It's late and I should go to bed, but I need to write a few words about this past week before too much time has past by. Why was last week so special? Well, there are many reasons.
Since family comes first I have to tell you about Julia. She made really good progress on her potty training this week and she also went to her first sleep-over this past weekend! Even more exciting, a couple of weeks ago she got her first real golf club. It's an eight iron and she is getting pretty good. She loves her golf club! At night she wants to take it into her bed, and she gives it a hug and kiss goodnight. Mark and I are really looking forward to taking her out on the golf course to start spending some quality family time golfing, could it get any better?
Second, I got a very surprising, and very happy, phone call from my really good friend Rita giving me the good news that she had gotten not only engaged, but also married! Congratulations Rita and Dave, we are so happy for you!
Third, my best friend Arin turned 30 last week. Welcome to the club Arin, I look forward to celebrating your birthday with you during Thanksgiving!
I also received some incredibly sad news about the tragic death of my former plant manager who was also an LFM alumni. It is difficult to grasp that someone who did so much for so many people is not here with us anymore, the loss is tremendous. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
On a more uplifting note, the LFM class of 08 was in town last week for their internship midstream review, and the week culminated with a joint camping trip in Vermont for the LFM class of 08 and 09. Both Mark and I went camping on Friday night (hence Julia's first sleepover), and I went white water rafting on Saturday. It was tons of fun to hang out with the 08s and get to know them better. They are really a fun group! I look forward to spending more time together in the spring when they get back from their internships.
Other than that, classes are moving along quickly, sometimes way to quickly. I'm struggling to keep up with all the work, and I think it's just going to get worse, ouch! Talk about needing to take charge of my work life balance. I have become much better at planning my time this fall, it is a necessity if I'm going to have any time outside of school. I try to emulate my friend Jens superb planning skills. Although I doubt I will ever get to the point where I sort my grocery shopping list by isle and make 2 weeks worth of grocery shopping in ten minutes like Jen and Mike do. Incredible!
One thing on my plan is to go running more consistently. Tomorrow morning Mark and I are going out for a much needed run, it's been two weeks since I last went running. It's difficult to believe that last year at this time I was training for a marathon! Hopefully I'll be able to get back in shape, but likely not until next summer when the internship starts and I have more time to run. I have to be realistic, it's just not going to happen now while taking nine classes this fall.
Ohh, I almost forgot, we got our tickets to go back to Sweden in October for Katarina and Fredriks wedding! I am so excited to see my friends and family again. I am definitely going to make sure I go running when I'm home, Lidingo has some of the most beautiful and best running trails I have ever ran! Well, its time to get some well needed rest before another busy day tomorrow.
PS. To Mrs O, your son is doing well and says hi, he also had fun at the camping trip!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Some more pictures from this summer
Golfing in New Hampshire
Marks beautiful follow through
At Crane beach with JuliaFall semester has begun
The fall semester starts this week. Well, it really started 2 weeks ago with 1 week of Sloan pre-term classes and 1 week of Sloan Orientation. I didn't attend the pre-term classes; I needed a week away from school and chose to spend some quality time with my family instead. We had a great week! I hung out with Julia; we went to the beach one day (I will post some pictures later) and she loved playing in the sand and water! Mark and I took a mini vacation at a golf resort in the New Hampshire mountains. We spent two nights there and played a total of 72 holes of golf. Time well spent! I didn't play very well (I shot in the low 80s, mark shot in the high 70s), but I enjoyed just being on the golf course with my hubby, and the weather was nice and the views were beautiful.
Last week was Sloan Orientation week. We got to meet the rest of the Sloanies (the other MBA students) and we got to meet our new teams for the fall semester and do some team building. So far I like my new team, I think we will work well together.
This weekend I got to hang out with my friends from Colorado Springs (although most of us don't live in Colorado Springs anymore since the plant there is shutting down). My friend Ruth had her bachelorette party here in Boston so I got to see her, Janelle, Drey, and Zac. Zac didn't attend the b-party, he stayed with us and hung out with Mark and Julia. Julia was really really excited to see Zac, I haven't seen her that excited in a long time! The b-party was tons of fun, but was bitter sweet. I really miss our CS friends, it's really sad that we all had to move away from CS. On the positive side, I can look forward to meeting them again at the wedding in February.
