What a difference a couple of days make! I was joking around with Dad a couple of days ago saying that I was going to get the missionaries to take a pic of us on Sunday (short sleeves and sandals) with a caption that said 'winter in Australia'. :-) I guess I shouldn't joke around about that - cuz today the high was 19C and tomorrow it will be 17C - eeeeeek!!! I even had to put my sweater on when I went outside today - man, what is the world coming to when you have to wear a sweater in winter! :-)
Yesterday, I had a really good day teaching at Kawungan - Fiona's grade one class again, with no 'challenge child' in attendance - it doesn't get much better than that for supply teaching. After having such a nice day with the kids, I said 'good-bye' to the grade one teachers and the office staff. I did tell them that I hoped to be back next year if there was a position available. I thought about taking today off school since I am already booked for tomorrow and then I start full-time next week. I was still thinking about it when I got a call yesterday afternoon asking me if I would be available to supply teach in a grade one class at Torquay - I thought, why not, a nice grade one class. Well, they were the class from H - E - Double Hockeysticks!!! I spoke to the behaviour support teacher who told me that seven of them have issues and she was so right. Two of them were major issues and the other five were enough of an issue that it was hard to get anything done. Let me tell you, when I got to the school and I saw two teachers who asked me who I was supplying for and they said 'good luck', I should have turned and run the other way. This is one day when I REALLY earned my money! And I would never go back to that class - no wonder the teacher has taken two days off. And to boot, she didn't even leave a plan for me - thank goodness the teacher next door, who was also off, had left a really good plan and so I photocopied it and carried it out. Then, today I spoke with the teacher who I am supplying for tomorrow and she said that I can do whatever I want for the day - she was keeping the photocopies for herself for Tuesday - greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! Sheesh! I have no idea what I will do, but there is a teacher's aide for almost all day, so I am sure she will help me out. I saw a couple of girls who will be in my class starting on Tuesday and they seemed really happy about me teaching them. Yesterday, after school, I met with Yvonne, the teacher who I am replacing for the rest of the year, and we went over her basic day to day plan. It was a good meeting and I think that I am ready for the first day next week. Chantelle and I met today after school and went over next week as well - I feel much better about starting up a new class now.
Dad and I went to the Family History Centre last night and met up with Rob and Rosalea there. I was hoping to get some more work done as I have received some emails from Uncle Rick with some more info about Grandpa Terry's family. I picked up the wrong bag, though, so I didn't have my family history bag with me. I was able to access Uncle Rick's email there and he had sent me a link about a UK census with Grandpa's grandfather on it, but when I tried to find the same info online, I couldn't find it. That was frustrating so I emailed Uncle Rick asking him how he found it - waiting for him to get back to me about it.
Dad has been working so hard around the house these past two days - he is in a lull with the census stuff right now and so he's been trying to get caught up with stuff around the house - inside and out. Since I have been working almost every day for three weeks, it's been great to come home and have the house clean inside and the outside taken care of, too. I really am appreciative of Dad's efforts since I am so tired by the time I get home.
At SES tonight, Dad did a review of tying down tarps and also a review of knots. Dad's group was very small tonight (only 4 of them) as everyone else was off doing different training. They also had to clean out four of their trailers. Sand from sand bags had spilled into the trailers and so they had to sweep out the sand and then reload the trailers with tarp kits, ropes, etc. (emergency kits to take out to clean up the damage after storms).
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Wow, working full-time sure is tiring, but I guess it's preparing me for what I am in for during the next six months. Yesterday, I was in Rachael's class again - it was like the kids had forgotten all about their listening skills after the weekend and the girls were more annoying than usual. Yep, I said it - the GIRLS were the most annoying. I managed to get done almost everything that Rachael had asked me which was good - it made her feel less stressed to have so much testing completed. Luise gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to say thankyou for all the volunteering I have done in her class. The flowers are so lovely and it was such a nice thing for her to do for me. I have attached a photo of the flowers at the bottom of this blog. The grade one team are starting to make me feel like one of them - just in time for me to leave. :-)
Today I worked for Fiona (grade one teacher) and I was happy to get the call this morning to supply in that class - she has 22 beautiful children and one challenge child who isn't too too bad for me. Although, with the other 22 being so lovely, the one challenge child really stands out. I had a good day with this class and it was nice to be asked to go in there again tomorrow (and the challenge child is going on holidays tomorrow - is it wrong for me to say 'yippee' :-) I brought in three mud cakes today - that sounds yucky, but it's basically a moist chocolate cake with chocolate icing to die for - they are so yummy. I brought in one for the office staff, one for the grade one team and one for the grade two team - I just wanted to say thank you to them all for making me feel like part of their school family. It's been great working at Kawungan and I have told Leanne (the Deputy Principal) to keep me in mind for next year if she needs a teacher. A couple of the teachers said we need to get together for 'coffee' and I was pleased about that.
