Handprint: 8th Grade

It's that time again, time for the annual tradition of making a handprint on the ol' board. Each year we have Ledger put his hand in a bunch of paint and put down his latest hand size onto the board at the start of each school year. We have been doing it since his preschool year and continue the tradition now that he's going into 8th grade. He used to turn it into an opportunity to get paint all over his body and go crazy with the chosen color each year. Now a days, he gets annoyed that we want to pull him away from his friends and tablet to do the old tradition.

He can complain all he wants, but we are still going to do it! This year he chose pink as his handprint color. He dipped his hand in the plate of paint and made his latest print. It's really fun to see how much bigger his hand is now than it was back when he was 4- year little boy- it keeps getting bigger and bigger, just like him!

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The County Fair

One of the things my town is known for is the county fair. Well, we can't miss that then, right? Ledger was really interested in the fair when he was little, going on all the kid's rides and games. But he lost interest for a few years there, but now he's back and really wants to go! We invited a couple friends for him to check out the county fair with.

They walked home with Ledger after school on Friday and I brought them over to the fair soon after. We got them a bracelet for unlimited rides and I gave each of them a bit of cash to waste however they chose.

These boys are at the age where the last thing they want is a parent watching over them, so I gave them a meeting time a few hours away and let them go out on their own to have a blast. I went back to the car and cranked the air conditioning, played a few games on my phone and listened to podcasts. Finally, around 9pm, we met up. I had double checked with the other boy's parents to see if it was ok, and it was, I told them they had another hour to mess around and have fun- they were shocked and thrilled to have some more time on their own! We met up again and they had spent all the money I had given them buying dumb stuff and having an amazing time. Finally, at 10pm we gathered back in the car and we brought the other boys home. This is what memories are made of, right?

Goodbye, Uncle Rich

After a long battle with cancer and emphysema, my uncle Rich passed away. He was my dad's older brother. I didn't really know him very well. A good 10 years older than my dad, he joined the military and was out of the house before my dad formed much of a bond. Staying in the military and continuing to move around most of his life meant that I didn't get to know him much either. We would come back to Michigan and visit from time to time, which was always great to see him and his family, but it wasn't very regular or much of a chance to get to know him. About 8-10 years ago he and his wife Vicki finally came back to Michigan to live, so Papa had the chance to reconnect and really get to know his older brother. They got together once a week and went to the shooting range or golf course, building the relationship they never had earlier in life. It was really good to see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and all the rest together again as we celebrated Rich's life together. He will be missed.

8th Grade: 1st Day

Summer has come to an end and our boy has to go back to school. Things are a little different though, this time he's the top dog! He hasn't been on top since he was a 5th grader ruling the roost in elementary school. Now he's the big guy on campus again as a big ol' eighth grader! This year we kinda gave up on trying to slowly ease him back into an early wake up and early to bed. It never works anyway, so we just figured he'll have a bleary-eyed first day and his schedule will adjust pretty quickly from here!

With me working 3rd shift, I get home from work just in time to get him up and ready in the morning. When I got home it was a bit of a struggle to rouse him out of bed, but eventually he emerged from his room and started getting ready. We are back to the daily waffle breakfast. Always dedicated to a bit, he wore the same shirt again for his first day of school. The Snoopy shirt asking 'Is It Christmas Yet?'. He wore it the last day of school last year too! On the way to school we talked a little bit about the gravity of the situation and he shared that he wasn't nervous at all this year, but felt pretty good about it all. He was mostly pumped to see his friends every day again. Oh, and how tired he was...

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Basement Flood

Every once in a while, I have a late meeting at work. It's outside of my usual shift, so I have to check in from home. I usually do so from my kitchen table, but for some reason I went down to the basement, so it didn't bother anyone else. As I was getting ready to patch into the meeting, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye- it was water pouring down the wall! It had been raining all night, but I didn't expect it to be a problem. Well, it was! Water was pouring in from the basement window into my movie sanctuary! I quickly ran to get towels to clean it up, but it just kept pouring down! I moved all my stuff away from the window so it wouldn't be ruined, but eventually I realized I needed to go outside and find out why this was happening. I went out there, sopping wet, and found out the window was blocked by dried leaves! I cleared them out, but the damage was already done.

I set up a fan and blower, moving everything out of the way, but by then it was already wet and ruined, all I had left was recovery. I did my best and saved what I could. hopefully it doesn't destroy too much. We'll see!

School Open House

Each year the school has an open house for all the students a few days before the new school year is going to start. A chance to meet any new teachers and figure out their new schedule. I took Ledger this year and we mapped out what his 8th grade was going to look like for him. We met all the new teachers, including a foreign language- French! We found his locker for this year and tried the combination, which was quite a bit easier than it was back in 6th grade, and met up with a few friends he hadn't seen since last school year. He was happy with all the changes and all the new teachers. I guess we are ready for the new year!

