January 2023

 

January started off with a call from the butcher telling me that my deer was ready to be picked up. I made the drive over to Webb's to pick up my order and it was so much more than I had expected. It was almost two coolers full. We tried some of the summer sausage out and it was delicious. I was also able to complete the lego picture that McKinley and Taylor got me for Christmas of my deer. 

The Dance Blue Clinic had a pretty fun guest stop by to see the patients. Steve Zahn is a really nice guy and pretty funny too. The patients and their parents were thrilled to me him. Instead of every one of the workers in the clinic asking for individual pictures we instead got a group shot.

Uncle McKinley lives close now and has been rubbing off some bad habits on the kids. We were over visiting and my 9 year old decided to pop in a candy cigarette.

Taylor and Brinley also got in on the candy cigarettes. McKinley and Taylor also got a chance to try out my Christmas present one day after work. Jennifer got me this electric scooter so that I could get to and from work quicker and easier. 

The kids and I were at Dbats getting some batting practice in and then all of a sudden Brinley says something happened to her bat. This is not what I was expecting to see. Thankfully it was still under warranty so we sent it into the company to get a replacement. They informed us that the spot that broke on the bat was due to powerful hitting and that we should invest in a heavier bat to compensate. Now to find a new bat.

McKinley and I both had a day off so we decided to have a board game day. McKinley had told me that for being his best man he would treat me to dinner out at Texas de Brazil. This was McKinley's first experience at the restaurant. It was delicious and we ate so much. 

The kids have been enjoying some more time indoors. I enjoy when they do other things besides electronics. Brinley has really gotten into playing me in ping pong. She requests that I play left handed and spot her 10 points. She also finished a puzzle by herself and wrote her name and date on it, just like I do. She also talked her brother into letting her do his hair.  

The kids had been asking to go ice skating. We had a day off so we finally made it over to the ice center. McKinley and Taylor came along to laugh at my pitiful skating abilities. Brinley spent the first thirty minutes holding onto the little helper. Then she finally decided to let it go and try on her own and she was able to do it. Both kids enjoyed it, but were definitely ready to head home after. 

Landon and I went to watch the Cats play. He always wants Goodfellas before the game. We have really enjoyed getting to watch the boys this season even though it has been difficult at times. Landon really loves to get down to the student section at the end of games to give the teams a high five before they head into the locker room. 

Brinley and some of her GME friends spent a couple of months (every Monday) participating in a new club called Girls Who Game. Teams of girls for all the area schools were given a piece of land and an amount of money to build a hypothetical park in Minecraft. The park is an actual project that the city council is trying to figure out what to do with the land in Fayette County. The girls got invited to UK's campus for an award ceremony for all the teams. The top five teams had to present their park to the other groups. Brinley and her team actually came in 2nd place out of about 30 teams in the county. I was so excited for her and the team. She did so well talking in front of about 300 people. I guess that was the beginning of her public speaking career. 

After the award ceremony all the kids got to go play at the eSports lounge. The kids were in total amazement of the gaming computers. Landon said he wanted to go to UK just so he could play at the computer lounge.

We left the girls at the gaming computers and headed down to Rupp to watch the Cats play. Landon was exhausted and actually fell asleep during the first half. Thankfully he woke back up and cheered the Cats on to victory. 

Look at these girls twinning. These are my little readers. They love a good book. 

We got a Lowe's Build and Grow kit for the kids. They did a really good job building their snowman picture frames. I told them that they had to wear the safety goggles for the picture since they didn't use them while they were actually doing the project.

Jennifer took the antlers from my deer and mounted them with the bullet casing that I shot the deer with. She also added the Lego brick picture that I got for Christmas. We took some deer sausage over to McKinley's for my parents and Taylor to try. Taylor and my mom said it was good, while my dad was scared to even try it. After finally trying it he said it wasn't too bad.

Another day, another time for Landon and I to go see the Cats play. This was actually Landon's first really big time game that he has gotten to go with me. It was the Kansas game and unfortunately the Cats lost the game. We did get to take a picture with the Naismith Trophy, which is for the best college basketball player. Last year Oscar Tshiebwe was the winner of this award. 

January was mostly spent watching the Cats play and spending some time with the Lexington Heflin's. We didn't have any sports going on, but that didn't keep us from getting in some extra work at the indoor batting cages. It will be nice when we have some warmer weather and can get back to playing outside. Thanks for reading and God bless!