In the past I have avoided looking into the future of my kidney disease, while focusing on the here and now of my disease. That has begun to change in the last year, and if you recall I started the year by reading (and reviewing) a book about chronic illness, from diagnosis to postmortem.
I received an email late last summer asking if I wanted to read a book. I ignored it, but only because our lives were still getting settled. I got a follow up email, but we were in the midst of moving into our apartment, so I said to send it along, since I knew we would be without internet for a week or two and I would need to break up the monotony of unpacking boxes.
The book offer came to me because of my kidney disease, and one of the chapters in the book is dedicated to DaVita, a major dialysis company that operates in the US. I know a little about them, but only from sitting in their waiting room when one of my nephrologists did office hours in one of their offices.
So, Heart & Soul: Five American Companies that are Making the World a Better Place is a book by Robert Shook. He conducted interviews with executives, peons and customers of five major companies: Mary Kay, Inc., Davita, InRETURN, Starkey Laboratories and World Wide Technology. All five of these companies have goals of doing great things for their customers and for their employees, and even greater things for their communities around them.
Starting off with Mary Kay was a great idea - even for those of us who do not use cosmetics. To read the story of a woman who had nothing, and lost that nothing, and made Mary Kay, Inc. into a multi-national company that does so much for so many women. Mary Kay set out to help other women move up the corporate ladder by structuring her company to not only allow, but to rely on the people in the fields to become the leaders for the next women. Brilliant plan, and she had the follow through to make it happen. Even more awesome is that she instilled her great will power and drive for success into others that after her death the company thrives and flourishes today.
Reading about DaVita was a bit weird for me. I really have avoided the whole concept of dialysis in my life. I don't want to think about it, even though I know that it will probably be a reality for me sometime in the future. I had one negative-nelly nephrologist tell me that I would be on dialysis at 29 and have a transplant by 35. I was too young to hear it when I hear it, so I have kind of blocked it since then. Lucky for me, the chapter about DaVita was not too focused on the process, but really was about the corporate structure and attitudes. Let me just say that if the company runs the way it is presented in this book, I am much more at ease about giving them my "business" later on, when needed.
The chapter I found most interesting was the one about World Wide Technology. They are a minority-owned, St Louis based company. They are a technology-solution company, and I see their sales reps from time to time come through my door. When WWT was founded, and to this day, it was set up with Biblical principles. Do unto others is a founding principle. The front office was (is?) made up of people that are completely customer driven, and they believe that their co-workers are customers to them as well. Some of the stories shared were incredible - the CEO driving a shipment six hours out of the way and helping to unload it himself just to make a promised deadline? That is a company that I can support, and a management style that I can appreciate.
I can tell you that their sales folks work under the same principles. They go above and beyond, and are genuine in their desire to get their customer what they need. I am just a receptionist, but their attitude when they come in is incredible, and contagious.
Heart & Soul is available at bookstores and online retailers. It is an easy read, even for me! I am greatly appreciative to have received a copy, and would definitely have purchased it on my own had I known about the great stories and examples of leadership contained inside. If every company was run like these five are there would be a lot fewer dissatisfied people in the world!
*Blah Blah Blah notice - I received a complimentary copy of the book Heart & Soul by Robert L Shook. No expectations of a review were given, and all thoughts contained are my own. If someone had fed me the words, I am confident it would have been more cohesive!
January 29, 2011
January 28, 2011
Abby's First Ice Skating!
Abby's preschool/daycare is just so awesome. For five Fridays in January/February they go ice skating for the afternoon public session. Parents are invites, but since I left early last Friday I had decided I would pass up the trip this time and take Abby on a weekend, just us. I am so glad that my co-workers (and boss) declared that I needed to leave early and go spend some time on the ice with Abby and Anny. We had such a great time.
Abby was tentative at first and refused to let go of Anny. (I got there a little late and surprised both Abby and Anny on the ice!) We eventually coaxed her off of us and onto a bucket, all by herself. She must have done a dozen trips without us!
Here she is on her first go 'round with no help:
Big Tip 'O The Hat to whoever decided to use buckets in public skating sessions! Sure made our lives easier!
Here is Abby with her teacher, Ms Karen:
And finally, here is a short video of Abby skating without the help of us tall-folks - she really got good at this over the course of an hour!
