Sunday, July 10, 2011

What a busy three days we have had - I will try and condense what we have been up to.  Dad had his training meeting with his census collectors on Friday (9am - 4pm) and so I took off for the day to the chapel.  My first counsellor and secretary from Primary were manning the FHC today and my secretary had suggested that we could meet there and have our bi-monthly presidency meeting instead of having it today after church - I thought it was a great idea and also I could spend the rest of the day after our Primary meeting to work on my talk.  I was able to read and mark several articles which I could use to write my talk during my time at the FHC. 

Dad had a great meeting - all eight of his collectors showed up before or on time.  Dad was able to run a very effective meeting as he had done so much research prior to the meeting.  He was given an outline of how/what to teach and it even included time for morning tea and afternoon tea.  The training meeting went very smoothly with his collectors asking many questions of which Dad was able to answer all but two.  He was very pleased with how well the training meeting went and with the enthusiasm of his team of collectors.  They were given all of their census forms and will meet with Dad again in August where they will receive training on how to collect the census forms (the training on Friday was how to deliver the census forms). 

On Saturday, we decided to have a day to ourselves to just spend the day together because the next ten weeks will be full-on with me being so busy with school and Dad being busy with the census.  We went to the tourist info place here in town and told them that we wanted to go somewhere for a day trip - we told them that we have already been to Bundaberg, Bargara and Rainbow Bay.  The lady there suggested that we go to a little town called Childers (3,000 people) which is an hour's drive away.  So, off we went.  When we got there, we went to the Tourist info place there and asked them what there was to see in Childers.  The woman there gave me a few pamphlets.  The one I liked the best was a walking tour of the town - I really like taking walking tours because it gives you a 'real' look at the town.  Childers has such beautiful historical buildings so I was in my element. 

Our first stop was actually a very sad part of the history of Childers.  It was a memorial to 15 backpackers who had died in a deliberately started fire back in 2000.  It was a beautiful memorial set in the original backpackers' building which has been turned into the memorial as well as an art gallery upstairs and a tourist info place downstairs.  When we got there, a woman told us the story of how the backpackers had died and then showed us the beautiful portrait of them which had been painted of them having a 'smoko' (work break) at the cane fields where they had all worked (each person's portrait in the painting had been painted from photos provided by the victims' families).  Another artist had put together a collage for each victim of photos given by the families.  Although, it was a very sad  part of the history of Childers, it was such a beautiful way for the town to celebrate the lives of these 15 people from different parts of the world.  The rest of the walking tour took us about an hour.  It took us to see some wonderful old buildings, an old train, a narrow guage sugar cane railway track, and some beautiful mosaics on the sidewalk of the town.  I have asked Dad to put together a slideshow of pictures of our day - he will try and have that up and running by the end of the week. 

It is hard for me to spend money sometimes when the prices seem ridiculous, but I decided to 'throw caution to the wind' today and we made two food purchases (oh, wow, I hear you say ).  At the end of  town, we saw a peanut stand (like a chip truck) which sold a variety of flavours of peanuts.  We saw a sign which said something about how we can't pass up buying some peanuts.  So, I said to Dad that we should buy some. :-)  There were so many varieties, but we ended up choosing lime and chili peanuts and hickory smoked peanuts.  We have only tried the chili/lime peanuts so far, but they were really yummy.  The other treat we bought was some Mammino ice-cream (home/hand made ice-cream).  They cost $5. per ice-cream and each one was only 150ml - but we took the plunge and bought one each.  I had a jaffa macademia ice-cream and Dad had a passionfruit ice-cream.  They certainly were extremely creamy and extremely flavourful.  Both Dad and I enjoyed eating them, but I guess I am not as much of an ice-cream connoisseur.  I think that I prefer ice-cream like Kawartha Dairy ice-cream.  But, it was an experience and that's what today's purchases were all about.

Once we were done experiencing Childers, I suggested to Dad that we drive to the coast and enjoy the little town (800 people) of Woodgate Beach.  The pamphlets given to us from the tourist info place made it seem like a little bit of paradise.  I told Dad that I had been thinking that when we retire, it might be an idea to move up here - to a lovely little place with only a few people and living right on or near the beach - quiet and relaxing and quiet. :-)  When we were travelling along the road to Woodgate Beach, Dad said that he recognized where we were and he said that we had been there before.  I sort of had the same thought, but I wasn't sure.  When we got there and started driving along the esplanade, I told Dad that I knew what the house looked like which we had seen the kangaroos in front of before and if this was the same place, we would see this house - lo and behold, we saw the same house. :-)  So, we had been there before, just like Dad thought. :-)  Oh well - we saw tons of kangaroos again in the town, so that was worth the visit. :-)  We also noted that there were signs in front of almost every house on the esplanade and others in town which said 'holiday letting'.  This made us think that perhaps it wouldn't be an ideal place to live.  To us, it meant that there would be holiday makers probably year round making lots of noise and clogging up our beach there.  We quickly decided that staying in Hervey Bay sounded a lot better.

