Another eventful week

Life is moving along at the Browning house. Andrew's Dad, Bob, and his girlfriend, Janette have been visiting so we have enjoyed some down time this week that we haven't taken for a while. I had really planned on all of us watching a movie last night but by the time we would have started it Bob thought they would only get through half of it before they would want to go back to their motorhome. When they left and Robert went to bed, we stayed up, popped popcorn and watched a movie just the two of us. Neither one of us even fell asleep in the middle of it. I don't know when that happened last.

Andrew's business is starting to take off. God has a sense of humor and shows me where I err in my ways. I first started praying that Andrew's phone would ring. On that day, it rang twice, both times a wrong number. So then I prayed that we would get phone calls, then he got one that when he went to do the estimate on, it needed to be handled by someone bigger than him. So I finally started praying that he would get jobs. He has gotten a few to get him started and has leads on more. We never planned on him having anything at all in September so this makes us feel like what everyone has been telling us is true, it is something that is truly needed. By the way, we are focusing on both Jasper AND Cumberland counties, so if you know of anyone looking for a handyman in the Greenup area as well, please tell them to call us, or direct them to our facebook page. Starting Wednesday, we are going to have a spot on the radio, 8 times a day, from noon until 5 am Monday-Friday and all day on Saturday. This part is all a little surreal but a life long dream of Andrew's is starting to come true and I just absolutely love it for him, and love that I get to help make it happen. This week, I am planning on getting an ad to the paper as well. That part is all my responsibility, so it has to be fit in there with my REAL job, :-).

My job is, of course, crazy busy right now with the start of a new program year. I am now an invited guest to the Policy Advisory Council  and am a member of the PIPP steering committee. I went to Springfield on the 18th for the PAC and will go to Springfield on Tuesday for the steering committee. I love being involved in the decision making process and fell like that is part of what I really wanted when I was still an assistant fieldworker in the Olney office and knew I wanted to do more than take the applications. One of the best parts though is I get to spend most of those days traveling with my friend, Kathy, who serves in the same capacity as me in both instances.

I also have been doing lots of computer work lately, getting the last of our Windows XP machines switched out to new Windows 7 machines. I have done 4 in the last 8 days and have two more to do out in the field, hopefully next Friday. There is one that needs done in our office as well as I am trying to find new laptops for a couple of people in our office. Seems the days of that being simple are over.

Gibbs is great, growing like a bad weed. I got him a harness so he can enjoy the front porch and the back yard.

He has lived with us 7 weeks now and should be around 11 weeks old. I have taken at least 200 pictures of him, so see how many you are spared???

I put his little cat bed in the window on my desk, he LOVES it there, he can lay in it and look out and watch the squirrel that is almost always out there. For the most part, outside still kinda scares him, especially if there are any loud trucks go by. He seems very content for living in the house. I am still sad for him that he lost his family but I am hoping maybe he was little enough he doesn't remember, though he sucks in his sleep, so there is some memory there. We are very thankful and happy that he came into our lives.

He is about to grow out of his baby bed. I have a friend that is opening a new pet store this week here in Newton (Perfect Paws and Claws (www.facebook.com/perfectpawsclaws)--how sweet is that?) Anyway, I am hoping to get him a kitty condo there, one tall enough that I can set it by my desk and he can sit on a perch and sleep and still be able to see out the window. I am afraid by the time he reaches adulthood, he could take up a good chunk of my desk.

Today we are taking Bob and Janette to Lincoln Log Cabin to see the festivities going on there. Hopefully, Robert will join us for a picnic lunch (I took the easy way out, we are taking the cooler and stopping at Subway).

Here is a couple of pictures from our adventures last weekend, we took them to see some of the covered bridges in Parke county. It's kinda nice to see them without the Covered Bridge Festival going on, but I am STILL very excited for it to come up, come on October 13th! On top of everything else, it is the first time in almost 23 years of marriage that I don't have to wonder up until that morning if Andrew is really going to get to go with me- I still love that, we get to plan without waiting for the no word to come up.

(doesn't he look happy?? This makes ME happy!)

Browning Home Repair- the birth of a business

Today is here, finally! And we are ready. It has been a long summer, and a busy one but I truly believe this is the next step in the journey God has planned for us.

We have had a long history of having God show us things beyond our dreams. I can't seem to get one of the most trying times in our married life off of my mind this morning. We were living in Pontiac IL; Robert was 4, I was a stay-at-home mom and Andrew was, of course, working for Walmart. We had moved into an apartment that was beautiful, it had just been completely remodeled. However, it was the 1st floor of an old Victorian home and the electric and gas were seriously eating us alive. I had started seeking out things I could do from home to help the income situation. I had seen an ad in our local paper for a work at home job, when I sent my resume in, I got paperwork back that they wanted me to SEND THEM $79.95. It was the final straw for me that day. We were in a strange town and I didn't know a lot of people. I called my sister and literally sat and bawled. I couldn't believe God was telling me to leave my son with strangers while I went and worked outside the home. I got off the phone with her and prayed. The phone rang again. It was so quickly after I hung up the phone with Sis that I thought it was her calling back. It was Andrew. We were being transferred to Southern Indiana. Average cost of rental houses was $300, half of what we were paying for renting our apartment. God is good, all the time.

