Labor Day in My GREAT state of CO

I was fortunate enough to fly back home to Colorado for my Labor Day weekend.  Considering we only have two holiday breaks, one being Labor Day, and the other being Thanksgiving, I felt it necessary to use that 4 day weekend to enjoy myself.  Two weeks into school and I was already so eager to go home and see Ry.  I flew back early Saturday morning.  Ryan and I headed to breakfast, dropped off my luggage at home, and started our college football Saturday with a delicious Bloody Mary bar at a local dive called College Inn.  Coming home to 80 degree weather, college football, and a Bloody Mary bar is the absolute best way to kick off a vacation.  I felt immediately relaxed.  After leaving the bar at around 12:30, we headed over to our cousin, Erick's house for a day of college football. Ryan and I wore our CU Buffs shirts for the rivalry in Denver against Colorado State. Although CU played like crap and lost to CSU, we still enjoyed homemade chicken nachos, delicious beer, hummus and veggies, and guacamole.  After the disappointing performance CU put on, Ryan and I both changed into our OU gear.  (Yes, not to worry my fellow Normanites, OU will forever be my #1 team).  The game wasn't on in Colorado but we were rooting for them in spirit and following the surprisingly slow game on our ESPN app.  <-- There's an app for everything now days.  I thoroughly enjoyed a full day of lounging on the couch, drinking, eating, watching football, with no school responsibility in sight!

Sunday was a relaxing day for us as well.  I had some studying to do, so after a quick (or rather not so quick) 4 mile run I ate breakfast and hit the books.  Ryan was really good about letting me get my school work done and being patient with me as I made him wait for our day to begin.  After I decided I had studied enough, we stopped by my place of recent employment and saw a couple of my nursing buddies.   It's always cool to go back to a place that you found yourself spending so much time.  I couldn't help but think how nice it was I was going back by choice, and not because it was 6:15 am and time for me to get my butt to work. Ryan also took me to a brewery that had newly opened called Prost.  It is a German themed brewery that only brews German style beers with German copper kettles they had shipped over.... pretty darn cool! Ryan and I had been anticipating their opening but of course they didn't open until I was already in Texas.  Being the patient man my husband is, he waited until I came home to visit this new little gem as well.  And I have to say, their beers were good!

A day full of shopping, beer, eating, and movies was exactly what I needed.  It was so nice to just have a normal day with Ryan, like I had never left.

Monday, after a short stent of studying, Ryan and I headed up to St. Mary's Glacier for a quick hike.  Talk about beautiful!! The drive up was awesome. The two of us, blaring our favorite songs with the windows rolled down, driving in the 70 degree weather, screaming the lyrics to the mountains... it was perfect.  When we got to the parking lot before our hike I realized in my post Anatomy/Physiology haze I had forgotten my socks and hiking boots in the living room.  All I had were the sandals on my feet!

At first I was so angry with myself for being so dumb and leaving the one super important item I needed for a hike at home.  Ryan, being the more level headed one as usual, said we ought to try hiking in those sandals and just see how it goes and if it doesn't work out we can turn around and leave.  I agreed, hoping the hike wouldn't be too difficult with shoes that can slip right off... and he was right, it was fine.  I didn't have any problems at all.  Wheew! That little set back could have ruined my great mood! Thank goodness everything worked out.  And of course the views at the glacier were amazing.  I was so glad we took the time to go into the mountains and hike.  It was way worth it!  The glacier wasn't very big, but I'm sure it'll get back to normal size after it starts snowing again.

We headed back towards Denver slowly, stopping in Idaho Springs for a beer and snack.  We also stopped in Golden and hung out at the Golden City Brewery in their beer garden (still one of my favorite beer gardens).

After playing video games at 2Up, an arcade bar, Ryan and his cousin, Erick, took me to a new beer garden in Lowry that they had discovered a week ago.  Lowry used to be a Air Force Base, but has since been turned into a residential area with its own shopping centers, restaurants, etc.  The beer garden was awesome! Ryan and I split a blue cheese, grilled onion, bacon burger and enjoyed the weather, drinks and scenery.  It was a great way to end a fabulous weekend!  I flew out Tuesday afternoon and had to face the reality that my short time at home with little responsibility and always available husband was over. It was time to hit the books again and get back to doing what I was here for.... kicking this semesters ass.  So far I think I'm achieving that goal very nicely!  However, if it weren't for the weekends like that and a husband like Ryan, I wouldn't have the strength or motivation to come back to Texas and go back to business.  Thanks for an amazing weekend Ry, I really enjoyed every moment.  Can't wait to see you in October!

