Sienna JAMMIN!!! (Sept 28th)

What Style! What Rhythm!

Cheryl and Sammy get engaged! (Sept 16th)

My sister, Cheryl and her boyfriend of about 3 years, Sammy, got engaged on Sept 16th. There aren’t a lot of details yet, but they are thinking of Fall of 2009 for the US wedding with another wedding in Kenya early 2010. The whole family is excited, Sammy is a GREAT guy and will be a fun addition to the family.

Why you don't leave an 18 month old alone with her Dad! (15 Sept)

For those of you not wise in the ways of toddler poo - these are Diaper Genie refils (aka Garbage Bags)!

See video:

Mason's 1st Birthday! (Sept 13th)

We went to Mason's 1st birthday party. Since it was game day – Sienna dressed up like a cheerleader! The party was a good time, good food and friends etc…

She wasn't the only one with school spirit!

Welcome to our family, Cali! (6 Sept)

After Gizmo died, we decided not to get another cat until after we moved. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Frodo became completely miserable and needy (constantly crying and wanting to be ON us all the time-very un-Frodo-like) – so we went to the Livingston County Humane Society to look for a new cat. We decided that we would adopt a cat, not a kitten, for a few reasons. First, kittens are easier for the shelter to place. Second, we already had one neurotic cat and didn’t want another one – so figured an adult would be a safer bet. In order to help us decide, we took one screaming 18 month old and several cats (individually) into the “interview room” at the shelter. One cat (and only 1) not only was not afraid of said screaming toddler, but came up to her while she cried! We knew immediately this was our new cat! Sweetie AKA Big Momma AKA (now) Cali (just couldn’t be bothered to come up with a more unique and creative name given that we also have to come up with a name for our son very soon) was found as a stray and brought in to the shelter. She is estimated to be about 3 years old. She had a litter of kittens that died (we’re not sure why), but was able to foster a litter of abandoned kittens at the shelter. Go CALI!!

We brought her home and she continues to be one of the nicest, sweetest cats I’ve ever met. She loves to be around people. For the first several weeks, she followed Sienna around everywhere like a dog would – even sitting outside her door at night and crying at the door when one of us was in the room with Sienna reading books with the door closed! Sienna, for her part, is TRYING to learn to “pet nice” and not lay on the poor thing. You’d think that she would learn to stay away!!

Recruiting Starts (Sept 3rd)

Forest’s classes started on September 3rd again. This is Forest’s 2nd to last semester (i.e., 2nd to last tuition bill!!!). He is only taking one class this semester because he expects to be really busy with recruiting all Fall. How recruiting works is that companies who want to hire the UM MBA grads set up company presentations and other types of meet and greets throughout the months of September and October. Forest can attend any of these that he is interested in for the most part, though some of the smaller cocktail parties and tailgates are by invitation only (from what I can see…you get invited to these by 1) getting lucky and they notice your resume posted online by UM or 2) by showing up at their more “open” events and making a good impression). While at these “events” all the applicants do their best to schmooze and make good impressions –as well as to get answers to questions about the company. Every company has a “drop date” by which applicants have to submit their resumes. These dates are staggered throughout the semester (so not all companies on the same weeks). Following the “closing date” of the resume drop, UM submits all applicants to the companies. The companies then have a week to decide who they want to invite for an interview. Those people invited are notified on a certain date. Those people who did not get an interview (but who are very interested in a company) can opt to “bid” to get an interview with this company. Every company who recruits through this system MUST have a certain percentage (around 30%) of its interviews as “open” – or “up for bidding” in order to participate. All applicants are given 1000 points at the beginning of the semester to put toward bidding on interviews. If they “win” an interview, the points are subtracted, if not, they keep the points to bid on another interview. Those people who are invited to interview (a “closed” interview), still have to pay 50 points to do the interview. This is so that people who are not really that interested in a company don’t take away interview slots from those who are more interested.

First interviews start the end of September. 2nd interviews and offers start after that. 1st interviews are done on campus. 2nd interviews are usually at the headquarters of the company. I am “bummed” about the timing of my pregnancy as, assuming Forest gets to go on a few 2nd interviews, I will not be able to go with him to see these places!