Our day ended by buying some take-out for dinner - I just HAD to have a sausage roll :-)  and Dad had his seafood (prawn cutlets, scallops, fish, squid)  and chips (french fries).  We brought the food home and watched  'Air Crash Investigations' while we ate our delicious dinner - it was a wonderful way to end our very lovely and relaxing day together.

This morning (Sunday), I was a bit nervous about giving my talk.  Since I had not spent as much time as I usually do preparing it, I felt that it was very disjointed and not flowing at all.  I also usually spend a lot more time preparing talks and then spend a lot of time going over and over the talk and refining it.  I also usually add a lot more of my own personal experiences and also add stories to my talks, so I was not very happy about giving this talk which I had prepared.  So, I sent a lot of prayers heavenward before Sacrament meeting started.  My topic was 'The Lord's Love for Us' and I was given two scriptures: John 3:16 and John 14:15.  The first portion of my talk was based on the first scripture and the second part of my talk was based on the second scripture.  The first speaker, Jeanne Meixner, was supposed to talk for 10 minutes, but she ended up speaking for 16 minutes.  As I saw she was going overtime, I checked my talk to see what I could leave out.  When I got up to give it, I realized that my ten minute talk needed to be cut down to five minutes.  I ended up taking seven minutes, but because I was speaking at a slower pace than when I had practiced the talk at home, I only ended up giving about 1/3 of the talk (only the first portion of the talk).  As it turned out, that part of the talk was pretty well organized and flowed quite well - so it went very well - many people came up to me afterwards and told me that I had given a really good talk - I made sure to give credit where credit was due (the influence of the Spirit in answer to my prayers). :-)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Well, I don’t know what to say - my system seems to be going up and down and nothing is making sense to me. Yesterday, my system was good in the morning and then played up a bit during the day. But, this was one day which Dad and I could spend together, so I just sucked it up and off we went. We actually spent the morning doing not much of anything - I watched ‘Touched by an Angel’ this morning and I heard a great quote from one of the characters (Tess, one of the angels). She was talking about how a child does not ‘belong’ to either of his/her parents, but rather to Heavenly Father and that parents are guardians of these children here on earth. I loved that - what a great way to think about being a parent.

In the afternoon, we headed off. Our first stop was to our hairdresser, Christa’s, as both Dad and I needed a hair cut. I love going to get my haircut by Christa - I can just say to her ’do whatever’ and she always does such a nice job of it. It’s shorter now and will be easier to look after and will look better for the next ten weeks (for this school term). Christa’s partner has done Dad’s haircut for the past two times we have been there and she does a good job of it. Now Dad looks much more presentable for his training meeting with his collectors tomorrow. :-)

Our next stop was to the ice-cream store - we had a coupon from the library slip we got when we took out a book the other day for two ice-creams for the price of one. When we got to the store, it was closed for ten minutes. During that time, my stomach started to get upset and so I asked Dad if we could go home and have some lunch (just some plain toast). After that, I suggested we go for our walk by the beach - even though my tummy wasn’t doing too well, I didn’t want to just stay home all day. So, we headed off to the ice-cream store, picked up a couple of ice-creams (me: lemon sorbet and strawberry; Dad: rum and raisin and strawberry) and took them to the beach. It was such a beautiful day yesterday (I can’t believe it’s winter - it was about 24C in the afternoon) and it was just fabulous walking along the edge of the water and talking - we must have walked for over an hour - it was such a lovely way to spend the afternoon. :-)

Today, my system was acting up again, but the worst part was the lower back pain. I find that if I sit in our big chairs in the family room, it worsens. If I put heat on my back or have a bath or have Dad massage it, it feels better. I am beginnng to think that it’s possibly a chiropractic issue. I am going to call one who was recommended to us by my friend, Chantelle, and see if he can fit me in. Also, if nothing shows up in the test I had at the hospital the other day, I am going to call my doctor and see what he thinks. We haven’t been to him yet, but the doctor I saw the other day at the hospital said that our doctor is a great doctor and she is even going to sign up with him at his office - Dad and I figure that if a doctor wants to sign up with a doctor, that is a really good recommendation. I ate pretty regular food today and other than the usual burping, my body didn’t react any differently than when I ate simple foods, so I think that I am going to just start eating ‘normally’ again and see what happens.

