Sunday, May 8, 2011

Friday was a very busy day and an exhausting one - I was wiped by the time I got home from school.  I had a good time in the grade four class teaching a second day with Maree.  Since Mother's Day was today, most of Friday was spent working on a Mother's Day gift.  The students created a paper pillow with love hearts inside it with qualities written on the hearts which the students felt their mother had.  They also made a paper scroll which had a wordsearch on it based on the answers to questions the students answered about their mothers.  I also showed the kids my Canadian coins and told them about each coin - it held their attention for quite a while which was good. 

Dad had a really good day at the Family History Centre Friday - he had six non-member visitors - all of them came as a result of the article that was in the newspaper - two of the six were returning patrons and four of them were new.  It's really exciting that so many new people are coming in to use the FHC.  Dad was flat out helping all the new people, but it's good being flat out for that reason. :-)

Robyn and Geoff picked me up after school and brought me home so that they could follow me riding the scooter around - another practice session.  Dad feels comfortable enough to go for his final riding test now, so he decided not to go for a ride that day.  I feel really comfortable riding on the bike, but not about going around town as I still don't know it well enough.  So, Dad and I had mapped out a route for me to go.  I started out and did really well getting to the first road north and then the next road east and then north again and then west, but then when it came time to go south, I missed the turn-off - I didn't know the landmarks of the cross streets.  As I was going over the road, I realized that I had missed it and so turned left at the next street and stopped up a bit.  Dad hopped out of the car and got me back on track and I managed to get all the way home without any more problems.  I totally felt good on the scooter, but I really do need more experience driving/riding on the streets of Hervey Bay.  I think that Dad is going to go for his motorcycle license in the next couple of weeks, but I'm not sure if I am ready to get mine since I don't know the area well enough.  I don't know if that matters or not so I will have a chat with John when he comes to test Dad and see what he says.

Robyn and Geoff stayed for dinner.  We were going to have a barbecue, but Dad and I were both full-on and we just didn't have time to get things organized for a bbq.  So, we had tacos and they turned out delicious - mince (that's hamburger for you non-Aussies ), kidney beans and crushed tomatoes for the base.  I wish that we had our new living room furniture already - we had to sit the whole night at our dining room table - which is fine as far as comfort goes as our chair cushions are really comfortable - but, it would be nice to get up from the table and sit on a couch or chair.  We had a lovely evening chatting with Robyn and Geoff - we get along with them so well - they left yesterday for six weeks to take care of their daughter who lives down south and is having an operation.  We are going to miss them while they are gone.  I told them after dinner that when they get back I would like to have people over from church for dinner and that I thought it would be good to have them and one other couple and they thought that was a great idea.

Saturday was an incredibly beautiful day - the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the temperature was lovely and warm!  I went to Homemaking in the morning and drove there all by myself! :-)  The homemaking meeting was about 'living well for less' and although I didn't learn much new (it was mostly about food storage and how to make natural cleaners), it was really nice meeting with the sisters in the ward - we just don't get enough time to talk with each other on a Sunday (especially those of us in Primary) and so I love these opportunities to get together. 

When I got home, Dad and I went for a lovely drive - the day was too beautiful to stay inside - or even to stay outside at home.  Dad and I both thought about where we wanted to go and decided on a place called 'Rainbow Beach' which is about 1 1/2 hours south of Hervey Bay.  We knew that a lot of people stopped there as it is a popular place to catch a barge to get to Fraser Island.  When we got there, we found an incredibly beautiful beach with brown sand and  going on for ages.  We walked the beach for quite a while - it was such a lovely way to spend an afternoon walking along the water's edge.  While we were walking along, we came upon a wedding on the beach, a parasailor, a dog swimming in the ocean, several four wheel drive vehicles, and some swimmers and other walkers along the beach.  After our  walk along the beach, we walked the main street - one side of a very short block :-)  and then bought some ice-cream and sat on a bench near the beach to enjoy them.  After that, Dad wanted to go up to Inskip Point to see what it was like where the barges crossed to Fraser Island.  Once we parked the car, it was just a short walk along the beach until we got to the barge landing point - the barge just beaches itself in the sand while people walk on or people drive on - in four wheel drive vehicles only.  By the time we were ready to leave, it was almost dark - it was a bit worrisome driving home as we drove on a road which is not well travelled, but we made it home fine and have wonderful memories of a fabulous day.  Here are some pics of our day............

