We are moving to New Zealand!!! We got an offer this week, and this morning Lonnie formally accepted the offer. Lonnie will need to start work in January, so we have a lot to get done in the next couple of months. We are thrilled, scared, and overwhelmed with everything we need to do.....sell the house, move our storage to Utah, sell the cars, get visas, etc.
Neither one of us have ever been to New Zealand, but everyone we have talked to has told us great things. Thankfully, the kids are young enough that they don't get too much say in things at this point, but we think even they will love it. We are looking forward to the adventure.
We would love any contacts, congratulations, advice, etc.
Read the story of how it happened in the previous post.....
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
take a deep breath
So I've been meaning to give an update on our family lately, but things have been a little busy. In mid-August, we had two trips back-to-back. The first was an unexpected trip to San Diego when Alisa's grandfather passed away. He was 91 and didn't suffer much with poor health until the last couple of years, so the funeral was a chance to be with Alisa's family and show support to her grandmother.
A couple of days after returning from San Diego, we took off to Hawaii where we spent a week on the North Shore of Oahu with Alisa's family. We had a great time, even if Maya and Max weren't all that impressed with Hawaii and probably would have rather stayed home and slept a normal schedule. Max did enjoy eating a bunch of sand at the beach, which then came out the other end and ripped him a new one. It would have been nice if he learned his lesson, but he still wants to eat everything in sight. Alisa loved the trip because there were plenty of people to help watch the kids, so she felt like she got a break from full-time motherhood. I, on the other hand, was overworked with chasing two little ones and keeping them from drowning in the pool or cracking their heads on concrete stairs, but who can complain about a trip to Hawaii?
The main big ongoing update for us is that there is a really good chance we'll be moving to Auckland, New Zealand in January. I've talked with some of you about it, but I'll give some background for those I haven't talked with. Of course, you all know that we had been looking at transferring to Brazil. Early this year, the management in Brazil said they were very interested in having me transfer to Sao Paulo, but they were concerned about the effects of the economic crisis on their business. In June, they finally said they couldn't make a transfer happen this year. Alisa and I were kind of expecting that to happen, so we had talked about looking at international opportunities in other locations besides South America.
At about the same time, I was made aware of an opportunity to potentially transfer to Auckland with my company. My former supervisor had transferred from Houston to Brisbane, Australia in April, and he emailed me as soon as he knew that our office in Auckland might need help. So from June until August, I had a few phone conversations with the management of the Auckland office to discuss my interest and hear about their projects and staffing needs.
By late August, the Auckland office decided that they definitely needed to add staff, and they indicated that they needed to go through an interview and talk with my current supervisor, with whom I had already discussed the situation. We were finally able to set up the interview about 10 days ago, and it went well. They let me know last week that they just need to talk with my supervisor and then get approval to finalize the transfer. I expect we'll finalize the transfer by the early October, and I've already talked with them about a January time frame to begin work in New Zealand. That way, we'll be able to spend Christmas in Utah and maybe figure out a way to visit Tennessee before we move.
The plan is to work in Auckland for 3-4 years and then move back to the U.S., hopefully some place in the West although we'll have to see what is available at that point. Since we've been looking at Auckland, we've been excited at the thought of living there. It's definitely far from here or Utah, but we think it will be a really fun place to explore for a few years.
Anyway, I wanted to write a little update on that situation. I'll let you know when we know for sure, but right now I'd say it's 95% that it will work out.
Take care,
Lonnie
A couple of days after returning from San Diego, we took off to Hawaii where we spent a week on the North Shore of Oahu with Alisa's family. We had a great time, even if Maya and Max weren't all that impressed with Hawaii and probably would have rather stayed home and slept a normal schedule. Max did enjoy eating a bunch of sand at the beach, which then came out the other end and ripped him a new one. It would have been nice if he learned his lesson, but he still wants to eat everything in sight. Alisa loved the trip because there were plenty of people to help watch the kids, so she felt like she got a break from full-time motherhood. I, on the other hand, was overworked with chasing two little ones and keeping them from drowning in the pool or cracking their heads on concrete stairs, but who can complain about a trip to Hawaii?
The main big ongoing update for us is that there is a really good chance we'll be moving to Auckland, New Zealand in January. I've talked with some of you about it, but I'll give some background for those I haven't talked with. Of course, you all know that we had been looking at transferring to Brazil. Early this year, the management in Brazil said they were very interested in having me transfer to Sao Paulo, but they were concerned about the effects of the economic crisis on their business. In June, they finally said they couldn't make a transfer happen this year. Alisa and I were kind of expecting that to happen, so we had talked about looking at international opportunities in other locations besides South America.
At about the same time, I was made aware of an opportunity to potentially transfer to Auckland with my company. My former supervisor had transferred from Houston to Brisbane, Australia in April, and he emailed me as soon as he knew that our office in Auckland might need help. So from June until August, I had a few phone conversations with the management of the Auckland office to discuss my interest and hear about their projects and staffing needs.
By late August, the Auckland office decided that they definitely needed to add staff, and they indicated that they needed to go through an interview and talk with my current supervisor, with whom I had already discussed the situation. We were finally able to set up the interview about 10 days ago, and it went well. They let me know last week that they just need to talk with my supervisor and then get approval to finalize the transfer. I expect we'll finalize the transfer by the early October, and I've already talked with them about a January time frame to begin work in New Zealand. That way, we'll be able to spend Christmas in Utah and maybe figure out a way to visit Tennessee before we move.
