Thursday, March 31, 2011

Okay everybody - it is taking me too long to write my blog on Thursdays, so starting next week, I will be writing an entry on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. 

On Monday, I went in to volunteer in Luise's classroom.  She told me that she was going to be off on Wednesday from 1pm.  She hadn't asked me to supply for her so I was guessing that she was not going to ask me or she would have done so that day, I would think.  I am really getting bummed about this.  I am spending all this time volunteering in her classroom to get to the know the kids and to get to know her routine - and then not to get the supply opportunities in her classroom just is so frustrating - not only to earn the money, but also to let the kids get to know me better so that things go smoothly when I take over.  I would like to just go back to grade two to volunteer there, but I just think that I need to stay here for now.  I told Dad that if I could get another long service leave opportunity at the same time, I would just stop going in to help out in Luise's class.  I really don't like not liking going in to school - when I worked with the grade twos, I loved going into the school every day. 

Anyway, half way through the day, I got a call from Karen in the office to ask me if I could take over a grade five classroom for the afternoon.  I hummed and hawed because I am not fussed on supplying in a grade five classroom, but I figured that it was only for half a day and I could handle that.  It turns out that the grade five teacher's son had to go to the doctor's right away and so the grade five teacher was very grateful that I was at the school and could take over the classroom right away.  The grade fives were okay to supply - for the first hour, they challenged me (again with  the boys), but after the first hour, they seemed to settle down.

Dad spent the day at the Family History Centre.  He worked with a member helping him to learn how to do indexing.  Denise, who works there on Mondays as well, said that Dad was very patient with this member - apparently, it was taking this member ages to learn how to do the indexing.  This member will not be able to finish the number he needs to do before the information is sent back, but when the next  person gets the info, they will be able to have what info the member did do, and that will make it faster for them. 

On Tuesday, I went in again to volunteer in the grade one classroom.  I actually got bold and asked Luise if she needed a supply teacher for  Wednesday (turns out she is going to be gone on Thursday as well) and she said that 'they' had gotten another supply teacher to cover for her.  I don't know who 'they' are, but frustration set in again - poor Dad had to listen to me go on and on about this - good thing this is part of his 'job' as a husband. :-)  I did some more assessment for some of the other grade one teachers - hopefully, they will call me if they are going to be away.  Who knows?  I am just trying to get past how different the grade one team is compared to the grade two team. 

Dad was not feeling well on Tuesday.  After he dropped me off at school, he went back home and went to bed.  He didn't sleep very well, but did rest for the rest of the morning.  When he got up, he took it easy for the rest of the day working on more indexing and doing some filing.  He is still not up to snuff, but he is better now than he was on Tuesday.  We did go and do the grocery shopping after he picked me up from school, but spent the rest of the evening just relaxing at home and tried to get to bed at a decent time so Dad could get a good night's sleep.

I actually got a good piece of news - well, I hope it's good news - on Wednesday.  I was helping out with the grade ones with the gym teacher - she was having the kids run races and needed someone at the beginning of the race while she was at the end of the race.  After she was finished with the last class, she and I talked for a bit.  She asked me if I only worked at Kawungan by choice and I told her what had happened with volunteering 'til my credentials were recognized, then doing Bronwyn's contract position, then going back to Canada for four months and then just getting back into things now.  She said that her husband was a V.P. at Pialba State (public) School and would I be interested in supply teaching there.  I told her that I would love to as long as it was Kindergarten to grade three classes.  I went back to the classroom and got one of my supply teaching cards and took it back to her so that she could give it to her husband.  Hopefully, things will work out and I will get some work from that school.

Also, the girl who was a student teacher with me when I was doing Bronwyn's contract position, Chantelle, is now working at Torquay State School.  She told me that I should come in and speak to her principal about supply teaching in her school.  She said that the principal has mentioned a few times that the school system in Ontario is really good.  She said that she will introduce me to the principal and maybe the fact that I taught in Ontario (and I know his wife who works at Kawungan) will get me into that school.  Also, my friend from church, Leanne, said that I should go in and talk with the VP at her school about supplying there and to mention her name as she is in good with the admin there.  So, hopefully, all these contacts will work out and I will get some more work.  If I could get just one day a week from each school, that would be great. 

Dad stayed home Wednesday because some of our furniture was being delivered that day.  We were so excited to finally have a bedroom suite.  It's called the 'Rosie' suite - it has a glass rose in the headboard - very pretty.  Dad set the bed up and it looks great - just check out the photo below.  We slept our first night in our new bed and master bedroom last night and it felt really good.  :-)

