BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01762 This year Andy got to go trick or treating again. Last year they had Covid so were unable to go out and trick or treat. Andy was pretty let down on that front last year. Luckily they were happy and healthy this year so Andy and their friend, Tristan went trick or treating, with me, around the neighborhood. It was a pretty light night and we hit plenty of houses but it was pretty sparse in finding houses that were celebrating. After the trick or treating Allison and I watched the first two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Eva had her friend Steven over to hang out and they had fun doing just that. I could not get her to come and watch Buffy with us. I know she’s like it if she gave it a shot.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01761 Eva has been working on learning to crochet lately and tonight she brought down some gloves that she had made. She’s only been at it for a few days so far but is making a ton of great progress. Last week we had the issues with the new furnace and that got cleared up. This week I am seeing a leak over by the new tank. I’ve wiped it up a few times but the water keeps coming back. I have put in a call to our plumber. He came on Wednesday and we learned that the device on the floor was not fully plugged in and that runs water from the condensation from the furnace over to a pipe behind the washing machine. That was not happening and that is why the water was leaking.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01760 Andy wanted to carve pumpkins today so Allison and Andy went to pick some up in North Attleboro. Andy carved their pumpkin to look like a moose. I am not sure why moose is the animal of the day but Andy was also making Moose in Minecraft.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01759 This morning I took Andy over to Wild Time Comics for the annual Halloween Comics Fest. There were free comic books and tons of animatronic Halloween decorations. Randy’s son, Ethan, collects them. He has many of them, and they all work, so there were scary things popping up all over. Andy braved closeness to them in order to pick up some pieces of candy. Andy’s favorite part of the event was getting to pet Randy’s dog. Just look at the smile on Andy’s face.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01758 Tonight was the Father Daughter Dance for Feehan. Eva and I went in suits with matching ties. I found a fun orange and black tie that looks like a Halloween Pirate King flag. We got many compliments on our outfits. Andy took a nice photo of us before we headed to the Putnam Club at Gillette Stadium. This was our second year at the event and it was a lot of fun. Eva and her friends did so much dancing. I danced with Eva to one slow song and also we danced to Footloose. Eva was very proud of yourself that she made it through a few songs in 4 ince heels. I ran into a few friends throughout the night. I also had a nice conversation with Andy’s ELA teacher. He had many nice things to say about Andy and is very excited that Andy will be learning how to run the lights for plays. Andy seems excited about this, too.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01756 Allison has been covering the class for her friend Becky. Becky is off to her home because her father passed away and there are things that Allison has been taking care of for the classroom. One of those things is a set of pumpkins to look like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Eva helped Allison by painting the Snow White pumpkin and adding the hair. Today was interesting because when we woke up there was no hot water. Apparently there are air pockets in the pipes when the whole system is drained out. The new system is so sensitive that it shut down and all the hot water that was there was used up. So no hot shower this morning for Allison. Our plumber came over and showed me how to reset the system when there is an issue. I also set up the wifi on the furnace. This should alert me if there is another issue with the furnace. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01755 Our new furnace has been fully installed and the old furnace is gone. We have hot water once again and things are going great. I now have an old hot water heater to sell. I’m going to have to go to Facebook Marketplace soon and list it. I’ve got a few other things to get sold as well. Hope to get it all sold quickly and easily.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01754 Our new furnace is almost fully installed. Well, it is fully installed except it would not fire up. This irked our plumber to no end. He did everything that he’s done for 8 installs of this same furnace and never and issue. However, today there was an issue and it would not fire. He’s coming back tomorrow to remove all of the old furnace and get the furnace working.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01753 I was at Walmart yesterday and I found these new X-Men themed Hot Wheels cars. I’ve been really good lately about buying extras and it has been a while since I’ve even found some new Hot Wheels. These are themed ones and not character cars. I’ll find a spot in the office to put them. Although the walls are getting almost totally filled up?

