I did it! I really did it!!

Yesterday, Sunday, I ran and completed the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon (that's 13.1 miles). And let me tell you it's something that I will never forget. The weather was a little dreary, but it made for perfect running weather. I promised myself that I would run as much as I possibly could with little or no walking. I figure I walked for maybe 5 minutes total. Which I felt wasn't bad at all for my first time. When I registered I had to put a finishing time in, but I wasn't exactly sure what to put, Mikey. A friend of ours who also ran the race said to put 2 hours and 30 minutes. My goal was to finish within that time. Well I accomplished that, I finished in 2 hours and 27 minutes. I am so glad that Jenny (Mike's wife) ran the race. Her and I started out together and ran for some time. It was nice knowing someone at the starting line who got you pumped up. Mikey and Jenny's brother Nick, started off at the beginning of the pack and just took off. They finished way before Jenny and I did. That's because they are boys. Mikey had a PR (Personal Record), so way to go Mikey. All along the course they had live music, which was nice. It was very uplifting. Another cool thing, was that your first and last name was on your bib, so as you are running, people along the street are yelling for you, people you didn't even know. So that really helped as well. We got to run through the park and through the covered bridge, which was pretty cool. You finish the race in the stadium, so everyone is in the stadium cheering and clapping for you. (Not the best picture of me). After you finish they give you a medal, for participating, and a bottle of water. The "cape" that I'm wearing is used to warm you up and to get the heat going inside of you. I definitely think I'm going to continue running. Next time I'm going to do more training. Now, I can not wait for my trip to the Hershey Spa. That was part of the agreement between Jimmy and I. I'm hoping Jenny can go and enjoy the experience with me.

It's Official

Well everyone, it's official, I'm a student again. I have decided that I am going to go back to school. On Wednesday night I went to Marywood and met with my advisor and scheduled my first 9 credits of classes. I did a lot of thinking and praying about this and realized that this is something I have always wanted to do and felt if I didn't go through with it that I would regret it. So I'm going to give it a shot. I have to maintain a certain grade point average. I am going to continue to work full time. All of my classes are night classes, and what's even better is that Jimmy has night classes at the same time, which means we can carpool. Marywood here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Pap

Today is Pappy's birthday. We lost Pap in January to cancer. He fought hard. He was one of the hardest workers ever. He loved spending time with the family and doing things with the grandchildren. He loved to play golf. We all miss him tons!

Atlantic City Trip

On Sunday, Jimmy and I went to Atlantic City with my mom on a bus trip to support a Relay for Life team. The weather was beautiful. We walked on the boardwalk for a while and played the penny slots. It was nice.

A Few New Easter Pics

My Aunt Sherry sent me a few pictures from Easter at Aunt Marian's. This is my Aunt Sherry's new dog Gizmo. What a cute little guy! He even has his own Easter egg.

Stephanie and Gizmo. WOW!! Stephanie has a lot of eggs in her basket.

Bryan and I. I can not get over how much of a man he is becoming and how
grown up these kids are getting. Stephanie and I hanging outside.

Lovin It

Well I think spring has officially sprung. The weather has been beautiful the past couple of days, especially today. The sun is shining and it's warm. The want it to hit the high 70's almost 80. Jimmy and I were hanging out on the back porch. Jimmy is doing a little studyin. I was workin, but I couldn't take the heat any longer. So I had to come in. I hope everyone is enjoying the weather. Who know's how long it will stay this way!!

Scrabble is Our Game

When Jimmy and I went to the farm on Easter we were really looking forward to playing a game of Scrabble. That seems to be the new game at the farm on holidays. Gremmy has the delux edition of the game, so on the board there are etched out places for the letter and the board spins and it's plastic. It's pretty nice. A couple of weeks ago, Jimmy and I were talking about how we really enjoyed playing Scrabble and that we wanted to get the game. On one of our trips to Wal-Mart we decided we would look at the games. We didn't have very many, or actually any, board games. We saw Scrabble and knew we had to get it. But the delima was that the delux edition was over $30. And we didn't want to spend that much on the game. We decided that we would get the regular edition, which was under $15. That we could handle. We figured that I could have Gremmy keep an eye out at yard sales for the delux edition, or that maybe Santa would bring us the delux edition along with some other awesome board games. (HINT! HINT!)

