The Big Move

We moved across the world. We left a soon-to-be snowy Utah for hot and sunny Canberra, Australia.

Canberra

Salt Lake City, Utah

               TO







Here's the why: While Chandler was at BYU, a couple of professors at Australia National University reached out to his employer to ask if they knew any students who could code python (computer stuff - not my thing so I can't tell you any more than that). Chandler was the only one who could so they asked him to help with collecting and analyzing data on the NBA. Coincidentally, my husband has a minor major obsession with the Utah Jazz NBA team (as in he tries to watch all 82 of their games each season) and was happy to help. When we moved to Texas the professors asked him to continue his work with them and soon set about to convince him to study under them at ANU. The timing was perfect and we felt inspired to apply. The promised full-ride scholarship and $26,000 annual living stipend helped too.

So now we're here. Chandler is studying for a Finance PhD at ANU in Canberra and I'm planning on looking after our home and 5-month-old Sawyer full time.

Plane Ride

It took 25 hours to get to Canberra. We were nervous about flying with Sawyer, but he suffered the least of us. He slept A LOT and nursed A LOT. We became really jealous of his ability to sleep anywhere, anytime. The only way that Chandler and I made it was to distract ourselves from exhaustion by watching as many new release movies as we could. Between the two of us, we watched Anchorman 2, The 100 Foot Journey, The Planet of the Apes, and The Mazerunner. I feel pretty impressed with that list.

Living Situation

While in Utah, I used the handy dandy internet to get the information for a member of my church who lives here in Canberra, Australia. I'm a Mormon and our church is world-wide. We even get the same lessons taught the same way here as we did at home. I told the member about my family's situation and she contacted other ward/congregation members who were willing to help. Without her and the others who helped us out, we'd be staying in a $100 per night hotel using a rental car and eating out every meal. With one-way plane tickets over 1,000 each, we needed to avoid that set-up.

First we stayed with the Easts in southern Canberra who offered us a room and meals for a low renting price. They are a sweet, loud family who had a crazy snake turtle (head of a snake, body of a turtle) which as a result, I dubbed Snurtle. Chandler, was sick most of the time so we weren't super social, but they brought him medicine and the dad was able to give him a priesthood blessing for healing. When we left, their 10-year-old daughter made us a Christmas tree cake which pulled at my heart strings.

We didn't find a place to rent in that first week so we went to phase II: house-sitting for the Youngs in northern Canberra. They were going out of town for a couple of weeks and offered their home to us which we still can't get over the kindness of. They're our age, but a little ahead in the game of life as they have 2 kids. Their 4-year-old daughter is fascinated with Baby Sawyer and when I nursed she did the same thing with her baby Cinderella doll. They are the only people that I've ever known to leave 5 hours AHEAD of schedule for a trip instead of 5 hours behind, like is our tendency. The location is great because most homes we're interested in are close-by and we love the ward/congregation of our church that they belong to. We're thinking about moving a few streets over to be within walking distance of them and other friends that we've met. We're still here for the next couple of days then are staying with another family that we recently met here.

View from the East's home

Driving Situation

We didn't want to be stuck mooching rides everywhere so on our third day out, we bought a 2001 Toyota Avalon (so glad to be back in an automatic). Chandler, my finance man, made a weighted Excel doc to weigh the pros and cons of each car we were interested in. I'm still making fun of him for this, but it did work. When we went to the car lot, the top of the list Avalon was being test driven by a guy for the 4th time and he committed to buy it the next day. When we told the dealer that we had planned on looking at it, he cut the price by $400 and we were sold. We guess that he didn't like the other guy very much.

Since then we've taken the hands-on approach to driving on the opposite side of the road. It's not too hard to remember to keep left instead of right, but what is hard is driving from the opposite side of the car. Not only do I regularly call attention to myself by getting in the wrong side of the car, but we both have a tendency to hug the left side of the road when driving. We are both looking forward to the day when our driving isn't ruled by our GPS which consistently alerts us to turns after the fact. Thankfully, traffic here wouldn't scare a 16-year-old (but then, what would?).

Sawyer's Adjustment

Isn't he the cutest thing that you've ever seen?! 

We keep getting questions about how Sawyer is adjusting to the big change, but honestly, there was nothing for him to adjust. He never slept well at night and has always been an inconsistent eater. He stirs a lot at night and makes all sorts of noises which wake me up, and he recently decided that he needs an hour-long play time at 3am. Out of desperation, we started trying something new which has been a game changer.  At night we move him down the hall to a room where him fussing won't wake us up. I set my phone for every 3 hours (how often he usually goes between nurses, day and night) and when it goes off, I go and feed him. When I sneak in, he's always either sleeping or playing and goes back to sleep relatively easy. It's made both days and nights easier which makes us very, very happy.




The Next Week - Hello 2015


Chandler starts work tomorrow, then school in 2 weeks. We're hoping to find a place asap and get settled in before he starts school. We're hoping for a 3 bedroom townhouse or house - one room for Chan and me, one for Sawyer, and one for either guests who will probably stay for at least a week at a time or for the second addition to our family who will probably make an appearance in the 2-4 year minimum that we're here for. Decent places run for $350 per week or $1510 per month in Australian dollars (approx, $1240 in USD). Homes here aren't quite as spacious as in the US, but they're nice and more modern which is a fair trade off in my mind. I think my level of excitement to create a homey, yet modern home is of the freakishly high caliber. Pinterest, here I come.

So now you're all updated on our big move to Australia. I'll continue to post, maybe weekly, to share stories and updates. If you'd like to chat, add me on Skype which provides free calls, or use Facebook. My Skype name is Brittanyphelps4.

Ta-Ta for now.