June 2025

18 years of marriage - my bride and I spent the whole day together. We had lunch at Harry's and then went to paint some pottery at The Pottery Place. They only had one plate so we both worked on it together. A pointillism heart balloon with the string spelling out love. 

Later that night we went to one of our new favorite spots, Carson's. Jennifer said her food was good, but mine is the best burger and mac'n'cheese that I have ever had. 

The Henry Clay Softball team had their end of year party at Bella Notte. We had a good dinner and fellowship with players and families. They handed out awards - Brinley was named the most improved JV player. In my opinion this is a super important award that sometimes gets downplayed. Brinley showed the most improvement from start to finish this season. That means she developed the most in the season according to the coaches. I believe that Brinley has so much potential. She just needs to have it find it's way out. 

Landon was at practice and just throwing a routine ball in from the outfield when he heard a pop in his knee. Of course hearing a pop is never good. We went to the walk in sports orthopedic clinic where they took some x-rays and an exam. They diagnosed him with the above disorder. It occurs when a kid is going through their growth spurt and it effects their knee. It is temporary and doesn't cause long term issues but it can be painful with running or jumping. I am hopeful that it is short term and he will be back to playing soon. 

We usually hit up Loco Ice on the last day of school, but we have been too busy to get over there. We finally made it right before the kids were due to leave for church camp. 

The kids were ready for church camp. This is Brinley's last year for middle school camp and Landon's second year. I pray that they have a wonderful time and grow closer to God with their friends and counselors. 

Jennier and I missed the kids while they were at camp. We both worked, but were able to go out on a date every night. On Friday part of my job is to work at camp for our patients at Kids Cancer Alliance Camp. I had a lot of fun spending the day with my patients and co-workers. It was a rainy day so I spent a lot of time under the gazebo doing arts and crafts. 

The kids returned home the Saturday before Father's Day. Landon was still hurt and unable to play, but we wanted to be good teammates and I am one of the coaches, so we headed to the tournament in Louisville. Here is a picture of all the kids and their dads for Father's Day. 

Brinley has begged for a dog for years. I told her that if she wanted one she could pay for it herself. She has gone to a couple of Landon's games and sold bracelets to earn some money. She has also agreed to dog sit for my co-worker while they were gone on vacation. Mayzie was a 13 year old shih tzu who spent most of the day sleeping. Brinley did almost everything for her for the week. Except Mayzie was an early riser and would want to go out and pee at 5 am when I woke up, then ate her bowl of food, and then sat near me while I did my Bible study for the morning. Then I would go wake Brinley up to take care of her. 

Taylor told us about an app that she had found called To good to Go. It is where businesses sale leftovers at the end of the day or week in order to cut down on food waste. They only have so many to sale and we have been quick to get a few of the deals. It has allowed us to try out a couple of places that we have never been. 

Brinley loves the original Lilo and Stitch so we had to go see the new live action version. I thought it was a great movie. 

I got Landon interested in my old school Nintendo 64 Mario. I had to show him that I still had it so I beat the game and collected all 120 stars. 

Our pastor told us that we needed to live life more like Jesus. We need to divert daily, withdraw weekly, and abandon annually. Daily - do something that gives you life. Weekly - take one day to do what you need to do and not what you have to do. Annually - take a week to get away and completely unplug from your life. He challenged us to get outside in the next week to enjoy at least three sunrises or sunsets. God definitely paints the most beautiful pictures.

Brinley's old Rampage teammates got together for a summer night to love on one of the girls, Isla. Her father unexpectedly passed away and the girls wanted to spend some time with her. I know it probably meant a whole lot to her to be around all her girls. I am glad that these girls are still friends even though the team broke apart. 

My second sunset for the week. 

I took a whole week off from work because I had a lot of vacation time that will expire in September. I spent most mornings sleeping in and then I just did whatever I wanted. I sat in a hammock one day for a while. I read some books, caught up on my blog posts, and I spent some time painting rocks. One of my Bible studies in the morning talked about the fruits of the Spirit so I made a rock for each one. 

My last one was the only sunrise that I got up to enjoy. Sunrises and sunsets are so pretty and I believe that we should all enjoy them a little more often, myself included. 

Two months had past and it was time to get in and donate again. This was my 71st donation. Just one more until I will have given a total of 9 gallons. 

Grandma and Grandpa came up to visit for the weekend and I again dropped the kids off at McKinley's house while I went to work. Landon was tired waiting for them to open the door. So he just plopped down in Nora's folding chair. I just need this kid to grow so that he doesn't fit in a toddler chair. 

It has now been 4 weeks since Landon has been able to play baseball. We have gone to every game and practice so that we can continue to be around the boys. It has been hard on Landon not getting to play, but I can only hope that this has shown him how to be a good teammate. It has been hard for me to watch him upset and not be able to play the game that he loves. I have tried to keep him motivated and ready to go once his knee feels better.