February 2024

February beings each year as Mighty Titus Time!  Can't think of any better way to start February!

His big gift this year was a remote control model plane.  He'd been practicing for you over a year on his flight simulator and was ready to apply what he learned.  Through a local model plane flying club we were able to arrange for him to have a lesson or two flying on a gentleman's plane and get some tips on what to buy for his first plan.   Then that same gentleman met us at the air park to assist as needed his first time flying his new plane.  No surprise, Titus had it mastered in no time and was moving out of training mode, into trick mode by the end of his first flight.  He definitely has the flying bug!

As a surprise for Titus' birthday Lance finally put The Book to use and made a "Potato Gun".  The kids operated it like an old fashion cannon team and amazingly it flew much farther than anticipated (ie. it's possible our neighbor may find parts of potato in their backyard over an acre away, not saying they will just saying its possible).  Then to finish out his birthday week, Lance arranged for him to sit in a new Shelby Mustang, his current dream car.

This months art project was chalk pastels recreation of "The Little Red Lighthouse".

2/9 & 2/10 was two nights of English Country Dancing for the boys.  Men were short so they did their part to make sure the ladies had a partner both nights.

Titus decided to take a break from TKD focus more on tennis (which started again this month).  He is so athletic he can do well at any sport he chooses.

2/14 was Thor's 5th Birthday and the first day of Amber and I working at the barn in exchange for his room and board.  We are still learning a lot, many of our thoughts and plans have gone awry in the two months we've had him but we are moving forward, learning and making adjustments as we gain new knowledge.  For instance, at the end of the month we got to pay a veterinarian to each us how to put a diaper on his foot after he stepped on a rock.  Now we are increasing our understanding of how to avoid a repeat, as that caused him to be lame for 10 days (though homeopathy helped shorten that significantly from the vets original estimate).

Since Jared has took a break from teaching at the dojang, he has been focusing his talents on creating a new board game (complete, with custom pieces and board) that we all had fun test playing.

The end of the month was Grandma Mary's Birthday.  Always a good excuse for Meatloaf, mash potatoes and spice cake!

B-Yong, where Lance catches for college and the pros, changed its name this month to Octane Baseball but thankfully everything else is the same. Just a great group of guys who all love baseball.

Finally, we finished out the month with a community service project, long awaited for by the entire neighborhood.  With the help of Frank's truck, the boys got The Kathryns long abandoned Gran Am out of the ditch at the end of their drive way.  The Kathryns were so thankful for their help that they insisted the boys could keep whatever they got for it.  At first the boys tried to clean it up.  Unfortunately, since The Kathryns had no idea where the title was and it had a lot of mold damage, we ended up just selling it to a salvage yard but it was still a good learning experience figuring that whole process out and the cul-du-sac looks quite a bit cleaner now.

January 2024

A little.... okay a rather large addendum to December 2023.  On December 26th, due to an unexpected opportunity we could not refuse, we bought Amber her first horse.

His name is Valiant Thor and he's a four year old dark bay Off-The-Track-Thoroughbred.  We have no idea what we are doing, but the seller described him as a lovable big dog, they were right and we believe temperament is key, training will come.  Amber is completely in love and it definitely goes both ways.   He's a lot of horse for a 12 year old little girl but we believe she is up to the task of turning him into her dream jumper.  Her reputation of keeping a sticky-seat will be of key importance in the coming months as he's very, very fast.

It was only five days after the new year before the boys were out partying again.  This time is was "Game Night" at the Lyons.  A group of 20+ get together at their house and play all kinds of games long into the night.  Frankly its wonderful.

Then this month's Cars and Coffee was American Muscle, so Lance begged Chris to come and show off Big Red.

Mid-month was Pro-Day at B-Young.  Lance was the catcher of the hour making all his pitchers look great.  Hopefully we'll see them all playing pro someday soon.

Titus decided on his own to cut up the big Oak Tree that had fallen in our forest and turn it into a bench for my birthday.  In his attempt to keep it all a secret (working on it while Amber and i were at the barn) he neglected to tell anyone he had gotten stuck under a larger part of the tree at one point and messed up a rib (silly boy).  He's all better now and the bench is absolutely gorgeous!

