Adventures in Hervey Bay

Sunday, April 17, 2011

I forgot to tell you all in my last blog that I was offered a job, which I turned down. It was a teacher's aide job working with children who are almost at level in reading and just need a little more assistance. I turned it down because the pay was half of what I can make at supply teaching. The teacher who called me told me that she figured that I wouldn't be interested in taking the position, but since I was in so often volunteering at the school, she wanted to offer it to me first. It would have meant working three days a week for eight weeks. I have been told that teachers are off a lot in the second term and so I felt that it would be better to keep my days open for supply teaching.

Since Friday was a 'Pupil Free Day' (like a PD Day), I spent the day at the chapel. I spent hours going through the filing cabinet and Primary cupboard - I found more stuff from 2002, 2005, etc. It felt great being able to clear it all out and throw away so much stuff. I think that people have just been letting things build up over the years and didn't want to throw anything out - I did not have that problem. :-) Dad spent time at the Family History Centre in the morning - mostly working on trying to figure out why the internet wasn't working - turns out he needed to reset the whole system - had to call the ward clerk in to the chapel to open the clerk's office to do that. He spent some time with me in the Primary room setting up the bulletin boards. Here are some pics to show you how it turned out.

I think I might have forgotten to tell you about Dad's celebrity status. :-) He was in the local newspaper. Our Ward Mission Leader, Geoff, wrote up an article about the Family History Centre and took a pic of Dad and Nicole (a new member) by one of the film readers. Here is the article.

On Saturday, we Skyped with Terri-Ann, Colin, Caleb, Benjamin and Jennifer (Derek waved 'hi' in the background :-) It's always nice to talk with my girls and boys. :-) It's amazing to me how technology helps us to keep in touch as if we are almost there - it's great! :-)

The missionaries came for lunch on Saturday as they hadn't been able to come to us for dinner this week. The members take really good care of the missionaries in this ward. Not only do they get to come to members' homes for dinner, but people also bring food for them to the chapel on Sundays which they take home to eat for lunch during the week. Elders Richardson and Paki (pronounced Pah-key) told us that they love coming to our house which made us feel good. Elder Richardson wanted me to put a pic of them on my blog, so here it is.

Elder Richarson (left) and Elder Paki

After they left, we spent the rest of the day working on church stuff - Primary stuff for me and Dad worked on his small talk for the Music fireside today and also his High Priest group lesson for today as well. After dinner, we had four games of cribbage - it was so much fun - we haven't played it in ages.

Today, we had a 'church day' meaning that we were at church a lot today. We started out at 8:15am at our Ward Mission group meeting - we meet every Sunday to talk about how we can help the missionaries out (they are part of our group) - we talk about what we can do to help the church become better known in Hervey Bay. We also talk about things (like today - the music fireside) which we can invite non-members to to introduce them to the church.

There were many positive comments about the new bulletin boards in Primary - that was really nice to hear since Dad and I put a lot of time and effort into making it look good. Things are starting to come together in Primary, but it's taking time and patience (sometimes, patience is not my best quality :-) I am grateful for my secretary as she keeps me on track. My first counsellor is away right now with her daughter and my second counsellor has her daughter and four grandchildren living with her now, so it's mostly just me and Denise (secretary) who are getting things organized right now. I will be going in tomorrow while Dad is at the FHC and will work some more on getting the Primary room sorted out. I am hoping that this will be the last time I have to spend so much time clearing things up in there.

At 4:30pm, Dad and I went back to church for the musical fireside. It was based on music with an Easter theme (Christ, the atonement, etc) and we have many talented people in our ward. We had a lady play a harp which was absolutely beautiful. We had a number of singers including the women in the ward choir perform and then we had Elder Richardson read different scriptures which were interspersed with songs which the congregation sang. The fireside ended with Dad talking a little about worshipping through music and about the Saviour and the atonement - he finished by bearing his testimony about the resurrection of the Saviour. He did a really nice job - you wouldn't even have known that he was nervous. :-)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

