Ten on Tuesday

Okay, just quickly...I also wanted to list off some of the things I was particularly thankful for during our trip...

1. Nathan. Incredibly thankful that Nathan joined us for this round of college visits!! Not only did we appreciate his additional perspective, but we were very, very happy to have him there to handle all the driving. Southern California traffic is no joke, people. Man. 

2. TSA Precheck. Thankful for this time-saving service which cut our time through security significantly. Also, very happy that because we made our reservations altogether, Micah got tagged for TSA Precheck. (Technically, Micah doesn't have TSA Precheck but was traveling with us and is a minor so they added it to his ticket...which was great because we didn't want to have to wait through the normal security line for him, lol.)

3. People who let you know your car lights are on. On our first night, we got a random call from the front desk at about 11:30pm. We didn't make it to the phone in time but they followed up with an email. Turned out that we'd left on the lights of our rental car in the parking garage and someone had reported it to the front desk. Thanks to the heads up, we got the lights turned off and didn't start our trip late to things because of a dead battery. Whew. 

4. Home. Traveling always makes me appreciate home more...my bed, the way my bathroom is set up, stuff like that. :) Don't get me wrong. I'm good about trying to embrace new experiences and mostly plan well enough to make things feel/run like home. I just definitely appreciate home. :) 

5. The simplicity and ease of tea. When we travel, we generally need to take Nathan's coffee habit into consideration and plan around it a bit (which honestly isn't too difficult these days). I actually also have tea twice a day when he has coffee. Tea, though, is so much easier. :) Thankful for the ease of bringing my own tea and how uncomplicated it is to make.

6. HOV lanes. Remember that southern CA traffic? Yeah. It was no fun. Grateful for HOV lanes that allowed us at least mostly to have a bit of an advantage over the other lanes. Crazy that it just takes two people in a vehicle to qualify...that's a LOT of single occupant vehicles, people.

7. Mic packs. All of these college tours had tour guides with mic packs. (They each had a mic headset and then a speaker on a strap around their necks.) This was a first for me (and, between all of Micah's tours and Asher's and Noah's and my own, I've been on a lot of college tours, lol) and was appreciated. It was so much easier to hear the tour guide.

8. Sea level. Proud of myself for actually working out a couple times while we were on the road. And. So happy about being at sea level! :) So much more energy and oxygen at sea level. (Yes, I know this really just means I'm thankful that I'm used to living at altitude. The boost at sea level wouldn't be a boost without my normal being altitude. So maybe I'm thankful for living at altitude. You know what I mean.)

9. Colorado. Similar to being thankful for home when I'm away, this trip made me also thankful for my adopted home state of Colorado. Thankful for the CO traffic, the CO gas prices, and the CO humidity (or lack thereof) in particular.

10. Honing in on Micah's list. And, finally, thankful that this trip helped Micah to narrow down his college list. More than that, really, thankful for the conversations during our travels...so nice to have the dedicated time to talk things through and weigh things out and just delve into this college application process.

(And, since people are already asking, yes, he has favorites. We're realistic and pragmatic around here, though, and know that it will be dependent on where he gets accepted and what kind of aid is offered. So, stating a favorite seems like getting ahead of ourselves. Let's just leave it at this...visiting the colleges and talking things through has been very helpful in figuring out his priorities and strengths, and that's worth a lot. He's working hard on applications now and then it will be a waiting game.)

Plenty of other things that I'm thankful for, for sure, but those are my ten on this Tuesday. :) 

College visits

Whew.

Home from possibly the last round of college visits. Micah, Nathan and I were in southern California over the weekend. 

SHORT VERSION: We did official tours at UC Irvine, USC and SDSU. We also drove and walked the campuses at UCLA, CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach and UC San Diego. (For whatever reason, most colleges don't offer official campus tours on weekend days, which makes it difficult to get tours in during the school year.) Having been able to see the campuses in person was very helpful, and Micah has now narrowed his college list from 12 to 7 schools. Along the way, we also managed to have a little fun.

LONG VERSION (don't say I didn't warn you): On Thursday, we said our goodbyes to Noah and Asher as they headed off to work early. Micah went to classes. (He only has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which helped make this trip possible.) Once Micah got home, we managed to submit one of his college applications (taking advantage of the last free CO application day) and then headed for the airport. We flew to Burbank...rented a car...grabbed some quick dinner...and drove a bit less than 2 hours to our lodging in Oceanside (about halfway between LA and San Diego). 

Friday, we were up early and drove to UC Irvine and had our official tour...

We did a lot of walking and saw their newest dorms (called Middle Earth)...enjoyed their "Zot bots" that drove themselves around campus delivering food to students...found the business building on our own...and learned more of the history of the school and their anteater mascot. 

After that, we got back in the car and found our way to USC. Traffic cooperated and left us with enough extra time to grab some yummy lunch just north of campus in University Village before wandering to campus. We had a short admissions presentation then a great tour around campus...

We learned so many interesting stories, were impressed by the varied opportunities, and had to smile at the cupcake ATM (where you could actually order a cupcake that would be dispensed right there) just outside the bookstore. 

