Challenges and Triumphs

Well, it has been a while since my last post and I am sorry! Here are some updates about our lives!

Working: My last post I talked about starting subbing at the public schools and I was so excited to get started and get into the schools. I started right before Christmas break so for the two weeks that school was out, I worked at the youth center, which was awesome. Right before break I also got a raise at work so it made my time there even better! But, eventually break had to end and I eagerly awaited the Monday when school started again. So, I woke up at 6:30, got ready, had my coffee and waited. And waited. And waited. The call never came. So, I figured that it was the Monday after break and teachers did their best to make it to school to start the new year off with their class and that is understandable. Well, it has officially been 2 weeks since school started and I have been called a zero times. Every morning I go through the same process and 8:00 rolls around and I am disappointed again. I had heard that Great Falls desperately needed subs and people made it seem like I would be called every day and unfortunately that has not been the case. Now, this is great on the days that Anthony is home and I get to see him or when I need to run errands or do chores. However, this also means I am not getting paid and my time at the youth center is down to only Saturdays. Subbing is the most frustrating job that I have had because I never know if I am going to be working tomorrow or if it is worth getting up so early just to sit on the couch and watch HGTV. I kept having nightmares that I missed calls for work and for the first week I barely slept because I would get so nervous about what the following day would bring. The human resources office told me that those who are most available will get priority so I stopped working during the week at the youth center. They also told me that licensed teachers get priority in being called it but I have not been called. I have done everything they recommend and yet I am still on the couch. They said that subbing is the best way to get your name out there for consideration for future positions but how can they know my name if I am never working in the schools? I was getting very frustrated and I kept praying for God to help me find my path and even though it pushed the boundaries of my patience, He gave me a nudge in the right direction.

Before Thanksgiving I had submitted my application to Great Falls Central Catholic High School for subbing as well. They did not call me and I had kinda given up hope that I would be working there. Finally, this week I got a call from the principle asking if I was still interested in working there. I could have screamed I was so happy. So, Wednesday I attended Virtus training put on by the Catholic Church about protecting children and today I am turing in my paperwork and hopefully I will start next week! The great thing about working at Central is that they are a small school and often give you a day or two of notice before you sub, unlike the public schools who call you the day of. Also, Central is small so I have a good chance of getting to know the kids better and getting to know the other teachers. I will be available to sub at both the public and private school so hopefully between the two, I will get more work!

Catechism: So, for the past couple months I have been teaching Religious Education (Sunday school) to 5th, 6th and 7th graders and I have really loved it. My class is growing and they are a really great group of kids and we have a lot of fun together. As you may remember, this class was a bit of a surprise but I knew that I was needed so we have made the best of it. However, now that I am teaching they would like me to become a certified Catecist, meaning I have to take a class online. I didn't think this was going to be that difficult, maybe some readings or answering some questions but nothing too major. I was wrong. I am enrolled in what feels like a college class. It is a 6 week program that each week requires: 6 discussion posts addressing 2 separate topics, chapter readings, quizzes, pre and post tests, online readings, essays and videos to watch. Wow. This was especially difficult because I have not done professional writing in almost a year and writing essays was something my brain was just not prepared to do yet! I am a little frustrated with this whole process because they practically are begging for Sunday school teachers but then they throw something like this at us and it makes it very difficult to actually help out. I am happy to help on Sundays and prepare lessons but this is a volunteer position and I did not expect that there would be this much work involved. I am very happy that I am not working now because I don't know when I would find the time to complete this class otherwise. I hope that I will learn a lot from this class and I hope that it will help me be a better teacher so I am keeping an open mind. Between this and the Virtus training, I think I am going to be an expert!

Socializing: Lately, I have really been trying to get to more spouse functions, especially because I am not really doing anything else to socialize with people. Last week I went to the Bunco club, On Tuesday I attended the Books Made into Movies Club and last night we had our monthly spouses social where we played Bunco again. I forget how much fun I have with these ladies and I am glad that I am starting to get back into the club. For a while I could not attend much because I was working until 7:30 at night and by the time I got home, the clubs were over or I didn't feel like going out again. It is nice to once again be with people who I can relate to and I really would like to make more of an effort to really get to know some of these ladies. The best part is that when Anthony is on alert, I don't have to make dinner for myself because there is always food at these get togethers and these ladies are fantastic cooks! I hope to get more involved in the club by hosting a get together or volunteering more, especially now that I seem to have a lot of free time!

