Getting Fixed

 We were pretty persistent with the animal rescue place- we wanted Wiggins as soon as possible! They kept pushing out his neutering due to their surgeon getting sick. We talked them in to letting us take him home anyway (shelter rules state that you cannot adapt an animal until it has been neutered) and bringing him back when the surgeon was better. Finally, about two weeks later, we brought him back and got his business taken care of. We were told to try and cover his area so that he wouldn't tear it open again. We tried to improvise and pulled out some of the old baby clothes that Ledger never used. Though they didn't fit very well they were outrageously cute! We tried a few other solutions and eventually figured out a way to keep him safe and able to heal. Now that we've got that over with, he is officially ours to keep!

Trick or Treat!

There were a few restrictions in place this year, but Halloween was not canceled! Its a good thing too, I don't know if Ledger could have handled that... We got the boy all fixed up in his inflatable jack-o-lantern costume and headed out. We've been at this a few years in Allegan, so we kind of know the best places to trick-or-treat. There are a couple places in town that have more participation than others. We made our way through those sections of town and Ledger's bucket quickly filled up! The funny thing though is that he doesn't really care much about the candy- we still have some candy left over from last year! The most important part to Ledger is being able to go out and show off his costume and admire everyone else's costumes! He had a really fun time and went door to door well into the dark! By the time we got home we had one exhausted little boy!

Ledge-O-Lantern

The best part of Halloween, of course, is picking out the costume! All year Ledger has been saying he wanted to dress up like a pumpkin. We've been checking out costumes online for the past month or two, and when he saw that there was one that had a blow-up motor in it he knew that was the right one for him! When if finally arrived the week before Halloween he was excited to try it on. We got him in it and strapped it up, put batteries in the air pump, and turned it on. The whole thing inflated and it his little boy eyes sparkled with excitement! It looked awesome! He put it on every day leading up to Halloween and would run around the house bumping into things and laughing. It was hysterical!
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Carve Em Up!

Let's make a pumpkin mess! Once we got back from picking out a couple pumpkins from the patch we washed them up and started carving. Ledger did more this year than he ever had in the past. Usually he just wants to draw the faces and let me do all the work. This time he got right in there with pulling out the guts, cleaning it out, and even cutting the features himself! He was super pumped as he did the first one, but seemed to lose interest on the second. Oh well. He drew the face he wanted on the other one and I took care of the rest. After we cleaned up the sloppy mess, we grabbed two lights and put them inside the jack-o-lanterns and set them out on the porch. It looks perfectly spooky!
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Pumpkin Patch

Even with the pandemic still raging on, that's not going to stop us from getting ready for Halloween! As it gets nearer, we hopped in the car to do our annual tradition: getting pumpkins from Gene, the pumpkin man! About a half hour away there is a pumpkin farm run by a guy name Gene. He has clearly been obsessed with pumpkins all his life because they live on this pumpkin farm and have painted their barn orange, have an orange car, and a bunch of sculptures and stuff that are all pumpkin related! Gene himself is always there greeting everyone and thanking them for visiting. We picked out two of the best pumpkins we could find, along with a few little gourds for  decoration, and loaded them into the car. Thanks Gene, for getting us in the Halloween spirit!
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Stuck With Her

Every once in a while I've got to pinch myself. I get to be married to Diana, and boy am I lucky! As the pandemic keeps rolling on we have been stuck together in the house. Nothing to do except spend every waking minute with each other. I've gone back to work, but not much else is even open yet so we spend all our time at home. Together. I've heard of at least 4 people at work who are going through different stages of divorce since the pandemic started. There seem to be a lot of married couples who's relationships have completely crumbled with all that extra time together. I've got to be honest, ours has only grown stronger! We both love to spend all of our time together so this whole quarantine thing hasn't been an issue for us at all! I feel bad for everyone who has struggled with their relationship during this whole strange thing, but I think it has actually made Diana and I even closer than before!

