Blessings

So, Mom and I heard this song on the radio at separate times and we both decided I have to sing it for special music at church. :)

I love it because, as she says, we pray for comfort and easy lives, but God knows what we need and He gives it to us. It's hard sometimes, but we know He loves us :)

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home,

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Heaven

Tonight Pastor was talking again about Heaven. I love thinking about it! And like he said, we should all do it much more often. It puts everything in perspective.
My favorite part about tonight was what he said about rest. I always though physical rest, but it will be spiritual rest! Where we don't have to battle with sin. Just think how much energy we exert on a daily basis, mostly mental energy, on fighting sin! It will be soooo nice when we don't have to worry about it anymore!




Another bit of heaven, my English class is DONE! my paper is turned in and I don't have to look at it anymore. Yay! And bio will be done Monday. Can't wait!!

update of the last 3 years

I'm not going to talk about the last three years. They have been rather depressing if you ask me. On a happy note, my sister is married to Matt. :) I have a nephew James who is adorable! :)
Well, two days ago was great lol I started writing about that... but I started off on a rant and don't remember what other great things happened that day considering that was more than 48 hours ago. So.
Today was a productive day, in spite of it being a Saturday. Got some major cleaning done today. Yaya. And we talked to Morgan and James on Skype!!! He is SO cute! Shar and Joe talked to her for 3 hours. We went shopping and I got a pair of grey dress pants, only pair I picked up and they fit and were 99 cents! I was happy.
And because I've spent tons of money lately on clothes at goodwill (whoops :), I had to skinnifie some tank tops I got, and hem work pants. So I did that tonight; it'd been forever since I'd sewn. I loved it though. :)

Just something I thought of tonight.... Its so good to be happy again. :) I didn't realize how much I missed it!

Well Ms. MaryAnn.... there's the update. :)

Georgia!

