UPDATE!!

We're ashamed, it's true... we haven't updated since January! Well, we're definitely not going to be able to include all that's been going on in our lives for the past 5 months, but we'll just have to settle for an update on life more recently :D.
This summer, I'm working part time at a local bank and taking classes so that I can finish up with school by December(!!!!). It sure is hard to be busy with schoolwork during the summer months, though... Most of the time, the LAST thing I want to be spending my time on is homework!! But I know that it's just for this one summer, and there's a wonderful light at the end of the tunnel.
Dylan's been continuing to enjoy work, along with pursuing other hobbies like guitar playing, cooking, beer brewing, and gardening. We've been experimenting with "EarthTainer" gardening--planting in rubbermaid tubs. The tomatoes LOVE it, but it's not the best for the snow peas, and we needed to devote more room to lower-yielding plants to get enough to really enjoy. But it's been fun nonetheless!
Murray's been spending a lot of time relaxing and laying low on the warmer days of Summer. One of the most common positions we find him in is laying on the ground with his belly in the air and paws hanging limp by his sides--trying to cool off, I guess?! He also LOVES that we aren't wearing socks these days so our feet our exposed and he can give us baths every evening... bleh! :S AND he's been spending even more time trying to get in CONTACT with water--what a strange kitty!
It's amazing how busy summers can get, isn't it? You think, "Ah, finally... summer break", but in reality things start to speed up because you want to take advantage of the summer months and all that comes with them! We've had and will continue to have a lot of fun weekends... Conferences, boating, camping, canoeing, biking, swimming, concerts, ball games, farmers markets, family, friends... And we still want to keep up with other loves like cooking, baking, guitar playing, reading, movies, relaxing... Learning to live each day as it comes, that's for sure.
Here are some pictures that supplement some of the things I wrote about:

Mexico!

Hi everyone! Dylan and I came down from cloud 9 on Sunday... we got back from our honeymoon to Mexico! Words cannot describe how wonderful a trip it was for us... the scenery, the weather, the resort, the food, the drinks, the service, the staff, the activities.... everything was absolutely amazing.
We stayed at the Aventura Spa Palace, which is in the Mayan Riviera (about 90 minutes south of Cancun). From the moment we stepped onto the resort we were humbled by the service of the Mexican staff there. They were carrying our bags, offering us smoothies, escorting us to our room... and then in the restaurants they pulled out our chairs for us, laid our napkins on our lap, and were great waiters. Oh, and when we were relaxing next to the pools or beach, the staff would come along and ask us if we wanted anything to eat or drink.
When we weren't enjoying ourselves at the resort, we spent time going on tours. We went to Chichen-Itza (Mayan ruins), snorkeling, and swimming with the dolphins. Each tour was also amazing!
We also had the delight of meeting a couple other honeymoon couples... we ate dinner together, sipped martinis together, and sang karaoke together. What a fun blessing!
Well, like I said before, it's hard to put our vacation into words, so now I'll show you some pictures that will hopefully help capture it a bit more...

Winter Update

It's been a busy holiday season for the Klines!
The weekend before Christmas Dylan and I went to Des Moines to have the Loos family Christmas. Even though it was in a different place than usual and it was a weekend before actual Christmas, it still felt like real Christmas. It was especially fun to have Gretta around this year...she brings us all so much joy!! We had the traditional Italian meal like we always do for Christmas, we played games, opened gifts, and went to church together in the morning to see Hope's Christmas Cantata. It was a great weekend!





On Christmas eve we traveled to Davenport, bringing Murray along this time! Dylan's parents (and every Kline family) has a cat, and since we were going to be gone for 5 days, we thought we'd see how Murray and Teegra would get along! They started out pretty cautious, sniffing each other all around and what-not, and they eventually started wrestling and playing and then even sleeping by each other. Teegra gave Murray, the younger kitty, a bath a couple times too! Needless to say, it was really cute to see those two together and it was hard to separate them when we had to go home.