Dogs: This has been especially challenging for us. We are both very thoughtful, very thorough people and we do not make decisions lightly. These qualities are great most of the time but I will admit that they can sometimes get out of hand. I do not like to spend money and Anthony likes to make sure he has researched every aspect of what we are getting. This is why we did not buy a car or living room furniture because I could not spend the money and we could not agree on the best option. We have been seriously discussing, researching, googling, and asking about dogs for about 4 months now and we now seem to be going around in circles. We like to look at every angle and detail of every dog that we are considering and last night we realized that we may be over thinking things. We just want to make sure that we are getting the right dog for us and our situation but that has proven to be difficult. Unfortunately, the humane society here does not have many options and the dogs they do have are typically older or pit bull mixes, which we are not allowed to have on base. So we are keeping that option open but we are leaning toward getting a dog from a breeder. We do not want to get one from a breeder we have not met but everything in Montana is so spread out and Anthony hasn't had a day off in quite a while so it is hard to go and visit these places. We finally decided last night that we need to accept that there is no perfect dog and eventually we are going to have to pull the trigger and make a decision, even if that means not being completely comfortable with moving forward. Last night we set a timeline and hopefully we can come to an agreement soon!

Anthony: Anthony is doing well but he is very busy. As I'm sure you have heard, things are not great here at Malmstrom and the people that did not screw up have to pick up the slack. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this news article:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/16/air-force-34-nuclear-missile-officers-implicated-in-cheating-scandal/

Needless to say, Anthony was not involved in any of the problems but there are quite a few people here that are currently not working because of the investigations. This means that those that did not do anything wrong are now working like crazy to try to fill the gaps. This also means that everything here is being looked at under a microscope. We have a lot of eyes watching the base here and it puts a lot of stress on the people here. I feel terrible for the missileers because they work so hard every day in a very stressful job that is usually thankless and the only time they get recognized is when there is some scandal caused by a select few. It has to be hard to stay motivated and positive in your job with all of this going on. Just try to remember, when you read the news talking about some person screwing up in the military, 99% of the people are working their butts off, sacrificing everyday and doing exactly the right thing. Unfortunately, it is those few people that screw up that get national attention and make everyone else look bad.

On the bright side, Anthony will be changing jobs in February so he will be pulling alerts less and he will be working more normal human hours during the week. I am looking forward to that because I think we will get to see each other more and he will be happier and healthier having a consistent schedule for sleep and work. We can't wait for this month to be over!

Well, that is our life for now. I will hopefully update this again soon as things develop in our lives. Also, Grandma I hope you are feeling better! You are in our thoughts and prayers and I know that you will be up and running soon! Love you!

Lessons learned on my first day

Well today was the big day! It was my first official day in the schools as a substitute teacher. And I am tired!

In the past few weeks I have been dragging my feet getting into the schools. I never wanted to be a sub because the idea of it terrified me. I remember what we used to do to subs when I was in school and I just knew that to pay me back for being mean I would have a terrible experience. Plus, the whole reason I love teaching is getting to know the kids and helping them progress and grow. As a sub, you don't get to do any of that! However, I have been told multiple times that here in Great Falls you have to sub if you will have any hope of getting a full time job. So, I sucked it up and finally applied to the Great Falls Public Schools as a substitute teacher.

I got a call while I was on vacation in Minnesota for a group interview and I was terrified! I had never done a group interview before and I did not want to have to fight over other applicants to get a job. So, I polished up my resume, dressed in my best interview clothes, rocked out to some Weezer (thank you Claire!) and showed up to HR for my interview! There were about 7 other people in the interview room with me and we began by watching 3 movies about blood borne illnesses, first aid and how to be safe on the job. After about 45 minutes it was time for the interview! My hands were sweaty, I was shaking and I was frantically going through all my good answers in my mind but as we went around the table and introduced ourselves I began to feel better. It turns out that I was the only person there with a teaching license and one of two that had a degree in teaching. In Montana two years of college education for subbing are encouraged but not required to sub and a license is given preference but also not required. You can even sub as a sophomore in college! Wow! So we were all hired and told as soon as we turn in our paperwork, we will be on the list. It took me a little over 2 weeks to get everything in and once I finally turned in my Tuberculosis test and got a very unattractive ID badge, I was in the system and ready to be called!

So, Tuesday night I sat with Anthony and watched a movie but I didn't really pay much attention to the movie because I have never been so nervous in my life! All night all I could think of was how much I didn't want to be a sub, how I desperately didn't want to get called in the morning, and how there was no way in the world that I could do this! Anthony was super supportive and really helped me but there was just always a knot in my stomach. So after a nice, big glass of wine to help me calm down, I finally got about 4 hours of sleep before my alarm went off at 6…. ick!!!

