Happy Graduation Amber!!!

...after the morning shopping spree, Matt and I headed over to Amber's parents' house for her graduation party. Amber is a great friend and co-worker and I must admit that I feel pretty old because when I started my job, Amber was just starting college and now she's all grown up!

I might mention that Matt and Mike, Amber's boyfriend, are in love. Every time we do something together, Matt always asks if Mike will be there and then vice versa. Then the two of them go off together to look at trucks or exchange fishing stories and usually end up with plans the following day to hang out. It's such a bromance!
Here is MK, myself and Amber...her parents had so much delicious food that we all left stuffed!
Here is Amber with her puppy Chico whose tongue doesn't stay in his mouth!
So congratulations Amber! You're going to be an awesome teacher!!!

Scholastic Shopping Spree!!!

...after my wet eight mile run on Saturday morning, I headed to Fenton where I met my mom and stepsis for our Scholastic warehouse shopping spree!!! Here is Jo and I with Clifford the Big Red Dog:
Ah, the fruits of our labor...oh, and we had another shopping cart just as full
We were there for almost TWO HOURS!?! Some of the stuff there was little junky stuff but some was SUPER sweet...they had picture books, board books, adult books, cookbooks, easy reader books and the list goes on! I think I was like in blogger heaven because I probably thought about each of you at least once...Super Nanny=Angie, horses=Sarah, Balls=Heidi....and I could keep going.

I bought stuff for the twins, for Candace's sweet baby Colin, for my niece, for the graduation party we went to, for work, for me and maybe even a little something for my blog! Yes, I got a couple of giveaway items but I'm just trying to wait until the right time to offer them. Hope everyone enjoyed their Saturday, this was definitely a GREAT way to spend the soggy morning.

Drenched to the Bone...

...yes, notice the post time...7:11 AM! Yep, I'm home from my 8 mile run and already blogging about it at 7:11 AM on a Saturday morning!!! I was supposed to do this run yesterday but when I got up around 6ish it was pouring rain so I decided to sit it out and put it off until today. Being the person that I am, I beat myself up all day about this because it cleared up later in the morning and I could have totally got it in before I headed to work at 1pm but I decided to be lazy and lounge around the house.

Those of you that are my friend on FB (the know all of real friendships, right? Totally joking!), saw that I posted something along those lines on Daily Mile which in turn links to FB. So my Daily Mile friend, Patrick (and he's kinda cute too!), totally called me out saying if it wasn't lightning or thundering I'd better get out there. So when the alarm went off at 5am this morning Matt to get to work, I was up, shoes laced and out the door!

The best part of this run? Mattie joined me for the first mile! He wasn't very happy about it being that he's told me on more than one occasion to not talk to him before his coffee but he went my pace yet pushed me and when he left me to turn around, he said, "You can do it babe! I know you." How's that for some motivation at 5:20 in the morning?

So I truck on after he leaves me and its kind of funny the things that go through my head as I run...trying to do math and figure out my pace, thinking about the rest of my day (Scholastic warehouse sale with momma!!!), thinking about the outfit I bought for the race (I'll post about that later), running over the creek and glancing for dead bodies (yes, I watch too much Law & Order), staring at the cow that dresses up for holidays and shaking my head (again, another post for another time), stubbing my toe and wondering if I fell and chipped my tooth what would I do (good thing White Castle is along my route and they're open 24 hours), wondering if Matt left the door unlocked like he was supposed to-he's been known to lock me out of the house while I'm out running (I had my I-Touch so I would have emailed my dad to call Matt-how's that for technology, huh???), busting out one line to a song because they pump me up (That's what you get for waking up in Vegas!), and those are just a few of the thoughts that raced through my mind...

Around mile 6, I could feel the storm blowing in...major temperature drop and sprinkles of rain that turned into fat, steady rain drops. My I-Touch started being all weird...I hope it's okay, I love that thing! I took it out of its case when I got home to let it dry out...cross your fingers that it's okay! Around 7.5, Super Freak came on, if only for a second, and I kicked it into high gear finishing very strong.

Good thing Silky's isn't open at 5am or I would have totally had to stop for an Elvis Pretzely. Did I mention that the 2 mile and then 6 mile mark is Silky's? How convenient, right?

I'm am SO glad I got up, yes even at 5am, to get this done now I can enjoy the rest of my weekend and I don't have to think about running again until Monday (7 miles...this week is going to be killer). I also feel 10x better about Hospital Hill which is only 21 days away. I finished the 8 today within pace and I didn't feel like I was dying PLUS I think when I'm actually running the race and have Sherrie beside me to push me and keep me at pace, I think I'll do a lot better. When I'm on my own sometimes I think I get caught up in La La Land and slow down without realizing it. Think of me this week as I'll be running 7 miles twice this week, 4 miles one day, 3.1 another and 9.5 next weekend!

Okay, I'm still in my wet running clothes and FREEZING so I'm off to take a shower and warm up. Hope everyone has a great, dry weekend!

Thursday Tidbits...

Haven't done one of these in awhile and I've got the time...

*My sister gave me one of those automatic Air Wick timer room fresheners...can I just say that this thing scares the bejeezus out of Emma and I not to mention it sounds like someone farting!? It smells really good but when you're home alone with just the puppies and you don't expect it...FREAKY! Emma runs out of the room when it goes off and hides in the basement.

