Sandy Sprint- 5K race for Ovarian Cancer

Last night, my mom and sister Britt came down to my house to spend the night, because today we awoke at 6 am to head over to Fairmount Park for the Sandy Rollman 5K Ovarian Cancer race. I ran it last year in 33 min and had a lot of fun, so I decided to do it again. This year, I ended up walking the first mile with my mom and Britt, but got bored with that so they agreed to let me run ahead. I finished this year in 38 min, which was pretty awesome considering I walked the first mile! I was proud of myself. And I was super proud of my mom and Britt, who basically power-walked the whole thing and came in at 5o minutes. We ran in memory of Mabel Hoover, (my friend Jess's mom) who had passed away from her 12 year fight with Ovarian Cancer this Christmas. It was a gorgeous day for the race, and they had a lot of people come out, so that was uplifting. Hopefully they raised a lot of donations!

Later we went out for a nice lunch, and then finished up with some Maggie Moos ice cream. (yum!) I guess the race and the filling lunch did us in, cause we all came back to my house and crashed for 2 hours. I could barely open my eyes from my nap, I was so tired. Though I didn't sleep well last night, since we didn't get to bed till 11:30 or so, and then I was sleeping on an air mattress with Britt who flops around at night like a fish, and then to make things worse, I awoke at 1 am to incredibly painful spams in my left calf muscle. I tried to shake it out, and then the muscle spasm went up again. It was so painful I actually cried out. My left calf is still really sore from it but it didn't hinder the race at all, so that was good. And hopefully it will be ok when I go to my special bellydance class tonight, with Jehan teaching! The session is "shimmylicous dance and drum solo." I'm excited for it, though I am a little tired from today. Hopefully I can gather enough energy to really get a lot from it and make the most of the lesson. More details on that tomorrow, I guess! For now I'm going to lay down and take another nap before I head out. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Lovely personal day! :)

I'm so enjoying my personal day today!

I awoke to my Dad having made special apple pancakes and bacon, which was delicious. Then I took a nice hot bubble bath, perfect for a rainy day like today. I've also curled up to read a good book, Carrot Cake Murder. It's part of a series of books called the Hannah Swenson Mysteries. Hannah is the main character who owns a bakery as her business, but is a mystery sleuth on the side. :) I love the books because they are always talking about delicious recipes, mostly baked goods, and so throughout the book, there are actually recipes for some of the confections they talk about. There are a lot of great recipes, too. I can't wait to try some of them! The author of these books is Joanne Fluke, in case anyone looks for them. I've already read Cherry Cheesecake murder, Candy Cane Murder, and Key Lime Pie Murder. See the theme of the titles? :) The only problem is that I always get hungry for baked goods when I'm reading the books. I already have such a sweet tooth, reading about delicious goodies makes it much worse!

I also was enjoying two of my new favorite songs on youtube earlier. One is called "The man who can't be moved" by this Irish band, the Script, and the other is the 1,2,3, 4 song by the Plain White T's. Both have just started playing on the radio fairly recently, and I LOVE them. Here's the links if you'd like to hear the songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-J8kC5DHo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6pW_q1PvH0

So that's been my day so far. I think later I may curl up for a cat-nap in front of our fireplace, and then read some more. Just relaxing has been great and I'm loving it!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I had such a fun night at the Indian connection dinner last night! There were more people there than at the Asian connection night, so it was a little more overwhelming, trying to meet all the new people, but I still really enjoyed myself, and it was also nice to see the people I already knew. The cuisine was delicious, my compliments to all the chefs! The samosas were my favorites, which Phil, Jason, and Suzanne made. And Phil so generously opened his home to this event, which was awesome of him! My favorite dessert of the night were these daisy cupcakes that Lindsey made. They were so delicious and so cute! I really need the recipe for that! If I heard correctly, I believe Italian Connection night is next on our list. That will be nice for me since I have some Italian roots in my geneologic tree. I can't wait!

Early this morning I headed home, since today is my Dad's birthday (51!) so I came home to celebrate with the fam. We usually have a birthday dinner for the birthday boy or girl, and tonight, we're having tacos! None of us have had them in ages, and we were discussing that a few weeks ago, so we're setting up a taco bar tonight. Should be fun. I'm about to run out and get a cake for him while my parents are at Church. I ended up coming home too late and they left without me. :P I guess I'm on my own for today. Maybe I can listen to a taped sermon later today.

