Weigh-In Wednesday

Yes, it is time to bring back Weigh-In Wednesdays! 

The scale has not been my friend as of late, but I do want to hold myself accountable. And I find that putting it out there for all the world to read is the best way for me to do that. 

Two weeks ago, I weighed in at 188.6 lbs. I was devastated. How could I let this happen? How could I get so lazy and careless with my eating again? After all the questions, the self shaming and of course the tears, I knew a change needed to happen. 

Food choices have been my biggest downfall. I knew that I needed to be making better food choices and that meal prep would be key. The last two weeks I have made meal plans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I made lists for the grocery store that included only healthy items. I meal prepped like crazy. And most importantly, I stuck to those meals and stayed within my calories. 

My workouts are becoming more consistent again too. I've been getting back to TRX classes one or two times a week and lifting weights two to three times a week. We have been trying to get out and hike more and more and we have been trail running more frequently. 

Just in these two weeks, I have already seen a change. Mentally, I can see that I am getting back on the right path. And physically I am feeling better and stronger with each workout. And with each great food choice and each workout, I can feel my momentum picking up steam. And I'm loving it! 

I'm happy to report that I am already seeing all of these changes on the scale too. I stepped on this morning and I am down to 186.2 lbs! Two lbs in two weeks. I will take it! I'm happy to see the number going down and it is giving me more and more momentum to keep going. I've done it once, and I'm going to do it again! 

Project List

Projects. Where do I even begin? 

I have a million projects floating around in my head that I would like to accomplish. I mean who doesn't?! But realistically speaking, I know I can't accomplish all of them by the end of the year. So I need to prioritize. 

A lot of the projects I want to work on, have to do with preserving things that are very important to me and my family. After my Mom passed away, I brought home probably three boxes worth of pictures. And while letting them sit in the box requires way less time and effort, I don't want to take the chance that something may happen and they could be lost forever. Especially after my Dad almost lost his house to a fire earlier this year, it made me realize even more how much this needs to be done. 

I looked into the cost of having someone do it for me. I wanted to find someone local because I was worried about placing all of my pictures in the mail. That took a bit of time to even find someone local. But when I did, I quickly realized that it was going to more expensive than I even imagined. At $0.39 cents a photo, it was going to add up very quickly. 

So I did a little research and I bought a printer/scanner a few weeks ago, so now I need to start taking an hour or two every week to start scanning and sorting all of these photos. My hope is to be able to put them all on an external hard drive and put that in a fire safe so that if something ever does happen, we still have a digital copy of everything we had. I know this is going to take some time to complete. And to be honest I was hoping to have already gotten started on this one, but that has not happened. I know part of that is because I just can't bring myself to go through all of those pictures. But with time and some healing, I know I will get to it. 

Another project that I have been wanting to work on for years is going through all of my Mom's old cookbooks and recreating them. I had her cookbooks prior to her passing and they are falling apart. Pages are trying to fall out, the bindings are breaking, some recipes are barely readable because of things being spilled on them. You know, the usual things that happen when you constantly use and bake with the cookbook open. But I don't want to simply re-type them and bind them. I want to still use the old pages that hold all the love that she poured into each recipe she made. I want to be able to open that recipe and remember all the great times I had baking and cooking with her. I need to find a creative way to do that. I also have a few recipes of hers that aren't in those that I want to be able to add to it. Anyone have any creative suggestions for this?

I have a bunch of other mini projects that won't take as much time, but these two are the ones that I want to get done. They have sentimental value and that's a big driving factor. I'm hoping that as I get more and more of it completed that it will drive me to work harder to get them done.  Here's to hoping that I can complete these sometime this year. I know if I do, it will make me feel better. And who doesn't want to feel better. It's a win win! 

Accountability? Who Has Time For That?

Accountability. Great word, but I'm not so great at it. I'm gonna be honest, I know that I am struggling. Struggling with my eating. Struggling with consistently working out. That whole health and fitness area of my life is a mess.

