New West Fest

Asher performed with his Karate West demo team at New West Fest earlier today. The team did a fabulous job, and Asher came away exhausted (he was in ten of the eleven routines) but happy. :) It's difficult to get great pictures when they move so quickly, lol, but here are a few of my Asher:

After the performances, we wandered around New West Fest for a bit, enjoying some snacks here and there. Then, reluctantly, we headed home to tackle the normal weekend chores that got pushed to the end since we were in Estes yesterday, spent the morning cutting boys' hair and then were at New West Fest. ;)

Whew. 

Rocky Mountain Half

Look who finished his first half marathon!

(That's Asher all in black giving Nathan a high-five, lol.)

Yup, Nathan rang in being 38 by running his first ever half marathon, the Rocky Mountain Half. It was the race's first year and had lower participation numbers than initially anticipated, but it went off beautifully. Nathan got up at "0-dark-thirty" to drive up to Estes for the 6am start, and the boys and I followed a bit later...so that we were in time to see him cross the finish line in roughly his target time. Yay!

After that, Nathan grabbed a shower at a local gym, we did some shopping, played a round of miniature golf, ate lunch at our favorite restaurant in Estes, got ice cream and coffee and headed for home. A lovely, if tiring, Saturday. :)

Brain dump

- We started our new school year on Monday. Oy. ;) Despite good intentions, we're easing into it and didn't tackle everything this first week. The main issue is just that we're all (the boys and I) still in summer vacation mode and not really wanting to start back yet, lol. But. To make the rest of the year work (we have a vacation planned at the end of September), we needed to start now, so start we did. :)

- Also on Monday, we went to the orientation dealio for Fort Collins Options, which Asher and Micah will be doing this year. It's the same structure as what we've been doing for the past five years, but a new group of people/teachers. I think it'll be good. :)

- On Tuesday, we quietly celebrated Nathan's birthday. To commemorate turning 38, he'll be running his first half marathon this Saturday!

- Micah insisted on getting dressed up for Nathan's birthday dinner. When asked whether he was ever going to wear any of his other (clip on) neckties again, he replied, "Nope. A hand-knotted tie is better. It shows a guy's individuality." There you have it.

- Yesterday, Asher and Micah had their eye appointments. As expected, Asher now needs glasses. ;) His prescription actually isn't even as strong as Noah's (yet) but was enough that he wouldn't have passed school screenings. So, we had our optometrist (who's also our neighbor and who also has three boys and understands) recommend frames for a very active, sometimes accident prone sort and ended up with these:

They twist and bend, folks, and will be ready next week sometime. :)

(Asher was a bit put out about the whole thing at first but seems to feel better now. He was cleared for not needing to wear the glasses when he's active...like at karate. I think, personally, that was really what was bothering him about needing glasses...how he'd handle that at karate, as he'd probably need to get special sports glasses for that. But, he's cool with just wearing them for schoolwork and such.)

(Micah, meanwhile, has perfect vision right now, though he really wants glasses...of course. The optometrist assured him, though, that genetics gives him a decent shot at that still, so not to worry, lol.) 

Getting unstuck

So. I've been rather stuck this past week...adrift with my long to do list yet seemingly unable to find the motivation to actually *do* most of it...procrastinating and avoiding. You know what I mean. ;) 

But. I'm going to make progress today. 

I am.

Because today is the six year anniversary of the day my dear, sweet dad died. And he wouldn't have any sympathy for my rut. No. Actually, he would have sympathy...because he was nice like that. But he wouldn't have understood and would have told me to just get on with it. ;) He was the kind of guy who always just got things done. They might not have been done spectacularly or with incredible attention to detail, lol, but they would be done. Procrastination was something he simply didn't indulge in.

So. Here goes. Thanks for the push, Dad. :)

For sale

Hey all.

I’ve been cleaning out my school stuff in preparation for the coming school year (which I'm going to start on MONDAY...yikes!) and have some things up for grabs to help cover the cost of the new stuff I bought, lol. If you’re interested, contact me through that "contact me" link up above…first come, first served. ;) I'll cover the shipping costs if you're not local and will ask that you pay me via PayPal. :) 

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1. This is the older version of the program, so does not include auto-grading. I purchased this used recently but have not used it at all, so I cannot vouch for it (decided I’m willing to pay for the newer version for the auto grading because I'm lazy like that, lol). I paid $75 and am selling it AS IS for $65. This includes the full program…Test Solutions CD, Lecture & Practice CDs, Solutions CDs, Answer Key & Test Bank, and workbook itself. The workbook has some wear but everything appears in order and in good condition.

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2. Same deal as above almost exactly. The only difference is that this one does not have a Test Solutions CD. (They may be included with the other solutions CDs, but I don’t know for sure.) I paid $70 and am selling it AS IS for $60.

Teaching Textbooks Geometry. This is just the CDs, no books. Included are the Test Solutions CD, the Lecture & Practice CDs and the Solutions CDs. I’m assuming this is the older version as well (they only recently released the updated one), so no auto grading. Again, I’m selling this AS IS, since I’ve not touched it since buying it. I paid $50 and am asking $40. (For what it’s worth, I’ve used both Teaching Textbooks Math 6 and Pre-Algebra this past year and didn’t use the workbooks at all, so was fine with buying just the CDs, assuming I’d only use those anyhow.)

Teaching Textbooks Math 6. This is the latest version. We just purchased and used it this past year. The books are still in the shrink wrap, as we didn’t use them. Retails for $150. Asking $80.

Magic Tree House set. I have the first 44 books in this series by Mary Pope Osborne. Nine of the books are hardcover (#29-32, 38-41 and 44) and the remaining books are paperback. All are in very good condition (two of my boys have read them all but were very kind to the books). If you were to buy these individually from Amazon right now, it would cost you about $230. I’m asking $65.