She will go back next week. I do not think I will join them, but I am REALLY glad that I did today!
Abby was tentative at first and refused to let go of Anny. (I got there a little late and surprised both Abby and Anny on the ice!) We eventually coaxed her off of us and onto a bucket, all by herself. She must have done a dozen trips without us!
Here she is on her first go 'round with no help:
Here is Abby with her teacher, Ms Karen:
Abby's First Skate! from Anny and Rob on Vimeo.
She will go back next week. I do not think I will join them, but I am REALLY glad that I did today!
January 25, 2011
Flexible Abby
I am not blogging about ways to bend and twist my three-and-a-half year old - I am blogging again about the resiliency of our girlie girl. She has been through so much in the last year and has rarely been whiny and never made us regret any of the decisions that we have made.
No small feat, you know.
On Friday of last week Abby's daycare was closed due to... well, let's just take the easier route and say "due to weather" issues. Anny's school district is smaller, and thus less inclined to close. (Side note, seems they do not do two hour delays out here due to bus contracts. Not saying good or bad, but certainly a change.)
Since I had assumed that either both or neither would go to school on Friday I kind of left my (very public reception) desk stacked with work for first thing. This meant that I had to go in to work. Paul called to make sure I knew that Sarahlynn could watch Abby, but I thought it would be a great day for an experiment with Abby at the office.
Her first excitement was getting dressed up in her finest dress (from a wedding of a friend back in the fall of 2009 - getting a lot of use out of it!) and were sure to take snacks and activities to do for a half day of work. We took crayons and coloring books, movies and snacks. We were set for the day.
I texted my co-worker to let her know that I would be coming with a special guest and Abby got a great, big, warm welcome. It was great. She sat and colored, then snacked, and watched a movie. She greeted people and smiled when they came through the doors. She even wandered the office with a co-worker, singing and laughing the whole time. Folks were happy to a smiling face around - and they rewarded her for it - with CANDY! She got M&M's and at least two candy canes. Lucky girl.
Lucky dad. Glad to be at a place that did not question my judgment in bringing her with me, who trusts that I always have their best interests in mind. :o)
Would not plan to do it as a regular plan, but it was great that it worked out so well!
No small feat, you know.
On Friday of last week Abby's daycare was closed due to... well, let's just take the easier route and say "due to weather" issues. Anny's school district is smaller, and thus less inclined to close. (Side note, seems they do not do two hour delays out here due to bus contracts. Not saying good or bad, but certainly a change.)
Since I had assumed that either both or neither would go to school on Friday I kind of left my (very public reception) desk stacked with work for first thing. This meant that I had to go in to work. Paul called to make sure I knew that Sarahlynn could watch Abby, but I thought it would be a great day for an experiment with Abby at the office.
Her first excitement was getting dressed up in her finest dress (from a wedding of a friend back in the fall of 2009 - getting a lot of use out of it!) and were sure to take snacks and activities to do for a half day of work. We took crayons and coloring books, movies and snacks. We were set for the day.
I texted my co-worker to let her know that I would be coming with a special guest and Abby got a great, big, warm welcome. It was great. She sat and colored, then snacked, and watched a movie. She greeted people and smiled when they came through the doors. She even wandered the office with a co-worker, singing and laughing the whole time. Folks were happy to a smiling face around - and they rewarded her for it - with CANDY! She got M&M's and at least two candy canes. Lucky girl.
Lucky dad. Glad to be at a place that did not question my judgment in bringing her with me, who trusts that I always have their best interests in mind. :o)
Would not plan to do it as a regular plan, but it was great that it worked out so well!
January 18, 2011
Abby Praying
Abby has taken to leading us in prayer at home - communal style! Wanted to share one of the prayers - this is a SHORT one!
Abby's Prayer from Anny and Rob on Vimeo.
January 09, 2011
Crafty Dad: Photo Display
So last week I declared that I would hang things on the walls this weekend, and I have! I have hung four things, which is not great considering there are about ten more to go. A good deal of our battle, though, came from deciding what to hang up at all. We did not do a great job of sorting before we moved from Maryland, and that was mostly due to the fact that we did not know how or where we would be living after Paul and Sarahlynn's house.
