Painting??

Aren't they cute?! They're about to paint and I think I'm crazy for letting them. But it was fun and they created a background for a painting I'm going to finish.

Well, I couldn't expect the paint to stay on the canvas could I? Oh well, with some scrubbing and a little elbow grease it all came off. Now I have a lovely green background to give me inspiration!

Playdough

Here's our latest craft:
Playdough!!
Thad picked the color green for our first batch...we'll be making more later!

This is so easy to do and I highly recommend making it with your toddler!
here's the recipe:

2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
1 TB oil
1 cup water
** add any food coloring to water before pouring it in!

Mix all of it to form smooth paste...not many lumps and then put in saucepan. Cook slowly on low until dough comes away from sides of pan and begins to form ball (7-10 min)
Take it out of pan and let cool for about 2 min. Then knead the dough for 2-3 min. Put pan to soak immediately!
Ready to play with in no time at all!

Enjoy!

First Day of School

Well, I sent Thomas off for his first day of school this semester! :) Please pray that he will be enabled by God to be a witness of Christ's love to the students. We're excited to start seeing the students again and fellowship with them. This is going to be a great year!


.....that's all

Wasser Spielplatz ( Water playground)

We had an amazing time today at this sand and water park right next to the Donau (Danube). It's free and fresh water! I haven't had this much fun with the boys in Vienna since.....well I can't remember. I'm so excited to have found this place and my goal is to come back at least 4 more times before cold weather sets in. Woo Hoo! for free parks :)

There is a ton more interactive stuff but I couldn't carry the camera everywhere :) They have these metal stepping stools you can jump on and water flies out of them! Also, they have lots of handles to crank and pump water out of onto the sand. Very fun for little kids who like to get dirty and experience a little beach action. Thanks God for another fun day in Wien!

Tom Cruise, Joseph Smith, & Jesus

Now I realize that those three do not really belong in the same sentence, but hear me out.

So my buddy Jeff and I love Tom Cruise. We love finding clips of TC on YouTube and sending them back and forth to one another. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not talking about Top Gun, Risky Business, or Jerry McGuire Tom Cruise. I'm talking about crazy yell at Matt Lauer, jump on Oprah's couch, intensely passionate Scientology Tom Cruise. That's a guy you can get excited about.

I mention TC, because he has this crazy aura about him. It's an aura of weirdness, but it's kind of like a train wreck that you don't want to look at, but can't seem to turn away from. There's something about the guy that draws attention. Other than Matt Lauer, most people seem to like him...and he keeps starring in movies. So there must be something to him.

We all know that TC is into Scientology...he's kind of their poster boy/messiah. While Mollie and I were in L.A., we happened to pass the Scientology Celebrity Centre (notice 'Center' is spelled 'CentRE' just to make it a bit more classy and exclusive.) This is a place where the upper echelons of Scientology can come to get away from the rest of the world and its evil engrams while simultaneously avoiding all of those little Joe Shmoe non-celebrity scientologists.
Interestingly, as Mollie and I were going through San Diego, we happened upon another bastion of equality and brotherhood within a 'religion', a Mormon Temple.

Honestly, words failed the first time I saw a picture of this thing. Then some things came to mind: Wizards, Unicorns, Ice Queens, Magic Spells, Rainbow Bright, as well as others I probably shouldn't mention.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Mormonism, but the gist of the whole temple thing is basically that this is where most of the rituals take place that prepare a person for eventual godhood. The most famous of these is the marriage ceremony. For Mormons to get to the level of having their own planet, they have to be married in one of these temples.

So now you're probably saying to yourself, "I'm glad I'm not a Scientologist, because chances are I wouldn't be able to get into the Celebrity CentRE." But, your also thinking, "Wow, I wish my church looked like Gandalf's palace." Well, those are legitimate points, but let me bring this whole post together with some thoughts on the Church.