We find ourselves playing this game quite a bit. Just about every night, depending if Jimmy has homework and how much. We are keeping track of each game, and Jimmy currently has me beat. It seems every time we play, I'll be winning in the beginning, but in the end he comes out of no where and wins. I dunno how he does it. We figure if we keep on practicing, the next holiday we play Scrabble, we will kick everyone's butt! So watch out Aunt Marcy and Devin!!

A Note From Afghanistan

I got this e-mail from my brother a couple of days ago...

Hello Everyone

Everything is going well at this end. Nothing to exciting, just doing missions and on my days off watching movies and T.V. serious. Just got done watching all 7 seasons of The Sopranos, it was a good show; the ending was a little upsetting. All of a sudden the screen goes black for like 30 seconds and the credits start to roll. I think there going to make a movie now.

Well I spent celebrating another birthday over in the Middle East, it was ok. I was on a 5 day mission to the eastern part of the province; so the day went fast. Also I found out that someone else in my platoon also has an April 1st birthday, I would have never expected something like that in a small group of people. The day after my birthday was the fun day, I got to do a flying mission. Five of us took a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter to the northeastern part of the Providences. I got to fly in one when I was in Iraq, but I forgot how fun it was to do something like that.

You would not believe what it is doing outside right now, IT’S RAINING. It started to rain last night about 6:30 and has been raining off and on ever since. We where told it the beginning of the monsoon season. It should be like this for the next month or 2. You know what they say April showers bring May flowers. We just won’t be getting the flowers or having to mow lawn after all the rain has stopped falling. That about it for right now. Hope everyone is doing well and everyone is healthy and safe.

Matt

Las Vegas ~ Part 2

One of the best parts of Vegas was when we had our awards dinner. The dinner used to be a black tie affair, but they changed it to business casual. Alicia and I got all dolled up for the awards dinner. We had a nice time. The first awards they gave out were ActionMan Awards based on our 14 Points of Culture. Coach Tim from our Lancaster firm won ActionMan of the Year for Balance. Then Coach Brian won Coaches Choice for Seminar Presenter. We thought we were on a roll. Next Coach Thom won two awards, one for Client Results based on Testimonials and the second for Client Awards. The Lancaster Firm was up for Firm of the Year, which through the whole night we weren't 100% sure if we were going to win it for the 2nd time in row. There are some awesome firms out there in North America that were up for the award. The final moment came and the winner was announced, we had won for the 2nd year in a row. We were totally stoked. Here is a picture of the Lancaster Firm with CEO Brad. All in all we were really happy with all the awards we won. Congratulations to all of those who were nominated and won. We had a great night, despite Don (my boss) getting sick and missing the whole thing. Way to go PA team!!

Las Vegas~Part 1

Well I'm officially back from all of my traveling. Vegas was a lot of fun. I'm really glad that Alicia went with me. It just stinks that I was in conference majority of the time. One of the coolest things we saw was the arboretum. The flowers were beautiful. I think my favorite was the lady bug. And eventhough I hate frogs, the frog was pretty cool. The snail was made out of roses. You have to see it in person to really appreciate it.

This tree reminded me of the tree from Pocahontas. The speaking tree in the movie though is girl. This one doesn't really look like a girl. I think it's a boy. I'll post another blog about the awards dinner and the awards we won.

Doing a bit of traveling

Things have been a little crazy for me lately, and I apologize for not really posting. Last Sunday I left for Veags, for our North American Conference for work. I flew back from there on Thursday. Friday afternoon Jimmy and I left for Bloomsburg. Saturday evening I left for Pittsburgh, where I currently am sitting in a hotel room. My company is the Seminar Sponsor for the PA Restaurant Show. So I'm out here helping them. I'm leaving Tuesday morning and heading back home. Where I will be doing a lot of catch up work. Once I get home and settled I will post some pictures from Vegas. And tell you a little about my trip and the awards we won! Go PA team!! Ok well, have a good night and I'll post again soon. Promise!!