Driving on the road to Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach

Four wheel drive vehicles on Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach

Parasailor on Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach

Sue sitting on a buoy on Rainbow Beach

Mike in the surf on Rainbow Beach

One of the barges taking a vehicle from Inskip Point to Fraser Island

Sun setting on Inskip Point

Another barge at Inskip Point

View across the water at Inskip Point

Crab balls of sand and holes - the crabs dig a hole and then push the sand out and it forms into balls on top of the sand - they were all over the beach

Sun setting at Inskip Point - a wonderful ending to a wonderful day out

We finished off this wonderful day Skyping with Terri-Ann and the boys.  It was great being able to talk with the three boys - well to talk with Colin and Caleb and to hear Benjamin talk to us - he sure isn't a shy boy. :-)  It's so funny when all three boys are trying to talk with us at once.  It was so cute when Colin gave us hugs and kisses over the computer - I am looking forward to getting some 'real' ones when we come back in December. :-)



Today was a really nice Sabbath day - not weather-wise as it was grey and cloudy - but a nice day at church and for the rest of the day.  Our speakers today were Ethan (a young man) and two women who all spoke on (what else?) mothers.  Ethan spoke about how wonderful his mom is and Amanda and Trudy spoke about their mothers as well.  It was a nice way to start the day.  Primary went smoothly and the children seemed to enjoy making their Mother's Day Date Night Kit.  I found the idea on the net and I really liked it.  It meant that I didn't have much to do to prepare the kits and the kids didn't have much to do, either, as we only had 20 minutes for them to do it.  I had put 12 M & Ms in a little baggie (2 of each of six colours), a popcorn bag and a piece of paper explaining the task.  On the paper, the children had to write about what was so special about their mom.  Then, under that was a poem which were the instructions which said that the mother was supposed to pick out an M & M and then answer a question based on the colour chosen.  The child would do the same thing.  Once they were done answering the question, they could pop the popcorn and play a board game together.  The children liked the idea of having a one-on-one date with their mom and I hope the moms and the children have a fun time together.

The missionaries came over for lunch today as they get to call their moms on Mother's Day and they had asked us if they could use our computers to Skype with their moms.   They both had a lovely time talking with their families - it was great for their families to be able to see their boys and to talk with them.  I love that mothers are thought of as so important as to be able to receive a call from their boys (and sometimes girls) on the moms' special day. :-)



Thursday, May 5, 2011

What a busy day it was yesterday - we just keep going and going! :-)  I spent the day at school again volunteering in Louise's class and I did assessment all day again as well and was able to finish everything she wanted me to do except for two children doing one assessment which will take me 5 minutes next time I am in.  She was so appreciative again and I am starting to feel like I am being 'accepted' - she is beginning to treat me like a teacher which is great - it's not the same as it was working with Bronwyn, but it's better than it was before, so I am happy about that.

Dad spent another day driving around town to check out another one of his areas for the census.  It's taking him about six hours to do this - long hours just driving around and around an area.  He says that driving up a side (non-busy) street works okay as he can look at the houses on both sides of the street at the same time.  But, on a busy street, he has to go up one side and down the other because there are just too many things to check and no way to stop or pull off while he does that.  It's going to be a busy couple of weeks having to check out all these places.  The numbers in this area at least were pretty much right on, so there's nothing to worry about there.

