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. 

May 2025

For Brinley's birthday and she wanted to do an escape room with some friends. They were pretty easily able to breakout. 

Brinley went to church on her birthday and then had lunch at Josie's.

Then the girls went to paint some pottery at the Mad Potter. Brinley started making a bowl that was going to be a hunny pot with honey and bees all over it. She had to leave before finishing because her softball team had practice. 

I wanted to do something fun with Brinley on her birthday so after her softball practice I took her over to Chuck E Cheese. We practically had the place to ourselves. She had 30 minutes to play whatever she wanted. I didn't play a single thing and just watched her be a kid. 

More of the games that she played while at Chuck E Cheese. 

They made baseball cards for all the boys on the team. Landon wouldn't give me answers so I just made up whatever I thought would be good. 

We had someone unexpectedly show up at our house during Brinley's softball practice to celebrate her birthday. 

We came home to a table full of gifts for Brinley that Grandma and Grandpa had brought up for her. We had some Nothing Bundt Cake and also had Cane's for dinner. 

We had some visitors from Ohio. They had a day off from school on a Tuesday for elections and they came to see Landon play lacrosse and Brinley play softball. We celebrated with a little cake before we all left for games. 

It was supposed to work out great with timing, but Landon's lacrosse game got moved back an hour which meant they weren't going to be able to make it to both games. So everyone went to Landon's lacrosse game. They had never seen lacrosse played before so I had to explain as much as I had learned from the season of watching him. This was the final game of the year. I had a lot of fun watching him grow as a player this season. 

The Henry Clay team had a breast cancer awareness night in memory of one of the player's mother who passed away last year.  

Finished another good book. This was written by Michael Oher, who had been dealt a crazy life but had come out on the other side a better human, husband, father, and advocate for youth in need. He was the guy the movie the Blind Side was made about. 

Coach contacted me late one afternoon and asked if Brinley could make it to Scott County early. She needed her to dress out for Varsity. The team has had a couple of injuries and she needed some more depth. Brinley's first official Varsity game. She didn't get to play, but that didn't mean that I wasn't super proud of her. During the JV game it was raining a little and this beautiful rainbow appeared. 

Coach told her that she wanted her to dress out with Varsity for the rest of the year. Proud of her and how far she has come. If she puts in some work in the off season then I have no doubt that she can get some time on Varsity in the next couple of years. 

Brinley's travel ball team fell apart when three of the girls quit to join another team. So, Brinley played pick up with a team she tried out with but didn't want to commit to, Commonwealth Softball Club. They went   1-1 in pool play and were the number one seed in the silver bracket. They won the first tournament game, but lost in the silver bracket championship. This tournament was the Saturday before Mother's Day so they took a picture with all the girls and their mom's.

Brinley and Isla - they have been teammates for the last 4 years with Rampage. Since it fell apart they were both looking for a squad. Isla and Brinley are the two best players on this team and it is not even close. Glad they got to have a lot of fun playing together again. 

For Mother's Day the kids and Jennifer went to Mad Potter to complete their work they started on Brinley's birthday and then Landon started and completed his while they were there. 

I thought everything that they made turned out great. They all had a great time painting. 

I did some yard work and created this little rock garden underneath our tree in the front yard. I really like how it all turned out. Now we need to get some rocks painted to fill up all the space. 

Finished another book and this is exactly what I needed to have in my life. I have a hard time with boundaries. I struggle with saying no to things in my life. It is something that I am trying to work on and am going to have to cut some things out in order to make room for myself and my family. Unfortunately when I accept too many responsibilities then it takes away from time with my family. I need to do better about this.

Landon's summer Slam team had their first tournament of the season and we were over matched and hadn't practiced but once. It was a long weekend and Landon struggled with where they had him playing in the field and batting in the line up. He struck out four times in three games. He hadn't struck out that much in the past three years. Hopefully he gets a little drive back to put in some time outside of practice to get better. 

Brinley's last game of her 7th grade season when the team lost to Scott County in the district tournament. 

May was a popular month for me reading. I was more like Jennifer and brought a book with me to every game. I would read in between the innings to pass the time and try to beat my book goal for the year. 

