The Goodrums

At this point, this blog is long overdue for a medical update. We received the results from my procedure in late May and found that I’m in remission. While this was news worth celebrating, the news came with many qualifiers and in a lot of ways was surprisingly difficult to process.

My case was more difficult than many to resolve, and that comes with a high likelihood of relapse. Relapse means immediate hysterectomy, which is the ultimate outcome but relapse shortens your timeline by about 5 years overnight. Some of my doctors are puzzling about the tenaciousness of the case given my lack of risk factors and have recommended screenings for a series of genetic cancers. The genetic cancer associated with uterine/endometrial puts you at substantial risk for a host of other cancers (and though the long-term prognosis is relatively good for many of those cancers, the prospect of multiple cancers is still intimidating). You find yourself in the strange position of hoping you will just have to contend with one cancer.

In a case like this, you are given a relatively short window of time before you get to say goodbye to a piece of your anatomy – 5 years from diagnosis is the usual limit. You are told that you will need to continue to undergo surgical procedures every 6 months to check for relapse, unless you are pregnant, to your physical and financial detriment.

In all this, you find yourself caught in the in between of wanting to celebrate a recovery, but knowing there is still a long road ahead until final resolution. One chapter of the journey is “over,”  but there are still many more chapters before you can breathe a true sigh of relief.

Following the news of remission in late May, we met with our medical team to find out next steps. One of the next steps was genetic cancer testing. The other next step was family if that was in our plans. Given the treatment I had undergone, we were informed that the chances of becoming pregnant without substantial medical interventions were extremely low. We were sent for fertility evaluations, and especially given all that my body has been through in the last year, the results were not very favorable. We began planning for fertility treatments once the genetic cancer screenings were complete.

But meanwhile, God has a sense of humor.

Introducing our little miracle:

We can take no credit for this little life. All medicine and life circumstance said this would never happen without major medical intervention. But God is bigger than medicine and life circumstance. It has been a rough and very complicated first trimester, complete with some substantial complications. Many times we thought this pregnancy would be lost – and we still don’t know with certainty what the future will hold. But we are trusting and expecting the best.

On the anniversary of last year’s diagnosis, we are 15 weeks along and, so far, the baby appears to be healthy. Over the last year, we have walked a road fraught with bumps and bruises, fear and grief. And one year later, we are so incredibly thankful for improved health and this little gift that should be joining us in March.

December happened and I’m not sure how. I’ve only shoveled the driveway once. We haven’t been skiing yet (seriously not worth it, especially after the last season of dodging rocks and dirt).

Jennifer started December off with a conference at a 55+ golf resort sort of near Escondido, CA (this is in contrast to the conference in the Florida Keys last year). Jennifer does not play golf and there apparently was not much else to do there. And she forgot her running shoes. Needless to say she was pleased to come home. And I’m still traveling for work with trips to Chicago and Amarillo to close out the year.

Thankfully, Jennifer’s company identified a candidate for the person to assist her, and she will begin work in January. We also had a visit from some college friends, Beth and Jeff Sams. They were joined by their 9 month old son Jack, while their two year old daughter Cate stayed back in Dallas with her grandparents and their “special milk.” Unfortunately, Jennifer and I both contracted a sore throat/cold in the week leading up to the Sams’ visit so were not the best of hosts I don’t think. We did manage to hit up the French bakery and, where I so awesomely ordered Beth a delicious sandwich which centered around melted Brie in the midst of her avoiding dairy products because they upset Jack’s stomach. Yeah, who would be an awesome Dad? That’s like the time I served rare beef to a good friend from CU without knowing she was pregnant. Yep, I am great for infants.

So now we are a few weeks from Christmas and I think what we both want is peace and rest and good news in January. We would also love some snow, especially in Summit and Eagle counties, and a much calmer 2013.

We are looking forward to spending Christmas in Oklahoma with Jennifer’s family and hoping to finish all our Christmas cards before we leave so we can share the URL that encourages you to be reading this post right now. It has been quite a year with a lot of memorable times, good and bad, some notable accomplishments, and life changing news. We hope that your year has been memorable as well and perhaps with more ups than downs. We are thankful that through it all, God is faithful (since that’s what it means to be faithful) and are hopeful for what He has planned in the future.

November showed up somewhat unexpectedly. Mostly because it hadn’t really snowed yet. The usual Halloween snow was missing this year and it was still mountain biking weather. We wouldn’t complain about mountain biking weather in Denver if only the mountains were getting snow. Here goes another mediocre (and mediocre might be a generous term) ski season.

