Work

Adam has been with Kiewit Company for almost 6 years now (kiewit.com). He really enjoys his job as he is on the cutting edge of technology. So much so that they've talked of purposely not being on the "bleeding edge" of it. Where instead of developing the latest and greatest in the industry, they research the best of the best in other successful industries and implement what is right for their business needs. Fun, exciting, challenging, and quite a place of honor to be involved with.


After almost a year here at Omaha headquarters - Adam is much more relaxed now that he knows his position more, what is expected and hoped of him. It's a good feeling to have a good base of colleagues, expertise, advice and leadership to draw from.

Adam has had so many job titles this first year! In trying to remember them - we seriously cannot. In the end, he is the OneIM Solutions Manager for the Mining Group and a member of KieCore Equipment Task Force Team. KieCore is the brand for Kiewit's future information management system, it is located at 42nd and Center in a converted mall. There are approximately 130 people working out of the office. There is limited conference space, therefore Adam will spend a portion of the next few months at the Blackstone, which is a Kiewit owned office building next to Kiewit Plaza. His position in KieCore takes most of his time.


As a company that has grown considerably in the last 10 years, Kiewit realized that their computer systems are disparate and could not keep up. KieCore is evaluating which business practices had provided success to Kiewit in the past, as well as considering all of the challenges that have arisen recently. The intent is to perform the work in only a few system while ensuring that they are integrated (meaning that information is only entered once and is automatically transfered to all areas that require it).

The Solutions role is outside of KieCore, but is still related. Solutions Managers are the point of contact for their district to help in bringing IM (which was IT; Information Technology) solutions to them. Managing information in a company the size of Kiewit is not a simple task, and requires much standardization. Standardization is difficult though because of the historical decentralized business model. Kiewit will find efficiencies in utilizing a shared service model for parts of the business, while letting the Districts remain decentralized.

For both roles, Adam prepares a lot of documentation. The Solutions role requires him to do a lot of mass communication. He has written and will continue to write articles for the Mining Quarterly Newsletter. He also has his own quarterly Solutions Update that he sends out in between the others.

The first 6 month here, Adam mainly worked with two other men in the Mining Group. They traveled, traveled, traveled around to all the mines for research as well as letting as many as possible know of the computer system changes coming in the future. The last couple of months he almost went on two more trips, but was able to communicate enough from his cubicle office. So that was nice for us at home. At the end of March he is scheduled to travel to Las Vegas for a ConExpo exhibition. ConExpo occurs every three years and brings represention from every construction industry around the world. It is where Equipment Professionals go to learn about the latest equipment, products, services, and technologies.

Following ConExpo, Adam will be traveling to Deadwood SD for the Mining District Annual Meeting. He will be answering questions about KieCore, and has not been asked to present anything, yet. The meetings are a good way to get to know many of the people in the District.

2/14 - 2/17

February 14, 2011

Some construction out on main street. Always a treat to see!
Feb. 15th, we are on our way to 'music class' with the Lanham family.

So great to walk and enjoy some of our first days of spring!

Plattsmouth main street.

Back home refueling with a little snack.

Snow is melting fast!

Out after work to see the Missouri River. We first went to see the Platte and Missouri confluence, but the road was closed already due to some flooding! It is just a low dirt road...but we've only seen it once since we've lived here. Otherwise it's been closed due to the water all year except for two months that we know of!

The Omaha area had record snow last year and now eastern Montana has had record snow this winter.

Adam grew up near the Missouri Headwaters where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers all joined to form the Missouri. It's been interesting living next to a place where another river joins it so far downstream. Also nice knowing his brother, Seth, lives upstream on the Platte in Colorado!

All month Matthew and Adam have been going on 'adventures.' Sometimes Kaitlyn and I come along, like tonight. The first time they went and trudged in deep snow down from our house to main street. When they came home they had hot chocolate and wrote down their adventures for it had been so fun and exciting.

Kaitlyn and I were already asleep and when we woke up the next morning, Matthew woke up a half hour earlier than usual and excitedly started telling us all about it! How Daddy had followed him wherever he wanted to go, he had slipped and slid a ways down an icy sidewalk and got a fat lip, how he had climbed up top ahigh a big 'snow hill' and had hot chocolate!

Books before bed.

Out to visit Arbor Day Farm down in Nebraska City.

Spring is here and already we could see the buds on the trees and bushes.

Down getting a closer look at the animal tracks in the sidewalk.

So much to explore and do.

They grow and send out a lot of trees around the nation. Even gave us two free Colorado Blue Spruce trees.

The mighty Missouri, Feb. 17th.

Here is the portion of our park just about a mile from main street that is still in need of repair from last year's flooding.

Spring came all of a sudden 5 days ago and the river is showing it. Many people drove by to take a look while we were here for only 20 minutes. It's up noticeably since we looked on sunday, 4 days ago.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Kaitlyn in her mud puddle and Matthew with his golf ball retriever.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Matthew took this picture.

Home looking good and bearing gifts. Matthew and Kaitlyn received little KieCore footballs.

For some reason this is the only picture of Matthew blading around.

Miss Grace over to help out friday. They made meringue kisses.

Just wanted to show Kaitlyn's hair. The next set of pictures will show her with her new trim!

Home from the dentist office and playing with their balloons. It was just for Matthew and the report was no cavities. Second checkup in a row! Praise the Lord. When he was Kaitlyn's age, we were watching his teeth seemingly disintegrate away. Big changes ever since!

