Thankful Thursday

Happy, happy Thanksgiving! I'm going to spend it with my guys and will be back later this weekend to catch up. :) 

Please buy our legos

UPDATE: I'm starting to list things on eBay today (Wednesday, 11/25).

The day is here, people. I've gone through most of our legos now and checked sets against their building instructions for completeness to the best of my ability. I've grouped other sets together into lots. I've sorted and identified 173 Star Wars minifigures. Pretty please help me clear these out of our house. 

So. Here is a list of what I've got available and the boys' initial asking prices. We're willing to negotiate. It's impractical to add all the photos here or make individual listings to start with for family and friends. Please let me know whatever you're interested in and I'm happy to send you the actual photos. I have LOTS. Here are some samples...

An example of the photos I have for each set that I went through (this is the Millennium Falcon, obviously)...

Here are the Star Wars lots that I put together. I didn't go through these sets piece by piece for completion...what you see is what you get. (Okay, I did go through the advent calendar minisets piece by piece. The minisets that are there are complete...it's just that they aren't complete advent calendar sets. There are 36 minisets from advent calendar sets from 2011-2015. Does that make sense?)

Here are some examples of the MANY Star Wars minifigures that I have available. Some are being sold individually and some are in lots. (The grey plate they're all standing on is not included.)

And here are some non-Star Wars lots of things I found in boys' rooms. I didn't go through these sets to check for completeness at all but did try to group them by Lego theme. Being sold as is. 

Everything here is pre-owned and gently used (and has been dusted at least initially). What is pictured for each item is what you get. Most were built and then sat on a shelf for years. Some were gently played with...normal wear and tear. Pet and smoke and covid free house. I've noted anything that's missing in sets. Happy to ship (though those costs are not included in the asking price). 

You know you'd love to get some legos to gift or for yourself. Really. ;) Please let me know asap. I'm offering these up to friends and family first but will start listing things on eBay next week. 

(Yes, I also have random bins of pieces...a LOT of pieces. And random minifigures and minifigure pieces. I've got to figure out how I want to group all of that and will let you know about those soon...and will tell you here before I list them on eBay. Whew.)

Thankful Thursday

A quick entry tonight because I'm on a roll and must get back to the legos...because Noah's room (and the closets in both Asher and Micah's rooms) is still, um, very full of legos...and Noah's not going to want to sleep on the couch at Thanksgiving. 

So, things I'm thankful for today...

1. That Lego has all of their instructions online. Yes, I've been utilizing online instruction booklets aplenty. Once upon a time I actually still had all of the booklets in a big box. But then the box got too full and it felt a little ridiculous and I told myself, hilariously, that I'd never need them again anyhow. So I recycled them all. Thankfully, they're all available online now. And I can use them to reassemble all sorts of things...even little Advent calendar pieces:

These are 36 "days" of things from Star Wars Advent calendars spanning 2011-2015. We probably have all the other pieces but these were the ones that were still mostly together and recognizable, and I'm not willing to go hunt down all the others. So there. 

2. That Lego disassembly tool. It has an actual name, I'm fairly sure. But you know what I mean? That piece that helps you take apart legos without utterly destroying your nails? Yeah. It's lovely.

3. A husband who knows me so well. Between bouts of lego mania and frustration, Nathan reminded me..."Don't let perfect be the enemy of good...or of done." Dude. I so needed to hear that, lol. I'm soooo close. Really. And I was stalled for awhile letting my tendencies to want to see things completed and organized get in the way. After the bulk of the Star Wars sets were gone through, I didn't know how to proceed with everything else. But. I'm through that roadblock now and almost done. I've accepted and embraced the concept of "sold as is" and it's very freeing. Whew. 

4. The internet. It's fabulous how much information you can find about random lego sets on the internet. Honestly. You can search "lego star wars rebel guy" and find what you need. It's kinda amazing. 

