Sunday, January 26, 2014

Happy Birthday, Australia (for today)! :-)

Sorry that I forgot to write an blog last week - I just completely forgot (shame on me).  It's been a busy two weeks!  A week ago Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment to get my second sebaceous cyst taken out.  This was the largest one and was on the top of my head.  Before freezing my head, he had to cut away the hair around the cyst - before he did it, he said to me that he wasn't a hairdresser.  I told him that I didn't care what it looked like, so away he snipped.  I absolutely hate needles (he had to give me four in my head to freeze it) and so Belinda, the nurse, held my hand while the doctor jabbed me. (I admit it...I am a big sook).   Last time, only the fourth needle hurt, but this time they all hurt, so I was very happy when they were all over.  When the doctor thought it was frozen, he must have started cutting me cuz he asked me if I could feel it.  I said 'no' and then asked him if I should.  He laughed and said 'no'.  I was a bit confused at first cuz I thought by the way he asked the question that maybe I should be feeling something.  Once he got the cyst out, he asked if he could show it to me - I said 'yes'.  It looked like a smooth, beige rock - he said it was an inch across when he measured it - a big one!  After he stitched me up, he sent me on my way with instructions  to not wash my hair until Friday (I also couldn't go to aquafit until the stitches were taken out :-(  I was feeling a bit weak after all that and so I spent the next two days resting in my big chair in the family room.  I only had to take 2 Tylenol (one the first night and one the second night), so I was really glad about that.  When I went back on Friday for the doctor to check how my head was looking, he asked me how things were going.  I told him that other than my hair being disgusting and my head itching like crazy, I was good.  He was happy with that and also with how my head looked, so I was able to wash my hair when I got home (yippee!).  I went this past Friday to get the stitches out - Belinda did it after the doctor okayed how things were looking.   I am glad it's done and that things went so smoothly.  It will take ages and ages for the hair which he cut to grow back in, but I can do a combover right now so that you can't see where the hair was cut.

By Saturday I was feeling pretty good (although my head was sore), so we asked the missionaries to come over for dinner.  Elder Packer is lactose intolerant, so we have to cook without dairy products - we love dairy, so it's a bit challenging to find different things for us to cook for him.  We decided that night to cook a chicken stir fry (and made it even easier by using a store bought sauce and frozen vegetables).  I really like having the missionaries over for dinner.  I love the spirit that they bring to the home and also the spiritual message they bring to share with us each time.  I also like feeding them since I know that they wouldn't likely eat very well if they weren't invited out for dinner (being 20 year old males :-)  I did ask them what they eat when they don't have a dinner appointment and Elder Packer said oatmeal and Elder A said noodles. :-)

On Monday, we drove to Brisbane because Dad had a doctor's appointment with a specialist.  Our doctor here in HB, Dr. Schnetler, was a bit concerned with how large Dad's prostate was and wanted him to see Dr. Kua in Brisbane as he is a top notch specialist in this area.  Brisbane is a 3 1/2 hour drive from HB, so we set off in the morning around 10am, stopped in Gympie (1 1/2 hr drive) for a 15 minute break to stretch our legs, then stopped again at Dad's work (2 hr drive from Gympie) to talk with Dad's boss.  It was really nice to see everyone again and we had a nice yak with everyone at QAC.  Dad has two bosses: Harry (the dad) and Chris (the son) and Chris (who is the one who organizes who is going to teach what when) was still on holidays, so we really didn't find out any more about when Dad would be teaching.  We got to Dr. Kua's office early and ended up waiting 1 1/2 hours past our appointment time before we got in.  We were then in for 15 minutes (and $180. later).  Dr. Kua looked at the ultrasound results which Dad had done in HB and then talked with Dad before telling him that he would like Dad to get an MRI.  We asked if it could be done in HB as we know they have an MRI here, but he said no as the one that is needed to be used on Dad is a special one and only available in Brisbane.  He said that they need to see all of the prostate before he can make a decision as to what to do next and the only way to do that is with this MRI. The doctor is not concerned that anything is wrong, but he just wants to be sure.  The next day, we phoned the hospital where the MRI is to get an appointment (it's a private hospital) and the girl gave Dad an appointment for this Wednesday (and told him it would cost us $570).  You should have seen our mouths gaping open when we heard that and also that Medicare (like OHIP) wouldn't cover any of it.  OUCH!  But, like my doctor said when I asked him about it, it's better to get it done and know that everything is okay.

