Home away from home

We drove to the airport this morning, knowing that our original flight (shown in purple for you visual learners) through Denver was delayed. It didn't matter if we wanted to fly to Sioux Falls, Sioux City, Omaha, Des Moines, or Chicago- everything was full due to the backup of people who are stuck in Denver in the blizzard or couldn't go through Denver yesterday! So we returned to our already-chilled home (feeling much warmer by now, though). We plan to take the next available flight, which will get us to Sioux Falls on Saturday night by a somewhat indirect route (Pasco/Seattle/Cincinnati/Sioux Falls; shown in red). It seems that compared to others, our situation isn't so bad; at least we are "stranded" in the comfort of our own home (although we'd rather be "home" in the Midwest) and we'll be able to fly this week.
Another interesting tidbit: Nate got interviewed for the news (about being a delayed traveler) as we were leaving the airport.

Weather widget

The days are short, but warm!

Hot Chocolate....drink

Here is my recipe for Hot Chocolate Not-Milk

2 1/2 c. rice milk
3 T. chocolate drink powder
2 T. sugar
1 T. non-dairy creamer
1 t. vanilla

blend. heat. drink.

Note: I prefer the milk version, but I developed this rather foamy substitute for a lactose-intolerant family member (eh-hem, Nate).
If you actually try this recipe and have any suggestions, let me know.

Where am I?

While taking my Friday afternoon pilgramage to Fiesta Foods, I walked among the unsurprising bottles of hot sauce, tubs of lard, and tortillas that fill any empty spaces in the store. Whizzing through aisle dos o tres, I saw something I hadn't noticed before and stopped in my tracks. Shocked, I took the following picture (feeling rather foolish as I took my digital camera out of my purse in a grocery store...). Can you tell why this made me laugh?

Made my Day!

The music store representative dropped off a repaired trumpet yesterday and ended up staying the whole 5th grade band rehearsal (he's so helpful!). I was very pleased and relieved to hear him say that the 5th graders are doing quite well, especially for me being a string-oriented first year teacher. It was good to hear that from a former teacher who has also seen a lot as a sales representative in many band classrooms. He says the 5th graders are playing together well with fairly good posture and tone (well, there are always those that...struggle...with posture). Well, keep up the good posture out there and I hope all you readers are having a good day!

News from Nate

This is an event in and of itself- Nate has posted news on his website, as well as a tabblo of pictures.

Cute Cornbread

This is from awhile ago (October 2), but I thought it was fun enough to share! I recommend the cast iron skillet method because the edges get brown and crispy and it just looks nice.

Beautiful British Columbia

Today we (me, Nathan, Tom, Karlene, Alivia, Gpa and Gma VW) crossed the border and spent the day in Vancouver, BC. We saw the views of Vancouver from Stanley Park (made me think of you, Lynola and family!), and also went to the aquarium there. There were such interesting creatures! We saw tiny cute seahorses and blubbery beluga whales and everything in between!
The signs by the sharks had high praise for the excellent design that sharks have for survival (apparently they have seven senses, cool!), but blindly concluded that "nature" designed nature. So close, but so far.
Many pictures were taken, few will be posted.

Conventing!

I'm at the CSI teachers' convention in Lynden, Washington. Actually I'm done with it for today, and now I'm sitting in the living room with Grandma VW and Alivia.
Today was fun- I got to see Rachel E., Mel W., as well as some other people!
The sessions/speakers I went to were mostly good. I sang in a choir for one session, and heard a guy with an Australian accent talk about creation, and the new creation. He talked about some characteristics of Egyptian culture and religion, and how God's way of rescuing his people from them showed his power was greater than the Egyptian gods. He also talked about the world as God's temple or palace, and our place as image-bearers in it (like the pagan idols were "images", representing the characteristics of the gods they stood for). Many other topics were tied in, as my frantic notes give evidence of, and he was good at showing the beautiful tied-togetherness of God's story, how the language talking about the new creation echoes God's work in the Old Testament.
Nathan and Tom are flying in an airplane right now! I will encourage Nate to post pictures of that.

