Last week was Asher's spring break. On Thursday, he and I drove down to Trinidad, CO (pretty much 4 hours straight south of us) for a second interview at a school that he'd interviewed with during the job fair he went to at the start of the month. It was a bit of an adventure.

Given the various vehicle issues I mentioned yesterday, we took Stevie (the EV) so had to stop to charge three times overall. (I've never charged Stevie away from home before...the first charger we tried was fully occupied...all of the chargers we ended up using had issues of their own (non-EVs parked in front of them, broken touchscreen and no cell signal when all of these chargers require apps on your phone to operate)...and I now have many charging apps since every charger we used was a different brand and required a different app.)

But. We made it. Asher did a tour of the school and that second interview (this time with multiple people). While he was doing that, I charged Stevie again and talked with Nathan who was at home doing test drives and setting up a pre-purchase inspection.

After the interview, Asher and I headed out and stopped at Bishop Castle on our way home. It was crazy. It's this huge castle built by hand by one guy with a vision. It's definitely not up to code. But it was so impressive...

This was us at the almost-top of the taller turret. (Asher climbed to the actual top. I did not...having experienced the swaying at the top of the shorter turret and not wanting to experience that again, lol.) It's impossible to describe fully. You'll just need to go there on your own someday. Here, though, are a bunch of photos to try to explain...

(Notice how the stairs aren't to code anywhere...there are holes and some are missing altogether. And, don't look down. Having most of the upper surfaces be metal mesh was rather disconcerting for me.)

Yeah. It was cool. 

From there, we grabbed some dinner, stopped to charge once more, and finally made it home. Yay!

Apparently March is almost over. Huh. Not sure how that happened. It's been a busy month around here...just lots of trying to move forward. In my attempt to catch up, here's a list of things I'm thankful for today (in absolutely no particular order)...

1. Getting things done. It's been on my list for a good while but I finally framed all three boys' graduation announcements and hung them in my office. We didn't do official senior photos or anything--boys felt it unnecessary--so this is my nod at "officially" commemorating the high school graduations.

2. Car issues. Much of the month has been busy with various car issues. It's a long story involving malfunctioning headlights and flat tires and swapping around vehicles and attempting a couple different replacement parts and, well, we're now the proud owners of yet another vehicle. So, quick recap...Audrey (the Audi that Micah normally drives) is now out of commission...Vinnie (our trusty minivan) is now being used by Micah...Reg (the Pathfinder that Asher drives) is fine...Zuzu (Noah's Mazda) has four new tires...Stevie (the new EV we leased last summer) has a new tire...and yesterday we picked up Gandalf (a Honda Element that will eventually be Nathan's paragliding expedition vehicle). He's at a local shop right now (and I didn't get a photo before that) and will be having a few things taken care of before Easter, when Micah will swap out vehicles and drive Gandalf for the time being...once he learns to drive a manual. ;P Vinnie will return home to be our backup and roadtrip vehicle. Whew. Thankful that we have the flexibility and ability to juggle all of that...that Nathan was able to handle the various switching out and trying of parts and the research and test drives and inspections necessary to find another vehicle...and that we finally have it all mostly sorted out. 

3. Squirrels. Our friendly backyard squirrels continue to provide daily entertainment. It makes us happy.

4. Friends. Managed to get together with many from our group of homeschooling moms at the end of February. We had a lovely time catching up and are working on becoming a book club of sorts. Thankful that these women were there throughout our homeschooling journey and thoroughly enjoying getting to know them better without our kids.

5. Boys wearing the same size. Both Noah and Asher have been to job fairs in the past month. Fortunately, all three boys wear the same size (in pretty much everything actually...weird), as Noah's dress shoes had worn out. He tried both brothers' shoes and decided on borrowing Micah's. (He also accidentally ended up wearing Asher's suit since both his and Asher's are in Noah's closet. (Asher's closet doesn't have a bar for hanging things.)) Glad that worked out. :)

6. Clare's Repairs. Nathan accidentally got a rip in his down winter coat earlier. He was sad. Fortunately, I remembered that Ascent (the climbing gym) has a table for patching things at their monthly member nights. We went and Clare's Repairs was able to mend Nathan's coat lickety split for an incredibly reasonable price. Yay!

7. Noah. So, I already mentioned that Noah needed to get all new tires for his car. He seems happy with the new ones, which are a bit sturdier. Earlier this month, he also had LASIK and is happily seeing without contacts now. Sounds lovely! (I've looked into it a few times over the decades but was always told I wasn't a good candidate. Boo.) Now that he's recovered from that, he's working at getting back to having a more regular exercise routine and is hoping to do some hiking this weekend.