Got to go to bed, tomorrow is registration day so I need to meet with my Civil Engineering advisor in the morning to get my fall classes approved. Hopefully he will be OK with me not actually taking any Civil Eng classes until the spring semester. I will find out tomorrow.
Last week was Sloan Orientation week. We got to meet the rest of the Sloanies (the other MBA students) and we got to meet our new teams for the fall semester and do some team building. So far I like my new team, I think we will work well together.
This weekend I got to hang out with my friends from Colorado Springs (although most of us don't live in Colorado Springs anymore since the plant there is shutting down). My friend Ruth had her bachelorette party here in Boston so I got to see her, Janelle, Drey, and Zac. Zac didn't attend the b-party, he stayed with us and hung out with Mark and Julia. Julia was really really excited to see Zac, I haven't seen her that excited in a long time! The b-party was tons of fun, but was bitter sweet. I really miss our CS friends, it's really sad that we all had to move away from CS. On the positive side, I can look forward to meeting them again at the wedding in February.
Got to go to bed, tomorrow is registration day so I need to meet with my Civil Engineering advisor in the morning to get my fall classes approved. Hopefully he will be OK with me not actually taking any Civil Eng classes until the spring semester. I will find out tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Some pictures from this summer.....
LFM Kids having fun at the LFM, SDM, Sloan Fellows BBQ Party!
Audrey and I at a LFM social event.Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Being a mom at LFM
So one of the main reasons i want to blog is to share my experiences as a mother while being an LFM student. My intent is to be available to other moms, as well as to non-moms, that are considering attending LFM and have questions or just want to chat.
When I was considering applying to LFM, my daughter was just turning 2 years old. At my previous job I had the pleasure of getting to know an LFM06 mom who was doing her LFM internship at the site I worked. It was very powerful for me to meet and talk to a mom that was attending LFM while raising a child, and if I hadn't met her and her family maybe I wouldn't have thought of LFM as a program you could attend while raising a family.
Not everyone has the luxury of meeting LFM alumni or interns before they apply, which is the reason for me taking time to write this blog. If there are other moms out there right now in a similar situation to the one I was in; hesitating to apply to LFM because of the fear of jeopardizing the quality with which she will be able to raise her family, I feel it is my call to be there for her to tell her about my experience and give her my perspective. I'm not trying to convince anyone to attend, but merely provide some more data to enable other moms and their families to make the right decision for them, regardless of the outcome.
So what is it like? Well' I wish I could say that it is easy, but it's not. I wish I could tell you I have perfect balance in my life, but I don't. I definitely haven't figured it all out, but I'm working on it, every day, every hour. One thing I have learned is that it would be much worse if I didn't have full support from my LFM "family". The support I have from my classmates and the LFM program is tremendous, and has helped me very much. My LFM summer teammates have been absolutely fantastic and I have countless examples of how my teammates have adapted to allow me to take care of my daughter or provide me some extra time to spend with her. For example, we have on several occasions had team meetings at my apartment instead of in the LFM office to do homework. At one point my daughter, Julia, was spending several hours per week with us in our LFM conference room while we were working on group projects, and I have gotten nothing but kindness from my teammates. I truly feel my teammates now include Julia as part of our team, it's really cool!
Another essential thing I have learned is to prioritize, prioritize, prioritize, and be creative in how you prioritize. I knew before I came here that I wouldn't have time to do all of the stuff I wanted to do. At the same time getting the full LFM experience was (and is) very important to me, as you only go though this program once. So I have tried to achieve some balance between all the different things there is to do while in LFM, and the things I participate in to allow me to spend quality time with my family. I decided to try and take part in all the different types of LFM activities, but not do as much of it as others may be. For example, I am involved in LFM committees, but not as many as I would have liked to. I do homework, but not all of it (I try to do all of it, but sometimes enough is enough). I read my e-mail once per day (my classmates will tell me if there is something important I need to read). I work out, but not as much as I used to (this is really not OK, but it's just so difficult to get up an hour early to go running). I go out and socialize with my LFM classmates, but definitely not as much as some, and I don't go until Julia is already sleeping. I eat food, I just don't take time to cook long meals. I sleep, just not as much as I used to (there is always a tradeoff). I don't watch TV.
