Our plan is to spend Christmas this year in Mackay (failing better offers we'll probably head to Eungella after church to escape the heat), and then to drive down to Brisbane before 2009 begins. We'll be at CMS Summer School as usual, then drive home again ready for our third year in Mackay.
Wish us well on the drive - Mackay drivers are bad enough.
Merry Christmas, and God bless!
Laetitia's heart
The last couple of months of our year have been taken up with finding out about Laetitia's heart.
Last year Laetitia's Dad had his mitral valve replaced. Now it looks like Laetitia may need similar treatment sometime in the future.
You can read how this story started and also the current state of knowledge of her heart. You can also read Ian's take on the situation.
Last year Laetitia's Dad had his mitral valve replaced. Now it looks like Laetitia may need similar treatment sometime in the future.
You can read how this story started and also the current state of knowledge of her heart. You can also read Ian's take on the situation.
Laetitia's Concert
Well, it could be argued that it was Mel Wright's concert, or at least her students' concert rather than just Laetitia's concert.
November was busy with an echocardiogram for Laetitia and planning flights to Brisbane in December, finding someone to mind our house while we're away, Laetitia's Creative Memories open home and practices for an end-of-year concert of the students of Laetitia's sax teacher, Mel Wright, as well as the concert itself.
November was busy with an echocardiogram for Laetitia and planning flights to Brisbane in December, finding someone to mind our house while we're away, Laetitia's Creative Memories open home and practices for an end-of-year concert of the students of Laetitia's sax teacher, Mel Wright, as well as the concert itself.
Jury duty
In October Laetitia did Jury Duty. This meant generally not making hard and fast plans for being anywhere, anytime for the three or four week period of potential service because you don't know whether you'll be required to go to court until after 5pm the business day before.
The courts here managed to cram two trial cases into one week and Laetitia was a juror for one of these. You can read her understanding of her experiences on her blog.
The courts here managed to cram two trial cases into one week and Laetitia was a juror for one of these. You can read her understanding of her experiences on her blog.
Bill & Bev Bailey
Laetitia's parents came to visit us in September. We really enjoyed being able to provide house-room for family members, something that we unfortunately hadn't been able to do last year when Ian's parents visited.
But now we are set up for visitors. You can read Ian's description of the visit on his blog and here's Laetitia's impressions.
But now we are set up for visitors. You can read Ian's description of the visit on his blog and here's Laetitia's impressions.
Church camp
Our church camp was at Cape Hillsborough Nature Resort again this year. Cape Hillsborough is about a 40 min drive north-northwest from our place in Mackay.
Our church camps tend to focus on getting to know our church family members better and just relaxing, rather than theological discussions. And this is not a bad thing.
Our church camps tend to focus on getting to know our church family members better and just relaxing, rather than theological discussions. And this is not a bad thing.
Our Tenth Anniversary
This year was our tenth wedding anniversary! We are very pleased to have made it to this milestone. To celebrate, we had a picnic in Sherwood Arboretum in Brisbane. Many of our friends and family were able to join us there, where we did publically what we do every year: said our wedding vows to each other.See some photos from the picnic on Facebook.
As a further celebration, and because we are currently living so close, we went for a cruise in the Whitsundays in the September holidays. You can read about our fantastic adventure on Ian's blog and Laetitia's blog.
Marriage is a challenge to holiness: to put the other first, to compromise, to live in unity. We daily look to God for the strength and humility we need to keep going in this life together that we have chosen.
Semester 2
In Semester 2, the Year 11 Maths B classes were too small to justify keeping them as two separate classes, and they were combined into one. Instead, Ian acquired a Year 8 SOSE class! Can you imagine Ian teaching ancient history? It was a challenge. At least it was the same topic twice over: the classes rotated between teachers and topics each term.
Maths Teachers' Conference
At the end of June, Ian flew to Brisbane for the annual QAMT Conference. In the end, the school paid for both his flights and the conference registration. The conference was very worthwhile. Ian also had a chance to catch up with family and friends and take some photos.