I was able to partner up with Dad today for ‘Meals on Wheels’ and it was so nice to be back delivering meals again. We got to do our ‘regular’ route plus another route. They were all short routes today and they were short people to help deliver the meals, so Avis doubled up some routes or added some people to other routes. It took us ages to do the route - we even ended up having to go back to two people’s places as they were not there the first time we went to drop off their meal.

Dad went to SES tonight where the training was focused on ropes and knots.  He learned how to sling a stretcher so that it can be lifted by helicopter or lifted up a cliff.  In the second half of the session, he learned how to put the correct knots in a rope to make a safety line to prevent you from falling off a roof.  At first, Dad and his friends couldn't remember their knots very well, but it came back to them quickly.  He can really see the benefit of the type of continuous training they do at SES.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Well, I am really on the mend - I think.  Yesterday, I thought I was feeling better, then the tummy started up again.  Today, other than a lot of burping, I seem to be okay.  This is the first time, though, that I have ever taken Tums - that has always been Dad's medicine - but today the gas was so bad, he suggested I try it.  Turns out - it works. :-)  I actually ate a decent supper tonight for the first time in ages - we had the missionaries over and I asked Dad to do a barbecue.  He cooked chicken and sausages with onions and I made a garden salad and a potato salad.  It was very yummy and it felt really good to be able to eat 'real food' for a change.  I was able to do some real work around the house today, too, which, although I do not like doing housework, actually felt good. :-) 

Yesterday, I worked on school stuff - cutting out and laminating and then cutting out again some language cards/games which the students will be using during our literacy rotations.  Today, I spent the afternoon working on my plan for next week - it felt really good to get it all sorted out, including the things I need photocopied and laminated.  I know it doesn't sound very exciting to you guys, but I really like to be fully organized before I start a week of teaching.  Tomorrow, I will plan out the next nine weeks of the term, in general, so that I have a broad idea of what I want to do - as we go from day to day, I change things as I need to. 

Dad has spent the last two days doing census and church stuff.  He worked on next Sunday's lesson for a while, but spent most of his time preparing the training he will have to do with his collectors, meeting with some people at the establishments which need to do the census collecting themselves and training some of them, and marking a 'home study exercise' which his collectors did so that he can figure out which areas he really needs to focus on when he does his collectors' training this Friday.

Again, another exciting two days in the lives of Mom and Dad. :-)

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Well, I am well and truly frustrated now - this back pain is officially the most annoying thing I have ever had to deal with (except for labour, that is :-)  On Friday, I was feeling much better - the stomach pain was still there a little, but the back pain was doing much better.  Then, I noticed yesterday that there was this green discharge (don't get grossed out, Grandpa :-)  on my panty liner. That really worried me, so yesterday, we drove over to the hospital emergency room so that I could see a doctor about it.  Turns out they don't have walk-in clinics here in Hervey Bay, so  if you need to see a doctor outside the hours of 9am - 5:30pm, you have to go to the emerg.  When we got there, though, there were tons of people there - I am sure  it would have been a four - five hour wait and so I told Dad that we were not going to stay.  This morning, when I woke up, there was the green discharge again and so I decided that I would go back to the hospital after church today.  I was in and out in 1 1/4 hours which was great.  I ended up being called in by a woman doctor - she told me that when she had seen my chart, she chose it because she didn't think that I would want to be 'checked out' by a strange male doctor. :-)  She asked me all sorts of questions about my symptons (we had checked things out on the net, so I knew most of the questions ahead of time) and then she took a swab.  She said she would call me in a week if there was anything to report.  She said that she thinks it's just a virul infection, but will call me if anything shows up.  She also said that I should come back in a couple of days if the lower back pain and tummy pains haven't gone.  I sure hope they go soon cuz it's so annoying (oh yeah, I already said that! :-)

Dad spent Friday at the FHC - he helped some new people who had never been in the FHC before.  The rest of the day he spent time updating the computers, checking in the new films and checking out the old films.  Most of the day, it wasn't too exciting, but they're jobs which need to be done.  Dad really does enjoy helping people begin their genealogy search, though - and it's always great when non-members show up at the Centre - the word is really getting around Hervey Bay.   Dad spent Saturday working on church stuff - especially working on things which need to be done for two events coming up to do with genealogy.  There's going to be a genealogy open day on July 30th and a genealogy Sacrament meeting on the Sunday  before that.  I spent time doing schoolwork and church stuff as well. 