Dad spent yesterday morning at the Family History Centre - he went in to help Denise (the family history director) with some computer stuff. He ended up helping two patrons with their family history as well (you're never off when you are at the FHC. :-) He came home and spent the rest of the day doing 'househusband' stuff - I love coming home to a clean house and clean laundry hanging in my closet. :-)
After school yesterday, we went down to the beach. We are determined to get back on an exercise schedule and so we drove straight from school to the beach and took a fast walk along it for about half an hour. It sure is a nice way to get our exercise. :-) After supper, we drove over to a store called 'Harvey Norman's' and bought a freezer. Dad's been wanting to get one for ages - and they had a really good sale on. We have been wanting to buy more food which is on sale, but we haven't had the room in the fridge freezer. We talked with a lady at the store and she gave us some info about the different freezers. Originally we were going to buy a 164L freezer, but the more Dad looked at that one and the 216L one, the more he thought buying the bigger one was a better idea. As you know, when it comes to electrical/electronic stuff, I bow to Dad's opinion. :-) Dad went over to our friend, Rob's house today and borrowed his trailer - then he drove over to the store and picked up the freezer. It's sitting in our garage - Dad washed it out and plugged it in. We had to let it cool down for a couple of hours before we put anything in it. We are now looking forward to buying more specials and building up a little freezer food storage.
Dad made the BEST roast beef tonight - we had the missionaries over and one of them wanted a roast (I thought he meant roast beef - turns out he meant roast chicken - I will have to ask my friends at church/school if that is a typical Aussie meaning for roast :-) Anyway, Dad put the roast in a slow cooker and cooked it for eight hours. When he took it out and carved it, it just fell apart - it was sooooooo tender and soooooooooo delicious! The missionaries don't get meals like this too often, I'm thinking - they took a huge portion to start with and then both went back for seconds! Poor dad only has a measly portion for his lunch tomorrow. I told Dad that next time, he should take some off the plate first before he serves it up. :-)
Today I worked for Fiona (grade one teacher) and I was happy to get the call this morning to supply in that class - she has 22 beautiful children and one challenge child who isn't too too bad for me. Although, with the other 22 being so lovely, the one challenge child really stands out. I had a good day with this class and it was nice to be asked to go in there again tomorrow (and the challenge child is going on holidays tomorrow - is it wrong for me to say 'yippee' :-) I brought in three mud cakes today - that sounds yucky, but it's basically a moist chocolate cake with chocolate icing to die for - they are so yummy. I brought in one for the office staff, one for the grade one team and one for the grade two team - I just wanted to say thank you to them all for making me feel like part of their school family. It's been great working at Kawungan and I have told Leanne (the Deputy Principal) to keep me in mind for next year if she needs a teacher. A couple of the teachers said we need to get together for 'coffee' and I was pleased about that.
Dad spent yesterday morning at the Family History Centre - he went in to help Denise (the family history director) with some computer stuff. He ended up helping two patrons with their family history as well (you're never off when you are at the FHC. :-) He came home and spent the rest of the day doing 'househusband' stuff - I love coming home to a clean house and clean laundry hanging in my closet. :-)
After school yesterday, we went down to the beach. We are determined to get back on an exercise schedule and so we drove straight from school to the beach and took a fast walk along it for about half an hour. It sure is a nice way to get our exercise. :-) After supper, we drove over to a store called 'Harvey Norman's' and bought a freezer. Dad's been wanting to get one for ages - and they had a really good sale on. We have been wanting to buy more food which is on sale, but we haven't had the room in the fridge freezer. We talked with a lady at the store and she gave us some info about the different freezers. Originally we were going to buy a 164L freezer, but the more Dad looked at that one and the 216L one, the more he thought buying the bigger one was a better idea. As you know, when it comes to electrical/electronic stuff, I bow to Dad's opinion. :-) Dad went over to our friend, Rob's house today and borrowed his trailer - then he drove over to the store and picked up the freezer. It's sitting in our garage - Dad washed it out and plugged it in. We had to let it cool down for a couple of hours before we put anything in it. We are now looking forward to buying more specials and building up a little freezer food storage.
Dad made the BEST roast beef tonight - we had the missionaries over and one of them wanted a roast (I thought he meant roast beef - turns out he meant roast chicken - I will have to ask my friends at church/school if that is a typical Aussie meaning for roast :-) Anyway, Dad put the roast in a slow cooker and cooked it for eight hours. When he took it out and carved it, it just fell apart - it was sooooooo tender and soooooooooo delicious! The missionaries don't get meals like this too often, I'm thinking - they took a huge portion to start with and then both went back for seconds! Poor dad only has a measly portion for his lunch tomorrow. I told Dad that next time, he should take some off the plate first before he serves it up. :-)
Sunday, June 5, 2011
I am sooooooooooo tired - it's been a very busy three days! I worked in the grade one classroom at Kawungan on Friday. I think that I am starting to get through to the students about listening. I worked them really hard on Friday - and then gave them about half an hour in the afternoon to do whatever they wanted. They had to complete the four tasks we had worked on that day first and some of them did a really good job of it. Others went to play before they had finished their work (did they think that I wouldn't figure that out? :-) Rachael came at the end of the day to see how things had gone for the week and to ask me to teach for her on Monday (she planned the day with me so that I knew what she wanted me to do) and to pick up the work the students had done during the week. I told her that usually the boys are the annoying ones in classes, but that she had some girls that were even more annoying. She agreed with me on that one. She does have some lovely children, though.