Long story.
Thursday night(May 29th) I went to bed by 10, because I had to wake up at 3:30 the next morning, so I could leave my house by 4, so I could be on my plane when it left at 5:45 a.m. I couldn't fall asleep though. I was excited, but it wasn't the kind that keeps you up for hours on end. I don't know what was the matter with me. Anyway, I kept waking up in the middle of the night. I'd check my clock and say, "is this night EVER going to end?!?!" The last time I woke up, for some reason I thought that I didn't have to get up until 6:30... don't ask me why. I have no idea. When I looked at my clock it read 5:44. Again, the thought about the night never ending. I groaned in my bed. After lying there for about 15 seconds... I realized my plane left in less then one minute! I raced out of my bed screaming MOM MOM MOM!! Little did I know my sheet was twisted around my ankle when I lept out of bed, so I tripped, falling out of my bed, but that didn't stop me! I ran upstairs yelling, "Mom! We have to leave RIGHT NOW!" The first thing she said to me was, "Hannah, it's okay. Your flight's been delayed." I would swear to you, my heart skipped a few beats. I was so relieved I hadn't missed it. She explained the whole story to me. Around 12:30 a.m. she couldn't sleep and started thinking... Since Atlanta was only my connecting flight, and I was getting off there... my luggage would go to Orlando. Oh snap! Nobody had even thought of my luggage. She was pondering what to do. 2 a.m. the phone rang. (I didn't hear it thank goodness!) It was the airport. The woman on the other line was informing Mom that my flight was going to be delayed about three hours. Mom explained to her the situation. We found out that I was definitely not supposed to just leave without going on my second flight. The woman was so sweet about it. She and Mom stayed on the phone for at least and hour and the lady rebooked my flight there, so I would have only a direct flight to Atlanta, while nothing with my flight home was tampered with. God had this planned out in a way I couldn't imagine. Everything happened at just the right time. It made me feel special, and rather guilty. Often people get angry if their flight is delayed, or something happens that messes up their schedule, but then you think.... there's always a reason why that happened. I was that reason. God delayed that plane for me so that everything would work out. Mom had come down to my room in the middle of the night to turn off my alarm clock, so I could get a few extra hours sleep. I love her. :) When she was helping me with the final touches with my luggage, we found out it was too heavy. After taking out some unnecessary things we were able to put my stuff in a smaller suit case. Unfortunately we had to wake up poor Joey because by the time Mom would get home Morgan would already be at work. (Sharon was at a friend's house) I felt so bad for Mom. She hadn't gotten ANY sleep the night before. I was very grateful for all she did though. :) But she's back to her old self now, so I'm assuming she caught up on her sleep.
My flight there was rather uneventful. When I got to the airport I got lost, and didn't know where to go to find Elaine(my cousin who was picking me up). After calling here and wandering about for about 40 minutes I found her at the baggage claim. They had already gotten my bag. The luggage I used was sort of the 'family' (and I mean my entire Dad's side) luggage, so every family has one. My cousin Sarah who was with Elaine recognized it before I even got there and she grabbed it for me. All was well. I was finally in GA!!
We had a great conversation in the car on the way home. It was about two hours to their house, but we stopped for lunch. So we three girls, and Halle, got to have a nice long chat. :) I felt so bad for Elaine and Sarah though. They were both sick. I really hoped I wouldn't get sick and I didn't. Whoot! After a couple days and LOTS of tissues, they were both well again for the wedding. :)
When we got to the Martin's house, Pete was the only one home. He ran outside, picked me up and spun me around. I must say, I've never gotten a welcome like that before, but it was so great to see my cousin again! When every body got home, the party began. Well... not really. Just hanging out, but it was still oodles of fun!
Pete had to go run some errands so I went with him. Starting the day I got there, and throughout the course of the trip, Pete was training me how to tell the difference between a 2008 Mustang, and the older ones. Driving with him was great fun. He's a safe driver and everything, but he picks on me mercilessly, and I missed that.lol He also went into a gas station and bought me some sour candy. I'm telling ya, my cousins know me well! When he got in the car he said, "Hannah, remember this. People always own you." Yeah, I'll definitely remember that. When we got home Josh(Sarah's boyfriend) came over. And then Dan the Man(Bessie's then fiance, of course they're married now. :) came. I had met him briefly when I came down for Tim's wedding, but never really got a chance to talk to him. He is so stinking hilarious! Especially when he and Daniel talk. Goodness gracious, I was laughing so hard. After dinner, Dan, Elizabeth and I went to see Prince Caspian. It was awesome! While we were waiting for the movie to start I got to look at all of their engagement pictures. They were SO cute!
When the movie ended, they took me to Dan's house so I could see it. It really is a beautiful house, and especially nice for two just starting out. They did a great job decorating it. I also got to see Bessie's wedding China. It was gorgeous. :D
As far as I can remember nothing too eventful happened again that night.
The next morning Pete and I went to Chick Fila for breakfast to have the ever famous Chicken Biscuit. I must say, it was pretty good. :D When we got home we went with Aunt Mary and Mary Kate to go to Mary's softball game. Of course, they dominated! I was so proud of Mary. She is definitely one of the best on her team. Unfortunately... I got sunburned that day. Bad sunburn. After the game we went to Longhorn(kind of like Outback or some place like that) to celebrate Mary's victory. When we walked in, the hostess was getting ready to seat us...... now, pause a minute. You gotta think how this looks. Pete is 16, but he looks about 18, he's 6 foot or so. Mary is a big girl, only 13, but she looks at least 15, she's about 5'9(I'd say, I could be wrong) And Aunt Mary, who's rather tall. And then me. 5' Hannah who looks 10 years old. The lady offered me a kids menu. Oh my word, I am NEVER going to live this down! At lunch Pete and Mary kept calling me a kid and stuff... I have to say, it was hilarious, and they actually had some pretty good disses! :D But I kid you not, Pete told every single person he came in contact with that week. It was very interesting.... but seriously, I'll never be able to live this down.lol
I don't remember exactly what happened Sat night.... Oh wait yes I do! We went to the pottery place. It was the girls' night out. It was kind of Lizzy's bridal party thing. It was Lizz, Sarah, Mary, Aunt Mary, Elaine and Halle(her two month old daughter), Lizzie's friend Jamie, Madie, and me. We got the party room there. Painting the stuff was super fun! When Lizzy finished her plate, she doodled on a piece of paper there, and had a great time with it. :)

