Fall In Virginia

OK, so this is kind of random... I got a new iPod Nano last week. The new ones have a video camera built in, so I went on a walk in the fall colors and then wanted to post this to see how the movies mode from my new iPod works. There is no other reason other than the pretty fall leaves that are everywhere. The days are beautiful and the air is pleasantly cool (when it's not raining).

Watch for my next post which will describe DeAnna's 50th birthday celebration... I know I'm late in getting that posted, but I will get to it...

Dad's Birthday

At the end of July, we celebrated my dad's birthday by going back to Wolf Trap to see a movie & Symphony in one! We went to see The Lord Of The Rings: Two Towers at the outdoor symphony. While the movies played on giant screens in High Definition, the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus played and sang the soundtrack. It was a wonderful evening and a fabulous event!





If ever this type of thing comes to a location near you, you should go for sure! I can't describe how interesting and how beautiful the score for the movies was and how the movies was enriched by the live performance!

I also went to Oklahoma for Colton's "Gotcha Day" Celebration. Colt is now stuck with Jessica and John... and they are so relieved and excited! Now that they are a family never to be separated, Jessica is pregnant! What a wonderful God we serve!

Writing

Well, I know it's been a long time since I posted here. I tend to lose my words when I do so much writing. I've been doing a lot of writing at work lately, so the last thing I want to do is more writing when I get home...
So what have I been writing? Let me see...

In early August, I went back to Hawaii to prepare for an island-wide Lean Six Sigma conference. I visited almost all the military agencies to get a feel for their Lean Six Sigma programs and did a lot of writing to document the meetings and their concerns. I returned to Virginia to prepare my company and associates then returned again to Hawaii in mid-August to do more of the same.

I was also a feature speaker at the conference, so I spent a lot of time taking careful note of my audience and creating a speech to speak to their concerns. I spent a lot of hours re-writing and re-creating my presentation to make an impact. I also wanted to lead my friends in Hawaii to the new methods we've been developing at Accenture. Our new approach is just what they need and I am very excited about how much it can do for them.

Just after Labor Day, I went back to Hawaii with a team of my co-workers to participate in the conference. It had been 6 weeks of preparation and organizing the hosts in Hawaii and my coworkers in Washington DC. I was the last one to speak of the day, but despite the many speeches and long day, everyone seemed to receive me well. It was nice to so many of my old friends in one place from all over Oahu!

The second day of the conference was a training session that I'd organized. The training was an introduction to our new method of running Lean Six Sigma. It was so new, we hadn't even named it yet! There were only 15 people signed up, but after the first day (and I'll go ahead and say my speech helped), 35 people showed up! By the end of the training, most people hung around with lots of questions and asked us to stay in touch! That was a great outcome considering I am a contractor and everyone expects me to sell them something...

Since then, I have been in contact with several folks and I expect to be back on island sometime before Thanksgiving to do some follow-up. I have had two requests for pricing so far and that's where I've been doing more of my writing - creating descriptions and pricing of our new offering so that people could put it in the budget! All of this is very cool and now, I get to do even more cool stuff...

The first part of October, I will be working with a team in my company to formally create everything behind our new offering before we do a full demonstration the first week in November. That means even more writing! Sure I get tired of writing instead of working with people. I love to help people out and make their work - their lives better. Some day, I will be back working with the people. If things work out well, I will be back in Hawaii working with people! When? Hard to say. But it's not unreasonable to say that I'll know for sure within the next 6 months.

My company is behind me and my peers are with me. So I'm sharpening my pencil...