Date night in

Awesome date night tonight with my husband. 

We started by making a fairly healthy yet surprisingly delicious dinner.

Honey-lemon-pepper chicken wraps and a Willy-Wonka-purple-blackberry smoothie. Delish.

Then we finally got to decorate our tree!!!

This first picture is the bird's nest we found after bringing it home...

We got our lights up a couple days ago.

And tonight we added all the lovely ornaments we got from Jordan's family.

To end the evening we enjoyed some hot chocolate, popcorn and a couple episodes of Parenthood.

Hermanos...

I just saw a picture on facebook of one of my Dominican brothers looking waaaay too old.  And that moment of sentimentality inspired a blog post of gratitude for all my many siblings. 

First of all, my actual siblings are the best siblings in the whole entire world. Now that we live in three different cities, I miss them more frequently than I would have been willing to admit years ago when sis and I shared a room and we fought all the time. I wish I could see every basketball and soccer game and performance of my crazy talented sibs, but I'm so grateful for the ones I do get to experience.

             

 

I gained a third sibling fall of sophomore year. I pretty much just love her and her hilariousness and I can't wait to hang out with her again next time I'm in the 'ville.

The next fall I lived in Jarabacoa and got a new younger bro and older sis. Era muy divertido cantando canciones locas con Bebo y mirando Friends con Leonela y mucho más. Que bonita esa familia.

And. I gained another Dominican sister who was actually born in the states. That crazy, awesome, exhausting semester would have been less crazy, less awesome, and much more exhausting without her as my sister. It was so great to see her recently to catch up a little bit, laugh, and dream about another DR trip.

After sad goodbyes in town, we moved out to the country. Con mis hermanitos. Tan chiquitos, pero ahora tan grandes, tristemente. Jugabamos beisbol afuera y tirabamos cosas entre los dormitorios. Les extraño muchísimo.

This summer I gained two more awesome brothers. Sure, I'm their least favorite sister on days the Packers play, but every other day I'm their favorite sister, so I'll take it :)

Husband, my broski, and new brothers. Love this picture.

Sure do love all mis hermanos.

Lovely surprises

I JUST GOT A BIRTHDAY CARD ALL THE WAY FROM NORWAY!

That pretty much made my afternoon :) Thanks Rach!

Birthday Date

I've known this for a few years now, but my husband has excellent date planning skills. Now, topping last year's birthday date was, for all intents and purposes, impossible, because he got me a ring and got down on one knee, but this year's date was SUPER wonderful. 

Here's the events of our lovely progressive dinner and date:

1) Mini pretzels and queso appetizer at BWWs.

2) Grilled chicken caesar salad at Panera.

3) Small florentine pizza at Monical's.

4) Strawberry and lemon twist cone at Krekel's.

5) Freaks and Geeks.

6) StrengthsFinder retake {for those of you Greenville-ites who care, here's my new list:
                                      Empathy
                                      Intellection
                                      Achiever
                                      Learner
                                      Developer}            
                                                               
7) Reading, relaxing, loving hanging out with my husband. Simply WONDERFUL evening.

Exhaustion

Welp. Today was super incredibly exhausting. Jordan and I were asleep for a nap within 10 minutes of getting home. It was my first day on my own now that the classroom is finally ready. (Pictures of my room coming soon). It truly was a great day. My kids were SO well behaved; I'm so proud of them. I think it was all the newness, they didn't even really have time to think about misbehaving, but they are great kids in general too. We're going to have a lot of fun this year. 

Today, to make sure all my kids were on the same page with their primary colors, we did a little science experiment which I stole from my preschool teacher aunt on Pinterest. It turned out surprisingly well. That meaning that I held their attention for a whole 10 or 15 minutes.

This past weekend was busy, but great. Sunday we watched the Bears win at the Giffords, while eating delicious lunch and desserts. As Jordan floated in and out of consciousness, he commented that it felt a little like Christmas, having so many people around chatting and being so full of tasty food. I loved it. Then my family helped out setting up my room and we got a late breakfast for dinner.
Saturday we had sweet seats to an Illini football game, thanks to Bob and Lindy. We went with Michael and one of his friends. They got a little bit whooped, but it was still a good time, getting Jimmy John's before the game, seeing a couple fights nearly break out in our section, and watching their sweet marching band.

