Yay Mike!

Today I'm here to brag about my husband a little. Many of you may be wondering what he's been up to in school and how he has been doing this first semester. Well...awesome is the answer! Mike loves going to school and I think he is truly enjoying everything he has been learning. This is our last regular week of school and exam week is next week. We'll both be done by that Wednesday.

In Mike's machine shop class the big project of the semester was creating a rifle barrel from a barrel blank. He was the first in his class to get the project completed and got a 97% on it!!! Below are some pictures of the process he undertook in making the barrel.

Clearly, he is magnificent! If anyone has any specific questions please leave a comment and I'm sure Mike will be happy to answer them. The other big project he has been working on is a trapper pistol in his bench metal class. It will be completed this week, and then I'll put pictures up of it as well.

In other great Mike news...we found out on Friday that Mike got a seasonal park ranger position at Trinidad Lake State Park for the summer. So we'll be working at the same place, which works out great since we only have one car. I'm so proud of Mike for all that he has accomplished so far and all that he will continue to do. I know he loves what he has been working on and for that, this move to Colorado has been worth it.

High Five for Friday

This week absolutely flew by! I can't believe it's weekend time again already (not complaining though!). My top five things from this week are:

1. Mike and I's great trip to Denver last weekend. I LOVED it :)

2. Celebrating Easter. This was our first holiday we would have been with family if we were at home, but we're not so we celebrated just Mike and I. We colored Easter eggs, spoke with both sides of our families, and made a great dinner.

3. I have less than a week until I start my new job at the state park. I'm getting excited, but also a little nervous.
4. School is quickly coming to an end for the summer! I'm trying my very hardest to get all these end of semester projects, presentations, and papers done before I start working.
5. Mike and I are volunteering with the gun club this weekend to run the concession stand at the softball game. The high for Saturday is 75 and it's not supposed to rain, so it should be a perfect day to get outside a little.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

This post was linked up with the Lauren Elizabeth for High Five for Friday!

Outfit Post

Happy Wednesday! We're already half way through the week, and it's going by quickly. I'm linking up with Pleated Poppy for another What I Wore Wednesday. I can't really explain how excited I was to finally get to wear this outfit. My mom and dad got me this white flowy shirt for Christmas, but it's just been too cold to wear it. I finally got the opportunity, so I wasn't going to let it pass me by. This top is so comfortable and really got me in a Spring mood.

I went a little crazy with the wrist accessories, but I've been wearing long sleeves so much that I haven't been wearing bracelets. It was nice to be able to wear some things I haven't been able to in a while.

Bonus Picture!! Pantera was in a modeling mood so I had to take a picture of him too :)

Hope you have a great week!!

Denver

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice relaxing Easter weekend. Mike and I didn't have school Friday or Monday, so I'm actually still enjoying the weekend. However, if it makes you feel any better, I'll be spending the majority of today working on homework (lots of end of the semester projects). Since we had a long weekend, Mike and I knew we wanted to do something. Our first thought was to go camping. But, the weather just wasn't going to cooperate. It was forecasted to be a little chilly and thunderstorms all weekend here in Trinidad. So we packed our bags and headed to Denver Friday morning.

Our first stop was in Lone Tree, which is about thirty minutes south of Denver. There is a Cabela's store that we really wanted to stop at. Neither Mike nor I had ever to been to a Cabela's. As far as I know there aren't any in Florida, I've always just seen their catalog. I really enjoyed to store, it's very similar to Bass Pro Shop. After spending some time in Cabela's we went over to Park Meadows Mall which is also in Lone Tree. This mall is home to the only Vera Bradley store in Colorado. It was my lucky day because Vera was having a sale! I grabbed a wristlet I've had my eye on for a while at 40% off!! After that we stopped by the mall's food court and enjoyed one of my most missed foods - Chick Fil A! I savored every morsel.

After lunch we continued our drive into Denver. We couldn't check into our hotel room until four, so we went straight to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This place was huge! It has three floors and I almost thought we weren't going to be able to see it all. There were fossils, lots of intricately painted backgrounds with taxidermied animals, and a multitude of information to read. I thought it was fantastic.

Mike with the manatees!

This is what I would look like if I had moose antlers.

After the museum we got checked into our hotel and then walked over to Duffy's Cherry Cricket for dinner. I picked this restaurant because it was featured on the Denver episode of Man vs. Food. We devoured an appetizer of deep fried macaroni and cheese wedges (sooo yummy!) and then enjoyed our burgers. Duffy's has a long list of toppings to choose from. Mike went with cream cheese and jalapenos. I was a little more boring with American cheese, blackened seasoning, and an onion. The atmosphere at the restaurant was laid back and it was nice to just relax and spend some time with Mike.

Saturday morning we checked out the Cherry Creek Mall, which was really close to our hotel and then headed into downtown Denver. We parked and then walked to the Great Divide Brewery. Along the way I stopped to take some pictures of downtown.

The tour of the brewery didn't start until 2pm, so we had some time to kill once we got there. The atmosphere at this place is amazing and the bartenders are super personable.