I have spent a pretty good amount of time this summer reading about the Church. We have also had the joy of really experiencing the catholic church (and by catholic I mean world wide, not Roman Catholic). Whether it's in Vienna, Jackson, Lawton, Idyllwild, San Diego, D.C., or anywhere, we have experienced tremendous love and encouragement and have shared fellowship with so many people from so many backgrounds. It's so amazing to me that God designed the most all-inclusive group that functions to encourage, counsel, exhort, rebuke, love, share, and experience life the way it was meant to be...TOGETHER.

Jesus doesn't exclude anyone. You don't have to have cleared OT3, or have performed multiple rituals in Isengard. And that's the difference between the Church that Jesus is building, and the stuff L. Ron Hubbard & Joseph Smith were peddling.

Jesus even models how this thing He's setting up is going to be radically different than everything else. In John 13, He (Jesus, God in Human flesh by the way) does the most mind boggling thing that I can think of...He washes the feet of His disciples. This is God...He created these dudes, and He deserves nothing less than them bowing before Him, and yet, He serves them. While there may be a perception that there are higher ups and an elite in Christianity today, in reality, there are no upper echelons of the Church that Jesus is building. The people that would be exalted in God's sight are humble people who love their neighbors as themselves, and model a servant life, just as the One they follow did.

I want to be more loving like my God. I want to be more humble like my Savior. I want to be more of a servant like my friend, Jesus.

I can't see L. Ron or Jo Smith bowing down and serving their followers. And that's the difference.

Bread Baking

Thad and I made bread today and we had a blast. Here's our product and the proud eaters afterwards :)

I got some little loaf pans for Thad and he loves making his own loaf. He gets to help me take it out of the oven and then dump it on the rack. Not to mention the stirring, kneading and forming that he does beforehand. Quite impressive huh?

A little bit of summer

We had a wonderful time in the water this summer! From pools to sprinklers to the Pacific ocean, we enjoyed our families and friends. Here's a little taste of our lazy (sometimes hectic) summer!

Thomas & me at the Pacific

And we're back

NO MORE PLANES!!! At least for awhile. You would have thought that as much as the Gardner family hates to fly we would have chosen a profession other than "overseas" missionaries. We had a great time in D.C./Virginia seeing friends and family for a few days. Mollie and the boys did a little shopping while I got to visit the Library of Congress. On display was a Gutenberg Bible, as well as what is left of Thomas Jefferson's personal library that he sold to the U.S. government. I was proud to say that I had read excerpts from several of TJ's books which made me feel smart.

On Tuesday, we loaded up our six huge bags, two kids, a stroller, a backpack, Mollie's crazy huge purse, a laptop (in its case), Thad's backpack, "Blanky", "Crabby", & "Buster" (Thad's monkey), and headed for the D.C. Metro. (without the help of wonderful Aunt B, the Gardner's never would've made it to the airport) .

Let's just say that I can relate to W's experience in this pic. On top of babies, I felt really sick for the first few hours and so Mollie was a soldier in dealing with things. She held Ian for almost the entire flight, and I think she even managed a few minutes of sleep.
We landed on time and were back at the apartment by 10:00. Thad and I went grocery shopping and Mollie finally got to sleep. After I fed Thad lunch he went to sleep on the couch. I finally decided I should get some sleep and of course that was right when Ian woke up. I fed him and then shut us both in his room while Mollie and Thad slept. That was around 2:00 or so. There is a mystery 3 hours of time where no one knows exactly what Ian did. Mollie was asleep as was I. I know he was confined in the room with me, but I have no idea what he was doing. The only evidence of mischief was the 30 baby wipes we found of the floor.

Things are getting better, but we are all jet lagging pretty badly. Please pray for our adjustment to the time here. I'm going to be giving the tour of Vienna to the new staff today, and I'll be preparing orientation stuff this weekend and next week. Pray that God will give me wisdom about what to say. My topic is the integration of world view instruction into the classroom. Yeah, good luck making that exciting right?

I'm going to be blogging a bit more this year because I've found it helps me think through stuff better, so get ready. To quote scripture, you better "Gird up your loins like a man."