I didn't get a call to supply teach Wednesday, so I went in to Kawungan to see if Terri wanted me to go over her students' writing task we did Tuesday with each of them. I was only able to get to a couple on that day as were two other teachers who came in to assist for a bit. Terri is such a lovely person and she was so appreciative of me helping her out. All day she kept saying "if you need to do something else, that's fine". I kept telling her that I was there for as long as she needed me. I didn't tell Luise I was there cuz I figured that I would only be with Terri for a little bit and then I would go and help Luise, but I didn't want to tell Luise I would be there in case things went differently than I imagined. Well, it sure did - it took me all day to go over the students' work with them. I was basically looking at how they had copied their corrected work on to a good copy. There was only one student who did it really well and a few who did it pretty well. Some teachers will just fix up the mistakes the students make when copying from rough copy to good copy, but I think it's more beneficial for the students if they do it themselves. Of course, if you are the classroom teacher, it's hard to find the time to do that. So having me do it would be a big help to Terri, I knew - I made notes as I went along as well so that she could use the comments if she wanted.

Dad spent the day at home doing the dreaded taxes. Man, the poor guy has really struggled with these. This is the Canadian taxes and there are no computer programs that Dad knows of which can do the taxes for him (like he used to do in Canada). He had to download pages and pages of information on how to fill out the forms - it literally took him all day and evening to finish them. I was so appreciative of him spending so much time to do this nasty job. He is going to contact the company which made the program he used to use to do his taxes in Canada to see if they have anything which might make it easier for him to do them next year. When we get back to Canada, we are going to take our info into H and R Block to make sure that he has done it the best way possible since there was so much information to go through and it was like legalese.

I didn't get a call to go in today, either (didn't think I would since it's the last day before the Easter holidays) and so I was able to go with Dad to do Meals on Wheels which I really enjoy doing. We were given a short route, so we were done quite quickly. Dad is so good with remembering where streets are - he can go on route one time and remember so much of the way we have to go - he's always been able to do that and it's a pretty amazing talent, I think.

This afternoon, our friends, Geoff and Robyn, came over. Geoff has a motorcycle license and he is allowed to drive behind us while we go on the scooter and practice riding. I went first and felt really comfortable riding it in our area of town (out in the boonies :-) Then, I rode down towards town, past the Anglican College, through the roundabout, and turned right (away from town) and drove with some of the traffic. When I got to the end of the street, I got off. I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed and so I let Dad have a turn. What I found was that it was hard to get into traffic and ride and think about everything at the same time. I also found it hard to go above 50km - it just seemed too fast for me. Dad got on and didn't seem to have any issues - fearless, he was. :-) Watching him, I wondered if part of my problem is that I have not driven over here in over a year - Dad seemed so comfortable in traffic. Riding the scooter itself is not a problem - it's easy to do - it's just that I didn't feel comfortable around the traffic and I wonder if that's cuz Dad always drives. I found it hard to guage the passenger side of the car here and so I stopped driving. I told Dad that I need to get more practice in driving so that I feel comfortable about it again. It was great being on the bike out in the country, though - I even got up to 60km/hr when I was on my second ride. That felt great! :-)

Robyn and I went visiting teaching today. We visited with a woman whose husband is not a member. She is a lovely woman and we enjoy visiting with her. We have good discussions and get a good yak in as well. I feel for her, though, as her life at home is not easy. She goes to work full-time and then has to come home and do all the home stuff. Today, she had started dinner and stopped it to visit with us. After about a half hour visit, she said she had to go and finish making dinner - her husband wouldn't even do that. I asked her if she could come out one day for dinner or lunch in town instead of us coming out to her house - thought she might like to get out and let someone else do the cooking for her. She made a bunch of excuses and then said that it was hard for her to even get out to Relief Society, basically telling us that her husband didn't like her going out to church stuff or with church people. I tell you what - it sure make me appreciate your Dad even more.

