Crawfish Alley 2011

Good Morning Bloggies!

Hope your weekend was as fun as mine! I behaved like I was in college from Thursday until Sunday and now my voice is G-O-N-E. But it was well worth it.

We had our annual Crawfish Alley weekend here in Tunica and it was, as usual, a blasty. Friends from near and far came to raise money for the private school in town and we all had a great weekend together!

Every year that I have known Tom, we have celebrated together with friends at Crawfish Alley. The Nashvillians love a weekend in the country, and Crawfish Alley holds a special place in my heart for me and Tom. In 2007, it was where we officially decided to become boyfriend/girlfriend. Awwwwwww.

Anyway...

I did not nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, but I was too busy socializing to hide behind a camera all day. Lacey got a few more good ones than I did:
This random redneck from last year was there again. He has a huge crush on me and follows me around all weekend trying to kiss me. Blech.
Miss Lilly was there in full force! Toddling around making new friends...

And getting lots of love from all her 'aunts' that came in from Nashville to see her.

The beer was a'flowing and the crawfish were hot, hot, hot....the fixin's for a great weekend!

The star of the show right here:

If you like crawfish, this next picture will make you drool (ahem...Ben Lambert). If you don't like crawfish then please avert your gaze....

I loved, loved, loved having all my girls there this weekend! I wish they could come visit us more often! But our 'Spring Break' every year is always very special and fun.

Doh! There is that redneck again...I finally agreed to get a picture with him because he was so lonely and begged me to. I guess he was kinda cute.

After the crawfish all day, we had Mexican that night and went back to our house....

Where mojitos and debauchery ensued (what about Erica's face in this picture? Love.)

As you can see, Reba had a horrible weekend and was severely neglected and abused for three straight days.

Siiiiggggghhhhhh what a fun weekend...to be young again!

I woke up on Sunday morning and sounded like a drag queen. My voice was completely horse and I felt fine but sounded awful! I tried not to talk too much for a couple days, and it's slowly making it's way back. Tom is thrilled as you can imagine.

In other news....

This weather is making me really itch to get back outside and get some runs in! Reba and I have been more diligent about our outdoor exercise and it fells so nice to get back into the swing of things.

I have decided that I'm going to make small goals, and take baby steps towards getting to where my fitness level once was. In doing this...starting from scratch....I had to reach back into my mind's archive and pull out some of my motivational tricks for getting back to it!

• Dust off the 'ole iPod and make a new playlist! Or, if you're way more smarter than me, get an audio book. I have thought about trying this but haven't yet. I like a 'book on tape' as they used to be called, every now then. So I might have to look into this.



• Get an accountability partner. Find a friend that has a similar schedule and fitness level as yours, and set a weekly running date.



• If you can't find a human partner, take your dog! Since you are just starting out, the dog will be too and you can train together. As your endurance increases, so will your pup's. And you'll have a lovable and healthy running companion.



• Set small goals. Start small...pick a 5K that takes place 8 weeks from now and put a plan together.



• Go a little further with each run. I am all about some walk breaks, okay. But, with each run I try to run a little further before my walk break than I did in my last run. For instance, if you ran to the fourth house on Elm Street yesterday, try running to the sixth or seventh today.



• Set rewards for yourself. A friend of mine told me that once she completes her first 5k her husband is buying her a massage! What a great idea. And an awesome husband (<---speaking of awesome husbands, remember when Tom got me that in-home massage after the half marathon in Jackson?)

So these are just a few tips to get you goin' this Spring. I am currently trying to get my 5K time down to a manageable state. My last PR in a 5K was something like 29:09. But at that time I was three weeks away from my triathlon, and was in phenomenal shape. This time, I have some reasonable goals for my 5K times:

• Tunica Humane Society Doggie Dash: April 30th. Goal: To Finish.



• Race for Paws 5K: May 14th. Goal: Under 32 minutes



• Memphis Civitan 5K: June 18th. Goad: Under 30 minutes

So what do you think? You think I can do it? I would love to have a sub-30 5K in a couple months! We shall see.

Last week, Reba and I did 3 miles in 33:02. THIS week (we went last night) we did it in 32:08. So I think the goals I've set above are definitely doable.

It's bathing suit season, homies....time to get back at it!!!!!!!