Dwayne and all,

I loved the picture of Jessi! Boy has she grown since Christmas! She looks like Jasper now. Very cute. And yes, grandpa would have loved to pinch those cheeks. Would you do that for me??!

Cold, eh? I warned you! Tee Hee! I remember sitting and visiting in Patsy and Scott's living room and we could see our breath. Well, I hope your wood stove keeps you warm. And those electric blankets.

I am gearing up to do report cards next week. Lots of tests and marking to do in the next two weeks. The kids are very hyper, but I have a nice bunch of kids this year. I am also running Ambassador training in June (playground conflict managers) for gr.5's who will be Ambassadors in gr. 6 next year. It's a privilege for the children who are chosen - I got 35 applicants and only 28 got chosen by myself and the V.P. I have a few girls in my class that have been "mean" to each other lately. Bullying. Lorraine deMonye is handling it. (VP) One dad came in to talk to me about it yesterday. He is supportive of myself and the VP. Such is the life of teaching!

Hey, guess what? Sylvia Fehr is engaged! Very exciting. To a guy she went to Providence with - Jonathon Epp. I met him yesterday at school. Nice guy. Small town Saskatchewan boy. Blaine Lake? He said it was half hour from Dalmeny, Scott. Anyway, they have not set the date but late Aug. or Sept. She will not be teaching next year at LCS. They will live in the north part of the city, where Jonathon has a house.

Al has gone to help Rob S. put in some shrubs at his house. Last weekend (May long) we planted our flowers and today we'd like to put up two trellises on the garage, to grow clematis. It rained quite a bit earlier this morning, so I'm not sure how far we'll get. I am going walking with Irene Kuntz and Holly Wiebe at 1:00. It has become a regular Saturday thing to do.

We are praying for you all. Especially the changes in Brazil. See you soon P & S!

Love, Brenda

Hey everyone,

Just thought I'd let you know that we reached a very chilling 3 degrees here last night. Fall is really starting to feel like winter. We all slept well, though, other than Shannon, cause Jessi wanted to eat a lot, again. Pray the Shannon will get some sleep soon. She is feeling VERY tired these days. Here's a picture of Jessi



Grandpa would have been proud of her cheeks! Well have a great day and talk to you soon.

Dwayne

Hey Niklaas...I think we'll all be fighting to be the first to buy your book!!!

It was great to hear from you. I loved your description of the experential week at school. That is how we work in our camps, so you can imagine how much fun the campers have for a whole week.

We are packing up our house. In just over a month we are off to Canada!!! Look out Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Hope to hear from you all again soon. Brenda, I dream of having a slow laundry day...next year!!!

Lots of love to you all...

Patsy

Dear Niklaas,

Thanks for writing! That was interesting to read. I found myself licking my lips when you described the "Hobos" as we call them - the things you cooked over an open fire in tin foil. I like them! Wow! You had a lot of interesting things to do that week. It sounds like you really enjoyed the Track and Field events. Way to go, subbing in at Matt's hockey game! By the way, where do they play hockey? Is this ice hockey?

Well, today is a quiet day here at the Wiebe's. Laundry day, reading my Bible day, and going for a walk with friends day. And clean up the house day. That's about it. Tomorrow, grandma and grandpa are coming over for "Mother's Day." We are bar-b-q-ing for our mothers. Al's mom and brothers are coming too. I'm looking forward to that. Do you have Mother's Day in Germany? What are you doing for your mom?

Well, I'll sign off now. I love you Niklaas! Keep up the writing of stories. I'll be your first buyer when you publish your book!

Love, Brenda

Hello Everyone,
In Matt's Hockey Tournament I had to sub in because there was an odd number of people. I was with a boy called Timothy and we WON!!!!!!! We only lost one game in the entire tournament.

Right now I'm trying to write a story. I'm getting inspiration from things I see/experience in everyday life. Example: I got inspiration about giants from chopping the heads off of dandelions with a wooden cane. Weird, eh.

