Monday, April 30, 2012

A little of this and that

Things are starting to get busy for us around here! Usually summer is a time to relax and take things slow... but at least for the beginning of the summer, that isn't going to be the case for us!

I decided to audition for "Annie" - the community theater show where AJ is music director this summer and landed the role of Grace Farrell (secretary to Mr. Warbucks)! I'm pretty excited and definitely excited to be back on stage - for the first time since 2005! - and to be able to do some singing again! We started rehearsals this past weekend and it looks like "Annie" is pretty much going to consume our lives until the end of June! :) Not that I'm complaining, I think it's going to be a lot of fun and it's with a great group of people!
We have performances June 21st - 24th so let me know if you want tickets! :)

Even though we've only had two rehearsals, it's been fun to watch AJ work with all the little kids in the show! It never ceases to amaze me how well he is with kids. And I'm sure most of this is because he's just a big goofy kid himself! :) But it's just so much fun to watch him in his element! I've been lucky enough to be able to do this quite a bit lately!
Last month AJ had 15 students from the high school that went to solo/ensemble contest. Basically for those of you that don't know, this is a competition the students go to where they've prepared one or more pieces of music and perform in front of a judge. The judge will then score them on a number of different areas and give out a rating that ranges from Division I (Superior) to Division IV (Poor). The 15 students that AJ took were the largest group of kids to go to contest from Riverside. Of those 15 students, they walked away with 8 Division I's, 6 Division II's and one Division III. It was an outstanding day for those students! You could tell how hard each of them worked and how much they wanted to do well, not only for themselves, but also for Mr. Z! :)

Tonight AJ has his last Middle School concert for the year and the last High School concert is next Monday. He also has Large Group Contest this Friday night. Large Group is essentially the same as solo/ensemble contest, only the choir goes and performs as a whole in front of three judges. Last year the choir received a Division II. This year, with a choir that is practically tripled in size, AJ is hoping to walk out with a Division I. He and the students have been working very hard. AJ also found out recently that he has just under 50 students signed up for choir next year! This is just amazing considering that the started with just around 12 his first year - just two years ago! He is really doing some great things with the Riverside Vocal Music program!

For some other great news, we heard back from H&R Block about our amendments for the previous two years of state taxes and we will be getting some money back!! We'll actually be getting back right around $1000! So we're very excited and this is going straight into our emergency fund - as part of our Financial Peace University learning. And speaking of FPU, we have officially graduated! We had our last class last week and we're kind of sad it's over! It has been a lot of fun going to class every week, learning some really great things, but also meeting and getting to know some other people in town. It'll be strange now having to go to class now every Wednesday! And I would say it'll be nice to have our Wednesday nights back, but we've moved on to "Annie" rehearsals now!

I think that's just about it for us right now! If I don't post anything for the next two months, now you know that we'll be busy! :)




Tuesday, April 17, 2012

God and His Plans

You know, life has a funny way of working itself out. Or maybe it's more God's planning. I'm always truly amazed when things in life get complicated and I start to worry and fret and wonder how it's all going to work out. But then something happens and I see that God truly had a plan in place all along. I suppose you're wondering what on earth I'm talking about?

There was a new position created at Wartburg in the Alumni and Parent Association Office for an Event Planner. I decided to apply and landed an interview. (Now, I don't want you to think that I don't love my current job at UNO because I do. I love what I'm doing, I love working in higher education and I love the people I work with. This was just something I thought I should apply for.) The interview itself went great. The staff at Wartburg were friendly and welcoming and of course it's always great to be back on campus! The position would be helping plan different events throughout the year including Family Weekend, Homecoming and area Outflys. And as it was at my alma mater, it could be a dream job for me. I love planning events, I love all the work that goes into them, the details, the organization. And I love seeing the end results. And who wouldn't want to work for such a great place and one that is so close to my heart?

But after the interview,  I wasn't sure what was next. I didn't know what I would say if they offered me a job. AJ has a much more specific job and he can't just move anywhere. I followed him out to Western Iowa for his job at Riverside. And I realize that it's probably going to almost always be that way - me following him. And I honestly have no problem with that! AJ knows what he wants to do, has that passion and a true talent for it! I will gladly follow him wherever his career may lead him. But AJ doesn't have anything lined up for a job in Eastern Iowa. He has this great job at Riverside and is excited to see how the program continues to grow. I'm not sure I could ask him to leave that. Especially if he doesn't have another teaching job lined up. AJ thought if I was offered the job I should take it. We've lived apart before and although that didn't really work out in our favor last time, he believes that we're in a better place to do it now. It would be his third year of teaching and we know a lot of people in the area now - he's more comfortable. And while I agree with all of that, I still wasn't sure living apart was something I wanted to do. We've begun to talk about when we want to start a family and living apart isn't exactly ideal for that.

