First Day of Kindy

Cade started school today. Every Friday he wears his "sports uniform" so the the more formal uniform picture will come on next week (stay tuned for a good laugh). Drop off was pretty hectic with families and kids everywhere. We packed his morning fruit, morning tea (which is just a snack - tea is not really served) and his lunch. I will pick him up today at 2:30PM.   Paige and I joined the other "mums" for champagne, coffee, muffins and school year sign-ups at a cute cafe overlooking the ocean.  Unfortunately, it rained again this morning so everything was a little wet. When we left, Paige said, "Bye ladies." She felt like a big girl.  The parent community seems very active and I will be doing "canteen" / kitchen duty once a term. It is parent run for all classes (K-6). The boys are asked to keep lunch purchases to the canteen no more than once per week as a treat and to not start until April to teach them more about the value of money. 
 

 After our sign-ups were complete, we visited Paige's school for an hour visit so we would be ready for a full day on Monday. All of the teachers were so impressed with how we she joined right in without any fear (I wasn't - come on it's Paige:)). In fact, she said to one of the teachers, "Come on, "read me a book." They took a spot on the blanket and a few other kids joined her. After the long morning, we pulled into the garage and she said, "Mommy, good job driving.  Thanks Paige. I needed that."

 

It has  been raining a lot.  Apparently, last week was the most rain Sydney has seen.  The tropical depression put us in a tropical depression. Although, I did see that there was some major snow is Kansas City as well.    We have been playing a lot of Yahtzee, Go Fish, puzzles and IPAD movies.   These extreme weather days are throwing me for a loop.  Fortunately, we did not have any flooding issues, but other parts of the country have had major problems.  In fact, Matt had to cancel his visit to Brisbane last week.

 

Cable was installed on Wednesday - wohoo!!  A big win- it only took about ten calls.  Basic things still seem to be a challenge. We have had numerous issues with our credit/debit cards and it seems like you have to call/inquire at least three times before anything happens.  Apparently, there was system glitch, but it sure is embarrassing when you are declined to buy your son's school shoes and than again for $15 of groceries.   They said it is now fixed - we will see. 

Our sea shipment is still in the middle of the ocean, but is approaching Sydney (hopefully next week) and then it will be another two weeks to clear customs.  This is a picture of crates being shipped across the ocean.  Imagine each of these boxes is the size of a half or full semi truck.  Isn't that crazy?

Making Progress

Matt started work last Monday and has spent most of his time meeting different leaders from across Australia and APAC to get up to speed on the business and learn more about the public and private health care systems.   Working through/with government procurement processes will be an interesting change of pace.  He is traveling to Brisbane and Melbourne in the next week or two. 

Matt's father has been in the hospital for blood clots and pain.  The doctors have not been able to determine the cause, but we are praying for insight and recovery.  It has been tough being so far away during this time. 

The kids and I have been trying to stay busy and enjoy Sydney.  We've had a lot of rain here which has limited some of our options.    Everyone :)  is ready to get back into a routine and structure.  Fortunately schools starts later this week for Cade and then Paige starts Feb 4th and it will be back to work for Laura too.   One day last week we took the ferry boat from Milsons Point (our temporary apartment location) to Circular Quay and spent the afternoon at the Sydney Opera House.  The Opera house is offering many kids activities this summer around their Cat N the Hat performance.  We enjoyed story time, telephone games and torches (flashlights) with animals.    The kids are amazed with the Opera House.   They think it looks like a shark's mouth.  We also took a train ride through the city's botanical gardens.  Thank goodness, as we were all tired of walking.  We learned that the Opera House design was inspired after the wings of a bird, seashells and sails of a boat. 


Small things have proved to be challenging.  After almost 3 weeks we finally got our credit card on Friday.  We have had to make numerous trips to ATMs to buy groceries, furniture, etc..   On Friday, we also got a better Internet connection installed in our new house.  Still no cable and no date on when it will be installed (and I thought Time Warner was bad- nothing compared to Telstra/Foxtel).  With rain and no cable, we are getting creative.  We have completed every puzzle at least two times, colored many coloring books and have watched Toy Story and Cars on the IPAD (probably at least 20 times).  I discovered a great website called - Nextissue.com.  For $9.95 per month you can access almost any magazine and quickly get through all the advertisements and get directly to the content.   Our sea shipment isn't expected to pass customs until late Febraury so we had to purchase rental beds and our suitcases continue to be our dressers. 

We also joined a gym yesterday.  It is walkable from our place, has many classes and a kid's play area.    The walk up the hill from our house is a workout in itself.   I had no idea Sydney was so hilly.  We ventured out to lunch the other day for a change of pace and discovered a place up the street to a that will only serve you food if you buy a beer.   Twist my arm:)  So Matt and I enjoyed local Australian beer with lunch at 11:30.  I am sure we will be back soon!  The Aussies love beer, wine and wow, they love their coffee.   They drink it like water.  There were even people drinking it my yoga class yesterday. I don't blame them as it is so good and they put a lot of effort into it. 

