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.

September 2025

I started out September with a beautiful sunrise.

Then I headed to Donut Days to pick up some breakfast. This is my favorite donut place in Lexington - especially their cake donut with white icing. 

The kids had done some things they shouldn't have so I took down all the TV's in the house. The kids came up with a list of things they wanted to do while not having their electronics. Apparently first on the list was becoming Smurfs. I didn't know what the kids were getting into upstairs while they were doing this, but they were having the best time. I told Jennifer I didn't care what they were getting into and that I would clean up any mess. I was just happy to hear them laughing and playing together without electronics. 

Another view of their painted bodies. They went all out. Maybe I could get them to do this for a UK game sometime. 

The also tried to set up a ping pong contraption, but they were never patient enough to get it completed. 

I taught Landon how to turn on and man the grill. 

A little late this year but I got my sidewalk chalk out and made the kids take their grade pictures. Brinley did not want to participate and would only give me this silly smile.  

Meet Landon vs. the leaf blower. 

Landon went fishing with his buddy Tate. He was able to catch this little guy. 

Brinley and her Henry Clay teammates signed up to play in a fall softball league in Georgetown. They couldn't play under their school name, so they played as the Cotton Candies.  Brinley continued playing at 3rd base for the team. Brinley has gotten so much better over the past year, but she still has a long way to go before she can get quality reps with the varsity squad. 

Another early morning sunrise. 

This little lady was waiting to see me when I walked to my car from work. She loves some popscicles, her front porch, and playing outside. She is enjoying some final days before the baby arrives. 

It's that time of year again for the Survivor Picnic. 

Landon and I riding in the train. This train has been at the last 13 survivor picnics. We sure have gotten a lot of use out of this train. Still works great!

This girl sometimes acts like she is irritated with me, but deep down I she enjoys her old man. I am so proud of her. For the last few years she been a very helpful worker at the picnic. This year she was in charge of the duck pond. Every kid had to go by her activity table because it was on the check off list in order to get something at the prize table. 

This was by far the smallest amount of people that we had to work the picnic. A lot of people were out of town and unable to help on the actual day of the event. We scrambled around all morning getting everything set up and it turned out to be a pretty awesome day. 

Exhausted was an understatement. We had loaded and unloaded the Penske truck a total of 4 times in less that 24 hours. We were all so tired, but also so thankful to have been able to celebrate all our patients. Some of these ladies have been a part of this for the past 20 years. This was my 13th year with the committee.

A lot of people were surprised that I skipped going to the UK game to attend the Survivor Picnic. Well, I would never miss the picnic. When we left the storage building I turned on the radio to hear we were only down one touchdown with about 7 minutes left in the game. I found a spot to watch the ending of the game, but Kentucky was not able to finish the comeback. 

Went out even earlier than normal so that I could see the blood moon. It was so bright and lit up the sky that you couldn't see as many stars as usual. 

Brinley's team also decided to play in the Kentucky fall league. This was most of the varsity girls and they didn't do much subbing out of the game. Brinley played third base and made a couple of good plays. She is doing great for still not even being in high school. I am proud that she continues to fight and work for a spot on varsity this year. 

We stopped for a little treat after her game at Graeters ice cream. Brinley enjoyed some mint chocolate chip ice cream and we talked about the game. I was proud of her and being able to take some criticism from me.

Another Saturday home football game and I was so pumped about the pre-game meal that they had from Dad's Favorites. They had one of my favorite sandwiches - The Rushmore which is served with a beer cheese dipping sauce. I'd dip about anything in this and eat it. 

I joined a new men's Bible study and we are studying the 23rd Psalm with a teaching fffffrom Louie Giglio. I was able to read the first two chapters while I was waiting for recruits to drive over to the stadium. 

With September 11th having just happened they brought a large flag out for pregame and saluted all the military in attendance. I can't believe that it has been 24 years since the attacks on 9/11.

Made our way down to the field to see the team come out of the tunnel. Always fun to see things from field level. I will never get tired of standing on the sidelines.  

Lot of opening action along our side of the field. Got to see an almost pick-6 and then two rushing touchdowns that happened right in front of us. 

On Sunday the 14th we officially got to meet McKinley and Taylor's son, Theo. He was born on the 12th. We got to meet him once they were released from the hospital. 

Landon and I took a night walk one night while the girls were at a softball game. Beautiful picture here by the lake of Jacobson Park. 

Landon had decided to spend some of his birthday money to buy himself a scooter. He has asked to ride it almost everyday and even rode it to school a few days. The most important thing we tell him is that he must wear a helmet.

Another sunset picture - God makes the most amazingly beautiful pictures every night. 

I had a day off so McKinley and I played some board games while both kids took a nap. While we were playing they had a surprise visitor - Mrs. Barb, who works with us at the hospital. 

Jennifer painted this paver to go with the stones I had painted with all the fruits of the spirit on them. We have put it back up into the park - I wonder if anyone will steal these. We are working on getting the rock garden filled back up after all of the stones were taken. Brinley made a stone telling people politely to not take the rocks. Below is the picture of the stone with all the fruits of the spirit rocks that I had painted. 

First time all year that we were all able to attend Landon's cross country race. This was a race where you weren't able to see much of the course, but he had to run through a creek at one point in the race. We thought about going to the Spoonbread festival afterwards, but Landon had blisters on his feet and nobody saw anything that they had to have when we drove past it. We instead stopped at Bucee's on the way home. 

I had gotten a coupon to try out a new car wash. We all went together and the kids had a blast vacuuming out the car. Then of course they couldn't help it - they just had to get into the trunk. These two are wild, but most of the time they enjoy being around each other. 

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Brinley and Jennifer have been busy painting bricks and rocks to create a tiny town. These are very cute and a nice addition to the rock garden. 

This was my souvenir from our trip to Alaska. It shouldn't have been that hard, but I struggled with it. For about a week I had only done the border, city names, and the animals. I finally set down and struggled through the water and islands.

Both kids participated in their school's color run. They got tons of colored powder all over themselves. It looks like from these pictures that they had a good time. 

The Maitland's came down to Lexington to meet Theo and to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. This was the first time all six grandkids were together. This was the first time Landon wasn't the only boy in the cousin crew picture. 

Ma and Pa with all their children and grandchildren. Theo was the sixth grandchild and therefore was awarded the infamous Ricker - long story for another day. 

Brinley is a good older cousin. She was helping take care of and entertain all of the younger cousins. 

First time holding Theo for all of these cousins. Brinley doesn't really feel comfortable holding tiny babies, but Landon and Olivia didn't have any problems.

I got a puzzle out and separated the border before I went to my Bible study. When I returned home I was surprised to see it completed by Brinley. She did all 500 pieces while I was gone. 

Jennifer has been busy painting pavers for the rock garden. We decided after someone stole all of our painted rocks that we would paint rocks with messages about God, Jesus and the Bible. Maybe these could serve as inspiration for anyone that walks by and sees them.