November was when things were supposed to slow down. Instead new deadlines materialized at our respective works. Jennifer relayed her diagnosis and treatment to her workplace and discussed what her future work schedule might look like. Given the diagnosis, the doctors have encouraged Jennifer to cut back on sources of stress in life. Also, at this point, many of our priorities have changed, and Jennifer wanted to make sure work wasn't left in a lurch if at some point over the next year or two of treatment she became unable to fulfill work duties. Even at the outset, the treatments have really sapped Jennifer’s energy and having a “40” hour workweek has been tough at times. After discussing the situation with work, the decision was to bring in a junior employee to help Jennifer and for Jennifer to reduce to part-time beginning in January.

Fortunately, I did not travel for work in November. After the previous 10 months, we were exhausted and elected to spend Thanksgiving at home and got together with several of our South African friends. In case you were wondering, stuffing made with (unstuffed) boerewors is phenomenally delicious. So are various Thanksgiving dishes made with bacon.

Oh, and by Thanksgiving the Ags were tearing it up on the field en route to our best football season since Jennifer’s freshman year and as we found out later, to Johnny Football winning the Heisman. Our South African neighbors, who have been rightly made into Aggie fans, enjoyed the Ags season nearly as much as we did as attested to by their Facebook comments. A restful Thanksgiving was oh so worth giving thanks for, and we enjoyed having the four days off from work to do things like put up Christmas decorations in 70 degree weather, and then aspiring to complete an entire population of Christmas cards, finish up handling comments on my journal article, and finish my reading for MLT. We did the Christmas decorations which was fun. Instead of the other aspirations we just chilled out and went to see Skyfall (which was very well done I might add).

November also included another chapter or two in the saga that is our rabbit problem. We had this rabbit that lived under very disliked Juniper bushes in our front yard. It was there all summer. It was kind of comical because when you walked out the door it would scurry out into the grass and crouch down and stare at you like you couldn’t see it. No big deal that this rabbit wanted to live under the bush and we just ignored it. Then the weather got colder. We parked the Mazda in the driveway because three cars don’t fit in a two-car garage (and that’s where the commuter car has always been parked).

In late September, the rabbit first determined that the engine bay of the Mazda was warmer than the Juniper bush. Fortunately for the rabbit, the Mazda has a large plastic shroud under the engine bay, which doubles as a perfect platform to crouch upon near the oh-so-warm engine. Unfortunately for the rabbit, the gap between the shroud and steering linkage is not that wide. Fortunately for the rabbit, the shroud is plastic and it has relatively sharp teeth. The rabbit chewed its way into the engine bay (at least it was just a shroud) and made a new home. As mentioned, this was discovered in September (right before Jennifer left for Pueblo, CO). We noticed because the rabbit left a dried puddle of urine under the car which Jennifer noticed. She was concerned that the brand new car was leaking coolant. There is a side story here about having to replace the radiator on a Mazda3 with less than 5,000 miles because of some well positioned road debris; I won’t tell that story here.

We have battled this rabbit since September. Thankfully it did not chew any wires or hoses in the Mazda, just snuggled in the cozy warm engine bay. I dug up the Juniper bushes thinking it may discourage the rabbit from hanging out in our front yard. I bought a wonderfully unsuccessful rabbit trap.

We finally ended up moving the Highlander outside (since it sits much higher off the ground) and parking the Mazda in the garage. One day in mid-November Jennifer called to say the Highlander wouldn’t start. I left work early and came home to a rabbit sitting atop the engine in the Highlander that scampered away frightened when I opened the hood. This time it chewed up wires. Thankfully, I have experience rewiring Jeep CJ-5s and for about $65 fixed the Highlander as opposed to whatever ridiculous amount the dealer would have charged. I spent the afternoon walking around with a pitchfork and hatchet ready to end the rabbit problem. The rabbit smartly stayed hidden.

That weekend, we yanked the junipers out of our front lawn. We also took lots of precautions with sprays and granules and motion sensing alarms. After utilizing all these deterrents, the next morning, we found the rabbit again in the Mazda (which had been moved slightly up the street thinking that might help the issue). This time our furry friend got a ride to a Safeway about 7 miles away and was let out at an extremely busy intersection. Good luck to him.

We learned from some others with similar experience that rat poison in the engine bay was a deterrent. I left the rat poison spread around the Mazda’s engine bay and checked under the hood every morning and for a while we were golden. I then got cocky and washed out the Mazda’s engine bay. We got snow just this past week. We found another rabbit in the Mazda. If not for Jennifer’s impending meeting (that ended up being delayed two hours), I would have given this rabbit a lift to a coyote sanctuary and bid him adieu. Instead we chased it out of the car and glared (the glaring part was especially effective) as it cowered in our neighbors’ yard. I am now in the market for remote detonated exploding carrots. I am also buying Jennifer a fox, a coyote, a wolf, a bobcat, and a weasel for Christmas. I may buy her a wolverine too, just for good measure. My coworker and ski buddy also offered an attractive solution (at right). It’s testimony to our current hatred of rabbits that this solution is actually growing on Jennifer.

