Year Two

Okay, folks, Noah's back on the CSU campus and ready for year two! He's living in the same dorm group (different building, though). Yesterday, he and I moved him in. Unlike last year, it wasn't all five of us. I went to boot camp, Nathan left for work, and I saw brothers off to school. Then, Noah and I loaded the van.

This was the pile before loading up:

It's really not too much stuff, though I was surprised at how easily it all fit in the van. (And this pile was non-existent just 24 hours before this, lol.) We managed everything in just two trips. First, we took most everything...he checked in and got keys and such...and he and I loaded everything into his room. (Once again, we didn't have the assistance of the many students on hand to help lug stuff. They were there. And I'm sure they'd have been happy to help if I'd flagged them down. But I guess we just looked like we had things covered, because no one offered any help...which turned out fine.)

Between the two of us, we parked at the sidewalk and unloaded from the van to his room in 10 minutes. Yup. Ten. (I know because I started a timer since they told me I could only stay parked there for 30 minutes.) One, I'm definitely stronger this year than last. :) Two, the boy really didn't have that much stuff. Three, SOOOOO thankful that he's on the first floor this year instead of the fourth, lol. 

After reparking the van, we unpacked his room (well, mostly him...I helped with a couple things and then sat while he did stuff) then got lunch. Then he had a quick job interview (fingers crossed!) before we made a Target run and returned home to pick up the fridge and his bike. Took all that back to campus and unloaded, and I managed to make it home again before Asher & Micah got home from school. 

But not before I made him take a picture with me:

Sorry there aren't pictures from his room and all. It wasn't very exciting, lol. It looks pretty much like last year except that the window faces a different direction so the light was different. 

Anyhow. After all that, later that evening, I picked Nathan up from the bus stop, grabbed Asher & Micah from karate and got Noah from campus. We all went to dinner then went back to see Noah's space. (He's been assigned a roommate, btw, but he didn't move in yesterday so we haven't met him.) While we were there, both brothers wanted to leave Noah with a little gift...

Yup, they drew fun faces on his closet door (with dry erase markers, after we got the Sharpie away from Micah, lol) so that he could stand there and see himself with them. :) Sadly, Noah erased them all as we were leaving, lol.

So. Classes start Monday. Officially, he's a junior or senior based on credits but this is still his second year and it will take him four altogether. (If he had a different major, having his Associate degree already would have shaved time off. But, mechanical engineering is set up such that he has to take certain classes in a certain order so it will take all four years still. But, having all the general ed stuff out of the way means that his schedule has more room/flexibility than most of his classmates.) 

Here's to the 2019-2020 school year!

Busy week

The past week has been full. :) 

Last Tuesday, I had brunch with Deanna (yay!) while Nathan met with two different companies to get estimates on replacing all our gutters and repainting the exterior of our house (thanks to the hail storm last month...still working on getting that work actually scheduled but it likely won't happen until October).

After that, all three boys and I had our annual eye appointments (my prescription remains steady but all of the boys' increased a bit). Since our optometrist is also our neighbor, we also did some catching up and he pitched me the idea of buying one of his extra vehicles.

That evening, our neighborhood had a block party which actually turned out to be pretty fun...with cornhole and food & margaritas and lots of conversations...

Micah and Asher had to leave early, though, for an extra demo team practice. 

Wednesday was busy with errands. Also, Asher & Micah went to a going away party for a friend on demo team. She's off to Germany for a year as an exchange student! 

Thursday was the first day of school for Asher & Micah. It went pretty well according to them. :) Meanwhile. Remember that pitch my neighbor/optometrist made about buying a third vehicle? Yeah. We got to thinking about that. We've played with the idea but were really, really trying to hold off and manage with just two vehicles. But. The low price and benefits he reminded us of (he has three sons also) got us thinking. So. We looked into his vehicle (which needed some work and is a bit rough) and started poking around online for similar vehicles in that price range. Somehow...somehow...we ended up with me heading to the bank and Nathan and Noah going down to Longmont to look at a vehicle and take it to my brother's mechanic down there...and then driving it home.

This was the listing photo. It's really in very good condition, though is older and has more miles than either of our other vehicles. So far, we're pretty happy with it...him. His name, btw, is Reg. He's a Pathfinder, you see. And my geekly lot immediately associated that with the Pathfinder mission on Star Trek Voyager headed up by Reginald Endicott Barclay, III. So, Reg. 

(For the record, our minivan is named Vincent Willem Van Go. And the Audi is named Audrey. She doesn't have a longer name. We feel a little bad about that.)

Meanwhile, Asher went to parkour and Micah and I went rock climbing...where I got belay certified for top rope climbing. (Micah got certified on Monday. I had to have a lesson and then come back on a different day to prove that I remembered the lesson.) Climbing on ropes is a different beast than bouldering, lol. But. I definitely enjoy belay climbing with a partner much better than using an auto belay device. Looking forward to more practice...

Friday, then, I ended up spending much of the day dealing with the new to us vehicle...back and forth (and back and forth) with insurance, getting the emissions checked, and waiting in a very long queue for registration and plates. (The boys' second day of school also went fine, and they had karate and demo team practice that night.)

Saturday I met Lynne at the gym and the boys had demo team practice. After lunch, we headed up to New West Fest for the boys' annual performances with the Karate West demo team. They got started a bit late due to the group in front of them and also some rain, but then had a great performance with a large crowd. I took a lot of pictures but here are three:

(They were missing a few members because summer is always tricky like that.)

