Stan + Niki

Who else would put up with my quirkiness (like always having to document our lives)? I haven't really introduced Stan on my blog, so here goes. We started dating in August after an unsuccessful attempt at him setting me up with his friend and me trying to set him up with my friend's daughter. Apparently, both of us have poor judgement in the setting up arena.
So, it started when we realized that our birthdays are just a couple of days apart and I started texting him pictures of my awesome birthday cake that my mom had made me. Then I felt bad for teasing him so much so I sent a piece of my cake to him at work. Then I made him bownies and went to his house to make up for a really awkward date / hangout experience that we had (ps. it is HILARIOUS, so ask me sometime and I will tell you the story, it has to be told in person) and ended up staying for six or seven hours just talking and realizing how we are so freakishly alike, we are even the same height; it's awesome to have someone that isn't adult size with me. The next day he cooked me dinner and we ended up talking for another six or seven hours ... and aside from one awkward movie night we've pretty much been inseperable since. He proposed to me this morning and I am as happy as a pig in poo. :)

I am so excited to get to spend eternity with this cute man that I love more than anything in the world!!!


A pic of my very gorgeous ring. I was so excited to take pics of my ring so I could text them to everyone at work that I forgot to get a pic of us until much later, but the one of us above was taken tonight ... it's just not right after he proposed.

Last Minute

"The great thing about putting things off til the last minute is that they now only take you a minute" -Stacey from class.

I just finished my last research paper that I will ever write for my bachelor's degree. I feel awesome!! :)

Here is our only pic from Thanksgiving because my camera's battery was dead. I love having cameras on phones so I can better document my life. We scored and got to have three dinners this year, but they were all spaced two days apart so we had some awesome food all last week. Also, I am off of veganism, but my body misses it a little bit, especially the Clif bars. I think that I can feasibly do vegan meals one or two nights a week, but not forever because I miss foods like cheeseburgers and french toast, but not this nasty green sludge ... it had algae in it, after I read that I could not choke it down. My sweet boss bought me breakfast last week ... so yummy.

My first meat in a month ... Yeah, I'm a health major, although, no one would guess it by the way that I eat. I'm a work in progress.

Even More Adventures

2 1/2 weeks into veganism and I've decided that it is not a lifestyle that I can continue forever (I'll finish out the four weeks though); not because I am missing a specific food that I can't live without, but because of how much of a hassle it is in general. It is so annoying for anyone that I am around because even though they can eat whatever they want, I have to make sure that there is a vegan option for me. I want to thank all of my family and friends for being so supportive and helpful, especially Stan who became mostly vegan by association, but not by choice. I really love the health effects because my body does feel great, in fact, I completed a 40 mile bike ride in Vegas last weekend and felt awesome. I think that the general theory of veganism rocks, but it has its flaws. I have never gone on a diet before so I had never been able to understand how frustrating it it to "not" be able to eat something or to have to say "Oh, I would love that, but I can't have it". Also, I never thought I would say that I am sick of orange juice, but I am so sick of orange juice, any fruit juice in fact. Still lovin' the Clif bars, though, I will continue on those. :)

I love hiking!! We went up and got to see all the leaves two weeks ago, it was gorgeous. I love living so close to so many trailheads.

Documenting our lives. :)

This is the only pic I got during the bike ride. There were a ton of ducks in this area of big fancy houses with their own private lakes. I was surprised at how nice other parts of Vegas was, I thought it was all ghetto-y and nasty, but was wrong.

Me riding in. I love that I'm casually flipping the camera off :)

Yay for funny shirts. :)

Veganism-Week 1

I have finished my first week as a vegan. From what I have experienced so far here are a few things I've noticed:

• I really love Clif bars, I could eat them like candy.
• It is not as hard as I thought, but it does take planning.
  
• I have not noticed being tired or lethargic as some people have said I would be. In fact, I have had some pretty late nights this last week and I still feel pretty good. I went on a 10 mile bike ride yesterday and a nice hike last night and I'm not even feeling it today.
  
• Some foods have animal products that you would never even think about (like orange juice, tortillas, & re-fried beans). I have to read the label on everything that I eat.
• The first day I was sooo hungry, but after better planning I am happy to say I get full faster and I am not hungry throughout the day like I was when I was eating normal foods.
• People love to make fun of vegans. :)
  

So far, I feel it has been a success. I do not have the right motivations to keep this going forever, but I really like how my body is feeling. My fear is that I will start eating like crazy when I am done with this experiment and my body will go nuts, but hopefully some of the habits I am picking up now will stay with me after this month.

Change Update!!

Looks like I got my wish. I got a new job! It's with the same company, but at our administration offices, so it looks like I will have to finally start dressing like an adult. Good-bye chacos, t-shirts, and jeans. I am way excited, but a little nervous because I have been in the same office for the last four years and really love most of my co-workers most of the time. My new boss seems really cool and so do most of the people that I have met over there, though, so it will be really good.
Other changes ...

My bedroom is getting remodeled! Right now I am living in Jordan's room cause she moved out, but because it's not a huge room all of my stuff is in the living room, hallway, and the spare bedroom, some mornings it is a little frustrating, but will all be worth it soon!

