Home is where the birdies are

Okay. Here it goes again!

Two years-ish have passed. I'm a little older, a little wiser (have I used this already?) (probably.), but otherwise I'm still a big big girl (28 years old) in the same big big world (Chicagoland, USA). I've missed blogging, and that's typically something I don't notice until I read other blogs and am like "hey! I can do that! wait, I have done that! wait.... why haven't I done that in over 2 years?!" and so on and so forth.

Whatevs, you get it.

Obligatory update: I've been employed by Aaron's school for juuust about 2 years now, and Aaron has started his doctoral program in Theological Studies--Church History, more specifically! He is just now hammering out the details of what he hopes his dissertation topic will be. Maybe it'll be about some old European theologian? Then maybe we may need to travel to and spend some time in Europe where Aaron can translate old stuff, and where I can choose to not translate old stuff and to instead look at sweet buildings and eat pastries? Hey, I can dream it!

I haven't taken many recent photos... like, at all... so here is our spice drawer. 

We are still in our little house, and this spring-summer, a family of birds made their home in our awning. It's the closest thing we're going to get to roommates for now! They're great. They just fly all around, feed their babies, squawk at threatening-looking squirrels, and unintentionally dive-bomb near our heads on our way to our driveway. Actually though, I hope they've migrated at this point because their nest is starting to fall out of the awning, so now it looks like garbage is just seeping out of our house's exterior above our windows. Whatever will the neighbors think!

Fake conversation between my fake neighbors.
Neighbor 1: Frances, I just don't know about those Deans!
Neighbor 2 (Frances?): How do you mean?
Neighbor 1: I don't know if you've noticed... but.... (whisper) I don't think they take out their trash. ...I think they just stick trash in their awning!!
Neighbor 3, eavesdropping from a nearby location, faints in distress.
Neighbor 2: Well, if I too had to throw out my trash in that dumpster way across the parking lot, I'd do the same.
End scene. 

My neighbors are actually way awesome. However, we do, sadly, need to remove that bird's nest. But, for now, I'm content to eat a food. To food!

<"

The Soundtrack of My Life

There's a Facebook game going on that I'm really into right now. The rules are as follows:
1) find out the song that was #1 the week you were born.
2) find that song on YouTube.
3) post that video on your wall without shame.


I found my song for the week I was born, but now I'm looking for an excuse to search for and share some Billboard #1 hits from the other "important events" in my life. So here are five #1 singles that really take me back......


1. The week I was born:
Genesis - Invisible Touch (1986)



2. The week I graduated from kindergarten:
Kris Kross - Jump (1992)



3. The week I first went to the orthodontist:
Elton John - Candle in the Wind 1997 (1997)





4. The week I had backstage passes to a Weird Al concert:
Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want (2000)





5. The week Aaron asked me a question... in Central Park, no less:
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind (2009)





Leave me some fun ones from your life in the comments! Or on Facebook!


<"

Again, for the 25th time

Happy New Year, dudes! I don't know about you, but I had a wonderfully refreshing, fun holiday time. Aaron and I were in New Jersey for the Christmas week to see my family and in Pennsylvania over New Year's weekend to hang out with his. The week was filled with gifts, merriment, manual labor (painted one of my parents' bathrooms as part of their Christmas gift!), pajamas, and delicious delicious food. We arrived back in Illinois last night in order to regroup today... and now I don't think I'm yet ready to go back to work!

my family, l to r: Brittanie (sister-in-law-to-be), Stephen (brother), Mom, Dad, me, Aaron

As I am wont to do, today I wrote down my list of personal goals for 2012. I almost scrapped the idea entirely after listening to the beginning of the sermon at my in-laws' church on Sunday; the youth pastor began his message by reading a couple of Jonathan Edwards's 70 resolutions which, mind you, he wrote by the age of 20. For example...
"Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God."
or 
"Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live."

Aaron's family, l to r: Ashley (sister-in-law-to-be), Ben (brother), Mom, Dad, Aaron (a.k.a Pork Pockets), me, Kurt (brother-in-law), Bethany (sister), Tyler (nephew)

Somehow, my goal of "exercising more", in comparison, pales in importance to the point where I may as well have said "watch more TV". Nonetheless, I know that even though they're not as spiritually mature or whatever, I have made my list of now seemingly silly goals, some of which I will share for the sake of a sense of accountability....

• plant a vegetable garden and a butterfly container garden. Pictures hopefully to follow in the coming months!
• write daily, with at least 2 days of the week devoted to the blog. They say it takes 21 straight days to form a habit, and it's by far the skill I most want to improve on. That, and not ending my sentences with prepositions. Or writing fragments. D'oh!
• get our basement main room and guest room in order without spending a lot of money. I'm expecting this a year-long project because of the money aspect, and I am looking forward to making the basement very usable. Perhaps I should start a Pinterest board to get me going...? 

I have way too many others, but these goals are good ones to track on here. Though feel free to yell at me if you somehow find out that I've gone three days without doing any strength training!

In conclusion, here's a good beginning-of-the-year thought from ol' Ozzy... thanks to a friend from high school posting it as his Facebook status:

"One of the difficulties in Christian work is this question – 'What do you expect to do?' You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder – you do not know what God is going to do next."

