2006 - A Christmas Message from the Powells

Kayla and Caleb and the 2006 Gidgegannup Show

Another year is drawing to a close and we, The Powells, once again find ourselves wondering where the year has gone and why don't we have any money and why are we so tired, oh that's right, we have children!

SWITCHAROONIE!
This year we decided that it was time to send Fran back to work for 4 days a week and I was to experience Fatherhood with greater gusto. I wewnt from full time to a day and a half a week. I was closely coached and mentored by Fran as I gradually took over the well oiled and trained ship and was terrified of steering the ship way off course. I am not known for my consistency on the home front. I heard some research once that said that so long as you are consistently inconsistent then your kids will turn out fine! Let's hope so! We were very lucky to have Tina once again care for our two little treasures for 4 hours a week, my half day. The children loved being with Tina although it took Caleb a little while to get use to being left with someone different. It didn't take him long and soon he was doing what we all hope wouldn't happen, he'd start crying when Dad got home and Tina had to leave! The combination of Fran working 4 days and me working 1.5 has worked reasonably well and will continue for 2007.

DISASTER STRIKES
Just when everything was going smoothly Tina asked us for a reference. Of course we wrote a glowing report. Tina applied to study childcare at TAFE in second semester and therefore was no longer available to look after Kayla and Caleb. AH! Fran and I were thrown into a mess and had to quickly find a solution. Do we reduce Fran's work time? Do we reduce mine? Daycare? But wait, we had heard that there was a great occasional care facility that operated only during school terms right here in Mundaring. Fran went and had a look and felt confident that this would be a good place for Caleb and Kayla to spend some play time with other children. So "Little Possums" was the saving institution. For the first 4 weeks it was hard going. Fran had to leave little Caleb crying but was reassured by the ladies that all was well not long after. I said to Fran that if he didn't settle down soon I would have to take leave until the end of the year. Luckily, this never eventuated. Caleb loves going to Little Possums. He wakes up in the morning and goes and puts his back pack on and tries to go out to the car with his PJ's on. I am glad that we found a place that he feels comfortable in and Kayla has been a great big sister helping him through the tough times.

BIG SISTER GOES TO THREE YEAR OLD KINDY
This year we decided that Kayla needed to work on her social skills and learn to listen to instructions from someone other than family and friends. We found a wonderful 3 year old kindy program in Swan View. Churchill Brook Kindy has provided the perfect program for Kayla to start being a little bit more independent and to get her ready for big kindy in 2007. Our little girl is growing up so fast. You want all those horrible toddler behaviours to go away so you want them to grow up, but then you don't because they are only little for a short amount of time, and big for a lot longer. So she completed her 3 year old Kindy with glowing colours, only had to be pulled a-side twice by the teacher to have one of those talks, but other than that, a good year. We feel very confident sending her to Sawyers Valley Kindy next year where we know she will blossom and develop socially, emotionally and academically. With Fran and me juggling our work so that we can make sure we are here for them we hope that her transition to school and away from her brother will be relatively pain free.

WORK, WORK and more WORK !!!!
Stephen:
This year I was quite happy going along on 1.5 days per week. It was a bit tight financially but we had a good system worked out and we were able to pay the bills and save very little. My role at Upper Swan is Learning Support Coordinator and Level 3 Teacher (Admin role of a type). I have attended some great training for the LSC role and am looking forward to the rest in 2007. In June, I received a phone call at work from a lady who worked with my sister Roslyn at SIDE. She is now working for Central Office and is one of the managers of the new, yet controversial, Syllabus Directorate. She wanted to know if I would be interested in working part time writing the Early Childhood English and Health & Physical Education (I am so sporty!)Scope & Sequence. For the non-educators out there, a scope and sequence is a chart that shows the development of skills necessary to be taught over the specified time eg. what needs to be taught in Kindy, Pre Primary, Year 1,2 and 3. This was a big task and I said that I couldn't put the children into more childcare. The sweetener was, I could work form home! So I said that I would work one day a week from home (7.25 hours per week excluding breaks). I worked my little cotton socks off starting with writing and knowledge and understandings in Health. When it came to the first reference group, my manager said, how about we just get you to do English. They realised that English was a big enough job in itself and to complete Health was nearly impossible although I had a good crack at it! So I have completed my 3 scope & sequences and they may or may not be online at the moment. Hopefully I will get some more writing work next year to boost the income without having to leave the children. I am in the "pool" of writers for next year so we will wait and see.
Fran:
Fran had thrown herself back into Product Rulings with great enthusiasm, enjoying the time away from the children yet missing them dearly. It was hard at first leaving them at 7:30 in the morning and returning at 6:00, spending little time with them, but having flexi and leave, Fran can take the time off to spend time with the children when needed. Product Rulings was still exhilarating for Fran however she felt that it was time to leave and seek greater adventure within the Tax Office. A job at level was going in Serious Non-Compliance (Sounds Scary) and so she thought, why not leave, not thinking that she would get the job. Well she did and has been there since July investigating fraud and doing raids and questioning people and seeing the magistrate and so on and so on. This has certainly been a change of scenery for Fran and who knows what will be next. Will she get the EL1 position back in Product Rulings or will she have to stay put until some other opportunity arises at a higher level?