Our new bedroom suite

Our new bed

The rose on the headboard of our new bed

This morning, we got to Skype with Krystal and Alexander and Dominic.  Krystal showed us Alexander's arm - it's in a cast!  It happened when he was upstairs - he was running on the tiles with his socks on and he fell and broke his arm.  Ouch!  He has to have that cast on for a while, but does go see the doctor next week for a follow-up appointment and hopefully the doctor can give them a bit of a timeline as to how long Alexander will be in this cast.  He was actually pretty happy when we were talking with him - he said 'Ma' and 'Pa' and then copied me when I said to say 'car' and 'cat' - so cute - and what a big smile. :-)  We then got to see Dominic - he is adorable - and is starting to look a little like Alexander.  He was cooing at us and staring at Krystal - we were all laughing at him. :-)  Krystal wanted to share what happened when she (and Terri-Ann, Benjamin and Dominic) went to Ryerson where there was a career fair going on and she spoke to a representative from CSIS.  The meeting went very well and Krystal came away feeling very positive.  When Krystal told the man that she had applied for positions online and had not received an answer, the man was very surprised - he had seen her resume and found that she had a B.A. in Politicial Science, had worked in the bank (people skills are very important at CSIS, he said) and she was fully bilingual.  He told her it would be good for her to get her bilingual certificate so she is going to look into that.  The man also asked her if she had done any research and report writing - she hasn't done any since she was in university.  She checked out some college courses when she got home and found that there is a course in research and report writing at one of the colleges which seems like it might be geared to what she would have to do at CSIS, so she is thinking of taking that course over the next four months (May to August).  She is also hopeful that the man will give her resume to the right people at CSIS and that she might hear from them soon.  I knew that something good would come from this meeting (there were too many "coincidences" happening around this), but I just didn't know what would happen specifically.  I am pleased for Krystal that the meeting has given her something to look forward to on her road to the career she would love to work at.

After talking with Krystal and the boys, we went to Meals on Wheels and did the same route as last week.  When I see how some of the people live on our route, it reminds me of how blessed we are and I am grateful for the home we have and the abundance of food we have and the nice car we have. 

We went shopping after that - lots of places to visit and lots of things to buy - nothing major, just things for Primary like pencil holders and a binder and paper and page protectors, etc.  We also went back to Elmer's Furniture today - one of the night tables we had delivered was a different colour (darker) than the rest and so we wanted to see if they had one in stock that matched (or was a closer match to) the other night table we had.  Dan the man (as I call him :-)  was able to get us one right away and both are now in one of our guest rooms.  While we were there, Dan told us that the two rocker/recliners and two single beds were now in their warehouse and were ready to be delivered to us when we were ready.  We paid for the four things on the spot (Dad can't wait to get his rocker/recliner :-)  and arranged to have them delivered next Wednesday.  We asked Dan about the cost of scotch guarding the furniture - he had told us last week that he could get us a deal.  He called the bosses at the other store and was told that because we had bought so much furniture from them, they would do the lot for $50.  Dan couldn't believe his ears because the usual cost would be a total of $275.  We were thrilled!

Dad wasn't sure about going to SES tonight - as he is still not up to snuff and we had had a busy day, he wasn't sure that he was up to doing any physical work tonight.  He did want to go to the meeting at 6:30pm which they have twice a month (it was an administrative meeting where the controller talks about any business matters), but told me before he went, that if they were going to be doing anything physical, he was going to beg off and come home.  He ended up staying for the whole meeting as most of the evening was taken up with a lecture by one of the instructors on 'land search formations'.  This was a refresher class on how to line up to do a search - there are various ways to do the lining up based on what the landscape is like (is the area they are searching a mountain area, an open field area, a light/heavy bush area, etc.).  After the lecture was over, the group went outside to a nearby field where nine small items had been placed and it was up to the group to find the items.  The scenario was that there was a child missing and that there might be some evidence in the area that the child had been there.  They were told that there were nine items in the field because those running the exercise didn't want any items left behind in the field.  There were ten people searching with a team leader behind them giving them commands.  Dad said it took about half an hour to find the items - it wasn't hard to find the items as the searchers were not that far apart from each other.  Dad enjoyed the exercise - he has not actually completed the course as of yet as they did that while we were in Canada.  He found that he learned some new things tonight about doing effective land searches.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am soooooooooooooooooooo annoyed - I had typed almost the the whole blog of the past three days and then I hit a button which deleted it all and before I could hit 'undo', the computer saved what was left after the delete and so I lost it all.  There's no way I am typing that all again, so I will do a point form review of the past three days............

Friday - I went into volunteer at school - at lunch time I saw Tracey (grade two teacher) with her backpack on - I jokingly said to her 'do you think you're going home or something?' and she said 'yes' and could I work the afternoon for her.  So, what a bonus that was.  Her class has some annoying children in it, but I managed to get through the afternoon. :-)
           - Only one guy showed up at the Family History Centre on Friday so Dad spent most of the day working on indexing and he was able to complete his goal of 1,000 entries.  Now that he has done quite a few entries, he has made a goal of completing 1,000 entries per month.
          - Skyped with Terri-Ann and the boys tonight - what  a treat - nice to see all the boys and especially to see Colin looking and feeling much better.  Colin drew a picture of a treehouse he wants to build in a tree when he moves to the country when he's 8. :-)  He told us all about it and he thought it was a good idea when I suggested he get his Dad to scan the picture so that Pa could figure out how to build it.  Colin said he could help Pa build it by 'passing Pa the supplies' (his words).  What a cutie patootie!  (as are all our grandsons - I told Krystal the other day that Dad and I sure make cute grandsons!

