BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01490 Last Friday I had a twitter party for the Disney 100 Years of Magic Tsum Tsum collection. I received the entire first series from Jakks Pacific toys for free because I was doing the Twitter Party. It was a fun twitter party because there is so much you can do with Disney that people understand and enjoy. I took a ton of photos and posted them with silly fun captions that got a lot of attention from the people in the party. Now I’m not sure what to do with this collection since I probably won’t be collecting the rest of the series. I’ve been working on cutting down my collections and my collecting tendencies lately.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01489 I went to Target today to find myself some new laundry detergent. I had been using Hero Clean for so long but I forgot to order more from Amazon, which is the only place I can still find it. So, instead I went looking for a decent detergent that has no scent. I really liked the hero clean scent because it was not overpowering at all. My last two loads of laundry had heavy scent from Tide and I could not stand it. I don’t want to be gagging on the scent of my clothes while I’m trying to work out hard at Krav. So I got this Seventh Generation 6X concentrated detergent. I get home and what do I find, Allison had already picked that up. I do all my own laundry because it is my own ritual and I do it my way that is why I don’t really pay attention to that other detergents there are in the house.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01488 Andy made a new ice cream creation in his Ninja Creami. He decided to take the Milk chocolate Seas Salt Caramels that we have and freeze a few. He then broke them up and added them to his ice cream mixture. This was a special flavor that he made for Miss Colleen. She really likes the Sea Salt Caramels and he figured that she would also like the ice cream. He’s going to have to make more, however since this batch was left home and Miss Colleen did not get any of it this weekend for her birthday. This way she can come over and try some so Andy can see what she thinks of it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01487 I occasionally receive free sample boxes of General Mills Cereals to review the newest items coming to the stores. The latest cereal that I got was the new Trix Minis. Many of the General Mills Cereals are going to a mini size. Trix is one of those. The cereal still packs the same flavor as regular sized Trix but they are much smaller. This makes for being able to get a bunch of them on the spoon at the same time. You can get all the flavors in one spoonful and smaller pieces are much easier to chew. This is going to e a hit with little kids.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01486 Tonight was a special event at ABD. Each year there is a Phase Camp that is offered. This goes over the whole of the underbelt curriculum plus the curriculum for Black Belts. This is to help people prepare for upcoming Black Belt testing. Since I am testing in June for my black Belt I figured that I should attend. This was about 3 hours of hard work and it was also a lot of fun. I partnered with a guy named Mike who is also going for his black belt this June. We were pretty well matched for the night. There were so many people who were from our Franklin location. I didn’t really get to meet anyone new but did get to see some people who train at night. There were only a couple of people that I knew from the morning class who were there. It was a good night and I am feeling better about the upcoming testing.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01485 Today was Stripe Test for both kids at America’s Best Defense. They are now both in Jr. Krav Maga. This was Andy’s first test and they did great. Andy has shown a ton of maturity since starting Jr. Krav. Andy’s starting from the beginning and has no complaints or gripes about it. Andy’s rock climbing goals align very well with their physical fitness goals in Jr. Krav. It is awesome to see these changes in Andy. Eva is nearing her next belt and she’s working so hard. Her test was tough, I know, because I did the same one this morning. She crushed it. Both kids completely rose to the occasion and I’m so impressed with how hard they are working. My Stripe Test was this morning and it was a challenge. There was one part where we had to do power hooks. It was my favorite part of the test because I let loose big time. Like, working out some Big Feelings type of letting loose. Been trying to work on my aggression as I prepare for my black belt test.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01484 When Allison was sick with another bout of COVID on her birthday he got herself some flowers to keep in the bedroom. Something pretty to look at and to enjoy while having to stay there in the room for so long. I think they may be a bit dried out now, though. But they were nice to photograph as a last minute daily photo.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01483 Tonight there was a special event at Pizzeria Uno. The school was having a fundraiser there so we decided to go for dinner. We had a very nice dinner there and at the end of dinner Andy and I played the game Dots & Boxes. The point of the game is to get as many boxes by being the last person to close up a box by connecting the last two dots in a square. It is a strategy game that I’ve played many times with Andy. He’s getting to the age where he can reason much better and plan out strategies better and so it isn’t so easy to beat him. I did not beat him tonight. So, in the game it came down to me having to make my last move and Andy would begin filling in boxes. He’s gotten really good at the game. It was at this point Andy asked Allison if he could swear. There are occasions when he has asked if he could swear for things like stubbing his toe hard or other painful things. However, we weren’t sure where he was going with this request. Allison gave a non...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01482 As far as snow this year, we’ve had very little. I’m fine with that but I would like to fire up the Snowblower to give it a run this winter at least once. The now was gone pretty much in the morning. No shoveling or anything, just this light cover of snow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01481 Andy got into his recipe book from this summer’s sessions at Johnson & Wales. He is planning on having some pasta for lunches this week and wanted Garlic Knots to have with his lunch. We had meatballs and pasta tonight and enjoyed the garlic knots with them, too. He did a great job making them. He has some additional tweaks that he is going to do to them the next time he makes them but for his first solo foray he did excellent.