Sunday, June 1, 2014

Letter to Richard - 1 June 2014

Dear Richard

Hopefully next week I’ll be looking forward to a slightly easier week ahead… This week is certainly still going to be hectic! I’ve got tons of marking to do, both for the board course and for my course (my students wrote their test on Friday), plus I have to finish off the chapters we’ve been reworking for the new groups textbook. I made good progress on the textbook this past week, getting to the end of 4 chapters, but I’ve still got 2 to go. But I think that they’ll go a bit faster than the last 2 that I did, so I’m hopeful J

On Tuesday morning Hannah woke up and immediately wrenched her neck L She couldn’t actually move for a while! She looked so pitiful and sad lying on the couch, all miserable… But once we got her medicated and mobile she got back some of her usual spark, and by the time we were leaving for school she was bossing everyone around! So it still took a couple of days to come completely right, but she made quick progress on some things!

We’ve been having a tough time with Josh this past week though, with him feeling all sensitive and his self-esteem seems to be quite low… And it’s one of those things that was just taking us ages to realise what was actually wrong! But thankfully now that we’ve isolated what the problem is we’ve been able to help him a bit, and he’s doing better, although he’s not quite our normal child again. And part of the problem was that he was being very disobedient, and then when he was reprimanded he felt like everyone was hating him… So it’s been a bit of a challenge to also be showing him how his own behaviour is influencing everything and try to help him be more obedient. We’ve had limited success on that front, but there have been a few glimmers of hope, like the fact that he was a huge part of us tidying the entire house while Andrew was at a High Priest Quorum meeting this evening J

Then on Thursday morning one of the other parents reversed into my car while I was inside the school dropping off the kids L It’s just my back bumper, in almost the exact same place as last year when I reversed into someone on campus! But what was great was how I managed to stay completely calm throughout! I think that my accident last year was still very fresh, and I know just how easily it can happen! And such a relief that I had no blame this time!!! So it was going to the police station immediately, and then on Friday I went to the panel beaters to get a quote to repair it. The other parent is accepting full responsibility, so except for the schlep we won’t have any cost at least J

I also had my meeting with Head of Department last week to talk about my performance over the last 4 years. He’s very happy with my “conscientious way” that I do all my work, and he said he’s very glad that I don’t cause any trouble ;) Like I responded – I try not to! Really the big thing is that I need to just get my Masters done. That’s the only big thing that’s holding me back at this point. But I should be able to go on sabbatical next year and then I can really get into it!

Yesterday we were invited, together with another family, to go and visit one of my colleagues at home for afternoon tea/snacks. Our kids don’t get a lot of chances to visit other people because we’re not that big into socialising… But we had a good time, and we took their two little dachshunds for a short walk. The kids have been talking about it ever since! That certainly made a big impression on them!

Today was fairly normal, including lots of craziness… Which is part of normal… We’re so enjoying having our family home evening on a Sunday afternoon J Andrew was in charge of the HP meeting this evening, and he says it went really well, and that Pres Kruger was happy and complimentary about it J Andrew’s still struggling to figure out his exact role in the presidency, so it’s so great that he’s having these successes J

And that’s about it… I’m writing today (being Sunday instead of Monday) because I’m expecting to have work to do tomorrow evening, like I have had the last few nights. But the nice thing about this time of the year is that I’m planning on working from home most of the week at least J

Have a good week!

Shelly

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