(Long rant about personal and responsible financial decisions redacted. Another post for another time)
Anny will tell you that I am a picture snob when it comes to actually printing them. I take hundreds every month and now there there is Facebook and Picasa and Flickr I share more than I used to, but printing is a stretch for me. Fun fact: it's only January 9th and I have already deleted more than 120 this month.
We have lots of wall space in our apartment and have been talking about hanging things since about week two of living here. Clearly this is not a priority for me. In the end I decided that what I really want is a way to have pictures displayed, but not have to frame-commit to pictures. The fewer holes in the wall the better, or something like that.
We got a gift box with a really pretty royal purple colored ribbon and one day I thought that it would be cool to find a use for. The next day my thought evolved to using it for a photo display of some sort. We decided where to use the new find, roughly. I was concerned about a sag in the middle. While measuring to decide where to put it on the wall and something clicked: USE the yard stick to support the project! Less nails, more support!
Anyway, here is what we did:
Started with a yard stick and drilled holes at the 1 inch, 18 inch and 35 inch marks of the stick. This made nailing to the wall later much easier!
I hot glued the purple ribbon to the yard stick after centering it. Turns out I did not let the glue get hot enough before trying to put the ribbon on. Solution? Anny pulled out the iron and used a VERY gentle setting to melt the glue through the ribbon to flatten out the spots.
Using the drilled holes I put a nail in each side. (There is a hole in the middle if we need to give more support later, but I did not use it.) I did the drilled holes mostly in an effort to not have to put a whole lot of power into nailing with the nice ribbon on it.
We have hung the pictures with magnets, so neither the pictures or the ribbon are going to be hurt when we change things in and out.
Total cost of the project was one dollar, for magnets. Had I thought through it better, I would have just brought home some plain magnets from work that we can use for more pictures. The ribbon was free from a gift basket, the yard stick was free (to someone else, years and years ago) from a paint and room-design store.
This give me flexibility to change pictures in and out - or a designated place and way to display Christmas Cards next year - which should lead me to print more pictures, which makes Anny happy. This is a win win project! It took less than ten minutes of work time, too!
(Long rant about personal and responsible financial decisions redacted. Another post for another time)
Anny will tell you that I am a picture snob when it comes to actually printing them. I take hundreds every month and now there there is Facebook and Picasa and Flickr I share more than I used to, but printing is a stretch for me. Fun fact: it's only January 9th and I have already deleted more than 120 this month.
We have lots of wall space in our apartment and have been talking about hanging things since about week two of living here. Clearly this is not a priority for me. In the end I decided that what I really want is a way to have pictures displayed, but not have to frame-commit to pictures. The fewer holes in the wall the better, or something like that.
We got a gift box with a really pretty royal purple colored ribbon and one day I thought that it would be cool to find a use for. The next day my thought evolved to using it for a photo display of some sort. We decided where to use the new find, roughly. I was concerned about a sag in the middle. While measuring to decide where to put it on the wall and something clicked: USE the yard stick to support the project! Less nails, more support!
Anyway, here is what we did:
Total cost of the project was one dollar, for magnets. Had I thought through it better, I would have just brought home some plain magnets from work that we can use for more pictures. The ribbon was free from a gift basket, the yard stick was free (to someone else, years and years ago) from a paint and room-design store.
This give me flexibility to change pictures in and out - or a designated place and way to display Christmas Cards next year - which should lead me to print more pictures, which makes Anny happy. This is a win win project! It took less than ten minutes of work time, too!
January 06, 2011
A Square Meal
Funny thing again coming from the difference between what we do at home and school, and both sides actually being in the dark because Abby is the one with the creativity...
Yesterday morning when Abby sat down for breakfast, she asked for a good, square breakfast. Bing the good dad that I am, I brought her two eggs (whites only), whole wheat toast, a bowl of Cheerio's and orange juice. What, that is the way it is pictured on the box, right?
Kidding, of course. While she does sometimes eat better than I do, I am also aware that she gets second-breakfast at school, so breakfast at home is small and simple - a granola bar, a cutie or some yogurt. Makes life simpler for all of us, and gets something healthy in before the day starts.