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01480 This morning I had the kickoff meeting for Black Belt Boot Camp. I have my initial curriculum evaluation on March 31st and if I pass I will enter Black Belt Training. It looks like the group is a small one this time around. I have been working on some of my physical requirements and need to work harder on the rest of them. Tonight Andy helped Allison with dinner. He helped make some waffles. He also made some tasty berry waffles. They were very good. this afternoon Andy got a haircut and afterwards he and Allison went to Target where he picked up a couple of new LEGO sets. He made this Minecraft Pig set which is actually a Pig Shaped house. I wonder if he’ll make that in Minecraft, too.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01479 Tonight was the first Guy’s Night at Krav. We had an hour class where we worked on a long strike set that we created during the class. I worked with a black belt named Alan. We di the warm up and the striking together. We had been talking a bit before class, too. I did not think that there would be many guys going but we had about 30 of us in the class and then we went over to Angle Tree Brewing to hang out. There was a Food Truck outside of the place called Supa Dupa and they had some buffalo chicken nachos that I got before I went inside. I probably should have waited because the Sensei’s picked up pizza for us to enjoy. I did offer the nachos to anyone who wanted to try them. The brewery was a nice place, very relaxed vibe inside. It was good night to hang out with so many guys that I’m training with.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01478 Allison got this cute little sloth for Christmas. It is one of those things that you use to wrap around the back of your neck. You can heat it up in the microwave to help put heat on sore areas. Andy loves it and he named it but I cannot remember what he named the thing.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01477 This Christmas I gave Allison this container of Sea Salt Caramels. I got them at Lowe’s the night I was buying new lights for the tree. Once you get past the initial stigma of buying something like this from Lowe’s you can try them and see that they are in fact, quite tasty. In fact, everyone in the house liked them so much. So, I went back to Lowe’s to find them and they were gone. I looked online and they were sold out everywhere. They had even dropped 65% off. I guess I should have gone in the day after Christmas to scoop them up. May have to remember for next year. I spent a bit of time online trying to find these ones but in the end I could not. However, I did find another company that makes these same type of candies and got them from Amazon.com. One container for us and one for Allison’s friend Colleen, who does not like sweets but loved these.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01476 James is the king of crushing cuddles. He is always on Eva’s bed laying on top of her legs or arms or whatever. He loves being close to her and is very possessive. Eva is her girl. That is what he is saying right there. Her girl.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01475 Today was a day off and after I woke up from sleeping in the morning I took Andy to Rock Spot so he could get a bit of climbing in. He loves being at Rock Spot and climbing. We were there for about an hour. It was very busy because of the day off and Andy tried to get in as many climbs as he could but because it was busy he ended up waiting more than he wanted. He did do well, though and he progressed a bit further in his quest to climb a 5.10. I love that he keeps working towards this goal.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01474 In one of my old Loot Crates I got a Link action figure from The Legend of Zelda. The Legend of Zelda is one of my very favorite games and Link is one of the best game characters ever. I found a set of Perler beads that make Link’s shield. I think I may ask Andy to put that together for me. He does enjoy making things with Perler beads and this may be a fun challenge for him. Maybe he’ll have it done before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 comes out.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01473 Today my parents came over for a quick visit. They had stockings and a few gifts for us. We kept the tree up so that we could get some photos of the kids with them in front of the tree. After the visit I took Eva to D&D and then Andy over to Lowe’s. He has invention convention coming up soon and we needed to get materials for his invention. We tried a few things and we’ll see how it comes together.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01472 I was looking through Amazon.com and saw this Iron Man wireless mouse. I have to go to the office once a week now and figured I’d grab a new mouse. I love how the eyes light up blue. It has a good feel and is very responsive. It also looks exactly like and iron man helmet. Great colors and look.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01471 The kids now have their own Xbox controllers and controllers go through batteries pretty quickly. So, in both an effort to keep them charged but to also keep the entertainment organized I got a charging station. This will keep the entertainment center cleaned up along with the hooks I put in for the headphones. The kids have also been really good about not overdoing it in the Xbox since that television is used by all of us.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01470 General Mills Cereals sent me a free sample of their latest cereal, Hot Wheels Cereal. They often send me free samples to review. I specifically asked to check this one out because I love Hot Wheels and have a big collection of character cars and more Hot Wheels vehicles. I recently added a Twinkly Line to a display of my Hot Wheels character cars. The lights are on a length of Hot Wheels track. Makes for a pretty sweet display. Speaking of sweet, the cereal is also rather sweet with a fruity taste. I usually do not like fruity cereals but this one was really good. It felt like a cross between Trix and Lucky Charms. Andy got to the cereal first and he’s been enjoying that each morning for breakfast. I was once again lucky to get myself a bowl of the cereal before he ate it all. I think we’ll be picking this up again.