Chicago: Millenium Park

After a little nap back at the hotel, we were ready to check out the nightlife at Millenium Park! It took a little bit of convincing to get Diana back out into the world, but Ledge was up for more exploring and fun on our evening in Chicago.

We had told Ledge about the bean, but I don't think he really understood what it was until he saw it for himself- he was impressed! We made our way through the art in park and eventually found the shiny cloud, taking our picture next to it and loving all of it! After taking it all in, we walked over to the amphitheater and realized there was a free concert going on that night. We found a spot on the grass and laid down, relaxing, enjoying the beautiful symphony while they played. As they ended their set, we chatted about the day and all the amazing things we experienced, so pleased with our great day! What fun!

As we were heading home, the realization that we kinda forgot to eat dinner set in, so we stopped at the late-night Chinese place and got ourselves something to take back to the hotel. Honestly, it was an amazing day and we had a blast!
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Chicago: Art Museum

Diana had been to the Art Institute of Chicago quite a bit as a child. I guess that comes with having an artist as a father. I had never gone as a child, but went a couple times with friends, and went every year when I was teaching in Indiana. We both deeply love it and were so excited to go back for the first time in many years. We weren't so sure how Ledger would feel about the place, this being the first time he had ever been to an art museum. Turns out, he absolutely adored the place! Granted, one of the features we were most excited about when we got there was the fact that it had air conditioning! But we soon shifted gears and really engaged with the art and artifacts on display. 

We made our way through some of the exhibits, finding the big rooms full of little doll furniture. Diana was in heaven! She dismissed us away and said that she was going to take her time and we should continue on without her. Ledger and I made our way through the museum and saw all the greatest hits, works by Hopper, Picasso, Seurat, and all the rest. Ledger was impressed and loved checking it all out and taking it in. He was really inspired by some of the pieces and impressed with others. One area that he was baffled by was the modern art wing. You and me both, kid! It was really funny, as we were walking through the modern area he said, 'why can't any of the women in the artwork put on any clothes?!?' fair question, son! Eventually we met back up with Diana, after she spend an hour or two with the little furniture, and checked out the parts we hadn't seen yet. What we expected to take an hour or two ended up taking the whole day! She and I both were delighted at how much Ledger loved the art museum and the whole experience! Exhausted, hot, and with achy feet, we made our way back to the hotel for a little late afternoon nap.

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Chicago, Baby!

We wanted to have one last hurrah before summer was over. Diana and I realized that Ledger had never been to Chicago, so we figured we would rectify that situation! I took an extra day off of work, we booked a hotel just off the Miracle Mile, and off we went to the Windy City!

We packed up and got started pretty early, stopping in South Bend to drop off the dog with Diana's dad. We pushed on to Illinois and on to our hotel. We dragged our luggage from the parking garage in the extreme summer heat, but once we got to the room, it was all worth it- the hotel was fantastic! We splurged a little bit and got a nicer room that we can usually afford, which delighted Diana!

Once we were settled in, our hunger took over and we made the trek to Gino's East for some authentic Chicago style pizza. Ledger had never had that style pizza before, so we knew he needed to try the real thing (more pics). After filling our bellies, we were ready for the main attraction: the Art Institute of Chicago! Later that night we walked around Millenium Park so we could get the full Chicago experience. Finally exhausted, we grabbed a late-night bite to eat and took it back to the hotel where we chowed down and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, we packed up and had planned to go check out the Museum of Science and Industry, but apparently there was a Bears game, which made it literally impossible to find anywhere to park within 5 miles! Instead, we called it a day and headed home, satisfied with our fantastic Chicago experience!

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South Bend Swim

Ah, now this is the life! We made our way back down to South Bend for an extended weekend. Mom and David are always excited to have us visit, so it didn't take too much to convince them! The weather was so perfect that we spent a lot of time out on the lake. To really shock everyone, I even jumped in and swam! Barbara and James stopped by for one of the days and joined us out on the boat.

The funniest part of the weekend: We took poor old Wiggins out on the boat with us, and when I jumped in, I took him with me! He was not at all prepared for that! Turns out, this dog does NOT like to swim! He was holding on to me for dear life while we were in the water! Thankfully, I put him back on the boat after a couple minutes. After we swam for a while and got back on the boat, he would not go anywhere near me for the rest of the boat ride... Poor fella!

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Work Picnic

Every year my work has a huge picnic. They invite all 5000 employees and rent out the fairgrounds and do it up! There are a bunch of rides, games, concessions, and prizes. Employees and families are invited, so I rounded up mine, and we headed over.

