Hello From Brazil!

After 36 hours of traveling, we finally made it! One of our flights got changed, so we had a 12 hour layover in Sao Paulo before finally making it to Fortaleza. We made the best of it though, and got a hotel room near the airport so we could relax and get some sleep. We grabbed dinner at a churrascaria, (Brazillian steakhouse) which was amazing as usual before heading back to the airport. Last night we finally made it to Fortaleza and spent the night with Mark and Paige, who run the orphanage. They have a great home, and currently house several guys who have grown up in the orphanage and are transitioning out. We are headed to church in a bit, and maybe to the orphanage after that. More to come later…

Week 2

Week 2 of my new business, and so far things are not off to a stellar start. The hope in buying an established business instead of starting one from scratch is that you can step into something that is already productive and somewhat profitable. Unfortunately, the transition from the previous owner to me has not been very smooth. Dont get me wrong – he has been great to work with. However, pretty much everything that could go wrong has, and instead of being able to hit the ground running things are moving pretty slowly. The plan right now is to just tread water till I go to Brazil next week, then really crank it up when I get back. All in all things are not great, but they are also not bad. I am enjoying having something to pour myself into, and enjoying finally working for myself, which I have always wanted to do.

Can’t We All Just Be Friends?

The past week or so has been a pretty rough one for me. Several friendships in my life have gone though some changes, and that has gotten me down. In one situation some people who I thought were my friends have definitely proven themselves not to be, and in other situations a couple of friendships have simply gotten to the place where they need to come to a close. Since I am by nature an extremely relational person, this kind of thing does not come easy for me. I genuinely like most people, and in turn want them to like me. Probably to a fault. If there’s one thing that I put too much self worth into, it is my relationships with others. Although its not usually as obvious, it is not much different than when a person who puts their self worth in their appearance, material posessesions, or their abilities. You would think that after 20+ years of having Christ in my life I would find most of my self worth in him. But still I dont. So I struggle on….

Back To Work

I know that most of you will probably not believe this, but I finally started back working this week. Ok – once you have picked yourself back up off the floor, read on. This past Monday I closed on the purchase of a business here in Columbia. It is a 2 part business, both home inspection and a home inspector school. More to come on all that later. For now, suffice to say that I have been a busy man trying to get everything set up and running. Even so, i am having fun – it is an understatement to say that it feels good to finally have a direction to head in!

PS – This post was from my new iphone. Crazy cool technology…gotta love it

Colorado Pics

Finally got all the pics from the Colorado trip put into the computer. (bit the bullet and bought another camera) Check them out here.