tavish got earlier for Christmas was a VR headset for his PlayStation 4.  This was a source of a ton of fun for the kids- and the adults too!  Everyone got in on the action- even Diana's dad (which was hilarious!).  After a bit of gift giving and a ton of laughs, we were all exhausted and called in a night.
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christmas morn

Ledger excitedly ran into our room, 'There's presents under the tree!' he exclaimed!  Christmas day has begun! Diana and I pull ourselves out of bed, trying to mirror his excitement.  He is so pumped that it is actually pretty infectious.  Now that we are both up, we are all looking forward to the fun that is Christmas morn!  As has been our family's tradition, before we do any gifts we make a special breakfast: cinnamon rolls!  We really only make them on Christmas morning, so for Ledger it is what Christmas smells and tastes like.  We sit down, well as much as a wiggly Ledger is able, and have the delicious food, and then it's time to dig into the bounty under the tree.
We do it in our usual style: one of the gifts is opened and then we take time to play with it and enjoy it before we move on to the next one.  This gives us a chance to actually appreciate each gift and it spreads out the festivities till almost noon!  Gift after gift, Ledger was very excited and pleased with his loot.  This year Ledger had gone out and even picked out gifts for Diana and I too, so he could also be a part of the gift giving, not just the receiving.  For the first time in several years, Diana and I actually agreed to give each other something a little bit more than usual.  I had been looking for the past few weeks and found a few special things for her and she had gotten me some thoughtful gifts as well.  We figured that Ledger is old enough that we should try and instill in him the reality that Christmas is about more than just him getting gifts- other people get gifts too!
Finally, when the very last gift was opened, we exhaustedly took stock of everything and knew one thing above all else was true: it was time for a nap!  Diana and I slinked away to catch a little extra sleep while Ledger had a blast playing with his new stuff.  We knew we could rest easy having had another successful Christmas!
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the night before

Back home from Christmas with my side of the family and boy are we tired!  But even with exhaustion, we've still got some important matters to attend to, namely, we need to set out a treat for Santa because tonight is the big night!  Ledger was super excited about all the excitement that was going to happen the next morning, but actually fell asleep surprisingly quick.  Diana and I were thankful of that because we had a lot of gift wrapping to do!  Once we were certain that he wouldn't be poking his head around the corner, we pulled out all the gifts and wrapping that we had gotten for him- and wow was it a ton!  Diana always yells at me because we get our boy too many presents.  All right, I'm guilty of spoiling him with gifts, that's for sure.  I told her that every year I want the tree to look like it does when I used to wake up on Christmas.  She helpfully reminded me that in my family there were three kids worth of presents under the tree and we've only got one.  Oh, right.  Oops.  Well, it's too late now, huh?  I guess we will just have to spoil him this time...

brinkmas 2019

This year for Christmas we got together on Christmas Eve at Jill and Tim's place.  We promised- promised!- each other that we were going to take it real easy on gifts, only getting stuff for the kids.  Of course, that apparently went out the window immediately!  We got there and started snacking on the delicious appetizers Jill and Mema had made, and enjoying a bit of mom's famous slush.  The kids started by playing a fun game where they could earn different fun toys and gift cards when they got right answers, a silly game that Mema put together.  The kids loved it, especially the prizes!  Soon after, we all gathered around the dinner table and enjoyed some delicious food together.  It's always nice to spend some time with the nieces and nephew- they are getting so old!
Finally it was time for the main event: gifts!  We took turns giving out different prizes to the kids, interspersed with a gift for mom and papa as well.  Tim and Jill didn't follow the rules, of course, and got Diana and I something.  I shook my fist at them because now we feel stupid for actually following the rules and not getting them something.  One of these years we will learn that the rules are never followed...
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christmas lights tour

