just another update...

Not a lot has changed in the Dean house since the last blog- we've done a few things, but nothing big has changed.

The middle of November I went to New Orleans for a speech conference. Great conference, learned a lot...now I need to implement what I learned. Everyone keeps asking me what I thought about the city...here is my general answer. I think that if there had been time to take tours and see other parts of the city my impression would have been different, but as it is we stayed just off of Bourbon St, and the rumors that you don't go out on Bourbon after 10:00 are pretty much true. Before 10, it's fairly clean, still somewhat 'family friendly', but seriously once 10:00 hits the climate changes and horse-mounted police come out to patrol the streets as drunk people and strippers hit the corners to try and lure you into their clubs. Thankfully we had 8:00 presentations to attend every morning so late nights were not in our agenda. It was also interesting that in a city that is known for jazz music, we had extreme difficulty finding any to listen to...our best option was a band who played on the same corner every night.

After that trip we headed up to IA for Thanksgiving to see my family. It was a good, short, trip, but nice to see everyone. Mom and Dad head down this Friday for a Christmas weekend, before we head down to GA for Christmas.

And that's about all of the updates on our lives so far...more to come after the Christmas travels! :)

Official...

So Jason and I attended the 2nd part of Discovering Cross Point, the church we've been attending for about 2 months now, and are officially members! I have to say I'm more excited about this than I thought I would be, and there was absolutely no formality to it at all! We just signed a piece of paper at the end of the meeting, no walking up front, no public announcement, just nice and quiet- the way Jason and I prefer to do things.

Along with this change, we're working on a few changes to our lifestyle, beginning with commitment and money. I think we were both in such a stalled part of our lives that we weren't going anywhere with anything we did. So now, we're an official part of a church, we're committed to attending a community group, and we're actively working on stepping out of the rut and putting our finances in order to be able to do more in the future. Not that we were bad off, but we just needed to do something with what we have instead of sitting on, and inevitably, spending it all.

For the first time in a long time, possibly ever, I feel that we are being moved into the direction our lives are supposed to follow. I think we've taken little steps all along, but we're actually opened up now to being moved and God's definitely jumping at that opportunity. We've both inquired about volunteering at the church, me in the kids' end of things and Jason on the production crew. And these are just little steps, so I'm very excited to see where God will lead us to next!

We're also FINALLY past that whole friend-less phase. I know that sounds ridiculous, but when you hit that spot where you're out of college and don't have kids of your own to lead you to other adults it can get kinda lonely. Through our previous friendships and the groups we've been involved with, and Jason's school we're finally back to surrounding ourselves with friends and couples who are in the same phase of life that we are.

So, needless to say, we are in very good places in our lives right now! I think of all of this and look out my window and see the gorgeous yellows, oranges, and reds of the trees and just marvel in how wondrous God's impact can be if you allow it!

family visits, football games, and new jobs

So most days I think that nothing much happens in our lives. We go to our same jobs, come home, relax on weekends, and do it all over again. Then all of a sudden an out-of-whack week comes along and you realize that maybe things do happen after all.

Jason's parents came up last weekend and it was great seeing them. I can't remember the last time we got together and it had been almost a year since they'd seen the house. We went to the Vandy vs. GA football game on a cold (for TN), windy, cloudy day. Bundled up we sat 3rd row from the top and watched GA win...that and listened to a die-hard, long-hair, balding, toothless Vandy fan scream tastefully for his team.

So to get to my out-of-whack week, I started a new job today! No, I didn't change jobs, just added another one on. I spent most of the early week re-arranging my schedule to clear off Wed and Fri so I could go to job 2. Luckily most of my clients are very flexible and I still have wiggle room in my days. My second job is a prn (as needed) position for a nursing home. Let me just say that it was a very anxious experience. I had only interned in this setting before, 2 years ago, so to say I was rusty is an understatement. I made it through though and will get quicker as I go along. I think it is a job I will really enjoy, it'll just take awhile to get worked back in.

beautiful fall days

So the weather in TN is beautiful right now! Temps are in the upper 60's-low 70's during the day and 40's-50's at night. No more air conditioning, and the dogs and I have been on 2 walks today so far!

