Another day in the adventurous life of us....

In many aspects of our life, it's been a whirlwind time of late.  In one of the more nerve-wracking turns of late, Alex has started climbing on things.  We'll come into the kitchen and find him on top of the table eating craisins (even though he knows we have a strict "no-little-boys-on-the-table" policy).  We'll watch as he shimmies himself onto the chair in front of the computer desk, and then tries to reach over to get the keyboard.  The only endearing part of it all is when we're holding his hands and he'll try and climb up us using his feet--the rest is just plain terrifying.  I keep telling myself that I would much rather be present when he does it, so that he can learn under supervision.  And I'll keep telling myself that.

In a more calm and less death-defying realm of Alex's development, he's starting to actually form (fairly) clearly recognizable words.  He can say a very labored "hop" when asked what bunnies do, and he's taken to concurring with us that the car is "hot" when we put him in his carseat and comment on the in-car temperature.  He tells us to "go" all the time, in a variety of situations.  He's also got words for "milk", "car", "light", "duck", "quack", "no", and "cracker".  For "yes", rather than vocalize anything, he'll just give a really exaggerated head-nod.  Really exaggerated.  It's really cute.

So Monday was my last day of work at ESG.  It really was a strange feeling as I gradually packed up the things from my cubicle and realized that I was moving on to something completely different.  I spent a little over three years working at ESG, and had a great time while I was there.  I learned some valuable things, and met some fantastic people, and after all was said and done I was sad to leave.  After most people had already left for the day, I finished packing up my stuff and made my final all-page announcement to the company (over time, I kind of became the unofficial Voice of ESG, making birthday announcements, party announcements--heck, any kind of announcement that was needed).  So I felt that it was important to make one final announcement (involving a Bon Jovi song, of course).

Since then, I've spent the time that I would normally have been at work in BYU's MBA orientation.  It's been quite the overwhelming experience, to say the least!  The majority of this week has been spent in learning about what to expect, meeting our teammates that we'll be doing all group projects with over the next few months, learning about teamwork and leadership, and re-confirming the craziness that is the the recruiting season for BYU's OB/HR program.  The recruiting season for getting internships effectively starts next Thursday, which (as some of you may notice) is before class has even actually begun.  So I've been hurrying to figure out what companies I'm interested in and talking to 2nd-year MBA students who interned at those companies. 

One of the highlights of the orientation schedule so far was our trip to Camp Williams, an army training camp outside of Saratoga Springs.  We were split into groups and had the opportunity to run various scenarios in their leadership training facilities, many of which involved getting across 'minefields' with very limited resources, or making our way across ponds where we weren't allowed to touch the water or we "died".  On that particular task, I had the dubious honor of being the first of five of our teammates to "die" when my barrel-boat fell apart in the crossing.  :)  All in all, it was a really fun experience, and my team was fortunate enough to be one of the top two teams who got to compete in a tie-breaker challenge. 
We lost by 3 seconds.  So close . . .

So, lots of changes are going on here at the Jones' household, but we're happy and excited as we move forward into this new segment/chapter of our lives. Nervous about having no steady income and borrowing LOTS of money, but we know that this is where we're supposed to be and what we're supposed to be doing. Dinner invitations are, however, welcome. :)