Tonight at SES, Dad joined in with the newbie group today as he missed the second half of that class while we were in Canada. So, tonight he was a team leader in a communication exercise. His task was to 'find the fox'. 'The fox' was another SES person in an SES truck - each of the four teams had a grid map of a 10 square block radius. In turn, each team could ask 'the fox' one question which could only be answered affirmative or negative and the question had to be based on compass point directions. So, through listening to the answers to the questions, they were to narrow down the area of focus until they could pinpoint 'the fox's' exact location. This was all done by walking the grid and listening to the answers/asking the questions via radio (walkie talkie). They repeated the exercise four or five times and Dad's team was able to locate 'the fox' once before the other teams were able to. Dad really enjoyed the exercise and found it was good practice to get on the radio.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Whew! What a busy day for both Dad and I. I thought I wasn't going to be called in to teach today as I hadn't received a call by 7am, but at 7:15am, I received a call from Tracer asking me to teach a grade three class at Kawungan. It was a class which I had taught for half a day before - there are a few challenging children in there and so I wasn't overly thrilled about going, but it was a day's pay and it wasn't an awful class, so I said 'yes', and then got dressed in the shortest time I have ever gotten ready. When I got to school, I found that the teacher had left no plans (and found out later that this was pretty typical of her) and so I had to talk with the teacher next store to get some ideas. I worked out a basic plan and then just tweaked it as I went along. One boy in the class who should be on meds was off the wall and so I took him down to the deputy principal at little lunch - he stayed there for the whole lunch time and some more time as well. Then, at big lunch, I found out a bunch of kids had issues with scissors and so sent them down to see the deputy principal at big lunch. Travis, who was in Bronwyn's class last year was also 'off' today - he is 9, but acts about 4 - when he sets his mind to something, there is no changing it, so off he went with a teacher's aide to the deputy principal. We managed to fill the day with activities - nothing too exciting except for the 20 minutes of chess they played - but, at least I kept them busy. I also found out today that Terry, a grade two teacher, confirmed that she wanted me for tomorrow, so I am already in the system for that. I really like teaching grade two and so I imagine I am going to have a good day tomorrow.

Dad was so busy at the Family History Centre that, at times, there weren't enough computers for the number of patrons wanting to use them. This was very exciting for Dad since that rarely happens. Dad said that there were eight patrons today (a record for this FHC). He tried to do some indexing, but was kept busier helping the patrons with questions they had and having to show them how to use the machines there.

After school, although I was quite worn out, we went for a walk. We decided to just do the route around the park at the end of our street. Once around is a kilometre and so we went around three times. We try to do each round in ten minutes, but we are out of shape a little, I think, and it took us 14 minutes to do each round. We didn't worry about the timing that much as we know we are going to have to build up to it again. It was good to get out in the fresh air and sunshine and have a good talk while we walked. When we got home, I sat outside on my chaise lounge and enjoyed another 45 minutes of fresh air and sun.

I had a fabulous, fabulous time in Terri's grade two class today!!! I had talked with a teacher just before going in and she told me that Terri's class wasn't as lovely as last year. Oh no, I thought - that's just great. Anyway, I get in to the class and I take the attendance and two boys and a girl are away. I found out later, that the two boys who were away were the 'naughty' boys. Woo hoo! :-) So, the rest of the children were awesome and worked hard and followed instructions and listened well. I could hardly have asked for a better day. I told some of the teachers at Big Lunch that I don't feel I earned my pay today, it was that good. :-) I hope that next time I cover for Terri that those two boys are away again. I am sure that Terri is not going to be impressed that she didn't get to enjoy a day without those boys. :-)

Dad had a very busy day at home. He started out his day by hanging up the two loads of clothes which I had put in the washing machine this morning. Then, it was time to go outside and do some yard work: mowing the lawn, trimming, weeding, and spraying for bugs. After lunch, it was time to come inside and clean the house. Dad does a nice job of that - I appreciate not having to do it. When he gets a job, I am not going to like having to help out with this chore.

After doing some grocery shopping and 'Big W' (like Walmart) shopping, we came home. By this time, it was 5:30pm. I was going to get stuck into making dinner, but I couldn't give up the last half hour of light outside. So, I took my computer out there and lay on my chaise lounge and enjoyed the fresh air while I caught up on some emails. I am looking forward to Friday when our fall school holidays start. It will be a lovely ten days of relaxing and enjoying the outdoors. We plan on doing some swimming, walking, biking and lazing around outside on our chaise loungers. Life is great here in HB!!! :-)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I was very surprised to get ANOTHER call from Tracer on Friday - and this time it was to a different school again. This time, it was to Torquay State School where Chantelle, the student teacher from last year, works - it was her teaching partner who called Tracer and asked for me. I was really pleased to be able to go in there. So, it was another day in Prep (kindergarten) - Chantelle said they were a lovely class, but they were not as lovely as the Prep class I had earlier in the week. There was a teacher's aide as there is in every Prep class - Samantha was great - she was able to tell me what was on the cards for the day as again no lesson plan had been left, but the teacher had called Sam at home. The day went fairly well - the children were a bit restless, but overall, it was a pretty good day. I am hoping that Sam will give a good report about me to the teacher - this teacher is going on her long service leave soon and I would love to do her contract - there is a possibility that there might be another teacher returning who is on leave right now and she might be taking over that contract, but you never know what might happen. The principal of this school also told Chantelle that if I were to volunteer in the school, they would send as many supply days my way as they could. So, I am going to go in on the first Friday after the holidays (which are next week) and get started on the volunteering. They want me to help with a reading program they want to do with children in grade one who are having trouble reading.

