Whoah, we're halfway there!

Well, as of next weekend. (Can you blame me for being premature in posting this? Almost HALFWAY THERE until Jack comes home! We'll make it, I swear!)

The easiest type of blog entry will follow. Pictures :)

My sweet husband had these flowers sent to me on my birthday. <3

I went home for Christmas and got to see this beautiful girl, Kelsie. She sang at our wedding and she was in the Bible study I led at KU. She is an amazing young woman and is going to do great things someday. I had the privilege of being her "mentor" in college, but I have a feeling she will far surpass me in her wisdom. (Now that I think about it, this picture might have been from Thanksgiving.)

I joined some of my sisters' friends at a gathering and got to see some of Jack's best friends as well. These two hooligans were groomsmen in our wedding.

HARRY POTTER! My family went to Universal Studios for Christmas. It was just AMAZING. I grew up reading the Harry Potter books and this place was just magical. We had a blast. I am so glad that I went and got to spend time with my family instead of doing that first play I was so conflicted about.

My siblings and my cousins Missy and Joey with Hogwarts castle behind us.

I have not made a crazy amount of friends here (and most of my friends are moms!), so I was a little underprepared for New Years' Eve, especially because I had just driven back the day before. Luckily I texted this girl with the pink wig to see what was up, and she invited me to a party, which was a blast! This group of Catholic young adults are so welcoming and friendly. Even though they don't know me too well, a group of them are coming up to Denver for my show this weekend. I feel so blessed! 

Show time! "Les Miserables in Concert" went wonderfully. My mom took this picture during our second performance. I was so so so nervous on the first night. I had never even had a solo in a musical before, and I was breathtakingly terrified that I would forget the lyrics or sing something terribly off pitch and lose my place. Cosette's songs require precise pitch and a good deal of vocal control, and one wrong note can kill it! However, I made it through! Each night I gain more confidence. One night, the actor who plays Marius and I goofed up our duet and made up lyrics on the spot. The audience had no idea! I realized then that I can really do this! 

Ariel had these flowers delivered to the theater for my first performance. It was just the sweetest!

 Marius and Cosette, with Eponine "photobombing" us purposefully in the background.

My mom and Susan (our family friend) came to see the show opening weekend, and we all took Molly to Garden of the Gods. Matthew flew out on Saturday to join us! I am so blessed to have such supportive family and friends. This weekend, Jack's parents are coming to Denver to see it. And the next weekend, my mom is coming with my grandparents!

A goofy picture with Thenardier, Valjean, Fantine, and Madame Thernadier. My family had brought me a sandwich during intermission and it became a prop for our photos. 

In the time since the show started, I have been consumed by a lot of home projects. I'll tell you about that in another post. Right now, I will venture onto some sappy 23-year-old life crisis diary entry-style writing. Humor me or skip ahead. Here goes: 

I am a little unsure where my life is headed. I had an interview two weeks ago for an English teaching position in an excellent school district at a high school only minutes from our home. I wasn't offered the position, and I can't even apply to substitute teach in the district except upon request by HR. My next step is to apply to substitute teach in a district just east of here. I despise paperwork and applications, but I need to just sit down and do it. At least I have my Colorado teaching license now, which makes the process a lot easier. However, subbing is just temporary and the time will come when I need to apply for permanent teaching positions this spring. The only problem is that Jack's battalion is disbanding, so that when he returns, we don't know for sure if he will be moved to another unit at Carson or if we will be PCSd to a different location (military lingo alert: PCS stands for Permanent Change of Station and is often used as a verb). The problem is that if we're PCSd, we might not find out about it until Jack gets home and we would probably move before the end of the calendar year. Sure, his orders can break us out of a lease, but not me out of a teaching contract. And I would hate to be in the position of choosing between being with Jack and leaving my class (and breaking my contract before my first year of teaching is over). So I'm in this lingo, not knowing what the next move will be for my career…if I'm ever actually going to teach or if God has something else in mind for me. But these are common problems for an army wife. For example, if the army does PCS us, it would likely only be for a short time, because Jack would have Captains Career Course to complete and we would have to move again. See how that makes having a teaching job difficult? Especially considered you can really only get hired at one time of the year, maybe during winter break. Sure, teaching jobs are everywhere but I never thought about the difficulties with being hired as an army wife. I was pre-nursing for a semester in college. It looks like I should have stayed on that path! ;) Anyway, my temporary *next steps* are to get a darn substitute teaching job and to begin volunteering. And to stop feeling so guilty about not having a job (sorry, type-A here, can you tell?). There is a crisis pregnancy center here in Colorado Springs. I called about volunteering several months ago and never head back, so I finally called back yesterday and learned that I meet to submit an application to volunteer (darn it, I just hate applications!). I'm also going to contact the church about being a cantor at mass (they better not have a dang application to sing at mass!). But I will do what I can while I can and  see where God (and/or the army) takes us next. 

Dialogue of the month:

Jack: So the 1st sergeant was talking about his wife, and he said to us: 'Well, you need to learn that women run the show anyway. She's got all the power,' and I was like, 'Oh yeah, I know.' She may act like you're the boss, but you're really not!

Emily: Yep, as long as we make you guys think you are in control!

Let's backtrack to earlier in the conversation:

Emily: We should make sure we talk about it before you do it.

Jack: (facetiously) We definitely don't need to talk about anything because I'm in control and you just have to do whatever I say. (looking at my mock angry face) Haha, you can't hit me through the screen!

Yes, FaceTime certainly does have its benefits!