Sunday, January 30, 2011

Vancouver Canada




The past two weeks I've been flying to Vancouver Canada for work. It is a very interesting opportunity that I hope becomes a contract. I believe the partnership would work for both parties.

I travelled to Vancouver last September on a fact finding mission. It was my first time to Vancouver. During the next couple of months we sent other associates to Canada as we worked on our proposal. It was presented in December. Two weeks ago we had our first executive followup to that December proposal. It was the first time I met the executive suite and was there to answer any financial or scope questions. The meeting went very well and it appears there is interest in moving forward. That said, there were a lot of question they client needed to answer and several on our end. Last week was a followup meeting to review some of those questions and provide more clarity. I was the only one from Cerner to make the trip and I met with the CFO alone. We are making progress and while there is a lot of work left to do, I'm optimistic.


The only issue with the trip was the location of the meeting. I was staying downtown, surrounded by high rise towers. But the CFO was located in another part of town. Taking a taxi there was easy. But due to a convention that was going on during my stay, I couldn't get one back. So I had to walk about 3 miles to my hotel. I took three pictures as I was crossing the Burrard Bridge. You've got the bay, high-rise towers, and mountains all in one picture. It has quickly become one of my favorite cities in the world. The city at night is beautiful, as you can see from a picture I found on the net (you might have to click on it to see it better). There is quite a bit of Asian, especially Japanese, influence in the city. Like San Fransisco, it is a bit expensive, but like SF they also have great restaurants. It would be a great place to stay for a couple days before heading north on a cruise. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to share the city with Jen and the kids.











Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Arrgh..I'm a pirate


Tonight Madison said, "Arr..I'm a pirate. Look at my patch."

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Just not fair....

A beautiful (almost 2 year old) twin girl was taken to heaven on Tuesday. I attended the visitation on Friday night. Please pray for the wonderful Ruhl family as they deal with such a difficult loss. Mrs. Ruhl is one of Madison and Parker's teachers at CernerKids. She has so many friends and family to share memories of little sweet girl Kherington's wonderful, yet short life. The visitation was so moving from pictures, children's music, outfit (sweet tutu girl), toys, favorite meal, and seeing her beautiful sister, Kenley. It's just not fair. For me, it's tough to put things in perspective and I ask myself why. Please pray for this wonderful family!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Quotes of the week from Madison and Parker

It’s time for Parker to go to bed, Madison holds her arms out and moves her hands together and says, “Group hug and kiss.”

Madison is in the process of taking off her winter coat when the velcro of her attached hat gets stuck on her sweater, she says. “No thank you COAT, I don’t like that.” Then you heard a struggle with the coat, the coat falls to the floor, Madison won.
Madison playing in the kitchen before bedtime, I asked her if she wanted to rock before she goes to bed, she says, “No mom, I am working in my kitchen.”

Madison was talking to Grandma H on the phone last night and told grandma what she had for supper, “Chicken nuggets, bananas, ketchup, carrots, cookies, milk, and yogurt.” Then she sang her bumble bee song to Grandma, it was hard to get her off the phone. Hmmm..wonder where she gets that.

Parker is saying, “Mama and Dada” a lot and being able to recognize us.

Parker loves to play in his play yard and giggles in delight by opening and closing the door, you hear many “Ahhs.”

Parker loves cheerios and we have been working on the sign for more, he uses the sign a lot, with a giggle and a “Mama and Dada.”

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Elmo's Healthy Heroes- Sesame Street Live























































































































It's Madison's special day. This afternoon we took Madison to see Elmo's Healthy Heroes at Sprint Center in Kansas City. We had pre-show tickets that allowed us to meet and greet (an hour before the show) some of the characters, the characters were Bert and Ernie.

Madison was shy at first, then started to warm up the the characters and even told them "bye friends." After the meet and greet we headed to our seats, which were in the first row. Madison (we) were able to sing, dance, interact with characters and watch the show. Madison even danced with Grundgetta (Grounch's girlfriend). The whole time she had a huge smile on her face.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Madison

The weather here is 6 degrees and the sidestreets and sidewalks are still a bit icy and snow packed. This morning our our walk into CernerKids Madison said, "Mommy, be careful it's slick." Then said, "Hand," meaning hold my hand. It just melted my heart. Thank you Madison!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Happy belated holiday...















































































Sorry for my delay in posting our holiday fun and activities. We spent Christmas in Nebraska with our family. Madison was in full force as she "helped" everyone open their gifts. Parker enjoyed posing for the camera. We had a wonderful holiday!