October 2020

Well, we are getting pretty used to the new way of life in the pandemic. You just have to wash your hands, wear your mask and do your virtual school. It is by no means the way we want to live, but it is better to be safe and healthy than to risk getting sick. We have tried to do as many things as possible so that the kids can have somewhat of a childhood. These are such vital and important years for them and they are stuck in the house all day looking at a computer screen. They have adapted well, but it is a struggle some days to even get them to do the small amount of work that is required of them. Nobody in our house is a fan of virtual school. We are ready for them to go back so they can see their friends and learn like they are supposed to, even if they have to wear a mask.

I have been volunteering at church since they opened back up, but Jennifer and the kids had not returned back to church yet. Well, they finally came back to church with me one Sunday. They stayed in the church service instead of going to the children's ministry area. It was nice to worship together with my family at church instead of watching the online service at home.

Well, I have been trying to stay as active as possible between running and biking. Well, I should maybe read the forecast before heading out because I got caught in a downpour one afternoon. I stopped in a neighborhood gazebo to catch a little relief from the rain.

The kids have done so well in coach pitch this fall. Landon got another home run and the game ball. I can't believe how hard these two have been working. 

Another game day and another Heflin game ball. This one went to Brinley. She sat out last season because she said she hated baseball. I didn't want to push her too far and she hate sports the rest of her life. I am so glad that she found it again and has been successful.

Brinley taking care of her bunny. She loves Biscuit so much. She even gets in the cage on occasion to help clean up all the mess. 

Well, I was at work on a Thursday morning when I had this spontaneous excruciating back pain. It was awful and I couldn't find anything to take the pain away. I tried to walk it off, lay down, sit, or stand but nothing made the pain better. A couple of the doctors and nurse practitioner in my clinic assessed the situation and thought that I should go to the Emergency Room. One of my docs from the clinic pushed me down to the ER where I quickly got an IV and some pain medicine which helped relieve the pain. I also got a CT scan quickly that showed I had a 5-6 mm kidney stone. This was my first (and hopefully last) one ever! They said I could go home and try to pass it at home which is what I chose to do. It was a restless night with not much sleep, but I woke up at 6 am the next morning and passed it. I felt so relieved and happy. I couldn't believe that this small little thing could cause so much pain. I even went back to work because I felt so good. 

I feel like we are constantly going to practices or games throughout the week. Saturdays are our soccer game days and these kids have been working hard. Brinley's team is full of inexperienced players and they haven't won all season while Landon's team is undefeated. They are both working so hard at getting better. Both of them get so frustrated with me because I just them to be the best version of themselves, but I constantly am giving them advice on how to get better and they don't seem to listen or care. I haven't figured out which one yet. This was Landon's first time playing goalie. The other team never even got close to him so he didn't get to make any saves.

I still don't like animals, but in a year that has been so crazy and different this bunny has brought Brinley so much joy and happiness. I have never held the little guy, mostly because Brinley is constantly holding him. 

We kicked off the Halloween season by making some cookies. I think they turned out awesome. The kids had a lot of fun.

We had finally gotten around to taking the kids to their yearly check ups and both of them had a couple of issues that meant they needed to see a specialist. Brinley has apparently dropped on her growth chart so we had to get x-rays for a bone scan to see if her bones were growing appropriately for her age. They were fine so she then had to see an endocrinologist to see if there were any hormone abnormalities, which there were not. She was such a big girl and had to get labs done a couple of times. I was very proud of her. Landon had to see an ophthalmologist because of a weird twitch that we had noticed with his right eye. They said it was nothing concerning and that it should be something that he grows out of. It didn't cause him any discomfort so sounds good to me.

Landon has grown to love little Biscuit. He was so surprised when Biscuit jumped up into his lap one day while he was doing his school work.

Grandma and Grandpa were able to come up and see the kids play a game with their coach pitch team. Landon and Brinley played awesome and he was given the game ball. They were excited to have their grandparents watch them play. After the game we all drove up to Columbus so that we could be ready to celebrate with Olivia for her birthday.

The kids had a blast playing at the Columbus Zoo with Olivia. We fed the giraffes, rode the carousel and saw all of Olivia's favorite animals. It ended up being cost effective for us to just go ahead and become members of the zoo if we just came to visit at least one more time. I figure we will be up to visit more than that to get our moneys worth out of it. 

While they were getting Olivia ready for bed the kids and I snuck out for another trip to the zoo. They had a Halloween celebration called Boo at the Zoo. I forgot to bring costumes for the kids, but they didn't care because they just wanted the candy. It was set up really nice and we made it to all the candy stops very quickly. We also got to see all the carved pumpkins that they had out for decorations.

