Family Life and Friendship Network

I started out 2008 working for Linux Networx, a company I had only started working for 3 months before the year began. The investors, those who owned the company, had a strange sense of humor since they decided to give the whole company a very unique Valentine's day present. I came in to work that day, and went home a short time later with the information from HR on how to continue benefits since the company no longer existed. I quickly found another job with Treeline Group, starting the beginning of March. Treeline Group's the smallest company I've worked for yet. I helped develop websites there, and it was a good job to have while deciding where we would live after the school year finished. My mother still lived with us to help take care of Julie and the kids, and had been doing so since shortly after we found Julie's brain tumor. Our choice depended on a few things: including whether my parents sold their home, and if they did, where we would find a new home. My dad still lived at home in West Valley City.

My parents set a date on which they would take the house off the market. The last day it was on the market, they got a bid. We found a nice home one street over and made a conditional bid on it. Our bid would only be valid if my parents house closed since they would take care of the down payment for me, at least all but the $2500 I had saved up. They closed on my parents house and a few days later I closed on the new house one street over. Now I had a job in Orem and a house in West Valley City. Treeline Group needed a faster programmer - I'm not very experienced with web development yet, and I needed to move, so it worked out well both ways. I started working for Guru Labs in Bountiful just as we moved to the new house.

Our new house is a dream come true in many ways. We have 3 bedrooms upstairs and 2 downstairs, a large family room, a nice lounge for visitors, landscaping for flood control, heated water under the basement floor for energy conservation, and many other things. My parents moved in first until the kids finished school, and then we moved in. Julie will probably always require full time care and support, so it's good we have this nice home to share. Linux Networx was a good job, Treeline was even more enjoyable, but Guru Labs was the best. I officially started with Guru Labs June 1st and worked there through August and into September. I went to Denver, San Francisco, D.C., L.A., and Philadelphia, and taught various IT professionals basic Linux System Administration skills. I also taught a couple Red Hat certification courses and received a couple Red Hat certifications. As for the kids, they are also doing well. Hiram and Avalon are doing well in school, getting good grades. Benjamin loves kindergarten, and he's since he could read a year before he started, he's way ahead of his class in many things. James, well, we're just trying to get him walking.

Julie had a treatment change recently in which they installed tube through which they can Julie her latest chemo treatments directly to the part of her brain where the cancer cells remain. I'll update my blog after some time has past when we have a better idea how the treatments are going. The last part of the year has been quite a struggle. I am again looking for employment, and I got to finish the last few days of the year off with a kidney stone and toothache(s) through the whole right side of my mouth. In spite of it all, I'm still optimistic about the future, and hope to be able to provide a good Christmas for others some day like others have made possible for my family the past couple of years. I'll be working hard to find success in 2009.