By 7:30 we were all pretty hungry, so we were going to eat at a place in the plaza. Madie called Tim(who I hadn't seen yet, but was dying to!!!) to see if he'd like to come and have dinner with us. I was so glad he came! Of course we had out reunion with "Shut up Hannah!" "Shut up Timothy!" And so on and so forth.lol Inside joke from years ago. :) Dinner was great. Rather funny. Aunt Mary about fell out of her chair when she saw me wipe my mouth on my sleeve.lol Aunt Mary's very big on etiquette and such. I said that I actually looked like a girl that day. Instead of wearing a baggy tee shirt and basketball shorts and tennis shoes, I actually wore, a less baggy shirt, long jean shorts and flip flops! I went way out of my comfort zone to look nice. lol Elaine thought that was hilarious! It was a good night. :) Then we headed over to Tim and Madie's house. I hadn't seen their house yet. It's a really cute little place. :D I also got to see all their wedding pictures, which were beautiful!
Sunday I went to church with Peter and Daniel. Which is also the church where Tim and Madie go, so we saw them there. It was kind of interesting fitting all three of us into Daniel's little three seater Ford Ranger. But we managed. :) Church was good. And after....hm.... what'd we do after? Oh yes! We went back to the Martin's house and had a big gathering there. Elaine, Ty(her husband) and their two kids Will and Halle. Dan, and all the residents of the Martin household. Dan and Daniel grilled hamburgers and hot dogs... man they were good! We watched some softball, and then I watched the Ultimate Gift while the girls were gone getting shoes to go with the Bridesmaids dresses. That night I went to church with Daniel. After church we went to the home of some friend's of his that were moving that week. We played ultimate frizzbee. I'm not at all good at frizzbee, but it was really fun! Then we went over to Tim and Madies to pick up a pressure washer because Daniel had to do the house(they're doing major fix up on the house the Martin's just bought). When we came home we watched the Office with Pete as is tradition in the Martin household.lol So much fun!
Okay, I'm a little sick of typing, so I'll write more later. I hope you guys read this, but if you didn't I totally understand.lol It was way long.

Tea Party

Last night be good friend Savannah spent the night. We wanted to do something fun, so, we had a tea party with Shar, Alyssa, Ben and Joe. She came over around 4, we watched Monk and then picked up another friend of mine, Bianca. Unfortunately, Bianca had to leave at 6:30, but Savannah stayed and we walked up to Fareway to buy a cake mix, frosting, sour gummy worms, cream savers, popcorn, ice cream and dinner mints. When we came home we backed the cake.

Don't laugh at the hole! Sadly I didn't get a pic of it when it was finished, but we just put chocolate frosting on it. Yum!
While that was baking, we set the table. We didn't have a table cloth so we decided to take all the little napkins we had and just spread them on the table. Then we got a few knick knacks and decorated the table. 'Twas beautiful!



To make this tea party even more fun we dressed up! Alyssa and Sharon dressed up too! We were all so pretty.lol And Joe, being the dear that he is, even put on a suit and a tie to play along.
The pics of the girls and Joe and on Savannah's camera, but here's me and her.

We dressed while the cake was cooling. Then we put on every apron in the house(I had five, I think she had three or four) and finished preparing the food without destroying out dresses. It was just too hot in those dresses, in a hot kitchen to have tea, so we had lemonade. Shar and Alyssa made chocolate covered pretzels.

