It has been a long time since we have written. Many things are going on! We went home to SC for the holidays and are now back in school (I'm teaching and Thomas is learning!). We now have 3 fish, Troy, Maximus and Helen (she's the newest one). We have a 5 gallon tank and they seem to love it. I am working hard at school to introduce the students to the bow and more new notes to learn. I have started a 'King of the Mountain' game for speed note reading. The winner each week gets a prize out of the 'Orchestra Pit' (which is a box full of pencils, pens, candy, and stickers - just fun little stuff). We are also having a contest in my orchestra classes for a Music Party at the end of the year. It is a 6-tiered system (1st tier is whole note, 2nd tier is half note and so on) until you reach thirty-second note - which means they must sit and listen to 2 minutes of music silently, do the warm-up on the board, unpack their instrument, learn a new song for another teacher, go through 2 class periods without me having to say anything twice and finally putting on a concert as a class. They are pretty pumped about it, although we are only at the half-note tier right now. We'll see.
Thomas and I are now on the T-Mobile network with our cell phones. We now have one car between the both of us. I am fairly active in the community orchestra that I play in; the New Haven Chamber Orchestra. Our next concert is February 13th and we are playing Brahms Symphony No. 1 and a piece by a Russian composer (Sviridov) which was music for a play based on a poem by Pushkin. It's pretty cool. That same day we are running a 4 mile sweetheart race (in whatever weather CT February has to offer!!!). My little brother Mark and our friend William came to visit us when we came back after Christmas - that was a lot of fun. I still had to go to work, so they played Risk. 2 games in one day. Goodness!
There has been a lot of snow here. Thomas has had to dig the car out several times to get to either church or work. Of course, the sledding excursions have been a lot of fun too. We sled right behind the Divinity School at Yale. It's incredible. :) We will be going to a Yale vs. Brown hockey game tomorrow night - getting excited about that and trying to get all our work done tonight so that tomorrow (after teaching lessons and practicing) we can do some super fun things. We don't know what they are yet... but we are thinking running/hiking, hockey game, Chinese food and whatever else! Should be a good day! We have also purchased a $7 VHS player so that we can buy the awesome movies (ya know, Jurassic Park, Braveheart, Narnia movies) for very cheap at Goodwill.
Keep us in your prayers and have a wonderful day!
In Christ,
The Russells