I am missing my garbage disposal and laundry machine.  Sydney is very environmentally focused.   The recycling bins are much larger than trash bins.  The laundry machines are about half the size and don't get the job done as well.  All houses have clothes lines/pins for drying clothes which most people use since electricity is at a premium and the dryers don't work that well.  No one has garbage disposals. 

We are hoping to hit the zoo this week if the rain stops and also have new family orientation at Cade's school.  We are looking forward to meeting other families. 

What A Week

The last week has been a complete whirlwind, but we have accomplished quite a bit.   We spent last Tuesday house hunting and after looking at about eight properties, we found one that we are really excited about and feels like it will be a great home away from home.   It is a 4bdr, 3bath, 1 car garage home.   The family who lived in the house prior also had two smaller children and were just transferred to China for a five year ex-pat assignment so they left several appliances such as a refrigerator, washer/dryer and gas grill behind which was an added bonus.   We signed the lease this morning.    We are in a suburb of Sydney called Mosman.  It will be a 30 min (short in Sydney terms) bus ride for Matt to North Sydney in the morning for work.  For those familiar with Sydney it is where the famous Taronga Zoo is located.  We are just a short drive to the family-friendly Balmoral Beach and a short walk to Mosman Village/Military Road where there are many shops, cafes, fitness centers and small grocery stores.  There is also a small fish pond in the front of the house that the kids are excited about.  I think those fish will be overfed.

 

We toured three different preschools/early learning centers for Paige last week.   Again, we were incredibly lucky to find a four day spot for Paige in a great, small early learning center.  She is taking the spot of a little boy whose family is also moving out of the country.     Most places just put us on a wait list and said they would contact us in a few months if a spot opened up.    She will start shortly after Cade starts "Kindy" (Australian kindergarten). 

 

We have both been behind the wheel a few more times, but it is still so unnatural.  The kids are now clapping and saying "good job mommy" or "good job daddy" at the end of a trip.   The lanes are very narrow, there is a ton of traffic and it is difficult to cross streets.   I haven't been comfortable driving by myself yet and I still need some guidance and an extra set of eyes.  Hopefully it will become more natural in a few weeks. 

 

I miss US Internet access.  Internet is charged by the GB and frequently just stops working.  I am hoping it will be better once we are in our house as we will have more bandwidth than the temporary housing.  We were without Internet for the past 48 hours because of one long Google Plus session on Sunday with the Wildman's that sucked up most of our bandwidth.   

 

Last Friday, Sydney recorded the hottest day on record - 114 degrees.   For most of the day, I thought it was just typical Sydney summer weather until I watched the news that evening.  Thank goodness.  It was brutal.  

 

We will start the moving process this week and our air shipment arrives tomorrow.  Could be another month before the sea shipment arrives.   More excitement to come:)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



We Made It!!

We arrived safely in Sydney last Friday, January 11th and have been trying to adjust to the new timezone and cultural differences. 

The kids did amazingly well on the trip.    I was very anxious but it was much better than expected.  FYI - Xanax does nothing, even when you add a glass a wine.  We left our house around noon on Wednesday, January 9th after saying goodbye to our sweet Sydney dog.  After a 3 hour - very rough flight- we landed in LA.  We met up with Molly and Dennis Komick for dinner at the LAX Encounter restaurant which killed some time and entertained the kids with watching all of the flights land.    We took off for Sydney around 10:30PM on Quantas Airlines, which is fantastic.  Shortly after take off we have dinner and then lights out. We all slept for about 6 hours or so. When we woke up we had 6 hours left which included lots of coloring, reading, reading, movies and breakfast.  The flight was smooth and the flight attendants were great.

We fought to stay awake all day on Friday.  The Sydney sunshine helped as well as a nice park across the street.    Matt walked up to the Cerner office garage and drove the car a few scary blocks to our parking garage.  We purchased a Toyota Aurion (equivalent of the Avalon) from a previous Cerner executive which was so convenient. They really need online driving simulators:)  It is intuitive- just not when you are used to driving in the US.  We have been taking public transportation most places for now:).
 
On Saturday, we took the ferry to Manly Beach and enjoyed some beach time.  We purchased some water wings or floaties to bring back to use at our apartment pool which have been a big hit with the kids. 

Thanks for all the warm wishes and prayers during the journey across the big pond.  We now have a new set of challenges ahead- finding a house, finding a pre-school for Paige, learning to drive, using the new lingo and getting over the cost of living.    One day at a time:)