I have a paper that is crumbled, wrinkled, stained and faded that contains important thoughts. I wrote it soon after New Years '14 as a review and highlights of the previous year. My intent was to put the details online shortly after. Better late than never!
We are going to fill this in with pictures later, but before I delay I want to get my thoughts transferred from that beat up paper to our blog for the sake of my family records.
2013 IN REVIEW:
January: As I've mentioned before on here, I lost a good friend Beav Sorensen a few days before January. His funeral was in January. I think of him more than I thought I would, try to make sure his wife and kids are well, and miss him a lot.
February: My Mom and Dad were able to return back to Resistencia, Argentina after coming back to Chandler to get my Mom medical attention. Their decision to return was hard for me, I thought they'd stay home for good. Candace and I had fun taking our family out on "Ranger rides" to Payson and Queen Valley, AZ. We also enjoyed a fun boat ride on Tempe Town Lake with Kayla Sorensen and her daughters.
March: The biggest news of March was leaving my job at Crexendo after 3 great years. The company had gone through so many transformations since I joined after getting my MBA in 2010; it was hard to leave but it was time. I moved my family to Plano, TX to join the sales team at AppDynamics and looking back I definitely made the right decision. We decided to rent out our house in Ahwatukee. Also, I made a memorable trip to the dunes with Kody Miller and Tim Ray. It rained the night we arrived but woke up to an empty and pristine riding area.
April: In a whirlwind of events, I finished at Crexendo, found a home to rent in Plano with Cbug, moved everything into our Plano home while sick, flew to UT where I met Cbug and the kids for Justin's wedding to Julia, and then flew the whole family to Plano. Justin's wedding in the Oquirrh Mtn temple was great. He and I had some epic fishing on the Provo River. Also memorable was meeting Cody and Nikki Treese who quickly became great friends to us in TX. I continued my mountain bike routine, waking up early to ride with a group of guys Saturday morning around Dallas trails. Reed and I got a taste of "Fathers and Sons" camping in Dallas, which I would hardly call camping, ha. Cbug and I instilled a hard rule of "Date Night" every Friday night. We had lots of family time being away from the busy life we led in Phoenix and it was a welcome change.
May: I became a Sunday School teacher and will always, always appreciate the influence I had on the 16-18 yr olds and the influence they had on me. The people of Plano 8th Ward were terrific to us. I got into some bass fishing, we made family park trips and bike rides an almost daily staple, and endured some CRAZY Texas wind and rain storms. Work at AppD was great. I flew to Boston for the first time since '96 for a trade show and we made a family trip to Broken Bow, OK to stay with the Treeses at a cabin.
June: ....
July: I woke up with stomach pain thinking it was caused from cookie dough ice cream at 10:30pm the night before. WebMD.com helped me determine I was probably having appendicitis and in fact, had my appendix removed soon after. Not fun.
August: Candace's mom Denise visited and had fun with us. Charlotte's hair is unreal, standing up on its own and refusing to lay down flat. We loved it. I brought the family with me to San Fran for a work trip turned family trip to visit my brother Chris and his family. We had tons of fun visiting neat sites and watching the cousins play together.
September: The weather started to cool again (we enjoyed the seasons in Texas) and we cranked up the volume of our bike rides. Cbug got a new fancy bike to pull the kids in. Reed started pre school and loved it. Cbug's best friend Chelsea came to town and we took her to the Plano Hot Air Balloon festival, which unfortunately, had nothing to do with Hot Air Balloons flying in the sky on that day, ha. I finally was able to visit a friend I had done a lot of business with but not met, the owner of Caddis Fly Shop. I flew to Oregon and spent the weekend fly fishing the Eugene area. It was beautiful and a welcome change of pace from the demands of working at AppD. Candace had some health problems while I was gone, putting a damper on my trip but showing how selfless she is by suggesting I complete my trip.
October: We celebrated our 5 yr anniversary in UT fly fishing and checking out City Creek Mall in SLC. Cbug outfished me and really got into it. For Halloween we dressed up the kids as rock stars, starring Charbug as Rod Stewart complete with the hairdo.
November: We had a lot of fun on Date Night, often with the Treeses. We went to their house for Thanksgiving.
December: Offered a promotion at Aryaka with the chance to work from home and live wherever I want, I made a really, really hard decision and left AppDynamics. The people there are great, the company is close to going public and I had a lot of success there. Looking back, I believe I made the right choice, although the VP of Sales Joe Sexton met with me 2 days before I was scheduled to have my last day and offered me a similar position in Phoenix with similar pay. That was the first time he had ever done anything like that for anyone. That made the decision to leave even harder but I think I made the right choice.
I flew to San Jose for training at Aryaka, drove my CEO's super cool Mercedes, and flew Cbug out to SJ for the company Holiday party. This all took place while Dallas was covered in one of the worst ice storms in memory, making flights and travel near impossible. We spent Christmas at Cbug's Mom's house and as always they spoiled us in every way.
PROUD I FINALLY TYPED THIS OUT AND I CAN THROW AWAY MY CHICKEN SCRATCH NOTES!
-
Curtis
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