School's been going pretty well. I think I'm still on the High Honors Role. But this last week has just been a blast. It was Experiential Learning Week (ELW). There are 8 kids in my group:Amelie, Eliza, Meghan, Katy, Christie, Trevor, Sam, and me.
Day 1: Trev, Kate and I gardened while the rest cooked Ethiopian food which we ate for lunch. I didn't like it very much. Then we did team-building excercises including "flying".
Day 2: We hiked to the Wolf's Ravine (Wolfschlucht) and ate potatoes+onions+red peppers+bacon+meatballs+carrots wrapped in tin foil and placed over a fire. I didn't like it very much. But afterwards we had marshmellows, so it was worth it. After that we did a compass course.
Day 3:We played Japanese games and cooked & ate Japanese food. I especially liked the crab meat. Yumyum!!! After that we went on a hike to the ruins of castle Sausenberg. That was cool.
Day 4: We went on a ropes course. The whole thing was atleast 3 meters off the ground. It was kinda freaky at some points. But we were harnessed in. I went on 3 of the 4 levels of hardness (not the hardest).

Track has been going pretty well. Actually, it just ended. Us junior highers were cut out of this Saturdays meet. GRRRRRRRR!!!!! It was an American base with all the North American restaurants and food we can't get in Germany.

I am looking forward to drama next year. This years fifth graders will be in middle school next year (that means Matt). One of the boy's in that class (Joseph, who is also son of the drama teacher) wants to do The Hobbit. That might be interesting.

Now I've run out of things to type, so good-bye.

-Sir Niklaas W. Schalm, formerly of Niverville, is signing out!

Hey family,

It has been a while since we last wrote on the blog, so here is a bit of an update. We are really up inthe air at this time with all the changes and things happening here at JTB. We have been told that they are not going to be giving us anything to do for now, so the only thing we are doing is our Portugues class once a week. It was good for a bit, but it gets very tiering not doing anything. But plans for a new place are underway and I love doing that sort of thing. We also get to spend a bunch of time with the SAL program participants (Pipa, Carol, Tiago and Cindy) and with Scott & Patsy's family.
We got and installed our woodstove and have been keeping going for the past week or so. I can see that winter will be "fun" here. We got a lot of wood and already have half of it cut and split. I will get help to do the rest of it cut this week.
Jaden is in school and has forgoten that it is not all fun and games or What he wants to do. Shannon has a lot of patience with him which is good. He has a new PS2 game, "Downhill Domination", which is a mountain biking game. He loves it and it is actualy fun to watch. He also played Dutch Blitz last night for the first time and really enjoyed it.
Jasper is more of a monkey today than ever. She just doesn't slow down. I am glad she has a health respect for the woodstove, vehicles, and some other things. But she is VERY active and busy which keeps us all on our toes all the time. SHe has found a new love in coloring. She has the crayons and books out from when she gets up till when she goes to bed. She keeps Lidi very busy and usually has her tired by the end of the day. Jasper is also in the 0% ranking for hieght at her age.
Jessi is growing very quickly. She is only 9 inches shorter than Jasper and closing the gap. Shannon thinks she must be teething, with all the syliva coming out of her mouth. She doesn't cry as much as she use to which is nice and she also sleeps in Jasper's room and has been sleeping for longer lenghts at a time, as of late.
Shannon keeps very busy with teaching Jaden, making meals, feeding Jessi, household chores, ect. We have created a chores list for all of us which has helped her out some. Jaden and I have a list of things we are responsible to get done. It has been good for Jaden to actually have some responsibility around the house. He is learning that things don't just happen, someone needs to do them.
And I get to spend a lot more time at home with the family than expected. It has been good for us, I think. I am starting to take Jaden and Jasper out on seperate dates once per month, each, this month. I'm looking forward to those. I also try to make myself availible to Roger at JTB every day, but so far he hasn't taken advantage of me being there.
We are starting an English Home Group in our home this Friday at 7:00. We are going to be discussing the "Purpose Driven Life" book. We are really looking forward to building relationships with people outside of JTB.
So pray for us as we continue through this time that we will hold fast to the call to being here in Brazil and that what ever God has in store for us will come to be. We are activly persuing a new location and strategic plan along with Scott & Patsy. We know ther is a huge opportunity to reach Brazil through Christian Camps and we believe in training servant leaders in a camping environment is key reaching the country for Jesus.
We will soon have internet in our house so we will be able to conect more often, hopefully. We like to hear what is going on.
Al & Brenda, it sounds like this singles class you've been a part of has been great. Will this be a yearly thing or just a one timer?
Teresa, how did Matthews party go? We haven't heard if you made it through alright or not. Who won the tournament?
Mom and Dad, hows the flooding going? It must be down by now, hey? Are you looking forward to the buhlers being home for a bit this summer?
Well I should go so take care,
Dwayne