The kids love spending time with Olivia, but Olivia can't get enough of the kids. She wants to spend every second with them when she is around. Apparently I can't hang like I used to and I have to take a nap. Brinley helped make mini pizzas one night too. Both the kids also love reading books to Olivia. 

While they were decorating for the birthday party we took Olivia to a nearby park so that she could play. She enjoyed having Brinley and Landon push her on the swing and go down the slides with her. 

We were so happy to celebrate with Olivia for her Oh, Two dles birthday. She was so excited for everything going on that we had trouble getting her to sit still for a good picture. She was excited about the cookies that I made for her. I am glad that she liked them.

The rest of the birthday party crew. I watched the UK football game during the party on my phone. You can take the man out of the state, but you can't take the Kentucky out of the man. I bleed blue through and through. We all had a great time celebrating with Olivia. Landon even acted as a little horse and rode her around the living room.

Landon's soccer team decided to play a scrimmage against another local team. It was a very competitive game but we came up just a point short in this one. This was their first loss of the season. Landon got to play in goal again which he thought was awesome. He did give up one goal but he worked hard and saved a few shots on goal too! We had to rush from the soccer scrimmage to the ball field so that the kids could play baseball. Mimi came out to watch them play. They both did great but I could tell Landon was just a little tired because he wasn't moving as fast as normal. 

Jennifer and Brinley decided to find an outfit for the bunny. So, let me introduce you to Sheriff Biscuit. 

Just look at that smile. She is so happy when she has her bunny. 

Well, our little nephew, Rupp turned one. We made the decision for only Jennifer to travel down because of the pandemic and we didn't think we could get the kids to abide by social distancing rules and wearing their masks. I made some cookies for them to take down to the Dr. Seuss themed party. Making the cookies were very therapeutic and stressful at the same time. I thought they turned out pretty good.

The pandemic has given you plenty of time to try new things, do home improvements, and find things to buy on the internet that you never really needed. Well, I became obsessed with cream horns. They are a puff pastry filled with a sweet cream filling. Well, apparently everyone else became obsessed with them too. I couldn't find them at any of the grocery stores. Then I found some one night and told Jennifer I hit a gold mine. I decided that to keep that from ever happening again I would just get some of the molds and make them myself. A quick search on Amazon and in just a few days I will be able to make my own.

Brinley doing her school work with Biscuit. She literally takes the bunny every where and makes him do anything she does.

For a couple of years I have wanted to kill a deer. Well, I don't have any guns and most importantly I don't have any land on which to hunt. My neighbor Derrick said he wanted to go hunting and I said let's go. It wasn't gun season so we took his crossbow out and headed for the woods. They are trying to let the bucks grow bigger so the said we were only allowed to shoot doe. That was fine with me. I just wanted to experience it and see how to process it since I had never seen it before. Too bad we only saw button bucks and small spiked bucks. Hopefully sometime I will get one. 

Since I wasn't able to get a deer I figured the next best thing would be to donate blood. It is so easy to do and it is so helpful to the people that receive it. I know first hand because I give it to patients almost every day I am at work.

This year there was a huge election along with a pandemic. We opted for the mail in ballots so that we wouldn't have to stand in long lines at the polls. 

I was asked at work to participate in a fundraiser for the children's hospital. They were going to do a live zoom and stream it online of some different people playing games. They had a couple of professional gamers, the dean of UK education, a medical student, myself, and a former patient of mine. It was really cool. We played Jackbox Games which had a whole assortment of games. The first game we played was Drawful 2 and I won. I was so glad to participate in such a great cause. 

Jennifer and the kids made a spooky dinner one night. They had dyed the fettucine noodles purple and green and even served it with breadstick bones. Brinley also made a candy corn parfait for dessert. It was all delicious, just weird to eat purple and green noodles.

The Spartans had their last fall ball coach pitch game of the season. The kids worked really hard and had fun getting to play on the big kids field with the astroturf. Brinley got a couple of kids out and had some good hits too. She was awarded the game ball again! Landon had another home run to end the season. I am so proud of how these two have grown and developed into better players and teammates. I can't wait for baseball to start back in the spring.

We had a lot of fun carving our pumpkins this year. Brinley is the only one who chose to use a template from one of the books that we had left over from last year. Brinley picked out the devil cat. I helped Landon free hand a minecraft pumpkin. I did a Jack Skellington, and Jennifer did a Harry Potter double sided pumpkin. We even let Biscuit get in a pumpkin. 