Another thing that has allowed both me and my husband to get the full LFM experience is to take turns participating in LFM sports and social activities (while one of us participates, the other watches Julia). For example, my husband is coaching the LFM Softball team this summer, and I will be playing ice hockey this winter. My husband usually goes to the Muddy (MIT's on campus pub) after softball games, and I will go out and socialize on one of the weekend nights instead.
Finally, the most important lesson I have learned is to be honest and real. There are always going to be trade offs and I can't beat myself up for not being able to do everything. As long as I do what is important to me and my family, and as long as I have no regrets, I will be fine.
See you next time!
When I was considering applying to LFM, my daughter was just turning 2 years old. At my previous job I had the pleasure of getting to know an LFM06 mom who was doing her LFM internship at the site I worked. It was very powerful for me to meet and talk to a mom that was attending LFM while raising a child, and if I hadn't met her and her family maybe I wouldn't have thought of LFM as a program you could attend while raising a family.
Not everyone has the luxury of meeting LFM alumni or interns before they apply, which is the reason for me taking time to write this blog. If there are other moms out there right now in a similar situation to the one I was in; hesitating to apply to LFM because of the fear of jeopardizing the quality with which she will be able to raise her family, I feel it is my call to be there for her to tell her about my experience and give her my perspective. I'm not trying to convince anyone to attend, but merely provide some more data to enable other moms and their families to make the right decision for them, regardless of the outcome.
So what is it like? Well' I wish I could say that it is easy, but it's not. I wish I could tell you I have perfect balance in my life, but I don't. I definitely haven't figured it all out, but I'm working on it, every day, every hour. One thing I have learned is that it would be much worse if I didn't have full support from my LFM "family". The support I have from my classmates and the LFM program is tremendous, and has helped me very much. My LFM summer teammates have been absolutely fantastic and I have countless examples of how my teammates have adapted to allow me to take care of my daughter or provide me some extra time to spend with her. For example, we have on several occasions had team meetings at my apartment instead of in the LFM office to do homework. At one point my daughter, Julia, was spending several hours per week with us in our LFM conference room while we were working on group projects, and I have gotten nothing but kindness from my teammates. I truly feel my teammates now include Julia as part of our team, it's really cool!
Another essential thing I have learned is to prioritize, prioritize, prioritize, and be creative in how you prioritize. I knew before I came here that I wouldn't have time to do all of the stuff I wanted to do. At the same time getting the full LFM experience was (and is) very important to me, as you only go though this program once. So I have tried to achieve some balance between all the different things there is to do while in LFM, and the things I participate in to allow me to spend quality time with my family. I decided to try and take part in all the different types of LFM activities, but not do as much of it as others may be. For example, I am involved in LFM committees, but not as many as I would have liked to. I do homework, but not all of it (I try to do all of it, but sometimes enough is enough). I read my e-mail once per day (my classmates will tell me if there is something important I need to read). I work out, but not as much as I used to (this is really not OK, but it's just so difficult to get up an hour early to go running). I go out and socialize with my LFM classmates, but definitely not as much as some, and I don't go until Julia is already sleeping. I eat food, I just don't take time to cook long meals. I sleep, just not as much as I used to (there is always a tradeoff). I don't watch TV.
Another thing that has allowed both me and my husband to get the full LFM experience is to take turns participating in LFM sports and social activities (while one of us participates, the other watches Julia). For example, my husband is coaching the LFM Softball team this summer, and I will be playing ice hockey this winter. My husband usually goes to the Muddy (MIT's on campus pub) after softball games, and I will go out and socialize on one of the weekend nights instead.
Finally, the most important lesson I have learned is to be honest and real. There are always going to be trade offs and I can't beat myself up for not being able to do everything. As long as I do what is important to me and my family, and as long as I have no regrets, I will be fine.
See you next time!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Mom visit, simulation game, plant tours....and lots of homework
It's late on Tuesday night, and I feel like this week has already been very, very long. I really need to go to bed. I should be reading the rest of the ops case, and the two articles that are due for tomorrow, but if I don't take the time now to jot down some notes of what has been going on this week, it will never get done.
