Melbourne Pettys - October

Trip to Canberra, played baseball, Carmen turned sixteen, Calvin graduated High School and Seminary and Marion hikes Tasmania.

On the first of the month Vern, Calvin, Carmen and Austin drove up to Canberra to visit the family for a few days. Marion had school and I had work so we stayed home. I mentioned it to Rodney Payne on Sunday and he invited Marion and I over for dinner that next day. We had a nice meal with them and the missionaries. They all came back on Thursday the sixth. Auntie Ena also came down and we all went to the Temple together. We did some sealings for Vern’s Grandmother’s family then went into the session, it was a good night.

General Conference was the next weekend I look forward to conference. It was on my mission that my attitude changed towards General Conference and I started to really looking forward to it. The reason being is that it was on my mission that I really got a testimony of living prophets and apostles. I think up to that time I just took them for granted.

President Dudfield was is off in Paris this weekend so President Tempany and I were on our own. It started badly with me being late for the first session. I had to drop Calvin at work and the traffic was bad because of road works. Then after it started we found that the Mandarin channel wasn’t working so I missed some of the first session making phone calls. We finally had to get a bloke in got it working for Sunday.

President Tempany was ranking the meetings out of ten, taking off points for stuff ups. I think we averaged 5 for the weekend. Lucky President wasn’t there or he would have been giving us a hard time.

Vern and I went to Bernie Bennet’s 60th birthday party on the fourteenth. Yes you know you’re old when you are invited to those. He is such a nice bloke and always asks about Ellen and Dylan on their missions. It wasn’t too bad but I had to leave when Irene started singing because it was just too loud.

On Monday seventeenth Vern had to work so the rest of us went down to the baseball field in West Preston and had a hit. Austin had found a baseball at school so we hit that around. It was nice because the children are older and they could all hit and pitch and no one cried.

Thursday was Carmen’s birthday, sweet sixteen. We got her the Lets Dance Wii game and the new Tron DVD. Mum had to work that night as well but we had the ‘Party’ before she left. Nicky, Marlie, Deshon and Jaylen came over as did Janet and Johnny.
Then Friday evening was Calvin’s graduation from school. It was held at the Wilson Hall at Melbourne Uni. I just went there straight from work. It is a really nice building and Carmen liked the old buildings around it because it reminded her of Hogwarts. She ran down the hallway of one of old buildings but came back pretty quickly because it was dark and she got scared. They had the supper I the student union building and that was a noisy affair. They all looked so happy it was nice.

Monday the twenty-fourth Marion went to Tasmania with a bunch of her classmates for a four day hike. She left on Monday and it was a nice day but the rest of the week was terrible weather. We were worried since we thought that if it was cold and miserable here it would be worse in Tassie. But when I picked her and a couple of her friends up from the airport on Friday night, in the pouring rain I may add, she told me that they had had great weather the whole time. She did have some pretty impressive blisters on her toes though.

This week was also Calvin’s last week of classes at school and his last week of seminary. He turns eighteen in a couple of weeks and is busting to get his drivers license. He is a bit sad about finishing school and excited about finishing seminary. Austin starts next year so four more years to go.

I took Monday the thirty-first off work since the next day was a public holiday anyway. I spent the day cutting down the plum tree by the front gate. I had widened the gate and the tree was getting in the way. I didn’t want another rear view mirror getting broken.