College Prep

We’re on the home stretch when it comes to colleges! We’re working on a couple scholarship essays and have some visits planned. D-man is 8-0-1 for schools and we are super proud of his accomplishments. Now the schools are working hard to help him make his final choice. I’m excited for this next chapter for him!

College scholarship time at the Airbnb 

Some of the most recent material 

Birthday Boy

It was nice that D-man got in some birthday celebrations in over the weekend. On Saturday, Hadley had a fun night out planned. They went to the Aquarium and out to dinner in downtown Denver. They also spent some time on 16th Street Mall. What a fun night! 

On Sunday, D-man hosted his buds at Top Golf. They had dinner and watched the second NFL game. We picked up his birthday cake - a HUGE Costco cake as he has been asking for one for a couple of years (during the height of the pandemic you couldn’t get them). Needless to say, we have a LOT of left over cake. 

And today, will be the last blog post I wrote with two minors in the household. I can hardly believe we have an 18 year old, but the clock certainly does not stop turning and time doesn’t slow down. 

The HUGE cake 

Ready for golf! 

Cuz I had to 

Nice night for the outing 

The crew 

Suspended Reality

We sprinkled in some fun amidst the necessary activities related to birthday preparation, insurance calls, car issues, house ducts and laundry. We went to last minute happy hour at Empire on Friday night and then played cards at the Wrights. 

We also had a night out listening to the 80’s band “The Goonies.” It was a “show your vaccine event” which made me feel better about attending. It was fun to dress up, let loose on the dance floor and suspend reality for while. 

Marshall also got in an impromptu beer on Sunday in between errands. 

The boys enjoyed time with friends and T-man had an ultimate game on Sunday. 

It’s nice to have a couple of days to deal with everything going on, but also be able to take a break from our crazy reality. 

Messing around downtown Louisville 

Practicing hairstyles for 80’s night 

The Mohawk is so tall I cut it off! 

Looking fab 

Dancing! 

Impromptu beers 

Cleaning crew left the rug in front of our garage. Now the reorganization, sorting and laundry begin 

Mettle

mettle - noun. a person's ability to cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way.

The world above was one of many that we worked through in T-man’s LA homework. And I couldn’t think of a better way to describe our family we right now. We are all showing our mettle in the current situation. We finally completed the homework after 60+ minutes of frustrations, learning and laughs. Between that and all the work Marshall is doing to help D-man with his science research, we are all ready for a break. 

The cleaning crew started today and I became very stressed about the job they were doing and if they will do it right. And then worry about the next steps and being taken advantage of by insurance. This is the next step in a multistep process and we don’t continue to take it day by day. 

Yesterday, we were able to get out of our current reality and celebrate Australia Day with the Wrights. They are now in an Airbnb a block from downtown so we grabbed a drink at Waterloo before celebrating with meat pies, Australian wine and Aussie desserts. Spending time with good friends was definitely good for the soul. Lots of laughs on the craziness of our situations - the Wrights with a plumbing problem causing all sorts of ceiling damage and us with two cars in trouble and mice in the ducts. It is seriously a lot, but this too shall pass. May we continue to show our mettle through it all. 

Bagging up the laundry to get it out of the closets so the cleaning crews can do their work. 

Celebrating Life

A difficult, but beautiful day celebrating Marshall’s cousin, Kristin. She was a wonderful person and it shone through in the stories told and the people that were there to celebrate her. 

Attendants were asked to wear a favorite accessory and it was great to see so many scarves and hats. It was obviously nice to see members of Marshall’s family as well, but always difficult in these circumstances. 

I hope we can all embrace Kristin’s love of adventure and learning as well as honor her by treating others with kindness everyday. She will be missed and our heart goes out to her wife, Angie, as she navigates the future without Kirstin. 

Michelle reading her Uncle Ed’s words 

Angie reading her lovely tribute to Kristin 

Scarves and hearts in honor of Kristin 

 

Getting in The Gym

Not to work out - no! Just for a little bit of normalcy. 

The boys and I headed out around 5:00 to grab clothes from the house, grab chick-fil-a, and pjs for the basketball game. With Marshall off to Colorado Springs, we dropped T-man off at a friend’s house and I went to the basketball game. It was fun to see some friends and cheer on the team. 

Ready for tip off - you can see D-man in his pink pjs we picked up for $7! 

The Little Things

We survived the first week at the AirBnb thanks to food and more food. My sisters kindly supplied meals for the week which were easy to prepare and yummy. T-man even ate the dinner most nights! 

This week was a long week at work due to four days of meetings. It was a very mentally exhausting week conducting these meetings over Zoom. It was also long because the weather was not great so we were cooped up inside all week (or at least that is how I felt). But, I made it! The bonus of the meetings was a Grubhub credit for lunch everyday so I ended up surprising Marshall every day with a surprise lunch choice. It was a fun little activity for to the day. What would I choose? What haven’t we had in awhile? What new restaurant will we try? We tried four new places and had a 50% success rate (2 were really good and two were good, but nothing special). We had gyros (win), pho (fine), poke bowls (win) and Indian (fine). Regardless, it was a fun break in the day. 

We also found out this week that the remediation  won’t be done as soon as we had hoped. The good news is that we were able to secure the AirBnb for another week so we are good there. I also hope that we are getting everything done that we need to do to make sure that the house is taken care of appropriately. Talking tonight at the basketball game, someone talked about the HVAC people - not even sure if we have had that looked at, but with all the ash in the air in seems we should have someone looking at the air conditioner that sits outside. And I told Marshall that our filters are pretty dirty and the vacuuming we did last week didn’t even seem to work. 