The best part about today is that for once, I don't have to rush home later this evening, I can stay at my parents house all day because I took a personal day for tomorrow! I haven't had a day off in a couple months, and I've really been feeling a bit weary lately, so I thought the day off would do me good. I'm so looking forward to it! I really don't have any plans, other than just relaxing. Should be nice. :)

Hopefully everyone else had a great weekend, more updates next Saturday for the 5k race and bellydancing with Jehan! :)

P.S. I had to laugh, when I got home last night I was talking with Chris, and I was drinking some of the rice milk I had bought at whole foods that morning (it was vanilla flavored rice milk and pretty delicious!) and he told me good-naturedly that I eat like a hippie. I thought it was really funny, and actually took it as a compliment, since I'm trying to eat healthier.... I guess it's working! :)

Indian connection night, Whole Foods

So, last month I attended an Asian Connection party hosted by some members of the new Bible Study I've been attending, and I had a great time. Well, tonight is another party, this time, it's an Indian Connection party! I'm really looking forward to it, I love Indian food. Since I don't have any traditional Indian clothes (too bad though, I think Sari's are sooo beautiful and would love to have one) I'm wearing a red top to match my red sandals that look quite Indian. They're decorated with lots of silver, red, and black beads and sequins. They're quite possibly the most awesome footwear I've ever owned. DEFINITELY the most awesome sandals. And I only bought them for like, 15 bucks at Payless. Anyway, I also decided to wear my capris with sequins on the bottom, and my silver ankle bracelets, and my awesome red sequin earrings. This description makes me sound like something out of Vegas I think, but really, it looks good! :) Indian women love jewelery and the more decorative it is, the better. Hence my decision for what to wear. I wish I knew how to make Indian food, but alas, I was spoiled by Roshani, my dear friend who just made all things delicious for me. I don't see her much anymore unfortunately. :( I really miss her. That was one of the bad things about leaving Fox Chase.

Anyway, instead of bringing Indian food, I'm bringing a cherry cheese coffee cake, curtesy of Whole Foods. :) I really wanted to make individual cherry cheese cakes (so easy to make and delicious too!) but the roommie was slow roasting a roast all day so I couldn't use the oven. So store bought will have to do. Speaking of Whole Foods, what a treat! I could have wandered around all day in there. I normally don't shop there, because it is more expensive, but as I'm really trying to eat healthier, there are some things that I can only buy there (like cold pressed, non-GMO coconut oil, and whole grain sprouted bread, that sort of thing) so I went in for a bit today. It really is an awesome store and makes me wish I didn't have to watch my spending so much. I'd love to do all my shopping there.

Anyway, more details on tonight later! I soon have to leave to make it on time. But also stay posted for new events, next Saturday is the Sandy Rollman 5K walk/run for Ovarian Cancer that my mom and sister and I are participating in, not to mention, I'm bellydancing with Jehan that night! I can't wait for the class- shimmylicious dance and drum solo. Sounds intriguing! :) I can't wait!

My Hero

I love and hate this time of year.

Hate it for the changing weather, and for allergy season. I'm allergic to birch (it developed only about 4-5 years ago) so now I'm stuck in misery for 3-4 weeks when trees are pollenating. I get serious itchy eyes from all the pollen around and it really sucks.

I love it though because I love the lighter days, the beauty of spring, and knowing it's the advent of summertime, woohoo! Plus, I love Easter. It's amazing and really incomprehensible to me to fully understand the nature of Jesus's sacrifice, which is why I and other Christians celebrate Easter. I don't think I'll ever experience and know what Jesus went through, BECAUSE of what he went through, and that's amazing to me! I'm so grateful and thankful for his amazing sacrifice.

Years ago, when I was in college, I discovered Hero! The Rock Opera. It's a modern day musical of Jesus's life and death and it was written, produced, and performed by Christians, so unlike Christian-themed musicals on broadway, this just has more heart to it. I highly recommend it. Many well known Christian artists were a part of the production, including Michael Tait from DC Talk (playing Hero- Jesus), Rebecca St. James as Mary Magdalene, and Mark Stuart (the lead singer from Audio Adrenaline) playing Peter, just to name a few. It is AMAZING. I have both the CD and the DVD of the show. I know almost all the songs by heart and have the CD on my Zune, and I've been playing it constantly at work this week. I love all the songs, but two of my favorites are called "Hero's Agony" and "I Am" (sung back to back), and it's when Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemene. It's so moving to me, and sad. I think the worst part of the whole sacrifice for Jesus wasn't the pain and the humiliation and the betrayal the people, but the separation from God he had to experience. He didn't want to go through any of it, but I think knowing he would have to be separated from God, to have the Father turn away from him, that was the worst part. And although he didn't want to experience that, he did. For me. And for you. For everyone, because he loves us so much. Thank you so much, Jesus! You really are my hero, because you saved me. :)