Mayberry USA

T's coach has given the team a few days off while he travels to spend time with his brother and a friend so we took the opportunity to go to Mount Airy for the day and see all the Andy Griffith sites plus see other sites as well.  I took tons of pics as I normally do to share with you all and for Timothy to have to look back on when he's all grown and hopefully be able to share this blog with his own children someday.  I will try to add captions to some of the photos but most are self explanatory.  Enjoy the tour via photos.  

This is a view of Pilot Mountain on the way up to Mount Airy the home of Mayberry USA.

The boys just wanted to say Hello from Mayberry.

Andy Griffith's childhood home is only a few blocks from the Andy Griffith Museum.

The Darlin's Cabin

We so enjoyed the tour.  I got so many pictures but these were the best.  Hope you enjoyed the picture tour.  It was so easy to keep social distance.  People were very mindful and respectful of the businesses wishes and we were able to stay well more than 6 feet apart from others today.  I'm so ready for this pandemic to be over with though.  It's so tiresome to have to do extra planning because of this pandemic.  But at least we were able to get out and about today and do something fun.  

Updated Security System

So we did a thing yesterday and had an updated security system put in. We’d had our current one for 7 years or so and wanted to show you just how much things have changed in that time. When we had the security system installed 7 years ago this was the top of the line. Check out how much had to be installed. 


Now everything is in this unit:

They’ve really come a long ways with security systems since we had the first one put in. It’s of course all touch screen. It has an app to run everything. Plus we added cameras that are sharp as a tack. It’s quite amazing how far they’ve come. All this and our bill is actually a couple of dollars cheaper than it was with the old system. Pretty amazing huh. Loving 🥰 being updated.

 Now if we can get some good weather days we can get our new roof installed. Materials have been here and sitting since around the 16th-20th and because it’s been storming so much we just wait. Can’t wait to post about the installation of the new roof. 

We’ve also been unable to do anything more with our deck. It sits half taken apart because of our crazy weather. It’ll be nice when we can get the materials and get it done. The materials will be a couple of thousand dollars but it has to be done because it’s falling apart. 

At some point it will all get done. Praying for good weather for all of our outdoor projects so we can get them done because we have some things to take care of in the yard as well. Lost another tree in these storms and with all the brush we can’t tell if we lost anymore. Oh the things that need to get done. We’ve stayed quite busy with this pandemic. #covid19 #gettingthingsdone #stayingbusy 

Washer In New Home

Finally, between the rain storms coming through we were able to get the new washer installed. Testing it with a load of towels now. Hope it ends up being a good washer for us. Always a little nervous about buying new appliances because they sure aren’t made as good as the appliances we had growing up. Those things were made to stand the test of time. 

Went and Done a Thing Today

Had to go buy a new washer today. Our 22 year old washer bit the dust. I would love to say we’ll get another 22 years out of this new one but with the way they are making things today that’s not bloody likely...LOL! This is what we ended up getting. Had a lot of great reviews. Not into getting anything fancy with the all digital boards. This will do just fine. 

For Your Viewing Pleasure

SlowMo Spinning Hook Kick Head Shot:

Heat, Heat, and More Heat

The weather in North Carolina is Extremely Hot 🥵 mixed with more Extreme Hot. You walk out and before you can get to the AC in your vehicle you are sticky sweaty 🥵. It makes you even wonder why you even take a shower 🤔?!?!  Hot is an understatement. I saw this on Facebook and had to share it because it’s the truth:
Hope everyone had a good laugh from this post and are finding a way to stay cool. So thankful for air conditioning and the guy who invented it right now!!!  

Training Friday and Today

Here’s a couple of videos. First was from Friday and the other is a video we did after T’s training session today. 

Power will supposedly be back on at 2am

This is what we are doing in the power outage. Playing cards and watching downloaded movies. 

Property Damage from the Storm

We had one heck of a storm come through. Trees and power lines down. So currently we are without power and are playing cards. Here’s some pics and video of our property. 

This first pic is of all the lightening strikes we had. 

Bark from another Oak. 







Where the pine tree we lost broke off. It was as tall as the pine tree beside of it. 




Here’s the video of what we think was tornado 🌪 swirls on the property. 

Celebration of Life Graveside Service for Adam Perry

Today we said our final see you laters to a great friend and father. A good man who was also a follower of Christ. That’s why it’s just see you later and not goodbye. 

