Home, Sweet Home

It feels amazing and horrible to be back home. I missed by dog and my boyfriend but other than that I wish I could have seen more.

Back to reality means back to paying bills and going to work. Back to apartment and house hunting with the bf so we can move in together. Working on getting all my transcripts transferred over to a new school here so I can start working toward the nursing program they have now that I know where we will be staying. And I need to starting getting all my annual Dr appts set up since it’s actually been like 2+ years since I did any of that.

Obviously I am actually looking forward to moving in with my BF and getting closer and closer to nursing school is a good thing and I have nothing against health checkups except the copays hahahahaha. It just sucks to come back from vacation and I am super tired, traveling transcontinentally is difficult. Thankfully I work today then have two days off.

Went for a 1 mile walk today with the dog, need to get back to my running.

I will keep posting my Europe trip slowly but surely until it is all done.

Have a good night, talk to you tomorrow!!

Proud mama moment amd extras

Happy Saturday morning!!!

Wasn’t feeling 100% great yesterday so i spent the day napping and cuddling on the couch with Artemis

I got Artemis almost 2 years ago and she was so timid. Over the last 2 years i have taken Artemis on road trips and hikes and overnight trips and now to a farm and she is also sharing her house with 2 other dogs and slowly……very slowly she has started to come out of her shell. 

I showed you guys her and the cow

And now here is a video of her playing with DeeDee the other girl dog in our house 

She is working on learning how to play lol.

She loves to run full out. She gets the buggest grin! She loves to be out exploring on a hike or out on a farm. She loves to ride in the car. 

This was from our hike last September.  I LOVE the picture of her under the sleeping bag. I have that framed in my room

Playing in the snow
I love my crazy dog. 

Now for the extras…..

I just booked my Vatican city tour! 

I just bought some new shoes because the other ones i got were giving my blisters blisters.

These feel like they should be better on my feet. 

I also wanted some comfortable but cute walking shoes for Europe that i could wear with dresses as well as jeans. Running shoes don’t go well with dresses 

They are Keens!!!! Just like some hiking shoes i have and my favorite water shoes!! I am pretty stoked about them. I looked and looked and looked until i found a pair on sale on Amazon. Score!!!!!!

What is one awesome thing about your pet?

What’s been going on over here

I have been on a serious sweet tooth kick over here. Made my coffee a mocha.

Always fun to study something that no one knows what it does

Salad and something with cheese has been a big lunch time ritual for me lately.

pork roast with veggies and rice. I love using the slow cooker

Artemis and I enjoyed the eclipse by going for a run. It was pretty eerie. People looking at the sun with glasses while it got dark then as a group would turn and look at us run by, very pod people-esque. I kept waiting for zombies to jump out at us.

Smoothies are still a big thing over here.

More salad and cheese.

Mmmmm breakfast sandwich from the coffee shop near work.

Life has been food, running, work and starting to freak out about Europe hahaha. Talk to you soon!!!!!

Long run of the week

My long run this week was 5 miles, it’s also my longest run to day since my half marathon 2 weeks ago. I went ok, the bf and I were both pretty tired and sluggish feeling which could be due to several things. It could have been the 10 hours we slept, the sitting on the couch and binge watching the Netflix original series Strange Things or it could have been the McDonald’s and Taco Bell we ate, or it could have been all 3 put together.

Either way we stumbled through our run and made it. We went to a park a few exits away to run in the shade and got 4 of our 5 miles done. The park closed at “Dusk PM” …….what does that even mean? It is sunset, is it when you can’t see your shadow anymore, what? While we should have had time to finish that last mile I didn’t want to risk us having to sprint back to my car or have the gate lock us out and have to get my car the next day so we left at 7:40pmish. Drove home then I dropped the bf off at home, he needed to get rid of the taco bell, and I ran to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Yes I literally ran to the store, then walk/ran back. Carrying a semi-heavy bag while running is a killer bicep workout.




After I got back we had ice cream, watched an old game of thrones episode (I am slowly catching up) then passed out.

Some other news, Thursday is now slow cooker day in my house

By the time dinner rolls around on Thursday i don’t want to cook. I’ve usualy been doing laundry and dishes and the bf and i either go for a run or out to a movie or whatever and i am too tired to cook so slow cooker day it is. 

And i got a little extra so i could freeze the rest

All i have to do is take it out of the freezer, throw in the fridge overnight and dump it in the crockpot the next morning. 

Day on the farm!

Brandon and I headed out to his grandparents small farm in northern Oregon to hang out for half a day and had such a great time! It was so relaxing and wonderful.

From the moment we got there Brandon was in front of the blueberry bushes snacking away while we talked to his grandfather. Artemis enjoyed the flavor of the pigs trough water hahahaha. This is the only pig they have left and it is much more of a pet than something intended for a meal. It is getting old and grumpy though. It likes having its belly rubbed hahahaha!!!!! It was a little wary of Artemis but surprisingly she was not afraid of it!

I spent some time talking to his grandfather about their Israel trip which sounded amazing. Then we all went out to lunch and a teriyaki burger hit the spot.

