Titles

So, I’ve discovered that one of the major reasons I don’t blog more is that I really struggle coming up with titles for my posts!  Maybe I should switch to using titles that are just the current date.  But that’s so boring!

We are now less than a week away from the arrival of our new puppy, although I’m not sure arrival is the right word since we have to drive 8 hours to get her and then 8 hours back!  We have her kennel and play area ready to go.  We have a sport picked out for her ‘potty.’  We have food and treats ready and collars and leashes all set.  We have a bell by the door to train her to use it when she needs to go out.  Of course, it’s low enough right now that Alex can ring it, but we’re pretty sure he doesn’t need to go out.  It’s very cute… the kids have been pretending to take care of a dog all week.  Or they pretend to be a dog. 

Braden’s latest saying is “Dad, you’re up to your old tricks.'”  I honestly don’t know where he gets it.

It’s nice that springs seems to have sprung this week.  The kids got outside and played some this weekend.  It’ll be nice if it stays a little warmer for when the puppy is first potty training.  It’d be even better if it stays dry!

Alex has had quite a couple weeks.  Before this last week, he was unable to pull himself up to standing.  Now he can get stand up holding on to pretty much anything and everything.  He especially likes standing up by the tree in the living room… it’s fun to play in the dirt!  He can also climb stairs a little too easily now.  The other night I heard “Look at Alex!” and came into the living room to find him one step from the top of the stairs looking down at me and giggling!  I had only been out of the room for a few minutes and thought the stairs were blocked off.  We’ll definitely need to be more careful! 

And since I seem to be rambling so much, I thought I’d share a thought I had today.  Emma bit Braden pretty hard today.  It was a bit of a struggle disciplining her.  She was actually laughing about it.  We ended up sending her to her room because she wouldn’t apologize to Braden.  Eventually she calmed down and came to apologize to Braden.   That finally gets me to my thought… Braden’s reply was “That’s ok.”  And you know, I think a lot of us do the same thing.  Someone apologizes to you and you say “That’s ok…” or “No problem.”  And for adults, that is probably fine because we understand the apology and the underlying concept of forgiving people.  But when considering the same situation with a 3 year old, I have to think that’s probably not the right response.  Because the original action is most definitely not “OK.”  I wonder if a better reply might be “Thank you.”  Who knows… maybe I’ll switch to that response. 

A New Direction

This week marks a new direction for me.  I’ve been asked to take on a new role at RedPrairie, and I’m very excited about it.  We are kicking off a new user experience initiative and have formed a new agile development team for it.  I’m serving as the Project Manager / Business Analyst for the project.

This is quite a different role than what I’ve done for the last 16 years at Software Architects and RedPrairie.  It’s not a technical role in that I will not be doing any development work.  Instead I will help guide the vision for the new product.  That means I’ll be working with our project stakeholders to create user stories.  I’ll also be helping set the priorities for these stories and help the agile team set their priorities and slot them into sprints. 

I will still have the same reports I do now, but will not be involved in the day-to-day development or support of my ‘old’ products.  This will free me up to focus on this new task… a task that is moving very quickly and has some very aggressive goals. 

I’ll probably miss some of the technical aspects of my current job, but will not miss the support responsibilities that seem to always dictate why I can or have to work on every week. 

I also think this new position means a lot of opportunity for me and I look forward to tackling the new challenge.

Puppy Update

Our very busy breeder found some time to send us some new pictures.  She’s adorable!

For Brett… good luck!

In light of Brett’s recent news, I thought this video was very fitting.  Any time you want to practice, feel free to stop over.  We promise not to video tape any more of it!

Gumming up the works…

I took a vacation day yesterday. Woohoo!  Well, not quite… it was to try and unclog our kitchen sink.  And yes, this time it was the kitchen sink and not the TV that was clogged.  So, after breaking my own plumbing snake trying to get it, and $25 to rent a power snake at Home Depot, I finally gave up and called a drain cleaner.  Well, ok, Kathie called the drain cleaner while I showered off the gunk that I had all over me from trying to fix it.  And if it weren’t for the ‘gunk’, I think I’d go into the drain cleaning business… $125 for 20 minutes of work.  Nice take home!

Braden had his IEP review yesterday and he has done so well in his speech therapy that he no longer qualifies for services through the school district!  We’re so proud of how he’s done in the last few years and the progress he has made.  At this point his really missing only things like ‘L’ at the end of words and that’s pretty typical for a boy his age.

We also bought a new kennel for the coming puppy.  I don’t think the size of this dog had really sunk in with us until we saw the kennel put together in the store.  Kathie didn’t believe that was the size we’re supposed to have.  It’s 54”(D) by 37”(W) by 45”(H).  We’ll probably use our current kennel until the puppy is a little larger.  The plastic crate will give her some more privacy and it’ll give us some room to give her a play area too.

Science Night

Last night was Science Night 2009 2010 at Trinity.  I crossed out 2009 because I figure I can just use this post again for the next 5 years as we’ll have someone in preschool at Trinity for that long!  Next year it’ll be both Braden and Emma!  Good thing it’ll be Kathie’s turn to take them.

It was another fun night.  Braden loves science night.  His favorite experiment last year was blowing up a baloon with carbon dioxide.  His teacher was oddly impressed when we told her we do this one at home all the time.  She also asked if we're going to make paper airplanes for the class again this year, since that was so much fun last year.

I think Braden's new favorite experiment is the baloon rocket.  It's all about speed in these things... the faster they move, the more fun they are!

I also ran into an old friend.  Well, an old friend's dad any way.  Richard Ash, who taught at Manitowoc Lutheran when we lived there, saw my name on the sign in list and sought me out.  I was good friends with his son Allen in grade school.  His daugher is a member at Trinity and her daugher, Lucy, is in Braden's class.  Talking about a small world!

Monday

Kathie thinks I love Monday because it means I get to go back to work and escape the hustle, noise and general chaos that exists in our house on weekends. 

While she does have a point in that I do lose some of the general chaos and screaming, I have to say that I’d rather be home.   Dealing with some of the crap that goes on at work is just painful.  Doing it with a bad headache is even worse. 

On a more positive note, I actually got my fat ass on the treadmill last night!  I even remembered how to plug it in and turn it on.  To work into it and hopefully get my knee back in shape, I only walked.  But I walked at 12-15% inclines the whole time and did 2 miles in just over a half hour.  So, all in all, it was a pretty decent workout.  I feel so much better today and think I can stick with it going forward.