Summer Time Fun

WOW! This is the first time I've been able to sit down at the computer and type something. It's been awhile since the blogging because we stepped into the U.S. of A. on June 16th and have had so much fun visiting and traveling that there has been no time to write a sentence. We leave tomorrow morning to head to D.C. and then on to Vienna a few days afterward. Thanks for all your prayers and time spent with us! We know we missed some time with some of you and it's hard to not see everyone. But give us a call or email us to catch up.

We'll post pictures soon but in the meantime prayer for our adjustment to our home and life in Vienna.

S'more photos from the cookout

Thad's first s'more that he can remember anyways...

Sophomore Cookout

So, we had a "bonfire" and cookout last weekend with our Sophomore class and it was a blast! We played volleyball and soccer while some of the guys wrestled and Thad just plain tackled all the girls. At one point, there were about 9 students in a tree.... scary! And to top it off, Thomas grilled his famous ribs much to every one's excitement. Our little boys were amazing as they stayed up with us until 11 pm that evening. All in all it was a wonderful event and bonding time as we ended with sharing time around the "bonfire". Our bonfire, if you're wondering, was a bunch of sticks and bigger tree limbs on a small grill like structure. It was great for that evening!! These are the times we cherish and thank God for giving us moments to show love to these students and help them grow in their friendships with each other.

Headed to the USA

It's that time again! We're headed to the great state of Mississippi for the summer on June 16th and will be there until August 1st. As you can imagine, we're very excited and yet very busy wrapping up the school year. School officially ends on June 13th for teachers although the students get out a little earlier that week. For the month of May, we've had quite a lot of events and fellowship time with our staff. It's been a blast, but it seems like we have an event every other day! Today is the two week mark for flying over the ocean and I'm starting to try to organize clothes for packing. We've got to close the apartment down for the summer and so we are cleaning appliances and washing anything that can be washed :) It's fun juggling the food and making sure we don't buy more than we can consume in two weeks. I'm sure you're thinking... you have two weeks!!.... But, it's hard to plan food in such a way that you don't leave anything in the fridge or in the pantry that would spoil. Plus, we're turning off our appliances while we're away.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to organizing everything and getting this process of packing started!

In other news, Ian is walking now, well, he's standing up and taking a few steps with the most suspicious expression ever! He looks like he's not sure this is all it's cracked up to be.....who's idea is this anyway?! :)
Thad is quite proud that he's 3 years old and will be quick to tell you that he "can do it now, mommy, because I'm a big boy!". It's so matter-of-fact that he doesn't understand why you can't grasp the fact that everything is OK because he's bigger now.

Well, enough rambling today! I'll keep you posted on my packing progress and high hopes for being completely ready to go two days before we board the plane.

Ian's birthday

Ian is 1 yr old today. Here is his wake up call in the morning! So cute!!

Joel & Kim visit

We had a great time with Uncle Joel and Uncle Kim. That's right, "Uncle" Kim! Thad just can't seem to get "Aunt" out of his mouth and so she is most affectionately called "Uncle". Here are some highlights from the week.

River boat cruise down the Danube

Celebrating "Uncle" Kim's and Ian's birthday

Hiking to a castle

And seeing the funniest car on the way down from the castle. Chicago police written on the side but found in a little town in Austria :)


Also, another highlight of the week was the Frauenlauf ( Woman's run) that Kim and I ran in. We were both able to run the 5k without stopping!! Kim finished before me and my short legs....but it was a blast and definitely something I'll do again!

Junior Formal

We had a blast last night at the Junior Formal dinner and dance! It was held at the Marriott across from Stadt park (city park). What a delight to see them all dressed up and taking pictures in the park before dinner. As we enjoyed the evening we kept thinking how grateful we are to be a part of such a classy event with our wonderful students. We did dance and that in itself was quite funny! The students loved seeing Thomas dance and Oscar even sang a love song for us and another couple to dance to. It was quite the night! Here are some pictures for you to get an idea of what the evening looked like.

Our 10th grade boys

Senior class

Senior guys singing their favorite song!

Salil and Oscar being funny!

In addition, there was a slide show for the seniors showcasing their graduation pictures and photos of each one when they were little kids. We had a fabulous dinner and then hung out with the students on the dance floor. We will be planning this event next year as our class will be juniors! It was great to have an idea of what we need to plan for and we look forward to making it a special time as well.