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01469 Allison was sick with COVID this year for her birthday. We did as best we could to make it a nice day for her. Andy baked and decorated a lovely cake that was sure to brighten up her spirits. Andy also used his new Ninja Creami to create a bourbon walnut ice cream as well as a chocolate chip ice cream. We’ll have to keep playing with that new toy to figure out how to better distribute the mix-ins throughout the entire container of ice cream. It was quite good, though. For dinner we got some Thai food from Blue Moon. Andy discovered that he enjoys Pad Thai and so we need to get crispy chicken pad thai from now on. Andy and Eva made Allison some nice things for her birthday and I got her a nice bottle of wine. We’re also going to see Come From Away next month as her birthday gift. It was definitely tough for her not to be able to enjoy her dinner and dessert with us but we were able to sing Happy Birthday and say grace together.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01468 Andy has been hard at work planning and creating Allison’s birthday cake. He decided on a beehive theme. Tonight I took him to Michael’s so that we could get some yellow chocolate discs that he could melt and use to create the sides of the beehive. He also had some little sugar bee decorations to add to the cake and sliced up a strawberry to look like a flower. The sugar bees were stale but they are really only on there for decoration since no one actually eats those things. In the photo he is hard at work writing Happy Birthday, Mom on a large piece of yellow chocolate. The kid loves to create.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01467 Back when the pandemic started there were some people who spray painted inspirational signs on their fences. I thought I’d do something like that so I got this chalk spray paint. We never used it. Andy found it yesterday and did some artistic creations on the fence and on the back patio. I do not know if this stuff is permanent or whether it washes off in the rain. But we’ll find out. He painted this heart on the back gate of the back yard. A nice sentiment.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01466 One advantage of working in the office at this time of year is the sunrises. Today was especially beautiful. I took a shot of this and sent it to Eva.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01465 It is a new ear and so our management team has decided that we have to come in once a weekend to the office. No more full weekends at home. so, my new night to come in is Friday nights because most of my team will be working out of the same building. I like my new team so it isn’t that big a deal but it is asinine for us to come to the office for a job that by all counts is and should be fully remote in nature. I never will meet with a customer and I can do every single thing remotely whether I am home or I am in the office. the desk that I use on the weekends has this cute little frog on it so I got that as my photo today.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01464 The kids got new XBox Controllers and also headphones for Christmas. These will live in the living room but we needed a way to keep them out of the way. They are too big to fit in the drawers so I got some command strips today and hung each of them up on the far end of the entertainment center. as long as they are put back and the wire wrapped up nicely this should stay nice and neat and relatively unseen.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01463 When we returned home from our trip to Florida we discovered that the upstairs toilet was broken. I called our Plumber back on Friday but he was on vacation until yesterday. Today he came over and swapped out our upstairs and downstairs toilets. That was in the afternoon after I had had my colonoscopy. The Colonoscopy went well. The prep was the worst part of everything. I was up at 3:30am this morning finishing out that drink and I still felt like I had to go all the way up to the procedure. Everyone at the hospital was excellent. They had a little trouble with finding a vein but that worked out fine in the end. Allison picked me up when it was over and I was going to get some sleep but our plumber was coming over and I had to let him in. Our plumber ran into some troubles installing both toilets because of the way our house was built and remodeled. It wasn’t done that well and it made for a frustrating install. However, by the time I got home from taking ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01462 The best week to be down to one bathroom would be the one in which I was having my first colonoscopy. Today was about getting back into the swing of things and also prepping for tomorrow’s procedure. I started the day by going back to Krav class and then relaxing a bit. I’ve been reading (listening to) an audio book series that I really enjoy and wanted to finish up one of the books. In the afternoon I picked Eva up from school and then began my colonoscopy prep. Luckily it was just a few pills before taking Andy to Jr. Krav class. Eva was off on an adventure with Auntie Tara. They went to the RISD Museum. Andy had a good first class. He quickly learned that Jr. Krav is going to be a lot more work than Karate Kids but I think the faster pace is going to be good for him. He seemed to enjoy his first class. I had to mix up a huge batch of drink to prepare for the procedure tomorrow. My sister, Tara, warned me that Andy thought that a drink like this last Summ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01461 Occasionally General Mills sends me some of their newest cereals. This time they sent Lucky Charms S’mores to try for free. Andy ended up getting to the box before I did and he ate nearly all of it. In fact the bowl pictured was the only one I had. This was a very tasty cereal and we both enjoyed it very much. It should be on shelves now or hitting shelves soon.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01460 On our New Year’s Day we went to church together at Sacred Heart. We ran into many old friends and had a nice chat with them. I was home from work and had the whole weekend off because of the travel changes that we had. Even though I had gotten home on Friday night and technically could have worked tonight I decided to keep the day off instead. I needed the relaxing time. In addition to last week’s adventures I have things coming up this week. Allison did a great job on my gifts this year. she picked out two fun t-shirts including the one I am wearing in the photo and she ordered the light up sign behind me. I had asked for that one. I had seen some ads for it and figured it would be fun to add to my office space.