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01751 The new furnace installation continues. Today our plumber came back to do a few things and then left so that the electrician could get going on the things that he needed to do. We now have plenty of wires set up and wired together on the new furnace. He did much of the work today but still has a few more things to complete before the project is done, I’ve been told that it should be around next Tuesday. Things continue to come together.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01750 Eva decided today that she would like to learn to crochet. So, she got some of Allison’s yarn and a crochet hook and watched a few YouTube videos on the subject and created a few rectangles of crochet material. Then she came down a little later and exclaimed that she learned how to make stripes in her crochet. She now has a project in the works.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01749 Andy loves to bring treats to Rock Climbing for their friends and teacher. Today Andy decided that Popcorn bars would be the thing to bring. Unfortunately, there was no recipe used just more of, “I have this idea so just make something that looks like my idea”, plan. And by plan I mean, no plan. Andy popped popcorn into the pan, wasn’t too judicious in removing the un-popped kernels, added Fluff and then mini M&Ms to the mixture. I know what Andy was going for but since Andy didn’t realize that Fluff was invented not to stiffen up there was no way that the mixture was going to solidify to make bars of any sort. But, we brought it with us and the kids ate it. They appeared to enjoy it. I’m not sure what next week will bring but we had better talk it over first.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01748 As Torrun sits there int he armchair she is not at all happy that my getting off the couch disturbed her in any way. So, she gives me an annoyed look whenever I decide to move around my house. At least that is how Allison interprets Torrun’s thoughts.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01747 Our new furnace installation continues. Our plumber has not been able to install as he normally does over a 3-day period working 8 hours a day on the install. Rather, he’s been here a few mornings to add to the project. I see plenty of progress as things are going along so I’m happy.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01746 I liked how the sky looked tonight when I popped over to Big Lots to pick up some V8 Energy drink. I end up drinking one of those each day and I ran out so I checked out what they had at Big Lots. I also had my eyes open for some Mexican Street corn that they might have there.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01745 Tonight we had Eva’s friends over for a movie, dinner and some desserts. Eva wanted a few friends over so that they could watch How To Train Your Dragon, enjoy some House of Fortune and also cupcakes and caramel and chocolate apples. Eva had her three friends Steven, Elizabeth and Lindsay over to share in her celebration. We ended up getting enough Chinese food for twice the number of kids and that was par for the course. Eva did enjoy it, however and so did her friends. Eva and Andy decorated her cupcakes for the party together. Allison said that they worked so well together creating these. Such nice designs that were a reference to one of the streams that Eva watches all the time. Andy was more than happy to help Eva make these and decorate them.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01744 I went to Chub’s Blue Pig BBQ today because I had finally gotten enough punches on my punch card for a free sandwich. I went to ty out their Chopped Cheese sandwich. This is basically a cheeseburger but instead of a formed burger it is hamburger meat with cheese melted onto it and then other cheeseburger fixins. It was pretty good. Sort of like a steak and cheese sub. I decided that I would take the lunch outside and sit along the street on the chairs that they had there. It is still fairly nice out so it was probably one of the last times I could do that for a while.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01743 I used to have to have the whole room silent and pitch black to sleep. However, we now watch a show or have a show on while we sleep. the sleep timer on the TV gets a lot of use and show like Schitt’s Creek is a perfect one to sleep to because it is so mellow and, for the most part, quiet. We’ve also seen the entire series several times so it just plays as background noise. If that doesn’t end up doing the trick I usually put my phone under my pillow on the lowest setting and have an audiobook play for a half hour or so. That usually ends up taking care of things. Not always but usually.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01742 We’re getting a new furnace for the house and our plumber has been at it for the past couple days. I’ve been taking photos of the progress as it goes along. Today I noticed that there are about five or six shut off valves for this setup. I’ve never seen that many before and I hope I never have to make changes to the settings there because I woul d have no clue what needs to be on and what needs to be off.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01741 Happiest of Sweet Sixteens to my lovely daughter, Eva. I’m blown away with the person you are becoming. Every day has been a joy to have you in our lives. I cannot believe that 16 years has passed so quickly. Wasn’t it just yesterday that she was born . Time has flown by. To celebrate Eva’s birthday we went to dinner at Grille 110 with my mom and dad. They took us out for dinner because you only turn 16 once and that is a big deal. Dinner was excellent. We enjoyed both dinner and dessert. We had a lovely time celebrating Eva. When we came home we gave Eva her birthday gifts. Allison was behind all the great gifts that Eva received. Andy also did some very nice things for their sister. Andy got her some LEGO dandelions and a plush chicken with a Mushroom hat. Andy also worked really hard on a great card for Eva.