Wiggins

Hello world, please meet the newest member of our family: Wiggins! Ledger has been desperately wanting a dog for years. We always told him that we would get one when he is 10. Sure, we caved in a bit early, but take a look at this guy! would you? Diana and I had a dog when we first got married, our dear beloved Poco! When ledger was born we decided that it wasn't a good idea to have a territorial dog in the same house as a newborn... Fortunately her dad was more than willing to take him! we have been dogless ever since, and both of us were wishing we had one again. On a whim, Diana looked up rescue dogs online. This adorable little fellow was the first one to pop up and we were smitten! He was all the way in Lansing, but it didn't matter- we would do anything to have this cutie in our family!
We drove down to meet him face to face and it only took about 1 second before we made up our mind- we wanted him! Ledger was so pleased to be getting a little pup, and so were we! It took a week or two before we could come back to get him; they needed to give him his shots and neuter him. We waited patiently and eventually we got to go back and pick him up. Welcome Wiggins! We love him sooo much!
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Homeschool

School looks a bit different this year. With the pandemic still in full swing, Diana and I decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to put Ledger at risk daily at school. So we made the difficult decision to enroll him in remote learning for this year. It's a huge commitment and challenge, but as a former teacher I figured I'd be better equipped than most to handle it. We are lucky in that Diana and my schedules allow us both to be home almost every weekday with Ledger.

In order to be able to do remote learning we needed to have a place for him to do his school work. We decided that we wanted to have a designated place for schoolwork, we didn't want him to use the desk in his room. The separation of school and the rest of life was going to be critical if we wanted to have any sort of success with this program. I went to the employee store at work and found some desk parts for a dollar each. I was able to fashion together a nice sturdy desk for him for 4 dollars- nice!

Even though the situation was going to be so different and weird, we also wanted to try and maintain some sort of normalcy for him. We continued to do our usual start of the year traditions: we went shopping for school supplies, got him some new outfits, and even had him pose out on the porch for his first day of school photos! One tradition that Diana and I have had since we first sent him that first day of preschool is that the two of us would go out for breakfast together! Since he was going to school at home this year, we brought him along! We drove through McDonalds and brought the food back home to eat because there weren't really any restaurants open at the moment...

And so begins this strange school year adventure!

Third Grade Hand

 With the start of a new school year just around the corner, there are a bunch of things we need to do to get ready. the first thing we did was our annual tradition of putting a new handprint on the board! We've been doing this since his first day of preschool. For some reason I got it in my head that it would be neat to have him make a hand print on this board every year until he graduates high school. So far he's got 4 prints: preschool, kindergarten, first grade and second grade. Now it's time for his third grade print! In anticipation we go to the craft store over the summer and pick out a new color to use. By the time this board is done we'll have a whole rainbow of paints!

This year's color choice? Orange. I brought the board up from the basement where we've been carefully storing it all these years. We squirt out a bunch of paint on a plate, he joyfully splats his hand in the paint, getting it all over his hand, and then carefully place it on the board! After the print has been made Ledger gets to have a little fun with it and fingerpaints all over himself! He loves to give himself a paint mustache! Once he's made a right fine mess, we throw him in the tub and return the board to it's safe storage. Only nine more years to go before it's completed!

Bill & Ted

I don't remember the first time I saw "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", but I do know that it changed my life. Something about that time traveling comedy really spoke to me and instantly became my favorite movie. It still is today. I remember renting it from the local video store many times, and watching it multiple times each time I rented it. At the time I didn't know who any of the actors were, I just new I loved these characters! 

Growing up, there was a billboard over by the mall that was owned by the local movie theater. They would update it every couple weeks with titles for movies that were coming soon. This sort of thing was catnip for a lil cinephile like myself. At the time I couldn't just log on to the internet and find out what movies were coming out soon. The only way to find out about upcoming releases was in the 'future releases' blurb in entertainment magazines. Well, one evening we were driving over to the mall and I saw that the theater had just updated the billboard. One of the latest releases had my heart skip a beat: 'Bill & Ted Go to Hell'. What?!? there was another Bill and Ted movie coming out?!? I was instantly hyperventilating in excitement! Unfortunately, having grown up in a sometimes strict Christian household, my mom saw that title and said 'no way!' My new excitement came immediately crashing down. Months passed. The studio eventually decided to change the name of the film (probably because of reactions like my mother) to 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey'. When it eventually came out, much to my disappointment, my mom had remembered it's initial title and still forbade my from going to see it. As an 11 year old I wasn't really able to go against their wishes, considering I couldn't really drive myself to the theater... Not being able to see the movie just emboldened me... I would cut out ads for the movie from the newspaper every day and paste them on my bedroom wall. I watched the Bill & Ted cartoon every Saturday morning. I even ordered the movie novelization from the book orders at school. (For some reason my mom didn't have a problem with me reading the novelization of the movie? I don't know, maybe she knew she wouldn't win and hey, at least I'm reading, right?) Eventually she relented and let me rent it when it came out on VHS. I was excited to see it, but was disappointed that it wasn't as amazing as the first one. It was good, but not absolute perfection like the first.