Dad spent the day at the Family History Centre and he was very excited to have two patrons since they usually don't get anyone on Fridays. Dad helped the patrons to find names on the internet. Dad did some more indexing - he is way past half way in the records he has done and we're only one third of the way through the month. Dad also worked on the files for General Conference - there were issues yesterday, but he needed his computer to fix them.

After school, we did some grocery shopping and ran some other errands and then came home and vegged in front of the tv for the night. Teaching Prep children can be very exhausting mentally and I was spent for the day. We are watching less tv these days in general - we were watching way too much and getting nothing else done - we don't want to become couch potatoes, but sometimes we are just too tired. I don't mind taking one night a week to just veg.

We spent Saturday from 8am to 5pm learning how to ride the scooter. We met the instructor, John, at the Maryborough Showgrounds - that's where John does the training - he pays a fee to the city to use the showgrounds. He lives in Maryborough and that city is about half an hour from HB. Once we got there, we quickly dispensed with the paperwork so that we could get to the riding part. I got to go first on the bike and I was so excited. First, John had me get on the scooter and then he pushed me along (without the motor running), then he had me start the scooter and had me ride slowly and then stop it while he ran along beside me, then I did a few laps of the area we were training in, and then it was Dad's turn to do the same. Next, we went to another area of the showground to do the next two manoeuvres which were driving slowly along a path (lined with pylons) and doing figure eights. Next, we went to John's home to watch a DVD about riding safely. While we watched the video, we ate lunch so that we could finish earlier. Then, it was back to the first area where we did slaloms (riding in and out a line of pylons) and doing an avoidance manoevre (riding in a straight line at 40km and then having to swerve one way or another quickly when John put up his hand one way or the other). Our last manoeuvre for the day was learning how to stop quickly which we both did quite well. It was a great day and I can't wait to get back on the scooter again. :-) Here are some pics of our day..........

John pushing me

John running beside me

Me riding around the track

John giving Dad instructions

Dad riding around the track

Dad sitting on the scooter

Me in the learner 'L' vest riding as slow as I can through the pylons

Dad riding the slalom

Me riding the avoidance manoeuvre

Dad riding around the track

Today was General Conference here in Australia. Because of the time difference, we don't watch it when it's aired, but rather we download them and then watch them on the next weekend. We missed Saturday's sessions because of the scooter lessons, but we were able to go to the two sessions today. The way they work it is we watch the first session, then have a half hour for lunch and then watch the last two hour session. There were some wonderful messages today - here is a snapshot of what I took from the speakers:

- hearken to the promptings of the Spirit and be eager to heed them
- affliction is part of our mortal experience and after much tribulation come the blessings
- the church welfare program's emphasis is on personal responsibility and self reliance
- love one another, serve one another, reach out and assist the less fortunate
- revelation can be immediate and intense, but that is rare; usually it is gradual, line upon line, precept upon precept; we need to press forward obediently and with faith in the Saviour

- temples bring joy to the faithful and attending the temple brings blessings, so attend the temple regularly
- being sealed in the temple for eternity bring happiness to families; express love and appreciation for your spouse and speak kindly to one another
- Heavenly Father has high expectations of us so we need to willingly accept correction: He persuades us to repent which leads to righteousness, refines and sanctifies us, redirects our course to a better way
- the Lord remembers His promises to them who pay their tithing
- to BE like the Saviour, you must DO things to emulate him; the doing is important but it must associated with the 'be'; we must strengthen our children's self-worth and help them to draw unto Him
- live the gospel, follow the prophet, be faithful, come unto the Lord
- the atonement is there for all of us so that if we repent, our sins are forgiven and remembered no more
- stay on the narrow path

Dad and I look forward to getting the Ensign magazine so that we can read the messages given over the two days of General Conference. It's so wonderful hearing the words of the prophet and other church leaders twice a year.