THE LAST DAY IN JUNE

This year I accepted the offer by the SIDs&Kids organisation to be media liason. I didn't know what it involved but I was happy to help where I could. I was asked earlier in the year to speak about our story at a conference at the Telethon Institute. The audience was midwives, doctors and researchers who were looking at the reasons for still birth. It was a little daunting however I clearly told Olivia and Calebs' story and the reception was warm and supportive. I was also contacted by 2 local newspapers and was front page news (I thought it would be page 8 or 9) The stories were mostly right however some of the details were a bit strange. I was also contacted to be part of a nine news story - Healthwatch and was interviewed with Kristy Dignam (From "The Biggest Loser"). I then manned the stall at Midland Gate for Red Nose Day. There are about 1300 still births a year, 400 of these are unexplained. We fell into this category when we lost Olivia. So SIDs&Kids are now spending money to try and find out what causes stillbirth and if it can be prevented. I have scanned the better front story picture from the Hills Gazette. It was wonderful to be able to provide an organisation some support when they supported us through our experience.

HOLIDAYS and TIME OUT
With a little bit more money helping with the family expenses we were able to scrape together a few dollars to go away for a week in the September holidays. We were very lucky to once again be able to house sit for friends in Donnybrook which takes the financial sting out of any holiday. We spent a wonderful week exploring our usual and not so usual haunts, Bridgetown, Nannup and the Cider Factories (A new discovery for us and we will be back!) Kayla wanted to go home after the first day; she said she didn't want Caleb to break anything at the house even after we reassured her that this was something for us to worry about and not her. Caleb loved sharing a room with his big sister, but Kayla was glad it was over as he liked to call her name for a long time after going to bed "La,La! La,La!" Kayla just wanted to go to sleep. We were able to catch up with Chris & Louise in Nannup and Rob & Jodie in Bunbury.
In August I had the RASCL Conference at the Tradewinds - I am on the organising committee and I thought it would be nice as a family for us all to stay the night. Well, after the conference dinner I returned to the room to find Fran trying to put Caleb to sleep. The room above was making some strange noises - the girl was getting ready to go out and she wore stilettos on a hard floor. She finally left at 10 pm and we were able to get some sleep. At 2 am she returned , drunk and god knows what else and with someone. The fighting started immediately. The swearing and abuse from both parties was so loud that we though the kids would wake up. We rang the front desk who immediately took action. It died down then started again at 3 am, then 4 am - Fran and I at this point were very tired but couldn't sleep. After our 3rd call the poor duty manager went and told them to leave. They started abusing him and he called the police. They were dragged off at 6 am hurling abuse etc... With bags under our eyes we were greeted at breakfast by the manager who was mortified that this had happened. We were provided a free breakfast which was nice. At the conference there was a raffle and guess who won the overnight package for 2? I did! The manager said "You won't want to stay here again", on the contrary, the staff were brilliant at managing a very difficult situation. We are staying there on the 30th of December as we are attending a wedding in Freo. The voucher was not for Saturday nights, but I reminded them of the incident and they were more than happy to grant us a free night. Hopefully, no drunken hysterical drug crazed birthday girls upstairs this time.

..AND SO THE YEAR ENDS

We find ourselves yet again hurling towards Christmas not knowing what to to buy and who to buy for and how much to spend. I am finding writing the blog is a good way to document the year and if the internet is still around in years to come Kayla and Caleb can look back at the history of the Powells and what made it to the annual newsletter. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and that you take the time to slow down and enjoy the festive season. Love, hugs and butterfly kisses from The Powells - Stephen, Fran, Kayla and Caleb ~O~ xxxxo

Kayla is pictured here waiting with anticipation at her first Hi5 Concert, very exciting!