Saturday - I was flushing the toilet when I turned around and saw a small frog in the bowl - I screamed - Dad came and asked me to get a yogurt container so that he could capture the frog - while I was getting it, the frog crawled up the toilet bowl and under the upper rim inside the bowl - Dad flushed again and the frog came down and went down with the flushing water - took ages for my heart to stop beating so fast.
              - lazed around the house until about noon when we finally had brunch :-)
              - Skyped with Jennifer and Derek - Jennifer said to me 'so, you're coming back to Canada again in the winter' - I knew what that meant - Jennifer is pregnant! - good news, but really?  In the winter again?  Do kids ever listen? - Dad and I both told you girls that we NEVER wanted to come back to Canada again in the winter - sheesh. :-)  Seems to me I remember Dad saying that if anyone was having a winter baby again, they would have to recuperate in Australia :-)
               - Skyped with Grandpa and Grandma Martin - Grandpa is doing well and gaining a little weight - he is having his CAT scan on April 6th to see how the chemo pills are working on the cancer - Grandma was making home made macaroni and cheese and her yummy biscuits for dinner
              - Dad met our friends, Rob and Rosalea, at a store where they picked up our new outdoor suite - Dad set up part of it when he got home - here's a pic of him on his chaise lounge

You can't tell, but Dad's eyes are closed and he is listening to 'Celtic Thunder' on the CD player behind  him.  He loves his new comfortable chaise lounge. :-) 
 
             - went to the chapel at 4:30pm for a Ward Social - Steve singing, lots of good food (salads, hamburgers, sausages with onions) and good friends - so nice to chat with everyone as you don't get much of a chance to do that on Sundays - Dad had an interview with a member of the Stake Presidency and was called to be 'High Priest Group Leader' (leader of one of the men's groups at church) and he accepted - went home about 7pm - watched tv/did stuff on the computer/read./ relaxed
 
Sunday - Ward Conference - great speakers - our Bishop spoke about 'Following the Spirit of the Lord' - building up ourselves spiritually by building our faith in Jesus Christ, reading the scriptures and reading the teachings of Joseph Smith; Kym Stiller (Young Women's President) spoke about helping the youth to seek the Spirit by feeling the Spirit ourselves and following the promptings we receive, bearing our testimonies often and not just on Sundays, sharing personal experiences (both challenges and growths), letting them hear you pray for them, having regular scripture study and regularly attending the Temple - Nicole, our newest ward member, (we went to her baptism last Saturday) bore her testimony (so pure and sweet): she knows the gospel is true, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and love her, she's never felt happier (I understand that feeling of happiness and joy), feels warmth in her heart and is thankful for answers to prayer.  Listening to her heartfelt, simple testimony took me back to when I first joined the church and the testimony I had then - my testimony has grown over the years and the Spirit is still strong - President Thomas (Stake President) spoke last - his message was to "Stay on Course" through focusing on the Saviour - if we do that, Christ will help us feel the love that He has for us and that with Him we can do anything - we need to be spiritually prepared by being in tune with the Spirit which will help us in our daily challenges - the place to be on Sunday is at church where we can be uplifted and strengthened and feel the love of Jesuss Christ - we can feel the joy of living the gospel - I love being part of this ward and love being part of this gospel. :-)
           - Dad is sustained as the 'High Priest Group Leader' in Priesthood meeting today - he feels good about the calling - says he would feel more pressured if the group were bigger, but there's only about ten, so he's okay - he will do a really good job - he's a very dedicated person as you know - he has a lot of responsibilities he is learning all about - he will still be very involved in Family History as part of his calling (he was released as Family History Director in the HB ward) - he will also be a part of the ward council which meet to talk about how to strengthen the members of the ward - he will call two assistants to help him with his calling - he and his assistants will encourage the men to go to the Temple and do family history work - they also oversee home teaching (visiting the families in the ward) - they also plan activities for the group and their families - he will be a very busy man
             - after our church meetings, Dad and I had our temple recommend interviews and we now have current temple recommends which we are thrilled about - there was a potluck lunch - Dad ate with Rob and Rosalea and I ate with my Primary Leaders in a meeting with the Stake Primary President - she talked with us about how things were going in Primary - she gave us some suggestions to help us in our callings - it was a really good meeting - we have a lot of work to do to get the Primary running the way we want it to, but we are all ready to work hard to accomplish this goal
             - we spent the evening working on church things: indexing and reading for Dad and Primary research for me - what a lovely way to spend the Sabbath Day :-)
 

Thursday, March 24, 2011

When I write down my notes about what I have to write about, it seems like there's so much happening right now.  Hopefully things will slow down soon - but, knowing me, that's not likely. :-)  So, let's get started for the past four days..........Dad had a good day at the Family History Centre on Monday.  He was able to get some more indexing done.  Sometimes, it's easy to read the names on the list he is given and sometimes it takes him ages to figure it out.  When he is unsure about the name, he goes back and forth between the name he is trying to figure out and the other names which are written on the page.  They sure did write with flowery letters "back in the day".  But, he is very good at "keeping at it" and he is on track to reach the goal he set for himself this month (1,000 names).  I wasn't feeling well on Monday, so I went back to sleep after the alarm went off and didn't wake up until 9:30am - and then only because I had to go to the washroom (or as they say in Australia "I had to go to the toilet" :-)  I laid on the couch all day and then went to bed 13 hours after I woke up.  Dad had an interview today - to be a Census Area Supervisor.  The woman doing the interviewing said that 200 people applied for the job; she chose 100 of them to interview; and she is going to choose 25 of those interviewees to be the supervisors.  Dad said he thought the interview went well - she will call the successful applicants tomorrow. 

