When Something Had to Give

Opening up my blog writing portal for the first time in two months, it's exciting and reminds me of what I have missed. I am looking forward to the days ahead of getting back into it.

It wasn't supposed to be like this, I told myself I would never stop blogging or going more than two weeks without a post. But something had to give, and blogging was that. (Another reason I should have never said never!)

Being a returned college student, I talked them into letting me into my senior thesis class at the same time I was a full-time student already taking 16 credits, this is not something they normally do especially letting me in as a Junior.

The first few weeks I held it together, but eventually, there was just too much. I was barely hanging on. The thesis class was taking every bit of my spare bits of time, in fact, I had to do over 227 pages of research writing at academic standards (or an attempt at it.) Drowning in homework from my other classes which at times was taking all the patience I had. Keeping the blog up was way too much, so it was also the logical choice to let drop a bit.

Although I missed seeing what many of my favorite blogging friends were up to, and on occasion, I was able to stop by and visit a few, I did try to keep up with many of you on IG and FB. So I feel like I've still been a part even if not in the blogger world aspect of it all.
I also kept up on social media IG mostly, so if you follow me you likely saw some of my beautiful adventures. In fa, t all these pictures I am showing you today have been taken over hiking trips the past couple months.

Well my Spring semester is officially over, and lucky me Summer Semester starts today, LOL

But I survived and passed all my classes and officially passed my thesis class. Official grades haven't been released but I am pretty sure I did quite well.

Since my prospectus thesis passed, I am now onto the project portion of it. Which will be even more work, but it is the only thing I am doing this summer. I am doing it this way so next Fall and Spring I can concentrate on my degree classes and have this part completely out of the way!

UPCOMING PROJECT
My thesis turned into something entirely different than planned. In fact, I'll share more about it another time because I may even enlist some of your help if your willing for my project this summer. As it is running and influencer related, and that's all I will say about it until I get the ball rolling. Which should be this week, so I'll share soon!

One of my finals was to recreate in Illustrator something that looks like the original. Illustrator and I have had our ups and downs these past 4 months. It's been a love-hate relationship with more emphasis on the hate. But by the end, I was getting a little better. Above is my final project it took over 20 hours to complete. It's not perfect but its the best I can do.
ABOVE: It's probably obvious but the one on the left is mine, the one on the right is the original.

HIKING
Hiking has become one of my sanity savers this semester for sure. I attempted to fit in 2 hikes a week when I could. One was usually a shorter one that replaced my run, usually a hike of 6 or fewer miles that I could finish in under 2 hours.

The other was a hike where I could go out and get my body trained for my upcoming R2R2R (Grand Canyon). I already mentioned I am doing this, I am still an after the fact blogger so I won't say when exactly, but let's just say it will be here before I know it so I am really pushing my limits with hiking lately. I'll tell you more about what really went into training for it another time.

Living in a vacation town as most call it, it has been fun to spend time outdoors and meet others who enjoy the outdoors as much as me. I've met some great friends, even if I haven't had much time for hanging out. Most importantly, I've met some new hiking and backpacking friends and I am excited for many upcoming big backpacking trips to tell you about later this summer.

I've also had fun with friends and family who have come to visit, like one of my good friends who came up a few weeks ago and asked me to take her and her foreign exchange student friend up Angels Landing for the first time. I rarely like sweaty pictures of me, because I'm not one of those girls who sweat and glow, LOL. But this one (below) didn't turn out too bad.

WEIGHTLOSS
With all the hiking, adding a little running and walking into the mix, not to mention a very limited diet of calories to help aid in the weight loss. I've now dropped 26 pounds.
I still have a long way to go to my goal weight, but I am very happy with getting my body back even if weight loss, I swear is one of the hardest if not THE hardest thing I have ever done.

RUNNING
I do try to go a few times a week, but it's something I need to focus more on now. As I have officially signed up for a 13.1 this summer and a full marathon this fall.

So that's it, I see no point in boring you with any more details from the past few months of being blogger MIA. But I will say I am looking forward to getting back into blogging and catching up.