Gratitude

I've been a bit quiet about Thanksgiving. I haven't participated in any of those daily gratitude challenges or made any big plans. Honestly, I'm in a bit of a funk about the holidays.

Part of the time, I'm gung ho and feel like maybe I should host a holiday party. But, most of the time I really just want to hibernate and wake up in January or February. :) I've been trying to figure out why this is. What I've decided is that I'm having a harder time this year being enthusiastic because my boys are getting older and just aren't as excited. They honestly don't have a wish list for Christmas. They don't really need anything and they don't seem to even want anything. Obviously, this isn't a bad thing. But it's throwing me off. ;)

So. As I work on figuring this all out, I'll try to get in the spirit by making a list of things I'm thankful for right now. :) Here goes...I'm thankful for...

• my husband, who regularly does the cooking in the first place. Cooking is not my thing. I'm so grateful that Nathan handles that part of things in our family.
• Whole Foods, who made it possible to simply order our pre-cooked Thanksgiving meal. Don't judge. :) We love the traditional meal (and have a teenager who simply wouldn't let us NOT have a full meal, lol) but weren't feeling up to all the work this year. (This is one of those moments where I've appreciated my word of the year and gone to it...purpose. The purpose of the celebration is enjoying the time with each other. Spending the day separated with some in the kitchen and some not doesn't actually accomplish that for us.)
• Kathy at boot camp, who talked me into signing up for the Fort Collins Thanksgiving Day Run tomorrow. We're going to walk together...and feel better for having done so. :)
• the flexibility of having a husband who works from home...which made it possible for me to take my older two boys to the movies this morning. (Micah can't handle The Hunger Games movies, whereas the other two have read all the books and seen the movies.)
• sunshine. I love sunshine. ;)

Okay, I feel better.

Sixteen days

Took the younger two boys to the orthodontist last Thursday, just our routine check ups to monitor. Ended up letting the orthodontist pull Asher's last baby tooth. And, in sixteen days, Asher will get braces. 

Yup.

We've known this was coming for years, so it's no surprise. Actually, it's rather a relief to finally have a date set. :)

Asher will have both upper and lower braces, for roughly 24 months. It's pretty straight-forward...just not enough room in his mouth. He's less than happy about the whole thing but has been able to watch friends experience this already and knows he's not alone. (Micah, for what it's worth, will follow almost exactly in Asher's footsteps in 2-3 years. Joy.)

While we wait, we're supposed to really focus on Asher's oral hygiene. (His has been less than stellar for years, thanks partly to the fact that his teeth aren't in a nice line, making brushing more difficult.) We bought a waterpik...and a squeegee for the mirror, lol. Seems to be helping. :)

In the meantime, as neither Nathan nor I have any experience with braces, we'd truly appreciate any tips and tricks to help us adjust...

Pretty please? :)

Brilliant

On Saturday, I spent a lovely morning at the Brilliant exhibit with my friend Molly and a couple of her friends. It was great on many levels: 

1. Any morning spent with fabulous women is awesome.
2. I'd never been to the Denver Art Museum and now definitely would like to spend more time there. (Such a cool building!)
3. The history throughout the exhibit was fascinating. Truly!
4. Jewelry is pretty. ;)

Here's me, Kristi, Molly and Rebecca after we'd exited the exhibit (in front of the big sign on the wall). Good times!

(If you have the opportunity, I recommend going!)

Skating

It was Micah's turn for his one-on-one night with me yesterday. He picked ice skating. :)

It had been almost four years since Micah had skated...almost 20 years since I had, lol. We both managed pretty well, actually. Honest! And now Micah's on a mission to get all of us out on the ice within the month. :)

PS Love how *not* crowded it was on a Wednesday night!

PPS Is it just me, or am I getting shorter? ;)

New personal best

This past weekend brought another JOAD tournament. This one was local for us (yay!) and ran pretty smoothly. (We were fortunate not to have any of the travel/weather issues that many others did thanks to the snow. Plus, it's just nice to be at your "home" range.)

Noah did okay, though not as well as the last tournament. (This might have something to do with practicing just over half as much as Micah did in the month between the last tournament and this one...just saying. Bleh.)

Micah improved on his previous best score for this distance during both his rounds, so was pretty happy. (Remember, this is only his second tournament at this further distance.) Plus, he managed to snag third place, which delighted him, as it meant that he actually beat out six other boys. (At the shorter distance, he very rarely was competing against more than two other boys at any given tournament.)

So. That's that. :)  

PS...Hats off to the lovely folks at Rocky Mountain Archery, as pulling off a two day tournament for just under 200 archers is *not* easy.