Tuesday, I was feeling much better and so off to school I went.  I spent the day in Luise's grade one classroom again.  I did some assessment with the kids and then spent some time being in the classroom helping out the kids who needed it.  Luise has the four boys who are the lowest academically  in the class in the front row and so it's easy for me to sit in front of them and help them as needed.  The day was soooooooooo hot and humid - I love the hot - I HATE the humid!!!  In Australia, when it's  this hot, they don't just say it's hot or very hot, they say "It's STINKIN' hot!" :-)  I couldn't wait to get home and sit under the fan. :-)  Dad spent the morning mowing the front lawn and then it was so hot for him, he decided to come inside and spent the day doing more indexing.  When he picked me up after school, we went to Fantastic Furniture to check out some of our furniture options we were mulling over (and being in the "air con" (Aussie for air conditioning :-)  was a bonus, too).  We must have been in there for over half an hour checking out our options again and trying to decide what we were going to buy.  When we had decided what we were going to buy, I asked the guy there if they worked on commission because the guy who gave us the quote wasn't working that day.  He told me that they did work on commission so I didn't feel comfortable ordering the items then.  We came straight home after that and spent the rest of the evening with the windows/doors open wide and the fan at 'high'.

Yesterday, I didn't get a call to supply teach and so I went into volunteer with the grade ones again.  I was a bit down when I didn't get a call.  I had set myself a (hopeful) goal of working three days a week and here it was the third day of the week and still no job call.  I went to talk to Bronwyn about it - she is always such a good listener and this day was no different.  I also told her that the grade one team was not very warm.  When I went in to volunteer with Bronwyn last year, the grade twos were so welcoming to me and made me feel like part of the group.  The grade ones don't do this.  I was talking with Natalie (grade one teacher) a while ago about this and she said that she feels it and she is part of the team.  She said that when she was working part-time last year, the other grade one teachers rarely called her to supply teach for them.  The four of them who are in the one pod are all older teachers (in their 40s/50s) and they seem like a tight knit group.  Bec, who is also grade one, seems to have broken into their shell (she's new this year to the school), but that might be due to her outgoing personality and all the sharing of resources that she does.  I can't say that I am enjoying volunteering this year - I am doing it to get to know the kids and Luise's routine so that I know what's going on when I do the contract for her later in the year.  If it wasn't for that, I would go back to volunteering in grade two.   Anyway, Bronwyn told me she knows how disappointing it is not to get the number of days I want to supply as she went through that for the first two years she supply taught - she also told me not to give up - who knows what the future holds.  I had a better day after I talked with Bronwyn and went back at the end of the day to tell her so - she was pleased that she could help. :-)

While I was at  school, Dad was very busy doing stuff around the house and outside the house.  He mowed, trimmed, weeded and sprayed the lawn, cleaned the back patio area, cleaned the rainwater collection screens, washed the car, sprayed around the house with insect repellent, got rid of a couple of wasp nests, and vacuumed the house and folded the laundry.  Needless to say, by the time he was finished all that, he was completely exhausted!!!

After school, we went to Elmer's Furniture.  We had seen the the living room suite that we wanted online at a lower price than was quoted to us at the Maryborough store on the weekend.  We finally connected with Dan who was the salesman who sold us the dining room suite and we really like him, so it was good to see him there again and to work with him on the furniture we wanted.  While we were there, we looked at a bedroom suite that we had liked when we had seen it on the weekend in the sister store.  The thing we really liked about it was that there is a rose made out of glass (or maybe plastic, but it looks like stained glass) in the headboard and the colour is a nice light wood.  What I didn't like about it was that there isn't much of a footboard, but it seems today, it's either little footboard or a huge footboard.  The price was $100. more than the one at Fantastic Furniture that we liked.  But, we liked this one enough to pay the extra money.  We asked Dan to find out if we could get the living room suite that we liked at the sale price, but brand new.  He said he would call the bosses the next day (today) and get back to us. 

We were relaxing in the evening when Dad went to put out the garbage and recycling - he came back inside and told me that I had to come outside.  There on the lawn and driveway next door were tons of cane toads.  I can't remember if I wrote about it last week or not, but one evening last week it was the same thing.  There were nine last week when I was out there and there had to be the same or more last night.  If there were some Aussie males around, I am sure they would have found something to kill the toads with (that seems to be the "thing to do" when you see cane toads cuz they are overrunning the country), but I don't like the thought of that, so we just left them - but they are not very nice looking thing and apparently they are poisonous, but only if you ingest them.  Pets are the most likely to be poisoned by them, especially dogs.

Our day started off loverly as we got to Skype with Terri-Ann and the boys (James was in the picture and yelled out every now and then as well. :-)  It was good to get back to Skyping - we had missed it since we have arrived back home.  Benjamin kept reaching out to us (trying to get us through the screen) when he saw us on the computer.  He was babbling to us - boy, what a chatterer. :-)  Caleb sang us a song from his nursery school and Colin and Caleb sang a song to us which they had sang in Sacrament meeting on Sunday with another three boys from a family who Terri-Ann and James are close to - the song  was "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission".  They were so cute. :-)  I asked them if they were going to be Elder Gawthroupes and Caleb said 'yes, but not right now'.   So adorable.  Terri-Ann and I were having a good chat when it was time to put the boys to bed, so she had to get off and take care of Benjamin while James put Colin and Caleb down.   Colin wasn't feeling well (fever) and so we have arranged to talk with them again in a couple of days so that we can talk with Colin as well (he spent the time laying on the couch while we were Skyping).