Not only did we have a lovely day at Conference, but we spent the afternoon outside enjoying the lovely weather. The sky was blue (well, mostly - there were a few clouds around) and the sun was shining. I took the opportunity to pull my chaise lounge out onto the grass and sat on it with my book and enjoyed the sun shining down on me. :-) Dad stayed under cover working on some more indexing. Aaaah, life is good. :-)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Yesterday morning, I got a call from Tracer (they are the ones who call you to supply teach). I was sort of expecting a call since Luise told me the day before that I might get a call because the teachers were getting tired. So, imagine my surprise when I was asked to go to a different school. They called me to supply at a school called Sandy Strait to teach in a Prep (kindergarten) class - AND the teacher I was subbing for was male! That REALLY surprised me - I have never known a male to be a kindergarten teacher before. It turns out that he taught grade four last year and they lost so many children at the school, that they lost teachers at different grades - and he was reassigned to kindergarten. I was told that he is not happy about it. Also, he left no plans which actually annoyed me since I was told that he wasn’t feeling well the day before. Fortunately for me, he has a wonderful teacher’s aide (every kindergarten class has a teacher’s aide at least for half a day and sometimes for a while day here). Madonna (the aide) helped me work out what we could do for the day. There were 18 children in the class and I was told to keep an eye on three boys. I had to work my ‘magic’ and I think that I did very well. One of my ‘tricks’ is to use the ‘challenge’ child(ren) as my ‘carpet examples’ where I mention how well they are sitting and that everyone should sit like them. That works really well most of the time and worked with these guys. I also find that praising them for positive behaviour has a good effect, too. I left my supply teaching card for the teacher and the teacher next door asked me for a card as well. Then, I had to cover another kindergarten teacher’s class for the last part of the day and I left my card with her. When I left the school, I stopped by the office and left my card with the woman there. So, hopefully, this will lead to more work.

Dad spent the morning doing errands and then had to stay home for the afternoon as we were having some more furniture delivered. Our single beds for our second guest room and our two rocker/recliners came. Dad was so excited about his chair. :-) Here is a pic of it. He quite enjoyed sitting in his new chair today. :-)

After school, we came straight home so that we could make lasagna as the missionaries were coming over for dinner. It was such a lovely day, so we decided to eat outside. It was fun having them over. They are two new missionaries from when we left to go to Canada. Both missionaries are from Melbourne, although they didn’t know each other there as they were in different Stakes. They get along really well which is good. They are working on finding out where the less active children are in our ward for me. As the Primary president, I want to know what we can do to help the children who aren’t coming out to church right now, but I need to know who they are and what their situation is before I can do anything.

Today was my day to go in and teach the grade 2s and grade 3s at Kawungan. I was really looking forward to today as I was going to be in Bronwyn’s class for half a day and then a grade three class. Before school, I went in to Bronwyn’s classroom to see what I was going to be doing that morning and she told me a nice bit of info. Her husband supply teaches at a catholic school and they had asked him if he ever supply taught at the primary level (he’s a high school person) - they said that they had some difficulties sometimes getting supply teachers for that level. I told her thanks for letting me know and I will go there tomorrow after school and give them my card. I had a lovely time in Bronwyn’s class today- they are all lovely and work well and listen well - the perfect class to supply teach in. I told her after school that she is welcome to take off as many days as she would like. :-) She sure deserves this class after the last two years! The grade three class was fairly easy to teach as well as I knew most of the students from volunteering/working in the grade two classes last year. There were a couple of boys who were annoying, but hopefully if I ever get to supply in that class again, they will be better behaved.

Dad started off his day doing some errands before going to do his Meals on Wheels run. He was paired up with a new couple today who used to receive meals from MOW and now wanted to give back. They did the Baycrest run which is the one we have often done in the past. After MOW, Dad went to the chapel to help our friend, Rob figure out why he couldn’t get the General Conference videos to run. Another guy in our ward, Zander, had downloaded them, but for some reason, Rob couldn’t get them to play, so he called Dad to ask him to come to the chapel to help him figure out what was wrong.

