Introduction, Part 2

Well, what happened once we got to Wisconsin?  


First, we lived in town in two small houses.  Steve was investing the equity of the home we had just sold, and we were able to live off the profits - until 2002.  Oi.  Steve started packing boxes at Lands' End for the Christmas season and was, fortunately, asked to stay on after New Years.  His mom had followed us up in 2001, and she gave us a few hundred dollars every month that paid for food.  We also learned the joy of living in the country - people kept giving us food!  We had squash pie for breakfast quite a bit.  Thank heavens, the kids still like it!  


When we moved to the property, my folks paid Steve to work around the property because we had gotten to the point where we thought we would have to move back to the city for a job  more suited to his computer skills.  With all the land to be mown, it was worth it.  Also, my mother had bought five alpacas to start our alpaca business.  I started getting a paycheck from the alpaca business because I was doing most of the fiber processing, which I had to learn on the job.  My dad, meanwhile, managed to get onto the board of directors of a few companies.  


Out of the blue, Steve got a call from the brother of someone that we went to church with in Chicago.  He lived in Wisconsin and we had only met him once and he was attending church with a gentleman who had a programming job that he didn't think he could handle; so he passed the job off to Steve!  That was a good time for us.  Knowing God's provision and the grace of the body of believers gave us so much joy!  The paycheck was nice, too.


Eventually, that job slowed down and Steve's brother had a vision for Steve.  It involved selling cell-phone service and accessories via websites to businesses.  So, Steve worked for two months to put together a basic model.  Bill's company didn't want it, so Bill changed companies.  That company wasn't too excited about it, either.  So, Steve worked for another two months without pay to further develop it.  The point of their website was that they could set it up in only two weeks and start selling phones immediately, instead of a year later, as most other providers had to do.  Finally, they were willing to take him on as a consultant on the off chance that it might work.  After four months as a consultant, they hired him and the whole company got a pay cut.  They were the poor relations at the engineering company but after Obama got into office, their little cell phone website supported the entire firm.  (No one was spending money on new engineering at the time.)  They now have clients like the Mormon church and the US Navy.  I'm so proud of him.  Not only that, but after three years, he finally got a raise!  


The alpacas are slowing down, but we still go to shows and sell our products in shops around Wisconsin.  I have enjoyed the fiber work and I'm glad to know how to do it, but I really want to focus on being a mom, since I'm getting more teens and they all want to TALK  to Mom!