We had to take Maizie back to the vet this week to look at a rather large bump under her incision...we both thought 'hernia' but THANKFULLY it was just an allergic reaction to the sutures and has reduced in size dramatically since put on anti-inflammatory medicine.

I'm attaching some recent pics of the family as an update...

the new hair:


Maizie:


Jason and I in Vail:


A family pic:

if at first you don't succeed...

...try try again. Ok, so I'm trying out the blogging thing again and I think I can do it this time! :/ My first thought in this was 'well we don't have anything important to say and I really don't feel like spilling my life story so why blog?' And then I thought 'no, you can do this, you can take pictures and add them to tell everyone about the events of your maybe boring life at this point!' So here I am!

It's the end of September and we had our first fall day of the year today. It was beautiful! Jason also shot his first engagement shoot and I think it went really well! He had a lot of fun with it and got some great pics, so here's to the photography career taking off!

I chopped off my hair, photo to come, and LOVE it! It's the perfect change for me and I'll give Jason all the credit :)

The kids (dogs and cats) are great. Maizie is still growing, she's larger than Blue now and I think is realizing it too. She'll take off after him outside and plow into him rolling him down the hill while she stands atop him triumphant. But she's sweet, and Blue, bless his heart, tolerates her. The cats are alive, in hiding until night when they can roam free. But I think they're content too.

Today is our friend Amanda's birthday, so off to the Aquarium, her choice, for dinner!

chicken and eggs

so i've always found it strange that that you can order a chicken and egg biscuit at chick-fil-a. it's just always seemed weird to me. you can eat chicken, in 2 versions, in the same biscuit. i guess if you think about any meat products too long they start sounding less appetizing, but i can't get past the idea that a chicken could lay an egg and end up reunited with it on the same biscuit.

but then again, i love cheese burgers.

Our house and cold days

So, I will attempt to post some pictures of our house, though you probably will have received the email by now with all the pictures. I'll have Jason put up a Picasa link when he can. We clearly have not put anything up on the walls yet, but we're getting there. :)


Tennessee is an odd, and yet wonderful place when you work in the school system. We did not have school today due to it being too cold outside. Yes, you read that right, it was too cold for the kids to have to wait at the bus-stops so they closed us for the day. And not just my county, the whole state seemed to be shut down, businesses too. It was a frigid 2 degrees overnight, and isn't supposed to top the mid-20s today. I know that's nothing for you Iowa folk, but down here that's pretty cold. In fact our power went out yesterday morning, most likely due to too much energy being used trying to heat houses :) But, luckily for us that means a 4 day weekend!! We'll take it! :)

Renewed Blogging

 

So part of my New Year's Resolution is to do a better job of blogging (thanks Carrie) as it's been 6 months since either of us have last posted and our 2 valued readers are anxious for continued updates :)

By now we have the professional wedding shots and you've all seen them so I won't post those, however the house is done! We're still in the process of organizing it so we haven't taken too many pics of it. I'll try and get a couple up soon, at least some shots of the clean, organized areas.

We've also passed the 6 month mark of being married. It really flew by, and things are still going great! The cats and dog still haven't adjusted to each other, but we're all working on it.

We had a great marathon Christmas event this year, traveling over 3000 miles in 1.5 weeks and celebrating 5 Christmases. It was great being able to see all of our families and I'm thankful for the week we got to spend in Iowa, even if it was freezing! :)

We head back to work after a wonderful 2 weeks off. Neither of us are particularly looking forward to it, but at least we're on the back half of the year. I'm going to have to make countdowns to our breaks/mini-vacations. (The first one is in 54 days when we'll take 4 days off and head to Florida).

-Megan