Keeping in the theme of surprises, Lance called in some favors and took me on an adventure for my birthday to test drive a Mercedes.  I have always loved the idea of a Mercedes, especially the ones that bounce and it was a lot of fun to actually get to take one out for a spin and be treated like one of the elite :-)

Next-up was to get Lance a passport so that no matter what baseball league wants him he'll be ready.  It was quite a process of driving around to different location but in the end its done.

On 1/27 Jared did his first trial dance, where he is the official caller.  It was with a select group of regulars (who pretended not to know what they were doing) and it went extremely well. This will be a great way for him to have fun and make a little extra money.  Afterwards, the group went to talk, eat and hang out at I-Hop.

Traditionally, we do a 1st Day Hike each year.  This year we were a titch late and did a 28th hike to Hemlock Bluffs with both puppies in tow.  It was a beautiful day to look amazing!

 Speaking of the puppies, it appears that Oliver and Khan have reached a territorial truce.

In the continuing sit-com coined by Jared "The Adventures of Valiant Thor"....Amber and Thor continue to grow together, we were blessed to find her a saddle within a few weeks of getting him and they have been riding regularly ever since. We found out he has a very sensitive chin and had to take off his nose band, making him an English horse with a western bridle.

December 2023

Hendrick Christmas Party kicked off the HOLYday season.  He decided to go '80s style...

just kidding.  He went with his winter tie and a friend.

Then for our big family Advent event we chose to attend Handle's Messiah performed at the University of Duke Chapel.  It was absolutely beautiful to view and listen too.

We continued our Sunday Afternoon with the Masters - Art projects.

Then much to everyones pleasure Grandpa Bob came for a second visit.  This time disguised as Santa Bob.  Though the kids like most to spend time with their grandfather, they did appreciate the gifts as well.  

The pellet guns served as a great form of amusement in the weeks that followed.

We surprised Chris with a custom new plate when I renewed his tags this month.  Now he enjoys revving his engine in front of EVs even more.

Bowling with friends is always a fun holiday activity.

Khan is becoming part of the family...

but because of his love of vines Christmas Lights had to be kept to the front yard this year...

On the 10 year anniversary of us being in North Carolina we decided to reenact our first Christmas photo.

Here is 2013...

Here is 2023....

 

November 2023

The big focus of November is to finish up the school year by Thanksgiving.  That proved to be a challenge with all the other fun things we had planned. 

Rabbit day began with Grandpa Bob coming for a much anticipated visit. With the help of his friend JD he was able to stop by on their way to do business in the mountains.  He hadn't been able to visit since 2019 so this was a much awaited and enjoyed event.

FIAR field trip was to an Alpaca Farm this month.  Ever since seeing ads on TV for "I LOVE ALPACA.com" I have been pestering Chris about how we really needed to own alpacas.  Thankfully we resisted my pleas.  After learning about them in depth, I think I'm okay with just owning this cute hat.

Saturday the boys rolled up to Cars and Coffee.  Their main takeaway was how to understand race flags...

Lance spent time this month honing in his marksmanship skills with Frank.

Then the boys were off to the dances and this time Amber as a late birthday gift from Mrs. L got to attend with them, which meant Chris and I had a DATE NIGHT!  Date Nights are very rare for us and thoroughly enjoyed just having the house to ourselves for an evening.  One surprise bonus for the kids was getting to connect up again with old friends 

and the usual suspects...

For a break from school the kids got back into the simple pleasure of maze building again.

Then Thanksgiving Day was upon us and I'm happy to report we did finish up our school year tasks.  So now everyone can enjoy the HOLYday season unencumbered by school work.  The M-Family, Frank and Mary joined us again this year to make our merriment complete.

The month did end with one solemn note.  Jared and Titus' favorite master left Yong-In.  We wish him well and will miss him greatly.  He was a remarkable role model to the kids throughout their Taekwondo journey.