For decades they have been doing a special Christmas light display at the minor league baseball field in Grand Rapids.  I've always kind of wanted go but have never gotten around to it.  Last year I brought it up to Diana and she thought that would be fun, but we still didn't make the time to do it.  This year I wasn't going to make the same mistake!  We made plans with Savannah's parents and invited her and Matheson to come with us to enjoy the lights.  We were not disappointed!  The ride up was fun because Ledger and Savannah were being so silly together in the back seat.  Matheson, who's five year older, would just roll his eyes, but laughed along too.
The lights themselves were pretty cool!  There was a long and winding path created in the stadium's parking lot.  It was filled with scenes and displays of winter events and characters lit up, blinking, and glowing to fill the night!  There were 'ooh's and 'aah's the whole way through- the kids loved it!  After the light display we took the kids to pizza hut and chowed down together.  The kids were even more boisterous and silly than before, having so much fun just being together!  At the end of the night we reluctantly returned the kids home and concluded our late night adventure together.  Someone is going to be exhausted in school tomorrow...
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oh christmas tree!

We finally found the time to pull out all the Christmas decorations so we could Christmas up the house!  It took everyone a little longer than usual to get in the mood enough to put up the tree and everything.  This was our first year decorating this house and we were initially worried that our little apartment tree might be too small for our huge living room, but as we started to put it up we realized that a smaller tree looks just right in front of the windows!  Ledge has continued his recent trend of going shirtless... but now with a santa hat!  The cool disco lights on the top of the tree don't look quite as cool as they did when we had a twenty foot ceiling, but it'll do.  Now we are ready for all the holiday fun!
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christmas movie night

An important Christmas tradition in our household is watching the Muppet Christmas Carol movie- it's our favorite!  Now that Santa has visited our town, that means that we are totally allowed to watch it.  We made plans to have a holiday movie night together and watch it (for the first time this season, we usually watch it more than once...)  We all got cozy and had a ball- singing along with all the songs and getting ourselves in the proper christmasy mood!

the basement project

The unfinished basement has been serving as a storage area for us since we moved in.  We would go down there if we needed something, but otherwise it went unused.  I've been saying for months that I would organize it all and make a nice cozy place to hang out down there once I got a new tv.  My plan was to take the old tv and bring it downstairs and build an extra living room down there.  Once the tv is set up, then I would be able to take my time and organize all the stuff down there.  Well, now I've got my new tv- that means the next order of business is to get crackin' on that basement!
I talked with my brother-in-law about getting some spare carpet scraps (he's a carpet layer) from him and temporarily carpet as much of the place as I could for now until we get around to finishing the basement.  He came through with a bunch of really great scrap pieces- enough to cover almost half the basement!  I laid it down and set up the tv and blu-ray player so I would have something to watch while I got to work organizing!  The place is already starting to take shape!  Now we've got a nice corner with the old couch and a table as well as a carpeted play area for Ledger.  Pretty soon Diana won't ever see me again because I'll always be hiding out in my cold basement cave- especially in the summer!
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santa came to town

Every year our little town likes to welcome in the holiday season the right way: with a parade and a visit from Santa Claus!  Ledge and I braved the cold to be a part of the celebration.  We went downtown to watch the parade and happened upon a bunch of friends from his school!  We found a nice cozy spot next to them and cheered on the parade as it passed through town.  The parade path ends down by the boardwalk, where we get a chance to line up and see Mr. and Mrs. Clause.
Now that we've got that taken care of, let the holidays begin!
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a very special day

This.  This was a very special day.  One of the things that Diana and I had talked about when we sold the rental property and had a little extra money that I would be able to get a new tv.  I was excited, but knew I should wait until we found a house because I was not interested in moving it from our apartment on the 3rd floor...  Once we moved Diana said I should get the tv.  I wanted to make sure we could take care of our bills first and get ourselves a few necessities like a couch and bed.  Now that we got all that stuff squared away, it was finally time.  I waited until there were some great deals after thanksgiving and finally pulled the trigger.  It was finally delivered.  This was a very special day.  I got for myself a giant 75 inch tv for the living room, and boy am I excited about it!  our last one worked very well, but it was so tiny (55 inches) that there were times I could hardly see it from the couch.  Now though, now we are all set.  I also got a wall mount for it so we can take the whole setup out of the living room and make our huge living room feel even bigger!  Once it was all set up I pulled out Avatar, the same movie I had christened our last tv with, and boy did it look good- I was not disappointed!  Diana still shakes her head every time she looks at it, but she's starting to get used to how big it is.  This was a very special day.  Maybe in another 8 years I'll get another one that's 20 inches bigger...
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lets set sail