When we got back from lunch Brandon, Artemis, the grandparents dog and I all set off to explore the property. 1/4 of their property is basically a little forest area that is super beautiful, the cows graze down there in the heat and there are blackberry bushes going wild. We wandered down there and explored and snacked on blackberries hahaha. Definitely getting our fruit quota for the day. Have you ever had a yellow raspberry? Now I have! they are pretty amazing right off the vine and according to his grandfather that is how you have to eat them because by the time you have them in the house they are starting to go bad.



At this point we were both super hot as it was the hottest part of the day so we headed back instead to talk some more and look at pictures and cool down.

Around 5:30-6 as the sun was starting to move toward the horizon and a lovely breeze started we headed out to feed the cows!! Got some hay from the barn and some treats for the cows and they slowly wandered over. We fed them some treats as well, their tounge feels like sandpaper like a cat! Again it took a minute but Artemis wasn’t afraid! Though they were a little wary of her hahaha.




Once the cows were chomping away happily we headed back down to the wood area and spent about an hour picking blackberries! 



We went home with probably a good 8lbs of blackberries! I am so making a blackberry balsamic reduction to freeze to put on some amazing stuff this winter (that post to come). At that point the temperature was perfect, I could have stayed out there for hours, and the space and joy of the country was just everything. It was such a great peaceful day. I can’t wait to go back!

In a month or 2 their trees will be hanging low with Apples!!! Can’t wait to make some apple desserts and some great slow cooker meals with apples!

Day 13-15 of 28 day cleanse

Day 13 was pretty normal and chill

Day 14 i woke up to the worst muscle cramp in my right leg. Cramps usually come from an imbalance of sodium, potassium and water so i added some stuff into my diet for the 14th and 15th

I got free leftover pizza from the pizza place next to work and i wasn’t turning down free food. 

I immediately regreted the pizza, i felt horrible. The maple bar on day 14 pretty much totally fine, the pizza, nope. So excited for a yummy, healthy smoothie in the AM. 

I’ve increased my sodium intake and my fluids and so far the cramps have gone away. 

Its been 2 weeks and i am down about 5lbs. I am feeling better overall I’m craving better food. I am loving smoothies/juice in the AM and a big salad as part of a late lunch then eating a real dinner. And as you’ve seen i can have off day or throw in extra good food if i am going to workout. 

I think this may go from a cleanse to a lifestyle change. 

Though now I’m reconsidering my cheap pizza after the half marathon…….hmmm what else would i want???? 

I’ll keep you updated!

Summer Hiking Series 2017: Silver Falls State Park

Hola!!!!

Another hike down this summer! The boyfriend and I went to the very popular Silver Falls State Park. This is a state park that is a little over 9,000 acres. The two most popular trails are the Rim Trail and the Canyon trail, also known as the trail of ten falls. The canyon trail is super popular because you go by and even behind some of the 10 waterfalls.  I would like to do that trail at some point but it is SUPER busy because its not a difficult hike and all the waterfalls, but also dogs are not allowed and the last two weekend adventures had not included Artemis, so she was coming on this one, so we chose a different trail.


Never trust the bf to take a picture, it will always be of your backside. 

We did the Rim trail to the perimeter trail to the rackett ridge trail to a road walk for about a mile.

None of these were the trail we had planned on doing haha. We had gone there with the intention of doing the Buck mountain loop but parked in the main parking area (as I said it is busy and parking is limited. And didn’t know where the trailhead was from there. So we pieced together a route from the map.

We started on the rim trail where we saw maybe 20 people in 2.4 miles, not too bad.


Then we turned onto the perimeter trail where, after we made the turn onto the trail, we saw no one for the 3.2 miles. It was wonderful and I was able to let Artemis off her leash.

We got to the junction of the perimeter and the rackett ridge trail, from here the perimeter trail was closed due to winter storm damage so we turned on the rackett ridge which is also a horse trail for 2.2 miles. at about this point it crosses a side road and weaves back and forth through the forest and over the road. We chose to just take the road at this point and walk the just over a mile straight back to the parking lot because my feet were killing me!!! I had done a good mile increase this week and my feet had just had enough. This was also more than double the distance of our recent hikes so I was tired. Even Artemis was dragging behind us.

She passed out hard core as soon as we got to the car.

She was snoring in minutes. 

I was so tired too

Overall:

The rim trail; you overlook a waterfall or two with plenty of streams and waterfall runoff around you. Busy but not too horrible depending on when you go, hardly any elevation gain, small rolling hills, very pleasant.

The perimeter trail; sparsely populated, 1000 ft elevation gain, slightly challenging at times for me, piece of cake for the bf. In the beautiful forest, because almost no people you will walk into a lot of spider webs crossing the trail, spiderwebs: 1000 spiders: 0. There are enough small streams crisscrossing the 3.2 miles of trail that we did that Artemis had enough natural water, I probably didn’t even need to carry a water bottle for her.