Staff worship evening

Last Saturday, we had the opportunity to organize a staff worship evening at the school. Within the busyness of life is hard to find time to gather our staff as a whole and fellowship. We thought it would be neat if we had just a time of praise and worship with no other distractions. So, I (mollie) was able to create a small team to help lead an hour and half of songs with scripture read intermittently. It was a wonderful time and so many have expressed what a blessing it was to get quiet before the Lord. In most of our churches here, the worship time is different than what we are used to or maybe there's no childcare during that time. Sometimes it can be difficult to sing and enter into a worshipful spirit when you have so many distractions. The Lord provided such a sweet time of singing last Saturday that I truly believed it encouraged and uplifted our staff in a special way. So glad to have been available for that purpose!

Thad turned 3 years old!

What a wonderful birthday party at the zoo! Thad loved seeing all the huge animals and getting his picture taken with a few of them. He liked the Giraffes and saw polar bears and lions. Thought we'd share some picture of the birthday boy!

Seals in their water tank

a prairie dog that was not really caged in!

birthday boy with blue icing from his cupcake

just an elephant statue

No rest for the weary

Let me introduce you to the Black Forest Academy Varsity Soccer Team. They're big. And good. I have been trying to put together a trip for my boys to play these guys since last year. There were about 6 or 7 times that I was pretty sure the trip wasn't going to happen. But after countless meetings and only 2 real practices, we loaded the boys up at 2:30 in the morning and headed for Germany.
I realize that this map is hard to see, but we traveled roughly 9 hours each way from Vienna to Kandern. It was a long trip, but well worth it. This group of athletes has been one of the most successful in the history of VCS and so one of the main goals of the trip was to give them one last big trip/sporting event to close out their VCS time.

BFA was great to us and they had a fantastic location (the field was in the side of a mountain). I don't have any pictures right now but I hope to have some video once the boys in the videography class get the clips on youtube.

When we arrived, we saw their teaming warming up (in full Adidas warm-up outfits, with their team bags lining the field). Our boys have uniforms, but we are usually doing well if we all have our matching socks. So needless to say, there was an intimidation factor. Our lack of real practice time together added to our tension.

They boys played fantastically well. We were even up 2-0 going into the 2nd half before our lack of fitness finally told and they managed to mount a great comeback and see us off 3-2. I was so proud of the boys and they were really proud of themselves. We had a 1 hour break and then played their JV team and beat them 3-1.

After the games, we had pizza with their team so the boys could get to know each other. Later that evening BFA had their open dorms night and so we all got to tour their rooms and the kids had even more of a chance to interact with one another. The boys also had fun staying in the BFA gym and playing everything from basketball to indoor hockey (all while they should have been tired and sleeping of course).

As well as everything went athletically, I was floored by God's leading of our conversation in my van on the ride home. I had spoken in Chapel on Friday, and one of the things I shared about was how we don't always "know" everything about our friends. I asked the Senior boys (who were all in my van) to share with each other about things that they might not know about each other. It was a great time.

The questions kept going: Share something with these guys that makes you emotional. If you could choose a girl in your class for one of your friends to marry, who would it be and why? What movie makes you cry? What's your favorite musical style and why?

Interestingly enough, this opened them up to asking me questions about all sorts of things. I was able to share my testimony of how I came to know the Lord, and also testify about the Lord's faithfulness in how he has led and directed my life.

I really can't even put into words what an amazing time this was. I can only give you a glimpse but I would like for you to join with me in thanking the Lord for this special time with these special men. Please pray for me and their Senior class sponsors as we work to help these guys connect with each other and leave well from VCS.

I Teach Amazing Kids

One of my students is a really talented artist and has taken advice from other teachers and started to let teachers commission her for art work. The other day while practiced quick sketching she drew Bob Marley and showed it to me. It was amazing and so I had her draw this for my brother who is a massive Bob Marley fan. I chose the lyric and the verse but Kelly did all the work.