Mark & Becky's Story
Skipping over many details, I worked for a company who supplied the Cable TV industry with parts for a couple of years. At that time I convinced them that I was the best choice to move to Indianapolis and open their new warehouse. I moved to Indianapolis and worked for about a year setting up the warehouse and hiring staff. I left that company and went to work for their largest customer, ATC Construction, who was building the Indianapolis Cable TV system.
I took over as their warehouse manager, where it was my job to make sure that my staff kept the 120 building crews supplied with materials, tools and vehicles so they could work without interuption. As warehouse manager, I was also responsible for working with our corporate purchasing office in Denver, to make sure we bought all the supplies we needed.
One day I had an argument with one of the women at the corporate office, and I made her cry. Shortly after we hung up, I received a phone call from a woman named Becky, who chewed me out royally, and proved to me that the information I was so strong about was wrong. I ended up sending both women flowers (she also threatened to make sure all my purchase orders would get lost in the future). That was at the begginng of March, 1982. Becky & I started talking on the phone on a regular basis, she helped me with my PO's, and I didn't make anyone else cry.
Becky called me at my apartment on my birthday, March 28, to wish me a happy birthday. We spent many hours talking on the phone. for the next three months, we talked daily from work over the phone, and then we would talk for hours on the phone from home. We decided that we needed to be together, and so we decided to get married (We had not yet met in person, or seen pictures). In June 1982 (3 months after we started talking) I flew to Denver to meet Becky and interview for a job in the purchasing department as a buyer.
I of course got the job, and planned to move to Denver 1 month later. We planned some time together, so Becky drove from Denver to Indianapolis to pick me up for the move. We made it a trip to Washington DC, to visit with my folks, then we went on to the 1982 Worlds Fair in Knoxville, TN. While at the Worlds Fair, we had a glass blower make us a top for our wedding cake
.
When we got back to Denver, we got our own apartment. Becky's mom & dad came to visit, I had not yet met them. They asked us one day when we were planning to get married. Becky looked at a calander and said 'Mark, do you have any plans for Labor Day?', and I said 'No', so we decided right there that September 5th would be a good time. Becky asked her dad (who was a minister) if he could marry us, and he consented. So on September 5, 1982, 6 months after we started talking, and 3 months after we acutally met, we were married in Fergus Falls, MN. We were married by Becky's dad, in a meadow behind their house.
When we returned to work in Denver, we were told that since now we were married, one of us would have to quit or they would let us both go. As fate would have it, we both left the company. We moved to Long Island, where I was familiar with. Shortly after we got there, my parents moved from Washington back to Long Island. We were only there for a short time, when we received good and bad news, the good news was that Becky was pregant, the bad was that Dad had a form of cancer.
MJ was born January 5, 1984, dad & him became best buddies. This was the first grandchild that mom & dad had been able to spend any time around. They spent the next two years getting to know each other, and I attended school learning to be a programmer.
On December 25, 1985, Becky, MJ & I left Long Island for Fort Dodge, IA. We rented a house, and on August 19, 1986, our daughter Alicia was born.
Now with our own expanding family, we bought our first house.
I had taken a job as a programmer with a CPA firm there.
We were only there 3 months when I got the phone call that Dad had died in March 1986.
Dad Mark Mike
After about 3 years in Fort Dodge, we moved to Des Moines, I wanted experience with a consulting firm, so that I could open my own one day. In 1989, after 2 years of apartment life, Becky found a house that was within our budget, so we bought it. I hated the house. I didnt think it was big enough or nice enough.
I eventually went into business for myself, as a computer consultant.
In 1993, we like many other people, experienced the Floods of 93. We spent several months repairing and restoring the house, and finally it looked like something halfway livable.
In 1998, we decided we needed something bigger, and Becky's parents wanted to move closer to us, so we found and bought a house in Des Moines. True to our pattern, we bought an older house that needed some work. It has 9' ceilings, hardwood floors, and a fireplace. The livable space is more than double of the other house, and we needed the extra room with our kids getting bigger. As for the house above, we decided not to sell it, but instead moved Becky's parents into it.
I have been in business for myself now for almost 10 years, and there are many advantages. There are also many disadvantages. I find that even though people use my programs everyday, they only pay me for the programming I did once. If wish to continue to make a living, I must continually be working. I have a good friend, who is also very successful in the business world, and he has been teaching me many things about business. The most important is probably the theory or duplication. I am working to apply this theory into an internet based referral business. I expect this to replace my progamming/consulting business in a short period of time.
Becky finally has decided to join me, and she has been attending school full time to learn the upholstery trade. She will open up 'Sittin Pretty Upholstery' for business in the Summer of 2000.
Becky is now out of School and practicing her trade full time....she is doing great of course!
As time marches on so do we, In October 2001, we sold our house and moved back to West Des Moines. We now live here, Becky has more room for her shop in this house, and we are only a block from the high school... did I mention that Ali transferred to the high school just a few blocks from the house we just moved from? So now we have to transport here back to the old neighborhood everyday, she is doing so well there that we dont have the heart to make her transfer back to this district!
Becky & I took a vacation in February, consisting of a cruise to the Southern
Carribbean. I wont go into a lot of detail, other than to say we both
caught a bug on vacation... it can only be cured by more travel to other sunny
warm destinations filled with palm trees and beaches!
