Home for the Holidays

I haven't written anything in a long time so I feel like I really need to update the blog on what has been doing on. Sharon had also written some updates that I added also, sorry for those who have already read them.

School: I'm done. I finished all my course work at Carnegie Mellon and I'm graduated. The ceremony and diploma come in May, but it is looking like we won't be here for that. It was a pretty stressful semester and I wasn't sure how I was going to do. Grades are in though and this ended up being my best semester so far. It helps that 24 credits (which would usually be 4 short classes or 2 normal classes) was my capstone project with Bosch ( By the way, I would like to thank those who participated in the survey we sent out). Our work culminated in a report and presentation given to the Bosch team here in Pittsburgh. They liked our work and it sounds like they might have another project for students to work on in the future.

I've been saying goodbye to all my friends. We went out to eat Indian food with a bunch of my Indian friends. There is an amazing Indian restaurant, called Tamarind, close to campus and right behind the church. We went out to the famous Primanti Brothers restaurant with my friends from Pittsburgh. It was a fun experience, but the food wasn't nearly as good as I thought it would be. It was traditional Pittsburgh, meaning a lot of coleslaw and french fries on the burgers.

Job: For those who haven't heard, I have accepted a job with General Electric (GE) in Connecticut. I start the beginning of July. We are excited for the opportunity. I've had my eye on the job since I talked with some Alumni from my program who were at the Career Fair at Carnegie Mellon. I liked the idea for several reasons. First, it is a 2 year rotational leadership program they call the Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP). Which means, if you perform well and they like you, there are opportunities for good career growth in the company. If at the end of two years they don't like me, or I don't like what I'm doing, it will be a convenient time to leave, with great experience and 'graduation' from a highly valued program.
Second, every 6 months I will be rotated into a new project with a different focus and exposure to different roles (4 rotations in total). I could be working on designing and implementing a database one rotation, helping gather requirements in another rotation, doing software/application development on another rotation, or doing process improvement. I like this idea because I want experience in different areas. It is kind of giving me a 'consultant' like experience without the travel and other downers that can some with consulting.
Third, we still have options for where we end up. We will be moving to Connecticut for the first rotation, but on any (possibly all) the rotations I could be moved to a new geographic location. We would live there the duration of the rotation and move on to the next one. We like this because as a young and fairly mobile family it will give us the chance to try out some other locations. We are excited to start in Connecticut because we will be about an hour from New York City on the train, or less driving (Depending on traffic).
Fourth, I'm in an industry I've been interested in getting to know more about. I will be working in the GE Capital group, meaning all my rotations and likely future employment would be in GE Capital. That ranges from their consumer finance (like credit cards), to commercial finance (like financing small businesses or green technology development) to other financial areas. GE has actually been trying to shrink this part of the company since the financial crisis, but it means the opportunities for what I do are greater, I also don't see them ever getting rid of this part of the business like they are getting rid of NBC Universal.

So, we are excited about work. We are now working out all the details of what we will do from now until July. Probably visiting a lot of you and introducing our new child to the family.

Baby: The pregnancy is going well. We are officially in the last month! We are in the 38th week, which means the baby could really come anytime in the next 5 weeks. Sharon is taking it well. It would be a lot easier if we could keep her healthy. Something about Pittsburgh irritates Sharon's respiratory system and causes her to cough a lot, combined with a runny nose, cold weather, and working at a preschool you have a recipe for making someone sick. The last three weeks have been pretty bad. We are off to the doctor today to see if we can't speed up recovery. She will stop working in a couple of weeks so she can rest before the baby is due. We finished our lamaze class a few weeks ago. It was a decent class. I was expecting more practice and not as much lecture, but the videos helped prepare me for what it will be like.

We have been getting everything together for the baby. People here are super nice. We have a car seat for infants and a basinet on loan from friends. We got a rocking chair and crib for free through friends and freecycle (if you don't know about this you should read up on it).

Fun:
Thanksgiving: We visited my family in Utah. It was great to be in the mountains again and to play out in the field behind the house, visit with family, and feel the crisp mountain air. We did the 'Turkey Trot". A 5k community event put on by the stake(Picture above). Sharon made it all the way. I got to break in our new gift from my sister with our niece, a back pack for carrying the new baby around.

Wedding: Sharon's co-worker got married the beginning of December. We were invited to the ceremony and reception. It was a lot of fun. It was my first Catholic Wedding. It was nice and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Christmas: We stayed put for Christmas. It was fun and above all relaxing. We had Sharon's sister and her family from Niagara Falls here Christmas day and had a dinner with them and a single guy from our ward. It was an enjoyable evening. The next day we just lounged around and visited. It was just what we needed.