Year End Review 2011

A tradition is something you do every year or at least something to the short. Many years ago I start what I call my Year End Review, a snap shot of highlights from the year, this is one of my traditions that I do as well.

January

Was a sad month, Friskey the cat of 17 years ran away to die.

John has a birthday, turns the young 26.

February

The birthday snow curse takes another year. Snow and Ice hit Dallas and work calls to say it’s going to be an inclement weather day 3 days that week. It was very pretty but truth be told I am glad that it only stayed a week.

I have my 25^th birthday. (Getting older is no longer fun.)

We also add two new additions to the family, two hamsters, Rollie and Skittles.

March

Celebrate out first anniversary! Hard to believe John and I have been married a year. We take a few days off work and have a stay-cation. We had fun going to the mall, seeing movies, going to the Rain Forrest Café, and Medieval Times and relaxing at home.

April

Not much exciting really happens. I did read a good book called, “Who Moved My Cheese”.

We did go to our first and only Ranger game of the Baseball Season, can’t believe we made it to the World Series twice in back to back years.

May

This month I write a blog about NF.

Husband and I start planning our summer vacation!

June

I am called to teach in Junior Primary at church, CTR4. A true blessing if you ask me. I learn more to love those kids this year and hopefully they will be in my class next year!

July

Like the rest of the summer this month came and went. John and I went and saw my parents in Florida. We got to go to the beach for the day and then we head off to Disney World for Four DAYS! We went to Magic Kingdom(I got to ride the Dumbo Ride) Epoct, and MGM! I was a blast and I had so much fun!

August

By the middle of the month we have had some days with 100 plus that it’s just too hard to keep track. All I can say is that it was a HOT summer!

I paint a picture of the ocean at a place called Let’s Art Party at Girls Night.

John and I are called to work in the temple!

September

The nation celebrates the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.

We start our first shift at the temple this month.

October

It’s still hot outside.

I start a second job-part time.

I am also promoted at the Bank job, to 75% SAS. J

We also renew our apt. lease for another 15 months!

November

It’s turkey month. I set up the tree and John and I hit the midnight black Friday sales.

Time flies when you are busy.

December

The Month comes to an end all to soon. The holidays are great and it was great to spend time with family.

John and I get our credit cards paid off. J

Christmas Photos

So, my cellphone plays "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" so my brother-in-law Harrison got me one! He really is a hippo hero!
Me about to open my stocking.

John about to open his stocking!

Our pretty Christmas Tree at out house.

Posing in front of the Christmas Tree at John's parents house.

Christmas Traditions

Everyone has different Christmas Traditions or holiday ones. One of my favorite traditions is getting PJs. Every year since I can remember I was a loud to pick one gift from under the tree, it was usually marked CE, for Christmas Eve. That was what the PJs were in. Some times they would be Christmasy others they were just fun. Now that I am married, I have decided to keep this traditions going because it's fun and something I can't wait to share with my kids when the time comes. That and it makes a great photo opt. to see the family in the PJs (makes it even better if they all look a like.)

Another tradition is my Bear Advent Ornaments. My mom made them many years ago. On the front of the bear is a number and the back has song or scripture(from the Bible/Book of Mormon) about Christ. I like this one because it's a great way to count down to Christmas and to remember that Christmas is about Christ and remembering what He did for us.

Other traditions including watching Christmas movies like, The Grinch, The Christmas Story(You'll Shot Your Eye Out), Charlie Brown, the Muppet Christmas Carol, the Nightmare before Christmas just to name a few.

Then there's the book the Polor Express! What a great book! It doesn't really seem like Christmas with out it.

Then there is painting that my grandmother painted almost 20 years ago. That hangs up every Christmas. Apperantly the story behind is that I carried on this chrismas card with the picture on it a lot so my grandmother(MeMe) painted for me. To this day it's one of my favorite pictures that I have. I still love to look at and pretend that I live in one of the house in the picture. (see the picture to the right)

When I was a kid and family was close by would all meet down at my Great-Grandmother Farm and celebrate and exchange gifts. And I usually convince my cousins to put on a skit, we usually did the night before christmas, and made all the adults watch it. It was a lot of fun planning and performing!

Where did the year go?

It's hard to believe that the year is less than two weeks from being over. It seems like the holiday's just started and now they are almost over. I haven't had much of a chance to write on my blog, then again nothing to exciting has happened.

I know I seem to say this on every post but working at the temple has brought me so much joy! I love it! The spirit there is soo strong. The plan of salvation is real! It has a purpose in our lives. Life does not stop here when we die but keeps on going. The temple is truly heaven on earth.

