Holy Craft: My half marathon recap

My friends recap of her Half Marathon! I will post on my first 10k in the coming days! 



Holy Craft: My half marathon recap: On Sunday I ran my fourth half marathon. For those of you who aren't runners, that's 13.1 miles. Half way to crazy, but not all...

Our surprise for the boys

We pulled it off! We wanted to say something to the boys before our little trip but it was so much better that we could have thought!

Waiting for our room...

Our Kids Cabin Suite

After a long day in the water; day 2 coming up

Bucket drop

magic quest time

Sound to Narrows

This morning Eric successfully completed his second full marathon! His school has a 6 week running program that ends with a 2k shuffle at the Sound to Narrows race. They over this 6 weeks time frame run 26.2 miles! I am so proud of Eric, he had a goal and he met it!
 I guess you can say running is becoming a family thing!

Eric's 2nd grade teacher ran this year with the school, and we saw each other after the race. She hugged me and told me how proud of Eric she was! That warms my heart. Eric has grown so much in the past few months and I can't believe he's going to be in the 4th grade and 10 years old this winter!

Running...

~Eric's school every spring has a running club, last year Eric joined and enjoyed it that he wanted to do it again this year! They meet every Tuesday and Thursday and he runs on the off days. They end the club with a 2k (1.2miles) race at the Sound to Narrows in June. At the completion of the 2k Eric will have run the equivalent of a full marathon (26.2 miles!) I joined Eric on the 2k last year and he smoked me! This will be Eric's second equivalent marathon, I'm so excited to do this with him again!

~ After running the 2k with Eric, I got the running bug. I have had several times when I was running in the past, but I haven't committed to it in almost 5 years! I made a goal to do a few 5k's over the next few years. In October I gathered a group of friends in support of our dear friends Jon and Karla who lost their 3 month old son to a drunk driver; and we walked a 5k for MADD. Fast forward to this winter, I had a friend run the Tinkerbell half marathon in Disneyland! So cool! So I made a goal for myself, that in 3-4 years (once Abbey was a little older) that I would run in that race, along with the family Neverland 5k. We wanted to make this our family Disney trip and I want my support team there! So now I'm going to do 5k's and work up to a 10k then maintain in order to do a half marathon (13.1)

~I started running again 3 weeks ago and am sitting at 2 miles 4 days a week. I get up early and run outside, I love how quiet it is in the morning. I have a goal and I'm sure with time I'll make it but right now it seems impossible!  This Mother's day I will be running in the Color Run's 5k in downtown Seattle, I'm so excited! I'm hoping to run this 5k with Eric in September!

If I can make it through the Tinkerbell half I'm hopeful I can then do this race... But we will see where we are this goal is met!

Confidence...

Last week Andrew and I joined Eric for lunch at his school. Every year they give out positive character trait awards; every student gets an award that best suits them. The Principle joined all the award winners and their quests. Eric was given the Confidence award, and I couldn't agree more! After lunch Andrew and I headed out with Eric for recess, and let me say we were treated like movie stars! All the kids wanted us to play with them, even let us cut in line so they could play tether ball against us! At first Eric wanted to play fly football with Andrew; so Eric gathers his team, and when I looked up he had gathered all girls!!! Is this a preview of a few short years to come, oh rest my soul Lord!

After lunch

Eric's all girl football team!

Eric and Andrew playing tether ball

a tribute... Happy Birthday Patty!

I am trying my hardest to say something new, something I haven’t said before about the birthday girl! 

I have had many people ask me why I love Patty so much, well I’ll tell you! 

 I met Patty when I was just 8 years old after a cross country move that I was not happy about! I remember she came over with a pie as a welcome from the church we spotted right down the street. I felt an instant connection with her; I don’t know what it was. For the next 8 years my parents lied about who I was in order to keep their secrets. Forcing me into solitude, I had no one I could turn to or trust. I searched for commonality with anyone but came up empty handed.  I clung to my relationship with God; but I learned how to have that relationship from watching others in my church. Patty was a huge role model for me during those 8 years. Then my family fell apart and the truth came out. Billy and Patty were the only people that stood with me against the lies, I was 16 then. It wasn’t until Andrew and I were about to get married 3 years later that Patty suggested that she mentor me. I agreed of course, not really knowing what I was getting into! All I knew is I valued her option over any other human being on earth. Even though I had known Patty for 9 years and had admired her it was really from afar due to lies. Right from the beginning of our mentor relationship we both said in order for this to work we are going to have to be honest even if it’s painful. I remember several events where Patty made me confront things and to say that they were anything but easy is an understatement.

 Patty has walked me into true fellowship with God. Patty has mentored me off and on for 15 years now, and this relationship has grown beyond mentoring into a friendship. Patty has listened to my story countless times and every time it brings tears to her eyes, even though she was there during all of it. When my life and family was falling apart, Patty was there when everyone else walked away. She walked though my personal hell with me and she taught me that in all things God is always there. Being mentored is not any easy thing but I knew whatever was asked of me I would try to do. It would kill me if I disappointed her.  Now that I’m a decade older the mentor relationship has shown me how my walk with God is suppose to be, of course my admiration for Patty will never seize. My spiritual walk would not have been where it is today without God placing Patty in my life as my guide back to Him. Patty, I don’t know how I would have ended up without the guidance you have given me. I am so grateful God has allowed our relationship to grow over the years and create a bond neither one of us can truly explain; except totally God willed.

There is one time I tested Patty almost 4 years ago, I asked her advice on a trip I was going to take. She advised me not to go; but I felt God telling me to go and flew all the doors open. During that trip I tried to call her and no answer. I knew what she was thinking, all the personal work Alise has done was going to go down the drain and she was going to have to pick up all the pieces.  God proved that I was meant to go on that trip with a long drive with my cousin who was murdered 2 short years later. When I got home I told her how powerful the trip was for me and I was stronger than I thought, Patty threw her arms around my neck and with tears in her eyes she said “I’m so proud of you!” Oh those words mean so much to me, especially from her!

26 years of memories is difficult to pin point all of them but, we have traveled places both personal and missions, we have painted, walked, ran, cried, laughed, seen each other without make-up (poor Patty for seeing that,) singing together, we have babysat each-other's children, countless pictures, and so much more together. One thing that is extremely important to Patty and me is loyalty. And besides Andrew, Patty is the next person I turn to. I think some days Patty knows me better than I know myself!

I don’t know what you have seen in this little mess of a girl that makes you stick like glue. But I wouldn’t change a thing to have our relationship be where it is now. So many people tried to tear our relationship apart but God had bigger plans. Patty, you have given me the acceptance and unconditional love I lacked in my childhood and teen years. I honestly don’t know if I could ever tell or express to you just how much you mean to me. I’m so blessed to have you! 

Your mom was right, you have forever changed this little girl's life!

 Happy birthday my dear friend I love you! 

~Alise

Abbey's Easter themed birthday party

 I got each of the older girls flower headbands, the boys had spring colored ties in their goodie bags, and the younger girls all got white & pink bunny ears! We had to move the party to our park down the street because our downstairs was still not completed yet. But we couldn't have asked for a better day for it! It was in the high 60's! It was perfect for our egg hunt.  Once the kids collected all the eggs we removed the candy and recycled the plastic egg and made egg maraca's!