Our Story Begins... 3/21/09

There are probably a select few people out there who have heard our story... How we met...How long we dated. The good, the bad, and the mushy. Well, My next few blogs will be dedicated to sharing our story...How we became "The Deans."

It was a long journey. 6 and 1/2 yrs-ish long type long...

Before I begin, let me share a picture. One of the reasons I chose to marry Brian was because he's got some mad skills:
Yes, that's right folks. My husband can fly...He flutters his feet quickly back and forth and vuala! He begins to ascend! Told you he had mad skills:)Ok, back to the beginning of our story. Our story begins in 1999. We were seniors in high school. I was taking a creative cooking class first semester. I am not sure of all of the details of how I got out of class each day in the middle of class, but I did...Conveniently with my friend Kimberly. Each day we would escape during the middle of class and walk the campus. Every day we would pass the same benches, and on those benches, there always sat two boys: Evan Hopper and Brian Dean. I was without a doubt the dorkier of the two girls, so I just usually sat as Kimberly chatted with them. I do remember noticing Brian and having a particular draw to him. Besides his obvious good looks...there was something about him that I was sucked into.Ok, at this rate we will be telling this story for a very long time, so you will just have to bare with me. Nonetheless, I began seeing Brian more and more at church and school. We eventually began hanging out in the same crowd. All of my friends had a crush on him, and for all who know the unwritten girl code, it was off limits for me to like him. We continued to get to know each other... we often went off-roading together, and for some reason, this was a common thread for us to start really talking. Brian asked my good friend Laura to Prom...I was bummed. He tells me now that he really wanted to ask me...not sure that this was entirely true:) Well, we ended up going to prom together, but we went with different people. I wish I could find a picture of this because it is pretty classic.

We graduated high school...that summer I dropped off the map, in a state of I don't know what to do with myselfness, and Brian went to Israel. When he got back, we reconnected at church, and he very boldly asked me to be a part of his small group. Of course, I obliged and went the next week. I stayed in his small group for quite a while, and this is where we really started to have a friendship...just me and him. I remember at one point during this time telling Brian's cousin, Erin..."I'm going to marry your cousin." She looked at me like I was stark right mad, as she didn't know that I even had feelings for him.

Throughout his year, our "friendship" developed to the point that we were doing pretty much everything together. I was continually trying to convince myself that I was crazy for liking him...One week it would be "I don't like him because his ears are too small," the next week, "His jokes are just too corny for me." You get the picture. I was fooling myself and so was he. We were both crushing big time. Well, this year past, but we remained best friends.

At the end of the school year, my brother passed away. It rocked my world...I was completely undone. I left for Hawaii two months later, where I spent three months working at a camp for underprivileged kids. Brian worked at a camp up a Lake Shasta on the houseboats. In my trying to deal with all of my confusion and feelings, I came back with a boyfriend...

To Be Continued...