October followed September and all the weariness and rawness it left.

October included the blessing of a great and spontaneous vacation that we pulled the trigger on literally hours before our unexpected news in September. It was one of those times that you tell God with that slight element of amazement that He knew what He was doing. And then you laugh at yourself for basically stating the obvious.

Starting in August, Jennifer and I had been talking about (and desperately longing for) a vacation and respite from the craziness that ensued, if not multiplied, after I officially finished my M.S. degree and life was supposed to grant euphoric relaxation and copious free time. Jennifer had long expressed interest in a foreign holiday to celebrate my finishing school, but my remaining vacation time was a limiting factor.

Like any normal person, I again made a spreadsheet comparing various destinations and the pros and cons of each (unlike the car spreadsheet, this time there were no sweet pictures though). None of the realistic options were really jumping out to us, and the really desirable options (like Patagonia in Argentina/Chile) seemed out of reason.

And then came Divine intervention via Groupon (just like, for those who have read “Praise Habit”, David Crowder talking about finding God in a Chick-fil-A sandwich). While I was in D.C. Jennifer sent me a half-joking email with a link for a week-long trip to Switzerland offered on Groupon travel. I looked and was of course interested, and said so, but was really thinking “yeah right.” As I thought about it more, I was kind of like, “why not?”, and then told Jennifer we should do it. Yes, it was crazy and spontaneous. Yes, we would be booking an international trip less than a month out. Yes, Jennifer had an expired passport to renew in the matter of a few weeks. And yes, the only thing we knew about Switzerland was mountains, chocolate, and neutrality.

But sometimes you just need to do crazy and spontaneous things. Just like the road trip I’ve always wanted to take where you flip a coin at each intersection to determine which direction to go and just see where you end up. (Yes, I realize that this could totally backfire and take you in circles, or to nowhere remotely interesting, but that’s still an adventure in its own right isn’t it? Albeit, not the most spectacular one, but probably a memorable adventure nonetheless).

I talked to my boss about eking out every last bit of my vacation time and all of a sudden we had booked a Swiss vacation. I finished October with a work trip to Chicago a few days after our return from vacation. The chocolate in Chicago is not as good as in Switzerland. The pizza is pretty delicious though.

We went to Switzerland (full album of pictures) in mid-October. We hit up our local library, which I have grown to appreciate increasingly more each several months, and picked up several travel guides for Switzerland (who needs to buy books you’re going to use once?).

We learned that the Swiss spoke a lot of German. The most German that I Jennifer or I knew was probably Volkswagen, or maybe Porsche. The Swiss also speak French and Italian, and a few of them Romansch. Jennifer knows some French, and I love French pastries, so we thought that may be useful. Italian is kind of similar to Spanish, so we had that going for us too. We later learned that we were not really in the French or Italian areas of Switzerland. Thankfully, we also learned that many of the Swiss can manage English. This was exemplified in my trying to ask a waitress if she spoke English. I asked in German (one of the few simple German phrases I was able to learn in a few weeks). The waitress responded with “say again?” Yes, in English. Execution failure. It is a humbling experience to be in a country where you have no applicable language skills beyond hand signals and caricatures.

The other aspects of the trip went much more smoothly than communicating in the native language (though Jennifer will beg to differ on the driving element). Our Groupon included airfare to and from Zurich, a rental car, six nights at the Hotel Baren in the town of Wilderswil (near Interlaken), hotel breakfast plus packed lunch, and tickets to ride the Jungfraujoch railway up to the Sphinx observatory on the Jungfrau mountain. We will write a whole post about the trip to Switzerland separately, but will cover some highlights here.

We spent part of a day in Zurich, where churches and buildings are stamped with dates that start with things like “14” and “15” instead of “18” and “19”. We drove through gorgeous countryside into the Alps and the Bernese Oberland, where Interlaken and Wilderswil are. We saw cows and sheep and heard lots of cow and sheep bells. We stayed in a 300 year old hotel. We ate cheese fondue. We ate chocolate. We saw mountains. We hung out on a glacier. We went to Zermatt on a car train through the Alps. We went to the capital city of Bern and saw the “old town” which dated to medieval times. We hiked and got mildly lost every time. We had a really good time.

