Wow! What an amazing year we have just witnessed. It couldn’t possibly go any faster.

This year began with a very stupid accident.

Read more for the rest... 

After such a shocking start things began to look brighter, we bought Talia’s school uniform in January and started getting all her things together for the start of school. Talia began school on the 23rd of January 2006. This was the meet and greet of the teachers and some of her class. We had a lot of trouble getting her to come home, because it was only for an hour. The next day Talia started school officially and had the day of her life, she loved every minute and was dead tired by the time she came home. Connor also started at kindy for the first time, and he just loved it, he was also very tired after a day of playing and learning. It was also his first real solo attempt at using the toilet and he made us proud. By the third week of kindy he was an expert at using the toilet and now needs no help. He is growing up so fast.

On February the 5th Talia lost one of her top front teeth, she had been playing with it and making it wobble all day and that afternoon it fell out. She was very happy as the tooth fairy would come that night. She looked very funny. We also started having major trouble with our Toyota Rav4. It needed some large and costly repairs, it started off with the bearings in the front, and then the shockies, all this cost around $600.00, then it needed new tyres, then it need a new drive shaft, then it started squeaking and it was found to have no grease in the cv joints, then it snapped another drive shaft, that was the last straw so now we are in the process of buying near new car, which is more reliable and less costly. In the middle of the February we were visited by Talia and Connor’s cousins, they are Isabelle and Tristan; they had come from Sydney, with their parents for a little holiday. Talia and Connor really love their cousins and played together nicely. By the 25th of February Talia had lost her second front tooth and was looking really funny, with her holey smile.

In March we visited some of our very dear friends in Banyo and found out that in December of last year they had nearly lost their youngest son. He had had a very nasty accident; he came off his motorbike and was thrown a long way along the road. Fortunately he survived and is back to his old self. Paul’s mum went into hospital on the 22nd of March to have an operation on her knee, as it had been causing her lots of trouble. She has recovered from this really well. Talia had a fun run at school on the same day and she was not a happy chappie at the end of the race, because it rained and she got very wet. My little princess does not like getting wet, unless she has planned it. Both Talia and Connor are still doing swimming and they both are coming along very nicely. Connor is now swimming by himself in the lessons, and he really enjoys it.

On the 13th of April Connor had an Easter bonnet parade at kindy and so we used an old beanie and decorated it for him, he loved that. It was a very colourful and exciting morning as the Easter bunny came and gave all the kids chocolate eggs. On the 27th of April I began helping in the tuckshop. It is really great as I get to know the kids and Talia loves it when I’m there as all the other kids are envious. I also help 3 mornings a week in the class rooms changing over the kids readers. Talia also had a bug show come to the school and it was enjoyed by all.

This year my birthday fell on Mothers day and I had the most relaxing day. Paul bought me a massage chair and I use it every night. On the 19th of May Talia got her first “star of the week” award, and she was so proud of herself. She received this for helping others and being a great friend to all. On the 21st of May we had to take Connor to hospital at 9.30pm as he was having trouble breathing. I have never been so frightened in all my life. When we got to hospital they gave him some adrenalin and steroids, and it was determined that he had suffered a bought of croup. We were able to take home later that night, it was around 11.30pm by the time we arrived and Connor was very tired so he went to sleep quite quickly, but I had a restless night, listening for any sounds of distress. Thankfully that was a once off and it has never happened again.

