Thankful Thursday

Just a quick list today...things I'm thankful for:

1. Climbing. Yup, still climbing. The three of us actually climbed on Sunday and again today and had a pretty good time. I remembered, today, to get some pictures...

Thankful for this activity and the time it gives us together. 

2. Haircut. You may or may not have noticed in the pictures above...but I got about 9 inches of hair cut off yesterday. The lovely Heather of Peonies and Pin Curls has been taking care of my hair for ages now and knows that, though I actually really love my hair when it's super long (it was to my waist), I also get bored and like to switch things up, lol. I appreciate that she gets me. :) 

3. Grease Monkey on Oakridge. I think I've mentioned it before but I really enjoy that...when I take our vehicles to get oil changes at the Grease Monkey near my house...it's almost always predominantly staffed by young women. Grateful for the reminder and example that women rock. 

4. Cooler weather. The temperatures have dropped a wee bit here lately and I'm appreciating it while it lasts. It was lovely being able to weed the yard last weekend without the sun blazing down on me. (I also appreciate that it's been so hot before that that even the weeds have been reluctant to thrive so there wasn't too much weeding, lol.) 

And that's my list. :) Still amazed that it's the end of June, by the way. See you in July!

Thankful Thursday

Thursday again. :) Things I'm thankful for today...

1. Cleaning my washing machine. Remember how Micah ran that Spartan Race and got thoroughly muddy? Yeah, even after hosing everything off outside and then washing it, my washing machine still had mud. In trying to figure out how to get it clean, I discovered that apparently my washing machine has a "clean washer" setting. Who knew? ;) So. I found some of the cleaning tablets it recommended, ran the "clean washer" setting, and--voila!--my washer was clean again. Lovely. And, it's nice to know that now. :)

2. Asher's introductory flights. I mentioned briefly before that Asher had an intro to aviation class last semester and was considering a minor in aviation. To investigate that a bit further this summer, we had him sign up for an introductory flight with a local flight school. Due to weather and necessary rescheduling, he actually ended up doing two introductory flights with two different flight schools. Here he is at the first one last Saturday:

...and here's the second one that finally was able to be completed this morning...

He got to do most of the actual flying and really enjoyed both flights! Soooo. After a number of discussions and much thought, the new plan is that he's going to take a year off from college, stay here, work, and also complete his private pilot license.

(He'd been looking at doing that through UNO's aviation minor already, but the logistics of managing that alongside everything else seemed to us like setting him up for a very rough year. The lessons taken at UNO, obviously, would require scheduling off site (and, as is the case anywhere, would be prone to needing rescheduling based on the weather). Working through that with hard deadlines (on a semester schedule) while also carrying a full load of architectural engineering courses felt like one or both things wouldn't get the attention necessary for successful learning.) 

We don't have all the details in place yet but are excited to see where things go from here. Asher seems happier about flying than about engineering and will work throughout the year to pay for the lessons and also save for whatever comes next.  

3. Spoons. Many thanks to Spoons for being so conveniently close to home and having plenty of soups that didn't require chewing for Micah as he's been recovering from his wisdom teeth extraction a week ago. He's doing well and feeling mostly all better (though still avoiding too much chewing).

4. Denver Greek Festival. On Sunday, Nathan and I ventured down to Denver to attend the Greek Festival! None of the boys wanted to go with us (well, Micah might have been interested but couldn't eat any of the foods at that point anyhow, lol), but we enjoyed our day together in the sunshine regardless. 

We got to ride in a party bus that was serving as the shuttle from a nearby parking lot...stood in one of many long lines for gyros (and a shorter one for loukoumades)...wandered the many indoor and outdoor vendors...and got to tour the giant golden domed church, complete with a talk inside about the making of the dome and the significance of the various artwork. When we go again (apparently this is a big annual occurrence), we'll try to go on Friday instead of the last day...as many of their desserts and alcoholic beverages had run out on Sunday. 

Altogether, alas, it wasn't Greece. ;) But. We're thankful for the beautiful Greek community so nearby and the opportunity to reminsce about our trip to Greece earlier this year. 

5. Climbing with Noah. This summer, Noah's been joining Micah and I (sometimes just me) at Ascent. It's been fun working on climbs with him and sharing some of the things I've learned along the way...

(Most of these photos were of a particular route we both worked on last week.) Noah's been exercising more regularly on his own this past year and seems to be enjoying adding climbing to his routine. As he's been continuing his job search, I've been mindful to appreciate this time together. 

Okay. That was kind of a lot of stuff. Thankful. :)

Happy Anniversary to my mom!

