November 2022

November always begins with celebrating my little brother's birthday. I was able to go to breakfast with him, Taylor, and my parents. I left right after eating so that I could get to work. Happy 32nd birthday to this guy. 

Brinley and I went to see the UK Basketball team play their exhibition game against Kentucky State. There were hardly any people at the game so we made our way down to sit a couple of rows from the court. Also we sat next to one of my co-workers (Thanks Andrea) and her family. She knows how big of a cheapskate that I am and she wanted Brinley to have an ice cream cone. Brinley was really surprised and very happy. Our traditions for going to games at Rupp have become having dinner at Goodfellas and picking up ice cream on the way home. 

Our November started out with our first family 5K. It was the DanceBlue 5K to raise money for the clinic where I work. Landon and I were running together and then my calf started to hurt me and I had to walk the last mile of the race. I told Landon to keep going and he was killing it. Jennifer and Brinley were running together as well. Brinley ran ahead at the end to beat Jennifer too. As you know how big of a competitor, I am this was extremely difficult for me to lose to my 9-year-old son. I've got to get back to more consistency working out so that I can keep up with the little guy. 

After the race we went downtown and got some gelato. We enjoyed it until the wind picked up and blew leaves and a feather into Brinley's ice cream. We also stopped by to say hello to Lexi while McKinley and Taylor were out of town. After we got home we played Potion Explosion which is a board game that our friend JK gave to the kids. 

The kids and I also decided to surprise McKinley and Taylor with cleaning up all the leaves in their front yard. I think it was about 24 bags full. I had forgot how much work it was to rake and clean up leaves. 

Landon went to watch the wildcats play ball too. They gave Oscar his player of the year award from last year. We moved down to some empty seats to sit with MiMi and Pap. We again had our Goodfellas before and ice cream on the way home. We also went down courtside after the game to meet Tom Hart. He is one of the TV announcers and is a really nice guy. He throws out a lot of KSR references during the broadcast which are always fun to hear. 

Landon has definitely been putting in the work at Grassroots practices. I am very proud of the hard work that he is putting into his training. 

I ask a lot of questions around my workplace. One of the questions I asked everyone was what their favorite Halloween candy was. After getting everyone's responses I sent the results out to everyone. There were three of us that really loved DOTS. We have been nice to each other and will occasionally leave a little treat for each other. I had this little box sitting on my water cup one afternoon. It definitely put a smile on my face. 

Jennifer and the kids made it to their one UK football game of the year. It was a cold, rainy, and miserable day to watch the Cats come out and not play very well. They left at halftime and didn't stick around to see that we lost to Vandy. The kids were mostly excited about all the treats that I kept getting for them. 

After the football game I drove back home to Western Kentucky to spend the weekend out in the woods with my cousin Rossy. He set me up with the right gear to stay warm out in the tree stand. The first morning was awesome. If you ever get a chance to sit outside and just see the Earth wake up I would highly recommend it. It had snowed the day before and it was still covering the ground which made it really easy to see everything out wondering around. Early I spotted a couple of deer out of range, a fox, and 3 turkey. After about 4 hours in the stand I finally got my phone out to send my cousin a message. I kid you not a doe all of a sudden ran right out in front of me at about 20 yards. I slowly slid my phone in my pocket and got ready to shoot. The doe was perfectly positioned for the shot, but when I clicked the safety off it spooked it and I didn't have a good shot at it. Then again out of nowhere a little buck came running up chasing the doe and they both ran off. I thought I had missed my opportunity. I didn't see another deer the rest of the day. The next day I saw one a little out of my range, but I didn't want to miss my opportunity like I did the day before. I unfortunately missed. About another hour later I had a chance at a doe, but totally missed it. I guess my nerves got the best of me up in the tree stand. I had a great time visiting with my cousins Rossy and Tricia for the weekend, but I went home with nothing to show for it except some memories. 

I did get a nice surprise when I got home after hunting. Jennifer had put a lot of my sports memorabilia up on the walls. I thought it turned out pretty great. 