In June Talia had a junior disco for the school, which she attended. It was a fancy dress disco and when asked Talia wanted to go as a star - a sparkely star. So that was what we made. As usual Paul, Mum and I started coming up with a costume. It landed up being made from foam, which was cut in the shape of a star then glued and sewed together, then Mum in her usual talented way made the cover out of very pink sequened material. Talia looked great, the only problem was that she couldn't sit and bending was quite hard. But for all this she won the most unique prize. This was an ice-cream cake. It was a fantastic night. On the 15th of June I attended a course at the school, so that I could become a tutor. It was called Support – A – Talker. This is where we have to help kids develop their communications skills, using games, stories, conversation and basically having fun. So I now do that on a Tuesday, my kids are mostly from preschool, but I have just recently been allocated another 4 children from Talia’s class, so it will be interesting to see how they all differ. This year for our wedding anniversary Paul and I went to Ashmore Steak and Seafood, we had the best night, the food was superb and the wine was even better. My Mum looked after the kids. As most of you know, kids tend to grow up really fast and by the end of June we needed to get Talia a new bed. So Paul and I went shopping and found a bunk bed, with the bed on the bottom being a double, which is really good as Talia and Connor both lie in there of a night to listen to stories or watch movies, on Dad’s laptop. This meant that Connor got Talia’s bed and is now very happy to have a grown up bed.

On the 5th of July we all went to Sea world for the day and once there we found that we could buy a yearly pass for an extra $30.00 each so we did and now we can go whenever we want it’s really great. We attended the Mudgeeraba show this year and had a great time. We find the ekka has lost a lot of the agricultural aspects and now focuses on how much money they can bring in. where as the mudgerabah show is still mostly about the animals and rural life. It is also much cheaper, and the kids get a lot more out of it. Some friends of ours came for a little visit from Sydney and they wanted to take us to dinner, so they found a little Jamaican place in Southport. The food was okay, but because the music was so loud we couldn’t really talk.  Talia came home from school one day complaining of a sore ear and not being able to hear, so we took her to the doctor and he told us to see a specialist, which we did and he found that she had glue ear, he said that if she still had problems in 3-4 months time we were to go back and she may have to get grommets, but as of yet she hasn’t had any more ear problems. On the 26th of July I had the worst day, both Talia and Connor were home sick, Talia with sore ears and Connor with a high temperature and restless. I got nothing done that day as I was tending to the kids and trying to keep them happy. Luckily the next night both slept right through, and all was well. On Connor’s birthday we took him and Talia too sea world for half a day then when we returned there was Mum and Martin, waiting with the room decorated and everything ready for his little party, he was very shy for a while but soon came around and had a great time.

By the 2nd of August Connor still hadn’t recovered fully from his croup and so we took him to the doctor and he had to have some Ventolin for 3 days, he then seemed to come around after this and now is his fun loving and energetic little boy. Junior sports carnival was a great fun day and Talia did quite well in the events she participated in. For some reason she didn’t run really fast in her races, she said it was because Connor was chasing her. By the 11th of August Connor had caught Chicken Pox, so I was then confined along with Connor in the house for a week. The poor kid had such a rough night as his spots were very itchy and so I had to constantly apply calamine lotion to his whole body, but we survived. By the 21st of August Talia wasn’t feeling well and when we took her to the doctor he found that she had a little patch of pneumonia on her right lung, so she had to take things slowly, and was on antibiotics. The next day at school she had to dress up as something to do with air and water. So here my imagination shut down for a while, but I finally came up with a hot air balloonist, we made her a basket and then bought the largest balloon we could which was 1 meter in diameter and tied it to the basket, then Talia was dressed up as an olden day aviator, with white scarf and flying helmet, she looked fantastic. By the 25th of August Talia had developed a high temperature and still had pneumonia, we were advised by our doctor to take her to hospital as her condition could have got worse very quickly, we took her to a private hospital and they we very rude and arrogant, they treated us like third rate citizens. They diagnosed Talia as being asthmatic and gave her Ventolin, but by the time we got home we noticed that she had spots appearing all over her. The next day we realised that she had caught Chicken Pox as well, so then I had another week of staying home and looking after her. By the beginning of September Talia had recovered from the Chicken Pox and her pneumonia, so we then took Paul out to dinner for Father’s day, we all really need a little cheering up by then. On a happier note Talia and Connor’s cousins turned one on the 15th of September and they had a great day. It was full of mild stones with them both starting to walk. On the last day of term three Talia was awarded 3 awards on assembly, one was for “star of the day”, the other was for swimming, and the last was from the Principal it was a behaviour award. This award is given to those students who can manage their own behaviour responsibly and don’t need constant reminders to be good. We were really proud of her and you should have seen how she glowed.