I think that I am going to try vegan-ism for a month. Not because of the whole "fish have feelings too!" thought, but I'm curious about the physical effects that it will have on my body. I feel that many people that do the vegan lifestyle do it and then act like they are morally superior, which really annoys me, so I want to make my point clear, that I am doing it purely for physical results. I am doing my senior research project on genetically modified foods which got me thinking about it, then last week Stan and I got some sickness from hell, which caused me to not want to eat anything ever again so I decided now that everything is completely out of my body I want to try to add only organic/non-animal products to see what happens. Wish me luck because it's going to take lots of planning and I would like to start now so by the time I get to Thanksgiving I can eat food again. After researching it I realized that I can't eat chocolate and this will fall over Halloween ... it will be a test of my will-power.

Change

It should be borne in mind that there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than the initiation of change(s). The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new. Their support is lukewarm partly from fear of their adversaries who have the existing laws on their side, and partly because men are generally incredulous, never really trusting new things unless they have tested them by experiences. In consequence, whenever those who oppose the changes can do do, they attack vigorously and the defense made by others is only lukewarm. So (keep in mind) both the innovator and his friends are endangered together. –Machiavelli – The Prince circa 1513-14
It must be the changing of the seasons, but I feel so ready for a change in my life!! I completely agree with Niccolo Machiavelli (Zane's hero in high school) that change is very hard and usually people resist change, but at this point in my life I am craving a major change in my life! "That which we resist tends to persist" is a favorite quote of mine, I realize that I am resisting the opposite of change .... so, I'm throwing it out to the universe, that I want some change and excitement. Hopefully that last sentence isn't regretted in a few months. :)

And because no blog post is very fun without pics, here are a couple of my favorite things ...

My favorite (and totally gorgeous) sister in the whole world!

Happiest. Dog. Ever.Love this little girl!! Makes me almost want to have kids of my own. :)

One of my favorite books.
Hiking. :)

Moab!

Yay, another post! And another road trip. I went to Moab last week with my Dad riding 4-wheelers; it was so hot, but I had a ton of fun.

What is a road trip without some form of bodily fluid? :) Our hotel got new mattresses the day we were there and had their old mattresses just sitting in the parking lot. I appreciated that we had new mattresses, but was completely disgusted with the thought that I have probably slept in gallons of other people's urine (and other specimens) when traveling. Yum.

This sign drives me nuts!

Oh, look! More poor grammar on a large sign at Dad's favorite place on earth, ha ha. He hates this place and I had to beg him to go. I love it!

Sweaty Niki, how awesome is that?

We got swarmed by mosquitoes on one trail, he had over 50 bites on one arm!! Poor guy.

The above pic is the cliff that a truck fell off of, the below pic is of the truck and motorcycle.

Dad adventuring around Gemini Bridges.

Gemini Bridges

The road washed out, so we had to hike from here.

Now that I have no vacation left for the rest of the year there will be far fewer road trips :(, but the good news is that I will hopefully get to keep my job while finishing my internship and last semester of school (unless I go to grad school), so I won't complain anymore about lack of vaca.

Road Trip 2011

It's been awhile since I last posted, but I don't really have anything exciting going on in my life. I will finish school in December and then I have to decide what I am going to do with my life from there. :) Last week my company shut down, so I had a free week to do nothing. By Thursday afternoon I was really craving some form of adventure, so I decided that I was going to Mt Rushmore, but I had to get some homework done first, so I didn't get to leave til Friday afternoon. I just went by myself and had so much fun!! I am already planning one for next year which includes more time for hiking because there are so many trails around M.R. Here are a few pics of my trip.
This made me laugh because the garbage can says, "No dogs allowed", but not every garbage cab had it written on there. :) There is very little entertainment in Wyoming, so I took what I could get.

The view from my hotel window. I stayed in Lusk and the hotel was actually one of the cleanest ones that I have ever stayed in, the view just made me laugh.

Me being a nerdy tourist. The only problem with going on a road trip by yourself is that you have no one to take goofy pictures with. I am standing by the sign going into South Dakota, but I couldn't get a great pic.

This statue is huge! I probably only came up to their belly buttons, but it is just a scale of the artist's "vision".

This cute old man offered to take my picture with the profile of George in the background (probably because he saw my attempt). The zoom on my camera seemed to confuse him. He was sitting on the ground in this parking lot angled all weird just to get my pic, I thought it was sweet of him. We also chatted for a bit about the Mtn goat that was up there, but you can't see it in this pic.

Horsethief Lake is gorgeous! I hiked around here for a few hours.

I look so awkward in this picture. :)

I didn't have anyone to take my pic at this trail marker, but figured I needed a pic to document my life. Also, please don't mind the sweat, I had been hiking for awhile and it was pretty hot out.

Crazy Horse Monument. Since Mt. Rushmore took every coin in my ashtray for a parking pass I had no cash to get into see the Monument, plus I could see enough from the lower parking lot that I didn't feel like dropping another $10 for an only slightly better pic. Side note: My parking pass for MR is good until the end of the year, so if anyone is planning on going up there let me know and you can have it.

Jordan's dream town. It is somewhere in Wyoming near Lusk. I saw a headline on a newpaper that said "Town's population doubles to 4!" I would never recommend living in Wyoming it was so ghetto-y/dumpy. Casper was full of advertisements for meth addiction recovery programs because of their high meth usage.