Fall and Rounding the Corner

Crisp cool fall has arrived here in Memphis! We took the boys to the Lodge for their fall break with Alee and Stacey. They had the best time! I made a skeleton scavenger hunt which led to about 6 more scavenger hunts, we had lots of bonfires, and everyone slept hard at night from long days playing. Aunt Alee will send me photos eventually. :)

Ted and I have had a long stretch of being at home, something we knew would happen with this job. We had a long trial this summer and needed the recovery. People from our old job are crumbling personally after more work than possible to do, being out of town for months on end, and pay cuts. Ted and I took a huge risk starting this business in the face of an economic downturn. We are keeping our heads above water, having the kids much more than he ever would have with our former jobs, and not having to be apart for as long. Owning a business is really hard. If you own it with the person you love most, you also have to work really hard to turn off your business mind and listen/love them without business there too. Ted and I hope to build this company but we also hope mostly to enjoy life. His mantra in life is "Happiness, Health, Success, Wealth" in that order. Happiness was a huge choice in how we rearranged choosing this life for ourselves--together as a family. Getting here was hard. Staying here is a no-brainer. Health is living life with smiles and encouraging each other to live life at the fullest. (we are really working hard to get in 200 lengths a week at the pool right now!) Success has easily been able to be seen in how hard we work together but the down time in work has made us look at our family success. Ted is my family. The kids have become my family. Success is seen in them coming to me for comfort, smiling when they see me, and responding to this family. I'm not a child of divorce. But I am a child of two parents who are devoted to each other. I think they see that and are pretty remarkable at being able to make a split home life work for themselves. They seem really happy which is ultimately what is most important for their lives. This is a huge success for all parents to these kids. The Wealth part is money but also richness. No one starts a business to become poor. We have a lot of potential here that with growth by the two of us, will eventually add more employees. Sure we'd love to retire in 10 years but it's not that easy. We put wealth last because it's only the icing on the cake to the others of his mantra. I feel like we're "rounding the corner" of solutions to stagnant down time. Fall is here, the weather is nice, hearts are happy.