Graduation

So...on Saturday, my Noah graduated from CSU with his BS in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Engineering concentration, a Mathematics minor and Cum Laude. Woohoo!

I'm starting with my favorite photo (taken last) and will then go back to the beginning...

So, on Friday afternoon, Noah had the Honors Recognition Ceremony on campus. (This would be why we sent Micah and friends to drive home with Asher instead of me and why we weren't available to see Micah off to prom. It's been a busy weekend.) He received his Honors medallion in recognition of being an Honors scholar and completing the requirements of the Honors program...

And then on Saturday, we all made our way to campus again. Before Noah lined up with the other graduates for the College of Engineering graduation ceremony, we took some pictures...

(Nathan's parents joined us Thursday night and stayed with us for the weekend. We were able to enjoy a lovely visit in person for the first time--longer than a quick drive through in Montana--since Christmas 2019. More on that in another post.)

After pictures, we headed inside Moby Arena for the ceremony...

Noah ended up on an aisle end so was easier to keep track of and see on the big screen. He's wearing the green robe, black Honors stole and Honors medallion on account of being an Honors scholar and earned the gold cords for his Latin distinction (cum laude). The College of Engineering ceremony went off pretty well and in a timely manner, with US Army General James H. Dickinson, Commander of US Space Command, as the distinguished speaker. (He's a CSU alum with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.)

And then it was over and he was a graduate. :) 

(Amazingly, we managed a really good parking spot and were able to find Noah quickly and get out of the arena before the traffic got messy.)

We went out to a celebratory dinner after that and then headed home. Whew. 

So proud of this guy!! He completed his degree with honors and during a pandemic, finished everything in four years unlike a number of his classmates, was a TA during part of that, and learned (and taught himself) so much through his various classes and projects. Currently, he's interviewing for jobs and has a panel interview later this week. (It'll be his fourth interview with this one company so is promising.) I'll keep you posted... :)

Prom

So, after the boys got home, Asher took the other two to their homes while Micah showered and headed right back out to get ready for prom at a friend's house. We were busy elsewhere...more on that later. Given that we weren't there, I'd made Micah take pictures earlier in the week. This was the original outfit plan...

He got the "champagne" colored shirt to coordinate with his girlfriend's dress. And, of course, he had to make sure he could adequately flex and move in the suit. ;) 

But. He broke up with his girlfriend on Sunday (prom was that following Friday). (There's a story here but it's not mine to share. Suffice it to say, he did the breaking up and they both ended up going to prom with separate groups of friends.)

So. Not needing to coordinate with anyone, he decided to switch to a red shirt...

...which actually looked pretty fun with the purple lining of the suit, lol. So, that was the plan.

In his hurry when he got home from Omaha, though, the boy forgot or misplaced or couldn't find things clearly right in front of him...despite the fact that I'd set everything nicely together for him and left him a list of things to remember to take with him. ;P 

Arriving home, ourselves, and finding the things he'd forgotten, Nathan and I generously drove to the friend's house to deliver things. (Honestly, we'd have just let him deal with things like the forgotten shoes and flowers and toothbrush, but he had forgotten his medicine. Since the plan was for him to spend the night at the friend's house, he needed it.) We arrived just before they were heading out. He'd ended up in the champagne shirt and had borrowed a tie and shoes. Since we were there, the friend's mom was kind enough to take this picture for me... 

(And Micah was a good sport about it considering that his plan had been for me not to be there or embarrass him or take any pictures, lol.)

Anyhow, we weren't able to stick around long and headed home. (Many thanks to the friend's parents and girlfriend for making sure Micah was presentable, lol.) From there, the guys who'd met there went to meet up with the rest of the friend group and had dinner and then took some pictures...

They went to prom from there and had a fabulous time. I'm told that the friend Micah's carrying was used as a limbo stick at one point and that Micah won the limbo contest...and that Micah and that same friend re-enacted the "Dirty Dancing" lift scene before being asked to stop. :)

After the dance, the three guys returned to the friend's house for the night (thus staying off the roads), and Micah finally made it home at noon Saturday...where he showered and got dressed so we could head out for Noah's graduation...that'll be the next post...

End of the school year and a road trip

Yikes! Okay, a lot's happened in the past week. It's going to take a bit to catch up...hang with me, okay? I'll go somewhat chronologically.

Last Monday, Micah finished his school year...whew. He went to work the next day and then on Wednesday, he and two friends flew from Denver to Omaha. Asher picked them up and they all crashed in Asher's room on campus. (Good thing they're teenage boys and can sleep on the floor, lol.)

Thursday morning, Asher took his last final to finish out his first year of college (yay!) then the four of them enjoyed the day in Omaha. They played some spikeball, got ice cream, wandered, watched a movie, etc. During that, I texted the four of them and offered $20 to whomever texted me a picture (taken that day) with all four of their smiling faces first. A couple of them replied fairly quickly but didn't meet the specifications. (There were some creative attempts to compile pictures and videos to get all four of them, lol...not sure what was so difficult about having all of them in the same picture.) Finally, though, Micah sent me the middle shot below and earned himself some money to cover their ice cream. :)

And then early Friday morning they all managed to get up and pack up Asher's stuff for the summer. (Fortunately, his lease actually runs through the summer and he'll be in the same room with the same roommates next school year, so he didn't have to move all of his stuff. Woohoo!) They took turns driving and made the 500ish mile drive in decent time (and safely). (That last picture is from the drive.)

