Package from Germany

    This past weekend I took a course for professional development. It was about film scoring in the music classroom. I was excited to take it because I knew it would be interesting, but I was apprehensive because I knew it would all be new to me. The course was Friday night and all day Saturday. When I arrived home on Friday I was greeted with this by the kids:

(Not the ink- that was a gift to myself after I received this pen from a student who brought it from Italy to me!)

     The package was from a penpal, Christina in Germany. Her son Tobi writes to Timmy. They sent him a birthday gift and note from Tobi. David even got a nice book in German. (I can read most of it Christina. I will have to look up a few words, but I read better than I write my own ideas!) Then, in addition to my letter, she sent these treats for us:

     These taste like little crackers covered in chocolate. (Like puffed rice a little). Timmy thought they were pretty good and I liked the contrast of the sweet with the ... not sweet.

 Gummy snacks. Haven't tried yet.

 Tea. Can't wait to try the Roobois.

 Black licorice. Traditionally, I don't usually like black licorice, but I like the black licorice from The Netherlands WAY more than here in the US, so I'll probably at least give it a try.

 Chocolate pudding.

 Not quite sure what these are yet. It will be a surprise.

 "Kisses" with hazelnuts. Can't wait to try these too.

We have Werther's here too. Delicious.

 I treated myself to this chocolate bar. it was sweet but light. I liked it a lot. I liked the crunchy bits too.

Cute little erasers. I like the "decision eraser." It has answers like yes, no, maybe, later, etc. in German. I would put it on my desk at work but I know some student would "accidentally" take it.

      I loved being surprised by this sweet treat! Thanks Christina and family!

Redditgifts for Teachers 2015

   Every year, Redditgifts gives teachers from all over the world a chance to benefit from the generosity of others. Teachers can submit a wishlist or people can just donate whatever they'd like. Honestly, I would've been happy with anything- tissues, dry erase markers, posters, a pack of pencils- ANYTHING. I was blown away by the generosity of the woman who was assigned to me. Here's what she bought for my students:

 I plan to use these instruments will all grades. They are small, durable and sound musical. (There are some instruments designed for kids that are horrible.) My students will love these.

 I have the 6th graders engineer their own instruments. Twice last year, students asked if I had a glue gun in that class. (One 8th grade boy brought one in when he was working on opera costumes.) So, now I have one!

This is a theory workbook- combined teacher and student edition. I plan to use it for kids who need a bit of a challenge and for my chorus kids (who have no choice but to be challenged..lol). She also gave me an ITunes gift card, which I plan to use to see if the kids can identify traditional and modern (current top 10 hits) from various countries).
     Lissa, if you are reading this, thank you again. Opening the packages was like Christmas! Any one of these gifts would've been generous, never mind all of them. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Package from Finland!

   Back in March (?), my friend Johanna in Finland sent me a package which got absorbed by the international post somewhere. So, she was kind enough to send me another package, which arrived today. She knows I like Moomins, which are Finnish characters that I wrote a little bit about in my first ever blog post.  Here is what she sent me:

 Look at all these glorious stamps! David was so excited to see the Angry Bird stamps.

 Yum! Fazer chocolates :) I can'r wait to try them, especially the chili chocolate. I've never had that before.

 My favorite strawberry soup. She sent 2 packages. (Now I don't have to hoard the remaining packets from my last Finnish package. lol)

 More Moomin tea! I got tea from the same brand in my other package, but they were different flavors. These are all roobois tea. I look forward to trying them. Johanna, I know that you usually do your devotions in the morning over breakfast. This summer I have started being more disciplined about spending time in devotions so I have been reading at breakfast too. I have often thought of you and prayed for your family at this time. Maybe I'll add some of your tea into my breakfast time. It's nice to have a sister in Christ all the way on the other side of the world.

 Moomin tote bag.

 Cute Moomin notepad. I plan to bring this to school and stick it to my desk. It will be fun explaining what Moomins are to all the middle school students who look perplexed.

 Postcards! There are 2 super cute cards in the bag at the top.

 Don't I wish?
    This is my other mail from today. This is from Germany.  What's up with me and blimps this week? ;)

    In other news, we tried the spicy licorice lollipops from the last Finnish package. We did NOT like them. lol. The lollipops from China were a hit though.