I do want you my blog readers to note that coming soon is, the year end review(an annual recap that's be going on for close to 5 years now) and Christmas updates.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, the Dean Family

My, my, look at how time has just simply flown by. October has come and gone and before we know it November will be gone too.

Life with the Dean's is the same old same old, boring life. Join MaryKayin October and pick up a second job working at Chickflia. I am a busy working women. Barely anytime left in the day.

John's doing good in school . He had to drop biology, so he could focus more on Math. That and from what I heard the Bio lad teacher sounds like a jerk!

I am still teaching primary and loving it. In fact their primary program is on Sunday. Me and my co-teacher plan to throw a party for them for class and feed them cupcakes and popcorn and juice! And we will watch a church movie too. :)

In the midst of everything going on in my life I finish a book I was reading. It's called "Farewell to Manzar" a book about a girl name Jeanie experience living in the camps in the US for the japs during World War 2, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It's a good book and gives some light to what happened and how they were treated there and how they were treated after they left the camp.

I had always heard that we did something like that. But I gained a better understanding simple by reading what happened. It was as if those in the camps lived in a box, having no idea what was happening in the world outside or how it was changing.

Let me bring that to a bring picture for you. It's like living in one town your whole life and then all of a suddenly moving and going back to visit a few years later. A lot of things have changed, people you once knew may not be there any more. Now Jeanie story and that one are very different yet very much the same.

I will save the rest of the story for you to read.

As I reading it made me think there have been lots of prejudice in the US rather it be because of how you believed, the color of your skin, where you came from... and the list could on and on. But isn't that why we came here? To be free and practice what we want and now have to listen to a King to tell us how and what to do?

Small update

Life feels like it's going full speed. I feel like I haven't been this busy since I left school. But it's a good kind of busy! It feels good to be busy like this. Keeps me from just sitting around. :)

I LOVE my jobs! I am thinking about many different paths my life can take and seeking the Lord in which way to go.

This week I will hit nearly 40 hours of work. It's gonna be a long week. But a good one. The best part it's at end the week by going to the temple. I love serving the lord.

Scripture Power

There's a primary song that the kids a church sing called,"Scripture Power" some of the song goes like this, "Scripture power keeps me safe from sin, scripture power is power to win, scripture power every day I need the power that I get each time I read." Every time I sing that song or hear the kids in my primary class sing it. I think about one of the kids I use to babysit and how he sung the song with so much love and excitement.

Anyways this brings to the point of my blog. I am reading in the Book of Mormon last night I started reading from Mosiah. As I was reading I wanted to share something about two verses that stuck out to me.The first one comes from the third verse in the first chapter. "...I would that ye should remember that were it not for these ^bplates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ^cignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God."
After reading this it made realize why it's so important to study the scriptures. They are really meant for our day and they can help us in our life. We may not be wondering in the wilderness but we are wondering in life. We face many different trials every day and seek answer to our prayers. Many of which can be found in the scriptures. I know that simply by reading them it can bring comfort in a trouble world, calm the heart and feed the soul. We can be free of knowing that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are in control and all we have to do is trust in them.

The other scripture that caught my eye was the 4th verse, "For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the ^alanguage of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time." It reminds me that we aren't suppose to remember everything that we read in the scriptures, that's why we can always open them up and learn from them and take in new understanding. They are here for us to teach us.

I want to share my testimony that I know the Church of Jesus Christ is the true church. I believe in Christ. I am so grateful for the scriptures and all that I can learn from them. That everytime that I read them I can learn something new. I am grateful that the Lord has blessed with a Prophet today who can lead and guide us. I am so grateful for prayer and the answers that I get and comfort it brings me. I am so grateful for temples and to be part of an eternal family. Amen

To read the Book of Mormon for yourself please click the underlined link Book of Mormon to learn more about the Mormon faith please visit learn more.

**editors note: Posting rude comments will be consider as spam. Please think before your write. WWJD. CTR**

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday, Derek!

Serving the Lord in Heaven above,
while we are here helping others on earth,
Wishing you the best on this joyous day,
Letting you know you are never forgotten!

Happy Birthday dear Friend, Brother and Son
Today you would have been 29.

October News

I firmly believe that the older you get the faster time flies. It's hard to believe that it's finally October. My favorite month out of the entire year! Mainly because it's the first time that in a long time that the year feels like fall.