After school, Dad and I went to the motorcycle shop where we bought my scooter from. We needed to buy a helmet and some gloves as we are starting our riding course on Saturday. We decided that, since we can’t both ride on the motorcycle at the same time (you have to have your license for a year before you can take someone else on your bike) and the cost of buying these accessories was hefty, we would buy one of each and then share them. There was a really good sale on the helmet, but not on the gloves ($80. for the gloves, can you believe it!). We asked the woman about the jackets even though we knew they were expensive, too, just so that we knew what they were like when we did spend the money on one. They were on a really good sale - too good a sale to pass up - and so we bought a jacket as well. I will have to work a couple of extra supply days before we can get another set of accessories. :-) We are really looking forward to starting our riding lessons - I can’t wait until I can ride the scooter to school when I get calls to teach or when I am volunteering. They say the cost of petrol (gas) could go up to $2.00 per litre in the next while so not only will it be fun riding my scooter, but it will also save money. Two for the price of one! :-)

At SES tonight, Dad did a review of maps and navigation. They were given a map and told to get from A to B. They had to use a compass to complete the activity (it was all on paper). The idea was that they would have been able to go outside and do the search for real using the calculations they had made on the paper. It was pretty basic stuff, but it’s always good to go over it, Dad says.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Today I had a job already lined up at Kawungan and my morning was in Luise’s grade one class. That made it so easy for me as they already knew me and I knew them and I knew the routine which Luise has. I started out by reading them a book - I love to read to children and they love to be read to. I find that some teachers don’t read as much to the kids as others - I used to have all kinds of reading happening in my classroom. After that, we had centres (they call them ‘rotations’). Luise is very fortunate to have parents come in and help out with these. Two parents came in (one dad and one mum) and each one took a literacy centre, two groups were working independently and I took the reading group. I was quite surprised at how well some of these children can read and they’re only in grade one. Even the lowest group didn’t do too badly in my opinion. The only thing now is that this school is expecting the grade one kids to be working at a grade level higher than the grade one kids were last year. So, for instance, the grade ones are now expected to do grade two work. We did some floor work (alphabetical order and counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc.) and then it was time for ‘little lunch’.

After that, I only had half an hour with them before it was time to go and be with the Prep (kindergarten) class I was assigned to. That was an experience! At first, it was going really well - they had to work on centres for the first hour. I worked with one group, the teaching assistant worked with another group and a volunteer worked with a third group. There were other centres which the children went to independently. At the centre I was working at, I had to teach them how to print the letter ‘r’ - easy enough. However, while I was doing that, some of the kids decided to go outside and I didn’t notice that. Fortunately for me, some other kids came and told me and I rounded them up. I hadn’t even thought of keeping an eye on the door - I just figured that they knew what to do and didn’t even think that they might try and go out of the door. I will know that for next time. After centres, they had a 15 minute nap - they lay down on their towels on the carpet and listened to some jazz music which I put on. Two of the little girls fell fast asleep - I felt bad having to wake them up - but, it was ‘big lunch’ time and they needed to eat. I wonder sometimes why they have all day kindergarten - the teaching assistant reckoned that they were done by 2pm and we didn’t get much out of them after that. Fortunately today, after ‘big lunch’, they had reading buddies and then P.E. (as they call ‘gym’ here).

Dad was at the Family History Centre today. There were three other workers there and two patrons. Dad spent some time indexing today, but most of his time was spent doing other things: fixing cabinets, fixing computers, and showing a patron how to search for information. Dad said today that it took something like four years to get half a billion records indexed, but since the church had put a push on it beginning late last year, another half a billion have been indexed in just the past three months; approximately 14 billion to go. :-)

Here is an email which Dad received about his doing the indexing:

Dear Michael,

Congratulations on completing your 100th batch with FamilySearch Indexing!

You have reached a significant and rare milestone: the completion of your 100th batch with FamilySearch indexing. The completion of your 100th batch places you into an exclusive group of top indexing volunteers. We want to thank you for your ongoing efforts and recognize this significant achievement.

Your efforts, combined with the efforts of other volunteers, have now made more than one billion records available online at FamilySearch.org, where they are accessed by people around the world who are searching for their ancestors. Each week dozens of these people send us messages of appreciation for your efforts.

