May 2020

Well, with the pandemic in full force in May it meant that another month at the house with my 3 favorite people! It was filled with the kids finishing up the school year on NTI and trying to keep occupied with the days off at the house. Thankfully Jennifer and I have been able to keep working at our jobs, I know many people who weren't as lucky as us. 

With more time being spent at the house I have taken to getting a lot of home improvement jobs done. I took two days to stain the back yard fence and deck. I know that it had been almost 8 years since I last stained it. I remember that it was one of the things that I did while I was home on paternity leave after Brinley was born. 

One day I was goofing off and practicing trick shots off the roof of the house. I almost made it on my first shot so I asked Brinley to take a video of it. A couple tries later I made it, but Brinley didn't get it on video. Then I asked Jennifer to come try and capture it. She cut the video off after it bounced on the ground, but it went in after bouncing on the ground one time. So I made it twice without either of my girls getting it on video. If you know me I am determined. So, we spend the next 45 minutes attempting it again. I finally made it a third time and Jennifer got it this time. Here are some screen shots of it.

Brinley woke up on her birthday with a yard full of surprises from MiMi. 

We made a trip halfway to home to Elizabeth town to have a socially distanced celebration with Grandma and Grandpa. We had Mickey Mouse ice creams and Brinley opened up her gifts from them. 

With all dining areas closed we asked Brinley if there was anything she would like to eat for dinner. She requested steak, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, salad, and Ale-8-1. She also requested a unicorn brownie as her birthday cake.

We rented the new Trolls World Tour and watched it out on the back deck with a little fire going too. 

Every year the first Saturday in May is reserved for the running of the horses in Kentucky. With the pandemic they postponed the race until the fall. That didn't keep me from keeping the spirit alive at work. Jennifer made me some mask with creative designs, one of which was horses. I paired that with some jockey goggles for a nice little fun outfit at work. I even found this stuffed horse and galloped around with it to have a little fun on the Friday before the "Derby".

Another project for around the house was pressure washing the driveway. The kids wanted to try it out. I think they were having fun, but quickly decided that it was more fun to ride their bikes. 

After the kids went to bed one night when Jennifer was at work I got the old PS3 Guitar Hero game out and started playing. After I played a song I just happened to notice the name of the singer, which just so happened to be the exact name of the young man that I used to play guitar hero with at the hospital. It brought back a lot of memories about a great young man. Check out my band's name, Murse which stands for a male nurse. 

Mother's Day was wonderful to celebrate mommy. Brinley wrote her a message on the minecraft screen that said "I Love You Mommy". We went on a Mother's Day 5K race as a family and enjoyed some raising canes. We surprised Jennifer with a new beta fish. After our last fish died she said she never wanted another one so it was more of a joke, but the kids really enjoyed it. Welcome to our family Violet.

Sidewalk chalk has provided a lot of joy and happiness over the last couple of months. Brinley got some unicorn horn chalk and wanted us to color with her. Brinley's artwork was the top left picture and it was a scene from minecraft. I did the UK sign. Landon started making a cookie, but then marked it out when he messed it up.

Landon has really gotten interested in going on bike rides with me. On this day he pushed his hardest yet. I was really  enjoying seeing him riding his bike.

The next day we went on a bike ride to his school. He hit another PR. We took a little break at the school. In total we went around 5 miles. Little man didn't complain once on our ride.

The neighborhood sometimes has a police speed monitor that they put up to help people slow down. The kids and I used it to see how fast we could both bike and run. The kids had a blast seeing how fast they could go. 

UK athletics held a virtual 5K one weekend. They gave you three days to complete the challenge. With nothing else really going on I decided to run it all three days! I was put on Team Lawson, who is the head coach of the UK softball team.  

Brinley has had some interest in cooking at times. She helped Jennifer make some pancakes one morning.

Brinley is growing up too fast on us. Here she is trying to ride on mommy's bike. It won't be too long before she is tall enough to ride it.