a dream, a song

Last night I had an unusual dream.
I dreamed that I was in church (it didn't look like any particular church in real life, just a church), and at the end of the service we sang a song. The song was the most amazing thing I had ever heard, it was so beautiful. I could hear it in detail in my dream, but now I can't remember at all what it sounded like (although I remember what it looked like to see people sing it, so I know it was a 2 or 3 part acapella round). I wish that I could hear it again! Everyone in the church was so glad and moved to be praising God with this beautiful song that people were crying.
The beauty of this song apparently didn't sit well with one lady in the church: she stood up and said loudly something about she had "forgotten to put the fire in the fireplace out in her summer home" and stood up and left (I think a couple other people left with her). This made as little sense to everyone in the church as it sounds to me now- it was winter in the dream, so why would the woman have forgotten this fire for so long? It was a frustrating interruption to this song, and almost made us stop singing, but we kept going.
That's all. I've dreamed with music before, but nothing like this where I woke up wracking my brain to try to remember the music because I wanted to hear it again so much!
Anyway, I don't know if a blog is the best way to share a dream. It looks weird written down.
I hope you all have encountered something breathtakingly drop-your-jaw beautiful today, in a "dream" or "real life".

Spiritual Emphasis Week

Hey everybody! Sunnyside Christian High School is having a spiritual emphasis/renewal week this week; the theme is unity. So if you could say a prayer (or many) for students, parents, teachers, and our speaker, Dawn Geschiere from Youth Unlimited, that would be great! Pray that people's hearts would be open to hearing God's message about unity, and that the things people may learn this week would change them and stick with them.
I haven't actually been able to attend any of the chapels (they are during the morning, when I'm at the elementary school)...
While you're at it, pray for Dennis, our P.E. teacher, who broke his leg badly.

Did any of you have a spiritual emphasis or renewal week at your high school? Do remember anything about it? I can't say I remember much from any of my 4, except one teacher's session about the Holy Spirit.

The school picture takers were at school today, they commented to me as they were packing up from my room that wearing collars sticking up seems to be coming in again, as are the '80s in general. I think it looks kind of silly.

New Arrival!

Announcing.....(drum roll please- I learned how to replace a snare drum head this week, by the way) my new website!
I created it for fun and to have a central place to link to pictures, this blog, and the Tabblos I've been making.
For now, I'll keep posting news here, but pictures might end up more on a Tabblo or on extinguishedscholar.com/hannah, unless of course they directly relate to the post.

Survivor!

I have survived one "full" week of teaching. Three and a half days, but they were very full.
There were moments of confusion, exhaustion, and terror. As well as some of the more pleasant emotions. I locked myself out of my office...twice. I've learned a lot already. I think my students have learned something. I love the staff. I may even take up cooking again, just for the weekend.

Goodbye Summer

I was inspired by Heather's post to mourn the end of summer. Actually I am flat-out copying her, and actually I am excited for school to start.

But that does mean the end of...

• taking as long as I want to grocery shop.
• weekly organizing fests (truly moving in takes a while).
• Cooking. Actually I may take it up again in a week or so but for now I plan to subsist on meals I froze in early August, sandwiches, Nate's cooking, and last but not least, Corn Dogs.
• getting the mail ASAIGH (as soon as it gets here)

I will post about the beginning of school soon!

(I am posting this picture as I sit on the edge of my "garden" as a test. My garden has trouble growing beans but the wireless internet works just fine.)

Everything that has breath!

I started decorating my office today.
I felt that my friends who majored in elementary education would be proud of me.
And I used the border that Catherine's mom gave me for graduation!

Wedding Picture Tabblo

Some of our beautiful wedding pictures have been posted.

Funny Farm!

Have you ever had someone call you and you weren't sure if it was a prank call or not? (Feel free to share your stories in a comment.)

Well, when "Private Name, Private Number" showed up on the caller ID, I answered without saying my name (congratulate me, I have a habit of answering anonymous calls with "Hi, this is Hannah", which I shouldn't do, I guess).
The person on the phone said "Hi, is this the Funny Farm Liquor Store?", to which I automatically answered "No", and hung up. Then I burst out laughing after processing what they had just said. I'm sure there are many more creative options of how I could have responded...