This past weekend Texas got rain. This is a news worthy event because it has been along time since we got rain. And it rained for two straight days. Still not enough to bring us out of the drought. But it was so nice to see, listen too, and feel the rain; I had almost forgotten that's what rain did. I was very grateful for the rain it was an answer to prayers being said.

I was recently prompt at work, to a 75% SAS. Which means that I am only on the phone 75% of the time while the other I am helping with my team and other small projects.

John is doing okay in school. He's right on track for getting his associates degree soon. :)

Almost forgot to share this, Yesterday John and I along with some of his family all went to the state fair of Texas! It was a lot of fun! I had fried Bubble Gum, Fried Oreos, chocolate dip strawberries, corn dog and oh.. it was yummy! We even rode the big Texas Ferris Wheel! I had a blast! We did some other things there too, like ride the ski lift, thebig long slides, looked at the car show.

Parking was crazy at the fair and unlike Disney World they need to work on their crowd control of moving people around the fair. But over all it was a good day at the fair.

I really have been enjoying working in the temple. It's such a great blessing! And it brings so much joy to me. Simply by serving I am learning such much about Heavenly Father's Plan for me and us. I am happy to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints! It's a blessing in my life!

Promptings

I am grateful for promptings, even the smallest of ones. Today my sisterinlaw called and asked me if I could watch her youngest child, Willie. (He's 8 months) while she went to the Temple. I said yes. Our plans changed a few times but after we had ones in place it was set in stone. I was going to meet her at the temple.

Before I could even get there I had the impression to stop and get baby wipes and water before meeting her. This delayed me by a few mins. But it was a good thing. When I got to the temple, my sisterinlaw said, well we have a little problem Willie had a blowout and I have a dipper but no wipes. I was quick to say that's okay, I actually got some before I came to meet you. So the day was saved and Willie got a clean dipper while his mom went into the temple and he had fun with his aunt Brittany.

I am glad I had the wipes and more so grateful I acted on the impression.

Just goes to show no matter how small the impression is it's important to act on them. You never know just how important it may be. :)

9.11.2011

It has been said that time heals all wounds. For some the wounds of today still run deep; other remember as if was yesterday. Hard to believe that it has been 10 years since the events of 9/11.

Since I have been blogging most years I have written about where I was and what I was doing on that day, too keep 9.11 memory alive. (As I did in the previous post for the week). But its not only there its in my jounrals as well.

The day has changed my life forever. I guess the first one that impacts me is the way I travel now. Going through airport security has changed. I can remember the days when unticketed people were allowed to follow you to the boarding area of the plan and wait with you there. Now since 9.11 that is no longer allowed. Going through the metal dectors now with out shoes. There's more pat downs. More people are aware of what is going on around them and no one is going to try take down the plan with out about 50 other passengers taking you down.


Ten yeas later there are memorials at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and the empty field in PA. All to serve as reminder of those that lost their lives, those that fought to save the lives of others and those on the flight that was head to White House who brought down the plane in PA. They will always be remembered. There stories will be told. Of the day when the World Stop Turning.


Think of 9/11 makes me think of another time our nation was under attack over 50 years ago; Pearl Harbor. There are those older than me that may remember the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec.7th during World War 2. There too a memorial lies in memory of those that died.

Ten Years Ago: 9/11

Ten years ago I was in the 10^th grade. Ten years ago I moved to Texas. Ten years ago I was 15 years old. Ten years ago I didn’t have Facebook, iPod or a digital camera. Ten years ago life changed forever, as 9.11 to on a new meaning. The world had no idea of what Twitter was.

Tuesday, 7:30 a.m., Sept. 11, 2011: KPLX is blasting from my radio in my bedroom as I prepared for English Class via phone in Maryville, Tennessee.

I hear one of the radio personalities say, “A plan just hit the World Trade Center in New York. If you can get to a TV go and turn it on.” I quickly run to the living room TV and turn on Fox News. There were the images. Smoke is coming out of the building; people running down the streets of New York. I yell to my parents to tell them. Moments later another plane hits the other tower. Then word about the Pentagon and empty field in Pennsylvania were two other planes have crashed.

The images played all day. I watch. I was scared. I prayed. I thought Dallas might be next. I held my scriptures close at night.

When the paper came out, I got an edition.

I knew this would now be a day written in the history books. Something I would tell my children and grandchildren one day.

Days would go by as the news scroll the list of the dead/missing at the bottom of the screen. The world as we know it had changed.

In the days, months and even years to come, movies, pictures, books, stories of survivors, and even songs would tell of that day.