So, back to today. As many of you know Andrew ended a 27 year career with Walmart in April of 2012; or Walmart ended it for him. If you don't know the story, go back into my posts and search April 2012, it's all there. He decided then that he wanted to go to work for himself. God just hadn't made it clear what we were supposed to be doing yet. Andrew had spent 4 years of his Walmart life running the Tire and Lube Express. The building across the street, which is a tire place was for sale, so we started looking there. Lessons learned from that: making a business plan, searching out legalities, and the fact that even though he was thinking him and Robert, we realized Robert needed to find his own way, this needed to be something just for Andrew. The Goodwill job came along and that coupled with a couple other doors shutting, seemed to be the answer for now. He was disillusioned with Goodwill from the start. I don't want to go into the details but he had not been happy there for quite sometime. He stated weekly that he wanted to quit. The woman that he was working for wanted him gone too. Just a week before my trip to Kansas City for work, that Andrew was supposed to go with me; they changed his schedule and cut our trip short. He wanted to walk that day and I begged him not to. Things actually came to a head on the day before our trip and he ended up leaving that day. That was a little lesson to me, I should have had enough faith that God would take care of us to say okay when they started messing with our plans. The way it ended up, we still had to cut our trip short because I couldn't get reservations for the last night at Brookfield again.

So, we started looking to God to see what He was thinking now. When the Walmart deal happened, I looked toward Dave Ramsey and made sure we would be okay if Andrew never got a job again. I had loosened the reigns a little but nothing so drastic as to the fact we wouldn't be okay. We are working on a major project with Robert's house but all in all, when I looked at the books; I told Andrew we would be good to go until October without even really making any lifestyle changes.

His first thought was to go back to school, he knew he couldn't handle the 12-15 hours a day that retail management required and he just plain out didn't have any desire to go back there. One day my mom called and was having a problem with the water pump at her house, Andrew went and fixed it, like he always does. It dawned on me what he needed to be doing. I told him that night I felt like he should look into being a handyman. He told me he didn't figure there was a need. I am going to tell you, he has always been good at this stuff and so we never have to call anyone else. (Our siding and roof was done by Dale Milliman, that one was too big for the time frame we had and Andrew was already working on rebuilding Robert's house).  We are both DIYers, and love it, but I truly believe there are people out there who aren't. After I went to bed that night, he started looking on the internet and realized maybe there really was a need.

The next morning, he told me he planned to start a handyman service. I was ecstatic. When I prayed about it, it was just right.

One morning shortly after that I was at our Weatherization office working on their computers. I told Denny, our head of Weatherization, what he was planning. I asked him what we needed to be legal. Denny said there are no licenses for contractors or electricians but that we needed to get his lead certification. He pointed me in the right direction for that and we got Andrew enrolled in the class.
(Plumbers and Roofers have to be licensed- Andrew will only do very minor things to do with either of these, but if someone needs a new roof or major plumbing lines, he cannot do that, which is fine because we have fine licensed professionals around who can). I texted him on July 24th and told him we needed to plan on starting the business on September 18th because the fall festival parade was scheduled for the 13th and we could hand out information there.

So, the last 6 weeks have been a flurry. Andrew found a man who is a seasoned handyman. He has made a fixed price list as well as a guide to getting his business started. We bought Andrew uniforms, had business cards printed, magnets for the truck and then I made brochures and ordered refrigerator magnets. I bought shirts for me and Robert for today and just did the logo with my cricut for them. Thursday night we had a "brochure party". My mom and I worked from 4:30 to 8 glue-dotting magnets into the brochures (the brochures got here Wednesday). The guys came home at 8 from working at Robert's and helped us finish, which we did at 8:30. Last night was the first night in ages I don't remember having something to do for the business. But we are ready.

Today is the day. I have on the calendar that Monday the 18th is the "First Day of Business" but we actually had our first paying job last Tuesday.
 That was really just a little positive that I needed because even though we are being met with tons of encouragement and excitement, it set in last week that this is just a little scary.

I got the facebook page up and running last week and I hope to eventually get a website. I have been just a little busy at my own job though so I will do what I can when I can.

He wants to stick to small repairs, home maintenance and home improvements, as I mentioned earlier, we have a lot of reputable, great contractors for your major projects, but a lot of times, they do not have the time to run and do little jobs when they are in the middle of more major things. Andrew wants to fill in that gap as well as do the maintenance things that just needs done to keep your house healthy.

So, here we go, truly a new chapter of our lives.  Hope to see many of you at the parade!

Happy, happy start of your new business Andrew!