Where has the time gone?!

I cannot beleive its been so many months since I last wrote a blog! August of 2007? So much has happened since then!

There's been a lot of the same thing with school and all. My biggest news, though, is that I got a job at the University of Iowa! I'll be starting there in the Fall as an assistant professor in the communciation department. I'm really excited about it. It's a great opportunity and will be a wonderful first job.

Of course, this means that I have to finish my dissertation in order to take the position (which starts on August 20th, by the way). So I just finished collecting data for the last of my three studies and the next few months will be filled with dissertation data analysis and writing. I'm a little scared about getting it all done...but I'm also confident that somehow it will all work out. It always does.

Jesse is excited about the move, too. His job is flexible so it can go with him. Even though we are so sad at the thought of leaving our friends, most of them will be graduating and moving on soon. It will be fun to have some many friends all over the country to go and visit.

We also bought a house (!!) which we go to closing for on June 2nd. I guess we don't technically own it yet, but we will very soon. It will be so nice to actually be able to say somewhere and get settled. We are already arranging to have the fence built -- the dogs are going to love the yard. I'm going to start composting and have an herb garden. And we're going to have enough space for all our stuff. I'm really looking foward to it.

In other news, Jesse passed his patent bar exam so he is officially a "patent agent" now. I'm so proud of him! All those hours of studying really paid off.

In news about my family, Brett got engaged on Christmas eve! He and Breana are getting married in November in Mexico. So that should be a really fun vacation for all of us! Jodi is studying abroad in London this semester and is traveling around now before coming home to MD for a few weeks. Trevor bought a condo in DC last summer and just got a promotion!

So, yeah, a lot has happened in the past months on all fronts!

Because of all of this, I definitely feel like I'm in the middle or on the brink of a transition. It's hard to comprehend all the changes that will be happening. I just hope we can adapt okay. And I really hope we can meet some nice people in Iowa. If you know anyone in Iowa city, let me know! I have such a great group of friends...I know it's going to be hard to leave everyone and be without our support system.


All in all, I'm so grateful for all that we've been blessed with...and I can't wait to see what is going to happen next!