Bits and pieces

September is half over - where is this year going?? Thought I'd catch you up on some bits and pieces of news...no photos, just news...

Darrell is off to England (near Norwich, to be exact) on Tuesday night to be part of the committee that organises the auditioned international school orchestra events that he has participated in for the past 3 years. It's quite an honour to be asked to serve on the committee and is a twice-a-year committment for 2 years. He'll be away for nearly a week (and will miss my birthday!). Two days after he gets back to Singapore he will then head off with all the year 8 students and teachers for a 2-night trip on a cruise ship up the coast of Malaysia! Can't say I envy him the company of all those year 8's, but the cruise sounds pretty exotic :-)

Have I told you that Lachlan is learning the trumpet this year? He continues to learn the violin from Darrell (this is his 5th year!) but all 5th grade students are required to choose an instrument or join the choir as part of their music course for the year. He had the opportunity to try out a number of instruments last year and apparently was quite well suited to the trumpet so that's what he chose. He seems to be doing OK and quite enjoys it, but is finding that practicing 2 instruments daily as well as managing the homework load can be quite challenging at times. Fortunately academics come pretty easy to him so it's more a matter of staying organised and not procrastinating. In typical 10-year-old fashion, the best part of his day usually seems to revolve around what he did at recess, but he loves school and has great friends, so he is happy and thriving. He continues to be an avid reader and also loves to type stories on the computer. He still wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up but would also like to be a published author one day.

Caleb is loving 1st grade ("it's even better than Kindergarten"!) and is also coping with the daily homework load. He has to read to us every night and is also given weekly homework on a Monday which is due on Friday. Unlike his older brother, he tends to be fairly motivated about getting his homework done earlier rather than later which makes it a little easier on his mother :-) Caleb is now into his 2nd year of learning the piano and is doing really well - he absolutely loves to practice (I am constantly amazed at his enthusiasm and actually have to ask him to stop playing at times!) and has recently started using the pedal which was very exciting for him! He also enjoys making up his own songs so we are constantly treated to interesting compositions. He is quite the budding cartoonist and seems to have a flare for drawing. He is an avid cartoon reader (Garfield and Calvin & Hobbs are favorites) but his pet dogs continue to be the favorite things in his world. Caleb turns 7 in eight weeks time and has aspirations of being famous when he grows up. When pressed for how he feels he will achieve this goal he has decided that acting is the way to go. We've always said he was destined for the stage (dramatic personality, big voice) so maybe our predictions will come true after all! Time will tell...

I am 7 weeks away from the final deadline of my last subject for my M.Ed (TESOL). I can't wait to finish but have a lot of work to do before that deadline. Working full-time, studying and helping with the boys homework (!) seems to keep me pretty busy and I can't really remember what I used to do before all of this! I am really looking forward to finding out once the Masters is finished :-) I have recently joined Facebook if any of you happen to participate in it - for those of you who don't know about it, it is another online way of keeping in touch. Just google 'Facebook' then type my name in and a photo of us should appear!

That's about it for us at the moment. We seem to be constantly busy but we are happy and enjoying our various work/school/study committments. Yesterday we felt tremours at school from the massive quake that hit off the coast of Sumatra but nothing came of them - fortunately! We plan to visit Bali during our December/January break so hopefully all will be stable there at that time.

Hope all is well wherever you are!

Sharon