This morning's run.. 4 miles

All kinds of things are going on right now!

Well, mainly two things I guess - training for the San Francisco 1/2 marathon and studying for the LEED test.. as well as working. Thank goodness for my parents taking Mia home with them after they visited last week because I don't have time for my little pup.
It sounds like she's having a good time with the grandparents though, so that's good. I think I've talked to them every day since they took her home! I'm going to be one crazy mom to a real human being one day.

My LEED test (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design if you were wondering) ended up being scheduled a little bit later than I was planning, so I have a little more time to prepare. I'm pretty nervous though- I just want to pass this thing and it's not going to be easy! So much studying ahead of me and definitely much running ahead of me.. I have quite a ways to go before I'm at 13.1 miles!

I'm definitely excited for the half marathon and definitely excited for a trip to San Francisco.

I'm up to 5 miles this weekend..wahoo.. just the beginning! I'm also playing in two soccer leagues that have games on the weekends, so it's hard to fit in a run on top of a full game of soccer!

Well.. that's what is currently on my mind, so thought I'd share.

more deliciousness

I'm not turning this into a blog about food..haha.. but here's a recipe to a delicious dip. It's really easy and really yummy

Black Bean Dip

1 pkg frozen creamed spinach

1 can chicken—the one a bit bigger than a regular tuna can.

1 can of black beans rinsed & drained

2 C. shredded Colby-Jack Cheese

1 jar of salsa (I can't remember the exact size. I'd guess about 14 oz.)

Mix everything together. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with Frito Scoop Chips.

YUM

the most delicious thing to hit my mouth

I am not good at waiting...

Climbed the tallest building in Denver!

So this weekend myself and a group of friends decided to join in on the 'Run the Republic Stair Climb', which is going up the tallest building in Denver - 55 stories. This is hopefully the beginning of many different athletic events I plan on partaking in.
So, anyways, our team was named 'We're Not in Kansas Anymore' since we were all mostly from Kansas and people seem to think we don't have tall building in Kansas.. so we thought it was pretty good. The whole thing started at 8:00 Sunday morning, but we didn't go until 12:00. There were like 1800 people who did the whole thing, so they spaced us out.
It all went pretty fast - it felt longer than it took- and it was rough, but I made it up the building in 10 minutes and 52 seconds. A whole lot better than I had imagined. The whole team did it in less than 15 minutes, so we were pretty awesome!
They do this event for lung disease, so all the money goes towards that. We had a good time and hung out for a while afterwards because it was gorgeous outside!

Here's some pics.



There's the building behind us!


before:
after:

Resolutions??

or just a list..

. Become LEED AP
. Run a half marathon.. just a half (no more please)
. Paint more
. Take more photos with my new Canon Rebel xti and improve my photo-taking skills
. Keep track of my money better.. save more..

Fall Back

I have never been so affected by the short days of the winter and it is driving my a little bit crazy. This is my first time working an eight to five job during this time of the year. In school there was always studio to attend to in the evening, so it didn't matter if it was light or dark. Now, I don't really have anything to do after work, so I had been taking advantage of the beautiful evenings in Denver and spending a good amount of time outdoors. On top of just being annoyed that when I leave work it is dark, I also have my puppy that is used to her walks or runs shortly after my arrival.

So, this has led me to start thinking about taking her to doggy daycare twice a week for half a day. I will probably take her for the second half of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then she will be all worn out for the evening! And that means I can get more done when I get home from work..hopefully this works out.

Random Info:

These are my favorite things to snack on right now.. de-licous.. fresh ones are very crisp and tasty..

Sugar Snap Peas..

Currently recovering from a cold and the Rockies bombing it at the world series.

My nose is raw from all the kleenex usage. I'm sure the night out on Friday did not help the condition. But I took it easy the rest of the weekend and am feeling much, much better.

what's goin' on at work..

Fun Times in Colorado!

