November 7th, 2012
Federal Representation
June 12th, 2011
I am blessed
Almost eighteen months ago (January 2010) I was at my friend James Hooper's house enjoying a meal and discussing the changes that had come my way. At that point I had been self employed for just over three months and was shocked and amazed at how blessed I was to be able to keep feeding my family. I felt at that point that while it still was difficult to have left my employer of ten years, it hadn't been nearly as difficult as it had looked when that decision had been thrust upon me.
I walked away from that dinner thinking I really needed to write and catalog all of the ways I've been blessed. Now I think the time has come to list a few of those blessings, and blessings that have come since publicly, not to brag, but to acknowledge the help I've received.
- A supportive wife, who I know has felt a lot of anxiety at times as I've pursued buliding my company, but has continued to support me and help me through the struggles of the business.
- My now two beautiful children, Sandra and Abigail who both bring so much meaning to my life. They provide a ton of motivation to keep moving forward, and at the same time so much joy, pride, and amusement as I watch them grow up
- Great friends who have given advice, referrals, and early on when I was deciding what to do referred me to potential employeers
- Valued customers who have taken the chance on a new company, and in at least two cases encouraged me to start my company.
- COBRA, yes it was expensive, but it allowed us to move forward with self employment while Megan was pregnant without a laps in coverage.
So I guess to sum it up, I have been blessed beyond measure, and am excited to see where life takes me next.
—Bill
November 24th, 2007
Procrastination is a bear
Megan is out shoping with Kelsie for a few things her Mom wants them to send back to Souix Falls for Christmas, and I'm home trying to study for finals and catch up on homework, at least in theory. I have to drive over to the school in just under a hour and I'm having a terrible time focusing on what I should be doing. A couple years ago Eric posted a link on his blog to a paper by Stanford professor John Perry about "Structured Procrastination". If I could only structure my procrastination better my efforts around the house would certainly pay off. For instance there are still boxes all around the living room from me pulling out the Christmas ornaments. Second I'm pondering the best way to generate some example graphs for my political analysis class rather than just start generating graphs. Once on my mission I spent three weeks programing a series of reports into the office computer so that in the end I could generate the entire months reports with just a few key presses (it used to take about two days), but it occured to me that I would never personally see the time that I saved, and that what the mission president changed what statistics he wanted to see every few months, so that the next Elder would have to keep making extensive changes. I was gratified to come back almost eighteen months later as my mission was ending and discover that about 60% of my work remained, but I doubt any time was saved all told...
—Bill
November 22nd, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
I just put my annual cran-apple pie in the oven. I hope it turns out because I think I got a little too liberal with the cinnamon, and to compensate had to leave the cinnamon out of the strudel topping. I also forgot to add a thickening agent to the apple slices to help them jellify. But even if I'm a little rusty at scratch cooking, I still love the experience.
It's really nice to be able to have a day to ponder my life and appreciate my blessings. I know that Sunday is supposed to involve that as well, but I'm especially grateful this year because I've been so busy between work and school. Of particular importance today is my wife Megan, and the work she is doing for our future family. I'm so grateful that our family will be getting larger in seven months. It took me almost thirty years before I could form my own family unit, fortunately, my first child will be born when I'm still thirty one, if I had to wait another thirty years, raising a child would be very hard.
So once again, happy Thanksgiving everyone!
—Bill
October 14th, 2006
A new chapter begins, what a great day. . .
While my brother Eric has been commenting that I should join the rest of the family in using LiveJournal.com I just can't bring myself to open a account on a generic website when I own my own domains, so I've decided to setup a online journal here just in case someone out there is curious. This initial attempt will be a bit rough at first because I desire to reinvent the wheel, so it will be a while before anyone can comment back. But that is my eventual goal.
Perhaps I should comment on the moment that made today worth calling a great day. Kelly Dalton called me up to see how I was doing. This was wonderful because we haven't talked on the phone since I got engaged (we swapped a few email messages since then, but it just isn't the same). I was feeling a little overwelmed after church because our house is full of chores I haven't done, and of course, it's Sunday. So hearing Kelly's voice really pulled me out of my slump. He says they're going to come out in December, so I hope we can get together a few times for some fun and updating.
I was also thrilled to hear that Sam, Jessica, Bianca, and Eva (Megan's brother & family) were able to get on a flight back home. They had wanted to go home yesterday but Delta cancelled their flight. So after they had to check out of their hotel this morning they came over and stayed with us until it was time to go get in the standby line at the airport. As I drove them out there it seemed like they all really wanted to be back home.
Well that's about it for now, see you later!
—Bill