Checking in

Wow.

So much has happened since my last post.

I guess I should catch you up in a way that doesn't turn this post into a massive wall of text though.

So.

March 7, 2015
Chris and I were married at the Chapel on Tinker Air Force Base
{That was a whole fiasco in its self like most weddings}

I took my two board exams that week right before the wedding and passed both.

School was starting to pick up with clinical rotations at the Dental school and everything was in general moving along quite quickly.

Now for big news #1.

Chris is being stationed in Japan for the next few years. As in the country Japan.
Totally excited and now begins the process of getting all of my personal ducks in a row so that I may go with him. I had doctor appointments and other legal responsibilities that I had to take care of in addition to continuing my school schedule which was making everything else harder to accomplish.

Big news #2.

I got really really sick.
I lost weight really quickly, looked like I had never seen the sun in my life and could barely stand straight for any given amount of time.
Yup, as the older generations used to say "I am with child".

Not going to lie, I have wanted children since I was 19 but Chris and I had already discussed that we were going to wait until after we had been a married couple for at least a year. I was scared and happy all at the same time.

So, lets count this up shall we?

1-Still in school
2-Got married
3-Husband {and I} will be moving to Japan in the near future
4-Going to have a baby

I think 2015 is turning out to be a damn good year for us and it is barely half way over at this point!

Fast forward a bit and I am currently writing this post from Japan, my baby bump is becoming more and more obvious by the day, and I have completed my Dental Assisting program and passed all the Board exams that make me a Certified Dental Assistant.

Granted I have only been in Japan for three days and am still adjusting to the time difference {14 hours ahead of Oklahoma} but I already feel extremely blessed to have met my wonderful husband and to be exploring the world with him {I never dreamed I would actually get to leave the country and look at us now! We are living in Japan!}.

I intend to pick up this blog and my photography blog very soon and am looking forward to sharing our adventures with you again!

Here is a little sneak peek of what is to come!

Finally got my toes in the sand and water! Got to work on my tan, those are some pale legs I've got there!

Stay tuned!

Sterling 47 Photography Blog

Well I finally did it! I started a separate blog just for my photography!

I had decided to call it Sterling 47 because 47 is the atomic number for Silver {get it?} and it is also the number of games that OU won in the longest running winning streak of a college football team TO DATE that my grandfather was a part of in the late 1950's.

So any who, I made a thingy at the top that will take you right to the new blog in the same way that you could go to the Random About Me or the Random History pages. :) Hope you like it!

It has been a while...

So I haven't posted lately {mainly because I forgot about this blog while being caught up in school and program drama} and then something made me think of it. Not really sure what, but I hope it happens more often.

I came out with several really good pictures from my spring break trip to Florida but I haven't gone through them all yet {I had to get right back into school when we got back}.

Here are some of my favorites so far though!

Okay, so these are all from the first full day that we were in Florida.
Our first stop was Pass-a-Grille, which is a little town on one of the gulf "barrier" islands which bares the same name. Mom had been told about this beach, that there would be shells galore and great food as well.

Walking up to the beach was a great sandy path at the very end of the island and a bench that gave you a beautiful view of the sand and water below. {These ladies knew where the best seat in the house was!}

 I loved walking along the beach and seeing kids playing in the sand; building sandcastles, burying their younger siblings {hoping to leave them behind, possibly?} and teens and adults lounging on their beach towels, enjoying one of life's simple moments that only a beach can give you.

 The town had several rental houses, condos, shops and restaurants along the middle of the island so when we were starting to feel a bit peckish we strolled along the sidewalk towards the restaurant that Mom had heard about. Such fun and eclectic sights presented themselves to us; bronze beach bums in skimpy bathing suits, biker chicks with Mohawk helmets and this row of bicycles {some old and some new}, chained and rusting in the salty air.

 Ah, at last we reached the restaurant amply named The Hurricane. It was a beautiful building, my untrained eye thought it looked rather Victorian but sturdier to better withstand those rough gulf storms. We sat out side on a quieter side patio enjoying the cool breeze and people watching the public park that was across the street. We ate conch fritters, fish tacos, and crab cake sandwich from a 1940's family recipe. The food was wonderful.

 Along the inland side of the island we came across a something that I presume was the remains of an old dock or wharf, perhaps. The sun-bleached pillars now supported resting Pelicans and other sea birds and boy were they a sight to see. This particular beauty was just letting the wind run under his wings, not going anywhere but enjoying the sensation of flight {or at least that is what I imagined}.

There are so many more great pictures from our trip so I hope to post more soon. :)
Oh yeah and we did end up finding A LOT of great shells on this beach, but not on this day, so that is for another time!

Planning a vacation... {Warning: Post is a BIT lengthy}

So I haven't really traveled anywhere in my adult life.
Sure, my parents took my brother and I to Galveston, TX once and then to San Diego, CA once but that was when I was younger and didn't appreciate where I was. I only remember bits and pieces of those trips.

Last year for my birthday, my parents took me to the south eastern point of the state to a lake for a weekend. It was really pretty and I took over 600 pictures on that trip.

I decided right around Christmas that I wanted to actually go somewhere {out of the state} for my spring break from school.
My first thought was to go BIG, so I picked Ireland.
I have always wanted to go to Europe {nearly every single country, actually} but then I talked to my parents and was persuaded that if I went to Europe they would want me to go with someone. I really wanted to go by myself because it would have been adventuresome and brave of me to do.
Then I saw the price and nearly choked on my coffee.

So that bummed me out a bit and I decided to do something state-side. But where??
There are SO many places {even in the US} that I want to go visit.

Watching some travel and realty shows with the folks and came across St. Augustine, FL. There is this REALLY cool old fort there that I had heard about and wanted to see one day.

Done.
I announced right then that I was going to go there. Once again my Dad was concerned about me going by myself and strongly recommended against it.
I asked my friend what she thought about it and she said it sounded like fun but I could tell she wasn't exactly as thrilled as I was about going.

A few days passed and then the subject of going on a cruise was brought to my attention. Hey, that sounds awesome! I could go to a couple different places AND say that I have been on a cruise all at the same time! {Big smile and both thumbs up to this idea, it had my quick approval.}
My Dad asked how I would feel about my Mom going with me so that I wouldn't be alone.
I have ZERO problem doing that since I currently do not have a boyfriend to ask and it really bothered my Dad letting me go anywhere by myself.
Next day we started looking at cruises and figuring out the logistics.

That is what killed it for us... the Logistics.

The airfare, the cruise, the excursions, etc. were quickly adding up and the time frame that we were working with was pretty tight.

So we set our sights back on Florida.
I will not say where in Florida we picked {you will get to find out when we get back} but we narrowed our destination area down and contacted a rental property about rates and such. {You have no idea how excited I am about all of this!}

The adventure continues...