Update Shmupdate.

Some life updates from January/February followed by an Instagraham picture. (Well, some I actually didn't post on Instagram, so just a photo.) I'm @iffyinklings if you want to get instant access to my exciting life!

// Do you know how stressful it is that an A in the nursing program is a 93? And that a 78 is failing, as in you can not pass go into the next class and must go straight to the jail that is the same class all over again? No thank you. As a straight A student (almost, save for the damn the Spanish class that I got a B in THAT I DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO TAKE but thought would be fun (it wasn't)) I am used to working hard, but now the information is even more hard so I have to work harder and that is just too many hards in one sentence. No.

Me riding to orientation the first day, not realizing how cold it was, and me on my first day of lab wearing my pajamas scrubs.

// I made this for my bestie's birthday and lurve it.

// This is a reminder to myself to make time to work out during stressful weeks because it totally helps. It's so easy to just shut down when so many things are happening and going wrong and even easier to just sit on my couch reading Harry Potter or watching Netflix, but then I get sucked into the dark hole of doom that is so hard to crawl out of. Working out during bad times makes things so much more manageable and even though I love love love being physical, I still forget!

My post-workout smoothie after finally getting out of my funk.

// The color gold is growing on me bit by bit. But I still hate gold jewelry. I think. As I said, it may be growing on me.

// I managed to paint three whole walls in my kitchen before I started classes again, so that means my kitchen is half beautiful white and half ugly yellow off-white. I'll just stare at the wall that has this shelf and tell myself I'm satisfied for the next four months until summer break.

// Vince and I went on vacation to the beach in California. Hopefully more pictures will be posted to please your eyeballs soon. I of course took like half a million. Which reminds me that I never even posted pictures of my trip from August (?) that I took with my friend to a different part in California, so maybe you shouldn't get your hopes up.

// Food, food, and more food.

//The House of the Lord, if you are Mormon. Which I am not, but I still went and enjoyed the beauty.

// Homegrown eggs are so much cooler than store-bought, and not in a douchey 'I'm cooler than you' way. Just look at the print and texture on this egg! I wish I could raise my own little chickens instead of having to pay a guy here in town.

// In honor of my New Year's goal of enjoying life and doing exciting things, I climbed in the tree tops at Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course. I was one of the 20% who are able to finish the course, and it was awesome. I used to think I was afraid of heights, but I was surprisingly not nervous so I guess I can't tell people I'm afraid anymore. I'm thinking it's because I have really bad depth perception and didn't actually realize how far up I was because when I look at pictures I'm like, 'HOLY SHIT, YOU ARE SO STUPIDLY HIGH WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WOMAN?!'

We also rode a new trail in a town we've never ridden in before, Prescott. The trail was all sorts of awesome and probably one of my most favorite trails, but it was so windy that my ears ended up hurting really bad. We'll go back soon, though!

Good god my genetics are fantastic, my teeth are perfectly straight and I never had braces. Now if only my smile could be straight.

// Baybee sitter 4 lyfe.

Balancing Act

The past couple weeks I've just felt like I might EXPLODE at any second. Like a bomb waiting to go off as I run on my mouse wheel from one location to the next. Luckily, I acknowledged I've been feeling this way and have been doing things to counteract that feeling.

I really like consistency, a lot. To a certain extent, I like doing the same thing over and over because it establishes a routine, and I like routines. I brush and floss my teeth the exact same way every time, starting in the top right (outer side of tooth to inner side), going to the left, then to the bottom right and back to the left. I wash dishes with the same methodology every time, fold all my towels the exact same way and if Vince does it differently I will refold it. I do this not only because it is extremely efficient (that's one of my favorite words, I LOVE efficiency) but because I know the outcome every time. I know how long it will take me to brush and floss, how many dishes I can wash before I have to change the water, and know that my towels will fit on the shelf perfectly and look nice.

I also like when there is a time for everything and I know what I have to do at specific moments throughout the day. The past few weeks have not had any kind of consistency to them, and it's been stressing me out. I've changed my work schedule a few times, changed my class schedule, changed my sleeping schedule, classes were canceled some days...too much change, even though I usually like it!

On top of that, I haven't been able to exercise as much, which is something I view as even more important than studying, but I haven't had time for that, either. Food is the number one thing in my life (because without healthy food, the rest of my life seems to crash and burn...I can't do much when I feel like crap!) and at the end of the day, that's all I've had time for.

But (there's always a but!) I've been working on that. This biggest and most helpful thing I've done is created this little sheet for the week that I can fill in the Sunday before.

I've written stuff down on it for next week, and already I feel SO much less stressed. After seeing it visually, I know everything is manageable and that I can easily handle the work/school load I have. I think my major problem before was that I wasn't able to have a complete grasp on everything that needed to be done, so I was constantly worrying that I was forgetting something, or imagining that I had so much more work to do than I really had. Now I just have to glance at the sheet and know that it's not all that much! Well, it's still a lot, but it's more manageable.

