Ten on Tuesday

Catching up on life here since Micah's graduation two and a half weeks ago...

1. Nathan went to California. The Monday after graduation weekend, Nathan's parents headed out to continue their road trip. (They spent time on the Oregon Coast and then went to the Yakima valley in Washington. They'll be heading back home to Montana in the next day or so.) The next day, Tuesday, Nathan headed out to Santa Cruz, CA for a bi-annual work retreat. He had a great time meeting more co-workers in person (everyone works remotely around the country), kayaking in the bay, and visiting with old friends before flying back home. 

2. Replaced tires. While he was away, the car Micah drives needed new tires after Nathan discovered that one of them was bulging due to low pressure issues. Micah took Asher's vehicle back to Boulder and then Asher and I shuttled vehicles around to get all the tires replaced (given the all wheel drive, we had to replace all four). Micah then came up back from Boulder and we finished swapping cars around again. Fun times but thankful we had enough vehicles and drivers to get that all taken care of.

3. Belated Mother's Day celebration. Once Nathan got back (very late Friday night...Micah picked him up at the airport and the two of them came home), we had a family day on Saturday, the 17th. Lately we've celebrated Mother's Day at the same time as my birthday (and Father's Day at the same time as Nathan's birthday) because there's usually plenty of other stuff going on during Mother's Day (such as graduations or finals). This year, we decided to celebrate in May instead of June so picked a date that worked for everyone. 

We didn't do anything extravagant...just appreciated the time together. We took photos and watched a movie at the theater and enjoyed a late lunch at Centerra (since CSU's graduation that weekend meant that restaurants in Fort Collins were pretty packed) and played games and I got gifts. 

Here's the Mother's Day photo I try to get each year...

...and here's the one we took back in 2016. (We were trying to recreate it a bit this year.)

And here are some outtakes...

4. Early Father's Day photo. While we were at it, we decided to take a Father's Day photo also. 

5. Group photo. And we also took a group photo.

Part of the reason for the early celebration and early pictures, by the way, is that Noah's getting ready to head out on an adventure! He'll be taking time to travel and going to Japan and South Korea for at least a few months. He'll be looking for another job (while he's abroad and when he gets back)...trying to transition from banking back to mechanical engineering. All of that means, too, that he won't be here on my birthday or Nathan's...hence the early celebration and early photos.

6. Micah's health. During our celebration, we also took a minute so Micah could get his second shingles vaccine. Due to his immuno-compromised status, his doctor's been prescribing things like this. Micah is not a fan. ;P He generally doesn't have any reaction to vaccines (particularly since his juvenile rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis...because his immune system over-reacts in the first place) so the shingles shots rather wiped him out. He didn't feel well enough to drive again for three days. Poor guy. Fortunately, the side effects *did* end and he's since been to Children's down in Denver for his normal follow up. Everything seems to be going well.

7. New dishes. One of my Mother's Day gifts was new dishes and bowls. We'd been using a nice plain set for more than a decade (left) and I'm delighted with the colors in the new set (right). It feels somewhat Mediterranean to me and makes me smile. 

The bottom left dish in the photo of the new set is officially a pasta bowl and we've been having fun with the new option. Each dish/bowl size has six different patterns...yay!

(I've had my eye on these dishes for awhile but hadn't planned to get them until a son was at a stage where he needed dishes. ;) As it is, though, Micah will probably need/want the old set at the end of the summer. That's generally my plan for replacing/upgrading things around the house lately...with sons all transitioning to their own households over the coming years. I figure I'll just wait until one of them asks for or needs something and give them ours. Then I get something new, lol.)

8. Tiny dinosaurs. Another of my gifts was from Noah. He hid 50 of these little dinosaurs around the house. Once I find them all, I can collect cash. :) So far I'm only at 38 but am having fun searching.

9. Track meet. A week ago, Asher and I met up with boot camp friends to watch one of their sons compete at the middle school district track meet (basically the "state" event for middle school). I hadn't been to a school sporting event in ages and it's good research for Asher on his way to his PE teacher license. Plus, it was just great fun watching all the kids and parents. Renee's son won his 400m race in a record setting time and we enjoyed cheering for him also in the 800m and for a number of other kids Renee and Lynne know in various events. We had Asher take this photo before we went our separate ways...

10. Pottery. Micah's gift to me was an awesome pottery class for two. We thoroughly enjoyed our instruction at Dr T's Pottery! We learned to use the pottery wheel and created some very functional bowls that will be ready to pick up in 2-4 weeks.

I also included a photo of the very tiny pots that our instructor had made. They were incredible! Seriously, if you're local and wanting to try something new, this was a terrific experience...check it out!!

And that's what's been going on here since Micah's graduation. :) We're shifting to summer now (and I'll have one more gift to report on but it won't happen until August). Stay tuned for more adventures!

