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! 

Life Lately

Well hello everyone!!! It has been a while. With everything going on, my blog unfortunately took a backseat to life. It happens. But I have been realizing more and more that I miss it so much. So, here I am. Back and ready to start blogging again. 

You may have noticed the name change and the overall look of the blog has changed as well. Considering everything that has been going on in my life since getting a divorce last year, I think a change was definitely in order. A fresh start really. So welcome to Hiking Through Life! 

So many things have happened since my last post (published last July)! Amazing things! I don't know that I can even tell you how many things because I can't remember them all. But I will try my best to fill you in. 

The biggest and probably my favorite thing that has happened is that I am dating someone. Have been for a while actually. I know, it probably seems pretty sudden and maybe too soon to be dating someone, but I have known him for almost three years now and I am happy. Extremely happy actually! He is amazing and gets me better than anyone I have ever known. And I feel like I have known him my entire life. Sometimes it feels like I have met him before. Maybe in another life. Who knows. But I am happy and in love again and it feels amazing!

I got a new car. Well, a new used car. I had been leasing my Kia Sorento and although I absolutely loved that car, I drive way too much and was going to be going over the 36,000 mile allowance. And any miles over that, I would be getting charged per mile. Needless to say, I had to do something. I turned my Sorento in early and bought a 2014 Kia Sportage. Very similar to my Sorento, just a little bit smaller and more affordable. And to add to it, it gets way better gas mileage. I am spending about half of what I was for gas. And it's a pretty red color too! 

I completed my second Tough Mudder along with my best friend Lou and my gorgeous guy, who we will call Jeremy, thanks to Lou's adorable little girl. (No that is not his real name or even close to it.) This one was a lot tougher mentally. Everest 2.0 absolutely killed me, but I eventually got up it. Only took a zillion tries again. And I got all the way across the monkey bars and then lost my grip on the last part of it that they changed and fell. But, I got all the way through the monkey bars!!!! It was a great experience and I was very proud of us! 

And as an added bonus to that weekend, one of my other best friends, Vero, was in town visiting from Alaska and we got to spend some time with her! It was so great to see her. I hadn't seen her since early 2012 and all three of us (Me, Lou and Vero) hadn't seen each other since that same time. It was a great weekend to say the least.

I completed my Spartan Trifecta! If you remember, this was a huge goal of mine and one that I was so excited to accomplish. Although we hit a small snag at one point, we figured it out and ended up getting to finish up our Trifecta in beautiful Lake Tahoe! That trip alone was worth it. It was absolutely gorgeous. And it happened to be the easiest of the three races. And Jeremy was right there with me completing his Trifecta as well. I don't think I could have done it without him. He helped me through so much of the entire Trifecta. Glad it was him next to me the whole way through. 

Got another tattoo. And I have to say that this one is by far my favorite. The artist I go to is amazing and he free handed the whole thing. I showed him pictures of what I was thinking and he went with it and turned into an amazing piece of body art. Could not be more happy with how it turned out. Sorry, the pic I have is right after I got it, so it is pretty red still. 

Geeze, I just realized how many updates I have for you guys. This is turning into a way longer post than I thought it would. And with that, I am going to leave off there for now. I will have a part two up soon. I have so much more I want to tell you about. 

Like I said, life has been great. I am happier than I have ever been and it is an amazing way to feel. Thanks for stopping by. And be on the lookout for a part two to see what else I have been up to! 

Big Changes

Where do I even begin?

Over the last few months I have been going through something that has changed me and will continue to change me. But the change that is going on in my life right now is for the absolute best. 

It took me a really long time to realize this, but I was very unhappy with my marriage. And for a while. I didn't like how it made me feel. I didn't like that I felt like I was alone. I didn't like that I felt like I didn't have a Husband and that what I really had was a roommate. And it didn't seem to matter how many times I brought  up some of the things that were bothering me, he just didn't seem to care that I was feeling like this. 

After a lot of soul searching, thinking and stressing and a zillion other feelings on my part and not knowing what else to do, I made a decision and I haven't looked back since. I decided that getting a divorce and not being together anymore was the best thing for me.

Was this decision easy? Not by any means. Am I being selfish because I only considered my feelings? Absolutely. But guess what? I need to to be selfish when it comes to me and my happiness. I need to be happy. Period. And for once in my life I am actually putting myself before everyone else and doing something for me. 

I can't even begin to tell you how many people want to make me feel bad for the decision that I have made. But guess what? I don't want to feel bad. And I don't feel bad. Why should I feel bad for doing what is best for me? Why should I feel bad for trying to make myself happy? Simple answer. I shouldn't feel bad. And I don't want to feel bad. That's why I made the decision that I did.

A lot has happened over the last few months but I can without a doubt say that I do not regret my decision at all. I am in such an amazing place that I know that it was what I needed to do for me. Don't get me wrong it has definitely been an emotional and stressful couple of months, but it is all part of the process.

And needless to say there are going to be some changes happening to this blog in the near future. A name change is first on the list. But I hope you stick around and continue following along on this new journey that I have embarked on.