I didn't get a call to go into supply teach this morning, so Dad and I went to do Meals on Wheels.  The people there were so happy to see us and we got a nice welcome back. :-)  Avis, the lady in charge, asked us to do the 'Around the World' route - it's a long one which goes around the city to homes which are not on any of the other routes.  It took us about 2 hours to do the route and get back to the MOW building.  We really enjoyed being back to delivering meals to seniors and they are so appreciative of us that how can we not like doing this. :-)

After MOW, we ran some errands...........to Target to buy some pyjamas which were on sale - they are actually pj bottoms (like capris) and I bought a few that I could wear around the house - some of them don't look like pjs and are so comfortable on hot days like today.  We also went back to Elmer's Furniture cuz Dan had called us and told us his boss said we could get a new couch (not the one on the store floor) for the sale price - we also bought a bedroom suite, two single beds, three mattresses, four night tables, two rockers recliners and the living room suite.  We are so happy :-)  - we now have a full house of furniture (well, we will when we get it all - we are going to have the bedroom suite delivered next week, but the living room suite and the two rocker/recliners won't be delivered for a couple of months).  Also, today, we got a call to say our outdoor furniture which we had ordered is now ready for pick-up.  It feels so good to be able to have (or almost have) all the furniture we need to furnish our house - it took us so long to do the research for all of this.  I am very grateful that the guy who worked at Fantastic Furniture was not there yesterday - if he was, we would have ordered stuff from him which would have been okay, but now we have furniture that we like much better.  Co-incidence?  I think not. :-)

I spent this evening relaxing, watching tv, typing this blog, doing dishes.........and Dad went to SES.  Tonight, they did a review of what good teamwork looks like.  One of the instructors gave a one hour presentation about what constitutes good and bad teams.  After a break, the members broke into two groups and did two exercises: the first exercise had the instructor randomly putting out cards numbered 1 to 30 in a field.  The job was for each member to take turns running from one card to the next in numerical order.  Dad went first and as he found a card (it took him a long time since no one knew where the numbers were) he yelled out what number he was on.  As each successive member took their turn they did the same thing so that the team members became faster and faster at completing the task because they could see where the previous team members had found the numbers.  Also, those members who had completed the task could also yell to the members currently running the route which way to go to get to the next number.  The second exercise had the instructor giving each team 12 famous quotes about what makes good teamwork (cut in half) and the team had to try and match up the quotes.  Once they were done that, they had to see if they were right (Dad says his team had two which were not correct), fix the ones which were incorrect and then choose six which they thought were most relevant to working in SES.  Dad says it wasn't as interesting as last week's session, but he knows it's important stuff that they need to review every now and then because it's important for the members to work as a team when they get called out on a job.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I went into school on Friday to teach the grade three class I had been asked to teach.  When I talked with Karen, the woman at the school who takes care of the supply teaching situation at the school, she told me that she had asked for me first to cover that class.  I told her that I really appreciated that - I am hopeful that I will get some more jobs this way - it sure is nice knowing ahead of time that I have a job the next day.  Most of the students knew me from last year which made things a little easier for me and for them, too, I think.  I found that they did a little testing of me for the first part of the day (as usual, it was mostly boys, although there was one girl who wouldn't be quiet!), but after the first break, things got much better.  I found that once they saw that I had certain expectations and consequences, they seemed to be okay with doing what their teacher expected of them.  I left my card for the teacher, so I hope she will call me again.

Dad spent the day at the Family History Centre.  He spent some time updating the centre's computers and some more time working on his own Family History.  He has been able to get more of his own family history done because of the indexing members have been doing and because information from the website http://www.ancestry.com/ is now available for free at the Family History Centre.  Indexing is when people take the films or written records of government censuses, etc. and put them into databases which can be searched online.  Dad is really excited about being able to add more information to his family line.

After school, Dad and I both went to get our hair cut at 'Cut It Out Christa'.  She is a hairdresser who was recommended by my friend, Rosalea, and she is very good at what she does and the price is really good for HB ($20. for me and $15. for Dad).  I had my hair cut by her just before we came back to Canada and it was in need of another cut, as was Dad's.  We were both in and out in 45 minutes and she did another great job of my haircut and her new assistant did a nice job of Dad's.  I really like the way I can say to her 'just cut it off about this much (using my fingers to show her how much) and she can do a great cut without any other instructions.

After that, we went to a restaurant to celebrate my birthday.  The restaurant is called 'Hoolihans' and it's the same restaurant we went to for Dad's birthday - if it's your birthday, you get your meal for free.  I had the special - curried chicken and potatoes with rice - and Dad had the chicken and king (large) prawns stir fry.  We also shared some bruschetta.  I was so happy that I could get the curry meal as Dad doesn't like it so we never have it at home.  It was really really delicious - it wasn't too spicy, but it had tons of flavour.  It was such a yummy birthday meal.  Dad really enjoyed his meal, too - he said his meal was excellent.  We told the waitress to let the chef know that the food was outstanding and the presentation of the food was really nice, too.

When we got home, we had a very large piece of pavlova.  Dad had gone to the 'Cheesecake Shop' during the day today, and it was waiting for us when we got home from our evening out.  I knew that he was buying the pavlova, but what I didn't know was that he had bought a large WHOLE pavlova (I thought he was getting a half pav).  Needless to say, the pavlova was super delicious!!! :-)  It was a lovely evening for my birthday. :-)

On Saturday, we drove over to Maryborough (about half an hour away) to check out a couple of furniture stores there.  They have sister stores in Hervey Bay, but the ones in Maryborough are bigger and have different stock than those stores in HB.  We saw a really nice loungeroom set, but it's quite expensive and we don't know if we want to spend that kind of money on a set which will rarely be used.  We found some rocker/recliners we really liked, but again they were quite expensive, so we are waiting on purchasing them at the moment as well.  We are thinking of driving to some bigger cities to see if we can find anything else we  might like.