Hooray for a successful first year away at college...and for friends and road trips!

And they managed to get home in time for Micah to turn right back around and head out for prom...which will be another post...

Five on Friday

Happy first Friday of May to you all! The sun is shining and it looks to be a beautiful weekend. :) All three boys are deep in finals prep and such and Noah graduates next weekend. So. Before I get all preoccupied by that, here are five things for today...

1. Last Friday, Karate West had it's first monthly promotion since February 2020! (They've managed black belt promotions that only happen twice a year but not their normal monthly promotions for everyone else.) It made me so happy to watch all the demo team kids enjoying being together and getting to perform! It was lovely to have this small piece of our "normal" routine return. 

(Micah's third from the far right with the mop of dark hair. And it was bittersweet because this is one of only a handful of performances Asher's ever missed. Obviously, being away at college, that was to be expected. But with the pandemic limiting the performances, he's actually made most of them as they've been during breaks.)

2. The next day, Nathan and I got to visit with our friends Molly & Mark and their awesome five year old. Oh to have the energy of a five year old, lol. :) It was great to get to spend the time together and we were sad to say goodbye. (But I got a fabulous little boy hug as we were leaving, which made it better.)

3. Recently it dawned on me that we could change out ceiling lights. There's an area in our house that's always been too dark and annoying to me. It only took almost 18 years but I finally had Nathan change out the ceiling light bulbs and, amazingly, it's bright! Crazy. 

4. Yesterday, on his second to last day of college classes, Noah's bike got mostly stolen. (He still has the back tire, back frame and the U-lock that was locking the bike to the rack at his apartment.) Obviously, that's no fun. But. He'd had the bike for nine years and got some good use out of it. And, knowing that bike theft is a major problem on college campuses, we can't help but be thankful that it didn't happen sooner. Fortunately, he only has to get to campus on his own today and once next week...and he can walk, just needs to give himself more time. Whew.

5. Just FYI, I decided and informed my guys that this year we're not celebrating Mother's Day on Mother's Day. Instead, we'll do a double celebration of me on my birthday, which is in a month anyhow. It always bothers me when Mother's Day is...May is always so busy and the last eight years or so it's been the weekend before finals, when boys should be studying or are busy with final projects. I don't feel they can adequately appreciate me when also dealing with the end of the semester, lol. Plus, four of the five of us have birthdays in the summer. When you add Mother's and Father's Day in there, it gets busy. So, this year at least, I told them all that we're celebrating double on my birthday and on Nathan's birthday instead. So there. :)

Okay, off to go climbing and run a couple errands. :) Have a beautiful weekend, everyone! And happy early Mother's Day to those of you who will be celebrating it!

Thankful Thursday

Tonight's list...things I'm thankful for...

1. An unexpected afternoon. I came home today to find Noah sitting inside. He and Nathan had gone to lunch and then both come home instead of dropping Noah back off at his apartment. It was a lovely surprise and a nice break for Noah as the semester (and his college career) is coming to an end. We didn't do anything in particular, just enjoyed chatting and catching up. Once Micah was home again, I made them both take a picture with me...

That was the better picture. This was the first attempt...

Yes, that's Micah's arm behind me. Yes, we're all in Asher's room for reasons unknown. 

2. Boys who text pictures to me. Speaking of Asher, he sent me this over the weekend...

He helped organize FrESCO's Engineers Take a Hike Day. A group of more than three dozen students enjoyed a windy time and my boy was thoughtful enough to send me this, unsolicited. 

(Yes, he probably needs a haircut. He's reached the "why bother when I'll be headed back to Fort Collins in a few weeks" stage, lol.)

3. Climbing. I haven't been able to climb as often as I'd like lately (getting older and having mysterious injuries is no fun at all!) so I'm thankful when I can. Earlier today (before I came home and found Noah), Micah and I climbed at Ascent. I didn't do a great job but I climbed and appreciated it. :)

4. Bathroom work scheduled. We finally found someone (knock on wood) to do the bathroom projects we're wanting. Woohoo! He was the third contractor we met with and one of five or six that we'd reached out to over the past month. (Some never got back to us at all, some never returned our calls after coming out and promising an estimate, and some gave an estimate so high we couldn't consider it.) We're not looking for anything fancy...just need to replace floors and toilets for now. Now we're working on details. Whew.

5. Small changes. I mentioned before that I've been doing some spring cleaning. To look around our house, you wouldn't really know it at all. The changes have been small...just purging and reorganizing shelves and cupboards and such. But. I know that I've done it and that makes me happy. (I'm still going, by the way, lol.)

Okay, that's it for tonight. Thankful.