the graduate.

so its been just over a month since i finished school and for some reason i havent been able to write about it all yet. i have tried a few times, mostly ending with me staring at a blank page. its almost a little unreal to be done. and to say that i have a masters degree. plus i will have no more homework ever again! it was kind of awesome getiing ready for surf city and not having to worry about what was due or finishing up things before i left. the other free days during the week are friggin sweet as well:)

the crazy thing is it was right about 2 years ago, almost exactly that i made the decision to go back to school. (read all about it here!) there were definitely some naysayers, actually quite a few that told me there would a lot of things i would have to give up. for example, i probably wouldnt run as much. i most likely wouldnt travel very often. i really wouldnt have much of a life at all with working full time. even with all those scary thoughts i embarked anyway!

the life of a runner and a grad student.

it was hard, i cant even lie. and there were many a days i thought it wasnt ever going to end or that i could just stop. but then as the classes started to tick off and the months started flying by i realized how fast this was really going to go. so i bucked up, figured out a schedule that finally worked, and became determined to finish! i pushed out the people that told me it was too much work or that it was a silly thing to even be doing. i focused and relied on the people that were crazy supportive instead, luckily there were a lot more of those than the other:)

as my last class finally came to a close it all started getting real, really real. and after staying up until 2am on a saturday night to finish my nightmareishly long 30 page paper because i just couldnt look at it anymore, i was done. all i had to do was read over it and turn it in. i had really finished! i told my mom that once the paper was done all i wanted was a cupcake from the cupcakery to celebrate. so as i came bouncing downstairs that sunday-at about 2 in the afternoon-i was finally able to tell her it was time for cupcakes! it was the first of many celebrations:)

that monday i turned in my monster paper-that wasnt actually due till wednesday, yay me-and waited for my final grade. i had about 30 points to play with and still keep my a in the class. and i waited. and waited. and waited some more. and waited. then, on friday morning that week when i was off and we were leaving that afternoon for my grandpas birthday i got my official grade on the paper...and 88%!! which added up meant i got a 95% in the class! which really meant i had completed my masters program with a 4.0!!

to continue the celebration i did when any normal runner does, i ran a 1/2 marathon with my favorite running buddy jen:) i know, totally normal! the original plan was to have a graduation party in vegas that weekend but when your grandpa turns 80 and has a party, he pretty much wins haha. so i decided on having the next weekend instead!

after some serious searching for the right place i found bjs cocktail lounge. it had a great atmosphere, friendly, and had a pool table so people had some things to do. the people there were great and let me bring in all kinds of decorations. jessica flew out from denver to join in the festivities, and i had family come from all over! there was cake of course-whats a party without cake-that was delicious. we had a blast and had soo many different people came to have a drink or 2!

jessica stayed for a few extra days and in true style we decided to make the most of our time. which in our case meant a trip to some place special...

it only took 1 quick question from jessica for us to end up here!

i LOVE her:)

i had been saying for months that when i graduated i wanted to go buy something from tiffanys for myself as a reward for finishing. well after some looking i realized that may not be the most feasible thing ever and there wasnt anything that super caught my attention. so instead i set out to buy myself a watch! i havent had one since i worked at old navy almost 3 years ago because i was everyones time keeper for everything. soon it just became associated with work and i took it off the moment i was off. but i began thinking how much i really wanted now. so after some hunting i picked out a perfect one from fossil that i love! it was the perfect gift:)

i couldnt get a good picture, so i had to borrow!source

now that ive been done for that month ive been doing some adjusting. its weird to not have worry about homework on wednesday nights. or wonder when was the last time i logged into post something for attendance. when i went out of town the last 2 times i didnt have to even think about homework. i did think i would have so much more time then i actually do. kind of makes me wonder how i even made it all fit for that long! i did start to think about the naysayers the other day and all the things they told me i couldnt do. when i actually thought about it, i realized how many things i really did do, and there were quite a few!

*trained for and completed 6 1/2 marathons-cut back on running my ass

*traveled to england for one of my best friends weddings

*held my full time job successfully

*trained for and completed an olympic triathlon

*became single and even more independent

*finally got to participate in ragnar

*lost 25 pounds

oh and yes, i will participate in a graduation ceremony in the early summer. where and when is still being worked out with my advisor. who knows where this will take me next. i have some big picture ideas im working on now. i was finally able to sit down and write this when it all became very real upon coming home one night to a package on my front doorstep. my diploma was inside:) its really real now! 

master of arts in education
higher & postsecondary education

the 2 year anniversary.

being the hopeless romantic that i am, i had been looking forward to our anniversary for awhile. richard actually brought up the ideas first! now by brought up ideas, i mean asked what i wanted to do. we had a bit of a different idea of what we were each thinking. i wanted to get away and stay somewhere like lake las vegas for saturday night. richard was thinking lets stay in town, take the money and see a show. i liked both ideas, i was a little more hopeful for mine because it would be a chance for both of us to relax after a crazy month and a half. i did really like the idea of seeing a cirque-du-solei show, as i had never seen one before. i just wasnt sure we were going to have the money to see one.

