An Entrepreneur

If you look up the word entrepreneur on Wikipedia this is what you find:

"An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. To the left is Robert O. Miller, a man who fully embodies all that is implied and understood by the word entrepreneur."

OK, so maybe it doesn't really have that last sentence, but it should! Robert O. Miller, my dad, is quite the entrepreneur.

When he graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, he quickly got a job with a big oil company somewhere in the panhandle of Texas. If I remember correctly, his job was to check in with the gas station owners. Somewhere along the line, my dad was asked to fudge some results or give some approval that, in the long run, could endanger these gas station owners. My dad was not comfortable with that, so he quit. Soon after, he became a door to do salesman - selling TV Guides while my mom taught school (and provided a consistent income.) Somewhere along the road, my dad decided that he didn't make a very good employee, so he decided to start his own business, or two or three hundred....

My dad had two main, long, "real" jobs as I was growing up. First, he ran an advertising agency. Then, when I was about 8 or 9, he sold that so he could buy The Hunting and Fishing Show. What that means is he would rent a convention center, divide the floor into booth spaces and rent a booth to anyone that had anything to do with hunting or fishing. Then, he'd sell tickets to the general public so they come come in and see different hunting or fishing demonstrations, book trips, buy gear, etc. At one point, he had shows in seven different cities. I think he owned that company for about 12-14 years.

But, neither an advertising agency or The Hunting & Fishing Show qualify my dad as an entrepreneur..... It's all the other interesting things he did on the side -- that he was sure were going to be his ticket to millions.... So, here's the list of all the things I remember him trying, in no particular order:

• He owned 3 shrimp boats and would sell fresh shrimp on the side of the road. (Two of his boats sunk and one is probably still sitting in a shop awaiting repairs.
• He would video other people's hunts.
• He helped his daughter (me) buy, mix, bottle, and sell Original South Texas Wild Game Marinade. (I had a booth in the shows and would sell the marinade.)
• He sold fishing luers and fiberglass rods online.
• He's owned a locksmith company, that my brother quickly learned to run.
• He recorded and sold (or rather, tried to sell) subscriptions to a Sportsman's audio commentary. (He and his friend would tape record their own hunting reflections and wisdom and try to sell them! Maybe they'd interview a few famous people or something too. Needless to say, that one didn't ever take off!)
• He ran a bone-fishing business in the Bahamas. (That was while I was in college! What a great vacation spot! John Grisham even went fishing there once.)
• He ran a reader's club.
• He created and tried to sell his own fish fry mix.
• During Desert Storm, he sold Saddam Hussein toilet paper on the side of the road. Each sheet had a picture of Saddam on it with the caption, "Wipe our Saddam!" on it.
• He has been a deer hunting guide and a fishing guide too, if I'm remembering correctly.
• He owned a carpeting business in San Antonio, where they would recycle carpet pads or something.
• He sold computer software online.
• He started the Bavarian Festival - it was a huge flop, but fun for the kids!
• He made his own fiberglass boats.
• He raised animals: snakes (HUGE 6+ft long pythons), ferrets, tarantulas, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, geckos, and more. (When I moved out of the house and my mom was at the end of her rope, he rented a storage unit and would keep all his animals there. He's have to go out there every day or two to feed them all. I hated going with him because I was always afraid a snake had gotten out!)
• He is also a land developer. That means he buys large portions of land, subdivides it, brings in water and electricity, and sells lots.
• Currently he owns a cement chipping company. He sends crews out to climb into cement trucks and chip off all the dried cement.
• He also has recently opened a cellulite burning clinic.

Needless to say, my growing up years were never boring! One of the things I really appreciate about my dad is his optimism. He was always convinced that his next venture was going to be successful (and some were), but he was always quick to bounce back if they failed. Through all these things, my dad employed a number of different people, and in my bias opinion, he was an excellent boss. He was fair, upfront, and honest.

Another thing I am thankful for is how my dad taught me that it's important to love what you do. Obviously, he's an outdoors man, so many of his jobs revolved around hunting and fishing. I like to hunt and fish, but that's not my passion. And, although, my dad doesn't completely understand my passion, he has always been quick to support and encourage me to pursue it with all my heart!

