Fifteen

Today's Thankful Thursday is brought to you by Micah...who turns 15 today. :) So thankful for this kid. We let him open gifts early (and he was genuinely delighted with the random assortment of things so specific to him, lol--dip bars that he'd requested, climber's hold mug for his nightly tea (that helps with the arthritis), signature Alex Honnold spatula (it's a climber thing), etc...) and will celebrate again this weekend, so not much going on today. 

First, then, the traditional height comparison photos...

Yup, he's definitely looking more like a young man and less like my little boy. Sigh. It happens. :) And here is a sampling of other pictures we took after the height pictures...

Yes, he approved all of these pictures, both to be taken and to be shared, lol. 

This one, though, is my favorite of the day...

We'll call that one his official birthday photo. :)

This past year has been a full one for him...

• He continued to manage his juvenile idiopathic arthritis (mostly under control now but still dealing with occasional flare ups).
• He loved the transition from homeschooling to public high school and the making of new friends (and is pretty peeved at the current state of things and how it's impacting his social life).
• He's happy to have also made new friends on the climbing team he tried out for and joined (and is glad that, at least for the moment, he's still able to do some of that).
• He proudly continued with karate and demo team and recently earned his second degree black belt. (Sadly, though, the present situation is making things difficult.)
• And, he's gotten passionate about his current fitness and nutrition goals (apparently his lower back and front delts, among other things, need more work, lol).

He's started thinking more about his future. Things remain very fluid but current thinking includes living in a sprinter van and possibly pursing education in either business or something like physical therapy or personal training. He's only a sophomore, so we've got time. :) 

So thankful for this kid...for how he entertains us with his wackiness and enthusiasm...for how he teaches and challenges us about life and parenting and random other topics...for how he pushes himself constantly...for how he inspires us to be better citizens of the world and better people in general.

Happy birthday, my Micah!

Second degree black belt

Remember a couple weeks ago when I posted about Micah's 2nd degree black belt testing? Well, this morning was his promotion! In efforts to best accommodate pandemic conditions, the promotion was outside (in the parking lot behind the Karate West building) with social distancing and masks. Given summer weather in Colorado, we opted to start the ceremony at 8am. Despite sleepy people, it worked well and temperatures remained manageable (glad, too, that the clouds rolled in so that most of the promotion was overcast). 

So. I took a lot of pictures. Here's just a sampling. :) 

The three candidates displayed their skills in forms, weapons forms, special forms, combinations, targets, sticks, and self-defense. In between those, the guys on the demo team performed a number of routines. (Two of the three candidates are on the demo team...and their partners for some or all of the testing are also on the demo team. Micah's only partner for everything was Asher. Everyone agreed that it's just plain fun to watch brothers...particularly during knife and club defenses and sparring, lol.)

And when everything was done, new belts (with names embroidered on them) were awarded. Rather than the usual shaking of hands and high fives, everyone did elbow bumps along the line...until Micah got to Asher, who promptly lifted him. :)

(Given the givens, this promotion wasn't as heavily attended as most have been, and there weren't nearly as many black belts to spar candidates. (Sparring others outside your family unit required waivers to be signed...we had Micah and Asher only spar each other.) So we were very appreciative of the Karate West members who did show up to cheer the candidates on!)

And then we managed a picture of the candidates with Mr. & Mrs. Yee...

And I got a picture of my guys...

...but let's assume that they were smiling under the masks and count that. Because this is what I got when the masks came off...

And then, despite not having the usual cake and potluck spread, there was some visiting...so thankful for our Karate West community!

And that was Micah's 2nd degree black belt promotion. :) So proud of my boy for persevering through pandemic complications and occasional arthritis flare ups on top of the "normal" challenges of earning this in the first place! Whew.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful this week for checking things off the list...

1. The ACT. While I'm not particularly thankful for the ACT, itself, I am thankful that Asher was able to get at least one standardized test score in the books. (I'll interject here that I really wish they'd just do away with requiring the standardized tests in the first place. A number of colleges have at least for this coming year. But. Not one of the schools Asher's looking at has gone that route, so a standardized test score is still needed. Nevermind that no one's been able to take the tests since February and that he spent all of spring semester taking an SAT prep class in preparation for taking the SAT at his high school in April only to now not have had that class since March. Oy.)