Dad's boss Chris called Dad on Wednesday to talk to him about the courses coming up which he wants Dad to teach, plus one course that he wants Dad to sit in on (as a student).   So, Dad is going to be starting his teaching schedule again on February 10th, this time starting in Sydney.  Things are a bit up in the air still, but he gave Dad a tentative schedule.  He will be doing one week (possibly two) in Sydney before going to Melbourne to go on a 6 week course about the 737 airplane.  Dad is licensed on that plane, but this is an upgrade course for him to take about the new generation 737s.  This is a six week course which is all theory.  Chris said that he may pull Dad after the first three weeks  (and put him on the last three weeks of the course at a later date) so that he can get Dad to work on finishing the last couple of weeks of the theory material for a 747 course.  This means that Dad would be planning the course material himself which is something he has never done before.  He feels confident, with his experience on the 747 and with his experience teaching, that he will be able to do a good job in the planning.  There are a number of other courses coming up to keep Dad busy, but Chris is still working on finalizing the schedules.

One of our New Year's goals is to have people over for dinner once a month and so, on Friday, we had  our first 'dinner party' of the year.  We invited Robyn and Geoff and our Bishop and his wife, Diana.  When they got here, I was in the kitchen and so Dad (who was barbecuing chicken outside) was the host for a while.  We decided to eat outside as it was a beautiful day (when isn't it ) and he served them sparkling grape juice.   I made a yummy caesar salad with a homemade dressing and served that next.  Our main course was the chicken (basted with Diana sauce from Canada) along with corn on the cob, carrots, green beans and french bread.  For dessert, I served a mixed berry crisp.  When we started eating it, Dad commented that it was a bit tart and that the fruit part wasn't very thick.  I then realized that I had forgotten to put the sugar and the cornstarch into the fruit before putting them in the ramekins (I blamed it on Diana who was talking to me while I was making the dessert :-)  Everyone said that they liked it the way it was so I didn't feel too bad about it. :-)  We had such a lovely time with our friends and look forward to our next dinner party, which is actually going to be this coming Saturday (for our February 'party', as I am leaving to come back to Canada next week and will be away for February and March) when we have invited the missionaries and our friends, Sandy and Lloyd (from church).

On Saturday night, we were invited to Robyn and Geoff's house for dinner with the missionaries.  Geoff is the cook in their family and he made us a yummy stir fry.  He made two in case Dad couldn't eat the first one.  Let me explain....One time when Dad was away working and I wasn't with him for some reason, Geoff, who knows I love curry, made me a green Thai curry which I really enjoyed.  But, since Dad doesn't like curry (or rather, it doesn't like him), I didn't know if Dad could handle this one - it doesn't taste anything like the curry Dad can't take, though, so I told Geoff to make it and let Dad try it and see what happened.  Geoff, being the kind man that he is, decided to make a shrimp one as well so that if Dad didn't like the curry one, he could eat the shrimp one.  It turned out that Dad liked both of them and so he had a feast that night.  We are so glad that Robyn and Geoff are back from their trip to Ireland as we missed them a lot.  They are going to miss us when I go to Canada and Dad starts working again.

