with this ring...

Buying our wedding bands has been something both Mr. Coastie and I have been looking forward to for quite sometime. we had planned to buy them around Valentine's day to catch some sales and save a few bucks. So as we started talking about our wedding bands my parents mentioned that they had their original wedding bands from nearly 30 years ago and that we could have them. Since I wanted a white gold band I decided that it would be really neat to take their bands and have them melted down and made into a band for me. As for Cole's band he wanted a tungsten ring based on their durability and look. So we headed off to the jewler and then to the mall to hit up Kay, Zales etc. for Cole's band.  after some price shopping and a long decision process cole ended up with this: 

 and my band is to be seen, its in the process of being made.

  so wedding bands are officially ordered !

Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world

Ive been on the search for the perfect wedding shoes for about 6 months now. I knew I wanted yellow. but that,s about all I knew. At first I thought flats are the way to go because lets face it this girl doesn't do heels. I searched and searched and couldn't find any I loved enough to be my wedding shoes.

Suddenly I remembered that Mr. Coastie and I have a little bit of height difference. And by a little bit I mean like well over a foot of a difference. I actually started getting concerned that if I didn't wear heels we'd have a problem dancing and even getting in the same frame for pictures (this my friends is a constant struggle) So I resolved that I'd need heels. But again, this girl doesn't do heels. So I decided a nice low heel would give me some height but I'd be less clumsy and less likely to fall on my face (which may still happen).

So with a new idea in mind I set out on my search and I came across some fabulous yellow satin Nina shoes that are only 2 inches, a perfect color and exactly what i was looking for on Zappos.com and they were on sale so after staring at them for a month I bought them!so after just 2 days I got a pretty box in the mail

and they are fabulous, The picture doesnt do them justice and the color is differen in person but you can get the idea

 A couple weeks ago I was at Michaels craft store and picked up an "I Do"  Decal  because it was on sale, so even though I wasn't sure what I'd use them for I went ahead and bought them. Once my Shoes came in I found the perfect use, and this will certainly make for a great photo op on wedding day

So my shoe search has come to an end and the small details of my wedding day look are coming together!

Getting Coated

"You never forget the moment you become a doctor. A switch flips, suddenly you aren’t playing dress up anymore. You own the white coat. What you may not notice is the moment that being a doctor changes you "

The White Coat Ceremony is a day that every medical student will tell you they look forward to from the time they decided to go to medical school. Its kind of a big deal. The white coat represents our commitment to medicine, the hard work that we've done to get here and the hard work that we'll continue to do. It represents everything we've ever wanted to be. I have been counting down to receiving that coat with my name on it for as long as I can remember. Its hard to believe that yesterday was the day.  With the words "welcome to the medical family" the key note speaker made me realized my dream of being a physician was coming true. Sure I've been in medical school for 6 months and I've certainly come to the realization of the work making my dream come true entails but until yesterday it hadn't hit me.  Putting on that coat made me realize where I am and what I'm doing. As I stood reciting the pledge of commitment to our profession with the rest of my class in our newly adorned white coats I couldn't help but smile. I'm so excited for the things that lie ahead of me and the doors this path will open for me. I'm proud to say I've officially been coated!

We opened the ceremony with the reading of "The Physician's Prayer" so Im going to end this post with it:

"Lord, Thou Great Physician, I kneel before Thee. Since every good and perfect gift must come from Thee: 

I Pray

Give skill to my hand, clear vision to my mind, kindness and sympathy to my heart. Give me singleness of purpose, strength to lift at least a part of the burden of my suffering fellow men, and a true realization of the rare privilege that is mine. Take from my heart all guile and worldliness, that with the simple faith of a child I may rely on Thee.

Amen"

glamour shots

We have finally gotten more engagement pictures back and I just wanted to make a quick post to share some of my favorites! I know alot of you are my facebook friends and have probably already seen them but for the rest of you guys I'll show off a few of them :) They were taken at Railroad square art Park in Tallahassee, Fl which offers an amazing array of backdrops for photos. Lindsey Miller of LindesyLou Photography took them. take a look!

Save our Date!

Our Save the Dates are officially ordered! Im very excited about them it took me excruciating amount of time to decide what pictures and what order I wanted on them but I'm very pleased with the outcome and I hope our friends and family will love them as well!

the most exciting part? they were super cheap! I was considering going through vistaprint which has great deals but decided to look at Shutterfly just to compare this morning because I had a random 20 dollar off coupon (here comes the back story: ) Last weekend I took Doctor Bridesmaid over to Tampa to try on and order her bridesmaid dress. When we got into David's Bridal it was a MAD house, literally it looked like those rack sales in new york where people throw bows to buy designer dresses for $4. I instantly assumed there was some sort of event going on so I asked the guy at the front "oh whats going on is there a sale or something?" he chuckled and looked at me like I was an idiot and replied " um, its Saturday?" Apparently the Tampa David's Bridal (which is an hour away from me) is the only one within about an hour on either side of Tampa as well as serving the entire Tampa area, so needless to say It gets crowded on Saturday.  In anycase we went about our busniess and I happened to pick up a little coupon bag that had this shutterfly coupon for 20$ off an order of 20$ or more. so I snagged it.

back to the point. I opened up shutterfly and they happen to be having a one day sale whereall photocards are 20% off ( score) and then they are having a one week promotion where you get free shipping on orders over 40$ (score again) and then I had my David's Bridal coupon (triple score). So the Grand total of our Save the Dates (all 125 of them, including shipping)?
drum roll please
......
$34.50
!!!!

I was amazed, and happy and excited and feel like ive done my bargain hunting for the day!
My advice to anyone ordering anything in bulk like this is just wait around and keep checking between emails and one day promotions on websites you can really score a great deal! I may have missed my morning workout to get these STDs ordered but it was worth it!

"you write that about a hamburger but you got our vows off the internet?"

As soon as Mr.Coastie and I started talking about our wedding and what we wanted one of the few things I knew for sure was that I wanted us to write our own vows. To me exchanging of the vows is one of the most important parts of the wedding, Its the time when we get a chance to say how we feel and commit to each other in our own way. I wanted the words that we say to be our own, I wanted them to be special and unique. So I somehow convinced Mr. Coastie to go along with this ( i secretly think he is excited about it). Ive been writing and rewriting drafts for the last few months and couldn't seem to get them just right. Finally, Last night I wrote the first complete draft of my vows. I'm pretty excited about them. I almost cried when I was reading them back to myself (but mostly just because I'm a sucker for weddings and cry way to easily at just about anything)

Im definitely not going to share them here, you'll have to wait till the big day to hear them. but alot of my heart went into a few lines. As for Mr. Coastie's vows, im both excited and slightly scared, everytime I as him about them he says " i just need to make them funnier..." ha. should be interesting!

P.S. i tried to get a very funny clip of the How I Met Your Mother episode the title quote is from but youtube has let me down.

A Day in the Life

just for fun here's a list of what I learned today:

1. The plural for Iris is Iridies
2. Syphilis makes pupils "like a prostitiute, they always accomodate and never react" (thanks Dr. Heibel)
3. Queen Ann had ugly eye brows
4. Horse Whisperer is a profession not a symptom
5.  The Sea Horse Puzzle in student affairs is REALLY hard to put together
6. 3 cups of Coffee is not a suitable substitute for breakfast and lunch
7. Balancing a suitcase full of books, a mug, a white coat and moes in heels is a bad idea
8. Pandora is the best method for drowning out the Pharm students incessant chattering
9. Melatonin is my best friend

I'd say it was a pretty productive day. Welcome to semester 2 of OMSI. T minus 4 months until its over.