Karate Intramural

On Friday night, Micah participated in Karate West's Intramural tournament for the sixth time. (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015...in 2016, neither boy competed, though Asher helped with scorekeeping)

This time around, he competed in the weapons forms and musical forms divisions. He got first place in weapons forms and second in musical:

Asher opted not to compete this year either and, instead, helped with the judging (though he excused himself from judging either of Micah's events, lol). 

Ta da! :)

Four on Friday

Just random schtuff that's been sitting in my brain...

1. My husband's good at taking hints. ;) For Christmas and our anniversary, he added to my ring collection. The top one pictured here was for our 20th anniversary (white topaz and beautifully sparkly). Under that is a ring he got me for our anniversary three years ago...then a ring he got me for Christmas either in 2002 or 2003...then my word of the year ring that I picked up for this year. And the bottom ring was one of my Christmas gifts this year. 

Happy. Just fyi, also, I generally either wear the top one or the bottom four, not all five together. Because, apparently, all of my rings (other than my wedding ring) only fit on that one finger. ;)

2. Back in January, Nathan also brought me this lovely floral arrangement. It graced our table for more than a week, and I think I may have enjoyed how it looked toward the end (so dramatic and rich) more than when he first brought it home.

3. Last weekend, Noah participated in yet another JOAD tournament. He set a new personal best! His specific division is perhaps the most competitive of all the divisions...which means that even with commendable scores, he's rarely toward the top of his group. (There are 30 divisions when you break it down by age, gender and type of bow. In his, the scores are always very tight.) For his next tournament, he's considering switching divisions...shooting barebow instead of compound bow. Fortunately, I already have a barebow set-up that he can use (it's not ideal, but it's better than not). If it goes well, he's thinking about getting his own set-up for next year's season. Personally, I think the change of pace is refreshing.

4. Asher's violin lessons continue to go well. His instructor pretty much loves him...and is delighted to be teaching a beginning violin student who doesn't need lessons on how to read music. :)

The boy sounds good. :) (And I definitely prefer listening to violin practice over recorder practice or the occasional off clarinet note, lol.)

And that's that for now. If I owe you an email or other response, I apologize. Just lots of balls in the air here...not big, bad balls by any means...just lots. ;) 

Bottom braces

In case you were wondering...Micah got the bottom braces on this past Monday.

Doesn't he look excited? ;) 

On the plus side, he no longer has the bands...but now has the bite turbo things. (They keep his teeth from grinding against each other while they realign or somethingerother.) 

Micah's slowly coming to terms with them, lol. Yup. It's good. 

Who knew?

I didn't even realize they made boxes of chocolate this big:

But, apparently, they do. ;) It's bigger than a board game box, people! Nathan gave me this lovely treat yesterday. Yum! 

(And just so you know...I've very much been sharing, so don't think that I ate all those missing pieces, lol.)

It was a lovely, quiet Valentine's Day here. We don't really celebrate it much...which I'm totally fine with. (Of course, it'll take some doing to top last year's Valentine anyhow, lol.)

Ten on Tuesday

Mostly for my own record...just catching up. So, here are ten things that have happened lately that I haven't mentioned:

1. Noah took two SAT subject tests back in January. We're not sure whether he'll need them or not for college admissions, but decided it was safer to take them now (while at least some of the material was fresher in his mind). While he was taking those (since we had to drive down to Longmont to do them), I met up with a college friend for coffee/tea and had a lovely visit. :) (I'm thinking I got the better end of that deal, though Noah did get pizza at one of his favorite places afterward.)

2. Micah's been to three friends' birthday parties. (Asher also went to one of those.) Apparently, a lot of Micah's friends have winter birthdays, lol. 

3. Asher and Micah have performed a couple times for their karate demo team. One of the times, they got to use glo-chucks (clear nunchucks with glow sticks in them), and the other time was performing at a black belt promotion. (They only have those twice a year, and they're more exciting to perform at.)

4. We had one of our homeschool "off weeks." I didn't manage to do anything particularly exciting during it but got some planning done and enjoyed the down time. 

5. I took the boys to see the Lego Batman Movie, which was hilarious. They already want to see it again. :)

6. We binge watched The West Wing on Netflix. It started out with Nathan and I just watching together but Micah joined us by the end. 

7. I've been getting to the gym weekly with my friend Lynne. We also do boot camp three days a week but are adding these in for some additional strength training. As a bonus, I've managed to use the opportunity to get Nathan to the gym some of those times also. ;)

8. Nathan and I got our taxes in to our accountant. It's not exciting, but it's nice to have that mostly all done. 

9. I also gave all my guys haircuts. Again, not exciting, but good to have done.

10. We reaffirmed that I'm not allowed to go grocery shopping, lol. Nathan kindly let me join him and Micah for their weekly grocery shopping trip right before the Superbowl. Let's just say that perhaps I browse and fall prey to impulse buys more than Nathan appreciates. ;) 

And that's some of what's been going on around here...