I continued to watch the first movie often and the second movie not as often, but my love for them was eternal. Time marched on. Every time Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, or George Carlin would pop up in different movies or comedy specials, I would be excited to see Ted, Bill, and Rufus again. Reeves blasted to superstardom in Speed and rose again in The Matrix and again in John Wick. Every time I would always say that his new stuff is fine but I just wish he would come back and continue the Bill & Ted series. So imagine my elation when they finally announced what I had been dreaming about for the last 25 years: they are finally making a third one!

For about a year leading up to the release of 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' it was all I thought about. You can ask Diana- for months almost all of our conversations would begin with me saying 'So, the Bill & Ted movie...' I would (half) jokingly say to friends 'It doesn't matter what happens in the world just so long as I survive long enough to see Bill & Ted 3!'. This past year, in anticipation, I have been collecting anything and everything Bill & Ted. I've gotten trades of all the old comics as well as the new ones leading up to the new movie. 

Finally the day came: I got to see the movie! It wasn't what I expected but that's probably what made is so much fun! I absolutely love it! Its been a while since it came out and I think I've watched it 7 times already. Being able to see my favorite characters again is like a warm blanket, it's just so cozy. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm on my 20th viewing. I think watching the trilogy will become a new annual event for me!

Fire

Ever since we moved here Diana has wanted to build a campfire in our firepit. We never really found a good time to do it, so the waiting continued. Finally, with the prospect of Lissa coming to visit, we made the decision that we would have a campfire while she was here. I made sure to get all the ingredients for s'mores when I went to the grocery store. That night we set up the wood and got the flames going! Ledger loved it, but I'm pretty sure Diana loved it even more!
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My Movie Collection

I've been collecting movies for most of my life. Movies are my obsession, so the natural extension of that passion is collecting them! I remember when it was almost impossible to buy a movie. You could rent them, sure, but to actually buy them? Only the really big hits actually came out on video (VHS) back then, if you actually wanted to own one of the lesser hits or even obscure films, it would cost a fortune!
I distinctly remember going into Suncoast (the entertainment store at the mall) and wanting to buy Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. They didn't have it for sale. I asked and they handed me a catalogue that I could order from. It was listed for $95 dollars. That's right, a VHS cassette costed ninety five dollars- in 1992 dollars (that's $205 in 2022 dollars)! As the years went on it was actually possible to buy movies on VHS for reasonable prices ($20), but it took a while. I would always ask for movies for birthdays and Christmas and eventually had almost 100 cassettes.
Then DVDs came out and the whole world of movie collecting changed! Now almost everything was available and a lot cheaper. I jumped in head first and bought movies as often as my finances allowed. By the time I was living in Indiana and teaching, I had several hundred DVDs. I was very proud of my collection and displayed them on my shelves in my living room. Eventually Diana showed up and the collection had to move into the spare room. By the time Ledger came around the whole collection had to go into storage- it was a small place after all, and they were taking up valuable space!
Reluctantly I packed them up into storage boxes. I was brave and held back my tears, but I insisted Diana make me a promise: some day, when we have a big house of our own, I get to take them out of storage and display them proudly! She agreed and off they went into the shed. We have since moved several times and each time I dutifully lug along all my storage boxes, hopeful that our next move will allow me to open the boxes again. Finally we bought a house here in Allegan and wouldn't you know it, there's a huge unfinished basement, ready to be filled. We got a new TV for the living room, so that meant I could put the old 55 inch TV in the basement- and my movie dreams started to come true! Once I set up the TV I also set up a DVD player. That means I'm going to need DVDs... What luck, I have hundreds! I tore those old storage boxes open and was in heaven as I emptied each case onto the shelves and slowly recreated my collection to its former glory. Since then I've been able to pick up some old used DVD shelves and surrounded myself with my whole collection! Once or twice a week I head down there to watch a movie or two. My own little movie heaven! At this point its a pretty sloppy shaggy mess, but I'll keep working on it, and loving every minute of it!
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Barbara's Saved Treasures

Ledger's favorite thing in the world: a visit from his Auntie B! It had been a while, so Barbara and James decided to stop by and spend the day with us. Mostly we just hung out and chatted, but as a special treat, Barbara brought over a couple boxes. Inside those boxes were all the papers from Diana and Barbara's childhood! B had gotten them from their mom years ago when she sold the home they had grown up in. Barbara had stashed them away in her basement for all these years but decided it was time to go through them with Diana. Oh, the nostalgia! The two of them spent the next hour or two laughing and reminiscing over each sheet. There were tons of papers in there, everything from high school essays to kindergarten drawings! Ledger found some Diana's drawings from elementary school absolutely hilarious! What a fun walk down memory lane! 

