Decisions & updates

End of March. Whew.

So, updates...

After much waiting and then deliberation and math and more conversation aplenty, Micah has decided to attend the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) this fall. He's been admitted to the Leeds School of Business and is looking forward to the many opportunities and programs offered. It won't be as warm as California but feels like a better fit, will be considerably easier on our travel budget, lol, and means that he'll be able to stick with his current medical team a bit longer. 

Also, I've mentioned it before but after our campus tour last week Asher made it "official"...he plans to transfer to the University of Northern Colorado this fall and has been accepted as a transfer student to their Sport & Exercise Science: Physical Education K-12 Teaching program. 

Sooooo...we've thus spent the past week(ish) navigating college website systems: paying enrollment deposits for both Micah and Asher...and setting up student accounts...and submit housing applications...and all that. Annoying (because of the websites, lol) but mostly it's just lovely to have a plan and be moving forward. :)

And here's a photo from 13 years ago, just for fun...back when Asher and Micah held my hands. :)

(This was at Oceanside, CA during our trip out to Legoland in March 2010.)

Thankful Thursday

Another week, another list. :) Things I'm thankful for this week...

1. Last Friday. Asher, Micah and I decided we should do at least *something* over spring break. Since Asher didn't have work last Friday, we headed up to Old Town for lunch. After that, we ventured over to Pinball Jones because we'd not been there before and wanted to just check it out...

Yup, we're not great at pinball, lol. We tried some of the other games, too...not great at those either. ;) But. We had a good time trying and cheering each other on. And then we got some fudge and headed home. It wasn't the most exciting afternoon but it was a nice little break with my guys.

2. Ice cream. So, the latest season of Ted Lasso started last week. (Yay!) In preparation, we'd rewatched the previous seasons and splurged by ordering some Biscuits with the Boss ice cream from Jeni's (along with a number of other flavors, lol). (The Biscuits with the Boss flavor was a collaboration with the show featuring the shortbread biscuits the title character bakes for his boss.) Obviously, we loved all the ice cream. But we also enjoyed the dry ice it was packaged in...

(This was on St. Patrick's Day, so Micah added the food coloring.)

3. Car maintenance. Okay. I'm not actually thankful for car maintenance issues, but I'm thankful that we're able to handle unexpected car maintenance needs. In the past couple of weeks, we've had a bit of a streak going with various things needed on each of our vehicles...new spark plugs, new ignition coil, new power steering hoses, new tail light housing, and a new head light and tail light in one vehicle...new battery, tire rotation, and oil change in another...and new front brakes and rotors in the third. Fun times. Like I said, just thankful we're in a position where we can deal with all of these things and thankful for the three different shops around town that helped us out. Bleh.

4. Light sabers. So, Asher decided to buy himself some light sabers. Obviously, it was necessary to test them out in the front yard...

Thankful my guys are still boys at heart. :)

5. One more campus tour. Today, Asher and I did a campus tour at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. It's just about 40 minutes from home and is known for its education programs. Asher's already been accepted there but had never actually toured the campus, so the information and tour were useful.

(The tour, though, did require us to leave home a bit earlier than Asher's used to being up, lol. He wasn't thrilled but did cooperate to let me take his picture before we started.) Thankful to have yet another campus tour under my belt and that UNC seems to be a good fit for Asher.

And that's my list. Happy Thursday!

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday to you! Today's post is rather random. :) Just things I'm thankful for today...

1. Prednisone. So, remember that MRI Micah had a couple weeks ago? Yup, turns out the arthritis is spreading. Lovely. The week following the MRI the pain got to be enough that Micah consented to going onto prednisone for 10 days to quell any flares and get things back to "normal." (He'd been offered the prednisone before the MRI but resisted, as he doesn't like admitting it hurts...so his agreement to take it shows how not great things were. He hadn't felt able to do his normal activities for a month before starting the prednisone.) But. He's been on the prednisone now for almost a week and feels SOOO much better...literally jumping around the house. Whew. We know it's not a cure...just treats the symptoms...but incredibly thankful that the prednisone means he can resume normal life. (We'll be meeting with his rheumatologist next month to discuss what's next.)

2. Shen Yun. Last weekend, Asher and I went down to Denver's Performing Arts Complex to watch Shen Yun and it was terrific. The performers were so impressive and it was beautiful to watch. Thankful mostly, though, for the lovely afternoon with my boy:

3. Photo wires. We recently added pictures from our Curacao trip to our wall of trip photos. 

I love how they all look and that it's such a simple way to display things (each family vacation has its own wire). (Yes, we've taken more vacations than this. We're pondering what to do as we run out of wall space here...)