Hope everyone appreciates their loved ones as much as I do.  Distance can do amazing things to perspectives.

One Semester In Texas

For those of you who don't know, I have relocated to Texas for the semester to attend Texas Wesleyan University.  I was accepted into their Masters of Science in Nurse Anesthesia program.  I have to finish one semester of didactic course work before myself and 6 other Denverites get to go back home and finish the year via 2-way audio/video teleconferencing of the lectures we are attending currently. After that, the 7 of us will split up into groups and start our clinical rotations at our designated hospitals (University of Colorado for me and 2 others, and Denver Health for the remaining 4 students).  So as of August 20th, I am now a Ram and will remain a Ram until my expected graduation date of December 2014!

Here is my new tiny school!

This has been quite the change! I live in a very nice house with a PhD student about 20 minutes from my campus.  I feel extremely lucky with my housing situation. I hardly had to bring anything at all!  I basically showed up with some clothes and was welcomed right in to my new home.  My roommate provided all the furnishings and my monthly rent includes all bills.  He also gave me a parking spot in the garage (key in this unpredictable weather where it can go from 100 degrees to 70 degrees and hailing in a matter of minutes -- all my Okies understand this concept well).  We, and by we, I mean he, has a billiards table, a hot tub in the back yard, a gaming room, 2 living areas, and a very nice kitchen for us to share.  I have a huge walk-in closet and my own bathroom.  I couldn't have asked for a better place (within Ft. Worth) to spend my semester studying. 

Here are some pictures of my room, where I spend most of my time glued to my textbooks.  I didn't want to post pictures of the rest of the house, because well, it's really not my house to post pictures of.  Welcome to my temporary home...

I had to bring my OU blanket to the state of Texas... just had to!

Although I miss my husband, the mountains, my friends, my husband, my back patio, the wonderful weather, my bed, my husband, and oh, did I mention my husband?... I'm trying to make the best out of this extremely emotionally, intellectually, and physically taxing semester.  I am flying home to Colorado this weekend for Labor Day, which I am super excited about!  I drove to Oklahoma last weekend to surround myself with familiar loving faces, and I have great plans from Ryan, my family, and friends to arrange visits and mini vacations with them.  I feel extremely lucky to have been provided with an opportunity in which Ryan and I, ultimately, get to stay in Denver.  I know this program is going to be challenging, and this semester is going to be even tougher on me, but I know it'll all work out.  With the exception of my predicted screaming, crying, fit-throwing break downs, I am going to take as much as I can from this semester. Which reminds me, you should skype me (Shleedle)! After that sell, how could you not want to!?

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!

From Icy OK to Snowy CO

I have been extremely busy this last month, which is why I have been slacking on my blogs.  However, I want to take a quick moment to share a cozy beautiful site at my house today.  It started snowing yesterday when we were in Beaver Creek snowboarding.  I was unsure of the amount of snow in Denver but sure enough when we came home we had a good 4 or 5 inches.  It continued to fall all night and most the morning, hard! We've now got at least a foot.  Snow is still so crazy to me. It has snowed before in Oklahoma, plenty of times... I haven't been completely deprived.  But the snow here is so different.  It's so light and fluffy! And guess what! No ice! Just snow! It's so still and beautiful outside.  I am surprised how much I love the snow.  I am also surprised how warm it is here with such massive amounts of snow.  It is definitely much colder in Oklahoma.  Hard to explain but something about the humidity and wind just chills to the bone.  It can be dumping snow here and I never feel cold.  What a wonderful thing!

And of course what am I doing today?  This!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, we will enjoy our white one here!

Friends!

Our friends Sheri, Luke and Ryan Poots are flying in to visit us for the weekend! We have a great weekend planned out for them and I can't wait until they get here!

Happy Friday!

Date Night

Last Friday night was our weekly "date night."  I realized that after Ryan broke his leg, we never really started exploring Denver again.  So I thought, why not start exploring again now?  Well, for one it has gotten really cold outside this month... but I'm trying to not let that stop me! As it was my turn to "pick" our date night activities I decided to explore 13th Street in an area called Capitol Hill. We've driven through it many times and I've always noticed how many cute unique shops there are along that stretch and I've always wanted to check them out.  So we bundled up and headed out to Capitol Hill.  We walked past odd boutiques, bars, salons, restaurants, tattoo shops, used clothing stores, music stores, a yoga studio, etc.

