Eyes on the prize.

Eyes on the Prize
An extract from Raising Teens Today by Ian Lambie & Les Simmonds
‘Take the time to enjoy your child’s teenage years. Enjoy the naivety and the idealism. Enjoy the courage and even the frustration of being young in an old world. Relish the opportunities to debate whether meat is murder, whether adults are all hypocrites, whether adults can or can’t dance with the stars, and whether education sucks. Take lots of photographs and videos, even of the things that drive you crazy, such as messy rooms and weird fashions. When you’re old and grey and full of sleep, and your own kids are middle-aged, maybe with kids of their own, these things will be treasures beyond worth You’ll look at these pictures of the room with the floor that didn’t see the light of day for years, and crazy as it might sound you may just feel rapt to have been there and survived it all. You may even find yourself wishing you could go back there again, just for a visit, just for one day, just to see them as they were, one last time.
Above all other things, keep your eyes on the prize’

Jahna comes to visit!

Last holidays Jahna came to visit. He spent time in the orchard working, and managed to go home even with some pocket money!

We really enjoyed having him to stay. The only thing I regret, is letting him have fizzy all the time! My dental nurse friends won't approve of that!

I have a lovely quote about teenagers that I saw on Nicki's blog... I will post it here. Jahna was able to create havoc in his room in only a few short days!

Brent is in the NZ Woman's Weekly!

This week's NZ Woman's Woman's Weekly 9 August has an article about a student I had on my Supplementary Learning Support roll. He came off my roll because he was achieving well academically. The article tells how he is using the computer software Marvin to "have a voice".

Great Great Grandfather

My brother Clinton & his wife Karen are in Britain at present attending two weddings. They took the opportunity to search out our great great grandfather's grave in the cemetery at the Old Polmont Parish church.

Sad News

It was really sad to learn that Trevor, who had been at our class get together in April, has since died. He wasn't well at our get together, but had looked forward to, and enjoyed it. He died on the 19 June, after a short battle with cancer. His funeral was huge, I think all of Maketu were there.

Two other members of our class have died since our get-together. Rose Wolland, after a long battle with cancer, and Keith Wooller, after a short illness.

Then and now!

2010
Here we all are, at our Class get-together at Eketahuna Saturday 17 April 2010.

Max, Elwyn, Trevor, Esmee
Glennys, Janice, Yvonne


1956

Schooldays, Std 4 in 1956 at Eketahuna School.

Saturday night was great fun! Glennys and I arrived at Eketahuna bright and early. We walked down to the school, and looked around, then around the street where Glennys lived, she lived opposite Esmee in Anderson Street, Elwyn used to live just around the corner in Alfredton Road, as does Janice nowadays. Glennys has an excellent memory, so was able to say who lived where, and had lots of stories to tell. Esmee and Ian arrived. It was such a mild night we all walked down to the Eketahuna Club. There were 10 of us in our class party, 7 of our class, and 3 partners. It was super meeting up with Max and Trevor and their wives. The Club had advertised Roast meals to their members for the evening. The food was fantastic, really amazing for $20. We were just talking about our childhood puddings, bread pudding etc, and lo and behold that was one of the puddings.(Made with hot cross buns... delicious.) We had lot of laughs reminiscing and fun trying to work out who was who in the photos. Such fun!
Over coffee at Athol's before bed we sat around and Esmee read our report about our Standard 6 trip to Christchurch! (Glennys, Nancy Olivant, Esmee and I were in this special class... with pupils down to Std 3, it was like a country school, we were in a Prefab far from the madding crowd.) Anyway, we marveled at the wonderful writing all the class had displayed in recounting our ventures. One of the highlights was visiting the Sanitarium factory, so it was very fitting that we had weetbix for Sunday brekkie. Kind of yuk (I hate it!) but I did it in remembrance!

Lower Hutt visiting Judith & John

Next stop on my holiday was visiting Judith & John at Lower Hutt. More glorious weather, a day at the zoo, and Miss Saigon were among the great things we did. Here is Judith with her daughter Kerin and grandsons Oliver and Hamish. Thanks for having me Judith and John. It was fun!