Ten years later, we still fight the war on terrorism, some of the leaders of it now dead. Airport security has forever changed.

Life lesson have learned.

One thing is for sure we will never forget. Our colors don’t run. United We Stand, Together as one.

The Weekend

This week certainly has flown by. Last time I check it was Monday and now its 11:45 p.m. on a Saturday night.

I guess all the excitement happened Wednesday night when we got home from work. I am calling my sister to confirm that I am watching her stepson, Cole on Thursday morning. John checks his phone and sees he has a voice mail and it's the Dallas Temple calling us asking us to meet with someone from the temple presidency. Thursday morning John calls the temple and makes an appointment for Friday at 2:30 p.m. So after work on Friday we head over to the temple and leave with a new calling. We will be working in the Temple one shift a week. The calling is typically for two years but they know things can happen such as circumstances like having a family or work or moving that would shorten your service.

I feel such an honor to be able to something like that. I know the Lord will truly bless our lives with it. John is very excited about the chance to serve in the Lord's House.

After the meeting I went to Aldies(a grocery store) and went grocery shopping, while John was on the phone with his mom telling her the news. And was reminded that night we had our Girls Night Out with, Carolyn, Jan, Mini Mama, and John's Mom. With all that had happened this week, I had totally forgotten about it. We headed to a place called, "Let's Art Party" where you can paint a picture with 2-3 hours. Pictures are with in the post, they were taken at Let's Art Party, by our teacher who taught us. There were some other women there having their own girls night out too, so it wasn't just us in there. It was a lot of fun, we are all planning to go back.

Today is Saturday we went to my Team Outing from work. We all meet up at a place called Main Event, we went Bowling and played glow in the dark miniature golf. It was a lot of fun. I didn't do too well with my bowling but John on one round got his score over 100! The we did our Walmart shopping and amazingly for a Saturday afternoon it wasn't too bad. Let's just say that we are good on food for a good two weeks. With the exception of maybe need more Milk and Eggs later on. We ended the night by going and play games with some friends in our ward, who don't have children yet. (Young Couples) It was a lot of fun.

Surprisingly I managed to get our house clean, laundry wash.. just have to fold it.

The best part was the news about the temple...

The Year..

Right now on facebook there is something going around in friend's status. Where they are given a year by a friend and their friends like the year and in turn that friend gives them a year to post somethings about themselves. One my friends gave me the year 1998 and it got me thinking about where I was in 1998 and what I was thinking. Below are some answers to that year

The Year was 1998.
Age: I was 12 years old.( Facebook has another age, :) )
Live: Lousiville, Tennessee
Pet: Friskey the Cat
Best Friend: Samantha Thompson
Dream Job: A school teacher
Show: It really ranged from ER to Early Edition to Dr.Quinn Medicine Women.
Random: This was my first year a girls camp at church. I also got into 4H.
School: I was HomeSchool the start of my 6th grade year, I think I nickname our school Karma Middle School
Crushes: Really didn't have any

My time certainly has flown by. Thinking back that long ago was really mind blowing. Next time I will have to go to my journals and see what I thought. On that side note I have kept a journal from 12 years old until now.

What happened to July?

Hard to believe that summer is nearly over and John heads back to school. The summer has been a good one. Going swimming at our apartments, hanging with family and seeing my sister, Brittany M. :) and one of the best part of it all: going to Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL with my parents and going to the beach! John even went fishing with my dad and caught fish and then threw them back in the ocean again.

We had soo much fun at Disney, I can't wait to go back. We had orginally planned to just spend two days there but we ended up going for 4 days! I am glad we did that. I can't wait to go back. It's such a happy place!

This weekend we went to two malls after work. On Friday, we went to Grapevine Mills Mall and walked around and even shop some. One of the stores we went to was from Lego Land, John felt such like a kid in that store. We ended up buying some legos. Yes, we are married and playing with legos. There's nothing like acting like a kid again.:) We even ate a place called Rainforest Cafe and end the day going to the candy store!

On Saturday we went to Stonebier Mall. It was very crowd. People every were, of course school does start back here in a week. We looked in some stores, I even got a new book called: "Farewell to Manzanae" so far its a really good book! And then we went to Toy R Us, John decided that he need some more Legos.

Well that's all for now. In this post I have included so pictures from Diseny and the Beach







.

June Already?

Hard to believe the year is half way over!