Dad ended up going to the Family History Centre all day Friday - he wasn't signed up to go, but the two women who usually come to work there were both away and so he went in for the day. He mostly worked with two patrons (one member and one non-member) during the morning. He spent the afternoon working on some paperwork and some more indexing.
On Saturday morning, I went to Homemaking at Haidi's house (our Relief Society second counsellor) to learn how to cook some items from our food storage. The first one was meatless sausage rolls - I was a bit wary of those, but they ended up being really tasty. They were made from cottage cheese - I am going to try and make them for Dad - who knows if he will like them since you know how much he likes his meat. :-) They also had rice with turmeric and chili with cinnamon as one of the spices. I am not much into mixing my spices like that - I like to keep my spicy and my sweet separate.
After homemaking, I went with Christine and Robyn to the beach. Christine wanted to visiting teach both Robyn and me and we all thought that the best place to do this was at the beach. :-) We sat on the sand (they sat in the shade and I sat in the sun) and we ate date loaf which Christine made and talked about all sorts of things. I love these times of getting to know my friends even better. The lesson was about the importance of being self-reliant. When I read the lesson, this paragraph stood out for me:
In Relief Society, we are taught self-reliance principles and skills. Sisters can learn about budgeting, debt relief, employment qualifications, the scriptures and the gospel, teaching others to read and learn, technology, physical health, fitness, addiction prevention and recovery, social and emotional health, preventing illness, gardening, food production and storage, emergency preparedness, and many other things that will help us become self-reliant.
When I think of self-reliance, I think of things to do with food storage and emergency preparedness, but I didn't think of it being related to technology, physical health, fitness, or social and emotional health. So, we had a really good discussion about those things. It was neat sharing different ideas between us.
At 4pm, we went to the chapel for a 'Going Away Party' for a young boy in our ward, Reece, who is going on a mission this month. He is a fine young man and will make a great missionary. It was fun talking with our friends at the party - another opportunity to laugh and chat and eat. :-) It's like one big family here - when we received our invitation to come to the event, we were also asked to 'bring a plate' which means potluck. Some people might think 'what nerve to be invited and then be asked to bring food', but it's just the way it is in this ward - everyone just pitches in and I love it.
Although it was Sunday today, it sure wasn't a day of rest. After being at church for three hours (Primary is coming along really well - more in a bit), I had two meetings to attend. First about Primary - I set up a scripture reading plan for the kids (based on one I found on the net) and put it in a baggie along with the bookmarks the children decorated and I laminated) and gave it out to the kids today (I talked with each of the parents after church to tell them about it). A couple of parents told me that I was doing a good job in Primary and that made me feel good. I am trying to get it up and running the way it's supposed to be and it's coming along. After church, we had Ward Council (Dad came, too) where we talk about what's going on in the ward and how we can help each other and the members in our ward. After that was over, I went to my second counsellor's house to meet with her and catch her up on what's been happening in Primary during the six weeks she has been away.
We have spent the evening relaxing as it's going to be a busy day tomorrow having to work with the grade ones. I have been answering emails and Dad has been indexing - now that's an 'evening of rest' at least. :-)
Dad ended up going to the Family History Centre all day Friday - he wasn't signed up to go, but the two women who usually come to work there were both away and so he went in for the day. He mostly worked with two patrons (one member and one non-member) during the morning. He spent the afternoon working on some paperwork and some more indexing.
On Saturday morning, I went to Homemaking at Haidi's house (our Relief Society second counsellor) to learn how to cook some items from our food storage. The first one was meatless sausage rolls - I was a bit wary of those, but they ended up being really tasty. They were made from cottage cheese - I am going to try and make them for Dad - who knows if he will like them since you know how much he likes his meat. :-) They also had rice with turmeric and chili with cinnamon as one of the spices. I am not much into mixing my spices like that - I like to keep my spicy and my sweet separate.
After homemaking, I went with Christine and Robyn to the beach. Christine wanted to visiting teach both Robyn and me and we all thought that the best place to do this was at the beach. :-) We sat on the sand (they sat in the shade and I sat in the sun) and we ate date loaf which Christine made and talked about all sorts of things. I love these times of getting to know my friends even better. The lesson was about the importance of being self-reliant. When I read the lesson, this paragraph stood out for me:
In Relief Society, we are taught self-reliance principles and skills. Sisters can learn about budgeting, debt relief, employment qualifications, the scriptures and the gospel, teaching others to read and learn, technology, physical health, fitness, addiction prevention and recovery, social and emotional health, preventing illness, gardening, food production and storage, emergency preparedness, and many other things that will help us become self-reliant.
When I think of self-reliance, I think of things to do with food storage and emergency preparedness, but I didn't think of it being related to technology, physical health, fitness, or social and emotional health. So, we had a really good discussion about those things. It was neat sharing different ideas between us.
