We’ve been really good. Finally purchased a vehicle about 3 weeks ago. We ended up getting a loan from our bank at home – topping up the mortgage a little more instead of breaking our term deposit savings. We bought a 2005 Toyota Sienna mini-van for $14995 . The conversion to NZ$ would be $23,000 if you include taxes. After looking at a trillion vehicles, this totally fit our budget, needs, had okay mileage considering it’s age plus a few extra ”bells and whistles” for comfort and actually drove the nicest out of all the cars we test drove. What a huge stress off our shoulders. Next I needed to get a temporary Californian drivers licence – TC had his already otherwise we couldn’t have bought the car. We were also required to have insurance before legally being able to drive the car off the lot. I just sat and passed my drivers written test on Wednesday and still need to sit a driving test, so does TC. The back log of appointments are massive. So we will be waiting for a while.
I’ve been called as the 2nd Counselor in the Young Women Program, TC was recently ordained a High Priest and called to be the assistant to the High Priest Group Leader. That will be a nice calling – one that requires organizational skills which he naturally lives and breathes.
The kids received their first ¼ly school reports and did well. The only glitch was Lauren a D and Vaughan received an F “in danger of failing” grade for math so we changed their class to a lower grade. They seem a lot happier now, but Vaughan isn’t too thrilled about his schedule change as it means he and Lauren are in the same math class and the same study class. I think what he was more bothered about was an increase to a 7th period (study), when he originally only had 6 periods. He now doesn’t get to finish school an hour earlier than Lauren. Lauren surprisingly was nonplussed about having her “arch nemesis” in 2 of her classes. It’s good for us because we have an in-house “spy” to keep an eye on him and what kind of friends he hangs out with. Plus they both have to come home at the same time and Lauren can see who he’s associating with.
Vaughan attended his first Halloween Party – a girl from church held it at her home and Vaughan managed to win the best dressed male prize. I made him up as a zombie with facial gashes etc. I couldn’t take a photo because TC has the camera darn it! Anyway he won a nerf gun and was pretty thrilled about that. I had fun handing out candy to all the trick or treaters. The costumes are rather cute, the best being a 4 year old girl dressed as an avatar she looked the real deal – obviously her folks had put a lot of time and energy into it. I was surprised at how many groups of teenagers came to the door, I would have thought it wasn’t cool to do at that age. The other thing I learned was that the kids will keep on coming until you turn your porch light off. This year we were pretty much in “observation mode” I think next year we might be more into it.
Caleb is really into playing table tennis. He came home rather late today and said he had come 1st equal in an after school tournament. He’s now 13. All our kids are all teenagers, no longer little kids. What a transformation. It’s bliss, I quite like their ages. They still have a bit of ironing out to do in regards to maturity, but they are generally a nice bunch of kids to be around.
Lauren & TC are in NZ at the moment. TC’s first business trip home and of course our promise to Lauren to celebrate her 16th birthday back home with friends. She’s been looking forward to that for a while now. They’ve been in NZ for a week now, TC in AKLD while Lauren stayed with a friend in Nelson. TC just arrived in Nelson Friday your time to join her. They are staying with our friends Robyn & Roma Hippolite over the weekend until Tuesday/Wednesday before going back up North.
Two weeks ago our friend Tali Aiolupotea finally passed away from bowel cancer. I’m glad we weren’t there to witness the heartache for the family, reading his wife’s entries on facebook was bad enough. His wife Ruth has been a rock the entire time and was ready to let him go. She had a hard time at the grave side though. Anyway, we’re all relieved he doesn’t need to suffer any more. They calculated he had until October and sure enough he succumbed. As always it’s the children who suffer the most.
The boys and I are going to venture in to Sacramento city tomorrow to look at a photography art gallery for a homework project Vaughan is working on. Hopefully that won’t be too stressful. Using GPS is such a fabulous invention, otherwise there would be no way I’d even attempt that. I drove out to Vacaville the other day for a Youth fireside which meant driving back home at night. I’m always surprised by the amount of traffic no matter what time of day/night it is – where is everyone coming from? It’s like the Japanese looking at waterfalls waiting for them to stop but the water just keeps on flowing!
Hope all is well, have a great day. Cerian.
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