What happening with the Deans you ask? Well, feels like the same old, same old. Expect now its summer with close to triple digits outside. John and I have been taking advantage of our Swimming Pool where we live. It's really nice to be able to just hang out at the pool. And even get my pre-tan on. John and I will head to the beach to see my parents and we get to go to DISNEY WORLD! And then at the end of July my sister, Brittany M. comes for her Mary Kay convention. I will be excited to see her!

In other news, I am now teaching the 4 years olds who are turning 5 this year at church. CTR 4 they call the class. I really enjoy it because I get to go to primary with them. Oh, how I miss going to primary. I love teaching my class. I taught them for the first time last Sunday. They all have such sweet spirits.

Well thats all for now folks!

NF and Me

I couldn’t let another year go past without passing on some thoughts about Neurofibromatosis (NF).

The first piece of information you should beware of is that May is NF awareness month. So I am using two forms of media to pass on NF awareness, one through my Facebook messages and then through this post. In May of 2007 I wrote a commentary for my school news paper about NF. I will post the link to the article at end of this post.

When I was two years old I was diagnosis with NF. Throughout my childhood I was treated like any normal child, expect I wore a leg brace. Because my right leg is curved like a bow and arrow and if I were to break my leg it would have to be removed. Once a year I went for check-ups for my NF. There were years that I saw 7 doctors in one day! I typically saw a geneticist, neurologist, psychologist and some others that I know I am forgetting.

I was once told in my pre-teens years that I was stupid by a psychologist and that I wouldn’t go to college all because I did poorly on a test that she gave me. But I was also very sick that day with the flu when I took that test. But in December 2009 I proved her wrong, when I graduate from college.

I may have a learning difference but that didn’t stop me. I just had to learn to a different way to study.

When I was a teenager I was told that when I choose to have children there would be a 50% chance of me having a child with NF and my NF worsening during the pregnancy. A chance I am willing to take because I know that it is in the Lord’s hands. (When this happens I plan to write a blog about it.

I wore a brace until I was in the 5^th grade. Now I know longer wear the brace and I think that my leg looks stronger and perhaps a little bit straighter.

I have two friends that have NF.

I have gone to an NF camp with my family before to be with other families with NF!

Neurofibromatosis affects many people and everyone is affected differently. There is no cure, but hopefully one day there will be.

http://thevoice.uamont.edu/archives

It's been a month since I last wrote. Hard to believe the year is nearly half way over.

At the end of April we went to our first Rangers game for the year. It was a lot of fun. We had great seats and the weather was perfect. The only down side was they had to cancel the firework show because of the strong winds.

John is almost done with school for the spring. :) And this summer we are going to Florida for a week to see my parents.

Our Hamesters are doing great, now that they live in different cages. Sometimes we will get them out of the cage and put them next to each other and they will start fighting. It's kinda funny to tell you the truth.

That's about it for now!

My Cheese Is Moved!

For the past few days I have been reading a book called, "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson.

It's a book about two mice, Sniff and Scurry and two humans who are as small as mice name, Hem and Haw. They live in a Maze and everyday they go to the Cheese Station C to eat their daily cheese. Overtime the cheese gets smaller and smaller. The mice begin to pickup on this and they start to prepare for change. Where as the small humans haven't really notice the change and have not prepared for the change. One day they all arrive at Cheese Station C and their is no cheese so the mice Sniff and Scurry go out in search of new cheese while the Hem and Haw pout and say how unfair it was that cheese is gone. Haw decides that he can't wait for change to come to him he has to go looking for it. He says "It's Maze Time!" and goes looking for new cheese. As he searches every now and then he finds new cheese and through out his journey he writes different quotes on the walls. As for what happens to the dear friends you'll have to read the book.

While I was reading the book I found these roles/personalities of the mice and small humans

Sniff= Will sniff out new changes and will easily adapt to change.

Scurry= Will go into action at the site of change. He also likes to get things done, but also needs to be monitored so that he doesn't go off in the wronge direction. They value action and results.

Haw= Will stay put for awhile but realized he need to change. Cheese meant feeling safe, change to him needs to make sense. He is quote with saying, "It's Maze Time!"

Hem= Stays put until he is ready to change. They are to afraid to change or are to comfortable to change.

I do however want to share some of the quotes that stuck out to me through out the book that Haw wrote on the wall.

"Imagining myself enjoying new cheese, even before I find it."

"Smell the Cheese often so you know when it is getting old."

"What would you do if you were not afraid?"

"If you do not change, you can become extinct."

"Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are about to come."

"The quicker you late go of old cheese the sooner you find new cheese."

"The more important your cheese is to you the more you want to hold on to it."

"Movement in a new direction helps you find new cheese."