Update #76,394,201

I still haven't finished my trip posts yet, but they will come eventually. Maybe in the next year? I kid, I kid. But really, life has been so fulfilling and crazy that I'm not too worried about it! So instead I will do a simple post with what I've been up to lately.

Sewing a patchwork quilt. I first learned to sew by making quilts and then went on to clothes and I'm starting to realize I love quilts a whole lot more. So I'm going to start investing my time in that more often. I was inspired to do the one I'm making right now simply because I have way too much fabric and want to downsize it. The easiest way it to cut it up and make a quilt! It will include a TON of super sentimental fabric/shirts that I haven't been able to part with, like the fabric from my 'ducky pillow' that I've had since I was a baby and my dad's old high school marching band t-shirt. Vince is excited about it because a few of his favorite shirts (like the first one I bought him at a festival before we were even dating that is a cute turtle) are included as well! It'll be a perfect family quilt.

I also spruced up my backpack for the new school year with some of the fabric!

Cooking. I'm back to the mostly dairy-free simple foods diet again. A few weeks before the road trip and all through the road trip I would feel awful after eating anything and I would get so nauseous and hot and sweaty. I knew it had to be what I was eating, so over the past couple weeks I've been cutting a lot of 'bad' things out of my diet (I say 'bad' because I'm already a fairly healthy eater!). I'm already gluten free so it's sometimes hard to limit myself even more, but it's been great to eat plenty of soups like egg drop soup (which I've made 6 times over the past couple weeks) and sautéed veggies on baked potatoes! Of course, fruit is always a major staple in my diet.

One of the few processed foods I eat are Van's Gluten Free Waffles and I've recently started putting Cacao Bliss on it which is raw cacao and coconut oil. I don't really like syrup and butter gets old after a while, so this has been a perfect choice, paired with strawberries from the garden!

Saw bye-bye to ice cream cones with sprinkles!

Cleaning. Somehow, overnight, I evolved from the type of person who piles things up on the kitchen table and any other surface in the house into the type of person who is happy cleaning everything before the night is over. Almost every night the table gets cleaned off, dishes are mostly done, and my projects get cleaned up when I stop working on them even if they aren't finished. I've always been one to leave my craft projects all over the living room until I was done with it sometimes days later, but not anymore! It's odd, yet highly satisfying.

Gardening. Ok, that's a lie. I don't actual garden, I just pick whatever has bloomed and eat it. The mint has been growing off the hook and I'm getting ready to dry them out for mint tea throughout the winter (my fav!) and there are finally more peppers growing. We have only had two thus far, but about 12 little guys are starting to grow! The strawberries are also going crazy and I have about 5-8 little ones to eat every day! It's been so delicious.


The flowers from our wedding last year are also starting to bloom!

Walking. My friend just had a baby about 6 weeks ago and her and I along with another lady have been taking multiple walks a week together around a 2-mile loop. It's been so nice to start my day earlyish (around 8 or 9) with great conversations and some exercise and I feel less guilty about Roxi because she gets a walk in as well! I'm going to start running a loop or two afterwards as well.

Hiking. Saturday I did the Climb to Conquer Cancer with my work! It was really great to spend time with other people who work in the same shops I do that I barely know, as well as talk more with the owner. He's not so intimidating anymore! It was about 7 miles up Snowbowl road to the ski resort with a bus shuttle back down. There were over 4,000 people there, it was nuts!

My view from the bottom where I parked and the view from the top.

They were serving breakfast at the top which I didn't anticipate being gluten free, so I brought green beans, a Good 'n natural bar that I hadn't eaten before but was great, and a KIND bar which I love. I took out the green beans on the way up and was like, 'Um, so I know this is weird, but I don't have too many GF snacks that I can bring with me for hikes and I really like green beans, so does anyone want any?' After a quick laugh, the people I was with ate some and agree raw green beans are good!

Ordering school books. This shouldn't count because I only spent about 45 minutes on it, but I have to share about it because I'M SO EXCITED! I needed seven books (4 alone for Anatomy & Physiology) this semester which would have totaled $727 if I bought the books from the bookstore or $391 if I rented them from the bookstore. Instead, I rented them all between Chegg.com and CampusBookRentals.com for a total of $156! That's a savings of $235 if I rented from the bookstore and $571 if I bought my books! I used 10% off coupon codes for both websites (found on retailmenot.com) and I had a $60 credit on Chegg for selling them two old books that I wasn't able to rent last semester. I also payed extra (about $30 which I included in the totals) to have them delivered to me by next Monday when school starts. If I would've been smart I would have ordered books a couple weeks ago so that I would've had free shipping which would have meant I only paid $126 for books. Needless to say, though, I'm pretty stoked on how much I saved!

Well that's my life in a nut shell, in addition to going to regular old work. Anything exciting that you've been up to?