Working On the Entry Way

The entry way from our garage into the house is unfinished. It's just some painted drywall, but edging and the finishing details were never completed. I decided I'd try my hand at getting it closer to done by getting some spackle and new light fixtures. Ledger was very intrigued by the spackle and wanted to help. The fact that it was pink fascinated him 'so we're just going to have pink spots on the wall?' he asked. I explained to him that it dries white, which just made him more confused...
I'm not very good at this house work stuff, so I don't have high hopes for this actually getting done, but its fun do try and get it closer!

Egg Drop

Unfortunately Ledger missed the day of school this past year where they did the 'egg drop challenge'. He was pretty disappointed that he missed it. We told him at the time that we could do the challenge ourselves at home over the summer. Little did we know that he would actually remember that little promise!
We agreed to it, so we gathered up a bunch of crafty type stuff and he did some brainstorming to try and think of the best way to drop an egg from a high distance and not have it crack. His excitement of overcoming the challenge was infectious as we all got in on the planning. He gathered up some cups, cotton balls, sponges, and a lot of tape. He felt pretty confident about his engineering prowess, talking us through each step of the process.
I pulled out the ladder and even let him climb up onto the roof of the house so he could drop his creation. That confidence was well founded because when it hit the ground hard it stayed in one piece and the egg was uncracked! He was so proud of himself! He tried it a few more times, throwing it up as far as he could, but it still survived. Well done, our little engineer!
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Our Own Fireworks

The 4th of July is quickly upon us! Opting not to attend any of the fireworks shows, instead we decided to have our own. Ledger and I went to the local firework stand and bought about thirty bucks worth of little fireworks. As it started to get dark, all three of us set up a little station at the end of our driveway to light off and enjoy a the light show. I set up the hard rule that I was going to be the one to light them off, but Ledge could choose which one was next. Reluctantly he agreed to this, but really really wanted to be the one to hold the lighter.
We started off, as one should always do, with sparklers! He was already having a blast, we hardly even needed anything else! Then we moved on to the different candles, poppers, and bangers. Each one pleased Ledger more and more! Our meager supply lasted us about 45 minutes, which was more than enough to fulfill our fireworks craving! By the time we finished the last one it was completely dark. Satisfied with the display we created, we packed it in and headed back inside. Another successful 4th!
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To Grandmother's House He Goes

Guess who's going to be in town? Ledger's cousin Tavish! He and his mom Alanna live in the Boston area, so we don't see them as often as we would like. That means that when they come to visit her dad (Diana's stepdad) we make sure the boys get to spend some time together. Mom and David offered to take Ledger for the weekend so the two boys could spend it together. Diana and I didn't hesitate to take them up on that offer- that means we get a few days to ourselves! With the end of the school year being cancelled and summer starting, it's been a long time since we had a day to ourselves. Too long. He and his cousin had a lot of fun, and so did we. It was the first time in months that the house has been quiet!
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Doing His Part

It's a lot. It's a lot a lot. So much is going on in the world right now that has never happened in our lifetime. We are in the middle of a pandemic where almost everything is closed down, and recently there have been uprisings through out the country in response to police brutality, political division, and race inequality. With so much uncertainty and such big issues, Diana and I have really struggled with how to discuss it with our son. He's only 8 years old, and very innocent, so a lot of these huge issues seem impossible to us for him to wrap his mind around them and understand the challenges and nuances to what's going on. We've decided that he needs to be aware of these things, he needs to be informed about the world and how it works. We were delicate in how we explained it all and he did a great job processing it all and trying to make sense of it. His question for us at the end of the conversation was 'what can I do about it?'. He wanted to do his part in trying to help. We talked with him about how he can't fix it, but he can use what gifts he had to make a change. He thought about it and said 'The only thing I'm good at is drawing.' Well, how can he use that to make a difference? We talked it over and he decided that he was going to draw a picture that will 'make the world a better place!' After he was done we decided what we should do with it. We made a dozen copies of his illustration and went downtown Allegan with them. We stopped in each of the shops and businesses that were open and asked if we could post his illustration on the window as a way of encouraging others to do good in the world. A few were willing, so we posted them up! When we got back home he was feeling pretty good about the small amount he was able to do to make our little town a better place! We are so proud of him for caring and wanting to do his part!
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Old Deck Destruction

We took down the old decrepit shed, now we've got our sights set on the little deck off the slider. Diana has been dreaming of a large sprawling deck since before we even bought a house. She had visions of laying out in a backyard soaking up the rays on a beautiful large deck. The one this house has is woefully inadequate for her needs! With a little financial help from Diana's mom and David, we hired someone to come over to frame out a gigantic 20 feet by 24 feet deck- now that sounds more like what Diana had been dreaming about! With the deck framer coming, we needed to remove the deck that's there. It's really small, only about five feet by seven. And rotten. It's hardly big enough for one chair, so we aren't going to miss it at all! I set to work tearing it all down, including the posts. It was an even easier job than expected. It was rotten so bad that it kind of fell apart as soon as I hit it with a hammer. The posts were only about one foot deep as well, so I had the whole thing taken apart in no time.

