May 2018

Nick wrote his own blog around school camp. From our perspective, his mother paced the floor with a glass of wine for four straight days until the end of the week.  Upon return, he was wearing the same underwear from the first day, and half of the clothes in his bag didn't belong to him.  He did seem to shower at some point, which was good.  He was more than thrilled to get home to a nice hot bath, which requires like nine inches of water for a swim (I advised him to dial back the water bill, which he says he needs to, "immerse his spectacularity".)


Nick's first piano recital was outstanding, him and all of the other kids (two of which belong to Lori Fisher's clan of nine.)  His biggest concern going in was someone throwing pies at him.  He took it seriously, arranging his bench precisely to start, and played flawlessly.  He also advanced to blue belt this month, and his sparring is getting better. He can't explain anything to me when I ask, such as when I asked him about one of his opponents, his description was, "he's the same size as his sister."

We got a day at the park for a walk, and stopped at a local car show on the way back.  It's all about the school year winding down now, and preparing for summer.  I'm looking forward to the end of 'dabbing' and 'flossing'.
There's a few pictures from this month.

Jason

Fifth Grade Camp

(Written by Nick)
When I got there, I went to my cabin and unpacked my stuff.  Afterwards, I went to lunch and then fishing, but I didn’t catch anything. One person did catch a hybrid. Later we went to this thing called fantastic fish and learned about different types of fish (which I already know mostly about that, lmao) and the director dissected a fish to show us the origins of it. After dinner, I played capture the fish and it was awesome.  In the evening we had a campfire where we sang songs and did hilarious stuff.  Then we went to bed. 

Next day, we went to breakfast and after that we did reptiles and amphibians where we got to hold snakes and lizards and turtles. Then we went to this class where we studied rocks and minerals. After lunch we had LLC and we did role-play during that, so first we had to cross two trenches, then we were blindfolded and we had to feel our way through the place, then solve a code and I solved it and got the rights to talk for the rest of the class. After LLC, we tie-dyed shirts, which was amazing. After dinner I went up into the loft and played loft games before bed. 

On the third day, yada-yada-yada, then we did drama which included skits, also amazing. After lunch we studied aquatic life where we found dragonfly larva, water scorpions, caddisfly larva, mayfly larva, damselfly larva, hellgrammites, leeches, and many more. There was an archery challenge which was AWESOME.  We performed our skits and they were funny. 

On the final day, we had OLS and made shelters to protect ourselves. We also tried to start a fire and failed very badly. After lunch and we studied wild edibles which is about learning those things that can be eaten and what can’t.  I went into the loft again for some drawing, and after that we had dinner and went to bed.
On the final morning we woke up, got packed, ate a little something and went home. I had a better time sleeping there than at home surprisingly, and on the last day, one of my cabin mates was allergic to spicy foods and he went to the restroom and it smelled HORRIBLE.

April 2018

Nick and I started a new show this month on Netflix, "Fastest Car".  We watch most of an episode each evening, up until the final race of the show, then save it as a cliffhanger for the next evening.  His car passion comes and goes (it's not like his laptop, which never gets old.)  Out of the blue, he drew an engineering-like design for windshield wipers with better coverage.  We played a racing video game at Dave and Busters when we hung out with Dawn and Phil, but he was more into the Jurassic Park games.  I'm just trying to keep him active, like outside shooting baskets and riding his scooter.


I asked Nick to peel himself away from the laptop long enough to dry dished and fold laundry, which I found him a half hour later under the warm laundry pile, asleep on his bed.  Not that he isn't helpful, he awoke one morning and made me breakfast before work... although I'm not as into burnt garlic toast in the morning as he is.

Most of this month was lost on our house, having it ripped apart from bad OSB, so Nick spends a fair amount of time at home alone since we don't drag him over to the house with us every time.  He's capable of a little independence, again with the laptop keeping him distracted.

- Jason

Nick at the Beach

This is just a great set of images of Nick at the beach over the years. Certainly not the only instances, as we've been to Clearwater Beach a couple of times as well, but the poses are coincidental, and fit together perfectly.

March 2018

Nick tested for his purple belt this month, and sparring has begun on Saturdays. He's cautious in selecting an opponent, as it's quite an adjustment to have someone throwing punches and kicks at you for the first time (this, I know.)  I don't stay to watch, but he comes out from class having had quite the workout.


We saw the play Shrek at the Valentine Theater in downtown Toledo, as my friend's daughter was the star, and Nick loves her shows.  The picture here is Nick with Carly afterwards. My coworker Greg brought his boys down for the show as well.  It's not a secret Nick's attraction the shows is a stage full of high school senior girls... one look at his Google search history makes it obvious.  That said, he was also on stage for his own school play, which is the picture of him laying on the ground, hat pulled over his head, taking a siesta.  Brandi and I also had lunch this month downtown at the M Osteria, which was excellent.

This Spring has been his growth spurt... he's now taller than Brandi, and is passing his outgrown shoes down to Grandpa.

We've been somewhat active, like attending Aiden's birthday party at Dave and Busters, even with me travelling so much (NADA in Vegas), and Brandi feeding the contractors on our house.  There's just not many photos this month, so no extra link.

Jason