<" 

psssh math!

As I await to skype-chat with my dear best friend (or "bestie", as I guess they're called now?), I decided to peruse Google for a daily/weekly devotional book of some kind, using these exact search criteria:

"recommended devotional book that doesn't suck"

...which in turn linked to this book, via some homeschooling websites:


So... does anyone have any devotional book recommendations? Preferably something of substance, and maybe with workbook-like features. I'll continue the hunt on Google for a while, changing up the search terms a bit as well. :)

<"

okay, I'm back. for reals, for reals.

Allllll righty then! Whew, the summer just came and went, huh? Siiigh.


SO MUCH has happened, and I need at least a month and a half more of this gloriously warm season.


Pardon the change of templates! I'm experimenting, you see, and I hope to get the aesthetic right on the ol' blog. You know, to match the mood. Whatever that may be--I guess based on the background, the blog's feel is "hipster blue birdy". I'm kinda down with that for now. 


So I won't go into an excruciatingly long "catch up" list of any kind because right now it would be torturous for me to even figure out where to begin. All you need to know is: (ONE) I'm fi-hiiinally working full time hours (TWO) my dearest brother Stephens is engaged to a darling New Jersey-an (THREE) we have officially moved! To a small house! Oh, sorry, one more thing (FOUR) we got LIBRARY CARDS today. Blammo!!

New kitchen, pre-paint, pre-moving in

Aaron is in his 2nd year of seminary, and I can't even believe it. Now he's reciting the Hebrew alphabet and explaining Saint Augustine's views on marriage to me. He's putting down tile on our floors and has been our home's resident expert on boxelder bugs. He also put air in my new-used bike (thanks, Molly!) this afternoon and bought me an awesome t-shirt. So you see, he's still the best husband in the world.


And with all of the change and what-not, I've begun a whole slew of new mental (soon to be on paper) to-do lists. Getting library cards was definitely on it, so I feel very accomplished. Soon I need to finish the stain work on some shelves we're putting in our living room/dining room, and after that I have a photo frame decoration project that I'm super excited about. On top of that there are several borrowed books from the aforementioned library about gardening...

One part of our yard that will house a new, colorful (or edible) garden someday!

<"

Talkin' 'bout my sense of humor

I am emerging from a bit of a hiatus to address an accusation made today at work, which is that I, Christie Dean, do not have a good sense of humor. Now before I go any further, let me first point out that I'm 99.9% certain that this was said in jest. After all, I have a GREAT sense of humor, if I do say so myself. I will even go so far as to say that my grasp of the amusement in most things may, in fact, be my best quality. It is at least the part about little ol' me that I value most, probably because it keeps me sane. But in case there is any hint of doubt in anyone's mind that I am aloof in the sense of humor department, or that I take things waaay too seriously, I have prepared a list of things I find humorous. You will find that the items are varied, for my sense of humor is well-rounded. Eclectic. Cosmopolitan. You be the judge.


Different things I find humorous (This is just the tippy-top of the iceberg, mind you):

• Most animals and their sounds
• This Red Hot Chili Pepper's lyric: "Keystone cops and the billy bob chops / Gonna scare my kids gonna share my crops"
• What Up With That
• The word "wharf"
• Dr. Seuss books
• My philosophy professor at my alma mater
• When an outfielder during a major league baseball game so thinks he's about to catch a fly ball and doesn't
• Bubsy
• My husband's made-up jingle for the brand of romaine lettuce we recently bought at Garden Fresh ("Andy Boy/He makes the lettuce for the girls and boys")
• Informercials
• Canadian stereotypes
• Listening to what people get really frustrated about when they're playing a board game, e.g. "Crap, I could really use some ore right now!"
• public access TV
• Baby/child toys and games
• Crazy eyes
• This joke
• Paul F. Tompkins stand-up 
• When the little boy who lives in my apartment building practices riding his bike up and down our very short hallway
• Passive-aggressive notes
• Suspenders
• RickRolling
• Conversations between two people who are way into computers
• Made-up words
• Grapefruit spoons 
• Stock photos

Of course there are things I don't find to be amusing very much at all. Some examples are:

• pen ink
• grass 
• grilled chicken
• tires
• grids (of any kind, really)
• algebra

Video Friday! 5/6/2011

Some friends and I will send each other a group email every once in a while with the subject "Video Friday!" (or maybe Video Saturday. You know, it all depends.). It's a pretty straightforward concept; one of us watches a video on YouTube or another site, finds said video amusing, and shares the video via email with friends, who then react with a comment or respond with a video of a similar nature. Anywow, I've decided to make Video Friday a weekly feature on the blog, because I find many things humorous and want to share them... and just because I can.

Enough with the banter!

I love "Weird Al" Yankovic (understatement of the millenium), and his new album is coming out in June. This is cause for celebration. Let's watch a couple of his best videos, shall we?

Duh.


This song is easily in my top three Weird Al tunes... and the video is so delightfully random.


Here's something a little different... I was trying to find a different video but came across this instead, which is more than okay. Weird Al had a couple TV specials and videos (in VHS form whoooooa!) in the 80's and 90's which had all sorts of amazingly bizarre clips and guests. No other words of introduction are necessary.



Special bonus video!