Man, Savannah's got all the good pics. I'll have to get them from her.lol Anyway.
We had originally planned to have it at midnight, but we were way ahead of schedule(yay!) and had it at 10. Whoot! During the actual dinner Joe and Ben wanted to be waiters. They were so cute, and did a really good job. After they served the food, they sat down to eat with us. We had the cake, water, lemonlade(that's the way I say it), carrots, celery, grapes, the chocolate covered pretzels, and the little mint thingys. We saved the ice cream, popcorn and gummy worms for later in the night. We laughed so much that night! Alyssa and Shar were hilarious.
After eating a lot, Sav and I changed to do the dishes. It really didn't take as long as we thought it would. Hooray for dishwashers!
When the dishes were done, Shar, Alyssa, Sav and I went downstairs and watched Extreme Days! Savannah loved it. Alyssa had seen it before, but it was so hilarious as usual. I fell asleep just cuz I was incredibly beat. I found out this morning that Sharon and Lyssa had thrown food at me when I was sleeping. This didn't surprise me because they've done it before. But since I don't remember it, I didn't mind.lol
It was definitely the most fun tea party I've had in quite a while! I want to do it again. :)

for you Ms. MaryAnn

Busy weekend last week. But it was awesome!
Friday night we had a surprise birthday party for Madeline(spelling?). It was great to see her shocked face when she walked into the kitchen of her house and saw everyone jump out shouting 'Surprise!!' 'Twas terrific. We played games, some were difficult. One knowledge game Madeline and I were on a team and Mrs. MaryAnn asked us questions. Of course we dominated! lol It was great. We made a good team. A little later we played flashlight tag and sardines with everyone(except the moms) outside. That was a blast! Chant was my little buddy for the evening. I love that kid. During one game of sardines the only people left were Sharon, Maddie Knipp and Isabelle. We decided to have a little fun with them. Colin howled and I wish you could have heard those girls scream... it was hilarious!! Love you Muffin! lol That was most definitely the highlight of the night. We got home around midnight and I was plum tired.
Saturday I woke up at noon(ahhh sleeping in!) and cleaned the house for 3 hours. In the afternoon Sara came over to practice for Singspiration and to watch Extreme Days and spend the night. Practice went well, and it was pretty funny too. Sara liked Extreme Days, how could you not?! That night we just hung out. At 9 we popped in Love Comes Softly. She loved it and when we were going to bed(haha) at 11:30, we put in the second one to fall asleep. But Willie was just SOOOO cute, it was impossible to fall asleep with a movie he's in!! Especially since Sara and I were raving the whole time about how gorgeous he was.lol Good times Sara! She wanted to watch the next one.lol Well, it was like 1:45, and we had to be at church early the next morning to sing in praise team. Regardlessm, we put the third one in too.lol I fell asleep in the middle of it, but Sara watched the whole thing. Surprisingly we had voices the next morning! =D
Sunday was great. Sat night Morgan was practicing for offertory and Sara, Morgan and I just started singing. All our voices flowed so wonderfully, we decided to do the special for offertory. It sounded pretty good if I do say so myself. The sermon was great as always.
After church Matt, Morgan, Steve and I went out for our traditional Sunday lunch. Red Robin was the place. 'Twas very good. Then Morgan and I went into Ulta, the new makeup store in Shadow Lake, while the boys went to Borders. Then all of us headed over to Penny's. Fun stuff! We had to come home after that because Morgan and Steve had to practice for that night. Unfortunately, we all car pulled with Morgan, so Matt had to stay there when he wanted pie.lol When Morgan and Steve were done, Morgan and I practiced and wound up switching the song we were doing that night. Over at Matt's we watched part of a show, had pie and finally headed off for church.
I sang two songs(duets of course) and helped played guitar for congregational singing. Very busy night. But all went well and as far as I could tell, everybody did GREAT at singspiration!
When we came home the singles, oh excuse me-College and Career class came over for a snac. That was fun!
There was also some amazing news that I received that night... but since everyone knows about it... I'm not gonna tell. But can I say that I was and am still terribly excited?!
Anyway... that was my weekend. Very fun in my opinion.

Well, I need to update. I don't have a whole lot of time, and my life really isn't all that interesting right now. This song has been stuck in my head for quite sometime and I love it. Promise of a Lifetime by Kutless it's an amazing song, listen to it.