We're getting so much closer to having the house clean, so pictures of that will be coming soon too!

Tuesdays and Thursdays

I love Tuesdays and Thursdays. Eventually, if I don't find other part-time work, our bank account might not like it too much...but I love having those days to chill, read, get work done, and just relax. 

It's nice when you need to clean out the fridge, but still get a delicious lunch. I had the last piece of bread with the leftover mozz and tomato we ate last night, veggie straws to finish up the hummus and a grapefruit which needed to be eaten. Yum. Put on some Gilmore Girls while I scrapbooked a bit and went through a couple more boxes. And sipped on my iced coffee all afternoon. Goooood day :)

And then, it got even better because Jordan got home and we had some pretty tasty lemony shrimp pasta. http://pinterest.com/pin/247064729528578520/

I'm pretty excited for this weekend. We're going to Indiana to stay with my new older brother and go to a friend's wedding on Saturday. I love going to weddings and it has been a while since I've seen one from the seats, so I'm really excited for that.

Hopefully my preschoolers won't wear me out too much tomorrow so I can have energy to stay awake to keep Jordan awake in the car tomorrow!

A couple recipes and a story

So, Jordan and I still have a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot to learn when it comes to cooking, but I wanted to share a couple delicious meals we have had so far. At least they tasted delicious to a couple of poor newlyweds. 

Easy Baked Tilapia

http://pinterest.com/pin/247064729528718466/

We pretty much followed this, but I didn't have Old Bay so we used Italian seasoning instead. Delish.

These we kinda made up. Mixed some sauteed spinach and mozzarella cubes into the turkey meat for our burgers, then put more spinach and sauteed mushrooms on top. 

........

So, today I had a careless moment, and as I was adjusting some things in the cabinet in our new house, [pictures coming soon] I knocked one of our coffee mugs out, broke it, and proceeded to cry. Distraught, I called Jordan and of course he told me it was just fine and all those reassuring things you tell your crying wife. So that was nice, but I was still mad that we hadn't even had a chance to use them yet, and I had ruined our perfect matching set of 8. So, I dried my tears and moved to the study where I hoped to be less destructive. Throughout the evening I tried to stop thinking about all the scenarios where 8 would be the perfect number of matching mugs to have in our house. 

Then, a while later my husband came home and asked what was up. I told him I was still upset about the mug and he proceeds to pull out from behind his back a beautiful 8th matching mug. I grinned from ear to ear and he told me about his adventure at Kohl's. I thought we would be stuck with 7 forever because my grandma got them for us on sale and of course you can only buy them in the whole dishware set. But, after explaining the situation to a kind lady at Kohl's, the manager decided to just give him the display mug. Way to be Kohl's. And thank you my activator husband for saving the day, yet again. 

Saturdays at School

"Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars."
I just love Barbara Brown Taylor.

I want to live like I believe that today.

I hope that Joshua and Rachel are cracking their shins (only metaphorically though please) on lots of altars way over there in Norway. And Caleb and Caits in Minnesota. And Mikey in Rwanda. And Erica in St. Louis. And errybody in Greenville. My friends are all spread out, and although there are parts of me that wish we could be at NSO right now and do college again, I know this year will be great. In many many ways.

 

 

Also, its been a while since I've blogged in depth so you'll have to forgive me in advance for the jumble that will follow.

Wonderful things about today so far:

• We got to watch Michael tear it up on the soccer field this morning.
• We also got Culvers for lunch and the flavor of the day was strawberry shortcake. Yum.
• Got to catch up with Corrie on the phone just now. I just love her. And whenever I talk to her, I just smile throughout our entire conversation because she is so excited about life, and it's contagious.
• Also, my husband is the most entertaining. Especially when he stands up, textbook still in hand, to dance to Whitney Houston Greatest Hits, as we spend all of the hours of all of the days in his classroom. [He is being super productive and doing work on lesson plans. I am occasionally productive but mostly blogging, taking a multiple intelligence test, and writing letters.]

