I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live...: I love the fall!

A fine hello to you, my marvelous friends and family, from Princeton this beautiful fall day! :)

This week has absolutely flown by! I can't believe the weekend is almost over already, and I've barely put a dent in my homework! Oh, boy! I thought I would take a quick minute to catch you up on life here in New Jersey!

I'm finally starting to feel like myself here - which really means that I've relaxed and de-stressed enough to enjoy myself here among the outside world! lol. I know, for those of you that know me, that seems like an odd thing, that I didn't just jump right in from the beginning as only I can! But it's been so hard adjusting here! So I'm thankful that I finally feel like I'm settling into a routine, and am making friendships with some amazing people! It's a bit of a relief. :)

Last week a few of us first-year grads drove into NYC to to go the Bodies exhibit, since it's required for our Voice Ped 1 class. Talk about an unnerving and cool experience all in one! It was absolutely like nothing I could ever describe. They were real - REAL - human bodies, that they had set up in many different displays so you can literally learn about the human body through visual displays. I still don't know quite how I feel about the whole thing! lol. My favorite part was the display that they had on the lungs - they showed healthy lungs and then smoker lungs. And in front of the display case they had this clear drop box, where you were felt convicted to, if you were a smoker, drop your pack of cigarettes into the case right there and make that commitment to quit smoking! I thought that was just the coolest thing. :)

Nothing really big going on as far as schoolwork, just a ton of homework and practicing to be done! I should get my big voice ped test back and graded tomorrow evening in class, so I'm kind of nervous about that. I've been trying to be very diligent in my practicing, especially since I'm only studying at one of the world's leading music schools. You know, no pressure or anything! haha! But today I am needing to take a break, my voice is getting fatigued from all the practicing I've done this week! Can you imagine? HAHAHA! Hmm... nothing else really exciting is going on that I can think of. We're practicing a lot and really digging into rehearsals for our Brahms performance coming up the first weekend of November with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Kimmel Center! I can't wait! It's going to be an unforgettable experience! Also, before Brahms, this coming Saturday I'm really excited because I'm going to participate in an all day Seminar, "Music in the Modern Church," with composer Sven-David Sandstöm! I'm beside myself with excitement at all of the opportunities I'll have that day in workshops with him! Here's the link to see more about it if you wish - http://www.rider.edu/academics/colleges-schools/wca/woce/seminars/saturday-seminars/symposium-on-music

I've got a ton of homework to finish today, so as I said this will be a very brief post! But I've met an undergrad who's in my voice studio that I've been hanging out with who ... get ready for it ... is from MONROEVILLE! What a coincidence! I'm so ecstatic! I love this girl, she's such a sweetheart and LOVES THE STEELERS. What could be better?!!!!! hehehe! In fact, I went with her last night to a get together with some people from her church to hang out, play games, eat taco soup, and carve pumpkins!!! hehehe! I'll include some pictures of Snaggle Tooth, my awesome pumpkin! :D Last night after we carved pumpkins, Rebekah and I joined my sweet friend Carola, who I met at Nassau Christian Center, at the Halo Pub for round two of the "Jess Hann tries every ice cream shop in Princeton" extravaganza! It was amazing!!!! I got 2 scoops - coffee and strawberry chocolate chip. YUMM-O!

For the past week I've been in the mood to watch Sleepy Hollow AND Hocus Pocus! I love October! I went to a Halloween party at the Seminary Friday night with Ryan, and that was fun! I got to meet his friends here in Princeton! There was one guy who was absolutely amazed at the thought that Ryan and I basically have known each other forever, lol. What was even better was the moment he realized it in our conversation, because somehow he missed it when we were introduced! It was hilarious. That was a blast, hanging out with Ryan and his friends! I'm absolutely beyond thankful that he's here in Princeton. Talk about a relief! Someone from home, who's rather fabulous ;), and who calls me JessHann - all one word. Hello, blast from the past! I love it! :)

Goodness, I love the fall. It's my favorite season of the year! Though Ryan and I decided that we miss fall at home. Nothing can surpass, well at least not Princeton, the Pennsylvania fall scenery... the thought makes me extremely homesick! Especially since NOW the trees are barely turning here. If I look out my window right now I'm still staring at an array of green... sigh! But I digress!

The fall is just breathtaking to me for more than just the scenery! I am constantly amazed at how, when we fill ourselves with the Word and let the Holy Spirit live in us, we're constantly changing because we're allowing the Lord to work in us and reshape us to be in tune with Him and what His plans for us are! I follow this page on facebook called "I am a Woman of God" and they posted this earlier today, "Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be." And though we may recognize we're waiting, do we truly see how He is changing us and working in us? That's one of the reasons I love the fall so much. We can physically see with our own eyes the changes that are happening all around us. It's a picture of what the Lord wants to do with us, if we'll just let go of ourselves and our selfish controlling manner and let Him! I love that the fall, and the changes that are all around us, allow us to recognize what change looks like in a sense. And I feel like that's so important - the ability to recognize change. Though it's hard when we're looking at ourselves, isn't it? At least for me it is! But when we have that aha! moment and can see just what we've come through, how we've grown, and essentially how we've changed, it's so incredible! Again, at least I think it is. :) And though I may have only been here just shy of two months, I can already see the ways the Lord is changing me to bring me closer to Him. The biggest of them merely just to teach me and to show me to completely rely on Him in every situation, to trust who He says He is and His promises for my success. And I tried so hard to control that in a sense, to say "Okay! Here we go! I trust that God is good and that He will bring me through it all providing for me every step of the way!" ... But when it's just something we're saying and not really believing, well then that defeats the purpose doesn't it? And then stuff happens and we say we're believing Him, and living and standing in His Word.. but are we really? God's work starts on the inside, and then happens on the outside. We can't try to change ourselves - we have to go to the Lord, and allow Him to do the work!

I love those aha! moments... where we truly become even more dependent on the Lord, allowing Him to consume us - absolutely all of us - from the inside out.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

- Proverbs 3:5-6