*Monday I had a small headache at work, I ran and it felt better then as I left work OMG!!! THE PAIN! I don't normally get headaches and if I do get them I try not to take medicine, not against it just only want to use it when I absolutely HAVE to...Matt gets home and I'm in my red chair in the fetal position, he walks in the room and I say, "Drugs, give me drugs..." He brings me some ibuprofen, I head to bed with a ice pack on my head around 6pm and am asleep by 8pm. Tuesday I had the same headache off and on, I thought maybe it was from looking at the computer screen but I didn't look at it any longer than normal. I pushed my screen back at work and took breaks from it on Tuesday but we'll see....ugh, I hope that sucker doesn't come back for a long time!

*The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend I have to work and I also have an 11 mile run. I was figuring I would just run to work because it was probably 11 miles or longer...I tracked it today and it's only like 7 or 8 miles...well, crap, going to have to find another route and this is the LONG way to work! I didn't realize I lived so close! Actually I think I'm going to do a loop around my neighborhood THEN head to work.

*I have an 8 mile run tomorrow, let's hope the rain holds off because I plan on running to Matt's work and back, weird his work is only 4 miles from home. If it rains, I'll be running all 8 on the treadmill.

*This Saturday, my mom is taking me, my stepsister and her two daughters to the Scholastic Warehouse sale for basically a shopping spree! I'm sooo excited! We only have 4 hours...not sure I'll be able to get through that fast enough. Hmm...maybe I'll also grab something for a giveaway too...now I just have to find a reason to have one.

*We're making dinner two nights next week for our friends that just had the twins. Matt is super excited about grilling for them. I'm super excited to see the girls! I bet they're so big now!

Okay, that's enough randomness from the life of Alyssa for now. Hope everyone is doing well!

My Outfit....

...for those of you that know me well, you know I am not a fashionista. I am most comfortable, and usually seen, wearing jeans and a tshirt or hoodie. I am devoting an entire post to my outfit at the wedding because I am very excited about it, I pulled this one off without the help of Kristal or Ashley and I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!

Here is the great outfit! Sorry about the lighting and my feet being cut off...one guess who took the picture...
Why I like this outfit? It has pockets!!! So handy to slide my hands in when I didn't know what to do with them or hold my camera (Matt was grateful for this). I promise the dress was ironed when I put it on but after sitting through a wedding ceremony and dinner, it got a little wrinkled. I also don't feel like my hips or butt looked huge as they have looked in most outfits recently. I also feel trendy and hip-and-with-it!

Why I don't like the dress? The seams came together on my boobs which made it look like my nipples were poking out, Matt kept trying to comment on that then would realize, oh it's just the dress. When I bent over to sign the guest book, I felt like my butt was showing but hubs assured me it was not. If you can't tell, there's a belt that goes right under my boobs. I think it was a mental thing but whenever I'd think about the belt, I would think I was losing my breath. I also felt like shots from the waist up looked exactly like this outfit I'm wearing below but that is only a shirt, not the same dress.
So there you have it, my friends, my one hip-and-with-it, I don't look like I'm 80 years old outfit for 2010. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did now! Now I'm off to change into my jeans and hoodie.

Another One Bites the Dust...

...this past Saturday, Matt's good buddy Ben got married!!! The wedding was in Clayton at La Chateau. Here is the happy couple:

Here is another happy couple, please disregard my husband's eyes that are shut. He refused to take another picture after this one.
"Look man, we have super powers with these rings!"

The wedding was very small but it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Matt and I didn't think we'd know any one there, and we really didn't but we ended up having the BEST time!!! Here are just a couple stories from the night...

*The ring bearer walked half way down the aisle then stopped, waited about a minute then walked up to Ben. Then the female pastor told him to go back to his dad so he sprinted back down the aisle to his dad where he asked for everyone to hear, "Can we go home now?"

*The female pastor started the ceremony by saying, "This is when we typically ask who gives this woman away but in today's world, women have the right to make up their own mind so we aren't going to ask that..." Nothing like women's lib to start off a wedding!

*They had the BEST cake!!! Super moist, the icing tasted homemade and the best part...there was this little chocolate ball beside the cake which I thought was like a truffle or something, oh no, it was like the hard shell chocolate over a scoop of ice cream and we all know how much I LOVE ICE CREAM!!! I was going to ask Matt if I could have his for half my cake but his was gone by the time I turned to him. Guess he liked it too.

Thanks for letting us share in your day Missey and Ben! I hope you two have a great time in Mexico this week!!!

Welcome to the World Colin!!!

...My bestie and friend forever Candace welcomed her baby boy, Colin Patrick to the world at 3:25PM on Thursday, May 6. He was named after his momma's maiden name Collins.
She went in Wednesday morning at 5am to be induced after an entire day and only getting to 3 they decided to stop trying until 4am on Thursday. When I spoke to Candace at noon on Thursday, she had to pause to have a contraction while we were talking and I helped her through it...he he whew...he he whew, she said the doctor thought he might be too big and that's why he wasn't moving. She called me at 4pm to tell me the little stinker came out the naturally way weighing in at 7 pounds and 15 ounces!!! I love this picture. The boy already has attitude and is giving his dad the finger saying, "Dude-stop taking my picture!"
I'm so happy for her and Chad!!! I just wish I lived closer so I could go see them but I'll be there soon enough and Colin will get to watch me, hopefully, survive and race my first half marathon! Chad and Candace are going to be wonderful parents, I can't wait to see them with their son over the years! Welcome to the family Colin! Aunt Lyss can't wait to meet you!