I honestly never thought that I would be struggling again in this area. I had gotten my life together in this aspect. I was rocking it. And then all of a sudden I wasn't. I'm not even sure what happened that derailed me so badly. But it did and here I am once again feeling completely uncomfortable in my own skin. So uncomfortable that I have even been afraid to get back on the scale. I did a few months ago and I was back up over 180 lbs. WHAT?!!!! Yeah, that was a big eye opener. I need to get this shiz under control again. 

I've started focusing a lot on what I am eating. Trying to make better decisions. Trying to stay within my calories. The one thing that I am having a hard time giving up is coffee. That sweet delicious drink that keeps me from going bat shit crazy through out the day at work. I've switched to sugar free though, so that at least has cut some calories out, but I need to try and work on limiting it to once or twice a week instead of every day. Not only that, but it would be a huge cost savings as well. 

I've been trying to get back into the swing of consistent workouts too. We've been hiking a lot more and I know that is a big help. But my weight lifting three to four times a week hasn't been as consistent. So that is a big focus and goal for me for the next few weeks is to get back to those consistent workouts. I think once I get back into a good routine, hopefully I will get back to that mindset of loving my workouts and not wanting to skip them. And I know the weight will start coming off when that happens. 

It's a process and I'm taking the right steps, but it is going to take some time. I have to remember that part. It's not going to happen over night. It didn't happen overnight last time and I just need to trust myself and the process going forward. Here's to getting back on track! 

Pass the Coffee Please!!!!!!!!

While this weekend was an absolute blast, the exhaustion has set in and I'm in that state of needing coffee with my oxygen to keep myself moving. I'm channeling my inner Lorelai Gilmore this morning. She is one of my spirit animals after all. 

Another busy weekend in the books and this one was a special one. I had the pleasure of flying to Phoenix, AZ to see a very good friend of mine marry the love of her life. And her sister just happens to be my very best friend in the entire world, so getting to see her was a huge bonus to the weekend. It was a beautiful wedding and the Bride looked amazing! I am so happy that I was able to be there and to witness such an amazing event filled with so much love and happiness! 

Fast forward to today and I am still exhausted from the great, but crazy weekend. But it's time to start getting back into my routine for the week. Hopefully I can get back on track with everything and not lose an entire week to being exhausted. Especially because I have quite a bit to do at work this week. And I have another three day weekend coming up this weekend. The bearded one (my boyfriend) is taking me somewhere this weekend but he won't tell me where. It's a surprise! And it's driving me crazy!!! Haha! He said he would tell me on Friday. 

Okay, enough rambling for today. I'm gonna go shoot up my coffee through an IV and hopefully get some work done. Have a great Tuesday everyone! 

It's Been a While...

I was looking at my Facebook memories and I had a blog post pop up in my memories from 2011! I went back and read the post and realized how much I miss blogging. Even if no one is reading my posts, it was always a great outlet for me. And with everything that has happened in the last three months, I realize more now than ever, I need that outlet.

So, I'm back. Hopefully for a while.

The last three months have been the most heartbreaking, difficult and emotionally draining time of my life. That's not to say that I haven't had some good times in the last three months, but it has been a difficult time.

I lost my Mom to a heart attack on December 31st. She was only 55. It still seems so unreal to me. Even just typing the words "I lost my Mom" doesn't make it seem real.

Needless to say my emotions have been all over the place. The first month was nothing but tears and feeling lost. Hell, there are still lots of tears and that lost feeling, but it has gotten a little easier and not as frequent. I have breakdowns every now and then. Sometimes because of the most ridiculous thing. Take last night for example. I was taking something out of the oven and happened to be using a pot holder that she crocheted for me. I realized that I can't have her make me anymore of these and I burst into tears. After pulling myself together I quickly took every single pot holder out of the drawer that she made and put them away. I don't want to ruin them and not have that piece of her anymore. I'm sure at some point in the future I will pull them out and use them again, but right now, I can't bring myself to leave them out.

Me and My Mom

Losing my Mom is something that I never thought I would have to go through at such a young age. The one thing that makes it hurt the most is that she won't be here when I have kids. And that thought alone kills me every single day. I know that she is watching over all of us and that she will see them grow up, but it's not the same. It honestly feels like my family was robbed. We only had her for what seems like a short amount of time. I hope that with time, that feeling will fade, but right now, it's still too new and the wounds are still too deep.

