Five on Friday

First post of 2025! Not hugely exciting, lol, but here are five things today...

1. Annual Santa photo. So, after our Montana trip, Micah headed back to Boulder on Dec 26th to work during break. He came back home last weekend to hang out and we got my annual Santa photo. It's one of the things I ask the boys for as a Christmas gift each year. They've been getting creative as they're getting older and more reluctant to actually sit with Santa...

We put a fireplace scene on the tv and they wore their matching sweaters (Micah got one for Noah for his birthday and got one for Asher for Christmas). After that, it was a good weekend of brothers binging shows and all of us playing games. Yay!

2. NYE. Going backward for a moment...Micah didn't join us for New Year's Eve, opting to hang out with one of his roommates instead, which was cool. The rest of us did our own thing. We don't generally do a heap of anything special...some snacks just before midnight and a toast with sparkling cider. Exciting stuff, lol. This year, we did a wee bit more and had a kinda theme. We streamed the Wicked movie and had Wicked themed cocktails and snacks... 

No one else appreciated my pink cotton candy with the pomegranate sparkling cider so they opted to torch it instead, lol. 

3. FAFSA. During this winter break, Asher and I also filled out his FAFSA for next year. I'm pretty sure it was the 18th FAFSA I've filled out (between my own eight years of college and the three boys). It went surprisingly quickly, so, whew. Since Micah will graduate in May and the 2025-26 academic year will be Asher's last, I *think* this may be the end of me needing to fill out FAFSAs. Woohoo!

4. Vinnie. So, on Wednesday our minivan--Vinnie--decided not to start. Turned the key and nothing. Lovely. Ended up having him towed from our garage to our preferred repair shop. Fortunately, on Thursday they were able to replace the starter. Also fortunately, Asher's still home so we had an extra vehicle here to use on Thursday and to pick up Vinnie. Really glad it was just the starter and that Vinnie's home and working again now. Whew.

(Note: Vinnie is getting a little old. We got him new 16 years ago. He's been a fabulous vehicle for us and has seen us through many extra-curricular activities and road trips. We know we'll eventually replace him as our primary vehicle but are trying to wait until Asher and Micah are graduated and on their own enough to no longer be on our auto insurance policy.)

5. Miscellany. Just a few things I'm thankful for right now...

1. my holiday card door...I tape all the cards I receive on my office door and keep them up throughout the year. I love seeing all the smiling faces and sentiments daily. :) 
2. large print library books...yeah, sometimes I check out the large print versions from the library. Mainly, they're often available sooner than the regular copies. But. It's also lovely to read without my reading glasses, lol.
3. our new Blink doorbell...when we were delivering our holiday fudge to neighbors, we realized we're the only house on our cul-de-saq without a video doorbell of some sort. We're not really worried about it because we're generally home all day anyhow and our front porch is one of the most visible ones. But. There are times that Nathan and I don't hear the doorbell when we're each in our offices. So. We got a Blink video doorbell, which alerts our phones when there's motion at the door. This is particularly handy when Micah's prescriptions are delivered, as they don't always ring the doorbell and the meds need to be refrigerated. It also came in very handy the other day when some neighbors dropped something off but Nathan didn't recognize them. I was able to look at the video clip that was recorded and tell him who they were. :) 

Okay, that's what I have for now. Asher will be heading back to Greeley tomorrow. Classes at both UNC and CU start Monday for spring term. It'll be the end of our winter break officially, and then we'll all finally be underway with the new year. 

Twenty Eight Years

Happiest of anniversaries to my fabulous husband! Thankful that he's still the partner and friend and man that I'd pick time and again. So very blessed to be celebrating 28 years of marriage today! Randomly, here are some of my favorite photos of us from this past year...

So very thankful for our many adventures and looking forward to many more... 

Penultimate day of the year!

Happy next to last day of 2024 to you all. Here's our holiday card...

And here's a link to our holiday letter if you'd like to read it. (If you follow this blog, it's all been covered here...but sometimes a recap is nice, right?) I'm seeing that my link wasn't working so here's the text of it:

******

Time for the annual holiday letter. Let’s see. 2024 has been full. 

Nathan and I did a lot of traveling. We flew to Phoenix in February to help watch my awesome nephews while my sister and brother in law had stuff to do on the east coast…had a fun-filled and very full few days with escape rooms and zoos and feeding stingrays and kid basketball. In March, we enjoyed a couple’s trip to Las Vegas to take in a Cirque du Soleil show, the Neon Museum, the Atomic Museum and more. In April, we were in San Francisco to watch Asher & Micah’s college taekwondo clubs compete in Nationals…and did some sight-seeing on our own, too! (Loved exploring China Town, Little Italy, Lombard Street, the piers, Coit Tower, Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz!) In June, all five of us drove to my brother and sister in law’s in Idaho for a family reunion. Our three entertained (and were entertained by) ten of their little cousins. We then spent some time on Lake Coeur d’Alene on our way to Montana to visit Nathan’s parents before finally driving home. And, in October, we drove to South Dakota and explored Devil’s Tower, the South Dakota Air & Space Museum, Badlands National Park, Wall Drug and Wind Cave National Park. Yup, lots of traveling.

