November 2019

The month of November was full UK athletic events and spending time with family for the holidays. Jennifer and I started off the month with a weekend running adventure. Here is everything we did during the month.

We dropped the kids off at school on November 1st and snapped a quick family picture before Jennifer and I headed out on our weekend adventure. We love these two little ones so much. Thankful for grandma and grandpa to watch them. 

After a nine hour drive it was nice to get out and enjoy a little bit of Tilghman Island, Maryland. Jennifer and I went to dinner and then sat by the fire pit for a bit before going to bed early so that we would be well rested for the race in the morning. Jennifer even got in a pre-race swing on the tree swing. It was also a beautiful sunrise on race morning.

Maryland was our ninth state for our half marathon challenge. We got ourselves in a little predicament over this race weekend. I re-injured my leg about 3 weeks prior to this and wasn't able to properly train. Jennifer had been missing quite a few of her training runs too. We decided to try and take it easy on the first day of running so that we would still have something left for our run the next day. This race had a longer time limit that the course would be open too. Jennifer and I did a run/walk approach. As we kept completing miles the run time got shorter and the walking got longer. My leg felt good and I was trying to help motivate her to run longer periods of time. We crossed the finish line around 2:52, which was my worst race time ever.

The main goal was accomplished though. Finish the race and not have any injuries. Jennifer and I voted that this was by far our least favorite race based off the scenery that you saw over the 13.1 miles. It started out in the first mile by passing over the drawbridge and being able to see the bay. Then for the next 12 miles we didn't see water again. That wouldn't be that crazy, but we were on and ISLAND! I would have assumed we would have seen all different views of the bay.

Jennifer and I hopped in the car and drove to Pennsylvania so that we could pick up our race packet for the next day. The next day's race was going to be held at Gettysburg. We toured the visitor center and museum before calling it a night. We had dinner and then treated ourselves to a treat at the Dairy Queen next to our hotel.

I told Jennifer that for this race I was going to try and push myself a little bit more and that I was going to run separate from her. She was nervous that she was going to be swept up on the race and not allowed to finish due to being too slow. I gave her as many words of encouragement that I could before the race. I felt that my leg was probably going to give out on me and I wanted to be as far into the race as possible when that happened. If nothing else I figured I could hobble the rest of the way. I am a very determined guy and they were going to have to take me kicking and screaming if they thought they were going to pick me up and not let me finish. I made it about the first 4.5 miles before my calf began to start hurting. I then resorted back to the run/walk combo from the day before. The course had some incredibly large hills too. I made sure to try and get my walking time on those because going uphill hurt my leg the worst.

We both survived. I ended up walking quite a bit more than I would have liked to, but like I said there were lots of hills. I finished with a time of 2:18, which I was extremely happy with considering I was running on a hurt leg. Jennifer actually finished better than she did the day before which she was happy about. We drove through the park to take some pictures together on the battlefield. The time that my parents brought me to Gettysburg as a child I didn't act like one should at a place where thousands died. This trip the battlefield brought so many more emotions. I can't imagine what those men on that battlefield were going through. It made me sad for all the families that were broken apart over this war and all the lives that were lost. I kept remembering from my favorite movie, Remember the Titans when they ran to the battlefield of Gettysburg and Coach Boone said "I killed my brethren with malice in my heart, hatred destroyed my family." If we as a society can't learn to work together, then this might happen to us again. Love one another, just as Christ loves you!

To celebrate completing our race we headed downtown to eat at the Blue and Grey Bar and Tavern. You could choose a Union or Confederate burger named after a general in the army. I had the General Warren from the Union side. It was a burger with brisket and smoked gouda on a pretzel bun. It was delicious. I just had to get my picture with the Abraham Lincoln statue right out front too.

While we were in town I noticed an election sign that said Heflin. Not that common of a last name I just had to get a picture with it. Hopefully she won. 

On another family trip my parents saw some roadside sign that talked about some elephant museum. For those of you that don't know, since birth my parents picked elephants as my animal to collect. Andrea is penguins and McKinley is whales. Well, on this trip I wanted to get home quicker so that I could see my girlfriend. To boycott I chose to sit in the car while they went in to the museum. I have thought about how silly I acted many times and have actually thought about that elephant museum before. Well, when we entered Gettysburg the day before I spotted a sign advertising Mister Ed's Elephant Museum. I told Jennifer that I just had to make a stop by the place to right a past wrong. The place was crazy! It had so many elephants. My favorite one was the top middle picture of the elephant that fit together like a puzzle and also had it's baby cut out too.

Grandma and Grandpa were worn out when we returned home. Not only did they have both of our children, but they also watched Olivia while her parents were on an anniversary trip. These three kids were about the same age range as the three of us Heflin kids. The only difference is that Grandma and Grandpa had another 28 years on them. We were very thankful that they watched them while we were gone.

