Stan's New Job, Disney Red Carpet & Thanksgiving!

So I don't even know where to start, we have been so lucky the last couple of weeks. To sum it all up, Stan has officially put in his resignation notice to PWC today and we will be making a lateral move to Bain after the holiday season. The opportunity came quite suddenly. The connection to the partner was made at an Oxford Alumni event here in Sydney and through a mutal friend from BYU who also currently works at Bain in the Dallas office (but was up doing a 6 month stint here in Sydney). After Stan's resume was put on this partner's desk he was interviewed over two weeks and was given an offer in the Bain Sydney office with a bottle of champagne. Stan accepted the offer, but leaving PwC has been bittersweet for several reasons. (1) Stan has been very successful at PwC, and has had very good exposure in the Firm (2) PwC was willing to match the offer from Bain financially and open up some additional opportunities for his career, and (3) Stan loves his team and his boss - Stan has the BEST Boss he hand picked Stan from Oxford and has had us over for dinner on a number of occasions. He is SO FUN and his team is made up of kind, intelligent, gorgeous people who are hilarious to hang out with - you just don't know if you can get that somewhere else...here's hoping!

Speaking of Stan's great boss - his brother is the CEO of Yahoo!7 and he had some tickets for the Australian premier of Tangled (Rapunzel) in 3D which he invited us to. There were no previews and a Disney executive came out with a microphone and talked to the audience and introduced the film. My kids were so excited to go! They of course dressed up and I of course didn't bring my camera and have no pictures! Thomas was restless and kept asking where the dragons were - otherwise, the movie was great!

Lastly, Thanksgiving! Much to my relief, a friend I had invited over for our 4th of July celebration hosted Thanksgiving. I brought the pies...Stan made them :-) and we ate and went home! I love it. I am now quite fond of doing Thanksgiving outside on the veranda since it is spring/ summer here and watching all the jacaranda petals fall and letting the kids run around. Since there is no holiday we postponed the event until the weekend. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! We have so much to be thankful for and we love living in Sydney!

Canada Bay

When we look at the history of Australia many of you think of the land of British convicts. It is true that Australia was a penal colony (much like Georgia in the US). The other day I was walking along the water by our apartment and I noticed a big stone with a plaque on it. It gave me a brief history of our little cove known as Canada Bay, which I had always wondered about, given the name.

Here is it, Canada Bay in all its glory!

Basically there was a group of French/ Canadians in Quebec that thought their beloved Canada should not be subject to the dictatorship of the Queen of England. They started to organize protests but their demonstrations were quickly put to rest as the Queen of England put them all on a boat to Australia. Lucky them--except for the fact that they were put in jail and then put to work for over a decade! We live in an apartment complex called Phillips Landing, which is named after the boat that brought these people over.

Personally, I think there was some preference given to the British convicts because they got the beach's and the guys from Quebec got the bay. Note: there is quite a stigma about people who live on "the north shore" (i.e. beaches) vs. the inner west (where we live). We are on the ghetto side of the harbor bridge but we couldn't afford a three bedroom apartment if we were on the other side! Either way we love our little cove, and here's to Canadians!!

Happy Birthday Stan!

Stan turned 30 this year! He had pretty mixed emotions about the whole thing but had a ball. The weekend before I flew down to Melbourne (where Stan has been working) to stay the weekend with him. We couldn't stay in the crown towers b/c Tiger Woods was there playing in a golf tournament and the place was booked out; so we had to stay across the street and at the Crown Promenade (a sister hotel, just not as posh!) It was so much fun. I had just finished my pneumonia meds and was still tired and getting away from my kids and sleeping in and getting waited on for meals etc... was amazing!

I got into Melbourne around 3:00 on Friday and met Stan after work. Dinner was treated by his boss and we went out to eat at Bistro Vue (French cuisine). This place was ranked as a one hat restaurant (there are only about 20 hatted restaurants in Melbourne). I am interested to see a 2 or 3 hat restaurant b/c I was really impressed with this place. We were walking through the cobblestone alleys of Melbourne up a hill and came to this cafe. We were led though this garden terrace and then into the restaurant where the architecture, furniture, dishes, smell and waiters were all 110% French. Stan and I had so much fun we looked at each other and said "lets move to France next!" The food was amazing and the bread was all fresh baked, the cheese platter was right behind me so we were engulfed with wonderful smells and charming accents! While waiting for our entrees, I gave Stan a book of memories from his closest friends and family members. He LOVED it and got a kick out of how many people contributed from high school, the mission, college, graduate school, church, etc.... I figured since most of his friends are in another country this was the best way to wrap up this section of his life. After dinner it started to drizzle so walked back down the cobblestone in the rain to our hotel and then slept in.