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01741 The folks from Twinkly have hooked us up again. This time with a sample of their newest lights, the Twinkly Candies. Twinkly Candies come in four varieties and Eva choose the Stars version because she loves the moon and the stars and though that these would be amazing for her room. I’ve already gotten a few great Twinkly products int eh past and I know how cool they look when you program the lights individually with the Twinkly App. That is the coolest thing about these lights. You can control every single one of the 200 light set. Program them to over 16 million colors. These will look amazing once she cleans up in her room so we can put them on the wall. We will do that soon, but I wanted to mention that these are available now on Amazon.com for $69.99 and come in 4 varieties. There are the stars, hearts, pearls and candles.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01740 Andy had more big ideas today. Specifically the idea to make a breakfast for dinner for Eva’s birthday. Eva’s birthday is in two days but Andy wanted to make her a special meal tonight. Andy and Allison made crepes, waffle iron hash browns and candied bacon with lemon zest. It was a challenge but they got it done.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01739 My giant water bottle, The Beast, had a run in with the ground today. I was getting out of my car to go into work and was probably trying to carry too much at once and it tumbled out of my hands. It banged to the ground and when I picked it up it had a very noticeable dent in the side. I’m not sure how this thing was constructed but it is dented in such a way that I suspect Styrofoam on the inside. It still works fine but now it is dented and that annoys me. Although… there is now a spot where I can place my thumb on it to have a better grip overall. I’ve been on the search for Herr’s Fire Roasted Sweet Corn Mexican Street Corn Popcorn. I first found it at the Dollar Tree but then I bought all the bags so they had no more. I was down to m last bag and tonight at Big Lots I saw that they had four of the larger 6.05oz bags so I bought them all. I may have a problem. I also found a Mexican Street Corn flavored bag of Cheetos, it is not as good as the Popcorn, ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01738 I picked Andy up from school today on foot and we walked home. The other day Andy got turned around a bit when they walked home and I figured I’d take the time to go over the route so that they are more confident about walking home on their own in the future. Andy has walked home this way once before with their friend Maia. However, Maia sprints out of school to avoid the crowds and so Andy gets left in the dust unless Andy is completely ready to leave with Maia. Andy was not completely ready and so Maia had left (the kids do not make direct plans, it blows my mind) and Andy got turned around and called Allison for help on getting home. I had just gotten home from picking up Eva and went right out and got Andy at the park. We’ll be going over the Maps app on Andy’s phone to help if they ever get turned around again. On our walk home we say this sign for Hocus Pocus being played in the park tonight. Andy was invited by his friend Maia and I walked Andy to Ma...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01737 Andy asked for a bedside table for their room. I ordered one off of Amazon along with a headboard for their bed. I found two items that have built in charging ports so that they would be readily accessible for Andy. That way they could charge some of their devices in a nice neat spot. At least I hope it will stay neat. I only had the mental capacity today to build the night table. It is neat because it has a light strip to give Andy’s room some fun color.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01736 Dad came up this morning and we put up some plywood to reinforce the wall in the basement for the new Furnace. My plumber is coming later int he week to get started so we needed to put his up and paint it so that it would be ready for him. We put up the wall and I hit it with primer and then tonight I put the final coat on it. It looks nice and neat for this new equipment that is being installed.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01735 We’re getting a new furnace for the house and before that I have to clear out the Christmas stuff from that corner. Dad called me to day and wanted me to take some photos of the space and also take measurements. We’re going to reinforce the wall that is there already and paint it so that it will be ready for our plumber to install the new furnace. We’ll be working on the wall tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01734 I found a popcorn that I fell in love with the other day. I was at Dollar Tree picking up some snacks for work and I found a Mexican Street Corn popcorn from Herr’s. This popcorn beat out Smartfood for my top spot of pre-packaged popcorn that I enjoy the most. I love the heat and the flavor of this popcorn and have tried going to several Dollar Trees to find more of it because I bought the last three bags on my last trip. In the background was the last episode of Never Say Never on Disney Plus. Allison and I became big fans of Jeff Jenkins after watching that series. He went to so many amazing places.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01733 Andy decided to bake chocolate chip cookies today. Andy promised the climbing class that this week they would bring cookies for everyone. Rather than follow the tried and true tollhouse cookie recipe Andy did their own thing. Instead of chocolate chip cookies Andy used a bar of baking chocolate. Unsweetened. They ended up being a bit overdone on the bottoms but I did try one later on and it wasn’t half bad. I know that Andy likes to experiment with food but sometimes following a recipe is most helpful.