From there, we drove to Manhattan Beach and met a former co-worker/friend of Nathan's along with his girlfriend. We had a lovely (though loud) dinner and Nathan and Andrew were able to catch up some. We parted ways then and got some gelato and tea before driving back to Oceanside (with a quick stop for a few groceries for breakfasts). Once back, we had some downtime before crashing for the night.

On Saturday, we allowed ourselves a slower morning. I used the fitness room, Nathan walked down to the pier for his morning coffee, and Micah opted to sleep. :) We then survived the long drive back up to UCLA (just past USC), parked and enjoyed some delicious lunch and boba just south of campus before walking our way around campus... 

We saw more food delivery bots, appreciated the architecture and realized that having a tour guide to share stories really does make a difference. 

From there, we drove to CSU Fullerton where we did a speedy walk-around before driving to CSU Long Beach and doing just a drive around campus, as it had started to rain and we were wiped...

Micah appreciated the additional oxygen at sea level and kept challenging us to races...making a "T" for Titans...Nathan trying to figure out the David sculpture in pieces...more of the buildings around campus...the Go Beach sign in Long Beach...the business building...and the pyramid shaped arena. 

From Long Beach, we drove a bit further south to Huntington Beach pier for dinner (with a really good live musician) and dessert and walking the pier (where we stopped to listen to another really good live musician). We also saw a marriage proposal set up...we were too far away to make out details but the sign was large and lit up (spelling out "MARRY ME")...until they had to shut everything down as the tide came in, lol. 

After that, we headed back to our lodging and watched a show and settled in for the night.

Sunday morning I managed to use the treadmill before we got a slightly earlier start. We drove south this time...to SDSU (San Diego State University). We knew we'd be doing a tour there the next day but also knew we'd be pressed for time so wanted to do some poking around in a more relaxed fashion...

...and we were delighted to spend some time at the koi and turtle pond in addition to walking around. The pond had so many turtles and was just fun to watch. :) There were at least two dozen turtles of varying ages, and we loved watching them scramble over rocks and try to reach the food someone else had left for them. (As it turned out, the pond was not part of the tour the next day so we were thankful that we'd gotten to see it.)

From SDSU, we headed west to the Pacific Beach area...  

...where we ate at World Famous (I had a fabulous cioppino)...enjoyed the beach (Micah challenged Nathan to a race and gave him a head start and I had to tie my pants up to keep them dry)...and found a yummy cookie monster cookie for dessert...

From there, we drove to UC San Diego and walked that campus a bit (and were disappointed in the lack of descriptive signage...everything being labeled "Seventh College" isn't very helpful, for example)...

...before stopping at Torrey Pines gliderport for a few minutes...

We watched the amazing paragliders, I checked us in for our flight the next day, and Micah enjoyed traversing the dunes areas.

Then we stopped just down the road at La Jolla beach and just appreciated the ocean...

Nathan found CARiN de RiA in Encinita for a delicious family style Filipino dinner and then we made our way back to Oceanside. 

Monday morning we were up early and packed and checked out. We drove down to SDSU for our scheduled admissions presentation and tour...

Seeing the campus on a weekday made a world of difference over the weekend, and we learned much more about the college and opportunities (though we did miss seeing the turtles again, lol). We also found it interesting that this was the first college tour we'd been on (including the ones Micah and I have done previously) that included the rec center/gym. :) Micah appreciated that (and silently critiqued many of the students' form, lol). 

After that, the traffic gods were with us in our two hour drive to the Burbank airport. We had time to grab some food before returning the rental car and getting through security and eventually home. Whew.

Well, this got to be an incredibly long post so I'll be back later with other thoughts. 

Annual tradition

It's that time of year again...time for our annual fall leaf pictures. It's been so gorgeous here lately and I know that this coming weekend might be even more perfect for leaf piles, but last weekend found us all together so that made it the perfect time to get some pictures. 

We didn't have much luck finding actual piles of leaves on the ground so settled for a pretty spot in our neighborhood...

Sidenote: This is actually very near the spot where, 12 years ago, our neighborhood girls invited the boys to come to their "ropes course." It was adorable...they played Duck, Duck, Goose and used the willow tree to cross the irrigation ditch, with the girls "helping" the boys (mainly Micah...they loved helping Micah back then, lol). 

My boys have no recollection of this. (shaking my head) And this is why I take so many photos, lol.

Back to this past Saturday...while my boys may not remember things from their childhood, they obviously haven't outgrown all of it...

...and I did manage to at least get a good shot of Nathan and me...

That would have been it...except while we were there, we noticed a broken water main across the street. As no one appeared to be home, Nathan called it in and we hung out while the fire department and then the utilities crew came to deal with things. While we waited... 

...my guys had fun taking pictures. I actually didn't jump across the river of water to get to where they were so didn't take any of these except that first one. :)

And that was our Saturday taking our annual leaf pictures. :) I'd love to go take more right now (as the wind is beautifully blowing the leaves from the trees and the piles are growing) but boys' work schedules make that not possible during the week (and we won't all be together this coming weekend), so these will have to do for now.

Five on Friday

Looks like I missed yesterday's Thankful Thursday, so here are Five (things I'm thankful for) on Friday...just random glimpses into life here lately...

