Visit to Moline, IL

I’ve wanted to post about my trip to Moline but once I got back to Charlotte I had a bunch of work to catch up on and a lesson to prepare for Elders Quorum. Some might already know but the Bishop put Karen in the Primary as a teacher over the Valiant’s 10/11 and they’ve asked me to be the ward financial clerk. They’ve also asked us to speak next week. So, they are keeping us busy and active.

Now back to Moline. About 6 months ago John Deere finalized the purchase of a two other companies, one from the Midwest and another from the UK. When management decided to announced the integration of the three business units they came to Charlotte to do it. At that time I had a chance to visit with the supply management team over my department. During our visit, they briefly mentioned that with the merger it might be a good idea to work on developing my project management skills so that I could help out on a small project if needed. To do this they requested that I attend a 3 day project management course at the John Deere Learning Center in Moline, IL; the worldwide headquarters for Deere & Company. I was so excited that I signed up as soon as I got the go ahead.

As soon as I got back from Tampa I unpacked my bags, washed my clothes, then put them back in my bags and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up at 4:00 am and drove to the airport. My flight to Moline from Charlotte included a 1 hour layover in Atlanta and 4 oz’s of diet coke.

Landing at the Quad Cities International Airport was a fun experience. I have to admit I expected it to be much larger, but the airport is actually no larger than Ogden’s municipal airport. The airport had a few shops inside the terminal full of John Deere and Hawk eye paraphernalia and at the end of the runway there was fancy hanger with a large John Deere emblem posted on the side of it. I was in Deere territory and it definitely showed.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon attending meetings at John Deere’s Parts Distribution Center and then enjoyed dinner at TGIFs. After dinner I decided to find the corporate offices. To do so I drove around until I found a road called John Deere and followed that to the corporate offices.

I drove around the property and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning I was up early to attend my class. The course was like any other I had in college except it went on for 8 hours. At the end of the day I was ready for a break. So, that night I splurged and went to an Italian steak house affectionately called Johnny’s where I had steak medallions for dinner. After I finished my meal, I then spent some time walking the John Deere Commons.

The next evening I went to a local Mexican restaurant that came highly recommended but I came away from that place once again realizing how tough it is to beat Sonora Grill.

After dinner I drove around the city and went past a few of the manufacturing facilities including Seeder, Cylinder and Harvester. Harvester Works is the largest, most modern combine manufacturing facility in the world. It about 90 acres or 4 million square feet under one roof and has produced products since 1913.

The next morning I finished my class, took the exam and headed to the airport. I was able to catch an earlier flight so I headed home.

Overall the trip was very interesting. I learned a lot about the way the company is structured and the layout of the land there in the quad cities. I met a lot of great people in both my meetings and class so I had a lot of fun, but I’ve been paying for it with double duty at work this last week.

Raising Hope

I don’t know if any of you are fans of the new TV show on Fox called ‘Raising Hope’. If you aren’t watching it you should. It is hilarious. Tonight we put a hat on Lilly for the first time and it reminded me of the baby off of ‘Raising Hope’. After realizing the similarities I have decided that Lilly is going to be a famous movie star.

Baby from Raising Hope:

Lilly:

Isn't Lilly the cutest thing you have ever seen? She knows what the camera is and thinks that opening her mouth really wide is smiling.

Florida

Tyson, Lilly and I went and visited the Dave Ballard family in Florida this weekend. We had a blast! On the first night everyone came over to our hotel and went swimming. Lilly and Luke were so cute in the pool. They both had matching floating devices. They both floated around in the pool in their big yellow floaties.

Day two David, Leslie, Isaiah, Luke, Tyson, Lilly and I went to the Florida Aquarium. It was a nice aquarium. They had a cool shark tank, a penguin show, and a splash park. Isaiah was so excited the whole time he had a hard time focusing on one thing and forming complete sentences. He said his favorite thing were the turtles. Although I know his real favorite thing was his Aunt Karen.

That night we I went over to Dave’s house (Tyson stayed in the hotel with sleepy Lilly) and we played Disney Scene-It. It was girls against the boys. The girls won thanks to Layla. She knew all the princess trivia. Good job Layla!

Luke was adorable with Lilly the whole trip. Every ten minutes he would say ‘Baby’ and then come and give her a big hug.

