April Showers

Lance and Jared started a four weeks of ballroom dance lesson back in March that culminated in a formal dance on April 1st.

April 1st is also our cats' birthdays.  As you see, Hunter (Fluffy Evilness) has been reading his bible.

and Chomper (Evilness) has found a new partner in couch crime.

In addition to Cat's Birthdays and dancing, April 1st is "April Fool's Day" and Holly found a great trick to pull on Lance.  We lined up shoes with water bottles in them and told him that "Water is running out of your fish tank!" as he came in the door from work. Hee! Hee!

April 3rd Jared filled out his first W-4.  He's been volunteering and doing leadership training at the dojang up until this month.  Now he is officially an employee.  To celebrate we got him his very first wallet (from The Tank Museum in England of course).  In addition to teaching at the dojang, he also helps out in promotional events, such as this one at the Farmer's Market.

The latest twist in his Youtube channel - J-Rod Studios Brickfilms (https://www.youtube.com/c/JRodStudios) is working on making his channel a brand J-Rod Studios Bricks (https://jrodstudiosbricks.com/) where he hopes to launch a line of 1:64 WW2 Tank models as his first wave of products. 

Excitingly Lance started catching again for the Pros again this month.  His old facility had shut down but most of the guys were now working out at this new facility.  His reputation preceded him, so when he called the new facility to see if they needed someone to catch bull-pens they were thrilled to have him.  This is truly a win-win, the pitchers get to throw at a real person and he gets to de-rustify his catching skills and break in his mitt before summer ball starts.

For our Easter Celebration this year we decided to read the Easter story in all four gospels and compare them.  Afterward we packed up lunch and took a nice long hike at Blue Jay Park (with Oliver) to enjoy the beautiful weather and God's glorious creation.  (With that focus in mind, we totally forgot to take any pictures.)

In addition to baseball and demo team performances, Titus spent a lot of time this month helping Frank fix his riding lawn mower, which was a fun activity for them both.

I've found that people seem to make the time to get together better if you have a destination.  So on Saturdays I've started to invite old friends to the Tea Shop next to the dojang on Saturdays while Titus does his classes. First Tea this month was with my old friend Jen and it worked out marvelously.  Next one was with Ava (but at the house) and that too was truly enjoyable.  Looking forward to more "Tea with Friends".

In addition to lots of horse riding, Amber tried out a new sport with her friend Kimberly this month....ice skating.  Thankfully no broken bones, just a few bruises.

By April 16th it was time to migrate the Chicks outdoors, the smell and resultant allergies had become too much for everyone.  The new location is working out great (next to the Retirees), the heater cord works and they are enjoying the great outdoors.

April 22nd Titus and Jared attended the Regional AAU Taekwondo Tournament in Columbia, SC.  Since the competition started at 8am they went with Chris the night before.  For dinner they found an incredible pizza restaurant that got them set up for the long day ahead of them.  In the end, Jared place 3rd in Poomsae and Titus placed 2nd in Sparring.  They finished out their trip by finding another great restaurant, this time burgers, which was much needed after a WHOLE day of competition.  It was a fun weekend for the boys.

April 23rd was Frank Birthday.  We of course celebrated with lasagna and Spice Cake.  Lance's gift to Frank was to fix his truck for him after a shop had messed it up.  Between work and school you'd think Lance spent enough time fixing cars but he's always happy to help a friend and he enjoyed the time with Frank as well.

April 27th  FIAR had a field trip to the Sylvan Heights Bird Sanctuary.  This is one of my family's favorite wildlife parks, so Jared joined us to see "all the little birdies".  About a 1/2 mile from our exit the interstate stopped and became a parking lot.  We sat there for an hour (three semis had apparently played bumper car).  Well I shouldn't say sat, we got out and talked with our neighbor cars, and as we were on a bridge the kids had rock throwing contest into the river much to the amusement of some travelers.  But back to the intended focus of the day....  My family would love to have birds but we realize with two cats that hunt and a dog with a bird problem that wouldn't be wise.  Therefore, we enjoy them wherever we can.  As you can see, the birds were all over the idea as well.