'I love you Steph'

I struggled through today with a massive head cold however fortunately my classes were filled with amazingly well behaved children. It also helped that the school only had fifty kids in it; the secondary kids were on a bush trip and for some unknown reason the other kids decided to have a day off. For all us teachers hanging out for the holidays, that was a welcome breather. However, for a few reasons I kind of felt really special today.

In my Primary C class, there is a beautiful boy called Francis who, like all the other kids often do, will often run out of the class for unknown reasons. Today though, I managed to coax him back inside with a story and to let him calm down a little bit we sat outside in the sun and read about 'Mr Tickle'. Francis sure did like the part where every time Mr. Tickle tickled someone, he got a tickle from Miss Steph. He then went inside to complete five pages of his Jesus Story book in record time. I felt good knowing that I was able to help Francis when he most needed it and show him that you don't need to run away in order to escape a situation.

The second time I felt like the most special person on Earth was when I went over to Lane and Anton's place, who both work in Balgo. Every afternoon I do some fun games with their boys, Tipene who is four and at Kindy in school and Kaea, who is the most confident and articulate two year old I have ever met. Anyway Tip hurt himself pretty bad yesterday so I thought I'd cheer him up and we'd all have a bit of fun. So last night I started making a paper mache volcano as I was teaching the boys about volcanoes last week and showed them a few Youtube videos of the exploding vinegar/bicarb soda ones. When I took it over today and we started making it, Kaea looked up at me with his big brown eyes, put his hand on my shoulder and goes 'I love you Steph'. Awwww! My heart literally melted, it was the CUTEST thing! I also felt super sad because Lane and Anton  both work for Palyalatju which has now closed down, forcing them to relocate to Queensland in two weeks. I am super going to miss those boys, but am sure we'll have some great volcano making time in the future.

I am also very happy to announce that as well as lettuce, celery and garlic, the store also has EASTER EGGS! Which is very convenient seeing as today I made a Easter Egg basket in Primary C and that got me a little bit sad because I'm sure the Easter Bunny is not going to fly up from my home in High Wycombe (hey Mum and Dad) just to hide Easter Eggs in my garden on Sunday week. So now I have a whole heaps of Easter Eggs in my Easter Egg basket, making the house look a tiny bit festive for next Sunday. Super awesome.

The boarders from La Salle fly into Balgo tomorrow. I'm sworn to secrecy though because for Joan, Chis and Antonio, they aren't aware their brother and sister Mandy and William will be surprising them at 3.45pm tomorrow afternoon with their presence in Balgo. Their Mum told them they're flying in next week so I'm pretty keen on driving down to the airstrip just to see the look on their faces when the plane lands tomorrow. Joan, who has been chosen to go on the Primary D trip to Melbourne next term and I sat down this morning and made a list of what she needs to pack, and what she is hoping to buy. She couldn't understand why she needed to buy a handbag in Melbourne, not listening to me when I said it was the handbag capital of Australia. I know she'll regret it when she's older. But it's nice to have a little sister type person around that asks me all the girly questions and begs me to braid her hair. Too cute!

Well, I'm going home to cook rice and buttered chicken, the ultimate comfort food. Be amazed, I cooked the most amazing rice last night AND turned the hot plate off. I bet you're all gobsmacked right now, because the boys sure were :) go me!!!