He was a herpetologist by trade and he did TaeKwonDo on the side and was a 2nd degree blackbelt. Our boys were great friends having known each other since preschool and done TaeKwonDo together. His death took us all by surprise because it happened from a freak accident due to dry ice that turned into carbon dioxide while delivering rats in a minivan to another herpetologist in Florida. There was a leak and the dry ice off gassed carbon dioxide into the van killing Adam and his co-driver. They were able to pull to the side of the road but sat on the side of the road dead until the police were informed of their disappearance when they didn’t check in when they were supposed to. When they were found they had been dead for several hours. It’s a sad senseless death. Everyone feels that they will wake up and this will all have been nothing more than a bad dream. 

Adam’s casket with his Taekwondo uniform and his belts he earned while doing Taekwondo.

The video below is from balloons that were released in his honor today. 

Grand Master Jun Lee, Adam’s Grand Master, was in attendance today to pay his respects. Life may go on but it will never be the same. Adam lit up any room he was ever in. Such a good man. 

#roughweek #ripadam #gonebutneverforgotten 

A Life Snuffed Out Too Soon

We found out yesterday that a friend of ours passed away. We’ve been processing it all for the past 24 hours because it was such a shock. Adam Perry, age 48, passed away from accidental carbon dioxide positioning. It was a freak accident. He was doing something he’s done probably 1,000 times and a leak happened and took his life. Adam is the dad of T’s oldest friend. T and Adam’s son, Blayden, have known one another since they were two years old having gone to the same preschool together. T ended up at the same Dojang as Blayden after preschool and they received their 1st and 2nd degree black belts together. They are still good friends. This death has hit T hard and he’s hurting for what his friend must be going through. Adam helped the boys through both of their 1st and 2nd degree black belt test cycles. Adam was a 2nd degree black belt himself. While he may be gone he will never be forgotten. RIP Adam Perry. You were an amazing dad and friend. We never saw you without a big smile on your face. 

Blayden, Adam, and T with their 1st degree black belts. 

T, Adam, and Blayden at the 2 Cellos concert. 

Adam was a big reptile guy. He especially loved snakes. He introduced T to his reptiles and T loved every moment of it. 

T holding a snake for the 1st time. 

Adam received the student of the year award the same year he earned his 2nd degree black belt. Such an awesome man. #gonefartoosoon 

Humidity 🥵

The weather in Kentucky and Ohio was so pleasant.  At home today when you walk outside you melt. Yuk. Wish we could have stayed longer. Today has been a nice day to recover from all the traveling but it’s best done indoors. I’m writing this with sweat pouring down my face from being outside for just 10 minutes. Crazy weather. 

Social Distancing While Training

The Ohio trip was great. T got to train while social distancing with his USAT Coach, Master Hershberger. We had went to Kentucky to visit family and took the opportunity to hop over and meet with and train with T’s USAT Coach in Ohio. It was a very nice trip. Love the weather up there. It’s much nicer than here. 

This facility is kept so clean 🧽 and sanitized that you could eat off the floors. I’ve never been in a Dojang that’s been kept this nice, organized, cleaned, and sanitized. It’s very impressive. Every piece of equipment is sanitized after each use. Not too many Dojang’s that you can say that about. This coach was already doing all this before the pandemic and even more so now. His Dojang is like how I like to keep my home, cleaned and organized. 

Something else I loved was that the room the parents watch from has mirrored glass. We can see out but the kids can’t see in. With how easily distracted kids get that’s a real blessing. It keeps them from looking at us and stay focused. It makes it to where the parents can watch their kids and not have coaches upset over the kids looking at us. That’s a huge Win Win in my book. A win for them and a win for us. 

The pictures below are from T doing conditioning training.

Our Trips

Loved, loved, loved spending time with family. T got to spend time in the pool everyday. He loved it and actually got a tan started. If he were able to spend a lot more time he’d have started turning dark in no time. As it is we have his love of TaeKwonDo to thank for him being such a really white boy....LOL! 

We got to get most of the family project done. That was so huge. It’s going to be so nice when it’s completely finished. 

After we left from visiting the family we jotted over to visit with T’s USAT Coach since we were so close, check out his facility for the first time, and get some training time in.  It’s been nice to be away from N.C. and where things are a little more normal. T has been having a blast. He’s the happiest I’ve seen him in a while. He, along with so many others, has hated this pandemic. We will be glad when it’s over and he can get back to full time training. Life has been a little weird for us with us not running so much and training like we were before the pandemic. 

While it’s been a fun trip I am looking forward to getting back home and to our own projects that we have going. Looking forward to them getting completed.