One of the best parts of this whole process is that all companies are required to hold any offers they make until January 15th. Therefore, they cannot start putting pressure on him to accept an offer now while he may be waiting to hear other offers from other companies. In other words, he can wait and see all the offers that are on the table before deciding which one to take.

It all seems very complicated in a way – but I think it’s absolutely fascinating! I wish that other fields did this good a job of systematically finding good jobs for their graduates!

In terms of what kind of job Forest is looking for…he is interested in finance, and becoming more and more interested in international finance. The programs that he is looking most seriously at are called “Leader Development Programs”. Basically, the point of these programs is to take a small handful (around 2 to 10 depending on the size of the company) of promising new MBA graduates (recruited from only a few of the top business schools in the country) and groom them to be upper management over a period of 2 to 5 years (again, depending on the company). During this time, the program varies a lot by company, but often involves “rotations” where Forest would be doing several different types of jobs, possibly having to move to different cities and even countries along the way. The goal, at the end of this training program, would be to place the “graduates” (yes, they actually consider them to be graduating) in Vice President or Controller positions within the company (that’s fancier than it sounds, some of these large companies have literally hundreds of VPs and Controllers – one or even more for every single product line).

I think that Forest’s ultimate goal is to work his way up as high as he can go in a large company and then become CEO of a smaller company. …time will tell….

Meanwhile, his current employer continues to try to convince him to stay with them. They keep offering more and more money – and have offered him the 3rd highest position in the company. At this point, what they are offering is likely more than he would get in his first years at a new job (especially when you consider that they have paid about 30% of his tuition for this MBA, which we will have to pay back if he leaves). However, Forest would really like to work with a larger company where there is more opportunity for growth. If he took the job that his current employer is offering, at 29, he’d be the 3rd highest ranking person, but with no room to move up as it is a private, family run business.

RANDOM ALERT! - This is why you don't leave an 18 month old alone in a garage, even for 2 minutes!

Canoe Weekend (30 Aug -1 Sept)

My parents had their annual Seiler Family Canoe Weekend on Labor Day Weekend this year. As always, this involves a lot of great food, socializing and packman, dart and pool tourneys…oh yeah….and canoeing.



Video: Sienna learns to squirt someone besides herself!



Some of the family Spartans think they are funny!!!

The tale of an 18 month old and an old shirt

Sienna (with help from her Dad) put this shirt on - and then got stuck in it. We thought it was hilarious. See video below....

Misc cute stuff - the month of August

Here are just a couple of random pictures and videos that don't really fit anywhere else. All are from August.












Walking in Mom's shoes video


Kitty in the face video


First kisses

Does this fit me?

Trapped in Dad's shirt


The great chase!

Forest in Vegas (21-24)

Forest went to Vegas for a co-worker’s bachelor party. Yeah, he left his poor pregnant wife and 18 month old child home alone while he went off to a 4-day party!! Can you believe the NERVE??? Just teasing, actually, he more than “paid his dues” for the trip. Forest knows better than to just ask if I’m ok with him doing something like this – instead, he emailed me a “proposal” whereby, for 5 months before the trip, he 1) let me sleep in BOTH weekend mornings once a month, 2) got Sienna up and around in the morning (that’s my job, he puts her to bed) 1 morning/week, 3) gave me 4 hours to do whatever I wanted for fun 1 weekend a month AND 4) he paid for the entire trip out of his “allowance money”! I’m actually hoping that he plans another trip like this soon – it was VERY worth it from my perspective!

Sienna and I had a great weekend together. In addition to some quality time alone together, we visited our friends Marina and Catherine on Saturday and went to a Margaritaville party at a co-worker’s house on Sunday.

My favorite part of the whole thing though was that every time Sienna would say “Daddy” during the weekend, I would reply, “sorry honey, Daddy’s watching naked ladies dance right now” or “no, Si, Daddy can’t be here right now, he’s too busy losing all our money gambling, we’ll probably have to move out of our house soon”. She, of course, had no idea what I was saying – but I thought I was hilarious!

Oklahoma (5th) New Haven (11-13), Boston (15-16), Brussels (26-28)

August was a blur of trips and activities. On the 5th, I traveled to Oklahoma and back (wanted to spend as little time there as possible – though the people were very nice).

