July catch up

Apparently I haven't posted much during July. We're still here, just living. :) Here's a quick list of some of what's been going on lately...

1. Nathan's had a couple different trips. Nathan had a quick trip out to San Francisco for a work presentation and then had a nice vacation at the annual EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, WI. (He had a very similar July last year.) This year, though, he talked his best friend TJ into joining him and the two of them camped with our local EAA group again...this time in a UHaul van instead of a tent, so that they had AC available and stayed drier. They had a great time! Back here at home, I was again thankful to have boys who cook. :) (Nathan generally handles all the cooking here, and Noah and Micah stepped up nicely to fill in while he was gone.) 

2. Our AC went out. Unfortunately, though, just before Nathan left for Oshkosh, our AC went out. Lovely. Long story with numerous tech visits...but after a week of not having AC, it's working again now. Whew. Huge thanks to the fabulous (second) tech who figured out a way to get it working temporarily while we wait for the part that's back-ordered for a month. Thankful, too, that the temperatures here weren't as high while our AC was out. Don't get me wrong; it was still too hot for sure in our house, but at least it wasn't the 90-100 degree temperatures of this week. Bleh.

3. I've been selling things. I get in purging moods sometimes, lol. As part of that, I convinced boys to clear some stuff out--mostly old HeroClix pieces from a game they played years ago. They were mostly happy to just donate or trash it, but I got them to let me list things on eBay instead, with any proceeds then going to me. :) I've made a nice chunk of spending money and gotten rid of most all of it.

4. I've been buying things. Unrelatedly, I've been doing a fair bit of shopping, lol. I placed a number of Amazon Prime Day orders, have placed other online orders, and stopped at IKEA earlier this week. Before you get too excited, though, most of the purchases were "boring"...just stuff needed around the house or for Asher or Micah when they head back to college. Still, it's been a lot of packages. Fortunately, I'm a pretty good shopper and got good deals. And it feels good to have those things checked off my lists.

5. My climbing is getting better. I try to climb about twice a week. I'm never going to be great like all these other climbers, but that's okay. For me, just continuing to do it and making personal progress is dandy. (There are rarely any other women my age there climbing so just being there feels like an accomplishment.) In any case, in the past few weeks, I've felt like I was improving. My local gym had a bouldering league competition over a month or so earlier this summer. I've participated once before and usually try the climbs after the competitions anyhow (they leave the routes up so everyone can try them). Prior to this summer's comp, the highest route I'd been able to finish was a number 6. (They're numbered in increasing difficulty and scored accordingly for the competition.) A couple weeks ago, I finished a number 9!! I was pretty excited.

6. Friends. Also this month, I've gotten together with friends and spent time also texting with friends...just lots of talking and sharing. So grateful for fabulous people in my life! Happy, too, to see my guys getting out there and spending time with friends as well!

And now, we're watching Olympics and getting ready to move Micah back to Boulder to the house he's renting with a couple of friends/taekwondo teammates. (The lease starts Aug 1 so he'll move a few weeks ahead of classes starting. Asher's going back to his same dorm room so won't move back until a few days before class start. Both boys' fall classes start Aug 26.) And that's what we've been doing around here. :)