| The DOW was finally up after a pretty grim year on returns. It's one of the reasons we decided to invest in our cabin real estate - a tangible asset. Our retirement is back over 1/2 million and we have over $200K in stocks outside retirement. Shannon announced at the beginning of the month he's leaving to go into private practice with a friend in Ankeny at the end of the month. We are now looking for a new therapist in Ames. Emily's husband, Sam, has expressed interest after his internship is up in May, 2024. Marty bought the company from his partner, Matt. Jeff is actively looking for another position and has an interview sometime after Thanksgiving for a private chef. Brandon has another back surgery scheduled in December as the first two didn't help. MS and I helped Emilie and Sean two weekends in November to clean their rental in Bloomington, rake the yard, remove old couches and big leather chairs (some to Grand Rapids, some to a storage unit). Craig and Cindi helped one weekend and also came to our house as did BEWs and Kinkade for Thanksgiving. We spent those two weekends in the cities at Embassy Suites when we helped Emilie and Sean. I spent $2,500 on tools and equipment to set up a workshop at the cabin and even be able to do a few things in Ames. We also went to CR for Alyas' confirmation and Madeleine's BD and to The Latin King with Randy and Judy Covey for my birthday. I finished up my CEU's this month too, with Esther Perel and Terry Real. MS has been going through a lot of things at the house and culling and switching out things she wants in the cabin. We also spent $1500 on new tires for the Lincoln. Talked to Peter Swanson, Brandon's friend, about starting an online material for sale, but I've decided to concentrate on recording my supervision material all over again for our staff. Brandon advised my renting a small one room place in Ames temporarily to set up a taping area. He also asked Emily to be on the company board and she accepted and is excited about it. She's taken to leading naturally. We had our first bi-monthly staff luncheon (Jess' idea) and she took over leading the meeting without any prompting. It was fun to see. Jess is also mentoring Taylor, which they both set up on their own initiative. |