The plan is to work in Auckland for 3-4 years and then move back to the U.S., hopefully some place in the West although we'll have to see what is available at that point. Since we've been looking at Auckland, we've been excited at the thought of living there. It's definitely far from here or Utah, but we think it will be a really fun place to explore for a few years.
Anyway, I wanted to write a little update on that situation. I'll let you know when we know for sure, but right now I'd say it's 95% that it will work out.
Take care,
Lonnie
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
playground fun
On Sunday afternoon, at the end of a great family weekend, we went for a relaxing drive and decided to stop and let the babies get out a move around a little bit (ok...so they demanded that we let the out).
We have had a wonderful anniversary weekend. Four years ago Lonnie and I were married. I am more in love with him today that I was then. To celebrate our anniversary we spent a night away from the kids. Our fabulous friends (who shall not be named in an effort to keep them from being over-run by other parents, but we will add that we, especially the kids, love these two fabulous women) graciously agreed to watch our sweet ones on Friday night and Saturday morning so we could get away. The kids seemed to have a great time and as far as we know didn't complain about having us gone.
Lonnie and I stayed at a great hotel in downtown Houston, right near the Theater District and went out to a nice dinner. It was a nice relaxing break knowing that the babies were being well taken care while we had a night off from our parental responsibilities. Unfortunately this was running though my head all night long. I guess I wasn't able to turn the mom-switch all the way off.
We arrived home on Saturday during the babies morning nap. They were pretty excited to see us when they work up, but didn't seem to have missed us at all.
Friday, September 18, 2009
sharing
Maya is having a bit of a hard day. She has been breaking down into tears at even slight provocations.
While sitting at the dinner table she broke down into tears when I wouldn't let her take Max's fork from him. Finally I stopped fighting her and when I walked away I saw her pull Max's fork out of his hand again, but then she handed him her fork. Maya has more skill and patience when it comes to eating with a fork. Maybe she just thought her fork worked better and wanted to help him out. It didn't make much a difference and Max went on to eat most of his Mac and Cheese with his hands, which made Maya pretty upset.
Later in the evening I decided to give the kids a bath, which for some reason they were not too happy about. When I was completely worn down from the whining I took the kids out of the bath wrapped them each in a baby-burrito and put them in Max's crib with a pacifier in their mouths. I came back about five minutes later, when felt like I could deal with the situation again. Maya was still in her burrito but sitting up and Max was standing behind her playing with her hair which she didn't seem to mind until I took them out of their crib so I could get them dressed in their pjs.
Thankfully Lonnie is back in town today after working in Beaumont for the week. Happy Anniversary Babe....I'm sleeping in tomorrow.
While sitting at the dinner table she broke down into tears when I wouldn't let her take Max's fork from him. Finally I stopped fighting her and when I walked away I saw her pull Max's fork out of his hand again, but then she handed him her fork. Maya has more skill and patience when it comes to eating with a fork. Maybe she just thought her fork worked better and wanted to help him out. It didn't make much a difference and Max went on to eat most of his Mac and Cheese with his hands, which made Maya pretty upset.
Later in the evening I decided to give the kids a bath, which for some reason they were not too happy about. When I was completely worn down from the whining I took the kids out of the bath wrapped them each in a baby-burrito and put them in Max's crib with a pacifier in their mouths. I came back about five minutes later, when felt like I could deal with the situation again. Maya was still in her burrito but sitting up and Max was standing behind her playing with her hair which she didn't seem to mind until I took them out of their crib so I could get them dressed in their pjs.
Thankfully Lonnie is back in town today after working in Beaumont for the week. Happy Anniversary Babe....I'm sleeping in tomorrow.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
2+2=4
Our friends Laurie and Brett had tickets to the Astros game and asked if we would watch their twins while they went to the game. Brooklynn and Katelynn are just a couple months older than Max and Maya and they all had a fun time playing together.
If we could jump past the infant stage and always have both parents at home maybe it wouldn't be too hard to have quads (at least if most of the time the babies were sleeping).
bubble bath
The babies took their first bubble bath. They were pretty entertained. We used baby shampoo to make the bubbles so it wouldn't hurt their eyes.
Maya recently had a run in with the driveway, that left a big scab on her forehead.
The end.....
Maya recently had a run in with the driveway, that left a big scab on her forehead.
The end.....
slacker blogger
Yes, I have been slacking on my blogging.....and there have been so many memories to record.....Grandpa Allred's Funeral, Our family trip to Hawaii are the big ones.....
But I will skip those for a moment and give you some easy photo posts.....enjoy.
But I will skip those for a moment and give you some easy photo posts.....enjoy.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
aloha
We went on an amazing trip to Hawaii with my entire family. Everyone was there. We had a wonderful time.
We were pretty worried about traveling for so long (11 hours of travel time, plus one hour drive on each side of the flights) with two lap children. Thankfully, the kids did much better than I expected but worse than Lonnie expected (I guess I had pretty low expectations). We were lucky enough on the long arm of our flight from Phoenix to Honolulu to have an extra seat, so Lonnie and I were actually able to sit next to each other with an extra seat in the middle for the babies to share. (Normally, two lap children can not sit in the same row because each row only has one extra oxygen mask). We kept the kids busy with lots of food and water and several zip lock bags filled with new small toys from the dollar store.
Instead of getting lots of hotel rooms this is where we stayed. The house was beautiful and had amazing views of the beach and ocean. We spend our time swiming in the pool, snorkling, hanging out at the beach and spending time with our wonderful family.
We learned the hard way that due to the fact that sand in Hawaii is made from coral and is quite coarse it is best to not let
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