We decided to stop by the Denver's ridiculously large central library to pick up our library cards. I am so excited about this as I have decided that the library is going to be my new favorite place... because guess what?  I can now learn ANYTHING I want to and it doesn't and most likely wont have anything to do with health care. But they were closed. Damn. We should have known better, after all it was Friday night.

The Lib.

So we ventured the opposite direction up 13th, as we had already seen one side and all it had to offer. We stopped at a place called Pub on Penn for a couple of drinks and some chips and salsa.  We watched a little bit of baseball and then headed out.

Ryan had planned to take me to a little bar in LoDo which is in downtown Denver.  It is kind of like Bricktown in Oklahoma City, geared towards the young drinking, hooking up, crazy crowd.  However, LoDo is probably 3 times the size and usually we try 3 times harder to avoid that area.  But this place is cool, if you get there early enough to avoid the crazy crowd.  It is called 1up and it is full of video games, pinball, skee ball, jenga, and of course drinks!  We had a great time at a 4 player pac-man battle table, playing gigantic jenga, and multiple old school games.  We enjoyed classy Colt 45 beers and laughed the night away. 

JENGA!

Ryan turns 30

Ryan's 30th birthday was last Monday so we celebrated the weekend before. I had been trying to think of things to do for his birthday for awhile, after all, 30 is a big one! Finally, I got it! I stole the idea from our former neighbors at Harvey Lofts and added the element of a surprise party.  I planned a surprise birthday party at our house with a bunch of Ryan's friends from college and planned a Colfax Street Scavenger Hunt.  We live a few blocks away from one of the longest streets, if not the longest continuous street, in the nation, Colfax.  It has various bars, restaurants, shops, churches, cafes, etc. for miles and miles.  I figured this would be a perfect area to have a scavenger hunt because we could walk there and walk home afterward.

Our weekend started like any other, pretty relaxed.  We hung out Saturday and watched football, went on a bike ride, made some food, nothing special.  I had been asking Ryan what he wanted to do for his birthday but I never really got a straight answer except maybe go out to eat and hang out with some friends. Weeks earlier I had gotten in touch with a bunch of his friends and asked them if they would be able to join us on Saturday night for this party.  Everyone was in so all I needed at that point was to get Ryan out of the house without him suspecting anything.  A few days earlier I had told Ryan that my girlfriends from work had invited me out to dinner on Saturday night and that I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go.  He encouraged me to go and told me his friend, Michael, had asked him to help set up for a party that was to be held on Sunday at the winery his wife worked at.  I 'decided' I'd rather go to dinner with my friends then go set up chairs at a winery so around 5:30 we both went our 'separate ways.'  Little did he know the minute he left I was turning the oven bake, whipping up his cake, making salad, fruit dip, putting out salsa and chips, decorating the house, making cape cods, and trying desperately to get it all done in an hour and a half.  Luckily Ryan P. and Summer came early to help me set up.  Joey showed up too bringing ice, which I had forgotten, and Ryan's new snowboard I bought him for his birthday.  With the help of his friends we all got it done in time, with only a little stalling on Michael and Jessica's part at the winery.

The last task I had to accomplish was to somehow try and get Jessica and Michael here before Ryan.  I asked Ryan to pick up some beer on the way home and reluctantly he said he would, even though he was sure I was closer to home than he was.  Well, he didn't end up picking any beer up and he beat Jess and Michael home.  Not knowing that when I heard who I thought was Michael and Jess come up the patio stairs I opened the door so they could quickly join us before Ryan saw them... and there was Ryan, wide eyed looking at the me like what the heck is going on.  "OH" I said, "It's Ryan! Surprise!!!" and everyone yelled surprise and Ryan walked in looking at our transformed house that had looked so normal a few hours ago.  Needless to say Michael and Jessica walked in shortly after him and explained that they kept seeing Ryan on the road and without him stopping it was impossible to beat him.  He was surprised regardless.  We had a great time sharing stories, drinking beer and cape cods, and eating food.  After awhile we divided into Blue and Pink teams and headed to Colfax with our list of pictures that needed to be taken and things that needed to be witnessed. It was a lot of fun.  After an hour and a half we all headed back home to cut the cake! It was a great night!