Oh yeah... by the way....

Helen's pregnant again.

It has begun.

On the eve of her second birthday, I've come to realize that it's begun. What? You may ask.

The terrible 2's. That's what.

She is into everything and I mean... everything. Once you've stopped her from one thing, before you can turn around she's into something else.

All day, every day.

I go crazy and I'm not home much. I can only imagine what Helen goes through, especially now that Ben AND Josh are both in school.

She's lucky she's so dang cute!

Hallelujah!!

Today was a momentous day in our lives. One of significant importance, rivaled by few other events. A turning point, if you will. Our family has been greatly blessed by this occurrence and will be bless by it for the rest of our lives!

Have I built it up enough? Do you want to know what it is?

Any guesses?

Win the lottery? Nope.
Huge job promotion? Nope.
Fantastic performance opportunities? Nope.
Business performing hugely above expectations? Nope. Not yet anyways.

Morgan used the potty for the first time? Yep!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it?! Let me recount for you the events that transpired on this sacred day.

Apparently, while Helen was getting Morgan dressed, she was going through the process of putting Morgan in a new diaper. Before the new diaper could be put on, Morgan said. "I go potty." Now, we haven't been working hard to get her potty trained but the potty has been out and she likes to sit on it and "read" (she gets that from me) while we're taking care of business.

So, back to the story. Morgan, sans diaper goes into the bathroom but I've moved the potty into their room, under her crib. (I really dislike kicking it all the time). Finding the potty missing, she goes to her room, finds it under her crib and takes it to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Helen hasn't been paying to much attention as all other "sittings" have ended in a empty bowl.

A few minutes later from the bathroom, Helen hears. "I done!", "I done, Mommy!". So she treks to the bathroom and lo and behold... pee pee! In the potty no less!

Soon, we'll have a picture of her in the act to memorialize the event. She's only 6 months or so ahead of her brothers and 2 days before her second birthday.

Hooray! Tis a happy day!

www.thereedroom.com

We're almost legit!

We only need a fire inspection to complete our business application. And it was far less expensive than we had originally anticipated.

$22 for a "DBA" (Doing Business As)
Obtaining a Sales and Use tax number was free
$40 business license from the city
$25 Home business permit

$87 bucks! I was shocked!

We're also receiving free counseling from the Utah Small Business Development Center. They receive their funding from the State of Utah, the US Small Business Administration and local universities.

We've had one-on-one counseling sessions and the offer free* classes on just about every subject that would be beneficial for small business owners to know. (*the courses are free, the materials in the courses are not).

We had (and still have) tons of questions but now we have an educated, experienced ear to offer input and explanations for us.

We expect to have our official license in the next two weeks and the website up and running in almost 3 weeks. So we've begun developing our marketing campaign. The primary focus will be to develop a local client base and spread through out the neighboring states. As it is, having worked for Summerhays Music has been a big advantage for us, I now have relationships with every band director in the county. I've also been compiling a list of all the schools and band directors in 7 states. The plan is once we've established ourselves locally, we'll start a direct mailing session to the schools in the intermountain west in addition to internet advertising.

While the licensing costs were lower than we expected, I don't think we fully grasped the costs of business materials. We need, boxes, baggies, tubes, packing peanuts, labels and label makers, letter head, business cards, an additional phone line, fax machine, a new computer desk, filing cabinet... sweet frijoles batman! We had roughly $1000 allocated for start up and just getting the basics we're tapping out. There's still a couple of pieces of equipment that we'd like to get, as well as more raw materials.

So, while we had originally decided to not apply/take out business loans, we might end up taking out a small loan. But that's still up in the air.

And it's kinda nice to be an entrepreneur. There's a feeling of freedom and ownership that doesn't come with being an employee. Although, we were strongly advised for me to NOT quit my job until the business is providing a consistent supporting income.

Really?! Nah! You don't say!

The website is being designed by our Brother-in-law (Helen's sister's husband to be exact), he dabbles in the graphic arts and is a network technician or something like that for the University Valley State College. So we have full confidence in his abilities and he's been very professional in the handling of things thus far. Don't worry, I'll slip him a cool, crisp twenty for his labors.

So, that about sums things up to this point. We're at the nervous, anxious stage where we might be hugely successful or barely covering our operating costs. The fact is, we really don't know what the response will be like. We have an idea of what it might be like either way but we won't really be able to tell until things are up and running.