Resthaven concert
As part of the (church) Life Group in which we are involved, we participated in a mini-concert for the residents of Resthaven Nursing Home, a short walk from where we live. We played a mix of hymns and secular pieces as well as some poetry readings for a bit of variety.
We enjoyed it, as did the residents who came to see it, so we may do it again sometime.
We enjoyed it, as did the residents who came to see it, so we may do it again sometime.
Bill's stroke
Laetitia's father, Bill, had a stroke in April.
After his heart valve operation last year, a filament of something attached to the replacement valve was noticed. It was still there a few days before the stroke but had disappeared after it, so it may have been something that dislodged and got stuck in his brain but it isn't known for sure.
So why wasn't it removed when it was noticed originally? Because that would have required open-heart surgery, the after-effects of which may be why it developed in the first place - kind of pointless, really.
You can read Laetitia's initial thoughts on her blog.
After his heart valve operation last year, a filament of something attached to the replacement valve was noticed. It was still there a few days before the stroke but had disappeared after it, so it may have been something that dislodged and got stuck in his brain but it isn't known for sure.
So why wasn't it removed when it was noticed originally? Because that would have required open-heart surgery, the after-effects of which may be why it developed in the first place - kind of pointless, really.
You can read Laetitia's initial thoughts on her blog.
Hotz - Gunton Wedding
On 5 April we were official photographers at the wedding of one of Ian's fellow teachers, Steph Hotz, to Brian Gunton. It was a morning wedding up at Eungella (at the top of the range an hour's drive west of Mackay). The ceremony and reception were in the park at Broken River. The reception was a lovely picnic with blankets, umbrellas and baskets full of food. In between we took the bridal party to a couple of other scenic spots for some lovely photos.
It was a lovely day. The bride had done a great job; everything was very well organised. It is always a pleasure to attend weddings of committed Christians, and these two are both from strongly Christian families. God provided the beautiful weather.Together we took over 1100 photos! You can see some of our favourites on Flickr: Ian, Laetitia
Rowena and Håkan
Mackay Floods 2008
On 15 February, Mackay received flooding rains (about 600mm in a few hours). Apparently there were two separate fronts converging right over Mackay, and of course the tide was coming in at the same time, so all the extra water had nowhere to go.For the first few hours of the day, we watched the water level rising into Ian's classrooms, and took some photos. Then after the waters began to recede, after high tide, we went for a walk around the block. The Gooseponds, normally a placid little lake, was now a rushing great swathe of water. Many homes were substantially under water. Many cars had been completely submerged.
This event was a tragedy for the people of Mackay. Many lost homes and treasured posessions. Fortunately nobody died. (Just a few days before the flood, one of Ian's senior students from 2007, Reece Hines, was swept over a weir at Mirani, upriver from Mackay. His body was found on 14 February.)
Our church (which had narrowly escaped being flooded) became an official Community Recovery Centre, where people could go for moral support, a warm cup of tea, and to apply for emergency assistance and/or government relief.
For more flood details, check our individual blog entries: Ian, Laetitia.
The flood also brought to Mackay some scaly visitors. Apparently crocodiles were seen swimming down some of the streets in South Mackay! We managed to catch up with one of the possibly two that took up residence in the Gooseponds.
Semester 1
Ian began the school year with five maths subjects (one of each grade 8–12) and a House Family group (you might know this as “Form” or “Home Room” or something like that). He found the beginning of the school year to be much less stressful than 2007. See Ian's blog post for more details.
Home again...with a sting in the tale
We are home in Mackay again.
God was gracious to us in getting us home safely and in allowing us to unload all of our belongings that we had in our very full car and trailer (fortunately the trailer wasn't as full as the car! but it did have a couch and a few other bits and pieces) well before it started raining.
We stopped on our way at the Woolworths in Sarina (a rather new establishment judging by the decor) to pick up some supplies as we knew that there wasn't much in our house.
