Letter to Richard - 15 December 2014 (start of the holidays)

15 December 2014

Dear Richard

Christmas is just about upon us! As of Friday I’m on leave, and actually I’m on leave from teaching until June 2015! When I was closing up my office on Friday it meant taking all of the food, water bottles and plants home that I’ve got there. Quite a substantial feeling! I’ll still be going in during my sabbatical, but I’ll be mainly at home, so this will become my office for the 6 months.

I spent time working on my topic and research question for my masters, and also building an excel workbook that the Head of Department asked me to develop. Then it was also our year end function on Friday afternoon, and on Thursday we had the Christmas party for the kids at my work. The party was in the morning, so I ended up having the kids with me for the whole day, because of course they wouldn’t want to go back to school for the afternoon… But they had lots of fun, and I actually then took them afterwards to my friend’s house to meet her new puppy and to have a swim in her pool. A really fun day! Then I took Josh to see the aftercare at the school, where I’ve been able to arrange for him to go next year as well.

But the big thing last week was really Joshua having his last day at his school. He’s been at that school for 4 years, so it really is a big thing for him to move on now. But he’s definitely ready! Because I know that he’ll be coming back very often next year I wasn’t too emotional, and I think he’s fine too. It’s going to be really hard for me when Caleb finishes off!

We’re nearing the end of the New Testament stories now, and we’ve been reading about the Easter week. It’s been so nice reading with the kids about things like the crucifixion, but then being able to discuss how even though bad people killed Jesus he’s stronger and more powerful than them, so He was able to come alive again, and Satan will never win! I’m really looking forward to teaching the New Testament next year, and having lots of opportunities to discuss it :) But then I am just loving teaching my class and teaching from the scriptures in general :D The other day I had been preparing my lesson on Daniel, Shadrech etc, and Esther and I was sitting at the table with the kids while they ate supper (Andrew was out somewhere) and I was telling them the stories. Hannah especially was riveted! But all 3 of them were really fascinated, and it was so nice to be able to discuss with them :)

Saturday was busy, with all 3 kids being invited to Josh’s best friend’s birthday party, and then the ward Christmas party. Way too much junk food for the day! But the kids had fun ;) And then on Sunday, with Cindy arriving home, we had a small party as a family. So you can just imagine how the kids were by the end of that! But they were so excited to have Cindy and Dom here! We were all supposed to go over at 4:00, and we delayed them as long as possible, but eventually at 3:20 we couldn’t anymore! Just imagine how they’re going to be when you’re coming home!

And then today was the first day of holiday, and so far so good :) I think this holiday is going to be easier than the previous ones, and they’ll get progressively easier from here, but here’s hoping it carries on well ;)

Love you lots

Shelly

Letter to Richard - 8 December 2014

Dear Richard

Things are starting to slow down, which is MUCH needed! Work is definitely slowing down, to the extent that on Thursday I actually didn’t even go to work because I had so many personal things to do, but that was okay! We got all of our visiting teaching done in the afternoon, and I was visited in the afternoon (which means that all of my 2014 visiting teaching is all done :) ) and then saw an accounting client and I also got uniform stuff for Joshua – I only need to get shoes for him, and then he’s all kitted out! And he’s in the yellow house, so different to all of you guys… And we also went for our annual biokineticist assessment.

The big event was a Teaching and Learning conference on Friday. I presented on a similar thing to the T&L conference in October, and it went well again. I got some very positive feedback, and this time the conference was a national one, so there were 100 or so delegates from universities all over the country, so that was very gratifying :) And Ilse, my friend, was the one who organised the entire conference, and it went amazingly well! Everyone was very impressed :)

Saturday morning was the kids’ swimming gala, and they all did great, especially Josh! Hannah and Caleb both cried about going into the water, because it was colder than the water they’re used to swimming in at home or at their lessons. But they did their swims anyway. And Josh just jumped in and swam when he needed to, and he did well! His teacher actually wants to move him to the school pool for his lessons from January. That’s going to make life challenging, but he’s ready! I can definitely see that he’s ready for Grade 1 now, which is so wonderful :)

The only bad things really from last year were the continuous blackouts, which are apparently going to be with us for a few years at least, and then the lady that we had arranged for Joshua’s aftercare told us that she can’t have him anymore. At this late stage that’s not at all ideal, but things have always worked out for the best for us and our children, and we had been having doubts about it being the right place for Josh, so it was a blessing that she took the decision out of our hands. So now it’s figuring out what’s best and what Heavenly Father wants for our family.