Today would have been my parents' 50th wedding anniversary! 

Cheers to a beautiful marriage and partnership! My mom's celebrating this weekend with my youngest brother and sister and their families. We can't be there but are wishing her much love and appreciation for having married dad 50 years ago. Five kids and 17 (almost 18) grandkids later...they did a pretty darn good job.

Wishing dad was still here to celebrate with mom and enjoy all these grandkids...but so thankful for the years they had together, the foundation they established, and the example they set. 

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday! So, this happened today:

(Waiting to be called back for surgery, being wheeled to the car, and recovering at home...)

Yup, Micah had his wisdom teeth extracted today. That makes us officially done with that. :) (Technically, Nathan still has his wisdom teeth, but apparently his mouth is big enough and he doesn't need them extracted. But the boys and I have all had ours out over the last five years.) In any case, so far all is going well. Micah wasn't as entertaining on the car ride home as Asher, but I had Noah with me again to video it anyhow, lol. Mostly Micah was very concerned about when he could eat, why we didn't have any vaseline in the car (for his chapped lips), how to make an adequate playlist, and not gagging. :)

So, my quick list of things I'm thankful for today...

1. The handy ice pack wrap I found for Micah's face, which allows him to ice his face and also keep his hands free. Saw this recommended by a parent group online and so far feel like it's definitely a step up from a couple bags of frozen peas. I have a couple sets of the inserts so they can be switched out (so at least one set is always cold). And, yes, I measured the boy's big ol' noggin before ordering to make sure it would fit, lol. 

2. Dental insurance. Yeah, we don't normally have dental insurance. We're incredibly fortunate, though, to have had the option to enroll in dental insurance through Nathan's employer each of the years we knew wisdom teeth were going to be coming out. Whew. 

3. Dr. Robertson's office. Thankful, too, for the fabulous team at Northern Colorado Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. They helped us with all four of our wisdom teeth extractions. They've been easy to work with and great to communicate with!

I'm sure there's more, but I'm headed to bed soon. :) Thankful for that, too! 

Bathrooms

Okay, pretty much caught up now. :) One of the main things that's been occupying our time the last couple weeks has been our bathrooms project. Fair warning, this post will get long...I just want a record of it some place. Feel free to not read it all, lol.

It started simply. The main goal was simply to replace all three toilets and the flooring in each bathroom. The toilets were old and unreliable. It had gotten to the point where we often had to manually open the tank to get it to flush or to stop running or any number of other things. Plus, they were rather not water efficient. And the flooring in all three bathrooms was starting to peel. It was vinyl adhesive tiles that Nathan's dad kindly installed for us when we first moved in (18 years ago!) to replace the carpet that was in each bathroom. (Seriously. Who puts carpet around toilets and tubs?! It was kind of ridiculous and needed to be changed with young boys who were toilet training, lol.)

So, fairly straight-forward. Back in March, we started looking for someone to do the work. We managed to get two contractors out to look at the bathrooms. One never got back to us again after that. One gave us a quote about four times higher than what we were wanting to pay (refused to consider flooring other than tile and included removal and replacement of one of the vanities, though that wasn't on our original list). So, we started looking again and contacted three more contractors. Only one replied. Fortunately, that one was awesome. He came out and did a walk through and gave us an estimate and got us on his schedule...and promptly answered emails between then and the scheduled time (when we were ordering supplies and such)...and then completed the work last week in three days. Woohoo! Three cheers for Kyle Sutherly of Handyman Home & Auto!

That's the short version. In true "If you give a mouse a cookie" style, it felt like each decision led to another task or purchase, lol. In the end, we did accomplish the primary goal. And we made a few other improvements along the way. :) 

Here are before and after pictures of each bathroom and a list of what was done...

The MASTER BATHROOM...before then after...

Things Kyle did:

• replaced all the flooring (for simplicity and economy, we went with the same thing in all three bathrooms...it's vinyl planks--dark oak, because there's too much oak in our house to change it all out so we opted to embrace it)
• replaced the baseboards
• replaced the toilet (hooray for getting rid of the beige toilet and switching to a white, water efficient one)
• added an electrical outlet behind the toilet (so that I can now plug in my heated toilet seat without running an extension cord out and around to the sink area)

Things we did:

• repainted (it's hard to tell here but the walls were all beige and are now Ultra Pure White...we decided it would be difficult to color match to get the wall behind the toilet so ended up repainting the whole room...we painted ahead of Kyle's work and just touched up behind the toilets when the toilets were out)
• replaced the light fixture (Nathan disliked how difficult the old one was when needing to change a lightbulb and we decided a clear fixture was preferable for more light)
• replaced the pocket door hardware to oil-rubbed bronze (we realized that we'd missed that when we switched all the brass out back when we re-did the bedroom and bathroom in 2014)
• replaced the towels and bath mat

Next is the BOYS' BATHROOM...

