Move Along

Well, folks, for those of you who have read my blog in the past or are just now starting to read it, I'm done. I finished working at the physical therapy clinic and I'm moving on. It was hard to do at first, but I know it was the right thing. I'm already less stressed, happier when I wake up and I actually look forward to work and all the things I do during the day. And I started taking a personal training certification course! It's through NASM and it started just 3 weeks ago, but I'm already learning so much. I can't wait to go more in depth with exercises and workout plans and structuring them for various types of clients, and fitness assessments and all that jazz.
It's been awesome getting to shadow various trainers and see their different styles of training and how they prep for things and how they motivate. It's so exciting to see how different everyone is, because it reassures me that I can do this! So now I'm starting to think of where I should start looking for work, or if I wanna start my own thing in the park, or if I should get more specific certifications and teach group classes. I just don't know. But that's a bridge I'll cross when I get to it...in 2 months. I am so excited though. I know I'm doing the right thing and that God will provide me with the resources I'll need and give me wisdom as long as I continue to glorify Him and keep Him in the center of my life. It's such a huge thing to leave a job and then go spend money on something else and hope you aren't wasting your time and energy. But I know that this was God's way of getting me to move along with my life and I know that there will be something amazing in the future!

Until next time, that's life through the eyes of a banana munchkin.
God bless!

No One Ever Tells You

Life is hard. Especially once you hit adulthood. I thought I had things all figured out. I thought I knew what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be, what career I wanted to pursue. But apparently I don't. Maybe I never did. Maybe I thought I had it all figured out because of the people I was around. Or because of the situations I was in. I don't know. Whatever it was, things have changed so much just over the past few months.

I thought Physical Therapy was the way to go. I thought I wanted to be a therapist. But this job as a Physical Therapy Aide just isn't all that it was cracked up to be. Maybe it's the people I work with. Or my expectations were just too high and I was expecting more. Whatever it was, this isn't my calling. I do enjoy getting to help people and see them improve, but honestly, who enjoys stretching people out for 4 hours a day? Not me. Yes, there are certain aspects of the job I enjoy, but I could always find other jobs with similar things that I'd enjoy so much more. I miss being a barista sometimes. Now, I do not miss the 3am mornings and being exhausted all the time, but I definitely miss the challenge of making perfect coffee and espresso and getting to hang out with fun people and being in a relaxing atmosphere and just getting to interact with people who love coffee and often want to learn more about it. So, now I'm forced to make a decision. Do I stay at the clinic? Do I pursue something else?

After going through the pros and cons in my head and talking to Sean about it, I know that I'm not meant to stay at the clinic. But I don't know if this a waiting period that God has me in. I do, however, believe that I should be doing as much as possible to see what other doors will open for me. Now, mind you, I'm not taking matters into my own hands. I promise. I just wanna make sure I'm not just sitting back and not pursuing things God has laid out for me.

If anyone out there is reading this, I would definitely appreciate prayer in regards to my future. I don't want to pursue a full-time career, because I definitely want to be a stay-at-home mother when the time comes. But I want something fun with people I enjoy working with and actually am able to interact with. I want to be in a place where it's not too busy to be interacting with and getting to know your coworkers. I want to be showing Christ's love and spreading His word when things are keeping us so busy we don't even talk. And that's the problem with this current job. I try to be a light, but it's practically impossible because we're constantly running around doing laundry, cleaning, helping patients and all that. But I am building relationships with the patients which helps a bit.

Anyways, I just have to keep in my one of my favorite verses. "Rejoice always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

And that's life through the eyes of a banana munchkin. Sayonara, for now, folks!

Oh, and meet the newest member of the Hogan clan. This is Meeko! Our giant panda. And he is legendary :)

After Today...

...I will no longer be a barista. Bittersweet moment. But I will be starting my new job as a physical therapist's aide at the Ramona Physical Therapy Clinic &  Hand Center! It's only half a mile from our new place. Oh yeah! Sean and I are in our own apartment now. It's a nice little 1 bed, 1 bath duplex style apartment. Perfect for us. Great location, totally doable rent, and wonderful wonderful landlords.

We have been so extremely blessed the past few months, I can't even begin to explain! But tomorrow marks the beginning of a new point in my life. I'm already so giddy and nervous and excited about the whole thing! And Sean is full-time at the church now, too! Hallelujah praise the Lord! April has just been the best month ever. He got a job, we moved out, I got a new job, we celebrated our first anniversary...good times. And we're both eating healthier, going on bike rides and jogs together... oh the times, they are a-changing!

AND since the last time I wrote I had 2 nieces :) they are both so precious and beautiful and gorgeous and adorable and I wish I lived closer to them so I could spend more time with them. But, thankfully, my younger brother and his family moved to San Clemente (just an hour away!) and we get to babysit his little chunker tomorrow.

Things are just going so well, and I can't wait to see what else God has in store for us. All I can say is that I am so blessed and I don't deserve any of this. But thanks to the glory and grace of God, He gives things to us so we don't completely lose our hope.

And that is life through the eyes of a banana munchkin.
Until next time!

sitting...waiting...wishing...

