As many of you know, I’ve decided to leave my current place of employment and pursue a new opportunity as Director of Web Development at a small web development shop in Boulder.
Both Tara and I are extremely excited about this opportunity. Foraker Design is a very small company (I’m employee number 9!), but they’re growing fast. In this role I’ll have a chance to do quite a bit more “hands on” programming than I was afforded at Insight (the breakdown should end up being about 75% programming / 25% managing), and since Foraker is job shop that gets business from all shapes and sizes, I’ll also get a chance to play with some of the technologies and languages all the “kids” are raving about: Ruby, PHP, ASP, Java, et cetera. And while several people have commented on how leaving the “safety” of a big corporate environment is borderline crazy, in many ways I feel much more secure in working for a company where the employees are more than just entries on someone else’s budget sheet, and where I’ll likely have more say in our collective direction.
Yet the parting is obviously bittersweet. After four and a half years, I’ve made many, many friends at Insight. I am enormously grateful for the support, guidance, and encouragement I received during my tenure. I had so many teachers, from every part and every level of the organization. I thank all of them for allowing me to learn as we helped grow this business together. I am especially grateful to the members of the Software Development team, whom I now leave in my successor’s exceedingly capable hands: Thank you for your support and friendship, for the opportunity to be a part of the most dynamic and talented team of developers on the Front Range, and for all that you have taught me over the last few years. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve you. I will miss you all.
I’ll start up again after the Thanksgiving holiday with a full belly and much enthusiasm for the new challenges that lay ahead.
November 21st, 2006
It is absolutely amazing how quickly time flies these days. We’ve been quite busy, as usual. Granny Debbie returned home to Kansas yesterday after a week-long visit. We miss her already! I hope she had a nice time visiting her grandbabies, because I know we certainly enjoyed her visit. Neal and I went out on our very first date since Anna was born. Granny Debbie watched Anna while we went out to eat. Of course, we spent about 50% of our time away talking about Anna and wondering if she was giving my Mom a hard time! It was really nice to have some time to ourselves, though.
On Sunday we celebrated Henry’s 1st birthday! Speaking of time flying, I can’t believe that it was one year ago that we rushed to the hospital to be with my Sister at Henry’s birth. It literally seems like yesterday. Henry seemed to enjoy himself at his party. He was a little confused when everyone sang to him, but enjoyed the attention as he made a total mess of himself and his cake. Happy Birthday H-man!
Last week we heard from the doctor’s at Children’s Hospital regarding Anna’s blood work. Anna does not have a clotting or bleeding disorder that caused her stroke. From what it sounds like, this was an isolated incident. This is all very good news because it means she is not necessarily at increased risk for additional strokes.
I realized I haven’t given any reports on Anna’s occupational therapy appointments. So far we’ve had two session and we’ll have another one this afternoon. Thursday is shaping up to be a busy day for us. Anna has physical therapy every other week and occupational therapy every week on Thursdays: one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Our first OT appointment didn’t go so well, as Anna was cranky and very skeptical of Kathy. Last week’s session went much much better. I made sure she’d had a nap and a snack before the session started.
Kathy was quite impressed with Anna’s progress. Anna has been relaxing her hand more these days, which is a great thing. If she’s having a good Bob-day, she fists her hand only slightly and most of the time it is open. Of course, there are those days when it seems like her hand is clenched very tightly and no amount of stretching will make it relax. I’ve tried to correlate it to something - lack of sleep, hunger, stress, not enough stretching - but I haven’t nailed down a definite cause yet. I doubt it is any one thing that causes her to tense up. Overall, Kathy told us to continue doing what we are doing: a little constraint therapy, sensory work on her left side, stretches, etc. We’ve been trying to strengthen Anna’s left arm by doing lots of weight bearing exercises: baby push-ups, leaning and propping. I can really see a difference in how long she can hold herself up using her left arm.
I believe Anna tries very hard to please us and works exceptionally hard at the tasks we give her. I don’t mean to be sappy, but it often brings tears to my eyes when I see how hard she is working to do something. I remind myself constantly that what she is going is very hard work. I know that I couldn’t do many of the things that I’m asking her to do! And yet, she furrows her brow, grunts a little, and pushes herself a farther. What a trooper.
November 16th, 2006