Parked outside of the brewery was a food truck called Burger Radio. AWESOME food!!! Mike said he thought the burgers from here were even better than the burgers we had at Duffy's the night before. I ordered the Marconi, which had bacon and mac n cheese on top of the burger!

One of the bartenders was our tour guide for the brewery tour and was very knowledgeable and informative. If we ever get the chance to go back to Great Divide, I would love to go!

Once we finished up the tour we started heading towards home. We made one last stop at the Bass Pro Shop in Colorado Springs. You can't pass a Bass Pro Shop and not stop! We had a great time in Denver!!! I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go check it out.

Happy Easter

My First Quilt: Update

I've been hard at work since posting about my quilting progress a few weeks ago. You can read that post here. I officially have the top quilt done! It has been a labor of love and I have enjoyed every minute of it so far. I will now move on to the scary part of actually quilting this beauty together. I'm a little nervous about it, but I plan to take it slow and attempt to make it as mistake free as possible.

This will be the backing of the quilt. I know, I know...it's super colorful. I was planning on just going with a solid color for the back, but as soon as I laid eyes on this fabric I just knew it had to be mine. So I'll just have the most colorful quilt in all the land, nothing wrong with that!

Hopefully my next update will be a completed quilt, and hopefully it won't take me five million years to get it done. Thanks for checking in!

Snow Day/ Where is Spring?

Well I had a different post planned for today, but the weather has taken center stage and I just had to share it with you. As I mentioned on Friday, the weather the later half of last week was just magical. I had the windows open, some candles lit, and I was feeling really rejuvenated and productive. Yesterday, that all disappeared. It was cold, windy, and started snowing in the afternoon. This is what we woke up to this morning...

I believe this is some of the heaviest snow fall we have seen since moving here. And it's APRIL!

 Poor Mike had to scrape all the snow off the car.

 Pantera and I watched the snow coming down this morning while drinking a warm cup of coffee.

Our neighbor has a beautiful flower growing in his front yard. I couldn't resist taking a picture on Saturday. Now the poor thing is covered in snow. I really hope it doesn't die! So Spring...I beg of you, please come back and stay permanently!!

High Five for Friday

We made it to Friday!! I'm linking up with the Lauren Elizabeth for High Five for Friday. My top picks for this week are...

1. Getting a job at Trinidad Lake State Park! You can find me at the visitor center this summer. I can't wait to start!!

2. This book on planning a visit to Yellowstone arrived this week. We're starting to plan for our vacation next summer. Yahoo!!

3. I made this homemade "Milano" cookies this week for Mike's class following this recipe. These babies were a labor of love. They look forever and were somewhat intricate in constructing. However, I'm pretty darn happy with how they turned out.

4. It was actually warm enough to open the windows some this week. It's the first time that has happened since moving to Colorado. I loved it and the cats loved it!

5. We've been trying to make some low calorie meals for dinner and, for the most part, have all been pretty tasty. Including this meal we made Wednesday night. I found it on the Pillsbury website.

What I Wore Wednesday

Happy What I Wore Wednesday! I hope your week has been enjoyable! It has still been pretty cold here. In fact, I'm getting kind of tired of wearing long sleeves and boots. Today the weather finally warmed up a bit and I can imagine life without winter clothing. However, it will be short lived. By Sunday we'll have highs in the 40's again. So I'll enjoy it while I can!

These pictures were taken yesterday when it was still a bit chilly out. This has been one of my go-to outfits since moving to Colorado. The sweater is loose and comfortable, but I still feel stylish.

Mike got me this necklace for our anniversary this year. I just love it! It's one of those things that just goes with everything so I can wear it all the time.

I would also like to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MUMA!!!! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you, but Mike and I are sending lots of love your way today!

Weekend Updates

Happy Monday! As usual, the weekend flew by. Saturday Mike and I had a very relaxing day. We pretty much just held down the couch and watched movies. However, Sunday we got ourselves in motion and checked a number of items off our to do list (that always feels so good!). Here's a few pictures from our weekend...

 Saturday morning Mike and I made a very yummy breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hash browns. It was our first time making homemade hash browns and they turned out great. We'll definitely be making them again. The recipe we followed can be found here.

 I painted my nails and thought they turned out nice. This color is making me feel very Spring like!

 Mike and I checked out a local used bookstore this weekend. We both found a few we liked and ended up with seven books for only $8!! The picture above is one of the books I picked out. It describes several Florida landmarks that are worth checking out. Many of them I have never heard of!

 I was craving some pie this weekend and threw this together really quickly. It's just an Oreo pie crust, a box of instant chocolate pudding, homemade whipped cream, and mini chocolate chips. It's super delicious!

Last, but not least, I interviewed last weekend for a seasonal job at our local state park. I heard back this Saturday and I got the job!! I'll be working in the visitor center of the park from May through September. I couldn't be more excited!!

Hope you guys had a relaxing weekend too and I wish you a very productive week!!