As soon as Dad picked me up from school, we headed over to Pialba State School to speak with the couple whose class I supply taught in today.  It's a grade four class and a husband and wife team teach in the classroom which is double the regular classroom size - they have desks on either side of the classroom with a carpeted area in the middle where they can give the class instructions and do some teaching to the students.  David and Maree (pronounced just like 'Marie') were great and so easy to talk with.  David is attending a two days sports tournament and so I am supplying for him.  Maree said they were so pleased when they heard that I was coming in to supply as they are doing a unit called "Around the World in 40 Days" and one of the countries they were going to touch on was Canada.  Maree asked me if I would be willing to talk to the students about living in Canada and I said that I would be happy to do that. 

We had to hurry from there to get home to make our dinner so that we could be ready to go to the Family History Centre.  The High Priests are going to be in charge of being at the FHC on Wednesday nights so that any members who want to do their family history and can't come during the days, can come at night.  Our friend, Geoff signed up to do it with Dad this week.  Robyn came with Geoff and so while Dad showed Geoff how to use the programs available at the FHC, Robyn and I chatted a bit and then she watched me try to find my great great grandmother on my Grandpa Terry's side.  I am looking for the name 'Maria Dermott' and I have been told by Uncle Rick that she was born sometime around 1861 + or -.  I have found two Maria's so far who fit the bill - one born in 1856 and one born in 1860.  I still have some searching to do - then I will have to do some more to find out if I can find info on my great grandparents - it's a bit of a round about way of finding them, but it's the way I seem to have to go right now.  It takes ages to find someone, but when I do, I just get so excited about finding out more about my roots. :-)

Today, I went into the grade four class and it turned out to be a really good day.  I'm not fussed on teaching any grade above three, but working with Maree made it go really well.  We worked mostly out of books today - spelling, math, reading, and also did art and geography.  I talked with the kids about Canada for an hour and they were very focussed (except for when we gave them atlases so that I could talk about the provinces and they went 'crazy' looking at the atlases - they really should have had ten minutes to just check them out before I tried to talk with them about Canada).  We talked about where it was compared to Australia, how long it takes to fly there, seasons (including the leaves changing colours and falling to make us call our autumn 'fall'), the flag, maple syrup, weather, temperatures, snow, the provinces, geographical make-up, resources, language, and of course hockey (although they call it 'ice hockey' here :-) and the best hockey team in the league: the mighty Toronto Maple Leafs! :-)  I couldn't believe how fast the time went - I took some coins in to show them and we will do that tomorrow.  I asked Maree if the presentation was okay and she said it was great, so I was very pleased.

Robyn picked me up after school as Pialba State School is right near her  house and we were going visiting teaching at 5pm.  This worked really well because it meant that Dad didn't have to stop what he was doing to pick me up from school, take me home and then take me to our first visiting teaching stop.  It was nice visiting with Robyn and Geoff - it really is good having times like these to get to know our friends even better.  Our first visit was to our Relief Society president, Cherylyn, and then we visited with Rosalea.  It was another lovely visiting time with friends.  Our message this month was taken from one of the talks given at the April General Conference.  It was titled "LDS Women are Incredible' and it esteemed the great worth women of the church are.  It was a beautiful reminder of all the wonderful things women do and are.  Both Cherylyn and Rosalea appreciated the message we gave.

