Snoozing at the Zoo (sort of)

Oh! Here's a post I forgot to post!

Last week we took Year 3 & 4 to Taronga Zoo for our Year 3-4 Camp.
The ZooSnooz program is fantastic! We got to spend the day in the Zoo, go on a night-walk to see the nocturnal animals, meet some reptiles, birds and the cutest quokka (quokkas and quolls are my favourite Australian animals... mostly because I didn't know they existed until four or so years ago) up close. AND we got to even "sleep" at the Zoo. (I use the term sleep a little loosely here... if you've ever shared a room with nineteen 8-10year old girls you'll know what I mean)

Are you still wondering what a quokka and a quoll look like? Here I have a picture of each for you so you don't have google it yourself (these are not my pictures):


quokka



quoll

We had such a great time! I love my biannual visit to Taronga!
Here are a few pictures from our 24 hours at the zoo...
Note the incredible view the zoo has of Sydney Harbour!!! they were given the land almost 100 years ago because it was a dodgy piece of land... look who's laughing now (it's the animals I think)

Oh my class is fun

I love my class so much!

Today we finished filming our clip... I only arranged with my sister to do this on the weekend, so there was no way to let my kids know... I just hoped they would sense it and bring their costumes.
Two of them did! haha.

This afternoon while we tried to scrounge some costumes for the mini-actors who had to do their scenes, the kids were meant to be waiting on the verandah. The kids who'd already finished their scenes were working inside on finishing off a bunch of work.

My favourite moment of the afternoon was when 2 of my boys got bored of hanging outside doing 'nothing' (you know, sitting around chatting to your friends can be terrible) came up to me and said, "Miss F, can we please go inside and do some work while we wait?"

Oh dear...

ooooh! And on Wednesday it's Market Day again! Market Day is probably my favourite day, other than the day I make my kids make their own sandwiches... (seriously it is sooooo funny!)

Only 4 more days and 11 parent-teacher interviews until the holidays! woo hoo!

In other news it's less that 3 months till I move across the world...
- Tickets are all booked
- I almost have a family lined up (after 2 interviews on Saturday...eeek!)
- I have booked in my US Visa interview...don't get me started on US Visas...to get the PIN number (I know the N in PIN stands for 'number' but I still feel like it needs number after it, sorry!) for the 'account' I had to create to book the interview online cost $14. pfft.
- All of our accommodation and tickets (including Disneyland) for the 1st week have been booked!
- Most of my spare-room has been cleared out
- My fridge has been de-kayed (if you knew my fridge, this is pretty crazy!)
- I got my official letter of leave today
- The last sleepover in my cute house has been planned...it probably includes 'Japanese Candy'
- I've almost updated my ipod (I am hopeless at this...I think all my music is from 1997-1999)
- My hair is cute
See... pretty much ready to go...

The Hairdresser Appointment

So...
Today I got back from 24 hours straight with our Year 3s and 4s. We had an overnight excursion to Taronga Zoo. Sooooo much fun! But ever so exhausting!

I was in that place of sleep-deprivedness (ok so I am super exaggerating about the lack of sleep I had, I just don't cope well without my 8 hours) where negativity was filling my head... tiredness, loneliness, jealousy, rejection, self-loathing. These things love it when I'm tired, and I was so fragile that I was almost in tears over super insignificant things. When I got home at 3.30 I could have gone straight to bed, but I had an appointment at 4.30 to get my hair done. And I don't cancel appointments (most of the time).

Well, my hairdresser is amazing. I'm so glad I went. She has this way of drawing out the best in people, not only by cutting and colouring hair to suit the features of each client, but also in talking about life. She is not like those gossipy hairdressers I have been to before, she's upbeat and can find the good in everyone and everything.

We spent 3 and half hours talking and sharing pictures about Canada and Vietnam and orphans and work and art. I love the way that she is so enthusiastic about things, she has the biggest heart and through conversation with her I found myself talking about the amazing stories of inspiration, hope and joy from the last two days, rather than the negative things I was pondering on earlier in the afternoon. She didn't belittle anything that anyone said and constantly wanted to hear more of our heart, our dreams and our work, speaking life into the things we spoke of. Wow! It amazes me, the difference in my attitude before and after that appointment.

I want to be one of those people, that draws out the best in people, that helps them find the joy within them. the "seasoned with salt" people. I used to think salt was the flavour... that as Christians we were meant to add the flavour to the world. But salt's job is to draw out the flavour of others:


Besides contributing its own basic "salty" taste, salt has many benefits . It brings out natural flavors and makes foods acceptable, protects food safety by retarding the growth of spoilage microorganisms

I think maybe this is what the Colossians 4:6 verse was talking about:
"Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." That in conversation we should draw out the positives, the flavour of the other person. Oh I want to be like that!!!!

It was a great evening, one of those God moments!

Oh and I also got cute new hair :-)