the-richmonds.net

"New Product!  New Product!"  That is what we heard Brittannie say when she came home yesterday!  We LOVE to hear her say that!  Mom and I get to try out some of (Manny's sister) Rosie's newly developed products!  This weekend it was a new lip gloss!  They were those super shiny lip glosses that are in a cranky tube with the brush on the opposite end!  Mom and I both got one to try out!  Mine even had a bubble gum scent!  That was fun, it reminded me of my childhood!  Anyway, Rosie has her own business called Marvel and she creates all types of eco-friendly, all natural products for your body and home!  Mom and I have been able to try out so many of her products!  We absolutely love the house cleaner!  We have the cinnamon scent and the house and bathrooms smell wonderful after we use it!  It really works wonders on all surfaces!  Then we were able to try out her body lotion!  I have tried the baby powder scent and Rosie custom made a cinnamon lotion for me!  Awesome... it smells so fantastic!!  I love it!  My skin is amazingly soft and smooth after I use it, and it is not greasy at all and doesn't take long to sink in to your skin.  We love it!  Mom has tried the face moisturizer, and she can't say enough good things about it!  We got the regular tubes of lip balm in peach, which is like a summer day because there is a hint of coconut in it!  I also ordered the freshmint lip balm... awesome!!  For Mother's Day, she gifted us a decorative flower soap and a citrus butter cream!  Rosie's products are amazing!  They are really great prices too... if you are interested, go take a peek at her website!  You can shop on-line!  You won't be disappointed!  Thanks Rosie for letting us try out your fun new products!  You are amazing!  We can't wait to see what you think of next!

We have been pretty busy lately!  Matt and I worked the Aultman Hospital bookfair for Dad just before Easter!  Mom was on Spring Break so she willingly watched the kids for those few days!  It was fun to work with Matt again!  Shortly after that was Easter!  We had a pretty good turnout here!  Both sets of Grandparents were here with us and Britt and Manny were able to come up too!  We really missed having Steven and Ashley here, and we hope you enjoyed your Easter!  That morning, we had breakfast and then the kids found their "baskets" (we didn't really have baskets, what they got was too big to fit in a basket... next year we will get them actual baskets!).  We headed to ABF and service and then came home and had a huge lunch with everyone!  After lunch, Hannah had an easter egg hunt in the front yard!  The weather was wonderfully sunny, so it was nice to be outside!  Then the kids found their basket from Grandparents H.  We had a lovely day!

Congratulations Brittannie and Manny!!! 

Last night, Britt called us with the wonderful news that Manny asked her to marry him!!!  She said "YES!!"!!  

We are so excited to have Manny join our family!  We love you both so much and pray God's best for both of you as you plan your future together!!  We can't wait to see you and give you big hugs!!!  

Congratulations!  

The weather is getting nice and I'm starting to get some odd jobs to fill what free time I have between bookfairs.  As I think about gearing up for this summer, I am going to put a post up here to let everyone know of a need that I'll have for tools.  It's hard to get bigger jobs without tools, and it's hard to get tools without bigger jobs!  So I'm looking for a few things to get me started. Even if they're not brand new, I'll just need somewhat reliable tools to get me through a few years as I grow the business.

Here's some of the things I'll need to get me going with projects I will have this summer.  I'm hoping to avoid any type of financing. If you know of anyone that may have any of these tools that aren't being used and would be willing to donate them to my cause (or give me a really really good deal on them), please let me know!

• Air compressor and hoses
• Air nailers (framing for sure, maybe roofing as well)
• Chop saw
• Table saw

Please keep my efforts bathed in prayer as well, as I'm setting back out into the realm of self-employment again, hoping to develop a business of work that I enjoy over the next few years into something that I can use as a primary income source to support the family on.

We've been taking size comparison photos since the first week of Hannah's life.  I was curious to see how the two kids compared by month, so I created a size comparison comparison album and copied the photos from Hannah's and Mason's size comparison albums into it, and sorted them so that they are side-by-side by month.

I've uploaded and captioned a couple of new albums in the photo section of the website.  February and March are now available for viewing.

Hannah's 39th and 40th month size comparison pictures are now uploaded as well.  We've taken her 41st month picture, but it's still on the camera and will be posted with the next round of uploads.  We had decided that we'd stop taking the monthly size comparison pictures of Hannah at 3 years and go to every three or six months, but she still likes to have them taken since Mason has them every month.

Mason's 13th, 14th and 15th month size comparison pictures are now uploaded as well.

I've been keeping busy with bookfairs for the last few weeks.  The Easter sales rush is over, and so should my 70+ hour weeks (until the Christmas rush starting in late October).  I should have 40 hour weeks for the most part from now until mid-June.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  I was hoping to find something that would allow me to be home with the family more, but I am grateful for the work that I do have.  It is work that I am familiar with (no training required, just some minor adjustments to accomodate the way Rick runs his fairs), and the hours that I am used to running (it's nice to be paid for the time away from the family instead of hoping to break even at the end of the day after putting in those same hours).  In the off months I'm going to work on establishing a handyman business.  Doing odd jobs when I have time (whether remodeling, repairs, property improvements, light construction, or even mowing lawns) will help to keep bills paid during the slow bookfair time, and each job that I do will be another reference that I can have for my portfolio.  Maybe after a year or so of doing jobs during the off-time (gaining local references and building up my inventory of tools), I can start advertising and working on going full-scale with my own business.

