Brothers Back Together Again

Dan is the 3rd of 5 brothers. Dan's  youngest brother came home from his mission to Melbourne, Australia this August and all the brothers were gathered for Christmas for the 1st time in a long time.  All served foreign mission to and in order of age: Craig went to Spain, Chad to England, Dan to Japan, Kevin to Hong Kong and Casey to Australia. 

Dan's brothers and all the grandchildren

The Colyar Family

Winter Wonderland

We are spending the Christmas holidays in Utah and didn't expect the snow to be worse than it was is Minnesota but it was. That 1st morning we had to dig out Dan's parents house so visitors could park. Even with our best efforts at least 5 cars had to be helped out and pushed before they could go on their merry way.

We were fortunate enough to meet with some friends, Joie and Adam Madison. (See Madison blog) They are currently having their adventures in San Francisco and adventures they are having.

Adam and Iris (my sister) helping Dan out. Shouldn't Iris be driving and Dan pushing?

Monty (Dan's Dad) and Dan plowing 

Getting my winter exercise

Nativity Display

In our stake they have a wonderful tradition of gathering nativity sets from members, setting them up and inviting the community. It takes quite a bit of organization. They collected over 400 nativity sets, also know as cresh displays, trees, extension cords, lights, and table cloths. Nativity sets come from all over the world. It was so neat to see the birth of Christ portrayed in different ways. Members volunteer in greeting guests, taking coats and informing guests about displays. They also invited school and other church groups to participate and share their musical talents. The logistics must be quite a challenge. For all the work it was featured in the paper. It was great publicity for the church.

Dan and I attended on Sunday and it was a packed house. "Missionary" Jessica invited 2 co-workers to attend. I wanted to invite more but I was worried about the exact guidelines for that sort of stuff knowing that our "Secret Santa" is called "Secret Snowflake" because of sensitivities at work. Next year I will build on what I did this year. I also want to try to get a unique set so I could loan it to the cause.

Dan really liked this one. It looks like its from Japan.

I thought of Kristi when I saw this one. Looks like Klinkits to me.

From Mongolia

Thanksgiving

My parents were able to fly from Florida to visit us in Minnesota for Thankgiving. In retrospect we should have visited them to get away from the cold but it was nice to show them around Minneapolis. My parents had a nice flight on the Monday before Thanksgiving and when I saw them I couldn't help but run to them and hug the life out of them.  It hadn't been too long since I've seen my mom, our Hawaii trip was only 3 months ago, but it's been since February since I've seen my Dad.  It was great to spend some time together.

My mom was excited to visit the Mall of America. With over 500 stores we broke it up over 2 days. On the 1st day we did the amusement park. That was a blast. By the 3-4 ride I was spent, I'm getting old. We also headed down to Owatanna, south of Minneapolis, to visit some snowbird couple friends of my parents that make Deltona their home during the harsh Minnesota winter.

In Owattana w/ Darlene and Dale

The boys needed a massage chair break from all the walking at the Mall of America.

The Wii experience made a stop at Mall of America and I had to show my parents what it was all about. My dad played doubles tennis w/ Dan and I. I challenged my mom to the joust and she ended up beating me. Dan then challenged her and she still beat him. A guy was standing by and he also challenged her and she still beat him.  It was pretty hilarious.

My mom kicking butt at the joust

Dad and Dan playing tennis

Roller coaster Dan

Dan volunteered to sit with this little boy since he was too short to go unchaperoned. Who's having more fun?

My mom being scared out of her mind. She closed her eyes through 95% of the ride.

Dan's beautiful brined turkey. It was so tender and delicious.

Enjoying Thanksgiving feast with my parents Harry and Zaida.

Are we officially Minnesotans now?

Jessica has been harping on me to post this, so even though it has been a while since it happened I changed the oil in our car "buddy" and got him some new 10,000 lakes Minnesota license plates. Looks pretty good I think.

Vineland Trip

Last week I attended Thermal Process School in Vineland NJ.  The most convenient airport to fly into is Philadelphia and then we take a car to NJ.  I had to drag 2 of my coworkers, they didn't seem like the planning type, so I set in motion some events so we could get into Philly early and visit the city. I had been to Philly once before with my manager but I barely got him to stop for a Philly before we headed to the plant. Since I was the "lead" on this trip I took it upon myself to do some fun things before going to the plant.