We had our, um, I mean MY scooter delivered today.  Terry brought it up in a van and, after getting it off the van and pushing it into our garage, he put it up onto it's stand and then showed us where different things were on the scooter.  After he left, both Dad and I sat on the scooter (still on the stand) and started it.  It was fun sitting on it and we can't wait to get on with learning how to ride it.  Dad is going to call the guy tomorrow who will teach us how to ride and then test us and set up a time for us to do that.  We won't be able to do it for a few weeks, however, as the showgrounds which he uses as the training area is being used by the city for the next few weeks.

At 3pm, we went to the chapel to attend the baptism of a young woman (perhaps in her early 20's), Nicole.  My friend, Robyn, and I are going to be Nicole's visiting teachers, so it was really nice to be able to attend this special event in her life.  There were quite a few members there for the baptism to support Nicole, so that was nice to see as well. 

We spent the evening just hanging around home.  Dad and I are so busy during the week that we really enjoy having our Saturday evenings  free to just 'do nothing'.  Of course, we really didn't do 'nothing'.  While we had the tv on, we were both doing things on our computers.  I was planning a primary lesson as one of the Primary teachers had told me this afternoon that she wouldn't be able to be there on Sunday and Dad was doing research online.  It was a lovely relaxing evening. :-)

This morning, we had an early interview with our Bishop to renew our Temple recommends.  Our recommends had expired while we were in Canada (neither of us was happy about this as we don't like our Temple recommends to expire), so we wanted to renew them as soon as we could.  We both 'passed' our interviews and so now have to have the second part of the interview with a member of the Stake Presidency who will be visiting our ward next week.  It will be nice to be able to go to the Temple again - we are hoping to be able to go to the Brisbane Temple soon. 

Our Sacrament meeting theme today was about revelation.  The speakers talked about how revelation is communication from God to his children and that we can all receive it.  A few things which we were reminded about, however, is that to receive revelation we have to keep the commandments, go to the Lord in prayer, and to listen carefully for the 'still small voice'.  Once we get our revelation, it's also important to follow the promptings which we receive.

After all of our meetings were over today, Dad went to choir practice and I conducted a meeting of the Primary presidency for our first meeting since I was called as the Primary President.  Now that we are back in HB, I wanted to meet with the women in the presidency so that we could all be on the same page with things that are/will be happening in our Primary here.  I wanted to start some new initiatives and my first counsellor and secretary are new to Primary, so I wanted to make sure that they knew what their duties were and also for all of us to work together to come up with ideas and questions we had about how to run the Primary program here.  Our Stake Primary Presidency is coming up next weekend to meet with us and so I wanted to have this meeting before then so that I could contact our Stake Primary President about any questions ahead of time.  We met for about 90 minutes and were able to get a lot done which was great. 

I spent the afternoon/evening working on Primary stuff - making sure that I rewrote my notes so that I had in my mind what emails I needed to write  and to whom so that I could get answers to the questions which arose during our meeting today.  Dad spent the time doing stuff on the net.  It's been a really relaxing day for both of us which we will need since the 'madness' starts again tomorrow.

My birthday pavlova

My supply teacher card

Me on my scooter

Me on my scooter

My scooter

My scooter's dashboard

My scooter

My scooter

Thursday, March 17, 2011

This has been a very busy week for both of us.  It didn't start out too well on Monday morning.  I got a phone call from TRACER which is the Hervey Bay supply teacher call-out system, but by the time I heard the call and answered it, the call had gone to the answering machine of the phone.  I had Dad check the number and it said 'private caller' so we figured it might be TRACER.  I found their number and called them back to tell them what had happened as I figured that the call had probably been because Bec wanted me back again.  The woman who answered the phone put me back on the 'available list' and then hung up before I could ask her if someone had asked for me.  A lesson learned, but what an expensive one to learn. :-)  Dad found out that my phone's ring length had only been set for 15 seconds before it went to voice mail and so he changed it to go to 30 seconds hoping that would make a difference.  So, I just spent the day volunteering in Luise's class - she teaches grade one and she is the teacher whose class I am going to take over when she goes on long service leave in late October.  She runs her class similar to the way I do so I think it will be easy for me to take over and for the kids to be able to adjust to me.

Dad spent the day at the Family History Centre and the workers/patrons were very glad to have him back there.  He was able to do a lot of clearing out of old paperwork and to help a patron who was stuck with her family history.  After school, we came home and studied for our motorcycle/scooter test.  We had to read the manual which was 100 pages long - it took ages for us to get through it and then we took some online practice tests.  Since we have a car license, we only have to answer  five questions relating specifically to motorcycles.  Dad went through a number of tests and came up with nine different questions.  So, after I took a couple of the online tests myself, I checked out the nine questions Dad had typed up and got them all right.  We both felt good about taking the test on Tuesday after school.

I got a call on Tuesday morning to supply teach for Tracey who teaches grade two and I know her really well from last year - I supply taught for her last year as well.  Her class was pretty good, but there were a few monkeys mixed in there.  I found that the further the day went on, though, the better they followed instructions, so we ended up having a good day.  When Dad picked me up from school, he told me that he had already taken the motorcycle test and passed.  Dad drove us to the licensing place and I took the test.  There was only one question that I wasn't sure of, but I remembered something from the reading and so put down the answer I thought it was - and I passed! :-)  So, we both now have our motorcycle learner's permits. :-)

After that, we went to 'Fantastic Furniture' to look at a variety of furniture that we still need for our house.  We chose a bedroom suite that we had looked at before and liked.  We also chose two single beds, three mattresses, two recliners,  and two three-seater couches.  We didn't buy them - we just got a quote and decided to look around some more at other stores.  We really do want to make a decision soon - at least for the main bedroom suite and the reclining chairs. 