I have fallen to my knees
As I sing a lullaby of pain
I'm feeling broken in my melody
As I sing to help the tears go away
Then I remember the pledge You made to me

(Chorus)
I know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
I hear the words You say
To never walk away from Me and leave behind
The promise of a lifetime

Will You help me fall apart
Pick me up, take me in Your arms
Find my way back from the storm
And You show me how to grow through the change
I still remember the pledge You made to me

(Chorus)
I know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
I hear the words You say
To never walk away from Me and leave behind
The promise of a lifetime

I am holding on to the hope I have inside
With You I will stay through every day
Putting my understanding aside
I am comforted

(Chorus)
To know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
I hear the words You say
To never walk away from Me and leave behind
The promise of a lifetime

(Chorus)
I know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
Looking back at me
I know that You can see my heart is open to
The promise of a lifetime

update for Mr. Folken

Well I was told that I should update more often, so here it is. =)
Um...... hm.... what to do, what to do.....
Ah, well good news, I'm completely caught up with school! All of us really buckled down today and got done pretty early.
We found out that Dad will be able to come back to Nebraska after Korea! Yay. He was very happy about that. ;D
My Aunt will probably be visiting the end of Feb! =D It's gonna be so fun with her here. She's coming then because Mom will have two weeks off from school. Whoot whoot!
Mom had a job interview today. She's had a few with this company and I'm pretty stinking sure they're going to hire her. =D
I've been keeping busy with a lot of nothing. School, babysitting, hanging out with Dad and the kiddies, church and guitar. (not all of those are nothing. ;)
Our whole family is completely addicted to Monk. When Shar and Joe were gone we watched it every single day. And since it's now on at 3 and 4 we watch those too. =) It's so nice having a tv guardian!
I might write about Joe's party on Saturday. We're having it early because Dad is leaving. His real birthday is Valentines Day... yeah, he's my lover boy. =) lol

update

Okay, dudes and dudets. I haven't written in a while so I thought I'd 'break it down.'
As of now, Sharon and Joe are gone in beautiful sunny, Florida... the little rats. jk... mostly. ;) So I'm just chilling with Mom and Morgan this week. Should be pretty cool! I plan on watching some good movies with Mom like Anne of Green Gables(all of them) and all the Love Comes Softly movies.... Ah... this should be a nice crying week.

Lol... While I'm thinking about it, the new years eve bash at church was completely amazing! I had so much stinking fun! We went frolicking outside, and when I say frolic I mean skipping.LOL... Good jokes that night as well! And we played Mofia quite a bit. So, we have a group, known as the Man-Han-Clan. It's pretty much THE best group ever! Here's a pic we took that night. It was fantastic!!

We look great don't we? I mean, come on, be serious. =P That's all of us. Jim, Marc, me and Andrew... we're working on getting the t-shirts in, isn't that right Jim?
Dad got a Wii! Oh my goodness. :) It's over at his house so when we go over there, that's pretty much what we do. He doesn't have any games except the ones that already come with it, which is completely fine with me. =D
Well I gotta go. I'll write more when anything interesting happens. ;)

Christmas!

Well... tomorrow's Christmas! =D I'm quite excited.
The Christmas Eve service tonight was wonderful. I loved all the music, everybody did a great job.
Dad came a little after we got home. Matt S., Steve and amazingly all of our family is here. =) Shocking to have us all in one place. We each opened one gift tonight as is customary in our family. Sharon got a phone from Morgan. She was tickled to death.lol Joe got the Spider-Man trilogy from Morgan. =D We are all excited about that, we're watching the third one now. Morgan got a really pretty silver bracelet from Mom. Dad got a Pac-Man game thing from us. He was playing it a while ago and I must say everyone in the living room was very into the game. Mom didn't open anything. =( She's gonna wait till tomorrow. I got all four Love Come Softly movies from Mom!! I haven't seen the fourth one, but I did see most of the first and second and all of the third, they are wonderful! I highly recommend them to girls... I'm not sure if guys would appreciate them as much.lol
Tomorrow we plan on getting up rather early. Dad's coming around 7, and glory hallelujah, Steve is, most likely coming earlier than that. Joy. Sharon is more excited than any of us I think. =P
Hope you all have a completely wonderful and joyous, very Merry Christmas!