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| At the Zoo - plenty more pictures of animals to come! |
Classes have finished! Just exams left to go, surely those are a piece
of cake after all those written papers that were due! (And there
were a LOT of them!) Proud of Albert though working hard on both the
academics but also on wife/family time! (Not an easy thing!)
This time next week (Wednesday afternoon) Albert has officially finished a full academic year of study, WOW what an achievement. It is hard to believe that one 'school year' is already over.
This time of year is a busy time which would be the equivalent of December in NZ. We have gotten to know quite a few of the 3rd year students and their families and sadly most of them are moving away (so they should!!). So we've had a few social events to spent some final time with them. These families have been very helpful in particular to Albert as far as workload, how to balance study and family and the expectations of the faculty. Those families also showed us hospitality, friendship and their stories of how they came to MARS. For some of those it has been a long road about seven years as students and they are finally there! (You have to have a college degree (Bachelor) before you do your Masters. Albert has done his straight out of highschool and so this wasn't an issue for us.) I'm ecstatic for the graduates although sad that they are leaving, very happy that there are more men out there preaching the word! I'm working on convincing some of the current students to come to NZ, wouldn't that be AWESOME! (See Aaron, I'm trying!! )
A lot has to be done before we go on our summer internship. I've had the oil changed on the car. There seems to be no checks with regard to cars at all and I'm surprised/horrified on what people drive around here. Both front and back brakes need to be changed as the mechanic told me that the back brakes haven't been changed since the car drove out of the factory! (the car has done about 120 000 miles). Thankfully I budget for car expenses so no problem there. It really is a nice little car and in great condition, hopefully with some good care, we will be able to sell it again for a good price. I tried out the cruise control today, it is quite scary to just steer and the car goes especially at 120km an hour. (People still fly past even at me going that speed! The speed limit varies mostly it is 55 miles per hour but no-body goes that, you would be holding up traffic!)
Packing - lots of it. Still not sure exactly what to take as of course I'm limited as to what I can take on what fits in the car! We are looking at buying a rooftop carrier (cheap from amazon) to carry some of our stuff. Thankfully it is summer and so the clothing shouldn't take up too much space compared to all our winter gear! I think the clothing will be divided into a suitcase for Albert (suits, shirts, shirts, shirts oh and did I mention shirts?) and a suitcase for me and the kids.
Cleaning. I have to confess that I haven't done much spring cleaning since we came into the house and so certain areas (like the basement stairs which is carpet and I'm sure has a liberal dusting of dust on it) needs a good clean. I haven't had much time with all the homeschooling etc but Albert has promised me some time after exams to help me with some of that stuff. Nice man he is! Also we might have someone in our house over summer and so I will need to make sure all is 'spick and span'!
Food - Love that subject but at the moment it is in scaledown mode. I told the kids, once something runs out, it is tough luck. We've eaten most of the content of my big freezer and working on my little freezer. There is no point in paying for power while we are away to 'freeze' some of these things. We will still keep the aircon on high (29C) as otherwise it will become an oven in here. This as been the recommendation from most people so I suppose they know what they are doing. I know over thanksgiving weekend we turned the heater off (wanting to be frugal) and that turned out to be a HUGE mistake, it took most of the day to come to temperature again. Lesson learned!
This time next week (Wednesday afternoon) Albert has officially finished a full academic year of study, WOW what an achievement. It is hard to believe that one 'school year' is already over.
This time of year is a busy time which would be the equivalent of December in NZ. We have gotten to know quite a few of the 3rd year students and their families and sadly most of them are moving away (so they should!!). So we've had a few social events to spent some final time with them. These families have been very helpful in particular to Albert as far as workload, how to balance study and family and the expectations of the faculty. Those families also showed us hospitality, friendship and their stories of how they came to MARS. For some of those it has been a long road about seven years as students and they are finally there! (You have to have a college degree (Bachelor) before you do your Masters. Albert has done his straight out of highschool and so this wasn't an issue for us.) I'm ecstatic for the graduates although sad that they are leaving, very happy that there are more men out there preaching the word! I'm working on convincing some of the current students to come to NZ, wouldn't that be AWESOME! (See Aaron, I'm trying!! )
A lot has to be done before we go on our summer internship. I've had the oil changed on the car. There seems to be no checks with regard to cars at all and I'm surprised/horrified on what people drive around here. Both front and back brakes need to be changed as the mechanic told me that the back brakes haven't been changed since the car drove out of the factory! (the car has done about 120 000 miles). Thankfully I budget for car expenses so no problem there. It really is a nice little car and in great condition, hopefully with some good care, we will be able to sell it again for a good price. I tried out the cruise control today, it is quite scary to just steer and the car goes especially at 120km an hour. (People still fly past even at me going that speed! The speed limit varies mostly it is 55 miles per hour but no-body goes that, you would be holding up traffic!)
Packing - lots of it. Still not sure exactly what to take as of course I'm limited as to what I can take on what fits in the car! We are looking at buying a rooftop carrier (cheap from amazon) to carry some of our stuff. Thankfully it is summer and so the clothing shouldn't take up too much space compared to all our winter gear! I think the clothing will be divided into a suitcase for Albert (suits, shirts, shirts, shirts oh and did I mention shirts?) and a suitcase for me and the kids.
Cleaning. I have to confess that I haven't done much spring cleaning since we came into the house and so certain areas (like the basement stairs which is carpet and I'm sure has a liberal dusting of dust on it) needs a good clean. I haven't had much time with all the homeschooling etc but Albert has promised me some time after exams to help me with some of that stuff. Nice man he is! Also we might have someone in our house over summer and so I will need to make sure all is 'spick and span'!
Food - Love that subject but at the moment it is in scaledown mode. I told the kids, once something runs out, it is tough luck. We've eaten most of the content of my big freezer and working on my little freezer. There is no point in paying for power while we are away to 'freeze' some of these things. We will still keep the aircon on high (29C) as otherwise it will become an oven in here. This as been the recommendation from most people so I suppose they know what they are doing. I know over thanksgiving weekend we turned the heater off (wanting to be frugal) and that turned out to be a HUGE mistake, it took most of the day to come to temperature again. Lesson learned!
That's about all from me as far as updates for a couple of weeks as we pack up and settle into a new place. I will try and post the photo's that I'm behind on, got some very nice ones of the Zoo trip we went to, a woodworking workshop the girls went to, the spring banquet, homeschooling evening, the arrival of next years homeschool curriculum, the teachers pet (surely everyone has got one?) and some random ones.
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