Week 2 and going strong!

Well we are finished with the 2nd week of our new eating plan.

Great results and feeling good. Don't really feel hungry anymore, tons of energy and sleeping really well!!

We are on day 15 and I am down 12 POUNDS!! It's so awesome. I am starting to feel it and see it a bit. I think next week once we are closer to the 20 pound mark, it will be more obvious. It's been hard when the scale says the number is loser but I don't see it in the mirror or feel it in my clothes. Today I started feeling it in my clothes :)

Jeremiah has lost 16 pounds!!! He is doing really well and starting to feel it and see it more. It's been hard for him with the limited choices on food but we know it's only temporary and we will get all our food choices back again (just in moderation and smaller portions). We know this is a life change but we are ready for it. Getting ready in a few years for starting a family, we want to make sure we have a habit of a healthy lifestyle so we don't have to figure that out while starting our family. :)

We booked our cruise to the Caribbean last week- more motivation! We are both hoping to lose around 30 pound (Jeremiah probably more!) and we will be so confident on this trip and really enjoy ourselves. God has provided free plane tickets, cheap cruise price and the time off!

We are so thankful and blessed!! Stay tuned for week 3 results!

Been a while- lots to catch up on!

Well it's hard to believe but in 4 weeks I will be done with my 1st year of full time teaching!! How did this year pass by so fast?????

I'm happy to say that I've been offered a full time contract for next year and I signed that puppy so fast!!
I'm so thrilled to be back at Country Place next year and be with my students again. It will be a blast- and a lot easier now that I don't have to come up with ALL my lesson plans again, just recycle many old ones :)

This summer is going to be great! Middle school summer camp, going to Idaho for one of my best friend's weddings!!! And a mystery vacation for Jeremiah and. While we have money saved, vacation fund set, full time jobs for next year and a few weeks off, we are going to go somewhere this summer. We are hoping somewhere tropical, a Bahama cruise, or Hawaii or something. We know that in the next few years when we start our family we won't have that luxury as much with extra funds, time, etc. So we are wanting to do this now!

Another big thing we are doing is the HCG diet. We have had many friends do and successfully complete this diet and we are thrilled to have finished our first week on it!

Basically we take these hormone drops and can only eat 500 calories a day! I know I know... it sounds crazy but the drops allow our body to go after the fat cells (rather than muscle sells that normally would happen on that low cal of a diet) and they suppress the bad hunger, although we are still pretty hungry.

So far in the past 5-6 days I have lost 6 pounds and Jeremiah has lost 8 pounds. (Darn boys and losing more weight!)


I will be posting each week our progress and we are hoping to be down 30ish pounds by the 1st week of June and then reward ourselves with a 'beachy' vacation and be proud of our bodies!! Then we go up to a 1500 calorie diet and exercise and if we keep with that, we will maintain and lose even some more weight.

I'm excited to rely on God for this because it's hard not to cheat!! I want to eat EVERYTHING haha but I know the reward will be worth it!!

New changes

Well several weeks ago Jeremiah and I found out just how low the housing market had sunk out in the west valley. We LOVE our home, but when the house across the street (which is MUCH bigger than ours) is cheaper than our house- it made us think. Because of our situation, we qualified for a nice loan with a really great interest rate. So... we began looking...

I fell in love with a house... the only major difference was an extra bedroom and bath and a little bit bigger kitchen/family room.

Our only obstacle... finding a renter (because we would lose money on our house at this point). So we looked around- a few prospects fell through and we prayed hard! Jeremiah and my last prayer about it was "Lord, give us a CLEAR direction." The next day, our last prospect for a renter (a renter that we knew/ church family that we trusted) fell through and the only house we really liked was sold! After every house we looked at, we came back home and we just said "wow, we really have an amazing house."
I (along with many amazing ppl) have spent so long decorating, painting, improving this house... after our CLEAR direction was shown- we decided... why not spent the money we had been saving on improving our current house- to make it something even more lovable. So... that is what we did!

Nothing in our house was new. Every furniture piece and appliance was used either from family/friends or off craigslist. We decided to get a new sectional, coffee table 2 more sitting chairs. This changed our living room from seating 2-3, to seating 9! Then we decided to landscape our backyard. It has been nothing but weeds and dirt since the house was built. We are now totally changing everything! A huge new patio, flag stone seating area/planter, fire pit, rock, trees, bbq, flowers, patio furniture- the works! ALso redoing the front yard with a new rock and plants. We realized that spending a lot of our savings on a down payment of a new house with no new furniture was not as appealing as spending just a little bit of our savings on improving our house now.

