2013 my way.

its taken a little bit of time for me to decide what i really want out of this year and put that into words. i didnt want to make a new years resolution or an empty promise like giving up chocolate, like that would EVER happen haha.

and so i decided in 2013 i am going to focus on..ME!

the good part about this is it can include a lot of things and be applied into a lot of different areas. i spent the last half of 2012 getting rid of things in my life that were not healthy, like my weight and incesant knee pain. and moving on from things that werent going in the right direction, like my relationship and a few friendships. and really starting to find out what the important things are to me, finishing school and figuring out where i want my career to go eventually. and finding out what an amazing support system i have that reaches farther then i could have ever imagined.

now i can move forward in this brand new year and focus on me. i have some big plans i cant quite reveal quite yet, mostly because they arent formed yet lol. but here are some im thinking about:

*i would love to get into volunteering

im not sure in what yet exactly. the military in some form or working with kids are the areas im thinking about.

with my old store!
a very long time ago at the boys and girls club.

*finish school

this is techinically over but it was a big thing right at the beginning of the year.

*possibly rec sports

some of my ragnar teammates play volleyball and softball so im really thinking about joining now that im done with school!

*enjoy running

while this is something i already do, last year i did a lot of learning and didnt even realize it till i looked back. i had a blast last year and didnt even really stop to enjoy it all. must slow down to soak it all in. and hopefully add another state or two to my map of ones i have run in. 

boom. a warrior.

 *work on my mindset

i made some really big decisions and changes last year. its time to appreciate that the heartache happened and move to a new mental state that this is my time to figure out what i want out of my future.

*clean out my closet

this i am actually going to do tonight. i have soo many things that dont fit anymore because they are just way too big and i cant even try to doctor it up into fitting. time to get rid of all the things holding me back!

*not be so hard on myself

some days this is easier said than done. i am only 27, which seems old at times, but so young at others. i make mistakes, i make good decisions, all of which has led me into the person i have become and will continue to grow into.

*surround myself with good people

today i got a text from a friend celebrating a major milestone that not everyone would love. it was so inspiring and heartwarming that she a. included me and b. had healed from a sucky situation to now be excited about forward is amazing. i am so lucky to have her and so many others like her in my life that i need to grab on to it and learn as much as i can. it also just lifts your spirit more when you have those good ones there:)

i dont have it all figured out yet, not even close. theres a bigger plan for me in all this i know it. sure would be nice to know a little bit about what that is:) but i do know for sure that 2013 is going to get me on the right path to find out whats in store for me down the road!

the san francisco adventure part 2

so we left off sunday night with all of us turning in. my parents headed out the early the next morning to the airport but luckily jessica was staying around for a good part of the day. we decided that meant it was time to finally ride the cable cars! so we trekked down to union square to pick up the famous powell and hyde line that would take us by all the good stuff.

we finally get to have post-race coffee together:)

we landed at the bottom and conveniently stumbled upon the buena vista. this was actually the place we were planning to go for breakfast sunday but just ran out of time before my grandparents came into town. apparently it has a very famous irish coffee so we saddled up to the bar and ordered some coffee, our 2nd of the day hehe. it was delicious and so cool to watch the bartender make tons of coffee for awhile. turns out they actually go through about 80-100 bottles of whiskey on a weekend day! omg thats a lot.

yum!

afterward we explored fishermans wharf a little while and people watching of course. which of course means the sea lions! jessica was very excited and im pretty sure she was scheming ways to take 1 of the little guys home:) we settled on in-n-out for lunch, which i realize isnt very san francisco, but it is very california. and man it was GOOD! i havent had anything like that in months. yum.

lombard street!

