Story of my Life

The Best White Elephant Gift Ever

Liz Hannah — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:25:00 GMT

[ Mood: In Love ]
I'm not a very hard person to surprise because #1) I'm generally rather skeptical and/or #2) I don't like to spoil surprises so I don't believe what I hear or I purposely forget clues that I see. So if someone had walked up to me and said, on December 8, 2010, before 7:00, "Nate's going to propose to you tonight," I would not have believed them. Nate and I have been talking about our plans for a while, but I wasn't expecting a ring on my finger until after Christmas, for various reasons.

The church Christmas party started out very normally. We walked in, started saying hi and hanging out with the people we love. Mary Ellen showed us her package right away and said, "You guys should pick my gift. It's the best." To which we both r...

Feliz Navidad!

Liz Hannah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:24:00 GMT

Sorry, folks, I have Spanish on the brain.

Ah, Christmas break. School feels like it was 100 years ago. I'm at home, enjoying my family, my sleep, my Bible, and my Spanish studying, in no particular order. It's so lovely to not have deadlines and responsibilities and pressure on every side.

Lord willing, I'm planning on going to Mexico over spring break with a team from school (more details to come), and so I'm hitting the Spanish study really hard. I've worked on it every day for a couple of hours since I've been home. In spite of the fact that I'm rather overwhelmed with the amount of work that goes into learning a language, I feel like I'm actually making some sort of progress. Maybe, by March, I'll actually be more conversational. We're not sure how many Spanish speakers we'll act...

Anything Special I should know?

Liz Hannah — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:49:00 GMT

[ Mood: Amused ]

Liz (about to use Victor's Mac to burn a CD, and trying to open the lid): Is there anything in particular I should know about this thing?

Victor (turning the laptop around on Liz's lap): Well, you open it from the other side...

Do it Later

Liz Hannah — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:18:00 GMT

Lucy cures the common cough

Liz Hannah — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:40:00 GMT

[ Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Listening to Randy Travis ]
I just thought I'd pass on the link for an amusing series of Peanuts that I posted on my other blog. http://lizziehannah.blogspot.com/2008/11/ive-kicked-my-cough.html

It's kind of appropriate for this time of year.

The Grape Juice Covenant

Liz Hannah — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:34:00 GMT

[ Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Waiting ]
Today at lunch I made an Old Testament covenant. See, in the OT, there was a thing called a blood covenant, which happened in Genesis 15 with Abram and God. The two parties were supposed to bring some animals and then they would make a little valley in between them, and they would split the animals/birds in half lengthwise down the middle and lay one half on each side of the valley. Then the blood would trickle down into the valley. Each party would walk through the valley in the blood, barefoot, as a symbol of the covenant, in essence saying, "If I break the covenant, this (what was done to the animals) ...

I'm in love...

Liz Hannah — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:11:00 GMT

[ Mood: In Love ]
[ Currently: Listening to Barlow Girl ]
...with Latin American kids.

Oh my. Tonight when I went downtown to tutor, Jorge wasn't there, so I didn't have anyone to tutor, but I played with 4 little Hispanic kids so their moms could focus on their tutoring sessions better. Oh my. Jessica was 6, Haley was 5, then I'd guess that Charlie was 3-ish, and Emilie was probably 2. We first laid out Haley's Disney princess blanket in the toy corner and then settled down to read stories. Even though we were technically playing, I worked in lots of English lessons. Every now and th...

One step closer...

Liz Hannah — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:54:00 GMT

[ Mood: Happy ]
Wow! I'm excited. I had no idea that real English teaching would look so much like the things we talk about and practice in class! For my Methods in TESOL class, I need to have 4 sessions of tutoring experience and 4 sessions of ESL classroom observation. Our TESOL teacher is new this year and has been working to make connections with teachers here in Dubuque, and it's been hard to break into the circle, but the Lord has opened up (finally...halfway into the semester - in His perfect time) doors for us now.

There is a center in downtown Dubuque run by Catholic sisters, which is a tutoring institution. People come there for help and you spend a couple of hours in a session with them, tuto...

'Bout time...

Liz Hannah — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:43:00 GMT

Wow, I think this is the worst I've been at communication in my whole life. Well, maybe. Maybe not. But it HAS been almost 1 1/2 months since I blogged and that's ridiculous. It's kind of like when I stopped by Mrs. Van Dine's office the other day (our registrar and in-school grandma). She said that it had been too long since I talked to her, but I told her that I had been waiting till just the right time because I knew it was going to be a long talk when I actually DID get around to talking to her. So, this will probably be a long entry. Or maybe I should just write a bunch of entries consecutively to catch you up.

In any case, well, yes, I am back at school. I was busy last year. I was busy this summer. But over these past couple of months I have felt unrealistically busy. I don't even know where to start. Hmm...

Well, the first couple of weeks, I w...

One more night...

Liz Hannah — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:57:00 GMT

"Goodnight! Love you!"
"Goodnight! See you in the morning, Lord willing."

Those words are the equivalent of "Goodnight, John-boy" in our house.
And I only have one more night to hear them before I'll be back on Asbury Road, in Dubuque, Iowa, sleeping in my dorm room. Whoosh! What a summer! Where has it gone? I'm looking forward to being back in school, but I am already missing everyone here. It was sad to say goodbye to my little cousins on Sunday.

And little Deborah keeps coming into my room to hang around and tell me that she doesn't want me to leave. Boxes are starting to pile up in my room, and it is looking emptier. I have so much stuff. Why on earth? And every time I move, I give some more of it away. Soon I won't have anything. That is, after I move about 150 more times. For instance, I gave away...