Needless to say, this week has been very busy. Saturday was spent going through my distributed leadership assessment (this is an assessment of my strengths and weaknesses that my direct reports, managers, and co-workers completed before I left for LFM). I went through all the data to prepare for the Leadership paper that was due on Sunday - yes we had homework due on a Sunday! In the evening Mark, Julia, and I went to Dinner at D&D's house. It was fun and the food was excellent!
Sunday morning Julia and I went to the airport to pick my mom up, she is visiting from Sweden. I have been looking forward to seeing my mom again, and Julia was also really excited that "mormor" was coming to visit us. When we got to the airport Julia was first dissapointed to find out that we weren't going to fly on the airplanes today. But when i reminded her that mormor was coming, she got happy again. After a long wait my mom finally arrived with big hugs, especially for Julia. We drove back to the apartment. This is only the fourth time I have driven since we moved to Cambridge. Thanks to the Tomtom it has actually been surprisingly easy to drive here. Although, I still prefer the T and walking over driving! We got home and opened presents! My mom gave me some inflatable clothes hangers and toiletries that I had "ordered". Mark got "Dumle" chocolates, and Julia got an Astrid Lindgren songbook and CD, a Pippi Langstrump DVD, and a Karlson pa taket DVD. Julia was really excited and didn't realize that my dad had already recorded many of the same episodes for her and that she had been watching them for the past 2 months.
At 4:30pm it was time to meet Miguel at the LFM office to prepare for the start of the 5day Littlefield factory simulation game. This is part of our Operations management class where we get divided into teams of 3 and compete in running a simulated factory with the goal to make the most money. Our group had already met earlier in the week to forecast the demand, set up our inventory management plan, and calculate capacity utilization to set up our strategy for how to run our factory. Now it was time to put our plan in place. It was pretty simple, just purchase some machines, change the batch size, and set the inventory reorder policy. Then the waiting game started...we were curious to see if our calculations were correct so we decided to hang out in the LFM office until the first factory day had passed (1 factory day = 1 actual hr). The hour passed quickly as we were busy talking about the leadership paper and our personal goals and definitions. We were delighted to find that our calculations were correct. Sweet! I rushed back home to have dinner with mom, Mark and Julia and then spent the rest of the Sunday writing my leadership paper and reading articles for Ops class.
Monday was filled with classes after which we watched the movie Copenhagen to prepare for today's leadership class discussion. I'm glad we watched the movie since I hadn't had time to read the play yet, and with all the other reading due I wasn't going to have enough time. I came home to find that Julia was sick, she had a fever and was just laying on the couch watching TV. I sat down next to her and we snuggled for a few hours while I read the Leadership articles due today. It was awesome to cuddle with Julia, I just wish she would have felt better. The Simulation game was going well, we were in 2nd place!
Today after classes we went to Raytheon on a plant tour. They did a really good job with the tour and the information. very enjoyable! After the tour we went straight back to the LFM office to work on Statistics homework. I was really tired, it was hard to focus. Luckily the homework due date was extended 1 day, which is why I cam home at 12:30am instead of 2:30am, and why I'm able to write this blog for a while. The rest of the week will be equally busy, we have to complete a front line worker interview for our Lean class, complete the rest of the Stats HW, read more, and we have another Plant tour on Thursday, this time to Genzyme.
This weekend I'm taking my mom and Julia to the beach, I can't wait
.....Oh, and as for the simulation game, after 76 factory days we are in 5th place....
Needless to say, this week has been very busy. Saturday was spent going through my distributed leadership assessment (this is an assessment of my strengths and weaknesses that my direct reports, managers, and co-workers completed before I left for LFM). I went through all the data to prepare for the Leadership paper that was due on Sunday - yes we had homework due on a Sunday! In the evening Mark, Julia, and I went to Dinner at D&D's house. It was fun and the food was excellent!