Beyond that, all three sons are doing well…

NOAH (24) bought himself a new car and got a promotion at work. He’s now the assistant manager at the bank. He and Nathan took the new car on a road trip to see the eclipse in April (ended up viewing the totality in Oklahoma). Since then, he’s also taken a number of solo trips to stargaze and photograph the skies and hike. He’s still living here at home with us but is looking to hopefully change professions (back to mechanical engineering?) and move in 2025. 

ASHER (22) continues at the University of Northern Colorado, pursuing his BS in Sport and Exercise Science for his Physical Education K-12 teaching license. He’s on track to graduate in May 2026 and has been enjoying time in local schools for some of his classwork, attended a big physical education conference in Denver in October, and continues as treasurer in the UNC PE Club. As I mentioned, he road-tripped with the UNC Taekwondo Club to Nationals in San Francisco in April, where he took home the silver in board-breaking. He returned to his after school YMCA job for part of the spring and summer, helped out with the big summer Karate West promotion (both with black belt testing and by performing with the demo team), and has been busy this fall with classes and taekwondo, adding in time to help out with instructing the Karate West demo team a few times and the UNC Lightsaber Guys group with organized fight scenes. He’s been riding his OneWheel and electric unicycle and has only been to urgent care twice this year (so far, knock on wood), and neither time was due to riding. :) 

MICAH (19) lived in the dorms for the spring semester at CU Boulder and was very busy with classes and the CU Taekwondo Club. He competed with the CU demo team and individually in sparring at Nationals in April, and their team took home silver overall. Over the summer, he worked a couple short term jobs, helped with fundraising events for the club, and enjoyed multiple outings with friends. At the end of July, he moved into a rental house down in Boulder with a couple of friends. He’s now working two part time jobs, is a captain and also vice-president of the taekwondo club, and is set to graduate with his BA in Philosophy in May 2025 (thanks to having graduated high school with his AA). He still climbs from time to time and is loving college life. 

Medically, for his juvenile arthritis, Micah was doing monthly infusions during spring semester. At the start of the summer, he chose to participate in a research study which meant he went off of all medications. (To clarify, the infusions were working just fine. He chose to participate in the study in the hopes of seeing if he could manage without the meds and to help the science.) That was going okay for a while; but, by early August (with joints flaring again), he opted to end his participation in the study and go back on meds, this time opting for a weekly injection that he administers himself. Thankfully, that seems to be working well. Over the summer, he also got a small hole in his retina (likely from sparring at Karate West helping with black belt testing) which required laser surgery in September. He’s also been to urgent care a couple times this year. Fun times, lol.

As for us, NATHAN started a new job in October! He’s now working for a company called August Health, which builds software for senior living caregivers. As at Snackpass, he’s still doing computer coding and working from home. So far, it’s going well and he’s enjoying the challenge of learning new systems and meeting new people. The company is completely remote but had an all company retreat in Savannah in December. Speaking of travel, in May and in July, Nathan flew to San Francisco for Snackpass work gatherings and presentations. Also in July, he and his best friend met up in Oshkosh, WI for the annual EAA AirVenture fly-in and had a great time catching up and exploring together. Nathan also had a work convention in Scottsdale, AZ in September.

And, ME? I’ve been busy orchestrating and coordinating all of that. :) More specifically, I’ve spent time purging and selling boys’ stuff, dealing with our broken AC (which required multiple visits over four months by a great technician to finally get the motor replaced and everything working again), organizing the removal of a tree and the planting of a new one in our front yard, and cleaning and reorganizing my office. I also spent hours dealing with insurance (for medication authorizations and urgent care visits and switching when Nathan changed jobs, etc) and planning all those trips. Beyond that, I continue doing boot camp with friends, climbing a couple times a week, and volunteering from time to time. I’ve also been trying to walk more. 

And that, my friends, was our fairly full 2024. We have a good life and know it. We try not to take it for granted. Wishing you all adventure and joy in 2025!

******

That was all. Just wanted to post these before I forgot. :)

Belated Christmas wishes

Hope you had a lovely Christmas! Ours was quiet and good. This year, like last, we joined Nathan's parents at their place in Montana rather than gathering at our house. This time, we made the trip before Christmas instead of on/after Christmas. So...after getting (almost) all of our fudge delivered and having all our presents wrapped and ready, we flew to Bozeman on Saturday the 21st. 