Rackett ridge trail: we did 2.2 miles of this and most of it was down. This trail is much wider because it accommodates horses as well, it also wasn’t as smooth as the others because there were less people and more horses who used it.

Silver falls state park is well marked and it is easy to piece together a hike here with almost any amount of mileage you could want.

All in all I enjoyed this hike very much, though I was dying a bit by the end, and would recommend silver falls state park as a great place to hike. You can choose how difficult or easy and how populated or sparse you want your hike to be.

 Here are some fun stats curtosy of my Garmin vivoactive

Until next time, have fun trailing the blonde…………

Have you even been to Silver Falls state park? If so, did you like it?

Tidbits from the week

Week 5 of the quarter done, officially half way through!!! If you don’t count finals week, which I don’t because the insane studying comes before that.

I spend about 3.33 hours a week on the train now, wow when I add it up it seems like so much, along with about another 1.67 hours walking to and from the train. Makes sense why I am blowing through a book on tape every other week hahaha. It also means I spend 3.33 hours a week trying not to fall asleep on the train and miss my stop and sometimes trying very hard to ignore the crazy people around so they don’t try and talk to me.

 

This was a drinking week for me hahaha I had pizza with Brandon one night and I got those little bottles of Sutter’s home wine it was a nice cheap buzz and another night I opened a bottle of wine that Brandon, that is the BF’s name lol, and I bought on our first roadtrip down to Medford, OR.

 

The train was running late one day so I walked to the next bus stop to get in some extra steps, it was sunny so I soaked up some vitamin D. Got to walk over a cool bridge.

 

Got in 2.3 miles of running on Tuesday morning.

 

She just looked so cute I had to take a picture, don’t judge the clothes on the floor, the next day was laundry day.

 

I wrote out my May calendar……yikes, that always looks so intimidating at the beginning of the month.

 

Made slightly healthier top ramen, broke college student over here!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My Bio lab teacher was looking through this coloring WORKBOOk (I have only looked at coloring books) to see if she liked it and it looked amazing! I totally want it but of course its $75 on amazon.

 

Wednesday was another beautiful day so Artemis and I soaked up some sunshine by going on a little 2 mile walk down by the river in between my classes.

 




I actually had Friday off from everything!!! NO work and no school so the BF and I jumped in his car and hit the road for a mini road trip and a hike. We went just outside of Bend to Smith Rock park and did just under 4 miles, we would have stayed out a little longer but some serious wind and clouds started rolling in so we got some dinner and headed home. We hit a little snow over the pass coming back toward Portland and didn’t get home until just after 9pm so it is good we left when we did. A few parts were steep and difficult but overall it was super fun!





And with that I actually accomplished my 3 workouts this week goal!!! Woohoo!!!

Tidbits from the week

Well week two of spring semester is over and here is how it went:

 

I had all my HW for the beginning of the week done by Saturday morning! Score!! Sunday morning I spent a little time studying for the quiz I had on Monday and did a quick refresher Sunday night! Sunday morning I may have forgot to hit the snooze button and instead just turned my alarm off resulting in  an extra 40 minutes of sleep and waking up to the alarm telling me to head out the door, whoops!!!! Normally I make the 6:14am train but I thought there was a 6:29am train that would let me make it JUST in time…….except its the weekend so the next train wasn’t until 6:49! That would not work so I drove to work and parked on the street, meter parking sucks as does driving in Portland and running late meant I had no breakfast and no coffee. I ran down the street to get some coffee on my break and somehow paid more than I would have paid at Starbucks. But I got coffee and that is all that mattered!

Here is what I am currently listening to on my train rides and any walks with the dog. For running it will be this or something a little faster paced, like a murder mystery or thriller.

I got some meals prepped Sunday night but that was my dinner to eat at work, I didn’t get any lunch prepped to scarf down between classes, insert Subway.

I got an 80 on my first bio quiz, not horrible but not great. Just let’s me know what I need to work on.

I have company in the kitchen when packing my dinner for work, she likes to sit on the rug right under my feet, it has led to me tripping many times hahahaha

I have my dad’s old thermos that he used when he was a cop and man this baby is awesome! I fill it with hot coffee before I leave for class, around noon and I get hot coffee at 3, still at 5, still at 8 and it is even still warm the next morning!! It’s amazing!

All loaded up for work. I take my school work with me along with my suit jacket and heels to change into at work and my lunch. I think this thing gets heavier every week.

My one big adventure this week was my relief not showing up on time one night and I missed my train! Which is of course the last train of the night………thanks to data on my phone I was able to pull up the transit system website and plan my trip back to my car on a late bus, of course the bus didn’t arrive for 40 minutes so I got to sit at night at a bus stop for 40 minutes alone. Then I was so tired by the time the bus got there that I was a little in and out of it and dozed on the bus only to miss my stop!!!!! Thankfully someone pulled the stop in front of mine, I woke up and got off. I was home an hour later than normal but I got home safe and that is what matters.


First assignment due next Wednesday that deals with anatomy!!! Love it! But man is this complicated stuff! And its only the basics, but I got it hahahaha.

Hope you had a great week!!!!!