Having the regular job, even though it may be added family stress because of the long hours right now, will allow us to be chipping away at some of the debts that we owe.  The extra time I have during the summer will allow me to start the pursuit of a career that is satisfying to me.  I don't mind the bookfairs, and Rick is great to work with.  But as I've been saying for the last three or four years, it is not really fulfulling work for me.  I like working with my hands, applying my efforts toward something constructive.  I enjoy looking at what I've done over the course of a day or week and seeing a job well done.  I don't really get that with bookfairs (at the end of the day, I see a room that is exactly the same way that I found it at the beginning of the day).  I've pretty much stopped throwing my résumé out to CareerBuilder, Monster, and HotJobs listings.  The only interest that I was getting from those venues were from companies that found me (not companies that I submitted applications to) that I would not want to work for, for some reason or another (I don't want to be an independent insurance salesman, or sell financial products or real estate.  And I don't want to work for any company with a questionable reputation.  But those seem to be the only companies that are looking to hire former independent contractors/entrepreneurs).

Over the last eight months, I've done a lot of soul searching.  It's been neat to see how God speaks to the concerns of my heart through different means at just the times that I need it.
     When I was struggling with my self-identity last fall (no one wanted to hire me, and I couldn't even afford to pay for the food that was on the table before us or the roof that is over our heads), our pastor did a multi-week series of sermons on finding our identitiy: in Christ.
     So many nights I would lie awake at night, unable to sleep because of things that were running through my head: how to pay off the debt that we owe, what can I do to help counter the direction that our society is moving in, what can I do to be a better husband and father, how can I provide for my family, and the list goes on and on...  I came to realize that in the eternal perspective, all that matters is what is done for God.  There's no way I can get through the trials of life on my own.  All I have today is only by the grace of God.  He'll get us through our trials and we'll be able to give him the glory through them and after them.  Even since I've come to this realization again (it seems like life keeps coming back to remind me of this every so many years), things have started to fall into place as far as work and finances go.  We should be seeing some major headway in this area within the next few months.
     Over the last few weeks, I've made a list of things that I would like to do with my time (I won't share that list here, the post is getting long enough).  I've decided that I need to make family a priority (the financial debts and economical concerns I won't be taking with me into eternity, but the seeds that I plant in my children's hearts and minds will make an eternal difference in their lives).  And I need to make sure that I am meeting all of my wife's needs through everything else that is going on.  I am guilty of letting my concerns get caught up on things of the world, temporal things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things.  With my preoccupations, I have been neglecting many levels of support that Heather needs, and I hope that she finds that I have come to that realization, and she is the top earthly priority in my life.  I appreciate everything that she does as a wife and a mother, and don't feel that I deserve her love most of the time (especially lately).  I hope that going forward I can show her the love that she deserves from me.

I love you, Heather.  You're an incredible woman, a wonderful wife and mother.  You are beautiful inside and out.  I love your tremendous heart for service and your compassionate spirit.  I love to see you growing closer to the Lord through our circumstances.  Thanks for hanging in with me through the tough times.  Here's looking forward to better times ahead!

I know it's been a while since any updates here, and it may be a while before I get to update again.

There were three Books Are Fun/ImagineNation reps in Canton, including Heather's dad (not counting my "active" contract for the area last season).  One of the other reps sold out to the other.  The remaining rep effectively doubled his account base and was in need of someone to help him run his additional events.  I was the first one that came to his mind when he was trying to figure out who to fill the spot.  So I've been putting in some long hours with Rick to help him through the transition.  It's especially long hours right now because we're working through two inventories, and I'm on a slight learning curve.  Yes, I'm familiar with the business, but I am working on learning the ways that Rick runs his business, and what inventory he has and where it is in the warehouse and at the show....

I'm just getting on the computer for long enough to check emails every night, do a quick facebook status check, and if I'm feeling ambitious I'll log on to Google Reader to see any updates on the websites that I like to check regularly.

So if you don't hear from me for a while here, now you'll know why!  It's hard to be putting in these hours again, but we are very thankful for the work!

Is it just me, or is a certain current United States President making it hard to Google for anything that is not him?  I won't be mentioning his name in this article, because I don't want to contribute to the web index that already brings his name up at the top of all search queries.  Even typing a letter into Google prompts the drop-down "suggestion" box for top results.  Just type in "O" and his name is right up at the top.  Out of curiosity, I typed in "B" to see if the former President has the same effect on Google.  Guess not, because the current President came up in that drop-down list too!

After reading one of my magazines that had dedicated an issue to President Abraham Lincoln and his role in defining the American Railroad industry, I was trying to search for information on Lincoln's 1861 Inaugural train ride from Springfield, Illinois to Washington, D.C. (specifically, I was trying to find a map of his route through Ohio).  All that comes up in Google is articles about how the new President retraced Lincoln's train route on his way to the inauguration.  At first this interested me, because I hadn't heard anything about his intent to retrace Linclon's 13-day, seven-state journey. Upon reading a couple of articles I learned that he only "retraced" the last 137 miles (referred to as a "slow" 6½ hour trip) from Philadelphia to Washington.  I guess this was just one more publicity stunt to create similarities between our new President and Lincoln.  It's not the first time that I've heard the two Presidents compared.  I suppose it is an effort to reinforce some notion that he will do for our country today what Lincoln did for the United States nearly 150 years ago.  I'm sure that Lincoln would be thrilled by the comparison.