That event alone would be enough to break someone. But unfortunately my family has been dealing with a little bit more on top of that. Three weeks ago a fire broke out on the military base near my Dad's house. It was very windy that day and it quickly got out of control. My Dad and Step Mom were forced to evacuate with their dog and their horses. They grabbed as much as they could, but of course didn't have enough time to grab everything that was important. Fortunately we found out the next morning that they did still have a house to go back to. The house had some damage from the heat of the fire coming up on the property. Although the house was okay, everything else around the property was destroyed. They lost two of their vehicles, a fishing boat that was handed down to my Dad and my Brother from my Grandpa, ATV's, trailers, a 68' Mustang, the barn that housed the horses, sheds, and the list goes on. It was a devastating event for our family. But I am extremely thankful that they were able to evacuate safely and that they still have a home. And they are slowly starting to pick up the pieces, but it is going to be a process for sure.

Like I said, it has been a very difficult and heartbreaking start to the year. But I am hoping that the rest of the year is filled with lots of happy and positive experiences.

Source

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Going to be a short post this week, but wanted to make sure I am staying on track with these posts. More for me than anything else. Let's get down to it.

I did not meet my goal of getting under 170 this week. In fact I stayed exactly the same. But I will take that. I didn't go up and I have to remember that staying the same is better than gaining. And I honestly think I am holding on to some water because of how sore my muscles are this week. My legs feel like they are going to die!

Workouts were pretty consistent this past week. I feel like I am really getting into a great routine again. And I have really been trying to hit the cardio hard. I have two races coming up in the next month and they are both at least 12 miles long. I need to be running everyday. My legs have been getting so tight though from all of the running. I have been trying to stretch and foam roll, but I am not keeping up with it enough. Looks like that will be another goal for me for next week.

My eating has been way better too. I have been sticking to my calories and making healthier choices. I actually started low carb this week. I will cycle a week on and week off for the next month or so. We usually like to do low carb the week of our races and then carb hard the day before the race so that we have the proper fuel and energy levels for our races, so this will time out perfectly for that. 

 I want to be under 170 next week. I know I can get there. Just have to push harder. Something to work towards, right? 

Hope everyone is having a great week! 

Weigh-In-Wednesday

It's Wednesday! Thank goodness! This week needs to go by a little more quickly, but since it is Wednesday, it's time for Weigh-In-Wednesday. 

This week has been way better. My eating is getting better. I am exercising more and making sure that I hit my calorie burn. I have been incorporating more cardio into my daily exercise too which I think is really helping. 

I have been trying to stay away from the super sugary everything and trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my daily meals again. And honestly, I can already tell a difference. I know that sounds crazy, but when  you fuel your body with crap, you feel like crap. When you fuel your body with good foods, you feel amazing! 

Let's get down to the weight part. I weighed in this morning at 172.6. So I am down 2.2 lbs since last week. I will take that! I will take that all day long! I am happy to see the scale going back down, but I would feel so much more comfortable if I was out of the 170's. So that is my goal for next week. I want to be below 170 for next week's Weigh-In-Wednesday post. And long term, I want to be down to 165 by the time we run our next race which is on August 27th. The less weight I have to carry up the side of the mountains for this 12 mile race, the better! 

That's all I have for this post today. Short and sweet. Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have an amazing Wednesday! 

Grilling Machine

I have been looking for a BBQ grill for the last few weeks. It is summertime afterall and I would much rather be outside cooking my food then slaving away inside my kitchen. Not to mention we don't have air conditioning so if we have to turn on the stovetop or the oven for any reason, it immediately heats up the entire house. It's awful and has lead to me not cooking as much as I should be. 

Well last Sunday we happened to be at the ARC and found this grill there for $30!!!!!! The only downside was that we didn't actually know if it worked when we purchased it. They had no way of hooking it up and testing it before they put it out for sale. So we were taking a risk. But they told us if it didn't work that we could return it within 7 days for store credit. So we bought it.