Most of the games and rides are for the littler kids, so Ledge wasn't really interested, but there was one thing that caught his eye- the jumper! (I don't have any idea what it's actually called, but its a bunch of bungie cords you strap to your waste and bounce super high). We waited in line for that one and he got to give it a try. It's a bit harder than he expected, but had fun with what he could do. We filled up on hot dogs, brats, and hamburgers, wandered around for a bit, and got frozen slushies. I saw a few of the people I work with and got to introduce them to my lovely wife and son, and then we succumbed to the intense summer heat and got back in our air-conditioned car! It was a really fun event and we had a great time!

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Bill, Ted, and Ledger

 It finally worked. I had been working for years to try and convince Parker, the guy who programs movies at the local theater, that he needs to show a 'Bill & Ted' movie. The last Friday of every month the local theater, the Regent, shows an older movie. Usually an old favorite or cult classic. Every time I saw Parker I would tell him that he needs to program a Bill & Ted movie. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is my favorite movie ever and I've always wanted to see it on the big screen. Well, all that pestering finally paid off! He wasn't able to do the first one, but he was able to book a screening of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey! Good enough for me- I'll take it!

Now it was time to enact my plan: to introduce my son to Bill & Ted! There are a handful of movies that I love so much that I want Ledger to appreciate them as well. For that reason, we haven't watched them yet, I want to wait until he is old enough to appreciate them for himself. That's why I hadn't shown him the movies yet. But with him being 13 years old now, this was the perfect opportunity to watch them together.

I prepped him a little bit and let him know how much I love these movies, and how much they mean to me. We then watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Friday evening and an hour later, all three of us went to the theater to see Bogus Journey. And you know what? It worked! He absolutely loved the first one and loved the second one even more! It has been a dream come true! I must have done something right with raising our boy, because he thoroughly enjoyed both movies, laughing at the dumb jokes, giving me looks at the awesome parts, and just genuinely enjoying them completely! For several days after watching the movies, he is constantly quoting them to me, which is the greatest thing on earth! I am a very happy and proud father. Excellent! Wyld Stallyns rule!

Tilt

Years ago, we had a really awesome birthday party for Ledger at an arcade. Since then, the arcade teamed up with a local bar and became Tilt, a bar with a pinball arcade in the back! Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, we foolishly had never been there since they opened a year or so ago.

My parents asked if we wanted to go out for dinner with them. Usually we meet up at Pizza Hut, but I asked if they would be interested in checking out Tilt. They said 'sure', so we met up with them there and had a great time! Papa told us a couple stories of how he used to love playing pinball games when he was young, so we placed our order and wandered back to check out the arcade part of the place. We checked out the different games, there was a Doctor Who pinball, a Star Trek pinball, and about 10 more! We each played a game or two, watching each other's progress and having a great time. By then our food was at the table, so we sat down and enjoyed the delicious food and chatted. 

It was really great to check out this new restaurant in town, and we were very impressed with the good food and fun games! We will definitely be going back many times!

4th of July

We spent the 4th with Diana's family in South Bend. Everyone was there including Alanna and Tavish! They came for an extended visit from the east coast. Alanna's boyfriend Brad came along as well, he was pumped to visit- he's never been to a lake or gone fishing, so he was really excited to go out on the dock and cast a line. Most mornings he was out there living it up.

With such beautiful weather, we were able to spend a lot of time outside, hoping on the boat and going swimming in the middle of the lake a couple times as well.

With the house being so full, it meant the boys had to sleep in the living room, which lead to them staying up way too late and being so silly! It also meant that they didn't exactly get enough sleep- delirious fun!

David made sure we were well fed, including a meal of delicious burgers and veggies on the grill. Lots of time spent talking, laughing, and playing games at the table. All in all, we had a blast!

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Ave's Grad Party

My, how time flies! My youngest niece graduated from high school this year, so they had a grad party for her. Diana wasn't able to go, so Ledge and I stopped by to celebrate with her. 

It was fun to see all the uncles and aunts at the party. Some of them I hadn't seen in what feels like years! It's always a joy to see Aunt Marlene, Aunt Carol, and all the rest. Fortunately, the weather was good, last time they had one of these it was raining!

We congratulated Aves on the end of her high school trek and encouraged her as she is about to start cosmetology school in the fall.

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Last Day of 7th

It's finally the end of Ledger's school year. He was pumped to finally put his 7th grade year behind him. Not that anything was bad about it, he's just really looking forward to summer break! As has become his little tradition, Ledger picked out his 'Is It Christmas Yet?' Snoopy shirt for his last day. He got a lot of funny looks and laughs wearing it last year, so he figured he'd go back to that well...

