I Won! I'm a Dutchess...

...well, my friends, March Madness is over. After many people read up on teams, followed them during their season and made very precise, analytical guesses...I WON THE EMPLOYEE BRACKET!!! All of my choices were made off of where I would prefer to be...Vegas or Utah, Florida or Washington. Also, all funny names were picked like Gonzaga and last but not least for the past 5 or so years that I've been doing a bracket, I always pick Duke to go all the way because I know the one year that I don't, it will be the year they win. So to prove that I won, here are pictures of the results. The girls really did well at my work.

Then we did Employees vs Members and I lost by one point to a member.

So how did your teams fair? I wish I'd put money on my bracket but I didn't. I'm pretty stoked that I won if you can't tell. Everyone have a great weekend!!!

The Half...

...that's how it's referred to: "The Half." It's the one word I dread and yet I get excited about at the same time. I started training on March 15, the first two weeks I...ROCKED...IT!!! Hard core rocked it, I enjoyed the running, I was getting great times, I was really getting the hang of this whole running thing. Last Monday and Tuesday, I felt like things were going good...getting all my miles in, staying within my pace, just felt awesome and felt like I was doing good.

Then Wednesday I signed up "The Half," I committed to it. I paid my money and I announced it to the world. Both Friday, Saturday and Monday nothing but crappy runs!!! Like last Friday, I was supposed to run 6 miles but for the life of me, I couldn't go further than 5.7 miles...really Alyssa? You couldn't suck it up for .3 miles? Nope, I couldn't...I hit the stop button and had to get off the treadmill.

On Monday, some old lady was on my favorite treadmill that I like because it's pretty basic to use and right in front of Ellen. So I decide to use the updated new fancy treadmill but I couldn't get it started then all of the sudden it kicked on at 10 MPH!?! WAY OVER MY SPEED LIMIT!!! So I said screw it, got on one of the old school ones and sucked it up to no Ellen. I get to 17 minutes and all the sudden the water I'd been drinking to rehydrate myself kicked it and I was running like a little kid to the bathroom. I hopped back on to get a total of two miles in, which was what was on the schedule for Tuesday so I just switched the days.

Tuesday I got all six miles in barely under my 12 minute/mile pace I'm shooting for. Wednesday I was supposed to be meet Sarah to run but it was threatening storms all day so I got in a quick 1.5 at lunch then luckily the ran held off so I ran a mile to the park to meet her, walked 3.5 with her then walk/ran the mile back home. Today is another six miles and then tomorrow is finally a rest day. I'm definately going to kick it into high gear and rock out the miles today.

So now that I've had really crappy runs since I've signed up, I'm totally freaking out about "The Half." A seasoned half-runner, who I've never met-gotta love the support from the Internet and fellow runners, volunteered to pace me and run the entire half with me. Now I really don't want to let her down or myself! Hopefully this is just a mental block and I'll get over it but as I said, I'm totally freaking out now!

Good 'Ole CHS...

...ever since my dad moved out of our childhood house, I've been asking for my high school yearbooks. Almost three years later and we haven't found them. Saturday we walk into his house and he's like, "Here, Lyss, these are your yearbooks." I get all excited, "You found them???" Umm....no, he went to my high school and bought them for me. Aww....thanks Daddy!!! Too bad he bought an extra one at a hefty fee for a year that I didn't go to the school. Jess, Beth, Kristal-that's the white one below.
The one bummer thing is that these yearbooks have a very heavy price tag. Really?!? I mean they're just taking up space, wouldn't you think they'd just want to get them out of the school? Not to mention, anyone that knows me would know that I bought these the first day that they were on sale for about $20 LESS than what he paid today for them. So my poor daddy had to buy these things TWICE for me-thanks Daddy! You're the best!!!

Random Yearbook Trivia:
1. The purple book pictured above says "Principal's Office."
2. My senior year, I was voted, "Most Likely To Say Hi" which hubs finds hilarious these days.
3. I was the senior spotlight athlete for the girls soccer team even though I only played in 8 games my senior year since I tore my ACL.

So please leave a comment with your random yearbook trivia!!!

The Great Egg Dying Party...

