Let the training begin!

I just registered for the Sound to Narrows 12K on June 12th! I kept going back and forth over whether I should sign up and whether I would be ready in time. I asked my sis-in-law Ruhiyyih's advice and she told me I could do it and encouraged me to sign up. I feel the same nervousness I felt when I signed up for the 5K I just ran. But since I ran that and crossed the finish line I feel confident that with training I can run this race as well. Training starts tomorrow! :)

Daisy and Daniel

They sure do love each other and I love them! :)

Daniel's sock monkey...

When we got home from the race on Saturday Ruh had bought a sock monkey for Daniel and left it out for him to find when we got home. Whenever I ask Ruh to leave me a list of what groceries he wants me to get when I go grocery shopping a lot of times he would put "sock monkey" at the bottom just to be silly. Daniel sure does love his monkey! He giggles at it a lot! You can see he is wearing the pants I made for him and I will have to post about that later. :)

Daniel's first sucker...

Ruh gave Daniel a Dum Dum the other day. He definitely seemed to enjoy it! I only let him have it for about 5 minutes. I also took some video. :)

I did it!!!!

I did it! I ran a 5K this morning in 38 minutes. I ran the entire way! It was at Magnuson Park in Seattle on Lake Washington. I can't imagine a better day to run a race. The sun was out and the air was fresh and crisp. You could see Mt. Rainier and the Cascades from the park. I was a tiny bit nervous but it was just first-time-race-anticipation. As soon as the starting gun went off all butterflies disappeared and I focused on running. I had already run 3 miles a couple times without stopping so I knew I was very capable of doing this race. I always run with music but today I didn't. I was a little worried it would be really hard to run without music but it was actually no problem at all. It was amazing how clear my thoughts were and I thought about the most interesting things. My favorite thought was about how much I like the name Bode for a boy. The lead runner of the race name was Tahoma. I thought Bode Tahoma Dannells would be a very interesting name for a boy. Maybe the next race I run I will think of the rest of my kids' names! My parents watched Daniel for me and he was there waiting for me at the finish line.

















It was such a beautiful day we didn't want to head home just yet so my dad took us to a park on the Puget Sound where you could see the Olympic Mountains and all the sailboats out on the Sound. It was beautiful!


Isn't my mom looking GREAT! She has been working really hard to lose weight! Good job mom! :)I took this one of Daniel and my parents. :)


We had a wonderful day today and I am very excited about running. I can't wait to sign up for my next race! :)

Snowboarding...

Ruh and I headed up to Crystal Mountain near Mt. Rainier to do some snowboarding this past week. I have only been a couple times before this and I was determined to have a better trip than the last time which ended in Ruh and I not talking on the way home! Well, let me say this trip was a HUGE success and not only were Ruh and I talking but we were kissing and holding hands and telling each other how much fun we both had!

I looked up a bunch of online videos of how to snowboard. It's not the same as having an actual lesson but having someone explain how it's suppose to feel and what to do with your legs and body was really helpful. I was really excited to try out all the tips the videos gave. (Let's just say Ruh doesn't have the patience to be a teacher.) I mainly hung out on the bunny slope and Ruh went with me on a couple runs. I got the feel for what I was doing and even though I am in no way a pro it was going really well. I decided to go up with Ruh to one of the harder runs. It was hard and I fell a lot and even got stuck in one spot and had to remove my board and walk a little ways but I did a lot better than I did last time but was pretty pooped by the time I got back to the lodge. We ate lunch together and then I told Ruh to go and have some fun up on the slopes and I did some more runs on the bunny slope by myself which was nice because I didn't feel the pressure that I was going to slow for Ruh.

I eventually pooped out before Ruh and he went up and did more runs and I read a book for a little while. It started raining and I knew Ruh was going to be drenched when he got back. I went up by the lodge, stood under an eave and watched for my man to come down. The rain started to come down harder and it was COLD. Eventually I saw him coming down and we walked back to the car together. We had a really fun day and I am really glad Ruh had fun too. I think he was nervous about taking me up again. He even said he would take me up again! SUCCESS! :)

Here is a little video Ruh took of me snowboarding. Look out Shaun White! :)

Little creature in my laundry...

I think one of Ruh's favorite things to do to Daniel is bury him in laundry. Daniel tends to think it's pretty funny too. :) He turned 8 months old on the 12th.