I am excited to really make our house an entertainment house. Lots of places to sit, fire pit to entertain, patio to sit on and seating galore!

Pictures to come soon. The backyard is in the works (will be done totally in about 2-3 weeks!) and we just need 1 more end table to complete our living room. I am excited at this decision- still knowing that a bigger house will be in our future (once kiddos come) and the market rises just a tad :)

God has blessed us IMMENSELY and brought people in our path to help us to get out of previous debt and be very secure in our marriage financially. I just pray that we continue to use our money to bless God. We believe that even allowing our house to be more of a place of fellowship through more space to bring people in, is a small way to praise Him through His money in another way.

Can't wait to show everyone the results of it all!!

Another month and no blog... here it goes!

I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged. In 1 1/2 weeks, I will be 25% of the way done with my first year of teaching.

WHAT!?!?!? Can that be true!?!?

My schedule is nuts at this school because I have not repeated a lesson in 8 weeks... so I have done a year's worth of lesson plans in 8 weeks and now in 2 weeks I finally get to just repeat almost everything I did the past 8 weeks. SOOO EXCITED!

This year so far has been absolutely incredible. I have had my really hard days where I got up at 5:30 (everyday haha) and just cried on the way to work thinking "is this what I am supposed to be doing" and almost everyday after my first class is over... I have a renewed spring in my step thinking "yes! yes it is!!"

I am so attached to all 250 kids I have right now. in 2 weeks i get a new batch of 250 kids... I hope my heart melts for all of them just the same. I have 5 year olds who don't know how to sit on their bottom or tie their shoe and a few hours later I have 13 year olds who are dealing with more issues at home and with their self image than I could ever imagine. It is a challenge but to see their faces light up with joy in my class can never ever out weigh the hard days.

My prayer has been to uplift those hard students (and man do I have some hard hard hard students) and encourage the great students at the same time! God constantly reminds me that there is more to each of these students than what I see. I have students in foster care, students who were abused, students whose parents are both in jail, students who have to work on the weekends to help provide for their families, students who have great lives and spirits, students who are spoiled, students who care so much about the adults around them and students who have been burned by so many adults that they aren't sure if you are for real... It's so much to deal with sometimes but man is it a great position to be in! So much influence!!

I have my first "concert" on Friday and I am sooooo proud of my students. My junior high students are doing STOMP (learning rhythm and putting together a performance with random household instruments). Last week right before we started learning the routine they said "Mrs. Hann- we aren't going to be good. This is going to look so bad!" and I promised them "If you work hard, I will NEVER let you embarrass yourself or look bad." On Friday they finished learning half of their routine and they all had the biggest smiles on their face. One of my rough kids came up to me and said "High five Mrs. Hann! This is going to rock!" It just made me want to cry. They aren't becoming amazing musicians, doing ground breaking things- but they are growing in their confidence and trusting another adult in their life not to disappoint them!

I am so so so so so blessed. To have an amazing husband, a great ministry and home church and the most amazing job.

My students always ask "Why don't you have kids Mrs. Hann- you're married so you should have kids (haha so funny)" and I told one of my classes "Well I have all of you guys- that's enough kids for me right now" haha. They all said "oh we are like your kids!!" Gosh even typing about them right now makes my heart melt!

I am excited to take a week break on the first week of October to rest and recoup from this crazy quarter! Many more successes and praises to come!

Busy Busy

FINALLY UPDATING :)

It is a good thought to know that I have enough free time right now to finally update my blog.

These past 3 weeks have been ridiculous.

I have officially been a teacher for 2 weeks now :) and I... LOVE IT!!!!!!!

It is the greatest reward, the hardest thing I've ever done and so worth every tear, laugh, penny, loss of sleep.... worth it all!

I had a great first day of teaching. I actually had my admin come in and observe (my first day- yikes!) and they announced at staff meeting how impressed they were with me- it was a nice feeling... but..

day 2 came haha

I cried on day 2 and 3- I didn't think i could do it anymore (sounds weird but true). I knew the first week would be hard but finding out that I had a class full of kinders who didn't speak English, who had specials needs but weren't tested yet, 32 5th graders who also had language barriers and 7th/8th graders who I wasn't sure would enjoy the "elective" they chose to be in my class.

