Another year has passed on by and as usual many things have happened, so I will begin by telling our story from the beginning.

Click on 'Read More 'for the rest,

It was January the 1st 2005 and our son Connor decided that he would walk. We had many happy days of him trying, and falling down, but he fortunately or un(fortunately) as the case maybe perfected the art of walking. But now that is not good enough for him, he like many boys before him just runs and runs and runs.

On the 6th of January my Mother was awarded the Employee of the month for December 2004. We were all very proud. With this award she received a certificate and 2 plush towels; also her photo was hung in reception for all to see.

Then we had news that Paul's brother George and his wife Juliette were pregnant with twins, we were all very excited, for them.

Talia started preschool on the 24th of January, and loved it very much, as she made many new friends, and is learning lots of new skills. Both Talia and Connor are still going to swimming lessons and doing very well. Connor is the youngest in his class, but puts many of the other children to shame, with his enthusiasm and skill.

On the 27th of February we took a week's holiday on the Sunshine Coast. It was lovely the holiday unit was about a 20 minute walk through bush to get to the ocean. We went every morning and nearly every afternoon to the beach, but when it got too hot we spent the time in the pool which was right outside our unit. It was very relaxing and we had a great time.

Our Talia like to play rough, but one day in March she got a little carried away and hurt her arm. At first we thought she was just playing for sympathy, but the next day she wouldn't move the arm saying that it was too sore, so to be on the safe side we took her to hospital and they x-rayed her arm and did some tests and it was found that she had a bad sprain. They put her arm in a sling and said she should not use the arm for a few days. It was a relief that it wasn't broken but trying to keep her from using the arm was hard. It soon mended itself and she was her joyful self again.

Easter brought a surprise for all the family. My Father we knew would be coming home for a visit, but that was going to be after Easter. Then on Easter Sunday I received a phone call to pick him up from the airport, it was a great day. Dad helped the kids find their Easter eggs, which the bunny had hidden in the yard. And to my great relief Connor who hadn't seen my Dad before, took to him like a bee to honey, they got on so well. Unfortunately the visit was only for a few days and Dad had to go back overseas on business. This really took its toll on Talia as she had to go to pre-school, she was able to show her Opi around first, but knew that when she got home he wouldn't be there. Connor on the other hand came to the airport and played a little longer with Dad, we hope that he will be home for Christmas.

In April Paul and I attended a concert of classical music conducted by Barry Singh. Barry Singh is a friend of the family and has become in the last 15 years a very accomplished conductor and his orchestra is doing very well. The concert was great. A special concert was performed on the 17th of September to commemorate some of the people who had been on the TV show "Australian Story". This was a very special concert as they show cased four very talented men whose talents were music. One was a very good tenor, the other a pianist prodigy, Barry the conductor and a supreme court judge who was a composer. The concert was mind blowing and very entertaining.

At the beginning of 2005 we decided we wanted to move house. At first we thought about buying a house, but unfortunately we could not get a home loan, worth enough for a decent house. So then we approached Paul's Mum and discussed various options with her. And she then advised us that she wanted to buy another property for investment and that we could choose the house and rent it from her. So this is what we did, and on the 28th of April, we found a house and the deal was done. It is a huge house with, lovely views and it's on a quiet street, with lots of families and children for our kids to play with. The house itself is two story with 4 large bedrooms and a large study. I still would like more storage space, but we are working on that. We got this house for a really good deal and have in the past few months added quite a bit of value to it. We have put curtains on all the windows, installed ceiling fans, erected a fence and are doing the garden. It has been a great little project. The move into our new house was very dramatic. We needed to get out of our rental and clean it up, so we agreed to a date and then as usual the contract on the new house was not completed, yet we had to move out as our place had been re-rented, because we broke the lease, the agent had to find someone else to take the lease over, which they did on the first open house they had. So we had to move. I then called Martin and he said that we could move all our stuff and ourselves into his place for the transition. We were at Martin's place for 1 week; we then got the keys to our new place and moved in. Martin was very pleased to get his house back. Once we had moved in and cleared out the garage of boxes, which we went through with fine tooth combs and threw much of the stuff out, we then decided to empty Mum and Dad's storage shed, as this was costing a lot of money and was going up regularly. So Martin hired a truck and we started early in the morning to load up and move the stuff. Most came to the house, but some of it went to Martin's for further storage. We then went through all this stuff and decided to get rid of a lot. It took a while but finally we got our garage back and were able to park both cars in, which turns out to be a good thing with all these storms we have been having.

Martin decided to take some holidays in August, and he and Mum went whale watching. They came home really excited as they spotted a whale and had a great time. They saw plenty of dolphins and some turtles, but mainly they enjoyed the fresh air and each others company.

