Where Did Term 4 Go?

This term has flown so fast, that I haven't even blogged about the last school holidays.  It's been a lot different this year as we visited Sydney and my brother Chrish so much last year.  It's actually been really nice to just be at home a lot during the school holidays this year.  It means I've been feeling a lot more rested and on top of things.  But I also find that when I'm not busy that it can be easy to get down really fast.  

Holidays can be really long and lonely, so I'm always grateful when family and friends want to catch up.  We've been loving the new park in Launceston and feel very lucky to have such a great park, so close to home.  Kobe always loves catching up with his cousins. 

It's a bit crazy (and noisy) when the 'whole' family get together (except for my brother Chrish in Sydney and Sister Nicki and her family who live in the USA permanently now).  

Harri is so excited that he's almost taller than Uncle Eden now.  It'll be interesting to see if he has passed him, when we see them at Christmas. 

During the last school holidays, it was the eight year anniversary since Noah passed away.  Jalen was getting close to finishing up his first year at Uni in Hobart, so we decided to go down to Hobart for the anniversary so we could all be together and have some fun. On the way we went to visit his grave.  

The boys were excited to stay at a hotel and Jay joined us during the day and then went back up to his Uni accommodation to sleep at night.  

We went to Jay's accommodation and loaded up the car with all the things he could do without over the last couple of weeks of Uni as he was coming home for the summer holidays.  

Jay really enjoyed his first year at Uni, and because Hobart isn't too far away (2 1/2 hours) he would come home every second or third weekend.  He probably won't make it home as much next year, as he knows that more of his classes will be on campus (what's with all these classes being online but then one or two being on campus, so you actually have to move to attend the course!?!?). 

Brodie was one of the nurses in the PICU who looked after Noah during his last week and was with us when Noah passed away.    It was such a lovely surprise when she came to Aaron's funeral, especially as we only knew her for a week.  We have kept in touch ever since via Instagram and Facebook, and while we were in Hobart it was lovely to spend a few hours with her and her gorgeous kids, while Jay was in class. 

Kobe loved it in Hobart as we went to his favourite places to eat - Honey Badger and Kosaten.  We've been to Kosaten in Launceston, but not in Hobart and we decided we think that the Launceston one is much cooler. 

We had a lovely couple of days in Hobart and it still feels weird that Jay lives down there the majority of the time.  

We visited the museum before we came home.  

We always love catching up with Sarah and Joe and the boys in Hobart.  I wish we lived closer, so we could hang out more. 

During the rest of the holidays we spend a lot of time at my Mums, and tried our hand at fishing again.  Let's just say we suck and have no clue what we are doing, but the boys still love to do it. 

At the beginning of this term I was thinking we only had ten more weeks to 'get through' and before we know it, it's the last week of term and I have no idea where it went. 

It's been a really busy, but good term.  The boys finished their club basketball season, but then played in the school basketball championships over a whole weekend.   They always love playing with their mates from school.  

In October Kobe was begging me to go trick or treating, and we were lucky that a lot of the houses where my friends Bec and Tony live, were participating in it this year.  We joined Bec and the kids in their trick or treating and had lots of fun.  Kobe has just gotten into reading and watching Harry Potter and couldn't wait to dress up as him. 

 

We heard about a cool house where the owners have a 'train' that goes through a shed, so we went to check it out.  The train wasn't working, but they still let us walk through.  It was awesome and we got quite the fright at the end!

In November Aaron's Dad turned 80 and his sister planned a surprise lunch for him.  Aaron's sister Trudy and her family flew down from Melbourne to surprise him, and even when he turned up at lunch with them, he had no idea that we and the rest of his family would be there.

He let out a swear word when he walked in and saw everyone, and then just stood there with tears in his eyes.  When I went to give him a hug he said 'you might hear me say a couple of swear words!' and I laughed and told him that I already did! After he got over the shock, he had a lovely day and loved having his whole family there.  I just wish Aaron and his sister Tamatha (who died when she was ten) could've been there too.

The boys with their only cousin on Aaron's side - Charlie

 With Auntie Trudy

 

Just a couple of weeks ago Aaron's step Mum Carrol turned 82.  Her health hasn't been great over the last year, and she was having a really rough day, but she was very happy to see the boys. She said that she was proud of them all, which was lovely. 

It's been a really hard few months since Milly died.  Harri in particular has struggled a lot.  He was over the moon when we got her and she really helped all of us, but especially him with his grief. When we had to put her to sleep, all of our hearts were broken all over again and a lot of grief has come back up again.  

Despite struggling so much, he's continued to work really hard at school.  In November he was elected into the Student Leadership Board for next year.  He had lots of fun on camp with all the other students who were elected, as they did lots of activities to do with leadership and working together.  