Graduation!

Micah graduated! Yup, thanks to a plethora of college credits during high school, Micah spent just two years at CU Boulder and has earned his BA in Philosophy. I'll start with my favorite pictures of the graduate and then go back and recap...

So, technically, the university-wide ceremony was on Thursday. Nathan's parents drove into town on Wednesday for the graduation and we all got up extra early (John, Nancy, Nathan, Noah and I) to drive down to Boulder to battle for parking and walk to the stadium to attend the 8:30am ceremony. (Asher had two finals of his own that morning at UNC so, obviously, did not join us.)

Given that Micah wasn't answering his phone, we stopped at his house first with a suspicion that he was not awake. And, he was, indeed, asleep. Given that he's not a morning person to begin with and had been keeping long hours leading up to and throughout finals (which, for him, ended at 9pm Wednesday) and given that there was no realistic way that he was going to get to where the students were supposed to line up in time, we decided to let him go back to sleep and the rest of us turned around and drove home to Fort Collins. (We got back before 9am and Noah actually decided to go to work rather than take the day off.) Yeah. So. We didn't go to the university ceremony. ;P

Micah joined us in Fort Collins that afternoon after he'd woken back up and such. Asher joined us shortly after that, having finished his semester. That night, we all met up with my brother, sister in law and niece (who's currently a student here in Fort Collins at CSU) for a celebratory dinner at The Still Whiskey Steaks in Old Town. (We'd decided ahead of time not to try to do lunch or dinner down in Boulder, as getting a reservation was crazy. Fortunately, CSU's graduation and move out is next weekend, not this one.) We also walked over to Walrus for ice cream after that and had a nice time visiting.

Friday, then, we all got ourselves to Boulder again. We picked up Micah (who had driven back to Boulder Thursday night) and found parking on campus. We walked around a bit so grandparents could see some of the campus and found a field near the library to take some pictures...

...and then we proceeded to the building where Micah's departmental recognition ceremony was taking place. Since Philosophy is one of the smaller departments, it was a lovely, personal event (and was where graduates actually walked the stage and received their degrees and all, unlike the university-wide ceremony that had too many graduates to do that). The faculty was hilarious (reassuring parents about the value of their child's philosophy degree, lol) and they allowed each graduate to say a few words as they were receiving their degrees. It was truly a great ceremony and was followed by a little reception outside.

After that, we went back inside briefly to get a few more pictures without the sun shining so brightly on us (and because I thought the stairs looked cool).

And then (after sitting in parking lot mayhem for awhile) we grabbed a very late lunch/early dinner in Longmont (again unwilling to brave the crowds in Boulder). Micah then headed back to Boulder since he had some plans for the next day. The rest of us went home and reset briefly and then turned around and drove a couple vehicles to Greeley to move Asher out of his dorm for the school year. We packed everything up and got everything loaded just in time for his check out slot. Then we drove home, unloaded most everything into the front room and called it good.

Whew.

And now Micah is planning to spend the summer networking and polishing papers and looking for what's next. He'll stay in Boulder until his lease is up at the end of July. We have no doubts that he'll tenaciously figure out his next chapter and look forward to seeing where that takes him. So proud of this kid...his confidence, his enthusiasm, his motivation. He challenges us and entertains us and is just an all around great guy. :)

Thankful Thursday

Happy May! Not quite sure how 1/3 of the year is already gone but also feel like the start of the year was ages ago...know what I mean? ;) In any case, happy May to you. Here's a quick list of things I'm thankful for today:

1. Spring flowers. My tulips have bloomed and are happy. My peonies are well on their way. I'm thankful for the signs of spring...not quite as happy about the yardwork that signals...but quite happy that I don't suffer from allergies like Nathan does so that I can enjoy being outside.

2. Backyard eggs. I have a sweet source for backyard eggs and they're simply adorable! I love all the colors and the fact that they even come in different sizes! Makes me smile. :)

3. Sourdough still. Yes, I'm still baking sourdough. I'm not baking daily or anything...just once a week so far. I'm definitely getting the hang of it and we've enjoyed it immensely. Thankful, too, for the new accessories we've acquired along the way...like our new toaster (toasted sourdough is amazing!), butter bell/crock and bread knife.

4. Reading. I've been reading lately. One of the books I've appreciated recently was called Full Body Burden. It's by Kristen Iversen and is about the nuclear weapons plant that used to be here in CO just south of Boulder. I found it to be a great read...very informative. Always thankful to learn new things.

5. Bright Star. Nathan and I went to the Candlelight Dinner theater a couple weeks ago and watched a performance of Bright Star. It's inspired by a true story and has a score by Steve Martin. We hadn't heard of it before but the score by Steve Martin caught our curiosity. Truly, it was wonderful! The musicians and the actors were amazing! Thankful that such experiences are available to us.