The Alps were impressive and quite a bit different than the Rockies of Colorado. The Alps were so much steeper and jagged, but also so much more green at lower elevations (the higher areas are permanently covered in snow). The Eiger, Monch, and the Jungrau were impressive, especially when viewed from the Schynige Platte.

The Lauterbrunnen valley was spectacular with all its waterfalls (even in off-peak season). The cheese was really good and the chocolate superb.

Knowing that family would want some evidence of our visit, Jennifer and I graciously took one for the team and made a trip to the Co-op (a grocery store chain) and purchased one of each type of chocolate bar to help select the best one. We didn’t want to be transporting inferior chocolate to share with our families. Funny enough, the best one was the store brand chocolate. The Swiss chocolate was nowhere near as sweet as the stuff in the States (Hershey’s = bleh) but was much richer, and so much more delicious.

The Matterhorn

As good as the chocolate was, the hands down best thing we experienced in Switzerland was our visit to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn. We live in a state full of mountains, and pretty darn good ones at that. We hung out in the Bernese Oberland, which is like the extreme sports/adventure capitol of the Alps (and continuously reminded us of the Lake Dillon area in Colorado). But there was something about the Matterhorn that was just awe inspiring. The inimitable shape of the Matterhorn that is as distinguishable as the outline of the state of Texas and the quintessential Alpine ski village setting were magnificent. There are things you see and think “WOW” and then after staring for a while, the “WOW” becomes “wow”. Through the entire day, every time you looked at the Matterhorn it was “WOW”, especially at the point we watched the sun set behind its silhouette.

If you ever find yourself in Switzerland, it is worth the effort necessary to travel to Zermatt and see the Matterhorn in person. And you should also fly Air Canada for your trip; they served salmon on the plane that was better than I’ve had in numerous stateside restaurants. Several of our fellow travelers agreed that it was the best airline food not in first class. Way better movie selection for the airline insomniac too.

September was a difficult month.

We at least began on a good note with a Labor Day camping trip with friends, though it was the first camping we’d done all year… The central focus of the camping trip was about a 32 mile mountain bike ride from Waterton Canyon in Denver Metro out to Buffalo Creek near Deckers, CO. Four of the guys elected to make the ride, some in preparation for the 24 hours of Moab in October.

I went in thinking, “I’ve ridden Waterton dozens of times and that singletrack ascent to the Colorado Trail should be some of the more challenging climbing of the ride.” What that really meant is I was thinking, “I got this.” Well, it turned out to be a much bigger challenge than anticipated, especially the fact that we had to hike significantly more sections of the trail than expected. In the end it was probably a 20 mile ride and a 12 mile hike where you happened to be pushing about 20 lbs. of metal, plastic, and rubber around for fun.

I think the best part was when we stopped for a snack after cresting a pretty worthwhile ascent at something no faster than probably 6 mph with most people slightly out of breath. As we were sitting there we heard people talking. The talking got louder quickly and it was a woman’s voice. Then this dude and this chic, looking all professional and legit, rode by at oh, like 10 mph, said hi, and the chic just kept talking no problem the whole way. For those of you who don’t know, that’s pretty much what defeat feels like. I think the only way it could have been more insulting would have been if they were on fixed gear bikes; or if they were a gang of clowns on tricycles.

We made it back to camp though, with one short pit stop for water where the lady must have thought we were a bunch of incompetent guys who didn’t know what we were doing and had gotten in over our heads. She may have been at least partially right.

Then came the best part. After the long ride, Jennifer drove three of us guys to a nearby lake. We paid $9 each for the best bath ever. Three tired, dirty, and sweaty guys in cycling shorts, a bottle of biodegradable camp soap, a lake with a terribly rocky beach, and some guy and his wife trying to peacefully launch their fishing boat at a secluded “beach” make an excellent combination.

Michael atop the rock formations at Buffalo Creek

The other interesting aspect of the ride/trip was the sunroof of one of the guys’ trucks exploding while he drove us out to the trailhead for the ride. Ford must have picked some bad glass. We did some exploring of the area, and bushwacked our way to and from some pretty cool rock formations.

Following the camping trip, Jennifer contracted Hand, Foot and Mouth disease from some of the kids on the trip. Hand, Foot and Mouth disease is only supposed to affect children under the age of 4 (is this saying something about my mental or emotional state?? says Jennifer). Jennifer developed a lot of sympathy for the kids that get the illness, as it is incredibly painful.

In September, I was assigned to a new and unexpected project that had me traveling three weeks out of four after what had already been a very busy summer of work travel. The upside was that I was in Washington, D.C. and got to hang out with my parents while on travel.