Thanks Dad, for all the fun memories we have, the example you set, and the wisdom you passed on! I am so thankful for you! I love you!

The New Look

By Amy

Well, the other day, I checked out a friend's blog and she had changed it all up. It was super cute, so I decided it was time to do a little revamping! And, since she had a link to "The Cutest Blog on the Block" I clicked on it to see what I could find. This is what I came up with. What do you think? (I figure since Brad doesn't post very often any more, it's OK to move away from the nice, but slightly masculine, lighthouses to cute stripes with a bit of pink.)

Free Entertainment

That's right! Contrary to popular belief, the main thing our family provides for the locals around us is free entertainment! We are often pointed at: "Look, Mommy - An outsider!"; touched "Oh, her skin's so white!"; and laughed at: "She's trying to speak Asianese!" And just a couple of weeks ago, our other foreign friends helped us put on a free show for every one's viewing enjoyment.

So, Kevin and Becky came over with John, Rachel and kids. We had a great time listening to a teaching and eating dinner together. Then after dinner, about 7pm, when it's dark outside, we all gathered in our living room -- in front of our LARGE window -- and enjoyed singing some songs together. Now our window overlooks a small courtyard. But there's another apartment building on the other side of the small courtyard also with large windows. So, basically, that means at night, when the curtains are open, lights are on, we feel like we can join in on the activities of other families on the other side of that courtyard. And, of course, they can be apart of ours as well. It's a cozy, neighborly, feeling!

Well, all was going smoothly, until Peter asked if we could sing Father Abraham. You know "Right arm, left arm, right foot..." Father Abraham. Well, Rachel was holding Christin, Becky was exhausted from a long week, and I was running the music/computer, so all the men stood up to dance with the kids! Now, from my point of view, I could see right past the men out our window to the building across courtyard. I soon saw one person pause in front of their window, then another and another. I'm not sure, but I think I saw people pulling out their cell phones and calling neighbors. "Hurry! Quick! Look at what those foreigners are doing now!" By the time the dancers were on, "Head up and turn around" we had quite an audience.

What a night! I can hardly remember ever laughing so hard in all my life! I'm sure we were the talk of the complex for weeks to come! Free entertainment, I tell ya! That's about all we're good for around here!

We did it again....

by Amy

Well, today, we bought a bunny - actually we bought 3 bunnies.... More about that in a moment.....

Our journey with bunnies actually began about a year ago. Brad and I decided it would be fun to have a pet in our world, so we bought Snowball. Her sweet life ended about 3 weeks after we purchased her when she decided to escape from her cage, jump into the bathtub and try to jump out again. We think she snapped her back in the fall. It was tragic. Savannah and I both cried.

About one week later....Enter Thumper.... She, too was a sweet, fun little addition to our family until she got stepped on.... Bummer. That was traumatic for all involved.... (I won't mention any names!)

About one month later.... Molly entered the scene. But, her life came to an end less a week later when she was "helped" (read: pushed) off our breakfast table bench. That too was a sad day for the whole family. By the end of the night, the cage was cleaned and put away. I told the kids it would probably be years before we attempted that again....

Well, last week, Brad decided we should try again. He reasoned that: 1. our kids have had a year to learn to be gentle; 2. we'll be in town for a while; 3. Savannah wants one; and 4. bunnies are fun. So, today the kids and I headed to a market to make our purchase! Brad said we should buy two bunnies, so that if one dies, we'll still have the other one. Good idea...maybe.

Well, the market, like most places in our country, was pretty busy and most people were quite excited to see this white mama with 3 kids ("Yes, they're all mine!" I said over and over again.) So, everything we did seemed to attract a crowd. We selected our first bunny from one vendor - a white albino one. She was cute and little and seemed fun. Then, we went to a second vendor. They kids wanted one that wasn't white so we could tell them apart. So they selected a tortoise shell colored one. I asked the seller if it was a boy or a girl (We wanted 2 girls...no need to explain where babies come from yet!) She picked the bunny up by her ears, flung her over, and checked her and soon declared she was a girl. I held her for just a second. She wasn't too active, but who could blame her....I figured she was scared to death after flying through the air suspended by her ears. The kids were so excited we bought her.