P.S. There is an actual Funny Farm Liquor Store in town, so I'm guessing it was really just a wrong number.

Darkness is as light

In addition to our wedding, my parents' 25th anniversary, my mom's birthday, a trip to Illinois (during which I learned you can make quesadillas with an old iron), moving to Washington, and Nate and I starting our jobs, July also brought a request for prayer, as my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I've been trying to keep people updated by e-mail, but I also wanted to post that here. Heather has been better at posting updates with good news and pictures, so to avoid being too redundant, I'll just say that her surgery went well, and she came home Sunday.
Nate and I are far away from my mom geographically, but I'm thankful that we're still able to keep updated, and that many other people can visit in person. Thank you to all who are praying and encouraging!

La Casa de Nathan y Hannah

We've been in Sunnyside for over a week now, and we're starting to feel at home in our new house (click for pictures). We are enjoying the fruit here, learning how to recognize some new (to us) crops like mint and hops, and experimenting with kitchen appliances we recieved as wedding gifts.

Green project

I tried a new website called Tabblo today; it is kind of like scrapbooking on a website. You can visit the page I made to see the sewing project I made today.

Estamos aqui

We're here!
The stats: 1500 miles sin (that's pronounced "seen" and means without for you non-Spanish-reading readers...LVis) AC, lots of beautiful scenery, trailer empty within 20 minutes of great helpers arriving, phone and internet working just fine, and cherries are apparently in season (yum!). We are not revealing how many times we have been to Wal-Mart since arrival.
God has used a lot of people to take good care of us this week. I like being able to see the mountains. The end.

July 1, 2006

After many trips to Hobby Lobby, conversations on Google Talk, hours spent building beautiful tables, and much other planning, the big day finally came. Everything went beautifully, and it was very fun and encouraging that so many people could come to the wedding. It was just a very happy day!

Yesterday we had a reception at Nathan's church in IL, which was fun even thought I did not know most of the people. It was fun to be able to see some people's pictures already and watch parts of the video.

For those of you who couldn't be there, and those of you that were too, I will try to get pictures out eventually. I might post a few here, or find a better way to post them and send out a link.

Berries!

  

Why every household should own a tennis racket:

 

The "racket" started at 4:45 a.m. with a scream from Heather, and then "There's a bat."

The bat made its way into Holly's room; Mom shut the door behind it and wedged some paper in to keep it closed, for lack of a standard doorknob.

Dad went in, armed with a tennis racket and a bucket (previously used as the compost bucket) and finished off the bat. We still don't quite know why he needed the compost bucket on his head, but we were thankful that the Fludermaus was taken care of and we could try go back to sleep.

And let that be a lesson to each and every one of you who does not have a tennis racket-like object on hand at all times. 

More than a bumblebee, more than an ant...

I believe that since my last post, I have played in two weddings, one church service, and one memorial service, graduated college, traveled 1500 miles across the country without air conditioning, taken pictures that I don't have time to post, said goodbye to many friends that I don't know when I'll see again, been fingerprinted by the police, and probably done many other things. For details on any of these, talk to me, or e-mail!

$3.25

Did you know that for $3.25, one can purchase a picnic cooler, popcorn popper, picnic plates, cute serving plates and bowl, dish-drying rack, a glass canister, and a book? Garage sales are good things.

Direction: West

Do these pictures look like the (yet unplanted...as far as I know) cornfields of IA?

No? That is because they are not!

The one on the bottom is cherry trees blossoming. The bottom white stuff reflects light and heat and the netting protects them from wind and birds. (Thanks for the info, Dana!)

The one on the top is...pink trees. I don't know what they are.

The location of these mysterious and unusual (to an Iowa girl) crops is....near Sunnyside, WA, where I am excited to have accepted a teaching position! In keeping with tradition, my room celebrated with fresh pineapple. It is fortunate for the sake of the pineapple that I accepted, because my roommate had actually bought it (without my knowledge) before I was even back.

...and soon things will be flowering!