...Saturday evening, we had a big egg dying party at my dad's house. Since we're the "babies" we played with the camera while my sister, dad and grandma set up the dye stuff. Sometimes it's better to have less "cooks in the kitchen."
You should be careful when the newspaper covering the table gets wet because you might end up with random words on your arm like "EGG."
This was my creative attempt at an egg.
In our family, it's customary to always make the watermelon egg.
This is what happens when you use white crayon to decorate your egg. Dad writes on it then puts it back in the carton, then Sha writes on it and dyes it. It then comes up a big jumbled mess. Ta-da! All of our handiwork and breakfast for Sunday morning.
Egg dying is serious business in our family, look at those faces.
But when it's all done, we're happy egg dyers!!!

Hope the Easter bunny left some fun eggs for you too!

Our Easter Lunch...

...I hope everyone had a GREAT Easter!!! We had a busy, fun-filled weekend down in the Cape followed by a quick meal with hubs fam late Sunday night. Our Easter Sunday started off with a great church service with my mom and David then I did a little basking in the sun while trying to finish the book I started in Florida (yes back in DECEMBER!!!)

We decided to eat lunch outside, the sun felt great, the scenery was beautiful and, oh yeah, the doggies joined us too.
Surprise! No ham for us! My mom prepared some fresh shrimp she brought back from Florida and being the wonderful momma that she is, she prepared me my own course of Chicken Devan since I don't eat shrimp.
Shadow was guarding the ground, helping us clean up anything that might have dropped on the ground.
Emma took the other side of the table for scrap clean up.
And here's me, yes I chopped my hair off. I may not like shrimp but I'm a good sport and help everyone peel.
Hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter spent with good family, friends and good food!

Happy Birthday to the One I Love...

...happy birthday Mattie! Today you're the big 28!!! Who knows where we're headed but as long as we're together, that's all that matters. I love you for lots of reasons...

I love you because of those baby blues and because you're a deep, pensive thinker...

I love(d) those long curly locks and that cute cute smile!

I love how you take fish off the hook for me and don't chase me around with the gross, wet fish (I think you know better than to do that)...

I love you because you love Twinkies!!! And get excited over the small stuff...

Pretty low key birthday this year since we're headed to Cape first thing tomorrow morning for Easter. Dinner at the Ameristar Buffet, he's been begging to go FOREVER!!! Hope everyone has a great Easter!!!

Against ALL of Your Advice...

...so against all of your advice that told me to stick to 5Ks, I signed up a half-marathon. The Hospital Hill half at that!!! The race is going to be June 5 in Kansas City. Not only will I being running in the half marathon, which is 13.1 miles for those that don't know, but I will also get to see Candace's baby!!! As of right now, a couple other of my sorority sisters are running this event with me.

The course has a three and a half hour time limit, which equals 16 minute miles. I've been training for three weeks (well three weeks specifically for this event and working out before that). My longest run so far has been 6 miles which I completed in 70 minutes and 37 seconds, so I'm right on pace for 12 minute miles. If I run 13.1 miles at 12 minutes then I should be done in 2 hours and 37 minutes but throw in the hills and the continuous running and I think I'll be right at 3.5 hours. My main goal is to finish, my push it goal is to finish in under three hours. Sixtyfive days from today is the big race...

You might be asking, Alyssa-what the h were you thinking??? Well, if you can't tell by some of my posts, there's a lot of stuff going on in my life right now which is really, really hard to comprehend and deal with. I just wanted something to take my mind off that and to have a goal that I can actually reach on my own. Like it's my own will pushing me through, I don't have to depend on anyone else, if I fail it's my fault...that sort of thing. Plus I get kind of excited to think that when it's all said and done, I'll be able to say, "I completed a half marathon!!!" Not too many people can say that, well actually where I work at a lot of people can but you get the idea.

Here is the training plan that I'm *kinda* following. I'm doing all the same distance but trying to do more running than walking. This is also only an 8 week program but I started 12 weeks out, so I'm repeating the first four weeks twice. I'm excited because starting today, my friend Sarah and I are picking up our "walking dates" which I'll be using for my cross training day. I'm also logging all my workouts at http://www.dailymile.com/ It's been very helpful and the people on there are great. It's kind of like Facebook for working out.

So there you have it...I've lost my mind and signed up for a half marathon. I'll post on my training throughout.