Jennifer got to come to a game with me. The only thing that Landon would rather do besides go to Rupp with me is to go over to Uncle McKinley and Aunt Taylor's house. They watched the kids for us so that we could go to the game. I had a friend who let us sit in his seats for the game so Jennifer and I got to sit down in the lower arena. It was like we were back in college again. 

The kid's school had their first breakfast with dad since the pandemic. It was really nice to get back into the school and see some of the kid's friends. 

One of my patients at work was in the clinic for their last chemotherapy treatment. The mother made the staff some shirts which had the child's allergies on them and some awesome orange ribbon cookies. We are always very excited for each child when they finish therapy and are always excited to celebrate with them. 

Another UK Football home game means that the golf cart crew is back together again. We had a good time this year driving the future CATS to and from the game. Can't wait to see them out on the field in the coming years. 

The very next weekend I called up my cousin and told him that I wanted to go hunting again. This was something that I needed to do and I was determined to get a deer. One of my patients at work that knew I was going hunting the weekend before said that she didn't think I could do it. Well that only added fuel to the fire. We got up Saturday morning and headed back out in the woods. After a few hours up in the stand this young buck headed out to my left hand side. I quietly got in position and took my shot. I was ecstatic! 

Here I am with my first deer, a six pointer. After getting some pictures my cousin Rossy showed me how to gut a deer. Then we headed off to the processer to have them do the rest of the hard work. In a couple of weeks I will be able to eat the meat of an animal that I shot on my own.

The processer cut the antlers off of my deer. I showed them off to my cousin Tricia. I really enjoyed getting to spend two weekends with them. It really makes me wish we lived even closer to back home so that we could spend more time with family. 

Another two months it was finally time to donate blood again. I will be a supporter of donating until I am no longer able to. I have personally been able to see firsthand the benefits to patients when they receive the blood. So get out there and save a life.

I had something that kept me from going to the UK basketball game. I asked Brinley and Taylor if they wanted to go. It is the only time Brinley has been excited about going to a game. Of course, Tay Tay got Brinley ice cream and they snuck down into the lower arena. Taylor sent me these pictures of their fun night. 

We had a family Thanksgiving with all the Kentucky Heflin's. We celebrated together on the Wednesday because Taylor and McKinley were going to her family's celebration on Thursday. We only missed the Maitland's who were visiting family in New York. 

For the last couple of years we have gathered with the Grassroots Run Club for a Turkey Bowl two hand touch football game. After a school yard pick we had our teams. Landon came out the victor this year and actually scored 2 touchdowns for his team. 

We spent our Thanksgiving playing games with the grandparents and trying to finish building the Hogwarts Castle. 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was the biggest game of the year for the football team. Little brother, Louisville came to town. We were an underdog according to betting websites, but we easily handled the Cardinals. It is always a great day to beat Louisville.

Jennifer and the kids went to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family while I was at the Louisville game. They had a great time with their cousins and playing on the farm. Of course, Brinley has never met an animal that she didn't want to play with.

When we got back home it was time to decorate the house for Christmas. 

This will be our first Christmas in the new house. So, we are just trying to figure where to put the trees and the rest of the decorations.  

Most of my time in the month of November was spent in a tree stand or thinking about being in a tree stand. I am so glad that I was able to kill my first deer. I am very thankful to my wife and kids who allowed me to head out of town for two weekends to let me do something that I wanted to do. The rest of the month was spent at UK sporting events. It always gets much busier when basketball and football season overlap. This year and every year, I am extremely thankful for my family that are the most important people in my life. Thanks for reading and God bless!

October 2022

We started October off with fall break at Universal Studios down in Florida. Since we had gotten the season pass last year for Christmas we decided that we needed one more trip to Harry Potter world. Everyone was excited to get there after the 12 hour drive. We were also all very thankful that we could even make the trip. A few days before leaving a hurricane had hit the Gulf side of Florida and traveled in towards Orlando. The park had been closed two days prior to our arrival and we were unsure if it was to open again until we were already on our drive south. 