And so we were at a crossroads. Waiting. Waiting to hear back from Wartburg. And trying to figure out what I would say if I was offered the job. Well the call finally came on Wednesday afternoon. Wartburg called and told me that it was down to me and one other person and after a lot of discussion, and not without some hard choices, they offered the job to the other person and they accepted. I was told however that they had nothing but great things to say about me and would keep me in mind if any future positions opened up. And while I was bummed about not getting an offer, I was also relieved. I honestly believe that God knew I would not be able to make that decision. So He made it so I wouldn't have to. I am glad that I did the interview. I love Wartburg and would jump at any chance for another interview down the road. And maybe this interview will have been my foot in the door for something else. Something down the road that has better timing for both me and AJ and his career track. Everything happens for a reason. And this situation was no different.

Ironically enough, after receiving the phone call from Wartburg, AJ and I had our Financial Peace University course that night. This lesson was called Working in your Strengths. The class description reads: "
This lesson will show you how to avoid dead-end or mind-numbing jobs and provide tips for job hunting, writing a résumé, and acing an interview. Plus, you’ll learn tips for finding extra jobs if you need cash to attack your debt snowball." And our homework for this class period was to come up with a three year professional plan. Well this is something I've always struggled with. I admire AJ so much for knowing what he wants to do and the fact that he's able to do it and do it so well. And while I like the fact that my degree gives me the opportunity to be flexible and do a number of things, I still struggle with what I want to do for the rest of my life. There are a number of things I love to do. And I do love working in Higher Education and I believe I want to stay working in Higher Ed, but doing what exactly? I'm not sure. We were even asked in our discussion after the lesson if we could do anything in the world and money was no object, what would it be. I couldn't answer. I don't know what my dream job is. I'm still searching. I wish someone could tell me what I'm really good at, what my strengths are and what exactly I should be doing. But I know this is something I have to discover for myself. I need to figure out what God put me on this earth to do. But if you have any suggestions, I'll take them! ;-)

Let's get on with some updates now, shall we? March was a busy month for both AJ and I. For me, the month was filled with high school visits and college fairs. For AJ, he was busy working as the National Honor Society adviser and planning the ceremony as well as getting his students ready for solo/ensemble contest. We were also lucky enough to have some visits from friends as well! Amanda and Chelsea were able to come down and we had a pretty fun girls weekend! Even AJ said it wasn't too bad with the three of us together! ;-) The last two weeks of March I was actually up in Minnesota at college fairs. It was a long two weeks to be away from home and from AJ but we survived. I was also able to go to Osseo, WI and visit Meg the weekend in between! It was great because I hadn't been able to visit her yet or see her preach! It was a great weekend and really great to have some sisterly bonding time as well! :) I also managed to get in some time with some high school friends for another baby shower! It's so much fun getting together with these girls and catching up with all of them, but it's also fun to see how our get together's have changed! We had four adorable babies that we kept passing around and it was just so much fun! I can't wait until the next time we're all able to get together again! Maybe next time we'll even have to bring our husbands!

Easter weekend AJ and I drove up to Minnesota where we were able to spend a nice long weekend with family and friends. We managed to get in some good cousin bonding time as well during the weekend since all of us were back home (even if not all quite at the same time...). It's always fun when we can get together which is so hard to do now! But we can always have a good time. Easter itself was a joyous holiday and it was good to be back in church! I'll admit AJ and I have not been very good about getting to church lately! We need to get back in the habit because it's always so great and refreshing! The Monday after Easter we headed back home which of course included a stop to see our growing clans-baby! We just love spending time with him and he is just the cutest baby! :) Monday was a long day though spent in the car, at the doctor's office and getting our taxes done. I am so glad that we finally have our taxes done and it was a lot easier than I thought! We decided to take them into H&R Block because we had too many questions and concerns, especially with me working in Nebraska but living in Iowa. And while it did cost us some money to get them down, the payoff has really been worth it. We originally thought we were going to have to pay a huge chunk of change to the state of Iowa but it turns our we had been filing wrong! So while we still had to pay in, it wasn't nearly as much as we first thought. We also found out that we filed wrong last year (2010) as well! So he was going to look into it further and see if we could possible get some money back from that! So we are keeping our fingers crossed!

Well, that's about it for us right now! School will soon be ending for the year for AJ and then he'll be busy working as the Musical Director of "Annie" for the community theater. We hope to spend this summer with some family time and maybe taking a vacation or two! No matter what we do, we know we'll have a great time!