In the taxi I noticed this little bunny was not moving much. As I took her out of the cage and held her, she seemed really docile. We we got home the white one was happy to explore, but the brown one just lay down. With in an hour, she was dead! I don't think this is what Brad had in mind when he suggested we buy two bunnies. Needless to say, no one was too happy! I felt horrible for not checking the health better before we bought her (for less than $1.50).

So, during nap time, Savannah and I went back to the market and got a new bunny. I'm not sure, but I think the woman that sold me the bunny tried to tell me that the reason she died was because I had dipped my finger in water and tried to get her to drink a bit. "You know, bunnies shouldn't drink water." (Maybe that explains why the bunny was so weak and died!) Thankfully, she gave me a new bunny for free. She was quite active,so I took that as a good sign. This new one is also an albino. That's caused a little confusion, but I think it will be fine. They are super cute together. We've named them Rosie and Daisy.

So, we'll see how long his chapter in our lives will last.... Hopefully these little guys will out live their predecessors, but there's no telling....

100 Days of School!!

by Amy

The kids and I have been counting up to 100 days of school. We done several different things to keep track of the days, but our favorite has been putting together a puzzle one day at a time. Each day we had school, each kid put up one puzzle piece. (The pieces were ordered, numbered and color categorized to make it pretty easy.) And, on Wednesday, we put the last pieces up!! To celebrate, we had a 100th Day of School Party! It was super fun! The kids and I put quite a bit of time in preparing for the day....

The biggest thing we did was make a pinata. It was fun ... sorda. Well, it was fun to have a pinata, but making it was kind of a pain! And, it didn't exactly turn out the way I had pictured it, but the kids weren't disappointed, so I was thankful!

(Notice: we all have on monogrammed aprons/smocks - thanks, Sue!)

And, Peter and Savannah decided to take it upon themselves to color 100 day decorations, so our home was covered with new pictures all celebrating 100.

Then, Wednesday, finally came! We invited Clara, Chloe, Aunt Rachel and Aunt Becky to come and be apart of our celebration! That definitely made it more fun! We began our day, by having Savannah count to 100 by 2's, and Peter and Alex count to 100 by 10's. Next, Clara and the boys counted 10 rows of 10 paperclips. Then, we clipped them all together to see how long 100 paperclips really is! It's pretty long!

Then, after helping the kids have a visual concept of how many 100 actually is, I asked them some questions and recorded their answers on some paper hung on the wall.

First, each person said what they would like to have 100 of....

Adults answered too. These were some of my favorite answers. RC, can you guess who said what? marathons...pinatas...stickers...mango steens...bites of ice cream...kisses

Then, we each said what we would NOT like to have 100 of...

Some answers were: mosquito bites...lion in our house...hours of crying babies...shots...bags to carry. I'd agree with all those answers! Wouldn't you?!?

Next we read Ps100 and asked if we could 'enter His gates with thanksgiving' by coming up with 100 things to be thankful for! Aunt Becky manned the Thankfulness Chart, taking one kid at a time, while the others were at our school table. I had 3 bags of things. The kids had to look at each bag and guess which one had exactly 100 items. I had a bag of 60 peppermints, 120 pennies, and 100 beads. The size really seemed to trick them! Since 60 peppermints were the biggest, they must have the most... They were surprised when they counted and only found 60.

After making bracelets with the beads, the time came for putting the last puzzle pieces up! We went from:

to:

(Yes, we started school, on July 21, 2008, and it took us 227 days to do 100 days of school! That's what happens when you take a month off when Grandma comes to visit, a month off to go to Thailand, and other random days here and there.... That's the beauty of home schooling!)

After completing our puzzle, we looked at life 100 years ago. What kind of cars did they drive; who was president of the US; what type of clothes did they wear; and what did the trains look like 100 years ago? Thanks to google image searches, I could quickly find pics of all those things and more!