Hi. My name is Hannah. And I am a hypocrite. Pure and simple. I always say people should eat healthy and work out 3-5 times a week. But here I am sitting on my LAZY butt. I haven't worked out since God knows when, I eat crap all the time, and I always find excuses why I shouldn't go for a run. Things like "I'm so tired from work" or "it's too hot outside" or "Sean doesn't like it when I run in the dark" etc. And then here I am getting jealous of people who "have more time than me to work out" and "don't have to work 3 jobs to pay the bills" and yada yada yada. It doesn't really help that my husband hates to work out. He keeps saying that he wants to start walking every night, or biking/hiking on Saturdays or training for softball/volleyball after I get home from work. It's just so hard to motivate myself to go for a run when he's just NOT into it! And I've always loved doing small workouts inside the house, but there's no space here...and yes, that's probably another excuse, but it is a valid one. I'm so thankful that his parents have let us stay here for so long, but I'm also extremely thankful that we'll be moving out soon. It's such a blessing. Anyways...I gotta stop complaining. Maybe instead of writing this I should actually be getting dressed to run. Or I should try to get my husband to go on a walk with me...who am I kidding. Neither of those is gonna happen because I have no motivation or accountability or workout partner. Something I was hoping Sean would be, but...c'est la vie. Things don't ever work out how we thought they would.

That's life through the eyes of a banana munchkin. For now. Peace!

Love and Marriage

ain't he adorable? :)

It's been quite a while since I blogged about anything...mostly cuz not much has been happening that I every felt the need to blog about and even though I'm writing this now, that doesn't mean anyone is every going to read this hahaha. But overall, I've had a pretty exciting summer. After a beautiful, relaxing honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta I headed out to Phoenix to babysit my adorable older nephew, Titus James Michael Kollasch, for a week. This child is absolutely hilarious!! Every day he would do or say something that just made me crack up so, naturally, he'd keep on doing it until someone would distract him or he'd get bored with it or Lani (our dog) would come in and lean up against him.


Shortly after that I was a bridesmaid in two separate weddings of two very extremely dear friends of mine. It was such a blessing to see them both marry Godly, wonderful, funny, caring men...I wish them all the best.





Then began an exciting summer of youth events. There were the typical Tuesday night youth group BBQ and get-togethers and Wednesday beach trips, but then there was also Spirit West Coast, which was so awesome! Through all of these events I have grown to love the jr. high and high schoolers in our church and can not wait to see them grow in their faith.

In June I was a camp counselor for 3rd-6th grade girls at Indian Hills Camp in Temecula, CA. It was so much fun. I fell in love with all 10 of my girls, of which I had only met 3 before, and I hope and pray that God will allow me to return to the camp again next year as a counselor.










After that came family time!!! Both of my brothers graduated from boot camp into the Marines (hoo-ah!). It was an awesome celebration and I am so proud of both of them! And I feel blessed and honored to call them my brothers :) well, I always have. I should say I feel honored to say they're marines. because it really is a huge deal.

One of the last trips that wrapped up the summer was a fishing trip to Clearlake. That, in itself, contains many stories and inside jokes, but it also sparked some new friendships for me. What started out as awkward and somewhat annoying, quickly became comfortable and normal and something I absolutely love. It's been fun getting to know and hang out with some of Sean's oldest friends.

Our resort in Puerto Vallarta

And now summer is coming to an end, school has begun, but the heat still remains. Sean has one semester left, and I can not wait for him to be done...nor can he. But he's not the only one returning to school. Nope nope...I just got a teaching job! It's nothing big, just one day a week for a home school program here in Ramona. I'm excited though because it's elementary math...which I'm really good at haha!! It will be for at least a semester and who knows? I could end up wanting to get my credentials because of it...
That's life through the eyes of a banana munchkin.

I found a boy...

...who turned into a man, and I married him :) It's been an exciting month so far! Got married, graduated from college a week later, went on a beautiful honeymoon right after, and now I'm in Phoenix taking care of my adorable, sweet, loving, chatty almost 2-year old nephew, Titus James Michael. I have so much fun with him! It's just a bummer that I haven't been quite 100% the past couple days. But he's pretty independent and entertains himself for the most part. And then other times we'll sit and watch fun kid movies together. It's a win-win situation either way. Either I play with him and have a ton of fun, or I watch him play and be thoroughly entertained.
After this week I return to reality. I go back to the coffee shop, back to coaching (for a couple more weeks anyways), and back to my wonderfully hilarious husband :) But now I'm trying to figure out what career I wanna pursue, and there's so many options out there to consider. So much to pray about and figure out. And the sooner, the better!

:)

Driving away Ramona style :)

Well, just a quick little update...gotta get back to the nephew. He's got so much energy!! That's life through the eyes of a banana munchkin. Peace!

i'm so excited!!

and i just can't hide it!!

this is so CRAZY!!! I'm getting married in 23 days, I'm graduating in 30, and what makes this feel more real is the fact that Sean and I just bought our wedding bands today. WHAAAAT????? Crazy. Oh and this lady here just received her diploma. Yup!! That's right. Real, live proof that I fulfilled AAAAALL the crazy credits and classes and responsibilities that a college student needs to graduate. I'm so excited. And my jobs are going so well. And I'm gonna get trained to be a barista soon. And I get to pick my schedule for coaching next year, and I got a library card which means I can read books like I did all summer long, and we're finalizing all wedding details and finishing up the little things and...*sigh* it's just coming together so nicely!! PRAISE GOD!! THANK YOU LORD!! I couldn't have done this without my wonderful, supportive family, and my entertaining friends who all keep me stress-free, and of course without my goofy, amazing fiance who is actually helping with stuff :) It's been a great week. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in the future. I'm excited to see where he takes us and what he leads us to do...but mostly where :) thinking about it, my life is just getting started. the best adventures haven't even happened!!! sooooo excited!!! :)

that's life through the eyes of a banana munchkin.

IT'S OFFICIAL!!! :)