Happy 25th Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

We're all thinking of you today! We love you!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas


Its that time again. Merry Christmas to all! Mark your calendar for Friday, December 29 at noon, Uncle Tom's house. We will party all day long. Let's catch up with the new details in our lives. This family has three new details, Zachary, Tessa and Becca. Do we win the growth prize?

Here's the details: food, beverage, dessert provided. Bring a pollyanna gift. Make the gender of the gift match the giver and it should work out. On the tag, mark: Girl, Boy or Uni. No gift cards, that's too easy, just make sure it is something that you would like. $10 limit. Please RSVP to let314@comcast or home at (609)927-0248 and then I will call with kid name exchange. If any of your children wish to participate in the adult abuse instead of the kid's personal exhange, let me know when you call. I need to make plans for the food so the count is important. Here are some memories from last year. See you all soon, we hope.

25 Years--Oh My!

And they said it wouldn't last! Where did all that time go? Here is a pic we just came across. Yes that is the Browers wishing us well. And could that cute blonde on the right side be our future daughter-in-law? Who'da guessed? Our real celebration was this summer when we went to the Virgin Isles. But we have had an extra special weekend. Brian and Becca spent Friday with us and we all went to dinner. (Surprizing how different you spend your 25th anniversay versus your 1st, Huh?). Saturday Chip's family sent flowers and a strange CD came from Tom's gang. We were reading the mail as we drove. It said to listen and then call. When we got home, the CD player kept playing the Christmas music from the other CD's. So finally I took all the others out. And it still played "I'll be home for Christmas." Well we listened to the end, expecting to hear the kids wish us "Happy Anniversary" but the song just ended. So I played it again. After several minutes, Dad said maybe that IS the message. But he said the rest of the line is, "IF only in my dreams!" We were afraid to get too excited and just call. Quickly Stephanie enforced our dreams, and said "Yes they were coming home for Christmas!" What a beautiful holiday this will be. Everyone home except, Brian's Becca. She is going to Italy with her family. Poor girl, she has to go to Italy and miss the other 21 Thompson's holiday. This girl has no idea what she has said "yes" to. So we have decided to give it another 25 years and see if this marriage is really as good as we think, considering the first 25 went so fast.

Becky's father passed away today.

After living almost 5 years with pancreatic cancer, Becky's father Bob Brower died today around 6 pm.

We are heading to NJ tomorrow. We had already purchased the tickets earlier today hoping we would get there before the Lord took him home, but that didn't happen. Becky will be staying in NJ for 3 weeks. I will be there for 1 week, then back in FL for 1 week, and then traveling to Haiti for 1 week.

We appreciate your prayers!

Rob (and Becky)

R6s Certification!

Yesterday I certified as a Raytheon Six Sigma Expert! This certification is the culmination of my work for the last year. In order to be certified, I had to give a presentation on the project I've been spending my time on, what I have learned, who I have influenced, how I have shown leadership, how I partnered across organizational boundaries, my own understanding and usage of 6 Sigma principles and tools, and what I plan to do with it in the future. It was only 10 slides, but took close to 45 minutes to present, while answering a host of questions. There were 7 people on my "certification board", who saw my presentation and then determined I was worthy of certification. Although there is a monetary award, the real reward is successfully completing the requirements and being recognized as a Certified Raytheon Six Sigma Expert. I will now spend the next year + working additional 6sigma projects across the company. While it doesn't necessarily mean a promotion, certification certainly identifies people as "high potential" leaders.

I know that there were a lot of prayers lifted on my behalf yesterday, including my own, and I recognize that my success had nothing to do with my own efforts, and everything to do with what God has done for me... whether it be the opportunities He provided, the people He put in my path to help me, the skills and talents He gave me, and the strength and peace He provided to me yesterday. Praise God for His goodness to us! I thank each of you for your prayers and encouragement throughout this process.

For those of you who do not know, Raytheon Six Sigma is "the philosophy of Raytheon management, embedded within the fabric of our business organizations as the vehicle for increasing productivity, growing the business, and building a new culture. Raytheon Six Sigma is the continuous process improvement effort designed to reduce costs." If you'd like to learn more about it, you can check out the following link:
http://www.raytheon.com/about/r6s/index.html

For a well-done marketing video, go here: http://www.raytheon.com/about/
It briefly mentions Raytheon Six Sigma and how it works in our business. More than that, though, despite sounding very much like marketing exaggeration, it does highlight some of the reasons I've really enjoyed working for such a great company!

He is IN PA

He is IN. Lock, stock and many barrels! His parents are exhausted, so is his fiance, cousins, sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew. Wow! Now we know why they charge so much for moving vans. The only thing that seems more daunting is the unpacking of the many tubs. "That is his job. Here are few pics, if you want the snapfish album, write: let314@comcast.net.

It's Official: I'm moving!

It's Official: I'm moving! In the past few weeks I have made a lot of decisions and made quite a few changes. First of all, I have officially accepted a job offer with SKF Inc. They make many thing for all different kinds of machines. Bearings (like the one on the left) have long been their main business, but they also make motors, pump, seals, etc. I will be an applications engineer, which is a mix of mechanical engineering, project management, and sales. This is a really exciting move for me, although leaving Raytheon will not be fun. I've had a great year there and learned quite a bit.

The second bit of information is that I now have an apartment lined up. I will move into my new place this Sunday (10/8). My plan is to get the Budget Rent-A-Truck and car-towing dolly Friday night after work. I'll put all of my pre-packed stuff in that night. Saturday, I'll drive down to NJ and add all of the stuff that I still have at home. Needless to say, Mom and Dad are excited to get their basement back. We'll drive the full truck to PA to my new apt. on Sunday and move in! My new apartment is about 1/2 hour West of Phila in King of Prussia (it's about 2 miles from the mall). Here's a link on the map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=649+S+Henderson+Rd,+King+of+Prussia,+PA+19406&ie=UTF8&z=12&ll=40.078334,-75.354881&spn=0.18205,0.472412&om=1&iwloc=A.