We got it home and opened it up a bit more. Everything seemed to be there except for the ignition switch. But those always seem to be the first thing that breaks on any grill and I know from experience that you can still light it without one. Little bit more dangerous for your eyebrows and lashes, but it can be done. And I can get a replacement switch for around $10. And of course the inside was pretty dirty, but I knew that I could get it all cleaned up. 

The following Monday I grabbed an extra propane tank from my Brother's house, brought it home and hooked it up to the grill. We turned the propane on and then turned the grill on and lit it with a stick lighter and it immediately lit up! I was so excited. It actually worked. I was feeling amazing about this $30 purchase. 

I didn't have much time to clean it up during the week, so we were putting foil down to cook on it, but I got tired of that real quick. So this past weekend I spent a good few hours scrubbing and hosing down all of the grates and racks and got it cleaned up as best as I could. It looked really good actually. I was very proud of the hard work I put into cleaning it. 

I was so excited to cook on it once I had everything cleaned. We decided to try something we have never made before. We made chicken kabobs! And the best part was that we got to use some of the yellow squash and peppers that came out of our garden, which is kicking ass by the way. These kabobs were super simple and easy to make and they turned out delicious! They cooked perfectly on the grill and will definitely be a new favorite in this house.

I am in love with my new grill and completely in love with the fact that I only spent $30 on it! Something similar brand new would have cost me anywhere from $200-$300. I love finding a great deal and this grill was exactly that! And now I can go buy a sweet Denver Broncos grill cover to put on it! Football is after all right around the corner!

What is one of the best bargains or deals that you have found?

Weigh-In-Wednesday

This past week has been up and down. I finally got on the scale yesterday morning for the first time since the end of June. To be real, I have been so scared to step on that scale. And honestly, I think that is why it showed what it did yesterday morning. 174.8. Almost 20 lbs up from my lowest weight of 155. Cue me having a minor meltdown/panic attack/ freak out yesterday morning. Tears and all. 

It wasn't pretty. But it was a wake up call and a slap in the face all at the same time. I am the only person that is responsible for me putting weight back on. No one else. Just me. So I need to be responsible for getting it back off too. 

Although I have been struggling to stay motivated, I know that I can do it because I did it once before. I need to buckle down and get serious. Serious about what I am fueling my body with. And serious about my workouts. That is all there is to it. 

I can do this! And I will! 

Blog Ideas

Hello Blog World! Happy Monday! 

I have really been wanting to blog more and more lately. Small problem though. I sit down to blog and I can not come up with anything to write about. Not a single thing. Writers block I guess is what you would call that. Whatever the name for it, it is frustrating. 

I am here to ask for some help. What do you guys do to get ideas for your blog? I want to know how you guys get so creative with posts and what to talk about. Do they just come to you in the middle of the night or day? Do you use a website that gives you some ideas? Do you use a planner and plan every blog post out? Or do you just write down a general idea? 

I really want to keep up with blogging. It is something I really enjoy and is very therapeutic at times for me. Even though I don't think I have a lot of readers, which shouldn't matter. If I am happy doing it, then that is enough for me. But having some awesome post ideas might just help keep me going. 

So, how do you get your creative juices flowing? Teach me your ways! 

Time to Be Real

It's time for me to be real. With myself more than anyone. I worked so hard for months to lose all of the weight I wanted to. And I accomplished that. And I am still really proud of that fact. But it is time for me to admit to myself and everyone else that I have been struggling lately. 

I have gained some of that weight back. Not a ton. But probably about 15 lbs. Now I know that some of you are thinking that 15 lbs isn't really that bad. But for me, it is enough to make me feel uncomfortable with myself again that I know that I need to step up and do something. And it scares me. I worked so hard to get to where I was. And I can't go back to that person. I won't go back to that person I was before. That person was miserable and hated how she looked and felt. 

That is hopefully where this blog comes in. I need a way to hold myself accountable again. I need something that I can come to on a daily or weekly basis to put it all out there. My struggles, my triumphs, all of it. If I don't get this under control now, I feel like I may end up exactly back where I started. And that is not an option in my book. 

I can say that I have kept up with some of the good habits that I fell into during my journey. I am still working out. I haven't been working out as hard though.That right there is an area for improvement. I need to up the intensity of my workouts again. I need to make sure that I am hitting my calorie burn every day. No more days of not hitting or even being close. I need to get off my ass and make it happen. 

