Johnstein!

This past weekend we had the third Rennbahn924 concert. Good Weather Forecast returned for a nice long weekend of fun... One of the reasons that we decided on this weekend for the concert is that the Student Union at ICSV was planning a benefit concert to raise funds to provide micro loans to entrepreneurs in the Philippines. We figured we could have a really good band for the benefit concert...and then follow it up with a show in the city the next night. The benefit concert on Friday night at ICSV went really well...the kids raised almost 500€. This money will go a long way towards changing a family's life. Check out the World Vision micro loans page for more info. ICSV students rocking out! Rebecca and Kailyn running the merch table for GWF. Something cool that came up as a result of this concert; the boys from GWF asked if we could organize some students to be in a promo video for the band's next album. The album is going to be titled "Dreams", so th...

Well not really the end of time...but definitely a severe reduction in time. Due to a colleague's required furlough, there was a need for a 6th grade history teacher. Well, guess who is qualified to teach the class, has experience teaching middle schoolers, and most importantly, just so happens to have the correct period free. That's right. ME! After a weekend of feeling sorry for myself; and being a turd; and focusing on the negative aspects of this change; and being angry that I only had 2 days to prep for a new class; and after my loving wife telling me to stop being a baby; not to mention friends pointing out that this isn't a punishment...I am now happily teaching 6th grade history. It's actually been a lot of fun to be teaching these kids. Since this is Justin's class, all the kids know me only as his dad...so there was a bit of apprehension on their part about what it would be like in my class. After the first class session, I think the tension melted a...

So...for grandparents and family who will claim that we don't do enough posts about Kailyn...especially recently...here is a collection of some recent pictures and video! ya. so there's this. She loves sitting in her chair Helping daddy cook dinner. playing on her mat. Clowning around with one of the red noses left over from her brother's hospital stay more chair time. Playing Super Mario Bros with Justin.  Bye everyone! Thanks for reading!

While Rebecca and Kailyn were in the states for mom Van Gilder's cancer procedure, Justin and I decided to get out of town and have a father/son adventure...so, we headed down to Milan, Italy to catch an AC Milan match... We took the overnight train on Friday night, arrived in Milan on Saturday morning and toured the city during the day, went to the game Saturday night, saw some more cites in the city on Sunday morning, and then took an eleven hour train ride back to Vienna. We had splurged for first class on the trip home (a whole 20€ more) and enjoyed "free beverages" and comfortable seats for the entire trip. Arrived home at midnight:45 and then headed to school the next morning. Good times. Seriously though, this was a really fun thing to be able to do with Justin...especially since Kailyn has taken "center stage" recently. Hopefully he and I will be able to do more of these types of trips in the coming years. Waiting for our train.  Fun experience t...

Many of you might remember the 1998 film starring Robin Williams that chronicled the early career of Hunter "Patch" Adams. He began using humor as therapy in his sessions and opened a free hospital in West Virginia. Here is a clip from the film... Fast forward 13 years to a hospital in Vienna, Austria...to a children's surgery ward. As we were sitting talking with some visitors we noticed Justin had more visitors... They proceeded to hand out musical instruments; here's the problem...this was less than 12 hours after Justin's surgery. It really hurt him to laugh at this point...and he still felt horrible After that nonsense, the clowns made 2 more appearances; once when they delivered lunch, and once later in the day when we had our friend Tom Mason visiting. Tom is a fellow missionary serving as a pastor at a local church and a teacher at ICSV. He is also a amateur magician. Pictures of him doing tricks have found their way onto this blog...

We have just completed (well, I think its over, but who knows) the craziest month long-period during our time here in Vienna. During that time, much has happened...but you wouldn't know that by reading the blog. Let me break it down...obviously most of this is from Michael's perspective in Vienna. Rebecca was staying just as busy in the States. Nov/Early Dec: We find out that Rebecca's mom, Ruth has breast cancer. The level of severity was determined and surgery scheduled. Eventually, we determine that it would be a good idea for Rebecca and Kailyn to fly back to the States to help her family while her mom was recovering. December 6th: Birthday celebration. We enjoyed dinner with friends at a new (to us) restaurant. December 7th: My birthday. Also the day Rebecca and Kailyn leave for the states. Sucky. I must say though, the day was made much less sucky by the love shown by all the students and staff at the school. Multiple renditions of happy birthday and cupca...