Anny and I could not figure out what a "square breakfast" meant for Abby, so we kept probing. I suggested square cut pancakes. No. I suggested the regular granola bar, cut into squares. Nope. We realized that bread is (mostly) square, so maybe she meant PB&J! No way to PB or J.
After giving up on us, Abby settled for half of a yogurt and we went on our merry way.
At preschool she asked for the same thing! I had not thought to mention it to Karen because I thought it was just Abby being Abby. Ms Karen, having known what they regularly eat at her house was still a little stumped! She offered the range of stuff for breakfast that they usually have, with no luck. She had a bagel for second-breakfast. Pretty much the furthest thing from a SQUARE meal is a ROUND bagel!
Snack time changed the game when she again asked for a square meal and that is when it clicked for Karen. She shared with Anny at the end of the day what Abby believes is a good, square meal.
A graham cracker.
Yes, she had all of us scratching our heads over a graham cracker for breakfast.
We need to expand this girls vocabulary a bit more, I guess!
End note will point out that Anny went to Target last night after dinner for other stuff and ended up getting a big box of graham crackers. Abby was elated this morning to have that as a part of her own healthy breakfast. And we taught her the phrase "graham crackers" to ease confusion later!
Yesterday morning when Abby sat down for breakfast, she asked for a good, square breakfast. Bing the good dad that I am, I brought her two eggs (whites only), whole wheat toast, a bowl of Cheerio's and orange juice. What, that is the way it is pictured on the box, right?
Kidding, of course. While she does sometimes eat better than I do, I am also aware that she gets second-breakfast at school, so breakfast at home is small and simple - a granola bar, a cutie or some yogurt. Makes life simpler for all of us, and gets something healthy in before the day starts.
Anny and I could not figure out what a "square breakfast" meant for Abby, so we kept probing. I suggested square cut pancakes. No. I suggested the regular granola bar, cut into squares. Nope. We realized that bread is (mostly) square, so maybe she meant PB&J! No way to PB or J.
After giving up on us, Abby settled for half of a yogurt and we went on our merry way.
At preschool she asked for the same thing! I had not thought to mention it to Karen because I thought it was just Abby being Abby. Ms Karen, having known what they regularly eat at her house was still a little stumped! She offered the range of stuff for breakfast that they usually have, with no luck. She had a bagel for second-breakfast. Pretty much the furthest thing from a SQUARE meal is a ROUND bagel!
Snack time changed the game when she again asked for a square meal and that is when it clicked for Karen. She shared with Anny at the end of the day what Abby believes is a good, square meal.
A graham cracker.
Yes, she had all of us scratching our heads over a graham cracker for breakfast.
We need to expand this girls vocabulary a bit more, I guess!
End note will point out that Anny went to Target last night after dinner for other stuff and ended up getting a big box of graham crackers. Abby was elated this morning to have that as a part of her own healthy breakfast. And we taught her the phrase "graham crackers" to ease confusion later!
January 04, 2011
Still Not Settled
Okay, so I am realizing that I am really not feeling settled yet, and it's more of a physical thing than a mental thing.
We moved into our apartment on Halloween and things got out of boxes at a fast clip for about a week. We sorted out clothes and kitchen stuff. We basically unboxed a full wardrobe for Abby.
Funny story about that - we only anticipated on living with Paul and Sarahlynn for three months, putting right at the beginning of October and thus at the very start of chilly weather. When it became clear that we would not be moving out that early, for a myriad of reasons, we actually had to go out and get a season worth of clothes for fall! We had a full set, but it was inaccessible in our POD. Next time we move across the country (HA!) I will plan it out and pack better for the long haul...
We took a week, until the weekend when we had time to survey, we sorted out which furniture would go where, which was more of a challenge than I think it should have been. We downsized before the move. I mean ditched the couch, recliner and vacuum downsized. We gave a lot of stuff away, but I think I have blogged about that before. Somehow we still had a lot of stuff - a 17 foot truck plus two trips with the Vibe. Not cool.
Anyway, just as things calmed back down around here and we took off for our trip to Maryland for Thanksgiving. When we got back from there we pretty quickly pulled out the Christmas decorations (and the not-yet-world-famous Tri Pod Tree) and had all sorts of fun stuff strewn about the apartment.