Today, I ended up teaching the whole primary - one of our teachers left for Melbourne this past week and our other teacher was sick today (we don't have a Valiant teacher right now) - fortunately, it went really well - I was talking about how much Jesus and Heavenly Father love everyone in the world and so sends his Spirit to help the missionaries to spread the gospel.  I then had the kids draw a picture of them 'being a missionary' - they drew things like them singing gospel songs, being baptized, being Elders when they grow up, sharing a Book of Mormon with a friend, etc.  It was so wonderful seeing their little drawings (we wrote on them what they were doing in the picture) - I am going to send a letter to a young man from our ward who just left for the Missionary Training Centre this week explaining to him about our lesson and enclosing the pictures.  One of our missionaries in our ward now said that Reece (our new missionary) would love that.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Well, hallelujah, I am on the mend. I am feeling much better today - still not completely healthy, but at least I am eating normal stuff (although much less than what I normally eat). I just feel so grateful not to be hurting (although my back still hurts when I sit down - weird, but it doesn’t hurt when I am standing) . I’m going to see a chiropractor and see what they can do for me. I have spent the past two days sitting in my chair and doing school work - I am trying to get all my ideas organized and then all the stuff prepared this week. I would like to take next week off and really have a holiday before I go back for ten weeks of teaching.

Dad has been working on census stuff and church stuff over the past two days. He went out yesterday to contact some more people who need to do some collecting of information for the census at their establishments. He was able to get a hold of everyone he needed to, which was great. He has appointments set up next week for all the people he contacted - he will be doing the training for collecting information for the census when he meets up with each of these people.
 
So, that's it for today - I know it's a very short one, but when you're sick, there's not much happening. :-)

Tuesday, June 28th

Wow, I am so tired of being under the weather!  I am so not used to this and I'm not a good sickie! :-)Besides having a stuffed nose, I now have back pains and stomach pains.  I've been having trouble sleeping as well with the back pain.  It makes me very appreciative of the normally good health I enjoy and I have told myself that I need to be more thankful for good health (when I get better).  Yesterday, I rested in the morning and then headed over to a friend's house to help her clean her house as she is moving to Melbourne to get married.  Two other friends met us there, so it didn't take us too long to get the house mostly in order.  I was quite worn out by the time I got back from the cleaning, and so I spent the evening relaxing in my chair watching a movie we  had rented from the library. 

Dad spent the day doing census stuff again.  He had to read through his training information so that he could make sure he was ready to do the training of his collectors which will take place a week Friday.  He's getting a bit anxious at how much he has to do in the time he has to do it in, but I keep telling him that things will be fine - he works hard and wants to make sure that he has all his i's dotted and t's crossed.

Today, I had a six hour meeting with Chantelle at our house.  She came over so that we could plan out our term three.  It will be ten weeks long - doesn't sound too long, so I am sure I will be counting down the weeks as we go along. :-)  We were able to do a rough plan of our literacy units, math units and theme units.  We came up with a lot of ideas together and I think we have a good plan set out.  We still have to make it a bit more specific in some areas, but it's a place to start.  We won't start this plan until the second week for the most part.  The kids don't start until the Tuesday and we will need time to get things photocopied, etc.  I also want to buy some baskets like I used to have in Canada.  Because I want to do centres (they call them 'rotations' here), I will need a basket for each group which means 15 boxes: 5 for language, 5 for math and 5 for the theme.  It was actually a little bit exciting doing all the planning and I hope that things will pick up in the classroom and be a more positive experience.

Dad spent his day mostly out of the house - he has to contact people at about 12 establishments who he will train to be census collectors at these establishments.  The reason Dad's collectors won't be doing this at these places is because people come and go often from these places - they are short-term accomodation like hotels, backpacker resorts, etc.  He also has a nursing home in his area which has to be done by the people hired at the nursing home due to privacy issues.  Dad was able to visit four of these places today and will be trying to get out and see the rest some time this week. 