One night the kids and I started coloring a giant coloring page. I got so caught up into coloring that I stayed up until about 2 am trying to finish it. It was so peaceful and I didn't have to think about a single thing except staying in the lines.

We had a water balloon fight with the whole family.  The kids were so excited. Maybe we should have practiced throwing before we had the balloon fight. So many of the kids throws were way off target. They finally started just running up and busting them on you.

When the pandemic started there were multiple business that reached out to healthcare workers to offer them free or reduced stuff as a thank you for working during this trying time. Crocs was one of those companies and they started giving them away for free, but there was a huge demand. They would give out 10,000 pairs a day, but sometimes 600.000+ people were on to try and get a free pair. I am one of the only people that I know who wears Crocs to work daily. I tried almost daily but to no avail. Thankfully one of my co-workers was looking out for me and got picked one day. She let me fill out the information so that I could get the free pair. You tell them your size, but have no say in what design you get. Only a few more weeks until I find out my new pair.

The school year didn't end like any of us had hoped, but the kids were really excited to be finished with NTI. We celebrated with a little bike ride around the neighborhood and a balloon fight in the school parking lot. A couple of pictures and ice cream rounded out celebrating the end of the school year. I really hope that they never have to go through home based learning for this amount of time ever again!

The kids had been asking about having another backyard campout, so we were happy to make it happen. This time we "glamped" in the backyard. We brought the TV outside and we watched the Guardians of the Galaxy. We had recently got the kids started on watching the Avengers movie series. We even had us a little fire and made some s'mores. The kids had a blast, but the next morning my back hated me after sleeping all night on the ground.

Right before the pandemic I had signed up to be a volunteer at church. As soon as Southland Christian Church opened back up I was ready to help. Not many people came out the first week, but I will be ready whenever the world gets a little back to normal. I have enjoyed getting to socially distance meet new friends and even a few old ones too!

This May had a lot of new things for us, but we made the most of them all and enjoyed spending time with each other. We spent a lot of time outdoors and I tried to keep the kids active. Hopefully we can get back to a little more normal lifestyle soon. Thanks for reading and God bless!

April 2020

The month of April in the year of 2020 is going to go down as one of the weirdest months of my life. Probably this is true for most everyone in the world. For someone like myself who is always running around and getting into all kinds of activities and adventures, being "stuck" at home was hard for me. I found ways to keep my mind and self occupied along with entertaining the kids. 

One of our biggest things we did was paint almost every room in the house. We needed a couple of things fixed that were above my handyman expertise so I asked a guy who was doing some work at the house next door to us. One was to give this wall in our house a fresh coat of paint that I cannot reach with my ladder. After thinking about it he said that instead of charging me to paint he would let me borrow his ladders so that I could paint it myself. I was extremely thankful that this man was helping me out during these crazy times instead of charging me.

Since we were giving the whole house a new coat of paint we had to take down the kids school art work from the dining room. It's sad that the kids have had less art work as they get further along in school.

No matter what the circumstances, there is always a reason to help people out. I have found that this is one of the easiest ways to impact so many lives. Not only are the patients that are receiving my blood benefiting from it, but so do all the patient's family members too!

Another thing that has kept us busy at the house has been baking. My friend gave me a Amish bread starter last year and after making a lot of loafs over the winter I put my starter in the freezer. I got it back out and made a couple of loafs - a pistachio and lemon bread are what I made this time.

I have to make a mandatory rule in our house that you have to get outside for a little part of the day everyday. One day the kids and I went on a walk. We had a picnic at the park close to our house and then played a little pitch and catch. I had made the kids a lunch and we had a little picnic too! Brinley loves a nutella sandwich so I made it just like an uncrustable and Landon is my little PB & J boy. He could eat one everyday. I also decided to run with the kids in the double stroller and boy have they gotten heavy. Pushing 100 pounds uphill was hard. It was much easier when they only weighed a combined 40-50 pounds.