While on D.C. travel, we received the sad news that Jennifer’s paternal Grandmother passed away, less than two months prior to her 90th birthday. We both traveled to Indianapolis for the funeral, along with all of Jennifer’s immediate family. I do have to say that Grandma Brashares’ memorial service was what you hope a memorial service can be – much more a celebration of her life and who she was than mourning that she was gone. That’s not to say we weren’t sad to see her go, but it was really awesome to see countless pictures and hear countless stories about what a tremendous woman she was.


C. Brashares family before Gramma Brashares' services

In our effort to take advantage of the crazy awesome places in our figurative backyard, and in conjunction with our making full use of Groupon (see October), we sandwiched a weekend trip to La Veta, CO in between my travel to Washington. I have driven past the turnoff for La Veta countless times on the way to and from Los Alamos, NM. This is the namesake for La Veta pass, which is near the base of Blanca Peak. La Veta is nestled in the Spanish Peaks wilderness, which we discovered to be another of the myriad of gorgeous places in Colorado.

However, we really went for another reason: Great Sand Dunes National Park. We stayed at the historic La Veta Inn and had some wonderfully good food at the hotel restaurant. During dinner, unbeknownst to us, another couple in the restaurant paid for our wine, which was an especially meaningful gesture to us at that point in time.

Sweet Brashares family visit to the sand dunes in the early 90s

We went the next day to the dunes. I have seen these dunes in the distance while driving around in Southern Colorado and always wanted to go but had never been. Jennifer’s family went when she was a kid. They will tell you about the sand dunes. About wind and blowing sand and sand in your food and in your hair and, well in everything for weeks. They grew up in suburban Houston. They hated it. They laughed in slight disbelief when we told them we were going to the Great Sand Dunes.

I grew up in the desert in the Southwestern U.S. I have been to hundreds of sand dunes. I have been in Jeeps, on four-wheelers, on dirt bikes, on foot. I have been to Little Sahara and to White Sands to name a few. I have been to the small bit of sand dunes on the west mesa in Albuquerque millions of times. I have been in sun and in wind and in rain (thunderstorms in sand dunes are the best – as long as you are not in a wash basin and in danger of flash flooding). I have eaten countless sandblasted hot dogs or sandwiches and had sand in eyes and hair and underpants. I love sand dunes. The sand dunes are just like the beach but WAY better. You don’t have undertow in the sand dunes. You don’t drown in the sand dunes. There are no sharks or jellyfish lurking in the sand dunes (I will admit though, the ocean definitely has Orcas going for it. And Walruses. And Penguins. And Polar Bears. And Manta rays.) Basically, sand dunes = bliss. SO, Great Sand Dunes = EXTRA bliss.


Atop the Star Dune



Sangre de Cristos

Coke ovens in Cokedale, CO

The drive ended in Trinidad, CO and back to Denver, a very worthwhile Colorado weekend adventure.

After the trip to the Spanish Peaks area, Jennifer ended up having a minor surgical procedure due to some abnormal observances in her health. The procedure revealed and removed a polyp from her uterus and her doctor was pleased we had done the procedure. I rearranged flights to be in town for the procedure, but had to leave for Washington, D.C. immediately after the procedure.

After I finally completed my travel stint to D.C., Jennifer traveled down to Pueblo, CO for a work event that offers dental care to those who cannot afford it. During her time in Pueblo, Jennifer’s doctor shared the results of the biopsy of the uterine polyp. We were shocked to learn that the biopsy revealed that Jennifer has a precursor to or early stage uterine cancer.

We met with Jennifer’s doctor early the following week with a host of questions and then followed up with a visit to an oncologist the next week. Jennifer’s diagnosis was very unusual for her age, as the condition almost always occurs during menopause. We were told that the normal treatment would be to perform a hysterectomy, but for women of child bearing age, an alternate approach is to undergo a high-dose hormone treatment for three months to either halt, or hopefully reverse, the observed condition. At the end of three to six months, another biopsy is performed to see the response to the treatment. The goal is to have health return to normal and allow the opportunity for having a family before going ahead with performing a hysterectomy (which will be the ultimate endpoint of this diagnosis regardless of the outcome of the short term therapy).

The good news is that uterine cancer is a very non-aggressive and treatable cancer, especially when found early, should the condition ultimately turn out to be that. The biggest impact of the diagnosis at this point is on the prospect of having a family. Our hope is that the treatment would be effective and that we would be afforded the opportunity to have children, but for now we are in the oft difficult time of waiting. We know God is able and we are thankful that her condition was identified early and that there are options for treatment, but it is still scary and shocking news to receive. I still am not sure we have fully processed it all yet, and may not until after the second biopsy in January. But, it would not be faith if you already had the answer, nor do you hope for an outcome you already received.