8. Asher. Asher finished his student teaching placement at a local middle school at the start of the month and is now doing his student teaching at an elementary school here. He's enjoying the elementary students more than the middle schoolers. :) He's also been trying to get back to Karate West to help out at demo team practices when he can and enjoying the exercise. And, as mentioned, he's been to a couple different job fairs this month and done a few interviews. Fingers crossed.

9. Micah. Micah appears to be very much enjoying his new job down in Golden and is happily living in Boulder and hanging out with friends. He's also working at a martial arts school there a couple nights a week, hoping it helps keep him active and also thankful that it helps cover gas money for his commute. :) He had his routine check up with his rheumatologist yesterday and everything seems good on that front, too. 

10. Thirty four years. And...earlier this month Nathan and I celebrated having known each other now for 34 years. Yes. We met in high school and now we're getting old, lol. Always so thankful to have him in my life!

And that's some of what's been going on around here in the past month. I'll be back soon with a separate post about a quick road trip that Asher and I took last week...

Okay. Clearly I'm not updating things here as often lately. ;P So, here's a Thursday list to catch us up a bit...

First and foremost, Micah got a job!! Last Wednesday he got the job offer...Thursday he found a place to live...Friday he packed...Saturday we helped him move...and Monday he started the new job. Whew. It's been a bit of a whirlwind but we're so happy for him and incredibly proud of how much work he put into the process. I won't go into all the details (because they're not mine to share), but the new job is in Golden and he found a room with four others in a house in south Boulder so his commute is about half an hour. Yay!!

So. Thankful for the job and the kid and that he's still nearby. (Not that we have anything at all against them all moving away...but, particularly with Micah's medical stuff, it's just easier right now to have him be able to stay with the same health care team.)

Aside from that...here's the rest of my list:

1. Nathan being able to fix appliances. A couple weeks ago our washing machine decided it's old, lol. Fortunately, Nathan was able to diagnose the issue, order a replacement part and replace it himself. Within a few days he had the washer up and running again. Whew. Not saying that laundry's fun or anything, but not being able to do any makes one particularly thankful for that ability.

2. Having had great teachers. Also a couple weeks ago, one of my favorite high school teachers passed away. I'm sad that I didn't make the time more recently to tell her how much of an impact she had. I'm so thankful that I had a truly wonderful high school experience and was blessed to have fabulous teachers along the way. I still keep in touch with a number of them (her included) and should make a point to reach out specifically. 

3. Friends. Since last I posted here I've had plenty of lovely time with friends...breakfasts and walks and lunches and dinners and workouts and driving and just lots of visiting. Considering that I often tend to hermit after the holidays, this goes to show how much I value these friends. ;) So blessed to have them all in my life.

4. Nathan's co-worker time. At the start of February, Nathan was able to meet up with a couple co-workers in person and they rented out space to work together for a few days. (They're normally all remote.) Thankful he had the opportunity, as it's always nice to get to spend time in person. 

5. The Olympics. I love watching the Olympics. This is also part of the reason I haven't updated here lately. :)

6. The Super Bowl. My dad would have been so happy to see his Seahawks win the Super Bowl. I watched with Nathan and Micah and we enjoyed it for him. 

7. Getting taxes done. Yup, submitted everything the week or so after the Super Bowl and glad to have that done.

8. Signs. Recently, I've seen a number of signs that struck me enough to capture. They make me happy and grateful, so I thought I'd share...

The top photo is just a painting I saw that was pretty. It made me happy think about someday when I might get art like that and redo our front room. The time isn't now...but it's nice to think about. The middle left photo is a dish towel I saw. Once upon a time when I was in high school in a Young Woman of the Year state pageant/competition, this quote was one of the possible interview questions I was given. I'd never heard of it. ;P I like the idea of blooming where you are...making the most of your situation. The next sign (middle right) is one I found in another store. I've seen similar ones over the years. Felt relevant.

The bottom left sign speaks to me, as it relates to my word of the year and reminds me of this important thought. And the last photo was on my tea bag last week. With so much transition around our household lately, it felt like the tea bag was on point. 

Okay, that's my catching up for now. I might do better after the Olympics are over. Maybe. :)

So, it's been a couple weeks since my last post. Since then, here's a list of things I'm thankful for:

1. Date night. Nathan and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science a couple weeks ago to see a presentation on elephants and hear our friend, George, speak. (He's an elephant expert with Save the Elephants, works here at CSU when he's not in Kenya working with elephants, and does boot camp with me.) It was terrific!

And before the presentation, we treated ourselves to dinner at Annette (at the Stanley Marketplace about 10-15 minutes from the museum). Um, wow. It was delicious...

2. Asher snowboarding. A couple days later, Asher joined a UNC outdoor pursuits group to go snowboarding again at Snowy Range in Wyoming. For only having been snowboarding twice before, he's doing pretty well...