On the 2nd of October Paul went to the doctor, because he was complaining about tiredness. He told me later that he fell asleep at the wheel of car on his way home from his mothers one day and the only reason he woke up was because he hit the cat’s eyes on the side of the road. They did all manner of tests and can not find anything wrong, so he now has to see a sleep specialist. We have also been doing a lot of work in our garden, building retaining walls and planting vegies and fruit trees. All is looking really well and we live off what we grow, so we can save a bit of money. Also the kids love eating the vegies from the garden. Talia and Connor’s cousins were in Brisbane again for 2 weeks and they came every weekend to play, they are such nice kids and full of energy. My 2 were very tired at the end of the day when their cousins went home they basically had dinner and went to bed, it was really good. We decided that we would extend our front garden, so we ordered a huge amount of top soil and then spread it over the new flower bed. We were given a whole lot of plants so we put them in the ground and hopefully they will all survive, then the garden will look good. It still needs many more plants, but we are waiting till after Christmas, because our Christmas light display needs to go up in the next few weeks and so the garden will have to wait. Halloween, what a night Talia dressed up as a fairy, with a magical wand which spun around and flashing lights inside, Connor dressed up as a transformer and their Dad was dressed all in black except for a white plaster face mask, they all looked really good. And they came home with lots of candy in there bags. I stayed home and gave out candy to the kids who came visiting.

By November the 5th I thought all our sickness worries were over, but unfortunately Talia woke and said that she couldn’t breath, after a little observation I realised that she was not joking and we took her to hospital, they were great at the Gold Coast hospital, they took really good care of Talia and Paul and I . They thought that she had suffered and asthma attack, but when she didn’t have another attack shortly after they weren’t so sure. She was given Ventolin and told to use this every four hours for the first day and then I gave it to her twice a day after that for three days and then she seemed fine. So here’s hoping that all is well now. If any of you bet on the Melbourne cup I hope you did better than me, my horses are still running! I might have had no luck on the track but I did have luck finding a car. So the next day I organised for Paul to be home early and we went and checked out a few cars, we then signed off on a 2nd hand near new Mitsubishi varada, it drives like a dream and I’m really happy. We took possession of the car on the Friday and then we had to sort the garage, so the car would fit.  On the 18th of November Connor’s kindy is having a Christmas concert and he has to go dressed up as a reindeer, so as usual Mum has come up with the best costume and we found some antlers and a flashing red nose, so keep a look out on the Pofandt web site for photos of him. I have been chosen as the President of the Schools P & C association and also the Fundraising Co- coordinator. I am very excited and a little apprehensive as the school has a lack of unity and needs a big boost to get itself back on track, I am hopeful that I can do this as most of you know I can be really bossy and usually get things done. So here’s hoping. I have some big plans for the school and hope that I can deliver. In the next letter you will all find out how I went.

Overall we have had a very busy and eventful year. Paul is still reasonably happy in his job and health wise he’s ok, and Mum is still soldiering along, being the strong and dependable lady she’s always been. Martin loves his job and is still fighting fit. My days are taken up with volunteer work at Talia’s school, and health wise I’m not doing too badly. I have been concentrating on loosing weight and started off loosing 9kg, but then I stale mated, fortunately I am now again on the downward trail. It seems to take a lot of effort to loose weight and I sometimes get lazy and my diet gets forgotten or I decide it’s too hard, but fortunately for me I’m so busy at school that I don’t have time to think about food, and so I’m not tempted. Hopefully next year I will be able to tell you all that I have lost all my weight and am fighting fit.

As usual I have gone on too long, so I will leave now and wish all of you, our friends a very Merry Christmas and the most prosperous of New Years. Till next year, Happy Holidays.

Your friends

Carmen, Paul, Talia und Connor