After Day 2 at Abbott

I'm official now-- here's a picture of my Abbott name badge that I wear around my neck all the time. I like the job a lot so far, from my limited time there. Day one was mostly spent at a big orientation session with HR, then I got to meet with the Russian marketing team who were here visiting the US headquarters. Yesterday I signed up for benefits and started planning some marketing research that we will be doing in 7 different countries-- fun!

My specific products that I will be responsible for are the "tolerance formulas" -- as opposed to the "everyday formulas"-- so Isomil, Alimentum, Similac sensitive, soy formulas, and anything for preemies. Essentially everything that is made for babies that don't use regular formula. Should be interesting because there is a lot of innovation and growth in this area.

We put an offer on a house in Buffalo Grove, and are hopeful that it comes through. The house backs up to a park, which we think would be fun for the kids. It would be close to church, work, and the temple. They also have a good school system. We have our fingers crossed, and should know today what they say.

Father Son Campout

Last Friday we had the annual father-son campout, which was great. Hal cooked foil dinners and selected our campsite to complete all the requirements for First Class. It was Dan's first father-son campout. He enjoyed it, despite what the picture shows:
















Today was my last day at Nestle, and we had a nice event in the culinary center, featuring our pen friends from A.J. Rickoff school in inner city Cleveland. My pen friend this year was Randy Campbell Jr., and here's a shot of us together in the culinary center. Off to Chicago soon!

Back at Work

I was back in the office today after a 2-day trip to California, and it was my first day in the office since I resigned. The stream of people coming by my office made it sink in that we're really going to leave. It feels a little bit liberating and a little bit sad, too. I guess a little bit like graduation day.

Teresa is with Tyler and Allie at swimming lessons right now and Dan is sitting on my lap at the computer. Hal is laying asleep in the middle of the living room floor-- he got back this afternoon from a 3-day 2-night camping trip with his entire 6th grade class. Looks like he must have had a good time with how soundly he is sleeping. Allie got to go on a field trip to the Cleveland Zoo with her class today, which she has been anticipating all week.

Moving!

Hi everyone!

We're moving to Chicago, to go work for Abbott labs on the Similac brand. Looking forward to a new experience, which will include international marketing in developing countries.

My job (B) will be 13.4 miles North of the Chicago temple (A), which according to Google maps, takes about 21 minutes. We expect lots of visitors! Not sure what town we will live in yet, but it is safe to assume we will be in that vicinity.


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My first day is May 27th, and we are hoping to find a house in June as I commute back to Ohio on the weekends.

Spring has arrived here, and it's great to see the flowers. Here are some pictures from our house:

Spiderman

Dan found one of Tyler's old Halloween costumes today, and decided to dress up like Spider-Man. He has a pretty vivid imagination.















Had to turn the heat back on. Hal just spotted some snow falling outside. Brr.

We went to Stake Conference this morning in Kirtland, and I sang a couple of songs in the stake men's choir. Here are some audio files from one of our rehearsals: Nearer My God to Thee and Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel . We get interesting visitors sometimes to the stake, and today the Pratt family organization attended stake conference. It consisted of about 30 people that are descendants of Parley P. Pratt and Thankful Pratt. Their family spent the evening yesterday at the Kirtland temple singing all of the hymns that Parley P. Pratt had written, then dedicated a new headstone for Thankful Pratt. Her burial location had just recently been discovered here.

Teresa is now in the Primary presidency in the ward, and is at a presidency meeting right now while I hang out with the kids and try not to destroy the house too much while she is gone.

Walk in the woods

Took a walk in the woods yesterday, and it was awesome to see the sunshine and warm weather. Maybe a bit too far for the little ones, but we had a blast. Here's Allie on a rock along the way.

Spring break

Other than visiting Ft. Wayne, we also took in a few nearby sights here in Ohio during Spring break last week. We visited the NASA Glenn space center museum in Cleveland, which the kids really liked. It's smaller than the Kennedy space center or Huntsville space center, but has a lot of the same exhibits and is free. Here Teresa and Dan check out some space suits and a space shuttle model. Hal is doing a space shuttle landing simulator. Other neat things there were some science demonstrations, a wind tunnel, and a moon rock.





























Allison is here petting some baby piglets at the IX indoor amusement park. It's basically a big fair with rides and a petting zoo that runs throughout the winter near the Cleveland airport.














We visited the Great Lakes science center here in Cleveland one day, and also went to the center for science and industry in Columbus one day. One of the other favorite events was touring a chocolate factory and getting some discount Easter bunnies there. We had considered some outdoor activities, but it was too cold most of the week.