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:

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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!

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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!

Thankful Thursday...on Friday

So. I wrote this yesterday and then forgot to actually post it. :)

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was quiet and lovely and full of gratitude.

1. We were all together. So thankful that my sons all ended up at Colorado colleges, making holidays together so much easier. Micah had the full week off from classes but stayed in Boulder to work and came home Wednesday. Asher still had classes Monday and Tuesday and came home Wednesday also. Thursday, we had a lazy day of food and new games. Noah got this one, called Wyrmspan, for us to play...

It took a good while but was pretty fun (and the artwork was gorgeous)...definitely had a bit of a learning curve, though. :)

2. We decorated. Noah had to work Friday and the other two met up with friends. We also had some time together watching shows and playing games. On Saturday, Micah and I went climbing then we all put up our holiday decorations since we won't be together again until almost Christmas. (I know my years of boys being available are limited so will be thankful we were able to still all decorate together in the first place.) Boys decided our stockings should be hung in order of our scores from our first Wyrmspan game, lol. So, from last to first (and left to right): Nathan, me, Noah, Asher and Micah. 

We also put up our now traditional tree of lights on the climbing wall...

We also took some photos. Some people cooperated more than others, lol. And then Asher and Nathan made sure to promptly hang the hammock back up. ;) 

Here's how it looks at night...

And I love that it still looks "tree-like" even when the lights aren't on. We bought new lights last year after the holidays and used them for the first time now. See? The strand of lights looks more like a tree...

Gotta say...though a part of me misses picking out a tree and setting it up and everything, I'm really digging this climbing wall tree these past few years. It's so much easier and is definitely "ours."

As has become usual, we didn't put out a heap of other decorations. But the ones we do display are sentimental and make me smile and I'm thankful for that and for the memories they bring each year.

3. I've been walking more. A couple years ago, we painted a bunch of rocks. As I've been walking more, I've been trying to remember to take some along and scatter them in the common areas for the kids to find. I saved these for December...

It makes me happy to think about a little kid finding one and being excited. :) Thankful, too, for the joys of walking more...knowing it's good for me, enjoying the (mostly) lovely weather, appreciating our neighborhood and town, and wonderful conversation time (when I walk with someone, obviously). 

4. My dad would have been 75 on Monday. I didn't mark the occasion by handing out his favorite candy bars this year (Sam's Club was sold out for two weeks and, well, it's getting difficult to find enough people to hand them out to who don't look at me suspiciously, lol). My mom and siblings and I traded old photos and memories of him and missed him dearly. He's been gone more than 17 years now and I'm so sad for all he's missed. I'll direct you to these old posts here and here. (There are plenty more but I don't feel like going to find them all and reminiscing just now.) I'm so thankful for the time I had with him and for the foundation he set for our family.  

And that's my list for now. Somehow it's already December. Hope y'all are off to a great one!

Thankful Thursday

Slacking on my blogging. :P Just feels like there's less to record with sons off doing their own thing. In any case, here's my list of things I'm thankful for today...

1. Micah's social life. So happy that Micah's thriving down in Boulder and enjoying his roommates, teammates, classmates, and friends. Here's a picture he sent me of him and his roommates earlier this month when it snowed...

They named the snowman Dexter apparently. :) He was made down the street from their house, at a nearby park. (Incidentally, we decided to let Micah take a car to have in Boulder shortly after this. He didn't have a car in his first year at CU Boulder; parking on campus just didn't make sense. Now that he has a place to park at his rental house, though, having the option to drive occasionally and stay warmer seems good. We're hoping he stays healthier as a result. When he picked up the car, he also remembered to take his winter coat and gear, lol.)

2. Asher's social life. Similarly, I'm so happy that Asher has found friends at UNC. He's been spending time with his taekwondo clubmates, fellow PE students (both in classes and through the PE Club), the lightsaber group that occasionally has organized battles, and even his roommates. Last weekend, he and four of his clubmates competed at a local tournament...

Overall, they did better than last year at the same tournament and had a great time together. Asher chose not to compete in all the events, just focusing on the board breaking. 

3. Nathan's new job. I don't know that I've actually mentioned it here, but Nathan started a new job back in October. He's now working at August Health, still doing software engineering/programming. His day to day life is fairly similar (still working from home) but he likes this new company's leadership and team better. He's been both appreciating and battling the challenge of learning new systems. Overall, it's been a good move, resulting in a better work/life balance and a happier Nathan. Thankful.  

(I'm very thankful, too, that we continue to have good medical insurance. I'm less thrilled at the hours I've already spent transitioning things over...still working on getting Micah's monthly prescription filled and learning the new procedures and figuring out what's in network, specifically in the two boys' college towns. Bleh.)

4. Fall clean up. With our gloriously longer and beautiful fall, we had to wait a bit before we could tackle fall clean up in our yard this year. Last weekend, we were finally able to clear the gutters (using the leaf blower), trim back foliage, mulch, mow, etc. 

By the time we'd finished the front yard, our yard waste container was full so we opted to wait on the back yard. Plus, our neighbor's tree along our back yard fence hadn't gotten the message that it was fall yet so was still full of leaves. I'm thankful that our big winds on Tuesday took care of that for us, so now our back yard clean up will be able to proceed this coming weekend. It'll be nice to have that done. (Also, that will be the last opportunity to use the yard waste container for the season anyhow.)

So. That's my list for now. Incredibly thankful for a great many more things but turning my attention, for the time being, to figuring out next week, lol. Safe travels to any of you who will be traveling for Thanksgiving and warm thoughts to all!