(Asher's the upside down one on the left. If you look closely, you can see their friend mirroring Asher further back and to the right.)

They all did a fabulous job and were thankful that it was overcast and not too hot. :) After the performances, we grabbed a snack and headed home for weekend chores and such.

Sunday, Asher, Micah and I went to a birthday party for one of the other demo team members (and I stayed to visit with the mom). The demo team gang ate and swam and flipped and played frisbee and had a great time. After all that, we picked up some missing school supplies and reorganized backpacks and finished homework.

Today, I crossed a bunch of little things off my to do list (scheduling things, laundry, calls, tracking down a package that got lost, etc). Also, Micah and I managed to talk to his advisor before classes and make a slight change to his schedule that Micah was then able to get implemented during school today. I'll go update the class list on the left shortly. 

Okay. That's it for now. There's more coming but that was the past week. :) Just wanted to record it somewhere.

First Day!

Asher & Micah are off on their first day of school! Yup, CEC started today. And, of course, I took pictures...

Noah's classes haven't actually started yet. That won't be until August 26. But. He won't be here that day so I made him join us this morning. :) 

And here's the group shot...

Don't they look all teenagery? Also, Micah's head is blocking part of the house number sign (that I edit to use for school years). Just last year that wasn't an issue:

See?! Teenagery for sure. And, look how small they were back on the very first day I took a first day of school photo!

(This was September 2008 as Asher and Noah were heading off to Options for the first time (the one day a week enrichment program and their first experience with school). Micah would have been just turned three at this point.)

So, here's how things stand for this coming school year:

MICAH is a freshman at CEC. He's got five classes and is looking forward to getting involved. He's also signed up for a new rock climbing group/class that will meet twice a week (for two hours on each of those nights) that he's excited about, though that doesn't start till the end of August. And, he's still actively enjoying karate and karate demo team. 

ASHER has decided to switch to being a full time student at CEC this year and is a junior. He's enrolled in four college classes this semester. (I'll update the lists on the left soon.) Like Micah, he's still enjoying karate and karate demo team, and he'll continue his weekly parkour class as well. 

NOAH will be living on campus again at CSU for his second year there. Since he already had all of his general ed requirements taken care of with his Associates degree, he's tackling classes in his major (mechanical engineering), thinking about a minor, and continuing his coursework for the Honors program. (Because of the Associates, he doesn't really need the gen ed stuff that the Honors coursework covers but is sticking with it for the other benefits like early registration. I also think it's good for him to have the challenge of different subject matter and paper writing than he gets in his major.)

That's pretty much it. :) Yes, this means I'm officially done with homeschooling. No, I haven't settled on what I'll do next just yet. For now, I'm just adjusting to our new schedule and plan on tackling some house projects. More to come, I'm sure...

Belated birthday pictures

Posting a week late, but I finally got Micah's birthday pictures taken. ;P

First, here are the traditional height comparison pictures...

Yup, he's definitely on his way up, lol. Between ages 12 and 14, the boy grew about 7 inches!

And here are a few shots I managed yesterday. He won't like that I made them black and white, lol, but I like them that way...I think the personality comes through better.

We didn't really do much to celebrate, unfortunately, though he did get to go enjoy "Tarzan" with us and his Nana. Mostly, what he wanted was climbing gear and we'd picked that up earlier in the summer and gifted it to him then so he could use it. Of course, I think yesterday was actually the first time we used the harness...as I took the mandatory lesson to learn how to belay a climber and he officially got certified (he's known how for months but couldn't do it outside of a class until he turned 14).

Honestly, this past year wasn't the easiest for this kid...with normal puberty hormones and transitions on top of the juvenile arthritis diagnosis. But. He's kept his chin up and forged ahead, always looking for ways to improve and always willing to put in the work. At the moment, things are going fairly well. 

So. Many wishes for a grand coming year...as he's looking forward to starting high school and getting involved there...and is joining a new climbing class to challenge himself further...and is enjoying karate and demo team aplenty still. Outside of all that, he spends time with us and with his brothers, watches climbing videos, plays video games and tries to get his friends to answer his emails, lol. Love this boy of mine!

Buskerfest

It's been a busy summer. Between family & friends visiting, Asher's trip to Costa Rica and testing for second degree black belt, and house projects, we haven't managed to get away as a family all summer. With Asher and Micah starting back to school next week, I blocked out this weekend for some family time. Rather than actually travel and stay anywhere though (given time constraints and the fact that we just had to put a bandaid on a backyard sprinkler issue and are needing to repaint the house and replace gutters after the hail storm at the start of July, lol), we opted to just enjoy the time together and ended up down at Denver's Union Station for Buskerfest yesterday.

It was a pretty warm and sunny day, so we tried to stick to shade when possible...and managed a group shot between shows...

Micah and I also joined the small children in the neighboring splash pad to cool off a few times...

We ate lunch and wandered the farmers market and browsed some of the shops...and, of course, we enjoyed the buskers. We caught the tail end of a couple and three of the other acts and had a fun time...

Those buskers were fantastic and we felt for them...performing in the heat and at altitude (most were from out of the area and were obviously having some trouble adjusting)...awesome stuff!

And after all that, we took the bus back to our park-and-ride and drove to a favorite place for dinner before heading home to play some games and just enjoy each other. 

Today we watched a movie and tackled some necessary chores. All in all, maybe not a fantastically exciting weekend, but we're thankful that it was spent together. :)