it seemed sooner than we both would of liked but we needed to head back to get her to the airport and us to our afternoon tour. we got back right on time and soon jessica was on the bart on her way to the oakland airport. i hate it when we have to say goodbye:/ richard and i hopped on the nearest street car that would take us all the way around to the pier to hop on our cruise to alcatraz! i have always wanted to go there and finally was able to fit it in. as we got closer and closer i started to get worried about the time since you need to arrive 30 minutes before the boat leaves to board. just as we got to the ferry building our driver informed us this would be his last stop since one of the front doors was broken and we would have to wait for the next car behind him in about 5 minutes. so we hopped off, did we really have a choice, and began waiting for the next one. richard started getting more and more upset at this point that we would never make it and now we wasted our money. now when people in san francisco say 5 minutes i swear they really mean at least 30 minutes. by this time we had more than missed our boat and wasnt sure we would be able to get refunded. i decided we should still go to the dock and see if theres anything they can do. richard decided he was fed up waiting and walked down to the pier as i waited for the street car. he apparently needed to blow off steam from something.

finally the street car arrived and i took it down to pier 33 to met him. we went to the window and the lady was amazingly nice, gave us our tickets, and told us we could do stand-by anytime tuesday. she gave the advice to be there for the early ones because they were the easiest to get on. this meant no tour tonight and no plan. after hearing all about how his plans never pan out and no one wants to do the things he wants when he wants to we decided to go see the painted ladies instead. luckily i still had a few maps in my purse, so i set out to figure out the easiest way to get there. it was also getting dark and we needed to get going if we wanted to see them in the daylight! turns out it was actually pretty easy and made it there just after the sun had passed over.

ill be moving in tomorrow:)

it was about dinnertime then and we were both hungry. after a few failed attempts at finding somewhere there, we seemed to keep getting into not such good areas we shouldnt be in after dark or really in the daylight either, we headed back to union square to find a diner instead. it turned out to be delicious and we headed back to crash for our early rise the next morning, determined to make it to alcatraz on the 1st boat out!

already knowing where we were going and how long it would take us to get there we made it in plenty of time to be 1st in the stand-by line tuesday and hopped on to the 1st boat no problem! its a quick trip to alcatraz and there was just a little bit of fog to make it a beautiful morning:) once we got to the island you here some quick safety tips from the park ranger then you are free to explore anywhere you want. get to the top of the hill, which equals a 13 story climb ps, and you get to the jailhouse and you can take an audio tour which we did. it was soooo cool! a little creepy, i wont lie, but very cool. i had no idea there was so much history to it!

the bay bridge.

spooky.

how did we get in here!

the view from alcatraz.

i seriously love divider plates!!

we made it back to the main land about 1230p and headed to pier 39 for lunch. it was finally time for a seafood lunch and the pier is the perfect place! the weather was fantastic all day and after lunch we walked around the shops a bit before grabbing some ice cream and heading back to the hotel before our next tour. i was actually able to sneak in an hour nap in the meantime!

found at the chocolate store at pier 39!

right on time, earlier than we probably needed but we didnt want to be late, we headed to the bart station directly outside to chinatown for our culinary tour. my parents took a culinary tour a few years ago in seattle and still rave about it. so when researching tours in san francisco i found one for chinatown and little italy and with just a little bit of convincing i was able to get richard on board pretty easily! our guide was great and there was only 1 other couple on our tour so it wasnt huge. we started with a tea tasting with all kinds of different chinese tea leaves then headed down back alleys of chinatown i would have never found on my own. next we stopped by a real fortune cookie factory and actual saw the little chinese man making the cookies and putting the fortune inside! i really wanted a picture but didnt have any change to give him:/ but we got to try a chocolate fortune cookie and our guide gave each couple a huge bag to take home!