1. Bank holidays. Not that we haven't known and appreciated it for years, but now that Noah's working at a bank, we're particularly thankful for how blessed we've been to have the flexible schedule we've enjoyed for years. Relatedly, I'm glad this week for bank holidays...was able to get Noah in for a routine dentist appointment thanks to Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday. Without that, and since our dentist isn't open on Fridays, Noah wouldn't have been able to get in until 2023.

2. VR family time. On Tuesday, Asher bought himself a VR headset thing. In lieu of family movie night, then, we had a family gaming night. Some of us are definitely better at that than others, lol. 

We all played something called Beat Saber where you have to slash blocks that fly at you to different music. Asher definitely has better rhythm and reaction time than the rest of us. :) (Nathan got some tech thing that allowed us to all see each other's game on the tv so it was more interactive.)

3. People who poke me. Last Friday (at varying times of day given work schedules and other appointments), all of us got our covid boosters. The lady administering the shots was like magic! Micah questioned whether or not he'd even really gotten the shot. (Don't worry. I was standing right there and totally saw it happen, lol.) Seriously, that was the least noticeable shot I've ever gotten. Weird.

And then this week (again at varying times) we all got our annual flu shots. The nurse who administered mine and Asher's wasn't quite as magical as the covid booster lady but was still really good. Between all those shots and Micah's regular bloodwork last week, I'm realizing how thankful I am for people who use needles well. 

4. Micah's drugs. With the covid booster, Micah once again had to go off his medications for the week. (His meds suppress his immune system so going off of them gives the shots a better chance of working.) As has been the case each time, he almost immediately started feeling worse as his joints stiffened up. By Wednesday, he was scooting down the stairs on his butt again...and didn't go to class on Thursday because he couldn't easily walk from the parking lot to the building his class was in. Poor kid.

So, he started the meds again a day or two early (with the doctor's permission/blessing) and was seen bounding down the stairs last night proclaiming his love for drugs. Whew. So very thankful that we found something that works for him.

5. Pound sign. Not really something I'm thankful for but a funny story to share. :) The other day Micah was trying to activate a new debit card and went through the automated system on the phone. You all know what I'm talking about, right? Apparently, he got to the part where they ask him to input his card number and then press the pound sign. But. The kid didn't know what the pound sign was. ;) He hung up and googled it...but kept getting the British currency symbol, lol. Eventually he found something that helped him, finished his activation process and came to share his story with Nathan and me. 

We, of course, had a good laugh. But, thinking about it, isn't it about time to update the automated systems? No one uses it as a pound sign any more, do they? I don't think it was even used that way when I was growing up. Can we please call it a hash or a number symbol or something more well known? :)

Okay, that's all for now. Happy weekend, y'all!

Thankful Thursday

So far October's been all about appointments and applications. Plenty of both. Oy. 

Let's see. So far this month, we've had Nathan volunteering with the EAA Young Eagles event, Asher's performance at the Lincoln Center, Micah's quarterly bloodwork, and our sprinkler blowout appointment in addition to the normal work, flight lessons, classes and such. Still to go: Micah's check up down at Children's, dentist appointments for Noah and Asher, Asher's aviation medical exam, covid booster shots, flu shots, and more college visits.

As far as applications, Micah's working on college applications (11 at current count, though he's planning to narrow that down by the end of the month), Asher's got a few applications in various stages (for his student pilot certificate, his aviation medical exam and the Aims Professional Pilot program to start next fall), Micah needs to register for spring classes, and...woohoo...I finished the FAFSA for both Micah and Asher yesterday (for the 2023-24 academic year)! 

Amid all the appointments and applications, here are things I'm thankful for today:

1) Lasts. Just before October (last Friday), Micah had his last academic advising appointment. Because the class schedule for spring for FRCC isn't out yet, there wasn't too much to do...just catch up with his advisor, finish some paperwork in advance for graduation, and discuss his college application process. After all three boys, I think this was advising appointment number 20-something for me at CEC. Thankful for all the help we've received along the way through these appointments...and thankful to be done.

2) Technology. In finishing what I think were FAFSAs number 14 and 15 for me (between my own college years, Noah's and Asher's...and now Micah and Asher for next year), I just must be thankful for technology. So happy to be able to submit all that information electronically and not have to fill it all out by hand again and mail it in. (This goes for all the applications, not just the FAFSAs. Submitting things electronically rocks.)

3) Sunrises. Lynne and I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise last Saturday. It's hard to see in the picture, but there was also a layer of fog that was pretty cool...

Even though I don't always love getting up to run intervals, lol, I'm always thankful for the time with Lynne and feel better when I head home. Sights like this are a nice bonus. 

4) Reading glasses. Yes. I need/use reading glasses. It's totally not unexpected. My optometrist has been tracking it for years, and I finally reached the point of having an actual recommended prescription. As I was mending some of Asher's clothing yesterday, I was very thankful for my reading glasses...which made it possible to thread the needle, lol.

Okay. That's it for now. Not overly exciting...just a full to do list and finding things to be thankful for along the way. Hope your October is off to a productive start also!