Dad did Meals on Wheels today, but had to do it with a different partner since I wasn't able to go.  He worked with Margie today and they had to do two routes - one driver wasn't able to come and I wasn't able to come, so that meant that one route wasn't covered, so Avis (the boss extraordinaire) had to create one route out of two routes.  That meant that Dad didn't get out until 11am and didn't finish until 1pm.  He spent the afternoon mowing the lawn and then began working on his next area which he will finish up tomorrow.  Tonight was SES night and they spent the whole night learning how an emergency operation centre (command centre) works: who the people working in it are and what each person does.  The SES members could be asked to do one of those jobs or help a person do one of those jobs during an emergency.  An EOC is run like a big company - they have an incident commander at the top who oversees the whole operation and then has an operations officer, a planning officer and a logistics officer who all work under the  incident commander.  Dad said it was really interesting learning about this.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Yesterday was a very lovely day and a busy one as well.  We spent the day with three church couples - at different times of the day.  We started out sleeping in 'til a very  respectable 'sleeping in' time - 9:30am! :-)  Dad and I rarely are able to sleep in (when we have days we don't have to get up early) and that's annoying! :-)  Our first visit was with Chris and Christine - Christine hurt her leg a few weeks ago at church and she is basically homebound - I have been trying to connect with her to come over and visit.  On Sunday at church I asked  Chris if I could just drop by and he said to just let him know when I would be coming and I said how about  Monday at 11am.  When we got there, Cherylyn, the Relief Society president was there mopping the kitchen floor.  The four of us (Chris, Christine, Dad and I) started chatting and Cherylyn joined us when she was  done mopping.  It was lovely to just sit and chat with our friends - you just don't get to do that much at church. 

We had to leave there at 1pm as Geoff and Robyn were meeting us at our house for 1:30pm for another scooter practice session.  Geoff has been so good to us asking us if we want to go for rides and giving up his time to follow us around and giving us hints (well, giving me hints anyway :-)  The day was so beautiful yesterday - beautiful blue sky with some light fluffy white clouds and really warm - a perfect day for a ride.  Dad feels confident enough and didn't think he needed a practice, but I suggested he take one more ride downtown to get one more turn in heavy traffic, so he went first.  I needed to practice right turns and so I rode around a VERY large block a number of times to do that.  The key is to make sure I am as close to the middle line when I make the turn (last week, I turned right from the middle of the lane and Geoff said that a cop might call me up on that).  We are going to go out again hopefully on Wednesday - because I haven't driven much around HB, I don't know it very well and so, rather than be nervous today about riding because I'm not sure where I'm going, Dad and I are going to map out a route for me to go and Geoff and Robyn and Dad will follow me around on Wednesday if it's a nice day and given me some  practice riding in an area which is a bit busier than the streets I have been riding around so far.  When we got home from riding, Geoff asked us if we were still planning on taking a walk along the beach.  When we said 'yes' (there is no way we weren't going to enjoy this perfect day some more), they said that they would meet us down there and we could walk along together.  We thought that was a great idea - we get along really well with Geoff and Robyn and were happy to go along and have some more time to chat while we walked along the beach on this beautiful day!

On our way home from the beach, I asked Dad  to stop at the home of the Gilbert family.  Their daughter, Bethany, was assigned a talk on Sunday and her mom, Haidi, was home sick and I wasn't sure if her dad, Alistair, would have seen the piece of paper with the assignment on it on Sunday.  Now, to preface this, I gave each parent a three month schedule with a piece of magnet on the back to put on their fridge so they all had plenty of notice as to when their child would have an assignment for Sharing Time and what they would be asked to do.  Anyway, their son, Kyle, had been assigned to give a talk a couple of weeks ago and hadn't prepared it, so I wanted to make sure that both parents knew about Bethany's assignment and knew what the talk was supposed to be about.  Haidi and Alistair invited us in to visit with them and we stayed for almost an hour.  They are originally from South Africa and then moved to Great Britain in 1996.  They then moved to Australia about a year ago.  It was really nice to sit with them and get to know them a little better.  We look forward to having them over to dinner and getting to know them even more.

Today, I was back to my volunteering - Louise was very pleased when I showed up.  She had a lot of assessment which needed doing and so I spent most of the day working on that with the children in her class.  I also spent a bit of time in Rachel's grade one class.  She is the teacher whose class I wanted to take over when she goes on long service leave later in the year, but she had someone else in mind and didn't seem too  pleased that I was asking about taking the contract (before I knew she had someone else for the job), and she hasn't really been all that friendly towards me.  Well, today, she was very appreciative of my help - I find the grade one teachers a little hard to read - well, some of them anyway.