We had another great Christmas celebration in Davenport... Christmas eve was spent at Dylan's sister's house with the entire Kline extended family. We had finger food and exchanged white elephant gifts, which was really fun. On Christmas morning Dylan and I and his parents opened gifts from one another, and then we headed over to Dylan's aunt and uncle's for lunch. Yet another Christmas celebration took place on Friday evening with Dylan's sister and her family. They came over to Dylan's parents' place and we had dinner and exchanged gifts again! In between all the fun partying, eating, and gift giving, Dylan and I relaxed, did a bit of after Christmas shopping, and hung out with friends who were in the area. Fun!!



Even though I've had a lot of time off from school this month, I certainly haven't gotten bored. With all the comings and goings and celebrations of the season, I've kept busy with wifely duties while Dylan works. Today Dylan and I are leaving for Clear Lake for one night, then to Minneapolis to stay with my aunt and uncle and their family (Guttormson's), and Monday we are leaving for our long-awaited honeymoon in Mexico!! We'll certainly be posting pictures of our vacation once we get back.
We hope that your holiday season has been full of joy and relaxation... and may it continue into the New Year.
Love to all!
Dana and Dylan and Murrbags.

Beginning to look like Christmas...

Since Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas is fast approaching, we decided to break out the fake Christmas tree that we got last year for $5 on clearance and spruce up the place a bit. It actually turned out pretty nice! Murray's going to have fun playing with it, we're sure...









Speaking of Murray, we just got him back today from the vet. He was declawed and became an "it" :) He's been pretty mellow today, and his meows are pretty pathetic. He sure was happy to be home, though.

Dylan and Forrest finally got to try out their home-brewed beer last night! It was a success!! AND it will probably get even better because the beer is supposed to be at its best 21 days after the initial two-weak fermentation.





I've been spending extra time studying this weekend for finals that are coming up in a couple weeks. I have 5 of them spread among 3 days, but I don't think it'll be all that bad. Hopefully I'll be motivated this week to do some works/studying so that I won't feel overloaded during finals week.

Yesterday we finally got our Christmas shopping done... it was an expensive day! Christmas time brings about such a mix of feelings... happiness and joy for the family, warmth, good food, and the celebration of our Savior's birth mixed with perplexity and frustration at the consumerism of America. Been thinking about it too, I suppose? We've found a challenging video on adventconspiracy.org. Check it out if you haven't already.

We hope and pray that, amidst the busyness and shopping and stress of the days, you are still finding grace and peace to lead you through moment by moment. Don't forget what Christmas is really about.

Our first post!

Hi everyone, Dana here...
Dylan and I have been wanting to get this blog started for a long time, and we finally did it the other day! It'll be fun to share what's going on in our life with you in this way...
Besides our weekly schedule of book group on Mondays, relaxing on Tues/Thursdays, volunteering at the Lampost coffee shop on Wednesdays, and having weekends full of friends, here's the latest on us:
Dylan's newest adventure has been learning to brew his own beer. His dad did this when Dylan was growing up, so it's been a dream of his to try it himself one day. His friend (and our upstairs neighbor), Forrest, has been joining in on the fun. It's a long process-- I think it'll be about 3 weeks until he gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor-- but he seems to love the process just as much as the end result.

Dylan's continuing to enjoy his job... he's even been a bit bored some days! This week they gave him his own business cards!

I've been really thankful for a couple of slightly quieter weeks school-wise. I think it's probably because we're gearing up for final craziness, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts! The main piece of "homework" I had for this weekend was to figure out what classes to take in the Spring (I can't believe it's that time already!!). I'm trying my best to see if I can finagle my class schedule for the last couple semesters so that I can graduate next December and be able to save us the money of taking another semester of classes...it's can be a pretty in-depth and frustrating process though! We'll see if it works... if not, we'll get by just fine.


And Murray, well... he's a kitten that seems to be going through his terrible two's. :D We adore him and his cuddilyness, but he's found a few more ways to be naughty lately.... including shredding the toilet paper, destroying my ponytailer, eating used cotton squares from the garbage, biting a little to hard (he doesn't realize when he's playing that his little kitten teeth are SHARP!), and he also really likes using those claws of his... pretty soon it'll be time to get him de-clawed and fixed, and so I'm sure that will help. It's hard to stay too mad at him, though... his little face and purr are just too cute!


Well, my stomach has started growling and I see that that's about right because it's dinner time! I'm going to enjoy some leftover chili that we made yesterday...tasty!
Love to all!
Dana