next we got to taste dim sum at an eastern bakery that apparently bill clinton frequents when he visits haha. it was all kinds of different options and so much food! note to self:: next time i go on a culinary tour go really, really hungry!! luckily we got walk a bit and there was quite a bit of time before our next food stop. we wandered through chinatown and before we knew it we were in little italy. i had no idea they were so close. our guide was awesome and pointed out all kinds of history things along the way. we ended in a little pizza restaurant for some amazing pies and wine! the pizza was like wafer thin and had sooo much flavor. the owner was from rome and you could tell she made each pie with a lot of love:)

afterward we wandered around little italy a bit and found a cafe to have a cup of coffee in. it was delicious and the streets were so alive with people at 9pm on a tuesday night! man i would live in san francisco if i could:) we headed back soon after to pack since the next morning we were heading home. i was kinda sad to leave in a different way since we were able to spend so much time in the city on this trip. we had an amazing time and i am soooo grateful to my parents and jessica that came out to support too! to have so many faces travel with you and cheer you on such a big race is more than a girl could ask for:) till our next group adventure!!

the around the wold new years adventure.

living in las vegas, you have access to some pretty cool things, new years is no exception. every year they close down las vegas blvd from the stratosphere to mandalay bay and turn it into a huge party. the exits off the freeway are closed, side streets are parking lots, and hundreds of thousands of people all come together to ring in the new year. also many of the hotels launch fireworks off the roof that you can see all over the valley for like 10 minutes! they even have music playing to go along with it on the radio and tv stations. i have been down there twice, not in about 5 years, and it is a blast! you see the craziest things down there. richard had never been and didnt really want to, until this year.

source

after another house party last year i was really hoping to do something different to ring in 2012. a couple of the girls from work had told me about their new years and it was so different i hoped they would do it again this year. so in may i got a facebook invite (as did richard) for the around the world new years adventure. we would start in the afternoon in a bar/hotel/place that corresponded to it being midnight in that country. for example chinatown for new years in china, the paris hotel for paris, etc. i thought it would be a blast but richard wasnt quite convinced. after thanksgiving though he came to me and said, lets join the girls and something completely different, hell yeah!

here was the plan:
3pm- italy- venetian
4pm- ireland- o'shea's
5pm- FOOD/HYDRATE
6pm- faulkland islands- margaritaville (flamingo)
7pm- rio de janiero- pampas churrasciara brazillian grille (miracle mile shops @ planet hollywood)
8pm- FOOD/HYDRATE
9pm- new york- nyny casino
10pm- mexico city- diablos
11pm- strip 
12pm-midnight!- strip


saturday afternoon we decided to all meet at angelas so we could carpool and leave at 230p so we could get to the venetian on time. i had timed my run and nap to include food afterward to make sure we could leave at 145p to grab cash on the way. during my nap i head back from angela on some logistic things (jackets/purses/girl things) and found out that we were actually going to carry camelbaks full of our liquor of choice. this meant we had to leave a few minutes early to grab it at the store, but no big deal. the girls were also making t-shirts to wear, which richard was really not excited about, so we could find each other.

we showed up right at 230p afraid they would be waiting on us to find that they had just started on shirts. finally at 415p we actually left and sat in traffic to arrive late to osheas. i just wanted to drink at this point, but wasnt really sure what i was supposed to be doing. if we had these camelbaks full of alcohol we didnt need to buy a drink/shot at every place, so why were we going to all these places? the whole night was a little confusing so richard and i decided drinking was the way to go.

everywhere we went seemed to take forever. there were tons of people on the strip but once they opened the street it was sooo much easier to get around. we did go back to the car after eating at margaritaville to get warmer things and i dropped the camelbak. we werent drinking out of it and i didnt want to carry it anymore. for some reason the car stop was the longest break i have ever seen in my life and the rest of the group decided to make the night more about getting the t-shirts signed from all the people we were meeting rather than actually going to all our stops.

i should have known we were in trouble
when this was the 1st signature of the night,
on jodis dad by a super gorgeous girl!

our pitbull look-a-like at dinner!

