Moving blog

So, I decided to start a new blog.

Don't ask why...just decided to. I attempt to explain on the first post.

Here is the address, I am no longer posting on this blog.

http://missdanyelli.blogspot.com/

White water rafting

A few weeks ago, Clay and I went white water rafting with some of his cousins and uncle. The family owns two huge rafts that have been in the family for over 35 years! Can you believe that? They have taken really good care of them. Anyhow, it was a BLAST! I loved it so much! The place we went was awesome because we had calm parts, bumpy parts, and pretty intense parts! Nothing that made me too scared or anything though! It made me want to do it every single year. A tradition. I'm so glad I went!

Goals by Numbers...to date

Wowee, well I sure have been slacking on my "Goals by Numbers" deal. But I figured I should get this tally up to date and try my best to hit my numbers by the end of the year. Let me tell you, I have a lot to get done in four months if I am to make all those numbers! Yikes! Summer has been busy and fun, so anyhow...here is where I'm at.

Play 1000 songs on the piano- 316 played
Read 12 new books- 4 read
Make 52 new recipes- 30 made
Have 12 memorable dates with Clay- 7 dates
Read Genesis through 2 Kings of the Old testament- Genesis read

So by my count this is how many I need to do by the end of December:

684 songs
8 books
22 recipes
5 dates
11 books in the bible

Yikes! I think I can definitely acheive some of those...but some I'm not so sure (coughbiblecough)...Oh well, I shall continue to try. I really think the books one is possible simply for the fact that in the fall and winter I read a lot...and go out a LOT less.

I will try and update the blog with all the fun things Clay and I have been up to. I've gotten quite a few things done off of my 25 in 25th year list too. I just love lists huh?

Well, wish me luck!

Workin out

Well these days I've been trying to go to the gym a lot. Be in the best shape of my life type of thing. I take 3 classes consistently: Powercut, Yoga, and Kickboxing.

Let's give a breakdown.

Powercut is on Monday's and Wednesdays and makes me want to die. As in...about 15 minutes in, I look at the clock and think WHAT?! I HAVE 45 MINUTES LEFT OF THIS DEATH?! I want to quit usually the entire time. It is SO HARD. It is a combination of cardio and weights. And the instructor yells things like, "IF YOU'RE NOT SWEATING, I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO HELP YOU" and she is also really awesome cause she'll turn her mic off temporarily to come over to you and tell you your form is wrong and help you do it right (she did that for me on basically every single set the first couple times I went)...she is one of those ladies that is in her fifties but you'd never know it looking at her body. She is RIPPED. And she just kills me. I am ALWAYS glad when it's over that one, I have not died, and that two, I AM A ROCK STAR! Seriously, even if I have to stop and rest for one set or tone my set down a notch, I am sweating my brains out and my heart rate is up and I feel like I am the strongest person ever! (Except of course for the crazy tough people in front of me that I watch for motivation lifting like 20 pounds on each side of their bar). I am happy to report that I use 5 pound free weights, and 3 1/2 pounds on each side of my bar. Now, I need to tell you something. In the class I take- my bar looks like it has about nothing on it compared to all the people around me. But if you watch my face while I'm lifting that bar repeaetedly above my head, you'd think I'm lifting an elephant. I am growing muscles though and slowly moving up in my weights. It's great! Don't you worry- I wont become a meat head (I know you were worried).

Yoga is Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and is probably the best thing of my life. It's cut down on my chiropractic bill, it has calmed me in my hard times, and it has made me sweat from every pore of my body at times. I LOVE YOGA. My favorite instructor also wants to kill me though. She likes to do things like "Hey guys how about a 4 minute plank today? Yeah?" and then while I have to break every 10 seconds, she stays put the entire 4 minutes  making jokes and talking us through it and basically being amazing. I have a really hard time with plank pose. But my downward dog is awesome, and my child's pose is spot on :) ha ha. But seriously, Yoga is my friend, and it should be yours too. Namaste.



Kickboxing is only once a week on Friday mornings, so I only get to do it on my Friday's off. Kickboxing is taught by the same crazy woman that teaches Powercut. She encourages us to make a face that wants to kill someone and tells us things like, "You think he's scared?! Do you MEAN IT?!" and she'll even stand right infront of you until you look tough enough. It's pretty great. I seriously...SERIOUSLY am sweating from every part of my body by the time this class is done. But its good because sometimes when I hear bad things in the news that make me angry I think of those bad people who do the bad things and pretend I am meeting them in an alleyway and THAT is where my punches and kicks are going to. I don't like to envision people I know cause really I don't really know anyone in real life that I'd like to beat up. I have found that I am not very good at side kicks. It's a work in progress.

Overall, my gym experience has been fantastic. I like working out in big groups of people with an instructor telling me what to do. I have found if I don't, I don't work out. Or I work out for 10 minutes. This has been great. And I have some friends that go with me some of the time, which helps.

Clay's gym experience is more like..."We worked on legs today" and collapses on the couch. He has a friend that they do things like weights and treadmill and such. He also plays basketball once a week. Isn't that great?!

I am by NO MEANS a perfect gym goer. I don't know that I've ever gone to every one of these classes in one week. But I am trying. And that's what counts. Hopefully my dollar will motivate me.

Two dollars a day keeps our bodies at bay

Hopefully.