Since the 1st "National Treasure" included scenes from Independence Hall I wanted to take a tour and it being the day of elections I thought it was appropriate to visit where the declaration was signed. In my research I also found that Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef extraordinaire, had a restaurant not even 3 blocks from there so I had to go visit.

 

Independence Hall. Towards the end of National Treasure Nicolas Cage's character climbs up to the bell tower and goes across the roof to retrieve Benjamin Franklin's glasses from a brick that is on the chimney. (upper right hand)

Where the declaration was signed!

The day was soggy wet and a bit cold

At Morimoto's the food was delicious. So delicious in fact that I had 2 desserts. Yeah, I know a bit excessive especially since we had appetizers and then a big meal but you only live once right!?!? Let me also explain that in our company there's a fair amount of business drinking, and we are not talking "Shirley Temples". I kinda feel left out as far as employees spending $$$ on their dining experience. I decided that my dining experience is deserts so I ordered 2. It wasn't the 1st time I did it and it won't be the last and since the "General" pays for everything I say "why the heck not".

The man himself, Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef

The decor was amazing. The glow changes to other colors blue, shown above, purple, green, etc. We had been sitting for 20min or so till we noticed. We were seated in the middle right.

Our appetizers. Also my point, my coworker is having a beer tasting w/ his meal.

My meal-Seafood 'Toban Yaki": King crab, shrimp, scallops, New Zealand mussels, shanghai greens oyster mushrooms w/ citrus butter.

1st dessert - Chocolate Pot de creme - Chocolate custard, caramelized banana, whipped cream. Doesn't that sound amazing, now you can see why I couldn't just choose one.

2nd dessert- Yuzu meringue tart. This one was my favorite. The meringue was sinful and the yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) was refreshing.

 

Progresso Plant in Vineland, NJ

Can you believe how cheap the gas was in Vineland NJ a week ago. Now its even less. I thought I would never see it be less than $3 let alone less that $2. They tell me that the gas here doesn't have as many taxes on it. Dan and I are pleasantly surprised that the gas in Minneapolis is also a lot less than the national average. Currently the cheapest gas here is $1.87 and the national average is $2.18

On the way back from the airpot we visited Philly's Chinatown. I had peking duck for the 1st time and it was yummy! I wished that Kevin could have been there to translate. There was all this great food but didn't really know what it was. 

Gates of Philadelphia's Chinatown

Ducks and Chickens

Crazy huge cabbage or sofa pillow!

You might be thinking...now was this a vacation or a business trip. I'll assure you it was both but the "General" is amazing when it comes to travel. So we did have plenty of fun but we did plenty of learning as well.

Progresso Spirit Event

Last week our group played hooky and visited an orchard, that's big around here. It was an opportunity to know my co-workers a little bit better. The orchard provided lunch and we had all-things apple: brats and hamburgers soaked in apple cider, onion/apple relish, 2 types of apple pie, potato-apple salad, and apple cider. Delicious.

Chuga-Chuga-Choo-Choo

I'm a farm girl now

Last week I did my first formulations and ran them in the pilot plant. I was a bit nervous and I didn't do everything a 100% but good enough to have my cans judge by my team and for them to be deemed worthy to be judge by the bigger Progresso team.  Unfortunately I will be in NJ when the larger team meets. Hopefully no one will think its awful.  So everybody cross their fingers and hope that they pass. If so my formulation will be the new formulation used on 100 of thousands of cans. How exciting!

Not being left out

So we are on the 4th week of work and I'm adjusting well to life at Progresso. My co-workers are great, they have welcomed me, and are helping me learn all I have to learn and its a lot. 

Not to be left out I have received my first business trip. I will be going to Vineland, NJ, where one of our plants is located. I will be going to Thermal Process School. Basically learning how food is heat processed safely in retorts (so no one gets sick or the plant doesn't blow up). I will be flying into Philadelphia w/ a fellow coworker and hope to have a real philly cheese steak and stop and see some "National Treasure" sites...maybe the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall. I'll have to do some research but as anybody knows I'm all about finding information when it comes to destinations.

Earth's Bounty

Last week we decided to go out and explore our new home state. A coworker recommended we go to a farm and pick some apples.  Lucky enough that the farm we went to also had fall raspberries. We picked 4 pints of raspberries. Picking one raspberry at a time was a little laboring but we had fun. I was really tempted to eat and pick as a I went but we would definitely would have gotten no where. This orchard was not even 25 min from us and I bet we will be going back since by Tuesday morning they were all gone. Though it will have to wait till next weekend since Dan will be gone again to Denver this weekend to do some consumer insight on the product that he is working on. He came back yesterday from Seattle after visiting the "Cascadian Farm". He was there with his team learning about the organic business and thought that the drive up to the farm was beautiful.