as we started walking to nyny to celebrate at 9pm richard and i got separated from the group leaving us a great time to talk. they were walking so slow and stopping every 5 seconds that we just saundered on our own. we even discussed what we are thinking about for next year! definitely over the big house party thing, and probably not going to wander the strip all night next time. were actually thinking about going somewhere new or getting a room on the strip and having a late late dinner and celebrating in the hotel or going outside just for midnight. i like this new, we dream together thing:)

we found out later this is what the
rest of the group was doing haha!

once finally finding our group at nyny we decided it was time for serious drinks and the others grabbed some hot dogs. it got out of the street for awhile and some much needed aid haha. after leaving we headed up to the bellagio to meet one of our group members brother's. again nice to get out of the cold and sit for a little while. we made sure though to leave no later than 1115p to get outside to ring in the new year right! it was starting to get packed inside and outside so we knew we had to get going.

in las vegas serious drinks means these guys!

we weaved our way toward the paris/ballys so we could be close to our car so we could get out as soon as possible. it wasnt long before we were getting ready to countdown the last minute it was finally here! everyone joined in as we got to the last 10 seconds and then there was confetti and yelling and kissing everywhere! i got to ring in the new year the best way possible for the 3rd year in a row, with my love :) the fireworks were so beautiful and we could see them from a couple different hotels!

waiting...waiting.

the countdown!

next to paris.

over caesars.

once the fireworks were over it was time to go. they usher you off pretty quickly so they can clean up the street. the problem is you cant get into any of the hotels unless you are staying there. since we were parked at paris we tried though to get in the back way through ballys which only worked because dave had a membership card!! we were all exhausted at this point and tired of all the crowds. finally in the cars after our goodbyes to the other car we headed out of the garage to the back road to find it dead stopped. it took us almost 2 hours to get back to angelas!

as i stumbled to my car from the exhaustion with my extra layers i started to get hungrier and hungrier. now i know im in training and not supposed to, but we totally went to del taco on our way home and it was amazing! seriously its only that good when your up super late or have been drinking. that night richard and i actually fell asleep on the couch together after eating and woke up just enough to brush our teeth and actually go to bed together.

when i woke up the next morning i thought i would be a lot more sore than i actually was. i started thinking about the night before and all the things we saw with 300,000 of our closest friends on the strip. i realized it wasnt exactly what we thought or hoped, but we had a really good time! definitely something we can cross off our bucket list. and at the end of the night i got to kiss him at midnight, which is all i really wanted anyway:)

the training plan.

runners very much have a love/hate relationship with training plans. some days they are great and keep us on track. other days they are the bane of our existence, making us getting out of bed and not party as hard at a friends birthday. some use it as a guide, some use it as a bible.

personally i use mine more towards the middle. to follow it to the "t" is the ultimate goal, but sometimes it just doent happen. i start the training process 4 months before race day, im gonna use my upcoming october race for timeline purposes. so heres what the basic breakdown looks like:

4 months till race day (june) = training 3/days a week.
   ~that usually looks like 2 days running and 1 day cross-training
3 months till race day (july) = training 4/days a week.
   ~during this month i typically add another cross-training day.
2 months till race day (august) = training 5/days a week.
   ~add on that last day of running.

this training cycle though, i did it a little different. in june i chose to run 3/days a week, adding 1 cross-training day in july, and my 2nd cross-training in august. this is where you stray more to the guide side of the training plan. something just felt right about running 3 days in the 1st month, so i went with it. here is what my training plan week by week looks like for this cycle:

  

click to view!

i didnt really realize how crazy this is until i sat down and wrote it all out again. i got this instant feeling overwhelm and panic looking at the excel spread sheet. i had to take quite a few deep breaths and close the workbook for awhile before opening to look at it again. once i opened it again i was able to look at how much i had already done. i think that is very important. while august and september look terrifying on the graph, i am already done with june and july, and i survived. its a tough cycle and trying to fit it all in with life is the biggest challenge.

with each training cycle comes some sacrifices...
2 months before race day-august 1st
   ~give up starbucks, alcohol, and fast food.
1 month before race day-september 1st
   ~continue with the first 3 things and give up pizza, anything fried, and ice cream.

