Limited Progress on the wall proper

Last night I finished up the section of foundation that was necessary to the first portion of the wall. After I was done, here is what it looked like:


After that I set up the batter frames. (for those of you reading who are n00bs, the batter frame sets the slope of the wall, which is 1 inch inward for every 6 inches of height. This means that since the wall will need to be 14 inches across on top and is 30 inches in height below the coping, the wall will be 24 inches at its base.) Setting the batter frames and leveling out the lines took quite a while seeing how I had never done it before. I spaced them only about 11 feet apart, b/c I want to only build about 10 feet at a time. (I've heard that trying to build very long stretches at a time gets too discouraging).


Then I started laying rock. Apparently (and this makes sense), it's said that one should lay the biggest rock you have in the first course, but the rock I chose to start with on the first course may have been too thick (4 to 5 inches). I say it's too thick b/c I immediately found out (should've realized this earlier) that I did not have a generous supply of 4 to 5 inch thick stones that had a clean face. And if they didn't have a clean face, then I wanted to save them for the rest of the foundation. Thus after laying maybe 8 feet on one side, I began to wonder if I should've just started out with smaller stones.


So my questions are (feel free to comment if you know better):

1. Should I be careful to match the stones carefully in height, one next to each other? Or can I lay (for example) a 2.5 inch thick stone next to a 5 inch stone next to a 4 inch stone, and then just deal with it on the next course?
2. Should I just start out with smaller stones and save the ones that are thick and good for corner pieces, and wherever else they happen to fit etc?