At 4pm, we went to the chapel for a 'Going Away Party' for a young boy in our ward, Reece, who is going on a mission this month. He is a fine young man and will make a great missionary. It was fun talking with our friends at the party - another opportunity to laugh and chat and eat. :-) It's like one big family here - when we received our invitation to come to the event, we were also asked to 'bring a plate' which means potluck. Some people might think 'what nerve to be invited and then be asked to bring food', but it's just the way it is in this ward - everyone just pitches in and I love it.
Although it was Sunday today, it sure wasn't a day of rest. After being at church for three hours (Primary is coming along really well - more in a bit), I had two meetings to attend. First about Primary - I set up a scripture reading plan for the kids (based on one I found on the net) and put it in a baggie along with the bookmarks the children decorated and I laminated) and gave it out to the kids today (I talked with each of the parents after church to tell them about it). A couple of parents told me that I was doing a good job in Primary and that made me feel good. I am trying to get it up and running the way it's supposed to be and it's coming along. After church, we had Ward Council (Dad came, too) where we talk about what's going on in the ward and how we can help each other and the members in our ward. After that was over, I went to my second counsellor's house to meet with her and catch her up on what's been happening in Primary during the six weeks she has been away.
We have spent the evening relaxing as it's going to be a busy day tomorrow having to work with the grade ones. I have been answering emails and Dad has been indexing - now that's an 'evening of rest' at least. :-)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Phew! I am sooooooooooo tired! Teaching grade one is exhausting - or at least, this class is. Yesterday was Sports Day at Kawungan and I thought it would be easy money and that there was no way I would be earning my money that day. Boy, was I wrong! I was in charge of leading about 60 grade one boys around to each of the six rotations (track and field stations) and making sure that they sat still while they waited their turns. Oh my goodness - boys do NOT sit still. Luise, who was in charge of one of the stations, told me later that they were so glad once the six year old boys had passed by - nothing could be as bad as that was, she said. By the time the day was over (Sports Day was for the whole day), I was so exhausted, all I wanted to do was come home and flake out.
Dad spent some time yesterday doing more census stuff. He had to go around to some businesses to speak to the owners about what they have to do re: the census. They generally don't like having to do the work, but it's the law, so they have to do it.
Dad and I went to the Family History Centre last night and I worked on my Grandpa Dunkley's line as I need to get the marriage certificate for my great grandmother and great grandfather on Grandpa Terry's side before I can do any more on that side. I did find some more info about one of my Grandpa Dunkley's aunts - I had been given three names for the same person (Irene W and Undine J and Undine Irene) so I wanted to find out more about that. I went on ancestry.com and found out that her name was actually Undine Irene and I also found out her death date. It's great when I can add more info to the family tree.
Today was organized chaos - sort of. We had parade (assembly), asking the children about their fire engines they created earlier this week, music, more asking, writing about our day yesterday (while three children completed their fire engines), library, grammar, and out onto the sports field for the results of the Sports Day. After school, I had to mark the fire trucks plus their designs. Rachael, the grade one teacher I am supplying for, won't be in until at least next Tuesday, so she asked me if I would mark them. I had a criteria sheet to check off - I think that I was a bit generous, but Rachael can look at the designs and see what she thinks and adjust the marks as she feels necessary. I never worried too much about marks in these kinds of things when I had my own classes - I figured that if they made an effort, that they deserved at least a 'C'. A couple of the kids today got an A and some Bs and Cs and a couple of Ds. Doing the marking took me back to when I used to do it in my classrooms in Canada, especially in grade two where we did a lot of building.
I told the teachers and admin about the job at Torquay today - they were all happy for me, but they were also disappointed that I was going. Funnily enough, this week has been really good in the grade one team - the team seems to be much more accepting of me and Luise even gave me a hug today when I told her I was leaving because I had gotten a job for the rest of the year. I was quite taken aback at first - but it was nice to know that she was disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to take her class in October. She said that she was also going to tell me today that Rachael had told her that I could have her (Rachael's) five week contract later on this year (originally, Rachael had asked her friend to do the contract, but then her friend was given a job for the rest of the year at another school). That would have been nice, but that still was only 13 weeks of full-time teaching and Torquay is offering me 22 weeks. I did tell Leanne, the Deputy Principal at Kawungan, to keep me in mind for next year.
Today, Dad spent some time working outside spraying for bugs and spraying weeds. He also spent some time researching cruise control for our car. Both Dad and I find that it's easy to speed in this car - it really sneaks up on you and you don't even realize it. A few people have told us that the cops will nab you here if you speed, so we want to make sure we don't get a ticket. :-)
Tonight, at SES, they spent the whole night talking about 'Traffic Control' theory. They talked about the rules and regulations to stop traffic on a road or highway (in case of an accident). Dad said it was pretty routine, boring stuff, but sometimes the training is more necessary than exciting.
Dad spent some time yesterday doing more census stuff. He had to go around to some businesses to speak to the owners about what they have to do re: the census. They generally don't like having to do the work, but it's the law, so they have to do it.
Dad and I went to the Family History Centre last night and I worked on my Grandpa Dunkley's line as I need to get the marriage certificate for my great grandmother and great grandfather on Grandpa Terry's side before I can do any more on that side. I did find some more info about one of my Grandpa Dunkley's aunts - I had been given three names for the same person (Irene W and Undine J and Undine Irene) so I wanted to find out more about that. I went on ancestry.com and found out that her name was actually Undine Irene and I also found out her death date. It's great when I can add more info to the family tree.