Brinley's team had a park clean-up day after they lost in district tournament. The Henry Clay softball and baseball fields were set to be demolished after the season so that they could build the new school on that land. So, the softball team tagged the dugout with graffiti. Brinley got a picture with her name. 

The first day of summer vacation I woke the kids up early and took them over to hang out with Nora for the day while I was at work. 

April 2025

This little guy is tough. Look at the kids that he is having to go up against. He has gotten so much better throughout the season and I am so proud of him. Landon gets in there and fights for the ball with anyone. 

A patient's mother gave me this puzzle that she said was impossible. I didn't have much time to work on it because of sports every night after work. Well, I finally found some time during the kids Spring Break. It was a very difficult puzzle and I was extremely happy to finish it. 

Spring Break and we didn't go anywhere. That meant we had plenty of time for some puzzles. Brinley really got into them and did two whole ones on her own. Landon, not to be out done, did one too!

Landon wanted to pick his whole puzzle up just to prove that he could do it. 

Landon and I finally found some time to make it over to McKinley's house to finish the legacy game that we had started when he was off on paternity leave with Nora. Fabled Fruit was a decent little game. It became a little monotonous at times, but it was a great way to ease us into legacy games. 

Brinley's team played Bryan Station, which has her friend Isla's sister on it. Isla will actually be joining the Station team next year. 

I got this 2,000 piece puzzle because it was Disney characters. We didn't have a table big enough to lay it all out. I am so glad that we didn't lose any pieces because at one point we had it on three different tables. 

Landon had tryouts and was selected to join the Southeastern Slam. He is ready to get back together with all of his baseball friends. 

Brinley decided she had enough of the long hair and got it all chopped off again.

Aunt TayTay came to watch Brinley play in her ballgame. Nora couldn't come because JV doesn't play until late and she had already been put to bed. 

They were having a concert at Kroger Field and I really liked the artist, Tyler Childers. At the last minute we decided to go downtown for dinner and I just drove over to see if we could listen in. Well, it was perfect timing. The parking attendants had left and we pulled into a spot right next to the stadium. We stayed and listened to about 7 or 8 songs. We even caught a really awesome drone show. 

Happy Easter. Even though the kids are too old, they still got Easter baskets. They both said they wanted bunny pancakes because it was a tradition. Landon doesn't like chocolate chips so he covered his in whipped cream and sprinkles. 

Look who the kids ran into at church for Easter, Nora. 

Grandma and Grandpa came up to catch the kids playing in their games.

While they were in town we celebrated an early birthday for my mom. Landon delivered breakfast in bed to Grandma. 

Landon and I pulled a double header. We went to his game and then headed over to watch the end of Brinley's JV game. 

I finished another book. It was a really interesting read. This guy graduated college and then decided to join the monastery. It talked a lot about their policies and the way they think about life. 

We made a surprise visit to my parents house in Livermore. We were on our way to Granddaddy Clayton's and made a quick bathroom stop at my childhood home. 

Granddaddy and Memom's house flooded and had 18 inches of water standing inside. A bunch of the family showed up to the house on this weekend to try and help clean up and see what could be salvaged. It was devastating inside. So much had to just be thrown into the dumpster. They are antique collectors so they had tons of things all throughout the house. It was great to see them, but not under the circumstances. 

We came back from western Kentucky and at about 10 at night Landon remembered that he had homework due the next day. As you can see he was a little tired and Jennifer was helping him type. He kept being woke up by his mother and then saying that his eyes were open the whole time. 

Taylor and Nora came to watch Landon play. The game was relatively boring and Nora was fading quickly so she decided to head out before the game ended. When she left they were losing 13-5. They brought Landon into pitch for the first time of the year. You know. What did they have to lose. Well, they made an amazing comeback to win the game. It was awesome and it was the first moment I saw Landon happy on a ball field this season. It was so great to see. 

It was that time to donate blood again. I try to be pretty regular about my donations and try to get in about every 2 months when eligible. This was my 70th donation. 

Another night of softball and a photographer came and took shots of all the girls. Again they got some really great action shots of our girl.