November 2020

November was yet another crazy month of 2020. Not only were we dealing with the pandemic, but the political scene came on in full effect with the presidential election dragging out for multiple days and then having people question the validity of it all. Can 2020 please hurry up and end? Well, in the mean time we are just enjoying life as much as we can here in Lexington. 

I ask a lot of questions and one day I started asking to see if anybody in my clinic would shave their head for our patient population. To my surprise quite a few people said they would do it. We turned it into a fundraiser for the DanceBlue Marathon to see if they could raise 15,000 dollars during the month of November. If they were successful then 15 people would shave all or part of their head. Since I have been shaving my head for years they asked if I would grow my hair out to make it better for the cutting video at the end of the month.

After Halloween I took the kids candy and hid it so that they wouldn't eat it excessively while I was at work. Not more than a couple days into the month of November and I came home to find that the kids had ate at least 30 pieces of candy while I was at work. They had found where I had hid it. So, since they couldn't follow the rules I took all of their remaining candy to work and sat it out for all of my co-workers to enjoy. Hope they learn their lesson or I will do it again next year.

Landon loves math. He asks me all the time to give him some problems to do. Well, his sister was learning about multiplication and division in 3rd grade so I just went ahead and taught him too. Not too bad for his first try. Makes me really happy to see him love math because I do too.

The kids were interested in writing their names in "fancy" aka cursive. I think both of the kids did a nice job with their names. Both of those are Brinley's attempts. Landon's attempt is the top one. 

Our annual pediatric cancer survivor picnic had to be cancelled due to covid, but we really wanted to do something special for all of our awesome patients. We packaged some goodie bags and sent them to all the kids that had requested them. The picnic committee is so hopeful that we will be able to have something next year for all of our survivors!

Included in the care packages to our survivors were astronaut ice cream. We had a couple left over so I took one home for the kids to try. It was a freeze dried ice cream sandwich. The kids thought it was awesome, I didn't really find it satisfying. I had my hopes up for ice cream and I feel that it was more like styrofoam. 

With a lot of extra time on my hands I started baking all kinds of treats. I made cream horns, cinnamon rolls, cannoli, and with a bad batch of cinnamon rolls we turned it into a bread pudding. They tasted great, but not good for our health. 

Brinley was not happy when her rabbit Biscuit got put out into the garage. Brinley wasn't taking care of cleaning up after her bunny. I was finding bunny droppings all over the house. So, it got moved into the garage for a couple days so that Brinley could get her act together and learn to take responsibility of her pet. 

I had seen some people going out and picking their family Christmas trees. I had always wanted to go out and cut down our own tree so we went out to Nieman's Tree Farm. We looked at tons of trees over the whole farm. The kids enjoyed measuring all the trees with the big stick. The both really wanted to get a little baby tree. After about an hour of searching we found the perfect tree. When we went to get it tagged the owner said that the tree we picked out was on an area that wasn't for sale currently. 

I noticed that there were a couple of other families purchasing from another worker next to where we found our tree, that was apparently off limits. However, I was bound and determined to get the tree. I approached this man and inquired about getting the tree. He was happy to sell it to me. I wrote him a check and told him that we would be back in a few weeks to pick it up. I informed them that when we came back that I wanted to personally cut down the tree. Sometimes you just need to talk to the right sales person.

The kids wanted to play hide and go seek. They found some pretty awesome hiding spots. Brinley was hiding under her bathroom sink and Landon was able to squeeze into his dresser cabinet.

There is a new area of the sub division that is being developed. The kids and I have taken advantage of getting out and seeing all the big equipment and exploring. We have all enjoyed it and are going to be sad when they finish all the construction.

I knew that the kids needed to get out of the house and do something. So, I signed them up for the Grassroots Run Club. It is a group of school aged kids who train for cross country and track meets. They had practice 3-4 times a week at different locations around town. Every Sunday they have a fun run at the coach's house. Parents are welcome to come and run with the kids. Since Brinley has never ran I went with her for her first practice. She was not happy about me making her run, but I was so proud of her effort on the first attempt. I kept jogging beside her and telling her all kinds of motivational advice. Landon ran ahead with another group of kids and the coach's wife. When they got back the coach's wife said she had a new nickname for Landon - the Energizer Bunny because he just kept going and going. 

The kids asked to have a bonfire and s'mores. I was happy to get a fire going in the back yard. The kids were happy to roast some marshmallows.

Pushed the limits of the kids one day and took them out on a bike ride. We ended up going a little over 7 miles and neither of the kids complained at all. It was awesome to have a peaceful fun ride with the kids. 

Both of the kids have become interested in learning to draw videos on you tube. One night we sat down as a family and everyone drew a panda with some bamboo. It was fun to see how everyone's turned out differently while we were watching the same video.

We even tried our hand at drawing a penguin too!

Landon had decided that he wanted to go on another bike ride. We made it five miles and it was getting dark when Landon decided we should take a short cut through the construction area. Well, it was just a little bit muddy. We were covered in mud by the time we got home. I had to hose down the bikes. I still occasionally find a little bit of dirt on our bikes. Maybe not the best decision. 