Today was organized chaos - sort of. We had parade (assembly), asking the children about their fire engines they created earlier this week, music, more asking, writing about our day yesterday (while three children completed their fire engines), library, grammar, and out onto the sports field for the results of the Sports Day. After school, I had to mark the fire trucks plus their designs. Rachael, the grade one teacher I am supplying for, won't be in until at least next Tuesday, so she asked me if I would mark them. I had a criteria sheet to check off - I think that I was a bit generous, but Rachael can look at the designs and see what she thinks and adjust the marks as she feels necessary. I never worried too much about marks in these kinds of things when I had my own classes - I figured that if they made an effort, that they deserved at least a 'C'. A couple of the kids today got an A and some Bs and Cs and a couple of Ds. Doing the marking took me back to when I used to do it in my classrooms in Canada, especially in grade two where we did a lot of building.
I told the teachers and admin about the job at Torquay today - they were all happy for me, but they were also disappointed that I was going. Funnily enough, this week has been really good in the grade one team - the team seems to be much more accepting of me and Luise even gave me a hug today when I told her I was leaving because I had gotten a job for the rest of the year. I was quite taken aback at first - but it was nice to know that she was disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to take her class in October. She said that she was also going to tell me today that Rachael had told her that I could have her (Rachael's) five week contract later on this year (originally, Rachael had asked her friend to do the contract, but then her friend was given a job for the rest of the year at another school). That would have been nice, but that still was only 13 weeks of full-time teaching and Torquay is offering me 22 weeks. I did tell Leanne, the Deputy Principal at Kawungan, to keep me in mind for next year.
Today, Dad spent some time working outside spraying for bugs and spraying weeds. He also spent some time researching cruise control for our car. Both Dad and I find that it's easy to speed in this car - it really sneaks up on you and you don't even realize it. A few people have told us that the cops will nab you here if you speed, so we want to make sure we don't get a ticket. :-)
Tonight, at SES, they spent the whole night talking about 'Traffic Control' theory. They talked about the rules and regulations to stop traffic on a road or highway (in case of an accident). Dad said it was pretty routine, boring stuff, but sometimes the training is more necessary than exciting.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
I was teaching at Kawungan yesterday in with the grade twos. They are doing what they call 'validation' which is basically listening to the kids read and validating that they are reading at the level which you already know in your head that they are reading. They have to do so much of this validating here - the admin actually check up on them which would drive me crazy. I used to know where the kids were because I listened to them read all the time - I didn't need to do it formally. So, I was in Jane's class in the morning and Kelli's class in the afternoon. Both classes were fairly easy to teach, but Kelli's class really needed a lot of reminding of what they should be doing. I was telling Bronwyn about it and she said that Kelli is 'very soft' (not firm enough) with her class and that she (Bronwyn) was often having to speak to the children. I am sure that the children would have been happy to see Kelli back the next day after having had to listen to me nag and nag and nag at them. :-)
Dad spent the day doing the rest of his interviews. They went really well and Dad is glad that they are all finally over and that he can now work on who he will recommend for the collector positions.
When I woke up this morning, the sky was blue and the first thing I thought of was 'what a beautiful day' and the second thing I thought of was 'too bad I don't have any laundry to do - it's the perfect day for it'. That probably sounds really funny to you guys, but that's what I was thinking. I don't even think twice about hanging the laundry on the clothesline now - it's like it's become secondhand now. I'm still not as quick as those who have been doing it for ages, but I'm getting faster. :-)
Someone told me the other day that they couldn't believe that I was 53 - they thought I was around 40! I thanked them for that! :-) We decided that part of it was due to spending so many years in Canada where it's cold so much of the time. We were talking about how the sun really does a number on Aussie skins. I felt really good when they thought I was so much younger than I am. I also think it's got to do with good genes. (Thanks, Nana! :-)
Today, I worked again at Kawungan - Rachel (grade one) hurt her foot and thought she would be able to come back this week to teach, but after teaching on Monday, she found that her foot was killing her and so she decided to take off the rest of the week and asked me if I could teach her class all four days. I was booked in to do the grade twos on Thursday and Friday, but I traded with Terri who they were going to ask to cover Rachel's class - it made sense for me to stay with Rachel's class and for Terri to cover the grade twos (she is a part-time grade two teacher). Rachel's class is not too bad, but so many of them are not good listeners - I felt like just having them follow instructions (one after the other) - often there are a couple who don't listen, but in this class, there are a number of them.
Dad spent a bit of time today organizing all the information from the interviews. There was quite a lot of information to input. Then Dad had to rate each person based on a set list of criteria. His next step was to select his seven collectors and four reserve collectors. After inputting this information into the computer, he then had to mail these forms to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He also attended a funeral of a woman who went to our church (she was older and quite ill, so it was a blessing for her to leave this world). He also went to a luncheon for those who volunteer with Meals on Wheels. They needed to have a training meeting and so they served lunch while they were doing the training. Dad sat with a guy named Barry who also volunteers for SES so that was nice (you know how shy Dad is). After having the missionaries over for dinner and driving them home, Dad spent an hour sorting out the Home Teaching lists for the High Priest group. He was a very busy boy today. :-)
Dad spent the day doing the rest of his interviews. They went really well and Dad is glad that they are all finally over and that he can now work on who he will recommend for the collector positions.
