The summer has been a whirlwind of fun. My parents were here for about 6 weeks, though they did travel a lot during that time. I was able to spend about 8 days with them down at my sister’s house in Indiana and also here in Wisconsin for about another 2 weeks. Then later this summer I flew out to Oregon to visit my grandparents there and my parents, sister and brother-in-law were also all there. Most especially my cousin Jon was there and I hadn’t seen him in literally 10 years. It was so good to reconnect with him. We are planning on taking a trip to China in a year and a half or so. It’s also been a long time since I’ve been in China so that’s about due.

My job with Lifetouch is going swimmingly. I’m #1 in sales for our region and consistently ranking in the top 10-20 nationwide. That’s an amazing blessing from God. My boss wants me to be a trainer, but unfortunately this is going to hurt my sales because I’ll still get paid on commission but it’ll be the commission that the person I’m training makes, not me. So yeah, lower sales. Ah well. I don’t plan to be doing much training because of this. Otherwise I’m very thankful for this job.

I purchased a Harley Davidson a couple months ago as well. Boy has that been fun. Like seriously more fun than should be allowed. It’s my first bike so I rode it around my apartment complex for about 60 miles before I actually took it on the road. Now I’m very comfortable with even freeway riding. Still gotta take the class this coming week though. After that I’ll have my endorsement and will be able to do night riding, which will be good because then I can ride to work and save a bit on gas money. Interestingly I found an old photo of me sitting on a Harley in the Milwaukee Harley museum, taken 10 years ago this Thanksgiving. Now 10 years later it became a reality. I’ll have to post side by side photos of me then and now.

I can’t believe it’s September, that means it’s getting closer to when I’ll be saying brrrrrrr!!! Dang.

Well it seems that the winter is finally over. In fact there wasn’t much of a spring around here. As my friend Casey put it, in Wisconsin there is winter, and then there’s a death match between winter and summer, and then there’s summer. I feel like that is pretty accurate as it went from 30s to 70s in like two days. Sure is nice weather now!

I’ve been enjoying my new job at Lifetouch quite a bit. It helps that I’m ranked #1 in the region and that sales are going excellent! My boss is currently on maternity leave and so my schedule is being dealt with by another manager. It seems like not everything is running as smoothly as when my main manager was in charge but she should be back at the beginning of July or so.

I feel like this job could be a long term job for me. At least working with Lifetouch could be. There is another position called Church Consultant that I am interested in learning more about. That is the position that sets the churches up with Lifetouch to have their directories done. It seems like I would have more freedom as far as my schedule goes and probably a higher income as well. I don’t know a lot of details about this job so I plan to ask Michelle my manager when she gets back from maternity leave.

Also as I say I did make it through this winter in Wisconsin and I’m pretty much loving life here so I’m actually thinking of buying a house next year once my lease is up on this apartment. Casey and I have the lease until next March, so that’s about the time that I’ll be considering looking to buy a house. I talked with a mortgage lender from Wells Fargo and she said to talk to her again in January so we can get the ball rolling. So that’s what I plan to do, though of course I also plan to talk to other mortgage lenders to see who I want to go with. There’s tons of other things to keep in mind as well when I’m thinking of getting a house.

I’ve been back in the States since October and have had a couple of jobs here and there, but they weren’t very good and didn’t last long. Well it’s been just a bit over four months and I finally have a job that I feel will be a good fit for me. I’ll be working for a company called Lifetouch. They are the largest photography company in the United States. I’ll be working in their church directory photography department. This means that I’ll be driving to churches in my area and will be shooting family portraits for the church members. I’ll be starting my training this coming Wednesday and will start the job the following Wednesday. I’ll be doing 2nd shift, which is basically 2-9pm. I’ll only be working Wednesday-Saturday because I have a Tuesday night Bible study that I want to attend. My new boss said it’s fine for me not to work Tuesday, though I will work a Tuesday here and there.

Another thing I’ve been working on since last June is trading on the Forex market. I’ve been trading a demo account since then and have learned a lot. I’ve been following the blog of Nial Fuller and I feel like I’m finally ready to start trading a real account. So I’ll be doing just that after my job actually starts giving me an income. I don’t feel comfortable risking my hard earned money on the Forex market until I know I actually have a steady income. As I start trading however I’ll be posting about that and we’ll see how I do. My goal is to be making a full time income from the Forex market within 2 years. It’s a lofty goal but I’m dedicated to making it happen.