 After our cross country first practice the coach contacted me and asked if Landon would be interested in running with the team in an upcoming meet. Landon was excited to try it out. The race was in Paris, KY on an early Saturday morning. We had no idea what we were getting into that morning, but we ended up having fun. Landon actually was the 23rd fastest 7 year old at the meet. Pretty impressive in my opinion since we had only been with the team for a little over 2 weeks. The race was 1.2 miles and Landon finished in 9:23. The 7-8 year old boys team was in the middle left picture. The bottom left picture of the 3 boys are all sons of former Georgetown Football players, which was pretty interesting.

After Landon's race we headed north to Columbus. My sister bought her first house and asked if we could come up and help move them into their new house. It was a quick visit, but the kids enjoyed playing while the adults packed things out to the new house. I even mounted a TV for my first time at their new house.

Jennifer and I were both off one day so I told the kids to get in the car after school and we headed out to the gorge. It was such a beautiful day I know that we needed to get outside and enjoy some nature. After a quick drive to Natural Bridge we made the quick hike up to the top and then made our way over to lover's leap. 

At lover's leap the kids found a large boulder that they were having a blast climbing up and sliding down. They did it probably 20 times. The sun was setting and I knew that we needed to get down soon, but the kids said that they didn't want to leave. They were having so much fun. I love when they enjoy things that Jennifer and I like doing. It is always more fun when everyone is in a good mood and nobody is complaining! 

This is a picture of that boulder that the kids kept climbing up and sliding down. Never in a million years would I have thought that a rock could have caused so much joy. It was something that we all needed. You can even see Natural Bridge in the background of the photo.

There are some people at this house that love our bunny, Biscuit! Brinley plays with him all the time but will share with her brother and mommy. I really have nothing to do with the little guy. 

Uncle McKinley had to work Thanksgiving so he came up the weekend before and we celebrated together. We played games and enjoyed the traditional turkey and fixings. We were only missing the Maitland's from Ohio. Grandma even held Biscuit for the first time.

On Thanksgiving our run club got together for a Turkey Trot. All of us participated and afterwards the team had a flag football game. The kids were excited to play, but there were so many kids playing that not everyone got a chance to catch the ball. So when we got home we played catch in the front yard. Also both kids tried their hand at climbing a tree. Our neighborhood is fairly young and there aren't really any good trees for climbing, but they both made it up into one.

For Thanksgiving I only made a few treats because everyone has been trying to cut back and eat healthier. Chex Mix is one of my all time favorite snacks during the holidays and cream horns are my new obsession.

We went back the day after Thanksgiving to pick up our Christmas tree. Mimi came along to do a little photo shoot. We got some good pictures and we had a blast cutting down our tree. The kids helped saw it down. I am just glad that nobody got hurt during the whole process. After we were done the kids said they never wanted to do that again. As much fun as we had I am kind of thinking the same thing. We strapped the tree to the roof of our car and drove home feeling like the Griswold's.

Every night before bedtime the kids want their mother to read to them. They have read so many books together. I love seeing them enjoy something that has brought so much joy to Jennifer. 

One night while Jennifer was at work the kids and I decided to try and get more of the Christmas trees up in the house. I had never really let the kids help but I figured that they were finally old enough to help. They had a blast.

Our family Christmas ornaments came in and we love them. The kids both got rabbit ornaments and I got an Avenger themed ornament and we were all the characters that we had dressed up for Halloween just weeks before. Jennifer's unfortunately didn't come in, but I will show it later. 

The first ornament destroyed of the season was a personalized ornament that Landon made in school with Landon's handprint on it. His fingers had been turned into snowmen. Jennifer is the one that accidently broke it. I tried to fix it with some super glue, but really wasn't successful. It stinks, but life happens and you just have to keep moving.

The students of Dance Blue rose to the occasion of our challenge. They were asked to raise $15,000 dollars and they blew that out of the water! The students were able to raise over 27,000 dollars! As a group we were happy to fulfill our end of the deal. The last night of the month we stayed after work and cut our hair. Of course with everything now a days, the person that was going to cut our hair was placed in quarantine so we had to improvise. We brought a couple of clippers in and did it ourselves. Not everyone could be there that night, but this was the crew that cut it off then. I was super impressed with three of our ladies who cut all of their hair off! Much bigger commitment than me because I barely have any hair to begin with. I was just happy that I could finally cut my hair. 

November proved to be another fun filled month. I know that many people in November spend a lot of time talking about the things that they are thankful for. This year has been so difficult for so many people, but I have tried to reflect and find some of the happiness from the past year. I am thankful for God, who loves me even when I don't deserve it and by his grace I am saved. My family is the biggest blessing in my life. Jennifer, Brinley and Landon are my world. I love them all so much. My parents, sister, and brother helped mold me into the man that I am today. I have a job that I love going to everyday where I get to help children who have cancer. I have my health, a roof over my head, dinner on the table, and love in my heart. I hope that you are able to find some joy in this year even when it seems like everything is going wrong. Thanks for reading and God bless!