When I woke up this morning, the sky was blue and the first thing I thought of was 'what a beautiful day' and the second thing I thought of was 'too bad I don't have any laundry to do - it's the perfect day for it'. That probably sounds really funny to you guys, but that's what I was thinking. I don't even think twice about hanging the laundry on the clothesline now - it's like it's become secondhand now. I'm still not as quick as those who have been doing it for ages, but I'm getting faster. :-)
Someone told me the other day that they couldn't believe that I was 53 - they thought I was around 40! I thanked them for that! :-) We decided that part of it was due to spending so many years in Canada where it's cold so much of the time. We were talking about how the sun really does a number on Aussie skins. I felt really good when they thought I was so much younger than I am. I also think it's got to do with good genes. (Thanks, Nana! :-)
Today, I worked again at Kawungan - Rachel (grade one) hurt her foot and thought she would be able to come back this week to teach, but after teaching on Monday, she found that her foot was killing her and so she decided to take off the rest of the week and asked me if I could teach her class all four days. I was booked in to do the grade twos on Thursday and Friday, but I traded with Terri who they were going to ask to cover Rachel's class - it made sense for me to stay with Rachel's class and for Terri to cover the grade twos (she is a part-time grade two teacher). Rachel's class is not too bad, but so many of them are not good listeners - I felt like just having them follow instructions (one after the other) - often there are a couple who don't listen, but in this class, there are a number of them.
Dad spent a bit of time today organizing all the information from the interviews. There was quite a lot of information to input. Then Dad had to rate each person based on a set list of criteria. His next step was to select his seven collectors and four reserve collectors. After inputting this information into the computer, he then had to mail these forms to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He also attended a funeral of a woman who went to our church (she was older and quite ill, so it was a blessing for her to leave this world). He also went to a luncheon for those who volunteer with Meals on Wheels. They needed to have a training meeting and so they served lunch while they were doing the training. Dad sat with a guy named Barry who also volunteers for SES so that was nice (you know how shy Dad is). After having the missionaries over for dinner and driving them home, Dad spent an hour sorting out the Home Teaching lists for the High Priest group. He was a very busy boy today. :-)
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday was 'Show Day' here in Hervey Bay and it was a holiday. I can't believe that everyone gets a day off to go to 'the Show'. 'The Show' was held in Maryborough which is about a half hour from here and sounds like it was a combination of a very small CNE plus the Royal Winter Fair. Dad and I were thinking of going, but the price of $20. per person to look at rides, games, crafts and animals just didn't seem worth it. Instead, we decided to spend the day outside. First, we went to the beach and took a walk along the water's edge - it was such a perfect day to do it - blue sky, shining sun, lovely breeze (what's new in HB, eh? :-) The water was lovely, but we weren't dressed for a swim so we just enjoyed walking in it. Then, we came home and had lunch outside on our patio, read books on our chaise loungers and had a lovely nap in the warm sun. Can life get much better than that? :-)
Saturday was cloudy and the perfect day to be so - we spent most of our time in the car yesterday. We picked up our friends, Denise and Sue (from church) and Dad drove us to a place called Kawana Waters for a Stake Relief Society activity. Kawana Waters is about 2 1/2 hours from HB - I wasn't game to drive there myself as I had no clue where I was going. I asked Dad if he would drive and he said 'sure'. We got there with about an hour to spare and so we drove down to the beach to eat our lunch. It was in a city called Maroochydore - they had a great park by the beach and I said to Dad that I thought that the boys would love playing there - especially on the climbing ropes apparatus. I wish that I had taken a camera with me to take a pic of it - next time we go there, I will make sure to do that.
The Relief Society activity was really well organized. It started off with a really nice powerpoint presentation of pictures and songs. There were a couple of those kinds of presentations over the three hours and whoever did them was really technologically savvy. After the introduction, we were divided into three groups and we rotated through three workshops: 'By the Sweat of my Brow' was about getting back to nature to make meals - I didn't try any of the ideas because they either sounded icky or they smelled icky. :-) I know, I am very fussy! :-); 'Life's Like That' was about creating balance in your life - we spent some time honing our socialing skills by meeting new sisters in our Stake - we had 30 seconds to speak with a sister and share something about each other with each other before moving on to someone else; and the last workshop was called 'Soul Savers' which focused on making sure that we feed ourselves spiritually every day. After that, we all got together for a presentation about Visiting Teaching. The sister who gave it was trying to get us pumped up and excited about doing our visiting teaching each month. She had a very busy display with all sorts of poems and lists about visiting teaching. Our closing exercises included a wonderful song sung by a young woman with a beautiful voice after which we had a light snack (sandwiches, crackers, bars, etc.) which was a lovely way to end the day. After Dad dropped us off, he drove over to the beach and spent about 45 minutes there watching the freighters and people who were walking their dogs on the beach. He then drove to a nearby mall and checked out a store called JB Hi-Fi - an electronics store. He then spent about 1 1/2 hours doing some indexing of shipping records for Family History (passenger lists of ships bound for Canada).