It is so much fun to work in pediatrics. This year we had a theme in our clinic and we were all zoo animals. Some of my co-workers are hilarious. We had some pretty awesome costumes. I dressed up like a lion. 

Brinley's soccer season came to an end on Halloween. Her team was unlucky and had to play almost all their games at 8 am when it was freezing. The Cyber Rays had a lot of fun. Unfortunately they didn't win a single game, but I believe they did get better throughout the season.

In between soccer games we stopped off at Krispy Kreme for a Halloween donut. They gave you a free donut if you were dressed up. We all got one, because the kids were dressed as soccer players and I had on my hulk shirt. Later that night we went to Drakes for dinner before going out to trick or treat. The kids got to eat for free if they were in their costumes.

Landon's team lost their first game of the season to the only other undefeated team in the next to last game of the season. Turns out they had a rematch with that same team the next week in the season finale. The Scorpions fought hard but came up short again. It was really fun to watch these kids play. I got just a little too much into it. Most of these kids were 7 years old so they will mostly all be back next year to play again.

We once again did a family themed costume. We picked the Avengers because during the pandemic we watched the entire series in the order they were meant to be watched. The kids really got into them and like them all a lot. We let the kids have first pick at which characters they wanted to be. Brinley picked Captain Marvel because that is her favorite Avenger. Landon picked Thor, while Jennifer picked Iron Man and I was the Hulk. Biscuit even put on his Sheriff hat to come out for a picture. The kids were so excited to go out and trick or treat. It was one of the few things that didn't get cancelled this year.

October ended up being a pretty great month. We had a lot of fun playing both baseball and soccer. We still had to deal with virtual school, but we have started getting things done slightly earlier in the night that we had been. We did have an incident where Brinley was turning all of her paperwork in everyday on her own. We were so proud of her until we discovered that all of her turned in work was in fact blank. The virtual school has brought out the worst in both of them. Hopefully they got back sometime this year. Thanks for reading and God bless!

September 2020

September was another sport filled month for the Heflin kids. That meant a lot of time spent at the ball parks after work and virtual learning classes. 

We played our second round game of the t-ball tournament. Unfortunately we had to play the top ranked team in the league. Landon actually hit his first ever home run! I could not have been more proud. He even played great at second base and got a few kids out. Brinley actually got the home run on video, but it is broken in two videos. Landon had hit a double but the outfielder over threw the second baseman so he got to keep running and he made it home safe. T-ball was a lot of fun this year and I am so glad that we were able to get to play. Landon became a much better player and really helped him get ready for coach pitch.

The kid's school had a scavenger hunt for all the kids in the community. The kids were excited to find it from just the first clue that they gave out.

We have never had the best of luck with growing pumpkins at home. This year our vines started to die and we were left with only this little pumpkin. Too bad that it was ready at the beginning of September. It was only 2 months early. Last time I planted pumpkins they were ready in July. So, I guess I am getting closer to the right time. 

Landon had started soccer and when we went to his practice Brinley got upset that she wasn't playing. I luckily was able to get Brinley onto a team and even better her practice is on the same night as Landon's. We started having our own practices, at both the fields and in our backyard. If I am going to do something I am going all out, which is what I am trying to teach the kids. You have to give all your effort in anything that you do. 

After practicing soccer we also started working on our coach pitch batting. The kids both said that they were interested in playing fall ball. Again we have to get to work!

The kids had to get up early one Saturday morning because I had to take the car in to get the oil changed. I stopped by to get the kids a little donut treat for being good sports which made them happy!

Randomly but I was so impressed to find this 6 frosted mini wheat family. I don't know why I thought it was so cool, but I had to take a picture.

Uncle McKinley came to town to celebrate with his girlfriend Taylor so we had to go over and see them too. The kids were happy to meet her cat Lexi. Uncle McKinley was happy to try out the kids Nintendo Switch.

I have been getting up early and walking or running around the neighborhood. A new friend has started to appear around in the early mornings, a little fox. I have seen him about 5 times now. Thankfully the fox runs away as soon as it spots me.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. It is only fitting that it is also the month where we celebrate pediatric oncology nurses too. We were given masks at work and I decided to make some cookies for my co-workers. It was my first time working with royal icing so I thought it turned out pretty good for a first time attempt. The top right corner picture is some of the cookies that the kids did, except for the football helmet with the cat paw (I did that one too).

Brinley's first soccer game was an early game and the fog was thick. The Cyberrays are a very inexperienced team. Only 3 of the girls have ever played soccer before. It was very difficult for them to get the ball across mid-field, which made the game very difficult to watch. Brinley said that she had fun. She actually took the ball all the way up the field twice. I was very proud of her.

