Catching up

Okay, don't forget about Micah's post...

Beyond that, though, I just wanted to catch up a bit from Thanksgiving break. As I mentioned, we had a low-key holiday. Asher still had classes Monday and Tuesday. Micah had the whole week off, had thought he was going to hang out on campus until Tuesday or Wednesday, but quickly decided to come home on Sunday when he realized that--though the dorms stayed open--the dining halls did not. Noah worked all the weekdays but Thursday. All that is to say...yeah, we just stayed here. :)

The past few years, we've tried to support local restaurants by ordering plenty of food for Thanksgiving but went back to a more traditional meal this year. We had each boy make a dish...which worked out great in getting them involved and decreasing the load on Nathan. (We'll just ignore the increased kitchen mess, lol.) Asher made cornbread muffins. Noah made mashed potatoes. And Micah made stuffing. I was in charge of cocktails/mocktails, deviled eggs, and a veggie tray; Nathan did everything else. 

Let me just take a moment to tell you that we don't normally have stuffing because Micah's really the only one who likes it, hence his pick. :) So, he found a recipe online and then proceeded to ignore parts of it. As he said, "I'm measuring with my heart." He entertains us. :)

So, we had plenty of food and drinks. I didn't take very many pictures over the break but here are a few...

Aside from all the eating (and all the sleeping the boys did), we did all our "normal" things, binged the new season of Loki, played Jackbox games, did some online shopping, and binged season 7 of Alone. (Alone is about contestants dropped off in late fall in the arctic to survive on their own. They get to bring 10 items and, for this season, had to last 100 days to win a million dollars. It was an assignment for one of Asher's classes, but we joined him in watching it. It was fascinating and made us quite thankful for our Thanksgiving, lol.) 

And then Asher and Micah had to head back to their campuses on Sunday. Asher has this week of classes and then will actually be done with finals in the middle of next week. Micah isn't done with finals until the 20th. 

So, that was our Thanksgiving break. It was lovely. And now we're with everyone else in disbelief that it's almost December. :)

Guest post: Micah

Hi everyone! This is Micah writing this. (Thanks for letting me use your blog, mom! <3) 

You probably all know that I’ve been doing martial arts since before I could even do a proper jumping jack, and you probably also know that I’m still practicing. What you might not know yet is that I joined the CU Taekwondo team this semester and that we have a good shot at becoming Collegiate National Champions! (Since Deion couldn’t do it.) Also, unlike Deion and the football team, the school doesn’t just throw money at us. So, if I’m going to join my team at the Collegiate National Championship, I need your help! 

My personal fundraising goal is $500! 

To make this more fun, I’ll also work out based off of donations: every $1 = 2 Push ups, every $5 = 2 pull ups, every $50 = 10 backflips. I’ll document how much exercise I end up doing on my instagram @micah.x.p.  

Working out aside, martial arts has always been a huge part of my life and has shaped so much of who I am today, and I’m sure it will continue to shape who I become in the future. The CU Taekwondo team has made my college experience so much richer and more rewarding, and I love it dearly. Anything that you can donate to help me follow my team to Nationals would mean the world to me. Thank you all for reading this and here is the donation link!

(Amanda interjecting here to explain that the donation page isn't the easiest to figure out. If you click the link, you'll see a note from Micah at the top with his picture. Just below that (in what appears to be a different thing but isn't), there's a large "Give Now" button. Click that and then it will ask you to choose a story--select "CU Taekwondo 2023-2024." Proceed from there with entering your information. It won't ever ask you about Micah or indicate that it's going to his fundraising but it will. Really. I tried it just to make sure. :) Apparently it tracks based on the initial link that he provided and will know that it goes through him.)

P.S. Here are some pictures of me and my teammates...

P.P.S. Here is a fun video we made if you want to meet some of my teammates!

Thank you, thank you! -Micah

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy, happy Thanksgiving, everyone! So very thankful for so very much...thinking a separate blog post about that might be in order later. :) In the meantime, though, I just wanted to pop in to wish you all a joyous holiday...however you may be celebrating it.

I'm off shortly to hang with my guys. We're just doing our "normal" low-key Thanksgiving here...just the five of us and some good downtime. While I definitely love time with my guys and the lack of stress and everything, I'm always a little sad at Thanksgiving because I have such fabulous memories of the holiday growing up.

My dad's whole family would always get together...sometimes at one of the eight sibling's homes, sometimes at our local church hall (named after my dad's dad), sometimes at the family farm, sometimes elsewhere. It was so much fun! I loved catching up with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins (about three dozen of us altogether). There was always an abundance of food...

And often friends were invited, too. :) While I was in college, I often brought out of state friends home to join us...