It was a long day that started with Asher waking up sick. He was having symptoms near enough to appendicitis that we figured we'd rather be safe than sorry so took him to Urgent Care to have that ruled out before getting on a plane and then being in the middle of nowhere in Montana. Fortunately (?), the doctor was pretty confident that it was a stomach bug instead of appendicitis so we hurriedly finished up our packing and got to the airport. (We made it fine but it was definitely a more chaotic morning than we're used to, lol.) There was a slight scuttle with an unruly passenger during boarding that delayed our flight but we managed to take off. John & Nancy picked us up once we landed, we had dinner nearby and then drove the couple hours to their place. Just before bed, though, Asher vomited all over, so that was fun to clean up before finally getting some sleep. 

On the pro side: it was nice to have our holiday stuff pretty much done early...and John & Nancy's floors aren't carpeted so clean up was a bit easier (would have been easier if he'd managed to use the trash can we'd preemptively set beside him, though, lol).

On the con side: it made visit number five to Urgent Care for us for 2024 (Asher's third visit)...and the vomit sprayed on coats and the quilt and the walls. 

Fun times. 

We spent Sunday and Monday just chilling together, exchanging gifts and playing games. By Sunday evening (having mostly kept to himself until then), thankfully, Asher was mostly recovered. Whew.

Tuesday, we made the trip back to Bozeman, enjoyed lunch near the airport together and then got dropped off for our flight. I remembered to take a photo...

We had an uneventful flight and got home in time to heat up the frozen Waltzing Kangaroo meat pies we'd purchased for that purpose (since most places were closed for Christmas eve). 

Oh! One of the highlights of our trip this time was tiny bunnies. Remember the little ducks we hid last Easter for boys to hunt? Well, we got tiny bunnies (Nancy used to collect bunnies and still has quite a few despite downsizing) and hid them all over the house. (The bunnies are actually a little bigger than the ducks, fyi.) The intention was for them to find them throughout the year and think of us. :) 

Nathan entertained himself lining the bunnies up before we split them up between the five of us and set about hiding them while John & Nancy were out of the house. It was fun! Plus, it was awesome watching John & Nancy find them during the rest of our stay. By the time we left, they'd only found about a third of them but seemed to enjoy the hunt. Some had been intentionally hunted and some had been happened upon randomly. We're easily entertained, lol. 

Christmas morning, then, we woke people up to exchange our own presents a bit after 10. (I don't think we've ever opened gifts earlier than 9, btw, lol.) It was quiet and thoughtful and lovely. We played some new games and enjoyed a Christmas lasagna and just appreciated the time together. 

And now we're slowly getting back in the swing of things. Micah headed back to Boulder yesterday (he had work today) and Noah's been back at work yesterday and today. I'll be back later with more of a wrap up of the year as we get closer to 2025. :)

Thankful Thursday

Quick post today. I know I'm "behind" but also know that it's more important to me right now to be spending time with my guys. I'll catch up more after the holidays probably. ;) So. Here are some things I'm thankful for lately...

1. Tuba Christmas. Back on December 7, Nathan and I ventured up to Old Town for a nice date lunch, listening to part of the annual Tuba Christmas and doing a little shopping together. 

The weather was much nicer than last year when we first attended, and we enjoyed our people watching immensely. 

2. Tim's gym. More than eleven years in and I'm still enjoying boot camp three mornings a week with most of the same group. During the pandemic, we formed a core group, meeting over Zoom and getting together in person every so often (sometimes just socially, not to work out). Recently, Tim, our evil-trainer-yet-motivating-force, and his wife opened their own physical gym. (They'd been training people over Zoom and in their basement since the pandemic.) While we still do boot camp over Zoom for various reasons, most of us have also joined his gym and have been enjoying seeing each other in person there lately. Thankful for workout buddies who keep me going! 

3. Mr. Asher. On December 12, I helped Asher pack up his dorm room for the winter break. While there, I spotted this on his desk. It makes me smile that this is how students address him when he's teaching for a class.

4. Packages done and wrapped. I got everything in the mail on Monday and have everything here wrapped and am feeling pretty good about it all. I always conveniently forget how long it takes to wrap and package everything, but at least it's done, lol. Along the way, I was particularly thankful for the new postage scale I finally thought to order (I'd been having to go in person for any packages over 3lb but now have a new scale that goes up to 50lb so can print all my postage at home...yay!) and for grid lines on the reverse of wrapping paper (makes the OCD in me so much happier to cut in straight lines, lol). 

5. Fudge gifts. We made fudge again this year for various neighbors and friends. Almost done actually delivering them all, too. Thankful for this easy treat and that we bought this specific cutter tool (last year? the year before?). It makes creating fairly uniform bites soooo much easier and quicker!

We tried two new flavors this year: candy cane and hot cocoa. Oh! I was also very thankful to find pre-crushed candy canes and tiny marshmallows specifically for baking. Hooray for specialized ingredients! (Actually crushing candy canes and using normal marshmallows would work also but this was considerably easier.)

Okay. That's my list for now. Micah's semester finally finished last night and he got home today. Off to enjoy the holiday season with my full house now. Hope you're all able to do the same!