October 2025

We had an unexpected guest at our back door. The girls tried to find if anyone had posted on the neighborhood page that their cat was missing. No luck. They felt bad and put food out for it. When I discovered they had done that I quickly brought the food in. We don't need a stray cat coming around all the time. 

Well, Fall Break quickly took a turn for the worst when Landon had a wreck on his scooter in the park. He said his wrist hurt so we told him that we would watch it. The next day they had planned to spend the day with McKinley, Taylor, Nora, and Theo. They played at their house and went to Goodfellas. I asked them in the afternoon how he was doing with his arm. He was still complaining of pain 24 hours after the injury so we decided to take him for x-rays. 

Turns out he actually broke his arm - radial bone up near his wrist. They put a splint on until he can get into the doctor to see if any additional interventions are needed. 

Went on a walk with the kids and dog. Brinley thought that Fawks got tired and then carried her the rest of the way home. I am glad that Brinley has found so much joy with her little dog. 

Jennifer joined me a on a sunset walk in the park. I really enjoy getting to go on walks with this beautiful lady. 

Then Jennifer the very next day had a concrete paver fall on her foot. She really thinks that she broke her big toe, but didn't want to go get it checked out. Said from her online research that they wouldn't do much for it. Instead she was just going to tough it out. 

After spending time in the nursery Nora wants to run. The kids usually spend about 10 minutes playing with her after we get out of church. 

Visit with the doctor at Shriner's Hospital. They took the splint off and got some more x-rays. Then he got his first cast. They went up past the elbow because they don't want him to move his wrist at all for the next 2 weeks. The break went into the growth plate and they want to be extremely careful with it. I had the honor of signing his cast. He was excited to get to school and get all of his friends to sign it. 

Another sunset walk with the kids this time. Brinley has been giving this smile in the majority of pictures nowadays. I have always just loved this tree planted out in the middle of the lake. 

Landon at the Cross Country team banquet. His season started out rough because he was still healing from the knee injury he had over the summer. He was finally getting into form around mid season. Then before the last two races of the season he broke his arm. The doctor told him that his season was over because if he fell and did more damage to the growth plate he could have a lot more permanent damage. He still enjoys running so I will assume he will run next year for his eighth grade season. 

I told the kids about the Kroger tailgate that happens before all the UK football games. They were both really excited about going to this event, but nobody had any interest in going to the actual game. McKinley and his family went to the tailgate too. Nora actually signed Landon's cast. 

Maybe I should stop going to the games too. Kentucky got whooped by Tennessee. This season has been a dumpster fire. Students actually started chanting "Fire Stoops" during the game. That did not make the coaches wives happy and they started chirping back at the students. 

I think Brinley just enjoys having a live action teddy bear that she gets to play with and dress up. I am sorry some days for this dog and all the silly things that they make it do. 

DanceBlue had a Halloween event at Evan's Orchard in Georgetown. The kids and I went to the event. I dressed in an old Bowser costume that I had around the house. I thought it was pretty sweet, but for the first time ever I had someone dress up as me! On of my patients going through therapy thought it would be funny to dress as me because we are both bald. Pretty easy costume - just had to wear all blue and a name badge will about do it. 

Another one of our longtime nurses in the clinic decided to retire after 45 years of working at the hospital. She loves some Diet Coke so I brought enough for all of us to enjoy one in her honor. I am truly going to miss working with Mrs. Barb in the clinic. I am so grateful for the last 5 years that I got to work alongside her. 

McKinley and Taylor were going to go out to dinner and Jennifer and I offered to watch Nora and Theo so that they could eat and have a good time without having to worry about both kids acting up. I thought they were overly ambitious with the plate of food they wanted us to feed Nora. That big section was full of chicken sausage, one was full of strawberries, empty one had blueberries, and the little lady did not like the golden kiwi. We spent about 3 hours there with the kids. Jennifer left to take the kids to youth group and grab us dinner, then left to go pick up the kids. When McKinley and Taylor got home they couldn't believe that I was by myself. I think they forgot that I did this whole thing about 12 years ago. Also that top picture was Nora tickling me and I am laughing - funny thing Nora doesn't know - I'm not ticklish.

If you can't beat them I guess you got to join them. I don't really enjoy having the dog on me, but for some reason this dog really enjoys laying on me. 

Jennifer with another of her finished pavers for the rock garden. Her artwork is always amazing to me. I enjoy seeing what she is going to do next. 

Big game - first time Texas has come to Lexington to play football. Lots of celebrities were in the house. I got to take a picture with Randall Cobb and Chad Johnson. 

I chose to sit up in the stands with Jennifer and Landon. It was great weather and a close game the entire night. We went down around halftime to see if we could get Coach Pope to sign his cast. He was so nice and was happy to sign it. To get back to our seats we walked out to the concourse and then ran into about five of the basketball players. I asked them to sign the cast too. Landon was embarrassed, but I think he was happy after the fact. Landon doesn't enjoy watching sports like I do so he asked if they could leave in the fourth quarter when it was tied 10-10. It wasn't what I wanted, but I drove them back to McKinley's house and rushed back to catch the end of the game. 

The game went into overtime and we unfortunately lost. My friend Zach sent me this picture that the Texas Longhorns social media had put out. You can see both of us in between the two players. I am the guy wearing shorts closest to the player number 8.

My designs are nowhere as good as Jennifer's, but I think the message still gets out there, which is the most important part in my opinion. 

This was a great book that I was able to finish. Gave me lots of things to contemplate about my faith and journey as a man of God. I would highly recommend. I suggested it to Jennifer so that we could discuss the topics in it. 

Brinley is extremely dedicated to something when she puts her mind to it. Her youth group was going to dress up at church an she was going to be a green army man. She painted herself green and actually made all the accessories to go along with it, including binoculars, walkie talkie, and a grenade.

Landon went to the second exhibition UK basketball game with me. It was awful - the team played so poorly and we got beat by Georgetown Hoyas. Good thing it didn't count on our record for the year. The only good thing of the night was stopping by Dairy Queen on the way home for ice cream. 

Brinley has waited for almost a year to get braces. They gave her the option of Invisalign, but she wanted the original braces. Her mouth - her choice. She seems happy about it now so we will see in a couple of months if she regrets the decision. 

Work decided to dress this year as TV characters. The nursing staff picked to be the Adams Family and I naturally had to be Uncle Fester - yet again because I am bald. Jennifer came up with my whole outfit and it was a hit. The light even lit up when I pushed a button with my tongue. Most of my co-workers were a little scared when they initially saw me, but they all said the nursing staff did such a great job with our costumes. 

After getting home from work I then took to the streets with these boys to go Trick or Treating. They walked around for the entire two hours getting candy. I believe they had a good time hanging out together. I stayed back and tried to let them do their own thing, but pre-teen boys aren't the most responsible decision makers. I was very happy to hear them all be thankful and polite to all the people handing out candy. Landon is in the ghost face outfit in the middle. 

Of course Brinley wanted to go with her friends and dog to Trick or Treat. I think they took a more casual approach than the boys who were running from house to house. Jennifer went with them to be on back up shark duty.

After trick or treating we headed over to McKinley's for a little pre birthday celebration. We didn't get to see Nora because she had already gone to bed for the night. McKinley turned 35 this year.