it sounds drastic, i know. but the reward is so worth it. feeling so clean and healthy in that last month is super important. i had a run last week when i ate mcdonalds the night before a run and my stomach was screwed up for the whole day. its hard to give up those things, yes. the alcohol isnt too hard except for when i go to bars, etc with friends. pizza is by far the hardest! i love pizza, seriously i do. and it is everywhere. all the time. ice cream is a very close second, mostly because i love it so. but the clean feeling is so worth it in the end, i promise!


my love.

a runners training plan is deeply personal. i go into my races wanting to finish them. the goal is to not get picked up by the bus (if you are not keeping pace there is a bus that will come to pick any stragglers and you do not officially finish!). i care about my time, but i dont plan for one. i dont do speed work to improve my time. or push my body to the ultimate extreme for a minute off my previous days run. i run for me:)

3rd place in my age group!!

the ornament party.

a few weeks before thanksgiving we had decided to have our very first christmas party.  i was super stoked, always wanting to have my own place to throw a party.  richard was equally stoked to show off our place now that we had lived there over 2 months and to have so many of our friends together.  there was of course a great debate on which weekend to have it, as finally settled on the 18th of december.  i had decided not to put up a facebook invite after we got home from our thanksgiving weekend because i thought it was too soon and people would probably forget by the time the party rolled around.  other planning was beginning to come together though.  we thought about doing a secret santa, but that would be hard with such different groups of friends not knowing each other.  then we thought about white elephant, but werent super excited about that so we decided to just make the decision when it got closer to time.

when we got home from thanksgiving richard went over to hang out at matts house and found out that he was also planning some kiond of holiday party.  richard told him we were thinking the 18th and they said no problem, they would figure out a different weekend.  a few days later the facebook invite showed up in my requests folder while i was at work and i knew this was not going to be good.  it was also for the 18th.  now mind you, we had not sent ours out yet because i thought it was too soon, guess not.  the invite had said they were flexible and realistically so we were we, we hadnt set the actual date yet.  i received a text from richard asking what we were going to do now and see it hadnt been too early for the invite.  i suggested we talk to the matt and see what other weekend they were thinking and then go from there.  while i emailed matt, the we should have sent it out turned into a quick downward spiral into maybe we just shouldnt do this at all because it wouldnt be the right weekend.  after emailing a few times with matt i realized how loose their plans were and knew that we could easily figure this out, richard however was not at all convinced.  while on lunch that day i called him to tell him what matt and i talked about, but he was still not convinced and the spiral was going farther down.  luckily matt actually walked into the lunchroom at that moment and he and richard ended up talking about the whole thing and figuring it out in about 2 minutes flat.  we would keep the 18th and he would take a friday either the day before or the weekend before, problem solved!

planning continued and we finally decided on a theme for the party!  since it was our first year in the new place our tree was a little sparse and we were trying to come up with ways to fill it.  with help from jodi we decided to make our theme an ornament party.  instead of spending money on a secret santa gift, guests would take the money and purchase an ornament for our tree that would remind us of you and that we would keep for seasons to come.  we had also decided to do appetizer/dessert foods so that people could come and go as they needed to.  the weekend was getting closer and closer and we just had to buy the last few things to be completely ready.  i didnt have to work that morning, but did have a 2 year-old birthday party to attend that afternoon for a family friend.  my plan was to get everything baked, cleaned, and put together before i had to leave so when i came home i had very little to finish up.