Landon had been begging me to take him over to play games with Uncle McKinley. Landon loves board games, so going over to McKinley's is amazing to him. We played a new game called Survive and at one point I caught them both pondering their next move. 

Well, back to Rupp Arena for another exhibition game. This time against Eastern Kentucky University. The Wildcats handled them fairly easily. It is always a great night to be in Rupp! 

Probably the worst week for UK athletics in a really long time. First we got beat in Rupp by Evansville, who was unranked and we were the number one team in the country. My section is by the opposing teams family and fans and I usually talk a little smack during the game. On this occasion there was no smack to be talked. We looked lost and weren't playing with any heart or teamwork. It was a crushing blow, but I believe that we will be right in the thick of the hunt when March rolls around. Then later in the week we played a mediocre Tennessee football team at home and lost 13-17. We looked like the better team, we just couldn't convert when it got down to the red zone. We had a chance to win it in the last minute of the game when we had the ball on 3rd down and just needed one yard to score. It was devastating to lose especially when we were so close.

I am a huge advocate for blood donation. When you see first hand how many blood transfusions are needed on a daily basis, then it is the least that I can do to donate. Of course having a competition to beat Tennessee also makes for a good reason to donate! Too bad we couldn't beat them on the football field just like we did in the Big Blue Crush!

We all had an afternoon off and I had promised the kids that we would do something fun when they were off the week before but I had gotten sick with the stomach bug right after coming home from our running trip. I had zero energy and even had to call into work for the first time since I started working at the hospital 10 years ago. So, I made it up to them the next week with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. It also happened to be snowing so we stopped into Dairy Queen because here in Lexington it is BOGO blizzards when it snows. Also, who doesn't want ice cream when it is snowing outside.

Saturday morning the kids and I woke up early and headed over to the kids school for a basketball camp. The school has a men's group called the Morgan Men that supports building relationships and helping dads be involved in their children's lives. This basketball camp was for those men and their children. The instructor was Jared Polsen, a former UK basketball player. I had just heard from some of the other dads and didn't get all the details before hand. I didn't realize that the fathers were actually going to be participating too. I would have worn some actual shoes instead of my sandals.

On Sunday we made the trip down to western Kentucky to visit our new nephew. They had a baby dedication for little Rupp James. The kids were more excited to see Elam, but before long Rupp will be running around with the rest of them.

Leaving the YMCA one night the kids decided to make out their own leaf to say what they were thankful for. Brinley said that she was thankful for her friends and Landon was thankful for his family (even if he spelt it famliy). I am so proud of these two kids and I hope and pray that they always continue to be thankful for friends and family. I know that I am.

The kids and I made it out to see the women's basketball team defeat the Morehead State Eagles. The kids had fun running around for the first half before we headed home with the CATS already holding a pretty large lead.

I have season tickets for the UK men's basketball season, but rarely go as a fan because I am a member of the blue coats. My exception is every year I try to take each kid to a game. It is something that I treasure and hopefully the kids look back and have great memories about coming to the game with their dad. It also gives me a little time to have some one on one time with each kid. Brinley was up first and I took her to dinner of her choice before the game, she picked Texas Roadhouse. I was a little surprised she picked this because I thought she would have picked Taco Bell. I told her that she could really pick anywhere she wanted. She told me that she wanted to pick Texas Roadhouse because she knew it was my favorite. I told her it was ok, but she said she still wanted to go there. After dinner we headed downtown for the game. Brinley talked more than normal about all of her friends at school and all the things that she does with them. She asked me questions about life and even told me some fun facts that she had learned. It was so nice to see her talk about what made her happy. At the game she asked me questions about the basketball team and even learned a few of the players names. She kept calling Nate Sestina, Nate the Great. She met the wildcat, the cheerleaders, held her ears during the opening fireworks, got a blue tongue from her Fanta, and even threw up some 3 goggles. On the way home we even stopped for an ice cream cone. It was an awesome day with my little lady.

A friend offered us tickets to the UK football game against UT-Martin. They didn't want to go because of the weather forecast of rainy and cold. I really wanted the kids to come see a little bit about what I have been volunteering to do for most Saturdays this fall. I told Jennifer to not bring the kids until the game was about to start. I picked them up in my golf cart so that they wouldn't have to walk in the rain. After we got in I got them some hot chocolates because that was a requirement by the kids, or else they wouldn't go to the game. We sat in our seats that were covered for the first half. Brinley actually fell asleep on Jennifer's lap. Landon kept asking me questions about what was happening in the game which made me happy. One half was enough for Jen and the kids. I walked them out through the practice facilities. I was so happy that they were able to come and see the CATS play.