I was in Primary today to teach the Valiant class (ages 8 - 11) as their teacher was away.  I was very organized with the lesson, having an activity to start off the lesson (to introduce what we would be talking about), visual aids and a game to check their understanding at the end.  There were four boys in the class which I was a bit worried about.  One of the boys is very bright and tends to cause a bit of trouble if he isn't continually engaged.  Another of the boys is a bit autistic and tends to get off track a bit  (and can easily be distracted by the first boy).  The other two boys were visitors and so I had no idea how they would be.  It turned  out that the lesson went fairly well and I only had to get them back on track a couple of times.  I find it much easier to teach girls, though - boys are loud and busy and always talking, whereas girls tend to more quiet and focused.  The one thing that I did find odd, though, was that three of the four boys struggled to read the scriptures (they are 9 and 10 years old), so it was a bit of a struggle to keep those who weren't reading listening.  Note to self: make sure I get them to read short passages next time I teach them or read some myself and ask them to listen for the answer to the question I am asking them.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

This has been a busy week (which ones isn't?) - Dad and I both reckon that we don't have time right now to have full-time jobs. :-)

I went to aquafit on Monday (with my friend, Chantelle) and on Friday.  The girl, Skye, who does it on Mondays, has a background in ballet and pilates.  She tends to do more stretching in her routine for us.  The guy, Lars, tends to do more aerobic workouts.  I like both workouts as they target different things.  I also was able to get in a swim on Wednesday.  I actually met my friend, Haidi, at the pool at 8am as she was bringing her girls to the pool for the morning.  Haidi moved with her husband and family to HB a couple of years ago, but has had trouble getting a permanent visa for her and the children.  She and the children moved back to Wales last year until her husband could work out the visa issue.  She and the girls came to visit for the Christmas season.  Haidi and I connected when she was here and so it was disappointing for me when she went back to Wales.  It was great to be able to get together with her while she is here - we talked and talked for almost four hours - it was a great catch-up session! :-)  Afterwards, I wasn't sure if I would have the energy to do my 40 lengths - and I thought about only doing 20 - but, once I got started, I had no trouble finishing my 40.  AND, I even did it in less than 40 minutes which was my first goal.  Now, I want to keep it under 40 minutes for the rest of January.  Once I get back to Australia at the end of March, I want to make a new goal of swimming 44 lengths.

This week was a great week for me for spending time with friends.  On Monday, my friend, Denise, and I went visiting teaching.  I love visiting teaching as it gives me a chance to get to know the sisters in my ward better.  On Sunday, you might get a few minutes to talk with a few sisters, but visiting teaching allows us to sit and chat for about half an hour with each sister.  On Saturday, we had a Relief Society activity and I got to meet up with more sisters and spend time with them.  The theme was 'something extraordinary' - we found out when we got there that the something extraordinary was US!  We each had to fill out a questionnaire with ten questions about ourselves, bring a picture of us when we were a baby (I had to bring a photo of me and Uncle Baden and Uncle Ken when we were 5, 4, and 3 at the Wagga fair which Uncle Rick had sent me via email j- the photo was actually in the local newspaper) and something we thought was extraordinary.  I brought an angel figurine which one of my students had given me.  She (the angel) is holding a sign which says 2 teach is 2 touch lives 4 ever (it's laid out like a math equation: 2 +2 = 4.  After the sisters guessed who I was (after the first answer which was where I was born :-)  , my picture was shown around and I shared the angel.  I told the sisters that it was extraordinary to me as teaching is something which I have a passion for and I feel very blessed to have been able to make a career of something which I truly love to do  - there are not a lot of people I have found who can say that they have (had) a passion for what they have chosen to work at for their lives.

My HB book club met this week and it was the first time I have been able to go in ages and ages.  There were only four members there that night which was quite small compared to the numbers we were getting at the formation of our club which was about 18 months ago or so.  A couple of members have moved away and a few more seem to have fallen by the wayside.  There are two more women who usually come who weren't there that night.  I said that I was quite happy to be part of a small group as I found when I was in the Bolton book club, that having more than a half dozen members or so made it so that some people didn't share their thoughts on the book.  There was talk about us meeting every two months, but I didn't like that idea (even though I am not here so much of the time) because, by the time you meet, you will likely have forgotten the book you have read.  They are going to decide next month what they are doing to do.  Of course, I won't be there as I will be in Canada by then.  I am still reading the books which the Bolton book club read and pass on my thoughts to the leader of the group when I am done reading.  I am looking forward to being part of their discussions in person when I am there for the February and March meetings.

