Massive Road Trip, Part 2

I realized that I had not completed my road trip post from last year, and in the spirit of finishing what I start, here is the rest of the story...


After we met up with my folks, we spent a few days with them, going to a reunion, seeing my grandmother on my mom's side, which was nice.

We headed to Altoona and spent a few really wonderful days with my Uncle Clayton, Aunt Barb, and cousin Caleb (who I hadn't seen since he was about 8, and who was just graduating from High School)

We helped prep for the coolest graduation party I've ever even heard of, got to see some elementary school teachers I hadn't seen in almost 30 years, and spent several days camping in their field and swimming in their pool.

Our kids really enjoyed the pool and the whole place was great.

From PA, we bee-lined it across West Virginia and ended up staying the night in southern Illinois at Lincoln Trail State Park.

That was only a one-night stop-over, and then we headed to Abilene, Kansas and spent the last few days of our trip with Nancy's extended family. The kids played with their cousins, we were able to visit with Nancy's sister and grandmother quite a bit which was nice.

Then we headed home to Colorado!

We hit a little weather on the way home (see the slide show from my previous trip post) but otherwise made it back with a TON of great memories and much closer as a family.

I can say now, 6+ months later, that this trip has had a really positive effect on our family. I think it was a bit of a turning point for me, shifting my primary focus from work to my family in real, tangible ways.

We're planning an even bigger trip for this summer, with our new camper. The big change will be that I will take time every couple of days to really check in and work, so things at the office continue to run smoothly. I'd love to be able to NOT work at all for the duration of the trip, but I think this will resolve some problems from last year's trip, primarily in the amount of catch-up that was needed once I returned.

I'll try and post more often here, now that the new year is upon us.

Thanks for reading!

The ongoing tyranny of self-employment

So this year marks 4 years in self-employment. To be accurate, in July I will have been employed for either myself or my company for 4 years.

I actually incorporated last summer, so I think technically I am no longer self-employed but am an employee of my corporation. I'm the CEO though, so I'll say I work for myself.

We had several large projects lined up for March. For different reasons both of these projects were put on hold by the client and we were left with little to do. I had to lay off one employee and everyone else went into really low hours mode. I shifted into full-time proposal writing and after a really slow March and April have emerged with a ton of work.

So now I'm very busy again. I am at work now (on a Sunday - just taking a break to update my blog). I've been working a lot with a very cool technology called Flex from Adobe. We had a bit of a rough go with a Flex project over the winter, but the work we are doing now is really solid and I am enjoying it a lot.

So here's the tyranny: it seems as if there is no consistent way to traffic the amount of work that comes in. We are either really slow and I am living with no paycheck so we can keep the business going, or we are buried and I am working all-nighters and Sundays to try to keep up.

Poor Nancy is very supportive but all this is really tough for her too. When I am slow she likes it because I am home and helping with the kids and working on the house, but money gets really tight.

When I am busy, we can eat out, but I am rarely around during the day and not often home to help with bed time.

I keep hoping that by investing in my employees I can create a team and a process that will somewhat insulate me from the wild swings - maybe we are still too small - but this doesn't seem to help much, or as much as I'd like.

We'll claw our way through the next several weeks and come out with some nice projects completed and some money in the bank, then we'll see what happens.

For those who know our family, we are all well. Emma is a bright, beautiful second-grader. Corben is a handsome, playful preschooler. Abby is as "two year old" as they come, but very sweet. Matthew is a very pleasant infant who makes us all smile. Nancy is working resource now (one day a week) and you can see what I'm up to.

I am still running the drawing class, and trying new media which is always fun. I've been playing a lot more guitar. I play in the church band and will be going with Sports Outreach (Kathy, Keith and hopefully Jill) back to Cabo where I will lead worship again this summer. Also this summer our whole family will be going to camp. I'll be a counsellor and photographer for the camp. Nancy will be the nurse and hopefully the kids can have a great time hanging out.

Leave a comment to say hi.

Matthew Ryan Daharsh

Nancy was scheduled to work yesterday but she was having some hard contractions the night before so she called in yesterday.

Her sister Sarah was planning on watching the kids yesterday while Nancy worked, so she came and ended up staying to help Nancy around the house a bit while I went to work.

I got a call from Sarah around 2 pm and she said that they were heading to the hospital and that I should meet them there.

I finished the call I was on when she called me, and headed to the hospital. I arrived at about 2:45.

Nancy and Sarah had arrived at the hospital at 2:36.

I walked in the room and things were in full swing. Almost right away Nancy's water broke and things went haywire.

Matthew Ryan Daharsh was born at 2:53 pm yesterday (December 12). He weighed 9 pounds exactly and was 21.25 inches long.

Here is a link to some photos.

Nancy and he are both well. The siblings have all met Matthew and I have had some good bonding time with him and Nancy.