August is a month I don’t really remember. We had our roof replaced just like everyone else. I think that is also the month that I finished the workbench that my Dad and I spent two weekends building. It is safe to say that we are proud of our handiwork. The fomenting purpose of the workbench was to provide a sufficiently sturdy work surface for rebuilding a set of axles for the Jeep. I had originally thought I would actually get to the rebuilding this summer, but alas, that was not the case.

Workbench in progress

Workbench completed

Deck finally at full completion

Jennifer’s work became crazy busy in July, as their political action group conducted an interview process with candidates running for the state legislature. She worked something like 10 nights straight that month. Exhaustion.

For me, July involved spending more time in Columbia. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with Columbia. The downtown area had some very unique and very good restaurants, a few of which include Motor Supply Co. (especially fun to list on travel expense reports) and Takosushi. You may laugh at the name Takosushi, and it was a pun for sure, as it was a Southwest meets Sushi restaurant but I had the best green chile relleno outside of the state of New Mexico there. Probably because they imported Hatch green chiles. The only disappointment was that I couldn’t talk the waitress into having them make us a sushi roll with a chile relleno inside. You can’t win them all. Oh, and I bought a $200 shirt because I was shopping for a tie for a wedding (I got a tie too). I also gained a significant amount of respect for the U.S. Armed Forces, and the U.S. Army in particular.

Atop Wheeler Peak

July also saw a major milestone for us. After the initial spark several years ago, we were excited for a long weekend adventure to celebrate something special. Our 35th state highpoint. That’s right, Wheeler Peak, adjacent to the Taos ski area in New Mexico, became the site of number 35. The 2011 draught in highpointing that ensued from my Achilles injury thankfully did not extend through 2012.

We took the Mazda on its first road trip and drove through a stunning section of the Rio Grande National Forest between Antonito, CO and Chama, NM. I did this drive once before on a wrong turn going to Los Alamos for work and it was one of those really good wrong turns (kind of like the time we ended up in downtown Chicago on the way from Boston to Denver). We drove all over southern Colorado and northern New Mexico enjoying the beautiful landscape and the imposing (or beckoning?) forms of mountains like Blanca peak.

Indulgence: Green chile margarita

We spent the night in the Taos ski village the night before hiking Wheeler; there is not much going on there in the summer. We did however, visit the Stray Dog Cantina for dinner and they had the absolute genius to make a green chile infused margarita which was of course spectacular. I love roasted green chile; it goes with everything. Yes, even ice cream (I know someone just posed that question out loud while reading this).

The hike itself was great; probably ranking as one of our better highpoints. The weather was perfect and we got an early start up the trail. Part way we ran into our soon to be canine friend Sugar, who was wandering off from her party and inhibiting their progress. We learned through the course of the day that Sugar was good at this. We took the short route (not the Bull of the Woods Trail) and it pretty much went straight up the western face of the peak but was a pleasant grade.

Because we were early and ahead of other folks on the trail, we were treated to a variety of wildlife. I think we must have seen a million Marmots running around the alpine rocks. We also saw two decent size herds of Bighorn, one of which passed very close by as we were hiking. We saw a few deer as well, and a variety of birds. The Bighorn were probably the best treat.

After speeding up, signing the register, and enjoying the summit with a few other hikers, we started back down. We hiked to Williams Lake and hung out a bit, then back to the car.

We rushed back to the hotel, sprinted through the shower to make the checkout time, and then drove into Taos for lunch. After more wonderful green chile, we took a different route back along Highway 64, past Angel Fire and Eagle Nest and the Cimarron Canyon as well as some kind of retreat center for the NRA.

It is hard not to get spoiled with such gorgeous places a few hours away and we need to make a concerted effort to visit them more. We (meaning I) pondered and planned out loud our visits to the next state highpoints to summit before the end of the year. I think my unchecked ambition only mildly stressed Jennifer out at that point. But, for 2013 we’ve either got to hit up Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California or Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey. Or we could go smaller and just do Maine. And then it’s on to the really challenging states.

Merry Christmas, as we continue this review of all things 2012!

So, June 2012 continued the work sprint that was May. This work sprint would continue long past June. Somewhere around October, we realized we had lined up in the wrong race because it wasn’t over yet. We may be close to the finish line now, but it may be that we just gave up and started walking.

Jennifer’s annual work conference took place in June. This conference usually involved visiting spectacular CO locations like Vail, Crested Butte, Aspen-Snowmass, etc. and hanging out with a bunch of dentists for a long weekend. This year the conference was in Fort Collins. The benefit of Fort Collins was that the conference was closer than the locations previously listed; the downside being Fort Collins is not particular known to be as spectacular a destination (though Jennifer attests turned out to be surprisingly fun).