Okay, that's it for today. I'm sure next week will have non-lego thoughts, lol. In the meantime, if you're interested in buying some pre-owned legos, especially almost four dozen complete Star Wars sets...seriously, let me know. :)

(I have loads of stuff and will be listing things for sale shortly...still working out the best format/site to use but thrilled to work with friends and family directly. Keep in mind, though, that boys are aware of how much these sets can go for online and are always happy to have more funds for their young adult lives, lol.)

Thankful Thursday

Thursday again. I've spent much of today photographing legos so am a bit frazzled, lol. (Yes, I'm *almost* done with sorting all the legos. More on that later.) Just briefly, then...this week, I'm thankful for...

1. Lunch dates. I had to take a few things to Noah last week and ended up doing a picnic lunch and spending the afternoon visiting, and it was much needed. One, it gave me the opportunity to get the solo birthday photo I missed when we gathered for his birthday...

Two, talking to my boy after the election and before the results were in helped renew my hope for the future and was a nice validation that maybe I didn't screw up the parenting thing too much. :)

A few days after that, I had lunch on our back patio with Deanna. Thankfully, the gusty winds died down just in time for our picnic, and we had a lovely catching up session. We're still working on making the back patio a more cozy place to meet outdoors but glad to have what we have. 

2. Finishing up spring registrations. Got both Asher and Micah's spring semesters sorted out this week since Front Range Community College's registration opened. Asher's classes will all be at the local Front Range campus (instead of the CEC campus). FRCC is doing the same mix of classes as fall semester, so Asher will only have the one in-person lab once a week (part two of calc-based physics). The rest of his classes will be online again in the spring, and he'll only have to deal with FRCC's schedule. (This current semester, only his calc-based physics class is through the FRCC campus. The other two are on the CEC campus, so he deals with both schedules. They're mostly the same but slightly different starting/ending dates.)

Micah's got two classes that will be on the CEC campus next semester. (We're not sure yet what that will look like for spring semester but imagine it will either continue to be mostly online only or attempt to switch to a hybrid model with half the students going two days a week and the other half going two days.) For his third class, he decided he wants to take Japanese. They don't offer Japanese at CEC or the local FRCC campus. But. They offer it at the Boulder FRCC campus. And since FRCC classes are remote/online in the spring anyhow, it seemed like a good time to take it.

(Yes, he'll need another semester after this and may need to drive down to Boulder to do that. But, by then he'll have his license...and it only meets in person two days a week normally and he'll be able to work his schedule to either take more classes down in Boulder or classes at CEC on different days. And potentially only needing to drive down to Boulder for one semester seems better than doing it for two semesters, right?)

So, after a long story of a morning yesterday working out his registration (had to get an underage hold on his account removed), he's signed up to take Japanese through the Boulder FRCC campus...online. He'll have two classes at CEC and this one online. Thankful that opportunities like this are available! And. Glad to have that all sorted out...whew.

3. Virtual climbing competitions. Given the givens, Micah's climbing team isn't able to do competition season as before. USA Climbing decided to have virtual competitions this bouldering season, instead. What does that mean? Well, there are local comps as before. But. Instead of everyone meeting at certain gyms and competing on one weekend, each comp is spread out over about two weeks. Climbers go to that gym as they're able and climb on their own...videoing their attempts and logging everything in an app. (Obviously, there are more technical rules and such, but you get the picture.) Scores are based on the climber's top five climbs. It's not ideal but it's something. :) 

Micah misses the community aspect of big in-person comps...enjoys watching and cheering on others. For at least the current local comp, though, he's able to get some of that since it's at Ascent. He and his teammates have been climbing and logging their competition climbs together...

Thankful they figured out a way to keep competing and pushing themselves while trying to stay safe these days! (Each gym has only a certain number of slots at any given time so reservations must be made to keep numbers in check. Each climber has also been asked to limit themselves to only one spectator (if any) to keep numbers down even more.)