we do live in a pretty cool place!

the other thing i was struggling with was the gift. when you are searching for an anniversary gift it shouldnt be something they need, it should be something they want, if even that. and not something you can ask them what they want. i decided a few weeks ahead that i was going to help richard upgrade to 2011 with a new phone. he had the very first touchscreen phone from sprint and was badly in need of a new phone, plus it was time to get a new contract anyway. i had gone back and forth, because it was a little expensive. but i had saved the money and was ready to spend!

the 18th was a monday so we had decided to celebrate the weekend before our actual anniversary.  somehow i scored the weekend off so we were able to spend the whole weekend together. richard had planned out our saturday night and i was ready for an evening alone with my love. i was still trying to figure out when/how to get richard his gift. i couldnt go in and pay for it on my own because i didnt know exactly which one he wanted and i didnt have his account info. so i decided to try and have him help me figure it out before hand. well that went extremely awry.

a few days before our anniversary richards phone started to die. and by die i mean couldnt send a text unless someone else sent it first. then it went really down hill. it got to the point where his phone didnt even turn on. so he went to the sprint store to try and get a replacement, but i was afraid they would talk him into a new one. so as he was leaving that morning i had to tell him the surprise. i was a little sad to have to tell him so early, but so excited to get him something he would love. his response was the exact opposite of what i expected, he said he already knew, and i had been giving it away all week. i was super upset and felt like i should had try to keep a better secret. i also got the complete opposite of the happy/excited face. i woke up from my power nap pretty distraught and not sure he even wanted the phone. i kept feeling like my surprises just were good enough.

we decided to go to the sprint store that saturday since we were going to spend the day together. we also had to have a not so fun conversation about me wanting him to be surprised and show me that and him hoping that i can reel in the little bit of crazy girl i let out sometimes. we both realized as amazing as our relationship is and we that we do have an incredibly strong base, but there is always something to work on. now it may not be huge, because both these were not, however if you dont talk and take care of something like this quickly it can blow up into something huge.

when saturday rolled around it was perfect. we went to the sprint store and spent 2 hours finding the best phone for him. and he took me out that night for dinner and to my favorite place, the bellagio conservatory. we got to get dressed up and spent the talking and laughing together, just the 2 of us. we bonded over a death by chocolate dessert at jean phillipes behind the conservatory.

beautiful:)

seriously yum!

once we got home we spent the night curled up on the couch watching things on our dvr. when we finally decided to go to bed that night i had gone into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. after i was finished i went to crawl into bed discovering richard scrolling through all the apps on his phone saying in awe that he could never get through them all. i knew he loved the phone:)

sunday was a little up and down with the womens world cup game. and i broke my anniversary present:( i am literally the worlds biggest klutz and knocked it on the floor to see it instantly break. richard was more upset about the broken pieces then i have ever seen him. i thought he was going to storm out, he couldnt even look at me. i kept telling him i could fix it with glue, they were very clean breaks, and apologizing over and over again. he just didnt believe me and that put him in an awful mood for the game. we almost stayed home for the game because of the mornings events. finally, almost right before we left, we both stopped putting up walls and let our guards down to accept the other persons apology.

a new snow white for my collection:)

we ended up meeting our friends downtown and i am so thankful we did. we got a few drinks in ourselves and had something else to focus on. the women's team ended up losing the game and it was pretty awful. but it made us get over the argument from the morning. i was pretty upset after the game and richard was right there to help me. it was so much more than a game for me.

after a rocky few days before it was a great weekend together. even with the little mishap sunday. we seem to do these little hiccups around big events. sometimes you forget how long you have been together and what that should mean until you have something like an anniversary come up. that tends to bring up serious feelings that you didnt know where there. as long as you can talk about it to each other, you can make it through anything. communication is the key:)

2 amazing years together:)

the real settling in.

one of the hardest things to do when you move in with anyone is to combine things.  you are so used to having your own things (no matter how broken or out of date they are) around you.  but when you really start looking into it more often then not, one person has things the other doesnt or has the better quality.  one has the better tv, the other has the better dvd player.  it helps in the beginning to not have to rush out and buy things immediately, but what happens when you want to start upgrading?

its usually the girl first, lets be honest, who brings up the purchasing of new things.  that was definitely true in our case as well.  it started right around the middle of december.  we had been in the apartment about 2 months and i started looking around noticing that the bookshelf was mine, the tv was richards, the bedroom furniture was mine, the couch was richards.  the only things in our apartment at the time that was ours were the christmas decorations and those were going in boxed in a matter of weeks.

for me it wasnt just about the purchase of new things, it was about purchasing things together.  it was about making our apartment ours.  the couch was the very first thing on the list.  that futon was soooo uncomfortable.  it was a great starter, not a forever.  the purchasing process, well that was something else completely.  if you havent heard that story, well please enjoy.

to go from this...

to this...huge upgrade.

it was our first big purchase as a couple and that really meant we were in this together.  not just going on vacations together, or moving in together, or sharing bills.  it was no longer a his and her thing, it is an us thing now.