Dad spent the day doing Census stuff.  He has seven areas that he is in charge of and today he spent the day going around one of the areas to check that the number of dwellings he had been told were in the area, actually were - he found in this area that there were more dwellings than posted  which means there are more houses for the collectors to go to.  Dad also had to go into all of the businesses in the area to make sure that no-one lives on the premises. 

The missionaries came over for dinner tonight - Tuesday night is our regular night to have them over.  It's becoming a shorter time to eat dinner, though, as they now have a meeting with the Bishopric at 6:15pm whereas it used to be about 6:45pm, so we might have to think about a different night to have them.  We made a delicious dinner of chicken fajitas and started to play a game of cribbage.  Elder Richardson is playing well (he's my partner) and Elder Paki is really catching on quickly (although I had to help both of them with one of their hands as they weren't sure what to throw away).  They left in time to get to their meeting and Dad left soon after that to get to his meeting which starts at 6:45pm with the Bishopric, the Ward Mission Leader (our friend, Geoff) and the Elder's Quorum President (our friend, Chris).  At the meeting, they discuss the needs of the people in the ward.  Generally, the meeting goes for an hour, but they are taking a little longer at the moment as they are trying to seek out those people who are on the ward list who no-one knows, so that they can find out if they are still in the area.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Friday was a busy day for Dad at the Family History Centre.  There have been a number of people come in to the FHC as a result of that article in the paper with Dad's picture.  It's great that that one article has done so much good and is helping more people to search for their ancestors.  I stayed home Friday to work on my Primary stuff.  I am looking for activities to do with the 8 - 11 year olds - we are going to be holding activities twice a month for this group of children in Primary.  Anyway, I was looking on the net for an idea which I had seen previously and I wanted to find it again.  I searched for ages - somewhere along the line,  I had this impression that I should look in the file I already had with info I had printed out.  But, silly me, I discounted the impression and kept spending time on the net.  After more time internet surfing, I decided to heed the impression and, sure enough, there was the info I needed right where I had the impression it would be.  Sometimes, I wonder if Heavenly Father hits his head with his hand when it comes to me not listening. :-)

Dad spent most of Saturday at a meeting for the Census area supervisors.  The meeting was held by the District Manager who is in charge of training the area supervisors.  The area supervisors were given information about what they are going to be doing in the next few months.  Dad now has to check out the buildings/houses in his area to make sure that the information he has been given is correct.  He will also have to interview a couple of dozen people who have applied to be census collectors and choose eight of them to work in his area.  He will be very busy in the next couple of weeks.  I spent Saturday looking for more information to use for the Activity Days in Primary.  I was able to get every meeting planned until the end of the year when school holidays start and now I just have to do the nitty gritty of the planning.  It feels good to have so much planning done as I still have a month to get the specifics down.  I spoke to the Bishop today about someone in the ward to lead Activity Days and he said he would speak with her this week and get back to me next week.  It looks like I will also be losing my pianist in Primary.  As it turns out, I have four musical people in Primary (one music leader, one pianist and two teachers) and Relief Society has none.  I told the Bishop that I could ask one of my teachers to play the organ as well as teach. 

Today was a lovely, but very busy day at church.  It started off with our Ward Missionary Meeting, then we had a very nice Fast and Testimony meeting (as full on as always - I think that I am going to have to get up fast next month if I want to bear my testimony in this ward :-)  Then, Primary went smoothly - well, for the most part - two of our children who were supposed to be part of our meeting (scripture reading and closing prayer) were not here today, but fortunately we were able to find others to do those.  After church, we had Ward Council, and as Primary President, I had to attend.  Dad, as High Priest group leader, also had to go.  Basically, what they do there is have each leader of each auxiliary report what's happening in each auxiliary and plan activities so that no dates overlap.  It took about 45 minutes, so that wasn't too bad. 

