Toilets and Driving

Hi Everyone,
I lost the entire blog as my computer isn't feeling so well with the move and sometimes freezes up, so I may truncate this rewritten message.
I had promised to write about toilets and driving. Toilets first. The first thing you notice about the toilets here is that there isn't a handle to flush the toilet with. The second is it is a bit higher off the ground, much to Elise's displeasure. So how to flush? There are two little buttons to push on top of the toilet. You choose the the smaller if you only need a little flush for just a little business in the potty, or you can choose to push the larger button. This button unleashes the equivalent of the Hoover Dam (again much to Elise's displeasure). The Aussies are serious about their toilets, and I have yet and don't expect to hear anyone has a clogged toilet while I'm here.
Second, Driving: It's all so backward here. The steering wheel is on the right hand side of the car and you drive always keeping to the left. The worst part is that the controls are reversed in the car so I keep hitting the windshield wipers when I need to turn on my blinkers. This posses a problem when I'm signaling with my wipers as I go through the roundabouts, they just don't seem to understand what I'm intending when I use the wipers. The kids find this funny, and laugh each time I do it, I threatened to allow them to walk everywhere they need to go and they have since been keeping their laughing to minimum. Believe it or not, I have now have an Australian license as I am the main driver, Todd at this point will just continue to use his American license.
The kids are still doing well. Nathan just went for week long trip to Karinjara. They camped in the outback, walked through the gorges, went abseiling, hiking and even ran into a 5 meter long python. They were directed to wait until the snake crossed the road which took 10 minutes to allow its entire body to cross. The school had sent home a note letting us know the bus the students were to travel in was kangaroo safe. I guess the roos have a reputation for attacking kids in school buses. They made it without incident.
Mikaela's grade decided to add in an extra field trip while the upper school students were gone and they went to the Leonardo DaVinci exhibit. That's one thing I love about this school, it is so small that if the teacher thinks of a field trip that ties in with what they are learning in school, they will send a note home and the kids will be off using public trans within the next day or so to some interesting place. Last week it was a ballet.
Carson has made a team at his school which consists of 4 boys and they stand in a "Z" like shape and have to move and pass a ball. It is called pass-ball. His team competes next month wish them luck. Carson is also part of the boys choir and they just had two concerts last week. They did very well.
Elise is loving school. She became the 6th girl in her class and was asked to join in with the other 5 girls to take ballet lessons. All the little girls go together after school on Tuesday and luckily there was still space in the class for her to join. So every Tuesday all the girls go to ballet and all the moms go to one of the others mom's house to visit, then we all go pick up our little ballerina.
We have acquired some wet suits, Todd and Nathan are already hitting the surf. Now that winter is winding down here the other kids may be joining. I will include some pictures of Todd and Nathan boogie boarding at sunset. It is so unbelievably beautiful here. The pictures are all taken at City Beach, about 5 minutes from our house. The pictures don't do the sunset justice.
I hope all you with kids have got them settled back into school OK.
We miss everyone -
See Ya,
~Pam, Todd, Nathan, Mikaela, Carson, and Elise