after that purchase, i was bitten by the decorating bug.  i wanted to purchase like there was no tomorrow.  new bed sets, lamps, wall decor, everything.  now i didnt, my budget quickly halted me.  as did the fact that i wasnt the only opinion that mattered.  if i was going to buy a large picture to go over the couch, i needed to ask for richards opinion.  not because i had too or needed too.  because we are in this together and he deserves to have an opinion too.

i quickly made the deal that i would buy the bed set if he would buy the lamps for the bedroom.  this way we could both purchase something important and on our own time lines.  of course mine wanted to be a lot quicker, part of being a girl i guess.  we had found the perfect bed set months earlier.  not too girlie, not too much color, actually had color, it was perfect.  ps i am still waiting on the new lamps.

the upgrade from an all white comforter.  love.

the next thing on my mental checklist was a ceiling fan.  you may remember my rant about fans from the previous summer/winter/staying at richards.  the loud fan had to go before the summer rolled around.  once it started getting warmer and we knew it was only going to get warmer richard came around to the idea of a ceiling fan.  it was economical, better circulation, and soooo much quieter.  we did quite a bit of looking for this as we always do with big purchases.  and finally found a great one.

from the loudest fan on the planet

to a much quieter and fashionable one.

these are the little things you start to appreciate when are past the newness stage.  youve lived together for over 6 months, there arent an influx of holidays to keep you busy, and you are really seriously living together.  who knew a new couch and fan could start to turn an apartment into a home. 

the christmas decorations.

this is my absolute favorite time of the year.  hands down, without a doubt.  right before halloween until the new year is the best part of the calendar year.  most people think that it is a little crazy that i worked in retail for 3 holidays and still could get this excited.  this happens to also be richards favorite time of year, thank goodness.  last year we spent our 1st christmas together and it was so much fun.  this year though, he will be living with me,  a whole new type of experience for him.  insert large laughs and eye rolls here.  i like to go all out, decorating the day after thanksgiving, listening to christmas music right before thanksgiving and wanting to completely change the whole house to match the season.  i have always looked forward to the day when i would one day have my own place to decorate.

when richard and i talked about moving in together somehow our talks always made their way to christmas decorations.  we agreed and disagreed pretty equally with the other person.  i however, was not really sure how this was going to work.  we decided instead of "saving" all of this imaginary money to buy christmas things, we would start buying a couple things each week after halloween.  i always think i am going to save, then i find other things i want, forget about the saving, and now end up buying way more things than i should have on both fronts.  i thought this was an excellent plan.

we began looking the next weekend after the halloween party.  most places already had christmas decorations out, so this was an easy task.  we had to start with the most important thing, the tree.  we werent ready to buy, but knew we needed to agree on something to start with.  when the discussions first started richard was positive we were going to have a white tree.  are you kidding me.  christmas trees are green, lets just say we decided on a green tree.  we knew that we did want a fake one, but which one would come later.  the next discussion was the type of lights that went on a tree.  now, not only did he want a white tree, he wanted white lights to go on the tree.  once i finally convinced him on colored strands, he then decided we could just buy single colors and put that on the tree.  oh how i had to hold back!  i am all about the multi-colored and at least some need to be blinky.  that was a whole other discussion, because blinky would drive him crazy.

by this point just about all of my friends and family knew about the discussions we were having about just the tree and laughing hysterically on the side.  then we had to decided on pre-lit or not.  i was soooo far against that as well.  you must put your own lights on the tree.  finally we came to the decision to combine our two ideas.  we would have a green tree, with mostly multi-colored lights, only one strand of blinky (ps they were 150 count, yes), and one or more strand of white.  i wasnt really sure how that was going to look, but we will get to that next time.

while all of these discussions were going on, we were shopping around for other decorations.  we did a lot of looking and not much buying.  it seemed like richard just would not commit to buying anything.  now, i am all about looking and knowing what my options are, but it gets to a point where we cant go look at target anymore, because they still have the same things they did 2 days ago.  there were quite a few things we disagreed on in this category too.  i am all about color, if you couldnt tell from the previous tree discussion.  i am totally stoked that christmas decorations are now including pinks, purples, whites, blacks, oranges, and blues.  richard, not so much.  he is very much a traditionalist gravitating towards the red/green/gold themed items.  now luckily for me, these items have become somewhat more modern so i couldnt completely rule them out.  plus i love the new updated classics they are coming out with now.  not just an old looking train, but one that has new colors and graphics.  garland made out of christmas balls.  and table cloths that are no longer just gold sparkly.

as we did finally start buying we knew we didnt really have anywhere to store these things.  so they landed....at least it was all centrally located! 

it all started to come together then.  richard accepted that i would buy a few out there things he wasnt used to yet.  and i accepted that he would always love his white lights.  plus none of it really mattered when he told me that of course we are decorating the day after thanksgiving!  the little piddly stuff doesnt really matter.  and really who cares if he wants to buy single colored light strands, its going to look fantastic in the windows.  and i learned i need to compromise a little on christmas decorations, there are 2 of us living here silly.