Turning 31

Today I turn 31.  As I look back at the last year of my life, I have a lot to be thankful for.  I also have a lot of goals for the future.  I wanted to capture some of my thoughts about the last year and the coming year below – feel free to comment.

Family:

Zander turned four, Lexi turned one, and we hope to be pregnant with number three in the next few months.  We were forced to move when our landlord put the house we were in up for sale, however I thank God that we were blessed enough to be able to make the move to a larger home in another great neighborhood closer to my job and the freeway.

Work:

I still have a great job despite the tough economic times around us. My job in IT has always been somewhat recession proof.  I’ve seen pay raises when others were being laid off, and I’ve gotten bonuses when businesses were filing for bankruptcy.  I don’t take such blessings for granted, I thank God daily for them.

Business:

I would rather own a struggling business and be self employed, than to have a great job!

Stephanie and I have continued to invest in A Baby Connection and the business is strong.  We are currently facing Diseconomy of Scale issues meaning that we have to put more money in the business before we can benefit from lower operating cost, lower per unit (per diaper) costs, and increased sales, increased profits.  But gross sales continue to increase and I believe the business has great potential.

I’ve also partnered with Brandon to start a new company called Kinetic Market, for IT services including website presence (websites, myspace sites, blog sites, electronic advertising), SOHO (small office, home office) services, IT consulting (helping companies to map out their current IT situation and design a blue print for how to get the most from IT for the direction the company is going), and image consulting (translating the vision of small businesses and non profits into electronic media, logo design, printing services, advertisements, etc).  We are just getting started, but I believe there is a great deal of untapped market in this niche.

School:

I’m in school (wgu.edu) and I believe I can finish in the next year and a half.  I actually took a science test yesterday but don’t yet know if I passed.  I would love to finish my four year degree in the next year and start work on my masters from sagu.edu, but even if it takes a little longer than that, I will continue to march forward.

Health:

I’ve not make large gains in the area of my health.  I’ve put on weight, then lost some, then put some on again.  Right now I weight about 300lbs.  My blood sugar has been high over the last few months because I have neglected my bike riding and discarded any real dieting.  In more recent times (the last month), I have started working out again and begun the process of adjusting my diet.

The Future:

I have started school and look to finish.  I have started working out and look to continue to make it part of my regular life.  I have started new businesses and will work to make them successful.  My goals here match the ones I made at the beginning of the year – lose weight, decrease debt, increase reading, increase business, and continue school.  I’m still working those goals – some have made better progress than others but none have left my mind or my path.