6. Climbing. Yes, I continue to climb. Pretty proud of myself for continuing even with Micah down in Boulder now so I don't have a climbing partner. It won't mean anything to most of you, but I've been pushing myself a bit more this year and have had a couple of climbs I'm particular happy about this past week...one that was on auto-belay and was the most difficult rating I've completed on ropes and one that was technical and used holds I generally avoid. Yay, me!

7. Colorado colleges. Gearing up right now for a busy next week...with Micah graduating from CU and Asher moving back home from his dorm at UNC. Gotta just say that I'm thankful that all three boys ended up at Colorado colleges. In watching other parents' discussions and concerns about graduation and move out, I'm so glad to be within easy driving distance so that we don't need to figure out lodging or shipping/storing belongings. Plenty of other reasons to also be thankful about the distance, though I won't get into them all. Whew.

Okay, that's a good list for now. Here's to a happy and healthy May to us all!

Easter

Happy Easter, all! Just wanted to share a few pictures from our low key celebration here. With boys still fully in the midst of their semesters and just life in general, we only had a few hours all together. Asher and Micah had arrived for the weekend at different points (and Micah left again Saturday night for a friend's surprise birthday party)...so there really wasn't much/any time with all five of us until Sunday morning.

Boys woke (or were woken) and opened their minimal "baskets." (In the past I've found practical containers to use like dump trucks when they were little or lunch bags more recently, but nothing was needed this year so it seemed wasteful to buy bags or baskets or anything...so I just recycled old bags, lol.) I scaled back this year and just had some fun candy and a little something for each boy. Micah's game (like Korean jacks) was the most entertaining to watch, as he spent a decent amount of enthusiastic/loud/frustrated time trying to master it...and made good progress. (Asher got juggling balls and Noah got an escape room in a box game.)

Then, as is becoming a new tradition, we had our duck hunt. :) Nathan and I hid 120 tiny ducks in a set area of the house. Boys searched (and searched). (We hid them with varying degrees of findability...some were in plain sight but we didn't make it easy, lol.) In the end, they found 109 of them, though we think one of them may have been leftover from last year that we hadn't found in last year's round up. I'll settle up with them, and they'll each get a buck per duck. (In case you're wondering, Asher found the most by a decent margin.)

After that, I made everyone take a couple group pictures...

We then had a nice lunch, played a board game and had some cake. And I didn't get pictures of any of that. ;P But here are some pictures from the morning:

And then Micah and Asher each headed back to their respective campuses.

So. That was our Easter. Incredibly thankful to have had the time together...and to have been able to just take that break before getting back to life in general. 

Thankful Thursday: Sourdough Edition

So, a couple weekends ago, I took a free class at one of our favorite local shops, The Cupboard. It was about how to make sourdough bread. I'm thankful...

1. ...to have taken a class in person. Hooray for in person classes! I've since poked around online and the sheer volume of recipes and advice is overwhelming. For now, I'm just following what the lovely Maren told me to do. So there. :)

2. ...that I went with a friend. Lynne joined me and it's been great since we can check with each other about what Maren said and compare notes and buy supplies/tools together. Yay!

3. ...that the first bake went pretty well! Anyhow...back to my story...last weekend, I made my first batch of sourdough bread! Maren gave us all some of her starter at the class and this is what I ended up with...

I'm so pleased with the fact that it turned out like bread! I'll still be tweaking things a little...but, hey, it came out looking and tasting like bread. Whew. :)

4. ...that gathering the tools and such for this whole thing led to rearranging our countertops. And, along the way, I acquired a few new things...which necessitated rearranging some areas in the kitchen. It wasn't a major process but was a nice opportunity to do some reorganizing. Plus, so far (which is admittedly not far, lol), I'm really happy with my purchase choices. Yay for the new dutch oven (which I've also used to make soup!) and the cool silicone slings (that made moving and transferring the dough/bread so much easier) and the proofing baskets (which worked exactly as Maren promised they would).

Plus, in rearranging the counters, I updated a few existing things, which was also fun. Still have a few things on my list, too...;) 

5. ...that we'll hopefully enjoy homemade bread with known ingredients going forward. I have plans to bake again this weekend. I don't know that it will be a regular thing but I want to try the recipe again and hone this one before I try anything else. It's nice knowing exactly what's in what we're eating. (We don't eat a lot of bread in the first place, actually, as I generally try to avoid gluten. But I know that sourdough messes with blood sugar spikes the least so feel like it's a better choice...and feel even better being able to use flours that don't have other additives in them.)

So. That's my sourdough story so far. I didn't get in on the bandwagon during the pandemic but am happy to be starting now. :)