Sunday morning Julia and I went to the airport to pick my mom up, she is visiting from Sweden. I have been looking forward to seeing my mom again, and Julia was also really excited that "mormor" was coming to visit us. When we got to the airport Julia was first dissapointed to find out that we weren't going to fly on the airplanes today. But when i reminded her that mormor was coming, she got happy again. After a long wait my mom finally arrived with big hugs, especially for Julia. We drove back to the apartment. This is only the fourth time I have driven since we moved to Cambridge. Thanks to the Tomtom it has actually been surprisingly easy to drive here. Although, I still prefer the T and walking over driving! We got home and opened presents! My mom gave me some inflatable clothes hangers and toiletries that I had "ordered". Mark got "Dumle" chocolates, and Julia got an Astrid Lindgren songbook and CD, a Pippi Langstrump DVD, and a Karlson pa taket DVD. Julia was really excited and didn't realize that my dad had already recorded many of the same episodes for her and that she had been watching them for the past 2 months.
At 4:30pm it was time to meet Miguel at the LFM office to prepare for the start of the 5day Littlefield factory simulation game. This is part of our Operations management class where we get divided into teams of 3 and compete in running a simulated factory with the goal to make the most money. Our group had already met earlier in the week to forecast the demand, set up our inventory management plan, and calculate capacity utilization to set up our strategy for how to run our factory. Now it was time to put our plan in place. It was pretty simple, just purchase some machines, change the batch size, and set the inventory reorder policy. Then the waiting game started...we were curious to see if our calculations were correct so we decided to hang out in the LFM office until the first factory day had passed (1 factory day = 1 actual hr). The hour passed quickly as we were busy talking about the leadership paper and our personal goals and definitions. We were delighted to find that our calculations were correct. Sweet! I rushed back home to have dinner with mom, Mark and Julia and then spent the rest of the Sunday writing my leadership paper and reading articles for Ops class.
Monday was filled with classes after which we watched the movie Copenhagen to prepare for today's leadership class discussion. I'm glad we watched the movie since I hadn't had time to read the play yet, and with all the other reading due I wasn't going to have enough time. I came home to find that Julia was sick, she had a fever and was just laying on the couch watching TV. I sat down next to her and we snuggled for a few hours while I read the Leadership articles due today. It was awesome to cuddle with Julia, I just wish she would have felt better. The Simulation game was going well, we were in 2nd place!
Today after classes we went to Raytheon on a plant tour. They did a really good job with the tour and the information. very enjoyable! After the tour we went straight back to the LFM office to work on Statistics homework. I was really tired, it was hard to focus. Luckily the homework due date was extended 1 day, which is why I cam home at 12:30am instead of 2:30am, and why I'm able to write this blog for a while. The rest of the week will be equally busy, we have to complete a front line worker interview for our Lean class, complete the rest of the Stats HW, read more, and we have another Plant tour on Thursday, this time to Genzyme.
This weekend I'm taking my mom and Julia to the beach, I can't wait
.....Oh, and as for the simulation game, after 76 factory days we are in 5th place....
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Hi.....
....and welcome to my LFM blog! I'm hoping my blog will be useful for those of you that want to know more about what life is like attending the LFM program. I am also very excited to have a place my friends and family can access to check up on me and what is going on in my hectic life right now. Well, I guess I should start this blog with a brief introduction of myself ....
I am originally from Sweden, but most recently I moved to Cambridge, MA from Colorado Springs, CO. I live in a very small apartment (at least compared to our Colorado Springs house) with my husband Mark, our daughter Julia, and our two (huge) cats Tank and Pipi. If you want to know more about my background, please read the "about me" section.
I am originally from Sweden, but most recently I moved to Cambridge, MA from Colorado Springs, CO. I live in a very small apartment (at least compared to our Colorado Springs house) with my husband Mark, our daughter Julia, and our two (huge) cats Tank and Pipi. If you want to know more about my background, please read the "about me" section.
I have now been a LFM student for about a month and a half and I absolutely love it! Our summer schedule is very busy and classes, homework, committee work, plant tours, and other LFM activities take up a lot of my time. It's no surprise that the biggest challenge I face is achieving a healthy balance between LFM activities and spending time with Mark and Julia.
Well, it's now time to give Julia a bath and then head over to meet all the other LFMs and their families at a classmates B-day party...... I'll be back...
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