merry christmas!! it's snowing at the moment and church is cancelled so i have a little extra relaxation time. i haven't updated this diary in way too long so here goes. where to start?

i'm SO much better than i was last time i updated. i found out a few weeks ago that i'm allergic to several foods and ALL of my health problems have gone away since stopping the foods. in the beginning it was hard and i'm still kind of in mourning for my favorite foods but i LOVE being well so much! i've been able to run for real lately, instead of hobbling along. i can play with ian, and walk ossian, and cook, and all kinds of things. it feels like i've been given a completely new life!

i signed up for the seattle rock & roll half marathon on june 25, 2011. my friend 'seattle karen' - three of my favorite people are named karen so they all have nicknames so that blake can follow me when i talk about them. anyway, seattle karen is running it and i'm going to try to as well. blake and ian and i will go out there for a week right at the beginning of her summer break. i'm SO looking forward to it! i have a training plan all laid out to take me from my current out-of-shape-ness to half-marathon shape very, very slowly. "slow & steady wins the race" has been and is still my motto in my effort to get in shape again.

i took pictures of some of my christmas presents. blake got me some wool running/biking gloves, which is very nice because i was wearing socks on my hands before, and they're pink!

mum got me mittens from the vancouver olympics!

blake gave me a pink pocket knife. pink! how cool is that? there's a story behind this gift. last time i had to bring oranges for ian's soccer team there was a bit of a mishap to do with not having a pocket knife and well, a big chef's knife ended up at the bottom of the cooler of drinks that the boys were reaching into for their drinks. oops!

blake got me an aerogarden! so now i have my own indoor herb garden. awesome!

i got other awesome things too but there were the most photogenic gifts