Finally, it was time for the pinata! My kids were so excited! Clara and Chloe had no idea what a pinata was, so their excitement levels were not so high... Chloe did take the first swing, but decided, she didn't need to do that again.... Leigh, my house helper, had never heard of a pinata either, so she came to watch the fun!

To be honest, I wasn't sure that thing was ever going to break.... Here's a tip, just in case you ever decided to make your own pinata (which, if you live in the US, I don't recommend doing): 4 layers of newspaper are too many! It took quite a while for my kids to finally bust it open.

Unfortunately, Brad had decided to hang the pinata from Savannah's overhead light. Somehow in all the swinging, one of her lights crashed and shattered on the ground below. Serious bummer. Thankfully, no one was hurt!

After cleaning up all the glass, it finally busted (thanks to Pedo's bat swinging strength!) So, the kids all had a great time picking up the candy.

We concluded the celebration with some yummy homemade chicken fingers, fruit salad, and mashed potatoes that Leigh prepared for us. Then, we topped that off with some 'special' cupcakes that the kids and I made. (Thanks to Papa for the special cupcake toppers!)

It was a really great day! I think we'll definitely look forward to doing this again next year!

** Most of the pics above are complements of Aunt Becky! Thanks!

The New Earth

by Amy

Last Friday night we had some other American families over to our home. While Brad and the adults were in the living room enjoying adult conversation, I had the kids back in Savannah's room for a story from the Good Book. We talked about J's return and the New Heavens and New Earth. We looked out Savannah's window and discussed all the things we think they new Earth will have or not have. For example, none of the buildings will have paint peeling off or holes in them; all the trees will be alive, full and beautiful; the ground won't be dirty; you'll be able to see really, really far because there won't be any pollution, you won't need locks on bikes, etc. Then, we talked about not needing a sun, there being no night and no more tears. It was really exciting -- for me and the kids -- to think about this. Then, when I told them that J could return any time -- even tomorrow -- they were SHOCKED! Like most of us, we just assume it's a long way off.... So, we moved on to talk about being prepared for His return.

[Side note: we live on the 13th floor on our apt building. Savannah's bedroom has a window wall that overlooks the northern part of our city. Our city, well our country, has a problem with pollution so I have several "pollution markers" as I look out that window. For example, there have only been about 4 days in almost 2 years that have been clear enough for me to see a big bridge that's out there. Then, there's "the mountain." If I can see the mountain, the pollution's not too bad. But, if I can't even see the German building less than half a kilometer from our home, then I know it's really bad.]

Well, last Saturday, after our New Earth discussion, Peter walked into Savannah room and looked out her big window. We couldn't even see the German building just down the street. He said, "Mama, I guess J didn't come back yet....maybe tomorrow." Oh maybe tomorrow....May it be so, Pedo. Maranatha! Come Quickly!

Google Translate Still Has a Ways to Go...

By Brad. We were surfing the internet trying to understand what current movies are playing in our city's theater. The website of course is all in our local language which is just a little difficult to read. So, we used Google translate to find out about the recent movie, "He's just not that into you..." Here's what was translated:


Translated Title: "Well, he did not like you"
Video Introduction: Kim Goodwin, who plays Jennifer Love Gigi has just experienced, she has been "in love anxiety disorder" tortured, she is looking forward to be able to give a Man loves her phone, but unfortunately, phone has not rung. Fall in love with Anna Scarlett Johansson and his lover for many years friend Ben, but their relationship will be limited to playing ambiguous and, more importantly, Ben is played by Jennifer Connelly Janine's husband, only But between the two men already had no passion. Rather than Drew plays Mary Moore found online at Shincho Her love, but in reality are in the end the sweetheart who does not have the slightest clue. …… So while we all love a loss, in fact, for women, the Man's heart is not good to understand Jennifer Aniston plays Beth with her boyfriend has been long-distance love for many years, no doubt she would like be able to quickly put their married But the boyfriend thought that maintaining the status quo is not a bad idea

So, there you have it. I think I know about as much on this film now as I did before I read the introduction. so I have a feeling we're going to pass on this one.

By the way, I'm pretty sure this is how we sound we we speak to locals in their language. :)