So Clay and I, like I've mentioned, have been in a bad sort of way. We kind of ate a bajillion grams of gluten and sugar this past month. Oh so bad. 

Clay's body has been feeling it. I have felt it a bit but I felt it in a MAJOR WAY this past week when my body decided to get BLOCKED. Oh man. Without sharing too many gory details, my body was full of crap! Literally! Which caused me to be nauseous for over a week and wonder if I was going into kidney failure. Nothing a few laxatives can't clear out (joyous experiences here people). 

So anyway, Clay and I realized...we have GOT TA CHANGE! However, we aren't very disciplined or motivated people. Simply having good health isn't enough for us. The deliciousness of ice cream and Chick file' is just too tempting. So we decided on a new system.

For every day that we DON'T eat gluten or sugar, we get a dollar (each). Also, for every day that we exercise, we get a dollar. 

For those not savvy with mathematics, that basically gives us each the potential to earn about 60 bucks every month for good behavior. 

I know what you're thinking- WOWSA that's a big chunk of change for something that you should just do naturally as an adult. Well, that's true. But this is also the only money we can spend on ourselves for fun stuff, "Play money" if you will, and ALSO- I kind of consider this as treatment for Lyme. Do you know how expensive it is to be treated for Lyme like we used to? I thought about sharing an actual dollar figure, but it's just too depressing. Trust me when I say, it's more than you'd even think. 

I TRULY truly believe that eating well and exercising is a lot of what keeps us feeling well. So, if we pay $120 a month to ourselves to spend on WHATEVER we want...and it keeps us well? I personally think that's a bargain! 

So we are pretty freaking excited about this new system. It's already motivating us. We've gone on multiple walks (since we couldn't make it to the gym), and not eaten treats!

I feel pathetic about this new system a bit. Pathetic that I can't just be motivated to live a healthy lifestyle. But it's okay. I also feel completely fine about it and accept that this is just the way we are and its totally fine. I love us. So, hopefully this works and we are super healthy folks here soon! 

Mack's Inn Float & Playmill

One of my 25 in 25th year goals was to float Mack's in River. Well, I found out the proper name for this is "Big Springs". It's such a shallow float...which is the only way we could get Patty in the water! She is deathly afraid of water, not surprisingly since both her husband and son almost drowned in really traumatic experiences!

Anyhow, this float is just so beautiful. It's such a shame none of us brought a water camera...because we passed two moose, a bald eagle, and a blue herring. It was so exciting! But the float was very slow going and we had to row our way through it cause it was so shallow and calm!

We went with Patty, Paul, Makayla, and Allen (Makayla's boyfriend). It was a blast. The weather was great, but the water was SO SO COLD! AHHHH! SO COLD! Needless to say there was lots of sneak splashing going on :)


After the float we ate a little picnic by the IMAX theater in the small amount of shade we could find! Harmoni met up with us for the picnic and then we headed to the Playmill Theater to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! Oh my gosh! I love that musical so much!

The Playmill actors are a bunch of locals and college kids. They started out with some jokes and little songs and stuff while everyone was trickling in, then they all sang "Home" by Phillip Phillips and it was SO GREAT! I just loved it. They also sang God Bless America (tear jerker) and did a wierd blue light dance, and then the play started! It was so cute and I loved it. I told Clay, "We need to come here once a year". He just rolled his eyes, but he liked it a lot too!

After the play we walked around West Yellowstone for a while and got some candy (made me miss home) and looked at a tourist shop or two. It was nice.

Then the drive home! It was so beautiful and such a nice sunset.

 This is me and Makayla trying to figure out how to get everyone in the car in the photo. Guess what? Everyone technically is! There's Me, Makayla, and Patty, in the obvious spots. The left back is a slice of Allen's face. To the right of Patty's arm and the left of Makayla's head is a grey shoulder- that is Paul's shoulder. To the right of Makayla is Clay's green shoulder. I call that a success!

Rock Climbing

One of my 25 things I wanted to do in my 25th year of life was Rock Climbing! We did this in June I just haven't gotten around to sharing it.

I wanted to go rock climbing for a few different reasons. One, to conquer a fear...I am quite scared of heights! And there is something about conquering fears that makes me feel like I'm growing...so there's that. Then I also thought this would be a good way to be in nature and enjoy the earth without much of a risk of ticks. I do admit though, the small "hike" to the wall (5 minutes or so) had me feeling anxiety as my ankles were brushing up against bushes! Eck! Will I ever not get worried? I don't think so. Just stepping in taller grass makes me nervous.

Anyway, our friend Lyon loves to rock climb and has been wanting us to go for years, so this was perfect! He offered to take us (he has all the equipment and such) and so we finally took him up on it!

It was so great because he gave us good tips and was there cheering us on throughout.

I didn't make it to the top, but I made it REALLY far and I was so proud of myself! It was actually really fun! I looked down only a couple times and it was pretty nerve wracking! But it is comforting to know that you have someone holding the rope at the bottom if you fall (I did fall at the very beginning...which I'm actually glad happened cause it made me realize how stable I really was in my harness thingy).

Clay made it to the very top! My battery died by the time he got there though :(

It was SO fun and I really want to go again! I need to get Clay to agree before the good weather ends.

(This is Lyon for those who are wondering-he was actually one of Clay's groomsmen for our wedding)