I've also been working on scheduling and organizing my time so that I do have moments to take care of all aspects of my life. I plan certain things on days that are easiest, like preparing snacks for the week on Sunday after grocery shopping and a few lunches for the days I'm not at home on a break, having my long workouts on days when I don't have a heavy class schedule, etc. Instead of waiting until I have time to do something, I just put it on the schedule.

Snacks!

Lastly, I've been saying no to things I know I can't do. I've been asked to volunteer for a couple things, watch a friends kid, help with this or that, and I've had to say no. I am such a people pleaser and it's really really hard for me to turn someone down, but for my sanity, I've had to do it! Saying no is what has allowed me to take time to myself, like going on a hike today with my best friend, and then going on a run on my own after. If I had said yes to all the things asked of me, I wouldn't have had an entire two days to myself this weekend! I only have one 'me' day since the other day is dedicated to school work and food prep for the week, but one day is enough to recharge myself for the week.

So that's that! I have 55 hours a week I need to be somewhere specifically which doesn't include homework time, I make all my meals at home, I need to workout multiple days a week and take care of my dog, and I need have a good relationship with my husband. Somehow it's all working out and I just need to keep reminding myself of that.

Halloween in November

Oh my heck, school is almost over and I feel like I haven't learned anything because it's just gone by so fast. But then I stop and think about it and realize I can tell you every bone in you body as well as at least 58 muscles and what they do, and I realize my brain is probably just too full to realize what's going on.

It's also too full to realize how fast time is going by, apparently. I haven't even posted Halloween pictures! So here I am to share them.

We had a few days of partying (and by partying, I mean I was sober and hung out with a bunch of drunk people).

The first party we went to was my coworkers house. She had some games planned and they were fun! It reminded me of a Mormon party, but with alcohol and scantily clad women. I didn't have my costume ready yet (I couldn't find my cat tail and ears from previous years costumes) but I had bought a cute Jack-O-Lantern shirt from Target, so I wore that. Vince was stressing out about what to wear and I remembered that we had my onesie still, so he went as a baby. Well, gangsta baby, specifically. He spend the whole night swearing up a storm, telling people he was 'this many' and holding up two fingers, and just being utterly ridiculous.

On the way there we stopped by the gas station to get him a beer because we weren't sure what there would be at the party, and he looked so funny. I guess when he walked in the lady working just busted up laughing, and other people looked at him strangely.

(Picture stolen from a coworker.) Aren't my coworkers awesome?!

The second party was the next night at a coworkers of Vince's/friends of ours. We had some friends over before to get ready with us. We were quite the group! Ms. Piggy + Kermit, a 'gangsta baby', and a cat.

Roxanne was clearly not pleased with the debauchery going on.

At the party, a group of our friends played some music and another threw fire. Needless to say, it was a fun night!

The next night (or a few days later, I don't remember) we had some people over to carve pumpkins and eat food!

Is that middle pumpkin amazing, or what? It's a house with the peaks and clouds behind it! Clearly I did not win the contest with my lantern on the right.

The guy we picked up from the airport is apparently an artist and drew a picture of Vince on his pumpkin. It's a pretty close portrait! We ended up not carving this one and it's still in our kitchen waiting to be cooked into a stew.

So that was our Halloween! How was yours?

Let's Get Physical

I'm back on the working out bandwagon again, as I've said like 500 times before. BUT I never actually stopped working out, so I guess I'm just upping it up? I was always doing something active, just not as much as I'd like. So for a little bit of support and accountability, I'm going this new awesome linkup called Let's Get Physical over at Simply Evani. I read about it at [insert sarcastic remark here] and now I'm even more excited about working out.

As I said last week, I've been doing morning walks with my friend (though admittedly since school started we've only gone once or twice because I suck and have a slight cold) and I really want to bump it up. We did Day 1 of the Couch to 5k and I was dying because of my oncoming cold, but we finished it! I've also been continuing the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred video which I still claim to be so hard even after doing it pretty consistently for over a year, as well as added on arm and core workouts. So that's where I am right now, fitness-wise.

I hate running. I feel like there is so much pressure in the exercise world to be able to run but I feel like there are other workouts that are just as affective. I do get a runners high, though, so I guess it's a love/hate relationship.

I like sleep. I know my day is better when I start it with exercise but I REALLY like sleep.

I love workout classes. I workout so much more and so much better when I'm doing it with someone else or in a group, yet I hate groups! I'm so weird, I know.

I feel incredibly guilty when I miss a workout. When I set a goal I want to succeed, and when I miss a workout I totally beat myself up for it.