Since I last posted I registered to run a 5K race on March 20th! This will be my first 5K and I am very excited (and nervous) about it. I have been training and working really hard to get myself in good shape. I look forward to each of my training runs. I always feel a little nervous before each new long run because it is longer than the one before. But I do it and each time I finish and am pleasantly surprised at how I am getting stronger and stronger. There is still a bit of extra weight on me and I always thought that I couldn't be in good shape if I was overweight but I was wrong. I am running longer and faster than I ran even when I was my thinnest! I am still working on losing weight and running is definitely helping me with that. I have to give a shout out to my sis-in-law Ruhiyyih. I don't know if I would be running like I am if I hadn't been inspired by her. She has been running for a couple years now and has run the New York and Boston Marathons and will be running the Missoula Marathon in Montana this summer with her hubby Matt. I am looking forward to going on a run with her the next time we get a chance (though my legs are a bit shorter than hers so I might be sprinting while she is doing a leisurely jog.)

Ruhiyyih asked me to take a picture of Daniel's new teeth. Well, I tried and it is blurry but you can see two little teeth, so here you go Ruhiyyih! :)

Miss Daisy came home from school on Thursday and announced that she is on the Honor Roll! The next day we got her report card in the mail and she has all A's and one B! As a reward Ruh let her open an account on Facebook. She is really excited. I thought I would share a random quote she made up as Daisy is the Queen-of-Randomness. "If one pickle is fundamental, imagine a whole jar!" :)

So tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Yes, Ruh and I are going to do the traditional dinner date but we are going to start off the day with a hike! It is suppose to rain tomorrow pretty much everywhere in Western Washington but we decided to take our ponchos and rain gear and enjoy the outdoors anyway. We will be heading up to Mt. Rainier but staying below the snow this time. There are a couple hikes near Longmire that we will choose from. I would like to do the Rampart Ridge Loop. It's a 4.5 mile loop and we could do it pretty quickly. On a clear day this hike is suppose to offer wonderful views of the mountain but I have resigned myself to the fact that I most likely won't be seeing the mountain tomorrow. The point is to go and do something we like doing together even if it is a little silly to do in the rain. We plan on going to the Copper Creek Inn for dinner on our way home. It is a lovely little Inn located just outside the park. I'm sure a bowl of their hot chili is going to be pretty inviting after a hike in the rain. Ruh also bought me a pair of nice hiking poles for Valentine's Day. I ordered them online so I won't have them for this hike. They are really going to help me on hikes when I am carrying Daniel on my back. I can't wait to try them out!


To end this post I will include some cute and funny pictures of Daniel I took the other day. :)

Snowshoeing at Mt. Rainier...

Ruh and I tried snowshoeing for the first time last week. We rented a couple pairs of snowshoes from REI and headed up to Paradise at Mt. Rainier.

The day started out cloudy and the mountain was hidden a little bit. As we went the clouds started to clear and the views were absolutely breathtaking. Snowshoeing is hard work and I was loving the vigourous effort I had to put into it. Ruh on the other hand didn't have much energy and wasn't enjoying it as much as I was. He eventually headed back to the car and I took a different trail back. There was a point when I was completely alone and I just stopped, looked at the mountain and took it all in. I could have snowshoed all day. I enjoyed my little trek back all by myself (the top picture I took when I was alone) and I wish it was safer for me to do things like this by myself but it really isn't smart. The only reason I was by myself this time was because Ruh knew exactly were I was and I was not far from the car.

I am looking forward to my next snowshoeing trip and I am hoping to go longer next time. Ruh says he will try it with me again.

Little Danny Bob...

My little guy has a cold right now. He is still as chipper as ever but he has a little cough. My mom watched him yesterday morning while I was at work and these are a couple pictures that were taken.

This week's baking...

I decided to try my hand at baking homemade bread this week. I want to see if I can save money by baking my own healthy bread instead of buying the healthy stuff at the store for $4-$5 a loaf. I used whole wheat flour, dark rye, a little bit of bran, oatmeal and sunflower seeds. I used about 2 tablespoons of honey to sweeten the bread. My house smelled absolutely wonderful while this bread was baking! Ruh loves it and that's good since this bread will be used for his work sandwiches. I put one loaf in the freezer and stored the other one in the fridge to slice as needed.



I also made homemade energy bars. Ruh and I went snowshoeing this week and I wanted to make something that would give us energy. I have made cookies before when we have gone hiking and all they tend to do is cause a sugar high and then CRASH afterward which is the worse thing to have when you are out on a long hike. These bars have oatmeal, whole wheat flour, Grapenuts cereal, a little bit of bran, applsauce, an egg, 2 tablespoons each of honey and brown sugar, walnuts, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, cinnamon and 60% cocoa chocolate chips. I cut them into bars. These were perfect when we were snowshoeing for a little pick-me-up. I am definitely going to make these for our camping and hiking trips this spring and summer. These taste so much better than granola bars you buy at the store. They are nice and chewy which is what I like.