Yesterday, I didn't get a call from TRACER so I went back into Luise's class to volunteer again.  She had me working with a few of the academically lower children and I enjoyed doing that - I really enjoy being able to help them learn and love the way they get excited when they 'get' something.  Dad had an appointment to get the car serviced and, thank goodness, everything was fine with the warranty even after being away for so long.  They were really good to us there and we really appreciated it.  So far, in the 18 months we have had the car, we have driven about 8,000 kms - not too bad - although, really, we  have only driven the car for 12 of those 18 months since we spent six of the last 18 months in Canada.

Dad and I drove to 'Barbecues Galore' to check out an outdoor set we had our eyes on before we left for Canada.  It turned out that the set we wanted was on sale - and they had chaise lounges we could purchase which matched the set.  The seats are so comfortable - they have a material cover which can be removed - and the pattern of the material is really nice.  They have to order one up from Brisbane so it will likely take a week to have it delivered.  So, next week at this time, we will be outside every day enjoying our beautiful new outdoor set. :-)  When we get it, I will take some pictures and attach some to one of my blogs.  After that purchase, we went to another couple of furniture stores, but couldn't find anything that we really liked. 

I got into school today and found out that Luise was away, but she hadn't asked for me to cover her class.  I was a bit upset and confused about this, but I soon got over it.  Hopefully, she will explain to me why she didn't ask for me.  The supply teacher who did get the job was at the school last year on contract in a grade six position, so I don't know if Luise knew her and asked for her or just didn't ask for anyone.  Anyway, I ended up spending the day in Rachel's grade one classroom.  She is taking off some time later this year for her long service leave and I was hoping that I would be able to get that contract, but she said that she is getting a friend of hers to cover her time off.  I was disappointed about that, but what can you do.  I did some assessing of math and social studies with her students.  One of the boys asked me if I was going to stay cuz he thought that 'working' with me was fun. :-) 

Last night, Dad made up some business cards for me - they are to give away to teachers so that they can ask for me if they want a supply teacher.  It has my picture on it along with my name, Education Queensland ID number, my phone number and email address.  I gave them out to the grade two teachers today as well as a couple of grade one teachers.  I will give out some more tomorrow to  the rest of the grade one team and hopefully the Kindergarten (Prep) team since I know one of the Prep teachers.  I also got a call today from TRACER after school and it was to supply teach for a grade three teacher tomorrow, so I will leave her my card as well.  I will see how things go for a while just supplying at Kawungan.  If I don't continue to get three days a week of supplying at that school, I will go to two other schools in Hervey Bay where two of my friends work and see if there is a chance I could get more work at either of those schools. 

Dad has been really busy working hard at home for the past two days.  He had so much paperwork to do - he's worked on it for ages and he still isn't finished it.  He also cleaned the house today which took him most of the morning.  Since he works so much in the office at home, I suggested we go out today to buy a nice chair for his computer desk.  We went to a variety of stores and finally ended up at an office store where we purchased a very nice comfortable adjustable swivel chair for Dad - he's really going to enjoy sitting in that compared to the kitchen chair he has been using.

Dad went to SES tonight - they had three stations there tonight and they did the stations in groups of four.  The first station was a review of generators and flood light use.  The second station was a review of using walkie talkie radios.  The third station was a review of care of ropes and knot making.  The meeting went for the whole three hours and Dad enjoyed the whole three sessions as he enjoys reviewing these things - he's been away from it for four months and so it's good to have review time of these skills, he says.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

On Friday, I spent another day with the grade one class and we had another good day.  I couldn't believe what the teacher had set up for a supply teacher to do - it was almost a regular day - I only did that with someone who I knew knew the kids and my routine.  Anyway, things went pretty well again - I had to talk with a couple of the kids, but nothing major.  One of the boys asked me if I could come back on Monday instead of his teacher.  I asked him why and he said his teacher was 'mean'.  When I asked him how she was mean, he said that she made them work hard. :-)  I told him that that was her job and another student piped up and said that his job was to learn.  It was nice that the kids liked having me in there for the two days.  I took some time after school to do some marking and some tidying up.  When you are teaching grade one kids, there is no down-time during the day and so there was no time for me to do much of anything during the day other than to teach.

Right after school, Dad and I went to the motorcycle dealership to pay for my scooter. :-)  It was so exciting to be able to say 'it's all mine!'. :-)  Dad  talked with the guy who is going to give us lessons and he said that his schedule is pretty flexible and to call  him as soon as we have our learner's permits.  We will be studying the manual tomorrow and  going to write the test on Tuesday after school.  We are hoping that we can get the lessons on Saturday - the guy thinks that if everything goes according to plan, he should be able to teach us what we need to know and give us the test all on one day. 

After that, we went to our friends, Rob and Rosalea's place - they have sold their house and are renting another house in Hervey Bay for six months and then are heading to Western Australia which is where they came from before Hervey Bay.  Dad had been with them all day helping them to load the moving van at their old place and unloading it at the new place.  The missionaries also worked with them all day.  When we got to their place that evening, we helped them unload boxes at their new place.  I was helping Rosalea set up the kitchen and Dad helped Rob and the missionaries unload the truck again.  We had pizza for supper and then did some more work on the house.

