Reena turned 60 and I missed it!

My Mom turned 60 this past week, May 22nd. It feels a little weird not being home to make fun of her for being old! Hee hee Thank goodness for the internet and cheap phone cards because I got to talk to her 3 times that day. Happy birthday Reena! (Thanks Donna)

Dan and Sammy spent some of this weekend at the Father/Son camp here at Camp Columba. The highlight for Sam was shooting the paintball gun at his father and shooting the slug gun at targets. This was the first time Sam had ever seen real guns and thought it was cool. Should I be worried?

Both kids played rugby this weekend and both won their games. It was a rainy morning and the mud that covered the kids was astonishing.

The COAL learning continues. We had burned through the lignite coal quite quickly. So we began asking around to solve this mystery. There are 3 different kinds of coal in this area. Lignite, being the cheapest, that burn quickly and not vey hot. Kai, which is the next up in price and burns hotter than Lignite. Ohai (pronounced like Ohio with no O at the end) is the most expensive and burns the hottest. We bought two feed bags of Ohai at The Warehouse, it was on sale and we wanted to see the difference. It really burns hotter! The radiators and the pipes were creaking with heat, and the floors were warm where the pipes ran beneath the floor boards. After this discovery we are now mixing our coal. We went to the mine and got both lignite and ohai and we burn it together. This will make it so we will use less and it should last a longer time.

I am hoping to go back to work this Wednesday. I am walking without any pain, stairs and forward bent knee steps, like lunging motion are still a problem. My knee feels unstable and does give out now too. I see an ortho surgeon in June and will make plans to fix this ligament tear. the school has been wonderful, they are working on giving me a classroom so that the students will travel to me and there will be minimal stairs and less pounding on the knee hiking from one end of the building to the other between classes.

I picked the kids up from school this past Monday and drove to Invercargill. I had arranged as a surprise to pick bunnies for the kids. They were very surprised. I love their reactions, it is so indicative of their personalities. Abby sqeals and jumps and claps and is outwordly happy. Sam gets a little weepy when he feels ovewhelmed and filled with joy. He puts his hand to his face, snuggles close to me eyes filled with tears and tells me he has always wanted a bunny. I love both of their reactions. Abby named her Sneezel and Sam's is Jeffy!

Cross Country was this week and both kids participated. The race was held in a sheep paddock laced with sheep dung. It was a rainy day, which did not bother the Kiwis at all. Some kids ran the race in bare feet, which we are still not used to. Imagine wet rainy weather in a field with sheep manure. Not pretty. Abby got 8th in her race and Sam did not finish last in his race, a personal victory. We are proud of both kids.