A mom, a dad, and three cute kids.
Category Archives: Uncategorized

My week of fame!

by nathan

So, I was a wee bit nervous about my first day at a new job for many reasons, but one of them was certainly introducing myself in front of all 300+ team members (most of whom I hadn’t met yet — I’ve since met a bunch of them, and they’re all pretty cool, and not really all that scary…)

Well, as it happens, the speaker at the Lampo devotional this morning used me, as the newest hire, as an illustration. “Who’s the newest here?” One hand goes up…mine. “Who are you?” “What do you do?” “Who’s your boss?” — by that question, I was flustered enough that I couldn’t find him and the speaker actually beat me to him “Oh, hey, he’s right in front of you!” But, that went fine, too, and was pretty funny.

BUT, my week of fame isn’t over yet!

Today, the local FOX affiliate came to Lampo to do a piece on the wealth of tech jobs in the Nashville area and at Lampo specifically. They interviewed Jon Shearer (my boss’s boss’s boss) and shot some footage of some of us working at our desk. If you watch the video and watch/skip to the end, I’m the last developer. Well. That’s my head. They really only show the back of my head and the top part of my awesome new “code hope” daveramsey.com web team t-shirt. They didn’t show the bit where I turned around without realizing they were behind me filming, gasping, then turning back to my desk really quick. Nor did they show the part where I did something wrong to my editor and had to force close it.

So, a whopping 90 seconds of public speaking and 2.5 seconds of television fame! What’s next? It’s only Wednesday!


It Is Finished

by amy

Nathan is done at Crown. Just like that. It’s over.


Moving Update

by amy

I’m feeling a little (or A LOT) freaked out about all the things that need to be figured out in regard to our move.

  • Solidify the date we need the moving container thingy here
  • Schedule the company that is going to load our things for us.
  • Line up a local person or company to take care of managing our home here in Winsted. That includes showing it to potential renters (so far, we have no bites) , moving people in and taking care of maintenance.
  • Finish Christmas shopping
  • Oil changes and tires checked for the car and van
  • Hotel reservation for the drive down to TN.
  • Figure out what to do with the kids on the days we are loading the truck and doing final cleaning of the house.

Please pray for us as we get all of this settled. I know that God will help us with all these details. I still feel overwhelmed though. Sometimes it’s even hard to know how to ask for help. That takes work to figure out as well! So, I guess the main point of posting is to ask that you’ll pray. Thanks!

P.S. I’m starting to feel like I’m getting the stomach bug that Isaac had. :-(

P.P.S. All of us, except for Nathan, are puking.  This is nasty.


Isaac’s Nose

by amy

Isaac and I went grocery shopping together tonight. On the way home, he announced that he had an M&M in his nose. It was a little one. So, I decided Nathan could deal with it when we got home! According to Nathan, M&M’s also melt in your nose. I actually marvelled that we had made it this long without anything else being shoved into anyone’s nose. Pretty impressive run.

Do you know what else was an impressive run? Almost 3 years of no children needing stitches. We were wrong when we thought that the worst thing Isaac would do to his nose today would be sticking an M&M up it. Nathan responded to Isaac’s crying tonight to find Isaac in his room with a gash right on the bridge of his nose. We’re pretty sure it happened in the corner of the dresser. It’s hard to know for sure when Isaac answers “yes” to every question.

1 call for an emergency babysitter, 1 trip to the ER, 2 doses of topical anesthetic and 4 stitches later, we’re back home with a patched up boy and a chicken balloon.


9 Interviews Later

by amy

I finished the last blog post about Nathan’s interview process at the point where I was wondering if there were any job openings at the Lampo Group that would be a fit for Nathan.

Nathan and I had tucked in the kids for the night and I decided to check out the Lampo site. He was doing something on the computer when I started reading a job description to him:

Our environment is fun, fast-paced, and hard-working. We don’t think of a team as just 4 people working together in a pod and being told what to do. Rather, our teams openly collaborate on projects, ideas, and timelines (not to mention banding together for the occasional sporadic human drum machine or round of harmonious human bagpipes).

Pushing the limits of technology is a part of the average work day. That means we expect our team members to push the envelope on their own skills as well. If you aren’t growing, you’re planting roots into your chair as the light from your screen transforms you into a mushroom… and well, who would want that!?

Then I read some of the “must-have” skills and Nathan lit up. Programming/ web/application  development all the time? Then I decided that I should actually tell him what the company was and that they were in Tennessee. Bummer.