We join these people in expressing our sincere appreciation for your efforts in reaching 100 completed indexing batches and recognize the significant contribution you are making to FamilySearch indexing.

Keep Up the Good Work!

You are providing valuable and meaningful service to people around the world who are seeking information about their ancestors. The continued success of this project depends on you and others like you who graciously give of their time and efforts. We celebrate your success and encourage you to continue in this important endeavor to make records more accessible online.

Thank You,

FamilySearch Indexing

I thought that was a cool email to receive acknowledging all the work and hours dad has done/put in. :-)

After school, Dad and I changed into our running shoes and drove down to the beach. I am glad that I took my runners with me this morning, as if I had come home first to get them, I might not have gone out for a walk since I felt weary after working with those young ‘uns all day. We walked half an hour along the beach (it was low tide so the water was very far out) and then we walked back for half an hour along the boardwalk. It was a lovely walk - the sun was warm and it’s so nice walking along the beach. There were a number of others walking along the beach, especially those with dogs. We are planning on doing this three times a week - it’s almost like cheating to call this exercise. :-)

When we were done our walk, we stopped to get take-out. Now I can just hear you all saying ‘what, after you have exercised, you had take-out!’. :-) Well, we happened to park across the road from a fish and chip place which we had heard was the best in Hervey Bay. We had forgotten to take out the meat we needed for dinner and so there was nothing waiting for us at home and Dad really did want to try the fish there, so we got some fish and chips - well, Dad got fish (crumbed barramundi - Barramundi has gained a reputation as one of Australia's finest eating fish, usually with a price to match! There is no denying that Barramundi are excellent table fish and specimens captured from estuarine waters are delicious, with firm, white, fine-grained meat) and I got a chiko roll (the Chiko roll is an Australian savoury snack, consisting of beef, celery, cabbage, barley, carrot, onion, green beans, and spices in a tube of egg, flour and dough which is then deep-fried. The Chiko Roll debuted at the Wagga Wagga Agriculture Show in 1951). We ate our dinner out on our outdoor table and it was lovely to sit outside in the fresh air with the sun shining warmly on us. The food was delicious as well. :-) We stayed out there until 6:30pm - we had to put the lights on at about 6pm, but then the lights attracted too many bugs and so we decided to come inside. We are really going to enjoy using this outdoor set. :-)

Today I was supplying for the grade 5s and grade 4s. I was in a grade 5 classroom which I was in a week or so ago, so I thought it would be easier cuz the kids knew me and I knew them. Michelle has a lovely class, except for a few which makes it not fun - it’s amazing how a few kids can change a lovely time into a challenging and weary time. Two of the boys threw things when my back was turned, but the kids dobbed them in (told me that they did it) and so I reported this to Michelle later on (she told me that they had done the same thing with her in the classroom). She called the D.P. (deputy (vice) principal) and she came, and boy, did she tear a strip off those boys! Two other students (one boy and one girl) were rude and disrespectful to me - they kept talking even when I asked them to stop and did other annoying things on purpose. Michelle decided that they would miss their recess time, which I was very happy about - and I was even happier when I didn’t have to stay in with them - Michelle sent them to the office. The rest of my time with that class went much smoother. I went to a grade four class in the afternoon and they were easier, although not the little lovelies that the teacher said they were, but that’s the way it is when you are a supply teacher - the kids try to take advantage and you don’t have the same effect over them as you do as the classroom teacher. I managed to get through the day, though - and it sure told me that I am right about only wanting to supply Prep (kindergarten) to Year 3. :-)

While I was at school, Dad was VERY busy. He started the day off mowing the lawn, which was fun since there were small showers all day today. He also vacuumed the house and cleaned the bathrooms. After school, the day just flew by: shopping (food and clothes), making dinner, dropping by the chapel for a quick visit with the Bishop (Dad), eating dinner, working on Primary stuff, reading scriptures, doing weight exercises…….we were going to ride our bikes today, but by the time we were finished with our shopping, it was too late to go riding. When we were at the grocery store, I happened to notice a big sale going on at a clothing store called ‘Millers’ which I love - they have clothing that I really like and they were having a 50% off sale today! I was able to find three skirts (all the same, but in different colours), two tops and two capris which I liked. Man, what a lucky week I am having with buying clothes! :-)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

I took Friday off volunteering at school and Dad drove me to the Primary secretary's place (Denise). She and I spent the next six hours working on Primary stuff. My first counsellor (assistant) is away and the second counsellor was at the Family History Centre. I wanted to go through all the things we have been working on and a lot of it was to do with secretarial business. We wrote down tons of questions we had so that I could email the people who would know the answers and we wrote down things which we both needed to follow-up. I ended up writing down a whole page of things just for me to do. It sure is a lot of work being the president of Primary. Although it was a very long meeting, it was very fruitful and I am glad that we were both able to spend the time to work through things.