As it turned out, there was even less in our house than we expected. No, we hadn't been robbed. An electric circuit had tripped while we were away - the circuit that our fridge was on. I should point out here that the only thing plugged into that circuit, and turned on, was the fridge!
So we didn't have any frozen peas. They, like everything but the chocolate, had to be thrown in the bin, while holding one's breath.
Ian says that I "gallantly cleaned the fridge out" while he went off to get more supplies. The reality was that I was less keen to fight the Saturday afternoon crowds at our local Woolies. Remember, I'm a homebody and, as stated before in a previous post, I'd rather clean than go out.
When Ian returned, he asked me to pass his school keys to him from the back deck so he could go to the school to put the cold things into the fridge there while we waited for our fridge to cool down after its clean-out. (You can read about the proximity of our accommodation to Ian's workplace in a previous post.)
As I did so, I felt a sting on my cheek and promptly flailed with my hands only to get stung on my finger. Ian told me to run inside. I had been stung by wasps that had been building their nest on the twigs of an old dead pot plant that came with the house. I must have brushed against against them when I leant over the rail.
The Stop Itch I applied calmed things down and I'm thankful I'm not allergic to these things or it would have been much worse for me considering I'd been stung on the cheek.
After he put the shopping away, Ian got the insect spray to kill the wasps, all the while apologizing to me for not dealing with them months ago when he first noticed them building. Me, I hadn't noticed them at all so I wasn't about to complain about Ian's supposed inattention to this task.
I actually felt a bit sorry for the wasps - it wasn't their fault for defending themselves against a lumbering destructive force, i.e. me. After all, that's what they're designed to do! Speaking of design, it was an incredible feat to hit a moving target like my finger so quickly after getting my face - I don't see that happening by chance.
God was gracious to us in getting us home safely and in allowing us to unload all of our belongings that we had in our very full car and trailer (fortunately the trailer wasn't as full as the car! but it did have a couch and a few other bits and pieces) well before it started raining.
We stopped on our way at the Woolworths in Sarina (a rather new establishment judging by the decor) to pick up some supplies as we knew that there wasn't much in our house.
As it turned out, there was even less in our house than we expected. No, we hadn't been robbed. An electric circuit had tripped while we were away - the circuit that our fridge was on. I should point out here that the only thing plugged into that circuit, and turned on, was the fridge!
So we didn't have any frozen peas. They, like everything but the chocolate, had to be thrown in the bin, while holding one's breath.
Ian says that I "gallantly cleaned the fridge out" while he went off to get more supplies. The reality was that I was less keen to fight the Saturday afternoon crowds at our local Woolies. Remember, I'm a homebody and, as stated before in a previous post, I'd rather clean than go out.
When Ian returned, he asked me to pass his school keys to him from the back deck so he could go to the school to put the cold things into the fridge there while we waited for our fridge to cool down after its clean-out. (You can read about the proximity of our accommodation to Ian's workplace in a previous post.)
As I did so, I felt a sting on my cheek and promptly flailed with my hands only to get stung on my finger. Ian told me to run inside. I had been stung by wasps that had been building their nest on the twigs of an old dead pot plant that came with the house. I must have brushed against against them when I leant over the rail.
The Stop Itch I applied calmed things down and I'm thankful I'm not allergic to these things or it would have been much worse for me considering I'd been stung on the cheek.
After he put the shopping away, Ian got the insect spray to kill the wasps, all the while apologizing to me for not dealing with them months ago when he first noticed them building. Me, I hadn't noticed them at all so I wasn't about to complain about Ian's supposed inattention to this task.
I actually felt a bit sorry for the wasps - it wasn't their fault for defending themselves against a lumbering destructive force, i.e. me. After all, that's what they're designed to do! Speaking of design, it was an incredible feat to hit a moving target like my finger so quickly after getting my face - I don't see that happening by chance.
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