Brinley lost another baby tooth. She actually came and found me and told us that her and Landon were wrestling and he accidentally knocked it out. I was just glad that she didn't swallow it. That was also the first of Brinley's teeth that I didn't pull. These two sure are growing up quick!

Landon doesn't really show much interest in cooking ever but when he asked to help me make some dinner one night I was really happy to let him help. He was so proud to tell people that he made the burgers for dinner. I hope that he ends up liking to cook just like me.

Another way that we have been getting our daily dose of sunshine is by playing in this large green space at the front of our subdivision. Our backyard is so small so I love to get out and run, play catch and not have to worry about hitting or losing anything over a fence. Landon even wanted to give running with the double stroller a shot. He quickly found that it was much harder to control that he had thought. 

We had to capture the kids first official day of Non-traditional instruction which if you can see on Brinley's board I wrote that it also known as EVIL! Fayette County was behind most schools because they didn't have NTI days set up before school was cancelled. So, that meant we didn't start NTI until after the kids spring break. Their teachers are mommy and daddy, but mommy has taken the lead on most class work and I am in charge of PE. Brinley still consistently says that she wants to be a veterinarian. Landon has now said that he wants to be a basketball player when he grows up. 

The kids were excited when I told them that we were going to make homemade sugar cookies with icing for Easter. The kids both have a lot of fun decorating with the icing. You can see in that top left picture that Landon was upset, I think it was because the icing didn't come out like he thought it was going to. I think that they all turned out pretty great. 

I had seen a lot of people turning their glass doors into stained glass windows. So I put all the painters tape on the door in a random design. I even put a little sign that said "He is Risen", a cross, and a little bunny. Brinley had a lot of fun doing it, but she is our little creative lady. Landon had trouble getting the paint to get filled in. I helped him out and then got him back on board to help with all the rest.

Our workplace at the University of Kentucky has made it a rule to wear a mask the entire time while at work. We are not able to wear cloth masks at work while interacting with patients, but I can wear them on the way in and out of work. Jennifer spent a lot of time working making some masks for all of our family members. The embroidered Wildcat one was a gift that was given to me by one of my patient's grandmothers. It is awesome and I am so thankful for the thoughtful gift. They definitely know that I am a WILDCAT through and through!

The kids school followed suit with having a teacher and staff parade to see some of the children and their families. It was really neat for the kids to see all the staff. They both got to see all of their teachers that they have had over the previous years. We watched them once and then went to the other side of the road and saw them all again. The kids have really missed being in school. Brinley even told me that she wished she could have her teacher, Mrs. Strait, again next year.

To keep myself busy for a couple of days I painted a couple more rooms. We painted our guest room this dark grey/purplish color. It turned out perfect for the "elephant" room. We also painted up in Landon's old room. We brought it back to the original color of that beige color. Jennifer helped me paint over the chevron wall that we painted almost 7 years ago before Landon was born.

The kids were excited that I told them we would build a fire in the backyard and have some s'mores. Who doesn't love a s'more?

At a time like this when many people couldn't get to the store and have adequate supplies of food I felt really bad about dying Easter eggs, but some traditions are hard to not do. The kids had a blast!

Brinley has also gotten more interested in helping in the kitchen too. Here she was helping me make some cornbread muffins.

We somehow got selected by Keeneland to be a family to receive an Easter basket from the Kid's Club for being essential hospital workers. . It had all kinds of sweet treats, coloring books, sidewalk caulk, bubbles and more. Very nice gesture from the folks at Keeneland. 

Easter morning the kids got some baskets with candy and they each got a book related to the Bible. I was also asked by Brinley to make my annual Easter morning bunny pancakes. I have been making these for the past several years and especially Brinley loves it!

