August

I guess this is where I'm supposed to write lots of witty stuff about the interesting things we've been doing lately. Yeah...........I got nothin'.

I've been working for kindy a fair bit, and it felt great to be able to pay tithing again once my pay came through. Other than that it's just normal stuff around here. Brooke and Elisa are such good friends - they've even turned down opportunities lately to have friends over - they're just happy to play together. When they do want others to play with, they zip next door and disappear for a few hours with Caitlyn and Jordan.

Today snow is lashing the South Island, and we're feeling the polar blast up here. We had big hail this morning, then a short stint of SLEET! Not what you expect to happen in Auckland, even if it IS winter. Now though, it sunny as anything, but still very cold. Oops...no....now it's raining - changes every 5 minutes.

I went to the chapel today to help sort through/tidy up our Primary Cupboard, but the person with the keys didn't turn up, so I ended up helping vacuum the chapel for an hour and a half with the other ward that turned up for cleaning duty. Elisa quite happily played with her toys and had morning tea while I cleaned. She's such a good kid.

OK, now it's hailing again - the size of Brooke's beados or bigger.

Right, speaking of Elisa, it's time I did some more learning with her. I'm all too aware that it's only a few months till she starts school (end of November), and as much as I just want to close my eyes and deny she's growing up, I better go teach her some more sight words.







OK, I'm back. Not long after school, it hailed so hard it looked like snow on the ground. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen it do that in Auckland. Once it had stopped hailing, the kids couldn't wait to get out and play in it. It melted off the roads and concrete pretty quick, but hung around for ages in the shaded garden/grassed areas:

Masterchef in the making?

For family home evening on Monday nights, we try to teach our girls something. Sometimes it's gospel related, other times it's practical life skills. This week I thought I'd have Brooke make dinner all by herself, with only verbal instructions from me. She loved the idea, and took to it like a fish to water. We had a pretty easy menu for her first time. Steamed veges, rice and crumbed fish, followed by instant pudding with sprinkles for dessert. The girls quite often help me in the kitchen, but they've not really had the opportunity to do dinner by themselves. Brooke did SO well, and the end result was really yummy. She's already planning her next meal. It was going to be tonight, but she woke up at 4.30am this morning feeling pretty miserable, and hasn't eaten all day. I will let Elisa cook a dinner later in the week.

Brooke is not usually a sick kid, so I knew she was really unwell this morning when she wouldn't let me leave the room to do anything. That and she just looked terrible too. She had a massive headache that wouldn't ease with Pamol, and a sore stomach. Her temp was 38C. After we'd dropped Elisa to kindy we had heaps of snuggles and cuddles, and she eventually fell asleep on the couch next to me. I took her to the Doctors at 11am and he said it looked like a viral illness (checking for, then ruling out meningitis). He did say to bring her back in if she didn't improve in the next 4 hrs, but after a 2.5 hr sleep after lunch she seemed to be a little better.

I have a Primary Presidency meeting tonight at the chapel, and will have to take the kids with me. Hopefully Brooke will be OK. She's pretty happy right now just sitting watching TV. Funny that.