Kevin Minnis

Okay, so it’s been a month since you’ve last heard from me. Yeah, it’s been pretty busy. A lot of time has been spent chasing after Jayden. I’m not complaining though as it’s so nice to have him mobile now. He likes to help out with about anything if you let him. We put together his dresser that we got at IKEA a while back and he was right in there trying to help out. We (thanks Grandma Wagner for your help) repainted the “guest” room, which is now his, and moved his new twin bed into it. He had no problem transitioning into his twin bed and so far (knock on wood) hasn’t even fallen out of it. The first week that we moved him in he was busy trying to take all the stuffed animals from his old room to his new one.

Works been going good. I’ve been good and busy, but it’s been hard to concentrate and do the whole “work smarter, not harder” because of some events that might be happening next week. I had a whole bit written about it, but decided to not include it in fear of getting in trouble for it. So, you’ll have to wait till after next week to see what might or might not have happened.

I thought I’d take some time to rant on about some things that suck. Some are work and some are personal related items.

This time of the year provides a lot of “admin” time at work to do all sorts of surveys and “training” at work before the end of the year.

1. Jayden getting croup – He’s getting better, but he still has a little problem breathing at night. He’s not as bad as he could have been though. The Doc said that he’s actually 2 weeks behind the peek Ankeny experienced 2 weeks ago.
2. Getting sick – because of a combination of changing of the weather and losing sleep while helping Jayden breath at night I have a slight cold.
3. Paper work – this includes, but is not limited to: flexbile spending account submital forms, performance plans, rebates (give me the price of the item from the start), timesheets.
4. When people ignore things or don’t read the signs – For example, today I went to get my usual glass of water from the refreshment center but no cups were to be found. So, I went over to a different refreshment center and brought some back. Two people during that time had told me that it was like that yesterday too. Hmm. On the wall there was contact information to re-supply missing items. I emailed them and bam…we have cups.
5. Occasional Driver Training – I’ve been driving for 17 years (actually more when you consider driving around the farm) and haven’t been in an accident yet…is it really necessary to take “Driver’s Ed” each year just to drive for work?
6. Ethical Awareness and Decision Making training – Actually, I’m glad I had to take this one. Case in point, Martha Stewart. I don’t want to be sent to prison for being unethical. Perhaps Bill Knapp and his buddy Dennis Elwell should be put through the same process as Martha. (Des Moines Register article)
7. The price of iPods – I really wish I could afford one.
8. Minimal Tinker Time – There needs to be 26 hours in a day so that I can tinker with new computer related technologies.

Well, that’s it. I could have made the top 10 list, but I can’t think of anything more to rant about and I think I feel pretty good now. haha.

Yesterday I finally got to move to the Shull building where was located on my first day of work at Pioneer. Talk about déjà vu. I’m one cube east of where I was. I and 4 other co-workers were separated from the rest of our group for about a month. Weird. I wonder if they have a Moving 101 class that the Corporate Services could go to. At any rate, there are some things that suck about the Shull building. The fridge is smaller than the one in Emerson. The network keeps disconnecting everything and seems slower. Shull has NO WINDOWS as seen from my view from my desk. (Kind of looks like a prison cell). Here’s where I used to be with a window view. The bathrooms are smaller and kind of smell like those in Merle Hay Mall. There are good thing about moving to shull. We’re somewhat closer to the rest of our group. I have high cube walls, so it’s kind of like a “mini-manager’s” office. haha And, I no longer have to listen to this really loud lady that is still up on Emerson. Oh yeah, and probably the most important good thing, I still have my job that I love.

On to other news…well…not a lot has happened, other than Jayden getting bigger and learining how to do things more. He’s now learned how to scoot on his butt to get around. He’s given up on crawling, as we too have done. He loves to grab our fingers and walk around. We went up north to vist the Farm and my side of the family last weekend. That was pretty fun. Jayden loves the baby calves and kittens. And likes to sit on the tractor with Dad and Grandpa. Jayden’s still as picky as ever on what he eats. He hates to eat “wet things” and seems to only eat certain kinds of food…bread with jelly, his dried fruit, cereal, chicken sticks, a couple of kinds of pudding and his most loved food, Milk.

“Yesterday I went back to work after taking the week off to bond with Jayden and help Kim out. My co-workers decided to have some fun with my office cube so they decorated it with a ton of balloons. It was fun reading the balloons as some had stuff written on them.

Last night Jayden slept like a charm. Monday night he was “”master of the house”" and cried until 12:30 AM, Tuesday morning. He wasn’t eating very well and we had no clue what was going on in his world. We made it through it though. I am definitely glad when he does decide to sleep when it’s the right time to sleep (actually, he sleeps a lot as it is…what the life! ).”

Man, time has been flying by. Monday (June 1) was my 5th year of service at Pioneer. It really doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. Here’s a list of some things that have happened since I graduated and started working for Pioneer.

1. Pioneer was purchased by DuPont.
2. I survived an apartment fire in the building I was living in.
3. I have purchased two different houses (a townhouse and then a regular house).
4. I got married a year and about 2 months ago.
5. Kim and I are expecting a baby in August.
6. I’ve gained about 5 lbs since graduating.
7. I don’t have as much hair on the top of my head.

Yesterday I went and picked up my birthday present from Kim. It’s early, but I couldn’t wait any longer. For her birthday I got her ISU license plates (KM4ISU). So she got me some for my b-day. Check them out.