Well, we took Christmas apart on Sunday. Yes, it is early, but for us it was time.
But the problem is right now is that there is nothing to distract from the white walls and piles of stuff around this place. It's a big place, so the walls are really bare right now. We pulled out one of the boxes of pictures/decor, but I know there is a second one down in storage but am being too lazy to go bring it upstairs. We need to get stuff on the walls. It's time to really move in. To settle in.
(I have offered a five year lease to the landlord - she informed us that there are folks who have lived here for 20+ years. I do not know if we are ready to commit for quite that long just yet!)
So this weekend I am committing to decorating the apartment, including hanging things on the walls. I reserve the right to continue to debate painting the walls - that is a bit more than I want to tackle in the next few weeks, but it is still on the table.
We moved into our apartment on Halloween and things got out of boxes at a fast clip for about a week. We sorted out clothes and kitchen stuff. We basically unboxed a full wardrobe for Abby.
Funny story about that - we only anticipated on living with Paul and Sarahlynn for three months, putting right at the beginning of October and thus at the very start of chilly weather. When it became clear that we would not be moving out that early, for a myriad of reasons, we actually had to go out and get a season worth of clothes for fall! We had a full set, but it was inaccessible in our POD. Next time we move across the country (HA!) I will plan it out and pack better for the long haul...
We took a week, until the weekend when we had time to survey, we sorted out which furniture would go where, which was more of a challenge than I think it should have been. We downsized before the move. I mean ditched the couch, recliner and vacuum downsized. We gave a lot of stuff away, but I think I have blogged about that before. Somehow we still had a lot of stuff - a 17 foot truck plus two trips with the Vibe. Not cool.
Anyway, just as things calmed back down around here and we took off for our trip to Maryland for Thanksgiving. When we got back from there we pretty quickly pulled out the Christmas decorations (and the not-yet-world-famous Tri Pod Tree) and had all sorts of fun stuff strewn about the apartment.
Well, we took Christmas apart on Sunday. Yes, it is early, but for us it was time.
But the problem is right now is that there is nothing to distract from the white walls and piles of stuff around this place. It's a big place, so the walls are really bare right now. We pulled out one of the boxes of pictures/decor, but I know there is a second one down in storage but am being too lazy to go bring it upstairs. We need to get stuff on the walls. It's time to really move in. To settle in.
(I have offered a five year lease to the landlord - she informed us that there are folks who have lived here for 20+ years. I do not know if we are ready to commit for quite that long just yet!)
So this weekend I am committing to decorating the apartment, including hanging things on the walls. I reserve the right to continue to debate painting the walls - that is a bit more than I want to tackle in the next few weeks, but it is still on the table.
January 03, 2011
Abby-isms
I can acknowledge that I have a biased view: most of the time Abby is adorable.
Some of the time she is just downright... well... three. Right now is one of those times. She is insisting that I am "mama" since Anny had to go to work today and Abby and I are hanging out by ourselves today. We have a fun day planned that includes The Magic House and lunch out - mostly to compete with the fun days that Anny and Abby had together for two weeks while I had to work!
Okay, got her distracted and playing by herself. Good news on many fronts.
I wanted to share with you all some of Abby's funny and quirky, but somehow most used, phrases from the last few weeks.
"Bibbidy, Bobbidy, BOOM!" From Cinderella's famous Fairy God Mother's magic spells! I thought for a long while that there was a "boob" on the end, Sarahlynn finally caught the "M" on the end last week and it made a lot more sense!
BBM is often followed by her version of "you've disappeared" which is "ZAP! You're just appearing!"
Less of an Abby-ism and more of a how-cool - Abby has started to really sing along with the music in the car! She requested that I put "Dominic the Donkey" on in the car, and she worked hard for two weeks to figure out the chorus part, and got it! We found her singing along with a bunch of songs, and it's adorable in the car!
She loves telling folks that Jesus is in her heart, and has really latched onto the manger story and tells folks about that too. She has a wonderful plush manger set that is small and has a small bag to it. We have kept that in her needs-occupying bag and it has quickly become her favorite.