Thanks for everyone's support! This wouldn't have been able to happen without it!

Labor Day = Family Day!!

It's been a rare days in the past 3 months or so, that we've been able to spend time as a family. Are there lots of reasons? Surely, school, work, sleep, ensembles, lessons, teaching... you name it.

But this day was gonna be different. Occasionally, we take the kids out to breakfast. They're favorite is IHOP. The first time we went we ordered them each a meal and ended up with 5 times as much food as we could possibly eat, although Ben tried! We've since learned that we can get away with ordering 2 breakfasts and splitting them between the kids. So, this morning we headed out at 930 to go to IHOP. I know, you're already saying to yourself, "9:30?! On Labor day!? Good luck with that one!" and you're right. We didn't even stop. The line was out the door.

So much to our kids dismay, we began the search for another restraunt. We drove and drove and drove until we ended up almost at home. Once the boys recognized where we were, we were assaulted with pleas to not go home. But I had a plan, I had remembered there was a new Mom & Pop cafe that opened just down the street from us. So, what the heck, I'll try it.

The kids were skeptical, it looked nothing like IHOP. No bright colors or over the top menus or logos. This certainly wasn't what they had in mind. Thankfully, hunger was beginning to set in which made them willing to give it a shot.

The insides were clean, humble, there we nothing fancy. The place could only seat maybe 40 people at time... max... and that's a high maybe. Probably more like 25-30 people.

The kids were excited to see that they're favorite breakfast, "Happy Pancakes", you know, the smiling pancakes made with whipped cream and all the other healthy stuff kids love, were on the menu.

We'll take 3 of those thanks, as for myself, I'll have the chicken fried steak and eggs (my normal eating out breakfast. For those of you that don't know me that well, I really dislike sweet breakfasts. I don't know what it is... I'm happier ordering a burger than pancakes or french toast.) Helen took some simple eggs and pancakes.

We were happy that they had crayons and place mats for the kids AND they brought out a small plate of goldfish. The kids were stoked. IWHO? This place has goldfish!

They bring out the food and Ben, the observant and outspoken one, realizes that, these are not Happy Pancakes. The waitress had barely put the plate down and seriously, I mean, barely put the plate down before it was "These aren't happy pancakes". What was placed before him was a single, large pancake with a orange slice perched on it.

Now, I'm going to assume that most of you have and/or once have been children but remember that face where they were expecting something fabulous and fun for Christmas and they opened the box socks. Yeah, remember it? That's what they looked like. In almost total silence, speechless by the disappointment of a "unhappy" pancake presented to them.

There's always that brief moment where they:

1. Analyze the situation
2. Decide what course of action needs to be taken
-Do I cry, do I take this horribly unhappy pancake and eat it? Prehaps drop it on the floor, always a good choice.
3. Act

Luckily for us, the waitress heard Ben and realized the mistake before step 3 could be followed out, cause by the looks of things, they were planning on taking the "Lets throw a fit in the middle of a restraunt" decision.

Apparently, we were being served by 2 waitresses, on that took the order and one that dropped it off, so, the unhappy pancakes were removed and made happy.

Yea!

With the corrected plates and peace and tranquility restored to the table we enjoyed our breakfast. Ben devoured his food, Josh ate half of his pancake... the top half and Morgan was the perfect little girl. My chicken fried steak was the best one I've had since.... well, it could possibly be the best one I've ever had and I didn't hear any complaints from Helen. I snitched a couple bites from Morgans' pancake... and it was good. Not the doughy, flavorless kinds at IWHO, these were lights and sweet, not icky sweet but a "hmm... these are good" kind of sweet.

And the happiest part?

The bill!

We ended up paying $23 AFTER tip compared to the $36 or so from IWHO.

We'll be going back. It's nothing fancy but then, neither are we. The food is good, I like good food and the price was cheap, I happen to also like cheap.

Then the next question... what now? We had several options:

1. Bowling
2. Miniture Golf
3. Movie
4. Hiking
5. Aviary
6. Zoo

We immediately eliminated the Zoo, we knew that place was gonna be thronged with people. We have an annual pass so, we'll go when we have the place to ourselves thank you very much. The Aviary is nice but we had the same feelings about it like the zoo.