...and there was always a game of touch football. When we were younger, the uncles would all join in but, as we got older, my dad took pride in being the only uncle still participating. (Below, my dad's the one in the yellow hat...trying to lead my friends, cousins, siblings and me to victory.)

...and usually someone would organize some crafts...making ornaments with wheat, coloring, etc. 

Here are my high school friend and my cousin making something with wheat. (My dad's family has a family wheat farm so it's kinda our thing.) 

I remember, too, great games of hide and seek up at the family farm, pinochle tournaments, and just so much time laughing together.

Yup, it was just awesome. So many memories. Thankful for extended family...for friends...for Thanksgiving memories...and for getting to enjoy the moments all over again through photos like these.

UWTA Tournament

On Saturday, Asher and two other members of the UNC Taekwondo Club competed in the Northern Colorado Taekwondo Open, a UWTA Tournament. (Three more members had planned to also compete but ended up getting sick.) Fortunately, the tournament was here in Fort Collins, so Nathan and I were able to go watch.

Asher competed in five of the seven events: traditional poomsae (forms), point sparring, rapid kick, board breaking and combat weapons sparring. He'd never competed in those last three events and appreciated the experience. 

(Above: Asher competing in traditional poomsae, combat weapons sparring and point sparring...and the three UNC clubmates at the end of the tournament.)

Overall, Asher took home a first place (in rapid kick), 3 second places and a third place and had a great time. :) It was wonderful watching him and his clubmates...and highly entertaining watching and cheering on all the younger kids.

It reminded me of Asher's tournaments when he was younger...

Here he is in February 2011 at his very first intramural tournament at Karate West (just for members of Karate West to give them all experience with how tournaments work)...

...and in September 2012 he competed in forms at a regional tournament down in Denver...

And then in September 2015 he competed in another regional tournament in Loveland to get sparring practice before his black belt testing. 

(This was actually not part of the competition. This was another Karate West member (in blue) helping coach Asher (in black) before his sparring round.)

And that was pretty much the extent of Asher's tournament experience (beyond the intramural Karate West tournaments as a competitor and then as a judge when he got older) until Saturday. So happy that he joined his taekwondo clubmates in competing...they're already talking about doing it again. :)

(And thanks to those who contributed to their fundraising efforts! Some of that helped pay for their registration fees.)

Thankful Thursday

I have a rather random list today. :)

1. TBT. Love Throwback Thursday...thankful for it. I found this photo in the bins of pictures from my mom's house a couple years ago...

This photo is from a cousin's wedding...just me dancing with my dad. Despite our unfortunate hair, lol, I love the fact that I have this photo.

2. Boots. Okay, actually this is sad. Last week, while I was out and about, my FAVORITE boots broke. They just broke. I wasn't doing anything wrong. But the entire sole of both boots split...all the way. I took them to the awesome local store where I bought them and asked for advice. They understood my sadness and helped me try on some new boots for when I'm ready to move on, lol. I then took them to the boot & shoe repair place recommended by the shoe store and was told that they can't fix them. Sad. I even emailed the manufacturer. They can't fix them either. :(

But. I'm choosing to look on the bright side and be thankful for the many (at least 13) years of joy these boots have brought me. They were so comfy and beautiful and versatile. I'm sad to see them go, but I'm starting to come around to the idea of replacing them...and shopping is always fun. :)

3. Ladies night. Had another fabulous time with my boot camp crew! I love that we seem to try a new place every time and am always so thankful for the wonderful conversation. This time we met at Avuncular Bob's and remembered to grab a photo before we left...

One of these days we really will invite the boot camp guys, lol.

4. Movable mirrors. So, Lynne and I started trying a yoga deck of cards this month...because neither of us likes yoga (to date) and both of us recognize that it's probably good for us, lol. In trying these, I've appreciated the mirrors we still have in the basement (installed way back in the day when the boys first started karate and needed a place to practice). But I was feeling that our addition of the weight rack interfered with the useable mirror space. See (in the left photo) how the weight rack is pretty much in the main area where the mirrors are useful?

But, yesterday morning I suddenly realized that our mirrors are actually sliding closet doors! (I mean...I *knew* that's what they were but I'd just forgotten that meant they could actually slide, lol.) Check it out! I can slide the doors to the right!! Yes, I know it's a little ridiculous but realizing this delighted me. :)

5. Local eats. We love eating at The Fox & The Crow and have gotten our meats and cheeses for New Year's Eve charcuterie there more than once. Sadly, though, they will be closing their doors at the end of 2023. Having just learned this yesterday, the obvious thing was to go do date lunch there today, right?

(This is the shared small meat & cheese platter. We also split a delicious Thanksgiving themed sandwich...turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc on a house-made baguette. And also a pot de creme for dessert. It was all good.) So. Again...sad to see them leaving but very thankful for the times we've enjoyed there.

And that's my random list for this week. :)