Yesterday we did our family home evening lesson on manners and respect. We’re trying to teach the kids more respect, and with a 2 year old who is very strong-willed it is very challenging, but I think he’s old enough now that we can really start reasoning with him, and getting through to all the kids more effectively. The really fun thing yesterday though was having most of Andrew’s family, and Mom and Dad, over for a carols evening, similar to the ones we’ve gone to in Simon’s Town in the past. It was the first time we’ve done something like that with Andrew’s family, and they all enjoyed it :)

Just 1 week left of school and work, and then we’ll all be on holiday for a bit, and hopefully get some good rest! Good luck with your new companion ;) Exciting times ahead!

Love you

Shelly

Letter to Richard - 1 December 2014 (Joshua's graduation)

Dear Richard

It’s that day of the year again when we say “Is it really December already?!?!?” Yet again, the year has just flown by!

Last week was results week at varsity, so it was all about finalising the results, and then they got released on Thursday afternoon. That’s the one day of the year that you try to make sure that you’re not on campus! It’s great to see all the excited students, but those who are disappointed need time to gather their thoughts before they come and speak to us, so it’s not productive for us to be around then. And even this week I’ve had some students coming and asking what do they do now… And there are so many reasons that students don’t do as well as they should have. It could be lack of ability or effort, or circumstances beyond their control. In some ways it’s similar to people’s ability to live the gospel. In fact one of the talks from the Women’s session of conference reminded me again of the analogy that I’ve used before where the Lord sets the standards and so we need to comply, just like a university sets the requirements for students to enter the university and then also to graduate with a degree. So baptism could be our entering the university, and then qualify for exaltation would be getting the degree. But we can’t customise the requirements to suit us – we have to qualify according to the standards set. And the gospel is the same.

I think I really have finally finished all of the stuff for the 2 textbooks now… More ancillary material just keeps on popping up, but I think we’ve done everything now for both books. I’ll be really glad when it all gets signed off, and we can focus on other things for a few years :)

I went to a follow up talk on parenting, this time of discipline and rewards. Lots to think about again… Remind me to share it with you when you’re at that stage ;)

And the big event last week was really Joshua’s graduation! The school puts a lot of effort into the graduation ceremony. The kids learn a whole lot of songs that they sing for us, and they wear special gowns, and they each get called up to receive a certificate and medal and have a photo taken, and then lots of eats afterwards. It’s so nice to be part of a school where the children are really part of a family, and now I’ll be part of making things work well, and hopefully helping the school to move forward :) You’ll get to come to Hannah’s and Caleb’s graduations too :D

Andrew went to the Young Men’s camp on Friday night, and also did a short presentation for them on Saturday morning. It was much better for us at home, compared to the last time he went away… But then the kids are that much older, and it seems like there might be a bit of a shift with the early waking of Hannah and Caleb! :) This morning all 3 kids were still sleeping at 6:30 which is just UNHEARD of! I’m hoping they’ll start sleeping more normal hours ;) So on Friday night we went to McDonalds, and we actually ran into one of the girls in Joshua’s class and her parents and ended up eating with them. So it was actually me chatting to them, and the kids playing on the jungle gym. They’re also very faith-driven people, so it was really nice chatting to them :) And then on Saturday morning we did lots of playing in the morning, and then when Andrew got home it was a quick exchanging of Joshua, for Andrew to take him to a party, and I took Hannah and Caleb with me to the RS Christmas party, which was really nice.

Then Saturday afternoon we had a braai for Andrew’s birthday, so we had a full house! But it was nice to all be together, and I was getting Amy to be pretty adventurous in the pool! Of course, we’ll see how much she trusts me next time ;)

My lesson on Sunday was quite nice. It was only Alecia and Chante in the class, and the lesson was on temples, but neither of them has ever been to the temple, even to do baptisms. So we looked at the lesson material a bit, but a lot of the time was more open discussion, and answering all sorts of questions, which was really nice! It’s so nice to be able to have that space to be able to discuss the gospel like that.

So that’s more or less my week. It’s just 2 weeks left of work and school, and then life gets all turned upside down… But I think it’s going to be nice :) And we’re definitely looking forward to talking to you!

Love you lots

Shelly

Letter to Richard - 24 November 2014

Dear Richard

A busy week last week. The highlight was Josh’s Grade 1 orientation. He was all excited, but then when Mr van Vuuren was explaining what was going to happen he realised that he’d be going without us to meet his teacher. Then he started getting a bit upset and anxious. And as the names started being read it turned out that he was in the last class to be called, so he was sitting getting more and more anxious. I prayed with him, but he was still sitting with tears in his eyes. But when his name finally was called he immediately got off my lap and went off without even looking back! And then a couple other kids from his class this year also got called, and then he actually cheered up. But I was so impressed with how he was able to go and do what he needed to do, even though it was obviously difficult for him! :) My boy is growing up! And so he’s in Mrs Thomas’ class, who’s the grade head. I am so glad that he’s got an experienced teacher as well, because he will struggle to adjust next year, and he needs a teacher who will understand his personality. So on the whole a very positive experience!

