Sketching & Shelly Beach

Monday, March 19

After the regular morning’s duties, I went for a jog and then bought a sketchbook.  I then started working on my first sketch of the Sydney Opera House.  I hope to sketch more scenes as I explore this beautiful and vivacious city.  Then I picked up the kids and took them to swimming lessons.  While they were in there lessons, I took advantage of the pool and swam some laps.  It was refreshing.

Tuesday, March 20

Today I met Mary in Manly and we had a barbeque picnic at shelly beach.  It was so fun!  We cooked chicken wings and mushrooms on the grill and talked about our families and growing up.   Mary is going to be a wonderful friend here.  Her mother passed away when she was 14, which left her to raise her siblings.  She is caring and mature, but also loves having fun and being adventurous just like me.  We can talk about anything together already.  Then I layed out for a bit and then picked up Stef.  I went to her parent teacher conference with Emila. It was so good to talk with the teacher.  I have been very involved in helping Stef succeed in school by helping her with her homework and asking the teacher questions about her progress.  I can’t help it- it’s the teacher inside of me.  This is such great practice and experience for when I do have a classroom of my own.  It was neat to be on the other side of a parent teacher conference.  The teacher said she has already seen drastic improvements in Stefani since I have started working with her.  She is starting to feel more confident and successful with her homework.  I hope I can really make a difference with Stefani and Mark with their schoolwork as well as their manners.  I know I’m here for a reason and it feels wonderful to be where God wants me to be.  It also doesn’t hurt that I live in paradise! I am so blessed.  When I was at Shelly beach, I noticed there were some scuba divers at the edge of the coral.  I’ll have to bring my snorkel the next time I go to Shelly beach. 

Wednesday, March 21

I found out that a girl from my church back in High School actually has been living in Australia for the past 3 years.  So, Katelyn and I met up for coffee, lunch and some light shopping.  She works and is very involved with Hill Song.  I plan to visit this infamous church with her.  It was great catching up about Austin and what we’ve been up to these past years. Today is my Mom's birthday- Happy Birthday Mama!

Thursday, March 22

I started using a behavior chart with Stefani to encourage good habits with postive reinforcement.  We’ll see how this goes.  Then, this evening I went on a date with the nice boy I met on St. Patrick’s Day.  We went out to eat at a Mexican Tacoria and then saw a movie in Manly.  Mexican food is not the same here.  I’ll have to start an authentic place here to introduce them to true Tex-Mex flavor.   The evening was really nice.  The conversation was flowing.  I have a feeling I'll be seeing more of Tom.