Day three we all went to the beach. Dave and Leslie had a raft thing that they let us borrow. Lilly and I got in the raft and made Tyson push us out to sea. Lilly was so sleepy she fell asleep in the raft.

Day four we hung out at Dave’s house before we got on the road. Leslie made us a wonderful dinner before we left. It was great seeing Dave’s family. I love and miss them all.

We split our drive in half and stayed a night in Savannah, Georgia. So, on day five we spent the morning driving around town. We got a map of the trolley route and took our own tour. Savannah is beautiful. We plan to go back and spend more time exploring the city. However, it will have to wait for a colder month. It was SO hot.

Lilly was a dream the whole trip. She only had one breakdown. We are lucky to have an easy traveler.

The Incident

Lilly and I went to Wal-Mart on Monday for our weekly shopping trip. Everything was going great. I only had 4 items left to grab when Lilly had an explosion in her diaper; the kind of explosion that leaks out at all openings. At that moment I had a decision to make, either grab the last 4 items, check out, and go home or change her diaper right there. After trying to find an item in panic mode I started thinking of how long it takes to go through the check out and decided I better change the diaper before doing anything else. It also started to smell bad and people started giving us gross looks. So I parked my cart at Customer Services and brought her out to the car. I changed her gross messy diaper on my lap. It got all over her outfit so I had to take that off which caused a whole other problem, since I didn’t have a new outfit for her. I searched through her diaper bag and found a long sleeved jacket and leg warmers. So I dressed her in the jacket, leg warmers, and diaper. I guess it was better to put her in something rather than just having her diaper on. She looked so hilarious I had to share.

Mother's Day

My first Mother’s Day was very nice. It started off with Lilly falling asleep on my shoulder and letting me cuddle with her for a good 90 minutes. Cuddling like that is my favorite and she never does it. She must have known that it was Mother’s Day. Tyson made me an amazing dinner of Chicken Cordon Bleu. I told him all I wanted for Mother’s Day was an Éclair to eat. We didn’t know where we could buy good Eclairs here so Tyson made them for me out of scratch. They were the best Eclairs ever.

Tyson, Lilly, and Herbert bought me a beautiful charm bracelet for Mother’s Day. See pictures below. I am very grateful to have such a wonderful family.

A quick update about us – Lilly is getting so big. She is starting to be able to sit up by herself. When she chit chats she has added a nod into the conversation. She gets a really serious look on her face and starts to give you a lecture and then gives a couple of nods to make sure you understand what she is saying. It is very adorable.

Lilly and I have started going to a Mommy’s and Me classes. We sing songs and play games. She loves it. Sometimes the other kids will stick their hands out and she will grab them. She has held hands with half of the boys in the class. She is kind of a flirt. We have also gone to a couple of play dates with people in our ward and enjoyed ourselves.

Tyson and I are both doing good and keeping busy. Herbert is also enjoying himself. He is still fat and lazy. He has not learned any new tricks.

Southern Comfort

Locals who have lived in the Charlotte area their whole life will tell you that there was once a time when Southerners enjoyed warm summer evenings sitting on their porch. This porch sitting was to them a time for sipping Coca Cola, telling stories and watching lightning bugs.

I’m told now that porch sitting has all but disappeared due to the onslaught of air conditioning, high-speed internet, and migrants, such as Karen and I, who have come from places like Utah where the evenings are cold.

Since moving to Charlotte, I’ve actually noticed that most of the developers building new homes here are doing away with the traditional front porch by substituting it with a deck on the back.
Despite this occurance, I think most Southerners are
still nostalgically attached to the porch as symbols of old-fashioned Southern comfort.

In fact, the culture of porches is easily seen all over Charlotte. One of alternative newspapers here, which is deep into things like healing crystals, has a section called "The Front Porch" and at the Charlotte Airport you’ll find a terminal displaying photographs of Carolinians sitting on their porches.

So, as a salute to an era that is all but bygone, Karen and I got out our folding camping chairs, opened a couple of sodas and spent the evening sitting on the porch.

One thing we miss about Utah is Grandma Gloria planning all of our fun holidays. Since we now live in North Carolina it’s become our responsibility to make sure Lilly (Karen) doesn’t miss out on any of those fun activities. So, for Easter I got a few things from the grocery store to put together an Easter basket and egg hunt. Turned out that Lilly enjoyed it more then we thought.