One of my goals during this trip to south bend was to round up and bring home all the stuff we still had in storage at Diana's mom and David's house.  We lived there for a little while after we left Griffith, Indiana, and since we hadn't had our own house since then we hadn't been able to take back everything that we had put in storage.  Well, now that we've got our own house, it was time to change that.  I made many trips up and down the ladder in their garage and brought down almost everything (I've still got my comics up there, but I'll be able to get those during the next trip).  One of the things I found while bringing everything down was a really cool playmobile pirate ship set.  We had actually been given it from a friend in Indiana who's children outgrew it.  At the time Ledge was too little to handle all the small parts, so we tucked it away and forgot about it.  When I took it out and brought it inside, Ledge and Tavish thought it was so cool!  They spend the rest of the day checking it out and playing with it together!  When we finally came home we brought it with us and Ledger continued to play with it for the rest of the week- all by himself!  That thing was certainly a hit!
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a visit with chuck

We were trying to think of something fun we could do with the boys while everyone was visiting.  At first we thought about going to see a movie, but their wasn't much in the theater that the boys were excited about.  So instead we went with the old classic: chuck e cheeses!  They were all about that!  I don't think we had ever been do this particular location, but that didn't slow us down.  We headed over there with them and got them all set to play a bunch of fun games.  The two of them had a blast together jumping from one game to the other collecting as many tickets as they could.  The adults might have slipped in an occasional game too, but just to pad out the ticket count, I assure you...
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tavish back in town

Only a two or three times a year does Ledger get the opportunity to hang out with his cousin Tavish, so when they come to visit down in South Bend, we always make a point of going down and spending as much time as we can with them!  The boys always have a great time together.  Tavish is a couple years older than Ledge, and he looks up to him as such a cool older kid, so the fact that Tavish loves to spend time with Ledge makes him feel pretty awesome.  The two of them love to play games together.  This is the first time they have seen each other since Ledge has been allowed to play Minecraft, so Tavish had the chance to show him all kinds of cool stuff in the game and teach him some of the tricks.
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chef ledger

Our little boy was getting pretty hungry, so we asked him what he wanted for dinner.  He said he wanted an omelet.  Those are pretty easy, so I asked him if he wanted to learn how to make one himself.  He was delighted about this idea and jumped off the couch!  We got out the supplies and we went through it step by step.  I explained what he needed to do next and he fumbled through each step doing a pretty good job for a first timer.  He handled himself quite well in the kitchen, making sure he was carful about the hot surface and making sure he wasn't wasting the food.  He was really proud of himself with the final product, but was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to throw it in the air to flip it in the pan 'like they do in cartoons!'  The finished product looked and tasted great- in fact his mama frustratingly said 'what?  That looks better than I could make!  How did he do that?!?'
Perhaps we do have the next great chef right here in our own kitchen!
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my family visits

We haven't had the opportunity to show off the new place to my family yet.  My parents have stopped by one or twice to see the house, but we haven't had them over since we got everything all set up and turned it into our home.  They came by- with pizza!  Tim, Jill, and the kids came over too and we got to show off the place a bit.  We showed them our rooms, the office, living room, kitchen, and the basement; we even got to show off our big beautiful backyard!  It felt really good to have a place of our own that we could show off to the family.  We chowed down on some tasty pizza and had a nice time just hanging out and laughing together.  Ledger had even hand-selected a few toys to keep the little one occupied, so the kids were all set too.
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