Right after the meeting, Dad and I drove to the HB hospital to see our friend, Judy.  We knew that the young men had gone earlier in the day to visit with her and when we got there, our Relief Society and her granddaughter were visiting with Judy.  They left right away and after a few minutes visiting with Judy, we could tell that she was too tired to visit with us.  We asked her if she wanted to sleep and she said 'yes', so we told her we would come back this week to see her.  We spent the rest of the day resting up and tomorrow hope to spend some time walking along the beach since we haven't been there much over the holidays.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

These past two days have been pretty uneventful, so there's not much to tell in this blog.  The weather has been really crappy - grey skies and rain, rain, rain.  I had decided not to go into the school this week unless I got a call (which I haven't).  The idea was that Dad and I would spend some time at the beach, but it was not to be. :-(  So, yesterday, Dad and I just stayed home and worked on church stuff.  Dad and I did Meals on Wheels this morning.  On our way there, we were at a stoplight and when it turned green, Dad started to go - lo and behold, a woman turned right, right in front of us.  I couldn't believe it!  We were going straight and this woman didn't even look in our direction - she just looked in the direction she was going.  The other day, something similar happened to us - we were in a round-a-bout and were about to exit the round-a-bout, when a woman drove fast right in front of us.  Thank goodness Dad is a very defensive driver and was able to avoid hitting her - again, he was in the right and she was just looking straight ahead.  Sheesh!

Our Meals on Wheels run was short today for some reason.  Whenever people are going to be away, they cancel the meals and so we only had 15 deliveries and we usually have about 20 or so.  Even with so few to do, we still ran into problems.  Two people weren't home when we stopped by - usually, both are at home, so it was odd that they weren't home today.  We ended up going back to one lady at the end of our route and she was home by this time.  She apologized for not being home - she had an appointment at the hospital and had forgotten about her meal coming. 

After doing some shopping, we came home and spent the day doing more church stuff for me and census stuff for Dad.  It turns out that Dad has a lot of reading and test taking to do.  He even had to watch a dvd on the duties he has to perform as an area supervisor.  He is going to have to interview people to choose some census collectors (enumerators) - he needs to find seven to cover his area.

I got an email from Chantelle tonight, the young girl who did her student teaching with me and Bronwyn last year - she is now at Torquay State School and she has been handing my card around to teachers in the school.  She also talked with the principal and deputy principal about me.  I have supply taught once in her school and I guess I did a good job because Chantelle told me in her email that the teachers were given a list of supply teachers who they were supposed to call if they were going to be away, and I am on the list! :-)  That was so awesome to know - hopefully, that might lead to more supply jobs and maybe a more permanent position.

At SES tonight, Dad took part in two more practical exercises to complete his communications certificate.  The first exercise was like the 'Chinese whisper game' where they had to receive a message from one team via radio, record it and then pass that message on to another team via radio on a different channel.  The second exercise was reviewing how to fill in a radio log: keeping a record of everything that's happening over the radio in an activation exercise.  Dad was asked by one of the assistant instructors today if he was interested in volunteering for Boy Scouts or EMQ (Emergency Management Queensland) cadets who are young people who are interested in becoming emergency personnel (eg: firefighter, police officer, etc.).  She told Dad both were on Tuesday nights and Dad told her that he already has volunteer commitments on Tuesday nights - he has his Priesthood Executive Committee meeting at church every Tuesday.  Even though he isn't able to fulfil her request, he was pleased to be asked.

Tuesday, April 25, 2011

Our day started off really early yesterday - we woke up at 7am as Dad had to be at the SES building at 7:45am.  Yesterday was ANZAC Day - here's a little about it:

What is ANZAC Day?  ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

What does ANZAC stand for?  ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.

When Dad got to the SES building, each SES member was assigned a location which they were to go to so that they could each block off the parade route.  Dad was stationed across the road from the woman who was selected to be saluted to by the veterans passing by - she was a flight squadron commander in the Australian Air Force.  After the veterans passed by, Dad and the other SES members had to remain at their posts until the veterans returned back that way after the ceremony.  Dad felt it was quite an honour to be able to help out in this way and Dad says that some people even said thank you to the SES members as they passed them by.