Okay, well, lately everything's been going pretty well in Denver! The pictures above are from the camping trip over Labor Day weekend. I went with Jeff, his roommate and some of their friends. I brought Mia and another girl brought her puppy, Daisy, so they tired eachother out and it was perfect.

It was my first trip to the mountains since I've moved here, so it was about time to get out there. We made it out just in time before the weather started to cool down ( which I am absolutely loving right now!). I love when summer starts slipping into Fall.. I think it's my favorite. Sweatshirts, sweatpants... awesome.

I have also been playing around with my new camera... the Rebel XTi and it's so much fun so far. The camera was purchased from Wolf Camera and they provide some free camera classes with my purchase, so I went to one last Thursday and hopefully I will be able to go to the more in-depth one this Thursday. There are so many little tricks that can be learned. This is one of the things I wanted to do, so I'm so glad that I was given the opportunity to purchase this camera. Now I just want to figure out how to take beautiful pictures.

Mia has been my main subject so far. Maybe I will turn into an animal photographer. Haha... but that could be interesting..

This last weekend, we went to a local designer fashion show. I went with the k-state architecture girls that have all moved here. There's about 5 of us that usually hang out. So, this event was called Art in the City and is kind of tied to the First Fridays events that happen around the city at the art galleries on the first Fridays of the month. It was in a very random spot in Denver in a warehouse, so a little confusing to get to and I think the cab driver was a little worried when we told him to 'continue driving by this warehouse, past the cement truck... keep goin..'

Anyways, it was a $5 donation and drinks and food all night.. Local designers had models strut their designs down a walkway It was really neat and nice to do something a little different and be around the artsy crowd.

Tomorrow, the same girls are all going to head to a rock climbing gym and take a lesson to learn how to climb... Sarah set it all up and we all jumped at the chance to do something new and different.

It's so nice to be with a crowd that likes to do fun things!!

A trip to Colorado Springs might be in the works this weekend and then Jeff and I are going to Greeley, CO to visit our cousin and her family for dinner.

Well, that is what I have been up to.. All going well and loving it!

Pictures of Mia, my puggle pup

the daily routine..

5:00am-6:00am(if I'm lucky) - Mia wakes me up
- take out Mia
- feed Mia

7:00 am - look at Einstein Bros. Bagels across the street and really want a bagel

7:00am -8:00am - play with Mia while trying to eat breakfast and get ready for work - usually don't get a bagel

8:00am - leave for work(no one usually shows up before 8:15)
- grab coffee at coffee shop next door to work or starbucks along the way
- eye the muffins - usually don't get one

8:15am - 12:00 - spend some time checking out the email and facebook situation, then start working on the fun autoCAD.

12:00 - 1:00 ish - go home to let Mia out and eat lunch

1:00 - 5:00 ish - work, check out more facebook and email.

5:15pm - possibly workout directly after work, possibly run errands, possibly just go home

6:30pm - always back to play with the pup, feed her, have snack - go to the park, run/walk around neighborhood

7:30 - 8:00 - dinner, tv, wine

10:00-11:00ish - bedtime

I remember looking forward to having a routine and schedule... it's getting a little monotonous..

I am going to write a post soon.. promise!

I don't know if anyone stops by this site anymore, but I do plan on updating every now and then...we don't have internet in our apartment just yet - coming on thursday. Just trying to put together the apartment lately-going to look at a table after work today. That is the major piece of furniture that is missing and it will be soo nice when a table is in there.
But, I have moved out here to Denver and started working - everything is going pretty well!
Later

FINISHED!

Here are some of my 3d renders from my project. Finally done and I'm so excited.
No job yet...so now I'm on a mission to find the job.
Check ya later

the end is near!

One last week of putting my body through this awful, miserable marathon of no sleep and high stress. After this (assuming I pass this semester), I won't have anymore school projects that keep me up in studio for countless hours straight with no sleep. Starting today, many of us will slip into 'freak out mode' when we realize how little time we have to finish a whole lot of work!
On top of stressing over studio, I also am thinking about how many of my hours this weekend are going towards working at Panera.