it all sounded like such a great plan, until you actually put life in there.  richard did errands in the morning to finish his things up, and nothing was going right.  he couldnt find the things he needed and people were in the full christmas mean mode of shopping.  i ended up staying about 45 minutes too late at the birthday party, which meant i was late getting home.  he was upset cause i lost track of time, i didnt think it was that big of a deal as long as i got everything done, which was going to be tight.  he offered to help put the last minute food things together so i gave him the punch detail.  as he was combining things together we realized there wasnt enough alcohol for the punch recipe, and all hell broke loose.  he was mad at me because i didnt tell him the right amount.  i was mad because he didnt look at the recipe i gave him.  he was mad because i stayed at the party too long and didnt plan well enough.  i was mad because the last minute things were taking too long.  both of us stomping around mad at the other, richard decided to go get the alcohol and i decided to stay and finish my things.  i finished a few minutes before he got back so i decided to take out the trash to help.  on my way to the dumpster i passed him and he wouldnt even look at me.

we came back upstairs and didnt even speak to each other, oh except for him to ask if i was going to take a shower because i stunk, which definitely helped my mood.  i finished my appetizer things and left for the shower still not talking.  after getting dressed i knew we had to at least figure this out a little bit because all our friends were coming over in about an hour.  i finally broke the silence and apologized for running late, well that just opened a whole door of pent up things.  we had a pretty serious discussion the weekend before because i was pretty upset and thought things had been resolved, guess not.  he had said his piece, i felt about 3 inches tall, but knew we couldnt have an all out argument because we were running out of time.  so i kept it all in and finished getting ready.   he seemed better once getting it all out and was helping set the table and arranging food so i ran with it.

the party was a definite hit!  everyone really got into the ornament buying and had to find the perfect one.  they loved the food and could not believe how many decorations we had for just being our first year.  it was a small party, which was fine with us, but it was definitely a good tradition to start.

that same night there was a pretty big ufc fight happening, which i was afraid was going to totally derail the party plans.  but the guys had been big thinkers and taped the fight to watch once the party was over, thank goodness.  (ufc fighting is just not one of my favorite things, im not so good with that stuff.  but richard loves it and so does his friends.)  right around 10 everyone was pretty full and the guys were ready to go watch the fight.  i stayed home, gladly, to clean up and hang out with the newest girl in the group (had to feel her out).  i think it was one of the best things for richard and i to spend a few hours apart anyway, still not super settled on our fight.  we hadnt really hung out a lot during the party, both keeping busy on purpose with others.  this was our first really big fight since we moved in together and we were trying to figure out how to do all of this.

girl time with heather and a very drunk lora is exactly what i needed.  mike and lora had shown up right as the guys were headed over to matts to watch the fight.  so we kept lora with us and mike went with the guys.  i was going to take heather home later and pick up richard when they were done with all their manly things.  the girls talked about so much and i got great advice from lora.  like i said, it was exactly what i needed.  i realized some things i definitely had done wrong and was able to clear my head so that richard and i could talk about them later and not be defensive.

as the guys finished the fight lora left to pick up mike while heather and i stayed for awhile longer.  the original plan was to drop heather off at matts and pick up richard at the same time when he was ready.  after both of us falling asleep on the couch we decided to just take her home and i would go out again later and get richard.  i was trying to give both of us space and had no problem going out again later.  right as i was getting home he called.  he said he wasnt quite ready to come home and anthony would actually bring him home later.  i was a little sad, but so glad he had called, i knew that everything would be ok.

once he got home that night i was already asleep and he was not feeling good.  he woke me up to let me know he was home and then he started getting sick.  he hadnt really eaten that day, then drank all night, and we had a pretty big fight.  i immediately got up and tried to help out anyway that i could.  it actually was a blessing in disguise.  we both started openly talking and being very vulnerable to each other.  we both apologized and admitted to those we had done wrong.  we realized in that night that the newness had really worn off.  we really lived together and were starting to find out a whole new level of the other person.  a friend had told me the first year is the hardest thing ever.  the second year is so much easier, and the third year is amazing.  up until this point everything had been so easy.  i really thought we had skipped the hard part, definitely realized we were not any different than any other 2 people who lived together.