There is an annoying noise she makes that we are actively trying to break. It kind of starts like "mom" and breaks down into a noise that sounds like a cat after being kicked by a bear. It usually happens in the car and the only thing we have figured out is to ignore her until she can pull her sounds back in to words. We are working to encourage the imaginative noises/play at times when we are not so enclosed and trapped by her noises! We'll get there.
She is VERY persistent about her dolls needing to have their seat belts on when they go from place to place. I just watched her scold one of her babies for falling out of the stroller...
And with that I am off to enjoy the rest of the daddy-daughter day that was created by a calendar fluke! Happy New Year all!
Some of the time she is just downright... well... three. Right now is one of those times. She is insisting that I am "mama" since Anny had to go to work today and Abby and I are hanging out by ourselves today. We have a fun day planned that includes The Magic House and lunch out - mostly to compete with the fun days that Anny and Abby had together for two weeks while I had to work!
Okay, got her distracted and playing by herself. Good news on many fronts.
I wanted to share with you all some of Abby's funny and quirky, but somehow most used, phrases from the last few weeks.
"Bibbidy, Bobbidy, BOOM!" From Cinderella's famous Fairy God Mother's magic spells! I thought for a long while that there was a "boob" on the end, Sarahlynn finally caught the "M" on the end last week and it made a lot more sense!
BBM is often followed by her version of "you've disappeared" which is "ZAP! You're just appearing!"
Less of an Abby-ism and more of a how-cool - Abby has started to really sing along with the music in the car! She requested that I put "Dominic the Donkey" on in the car, and she worked hard for two weeks to figure out the chorus part, and got it! We found her singing along with a bunch of songs, and it's adorable in the car!
She loves telling folks that Jesus is in her heart, and has really latched onto the manger story and tells folks about that too. She has a wonderful plush manger set that is small and has a small bag to it. We have kept that in her needs-occupying bag and it has quickly become her favorite.
There is an annoying noise she makes that we are actively trying to break. It kind of starts like "mom" and breaks down into a noise that sounds like a cat after being kicked by a bear. It usually happens in the car and the only thing we have figured out is to ignore her until she can pull her sounds back in to words. We are working to encourage the imaginative noises/play at times when we are not so enclosed and trapped by her noises! We'll get there.
She is VERY persistent about her dolls needing to have their seat belts on when they go from place to place. I just watched her scold one of her babies for falling out of the stroller...
And with that I am off to enjoy the rest of the daddy-daughter day that was created by a calendar fluke! Happy New Year all!
January 01, 2011
2010 Picture Review
A couple of times I have taken the first line of the first blog post of each month, but 2010 was fairly light on the blog because of the craziness of two moves in five months, living with another family for four of those months, yada yada yada.
What I have done, for the most part, is keep up with picture taking. While I have abandoned Flickr because I don't have time to keep up the way I would like to, I shifted back to Picasa. I have worked on taking more creative shots, but most of my focus is on Abby of course. She loves to pose, sometimes to the point of annoyance, and is almost always patient while I take five more shots.
This year I have picked a picture from each month that I have dubbed my favorite. A friend of ours took better pictures of Abby, but I have included only pictures that I have taken.
First is a slideshow of pictures of just Abby (with one guest appearance) from 2010:
Next is a slideshow that I have dubbed "artsy" but are really just pictures I like from each month that do not include Abby.
I am trying to stretch myself on this stuff, because I am feeling like a lot of the shots I try are stuff I have done before. Goal for 2011 I guess...
Well - Happy New Year! Hope your 2011 is awesome!
What I have done, for the most part, is keep up with picture taking. While I have abandoned Flickr because I don't have time to keep up the way I would like to, I shifted back to Picasa. I have worked on taking more creative shots, but most of my focus is on Abby of course. She loves to pose, sometimes to the point of annoyance, and is almost always patient while I take five more shots.
This year I have picked a picture from each month that I have dubbed my favorite. A friend of ours took better pictures of Abby, but I have included only pictures that I have taken.
First is a slideshow of pictures of just Abby (with one guest appearance) from 2010:
Next is a slideshow that I have dubbed "artsy" but are really just pictures I like from each month that do not include Abby.
I am trying to stretch myself on this stuff, because I am feeling like a lot of the shots I try are stuff I have done before. Goal for 2011 I guess...
Well - Happy New Year! Hope your 2011 is awesome!
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