Pictures Plus a Little About My Job

It's been a little while since we have put pictures up. Madeline is getting so big. She will be five months this week. So old! She has learned several new tricks the past few weeks. Here are a few...

Madeline has learned how to roll from her front to her back. She can't do it all the time but is getting better.

She learned how to eat more solid food (rice cereal). We started feeding her rice cereal. She is a little on the young side for solid food but she is so big and it seems like she is hungry all the time. She caught on really fast to eating from a spoon.


I guess she wasn't so interested in eating in this picture.


Ian also figured out how to do this trick with Madeline. It scares my mom when he does it. This picture reminds me of Cat in the Hat.


I pretty much think that Madeline is the cutest baby in the world. I hate having to be away from her half the day!

She has such big BLUE eyes!

Work has been okay. I have been there a month now and am fully trained (or so they say). I like the job okay, although I would not want to work there for the rest of my life or anything. I think I would like it more if I didn't have to drive almost an hour each way. A typical day for me, in case anyone is interested, goes like this...

I get to work at 5:15 am and inspect all the equipment until 6:00 am. I make sure that it is clean and tell the sanitation crew to fix anything that is still dirty. For the next couple of hours I test the samples of food from the day before to make sure they meet company specifications before they are shipped to the customers. For the testing, I taste the samples, look at the color and watch for defects such as lumps, test the pH, sugar level, and viscosity (thickness). If any of the products fail, I test the color using a machine called a colorimeter and set the samples up for management to decide if they still want to ship the product out. For the rest of the day, I collect samples from products being made, check the big kettles before each batch to make sure they are clean, check magnets and metal detectors, and generally make sure that people are keeping things clean and following good manufacturing procedures.

I am usually standing and walking around the whole eight hours and sometimes I get very busy and a little overwhelmed. It becomes difficult because the workers usually can't start something new until I get there and it usually turns out that they all need me at once. I have to try to time my lunch so that not too many people will be stuck waiting for me. It is also difficult because almost all of the workers are hispanic and only speak a little broken english. I really wish I had Rachel and Peter's spanish skills!

Overall, I think I am starting to get the hang of the job and am settling into a good routine but it makes me sad to be away from Ian and Madeline for so long everyday.