So I was up, face on and teeth brushed before the sun came up and then the waiting. I was told that the call can come in as early as 5:45 so I was ready but 5:45 came and went and so did 6:45 when Anthony  left for work. By my 3rd cup of coffee I was questioning whether or not I was going to be called. Finally at 7:15 I got a call from the sub desk and it was go time! My first assignment was to be a rover at Lincoln Elementary. I spent one period in the 3rd grade classroom, and one period in the 6th grade classroom and they were great kids. I was so lucky that I was able to actually talk to the teachers I was working for so they walked me through what to teach and what to expect. I finished there at about 11:15 and headed over to River View Elementary to teach first graders. Once again, I was lucky to be able to talk to the teacher I was working for and for the most part the little ones were pretty good. A summer working at the Youth Center was the best way I could prepare for subbing and I am so thankful for that! There were a few little ones that I had to use my stern voice but overall they were adorable. How do you get angry with little ones that say you look like a princess!?! One child got a bloody nose but I made it through my first day subbing with no children running away and no major catastrophes. The day was capped off with coffee at crooked tree with a friend and wine and Christmas movies with Kim!

Well I learned quite a bit from the first day subbing. It was terrifying, exhausting and very exciting. Most of the day I had no idea what I was doing or where I was supposed to be but as long as the kids didn't know that I was absolutely lost, I was doing alright! Just one more day until Christmas break! Hopefully I will be able to post this weekend and update everyone on our lives outside of the schools! Only 6 more days until Christmas!

Christmas time in Montana!

It's Christmas time in Montana! Here are some ways that I have decorated our new house! It has been slightly challenging because we are starting from scratch with all of our decorations but thank you so much to everyone who has sent us Christmas cheer in the mail!

Our Christmas card holder! There are little clothes pins along the string of lights to hold the cards!

My stocking! I glued a high heel ornament to a blank bottom and bought the sparkly stocking

A big thank you to my aunt for our very first Nativity set. It looks great by the tv! (Yes I took this while Anthony was watching the Bears game on Monday night)

Our little trees looked so cute yesterday! Then Montana wind kicked up and almost completely covered them… I think I will have to continually dig them out of the snow but it is worth it!

Thank you to Mom for the musical advent calendar and aunt Kathy for the beautiful vase!

Our cute little tree! I had it from college so it is a skinny thing but it does the job!

My favorite decoration so far. I found a Darth Vader ornament and glued it to a blank stocking holder and then found a Darth Vader stocking! Anthony is a very happy camper! 

Our back porch! I had to get a little creative with how to keep the lights up but it looks very festive back there at night! The top lights are kept up with Christmas ornament hooks!

Addresses needed!

Hi family and friends!
I am so sorry that this has not been updated in a while but there will be a new post coming soon! Now that we are back from our wonderful vacation to Minnesota, things are happening!

However, for right now I have a request for you! I am getting ready to send out our very fist Christmas card together :) But we are severely lacking in the address book department. If you would be so kind, could you send me your address to my email: hannahmwegner@gmail.com or call or text me! I really want to share our card with all of you so please help me out! Thank you all in advance! Keep looking for that new post that will come soon!

Photo Shoot!

      So today we were so blessed to have our friend Kim take our Christmas card photos. I had wanted to do nice photos for our first Christmas card together but unfortunately everything is so expensive! I was disheartened that we would not be able to have nice photos and I had begun planning alternatives when Kim offered to take them for us and edit and everything! It was so much fun to take pictures and it means so much to me to have nice photos of the two of us in our new home. We took some photos here on base then took the rest at Giant Springs State Park just outside of base. Unfortunately the bugs at Giant Springs were horrendous and Kim looked like she was standing in a snow storm of bugs when she was taking the picutres. She was a trooper though and took fantastic pictures! Anthony put up with the photos like a champ too even though he hates having his pictures taken. He knew how much this meant to me and he didn't complain once! What a great group of people I have around me! Here is a taste of what we did!

Pumpkin Carving!

 The patients all ready for surgery!

Kim and Ryan planning their pumpkin 

Cory was such a gentlemen and set a table for us to have dinner!

The boys beginning their carving

Ryan slightly judging Cory as he carves 

Lilly watching with concern 

Cory's Jack Skellington pumpkin

I got Anthony to carve the tricky parts of my pumpkin. 

Minnesota!!!