Here are two pics of my new apt. complex:

I am renting a 2 bedroom apartment on the fourth floor, but you only have to go up 1 1/2 flights when you enter. I've got a dishwasher and every floor has a washer/dryer room. It's a corner apartment. I will be about 35 minutes from work and 20 minutes from Becca. We are planning to move into this apartment when we get married. It should be big enough and her commute will only be ~20 minutes.

I know this got long, but there's a lot going on.

By the way, here's my new (and old but current) contact info:

(610) 491-8172 home

(609) 457-0522 cell

649 South Henderson Rd

King of Prussia, PA 19406

Tonight was Successful!

Tom, Toby, and Sam had a good
hunt tonight! They are taking care
of getting her on ice, details to follow.

Back To School Pictures

We went to a local park and took school pictures of the kids. Mattie is in second grade. Jesse is in fourth grade. Sam is in fifth and Toby is in eighth. They Started school August 22 and will get out around May 25.

Tessa Hope's Birth

What a surprise. Tessa was scheduled to be born by c-section next thursday, but she decided to come on her own early. She was born yesterday, Aug. 22, at 10:25 am naturally. She was 7lbs 3 oz and 19.75" long.

Everyone is doing well!

Click to activate and then click play to watch.

We're Engaged!!

I thought the blog would be the best way to let people know that I have a little bit of news to share: I'm Engaged!!!

Here's the brief version of the story:

This past weekend, Becca and I were at Mom and Dad's house (Uncle Tom and Aunt Linda's to some). At 4:25 AM on Sunday morning (8/6/06), I snuck into the guest room and pulled Becca out of bed. I told her that I had a surprise, something I had planned. She guessed that we were going out to watch the stars or something, so sitting there in her PJ's, she told me she was ready. I suggested that she put on some more clothes since we would be out for a few hours.

I proceded to drive to 5th street in Ocean City. Since she actually knows the area pretty well, she figured out where we were going without too much effort. Once we were on the beach (to watch the sunrise), I produced a beach blanket. After sitting down, lighting a few candles, and finally seeing the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, I got ready to propose. My plan had been from the beginning to propose just after the sun came up.

Unfortunately, just as the sun was rising, a few people started to come onto the beach. Once girl, in particular, sat down on her chair about 50 feet from us. I started to get really concerned that I had missed my only window of opportunity. I decided to ask Becca to go on a walk. We walked North towards the "North End" where there are no cross streets and therefore, usually, fewer people.

I was in luck! No one was around. So, once we got sufficiently away from anybody, I told Becca that I had written her a sonnet. For the last two lines of the sonnet, I had written a decently smooth lead in to my proposal when I asked Becca to marry me.

Amazingly, and much to the astonishment of my siblings, she said that she would. I spent the next hour divulging all of the ways that I had been lying (fibbing sounds better) over the last month so as to make this a surprise.

Anyway, I suppose that wasn't really the brief version, but if I kept any readers until the end, I hope you liked it. At this point, Becca and I have essentially zero details planned; so I'm just as anxious as everyone else is to hear about our wedding.

Look Who's Talking

Drew is learning to talk! To watch, click on this once to activate it and then click on play.

Happy Birthday

Look who is not three anymore. Happy Birthday "old man". Wasn't he cute back then?















August 4, 1986

St Thomas

We just returned from our week at St. Thomas and St. John. trip was great so was the weather, hotel, and taxis. Food at hotel, only thing to whine about. We went out instead.
This is a picture of an investment for a vacation home on St. John. Its a "fixer-upper." Don't worry kids we only used part of your inheritance and beside you can use it too! Pictures on snapfish. (It has a kitchen, see the pictures).

Brotherly love...

Chase is really enjoying his younger brother. Last week we had a little photo shoot, which is not always easy with Chase anymore. But when he got to hold Zach, suddenly he was willing to sit still. I know the excitement and gentleness will eventually turn to irritation and rough-housing, but for now we're enjoying what we've got!

This is the fishing report for Broad Creek, Absecon, 7/16/06. Christopher--zip, Dad--17 1/2 "flounder, 13" flounder, 1 ray, 1 sand shark, MOM--1 sand shark, 23" flounder! That made it a good day. Christopher was so bored, we worried he may jump over just for some excitement. Dad and I leave this Sat. for St. Thomas until 7/29. 

These Colors Don't Run!

A Star-Spangled Spengler! We had a great time at the 4th of July parade here in Chelmsford... Chase's first parade. He loved watching all the police cars, fire trucks, and floats... he didn't even flinch when the revolutionary war re-inactors fired their rifles (or at the police firing their shotguns)! We even brought along our Canadian friends (the girls in the background holding flags)!



In other news... Zachary is doing well. He's taking 5 hour stretches between meals at night, giving Karen up to 4 hours of consecutive sleep! Hard to believe she's excited about that. During the day Zach is still eating every 2-3 hours though. He's really doing very well. Chase continues to love giving "baby hugs", bringing him toys, and even helping "burp baby". Chase is doing great at being very gentle. It's great to see how much Chase really does enjoy Zach! Hopefully it'll continue!

Happy Birthday PopPop!

Drew's First Swim in New Pool

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARI

Oh to be young again! Wish we could be there to help you celebrate. We pray you have a wonderful day! Love you and miss you lots.