swiss raclette

This is a very poor picture of a poster I made recently for a missions trip

fundraiser at our church.

Every three years a "meal" fundraiser takes place to raise money for

the youth to go on a missions trip to Panama.

We decided that we would volunteer to host a meal this time around -

a Swiss Raclette.

Several meals were auctioned off (by a real auctioneer) before ours came up.

When the bidding started on our meal we were dumbfounded!

We were offering 8 meals and the first 4 meals sold for

$750 each!

No one else wanted a meal at that price so the bidding started again.

The final 4 meals sold for 

$625 each!

TOTAL: $5500

Needless to say, we feel like we'll have to host quite a spread!

The man who bid $750 for his meal

 told Howard that he and his wife just want to get to know us.

Wow.

I guess they really want to get to know us!

At any rate, I think it will be a fun event and I'm pulling out all the creative stops

to make this an evening to remember.

 

 

the answer

 Last week I was teaching the grade 3s 

a new song so we could learn a new technique on the Orff instruments.

The song was called

"A Famous Man".

I recited the lyrics to them...

"A famous man

who sailed the sea

Discovered that the world was round

For you and me"

Then I asked

"Who was that famous man?"

Both classes - same answer...

 "Jesus?"...

I love my school and all the wonderful little people in it.

They have such good little hearts!

There are so many Christian kids and teachers

in my school that it almost feels like a

Christian school.

I came home from the my first day of subbing in this school

three years ago and I said to Howard:

"I want to work at that school

but I want to teach music

and only part time.

This will never happen."

But, it did.

I am blessed and live out that blessing

every day.

 

 

remembrance day

This is my grandfather

George Stanley Dennis.

I learned today from a cousin that he fought in

both world wars.

He then returned to Canada, raised a family on a farm in central Alberta

and lived to the age of 

92. 

I cannot imagine the horrors of war that he witnessed

but he was always a kind and gentle man.

the fall

Six and a half weeks ago I was standing on a little stool behind the bass xylophone (it's the instrument that says "BX2") to put up the the purple "rest" poster that you can see. I could easily reach what I needed to reach but the stool was there so I stood up on it. Suddenly I found myself falling backwards and sideways over the top of the bass xylophone and the bass metallaphone beside it. I hit the floor with a thud as my leg made serious contact with the instruments. I made a nice musical landing, scattering bars in every direction. A teacher, who had been in the library which is located beside my room, came in to see if I was ok. I assured him I was. Actually, I wasn't, but I didn't know that for several days.

Howard came home from a trip the day after my fall so I was able to get a picture to record the damage! The bruising was so painful. After a week of gimping along with the pain only increasing I finally went to the doctor. He told me I had torn a muscle. I'm still not sure that was a correct diagnosis but it got me off my feet and off school for 2 days. I spent 5 days over the Thanksgiving weekend on the couch with my leg elevated and iced. By Tuesday I was feeling a lot better so I went off to school. I was fine until third period. I had been walking way too much, and the pain had returned. By Wednesday evening the pain was incredibly worse and the circulation in my foot was poor. It felt like needles were racing down my leg. On Thursday afternoon, Howard took me to a walk-in clinic in Winnipeg for sports and minor injuries. We only waited about an hour which was amazing for that clinic. The doctor looked at my injuries and told me that the pain was a result of the nerves misfiring and they were telling me that there was pain when there wasn't. He said I had to get off the crutches and get that leg moving. He gave me a prescription for some meds which would reduce the pain. Well. After one pill, the pain was gone. Now I could only feel the bruising and something strange in my ankle. He sent me for a bone scan which revealed bad bone bruising. And a few days later he told me I had sprained the ligament in my ankle.

 So now I visit the physiotherapist once a week and have a range of exercises to do to strengthen the ligament. As you can see, the swelling has gone down and the bruising is minimal.

The worst of the two bone bruises is just above my ankle bone and that one is still super sensitive and a raised, hard lump. I figure it will be a year before that disappears. Through it all, my kids were so kind and caring - asking me every day how my leg was feeling. They were so sweet. The staff at my school has also been so kind and concerned. I have lots of people looking out for me there! And of course, my husband took wonderful care of me at home, and even threatened getting angry with me if I didn't let him help me! I told him I was really scared!! :) I am thankful that I am slowly healing from this crazy accident. It was a good reminder to think before acting. Had I just pushed that stool out of the way, I would have been fine. I am very leery about climbing up on anything and I think it will be a good while before I get that courage back.
So that's my story. Hopefully I can be a little more faithful with my posts now, especially since I have my report cards almost finished!  Yayay!

MY classroom!

 It's so nice to be able to say "this is my classroom".

 I've been able to arrange things just the way I want them -

even though some things (like posters)

refuse to stay where I've put them!

 It's a large, brightly lit and well-equipped room.

 I have a projector, mimio, iPad cable and soon to come -

a document camera.
Plus
all the instruments, of course!

The learning curve has been steep but the challenge of it has

not daunted me.

My biggest challenge came a month ago when I had a

bad fall in this very room.

I will tell you all about that in my next post.

dorothy, alberta

 There are not many grain elevators standing alone on the prairies anymore.

As we were heading home in August

we came across this one just a few miles outside of Drumheller.

It still proudly marks the town of Dorothy.

After showing our trip pictures to the girls,

Katy had an inspiration for my birthday.

This is what she came up with.

It is beautiful

and so full of texture and warmth.

I love it.

Elevator Dorothy will stand proudly for many years to come

hanging on our kitchen wall.