We got to Skype with Terri-Ann and the boys this morning, although not for long. Our internet was acting up and so our connection wasn't that good. We also had to get to church early so we didn't have much time to talk. We did find out that Colin and Caleb starting t-ball this past Tuesday and they really like it. Caleb even told me that he hit two home runs. Colin seemed disappointed that he didn't hit any home runs, but I told him that what counted was that he had fun and he said that he did have fun. Their coach is a friend of theirs (Adam) and James is the assistant coach - I am sure that with those two coaches, the boys are going to have a great experience playing t-ball this summer.
Sacrament today was really good - the theme was about 'forgiveness' - our three speakers were Jordan (a 15 year old young man), Sandy and Lyn (two older women) and they all did a really good job. Something really touched me today when Lyn was talking. Sometimes, we hear things many times at church, but then sometimes it just hits us differently. Today Lyn mentioned a scripture and it really made me think - it was from Matthew 6:15 -- But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. I told Lyn how that really made me think about how seriously Heavenly Father takes forgiveness. If we aren't forgiving to others, then Heavenly Father isn't going to forgive us. That's pretty serious stuff to me. I told Lyn that I wasn't at a place at this moment in my life where I was having difficulty forgiving someone, but who knows what the future holds.
My first counsellor was back today and I was really happy to have her back with us - we have missed her. I didn't work much on Primary this week and it really showed today. I had everything organized, but I just felt like I was running from here to there and back again. I managed to get everything done that I needed to get done, but I realized at the end of the day, I need to work on Primary a little every day so that I am able to feel less stressed on Sundays. It will help having my counsellor back now - I will meet with her this week to go over what we have been doing since she's been gone (six weeks). I will start doing more delegating as well - I won't be able to keep running things the way I have been once I start working full-time. Things are really starting to come together, though - I am pleased about that. :-)
After church, we got to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa Martin. They told us all about their trip to Alberta with Uncle Bob to see Kathleen, Rob, Dominik, Isabella, Jackie and Curtis. Everyone out there is doing well and looking forward to coming out to Grandma and Grandpa's in July for Trish's wedding and Isabella's baptism. Grandpa did not look well - he is losing weight and his skin has gone red from the chemo. The doctors are still conferring about what to do re: the chemo and the blood clotting side effect. It was good to talk with them/see them - we are going to do it again next week. Grandpa likes to plan times to Skype - he does that with Uncle Bob as well. When we were at their place earlier this year, he and Uncle Bob were Skyping every Wednesday or Thursday. It's great to have this kind of technology - it's almost like we are there in the room with them.
Saturday was cloudy and the perfect day to be so - we spent most of our time in the car yesterday. We picked up our friends, Denise and Sue (from church) and Dad drove us to a place called Kawana Waters for a Stake Relief Society activity. Kawana Waters is about 2 1/2 hours from HB - I wasn't game to drive there myself as I had no clue where I was going. I asked Dad if he would drive and he said 'sure'. We got there with about an hour to spare and so we drove down to the beach to eat our lunch. It was in a city called Maroochydore - they had a great park by the beach and I said to Dad that I thought that the boys would love playing there - especially on the climbing ropes apparatus. I wish that I had taken a camera with me to take a pic of it - next time we go there, I will make sure to do that.
The Relief Society activity was really well organized. It started off with a really nice powerpoint presentation of pictures and songs. There were a couple of those kinds of presentations over the three hours and whoever did them was really technologically savvy. After the introduction, we were divided into three groups and we rotated through three workshops: 'By the Sweat of my Brow' was about getting back to nature to make meals - I didn't try any of the ideas because they either sounded icky or they smelled icky. :-) I know, I am very fussy! :-); 'Life's Like That' was about creating balance in your life - we spent some time honing our socialing skills by meeting new sisters in our Stake - we had 30 seconds to speak with a sister and share something about each other with each other before moving on to someone else; and the last workshop was called 'Soul Savers' which focused on making sure that we feed ourselves spiritually every day. After that, we all got together for a presentation about Visiting Teaching. The sister who gave it was trying to get us pumped up and excited about doing our visiting teaching each month. She had a very busy display with all sorts of poems and lists about visiting teaching. Our closing exercises included a wonderful song sung by a young woman with a beautiful voice after which we had a light snack (sandwiches, crackers, bars, etc.) which was a lovely way to end the day. After Dad dropped us off, he drove over to the beach and spent about 45 minutes there watching the freighters and people who were walking their dogs on the beach. He then drove to a nearby mall and checked out a store called JB Hi-Fi - an electronics store. He then spent about 1 1/2 hours doing some indexing of shipping records for Family History (passenger lists of ships bound for Canada).