Speaking of that test, because I really enjoy those kind of things, my top three are Verbal-Linguistic, Intrapersonal, and Spatial. Jordan's top three are Interpersonal, Bodily-Kinesthetic, and Logical-Mathmatical. Totally predictable, but still really fascinating to me.

Also, I miss my sibs. I'm so glad they came up last weekend and we got to hang out. And I'll get to see my sis again and mis padres next weekend!

Also, I don't think I've updated this blog about preschool yet.
1. This is also just in general discovery #1 since we've moved here. Real life is the most exhausting. I'm sure that people have been trying to tell me this for a long time now, but I never knew how serious they were about it. Friday after school Jordan and I went straight home to take a nap. Could have slept til this morning I'm pretty sure.
2. I'm way out of my league in the education field and overwhelmed and nervous that I won't get my 7 kids ready for kindergarten in time.
3. Despite all that, I have a lot of help, here and back home, so I'll make it through, it's just crazy overwhelming at the beginning.
4. It's fun having so many Hohms in one place. Besides Michael going here, we have a whole row of mailboxes:
                                     Hohm, Mr.       Hohm, Mrs.      Hohm, Pastor
5. My kids are adorable, so I already know the exhaustion will be worthwhile to spend time with these kids. One of my girls is super petite and talks a little bit like my cousin Ellie. Precious. I also have a tiny little Indian boy in one of my classes. Oh, my goodness. So cute. He doesn't speak much if any English, at least so far, but I've had so much fun getting to know him as I've observed so far this week. He is understandably super shy and overwhelmed, but he has already started warming up to me a little bit and I discovered at the end of the day Friday that I can have little conversations here and there with him if I ask yes or no questions for him to shake his head or nod in response. I hope I can learn at least a little bit about his language and culture this year to try to make that barrier smaller.

It's going to be a good year.

 

 

I like mornings.

I've always heard that mornings are nice. And I've believed people who have informed me of this, but the times when I've actually been disciplined enough to be conscious early enough to experience them are few and far between. But they are very nice. Jordan cooked up some delicious spinach and tomato omelettes for us while I got ready this morning. Rachel and Megs, I know it is hard to believe, but I was actually awake early enough this morning that we could sit down and enjoy breakfast before we had to be anywhere. It was crazy.

I'm looking forward to married life with a teacher and finally, at 22 going on 23, learning how to be awake to experience the beauty and peace of mornings.

Married my best friend a month ago. Of the 274 months I've lived, I'd say this past one is probably my favorite :)

And now its less than a week until we move to Decatur! Got a whole lot of packing, sermon prepping, lesson planning, and hanging out to do before Sunday.

{photo cred: the one and only Kathleen Stogin, wedding photographer extraordinaire}

My mom is the best

I already got my nails done so Momma painted my toenails for me, so I wouldn't mess my fingernails up. That's true love right there.

Jordan Hohm, my soon-to-be husband :)

Once upon a time, I met this guy, back when I was a tiny baby freshman in college. He was handsome, outgoing, and had a smile that made my stomach do flips. He was one of my first crushes at GC, but I honestly thought he would only remain a crush, and become a friend, maybe, if I was lucky. But now, we've graduated from college, and I'm going to marry him in 10 days.

We may still be tiny babies in some ways, but I'm glad we've at least gotten a little more attractive since these days:

And it seems like we just took these pictures:

But so soon I get to wear a white dress for tons more pictures :)


Jordan, I love you and I can't wait to marry you...

I'm an introvert...

I've known this for quite a while. But I was just reminded again this weekend. Don't get me wrong, there would be one or two e's on that test that told me I'm an INFJ, because I love times to be social with people. I would go crazy if I didn't get enough friend time in my life. But I would also go crazy if I didn't get enough hammock time in my life. Kinda like I am right now. The wedding weekend of Michael and Kelly Baker-Trapp this past weekend was SUPER wonderful for getting in some much-needed socializing with people I love. But now, I'm right back into working at work and then working on wedding things forever and I never quit going and doing. 


