Happy 5th Birthday!!

These are my nieces, Ella and Sara.  Today they are 5!!  Aren't they so adorable?  Happy Birthday, Ella and Sara!!

15 Years with Big Yellow

Today Rick was awarded his 15 year pin at Caterpillar.  The nicest thing is the additional week of vacation that he'll now get!!  He also brought home this press Release concerning the work he's been leading for the past three years.  It doesn't have his name in the article, but he's been leading the team who has designed the Cat clean emissions module described in the release. 

It's interesting to look back and think about how you've gotten where you are in life, and this was an event that caused me to ponder our Caterpillar story.  The story of how the Jeffs family became a Caterpillar family.  It may include more details than some of you care to read, but I'd like to write it all out anyway.

Sixteen and half years ago, Rick and I loaded everything we owned into a Budget truck and drove it and our little red Toyota Tercel from Provo, Utah to Indiana for Rick to attend Purdue University for graduate school.  I was 5 months pregnant with Dallin, and in order to not start school and have a baby at the same time, we decided to move right after BYU graduation, in April, rather than wait until August when classes would start, and the baby was due.  As a result, Rick needed to find a job for the summer (I was finishing my degree through Independent Study).  He was able to get hired by Caterpillar in Lafayette as a summer intern, and had his first experience working there.  Dallin was born, classes started up, and he was able to get a job with an Engineering consulting firm closer to campus and our home that paid more money, so he left the Cat internship and moved on (or so he thought).  Honestly at the time, he did not envision himself working for Caterpillar.  He's never been super excited about engines, and didn't see many positions he was interested in. 

Fast forward about 9 months, and Rick had completed his first year of his Master's at Purdue, and was enjoying the work he was doing at the consulting firm.  I was happily adjusting to motherhood, and plugging away at my remaining classes for my degree.  Not planning to have another baby, I only had catastrophic medical insurance.  Then I discovered that I was pregnant : ).  We were happy of the news of another baby, but a little concerned about how we would pay for this baby.  About the same time that we discovered this new development in our family life, the consulting firm Rick was working for approached him and told him they were planning to move the firm to Cincinnati, and asked him if he would consider coming with them.  They offered him a job, and to finish paying for his Master's degree at the University of Cincinnati.  I honestly can't remember the order of everything all these years later, whether we learned we were pregnant first, or that the firm was leaving, I can't remember. I just remember it happening all at the sme time.

That's when things began to get more complicated for us.  Never had Rick had any plans of working and finishing his Master's at the same time.  We had imagined that he would be a full time grad student until he was done at Purdue, and then he would get a job and we'd move to the next stage of our life.  We started to think openly about other plans. Were we interested in Rick working full time and going to school at the same time?  Did we want to move to Cincinnati?  Did he want to finish school at the University of Cincinnati?  As we began to weigh the options, we thought "well, if we're considering taking a job somewhere, why not look at other options as well."  Enter Caterpillar back into the picture.  Rick agreed to contact the guy he had worked under as an intern.  I remember him telling me that there was only one position that he would be interested in at Caterpillar in Lafayette.  He made the phone call.  The position was available, and they were willing to interview Rick for the job.  He interviewed, and they offered him the job, and to pay for him to finish his Master's at Purdue.

Now we had a decision to make.  Take the job with the consulting firm, where Rick would be one of the few employees in a company hoping to increase it's size and prestige.  This would also mean moving, and finishing his Master's at a less prestigious Engineering school.  Or take the job with a very large cooperation there, in Lafayette, no need to move, and finish the Master's at Purdue, the #3 grad school in Mechanical Engineering at the time.  Both jobs had mo problem picking me up on the insurance, even knowing that I was expecting.  One little detail I haven't told you yet.  Cincinnati offered a bigger salary, by $5000 a year.

To this date, when I think of agonizing decisions, this is still the one I think about.  It was a tough one.  I'll spare you all the details.  I think it's obvious what we chose.  We stayed in Lafayette, and Rick became a full time employee of Caterpillar.  For the next three school years, he worked and took classes to finish his Master's degree.  We bought our first house, Dailie was born in February after Rick started working at Cat.  We paid $10 for her birth and prenatal care (wow has health care changed). 6 weeks after Dailie was born, I took my last exam for my final Independent Study class to finish my degree.  A few months before Rick completed his Master's, we added Audri to our family.  Believe me, we celebrated!!

Caterpillar has been so good to us.  Rick has had numerous opportunities for growth in his career, within the cooperation.  They have offered us stability during uncertain economic times.  Neither Rick nor I ever imagined that he would hire on with a company and stay there 15 years, but here we are, it's been the right decision, and what a ride it's been!!

Getting Excited for Tomorrow.....

Thompson Family Reunion

Here's a video I put together of photos from the Thompson Family Reunion we attended in Steamboat Springs, Colorado in July.  It was great to be all together, and it was beautiful country and great weather.  What more could you ask for?