(Yes, he did more than one of those black diamond runs.) Glad that he had the opportunity to get away and relax a bit, as he'd been a bit stressed at the beginning of the term with starting his student teaching journey. (He seems to be settling in now. He's at a middle school for the first half of this semester and will be at an elementary school for the second half.)

3. Noah and his car are fine. Asher got back to UNC from snowboarding during the Broncos game that weekend so I asked Noah to go pick him up. (I'd dropped Asher off early that morning so he wouldn't have to park on campus.) Unfortunately, Noah got rear-ended on his way to pick up Asher. Fortunately, he was at a complete stop, as were the two cars behind him. The fourth car, though, wasn't paying attention and rammed the line...crashing into the car ahead of her and then pushing that car into the next car and that car into Noah. Noah is totally fine and his car has almost no damage. The other three vehicles all had to be towed. Oy.

In any case, Noah had to wait for the police report and all, so we had to then send Micah to pick up Asher, which worked out fine and without incident. Whew. 

4. Catching up. I won't share all the stories but let's just say that chatting with my sisters and my mom last week was entertaining and has me thankful for my life, lol. Thankful, too, to have caught up with them. :) 

5. Contacts. So, last week I developed an interior sty on my left eyelid. Annoying but not too bad. But, it's my eye, so I went to see my awesomely thorough neighbor/optometrist on Friday. He ruled out all the worse things it could have been (whew) and told me what to do...which mostly involved continuing with hot compresses and switching to wearing my glasses. (I also got a prescription but opted not to take it for other reasons.) All good. Except my glasses are almost 8 years old and *not quite* my current prescription. They're fine for when I take out my contacts at night but not so great for wearing all day. Bleh.

I'm happy to report, though, that I'm back to wearing contacts as of today and am thrilled at this. I'll also be ordering new glasses soon. ;)

6. Reorganized master bathroom cupboards. Last week I got it in my head that I should reorganize the cupboards in the master bathroom... 

It got a bit out of hand but is happily tidied now. Yay! I bought and assembled some sliding drawer things for both sides and am grateful to have purged and sorted and reorganized.

7. Standing desk. Before I started on the bathroom, I got Nathan to work on reorganizing his office area (which was a much bigger task that we neglected to take any photos of). We got a shelving unit from IKEA to hold the many piles in a more organized fashion and it's looking much better now. In the process, we've freed up this very sturdy standing desk that was given to Asher a few years ago. We don't need it any longer so if you're local let me know if you'd like it!!

(Sorry I didn't dust the top before taking the pictures.) The top is 24”x72” and the top surface is 37.5” from the ground. It has holes on the desk surface for cords, a sliding shallow drawer and a pivoting keyboard tray underneath. It’s pretty sturdy and on casters. Free!

8. Climbing. I don't know that I mentioned it, but I sprained my wrist toward the beginning of December so have been babying it since then. I've been wearing a brace and modifying things as needed for boot camp but haven't been able to climb in a couple months. Today, though, I went to Ascent and climbed! It'll take some patience to not overdo things and work my way back up, but it felt great to get back to it. Yay!

Okay, that's my list for today. January's been full of getting things done and starting to plan for the year. Here's hoping your year is off to a productive start as well!

Hi there! Happy 2026 to you all! Throwing back, today, to last month. ;) Yeah...just catching up. Here are five photos...

1. On Christmas day, we had a lovely charcuterie spread for lunch...

Pretty proud of ourselves for putting that together and remembering we had that platter, lol.

2. Also on Christmas day, we tried out this new game I got Noah...

It's Monopoly Scrabble, lol. Noah's always after me to play Monopoly and it's one of the games I've said a flat out "no" to for years. I like Scrabble, though. So. Compromise. :) 

3. The squirrels have been busy here...

...and Micah's taken more of an interest...such that his photo roll is largely full of squirrel pictures, lol. 

4. Speaking of which, Micah painted us acrylic paintings for Christmas. Here are some of them (this photo is missing the Mt Fuji scene he painted for Noah but includes a couple of works he did for friends (the top two))...

Yes, Micah has (very) recently taken up painting. Pretty good for first attempts, right?! He's having fun with it and continues to paint even more.

5. And our New Year's Eve celebration was pretty full...we had more charcuterie, tried Soju (a traditional Korean alcohol), and had an all day game tournament before toasting the new year with some prosecco.

Our game tournament was fun? long? entertaining? Yup, all of those things. We decided ahead of time that there would be five points awarded to the winner each time, and the loser got to pick the next game. As you can see, Asher came out victorious and I was pretty darn happy with third. :) (Boys didn't think that wake up time should count. Nathan and I started with that to try to give ourselves some help but in the end the results stay the same even if you take away the wake up time, lol.)

And that wraps up our end of December. :)