Month 2 (will think of a better name next month)

So we had a good month getting into the new school new routines. Sarah's soccer season is over already (it is very short) and school mid-term exams and tests for Emma have already started so time is moving fast. Emma got an A+ for Utah history so she is our resident expert if we need to know about anything. All the furniture is assembled (I can put away my allen key for now) and we are starting to see some cooking at home. Emma made a delicious pavlova from scratch that we took to the International Graduate Student Association opening social/lunch and it was a hit. all the spouses want her to teach them how to make it, maybe you might want to try the 'Donna Hay - Junior Masterchef recipie'.

We finally got to visit the Fitisemanu family up in Taylorsville (South Salt Lake) who Elaine knew from New Zealand and we had a great time with them. We enjoyed the opening social/event they had at Wymount where the kids got to paint their faces, go on jumping castles and eat free food and the big news was that after 20 years of driving I was good enough to pass my USA driving test.....whewwwwww.....

School/MBA is going good. It is so intense and I always feel like I am behind and catching up (probably true) but I am enjoying the classes and slowly making ground I think. My big achievement has been getting my 8 page CV down to the standard 1-page resume used in the USA and there is always a laugh close by as my Marketing professor seems to think it is an awesome joke to keep commenting on how I am from New Zealand (an intentional jibe), eg. 'So Stephen, how do they do this in New Zealand?'. I am here to make friends so I entertain him with some fun clipart each week like this:


Of course we celebrated Elaine's birthday, supported Sarah in her first USA track meet, started to see the leaves change colour and welcomed Mum & Dad on the last leg of their USA journey after they left Denver and Andrew and Callie. We were very blessed to spend the conference weekend in Salt Lake City and Andrew and Callie (and kids) also drove over to visit so we all had a picnic together for Mum's 59th birthday. Mum & Dad's visit was big news here and they even got a spot on Fox13 news in Utah. (Click to view)

It was great to see them all. Along with conference sessions together, that was wonderful.

Here are some of the visual aids to my summary above:

USA - Month 2