School+update

School is done and I couldn’t be happier. I ended with a C meaning I will have to retake the class to get at least a B which is what I need for nursing but I am ok with this. The last month of class I was sick and stressed and moving and so I let myself off the hook. I also have to remember that it hasn’t even been 3 full months since my brother died, my emotions are all out of wack. I am taking next quarter off school and feel great about it. This last quarter just exhausted me, I should have taken it off after my brother died but I didn’t and I know for sure that my health and well-being suffered for it. So I am putting me first and taking next quarter off. It will give me time to settle into the new house, which is currently still a mess, and settle into a new routine living with someone and commuting and all that. So that is that for school and here are more house and life updates:

The bathroom is finally starting to really come together! we have about 1/3 of the walls tiled now and even managed a bath yesterday which was AMAZING!! We couldn’t adjust the temp of the water because the spigot isn’t on yet so it was luke warm water coming out which we combined with boiled water hahahahaha, but it worked and being clean felt amazing!

We went for a short walk around the block on Friday morning, Artemis was very happy to get out of the house, though she is starting to settle in and spend longer amounts of time exploring the back yard.

Seed starts!!!! I am so excited about these!!! And I will probably have about 3-4 more trays before I am done! If even half of these survive we will have a GREAT garden and a good amount of food. I can’t wait to see how it all grows.

That is just a quickie update since I didn’t post on Friday. More to come tomorrow on Monday Motivation!!!!

Running report and catch-up

Good morning! For a little catch-up after the holiday week.

I got out for a run on Monday after work, the rain held off just long enough and I managed to make it out the door just a few minutes after I got home so I got the last bit of sunlight. Pretty sunset huh?

I am pretty happy with my running times lately. I have been trying to push hard during my intervals without totally killing myself.

My bestie in Nevada and I really miss each other so we have decided that 3 times a year we will meet in the middle for a “date night” hahahahahaha basically an all night girly gab fest where we will stay at a cheap AirBnB. Man AirBnB has made doing things like this so much easier, we get a little apartment with a kitchen so we don’t have to eat out and you can read reviews so you know its a nice little place to stay and it is totally easy to find places for $50, 60, or 70. We already have our first date weekend planned, I am so excited! By putting $20/month (or more if I can spare it) in this little jar that will take care of my half of the room and some gas money and a little food money. It is so important to put time and effort into your friendships if you want them to last.

 

My Thanksgiving, I had to work but I got my butt out for a run as soon as I got home!

It was really pretty out!

Artemis was pretty happy we got outside too.


I really enjoyed my last pumpkin spice latte of the year.

Enjoyed this awesome view on my lunch at work, the river looked amazing with the mist all around it.

 

 

We went a little all out for breakfast on Friday hahahaha. I had some apples from the boyfriends grandparents farm so I sautéed them in some butter, brown sugar and maple syrup to make a little fall apple syrup for my pancakes, it tasted like apple pie!

Juice Saturday morning for breakfast to counteract all the bad eating.


All in all I got 3 runs in which is better than last week. Now lets home this week, I can find a few dry moments to get some runs in as well! Wish me luck!

How was your thanksgiving?

Did you get any workouts in over the holidays?

Mid week run and Artemis’ birthday!!!

So I of course don’t know if it is actually Artemis’ birthday but I got her 2 years ago in November so I picked a day and called it her birthday because I don’t remember the exact day I got her. We went for a 2 mile run and they I harassed her all night.

Check out that best time!!!! It was only for a few seconds but that is my fastest time ever!! That is probably when I ran across the street before the cars came hahahaha!

After my run, I was a little sweaty but it felt good!

Artemis had a ball, but at this point she was really ready to get back home. She has a leash on your just can’t see it with my awesome quality of photography hahahaha.

Back to trying to have some juice in the morning!!!! Carrot apple is my jam!

So I just finished season 5 of Grimm last night (I know I am behind like always) and I go to press play on season 6 (on amazon prime) and it costs money!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!! Seasons 1-5 are included with amazing prime but not season 6. I HATE when they do that! Though I guess it makes sense since it just aired this year. But now I either have to buy an episode here and there or wait and see if it drops for free. I will also check the other TV sites we have like Netflix and Hulu. Fingers crossed.

Image result for Grimm(image from Google)

Do you watch Grimm?

What is your fav show right now?

Has winter hit where you are? How are your workouts fairing if it has?

I have a feeling this winter is going to be very difficult for me training wise if I don’t find a cheap gym. I can run in the cold (I don’t love it but I can) but when its cold AND raining its hard for me to get my butt out the door.

Odds and ends from the week

I fed a cow

Woke my dog up from a nap

Had one of these deliciously terrible cookies….ok, more than one. 

Tried to balance the cookies and candy with healthy snacks.

Filmed my crazy dog

Talked too fast lol. I am reading Holly Madison’s book about living in the playboy mansion. 

Tried to talk while running

Back home

I had an amazing time, obviously hahaha, but it is so good to be home. But I am not going to lie it took a few weeks for me to get back into my normal rhythm. Even now I am just starting to get a running regimen back down. And even with taking melatonin and not sleeping on the flight back, it took a good week to get back to a normal sleep pattern.

I am taking all the puppy cuddles I can get. I missed my little girl so much but she did pretty good which is awesome.

I am taking all the cuddles and fun I can get from my man as well. I missed him a lot. I can’t wait to travel with him.

We had a fun fall day of taking a country drive, picked out pumpkins, ate some caramel corn, and carved pumpkins while watching “Pet Cemetery”. Oh and the boyfriend made an AMAZING roast that I have been living on for the past week. Finally finished the last bit for lunch today.

He makes me pretty happy.

Trying to get back to smoothies or juice for breakfast. Been using the bits and pieces that I have to make it all though, I need to get a good grocery shopping trip in soon.

Got my run on. The days right now are pretty nice. I anticipate another run tomorrow.

Using C25k (couch to 5k) to get my butt moving and in the groove again. Fun fact: this is how I started running in the first place! It is a free app, you should try it!!! Thankfully it isn’t as hard this time as it was my first time hahahaha, but now instead of struggling to finish 60 seconds of jogging I am struggling by making myself run a few minutes faster than I normally would so I am still winded by the 3rd interval hahaha and never quite recover completely until the end.

Enjoying the foliage here in Oregon………or should I say the death of the trees. It’s so pretty!!!!!

And yes, I am enjoying my fair share of pumpkin spice coffee!!!!!

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.