I hope you enjoy these beautiful flowers. I am enjoying spring weather through photography, walking outside, and Christmas tree burning/ bonfires, even while being busy with student teaching, job search, and wedding planning. Not to mention my attempts at cooking for my roommates (thank you for the lasagna, LVW). I plan to fly to Sunnyside this week to see the school. I am excited for this and hope that this or my other current possibility works out and is a good fit for me.

It's raining, it's showering

 
 
  

Muppet Personality Test

Thank you Alissa for leading me to this fun personality test! Here's my results on the Muppet Personality Test.

You Are Rowlf the Dog

Mellow and serious, you enjoy time alone cultivating your talents. You're a cool dog, and you always present a relaxed vibe. A talented pianist, you can play almost anything - especially songs by Beethoven. "My bark is worse than my bite, and my piano playing beats 'em both."

The Muppet Personality Test

"Spring" "Break"

Here at Dordt, on the first official day of spring, a sparkly snow is coming down steadily. It is really quite nice-looking (from inside my apartment), but I'm praying that it doesn't make the roads too bad and that everyone makes it back safely. And I'm hoping (a little bit) for a late start tomorrow.
I did not have a long break; I started right in with student teaching. Today was my 6th day in LeMars in orchestra (4th grade-high school). We visit the four elementary schools on Monday-Thursday, and have one of the two middle school groups and the high school orchestra every day. I feel like I have started to get to know a lot of the kids, and other important things like where the offices, bathrooms, teachers rooms, and other important things are.

Kill the fattened pineapple!

Today we celebrate (with fresh pineapple chunks...our room's preferred method of celebration) the return of roommates from lands afar (Canada). And experience the subsequent barrage of paperwork and other information about teaching and licensure etc. Fingerprinting and background checks, philosophy of education, sharing crazy stories about student teaching, etc. Welcome back Lynola and Nicole!

President's Day Marathon

Happy President's Day! I am celebrating with a day off from school, filled with (so far) a long stint of filling out job applications. The challenge is not to become chiche or extremely summarized when answering very similar questions, such as "What is your philosophy of Christian education?", and "What skills and interests would you bring to this position?". Sometimes when the questions are almost identical, I confess to cutting, pasting, and then editing to fit the particular school. However, it has been somewhat helpful to think about these things as preparation for interviewing and a good review in what I think.
President's day has followed closely on the heels of "Christmas", celebrated with the Feenstras on Saturday. That's what the pictures are from.

Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut

http://www.dordt.edu/cgi-bin/news/get_news.pl?id=1693

Visit this site to find out about the cantata performance on February 17!

By the way, a genius point to whoever can translate the German title of the cantata- I'm curious what it means.

Heard and Written

Looking through my e-mail, desk, and recent memory, here's some things I've been hearing lately:

• "You have too much self-control." (referring to my lack of yelling at the 6th grade band today)
• "I am writing to encourage you to apply for the music teacher opening we have..."
• "Standing in front of a group of students is not a natural feeling for you."
• "You're not leaving the table until you finish your root beer."
• "Got any invitations punched?"

So you can gather from these things that I've been keeping busy student teaching, joking around with my roommates, searching for good jobs to pursue, and wedding planning. All of these things seem to be a lot of work, but are also all fun at times. And I seem to be making progress in all of these projects (well, not my roommates...).

The exciting news in my room this week is that Jenn has been accepted into med school!

There's a yogurt-lid whale in my bathroom

I'm Miss Hooyer

I have recently finished my second day of student teaching at West Lyon. So far it has not been too stressful. The 7 a.m. leave Dordt time has been a bit tiring but I think I"ll get used to it.
The teachers I am working with seem very helpful and the students aren't bad either. I have a lot of names to learn. And I've learned that you really can't tell what grade a student is in by looking at them. There are some huge 5th graders and tiny high school students and when they're not in their respective grade-level bands, I have no clue. But I am starting to know some of the students.
Tomorrow the plan is that I can lead 6th grade band through the beginning of their new method book for 10 or 15 minutes. No extreme planning necessary for that, but it will be my first time with a large group there so I hope it goes well.
Thanks for your prayers, thanks for your interest. I'm off to orchestra.

Today (Friday) I've added pictures of the band room and the office area (complete with anonymous students- I don't think it would be professional to simply post the picture of them).