I attended a 3 day long training session in New Haven, CT for CogState the 11th – 13th. This was a packed, but fun 3 days. It was nice to see some of my friends from Australia and to meet the new staff in the New Haven office. I didn’t sleep much though, as I kept getting sucked into the Olympics every single night while working in my hotel room.

On the 15th, I traveled to Boston for about 24 hours to give a talk at an Investigator meeting for a drug study. I was teaching a group how to administer a couple of neuropsychological tests.

On the 26th, I traveled to Brussels, Belgium. I arrived early morning on the 27th, slept in my hotel room for about 45 minutes and then got on a train to head to the training site. The major highlights of the training were getting myself locked in a bathroom and having to pound on the door and yell for 10 minutes until someone heard me and let me out – and – trying to type in front of 10 people on a keyboard that 1) wasn’t in English and 2) all the keys were in different places!

Following all this excitement, I worked for 4 hours and then got back on the train to the hotel room, slept for about 6 hours and then got back on an airplane coming home! As my friends say….I’ve been around the world and seen absolutely NOTHING!

Sadly, the only pictures I have from any of these trips are these from the AIRPORT (!!!!) in Brussels!! ...I guess that just about sums it up..... :(

I did take some time out to buy some chocolate though. "When in Belgium...."

Little pubs like this one were all over the place.

Alzheimer’s disease dog show fundraiser (Aug 20)

Bailey was the clear "best in show" as far as Sienna was concerned!

The Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center held a doggie fashion show outside of my office to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association. I went and picked Sienna up from daycare for the event and Forest headed over after work. Sienna had a blast watching and petting all the dogs.









Ta Da!!!

Yeah!!

Oh the concentration....!!

Look Mom!!


After the show, we went to McDonalds for dinner.

Sienna's first happy meal

Remembering Gizmo (August 14th)

On August 13th, Gizmo started getting sick and acting lethargic. Forest was studying for a final exam and Sienna was asleep so I took him to the overnight emergency vet clinic. Labs showed that he was in acute kidney failure. In fact, his kidneys were in such bad shape that they actually had to dilute his blood down before their computers could read the levels of BUN and creatinine in his system.  They were literally “off the charts”, some of the worst the clinic had ever seen. We tried very aggressively to treat him and bring his kidney functioning back, but after about 12 hours, it became apparent that too much damage had been done and we had to euthanize him. We have no idea what could have caused this to happen. He was only 5 years old. Our best guesses are some sort of toxin (unlikely as our house is clean and babyproof) or a genetic disorder.

As you can imagine, this was a CRUSHINGLY SAD blow to us. Gizmo was a real member of our family. We referred to him as “your brother” to Sienna. He was always there sleeping wrapped like a purring hat around Forest’s head at night and meowing at the door while he took showers in the morning. After his death, Frodo (who we weren’t sure would even notice) became quite “needy” and wandered the house sort of lost and whining for weeks.

I bought Gizmo for Forest for his 24th birthday. I found him online at an animal shelter and, when he was about 8 weeks old, we went to pick him up about 2 hours away from where we lived. One of my favorite memories was the trip home that day. Forest had tiny little “Mo” sitting on his knee the whole way home. Forest was sneezing, red-faced puffy and had tears forming in his eyes because he was so allergic to him! He tolerated this for weeks though, until his body adjusted and eventually Gizmo could sleep literally on his head without any problem. Now that’s LOVE!

We’ll miss ya Mo!!


Gizmo meet Sienna, Sienna this is Gizmo

How to swaddle a cat, by Forest Caveney

My home has officially been invaded!

Do you think anyone sees me?

I looooove fuzzy blankets!!




Hey! Do you think any of this loot is ours?

Frodo will miss you, Mo

for lots of reasons

18 Month Birthday (August 13th)

Sienna turned 1.5 years on the 13th of August. Unfortunately, I was traveling and Forest had class, so we didn’t have much of a party. Sienna’s 2nd favorite babysitter (next to Kelsea, of course) watched her and they had a great time running around the yard and playing. I took a few videos and photos when I got home (after her bath).

Video - 18 month birthday