We got to Skype with Terri-Ann and the boys this morning, although not for long. Our internet was acting up and so our connection wasn't that good. We also had to get to church early so we didn't have much time to talk. We did find out that Colin and Caleb starting t-ball this past Tuesday and they really like it. Caleb even told me that he hit two home runs. Colin seemed disappointed that he didn't hit any home runs, but I told him that what counted was that he had fun and he said that he did have fun. Their coach is a friend of theirs (Adam) and James is the assistant coach - I am sure that with those two coaches, the boys are going to have a great experience playing t-ball this summer.
Sacrament today was really good - the theme was about 'forgiveness' - our three speakers were Jordan (a 15 year old young man), Sandy and Lyn (two older women) and they all did a really good job. Something really touched me today when Lyn was talking. Sometimes, we hear things many times at church, but then sometimes it just hits us differently. Today Lyn mentioned a scripture and it really made me think - it was from Matthew 6:15 -- But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. I told Lyn how that really made me think about how seriously Heavenly Father takes forgiveness. If we aren't forgiving to others, then Heavenly Father isn't going to forgive us. That's pretty serious stuff to me. I told Lyn that I wasn't at a place at this moment in my life where I was having difficulty forgiving someone, but who knows what the future holds.
My first counsellor was back today and I was really happy to have her back with us - we have missed her. I didn't work much on Primary this week and it really showed today. I had everything organized, but I just felt like I was running from here to there and back again. I managed to get everything done that I needed to get done, but I realized at the end of the day, I need to work on Primary a little every day so that I am able to feel less stressed on Sundays. It will help having my counsellor back now - I will meet with her this week to go over what we have been doing since she's been gone (six weeks). I will start doing more delegating as well - I won't be able to keep running things the way I have been once I start working full-time. Things are really starting to come together, though - I am pleased about that. :-)
After church, we got to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa Martin. They told us all about their trip to Alberta with Uncle Bob to see Kathleen, Rob, Dominik, Isabella, Jackie and Curtis. Everyone out there is doing well and looking forward to coming out to Grandma and Grandpa's in July for Trish's wedding and Isabella's baptism. Grandpa did not look well - he is losing weight and his skin has gone red from the chemo. The doctors are still conferring about what to do re: the chemo and the blood clotting side effect. It was good to talk with them/see them - we are going to do it again next week. Grandpa likes to plan times to Skype - he does that with Uncle Bob as well. When we were at their place earlier this year, he and Uncle Bob were Skyping every Wednesday or Thursday. It's great to have this kind of technology - it's almost like we are there in the room with them.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
It's been a busy and tiring two days for me working for Rachael Stewart's grade one class at Kawungan. Rachael had asked for me on Monday, but I was already booked up at Pialba. The supply teacher who was there for Monday and Tuesday was apparently not someone they wanted in there. It felt good to know that they really wanted me in there. The teachers are in a really stressed mode right now as they are trying to get tests done in time to assess for report cards which are due in a couple of weeks. Can you imagine doing so much paper testing in grade one? It's driving all the teachers crazy when they know that good teaching is using hands-on manipulatives to teach different concepts. The 'powers-that-be' want more paper testing done so that teachers can 'prove' the marks they give the kids. It's so frustrating that those who are NOT in the classroom get to dictate how teachers teach in the classroom, especially since those 'higher ups' are so clueless about what teaching in the classroom is like today. They are trying to push the curriculum down so that what was taught in grade two last year is now being taught in grade one. The top children are doing well, but more and more students are being left behind. The kids are also not enjoying school like they used to. Grrrr. The kids in Rachel's class were a little bit frustrating as they are not very good at listening (in general) or follow instructions. I did the best I could and I told Luise to tell Rachael that if I wasn't called in to supply teach on Tuesday, that I would come in and help her out by going over some of the tests with the kids one-on-one. I used to do that for Bronwyn and it was really helpful. I felt that I was saying the same kids' names over and over again yesterday and today to get them to listen, focus and follow instructions. I'm not sure if they are different when Rachael is teaching them or maybe she is just more patient than I am - it will be interesting when I see her on Tuesday (if I get to go there and volunteer) to hear her take on her class.
Dad has spent the past two days working on interviewing more people who want to work as census collectors. He had quite a few people from his area apply to be collectors and so he is having even more interviews next week. He is finding a number of people who will be very acceptable in the position, so it might be hard for him to choose who he will recommend to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). He also spent some time collating all the information he has received in the past two days - all of his notes have to be inputted into the ABS system, so he is finding it best to get them in as soon as possible after the interviews. He has his final interviews next Monday and has to then get his recommendations in as soon as possible after that. The next step in his job is to get training on how to train his collectors and that will take place some time in June.
Dad has spent the past two days working on interviewing more people who want to work as census collectors. He had quite a few people from his area apply to be collectors and so he is having even more interviews next week. He is finding a number of people who will be very acceptable in the position, so it might be hard for him to choose who he will recommend to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). He also spent some time collating all the information he has received in the past two days - all of his notes have to be inputted into the ABS system, so he is finding it best to get them in as soon as possible after the interviews. He has his final interviews next Monday and has to then get his recommendations in as soon as possible after that. The next step in his job is to get training on how to train his collectors and that will take place some time in June.
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