Oct/Nov 2008 mommies!

Hi all,

lovely lelani dont be down hon, we are here for you, spill the beans if it will make you feel better!! hope you feel better soon, so glad chanel is doing well and one friend is plenty!! as long as you have that one person who you can talk to! I remember that standard 3 5 were sooooo horrible as all the girls got sooo sensitive and clicky!! it drove me crazy.. so I hope she gets through it okay! im sure she will with your support!

yes simone, we have some r.a's, not alot, and we spend alot on medical expenses it was just over R30 000 last year so we got to claim against that.. dont think i am being overtaxed..

Simone WHOO HOOOOOOO to you being positive about G.. you will have such a sweet reunion and maybe a reunion baby!

There is a jhb kids site called www.jozikids.co.za that i subscribe to and it emails us about upcoming events and activities for kids and so i forwarded it to a bunch of my top tots moms to go to a ministeam train day.. so today there were 31 of us including husbands and kids!! it was such a beautiful calm and sunny morning. We all brought picnics and met at 09h30 to get lots of train rides before lots of people arrived and it worked out perfectly! The train tickets are R5 per kid per ride so the adults dont pay so we took cameron 8 times its like a 5 minute ride over little bridges and though tunnels .. such a fantastic time.. and it was something that worked of those with newborns or toddlers there were 2 newborns, 12 kids mostly 2 3 and 2 x 4 year olds and we sat under big trees eating the food and waving at the trains driving around the track. well worth it. its on twice a month so would be nice to do with the jhb crowd when the twins, nina and jessicas one are a bit older i know its hard while breastfeeding and using bottles !!

anyhoo cameron has stopped wheezing and he has a white nose again as opposed to GREEN (TMI!! Sorry) so pleased that we are over the worst of his bronchilitis..

We just had a huge thunderstorm with thunder lighting and hail and it was BEAUTIFUL!!

hope you all had a good week end

Lelani I hope u feel better with whatever has u down!

My friend been ttc'ing for a year now and got BFP yesterday! I'm so happy for her. Hoping my turn next though...

Mandy I got thermometer and tried to take temps..Addison broke the thing already! It was a mercury one though. So need to buy a digital one rather.

Missing ooh la la time with hubby! I swear I'm gonna jump him at the airport!lol. This time next week he'll just have arrived back in PE!!!!

This thing with AF has been freaky with this group.lol. I laughed everytinme I got an email notification and read it!

Ladies just to say something w.r.t this 'huge' chunk of money u get back from SARS. U can only get money back that YOU have ACTUALLY paid in tax to SARS. Its not free money. U then claim back valid tax deductions and u get a refund of tax U have paid during the year.

Mandy are u salaried employee only? Then your company is over taxing u or u have loads of medical, RA or travel expenses?

As a self employed person though u are privy to many different deductions...being home office rent, travel, portion of phone, electricity, etc. But u have to pay voluntary provisional tax during the year...once assessed IF your deductions are valid, u get a partial or full refund limited to what u actually paid.

Mandy, thanx. I will e-mail you tomorrow. My dad said he'll also ask his auditor for advice but if he can't help me then I'll call your tax gal for sure. I just think I might get away with not paying him much and they are the 3rd biggest auditor company in the country apparently. But my dad said he does know that with freelancing it works differently so he'll just hear from them. I definitely want someone who knows what they're doing because as you say, I'd love to get a big chunk of money at the end of the year.

hi there girlies

i'm still alive just a bit down & 'gatvol' at the moment, but that's a story for another day lol
kids are doing great!!!!
Chanel got her report & to my surprise it wasn't too bad....she needs to improve alot, but looks like we're finally getting things sorted...fxfx
she's always had like 3 or 4 friends at her previous schools & with only 16 girls in the class & hormones running high (teacher says they get seriously bitchy with the whole af thing lurking around the corner....help!!!)
so she's only got 1 really nice friend, but she keeps trying to get more friends which then makes her feel that they dont like her, but in actual fact they are happy with their one friend....hope i'm making sence here....
So we spoke to her & explained that it's perfectly normal to have only one friend & lucky for me her friend is such a sweet clever girl!!!!

Hi ladies, Zamzie good to hear from you again, hope all the kids are well soon!

Ally, good luck with all your plans! So excited for you.

Simone, yay for being online again! Z had tonsilitis
Shame, Addy sounds so cute consoling her mom. Good luck with the ttc. I also felt like it would never happen and then voila!

HI gals,

Ally re your tax and freelance set up, I have the perfect person to advise you. She does all our crews tax and does companies as well. She is quite an expert when it comes to freelancers and small businesses.. perhaps if you ask for her advice then she can help you get the paperwork in place as well.. One thing i can tell you is that the person who does your taxes for you has to be exceptionally clued up if you are a freelancer.. the truth with sars is that they overtax you during the year as a freelancer but if your tax person makes the most of the things you can claim back by filling it all in with the correct codes and getting you to keep all your slips that can be applied to your home office, then you get a BIG chuck of a return.. My hubby usually gets about R40 000 back and we earn quite similarly, but he pays more tax than me and I only get about R10K to R12K back per year. She also is MUCH cheaper than the guy we used to use to do our tax she charges R650 and the other guy used to charge me R1100~! If you email me on monday, I will give you her cell and email as its on my office PC. Ally congrats on the advertising buy out!! Chris will be able to be your IT GUY for life and not have to work for anyone else soon!

Ally I wanted to suggest that you send your press release to LEAD SA.. they have a huge following in jhb and for the charity gig they could give you that extra marketing. I have joined them on facebook and they like to brag about people doing good!!

gotta go, cam has just woken up from his 3 hr sleep

Helen so pleased that Ninas hips are 100%!~! whats happening with Olivers speech assessment? Im sure you have to wait a while MONEY wise! you are having an expensive run with sick kids at the mo!

Simone keep being strong! too cute though that Addy is "looking after you" and what a clever gal to go to the loo on her own!

Yoza hope your run went well? Hows Siba?