We are having a guy come and build out the frame for us and then Papa is coming over to help with the actual decking.

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Chad's Big Move

Chad's back in town and this time he's got furniture! My brother and his wife have to relocate from Missouri to Washington state. They are planning to rent out a little apartment while they are stationed there so they need somewhere to put all the stuff that filled the house they had to move out of. Well, it just so happens that we have a ton of unused space in our basement! They packed up all their stuff, sorting out anything they would need for the new place, and caravanned on over to our place. With a full truck and trailer, we got right to work unloading everything and carrying it right downstairs. Our basement is unfinished with an extra storage room that we were hardly using, so we have no problem storing his stuff for a couple years until he's done there. His time in the military is drawing to a close, so this is going to be his last assignment. The plan is for the two of them to come back when he's done and get their stuff and start their non-military life from there. It was really cool to be able to show off our house (it was his first visit since we moved) and offer our help in storing his stuff for him!
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Clean House

My brother Chad is in the military, which means they move around a lot. He let us know that he and his wife Myuki have been restationed again, so they were planning on stopping by for a short visit before he has to check in at his new place. Diana and I took that as an opportunity to give our place a good deep cleaning! We spent a couple days before their arrival organizing, wiping, vacuuming, and just generally tidying the whole place. Since the place was looking so good, I decided it was a good excuse to take pictures of all the rooms- we don't get it looking this shiny all the time. We can use these photos as our goal from here on out!
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Diana's Birthday Grill Out

Even with the pandemic, Diana's family insisted that we come down and see them for her birthday. The promise was made that we would all make sure we wore our masks when close and spend as much time as we could outside. Since the weather is beautiful right now, the idea of spending the whole visit outside was a great one! Ledger was ok with wearing a mask, but struggled with the fact that he wasn't allowed to hug his grandma and grandpas!
The birthday grill-out was a great time and it had been so long since we've seen her family that it was a very welcome visit! Barbara came as well, which just added to the fun.
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The Viking Look

 It's finally time to trim the ol' beard. I really like to grow it long, which Diana doesn't mind too much. Well, she doesn't mind to a point- once it gets too long then she speaks up and let me know! Unfortunately she had let me know. This is longer than I've had it in quite a few years, so I'm sad to see it go. Before the trimmers come out though, I'm going to have a little bit of fun! I took the opportunity to try out the Viking look and braided it a bit. Looks pretty great, huh? Try telling Diana that... She was wondering what I was doing for so long in the bathroom and then I came out sporting these beautiful braids and she and Ledger started laughing hysterically! So they are a hit, then? Does this mean I can keep them? Sadly, dear reader, it did not. But at least I have this great picture to remember them by...

Mama's Birthday

 With the pandemic in full swing, we couldn't really do much by way of birthday celebratin', but we did the best we could. It's Diana's birthday and we can't really go out and celebrate, so instead, we made a little party for her! As a gift for her, I was even willing to go outside with her for a while and we took a nice long family walk. Don't worry, I got her more than that, but I just wanted it acknowledged that I really put myself out there for her...
I braved the grocery store and got her a delicious cake and everything. Ledger thoughtfully took the time to make her a personalized birthday card, which was adorable! In order to make it feel a bit more special, she wore her tiara, which she always loves. It wasn't much, but our happy little family had a great time anyway!
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Lawn Mowing Boy

 Ever since I was a young boy I have dreamed about this day. When I reached a certain age, around 10, my dad gave me the responsibility of mowing the yard. It was the thing I hated most in life! One of my other chores was emptying the dishwasher (which I also hated), but I would do that 5 times a day every day of the year if it meant I didn't have to mow the lawn! Ever since those sweaty days I dreamed of being in the other roll: the father who gets to make his son mow the lawn.  Well, boys and girls, today that dream finally came true! Ledger had to go out and mow the lawn! Unfortunately he only took the mower for a few trips around the yard, but I'd give it a few more tries and this will now become his responsibility from now on! No more lawn mowing for me!

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