Brinley loves animals, especially bunnies. I personally am not a animal person at all, but an opportunity came about with a co-worker who just so happened to have a bunny that she was having to give up. It was a perfect scenario for us and I knew that Brinley would be completely ecstatic about having her very first pet. We set up a date for my friend to bring to bring the bunny to the house. We met Sydney out in the driveway where Brinley first met Biscuit. The kids didn't believe me when I told them that they got to keep him. Brinley had the biggest smile when she was holding her first pet!

With virtual school Landon has to fill out this form every day to show the teacher what emotion he is feeling. We had planned a weekend trip to go down and see my brother in Nashville. This made Landon very happy because he knew that we would play lots of board games.

Uncle McKinley took us out to try a new spot called Biscuit Love. The top left was my lunch - a hot chicken breast with gravy biscuit. It was good, but it is really weird to eat a square biscuit. We also tried out another spot that he wanted to try called Peace Love & Little Donuts. They were all very uniquely flavored donuts. We had fun playing board games and just enjoying some time together. The only people missing were the Columbus crew and Taylor. Hopefully we will all be able to get together soon.

We also took Uncle McKinley to our favorite spot of the quarantine, Top Golf. We had the summer pass so we got another opportunity to get a couple hours of hitting some golf balls for basically free since we have gone so much. The kids really enjoy it. Hopefully I can get them to go play a real round of golf with me now that they have gotten better with hitting golf balls.

As with becoming pet parents also comes the joys of taking care of the animals. Jennifer has fallen mostly into taking care of the everyday up keep of Biscuit. Brinley spends most of her day holding the little guy.

Another Saturday can only mean one thing, soccer time in the Bluegrass! Both kids are working really hard. Brinley's team is relatively inexperienced and they struggle to even get the ball across mid field most of the game. Landon's team all played together last year and he is the new guy on the team. He is working hard on finding his place on the team. Both kids struggle with being aggressive during the games and don't try to go after the ball. It is such a struggle because minutes after the game they are fighting in the car about which kid gets to sit in which seat in the car. If they only used half of their aggression towards each other out on the field then I would be happy!

A local church was donating milk to all the kids in the area. You could come by and pick up a half gallon for each kid and they also gave you some cookies too! The kids were happy for some cookies and milk never lasts long at our house.

Biscuit has been a major success with Brinley. This little rabbit brings her so much joy and happiness. She tries to hold him all the time. At this rate he is going to be huge because Brinley doesn't even let him walk around much so he probably doesn't even get enough exercise. Landon had never picked him up before and he was too nervous to pick him up. So, Brinley picked him up and handed him to Landon. I am so happy to see the smile on Brinley when she is with her little rabbit.

Grandma and Grandpa came up to see the kids play in a soccer game. We also were able to get in a game of Rook while they were here too. It turned out to be a pretty awesome day for some soccer. I haven't been able to get as many pictures of Brinley playing in the games because I have started to help as an assistant with her team.

Landon has been slowly beginning to understand what he is trying to do during the soccer match. His team is no longer running around in a giant herd the entire game. Landon was so close to scoring his first goal in this bottom right picture, but he just couldn't get it in the goal. The kid on the ground in the red shirt is the other team's goalie so he just had to tap it in. Proud of him and his continual effort of trying to get better.

Our first fall coach pitch baseball scrimmage was quite the experience. The kids were all still in t-ball mode. We had to ask multiple times for kids to stop playing in the dirt and to stand up in the outfield. I am helping out as an assistant coach again which my kids struggle with at times because I expect more from them compared to the other players on the team. Here Brinley is on first, which I coach while we are batting, and her cousin Thomas is playing on first. 

The thing I hate most about virtual learning is that the kids are stuck all day watching the computer screen and then when they have free time they want to watch TV or play video games. Well, they don't get enough movement and activity in their day. When I get home from work that is not the case. I found a dirt hill in the neighborhood where they are doing some construction work. I went out with the kids and we ran the hill a couple of times. Landon really liked it and wanted to do it more. I just wanted to wear the two of them out and get their legs a little stronger. 

September was filled with sports for the Heflin children and a surprise addition to our family in the form of a little bunny named Biscuit. In the middle of a global pandemic we have tried to look for the best in everything. As much as this time in our life is difficult and different than our normal it has been nice to spend more time with the ones that I love on a normal basis. None of us are guaranteed another day on this Earth. If tomorrow one of your loved ones was taken from you then another moment is all you would wish for. So, even when its difficult just enjoy being around your loved ones! Thanks for reading and God bless!