Immediately prior to this conference came the storm (video excerpt below - yes that is hail, not snow). Basically, we had hail for about 3 ½ hours that increased in size as the storm went on. The hail was at least quarter sized for at least two of the 3 ½ hours. We were thankful the windows didn’t break and for once that Stewie was not outside to be pummeled. The U-Haul van for Jennifer’s work toughed the storm out like a champ. I think all of south metro Denver got new roofs this year as a result of the storm. Lots of new paint too. They are still roofing and painting in our neighborhood six months later.



New car




Olympians?

In May, we also test drove some cars that made the “shorter list” from the spreadsheet. There were 9 cars to drive in all, accounting for different model trims and such. We also had THE test drive. Laugh as you may, it was an answer to an unprayed prayer and one of those ‘God smiling on you just because He’s good and likes to give’ times. If you want to really test drive a car, go to GO Subaru West in Golden, CO. We went out there to drive and compare a 2009-2011 Subaru Impreza (manual transmission) with a Subaru Impreza WRX (manual transmission). The highlights:

• 2009 Impreza WRX with less than 5,000 original miles.
• Probably 30 – 40 minutes (I lost track of time).
• Scenic section of Colfax into foothills.
• Spontaneous decision to attempt cloverleaf onramp to I-70 into mountains and necessary meandering on roads including a short stretch of flying over 100 mph down the interstate(the salesman assured Jennifer it wasn’t that fast).
• “Missed” dinosaur lot exit resulting in “surprise” from salesman = test drive on a private, curvaceous two-lane mountain road. Salesman instructed to “use the whole road.”
• Jennifer got to drive too and later said, “I’m having to convince myself not to buy that car.”
• Definite winner of the best test drive.

In April, there were still some wildfires. I also got my Thesis corrections accepted, collected the signatures of my committee members, and did all the paperwork things required to make my M.S. degree official. That was a good feeling and moved me closer to feeling “done” with my degree. The month was busy, especially for Jennifer at work as they prepared for the close of the legislative session in early May.

My parents visited Easter weekend and we did crazy amounts of cycling (and photographing Denver) and I began anticipating all the things I would accomplish from my list in the coming summer.

The list

Post PUBFR 2012

March kicked off with some wildfires; did I mention it was March? (as normally everything in these parts is covered in snow at this time of year making fire nearly impossible).

We took a brief Spring Break ski trip with friends and their kids (said ski trip went much better than the Thanksgiving 2011 ski trip plagued by stomach flu).

Stewie in happier days

March also saw the coming of a very sad day in our household. The ever so loved and ever so faithful Saturn (“Stewie”*), Jen's car from college, had its last drive to work. A relatively minor accident saw us saying goodbye to a well-loved car after 12 years and over 180,000 miles. I tried my best to come up with a way to save Stewie, but even if I bought discount parts and did all but the body-work myself, the cost was still at least equal to Stewie’s value. After a hard week of deciding what to do, we finally agreed that we would have to say goodbye. We donated the much-loved Stewie car to the Purple Heart organization so that in saying goodbye it at least benefitted others in some way.

We had originally planned to replace Stewie in 2013, but it was hard to see the car go out in that way. Thus, we were forced into a premature search for a new commuter vehicle. I suggested a small hatchback (Jennifer immediately thought of a Chevrolet Aveo and was appalled; I was thinking of a Subaru Impreza WRX and was thrilled).

To start, I did what any rational person would do when shopping for a car; I made a spreadsheet outlining our options and comparing significant parameters – including pictures of all the options. We soon learned that we are not impulsive or quick decision-makers when it comes to buying a new car (see June post for the final purchase).

*Stewie derived its name from being the “little car” (aka, Stewart Little) after Jen’s many years of driving very large Brashares family vehicles

February 2012 included more craziness from work. Jennifer was into the Colorado legislative session and I had some projects that required more attention than usual.

I also started into my list of Thesis corrections provided by my thesis committee with hopes of having the edits wrapped up by March. I got relatively close to my goal. There was also a journal article to be completed (per degree requirements).

February 10, 2012 marked one year since I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing indoor intramural soccer at CU. I am thankful each time I go run, ride a bike, or sometimes just walking around, that I can do each of these things with relative ease after losing that ability for a period of several months in 2011.



We skied more even though it was mediocre.

UTC Employee Scholar Program Ad at Reagan Airport in D.C.