We had the missionaries over for dinner again on Saturday night.  It's so nice to be able to have them over and get to know them better.  We got a new missionary in our ward this week - Elder A (I haven't learned how to say his name properly yet - it's Samoan).  Since he is new, he had to answer 20 questions about himself and his family. :-)  After our meal, they showed us a video - one of the Mormon messages - it was about setting goals in the new year - we talked about the goals that Dad and I had made.  Speaking of goals, Dad and I aren't doing too badly on our goals - fortunately, we aren't freaking out about not being perfect re: our goals this year.  We just keep trying our best to fulfil them each day.

Most of our week was spent working on our talks for church today - I was the middle speaker and Dad was the final speaker.  It takes Dad and I both ages to plan and prepare for our talks.  My talk was about gaining hope through the atonement - I basically talked about how because Jesus suffered for us in the Garden of Gethsemane, died for us on the cross and then arose the next day, that we will be resurrected and live with each other again for eternity.  I also talked about how because  Jesus died for us, we can be forgiven if we repent.  I shared three stories during my talk, one of which was about how comforting it was for me to know all of this when Poppy passed away at such a young age.  Dad talked about how Jesus Christ lives - he asked everyone to listen to the words of the hymn 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives' (he said that often we are concentrating more on singing the hymn than on the meaning of the words when we sing).  Then, he talked about how we can each know that Jesus Christ lives: read about Him (in the scriptures, in the church magazines, in our lesson manuals), study about Him and his life, listen to what the prophets and apostles have to say, and eventually you will come to understand for yourself that He does indeed still live today!

Sunday, 5 January, 2014

My first post of the new year - and what a way to start this post - such excitement in the neighbourhood last night!  Dad and I were watching a movie when the power went out and we heard a loud bang!  We both ran to grab a flashlight and then Dad smelled burning.  When we looked out the patio doors, we could see an orange glow through the trees about 200 metres away.  We went outside the front door and stood on the front lawn.  From there, we could hear crackling and see smoke rising out of the forest near us.  Two of our neighbours were out  there and when we started talking, one of them told us that he had called about it and was told that a car had run into a power pole.  Due to that, the transformer had blown up which was the cause of the loud bang.  This caused a very large bush fire very close to us.  I immediately asked Dad to grab our passports and his Ipad while I grabbed my purse (with all my ID in it).  I figured that if we had to evacuate, it would be good to have all of that stuff with us.  After standing outside for half an hour, we decided  to do as the neighbours were doing and get out our lawn chairs and sit in the driveway to watch 'the show'.  Soon a second fire truck came and things started to settle down not long after that.  We finally went inside at about 10:30pm.  We figured that the power would take ages to come back on, so we went to bed. Dad had left a light on so we would know when the power came on so that we could check the fridge and freezer to see if anything had thawed out..  About 11:30pm, it came back on - we were really surprised (and grateful) that the energy company was able to get one up and running so quickly.