the holiday party was a great success, even with all the things that went awry.  we definitely figured out a little bit more about each other and that it was ok to fight and then take space.  as long as we came back to the table and could talk openly with each other.  and we had a whole new set of fantastic ornaments added to our tree!

the tree lighting.

after returning from a somewhat bummy ending to the thanksgiving weekend, it was time for one of my favorite things to do of the year, put up the christmas tree.  while driving home i had seen all kinds of friends posting things on facebook about their trees and could not wait to add mine.  we had already decided to put up the tree and decorations when we returned from california, which i could not be more excited about!  plus i was excited about really having our apartment decorated.

we had been buying for awhile, as you know.  but it seemed like when we really thought about it, we didnt even know what we had.  we finally purchased our last piece, the tree while in california.  we were definitely ready to put all of our things together.

once we got home we unloaded the car, we tried to get a few things organzied before completely undoing a whole nother set of things.  putting together the chirstmas tree with my dad and brother has always been one of my best childhood memories.  after that my dad and i always put the lights on together.  and by lights, i mean tons.  i was really excited to start this new tradition with richard.  we had returned home with chick-fil-a that i knew richard would eventually be taking over to friends that evening as well, we had a lot to do.

we decided to put the tree together first, as it was the biggest and the most center piece.  finally opening the box we realized this was going to take awhile.  there was metal pole, a topper, and each row of branches had 6 pieces to attach to the center pole.  im pretty sure there was at least 8-10 rows.  about an hour later...we finished the tree, there was so much fluffing once all the branches were attached.  this tree had also pretty much taken over our whole living room.  we knew the measurements of the tree, but didnt really understand what that would look like until we had the tree assembled.  it was right about that moment richard realized it was already time for him to go.  i hadnt realized he was going to leave so soon after we got home or i never would have started the tree process.  however while he was gone, i was very firm on not doing anymore without him.  this was our first decorating together.

once he got back he decided to put the lights on the outside while he still had warm clothes on.  we had rope lights to go around the pole on the balcony and blue and white icicle lights to hang off the edge.  it was so much easier said than done.  first we couldnt get the rope lights connected to light up.  then they kept falling apart.  the 2 of us are damn near hanging off the balcony to get the rope lights to wrap around the pole.  and every time we do they fall apart again.  then there is no way to attach the icicle lights.  we have a drill that we borrowed from my dad but he is sure the stucco is going to break.  then he is drilling on the bottom of our wall to see if it will even work.  im telling him he needs holes on the top of the ledge for the nails to hold the lights there and he is telling me none of it is going to work.  needless to say it was your typical first decorating experience.

after we decided the rope lights were wrapped around good enough we started with the lights on the tree.  i have been doing this part every year, forever, while it had been a few years for richard. we had quite a few strands of different lights between the multi-colored, blinking, and white, they overlapped a lot.  we also realized we did not have nearly enough for such a large tree.   i will say, he did a very good job.  except for the fact he kept saying we needed to turn the lights on before putting them on the tree because then you could see where they need to go.  and i kept saying you do the big lighting at the end.  either way the tree came out beautiful.

we didnt have any ornaments for the tree that day.  in my family every year while growing up you got to buy one new ornament for the tree.  this way when you moved out you had your own starter collection, which had not been unpacked at my parents house yet.  richard and i decided to make it a blue theme this year, thinking we wouldnt have enough ornaments to really decorate the tree, we just hadnt purchased them yet.  we placed our other decorations, the train, the gingerbread house, and a few other things, but realized that we really didnt have that much.  it was becoming more and more apparent that this is really one of those things you acquire over time.

looking back now, im realizing i could have been a lot more flexible.  like who cares if the lights are lit when you decorate the tree.  or if he wants more white lights, it doesnt matter.  or if the ornaments he does put on there hang off the bottom all awkward.  and yes a pre-lit tree would have been a lot easier, but that takes half of your memories away.  for our first christmas together, it was perfect.