Birthday

I can't wait for this next year of life :)

I just have a feeling that it will be the best year yet! Granted getting married and a home and all the great things with this past year have been amazing but for my personal spiritual, physical and emotional life... this year is just going to blow me away I think... God is preparing me for something big and I'm not sure what... could be the reality of first yaer teaching... could be something else.

So far Jeremiah has been great... Red Lobster (annual dinner) and beautiful roses for my "early birthday" and a secret dinner (haha not too secret cuz he is using one of our gift cards) and then to the exhibit then lunch with my mom on Saturday! yay!!
(haha side note, my mom just got texting and it's sooo funny to wait for her texts and how long it takes her to write back.. haha)

Can't wait for another year of blessings, hardships, and love! Thanks to all my great friends and family who have already made my birthday special!!
here is a picture from our annual red lobster dinner :)

I hate surprises

Which is why very few times in my life there are surprises because I'm a snoop. Haha almost blew my own engagement because I snoop a lot. Haha so my birthday is next week and I really wanted to go to the Desert Botanical Chihuly Exhibit


so I just happened to ask jeremiah if he had anything planned and he said "well nothing set so far" (since we are going to Red Lobster on Monday (my birthday is Thursday but the crab is cheaper on Mondays haha- we are so cheap) and I said "well I was going to go to the exhibit and I can get tickets really cheap" and he goes "haha another surprise almost ruined-that's where I was planning on taking you but I figured I couldn't keep it a secret" so apparently he has something else planned that night and I won't poke around at that.... well maybe not haha

Life

I have never been this happy before. (as a whole... haha)

I can't imagine what it will feel like to do what I love and get paid (I say that a lot but it's like 40 hours a week of volunteer work haha)

I come home and can talk to Jeremiah for hours about what excited me in my day (poor guy... i love him for always listening to it all). Last semester I really struggled with having joy and just finding things that really excited me. I had 8 classes, 30 hours of work a week, the ministry, and 2 hours of driving everyday. Getting up at 3 am and working and going to school until 5 really drained me. My voice teacher was really concerned about me because getting up before the sun and getting home as it went down can really mess a person up and suck the life out of you... I never admitted to her (or anyone) that I struggled with very rough feelings last semester because I felt like I had no time for me or my husband and that was hard the first semester of marriage.

Now I get to see Jeremiah in the mornings before I leave (we get up about the same time) and I get home before him. That is the biggest blessing. I can be there to greet him at the door when he comes home and have all evening to spend time with him or doing things we need to do. We are finally working out together. We got My Fitness Coach for Wii and it's a personalized work out video almost. It's honestly hte greatest thing ever. We are super sore haha (thats what I get for being out of shape). I have time for me. I have been doing my SOAPs everyday.

Just trying to rebuild myself physically, emotionally and spiritually.

My next goal:

To spend some time with my girl friends in Phoenix. Man I miss them. I haven't really seen anyone in months and it's rough. I went from living with all my best friends, to not seeing them for months... big change of pace. So I am going to try to reconnect with my girls this year :)

All in all life is good, our marriage is great and I love my classes I am teaching :) Can't complain one bit!

God is looking out... ALWAYS

So this semester has only been like virtually 2 weeks and God has rocked our world already!!

We have been faithful in our giving and our quiet times and God is being faithful back. We decided that even though my income was nonexistent that we would continue to give the same in our tithing/giving, just being challenged by the church giving and see how far we can stretch out faith.

So when we thought we would be wracking up small debt this semester.. we end up being taken care of. One of my family members that lives out of state sent us an offering (just because they felt led to use part of their giving this month to bless us- they had no idea of our financial situation), then we got a check from our insurance company (still looking into why haha but was pretty amazing- haven't cashed it yet haha)...

then we find out that Jeremiah's car accident case was randomly settled and they are giving us enough to pay off some loans (ahh yay!)

and THEN... we called the student loan place to pay Jeremiah's monthly student loan bill and we asked about pushing our payments back to the end of each month and they asked about out situation and they told us that for a really small penalty fee we can forebear our payments until August when both of us are working!!! NO WAY!!

So just when I wasn't sure where all the money for our bills, food... living.. was going to come from.. God comes through ALL in 2 weeks and gives us exactly what we need to stay up in finances and maybe even be able to save some for a rainy day..

It's always encouraging to share that with people and to remind myself that God will work things out. He might not always work this way, or in this way but He reminds me daily that He has His best interest in mind.

First week as a teacher

Well this week has had it's ups and downs and many more ups!

The first two days started off rocky because I was sick and exhausted from not really having a winter break. Yesterday and today were great. I got to meet the school staff and sit through my first inservice meeting and that was reallllyy interesting (honestly). Sad to hear how little money Arizona has left for schools but still interesting to hear some honest answers to questions.

I love the kids... some are not so loveable but makes me want to love them more. I am learning a lot but I really am ready to jump in and teach. Sometimes I start taking over the class while my teacher is distracted with something and then I have to back up a bit because I forget that it's not my classroom haha.

Today we learned the hand movements to this song the kids learned and one little girl and boy started crying because they could not get it and they were getting so frustrated (so sad to see a second grader cry over not succeeding), so i sat individually next to them (one boy has special needs) and taught them the movements really slowly and once they got it their face lit up! it was just wonderful!! Sad that there are so many students and so little special areas (music, art, PE, etc) that the teacher can't help each student individually.

Tomorrow we are going to a music conference (the teacher and I) and I am so excited to be with music teachers from all over the state and learn from everyone. Hopefully it will be great!!

So this week has been great all over. Hearing "Hi Mrs. Hann" is soooo weird because I'm used to Miss Amber haha. I feel too grown up haha. Oh well. :)

God is provding financially in SO many small ways and through different people and it is so great.

It's day 7 of the new year and my goal is to consistently do my devotions and now on day 7 I have done 7 devotions/SOAPs and it's so great to see how God can use that time and really speak to me!

Hopefully next week will be even better!

Student teaching!

Well tomorrow I begin my first day of student teaching. I pray it goes well, I pray I learn A LOT, I pray the children take to me well and I learn the balance needed in a classroom. While I'm not nervous to teach or anything (that stuff thrills me!) I am nervous that It will be overwhelming. This will be the best semester... I can feel it... no more 2 hour drives... no more working 13 hour days (ha my schedule is 7:45-3:45) so i will be home when Jeremiah gets home (HALLELUJAH!) and I will get more rest.. I am starting to plan out lunches and meals... it's just a good stable feeling.

Can't wait to get paid to do this :) (haha going from one paycheck to 2 full time ones will be SOO NICE)

I hope I can sleep tonight!! haha

Great things in 2008!

Well it's 2009 but 2008 was so wonderful that I had to recap it all.

*In the beginning of 2008, I was newly engaged!

*I was a Residence Assistant to about 20 BEAUTIFUL...WONDERFUL college freshmen

*I did my junior AND senior recital (that was hard stuff!)!


*We bought our first house!

*I got MARRIED!!


*Went to Disney World and Florida for the first time!


*Watched one of my dearest and best friends get married!!


*Finished college classes and enjoyed a first holiday season married!



Been a great year and can't wait to see what 2009 holds!