I eat very healthy due to my gluten free diet and low dairy/meat diet. I think these confessions are supposed to be 'bad' things, but I'm proud of this one! Even though my body can't handle these foods and I have to be on this kind of diet, it's still something I have to work at.

I feel like having a hyperthyroid and being skinny without any work is like cheating. I don't do a lot of work to have a good body and while other people think it's great, I feel like I'm cheating myself out of real work.

I am tall and lean but I still need to exercise to be healthy. Being skinny doesn't mean healthy.

I may be gluten free and low dairy/meat, but I can always eat healthier. I shouldn't settle with how I eat now.

I am busy with school and work. So are many other people, self, and they find a way to workout!

Naps are ok. Taking a short nap mid-day is actually a good thing and healthy for your heart.

I have an energized dog who needs to workout, too. I chose to bring her into our lives, therefore my husband and I owe it to her to treat her right.

Do other cardio aside from running. I still want to run, but I also want to do workouts like run stairs (which I loved when I did it on our roadtrip) or those weird cardio machines at the gym that don't have you actually like your feet off the machine. This leads me to my second goal...

Workout for 5 days a week for 2 months, then get a gym membership. A lot of people think gym membership = working out, but that's not the case for me. If I don't start off with a consistent routine, then I'm not going to get my money's worth at the gym. So if I workout for 5 days a week for 2 months, I'll be in a routine and when the cold weather hits, I'll be able to hide in the gym!

Wake up by 7am, but try for 6:30am, to workout. I need to get over my love of sleep and really dedicate to doing workouts early morning before my 8:30am class. I can start by waking up early on the mornings I don't have early classes and then transition to class days so I won't be dead tired.

Take a group fitness class. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to be judged (which is why I never go to group yoga classes, some of the people are SUCH assholes) but when I was doing spin classes with old folks I loved it! I need to get over my fears and just do it.

Be ok if I miss a workout day. It just makes me sad which turns into me just stop working out because I don't want to feel like that again! I need to just accept that some days I will be too tired or something else will come up and that the next day I will be able to continue my workout.

Try one new recipe a week. I love sticking to tried and true recipes, but I need to branch out!

So there you go. Feel free to join in this here, it's such a great thing!

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?

Honeymoon Road Trip: Day 5

Even though Vince and I got married almost a year ago in September, we are just now taking our honeymoon. Between school full time and work full time, it just hasn't been able to happen until now! To celebrate, we are taking a 15 day road trip from Flagstaff up to Seattle, then slowly down the coast. I will post about each day, though not necessarily on that day! I feel like breaking it up will be the only way I'll actually post about the trip because it's a lot less daunting. Some pictures are taken with the iPhone and the other with my Canon Rebel T2i. To read previous days, click here and scroll down.

On the fifth day, we drove 5 hours from Hood River, Oregon to Issaquah, Washington, about a half hour from Seattle, to hangout with our friend Bobby. This drive was definitely my favorite so far because it was just so beautiful!! Also, it was my 21st birthday(July 16th)!

We started off our day early with another great breakfast at the B&B. Boba had made a spinach casserole that was great! It was so rich and filling so I ended up saving some that Vince ate later for lunch. While eating breakfast, we talked with a couple other couples that were there and they mentioned waterfalls that would be along our drive if we took the scenic way. Since we didn't have to be to Issaquah until much later, we opted for that route.

Before getting on the road, we were ready for a quick snack so we sat down by The Columbia River again.

As we were driving along, it immediately turned from pretty green to HOLY-COW green.



It was breathtaking. Along the road there were 3 big waterfalls and we managed to stop at 2. The main Malnomuth Falls had so many people at it that we couldn't find parking and didn't want to sit around waiting for it. Instead we just stopped at the other two 'small' ones and hiked around.

I expected Oregon to be green, but not his green. The pictures don't do it justice! The trees were SO tall and there was a canopy of leaves that were over the road.

There was also a little house that I was curious about. I wonder if someone actually lives there or if it's for a park ranger or something.

After sitting in traffic for an 8 mile backup for a couple hours, we finally made it to Issaquah where, once again, I was blown away by the greenery. First, we had to pass this insane oversized load that went part of the way into our lane! I thought Vince was going to have a heart attack, he was so nervous. He legitimately thought our bikes up top might hit it. The picture really doesn't show how far in our lane it was!


Our friend had us meet him at Duthie Hill Park which was essentially a huge mountain bike park/hiking trails. I couldn't believe something like this existed there and shows just how much the community cares about it's bikers and hikers!

Aww, Bobby and Vince.

While Vince and Bobby rode around I hung out and went hiking. When we were finally starving, we headed to the grocery store to get some grilling food then went back to Bobby's to have a BBQ with some of his friends. Finally, after a long exercise filled day, we went to sleep!