Anyhow. Last Saturday, after three cancelled attempts, he was finally able to take the ACT. (All SAT test dates from April to July were cancelled.) We had to drive up to Cheyenne to take it. (It baffles me why there were no testing centers anywhere in northern Colorado despite at least three college campuses and multiple high schools.) Students were checked at the door, everyone wore masks, and Asher said there were only 9 students in the room he took the test in as they were spread throughout the high school. Whew. Now we'll wait. He's also signed up to take the SAT at the end of August. Hopefully, he'll be happy with one or both of those scores so we won't need to try to schedule in additional tests, though that had been the original plan...we'd signed up to take both in April to allow time to retake them over the summer before applications opened up, as is common practice. Sigh.

While he was taking the test, I found a lovely park and hung out. First I went and took a picture with this train...

Fourteen years ago we visited this same train when Noah and Asher were in their train phase. :) Look how little they were! (They're on the far right of the picture with Grandma Nancy.)

And then I walked the path around this lake four times, enjoying the exercise and being outside...before it got too warm and I retreated to the shade to read a book. 

2. Day one of drive camp. While Asher and I were in Cheyenne, Nathan and Noah got Micah to day one of his MasterDrive drive camp (because of course they were at the same time, lol). Micah got dropped off with our Pathfinder to spend the entire morning going over defensive driving skills like crisis braking and crash avoidance. (Because it's all on private property, he's allowed to do this before getting his permit.) He had a great time and is looking forward to the second day of drive camp (scheduled in a few weeks) that will go over more advanced defensive driving skills like skid training and emergency situations. (Both older boys also did these drive camps, and we feel that they did an excellent job of fostering confidence and educating boys in defensive driving.)

3. More climbing. Micah's had four team practices so far this month and I've climbed on my own during those. While Micah's been loving seeing friends again and being challenged with team practices, I've enjoyed just getting back to a more regular routine. And I'm slowly building my climbing confidence and strength back up and feeling pretty good about it all. I've been slowly advancing the level of climbs I've been completing, and it feels great. :) 

4. Quick moving lines. Noah and I ventured down to Centennial to go to IKEA on Monday. He needs some stuff for his new apartment. We got there about 11:00 and found this line...

Yup, it was pretty long and took up a good bit of the parking garage (and then around outside the building and finally up an escalator). But everyone was being really cooperative and wearing their masks and staying six feet apart and the line moved pretty quickly. Normally, if we'd encountered a line like this we probably would have left. (A number of others in front of us did.) But, having driven more than an hour to get there already (and knowing that IKEA's shipping and online ordering isn't functioning well right now), we stuck it out.

We were in line for about 20-25 minutes...and then spent a couple hours inside collecting things and finally checking out. ;) All in all, I think we did a really good job. Noah had a list of things to get and had looked at comparable items online ahead of time so knew mostly what he was looking for. Regardless, it always takes a good while to get through that store, lol. Fortunately, his apartment is furnished so we didn't need to worry about that...just kitchen and bedroom stuff. Still a few things on his list (even after we also stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond and Target on the way home), but he's mostly ready. 

5. Online printing services. So, almost ten years ago I finished the Good Grief Blog. I've kept it up since then so that it might help anyone looking. I'm going to stop the monthly payments next month, though, and the blog will be inactive. Before that happens, Nathan managed to pull the content into a file for me so that I could print it as a 240 page book...

I ordered this from Blurb (I've done a number of photo books with them and always been happy) and received it last week. So thankful to have this commemoration of that blog! (And so thankful that Nathan was able to figure out how to pull the content rather than me having to copy and paste and match up each original photo file! Now that we have it figured out, I have files ready to print this blog...when sales on photo books or trade books at Blurb become available and as our budget allows, lol. Yay!)

So, amid a number of other things that got crossed off the to do list this past week, these are things I'm thankful for. :) 

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday again! Going a little "deeper" this week in the things I'm thankful for...

1. The privilege of getting older. I'm not sure if it's movies I've watched lately or the news or just life in general, but I need to note that I am truly thankful for the privilege of being alive and getting older. It's a privilege denied to many. So, I'll take my white hairs and poor eyesight and easily bruised limbs...and be grateful. I'm sure I'll complain along the way, lol, but I'm trying to remember this. And, honestly, I'm kinda digging my white hairs right now. :) 

2. The time to sift through my thoughts. Amid all the ups and downs of this year...all the craziness and uncertainties, the anger and resignation, I'm thankful for the time. I'm thankful for the time distanced from others where I've been able to really sit and process the overwhelming barrage of information and opinion. I feel like I've been somewhat forced to really figure out where I stand on things, and that's not been easy. But it has been good. 

