"Justin and Alicia" are turning 18!

Our relationship hit another milestone. As of today, Justin and I have been together for 18 years! Our relationship is now an adult :)

And it all started with a rose... wait, wait, wait. Let me back up. It actually started with some sheet music? Yes, sheet music. 🎶

I played the flute in our school's pep band at basketball games. I had just gotten out of the locker room from playing in the girls' game, wet hair looking like a hot mess and made my way to the student section. There was this guy...he offered to hold my music. I politely refused multiple times before allowing him to do so for one song and afterward quickly took it back and said,"I got it!"

Let's just say I had never really be paid any attention by a boy, so I wasn't sure how to act :)

To give you a little more background... I was a sophomore and Justin was a junior. I had transferred from another school after the year had started. The locker I was assigned wasn't on the same floor as the rest of my class so I decided to just carry all my books etc. around with me and not use a locker. (Looking back, that was super ridiculous LOL) Anyway, Justin wasn't aware of this, and so he wandered the halls of our high school searching for my locker which ultimately he would never find. Why was he searching you ask? Because apparently I had made such an impression on him that night at the basketball game that he wanted to give me a flower. . . a rose to be specific. He wanted to leave it in my locker. Since that didn't work out, he found the next best thing. The band room and my flute case 💓

And the rest they say, is history. On March 11, on the way home from a school concert after which I had managed to somehow have Justin bring me home, he asked me out. I said yes - even though I technically had about a month to go before I could "officially" start dating :) Shhhh...don't tell my parents 😀

We have been through so much in the past 18 years... none of which I would ever change. I'd like to think we bring out the best in each other. He's strong when I'm weak. I'm strong when he's weak. We lean on each other in tough times (of which we've have many) and celebrate wholeheartedly in the good times (of which we've had many). We've been blessed with three beautiful children and and one tiny angel, a house we've made a home and so much more. I can't wait to see what the next 18 years brings.

If I'd only known at 15 that I would marry my high school sweetheart... Oh wait, I think I did 😍

Alicia

Yes, this is THE rose :)

Who are these kids?

 Our first Prom

Engagement photo

Our wedding

This is "US"

My #Braceface Anniversary

I never thought I would be an adult with braces and yet here I am - a 33-year-old with braces.

I never had braces as a kid. Like many others before me, I participated in the ridiculous trend of foil braces, but never the real thing. After all, my teeth weren't horribly crooked and I never remember feeling like I had to hide my smile.

Then I had my wisdom teeth removed.

Now I know orthodontists and dentists will tell you that having your wisdom teeth removed doesn't affect your other teeth, but I swear that's what happened to me. I had a gap form between two teeth that had never been there before and an eye tooth started to turn outward where it hadn't before. It seems so vain, but every time I took a picture or looked in a mirror, that one crooked tooth on the top mocked me. It's all I saw. I hated it.

I must have shared my disgust with this tooth with Justin one too many times because one day he told me, you've got a consultation with an orthodontist. And so we went, he and I. They took a 360 x-ray and the orthodontist took a look at my teeth.

Eighteen to 20 months he told me. It sounded like a prison sentence... and I guess in a way it is a prison sentence for teeth :) #behindmetalbars LOL

I left not wanting to believe that I was actually gong to do it. It seemed silly and vain and of course there's the cost, but deep down I knew I'd be back.

And back I went...exactly one year ago today. I remember the first few days after getting them on. I went from excited to angry and in tears to happy again. Just ask Justin, I was in such a bad mood one day he finally told me to go have them taken off! I think I'd had them for maybe three days at that point LOL

So now that I am an experienced braces wearer, I'll share with you a few fun reflections about my braces experience thus far:

• Flossing my teeth has always sucked. Flossing my teeth with braces is worse. It takes forever!
• People look at you funny when you brush your teeth at work
• I'm never without a disposable toothbrush
• Eating in public and in front of my co-workers is incredibly stressful. I feel like I constantly have to cover my mouth at all times.
• Rubber bands. Enough said.
• Dental wax...I may have swallowed my fair share :)
• When you're an adult with braces, you start taking note of all the other adults with braces that you see...and there are a lot more than I realized.
• The entire staff at Baxter Orthodontics in Gardner is incredibly nice!

I'm so looking forward to the day I get these bad boys off. Only about 6 more months to go!! Wish me luck!

Alicia

Live Tracking: Creepy or Cool?

Let me start out by saying that my husband worries. About our kids. And me. He worries a lot about me - especially when it comes to to the weather and running. He likes to know where I'm going and when I'm going. I've always thought it was sweet. I mean, who DOESN"T want their husband to be worried about them. But then something changed. That something was my Garmin Wearable (activity-tracking watch).

When I decided to start running again and  train for another half marathon and full marathon, Justin decided that he needed a more reliable way to track where I was going. He wanted the ability to track me live. We - and by we I mean mostly him - researched multiple options. In the end, it was pretty much splitting hairs when it came to the capabilities of the devices we narrowed it down to. It came down to two different Garmin models: the Garmin Forerunner 235 and the Garmin vivosmart HR and we eventually decided on Garmin Forerunner 235. It's a GPS running watch with a wrist-based heart rate monitor.

It's capabilities include: 

• Tracking distance, pace, time, heart rate and more
• Connecting automatically to and uploads to Garmin Connect™
• Live tracking, audio prompts, smart notifications and social media sharing
• Activity tracking counts daily steps, distance, calories and sleep

It's really pretty awesome and it's a lot more convenient than wearing my gigantic phone on my arm and dealing with the glare of the sun to see how far I'd gone and how fast. Plus I can now track my heart rate and easily navigate between my distance, heart rate, calories and pace.

I've been telling people at work about my new "toy" and their reactions all had one thing in common: they think Justin wanting to track my runs live is creepy. Is it? Is it creepy that my HUSBAND wants to know where I am when I'm out on a run? I was beginning to think that maybe it was. After all, the beginning weeks of my training program don't have me running that far . . . why should he worry?

The recent events of vandalism at the high school and shooting in a neighboring city, really opened up my eyes. Alicia - step outside your bubble! As terrible as it sounds, the world we live in is incredibly unpredictable. Don't get me wrong, I love our town. We wouldn't have lived here for the past 11 years if we didn't. But even our seemingly sleepy little town has proven it has the potential to be not be so sleepy. It's naive to think that even in a city with a small-town feel that nothing bad can happen. 

So I've embraced technology as something not just something beneficial to my training, but my safety as well! 

Here are some other safety tips for going on a walk, run etc.:

- Always tell at least one person where you are going and when you expect to return

- Run with a buddy if possibe

- Have your cell phone with you and make sure it's charged

- Avoid wearing headphones so you can better hear what's going on around you

- Be observant and listen to your gut...if something doesn't seem right - it likely isn't!

- Wear brightly colored clothing

- Run in well-lit areas and sidewalks when possible

Have fun and stay safe!

Alicia