INDIA

I'm not sure why we haven't written anything yet about India on our blog. Maybe because it seems too overwhelming to put it down on paper. Well, here it is... we are moving to INDIA!!! In early February we interviewed and were accepted to join the staff at Hebron School in Ootacamund (often called "Ooty"), Tamil Nadu (that's the state).

Hebron is an international, non-denominational Christian residential school situated in the Nilgiri Hills. Angie will be the resident nurse (the school nurse who lives on campus) and Ryan will stay home with Addie during much of the day. On the weekends Ryan will help out with church music, and may teach music lessons as well. For the most part, we will find out more about our jobs when we arrive. The older girls will attend Hebron, and will be in Standards 3 & 5. Since the school is run on a British system, the grade levels are called "standards" and the numbering is a little different because they call kindergarten "Standard 1". We are really excited for them as they will be in smaller classes with children from all over the world. The children who live at the school are children of Christian workers serving in Asia or Africa, but they come from India, Korea, UK, US, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, etc.

Lauren's Piano Recital

Today after church Lauren played at her pre-'Junior Festival' recital. It was here in Nampa at Bethel Church of the Nazarene. She played two pieces that she'll be playing this coming Saturday for the judges. Here's a video of the two songs: "With a Yo, Ho, Ho" & "Spot". She did really well. She nailed a couple tricky things we've been working on at home. Way to go, Lauren! And all this after less than six months of lessons.

[Sidenote: the students weren't supposed to use their music today, in preparation for the Festival, which requires memorization. But the first student to play in the recital today accidentally took her music up and so the other students followed suit. You'll notice in the video that Lauren has her music with her, but we here at home know she didn't need it all. : )]

[Sidenote #2: a grandfather of one of the students got a call during the recital. His cell phone rang and he scrambled to turn it off. The ringing stopped, not because he silenced it...but because he answered it. His wife jabbed him. He kept talking! About a minute later he hung up, after thoughtfully allowing the rest of the audience to enjoy the conversation right along with him. Yeesh!]

Addie Turns Two!!

Today we celebrated Aderyn's second birthday! We had dinner and dessert at the Dex with Grammy Smith and the Blenker family - it was a wonderful, low-key celebration (just the way we like it).
Addie's favorite gifts were a little stroller, two baby bottles, and a really soft stuffed bear. Okay, so these were the only gifts that she got at her party, but she really liked them! She also loves the gifts and giftcards that were sent from her grandparents in the mail - thank you!

Birthday Girl

Last night we celebrated Brenna's 7th birthday. She invited two girls from school to our house, and they all dressed like princesses for dinner. Brenna chose to have tortellini, green beans, and crescent rolls to eat. It was a great choice, and everyone enjoyed the food. Thank you all of our family and friends for their cards, gifts, and wishes for Brenna on her birthday. If she liked talking on the phone, then she'd call you and tell you herself. However... she doesn't.

Sledding on a Snow Day

Here's a funny little video of Angie on the sledding hill. It's pretty funny. In the background is Brenna going down the hill, too. We took a few minutes one afternoon on the hill because the snow was rapidly melting. Little did we know that there would be A LOT more snowy weather on the way! The school district called two snow days in January - those are the first snow days in almost fifteen years. Currently we have about 8 inches of snow. Enjoy the video!

Good News, Bad News

Well, the good news is that we think we can salvage the pictures that are stored on our computer that crashed a few weeks ago. The bad news is... well, let's just hope we can salvage the pictures.