So, after that excitement, there isn't much to share about our week which will beat that. :-)  We decided to spend New Year's Eve watching movies and  so we went to Blockbuster's to pick some up.  We then watched some more on New Year's Day and watched one on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights and tonight.  There were some really good ones (here's the ratings out of 10): The Call (7.75), Hugo (8.5), Olympus Has Fallen (8.0); some were good ones: Alex Cross (7.25), Edge of Darkness (7.25), Inception (7.5), The Lincoln Lawyer (7.25), Se7en (7.25); some weren't so good: The Company You Keep (6.0), Flight (6.25), The Adjustment Bureau (6.0) and one was sooooooooooooooo boring we gave up on it: Silver Linings Playbook (Fail).  One thing I have learned about movies is that even if critics and the audience on rottentomatoes.com think a movie is a good one, it doesn't mean I will like it.  The movie 'Flight' got a really good review from everyone on that internet site, but although the first fifteen minutes were really good, the rest of it was rather boring.  Since the rating was so good on rottentomatoes.com that we kept watching it thinking it would get better.  We didn't make the same mistake with Silver Linings Playbook.  We gave it over an hour and then just pushed the STOP button.  But, all in all, it was a really nice way to spend New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Dad and I also set goals for this year on New Year's Day.  We don't want to call them resolutions as that term doesn't seem to work for most people (including us).  We set goals for six areas of our life: physical (eat healthy and become fit), intellectual (do crossword/other puzzles), social (have people from church over for dinner once a month), spiritual (read the Sunday School lesson material and studybook each week), financial (for me: learn to do the family finances, and lastly, emotional (again for me: read books for enjoyment from a list of books I have made from goodreads.com).  Dad's are the same for the first four; his financial one is helping me learn how to do the family finances and for emotional to do jigsaw puzzles.  Our idea for an emotional goal was to choose something which would be relaxing and good for stress relief.  We hope that we will continue to work towards achieving these goals throughout the year.

On Thursday, I went to my new dentist - Dad had been there once before earlier this year, but this was my first time.  When I went in, I told him about my fear of dentists from when I was younger, but that my last dentist in Canada was amazing.  This dentist was very understanding and told me that he would tell me what he was going to do each time and that I could stop him anytime I wanted to.  Everything went very smoothly, I am pleased to report. :-)  By the way, the dentist is from Egypt, came to Australia to go to graduate school and loved the country so decided to stay - tried a few different cities before settling in  HB and he's only 31.

On Friday, I tried my first aquafit class here in HB.  It's held at the local pool and it is run by a woman, her son and her daughter-in-law.  I found out from friends that they used to run an orphanage in Nepal a few years ago. There were about 30 ladies at the class - mostly retired ladies and it seemed like many of them knew each other - I'm guessing that a lot of them have been coming to the class for a while.  The son was the one who led the class and he kept us moving the whole time.  I couldn't believe what a good aerobic workout it was. I really enjoyed doing it and plan on going again tomorrow - my friend, Chantelle, is going to join me there then - it will be fun to do it with a friend.  Yesterday, the day after this workout, I could definitely feel it in my arms, so my muscles got a good workout, it seems.

After the class, I went to a local cafe to meet up with my teacher friends, Bronwyn and Chantelle.  Chantelle is back home for the summer (she works up north about nine hours from HB) and since she used to be Bronwyn's student teacher (and mine while I was doing Bronwyn's contract), we like to meet up whenever we are all in town at the same time.  We mostly talked teacher stuff (as teachers do :-)  and other stuff (like what we did over the holidays, etc) and it was so good to catch up with them again.  It's nice to have friends who I can not see for ages and yet, when we get together, it's like the same as it was the last time we got together (I hope that makes sense :-)

Dad and I had the best day yesterday (up until the excitement of the first last night, that is) - we totally relaxed all day.  Dad did stuff on the computer and I read my new library book (In The Woods).  We also played a game of Trivial Pursuit outside on the patio - it was so nice to be able to sit outside in the warmth with a light breeze blowing - it's a wonderful life here in HB. :-)

Today's blog finishes off on a high note: it was 40 years ago on this date (on a Saturday) that I was baptized into the church.  What a wonderful day that was!  Back on January 5, 1974,  when I came out of the water, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  I have loved every minute of my church membership over the past 40 years.  I am grateful to the Osmonds for being such good examples - I still remember my friend, Marilyn, telling me that she had read in a teen magazine that they were Mormons and asking me if I thought that that was why they were so happy all the time; then asking me if I would come out to church with her to check it out.  I can honestly say, in answer to Marilyn's question: YES, being members of the church is why they are so happy.  I know this because being a member of the church makes me so happy. :-)