{Lair O' The Bear Park}

The other day I made a trip to Lair O' The Bear Park

I initially ran the first mile or so.

Holy altitude, Batman!

There was an altitude gain of at least 1118 feet!

I immediately felt it once I began running.

I won't lie, I had to walk some but overall it was not as bad as the Estes Park race.

Once I got to this point 

I decided to walk. 

I was afraid of running across snakes and it was totally and completely in my head.

Not once did I come across snakes or any other animals.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day for a run/walk.

There is even a castle that backs to the park!

It's the Dunafon Castle and is really a residential property!

They even have their own scary looking guard dogs!

Here's a video I took if you didn't catch it on my Instagram page.

On another quick note, I decided to try out the meal plan Kassie at Southern Girl Gets Fit and Elle Noel found through Ashley Leahy.  I haven't received my own plan yet, I'm waiting for Ashley to put something together for me based on the questionnaire I sent her tonight. Maybe Monday I'll have something back from her since she did say it would take her about 48 hours but I'm not counting the weekend.  Based on the email she sent me with her background info and all that, I'm looking forward to what she puts together for me.

{Discouraged}

Ok, so I signed up for the dating app Tinder

When I first signed up for it, I was still undecided if the app is meant for hook-ups or truly those seeking relationships. I am not looking for a hook-up. I can get a hook-up from the multitude of guys I work with if that were what I am seeking.

The guys be like

Everyone else be like

I'm like 

Ok, not really.

Really, I'm this is me...

I've dated off and on these last three years, they've just never lasted more than a month or 2.

WTH.

Yeah, so I thought I'd give the Tinder app a go.

Turns out it's more for hooking up.

Go figure.

Ah well. I just give up for now and will continue to focus on finishing school.

On another note, I saw this tonight and loved it!

{Fall Approved}

Y'all. Oh. My. Word.

I found the best fall outfit at Charming Charlie yesterday.

It's a tunic-like striped dress.  I didn't get a chance to try it on in the store so took a chance and just bought it anyway. Normally, I hate the way these type of dresses look on me.  I feel like they extenuate every ounce of fat on my body.  I bought a floral scarf to wear with it. I had a vision of what I expected when I bought the scarf and dress and boy did it ever live up to those expectations. I instantly tried them on once I got home.

I {love} this outfit.

It's super comfortable and I love all the colors in the scarf.

I cannot wait to wear this come Fall.

I also got a few great shirts from Stein Mart, Old Navy, and the Gap the other day.

From Gap...

These pants are going to look amazing with that scarf from Charming Charlie!

From Stein Mart...

And from Old Navy...

Everything from Old Navy was on super sale and I got great prices for them all. I love the shorts; they have cute little pink flamingos on them!! :) I wore those yesterday with a navy blue t-shirt.

Well, I think that's all the fashion for one day.

I'm just so excited for the fall.

I have all the basic pieces now plus some great pieces I already own.

{Back to work}

After 12 days off, at the cost of only 16 vacation hours, it was extremely hard to get up at 3:30 this morning to head back to work.  Honestly, I really feel like I'm getting extremely tired of working the hours we do. It would be nice to get back to a 9-5, M-F type of job. I miss it. 

Anyway, I thought I did decently on my first day back to work outfit.

I cannot wait to be able to wear this top with a pair of skinny's and brown riding boots.

I initially thought I would wear my Target sandals but when I woke-up this morning I was completely against the idea of wearing heals today.

So, speaking of stripes I bought a new shirt today from Fat Face.  It's a UK store but they do ship to the U.S. at a flat rate of $13.26 (or whatever 10 Euro's will amount to in the future). I originally wanted the one with the hoody but this one was on sale so it was $35 instead of $50+ for the hooded one.

It's the exact same as style as the hoody version, just without the hoody (obviously, Nicole).

I've been buying a lot of new clothes but it's close to Fall season and that's usually when I do buy them so I'm okay with that.

Monday night at 10:30 or so, my friend called me to go out and celebrate the rumor of a terrible person possible getting fired. Is that wrong of us? This person is terrible. She argues about everything and she's never right in her arguments. She's terrible at her job. She's now been de-certified twice. She's been written up multiple times. It's just an ongoing trend and I positively hated working with her because I knew an argument from her would always pop-up. I did try going into those days with positive thoughts but nope, it didn't matter.  Anyway, I normally am not a fan of people getting fired and I hate the idea of celebrating it but damn it's about time.

Another friend and I met up with the other people we know and stayed out until 2:30 Tuesday morning, when the bar closed.  It was good times. What I can say about that though is Tuesday positively sucked. I felt so incredibly hung-over it was ridiculous. I only had 3 Stella's too. However, I had already taken my Fenofibrate for my triglycerides and it causes dizziness according to the info on the package.  Except for me. For me, it makes me sleepy.  Beer + Triglyceride meds combined will forever be a no-no for me based on Tuesday. Other than that, I enjoyed it.  Our bartender was hilarious.