Next up was some father son time. Again I let Landon choose where we went for dinner and he picked Panda Express. Again we headed to the game afterwards. Landon couldn't go though the game without an ice cream cone in the arena. My blue coat friends even hooked Landon and I up after the game and post game conference with some pictures at mid court! Landon didn't really eat very much before the game so we stopped by Goodfellas for a breadstick, which was his second choice for dinner plans. The guy at the restaurant was being nice and told us that it was on the house. Just an awesome way to end the night.

We ended up getting some pretty awesome seats at the game. At one point in the second half the in game announcer, Ravi Moss, a former player came over and asked if he could put my son on the big screen. He sat down beside us and we talked for a bit. Then during the media timeout he introduced Landon on the big screen as the biggest hunk in the building to start the Hunk Cam. Pretty neat. Like I said we stayed for the post game radio show. In the bottom right picture with Tyrese Maxey being interviewed by the SEC network you can see Landon's bottom half of his face. We also met Tom Leech while we waited and heard EJ Montgomery and Coach Kenny Payne. As we were leaving the stadium we also ran into EJ leaving the arena. I asked for a picture with Landon and he was happy to take one with him. The guy is so tall!

The guys on Kentucky Sports Radio recently finished up the yearly food bracket. The winner was very surprisingly Waffle House, most specifically the one on Georgetown Road. I am not sure if I have had Waffle House since I was in college so I decided that I needed to give it another try. It was delicious and literally everyone got a waffle while we were there.

The kids were excited about seeing the movie Frozen 2. The only tickets that we could find were for the 9 pm show after I got out of work. The kids were hyped for the movie and were able to stay awake well after 11 when the movie ended. I however was a different story. I fell asleep and was totally lost when I woke up. Thankfully Jennifer and the kids explained it all on the way home.

While talking with my brother about what his favorite part of Thanksgiving, he said pecan pies that my mother makes. Well, she was already up here and informed him that she didn't make any this year. Well, not to let down my little brother I went out on Thanksgiving eve and got all the ingredients to make the pies. Against my mom's wishes I turned one into a faux Derby Pie. I think they both turned out great.

Since Jennifer had to work Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights we decided that the best solution would be to have a Thanksgiving breakfast. I asked everyone for any recommendations and I didn't get many responses. I had recently heard about a monkey bread recipe from my co-worker, Wanda. It is made with frozen yeast rolls that you mix together and then leave out to rise overnight. Well, Wanda told me that one layer of the rolls would be enough, but when I was putting it together the night before one layer didn't seem right. I thought maybe I used different frozen rolls because I didn't think they would rise very much. Boy, was I wrong! The top picture is what I woke up to. You cant even see the bundt pan that the rolls were in. I pulled off some of the top ones and placed them in a different pan to cook. The bottom right is the finished product and it was delicious!

Thanksgiving breakfast! It was so much easier than the traditional turkey. Unfortunately we were missing a group of family members because Andrea, Chris and Olivia were up in New York visiting Chris' family. Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without a game a Rook. The kids also wanted to have a Connect 4 tournament, which I ended up winning. We also discovered that Landon, who typically doesn't like any pie, enjoys pumpkin pie with lots of cool whip!

We also took some time while we were together to have a little fun over at Malibu Jacks. The kids were running around all over the place trying to play every game in the place. Landon and I did get a race on the go-karts against Uncle McKinley and Brinley.

Instead of doing any Black Friday shopping we spent the day at the house relaxing. Landon had told me that he had a loose tooth, so throughout the day we kept giving it a wiggle until the little guy finally came out. Landon was excited to see what the tooth fairy was going to bring him. Apparently he had been keeping a close eye on what Brinley had been getting because he said that she got $10 for the first tooth and $5 each time after that. I ended the night by heading out to work the UK - UAB basketball game.

The last day of the month was a pretty big day in the state of Kentucky. This is one of the two times every year when Kentucky is the most divided, the annual Kentucky - Louisville football game. The CATS did exactly what they were supposed to do and whipped the dirty birds 45-13. This was the last home game and therefore the last time I was working with the recruiting department. It was again a rainy and cold game, but the beat down made it worth standing out in the rain. L's down all around!

Most people know that the month of November is known as No Shave November. However, most people don't realize the true meaning behind not shaving. It was started by men who wanted to raise awareness for male cancers like prostate and testicular cancers. Since I have never made it the whole month without shaving I made it a point to make it this year. I had plenty of people ask me about it and was able to bring it up to many different people. I asked the kids if they like the beard or not and both kids said they wanted me to keep it. Jennifer wasn't as much of a fan. I guess you'll just have to see who won that battle.

November proved to be a very jam packed month. We literally hit the ground running with our 2 half marathons. These two half marathons brought our state total to 10, which means we are 20% done! Then it seems like the majority of the month consisted of sporting events for me. This year has really flown by and I can't believe that 2019 is almost coming to an end. Thanks for reading and God bless!