But, some night last week, I went out on the porch swing and just sat in stillness and silence for maybe 10 minutes. And I was the calmest I've been in a long time. I just listened to the wind and the nighttime bugs and just breathed. I love that. Why don't I make time for that more often? I'll never know. But I do know that I wish introversion was a thing more valued by the world.


Speaking of that wedding this last weekend, how beautiful is this bride? So happy for you Michael & Kelly, hope you're enjoying your first few days of married life :)

Also, I'm getting married in 18 days :)  :)  :)  :)

PUMPED.

And my aunt is here to help us with wedding things which has been wonderful because she is so much more focused than I. 

But, I did at least accomplish some wedding things that I wanted to last week. Like sending out these bridesmaid cards. That had been on my to-do list for far too long.

On another note, I've got this friend. And her name is Megs. I just love her a lot and appreciate that she is so good at loving and listening. We chatted for a bit tonight, but I'm pumped to skype with her on Thursday and among many other things discuss a name for that new computer of hers. I take for granted time spent with her when we live in the same room or next door. And then in the summer, I just realize how incredibly much I miss her. And how glad I am that I can see her in like 15 days. And how glad I am that we will have a coffe shop together someday. Because life is too short to pass up the things that you really want to do. She just made our wedding guest book for us, because she is awesome and crafty like that. And I already can't wait to see it, and look at the pictures and read the words that aren't even in it yet. 

Can't wait to see you in a couple weeks my luf!

Also, I miss this. Ice cream in Borders.

God is good, in Octobers and fires.

If you don't get the reference in the title, it is probably because you need to read this:


http://amundsons.blogspot.com/2012/05/god-is-good-even-in-october.html


I loved Lisa's baccalaureate speech, but I didn't realize a mini October would come so soon after graduation.
I've been reflecting quite a bit about the fire in my house last Thursday and its after-effects, but first I should just recount what happened, because all things considered, we are so incredibly fortunate that the extent of the damage was relatively minor. 


I pulled up from work to my house to find my sister and mom out in the front yard, Maria balling, and Mom on the phone, clearly distraught. They told me there was a fire and I looked over at the house I've been in since kindergarten and expected to see flames at any moment. A couple guys in their own trucks and then a couple fire trucks pulled up and the brave yellow suited men made their way into my home. It was so surreal that I just sat and stared, but then was silently given permission to cry when Jordan pulled up. 


Long story short, a fire had started in the dryer in the laundry room which Mom and Maria tried to put out, but then were told by the 911 lady to get out of the house. Praise the Lord, no one was hurt, and structurally, our house is fine. It demolished everything in the laundry room and got hot enough to send thick smoke throughout the entire top two levels of the house, so there is now a layer of soot covering everything in my house. 


So, I'm so glad, for so many reasons, that I am marrying someone with Positivity as a top strength, because in processing this whole experience, I'm realizing that there truly are at least as many pros to the aftereffects of this than cons. 


Sure, cleaning out a house and being covered in soot were not the plans I had in mind for the weekend. And the wedding is in 33 days, so its going to take a ton of work to do the cleaning besides the planning. And we lost some clothes and stuff, but it could have been so much worse, if we were away or if it happened overnight...
Man...


I've always like old-fashioned things, so sometimes I like to think of certain events of my life in the context of historical times, like if my family had been in a fire in the prairie days. Of course I have no idea what that would have been like, but I picture it having been so much more difficult to put out, first of all, with buckets of water as the main resource and then I think of the neighbors coming over to take our clothes down to the river to clean them, and the process being a bit simpler overall because they had a lot less stuff back then...
But enough of that, thanks for entertaining my daydreams...


One positive thing is that I hope to come out of this experience with a lot less stuff. This weekend I gathered up a bunch of boxes of things from my closet to get rid of, and I have been needing to do this for years anyway, so the fire just put me on a timetable to do that, which as a procrastinator, is a great thing for me.


Also, since they are taking all the clothes and things out of our house to professionally clean them, I will probably get some things back in a couple months cleaner than they were before the fire...