Yay, for having our "mini" 24 hour break from work tomorrow night. Lots of school work will get done.

{Back to work...}

So, I've been a day ahead for blogging. It's the night of the 12th but I'll schedule this to post the morning of the 13th. It's been pretty nice except the whole having to write in past tense. 

Tomorrow I go back to work after having the last 12 days off. 

I honestly thought I'd get ahead in my school work.

Hahahahaha

Yeah, so I'm looking forward to going back to work (said no one ever)(ok, fine, sometimes I am, but not this time).

What I am happy for is is only have 2 more weeks left of this term. Next term I only have ONE (1) class and a CLEP to take. Then my capstone and then, AND THEN, I'm done with my bachelor's. Whoop!

So, today I decided to take a new running route. I think I'll do this once an off-set since the one I did today was in downtown Denver and I had to drive 30-35 minutes just to get there and then drive that back home.

It was a good run though! I ran through Platte River which runs next to and along downtown Denver, Elitch Gardens (use to be Six Flags), and I can see the stadium the Broncos's play at as well. It was a really pretty trail.  Unfortunaetely, I cannot find the pictures I took with the Map My Run app!!! So, I only have the very few pictures I took with the camera app on my phone.

Can I talk about Batman for a moment. The dog, not the real thing. ;)

If you don't know, Batman is the tea-cup Chihuahua I got my mom. I initially did not want another dog but when I saw the ad, and the girl was giving him away for free, it felt right and so I got him.  I was really surprised because free dogs on my work classified normally go quick but I was the first to claim him.

Batman

Anyway, I think he's turning more into my dog. o_O

I mean, have you looked at that face?

I normally hate Chihuahua's but this one doesn't bark, is super sweet and lovey, AND sleeps when I sleep. With my super weird work schedule, that's important.

What I wanted to talk about though is his pooping.

This dog is hilarious about his pooping. He won't poop if he thinks you're looking. Last night I knew he had to poop because of the way he was circling. He was almost there when I looked up and saw a runner coming my way. Damn Runners. I knew the runner would get to us before Batman pooped and it would ruin the poop spot he'd JUST found and was popping a squat. Dammit. So then we kept walking and seriously the dog has to poop so bad but he won't do it. He's also trying to avoid the grass at this point and head to the sidewalk because that means we'll head inside (he thinks), where he can poop inside (he thinks). I make him walk only in the grass though and finally he can no longer hold it when... 

Yes.

Sorry. It's a story that had to be told since I deal with it every. single. day. with this dog. haha

{Crafty Day}

A few days ago I bought a few supplies for crafts I knew I wanted to try out from Pinterest ideas.

The first thing I tried was this DIY Infinity Scarf.

Well, yesterday was THE day I tried them out.

This scarf was super easy to make.

The directions were not entirely clear to me, but after reading the comments and then refocusing on the picture again, I got the idea.

The confusing part to me was where the lady said, "Cut under arm pits."

Ok, cut how? Cut the arm pits off?

Ohhhhhhh, you mean cut across the chest below the arm pits.

Gotcha.

Anyway, I thought it turned out pretty well. There was still a lot of t-shirt material left that I did not want to waste, so I even cut some up and made a scarf for my 9 (almost 10, yikes!) year old niece.

Scarf for the niece

I do not have a sewing machine but I may still wait until October when my mom gets here and just have her sew the ends together. I'm waiting to hear back from my niece to see if she likes this the way it is.

I also checked out the rest of Jessica's blog at My World - Made by Hand.  I found something new to try out as well since I live in a condo.  How amazingly awesome do these Terra Cotta Pot S'mores look?!

She's a freaking genius, I tell you.

The other item from Pinterest I made was this Burlap Wreath

I absolutely love this wreath. It is so cute and great for any season. 

I did want to make mine holiday ready, so when I found some flowers to decorate it with, I decided to not permanently add them to the wreath, but just stuck them through the burlap. Now, when I want to change the decoration on the wreath, I can just pull out the current flowers (without messing up the burlap) and add the new holiday design.

I won't lie though. This thing messed with my allergies big time. There was burlap "fur" all over the place.

Oh, and I used one of the medium sized wire frames (I forgot to look at the exact measurements of it). I took 2 full rolls and about 1/4 of a 3rd roll. The burlap ribbon was on sale for 40% off in the Fall section. Apparently, if you buy a different brand in the ribbon section it is regularly priced.

Seeing the wreath hanging up, I definitely see the flaw in it. The left side is not as full as the right side. I'm okay with that though. By the time I was through weaving burlap ribbon in and out of the wire wreath, I was pretty much done with the project and doubt I do it again. Hence why I made the decorations interchangeable. ;)

Well, I think it's time for my morning run after taking yesterday off completely.