One area of my workouts that I have been struggling with is that I have had a hard time finding something to fill that void for the days that I did Zumba. It took me a while, but I have a new workout love, and that love is TRX. If you aren't sure what it is, it is essentially suspension training. All body weight type exercises. It is amazing! There is a TRX class at my gym on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and I am addicted. And it just so happens that it is filling that same time slot and void that was so vacant after I quit teaching Zumba. Bonus! 

My biggest struggle has been my eating. I do great some days, and then horrible the next. I need to get back to eating clean and loving it. There for about a year, I didn't crave the junk. I found healthy alternatives to things that I used to eat all the time. And somehow over the last year, I have kind of gone away from that a bit. I need to quit making excuses and just do it. So starting today, no more sugary coffees (I will miss you Dutch Bros), no more eating out at junk places. No more junk food. No more ice cream and chocolate. It all has to go. Will I allow myself to cheat every now and then? Absolutely. I have to. Or I will eventually go insane. But a cheat meal needs to quit turning into a cheat day(s) or cheat weeks and months. 

I'm determined and focused to get this weight back off. I know that I can do it. I have done it before and I will do it again. I want to be leaner and have more muscle definition again. I want to be the healthiest version of me. And guess what? I will. Today is a new day. And it is always a great day to get better! 

Gardening and My Not So Green Thumb

In the past I have always been horrible with keeping any type of plant alive. Didn't matter what it was. Flowers, office plants, you name it, I killed it. My track record isn't the greatest. I always have the best intentions when it comes to keeping them alive, but for some reason something always happens and they don't make it. 

When Jeremy and I moved into our new place back in December, there was a raised garden bed already in the back yard, so we started talking about putting a garden in. Spoke to our landlord about it and they actually encouraged it, which I thought was pretty cool. But in the back of my mind I just kept thinking about all the plants I had previously killed. I was worried I would do the same with our garden. 

Well thankfully Jeremy has an amazing green thumb. I helped plant everything, but really he is the one keeping them alive. He makes sure everything gets watered and is in there pulling weeds all the time. And everything we planted has actually started coming up!!! It is so cool to see. We planted baking pumpkins, yellow squash, cucumbers, small watermelons, carrots, beets, green beans, snap peas and we bought pepper plants that were already started. 

Pumpkins

Carrots

Yellow Squash

Cucumbers (sorry, not the best pic)

Watermelons

Green Beans

Pepper Plants

I can not wait until everything is ready to harvest and eat. It will be so nice to be able to walk out to the garden and pick fresh produce. I'm especially excited for the watermelons! 

After we got the garden all ready to go and planted, I got a little gardening bug. I suddenly wanted to buy a bunch of flowers for all these flower beds that were already on the property. I figured why not. The worst that would happen is that I would kill them. Not like it hasn't happened before. We headed out to a green house one weekend and bought of bunch of different annuals and planted them. They look great and they are all still alive. It has been three weeks people! That has to be a record for me! 

I also purchased a rose bush and some hydrangeas from Lowe's. My roses are doing amazing! I love them. They look so great. My hydrangeas on the other hand, whomp whomp whomp. I had bought hydrangeas once before and they didn't last more than two weeks. These made it about three. I am not really sure what happened. I honestly think they just don't do well in the Colorado climate. I think it is too hot for them. Oh well. Can't win them all. 

I am absolutely loving how our yard and our garden turned out. We are still working on it a bit, but for the most part we are done. Jeremy has done such a great job with keeping everything alive that it has made me want to do a better job with it as well. Maybe his green thumb will rub off on me a bit. I can only hope, right?!

Sunday Hike

Sunday. One of my favorite days. Usually because of Football, but when the weather is nice and Football isn't in season, we try to always take Sunday as our day to get out in the sunshine and get away from everything else going on in the world. 

Yesterday morning we packed up a backpack with some food and water, loaded Bentley and Ringo into the car and headed to the mountains. We took a trail that we had been on once before but didn't get very far. We decided to try it again and see if we could actually get to the end of the trail and up to the reservoir that it leads to. 