Matthew jumped up to his balloon and ran with it over and over again.

Our area has an extra large number of ladybugs. It's been nice having this overpopulation rather than moths like Gillette or large bugs in general, like Bryan! This one has had a long winter and seemingly crawled up to a leaf on our paper towel roll.

The following day it had moved over to the green leaf and hung out there all day.

This was taken at the end of December. We had just had our first snow and cold snap.

At this time we had five ladybugs we had befriended and generally gave our apple cores to and a little water. We've had at least one or two ever since!


At the end of November, when it first was cold we found a preying mantis on a leaf collage Matthew and Kaitlyn had made hanging in the kitchen window! He is now part of our insect collection.

January 2011

The kids like to dance. Here are a couple of moves in the kitchen. Often we'll ask, "Do you want to go downstairs and listen to music?" There is Always a big, "Yes!"

Kaitlyn likes to cut and cut. She is growing up so much! She talks so well and is so capable.

She say's "Mom-mom" and "Dah yee" for the two of us. And always "Babybabybaby!" whenever she sees a baby. She really loves them so much. "Na nack" for napkin, "stick" for chapstick. Matthew always called it "chappa." "Wah wah" for water, "naw nock" for knock knock. She really pays attention to the end of words and commonly says the last sound of it very clearly.

At this age, Matthew had gotten to the achievement of talking so incredibly fast...in his own little language. Plus some regular words, too. He had literally talked/grunted since the first day he was born and never stopped. It didn't matter that it wasn't in English! It simply escalated from there.

When he turned 4 Adam really encouraged him to talk so we could understand him. For he still had lingering "words" and "sentences" of his own occasionally. He easily stopped. Just lately, he's been saying one word every now and then. I'll sometimes ask him what it means and he'll quickly tell me. So interesting.

A very common place to be in our home.

Out to our New Year's Eve dinner at church.

Matthew is very patient with the picture taking.

Lately Matthew has been saying, "Daisy!" For whoa, daisy. Not quite sure where he picked that up. He also really likes the word, acrobat, and uses it quite regularly. One day I asked him, "How do you like your burrito?" It's kind of hairy," he says, pulling off a hair!

Lincoln logs come out on a pretty regular basis around here.

Matthew has been wearing his roller blades around the house - also on a very regular basis. Pretty much every day if he sees them laying out. He's getting pretty good. Now he's asking for a skateboard!

He graduated out of a little pair of adjustable roller skates. So Kaitlyn is now happily trying those out right along with him. I have to pay a lot more attention to her when she pulls hers on!

To the park for some sledding.

Finally enough snow to go sledding! And warm enough. The last two days the schools closed due to snow. Pretty fun. There were a lot of trails to choose from.

Kaitlyn was happy to go a couple of times and then just watch with Daddy or I. When she was ready to go in and get warmed up in the car, Matthew was just warming up and moved over to a new hill to sled on!

Matthew started right on a large hill and enjoyed every second of it. He sledded down a little hill Adam made in our front yard in Gillette last year. Otherwise, this was truly his first real experience. Fearless as always! So many great hills to choose from in Plattesmouth.

A trip to church.

Having a good laugh.

How many neighbors can you count in this picture? They all came out at the same time saturday morning. Adam figured that we have such a nice neighborhood, they politely make sure everyone is up before they start their snow blowers. Plus, it's so much friendlier this way!

This is our wonderful next door neighbor who voluntarily snow blows our entire front sidewalk and part way up the driveway. Sure makes a big difference!

There were 4 neighbors in that picture above! Adam was out their too, but over in our driveway where he can't be seen.

Adam shoveled out pathways all through the back yard. So much fun for the Little Twosies!

It's hard to tell with the shade, but he shoveled out a heart closest to the house. What an awesome hubby.

Matthew was outside just as long as Adam was. One, of our two Big Helpers!

Matthew playing across the street with some of his friends. But they moved shortly after this!! So sad to see them go.

Adam trying on his new suit. Kiewit's annual meeting is coming up and he gets to wear it a couple of days.

One night we all went around the table playing "Mr. Napkin Head." Even Kaitlyn participated.

She is really interested in drawing circles. Matthew was always interested in drawing straight lines. And they were straight! For such a little boy. Kaitlyn also started herself potty training! Around Christmas I thought I'd set out her little potty, just so she could see it and talk about it. Before I knew it, she was starting and insisting she continue through the night! Well, of course...and it has been so wonderful! By the end of January I haven't put one diaper on her! Matthew was really fast too...once he was tempted into it!

Kids are so smart. Our last realtor gave the advice, "The one thing parents make the mistake of doing, is underestimating their children." Sure is right.

Fun in the basement.

Matthew is always thinking up new games. Here he made a slide and is rolling the marbles down it. Another word he really likes is, "Fantastic!" And more lately, "odd." One day he says, "That snow blower is odd." And for Christmas we got some tasty candy from Grandma and Grandpa. And after the first bite he says, "that crunch hurt my ears." On another piece of candy, he looks inside and says, "it's all muddy."

He also just started singing! Out of the blue this month he'll start singing a song. One day he sang, "Hickory, pickley dock. The mouse ran up the clock..." He also sang, "Baa baa black sheep...one for my pastor, one for my darling, one for the little boy who live in the hay..." I asked him to sing it again so I could write it down, and he jokingly sings the whole thing with, "...Have you any wool? No sir, no sir." And he gives a great big laugh.