But, the best part of this whole thing is we're living at Grandpa & Grandma's for now. And I know I should see them a lot already since we're neighbors, but in the busyness of a school year I don't really, so having their help and hanging out with them has been such a blessing. 
And although I do sometimes wish I lived in a time where people still believed in front porches, its been wonderful to feel the love of so many family and friends ready to help us with whatever we need.
God is good.

I'm pretty much spoiled...

Today I walked into work after our walk-through for graduation and guess what I found:

Cupcakes and an amazing gift...candles and soap and good smelling things for our house and a gift card to Maurice's. Now I can buy work clothes like a real live adult. Man, the people in my office are just too good to me.

I'm probably going to post a sob-filled something about graduation sometime soon. But I can't yet. I need more time to process things...

Well...I missed April

Lately, with the busyness of life, I've been trying to blog once a month. I missed April. Both in the blog world, and in the sense that I feel like April just started. Yet here we are. May 1st. But I'm definitely ok with it being May 1st. First of all, because the 1st is always one of my favorite days of the month. Little fresh start 12 times a year. Also, because the fact that its May 1st means my wedding is in 67 days. Can't. wait.


Every other Tuesday morning, I have no obligations until work at 1:30 in the afternoon. Today is one of those Tuesdays. And its beautiful. I've enjoyed a nice relaxing morning of a bowl of oatmeal, listening to this awesome CD my fiancé (I only get to use that word for 67 more days, so Imma take advantage of it :) made for me:

being excited about finally getting our invitations out:

getting some things checked off my to do list:

reminiscing about my great weekend, with a wedding shower and having family around, which means, among other things, movie night [we watched {actually attempted to watch} Hugo {Dad's the only one who made it through awake}]:

and it means delicious food at home, like this breakfast with cini-minis:

And to bring this blog to a close, I just wanted to share with the world that I am beyond excited to give this lady the world's largest big bear hug in, what is it now, 9 days?!?!

The End

It's A Beautiful Day

So, I haven't seen my broski in a long time. I actually can't even figure out how long its been because its too late at night to be able to count or think cohesive thoughts. 
Basically, it's been long enough that I'm beyond excited to see him this weekend. At this time tomorrow night I will still be near the beginning of our long trek into the desert. Good thing I have lots of knitting and journalling and sleeping to do. And lots of homework to avoid. 
I should probably get to packing soon....


Ah, but before that happens I need to blog about some other reasons that tomorrow is such a wonderful day:


For one thing, it is my Megs' birthday. And she is pretty much really great. I'm just really thankful for her because we have such great talks at coffee shops. And such fun advising the judges of the Voice. And a little pet bird who has gotten more exercise than is even comprehensible. And she knows if we happen to see each other at work in the morning its because I needed to check my mail or I needed to say hi to my tree. So, thanks for being my friend. Love you lots Megs. Hope your birthday is fantastic :)


Guess. what. else. March 1st 2012 means that Jordan and I have been engaged for 5 months. AND its our 3 year anniversary. I can't believe it. Best three years ever. Its just hard to explain in words how much he means to me. But like in one of the most recent Up All Night episodes, we got each others backs. And I haven't even left for Texas yet, but I already miss him. And I'm crazy proud of what an awesome teacher he is/will be. And I'm so glad I have the rest of forever to hang out with him because I never get tired of it. And I feel only ever so slightly bad about making many girls of the world jealous that I have such a ridiculously handsome fiancé. But whatcha gonna do?

{One of the engagement pics from Joel Johnson...he is amazing}

Sorry for the super sappy blog post. Sometimes you just gotta be a little sentimental, ya know?

Lead me Lord

Sermon prepping. Made possible by Jordan, Barbara Brown Taylor inspiration, a frosted cranberry candle, Keana, Special K Red Berries, my parental units, Grandpa & Grandma, and Grandma's cookies. 

I love that I can't come over to Grandma & Grandpa's without being fed a meal and at least two cookies. Regardless of the time of day.

I also wish that Grandpa or Barbara Brown Taylor could take over for me this week. These lectionary texts are stumping me. 

But, since that not possible, my real wish is that I'll get to meet Barbara Brown Taylor someday. She is simply brilliant and it would be incredible to hang out with her for an afternoon.  

Alright, back to the books.