It was a lot longer of a hike than we expected, but it was absolutely beautiful. 

And we actually didn't get to the reservoir, but we did get to the end of the trail. What we didn't know is that the trail ends and then you have to take another trail to get to the reservoir. We wanted to keep going, but it looked like a storm was moving over the mountains and in the summer in Colorado, the mountains is the last place that you want to be when a thunderstorm rolls over.

We decided to head back down the trail and try to get ahead of the storm. And to be honest I was already pretty tired at this point. By the time we got back to the car I was exhausted. And so were Jeremy and the boys. The storm ended up not even hitting where we were, but better to be safe than sorry.

With our boys. They were exhausted after the long hike too!

It was a long hike. We were out there for around three hours and considering how much of that was uphill, it was an intense workout. No wonder we were so exhausted. But as exhausting as it was, it was beautiful and we are already planning on heading back up another Sunday to try and get to the reservoir. I really want to see it because it sits at the base of a beautiful mountain and all of the pictures I have seen look absolutely gorgeous. Something to look forward to for another day. 

Homemade Dog Treats

I have been baking up a storm lately. I have been obsessed with finding new recipes to make and especially new low carb recipes. While I was going through my ridiculous folder of recipes that I have printed and yet to try, I came across a recipe for dog treats called Woofies that I had printed years ago. After looking at the ingredients list, I realized that I already had all of the ingredients sitting in my house. I figured why not. If they suck, I won't know and the dogs probably won't care either way. 

Woofies Recipe 

Source

The recipe was really easy. Add all of the  ingredients in a bowl and mix together. It makes a thick orange looking dough. I pulled all of the dough out of the bowl and rolled it out flat and then rolled it into a long roll like you would if you were making cinnamon rolls. I ended up cutting the roll in half long ways because it seemed too thick. So I actually had two long rolls. I rolled these out a little bit more even just to make sure that they weren't too thick. Wish I would have taken pics of this. Would have made explaining this part much easier. 

Once I had the two rolls to the thickness that I wanted, I cut them into the 1/2 inch pieces like the recipe called for. Each roll made about 32 pieces. I packed all 32 pieces from one roll onto one cookie sheet. I placed them in the oven and baked them at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The recipe called for 40 minutes, but after 20 they were already pretty hard, so I took them out. (**EDIT** Since posting this I realized why they said 40 minutes. Although they were hard after 20 minutes, a few days later we noticed some mold spots on a few of them. So make sure you cook them the 40 minutes so that you don't run into this issue**)

I let them cool for a while before I fed them to the dogs, but I am happy to say that they loved them! I mean just look at these faces!!!

Very Difficult Decision

Not sure if you guys remember this or not, but last February I became a certified Zumba instructor. I was so excited to be teaching something that I loved and enjoyed so much. At first I was only teaching here and there. Subbing really for the regular Zumba instructor who was pregnant. Then when she had the baby, Monday and Tuesdays became my class. 

I knew when I took over that I probably wasn't going to keep everyone. A lot of them were there for her class. But quite a few of them stayed and I appreciated it. And we gained a few new regulars here and there. 

Over the last year we went through a lot of change with the gym. First came new owners who decided that they wanted to turn the gym into more of a Crossfit gym instead of just a regular lifting gym. Because of this they couldn't have cared less about the group classes (i.e. yoga, spin, and of course Zumba.) They were rude at times and not always keen on what we had to say when it came to our class, but we stuck it out and eventually they sold the gym and we didn't have to deal with them anymore. 

This past October/November the newest set of owners came in and started making even more changes. But these changes seemed to be for the better. Brought in more equipment, more weights, more of everything. They were trying to turn the gym back into a heavy lifting gym. And they really seemed to want to get our participation back up in all of our classes. The only downside was that they decided to change how they paid us. We used to get paid a flat rate per class and then they changed it to where we were getting paid per person that attended our classes. It wasn't bad at first, but I definitely wasn't making the same amount that I was before, but I didn't mind too much because I still loved teaching. 

As the months went on, attendance in classes started dropping, which meant I was really not making much at all. Normally I wouldn't have cared, but I had just moved to the other side of town. Some days I was spending more in gas to drive over there than I was making because I just didn't have the numbers. But I stuck with it because I loved the ladies in my class and I didn't want to let them down. 