At 4pm, our friends, Robyn and Geoff came by.  We had asked them to come to dinner and Geoff offered to come over early so that he could give us some more practice time on the scooter.  He has been so good at offering his time  to do that and we really appreciate him for that.  Dad looked great on the scooter and very confident - he drove downtown so that he could get some practice riding in a busy part of town.  John, our instructor, had told us that he would expect us to ride in little traffic, some traffic and a lot of traffic.  Dad said that he was very comfortable riding in the busy part of town and I think that he is ready to take the final test of riding the scooter.  I, on the other hand, am not quite there - but, I was better riding yesterday.  I felt much more comfortable and even made a right hand turn (which is like making a left hand turn over there in Canada).  I was a bit nervous doing it since I had to make sure to keep checking traffic both ways, but I managed to do it.  It was a bit hard riding westward as the sun was going down that way and it was hard to see well.  Geoff says he will come again on Thursday around noon so that I can practice driving in other parts of town without having to worry about the sun shining in my eyes.

It was lovely having Robyn and Geoff for dinner.  They are about ten years older than us and are retired.  Geoff was a police officer in Queensland and then taught police officers at a university in New South Wales.   They are very easy to talk with and so the conversation flowed really easily.  Next time they come over, we are going to teach them how to play cribbage and/or euchre.  I think that Geoff knows how to play the games, but Robyn isn't much into card games, she said.

Today (Tuesday) was relaxing in the morning, but then things got busy.  First was grocery shopping, clothes shopping (I bought two more blouses and a sweater), errands, then to Rob and Rosalea's for lunch.  Rosalea wanted  us to show her how to use the church's family history program.  Her sister in Perth (western Australia) has done a lot of it and Rosalea wants to help out.  We taught both her and Rob how to navigate around the website and they are both eager to get their family information entered into the program.  Rosalea said that she might come on Wednesday nights once Dad starts opening up the Family History Centre on Wednesdays (first day: next week: May 4th). 

The missionaries came over for dinner tonight - I made chicken parmesan as it is Elder Richardson's favourite and he had asked me to make it.   I found an easy recipe and it was made even easier to make when I found that our local grocery store (Coles) make something called 'chicken schnitzel' which is basically a chicken breast pounded down and then soaked in an egg and milk mix and then covered in bread crumbs.  We taught the missionaries how to play cribbage tonight- actually, it was just a refresher for Elder Richardson and Elder Paki caught on pretty quickly.  We only had time to play one game before we had to make dinner, but we will play more games with them when they come over for dinner in the future.  :-)

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Friday was a heavenly day - we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day for our picnic with our friends.  When Robyn and I were visiting teaching Rosalea earlier this week, Rosalea asked us if we would like to meet at the beach for lunch on Friday.  We all agreed it was a great idea, but because we figured that tons of people would be there since it was a holiday, we thought we should get there early - so, we decided to go for breakfast AND lunch.  In the parks here, there are electric barbecues provided by the council.  So, we all brought different items and then put them all together.  For breakfast, we had eggs, bacon, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes on buns - I also had a hot cross bun - yummy! :-)  We were going to go for a walk after breakfast, but we were worried about losing our place (we met at the barbecue which was under a shelter with picnic tables), so we just sat around and chatted 'til it was time for lunch.  For lunch we all brought our own meat to barbecue and then each couple brought a salad to share.  The weather was amazing - the sun was shining, it was so warm and there was a lovely breeze blowing there by the water.  What could be better?  Good friends, good food, and good weather! 

