Last two weeks

Oops. Went missing for a bit there. :) Here's some of what's been going on here beyond our regular stuff:

January 29: Nathan and I attended the Fort Collins "State of the City" event. It was at the Lyric theater, which we love. We got there a bit early and grabbed some dinner then settled into our seats in the main theater to watch the presentation film and then listen to the mayor and city manager answer questions. 

This was the first time we'd been to this event (and the first time they held it at The Lyric, apparently), but we left happy with our choice to live here. Continually impressed with Fort Collins.

January 31: Asher went to his first job fair. He's pursuing an apprenticeship through the Colorado CareerWise program. It's still early in the process, but we're hopeful, as the program offers some amazing opportunities. 

February 1: Micah helped his friend Sarah at her Black Belt promotion. (Both Asher & Micah have partnered with Black Belt candidates before to help them through the months-long process.) Here's a picture from her second day of testing a week earlier:

I'm kicking myself for neglecting to take a photo during the actual promotion. :) Many congrats to Sarah!

February 2: Asher & Nathan volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. It was Asher's first time and the weather cooperated and was fabulous (mid-50s and beautiful). They both had a great time helping to frame in the upstairs of one of the duplexes at their site. 

While there, Nathan popped in to the duplex he and I had helped on last year...

We built that wall in the background. Today, it looks like this:

So cool to see the progress and how these volunteer hours become homes!

February 3: Noah (whose CSU classes started back up on January 22) joined us to watch the most boring Super Bowl any of us can remember, lol. But. We got a small catering order from Matador to enjoy during the game and were entertained by the commercials, so it was still a nice day. :)

February 4: Micah and I spent much of the day dealing with medical stuff. Micah's been having issues with his knee and foot off and on for the past month or so. It had gotten worse in the last week or so to the point where I finally called and scheduled him a doctor's appointment. (He was missing activities and hates to miss either karate or rock climbing.) The doctor ordered blood work and x-rays. (Micah's never had blood drawn before and HATES needles but managed to survive...and now understands that having blood go "out" is less painful than having shots go "in." He's also never had x-rays before (other than dental) and was apparently unimpressed.)

In any case, everything came back "normal." The next step is an appointment down at Children's Hospital in Denver...with the Rheumatology department, as the best guess at the moment is some form of juvenile rheumatoid/idiopathic arthritis. We couldn't get him in until the start of March, so we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, we're just taking it day by day...as some days he's fine, but some days he has trouble walking. 

February 6: Asher had his first test for his MAT 121 class (college algebra). He got 100%!

February 7: A couple weeks ago, I was selected to be a member of the city's Climate Action Plan Community Advisory Committee. (They received almost 30 applications for a few openings.) It's a volunteer group that helps advise city staff and meets quarterly. The first meeting, for me, was February 7. Having done my homework ahead of time, I was happy to meet the terrific citizens and representatives present and work with them to brainstorm ideas to help guide the city's plan...and continue to be impressed by the forethought and organization of the city of Fort Collins. 

February 8: Nathan finally succeeded in taking the bus from Fort Collins to Boulder. :) It was his third attempt, lol. The first time, he missed the bus. The second time, he ended up in Longmont instead and had to Uber to Boulder. So. Making it all the way to work in Boulder was great. :) Since he's been driving down to Boulder two or three times a week, taking the bus to and from saves us a good bit in gas and maintenance and parking...plus, he gains back those couple of hours to read and do other stuff while riding the bus. All good things! Course, he's not crazy about the early departure time... ;)  

And that's what's been going on around here. Oh, and I continue to purge and reorganize things around the house...making great progress and took a load of things to Goodwill today actually. Whew.