More and more I dreaded driving over to that side of town to teach. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that I wasn't enjoying it as much. And to add to the non enjoyment, I started having issues with the new owners not wanting to pay me in a timely manner. Every time I would approach them about it, they had some excuse. I was maybe getting paid once a month and when they were paying me, they weren't even paying me the full amount that they owed. And they were doing this to the other instructors too. This got old really quick. 

I finally had enough. This past Tuesday I went in to talk to them about it. And of course, they weren't there. This seemed to be happening more and more too. When we needed to talk to them, they were conveniently never there. So I got on my phone and called the owner and told her I was done teaching. I told her that I was frustrated with not getting paid anymore and driving all the way over there to not make enough to even cover my gas. She was really nice and understanding about it and told me they would call me when they had my final check for me. But I think she was just trying to save face because I still haven't heard from her and still haven't received my last check. 

This was an incredibly hard decision for me. My regular ladies that came to class every week made this decision even more difficult. I love these ladies and they have become great friends, but I had to make a decision for me. I was tired of being stressed out about it. I wasn't enjoying myself anymore. And I am a firm believer that if you aren't happy with what you are doing, you need to not be doing it anymore. So I had to listen to my gut and I quit. And I already feel a million times better since making my decision, but at the same time I am going to miss my Zumba ladies so much. 

I haven't decided if I want to keep teaching or not. I may look around a bit to see if somewhere else closer to my house needs a sub from time to time. But until then, I am going to take some time for myself to re-establish a good workout schedule and just get back into a great routine for myself. I think I owe it to myself and it is the best thing I can do for me after being in such a stressful situation for a while. 

Remember, you have to take care of yourself sometimes. And although sometimes the decisions you have to make to take care of yourself are not easy, they are for the best. 

Life Lately Part 2

Happy Monday! Here is my Part 2 of Life Lately. An attempt to get everyone caught up on what has been going on in my life for the last 9 months or so. 

One of my favorite parts of last summer was a week long trip to Oregon. I had never been and I was excited to get away from everything for a while. It was a beautiful trip. The Oregon coast is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to go back this July. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from that trip. 

See why I want to go back?!!!! 

I also had the honor of being a Bridesmaid in my friend Amy's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and I was so glad that I got to be a part of it. Funny side story on this one. I actually caught the bouquet at the wedding. One handed! That's right! Like Odell Beckham style. It was hilarious. But it was either I reach up and grab it or it was about to sail over all of us and hit this table of little old ladies. I couldn't let that happen. It was something that you had to be there to see for sure. 

Jeremy and I took a weekend trip to the San Isabel National Forest and went to Lake Isabel and Bishop's Castle. We stayed in this old cabin called Mingus Ranch. It had electricity but no running water. It was creepy and very cool at the same time. The Ranch itself has a whole history to it. And the fact that it is still standing is pretty cool. Lake Isabel was beautiful! And the trees were still in full on change mode and it made for a great weekend of hiking and spending some quality time together outdoors. Our dogs loved it too! And Bishop's castle was just very cool to see! The work that has been put into that castle is insanely amazing. If you ever get a chance to get to this beautiful spot in CO, it is a must see! 

And last but certainly not the last thing that has happened (too much to even share) I got to attend two different Broncos games this year. The first one was on the weekend of my Birthday and unfortunately we lost that game :(  But it was still great to go to the game with Jeremy (also a die hard Broncos fan. One of the many reasons why I love him!) 

We also had the opportunity to attend the AFC Championship game. I stalked ticketmaster for an entire day waiting to see if they were going to release more tickets and to my excitement they did! I got us great seats in the the North End Zone for face value!!!!!! Money well spent as we went on to win that game and the Super Bowl! It was a game and an experience I will never forget. It was incredible to be there when all of that confetti came flying down and the stadium had just erupted into everyone screaming. It was awesome! 

So there you have it. A jumbled post of some of the more memorable things that have taken place over the last nine months. I know, it is all over the place, but that is my life sometimes. And I wouldn't change that for anything. 

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!