Monday came of week 2- and I spent SO long on lesson plans, making it work well- and it paid off! Week 2 was great (had its struggles) but I pushed forward and got so many great rewards this week. I love giving the teachers a prep during my class, I love encouraging teachers by telling them growth I see in their class, and I love meeting my coworkers and making friendships.

Being a believer in my work place has been difficult, not because I can't share with the students (because I believe the love and acceptance I show to the students will speak so much louder than most things) but with my coworkers. A lot of them have asked me to hang out with them and I have been invited to a junior high teachers party next week (which I think J and I will stop by at- just to make an appearance because I do enjoy those teachers a lot) but a lot of their "hanging out" is not something that I do because it usually involves alcohol. So I am hoping that this party next week, will be ok, that I can still enjoy myself and not make a big deal about not drinking. I want them to respect me and be able to speak into their lives through that respect (not through condemnation).

I am optimistic about this year- I know it will be hard but I am keeping my head above the water and truly can say I am happy!
(not to mention we have 2 paychecks! Let the saving begin!!)

That's the scoop. Check out my class pics on my facebook :) Until next time.... :)

So many emotions...

With only 2 weeks left until my first day of teaching, emotions ran high today.

I got into my classroom today and was completely overwhelmed...

I went to begin decorating and because another teacher (the band teacher) is using my classroom for the last hour of the day, a lot of the stuff in the class was hers and there was SOO much stuff in the back storage room that overwhelmed me... I just felt as thought there was so much that with the little time I have with the students that I couldn't possibly handle it all.

I think any first year teacher feels this way... but it wasn't until today when it all became real did I really emotionally crack. I am a confident person and in my abilities as an educator and musician... but I am no longer under another teacher (whether my college professors, observing with other teachers, or my cooperating teacher from student teaching)... I AM IT and that scares the heck out of me.

When I went in to get a tour of the school last week, it shocked me how much the admin valued me. The assistant principal said to me "Amber, right after you finished your interview, we unanimously decided that you would be hired- even before we finished all the rest of the interviews." He said, "The other school that you interview for, one of their admin was at our school after you did the interview there and they asked us who we wanted to hire and I told them, Amber Hann, and they said 'darn! we so wanted her!"

Not trying to seem overly confident, but it was a GREAT reminder and assurance that they had faith in me even before I set foot in my classroom.

Well this morning after I had my break-down, Jeremiah tried his best to comfort and I love him for standing by me even when I doubt myself... I needed to get a stapler from the front office and at the EXACT moment that I walked into the work room, the principal of my school (who I had not met yet) ran into me and introduced himself and pulled the AP aside to talk with me also.

I was not crying at this point but I mentioned that I was a bit overwhelmed but that I had so many great ideas and want to do lots of programming and little concerts and they both just smiled and got so excited.

I live for programs (haha thats what I've done and been apart of since grade school) and it's my passion. So I am excited to show the school and community that this school deserves to see their students perform musically... They just want me to have a very well run classroom (management wise) and to see the results of my students' music through programs. I CAN DO THAT! :)

I am not praying enough... I need to... only God can hold me during the hard days, only He can give me total confidence in the abilities HE has given me... I can do this...

I have lots of work to do this week with lesson plans (I realized that I don't need to have all my 900 lesson plans for the year done by next week... haha I just need 50 or so... no big deal :)

well time to go to bed. Headed to the dr. tomorrow b/c I need to find out why the heck I am getting UTIs at least once a month. it's painful and it's moved to my kidneys (so my back is killing me!) I hope they can do some tests or something and find out!

Well pics of my class to come soon! It's a work in progress!

Wicked!

I am sooo excited about going to Wicked tonight! I had that soundtrack memorized right when it came out 6 years ago! My girlfriends and I would sing "Popular" while driving in the car! Such a cute, great, AMAZING musical. If you haven't heard any of the music, go to Youtube or something and listen! It is great!

Jeremiah has never seen it and my parents have a friend who could get great seats for free- so as an anniversary present they got us tickets to go with our family. We love musicals- our favorite part about Disneyland i the Aladdin musical they have (at Cali Adventure- it's like an hour long- go check it out!)

Anyway.. all that to say- we are going to get all dressed up, head to dinner with the fam and then have our minds amazed!

Pictures soon!