Day 2580. On Thursday I got up and got ready for my 10:30 am student. I taught until 11:30, then I had another student for half an hour. It was a trial lesson for a new student. At noon I was done and able to cook lunch. Randy left just before 1 pm to go pick up Tammy and Emmy, while I picked up Sammy from school at 1:30 pm. By 2 pm we were home, and fifteen minutes later Randy and the other kids also got home. At 2:30 pm I left the house with Tammy and Emmy. It was finally time for their first piano class after the summer break.
We took the subway downtown, then walked to the music school they've now attended for about 3.5 years. While they've been taking classes all those years, this is the first semester that they are taking private lessons, and we're really lucky that the school's founder and director agreed to take them on. It was great to see her again after the long summer break. Emmy and Tammy did rock-paper-scissors to decide who was doing the first half-hour and who the second, and Emmy had to go first.
They were in the biggest room with the expensive grand piano. Their class started a little late after 3 pm. Emmy sat down at the piano, and the teacher then focused on his right hand and finger position. In a class setting, she doesn't get to do that, but now they were sitting right next to her. She made Emmy use the correct technique for the whole half hour, even when playing a song.
Then it was Tammy's turn, and she did the same with her, but not for as long. She let her play a different song and told her to learn another song, then her lesson ended early. It was not quite 4 pm when we left the school and walked back to the subway to ride it home. It wasn't 4:30 pm yet when we arrived, and we ran into Randy and Sammy on the street as they had just left the house to take two buses to the school where Sammy has his wheelchair class on Thursdays from 5 to 6 pm. It was also his first class of the semester, and he had lots of fun there. He was really happy to see all his friends there again.
Once home, the kids still had pages in their school books that they had to finish as they hadn't been able to finish everything in school, so they got them out and started working on them. As for me, I went to the kitchen to make their sandwiches and cut up their fruit. Then I sat down to teach at 5 pm. However, my student never showed up so I was able to continue helping the kids where they needed help. I then taught another student from 6 to 7 pm. Randy and Sammy returned home just after I had finished teaching.
The kids then went into the bathtub, where Sammy still eats most of his food every night, then it was story and prayer time. They went to bed before 8 pm, and I sat down to eat my salad. Then at 9 pm, we had our board meeting for the ministry that lasted until 10:30 pm and was very fruitful. I then still continued working until 1 am or so before going to bed.
Friday
I had set my third alarm for 9 am but I had a very hard time getting up, and so I took my time and skipped breakfast. I taught from 10 to 11 am, then I went to the kitchen to cook for Randy and myself. Randy ate and left at noon to pick up Tammy and Emmy. I ate and went to pick up Sammy, then I finally started packing at 1 pm, when we were back. We had one big suitcase for the five of us which was enough for two nights away. Randy and the kids returned home at 1:30 pm, then they gave me the clothes they wanted to take on the trip, and finished packing. We left the house at 2:30 pm.
We walked to the train station to take the train to the main train station; the train was delayed by 10 minutes which was still okay for us. It was an old train so we had to carry the wheelchair in over the stairs. Sammy did not like that one bit, neither did Emmy.
We arrived at the main train station at 3 pm. We were on platform 5, and my phone told me we had to go to platform 12. As we had gotten off the train in the very back, it was a long walk to the elevators. When we got to platform 12, I looked on the screen and was puzzled when it said that the train with our destination leaving at 3:23 (which I thought was our time) was leaving from platform 6 which is where we had just come from. I couldn't believe it! So we headed back to the elevators and to platform 6 which is where we had just come from. It was there that I looked at my phone and realized that our train was leaving at 3:18 pm from platform 12 that we had just left. Oh no! It was just 3:18 pm so there was no way we could make the train in time as the screen showed it was not delayed, but we tried anyway. When we got to the platform at 3:21 pm, it was still there, and we quickly hopped on. Another two minutes later the train left 5 minutes late. We were very relieved we had made it and thanked God for it.
We had 40 minutes on that train; the kids were all on their tablets during that time. We were glad it was a modern train so no steps to conquer. We were also thankful that the train made up some time but it was still 4:04 pm by the time we arrived in Neusiedl, and our bus was leaving at 4:05 pm. When we got off, we saw that we had to take an elevator down and then back up on the other side of the tracks - that was more time to lose. However, there were a lot of people all heading the same way, and the bus was actually waiting for everyone. It was right there after coming out of the train station, and we were once again thankful for having made it.
It was a 20-minute ride to our destination in Podersdorf, right by the beach of that huge lake. We got off, and I looked at my phone to find out how to walk to our little hotel. It wasn't very far away but we did have to ask once to find it. Just after 4:30 pm we walked into the lobby.
There were a few people from the team that is putting on this weekend for special needs kids that were right there, and one of them Sammy already knows from school as she works there, so there was a warm welcome right there. We got an envelope with our room keys and information and went upstairs to our room. It was very nice. We had a queen-sized bed and a sofa bed that was made up for the kids. We also had a little balcony with view of the lake, and there was even a fridge and a hot water kettle for tea and coffee.
I looked through the informational sheet and found out that there was a swimming pool which was very exciting for the kids to find out. So we went down to the reception to ask about it. They told us it was in their sister-hotel nextdoors and were told that the kids had to be very quiet if there were other guests at the pool so as not to disturb them. While all the guests of our group arriving by dinner time at 6:30 pm were heading to the nearby playground, our kids wanted to go swimming. So we changed into our swim clothes and figured out how to get to the pool in the next building over. The kids were very happy when there were no other guests in the pool. It was really cute with big glass windows so you could see the lake and the pier with the lighthouse. The water was warm, and the kids immediately had fun. Thank God they didn't have to be quiet as I don't think they would have been able to. All three kids had so much fun and did lots of jumping and squeeling.
Just before 6 pm we left and walked back to our house and room. We changed and came to the lobby at 6:15 pm. A team member then started walking with us in the direction of the playground to join the others there. However, half-way there we met the group coming our way to go to dinner, so we turned on our heels and went with them.
The dinner room was also in the sister-hotel where the pool was. They had set up several long tables for our group, and we sat down at one. The kids were really hungry, especially Sammy who kept asking when the food was coming, but time went by, and the food wasn't coming. More people were arriving, and some people talked to Sammy. It was at least 7 pm, if not later, before they finally brought out he pumpkin soup. And then it was so hot you couldn't eat it. We added cold water to it for them to eat, and Sammy and Tammy ate it all. The main dish was pasta with meat sauce, and I couldn't believe it when Sammy ate EVERYTHING on his plate! Wow! I would not have thought that he was able to do so. Tammy also ate everything. Then came the dessert which was a banana split, and he ate that too. It was nearly 8 pm, and he looked very tired. One of the ladies from the group asked Sammy if he wanted to come outside with her, and all our kids wanted to. First they gave us some information about the morning, then we all went outside.
It was quite dark outside, as we slowly walked in the direction of our house. Tammy was also very tired, so went into the house to go to our room and to bed. Only Emmy was really upset about that as he wanted to play outside with the other kids. He was annoyed that he was still "the little kid" that needed to go to bed. Tammy was asleep before the boys had even gone to bed, and Emmy just wouldn't fall asleep. He ended up in our bed so as not to keep Sammy from falling asleep, but it was after 9 pm before Emmy did.
I got my computer out and started working on the pictures and writing. Now it's nearly midnight and time for me to go to bed as well.