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight - even though I wasn't feeling well (they had a delicious honey/mustard chicken meal and I ate mashed potatoes with ketchup and chicken noodle soup), we did manage to get in two games of cribbage. :-)  We spent the rest of the evening watching tv - boy, our lives are getting pretty boring, eh? :-)

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Boy, am I ever glad that I am on holidays!  The next two weeks will be heaven! :-)  Friday was our last day for two weeks and one day to be exact - the teachers go back one day before the kids do.  The students weren't too bad on Friday, although James, who is a little different (we think he might have some form of autism), was really 'off' on that day.  He tends to want to do things when he wants to do things and doesn't like to be told what to do when if he is not ready to do it.  I finally had had enough of his behaviour and so I took three stars off him and he missed his playtime at first break.  He was fine the rest of the day.  I can see that I am going to have to be much firmer with him once we get back from holidays and that goes for the rest of those 'challenge' children as well.

The 'stars' thing is a classroom management tool which the previous teacher had started.  Each day every child starts with three stars beside their name on a chart and every time they do something they are not supposed to do, they have to take a star off the chart.  If they lose three stars, they have to miss their recess time.  I was talking with my TA, Sam, the other day and told her that I wanted to do something to show those who make good choices that I appreciate them.  So, when we get back, I am going to have another chart in the classroom.  If a child does not get any stars taken off them by the end of the day, I will let them give themselves a stamp on the chart and when they get so many stamps, I will give them a sticker.  I am not really a sticker kind of teacher, but I want to do something for those who always do what they should be doing.

Dad spent the day doing census stuff again.  He finished sorting census forms into the seven areas, he read what he had to do to train his collectors and got the stuff together which he will need to use during the training of his collectors.  He also unpacked one of our boxes which had the computer tower in it - he wanted to get this done so that he could finally have access to some files which he needed and also to be able to connect the printer to the tower so that he doesn't have to take his laptop into the office every time he wants to print something.

We had take-out Friday night as neither Dad nor I wanted to cook dinner - we just had hamburgers and fries from the local convenience store.  We then flopped into our chairs and watched tv for the evening.  There's not much on on Friday nights until 10pm when 'Law and Order' comes on, but even though that's one of my favourite shows, I was so tired by about 10:30pm, that I told Dad I was taking myself off to bed.

Yesterday was one lazy day for me - I told myself that I wouldn't do anything school-related yesterday and I didn't. :-)  I watched some tv and took a bath and read my book.  I was reading a book called 'Midwives' about a midwife who was taken to court when she cut open a woman who she thought was dead so that she could save the baby (the pregnant woman had no pulse).  I got about half way through the book and although it was an interesting story, I just found that it went on too long - so I turned to the end of the book to find out how the story ends.  Then, I started ready my new book 'Caleb's Crossing' which is based on the life of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College (in Martha's Vineyard in 1665).  The book was on a few book club lists, so I am hoping it will be a good read.

Dad went to a census area supervisors' training meeting yesterday from 9am - 3pm.  The district manager had to make sure that all of the supervisors knew everything which their collectors have to do.  For instance, they discussed how to do the census with people who are on boats in a waterway or those who are in hospital on census day, etc.  They were provided with lunch which was buns, cold cuts, cheese, salad (tomatoes, lettuce) and juice which was nice.  Dad found that the training was good as there were a few things which were confusing to the supervisors and some of the supervisors were unsure of what to do in certain situations (like what to do if you run into a homeless person).

I woke up with a cold today, but went to church anyway.  It was interesting how things turned out.  Our Sacrament meeting was on the Holy Ghost, my Sharing Time lesson was on the Holy Ghost and Dad's High Priest group lesson was on the Holy Ghost - I thought that was cool that we were all be teaching or talking on the same subject. :-)  When we got home from church, I had something to eat and went straight to bed for a nice, long nap.  Dad Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa while I was napping.  They are still at the campsite in the interior of BC and loving it.  They will be heading back to Surrey this Thursday.  Believe it or not, their month of vacation is up.  There is no change in Grandpa's health which is good news, I think.

Tonight, we watched the movie 'Lean On Me' - I have seen it before, but I saw it when I was at the library picking up a book I had on hold and picked it up, too.  I was just in the mood for a feel-good movie and this is one of them.  It's basically the story of how a school principal came into a high school which had gone to the dogs (drugs, etc) and only 33% of the students were passing the basic literacy test.  He sent all the druggies, etc, away and within a year 75% of the students could pass the literacy test.  It's based on a true story of a school in California in the mid 80s.  I really enjoyed it and so did Dad.