Dad spent the day at the Family History Centre. No patrons showed up and so Dad and the other workers spent the day doing indexing. The two workers had some difficulties doing their indexing and Dad was able to help them. Dad was able to do 70 entries on Friday, so it's a start to his new goal for the month of April.

After Dad was finished at the FHC, he came and picked me up and dropped me off at a local coffee house. Chantelle, who was a student teacher at Kawungan when I was doing Bronwyn's grade two contract, and Bronwyn and I got together there (Chantelle said she had been there before and they made good drinks). I ordered an iced chocolate which was actually pretty good: milk with chocolate sauce, ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. The three of us chatted for about an hour, mostly about what is happening at Chantelle's school. She is working at Torquay State School as a Prep (kindergarten) teacher - it was interesting talking with her about how her school works. It seems so different from Kawungan. When Bronwyn had to leave at about 5pm, Chantelle drove me home and we ended up talking in the driveway for another hour or so. It was great to see Chantelle again and to catch up with her. I gave her some of my supply teacher cards and she is going to hand them out at her school. She is going to try and talk with her Deputy Principal (Vice Principal) on Monday and see if I can come in and meet with him on Tuesday. She also suggested that I come and volunteer at her school and get my face/name known. I think that I might start doing that on Fridays when I don't have work.

On Saturday, we woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep (how frustrating!). I put four or five loads of laundry in and worked on Primary stuff while Dad worked on church stuff - he was reading the 'Ensign' maganize trying to figure out which article he would base his Sunday lesson on for the High Priest group.

After lunch, we went downtown to do some shopping - had to buy more stuff for Primary. When we got to the 'mall' (small shopping centre), we met our friends, Rob and Rosalea, who were also shopping. Rosalea was looking at clothes and so, as we talked, I looked at some, too. I had looked at some skirts earlier in the week and so I checked them out again. After trying two of them on, I decided to ask the woman at the cash if the sale that I saw earlier in the week (2 for $50) was still on. She said 'no' and I said 'okay then - I was going to take two of them, but I will just take the one' (they were on for $29.99 each). She then said she would give them to me for the sale price (see, it pays to ask :-) They are both VERY colourful skirts and just the kind I like: elastic waist and long. :-) Rosalea then wanted to go to another store in the mall, so I went with her. Can you believe that I found three shirts that I loved in that store which were on sale? I mean, I NEVER am THAT lucky! :-) I got a green, blue and white shirt and they all go with the two skirts I bought. Rosalea bought a ton of stuff at the second store and she usually isn't that lucky either, so we both said that we each must bring each other good luck. :-)

Today was a nice relaxing day - as Sunday always is. :-) It was Fast and Testimony Sunday today and the members in Hervey Bay are quick to get up and bear their testimonies and they fill the whole time up. Both Dad and I were thinking about going up and bearing our testimonies, but there just wasn't a break. We both plan on doing it next month - we will have to just get up at the beginning of the meeting. Primary went really well - we still have a lot of working out to do, but we are on the right track. I gave the Sharing Time lesson today on where we lived before we came to earth and how Jesus said that he would come down and die for us. The kids were really good at answering the questions and participating by helping me to hold up some visual aids. Today, the High Priest group (of which Dad is the leader) met for the first time today - there were eight of them present today. Dad gave the lesson about the atonement of Jesus Christ. Dad said that the men were really good about participating and so they had a good discussion.

Dad and I spent the rest of today relaxing. When we got home, I took my Primary stuff outside and Dad took his lesson book outside and we sat in our new outdoor chairs. It was lovely out there - nice and warm (about 24C with a lovely breeze) and our chairs are so comfortable. Dad has taken some pictures of the suite and so there are a few below this entry. We stayed out there until it was supper time and then ate supper outside on the table. It was just a glorious time! :-)