We took our two bunnies out back to try and find those eggs that they had decorated a few days before. It was a really competitive hunt and Brinley won. If you check out the top right picture you can see Landon had thrown down his bunny ears after the final count was totaled. So we decided to hide them again and hunt once more. The second time Landon was the winner. It started to rain so that was a perfect opportunity to call it quits for the day.

We put on our Easter outfits and got ready for online service. Brinley hates dresses so she changed back into her pajamas. We watched Southland Christian Church and half of our family was too tired to make it through the service. Brinley and I sang along to the songs and eventually woke up the others.

The kids have started showing more interest in riding their bikes. They don't have the strength and stamina to sustain over a long ride. They are constantly stopping and occasionally have trouble getting started especially going up hill. So, I figured I would just run along with them so that I could just help them get started. It was one of the slowest miles I have ever done. I think they took advantage of having me there to give them a push. 

We found a nice little green space in our area where we have started taking walks to and then playing because we don't have that large of a yard. I usually pack a few items that we can play with and one day I picked up a football. Landon loved it! I taught him how to throw properly and also how to snap the ball. It made my heart extremely happy to see him show some interest in the game I love. 

We had talked with the kids about the possibility of bunk beds and of course they were extremely excited about it. We decided to have the kids share a room and turn Landon's old room into a play room. That way the toys would all be in the same area and we wouldn't constantly have to fight about cleaning all the toys up in two different spots. Jennifer and I put them together one afternoon and then we had to paint the room because I refused to let the kids new room be purple. We even let the kids pick out which color they wanted. 

While we were painting almost every room in the house we also had to cover up all the times Brinley used her artistic abilities on the walls. Here she is covering up a creative expression that she had with nail polish when she was about 2 years old. It was sad to see it covered up, but I am glad that our kids are now of the age when they know to not write on the walls of our house.

A tradition that my brother and I did growing up was to take all of the dyed eggs in the backyard and throw them at the trees and trash pile. It was always so much fun. So, I found a place close to the house that the kids and I could do the same thing. It was a lot of fun. It is especially fun when you smash one and the hard boiled egg just splatters everywhere. I still act like a kid if you haven't noticed.

We finally got the kids room painted and everything set the way we wanted. The kids were beyond excited. We made a rule that we switch the top bunk every week on Sundays so that nobody gets more time in the prime location.

We made the top photo in Lexington to wish Grandma a happy birthday. The bottom picture was taken at my parents house where we drove 3 hours to surprise my mom. 

Dad and I had been working for about a week trying to figure out the way that we could surprise my mom for her birthday. It was supposed to rain the entire day so dad found the perfect spot for us to spend a little time inside. We celebrated and spent some time together just catching up on everything. It was a social distancing birthday considering the quarantine was still in effect. That meant no hugs for the grandparents. Except for the air hugs. I got mom some difficult to find Charmin for her birthday.

The NFL draft happened and it was really unique with everyone being at their house. I was happy with my Browns picking the Lexington native Jedrick Wills. I hope he does a nice job blocking for Baker Mayfield for the next decade or so. I also thought it was pretty cool that the Browns pick was actually started by a kid who was doing his Make a Wish. I thought that was pretty cool.

There is a little pond that is semi close to our house. I had seen some friends of mine fishing there once so I decided to take the kids one afternoon. We didn't have much success. Landon again got upset that he couldn't figure out how to cast it properly. Brinley loved it.

Playing outside has been one of our favorite things this month of April. We would sometimes be outside playing well up until 9pm most nights. I had put Landon in the goal once before and he hated it. Ever since that happened he has asked constantly to be put back into the goal. Well, on this night I put both of them up the in goal. Landon loves to play sports outside and Brinley loves to do some caulk art. Here Brinley made herself a birthday cupcake for her upcoming birthday. 

April was a very interesting month all around and I was glad to spend some much needed quality time with the kids. I could have done without the school work, but everything else was a new kind of fun. I hope all of you and your loved ones are doing well. As Andy would say, "We will get through this, we will get through this together." Thanks for reading and God bless!