 Last week at Harri's school Presentation Evening Harri was awarded an Academic Excellence award and was also inducted into the Student Leadership Board for 2020.  He was elected as the House Captain of Allen and also the treasurer of the SLB.

It's always so bitter sweet at events like these, as I just wish Aaron would be there to see how well the boys are doing.  I'm sure he's so proud and is watching them.

It's always nice to have my Mum come along to these events with us.  She also joined us to watch Kobe in Dance Fever.  Jay and Harri both did it when they were in Grade 6, so I encouraged Kobe to do it as well, as I knew how much fun they had.  He got sick of all the rehearsals and wanted to drop out of it, and was especially disappointed that he didn't get to participate in the triathlon this year (as it fell on the same day), but after the night show he was raving on about how much fun it was, and said he will probably do it again next year.

 I especially love watching the boys dance.

 

Kobe is the opposite to Harri.  Sometimes I wonder if they're actually brothers! He just cruises along in life. He doesn't care much for school and puts as little effort as he can in his school work.  He's not very sporty and although he loves playing basketball, he really just does it for fun and doesn't get too stressed about whether he wins or loses or what division he plays in.  

So when he told me that he wanted to apply to be a Sports Leader and on the Student Leadership Board in 2020 (as he'll be in Grade 6 and in his last year of Primary School) I told him that he should go for it, but kept reminding him that lots of other kids would also be going for the same things, and he should be prepared in case he didn't get it.  It's not that I didn't think he would get in...well okay it probably was that I didn't think he would get in, because most of the time those kids like Kobe - who are nice kids but not really great at anything in particular (except for being nice) miss out on things because they aren't the smartest, or sportiest or most popular kid.  

He was very stressed about writing his applications, but after some encouragement he was able to come up with the things he was good at - being responsible, working well with others, being organised, speaking to others.  He came up with some good jokes for his speech for the Student Leadership Board including that they should vote for him because he's good looking, funny and has cool hair (but then went onto the real reasons why they should vote for him), and he also joked that his teachers think he talks too much, but that's a skill you need to have to be a leader.  

It was so nice to get a phone call from him after work one day with him saying 'so yeah, I got into the Student Leadership Board!'. Twenty four kids went for a position on the SLB and only eight were elected, so he did really well.  Students in grades 4 and 5 and also teachers voted for the SLB. 

Teachers voted for the other leadership positions and he was also elected to be a Sports Leader, which means he runs Daily PE for the younger grades with a partner.  

I was so pleased for him and knew that it would really boost his confidence and will be a great way to finish off Primary School. I loved that they took a photo of the SLB for 2020 in Noah's memorial garden. 

His first official job was to hand out programs at the school's Celebration Evening.  I just had to capture the moment. 

I donated memorial awards again this year for the Punchbowl Celebration Evening and Kings Meadows High School Presentation Day Assembly.  This year Harri represented his school and also presented an award, so it was nice that we got to sit together. 

I think that the Noah King Friendship Award is my favourite award to donate and present.  I love knowing that it goes to a kind student and Izzy's teachers tell me that she's a beautiful girl who really deserved it.  

Today I presented the Aaron King and Noah King memorial awards at Kings Meadows High School to Hannah and Lexie. I always love going back to Kings Meadows High but it feels so different now as the staff has changed so much since Aaron was teaching there, and I don't really know anyone there except for the office staff and a couple of teachers. I love driving in and seeing the 'Aaron King Oval' sign and know Aaron would love that I'm still going there and presenting awards.

I've had an awesome year teaching EAL again this year.  I feel so lucky to have a job that I love so much and to be working at such an amazing school.  The kids I teach are absolutely beautiful and I look forward to seeing them every day.    Many of my students don't celebrate Christmas or if they do, they don't celebrate how we do (they don't do Santa or give presents, which I actually love.  They just attend church and have a special meal together which loved ones.  I wish we did the same). Their parents have been happy for them to do work and/or crafts about Christmas, so we've been doing lots of reading about Christmas in Australia and around the world.  

We were reading about the traditional food that people often eat on Christmas day in Australia and only one of them had tried a pavlova before. So the next day I brought one in for them to try and they absolutely loved it.  All of them had seconds and thirds! 

I recently got the official letter to say that I'm now permanent in EAL starting in 2020.  I've been guaranteed to have a job in the Education Department over the last four years as a Permanent Replacement Teacher, but now that I'm permanent in EAL it means I can only be placed in an EAL position (until I request a transfer) which I'm over the moon about.  

I can be moved to any school that has EAL students, but I'm crossing fingers and toes that I can stay at the school I'm at right now for a long time, because I absolutely love it and love working with such a big cohort of EAL families.  I work with some beautiful people who are amazing teachers.  

We had a really fun Christmas dinner together at one of my work friends' home. 

It's been a crazy busy term and there's still a few more days of it, and we are so ready for summer holidays.  Bring them on!