We’ve had power problems this last week. Over the weekend there were rolling blackouts, but on Wednesday when I got to work the power was off in my building, and it turned out that with all of the construction work being done on campus they damaged some power cables! Just a bad week! But we at least had power the whole day today.

We’ve pretty much finished our Christmas shopping now. I did a bit of shopping for Andrew the day that I eventually left work early because of no power, and then on Friday Andrew and I took the day off and did everything we need to do together. We bought some clothes for Andrew to give to me, and it was a matter of traipsing from shop to shop at China Town. In our 10 years of marriage this was actually the first time that we’ve done a shopping expedition like that. But we did find quite a few nice items, but now I have to wait until Christmas to get them!

We had our first proper meeting of the school governing body last week, and we allocated all of the roles. I’m the secretary, and I’ve got the education portfolio and a couple other things. I’m quite excited about how this is going to work out :)

This weekend was stake conference, and you should have had the same conference as us on Sunday :) So you know what a great session that was, although I need to re-watch it because the kids, especially Caleb, were giving me a really hard time :( But what I did hear from it was really great. And on Saturday we had our local meetings. Andrew was doing training and giving a talk on Saturday, so on Friday night he was up really late working on them. But they went great as always. Things are coming together nicely in our stake now :)

And on Sunday afternoon we put up our Christmas tree for family home evening. Mom came over, but the kids were so excited that they actually couldn’t wait until she got here… So lots of excitement, and since then they’ve been playing a game where one of them goes into the play room and gets a couple toys while the others pretend to be sleeping on the couch, and then the toys get put under the tree and the child runs to the passage to hide behind the door frame, and then the others wake up to get their presents. So cute!

I’ve got a lot of family history done over the last week, entering the 30 pages onto family search. Quite a few names that can have temple work done :) And something else I’ve been doing all the time is listening to general conference while I’m driving to or from work. I’ve gone through all of conference 1 ½ times already :)

So that’s it for this week. I was telling the kids everything that’s happening this coming week, and it’s going to be crazy again! But we’ll survive ;)

Love you lots

Shelly

Letter to Richard - 17 November 2014 (Richard's 21st birthday)

Dear Richard

So as of now you are officially a grown-up :) I hope you really had a good day!

I finally finished my second year marking at the end of last week, and that means that I don’t have any more marking until probably about September next year! Which is just awesome!!!

But I also took some time off to have lunch with Mom which was really special and some visiting teaching. I shared the talk from the October conference “Approaching the throne of God with confidence” which I think is a really awesome talk! Such an important perspective that we need to be feeling confident and worthy, otherwise we won’t feel happy to be in the Lord’s presence, even if we’re basically doing everything right. Good food for thought…

On Friday morning we took the kids to Home Affairs to get their passports and unabridged birth certificates, not because we are planning on going anywhere, but so that we’re prepared like President Monson has counselled us. They’re improved their system since we were last there, and it wasn’t too painful at all :) The only bad part was that the photos that I had fought hard for the previous evening, to get the kids to actually stand still with a good expression on their faces, weren’t what they wanted, so we had to have more done, and it was nearly impossible to get Hannah and Caleb to stand still! But we eventually won, and then we got out of there. And what was also great was that the whole time Josh was saying that he wanted to go to school. LONG may that sentiment exist!!!

We also spent some time discussing the new Honours program for next year last week, and then today we presented it to the rest of the staff. It seems that the feelings are generally positive from the other staff, so we’ll see how it goes from here :)

We’re busy reading the New Testament scripture stories with the kids right now, and it’s been quite nice to be able to talk to the kids about Jesus and the things He did. Somehow these stories are lending themselves much better to some discussion than the previous scripture readers, but hopefully we’re establishing some good habits :)

On Saturday we had our carnival ward activity to help the youth raise money for FSY which is just a few weeks away now. The kids had a blast with all of the games (Josh was pretty good at throwing darts at balloons!), and what was great is that the youth exceeded their target by a lot! So they’ve got everything they need to get them to FSY now :)

Sunday was the Primary presentation and all 3 of the kids did their parts great! Caleb’s line was right at the beginning and he wanted to then sit with me afterwards, but at least he did say his line, and Hannah and Josh were willing to do their parts nicely, and I could see them singing, although neither of them is going to be willing to sing very loudly any time soon ;) But we were still really proud of them! Andrew’s family came over to see them, and then we had them over for lunch and a visit afterwards. It was so great to see how our 3 kids had a ball playing with Sarah. Cousins are so awesome!

So that’s us. It’s been another busy week, but lots of fun stuff too :)

Love you

Shelly

Letter to Richard - 10 November 2014

10 November 2014

Dear Richard

Last week was a lot of marking again, this time for the second year exam. I'll still be busy most of this week with it. I am looking forward to being finished with marking! I also got to work on my supp a bit and more or less finalised the results for students.

