Palm Trees, Mermaid's and Dangerous Animals

Life has certainly been busy, I am starting to get a hang of this new college schedule and fitting everything and life in.

Classes are going great. I do my best to not get distracted from what I need to be doing for them.

But as vain as this will sound I was absolutely loving my nail color a week ago. The bright yellow and gold were the perfect way to put an unofficial end to summer.

Sometimes I come up with a few great color combinations, but I will also admit sometimes not so great too:)

I'm adjusted to the desert heat here now, although I am enjoying that the mornings are cooling off quite a bit more. Waking to the lower 70's has been nice, even if it warms up to 90 not long after the sun comes up over the mountain I live on.
Although, I will say I am definitely wanting to re-think the black leather seats. Seriously, I can't even tell you how hot it feels to climb into my car after class if it's around 100 outside, inside feels like a freaking oven in Hades inside!

I was enjoying getting out to do a morning or evening run. (The was I will explain below.) I've nicknamed some of my trails, definitely gonna squish a lizard under my show trail, the road runners like to cut me off trail, jackrabbits do breed like crazy here trail, and the palm tree 5 mile loop. Betcha can guess which named loop is below.

My sister and her adorable kiddos came to visit.
I finished my 2nd mermaid tail for my other niece and gave it to her while she was here.

My 5 year old nephew kept wanting to take his float jacket off so I asked him if he wanted to learn to swim. He said yes, tossed the jacket and I taught him to swim in less than 5 minutes.
I went with the sink or swim method. I showed him what to do, told him if he did it he would swim, if he didn't he would sink and die at the bottom of the pool.
He decided to swim, ha ha..

I have plans to teach 3 of my other nephews and niece to swim next time they come to visit, I save my sister lots of money for lessons. The sink or swim method pass/fail really works maybe I should teach lessons for a side job LOL parents can't listen as I teach though, haha.

While my Sis was here we went hiking on some Volcano Cinder Cones, great times and look at this fun dangerous animals sign.
We laughed as we took the chain off the fence and entered. Yes, with a 3 year old holding my hand we decided to risk it, I sang "bad to the bone" as we crossed ha ha. I love some peoples sense of humor with signs. Note to self, get private property and put up signs that give people something to talk about or wonder, LOL!!!

I think I would like one that says Warning, watch out for the Cannibals, I'm totally doing it one day! Heck, I might even order that sign and put it up on my sisters mountain property and see how long it takes her to notice! Good thing she tells me there is no reason for her to read my blog, because that plan just became a done deal!

I mentioned above I WAS enjoying running. Well when I was packing to move 3 weeks ago I did something to my knee. At first it only hurt to go up stairs, then to go down. It never bothered me walking or running until... This past week, I went out Tuesday felt a tiny pop and the knee literally gave out on me. I have had trouble with walking since so now I am back in a knee brace that is from mid calf to mid thigh.
I am fairly certain I either tore the cartilage in my knee a little more, or it is stuck under my knee cap in a way I can't get out yet.
Regardless, I am not enjoying taking it easy. No more trails for a while. I got some good pain killers.
On the plus side if it's just stuck cartilage one day it could just pop out and be fine. If its torn it's going to take a few more weeks to get to the point I can get on it again with the pain not making the knee give out on me.

My sister kicked some major butt in her first attempt at the Olympic Triathlon over the weekend, it was held down here where I am living now.
In fact her swim in the lake was so fast she was several minutes ahead of any of the other women and most the men. She swam that mile in 26 minutes and said if she didn't have to stop 15 times to fix her goggles that kept filling up with water she would have come in a few minutes faster than that.
Her run was the second fastest of the event too.
The bike was the only area others took her on. She only has an $1,200 bike, and the ladies with the $10,000-$30,000 bikes flew past her near effortlessly at times. (Can you believe people can spend that much on a road bike???)
Overall she ended up taking 1st place in her age group and 5th overall. Even though she was exhausted by the finish I have a feeling there will be a lot more in this distance for her! She was already talking about training for another one right after she finished.
Her husband raced too, and took 10th in his age.

A little FYI, I will be hosting the Annual Fall Grow Your Blog Hop - I'm working on the details, hope to have them out to everyone in the next couple of weeks. If your considering joining, I'd love if you'd take a quick minute and fill out this quick 4 question survey. It will help me decide which type of Grow Your Blog Hop that most who are looking to participate will be interested in this year. SURVEY HERE



I am linking up with HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin today for their Weekly Wrap!