4. Curbside pickup & technology. Finally this week, I'm thankful for curbside pickup type services. We recently switched to doing the online grocery shopping and picking it up at the store dealio, which has cut Nathan's exposure time out of the house significantly. Beyond groceries, we've been limiting our outings greatly anyhow. Groceries were really the only shopping thing where we came in contact with anyone for more than 15 minutes. Everything else we've been ordering ahead or just popping in quickly and checking out with minimal contact. 

Can we take a minute here for me to also say that, man, I wish some of these services had been available when the boys were little?! I distinctly remember thinking that it would be awesome if I could just order ahead and pick things up at so many places when dealing with babies and toddlers in the car. Seriously, this seems like a silver lining type thing. 

So. That's my list for now. In other updates, sadly, we've had Asher stop going to karate. This was an incredibly difficult decision, but the circumstances just didn't work for us as we're heading into winter and with Covid cases spiking around here. Micah's climbing team practices have cut back to only once a week for similar reasons. So, we all mostly stay home here. Heading into finals and holidays, it feels like maybe that's okay for awhile. Thankfully, we recognize that we're still so very fortunate...to be very used to all being here together...to have all the comforts we have at home...to have the technology to still be in contact with others easily...to be able to afford to all be home. Blessed.

Thankful Thursday

As we all wait...

Here's my list since last Thursday...

1. Costumes. Halloween was quite different this year...not only due to Covid but also because, well, teenagers. ;) But. Micah and I did get a wee bit into the spirit with costumes that we wore to Ascent last Friday. It had to be something we could climb in... 

Micah is a character from an anime show called Attack on Titan. I'm Ruth Bader Ginsberg. :) Glad to have celebrated at least a tiny bit.

2. Darkness DeSENDS. We wore the costumes to Ascent and Micah had his normal team practice. Confession. When we got there, we both chickened out and changed out of our costumes because we didn't see anyone else in costume, lol. Sigh. But. We had costumes and took pictures, so I'm counting that. After team practice, Ascent had an event called Darkness DeSENDS where all the lights were turned off and everyone climbed by headlamp. It was at this point that more people showed up in costumes. We stayed with our headlamps and had a fabulous time!

Most of Micah's teammates stuck around also and they had such a good time relaxing together and just climbing for fun. I even finally sent a route I'd been working on over on the ramp (like a little cave area) with my headlamp and was quite proud of myself. :) Thankful for the awesome event!

3. Pickleball. The next afternoon, Nathan, Asher, Micah and I all went to a nearby park to finally try out our new pickleball set. We don't know how to actually play and have never really played any racquet sports before. Micah looked up the rules and tried to explain, but we ended up mostly just being thrilled when we got the ball across to each other, lol. It was lovely to get out of the house and just have some fun. Even if we're not good at it. :)

Do you like Micah's outfit? :) He's been wearing the knee sleeves lately in our attempts to help with the arthritis flare ups in his knees. They seem somewhat helpful and are quite the fashion statement...especially when he also opts for shorts and dress socks, lol. 

After that, we went home to catch up on some shows while not handing out Halloween candy. It's a first for us but it just didn't seem worth it this year. :( On the plus side, we enjoyed the evening all together rather than some of us out trick or treating and some of us at home answering the door and such. So that was nice.

4. Children's Hospital. On Tuesday, Nathan and I took Micah down to Children's for a check up regarding his juvenile idiopathic arthritis. (We'd been scheduled for the follow up back in March but obviously ended up canceling that due to Covid.) It was a good visit and we had a nice discussion with the doctor. We'll be scheduling some follow up ultrasounds on his knee and ankle to make sure that the inflammation is sticking just in his tendons (due to the arthritis) and not also in his joints...since he's been having flare ups more frequently than we'd like and it seems to be spreading a bit. After that, we'll decide what's next. Thankful to have such resources relatively nearby.

Okay. That's my list for now. Back to everything else. ;P