But what was great was that Andrew and I went to watch Jeeves and Wooster at Theatre on the Bay on Tuesday which was great fun! I had read the book that the play was based on, but seeing how the stage was used and the characters, really brilliant!

We've been having pretty good behaviour from the kids lately. Not perfect of course, but all 3 have been doing pretty well, which is such a relief :) I hope this is the start of an overall good stage ;)

The weekend was really intense! There was hardly anytime that we weren't doing something :( But it was mostly good stuff at least :) On Friday evening we went to Kirstenbosch for a picnic and firefly walk with the ward. Andrew's family and a few other people joined us too. I think the group was actually too big, but it was still nice, and the kids had great fun, especially running around with all of the other kids while it was still light.

On Saturday morning I took the kids to the chapel to practice for the primary presentation which is next Sunday, while Andrew stayed at home and did some chores and errands. We came home briefly and then I dropped Josh off at a party and then I went to the Stake Relief Society High Tea, which was nice to spend some time visiting with the sisters. Then back to fetch Josh before coming home to get Hannah ready for her ballet concert. It was surprisingly quick to get her ready, and she was so keen to be getting out of the door and on her way! She was one of a group of Snow Whites, and her dancing was cute 4 year old dancing, but it was so awesome to see her up on the stage dancing, not bothered particularly by the hall full of people :) What an amazing life skill to be getting at the age of 4! And she says she enjoyed being up there, so we'll see what she gets up to in the future ;)

Sunday was church, and then we went to Fish Hoek to have a small party for Luke's birthday. The kids are really enjoying spending time with their cousins right now, which is so special to see.

So after that weekend it felt like a holiday to go back to work this morning! Things are winding down now, as we're getting closer to the end of the year. I can't believe that it's just 2 months till Josh starts Grade 1... We've got his orientation next week, and his graduation the following week. It's all very real now! But we know that he's ready and I've seen him growing up so much this year, which has been awesome to see. It makes me much more confidence in his readiness for Grade 1. I do need to get going with things like buying his uniform and stuff now... :(

So that's us! All growing up quickly and moving forward. So life is busy, but good! Yesterday in my class we we're talking again about how we need to choose to be living the gospel, but I can honestly tell them that I have a good life, and it's because I'm trying to live the gospel, not getting it perfect, but my life is good!

So on that note I will love and leave you :)
Shelly

Letter to Richard - 3 November 2014

Dear Richard

I’m so enjoying a slightly slower pace at work now! I finished my marking for my course last week, and once it all got captured the results are looking good :) My external examiner now needs to go through a sample and sign off on the results, but I’m nice and ahead of schedule which is a huge relief! I’m going to be marking some second year papers as well, but they’re only writing on Wednesday this week, so I’ve got a bit of a breather still. And it meant that I could take a bit of time last week to do things like sorting out the kids clothes for the new season, and sorting out the 2 freezers. It feels so much better to have things a bit more organised! And then I also made a new dinosaur mask for Josh, which he’s been desperately asking for for ages now! It came out quite nicely :)

One sad bit of news last week for me was that one of my good friends at work is resigning :( Apparently we have a 6 month notice period to work out, so she’ll still be around for a while, but I’m definitely going to miss her once she’s gone :( There are some people at work that you get really close to! But change is the nature of things in life, so we carry on.

I went to a very interesting talk on parenting – about strong willed children and how to deal with manipulation and domination from them… Lots of good things to learn and try and implement! I wish I could say that all of our parenting problems are over immediately, but there’s a learning curve of course… But I think we do have a few things that we can work on specifically now.

On Friday when I was at gym my left elbow started hurting, and by the end of the work day I could hardly lift my arm! I was picturing myself back where I’ve been in the past with joints that are giving major hassles. But I put a Transact patch on, rested it well, and lots of prayer of course, and with my regular visits to the chiropractor my body is supposed to be able to heal itself as quickly as it can, and all of that together, and by the end of Saturday I more or less had my full range of motion back! I can honestly say that it was a miraculous healing! What a blessing :D

Saturday was intense, with a party for Caleb in the morning, and a party for Hannah in the afternoon… I was exhausted by the end of the day! But it was good to spend time getting to know different parents at the school. I was looking through the class lists for each of the kids, and I actually know most of the parents in all 3 classes, which is impressive, I think!

Yesterday afternoon Eunice Sibotoboto and her 2 boys came to visit for a short bit while Siya was at the BYC over the road. She is so desperate to have a daughter! She loved playing with Hannah, doing lipstick and hair… I ended up being the model for most of it ;) But at least now someone has been able to actually show Hannah how to plait my hair! It’s something I couldn’t do myself, for obvious reasons… They’re a really great family! I hope nothing happens that they move out of the ward before you get back and get to know them ;)

So that’s about it… Hope you’ve had a good week!

Shelly