So many mental tasks….one day at a time. I know we also need to go through the insurance list, but I really want to do that with Marshall and I just haven’t had the mental capacity to do it. But, we will get it done - just not this weekend because we have a funeral. And this is our reality right now. And yet, we will get it done. And we will be fine. We will take it one day at a time and we will tackle it together. It doesn’t make it fun or easy and while I can’t control the stressors in our lives right now, I can control my reaction to them. And we can work to make it as normal for the boys as possible and practice resilience in the face of adversity.  And also being thankful for all we do have. 

How you open woke when there isn’t a wine opener in the house 

My set up in T-man’s bedroom 

Poke bowl! (Marshall’s favorite) 

Our “home” for now 

Settling In

On Sunday, we transitioned to hopefully our final stop before getting back into the house. Between locations, we spent time at home (with masks on) doing laundry, picking up a bit and picking up the homemade meals we had delivered by my sisters. 

Our Airbnb is in Louisville and we are thankful to be so close for the next two weeks. One of D-man’s friends lives close by and will be able to take T-man to school (since D-man doesn’t have first two periods). 

On Sunday evening, we settled in and had a delicious meal made by our friend LizAnn. We took full advantage of the three day weekend by sleeping in, watching movies and reading books. D-man and I also got a college tour weekend booked! We stumbled out of the house around 2:00 for lunch at the Taco Wagon (recommended by D-man) in Lafayette. We then hooked up with the Wrights for some afternoon bowling. It was definitely not a long weekend of skiing as in normal for MLK weekend, but we all agreed that none of us really had the energy for that. 

We wrapped up with a prepared meal - baked ziti, salad, and broccoli - which was very delicious and so nice not to have to worry about cooking. Here’s to a short week ahead and tackling what ever life brings us this week. 

Taco wagon alfresco dining 

Bowling (nice to be on the end lanes and away from so many people)

Baked ziti and broccoli 

Our new digs - it is worn down, but clean 

Remembering Kristin

This week, Marshall’s cousin Kristin passed away after her battle with ovarian cancer. We were fortunate to spend time with her and Angie over Thanksgiving. While we all knew that they were no longer doing treatment, Marshall and I both thought they had a few more months to be together. 

Kristin (and Angie) will forever live with us through the memories on our Christmas tree. As long as the boys can remember, they always received Christmas ornaments for Kristin - many of them I grabbed when we fled from the fire. 

She was always such a positive person and a joy to be around. Our hearts go out to her wife, sister and father. She was way too young to leave us and she will be dearly missed by so many. 

Here are pictures we received in our Christmas card and we are fortunate to still have them on our wall. 

Memories

Both of these posts showed up on my Facebook feed from thirteen and twelve years ago respectively. These times are so long ago and really not that long ago at all.  I feel fortunate to be able to have these thoughts written down and have them show up. I don’t have much written in my blog from this time in our lives - too busy and no app made it much harder. 

Last week, we had a good amount of 1:1 time with T-man thanks to his quarantine and as the blog states, it is a different experience. This week the boys had time together at their Bachelor Pad due to COVID at the neighboring hotel. We played online cards with them a couple of nights and mostly had take out. 

Today, we got out in the morning to pick up T-man, get breakfast burritos and coffee. We also stopped by the library in the hopes of getting the library book we ordered. D-man also got his new ski boots purchased and we all had dinner together - the first time in almost 2 weeks. 

D-man counted how many locations we have been in so far - the answer is five so far and the Airbnb will make 6. 

Cards at the hotel

Friday night happy hour on the last night without the boys 

The bachelor pad (thank you Snapdocs for privilege of having the kids in their own rooms during quarantine). 

The Ups

Today had more ups than downs and I will take it! 

While T-man testing positive last night was certainly a down, the fact the boys are together is a positive. Their  bachelor pad even has a balcony (which T-man showed off to his cousins while playing video games with them). D-man ran out to pick up lunch and some snacks for them and came to pick up their pizza for dinner. 

I received my new AirPod Pros thanks to Mom and Dad. Marshall will be happy as I have been a headset nightmare this week with my conference calls. Getting these today was definitely an Up! 

We also found out that our house could be done as soon as next Friday so we will definitely be home sooner we than we expected which is great news and will bring back some normalcy which is really needed. 

My new gift - so appreciated 

Capturing the stark contrast of our neighborhood - road closed and no homes 

Our side still lit up with Christmas lights 

Peavy Progress

We have made it to our latest “home.”  Yesterday was a stressful day- Airbnb we were hoping on fell through; we couldn’t stay at the hotel we were at because it was booked through the end of the month and we were rushing to get out in the middle of our work days. But, we survived and landed at the Resident’s Inn in North Boulder (D-man is in the Courtyard by Marriott a mile away). This place has a much better equipped kitchen and D-man commented “and four chairs.” Hopefully, this experience will help them realize how fortunate we are. 

My teammate brought us dinner on Monday night (and a table as I had shared a picture of my desk on the bed). Very, very kind all the way around. Today, T-man stayed home from school (positive COVID Test tonight) and I worked from an employee’s house in Boulder. We enjoyed lunch together and was just nice to get out from on top of each other. 

We signed a remediation company and also secured an Airbnb for a month so we don’t need to be bouncing around (thankfully). We cashed in on a Grubhub gift card for yummy Chinese food) and sent the boys to the Courtyard Marriott together. 

We played two games of online pitch with them and then they were going to watch Kungfu Panda. We had lots of laughs playing cards - laughter really is the best medicine. 

Oh and I lost my AirPods and found them run over in the street on Sunday #notwinning

The soot inside 

More soot 

Hotel living - watching movies and building a desk 

A desk! 

A great reminder right now 

My work “desk” thanks to my employee and my son 

Marshall’s desk in the bedroom