Recap of 2001--2004

To give a little background into the last five years:

As soon as I returned from Russia, I went back to school at a little college in downtown Salt Lake City called LDS Business college. Working part time I sold cell phones in the mall and commuted every night back to Provo ( a three-hour trip on the bus) to spend time with my fiancee. I proposed to AmyLyn a few days before I left to Russia and she agreed. We did not see each other or talk to each other for the 26 months while I was gone. Although we had both changed a lot during that time, our feelings for each other were even stronger, and we were married in April of 2001, four months after I returned.

After we were married, I sold satellite systems for a local company in Utah county. We were soon managing our own store. Although the hours were long, especially since we were both concurrently attending school, we did well and were able to save $9000 in five months for a down payment on our first home. We bought a little 2 bd/1 bth home in Provo with seller financing. After the room we had been renting to save money, the little 1930s home seemed like a palace! The first several months, we just had our piano and bed and camping furniture! But we were more concerned with other things.

Nearly a year into selling satellites (and about the time our first child was due) we realized we could do a lot better on our own: that was the birth of A&R Technologies. It was the perfect transition. I was able to take over most of the management of the business (hiring, training, sales, etc.) while my wife stayed busy keeping the paperwork straight and juggling our new baby boy and her last few semesters at school. We worked hard at that for another year (growing and learning a lot along the way) and then incorporated in the beginning of 2003.

Instead of renting an office, we decided to buy an office building. We found one that was very undervalued (with a seller who would carry financing), and although the existing lease contract on it fell through (the lease would have paid the mortgage on it for the next two years but we only collected 1/2 of one month's rent before the tenants defaulted and moved out), we soon filled the leases on the rooms we didn't need so our "rent" was less than we would have payed somewhere else. Less than a year later, we sold it for a $25k profit.

During this year we decided to build a new home, so we sold the little house we had bought for $76K for $103K for sale by owner so we didn't have to worry about realtor fees. Unfortunately, there was more to building a home than we had anticipated (we were the general contractors ourselves) and there were lots of delays. What we thought would be a temporary visit with my parents (and the five kids still at home there!) lasted nine months! I love my family and they were awesome to let us stay, but wow, what an experience!

Two months after we moved in, we found out we were expecting again. My wife has hyperemesis gravidarum---she says if you or anyone you know gets really sick during pregnancy, beyond typical morningsickness, check out http://www.helpher.org/ ---those nine months are really rough. My wife gets to where she can even swallow sips of water without puking and so she has to get an IV for fluids. I'll try to get her to post a hyperemesis entry in case anyone wants more information on it. Anyway, that was one reason we didn't move out. My mom helped take care of our little boy and my wife (who calls herself "mostly dead" during that time) so I could keep working.

We moved into our beautiful new home almost exactly one year after we broke ground on it. We had our baby girl one and a half months later and moved out two weeks after that, having sold the home on a lease option that expires next year. (And this lease is worth its own post so I'll work on that later!)


Where we went next and what has happened since will have to wait for another blog!

I will edit this and add pictures and more details later. Come back---it is interesting! Also, if you've noticed the writing on my blogs is horrible for a day, and then in 12 to 24 hours it looks like a professional wrote it, it's because Amy (my wife) is a professional copy editor, and she takes the time out of her busy schedule to "make it good" after I've put the words down.