Hiking, well, is hiking. If you've ever been hiking with a 6, 4 and 2 year old, you know how much fun that can be. 20 minutes in, I'm carrying the 4 yr old and Helen's got the 2 year old and the 6 yr old is somewhere.... I'm not sure where exactly... but he's not crying.... yet.

Lets try the movies, kids like those, we like those. Confined environment with drinks and snacks. We decided to see Cars, which everyone but me had already seen. The next showing was in 10 minutes (11:50) eh... I'm sure that one is packed, lets check out the next one. 2:20. That'll work. We can do some shopping and maybe a light lunch and then come back.

Well, when we came back it was SWARMED with people. Umm... yeah, no thanks. Miniture golf it is!

Now, this is something Helen has been wanting to do for a long time. We got enough clubs and balls for everyone, including Morgan. Well, at the 3rd hole, we were lapped by the group behind us, Josh decided he didn't want to play and Morgan... well... is 2.

In order to stay ahead of the people behind us, we had to skip every other hole. Ben was not happy about that. But he had fun nevertheless. He had a couple of nice shots including the only hole in one. And Helen beat me on just about every hole. Except the 18th, which I had 2 holes in one! (my ball and Morgans). Yea! Who's the man?!

We finished off the day at Iceberg drive in, a local burger joint with some great shakes.

My day ended with going home and sleeping in preparation for work and school today!

All in all, it was a fun day! For everyone!

Here's hoping yours was as enjoyable as ours!

Recent Developments

Just a quick recap of recent happenings.

I'm back to school full time at UVSC taking 18 credits
-Classes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 830am-145pm

I'm working graveyards at iArchives as a scanning technician

I'm still in the Utah Valley Symphony and Helen will be auditioning for and Oboe position next week and an English Horn chair in 3 weeks.

Ben started first grade and is already one of, if not the, best reader in his class.

Josh starts Head Start in a week.

Helen and I are in the intermediate stages of getting the reed supply company off the ground. We've already acquired the urls:

www.reedroom.com
www.thereedroom.com

For those of you who haven't heard us talk about this much, earlier this spring we spent the majority of our tax return on reed making equipment. We purchased a cane splitter, pre-gouger, gouger and shaper tips. Oboist use a piece of cane that is normally grown in France, however it is also available from Italy, Spain, Argentina, China and the US. They're grown in fields to specific heights and diameters, then cut and cured for a couple years (the longer the better). Then its cut to varying lengths ending up like this. From there the cane is split and pre-gouged. The using the gouger, the center of the cane is removed until it reaches the desired thickness. Most oboist don't do the gouging themselves unless they are at a University that has a gouger available to them, as gougers cost roughly $1000. Now it's ready to be shaped and folded using an easel and the shaper handle and tip, ending up like this. Then for beginning and intermediate students Helen will have finished hand made reeds for sale as well.

A pound of cane purchased in the States varies on the brand and the sell but can vary from $90 a pound on up. We intend to import it from the growers and it will cost in the neighborhood of $50-$70 a pound. We can expect to get on average about 100 pieces of cane from a pound, after it's been split, pre-gouged, gouged and shaped. We won't be able to sell every piece but around 60% would be about right. The average price for a piece of gouged and shaped cane is close to $2 each. So... $2 per piece x 60 pieces = $120. Not to shabby for $50 worth of raw materials. Of course that doesn't include time/labor but since we're doing the work that's not a big deal. Finished reeds will be in the $10 range, as they include a staple, a pieces of gouged and shaped cane, tying and scraping.

We intend to sell via the internet and are taking the steps to become an actual company, licensed in the state of Utah. We don't intend to apply for loans as right now, we have almost all the tools we need, there a couple things on our wish list but they're wants not needs. We already have several pounds of cane in varying stages of production and just need to get the website up and running, put our some marketing material and hope for the best.

Helen has been selling cane and reeds for about 18-24 months now. Originally, she would buy gouged cane, do the shaping then resell it to her students and teacher (for herself and her students). It's something that she enjoys doing and can make a significant contribution to the family income.

Hopefully in the next 6-8 weeks we'll be in business and rollin' in the dough!

Actually, we want to take things slowly and carefully and make sure that everything is in balance. Family, business, school, etc...

That's about it for now. We'll keep you updated of any developments!