3. Retrospection. I initially thought I wanted to say that I'm thankful for a carpe diem mindset but I think "retrospection" is maybe more accurate. Mostly, I'm just very thankful for opportunities taken...and am finding that I appreciate those more these days as this pandemic reminds us that you never know what the coming week will bring and whether an opportunity will still be there. 

Specifically, I'm so thankful...

• that we managed our family trip to Europe a couple summers ago, before all the shutdowns and the burning of Notre Dame and the flooding in Venice...
• that Asher took his school trip to Costa Rica last summer (we'd debated whether sophomore year was the right year for that but ultimately decided that we should take advantage of his interest so went for it) and was able to get a summer job and earn his 2nd degree black belt then (it made for an incredibly busy summer for him but he's extra appreciative of the not busy summer now, lol)...
• that we took our trip to Belize last Thanksgiving (financially it wasn't necessarily the smartest choice, but we intentionally opted to make memories while we still had boys' schedules that worked)...
• that I was able to see so many friends and family at my mom's 70th birthday party in January...
• that we opted to go to two of the earlier sport climbing competitions instead of waiting till later in the season (which ended up being cancelled) so that Micah got to enjoy at least those...
• and just for so many choices along the way. Retrospectively, so thankful that we did what we did when we did it. :) 

4. The moment. Relatedly, I'm so thankful for the moments along the way...for playing at the park on Asher's birthday a couple weeks ago...

...for watching Micah climb ropes for the first time in about four months. (Team Ascent resumed practices last week...never with more than 10 climbers...practicing social distancing...wearing masks.) It's been nice watching them enjoy climbing "together" again and being able to cheer each other on. (Micah's in the top middle.)

...and, for enjoying Asher's loopiness after getting his wisdom teeth out on Monday. We decided it was a good time for having those extracted, as we don't have to work around a summer job schedule and we're all home to help him recuperate and we currently have dental insurance, lol. We knew he was definitely going to need them out at some point and figured now might be better than waiting till winter break when places may be closed again...who knows?! (Apparently, we're not alone in this thinking. The oral surgeon said their office has been quite busy.) For the record, he was quite entertaining on the car ride home. Noah has a video (too long to post) and Asher does a remarkably good job of singing a "Hamilton" song with his mouth full of gauze, lol. He's still a bit swollen but recovering well. This was us trying to get him safely into the house and him trying to prove that he was perfectly steady...

And that's my list for this week. Been getting lots of little things checked off the to do list. :)

2nd degree black belt testing

So, Micah finished his 2nd degree black belt testing last week! Yes, despite the pandemic and all, Micah and two others managed to finish their training and testing for 2nd degree black belt. They met weekly for training...just the three candidates and the instructors, with masks. When needed, Asher was Micah's partner for sparring and self defense and stick and target drills (so he never had to be within 6 feet of anyone not in his own household). 

Last week, the trio had their official tests each night...

The bottom two pictures were from Monday's combinations test. (The combinations test was one of the toughest for Micah because of his arthritis...so much jumping for his joints, and he'd injured his ankle jump roping the week or so before also.) The top pictures were from Tuesday's targets test.

The pictures on the left were from sparring Tuesday night. (Given the pandemic, Micah only sparred Asher. Last year for the same testing, Asher sparred a room full of black belts and upper black belts for an hour. Micah may need to do another sparring test later??) The rest of the pictures were from Wednesday's self defense, sticks and knife defense tests.

And the final night of tests included forms, weapons forms and specials (forms choreographed by each candidate)...along with the evening's bowing out. 

Whew.

So proud of my Micah for his perseverance! I know that physically the testing took its toll when combined with his arthritis, but he pushed through. I know, too, that this isn't the training and testing experience he was anticipating, but everyone made it work. And I'm thankful. 

We're still working out details of how to do a promotion ceremony (outdoors, early morning, socially distanced, no shared food), but I'll update on that later. For now, just so very thankful that they were able to continue during the pandemic...that Asher was able to be Micah's partner, which made that aspect considerably easier...and that both boys have been happy to call Karate West a second home for a decade now. Seriously. A decade. Look at these pictures from their very first class and from last week...

Wow.