In order for us to get through the opening gates quickly in the mornings Jennifer would drop us off at the city walk and the kids and I would walk past everything and get to the front of the line about 30 minutes before the gates would open. It was really weird to see city walk that empty in the mornings.

We enjoyed all of our favorite rides as many times as we wanted. Lines seemed to be a little longer than normal, but we made sure to hit up all the single rider lines that we could find. 

Jennifer and the kids enjoying some butterbeer. The kids liked theirs as the original, while Jennifer preferred the warm version.

More pictures from our adventures. 

Jennifer doesn't like rollercoasters, so she chose to sit out and read while we were riding. The kids kept trying to talk her into riding a few. She used to enjoy rollercoasters, but ever since she had the kids they have made her feel bad. 

Each day we tried to do and see as many things as possible. I'm not sure how many people would want to keep the pace that the kids and I set, but they don't seem to mind because they get to ride all sorts of rollercoasters. 

This picture is in the collage above, but I wanted to you to see Landon's face better. Well, on this trip Brinley finally got up enough courage to ride The Hulk. Of course she loved it! You guessed it, Landon wasn't tall enough and was extremely upset. There was no shoe that Jennifer could find to make up the almost 2 inches that he needed to ride. So, as is life with children, one was extremely happy while the other was extremely sad. As a consolation Jennifer took Landon to get a churro. The lady checking them out told Landon that the churro was free for him today. I'm not sure if she saw the sadness on his face, thought he was cute, or just really wanted to do something nice for someone but it sure made his day. Then Brinley became upset she didn't get a churro! In all of the hustle and bustle Jennifer forgot to take Landon's picture with his first churro ever. 

Landon's souvenir from this trip was a little stuffed animal Niffler from the movie Fantastic Beasts. He named it Pumpernickel and he wanted to carry it around with us everywhere. You can spot it in a lot of pictures with Landon. Also for the first time we tried some of the candy from Honeydukes down in Hogsmeade. We also made our regular stop at VooDoo Doughnuts for a sweet treat. 

Another morning at the park meant another front row to the park entrance. The kids were as excited about being some of the first people in the park as I was. Everyday we quickly rushed back to Hagrid's Motorbike adventure so that we could quickly get a ride in before the line got to over two hours long. We might have even had to be told by multiple workers that we needed to stop running. 

It just so happened that a couple of my co-workers were at Harry Potter world for the week too. We met up and did some magic with them. The kids showed them all the tricks with their wands. It was a lot of fun seeing some friends from back home. We were all the first people in the park one day and were some of the first people to ride Hagrid.

We got to see the Hogwarts Castle show and even ran into a death eater running around Hogsmeade afterwards. This was a new experience that we had not seen yet. They were trying to be all creepy and of course we had to get a picture with one. I apparently offended this one because I said thank you sir after snapping the picture. The Death Eater pointed to her heels to let me know that she was a female. My bad.

A few last pictures of us with the castle before calling it a wrap on our adventures. Both kids wands stopped working on this trip and they took them to Ollivander's wand shop for repair but they could not be fixed. They were also out of the wands that they had so they had to pick out new ones. Landon went from having Voldemort's wand to getting the Elder Wand - which is the most powerful wand in the world. Brinley was really upset to no longer have Luna Lovegood's wand and she decided on Neville Longbottom's wand just because she likes him. The past year with our season passes has been a lot of fun. I think that we spent about 15 days total in the park over our three trips that we took. I didn't rule out any return trips, but we have a lot of other things to see in the world so it might be a while before we return. 

Landon and Pumpernickel riding a wave on city walk before getting to our car. 

When we returned home from Florida it was time to officially sign the paperwork to sell our house. This house had held a lot of memories for our family. It is where we brought home both of the kids. It was Jennifer and my first house that we ever bought. It was our home for 12 years and we were a little sad to say goodbye, but mostly sad to be losing the community of friends that we had made in the neighborhood. We hope the new owners enjoy it as much as we did. 

