As graduation looms, activity is humming at Buckaroos! While we likely will not be able to open as early as we had hoped due to delays with contractors and Kenny's multiple surgeries (another expected this summer sometime), time is marching on and work is progressing.
Today was a 13 hour day for them, as they completed the drywall work. They have hung all the drywall themselves, installed insulation, but we will be calling in help for the tape and texturing.
These two have been very generous with their time, bringing their talents to the job site. Today Matt helped with running CAT5 computer cables for the eventual installation of our Point of Sale System, and Josh helped with the drywalling all day. While they are each learning new things, neither one has any reason other than kindness to put in the hours they are putting in on this project. Matt also helped me out this week by writing a program to sync my two laptops so they both have the same information on them. He spent several hours creating it, then setting it up on both the laptops...even driving one down to our liquor store where the internet is far faster than at home so the information could upload more quickly.
Team LaJoy is more a team than ever, even with everyone pursuing different things. The sharing of skills, the care for one another, the willingness to help without expecting anything in return is something I never could have dreamed of or imagined when they were all young. If I didn't live in the middle of it, I wouldn't believe it. As I have been tackling some of the back end work for Buckaroos, such as working with potential vendors, establishing credit accounts, etc. Olesya has stepped in to help with keeping the house clean and doing more cooking, saying, "I can't do what you are working on, but I can help in other ways so you can have more time to deal with stuff for us..." as she mopped the kitchen floor, cleaned the stove, and much more, freeing me to immerse myself in the minutia that necessarily takes hours upon hours of attention. Angela, who doesn't normally really enjoy physical work has really surprised even herself with all she has done with the construction phase, and she has enjoyed it! This girl is a Drywall Queen, who has also filled trenches, cut concrete blocks, and helped with framing, spending hours and hours in physically demanding work.
The pride is evident on all their faces as they see Buckaroos beginning to take shape with walls up, plumbing lines in, heating and air installed, and more to come this week. They will eventually be painting the interior and exterior, installing flooring, and more. Along with that, there is still SO much to learn about business in general. We are next going to work on ServSafe Manager training, learning accounting principles, continue growing our marketing skills, and probably a thousand other things.
Due to lung issues and asthma, I have had to steer clear of the store while this sort of work is going on. Dominick and I are also trying very hard to make space for me in the midst of all of this, to ensure I can bring my very best self to all we are doing, which can be hard when I am finding very little time for any pursuits of my own. But I have started my own little project that I hope to complete in a couple months:
This is my first larger project, and of course I can only see how lopsided the circle is, how far off my pattern I somehow went, but even with that I am still pleased with how it looks thus far, and am anxious to somehow find time to work on it more. However, I am out of state twice in the next two weeks, and have an enormous list of tasks to tackle for the kids, so this may end up taking me two years, not two months to complete! Hahaha! At least it is started, right?
In the middle of the hustle and bustle, we celebrated Angie's 21st birthday, and it was sort of the birthday that kept on giving...a week's worth! We had planned to go to the hot springs in Ouray a week after her birthday, but weather was bad so it got pushed back another week. But we did go out for dinner at Chilis, a rare treat for our family, as part of her gift and then had a cake to celebrate. At 21 years old, she has come a long way from the almost 12 year old we brought home from Kazakhstan. She has softened...and yet strengthened, which is hard to explain, but true. Slowly, she is getting to know her real self in a fuller way. This year is bringing much growth, and it is exciting to watch as she embraces adulthood.
Team LaJoy is more a team than ever, even with everyone pursuing different things. The sharing of skills, the care for one another, the willingness to help without expecting anything in return is something I never could have dreamed of or imagined when they were all young. If I didn't live in the middle of it, I wouldn't believe it. As I have been tackling some of the back end work for Buckaroos, such as working with potential vendors, establishing credit accounts, etc. Olesya has stepped in to help with keeping the house clean and doing more cooking, saying, "I can't do what you are working on, but I can help in other ways so you can have more time to deal with stuff for us..." as she mopped the kitchen floor, cleaned the stove, and much more, freeing me to immerse myself in the minutia that necessarily takes hours upon hours of attention. Angela, who doesn't normally really enjoy physical work has really surprised even herself with all she has done with the construction phase, and she has enjoyed it! This girl is a Drywall Queen, who has also filled trenches, cut concrete blocks, and helped with framing, spending hours and hours in physically demanding work.
The pride is evident on all their faces as they see Buckaroos beginning to take shape with walls up, plumbing lines in, heating and air installed, and more to come this week. They will eventually be painting the interior and exterior, installing flooring, and more. Along with that, there is still SO much to learn about business in general. We are next going to work on ServSafe Manager training, learning accounting principles, continue growing our marketing skills, and probably a thousand other things.
Due to lung issues and asthma, I have had to steer clear of the store while this sort of work is going on. Dominick and I are also trying very hard to make space for me in the midst of all of this, to ensure I can bring my very best self to all we are doing, which can be hard when I am finding very little time for any pursuits of my own. But I have started my own little project that I hope to complete in a couple months:
In the middle of the hustle and bustle, we celebrated Angie's 21st birthday, and it was sort of the birthday that kept on giving...a week's worth! We had planned to go to the hot springs in Ouray a week after her birthday, but weather was bad so it got pushed back another week. But we did go out for dinner at Chilis, a rare treat for our family, as part of her gift and then had a cake to celebrate. At 21 years old, she has come a long way from the almost 12 year old we brought home from Kazakhstan. She has softened...and yet strengthened, which is hard to explain, but true. Slowly, she is getting to know her real self in a fuller way. This year is bringing much growth, and it is exciting to watch as she embraces adulthood.
Happy Birthday Sweetie!
A really bad selfie with Kenny cut off! Haha!
So much is happening in our lives right now, it is hard not to feel like we are on a speedway! Lots of cramming things in to get done before summer, to try and hit self-imposed deadlines, to prepare for futures. Everything looks and feels different, and there is no firm structure...there can't be. While that is unsettling in some ways, it is also exciting and interesting. Thankfully, the one thing that IS solid and firm is this...the relationships we have with one another, our faith, and the knowledge that despite limitations, we are all going to work extraordinarily hard to make sure we all make it.
Even Matt is working against his Dysgraphia as he codes, telling me that the program he wrote took longer because he kept having to correct his own spelling mistakes or misplaced numbers as he often does when writing or doing math. Like he said, it just takes longer and you figure it out, fix it, and move on. And that could be said for our entire family...we figure out the work around strategies, fix it, and move on. Though this week has definitely been one of the harder ones I have had in awhile with the kids' brains malfunctioning, and frustration settled in multiple times, remembering what Matt said helps...figure it out, fix it, move on.
That is happening with just about every single step of the business work right now, as mistakes are made on a regular basis. Instructions are misheard or misunderstood, so we figure it out, fix it, and move on. Memory challenges are showing up in all three kids here and there, but there is nothing we can "fix" about that, so we just try to accommodate, be creative and keep moving forward. So far, I think we are all pleased...it is taking longer but good things are happening alongside the occasional frustration.
The next few weeks will be even busier, and we will see Buckaroos really start taking shape...lots of excitement to come!
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