Mustard making . . .

So, to keep my mind busy while waiting for my mom's surgery to finish, Carrie, Cindi and I made mustard last night.  I've never realized how easy it is or how fun it could be!  It worked to keep my mind busy and I laughed a lot while we were doing it.  It was fun knocking on our friend's doors at 11:00 at night just to ask them if they had glass jars we could have!  They were surprised we were knocking on their door asking for a jar!  Most of them were awake (not all mind you!) but they will enjoy it when we distribute our gifts of mustard (Dad's mustard!)

Stirring it!

Sterilizing the jars

The final product!

The Kinder learned to cross the street today. . .

Apparently children (Kinder) in 1st and 3rd grade need to be taught (or maybe reminded) how to cross the street.  So, the police officer came in today to show us how!  It was amazingly fun and he did really well with the kiddos.  My Kinder made me laugh at their questions and answers to his questions but he took it all in stride (with a smile mind you!).  I was quite surprised that he was so good with the kids and he smiled quite frequently.   How could you not smile with my Kinder around you.  They crack everyone up!

The kids were amazed that the cars actually stopped for them.  He said that they had to because if they did not he gets pretty angry at them!  My kids said, "Ohh!" and I laughed!

Snow!

It snowed today.  Actual stick to the ground, looks like a snow globe, snow!!  I was just as excited as my Kinder!  It reminded me of Colorado snow!  It was great to look out the window and see this "beautifulness" floating down from the sky.  Then the realization set in that I did not have to drive in it and this absolute joy increased (as did the smile on my face)!

I have recess duty this week and I quickly realized that the child within me wanted to play in the snow so the 3rd - 5th graders were probably the same way!  So, since I have compassion, I decided to let the kids not only play in the snow but (gasp here) throw snowballs.  The snow is more like a powdery snow so tightly packed snowballs were certainly not a concern!!  I told the kids that they could play in the snow and throw snowballs in the field but the blacktop area is a "no snowball zone!"  The shrieked with joy when they heard me say this!  We had a great time!

I took my students out to catch snowflakes and then look at them through a magnifying glass.  They were so cute and they were so excited to participate in this crazy but fun activity their teacher was now telling them to do!  They are getting used to doing crazy things all in the name of learning! 

Ice skates

I have finally gotten ice skates!!  I had to get figure skates since my feet are small.  We had trouble finding hockey skates that were not children's in my size!  Thank you John and Kelli for the Christmas money to purchase the skates!!!  The Danube (Donau) has frozen so we are using our skates a lot!!  It is so much fun!  We figured that since we are taking our students skating four times this year it would be most cost effective to have our own skates.  It is a good stress reliever and fellowship time to just be out there on the huge river and skate until either your heart's content or you feet simply get tired! 

The Physics of Sound

So, we've started a new unit in Science called the Physics of Sound.  My students LOVE it.  It is a lot of fun to learn through experiments.  I'm sure it helps that their teacher is just as excited as they are!  Today we were using our sound discriminating skills to try and remember how 8 objects sounded when they were tossed (lightly mind you) into the sound chamber.  After this was established, they had to give each object a corresponding letter and then try to have their partner figure out the secret word they were trying to spell.  I bet you know where I am going with this!!!  We had a few miscommunications and funny moments about the fact that they had to choose actual words to have their partner guess!!  At one point I walked by Stephanie and Uendjipa as Uendjipa exclaimed, "Your word is . . . TOLPAN!!!??"  I said, "What??!" and it was then that Stephanie realized that she had to spell actual words and not make her own up!

If Grandpa Wiggins owned a fabric store this is what it would look like. . .

Carrie and I recently went to a fabric store (more like a warehouse) to find fabric for two wall hangings and then we went back to get some buttons to put on one of these wall hangings.  On this second visit, Carrie and I decided to to take pictures of this store.  It is large and everything seems to be a bit disheveled!  Carrie said that if her Grandpa owned a fabric store rather than a rock shop this exactly what the store would look like!  Even though it is a little overwhelming, everything is wonderfully priced and you can find some pretty good quilting fabric if you are willing to search!

Fabric Anyone?  Choose carefully.  There are many more aisles just like this!

One wall-o-buttons!

Zippers anyone??

Frohes Neues Jahr!

Happy New Year everyone!  It is hard to believe that it is 2009 and I celebrated it's entrance here in Vienna, Austria!  Carrie, Melissa, Whitney, Cindi, and me all went downtown to see for ourselves what it is all about.  It was fun but frigid!  I hear rumor that it was -5 Celsius.  It was also quite loud as everyone, and I mean everyone, was setting off fireworks.  We walked from Stephansdom, to the Graben, and finally to the Rathaus where we actually watched the clock strike midnight.  We were even able to hear the huge bell from Stephansdom ring.  It was great!  

It wasn't as dangerous as everyone was telling us it would be.  If you're smart and keep your eyes open you are fine.  New Year's celebrations here remind me of Independence Day celebrations in the States with the Vienna Waltz added in!  All in all it was fun and I am glad that we went.  Once again, Happy New Year.  Throughout this year, may you grow closer to God and fully believe that He loves you with an everlasting love!  Blessings!