4. A bunch of random purchases. I've made a number of purchases lately that I'm loving...

• These slippers so that I can just slip them on and drive Noah to work without having to find socks or tie anything, lol. I've also taken to wearing them to the climbing gym...easier to switch to climbing shoes. Until sandal weather is back, thankful to have these.
• A mascara that doesn't smudge! I'd seen a bunch of ads online for this and then my sister told me she uses it also so I went ahead and ordered it and have not been disappointed. Yay! (I don't usually even wear mascara because I'm lazy like that, lol, but it's nice to have a good option when I want to.)
• This ultrasonic retainer cleaner so that Micah and Asher's retainers aren't completely disgusting.
• A new larger drying rack to replace multiple older, smaller ones we'd been using. We actually end up air drying a number of things every time we do laundry so this has been very useful and takes up less space than what we'd been doing before. 
• Gotta love new things that make life better!

5. New light fixtures. Speaking of new things, we also replaced light fixtures in Asher & Micah's rooms recently. (I don't have pictures, but we replaced the old ones with these.) The old ones were fine but very difficult when Nathan needed to change light bulbs and apparently the LED light bulbs we'd switched to didn't do as well (or last as long) in the enclosed fixture. So we switched to an open fixture design. Voila.

And while we were doing that, I got to thinking that the light fixture in my office has been bothering me for some time with how not bright it was. So I convinced Nathan to replace it for me with this:

Yup. Totally doesn't go with anything in the house. :) But I decided that it's only fair that I finally have something a little more feminine in this house of men. And. It's totally brighter and I love it. (I am now thinking about replacing the curtains to something fancier, too, lol.) 

So that's my random list for today. Wrapping up a rather uneventful spring break around here...didn't have any plans since really only Micah was on spring break anyhow. We've just been dealing with car maintenance (ugh), spring cleaning and continuing (still) to wait to hear back from three colleges in CA. Hope your Thursday's going well!

Yesterday

Just so you know, yesterday was the 31st anniversary of the day Nathan and I met. We celebrated with an anniversary afternoon date...drove down to the Stanley Marketplace, enjoyed lunch and drinks at the beer hall, wandered the shops, had afternoon coffee and tea, sat and delighted in the sunshine while having yummy ice cream, and even popped into a photo booth...

After that, we popped over to the Wings Over the Rockies museum just to check things out and then finally headed home. It was just a lovely, lovely afternoon to celebrate our amazing relationship. So thankful to have met and to have made him mine.

Thankful Thursday

So, apparently there wasn't much to share during February and now it's March, lol. 

Let's do some catching up with a list of things I'm thankful for today...

1. Micah's interview. Last weekend, Micah had his Leeds Scholar Program interview at CU Boulder that I mentioned before. He won't hear back on that for another week or so but felt good about the experience and looked good...

(Thankful, too, that Men's Warehouse was able to get his suit tailored in time...which they finished early just for us. Their posted alteration timeline would have been later than his interview. His alterations were simple, though, so the tailor assured us she could finish sooner.)

Yes, he took off the sunglasses for the actual interview. :) Fortunately, he's really comfortable with interviews and does well with talking. While we were there for the afternoon, we also attended some informational sessions and got a tour of the business school, so it was time well spent. 

2. The medical community. Thankful lately, too, for our medical community. Micah's arthritis appears to be spreading unfortunately. Toward the start of February, he started having swelling and pain in areas he hadn't before (not in a joint). He resisted for a week and a half or so before we finally made him get an x-ray to be sure there wasn't an injury. Darn kid was right that he didn't have any injury. We then took advantage of telehealth opportunities and communicated with his rheumatologist a good bit. Given all of that (and some additional swelling and pain in new spots during that), Micah will be getting an MRI tomorrow. We'll take that information, then, the next time we see his rheumatologist in person and hopefully come up with a new plan. Thankful that all of these resources are so readily available to us. (Hopefully, too, we'll eventually get some warmer weather that will help.)

3. Throwback Thursday. I love when Facebook reminds me of memories from years past. Lately, most of my memories have been from last year's trip to Greece...

This was from one year ago today. We were back in Athens, wrapping up a fabulous trip. SO thankful to have these photos and memories to look back on!

4. Watching shows together. We've still been doing our weekly family movie nights mostly. Lately, though, we've also been binging some show series during movie night. In particular, we watched the show Physical 100 on Netflix and rewatched seasons 1 and 2 of Ted Lasso in preparation for season 3 starting on March 15. Fun times! Sometimes I enjoy watching series together more than movies because they often lead to more discussion and debate. :)

5. Spring cleaning. While we continue to wait to hear back from the California colleges (and thus can't really start planning Micah's next steps), we've been tackling a number of small projects around the house...like replacing some door knobs and light fixtures, hanging pictures from our Curacao trip, and purging various hot spots around the house. It's nice to get these things done and works as a bit of a distraction. (But it would be lovely to hear back and be able to start figuring things out...)

And that's what I'm thankful for today. Happy March, everyone!