If I was really thinking ahead I would have made this week my last week of work at Panera. But, I am not a planner and didn't realize what a good idea that would be. Instead, two weeks from yesterday is my last day. This gives me most of finals week to put in some hours, since I only have one final.

This is the last week of having to use the super glue that must be used to make a model at the pace I need to make it at. For five years now I have dealt with the itchyness that happens in these last final weeks and any other time I have had to build a model in studio. I have known for the last five years there has been something I am allergic to in studio. After coming back from a stress-free, super glue free semester in Prague, I realized it was the super glue. Any resistance my body had built up to the constant use of superglue had left and there was no question after using it again this year that it was the super glue. I have avoided it my best all semester, trying to use the slower-drying tacky glue to build study models, but when it comes down to this time of the semester, I have no choice but to use super glue. I'm loading up on allergy medicine the best I can while using the super glue, but it fails to stop the skin irritation. It's awful!

But it will all be over in one week! Then it is recovery time and graduation.

I still do not know what I will be doing after graduation. I have yet to secure a job and the search had to be put off starting a couple weeks ago, so that I could buckle down and finish the project. What is a job if I don't pass studio??

So after graduation and getting my wisdom teeth out, I will get a move on the job search again. I pray it doesn't take too long to land one that I will enjoy. For the most part, I will be looking in Denver and Chicago, but I will continue to look at some other exciting destinations as well!

Well, it's back to work with the irritating super glue and the severe itching that comes along with it.

studio fun

some progress on my current project.. less than a month to get all this finished!

job searching

that's it. keeping me busy and stressed

1 year, 1 day

I meant to write a little something yesterday. Yesterday was a year since I left for my big study abroad experience. I left with Luke from Wichita and flew to London. We then made our way to Oxford for a very jetlagged tour, then we ended up at the house of Luke's friends, who were so amazing.
And from there, so much more for 5 months.

The students going to Prague this year haven't quite left yet. We left about a week early so we could go to England, but the ones I have talked to are going straight to Prague, so I think they leave in just a couple days.
What a great experience and I've been looking through some of my pictures just remembering what it was like to be there. It would be awesome to be able to go back for a visit soon. Too bad flights aren't as cheap to Prague from the US as they are from England!

Okay, well here are a few pics of my first days in England and Prague.

post!

well, it's about that time to write something.
The semester has been a lot busier than it seemed it was going to be, but that is because I ended up getting a job. After a little bit of looking, I got a job at Panera. So far it's going well. It's definitely keeping my schedule busy. But it's all good and now I have a little bit of income, so I'm not stressed about that quite as much. Besides working, I'm only busy with studio. It's nice to come into studio and only have to worry about studio stuff instead of other classes.
Between studio and work I am trying to finish my portfolio.. it's a slow process, but I'm going to pick up the pace and get it done so I can make sure all is well before design expo.
Design expo is our career fair that the college of architecture does. Right now there are like 130 firms coming, so it is a good opportunity. There are firms from all over, but I don't think there are any from Boston - which is where I really want to go! I think there are some from Chicago, Denver and Portland, which I am interested in as well. Atleast I'll get some practice in for interviews through this.
Our professor just gave us a little lecture on balancing studio and job stuff, because fifth years always get distracted with portfolios and interviews and design expo.

This weekend is Alpha Chi's 60th anniversary reunion. so a lot of people are coming into town! but, panera also decided to schedule me really crap times for the first time so far. I close friday night, which it says is around 11:30..boo! so nobody come to panera on friday, please, so I can possibly get out of there sooner. that's the pub crawl night, so I'll have to join much later. then i work at 7 am on sunday so I can't do anything too crazy saturday night.. so it really kinda sucks. oh well... i'll do my best to enjoy the weekend. I think I may go out on Thursday night to compensate. Or tonight, if K-state beats KU tonight I will probably go out...

that's what is going on.. i will try to do a little more updating.