WALKING....

Josh has officially started walking. Since about February I have been waiting for this... up until last weekend he would take about 5 steps without holding onto anything. Then this Friday... he took a few more and quickly grabbed onto the nearest peice of furniture. That night he walked from the kitchen table into the family room all by himself! Which is like 20 steps!

He is so serious when he walks and as soon as he realizes someone is watching he starts to go faster and gets this big grin on his face right before he tumbles. It is SO amazing to see how much he has grown!

In other news... Jim and I completed the 10K this weekend that we had set out to do. Our friends Bob and Mandy along with their two kids and then another friend Melanie and her daughter all ran the race. Jim and Bob decided to start out pushing the strollers. The first 2 miles were CRAZY. There were over 15,000 people running. They had those with strollers start after all the runners and at the same time as the walkers... DUMB! At least let us go after the runners but BEFORE the walkers. So for the first 2 miles we literally zig zagged through hundreds of people... and sprinting... walking... sprinting... walking. Finally we seemed to get to an area that we could actually run and I looked at Mandy and she said, "If we keep this up there is no way I am running the whole way". I completely agreed. So we watched as the boys pushed the strollers like crazy men. They finished about 3 minutes ahead of us gals. But we had a blast!

New job - many of you have been asking how the new job is going. Well I am on week 2 and so far really like it. It is very different compared to my old job. I have spent most of my time out on the machine floor talking with operators, following them around to learn the equipment, and getting to know my fellow process engineers and shift supervisors. I am really the only female in the engineering group, but there are a few females in the building that I interact with on a daily basis who are very bright and know exactly how to get things done. My hours haven't changed much except that I am much more in control of my schedule. At KC we were in meetings about 90% of the time so getting any work done seemed to require longer hours. Granted I am only into week 2, but it seems that the others in my position have a very good work/life balance. We are on call, but it is almost always something you can answer over the phone. So more to come...

Couple of things I have laughed about since switching jobs.

1. Whenever refering to my previous job I start with "We" blah blah blah. I wonder how long it will take to stop doing that.


2. All the acronyms... everyone has them. And it is incredibly hard to keep up with conversations when you don't know them.


3. I had to call the help desk to get my email to work... I couldn't understand a word the guy said. I finally had to tell him, "I am sorry but I can't understand a single word you are saying, could you please talk slower." Later I found out the help desk is in Mexico. So I traded India for Mexico. When are we going to outsource to Canada? ha ha!


4. Microsoft Office. I didn't realize how much I knew about it until I opened up Lotus Notes. I am getting used to it. But definitely not the same.


5. I thought my email was down today because I only received 3 emails all day. One from my sister, my mom, and one from a friend. And there was only one meeting on my calendar for the entire week. The co-op cleared it up though... emails are only a formality... and meetings happen on the floor.

So that is the Kirkwood 411. :)