Yesterday morning (Saturday), we went to Rob and Rosalea's old house to do some more cleaning (me) and loading and unloading (Dad).  It took ages for me to clean the kitchen completely and then to help Rosalea with cleaning the floors, baseboards and walls.  We also spent some more time sorting through things at their rental house again.  It was a full day (10am - 6pm) and it really helped Rosalea to be less stressed, so I am really glad that we could help our friends out.  We were able to get all of their stuff to their new house and to completely clean out the old house.  So, now, all they have to worry about is cleaning the outside yard area. 

We were so tired after all our working yesterday, that we stopped at McDonald's for supper - a very yummy Big Mac :-) -  and then came home and crashed on the couch and watched some tv.  By 8:30pm,we were both really tired and so we picked ourselves up and went off to bed.

Today at church, everyone was so happy to see us again - I got lots of hugs and the Bishop even welcomed us back in Sacrament meeting.  The members asked us how things were with our new grandson and how things were with Grandpa Martin - it was so nice to be back in our ward and to know not only how much we were missed, but that the members were thinking of us and our family while we were away.  Our speakers in Sacrament meeting today spoke about sharing the gospel with others and setting a good example.  Personal examples were given about how just one little seed planted can lead someone to activity in the gospel even if it's years later.  All four people gave really good talks.

Right after Sacrament meeting, I headed off to Primary.  All the class teachers were here today, so I was able to sit and talk with my secretary about things that she had done in organizing things for Primary while  I was away.  When the classes were over and 'Sharing Time' began, Leanne, our new Primary Music Director, started off with singing with the kids.  She is a music teacher (her career) and so she was amazing with the kids - keeping them focused and interested - I knew that she would be great when I asked for her to be in that position - I am really glad that I was inspired to call her to that position.  Things work so much better when I let Heavenly Father guide me. :-)  I gave the 'Sharing Time' presentation today - I showed pictures of various prophets, had the kids tell me what they knew about each one of them (from Adam to President  Monson) and then we sang a verse from the song 'Follow the Prophet' about that particular prophet.  The kids were really good at keeping focused during the activity so I was really pleased.

Dad and I spent the rest of the day doing what we do every Sunday: rest. :-)  We are very good at that, I must admit.  :-)  It rained like crazy later in the afternoon and Dad went out to look at the rain cuz it was raining so hard.  While he was out there, he noticed that one of the rain gutters was overflowing and then when he looked at the bottom of the rain gutter, he noticed four little cane toads in the puddle of water.  It was so cute (not the toads - they're creepy), but just that they were sitting in/under the water and not moving out of the way.  I took some pics and have attached them under this entry.

Four little cane toads sitting in the overflow from the gutter

Thursday, March 10, 2011

It's great to be home, but what a busy time it's been since we got back!  I supply taught for Bronwyn yesterday and had a great day - she really does have a lovely class this year which she deserves after the classes she has had for the past two years!  I really enjoyed teaching them for the day - I even got lots of hugs at the end of the day - even from some of the boys. :-)  It was fabulous being in the classroom again - I love teaching and I love grade two!  While I was in the classroom, Karen (the woman at the school who is in charge of supply teachers) came in to me and asked me if I could come in today for a new grade one teacher in the school.  I said 'sure' and went to talk with the grade one teacher - she told me what I needed to do today and also told me that she would be away tomorrow as well. 

I am tired tonight, but it's not from jet lag - I haven't been affected by that at all, which has been great.  But, working with a class of 21 little six year olds is enough to wear me out. :-)  The students were pretty good at  working, but boy, could they talk.   There were a couple of issues: Ashley started the day out crying, but by the end of the day, I had her smiling.  Leyton apparently is a little naughty boy, but he wasn't too bad for me.  I did have to talk with him once about doing what I asked him to do or he would give up free time next time - he put away his toys then.  An older student came in at the end of the day and asked me how he was and how many strikes he had received.  I was a little surprised because he didn't seem to behave in a way that would require strikes and the student seemed surprised when I told her that he didn't get any. 

At the end of the day today, I went in to speak with Karen to see if I was supposed to be coming in tomorrow for the same teacher and she said that the last time she'd talked to the teacher, she was going to phone 'Tracer' (where you phone when you need a supply teacher) if she was going to be off tomorrow.  I realized that she wouldn't be able to ask for me as I had put myself down as 'unavailable' for the week.  So, I had Dad drive us straight home after school today and put myself back on the 'available' list.  I also put in a phone call to someone at 'Tracer'.  They called me back later and I asked them to check my availability and to see if the teacher had called in for me.  She had and so this woman put in that she had talked with me and I was assigned to the grade one class again.  YAY!!! 

After that, Dad and I went in to the motorcyle store where our scooter is being held.  Unfortunately, Terry, the guy who is handling our purchase, was not there today and so we have to go back in there tomorrow to finish up the paper work.  Dad also talked with the guy who teaches people how to ride scooters/motorcycles and we are hoping to get lessons soon.  We have to get our learner's permits first, but Dad says that it's easy to do that.  He's looked at the practice tests online and they only give you five questions that directly relate to riding motorcycles/scooters if you already have a car license. 

Dad went back to SES tonight - they did a review of using ropes for safety when you are on a roof - using the harnesses and how to attach the harness to ropes.  Dad said there were tons of newbies there tonight.  It seems that ever since the floods, people have been signing up like crazy.  The 'oldies' were happy to see Dad back again.