One of the last things that I took down at the old house was my UK Basketball wall. The main portion of the wall was the greatest team to never win a title, the 38-1 2015 team. It was the first year that I had season tickets and they seemed like a team of destiny. They were undefeated going into the Final Four and they lost the revenge match against Wisconsin from the year before. The team was so close to having the perfect 40-0 season. It still breaks my heart a little bit. I had never been so sad leaving a sporting event than I was that night of the Final Four loss. If only Alex Poytress hadn't gotten hurt during the regular season. What could have been.

Our new house backs right up to Jacobson Park. We enjoyed a nice little walk around the park and got to see a really beautiful sunset. Landon didn't want to have his picture taken on this occasion. 

In the move to the new house Brinley's Hogwart's Castle broke in a couple of places. We weren't able to repair it so instead we decided to take it apart and start over. Here is all of the 6,000 + pieces that I sorted by color and shape. It was quite a task, but I also looked through the instruction manual and bagged all the pieces just like when you get legos out of the box. We weren't able to buy any furniture for the living room until this task was completed. 

We had been so busy over the summer and our pediatrician retired so we finally got the kids in for their yearly check up. It worked out pretty well because they were also able to get their flu shots this day too. 

Landon in just his second game of flag football came through with some awesome defense. He was grabbing flags and was able to intercept 3 passes in one game! Too bad you couldn't return the picks for scores or else I think he could have gotten some points on the board. I was very impressed with his effort and adaptability with learning a new sport. I played football, but I was a lineman, not a skill position. So, I am learning with him. 

I have become a really big fan of Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers. When they decided to do a benefit for the flooding in Eastern Kentucky I knew that I wanted to go. However, being the cheapskate that I am I didn't want to spend a ton of money on tickets. I almost talked myself out of buying the tickets multiple times. Boy, am I glad that we went. It was an awesome experience (minus Dwight Yokam because we could barely understand anything he said). I am so glad we went and even if we had the very top seats in Rupp it was worth it. I even met up with a couple of my co-workers in between acts. 

Both kids have been working hard on their respective sports. Brinley and her softball team have been playing in some fall tournaments and getting some valuable experience. Landon has been playing flag football and running cross country. I just love seeing them play sports and learning to be a good teammate. I believe that sports are important for all children which is why I have made such a push for the kids to play. 

Salt and Pepper seem to really love getting to live out on the farm. They have even figured out how to burrow out under the fence and run around. I am personally very happy for them because they get some freedom. Brinley still likes to go over and say hello whenever she has practice out at the farm.

Look at the joy on that face. She has told me that she misses having the rabbits at home, but she knows they enjoy living on the farm. 

Landon at run club practice. This is the third year that he has ran with the Grassroots club. Pretty awesome that practice is practically in our backyard at Jacobson Park. Landon is getting stronger with each and every practice. He is training with the best runners in Lexington so he is only going to get better. 

The kids and I went to Costco to do some shopping. We decided to be silly and get Landon a churro and send a picture to Jennifer so that we could say this was his first ever churro. If you remember she forgot to take his picture at Universal with the real first one. 

The kids went over and helped Aunt Tay Tay get the leaves cleaned up out of their yard. They worked harder for Tay Tay than they ever do around the house. Maybe it was because she offered to pay for their help. 

Always great to be a part of another UK Football victory. This season has been a lot of fun watching a lot of the players that we have driven around in the previous years. 

Brinley wanted to help me one night make the dumplings for our chicken and dumplings. I found a recipe online a few years ago that is pretty close to what Jennifer's dad Bobby used to make. Brinley enjoys eating them with us, but Landon still is too scared to try them. Maybe someday. I didn't eat any dumplings until I started dating Jennifer when I was in high school.

Well the four people in this picture had quite the adventure one night at work. A random series of events led us to be waiting for a room for a patient until 10:30 at night, which is about 5 hours after our clinic closes. We were all going through an array of emotions and eventually got a little slap happy too. 