The Orchard

Yummy raspberries!!!

Our loot

The biggest chicken I've seen in a while. If the Colonel was still alive he would be salivating. Look at those drumsticks.

A quaint farm house on the way to the orchard.

First Week of Work

At Stephanie's request let me update all on my first week of work. In one word..."overwhelming". The first day was good, we went to the main offices and talked about all the benefits that GM has and they are many including fitness center, amazing cafeteria (sushi yeah!!!), inhouse doctor, dentist,  dermatologist, eye doctor, salon, massage, automotive service center, and daycare, personal shoppers that go to walmart and target, a bank (GM credit union), employee thrift grocery store, dry cleaning, employee club, etc. etc.  

Through out the week things got a bit more complicated including a lot a lot of training.  I was even in time to make it to the Progresso 3rd Quarter business meeting. Making soup in mass amounts is more complicated than you can imagine and I got little taste of the undertaking. By then end of the week I received my first assignment and I'm a little nervous, I even got a deadline. By the end of the month I may be going to NJ. Details to come.

Dan will be going to Seattle tomorrow.  He will be visiting the Cascadian Farm. I never knew it was actual place. He will be there for about 28hrs so no stopping at Space Needle.

Casey is Home, Great Danes, Moving

In a small space of time we have had some big events go on. First our move to Minneapolis, then Casey, Dan's youngest brother, came back from his 2 year mission in Melbourne, Australia, and getting jobs w/ real responsibility. 

 I'm the most nervous about the latter. I know that I have earned my degree, taken all the classes, and had some previous experiences but I don't want to let my team down or anyone down for that matter.  I have worked w/ this product before and know some of the people so that's positive and negative. Positive because I'm familiar w/ soup production, the formulas, and the programs but negative because my chance for a new 1st impression has been taken away.  Dan reminds me that obviously my 1st impression must have been good since they requested me to be back in the same group, which I hear is unusual.  I just have to be confident right.!?!?

At the airport w/ all of Dan's Family.

Since Casey's gotten back a few people have made remarks how he is looking and even having some mannerisms like Danny.

Casey teaching how to throw the boomerang.

Dan trying to throw the boomerang.

The last saturday we were in Utah I had the opportunity to go to Great Dane Day.  It's a local club of great dane owners that get together 2x a year. I tagged along w/ Iris and Jefferey and had a great time. This one was one of the best, there were contests and plenty of doggie treats.  When the Danes started to play you definitely had to give them their room.  They are a powerful breed but really puppies at heart.
Iris, Jefferey, and their Dane Samson. He placed 1st as best wagger, 2nd as most obedient, and 2nd as best barker and came home w/ some awesome toys. This is their 2nd Dane. Bo passed away less than 2 years ago from cancer and Samson is such a great dog, big, slobbery, clumsy, but great.

Imagine how tall this dog is.  It's coming out of Iris' arm pit. He was such a sweetheart.

Puppy Great Dane, isn't he cute. You got to enjoy the time that you still can carry them.

For awhile and even now I'm in denial about being in Minnesota.  We lived here for 3 mo last summer while Dan and I were doing our internship w/ General Mills. So coming back here again and now it is somehow permanent is surreal to me. We moved in to our apartment and its a slow process getting everything where it should be, where we want it to be and into storage. We opted to have a 2bd/2ba apartment and thank goodness we did. There are certain perks w/ having 2 bathrooms and I will enjoy them thoroughly. 

Here we are in the moving truck that came to take our stuff away.  It was quite a jigsaw puzzle to get the boxes to fit just right so there was a wall.  Thank goodness Dan nor I had any part in that.

Entering the great state of Minnesota!!!

Dan did most of the driving of the 1300+ miles.  It was done in about 23 hrs w/ stopping.  Not my favorite trip but it saved us some money by not flying. We rolled out of Orem at 3:45 am and drove all the way to Des Moines, IA.  We were not planning to drive that long, construction areas littered I-80, and I do not like driving at night in unfamiliar areas but it ended up being allright.
With moving its requisite that you must buy new furniture that comes in about a billion parts. Dan hesitated at me taking on this challenge but I was insistent. I told him that it was all part of the experience, you know....follow the 30 page 55+ step-by-step directions, put a part in backwards, get mad, expletive (optional), calm down and try again.