September was an interesting month. On the 7th I got very sick, with the flu and I had hoped to be better before the 10th as Paul and I were going to a wedding. When the day arrived I felt better, just a little hot. It was great wedding and we enjoyed it. Even though it was very disorganized. At the reception I was having the time of my life when Paul said that we had to go home and I couldn't understand why I felt fine, maybe that was because of the copious amounts of beer I had consumed. But on the way home it became apparent that my fever was raging and I really did need to be in bed, so good call Paul. I still had a great time. We had been trying to get Connor out of his cot for a few weeks and into his big boy bed, but he would have none of it. Then on the 11th of September Paul, put him to bed in the big bed and he stayed there and slept through, and he hasn't looked back. He has fallen out once.

If you remember at the beginning of this letter I told you that my brother-in-law and his wife were pregnant, well on the 15th of September Juliette gave birth to Isabelle and Tristan, they were both around 3kg at birth and very healthy. The new family is doing well and the kids are starting to sleep longer. Juliette had a little trouble at first as they would only sleep for a few hours at a time. It also seemed that the children were ganging up on them as they would wake each other up and cry so Juliette and George got very little if any sleep. But this is one war the children have lost. We are hoping to see the babies at the end of November.

My little girl, Talia, is taking the big step of going to school. She will be starting next year at Oxenford State School. We had to go for a parents meeting and then Talia had a meeting with the schools principal, all went well. So now we have to prepare for her first day. I cannot wait, she is so excited and I will have a little more time for me.

What do hail stones, rain and thunder have to do with my family and camping? It is what happened when we decided to go for a long weekend of camping to South Stradbroke Island. We arrived and the sun was shining and the water was clear and calm, we had the best morning. But then the weather turned nasty and we sheltered in our tents. It started with wind then heavy rain then all of a sudden down came the hail. We were all sheltering in my tent, which due to the gale force winds and driving rain didn't keep much of the weather out. At the end of the storm we were all a little rattled we decided to go for a walk and cheer ourselves up. We had to see the ranger and pay for our camp site and while we were there she informed us that the weather was not going to be good for at least 4 days, so, on this news we decided to cut our stay short and leave the next morning. On taking our camp down we found that my 15 year old tent was the worse for wear, so we said goodbye to her and threw her away. I had many good camps with that tent, but this last storm was too much. So now before we go camping again we will have to get ourselves a new tent.

Sunday the 23rd of October 2005 our little girl had a terrible and frightening experience. One minute all was quiet and serene the next there was crying and screaming. Talia was extremely distraught because when she bit into a cookie her tooth started to wobble! Yes our little girl had her first loose tooth. It took quite a while to reassure Talia that her loose tooth was normal and that when it fell out the tooth fairy would reward her, if she put her tooth in glass water next to her bed, well this had the right effect; she calmed down, and immediately started trying to get this tooth out. The tooth finally fell out at pre-school the following Wednesday. This caused much excitement at the pre-school and everyone admired Talia's tooth. The tooth fairy arrived as promised that night and left a very large gold CHOCOLATE coin, as requested by Talia. (Talia said that her Oma gives her lots of real money and so she wanted something special, so chocolate money was what she wanted, the tooth fairy obliged). We have now got another loose tooth and she cannot wait for it fall out.

Martin has been saving his money and working really hard since the purchase last year of his house, so that he could buy himself a new car. And on Friday the 4th of November he did just that. Unfortunately he wasn't able to drive the car home straight away because, Martin had organized his finance in advance and the car company was a little put out. It took until 4.00pm Thursday the 10th of November, before he could pick up his new car, but what a car. It's a grey, commodore series 2 executive, v6, with spoilers, mag wheels the lot. It was an ex demo car so had low kilometers and was in immaculate condition, it's a 2004 model. Martin is very happy.

On Tuesday the 8th of November we met for the first time Mum's Cousin Alison. Apparently Alison was born in March 1963 and Mum and her family moved to South Africa in January that year, so Mum had never met Alison. They were living in England and have just recently immigrated to Australia and are at present living in Melbourne. They came to the Gold Coast for a holiday and we all got together and met for the first time. It was great. They came to our house on the 10th and we had a huge family lunch and spent the day talking and getting to know each other. They have one son who is 8 and he got on well with Talia and Connor.

I don't think I have mentioned Paul much in this letter, so I better just let you all know that he is fighting fit and very healthy. He still loves his job at St. James College and loves the new house, and by the way he still loves me.

Till next year, have a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

Love
Carmen

P.S. our new address is 3 Tandanus court, Oxenford, QLD, 4210