March 2025

I started my birthday off with donuts. I had heard about this new place and wanted to give it a shot. The donuts looked better than they tasted. I need to learn my lesson and only go to my favorites on my birthday. Maybe I will learn my lesson next year!

We rushed downtown to grab some Goodfellas before the UK basketball game. Jennifer couldn't find parking so the girls went over to another location. We enjoyed some breadsticks and pizza before going into watch the UK vs. Auburn game. I enjoy watching the Cats play, but today was not their day. They got destroyed by the number 1 ranked team in the nation. 

A family picture on my 40th. I was finally able to join the big 4-0 club with Jennifer. 

One of my favorite pastimes is jigsaw puzzles and I was able to complete one with the family for my birthday. 

I had a day off so I asked Jennifer to head out to lunch with me. I surprised her with a drive to the nearest Long John Silver's, which was about 30 minutes. We both enjoy it, but it is one of Jennifer's favorites.

My work had their second annual college and career fair. It was a huge success and we all enjoyed getting to hear former UK Football player Tashawn Manning give a talk. He was actually a childhood cancer survivor so he truly had a first hand experience that all of these children did too. 

The kids participated in their school's DanceBlue Mini Marathon. I got the top picture from my friend and creator of DanceBlue, Jennifer Mynear. This was Brinley's second time participating at Hayes and Landon's first. 

I picked the kids up from the mini marathon and then took them for a little treat at Graeter's Ice Cream. Landon told me that I had to do it because I took Brinley last year after the mini. 

It was a sunny day and the kids were off from school so they went over to see Nora. At the moment she is really enjoying rides in her pink car. 

Landon after his lacrosse game. I don't know if he was prepared for the amount of contact that the game was played with. Those boys were in there bumping and pushing everyone around. It didn't help that Landon was one of the smallest ones out there. 

Our financial advisor had a customer appreciation night at Rupp Arena. You could come in and shoot around on the floor and even tour the locker room. I had been before, but the kids never had. Brinley had some event so Landon and I headed down to play in Rupp. We took plenty of pictures and shot a lot on the court. I can't imagine actually playing in front of 20,000 screaming fans. 

A couple pictures from both of us on the locker room tour. Landon has never been able to see UK win a championship. I have only been alive for 3, but would happily enjoy watching some more.

Landon as the Y out on the court. The bottom picture was actually his favorite thing of all - the snacks! He drank a couple sodas and took two boxes of popcorn home. 

I finished another book. This one was a autobiography of Michael J Fox. It was a great book and he was really a positive thinker for everything that he had been through in life. 

My gift to myself for my 40th birthday was a trip to the SEC Tournament. My friend Nick and I went down on Wednesday to watch every game possible. Kentucky was supposed to play until Thursday night. We had 7 games to watch before it was time for the Wildcats. It was the most basketball that I had watched in a short amount of time, but it was awesome. 

Thankfully Kentucky won their first game against Oklahoma, but it was a wild one. We were up by 7 with about a minute left. A series of turnovers later and we were losing by one with just a couple of seconds. Thankfully Otega Oweh came down and hit the game winner. The crowd was mostly UK fans and the place went nuts! Unfortunately the next day we lost in the quarterfinals to Alabama. Nick sold our semifinal and finals tickets to make the trip a little less expensive. 

Instead of watching teams we didn't want to see we started the drive back home and even stopped by to visit the Corvette Museum. The place was really interesting and had lots of awesome cars. We rode the simulators and I got one up to 160 mph. I was not prepared for the speed and the turns. I unfortunately wrecked in the simulation. I guess that means I shouldn't push a car that fast in real life. 

I got back from the SEC Tournament on March 15th which just so happens to be the date of when I proposed to Jennifer in New Orleans. I always make her beignets and this year was no different. I did have some helpers this year. Brinley fried them and Landon put on his favorite, the powdered sugar. 

At the SEC Tournament Nick and I went and picked out food and snacks to eat in between games. He said that when he goes to the grocery on vacation he picks food at the store like his 10 year old self. When I came home, I told the kids they could pick out any 5 items at the store like what we did. The picks were definitely interesting to say the least. 

Brinley had her pictures for the Henry Clay Softball team. The big picture is her best friend on the team, Peyton. She has been a big helper to Brinley since she joined the team last fall. She helped her get to know all the girls. The bottom right picture is of all the 7th graders that made the team. These girls will hopefully spend the next 6 years playing softball together. 

Brinley's first softball game and there was a photographer there taking pictures. Brinley started at 3rd base and bat second in the lineup for the JV team. Her first at bat she laid down a beautiful bunt to move the runner around. She had a couple balls hit her way and played well in the field. 

Proud of this girl! Just played her first high school JV game as a 7th grader. 

Some more pictures of the team from picture day. 

The solo pictures of Brinley on picture day. She was excited about a blue smoke bomb for her pictures, but they didn't turn out in the photos. 

Brinley reunited with two of her former Rampage teammates when they played Douglass. Brinley got Zoey out on a line drive to end the game. She said her goal is to get all the Rampage girls out at some point in her career. 

Of course both kids played games on the same nights. We had to split up so that we could have a parent at both parks. I didn't even realize it (Jennifer pointed it out), but our kids Angels and Devils. 

The kids are always happy to participate in free cone day. It is always on the first day of Spring. Apparently someone ordered a dipped cone and didn't come forward to claim it so Brinley took it. That left an extra cone and Landon said he wanted it. Of course he couldn't finish the cones, but he gave it an effort. 

Landon has had a rough start to his time in the Majors at Southeastern. It has taken a while for him to fight off the nerves of playing with all these guys up on the turf. He has been so nervous that his glove has fallen off while catching a ball because his hands were so sweaty. It has also been hard for me because this was the first time in 4 years that I haven't been his coach. Seeing him struggle and not have anyone to console him on the bench was hard for me to watch. I am hopeful that it will prove beneficial in the years to come.

Brinley said she wanted to try and do the full 24 hour DanceBlue Marathon with all the college students. I asked the students at work and they were happy to let her come participate. The only thing was that we had to provide our own meals. They even put us in a morale group so that we could have someone to play all the games with. Brinley enjoyed making slime and loved the Harry Potter hour. She killed it on Harry Potter trivia. My favorite hour was at 3 am when they did a rave. 

At 7 am Brinley asked if we could go out to the car which was where we kept all our belongings and snacks. She asked if she could sit in the car. The marathoners are not allowed to sit or sleep for 24 hours. She didn't want the college students see her sit. She told me too that she wanted to go home. I told her to make it through the 8 am hour so that we could say we made it halfway and did 12 hours. She fell asleep on the way home. I was very proud of her for her effort and she did much better at the dancing than I did. 

We went back for the last few hours of the marathon and things took a little turn for the worst when they came out on stage and announced that due to weather they had to end the marathon 2 hours early. So, they proceeded to cram the last 4 hours into a two hour time slot in order to get everyone out safely before the storms. Brinley and I were out dancing on the floor again, but I struggled heavily because the final dance you face the crowd and you can't see the people on stage in front of you. They raised over 2.3 million dollars which was a new record. It was an awesome time that I got to spend with Brinley.