In the morning we got up and went for a run together (which we haven't been able to do since having kids) we ran along the Yarra river and watched all the rowers in training and then went into the royal botanical gardens. Once in here it started to rain a lot. we stopped in a gazebo and then it only got worse so we ran back. We had the breakfast buffet (which if you read my last post about the crown) is amazing! Our plane back was in the afternoon and we got to ride back business class, thanks to a free ticket I had and Stan being gold class with Quantas and getting upgraded.

The next weekend was Stan's actual birthday. I organized a surprise lunch with all his team members at work. He was quite surprised to see me sitting there with everyone and we got a ceramic plate that everyone could sign so he can remember his co-workers from PwC! Afterwards he played hookie and cashed in our gold class cinema tickets for Harry Potter which came out the day before. Gold class means you get to sit in these comfy couch chairs and have people wait on you and bring you food throughout the movie. Again, we got this perk from work and have been saving the tickets for a movie we actually wanted to see.

After the movie we came home and did cake and ice cream with the kids, opened gifts and went to bed! Happy birthday Stan--to the next 30 years

Pneumonia...

So the last 6 weeks I have had a terrible cough. It came on really suddenly and was so strong I would more or less loose my breath. In addition, my jaw is double jointed so when my coughing fit would get really bad my jaw would come out of joint--ouch! I was so tired I was taking naps throughout the day--which is rare.

I figured it would go away. So I pressed on taking a holiday in Melbourne for two weeks, pulling off a joint birthday party, Halloween, running the school uniform shop for school orientation for all the kindy parents (pretty much outfitting 40 new kids, ordering new uniforms and doing stock take etc...) dealing with a car accident (someone hit me) and I had to do all that insurance stuff and repairs and rental cars etc.. and of course playing tennis on Saturday mornings (my love)--even though we would have to frequently stop so I could cough etc... Then one day I hit a wall. I was flat on my back for three days. I couldn't breath and my neck had gone stiff/ numb. Soooooooo I finally went to the Doctor! He said I had pneumonia and that the infection was not only in both my lower lungs but also my upper lungs. It had gone on so long I had puss up one side of my neck which was pinching my nerves and also why I couldn't turn my head from side to side. (This was a problem while driving my rental car around post car accident).

The Dr. gave me some expensive but effective drugs and within 6 hours the puss had completely drained from my neck. Within two days I could breath again. Stan came back from Melbourne early that week (where he has been working for the last 6 months during the week--and home on the weekends). I felt bad because he had to pick up the house duties when he would come home from work. Basically I would be in bed by 6:00pm and he would get home at 8:00pm and the kids would be hungry and the house would be a mess. I was so tired I didn't take Olivia to school (there are no school buses out here so she just missed. ) I stayed in bed until Saturday. Then Sunday I got up. I am the Primary President and we have the primary program in two weeks :-) I ran primary for two hours and then came home and cried from exhaustion, slept and then cried again.

I have been better for a week now. I feel like I just got my feet underneath me and Stan's 30th birthday (first milestone) is in 5 days and the primary program is in 7 days and Thanksgiving is in 11 days. I am sad b/c the American society is not doing Thanksgiving this year and I wanted to just pay an entry fee and not have to do anything. I would dial 911 (or out here it is 000) for an emergency mom but my parents are divorced and both distant and my in-laws are serving a mission, so there is more or less no support from extended family even if I was living in the USA...which I am not :-)

Movember

November is Men's cancer awareness month (specifically prostate cancer). It is nick-named Movember. All over Sydney men grow mustaches to support the cause. Stan was nominated with 6 other guys from his team at work to grow a mustache for PWC. They are having a race to see who can win the most money. If you are interested in helping here is the web page: http://au.movember.com (you have to type in Stanford Swinton) and it will bring up his page and you can see his stach. In addition, PWC put together a game of the guys growing the staches. It is called the drag and drop MO game and has all the styles below but you can put them on Stan's face! I know, what fun, leave a comment and I can email you the game!

Thanks for you help!