We had some visitors come down to visit us for the weekend. We weren't able to get up and see Olivia for her birthday party this year because of our hectic schedule. They came down to visit us the weekend after her birthday so that we could celebrate with her. We went out to Keeneland to do the sunrise trackside. The kids were most excited about getting their faces painted. We were running late and they actually closed the line right after we got in line. Thankfully we got there when we did.

The kids got some pretty awesome face paintings. 

We had a lot of fun spending the weekend with my siblings and their families. Besides Keeneland we all went to watch Landon in his flag football game. 

The kids and I took Olivia over to the park to play. They had a lot of fun. Jennifer stayed home and was playing with Eliana.

Brinley's team played in a Halloween tournament in Cincinnati. They were the minions and their coaches were evil minions and Gru. It was a two day tournament and the Rampage girls came to play. They were hitting great and playing awesome together. They won four games over the weekend and lost in the semifinals to a good team. Overall this fall was a lot of experience and the girls started to gel with each other. Also Brinley got her first ever home run, and it was actually a Grand Slam! Even if it was an error filled single we will still take it. She had some extra guests that were able to come down and see her play too which was pretty awesome. Olivia and Eliana cheered on Brinley and her teammates. Apparently Olivia said that when she turns 10 she wants to play on the team.

Here is Brinley sliding home to complete the grand slam! The catcher dropped the ball which allowed her to make it home safe. Proud of her!

While Brinley was playing softball Landon was running a cross country race with his Grassroots team. It was a national qualifier and if he did well enough then he could make it to nationals. Well, he came in 15th overall which made him qualify for nationals which were going to be in Texas. Proud of the little guy. This was his first race at the distance of 3K. 

Landon got to head downtown to Rupp for one of the UK Basketball exhibition games with me. We had Goodfellas before the game and Dairy Queen dipped cones afterwards. With the game being so close to Halloween I told Landon if he wanted we could dress up in our Halloween costumes. He said yes so we brought our costumes and put them on after we got in the building because it was raining outside. A lot of people didn't show up for the game so we sat in the lower arena. I told Landon if we got on the jumbotron then we needed to do something. He decided that if we did he was going to bop me on the head. In the second half we made it on the big screen and Landon hit me and I pretended to pass out. It got a really good response and I had multiple friends text me to see if that was us. Landon thought it was great and as we were walking out people kept telling him good job. 

Our pumpkin carvings for the year. I did Bowser, Brinley did a flying hippogriff, Landon did King Boo, and Jennifer did the ghosts saying boo. I thought they all turned out pretty good. 

DanceBlue Clinic is such a fun place to work. We all try to bring as much joy and happiness into such a difficult time with our patients and their families. This year our teams theme was tacky tourists. The top picture was our clinic infusion nurses and the bottom picture was the rest of our team that participated. Working with children is great because I get to act like the big kid that I am. 

Our family costume streak is still alive! This year we dressed up like characters from Mario. Landon was Mario, Brinley was Princess Peach, Jennifer was Luigi, and I was Bowser. Brinley really wanted to be toad, but we needed Peach to complete the crew so that is why we had to get the stuffed Toad for Brinley and the Yoshi for Landon. Grandma and Grandpa stayed at our house to pass out candy. Our new neighborhood had a ton of foot traffic so we might need to get more candy for next year. We also met up with our friends to walk around the neighborhood. We also headed over to our friend JK's house to trick-or-treat and he got the kids some Pokémon cards and they were thrilled. The middle picture was the candy the kids got which was way too much. The bottom right picture is of me and my friend Zach who drives the golf carts for the football team. His physical therapist group dressed up as the care bears for the reverse trick or treating that the hospital does each year. 

Pictures with all the family that we were able to see on Halloween. Maybe one year we can get everyone on board with the family themed costumes.

October was a lot of fun and we were extremely busy between sports, traveling, and getting everything out of the old house so that we could sell it. Sports are going to take a little break over the winter so that we can gear up again for next spring. Thanks for reading and God bless!