Anthony's awesome batman!

October Updates!

Hello world!
I am so sorry for my absence. I kept reminding myself that I really should update my blog then I would get distracted and suddenly a week would go by and I had forgotten about it completely! Our lives have not changed dramatically since the last update, just much more busy!

Anthony- He is still living his missile life and September was a terrible month for him. For a few weeks, he would come home from work as I was leaving to go to work so we did not get to see each other much. Now that October is here, we are hoping that he will have a better schedule. However, with the government shutdown, things have been changing on almost a daily basis so we really don't know what's happening. He originally was supposed to have government inspections in early October, then they were moved to late October and now there is a rumor that they are not happening? I can't keep track with all the changes, all I know is that we can't make plans longer than a few days out because we don't know what next week is going to look like! Oh well, it's not like we really are going anywhere anytime soon! Anthony is a better sport about all this than I am but even he is starting to get tired of having so many different schedules and working constantly. Someday we hope that he will get moved to a job where he has real hours. Perhaps in December or January but I'll believe that when I see it.

Work- Things on base in general have been crazy because the government screwed everyone over. Everyone was very grumpy, especially when they were worried that they might not be getting paid. Luckily, the Youth Center was deemed essential so we stayed open and I still got paid! For now I am still working as basically a secretary at the Youth Center on base. I love the people I work with but I did not go to 5 years of college to answer phones and shred papers. I am working on my substitute teaching application but unfortunately we are still facing the same issue of the one car family. Right now we are at a stalemate and soon we are just going to have to pull the trigger and get a car because there was frost on the grass this morning and I am not biking miles in freezing weather! Luckily, my boss at the youth center was really great to work with and I will be working there on Monday, Tuesday and some Fridays and Saturdays. That way I have 3 free days a week to sub and I still have some income coming in from the youth center because subs out here get terrible pay!

Church- Lately I have been attending Bible study on Monday mornings to study Catechism and the Catholic Church. These ladies are fantastic because they help me to see how to survive life as a military spouse. We get together on Mondays, have some coffee and treats and talk about what it means to be a Catholic and Christian in this world. We are studying prayer right now and it has been wonderful to learn how to pray like God intended. The church on base has a very small group that regularly attend so they are constantly asking for help, which we are happy to do. Some Saturdays we usher or count money or whatever we need. One Saturday someone approached me and asked if I could help with Sunday School. I said I would be an assistant but I would not be comfortable with my own classroom because I have never taught before and frankly, I have only been a Catholic for 2 years and I am still learning a lot! The next Sunday I showed up to help with school and much to my surprise, I am in charge of teaching the 5th, 6th and 7th graders! Crap! It has now been 3 weeks of teaching and I love that class. I do my best with the teachings and I feel pretty comfortable because we are really just learning the Bible. We go over the Gospel from Mass, discuss the meaning, move on to the Bible lesson from the day and we always end with a game. So far the kids seem to have a lot of fun but they ask some very difficult questions! How am I supposed to know what language Adam and Eve spoke in the Garden of Eden!?!? They definitely keep me on my toes and I am trying to get them to see how to take lessons from Church and apply them to their everyday life. Hopefully it goes well!

Finally, Kim just introduced me to a class on Wednesday nights called Sacred Marriage. The class teaches you how God created marriage to make us more holy, not necessarily more happy all the time. Last Wednesday we discussed that people don't necessarily fall out of love, they fall out of repentance. People are quick to jump out of a marriage because it becomes difficult and we are seeking our own happiness in marriage, not considering what God is trying to teach us during difficult times. We learned how God gives us a spouse whose shortcomings are exactly what we need to make us more Christ-like. This was a very difficult concept to wrap my mind around but it makes sense the more I think about it. God gave me a spouse who will challenge me because I have my own failings that I need to work on. The book we are reading is fantastic so far and I think more couples need to think less about what they can get out of the relationship and more about what God wants them to get out of the relationship. I look forward to going back to the class and I would recommend this book to any newly married couples!

Friends- Unfortunately I have not been able to make it to many spouses club meetings because I have been working until 7:30 at night and all the meetings start at about 6:30 on weekdays. I made it to this months book club meeting and that was fantastic! I have never read The Great Gatspy before and I'm almost done! The book has been good so far and the movie was wonderful but sad. I hope to make it to more events if my work schedule lets me. I also ran the breast cancer 5k on base here on Thursday which was rough! I am so not in running shape but we got to run on the flight line so it was at least cool scenery.

Well I think that's all for now! More updates to come soon!