Last place is sometimes 6th place

Dejected...it means disheartened, discouraged, despondent, dispirited, unhappy, miserable.

The pinebox car derby can do this to a young boy's soul. Oscar competed for the first time and describing his feelings as dejected is a gross understatement. To put it mildly, his car was not so good. Six races, sixth place each race. I told him that his numbers multiply to the highest number; it didn't help.

His original design was a dragster, but it turned out to be 1/16" too narrow, so we had to improvise. Maybe we should have improvised some more. When you look through the pictures, I'm sure you'll be able to tell which one is Oscar's by looking at the paint job. He sure loved getting the car ready to rumble.

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Another School Year Has Begun

September marked the fifth year of schooling in the UK for the Kriebel kids. Five years already. They went back to school a couple weeks ago and while I'm always excited to see what a new year bring to them, it makes me a bit sad to see them growing so quickly and beginning to leave the nest.

HENRY

Believe it or not, Henry has started year 7 (or middle school for my American friends). Seriously! WTF! How is he already so grown up?

He's moved to a new school, which means making new friends, finding his way around what must look a massive place. He has settled in well. He meets a friend everyone morning (at the wine shop because that's how his friends identify where they live) and they walk to school together. Henry attends the same school as Elizabeth, so they see each other several times a day and often walk home together. Having her there has surely helped him settle in.

Each school has new rules. It takes adjustment. It takes learning. It takes courage. And Henry has sho…

No more trips to Vietnam

Well, last week was a big week for me. I decided to leave FCG and return to work for Coca-Cola Enterprises. I had been talking with the people I know at CCE since late last year about working with them and they finally had a position open up a couple of weeks ago. I'm excited to go back there and work on the business side of the company versus the IT side. I start on Apri l16.

I will be working in the Revenue Management Department as the Forecasting & Planning Manager. Essentially I will be the business process owner, facilitator, and coordinator of all forecasting and planning activities within the company. That involves working with all of the regional and corporate business units to ensure that the tools and related processes are thoroughly integrated across finance, revenue management, supply chain, logistics and sales. I will also be responsible for managing all of the support tools and solutions, so I still get to be a Project Manager.

This is a big job with lots …

Fort William Marathon: The Best Kept Secret in Racing

Earlier this year I had been training hard for the Limassol Marathon, through ice and sleet and snow, only to have what I considered a disappointing race. I struggled to recover mentally, but I knew I had another race on the horizon...the Fort William Marathon. This event was my first marathon back in July 2015, shortly after the family made the move to London. The main difference this time, though, was that we're three kids lighter with Michael and the twins all back in the US for some time with their friends.

I hadn't thought much about running this race again until Chris, the race organizer, reached out to me to offer me a complimentary spot. This was incredibly generous and given how much I liked the race the first time, there was no way I was going to refuse. Granted, Chris made this offer well before the race in Cyprus.

The posts-Limassol blues stuck around for much longer than I'd expected. I was really down on myself, questioning why I put in the effort and the tr…

My Kids & Me

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