On the last day, his school had their achievement awards for the kids. Diana and I came to watch the ceremony and cheer him on has he was awarded the highest academic achievement award they have- way to go, Ledge! Afterwards, Diana went in to her work and I headed home for a quick nap.

Also, a part of our tradition is that I go pick him up from school on his last day and walk home with him. Since Diana started working at the elementary school, our walk home includes a stop at her school and saying hi.

When we got home, we both realized that we were pretty hungry, so we went out to eat as a celebration of the end of the year and start of summer- finally!

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South Bend It

 Mom and David had some guests over for Memorial weekend. David's sister was visiting, and we hadn't seen her since our last visit to Disney, so we packed up and headed down to join in on the fun!

We caught up with Ann and got to hear all about her crazy life and hilarious stories, had some delicious Chinese food together, and went to visit Diana's dad as well. Overall, nothing remarkable, just spending time with loved ones and having a good time.

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Diana's Birthday

Usually, the wife and I don't do anything too special for our birthdays, we're just too old for that. She had a busy week, so she asked that we just keep it simple. I still wanted to do a little celebrating, so I surprised her with an itty bitty lil cake! There were, of course, a few gifts and birthday smooches, but we ended up just getting cozy on the couch that night and relaxing. Which is exactly what she wanted anyway! After knowing her for a little over 17 years now, hanging out with her doing nothing at all sounds to me like about as perfect of a day as I could imagine.

Rockford

I found a really great deal on some used DVDs, the only problem was that they were more than an hour away in Rockford. I explained it to the wife and asked if she wanted to come with me. She said yes! A boring drive just became a fun impromptu date! We let the boy know we would be gone for a while, which he was excited about, and hopped in the car. For the next hour or so we got to listen to great '90s music, chat, hold hands, and just be silly together. We finally found the guy selling the movies way back in some random dirt road forest. I started to wonder if this was all a set up and we were walking into a trap... As we turn the corner, we see a huge warehouse garage and a nice older man waving us over. Turns out he just buys huge lots of stuff at estate sales and sells them online for a profit. Phew, no need to worry for our lives! This was by far the biggest DVD lot I had ever bought. He said that he was starting to get out of the business and just wanted all the movies gone. It ended up being over 1450 movies for only $100! Wow! We hardly had enough room for all of them in our vehicle, I had to get creative with fitting all the boxes.

After we loaded them up and started to leave, I asked Diana if she wanted to make it a real date and stop and get dinner. If you know Diana, you know that she will never turn down the chance to go to a restaurant! Growing up, my family would go to Rockford every few months because they have The Corner Bar. Its a place that is renowned far and wide as having the best chili dogs in Michigan. It was a dark and dingy bar, which made it all the cooler. They were known for their hot dog challenge: If you can eat 8 or more hot dogs in a set amount of time, you could get your name added to the 'Wall of Fame' that filled every wall in the place. It was really cool, there were name plaques on every wall that stated the name of the person, how many they ate, and where they were from. There were names from all over the country. The record holder had eaten 42 1/2 hot dogs! Mind-blowing! Unfortunately, my parents never let me try to get my name up there, which as a chubby kid I feel like I could have been successful... Anyway, The Corner Bar had unfortunately burned down a few years back. It has since been rebuilt, and I had never been to the new building. We took the opportunity to stop there and chow down on some of their famous dogs. The atmosphere is totally different, it feels like a nice family restaurant now, but the chili dogs are still just as good!

After sharing all kinds of nostalgic stories with the wife, we finished our meal (no, I didn't try to get my name on the wall this time either) and happily headed home. It was really great to have a little day away with just the two of us- so much fun! (and getting a carload of movies helped too!)

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Five Year Landscaping

About a year after we bought this house, we made work of building a big deck off the back door. I enlisted a lot of help from a handyman at work to build the foundation and framework, and then Papa and I finished off the surface. It was a lot bigger than the little rotted out five-foot deck that was on it when we bought the place. The rest of that summer I kept talking over with the wife how I wanted to do some landscaping around it and make it look nice. That next spring I got some things I needed, plastic edging, stakes, steppingstones, and some mulch. Over the course of the next week or so I made work of landscaping around the deck and the back of the house. The supplies ran out so I had to wait to finish it going around the side of our house. By summer's end I had it looking really good. There was one part that I didn't get around to: behind the garage. I told the wife I would get to it soon. Then 4 years passed and it still wasn't done. Oops.

Well, true to my word, I finally landscaped around the back of the garage! I was beaming with pride as I came back into the house after I was done and announced to my wife that I had finally completed the landscaping. She glanced outside and said 'yup. Looks fine, honey'. Clearly, she doesn't appreciate a five-year project finally being completed and how good that feels to have it done. Oh well, she's right. It's not really that impressive, but at least it's done!

(the completed project)