January of 2012 really began in October of 2011. Well, in truth, it began in August of 2009, and arguably in the fall of 2008, or as far back as May 2008. That was when my interest in Graduate School was rekindled. With major props to the United Technologies Employee Scholar Program, I began my career as a M.S. student in the Building Systems Program at CU in August of 2009. I loved (mostly) every minute of my academic pursuits in Boulder.

I will post in sweet recollection of M.S. career at a later time, but I met some outstanding people, took some really good courses, did some rather interesting (if not demanding) projects (see below), and embarked on a decidedly unique Master’s thesis. 

Awesome project success



First snowfall

But, this is the story of 2012, which begins in October 2011. That is when my thesis really began to take shape for its final written (and defended) form. Over 18 months of research work and collaboration culminated in late December 2011 and early January 2012 and the initial spark was provided in a nothing short of blissful week in Telluride, Colorado in October 2011. Jennifer and I took vacation in what is one of the most stunning settings I have been and spent time taking in magnificent views of aspens at peak fall color, rugged mountains, and the absolute beauty of the first snowfall. A fitting setting for starting a thesis with a focus on beauty (and energy performance). Side note: when in Telluride, we highly recommend a visit to Telluride Truffle – get the Black Diamond. Anyway, I began writing my thesis in earnest on that spectacular trip and things really began to coalesce from there.

It’s been a long time since anyone wrote anything on our blog. I don’t know exactly, but I am going to guess that it’s probably been in the range of 2 ½ years, which strongly correlates with the amount of time I spent in Graduate School at the University of Colorado (CU). I won’t attempt to recount the last few years for your reading pleasure, but in conjunction with our Christmas cards, we will at least recount some of what has taken place in the year 2012, with perhaps a few highlights from other years as well. I make no guarantees on this signaling our return to the blogosphere (I don’t think I’ve ever used that term in appropriate context and am moderately embarrassed that I just did), but perhaps we will relay events in a more regular fashion than has been the case in recent history. So, thanks for your time and readership, and we hope that you have, or have had, a very merry Christmas and a superb New Year.

To make the updates more manageable (and since no one wants to read a 15 page update), we are going to post a 12 day year-in-review that will count down the days to the end of 2012. (Look for daily posts starting December 20.)

Our blog has been suffering serious neglect lately - mostly due to the sheer busyness that is our life right now.

The legislative session (which runs January to May in CO) means long hours at work for me. Working away from home for the last year has meant the few hours at home during the week are packed. Between an evening commute, making dinner, sorting through the mail, the infrequent checking of email/facebook and a few other chores, the evening is gone. I'm am also training for another half marathon in April and one in July. I will perhaps consider a full later in the year if all goes well. I'm a slow runner, which means lots of time spent out on the trails (which isn't really a bad thing in my mind).

I recently passed the big 3-0 mark, with little fanfare. We got away for a quick weekend ski trip and Michael treated me to the most memorable birthday present ever the following weekend. Minus a few recent "losing my mind" incidents (forgetting debit card pin, leaving stove on when going to bed, etc.), 30 feels no different than the recent 20s.

Lately I have been pondering age a bit - as in, when do you finally have a chance at first impression respect in the workplace? For a long time (and even longer for a Brashares due to our propensity to look 19 until we're 50), you are too young to know anything. Everyone dismisses you at first glance as young, naive, green and idealistic. At some other point you simply become stuck in your ways and obsolete. What is the magic age when people stop automatically dismissing you due to your "youth?" It seems that the window of opportunity between the two bookends is short. I used to think that the first obstacle would be overcome at 30, but I'm starting to think I'm wrong.

Full time school and full time work for Michael means not much home time for him. He is, by and large, managing things well. There are certainly moments of stress but it's hard to believe that he will be halfway through the program soon. I'm so proud of him for pursuing this dream in spite of the sacrifices (sleep!) required to get there. In spite of the sacrifices, it's been a major blessing. We've really been blessed with his company's support in helping this happen.

We're in a stage of life where we can't add much without hitting a breaking point. The house is not as clean as it used to be; Michael doesn't get much sleep; phone calls/emails sometimes go unanswered; house and car projects get postponed until they can't be pushed off any longer; at times the refrigerator literally has nothing in it. But it's ok. We manage fairly well so long as we can maintain the regular routine. Ultimately, we know there's an end point where life should become a bit more balanced again. Until then, we just flex - knowing that there are some things that just aren't that important in the big picture. Even though I have to convince myself sometimes, the truth is that we won't remember how clean the house was in 20 years.

All this said, for the 2 people who still read this, the blog will probably continue to be neglected through this season we're in. I'll try to update with the major highlights, but until the next major life change (end of school, etc.), we'll probably be mostly on hiatus from the blog. See you in January 2012! Ok... not really. I promise to update a bit more often than that. :)