Assorted Adventures

Here's some news from our last few weeks!

We received this notification email from our credit card company:

This is an Alert to help you manage your credit card account ending in 0731.

A charge of ($USD) 8776.63 at SHANE FOUNDATION ... has been authorized.

We aren't exactly sure who the "Shane Foundation" is.  But we are sure we no longer have a credit card account ending in 0731.

Jeff thinks his card may have been double swiped when he took Kate to the local McDonalds.  (In John's and my opinion, just another reason not to eat there!)

Mother's Day was wonderful with breakfast and presents in bed (by John & Kate) and BBQ steaks (by Jeff) for supper out on the patio.  I spoke in Sacrament Meeting and we had the missionaries over for dinner and let them use our Skype and OOMA phone to talk to their Moms for Mother's Day.  It was a fun day!

  I was nursing a minor concussion and am still battling the resultant headaches but they are getting better.  (Thank goodness, no picture for this one!).  Otherwise, we are all in good health!

Kate had her first cross-country meet vs. 2 other schools.  She came in 2nd for the girls!!  As her Dad says: "that girl's got wheels!"

John turned 13 so we now have a teenager in the house!  We took breakfast burritos, smoothies, and cake pops for John's early-morning seminary class (held at Mendozas' home).  This photo shows Nathan and John showing off the leftovers.

Accompanied by Caryn, we went to Turn N Tender for John's birthday supper.  Yummy steak fillets (pronouced Fill-Lets)!

So below is a picture of me showing how many times I've now visited the SA Revenue Service office.  Yes, you can see the outside queue that feeds the inside queue that feeds into a huge room where you at least get to sit down (but you're now in your 3rd queue if you're counting) to wait until your number is called so you can talk to someone who will give you different information than the last person did.  Today I was helped by a really nice guy who explained to me that "when the people at that desk say your paperwork will be processed in 21 days, it is not the same as when I say it will be processed in 21 days.  My 21 days means something different than their 21 days."  I found that very helpful and will return in his "10 days" to try again!

And here is a link to the volunteer organization I've joined.  I help teach English at a school in Diepsloot, a nearby township each Monday morning and I LOVE IT!!  The children are taught in their native languages until 3rd grade when English is introduced--and that's where we come in!  John joined me when he was off school a few weeks ago and here's a writeup he provided per their request (at home page, click on EduFun tab and scroll to bottom of page to see John's pic and paragraph)...

http://www.edufunsa.co.za

This is Susan, our "domestic" (to use the vernacular here).  She comes Mondays and Thursdays from Diepsloot to clean for us.  She is from Zimbabwe ("Zim").   Kate loves to help Susan clean and when not at school, can often be found sweeping or scrubbing with Susan!

Thinking of our friends all over this challenging, beautiful, crazy, wonderful world.  Keep going!!  We love you and are grateful you are in our lives!!!

XXOO, Michele & Family