Life without Grad School

Woo! So the semester is over, and I can't tell you how excited I am. I never thought I would survive these last 15 weeks. I have never in my life experienced anything like it...only one more year to go! And forever to go for Sam (it seems). There is life after school, right?

So in the time that school has been out, I have been living it up. I had a lot of making up to do. Here are pictures for proof!

Not one, but TWO nights out at 101 with my cohorts. I LOVE them.

A night out to eat with my old Hour Glass coworkers (I had to quit a little over a month ago, because I could not handle working two jobs and school!) AND I got my toes done! 

We went on a weekend trip to St. Augustine with Jay and Mel, and went camping! That is our second time camping with them this month (last time when they got engaged), and it has been so fun! On saturday we woke up, ate eggs and sausage, I used dry shampoo (best invention EVER while camping), and we headed on over to old town. We walked around, did some shopping, ate lunch, and went to the fort:

After the fort, we went and checked into a hotel, showered, and went out to dinner at the Conch House. It was so good! It was also a very foggy night.

After dinner, we went and walked around old town again. We got ice cream (I got Superman ice cream! I have been missing it for so long!) and looked at the lights before heading back to the hotel.

 In the morning, we drove to Jacksonville to go to the zoo! I LOVE THE ZOO! It is taking a lot of self control to not post every picture I have of the little fuzzies we encountered. Some highlights:

(The otter saw me, knew I loved him, and tried to break out with PVC pipe so I could take him home)

There was an airboat sleigh at the zoo. It was sooo Okeechobee, so we had to take a picture in it.


Finally, we bought a tiny tree and decorated it. I wrapped presents and Cici (the cat) tried to sabotage it. I can't tell if she is the grinch or a Christmas enthusiast...every Christmas she rips presents, gets in the tree and knocks off ornaments, and steals EVERY bow off of EVERY present. This year is no different. She was jumping in the paper as I was wrapping, biting the scissors as I was cutting, and clawing the presents.
I guess she leans more on the grinch side...

So that is what we have been up to :) I can't wait to savor these next 3 weeks. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Life as a Seminole, and other things.

Sam and I are really enjoying school football season this year. I am so happy for the Noles, number 3 as of today! My sweet in laws came down for the Clemson game a little over a week ago, and we had a fun tailgate with Jay, Mel and Brandon.

I got super excited right before the food was served

My hot personal grill master. I'm a lucky girl.

My cute mother in law!

So proud of Lonnie.

On another note, I'm super sick. And it is super not fun. I can't afford to miss classes or either of my jobs though, so I'm hoping that I am feeling better tomorrow? Not likely...

I'm guessing I got sick because I never rest! I've been running non stop with school and work. If I can make it through December, I can make it through anything. Any tips on how to make a serious cold disappear quickly?? I'm open to almost anything. Almost.

What's been happenin'

Hi all.

So a lot has happened since the last time I posted.

I graduated:

(hooray!)

My little sister graduated high school, and moved to UWF:

(Don't we look sooo much alike)?.................................no? You don't see it? 

Sam officially transfered to FSU:

(Studying hard)

We moved into a new, 3 BEDROOM apartment (sneak peak?)

We also moved wards in the process of moving into a new place, and we are now in 4th ward!

Oh, and I started Graduate school. I'm earning my Masters in Family and Child Sciences. I also am busy working TWO JOBS as a T.A., and at The Hour Glass.  

It's like I like stress or something.

                                                                                          

Annnnnd thats whats new in the Dixon household. I'll leave you with this, my lovely non followers:

One of the random pictures Sam receives weekly from muah. He said I shouldn't show this to other people.

So naturally, I'm showing it to everyone.

THIS IS WHO HE MARRIED

Cheers!

Honeymooners.

Sam and I went on a late honeymoon a couple of months ago, and I never blogged about it. It was awesome! We were set to go on a 5 night cruise to Grand Turks Island, Nassau, and Half Moon Cay. Well, we ended up only docking in Nassau on the last day, because of the weather. But we still had so much fun! We went to a lot of shows on the boat, and made new friends at dinner.

When we finally got off the boat, we decided to take an excursion to Blue Lagoon Island. It was so beautiful!

Sigh. I wish we were back there now.

That is all we really got blog worthy pictures of, since it was the only sunshine we really got. But, I will leave you with these to sum up the rest of the trip:

My bucket list.

I don't know what it is, but lately I'm thinking of TONS of things that I want to do in this one little life I have here. And I haven't written them down anywhere yet. So I'm going to start a list on this here blog.

 These will just be what I remember of the top of my head at first...and I will add things as I come up with more. These are in no particular order of importance. 

 1. Be an extra in a Movie. A REAL movie, that is in theaters. Preferably, one of the Hunger Games movies. I would die. 

2. Be kissed by a sea lion. 

3. Go to Italy again, but this time with my husband (he IS a third Italiano) 

4. Go to Scotland, the land of MY people. 

5. Have a child with my sweet eternal companion. 

6. Finish my graduate degree. 

7. Tell someone about Christ for the first time. Someone who has never heard a testimony before. What a wonderful blessing/responsibility that would be. (And my own children would count!) 

8. Learn the guitar, for real. Not like in High School when I took a couple of months of lessons and thought I could play. 

9. Meet a celebrity. 

10.Talk with a General Authority. 

11.Pet a Baluga Whale.

 12.Go to the temple once a week, for a year. 

13....to be continued.

We're married!

***The pictures are all out of order. And there are one or two duplicates. I'm way too lazy to fix it, but you get the idea!

So yeah! It has been 3 1/2 months of marital bliss already. I'm so bad at this blogging thing.

Our day was perfect, and VERY long. It all started the night before, when Sam went to his "bachelor party", which was hog hunting all night. Meanwhile, I was with my bridesmaids having a quiet but fun night in the hotel room. We woke up super early and got ready, and headed to the temple. I was exhausted because I couldn't sleep the night before, and Sam was exhausted from hunting until really late.

We got sealed at 11:00 A.M. in the Orlando Temple. It was such an amazing experience, and we have never felt more loved than when we walked out of the temple to so many smiling faces! Kaylee posted some of my temple pics on Quintessentially Yours, but here's a little refresher:

Our first look was one of the sweetest moments of our relationship. I'm so glad that we decided to take that time to ourselves before getting married. As soon as Sam saw me, he teared up a little and kept saying how beautiful I was. It was so surreal.









After the temple, we headed to Okeechobee for our Ring Ceremony and Reception. Sam and I rode down together, and we stopped at a gas station to grab something to put in our stomachs since we hadn't eaten all morning. Our first meal together as a married couple were Pizza Tacos. They were surprisingly amazing.

Our ring ceremony and reception were beautiful. Everyone said they felt like they stepped into a Taylor Swift video. Haha, I'll let you decide for yourself (pictures by tiffanydanielle.com)

























Wow that was a lot....but there you have it! Marriage is absolutely amazing. We are going on our honeymoon in the very near future, so those pictures will be up soon...hopefully :)