But he didn’t stop thinking about it. A couple of days later, Nathan sat down at the computer and filled out an application and submitted the requested code sample. He figured it was a long shot, but he would do it just for fun. This was about the same time as our anniversary and I decided I wanted Dave Ramsey’s new book EntreLeadership for my gift :-) . I read through the whole thing rather quickly. As I kept reading portions to Nathan, we became really excited and hopeful that Nathan would get a chance to interview. I knew my husband was awesome and that if they actually gave him a shot at an interview they would be impressed!

A week later, Nathan received an email requesting an initial phone interview. The kids and I jumped up and down in the kitchen when I saw the email. That kicked off a marathon interview process.

The Lampo Group has very low turnover. Excluding life changes like moving because of marriage or a spouse getting a job somewhere else or having a baby, the turnover is 4%. They want to keep it that way. That why they have a very lengthy interview process. The goal is to weed out the wrong people before they get hired. I think Nathan had about 9 interviews before he was brought onsite. He had interviews with the IT Recruiter, Director of Internet Development, Sr. Architects, and Web Team Leads. Before the process was over, I had to be interviewed, Nathan had to learn a new programming language and complete an assignment, we had to submit a budget that showed that we could live on what they were offering us, Nathan did a personality test and I had to have a spousal interview.

Here I am getting ready for my Skype interview:

When I proved to them that I was not crazy, they booked flights for us to fly to Tennessee so that Nathan could have a full day of interviews. Even after all those interviews, they had things to discuss! Last year, of all the applications that they received, they only hired 1%. I cannot tell you how proud I am of my husband. I knew that he was a rockstar. I’m so glad that other people have recognized it as well. Being at the Crown for so long had a lot of benefits, but it also caused Nathan to wonder about his talents and abilities. This has been so very affirming for Nathan. It’s nice to be wanted!

Tune in again when I share more fun stuff about the Lampo culture!


Christmas Shopping Prank

by amy

So Funny!


Thanksgiving

by amy

We’re home from celebrating Thanksgiving in Cottage Grove. We had a great time! We had lots of yummy food to eat, the kids wore out Grandpa and we played multiple rounds of goose-egg and hearts while football games played on the TV.

Nathan is quite amused at the person I become while playing card games with my family. I may or may not have declared that I was going to “bring it”. :-) Lots of competitive players, but so much fun still.

We brought our camera and didn’t take a single photo. Oh well.

We got home today and pulled out the Christmas decorations. Let me just say that the vision I had of decorating the tree together deteriorated rapidly. Too many breakable ornaments, kids that were too excited to wait and a toddler who really isn’t allowed to touch much all converged together and caused me to almost postpone decorating until after bedtime!

This is what the tree looked like after letting the kids hang their ornaments wherever they wanted (and could reach):

After adding the rest of our ornaments, I balanced the distribution of ornaments a little better.

Nathan perfected setting up the Christmas village. Notice the addition of trees and fences and stonework.

 

 

Here’s a view from 9:00pm


Winter Arrives in Winsted

by amy

Ethan had a terrible time falling asleep last night. He was so excited about snow coming and he was really disappointed when I told him that it wasn’t coming until the morning. So, he waited and waited this morning. I kept checking the radar for him and I showed him how the weather system was heading this way. At one point, I was thinking that the snow should have arrived by now. I brought up the radar online again. The snow was falling all around us, but there was a circle of clear weather with no snow right over Winsted.

Luckily for Ethan, that didn’t last long!

It’s been snowing, mostly lightly, since noon. We don’t have very much snow, but it has made the roads slippery.

Nathan got to drive home in the snow this afternoon. He finished his CISSP exam. The test was administered in Minneapolis. He said it was very hard. It’s one of those tests where you have to wait to find out if you pass. He’s very happy to have his evenings back. No more studying!

To celebrate winter, after supper, our whole family sat and watched Muppet Christmas Carol. I don’t mind the snow in November. It’s the snow in April that I’m not so excited about!


Light-hearted Sunday

by amy

This video made Nathan and I laugh so hard. Happy Sunday!


Roof Is Finished

by amy

The roof was finished today!

 

The guys worked really hard. Today it was Nathan, Gary, Don and Josiah. They worked from about 8:00 until 5:00. There was a lunch break in there, but the rest of the time was spent working and cleaning up. I am so glad to have it done. Don said it was good that we did it when we did. It would not have lasted another year.

 


Scrappy Theme by Caroline Moore | Copyright 2012 thefritzes.net | Powered by WordPress