Things Kyle did:

• replaced all the flooring 
• replaced the baseboards
• replaced the toilet (again, hooray for getting rid of the beige toilet and switching to a white, water efficient one)
• replaced the sink (because it, too, was beige so now is white)
• had us call in a roto-rooter type company due to a blockage in the toilet plumbing (which turned out to be fortunate since the blockage ended up being in the shower drain and he also discovered that apparently our water pressure had been turned up higher than necessary, causing us to use more water than needed and potentially causing more wear on our pipes??)

Things we did:

• took down that dust-collecting glass shelf near the shower
• repainted (we'd never painted these walls so they were just a dirty white...they're now Ultra Pure White)
• replaced the light fixture (because that light bar was both ugly and rusting)
• replaced the towel bar near the sink (to one that coordinated with the new light fixture...and we moved it up a little bit)
• replaced the curved, rusty shower bar (for a straight, chrome shower bar...straight so that the curtain doesn't stick out as far since the toilet is too close to the tub...we tried to get the toilet moved while we were having it replaced but unfortunately that wasn't possible)
• replaced the shower curtain (for one with a built in liner and a sheer area at the top to let in more light)
• replaced the bath mat (for one that can be more easily laundered)
• replaced the light switches and outlet and the plates that go with them (because the outlet was loose and because the light switches were dirty so we replaced them with toggle switches that are easier to clean)
• replaced the door stop & floor register

And, finally, the GUEST BATHROOM...

Things Kyle did:

• replaced all the flooring 
• replaced the baseboards
• replaced the toilet 

Things we did:

• took down that dust-collecting, unused medicine cabinet and the random wooden hook 
• replaced the flapper in the old toilet because of course it decided to fail/break the Friday five days before it was replaced (fortunately, it was an easy $3 fix)
• repainted (we'd never painted these walls so they were just a dirty white...they're now Ultra Pure White)
• replaced the light fixture (because that light bar was both ugly and rusting)
• replaced the towel bars (again to ones that coordinated with the new light fixture)
• added coordinating towel hooks near the sink and near the shower
• added a tension rod and shower curtain (so that the focal point isn't an ugly shower door)
• replaced the towels and bath mat (and realized that the bath mat doesn't need to be out most of the time so it's currently hanging on the shower door)
• added cool metal octopus art to the wall 
• took down an ugly hook on the back of the door and discovered that there were large holes in the door so covered them up with tentacle stickers :)
• replaced the light switches and outlet and the plates that go with them (because one of the plates didn't quite cover the hole in the wall for some reason and because the light switches were dirty so we replaced them with toggle switches that are easier to clean)
• replaced the door stop & floor register

Whew. Yes, this got long. Just a few last thoughts:

• It's nice that Nathan's tall. :) Painting ceilings and above doors would be much harder for me otherwise. 
• We always underestimate how long it takes to paint. It's all the little things like prepping the walls and cutting in around things. Ugh.
• Relatedly, we're very glad we decided to paint before Kyle did his part. It meant we could take off the old baseboards and just paint to the floor, without having to cut in around new baseboards. It also meant that it wasn't a big deal if we dripped on the floor, lol. 
• That little strip of wall between the corner and the door frame is evil. Trying to paint it without also painting the door frame is ridiculous. (Tip: do this before you paint the adjacent wall so that you can lean against that wall without leaning into wet paint.)
• After *much* deliberation, we ended up just painting all three bathrooms Ultra Pure White, which is the base color for the Behr premium paint we used. It meant we didn't have to have anything mixed and made it very easy to get additional paint (and to return the extra gallon that we ended up not needing, lol). 
• It's not news to me, but Nathan and I have very different approaches to work area cleanliness, lol.
• Oy, little things add up.
• Note to self: before any next house projects that require additional lighting, we need to get updated/new work lamps that don't put out so much heat.
• Very thankful that we have three bathrooms. It made bathroom work much more convenient since we could switch between bathrooms (and meant that Nathan and I used the guest bathroom shower for the first time since we've lived here, lol).
• Yay for new toilets that work! We have a new appreciation for toilets that work reliably and well. It's strangely satisfying. 

Okay. That's it. Really. :) Lovely to have that work all done.