After lunch, Dad and I went for a swim - well, it was more like a sit in the shallow water. :-)  By the time we got to go swimming, the tide was going out - but, it was nice to just be in the water and enjoy the warm sun and cool breeze.  Our friends came down to the beach after a while and Rob began using his metal detector.  He has found lots of jewellry and coins and other metal things at the beach over the past couple of weeks since he bought it.  Today, he didn't have much luck - he did find a 20c coin, but the rest of the things he found were things like bottlecaps, sinkers, nails and wire.  When we got home, there was still a couple of hours of sunlight and so we went out onto the patio and sat in our chaise lounges to enjoy more of this beautiful day.  We both were reading when I felt weary and so I turned over and rested my eyes.  I never fell asleep, but it was lovely just relaxing outside listening to the music on the CD player.  What a fantastic day! :-)

Yesterday was another fabulous day - nay, I would say a perfect day! :-)  Dad and I packed up a lunch, put it in our esky (cooler) and headed off for the beach.  After a quick dip, we ate lunch and then went back in the water again.  We only went in waist deep, so we didn't have to wait for half an hour after eating to go in the water. :-)  The water was quite cool, actually - we thought that since it was around noon, the water would have warmed up, but not so.  It was still really nice just paddling around in the water.  After our second dip, we went back up under the trees where we had put our chairs and camp stools (we use to put our feet up on) and sat and read for a while.  While we were reading we noticed a bunch of sailboats on the water - it appeared that they were having a race - we don't get the local paper out here in Wondunna so we don't know what's going on locally.  It was such a pretty picture with all those sailboats on the water and the sun shining down on the water - I wish that I had had my camera there to take some photos.  After reading for another while, we had another dip and then read some more.  Around 3pm, clouds rolled in and it looked like it was going to be a while before the sun peeked out again, so we decided to come home and spend time outside on our chaise lounges.  We spent about two hours outside doing some more reading and a little napping.  It was such a lovely, nay, perfect day! :-)

Today was another lovely day.  We started it off by talking with our girls and boys.  It's always nice to chat with our family - I couldn't believe how big Dominic is getting - he is going to be motoring around by the time we get back - I am so glad that we can Skype with everyone - it's almost like we are there.  The talks today at church were focused on Easter, of course.  Elder Paki, our friend, Robyn, and another member, Alistair, spoke about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Although we think about Jesus often, it's good to be reminded of just how much he suffered for us so that we can live again when we leave this world.  I taught the Sharing Time lesson in Primary today and it, too, was based on the resurrection of Jesus.  I first talked about how Jesus atoned for us so that when we repent, our sins are washed away and we are clean again.  I did an object lesson: I showed them my clean hand and told them that this was like a person free from sin; then, I rubbed my hand in dirt and told them that this was like a person who has sinned; then, I washed my hands with soap and water and told them that this was like repenting and being forgiven and clean again.  I told them, though, that it was only through the atonement of Christ that they could repent and be forgiven.  The children were really focused during this object lesson.  I really like these kinds of lessons because these are the ones that tend to stay with them. 

After church, Dad and I went to the hospital to have a short visit with Judy, the woman in our ward who had a stroke a couple of weeks ago - she was transferred up to the Hervey Bay hospital this week which we are appreciative of as it was too far to go to see her in the Brisbane hospital where she was.  It was really hard seeing Judy in the state she is.  Before her stroke, she was a very active woman - she did everything for herself and her husband.  When we saw her today, she could hardly move or talk.  I could tell that she was frustrated, for sure.  She didn't have the tv going and she had no energy to do anything else.  She must be so bored.  The nurse told us that it was going to be a very long recovery for Judy - I am sure inside she is screaming at feeling so 'useless'.  As I was leaving the hospital, I felt very weepy.  After lunch, Dad and I decided to go for a walk along the boardwalk by the beach.  When we parked the car, Dad said that the car beside us belonged to friends from church.  As we walked toward the boardwalk, we saw our friends, Sandy and Lloyd, so we sat with them and chatted for quite a while.  They are a lovely couple - Lloyd is not a member of the church, but the missionaries tell us that he is a 'dry Mormon'.  After our visit, we went for a walk along the boardwalk - it was such a lovely day today - being outside in the warmth was fabulous! :-)