Package from Finland

    I was so excited to arrive home from work yesterday and find a bright yellow package from my new friend Satu. Another friend in Finland sent me a package in January but it never got here, so I was slightly worried about the arrival of this one. I sent her my package today. I won't tell you the contents in case Satu checks in here and wants to be surprised. Here are the things I received from Finland:

 Package with all kinds of cool stamps. Our post office clerk today was not as accommodating. I got a $19.99 stamp, a few $5, a $2 and then a .15 label.

 Moomins! Do you know about Moomins? I wrote a bit about them in this post a long time ago

 The loot. I forgot to take a picture of the cool card. It was a painting by Risto Toivanen, an artist who has learned to paint with his feet due to being born with cerebral palsy. It was a picture of Tunturiporot- Hill reindeers.  Very cool.

 Tea! I didn't notice before I took the pictures but the "flavor" of the teas are: Go For It (black tea with blueberry muffin flavoring- I'm trying this one in a few minutes!!!!), I Should Know (black tea with lemon), Sweetheart (Black tea with strawberry), Moominmamma's Magic Potion.(Black tea with strawberry and rhubarb)

  Black licorice. I HATE black licorice- except this black licorice apparently. I have gotten this before in another package. I had some and gave the rest to Matt, who loves black licorice. I'm sharing this one too but I had a good amount. The licorice in this is much softer than the US and it is filled with some other... stuff. :) It also doesn't taste like soap or perfume like it does here.

    I think this is mustard.

 Bandaids,

Hallelujah!!!! My favorite :) Strawberry vanilla soup. She sent a whole box plus a few more packets.

 Cookies I think.

 Haven't tried these  yet. I'm guessing gum?

 Also gum?

 Gummy candies

 Also gummies- a little less squishy than our gummy candies.

 Moomin potholder!

 Beautiful paper napkins. Marimekko, Ivana Helsinki and Arabia collections.

More candy- hot licorice lollipops, the striped ones are similar to candy here (white, minty, hard candies with chocolate inside) and the other ones taste a bit like Werther's caramel- but soft. 

   Thanks Satu for your wonderful package. I hope you like mine as much!
    In other news, the sunburns and freckles are appearing. Welcome to baseball season.

Crafting and Reddit Secret Santa

So, anyone who knows me will know that I'm not exactly the most artistic person. Crafting sometimes scares me. I think I just like rules- rules to tell me how to do it 1) right and 2) so it looks nice. My sons made a few things at school in art that I thought were super cute. We recreated them at home and plan to give them to some friends and family. Unexpectedly, we had a ball. It was fun for me to watch each son create and to see the way they made art their own. I think I will do things like this more often.
      These are some snowman ornaments.

 These are the ones I personally worked on. These may be my best works of art in my entire life.. lol. Just kidding... sort of.

     After the snowmen came the cupcake decorating. Timmy and I made the cupcakes in the afternoon. I frosted them and we each frosted 3. This beauty was mine.

 David uses the minimalist approach.

 Timmy doesn't.

 My favorite..

 Timmy "accidentally" unwrapped this.

 After I told him he could eat one.

 Our next project model... Timmy made this one in art.

 Matt has actually made a few modifications that we all like. Here are the new batch ready to be decorated.

Reddit Secret Santa

     Reddit was trying to break a world record for the largest Secret Santa exchange. I decided to take part. We did break the record. If you don't know what a Secret Santa is- you are matched to someone who you will be assigned to buy a gift for. Someone else is assigned to buy you a gift. I was assigned to a man from CA. Reading his profile it was obvious that I didn't know a lot about his interests. His main interest was jiu jitsu. My first idea was to get him a nice hooded sweatshirt from one of the local jiu jitsu places. I tried 5... who all ordered theirs online. I should've known that ahead of time and just ordered them online right when I was assigned but I figured the best place to get gear from a gym would be AT that gym. Live and learn.  I ended up getting him a generic Brazilian jiu jitsu t-shirt and then some straight shaving materials, which he is also interested in.  I'm really hoping he likes them.
      I received my gift today.  Here's what arrived:
Presents in a package- always good. Packages are good, period.

    Funglish is a board game. I love games. The boys and I have already played it. It's a game where you are supposed to describe a word with cards with adjectives on it and the people are supposed to guess the word. They'll get the hang of it soon. She also sent bubble wrap, which the boys also enjoyed. Thanks Reddit Secret Santa!!!!


     Alright, I'm going to head out to our family Christmas party! I will be blogging more over vacation.