The new giveaway at I Heart Faces is a Tracy Joy product of your choosing. Personally, I love the Reese bag. So many little pockets! They’re cute, too. 
Go to I Heart Faces for the details: Tracy Joy Giveaway
And definitely check out the Tracy Joy website to see all the goodies: Tracy Joy
Liz, the awesome fifth grade teacher, and I collaborated on another really fun project. Her class just finished a poetry unit and we decided to have them create poetry videos using Animoto.com. They turned out really well. The students did a great job of choosing music to fit the mood of their poems. I’m posting a couple below. You can see the rest here: Fifth Grade Poetry Videos
On Saturday we went to our church’s 10th annual barn dance. We’re very glad we went not only because it was loads of fun, but because this is the last year they will be doing it. We got to get out of the city and spend time in the country. Yay!
Since we went a little early to help set-up, I got to run around and take a bunch of pictures of wildflowers and butterflies. It was such a beautiful day! (Mom, you would have loved the variety of wildflowers.)
The food was really good. They had several different kinds of meat, veggie salads, potato salad, Knoedel (dumplings), and homemade apple pie. Y-U-M-M-Y!
The dancing was super fun to watch. It was mostly Scottish square dancing with a caller and everything. I say fun to watch because those dances were complicated! I just resorted to taking pictures. Matt resorted to eating apple pie. But our super coordinated friends Jeff, Bethany, and Sandi all got out there and danced away.
It was a great time to hang out with our church friends and work on meeting new people. We are really enjoying our church and the awesome people there. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us to build relationships at church. We really appreciate it.
There are lots of pictures here: Barn Dance
No this isn’t a spinoff of Diagnosis: Murder, and it doesn’t star Dick Van Dyke or Scott Baio (sadly). Oh, Scott Baio, where have you gone?
This is the official diagnosis for my shoulder handed down by my orthopedic. I still have not succeeded in properly saying that word, but I guess that doesn’t really matter so long as my insurance company can figure it out.
In English this means I have a rupture or tear in my left rotator cuff. Specifically the tear is in the Supraspinatus muscle (see picture). And that will end our science lesson for today.
My orthopedic recommended surgery and we’ve scheduled it for this coming Friday. I will be admitted to the hospital Thursday afternoon, surgery will be Friday morning and I should be discharged sometime on Saturday.
In the US this would almost definitely be outpatient surgery, but I’m not sure outpatient surgery exists in Austria. I guess that’s just one of the perks of the medical system here.
I would appreciate it if you would keep me in your prayers this week.
This is the week that I Heart Faces is having their Blurb book contest. I had such a hard time deciding which photo to use, but I just love this one. I’ve entered it at I Heart Faces before, but for this week only, we can have a repeat. Yay! I’m of course entering the beginners/amateurs category, because I am definitely still a beginner.
This week everyone is supposed to submit their very best photo. They’ll definitely be worth checking out!
I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I Heart Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I Heart Faces web sites.
The Junior Formal was this past Saturday. It turned out great. So much fun!
Matt and I are Junior Class Sponsors, and this was our big event for this year. I was really amazed at how much work the kids were able to get done for this – especially since most of them spent the week before taking a bunch of AP tests. Every time I thought about how much work I had to do, or how stressed I was, I just remembered the AP tests, and the fact that at least I didn’t have to do those!
The theme of the formal was “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The decorating committee did an awesome job of converting a conference room into a romantic space.
One purpose of the formal is for the juniors to spend some time honoring the graduating seniors. Each of our students adopted one or two seniors. They created awards for the seniors based on their personalities, skills, or gifts. (i.e. Future Photographer, Most Caring Person) One of our students created a slide show with baby pictures of each of the seniors. That was really fun to watch.
Then, of course, there was the dancing part. I was able to get Matt out there for a few dances, but it’s not his favorite thing to do. Well, in truth, it’s not my favorite either, so that works out for us. The students, on the other hand, danced for hours! I think some of them would have danced all night if they could have. Oh, to have that kind of energy again!
You can see our pictures here: Junior Formal
There are even more here: VCS Formal Pics
One of my favorite Elementary events is the Mother’s Day Tea. It’s so fun to see all the moms and really spend some time celebrating them. Each class performs a skit, poem, or song to honor their moms. While all of these are adorable and very meaningful to the moms, two of the kids said things that I thought were amazing.
First grader: “I love my mom because she loves God.”
Second grader: “I love my mom because when my heart is sad, she knows how to heal it.”
How incredible that a first grader can already see the importance of her mom’s love of the Lord! I think I like the second grader’s quote because it sums up why we all love our moms – they know how to heal our hearts.
I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
More pictures here: Mother’s Day Tea
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We’re a little behind on the blog, but today is the day to get caught up.
On April 24, the elementary school had their annual field day. This year was a little different for me since I’m a specialist teacher now. Instead of running from event to event with my class, I got to be in charge of one station and work with every class. It was really fun. The students had a great time jumping rope, tossing bean bags, shooting basketballs, sack racing, and beating one another in relays.
You can see lots of pictures here: Field Day
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Laughter is the theme at I Heart Faces this week. I had to do a little digging, but I found two photos that I really like.
My kids entry is of a couple students having a great time at recess.
My adult entry is from the Junior Christmas party. I love this picture because they are all laughing so hard, but also because it shows just how many different ways there are to laugh. Well, unless you are the girl in the middle who was not quite as amused. That’s only fair since the reason the rest of them are laughing is that they played a practical joke on her. Luckily she’s a pretty good sport.
I think you should definitely check out the rest of the entries. This should be a really fun week.
…and it’s a rupture. Or maybe bursitis. But it looks like a small rupture in my outer shoulder muscle says my doctor. He gave me the name of the muscle in German…or maybe it was Latin with an Austrian accent. In any case it was about 20 syllables long and I’ve already forgotten it.
I injured my shoulder in an ultimate frisbee game over Easter Break, and was hoping that time would heal it. A month later that doesn’t seem to be happening. My doctor is hoping a cortizone shot will solve the problem, and I’m hoping so as well.
I have a follow-up appointment on Friday. Please pray that my shoulder is feeling better by then and that I can avoid surgery.
