Grand Rapids Team Focus

Cooper joined Team Focus basketball league for the summer. They had tournaments every weekend and it’s been a great experience for Cooper to play with other kids his age. They held a tournament in Grand Rapids Michigan so we went up there for the weekend. We shopped and played and tour downtown and enjoyed Cooper’s games all weekend. Fun memories made. Great job, Cooper and his team!

Cub Scout Summer Camp

Nathan and Owen went to Cub Scout summer camp again this year. We had lots of fun. They are getting more and more independent. Campus held at Camp Chief Little Turtle. We set up our own tents and enjoyed all the activities together. Another camp in the books!

TaeKwonDo

Owen continues to thrive in tae kwon do.  He’s earned his green belt, purple belt, and working towards his blue belt. He absolutely loves his classes and his teachers. It’s great to have been able to find something that he loves.

Nathan’s Braces Off!!

Nathan got his braces off! It took almost 2 full years in braces and expanders to get his teeth in order, and we are finally done! He’s been through a lot with his teeth and he is thrilled to have them off. Look at this boy! 

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Happy birthday, Nathan! Nathan is 11! Here are some fun things about Nathan at 11 years old:

1. Nathan’s closest friends these days are Grayson Becker, Evan, and the kids on his soccer team and basketball team. He is so friendly to all Kids and never singles anybody out. He’s accepting and kind.  

2. Nathan’s passion right now is his Striker soccer team. He can relay an entire game play-by-play and analyzes the entire thing afterwards. He’s focused in and concentrate hard. He tries fancy foot skills and tricks on the field and he has so much passion in the game. He is an absolute joy to watch play! He also loves basketball. He will play basketball out in the driveway and he will get up at 5 AM and go to the gym with Cooper to play basketball and shoot hoops before school. This kid has a passion for all sports And is a little athlete!

3. Nathan is making money these days. He is helping to take Axel out every day for 30 minutes to play outside. This is something I don’t have time to do and Axel needs it. Nathan is willing to take him out and play with him and they both have a ton of fun together. He makes five dollars each day for his 30 minutes of time with Axel. He loves his dog and his dog loves him. He keeps track of how many days he’s worked so he can keep track of what he’s owed. A little business man in the making.

4. Nathan has gotten into the habit of going to grandpa‘s house every day for breakfast. Grandpa is up by 4:30 or five in the morning and Nathan is ready to head over by 6 AM because grandpa‘s breakfast is better than what we have at home. Grandpa makes him a pancake with peanut butter and syrup And Nathan loves to go over there each morning, even on weekends. I think it brightens grandpa‘s day just as much as it brightens Nathan.

5. Nathan is a dual language class at school for fifth grade. He’s been in the dual language program for five years now and his Spanish and super good!   He can understand quite a bit and he has a very large vocabulary as well. His accent also shows how much he’s been exposed to the language over the years.  

Nathan’s Party

Nathan had his favorite kind of birthday party yet again this year. He had all his Friends over for a pond party with great weather. The kids played in the water and had a ton of fun. Happy birthday, Nathan!

Simplx Day of Caring

Simplx participates in the Allen County Day of Caring every August. It’s a lottery system for which project we get matched with, and this year we got matched with the Girl Scouts camp up in Huntertown. As a team of 40, we were able to provide tons of landscaping work, weeding, create mulch flowerbeds, and beautify the property. It’s always a great experience to give back and it is one of Simplx’ greatest priorities.

Happy Birthday Dawson!

Dawson has turned 13! He is a teenager! Here are some fun things about Dawson these days:

1. Dawson is really enjoying Boy Scouts at Troop2. He has immerse himself in the troop and is so engaged. He will spend hours researching merit badge questions, and passing off requirements.  He wants to be a part of all of the activities and has made some really high-quality friends there including Gabe. Tony has been a great mentor for Dawson. It is a great environment for him and I’m glad that he loves it so much.

2. Dawson‘s closest friends these days include Sid, Liam, Bentley, Parker and Joaquin. I think he is branching out a little bit in the middle school and working on meeting  friends. 

3. Dawson is still a fantastic cook. He loves to cook and follow recipes and find new recipes to cook. Recently at our Cub Scout camp out he decided to try cooking cobbler the way they do at Troop2 summer camp. So we got the ingredients and he cooked cobbler in a Dutch oven outside over the fire with coals. He finds a lot of joy and satisfaction in a completed meal that he created. I can count on him to cook at home for dinner if needed because he’s reliable and has the skills!

4. Dawson’s favorite sport these days is tennis of course and Pickleball. Pickleball has become more popular, but he still seems to really like tennis the most. Coach Doug has been a great mentor for Dawson and has given him a passion for the sport. I’m excited to see where he takes his tennis skills in the future!

5. Dawson has been learning to play the trumpet. He’s been taking some private lessons with Jeff Amstutz at Sweetwater. This has jumpstarted his music career. Recently, he has joined the Oak Farm pep band and helps create some music for the basketball games with his trumpet. He has some skills and understands the music and the instrument and he seems to enjoy it a lot.

DisneyWorld

Nate and I got invited to Disney World with Travis and Beth Rood. We had talked about going together for the food and wine festival at Epcot and we actually made that conversation come to reality. The four of us flew down to Orlando and we spent three full days at the Disney World parks and one whole evening at Magic Kingdom for the Halloween event. Of course we had so much fun and got to spend a lot of time together to foster relationships and friendships. We designed our costumes for the Halloween event to be Alice in Wonderland characters. Travis and Nate were Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Beth was the queen of hearts, and I was Alice. We had a blast! The food and wine festival also was amazing. We went all around the world at Epcot and tried Snacks and drinks from each country.  Lots of fun!

Washington DC Partner Summit

Nate and I attended Partner Summit for Alarm.com in Washington DC at the Mayflower hotel downtown. Again it was an incredible conference with great networking and learning about the product we sell at Simplx. It’s always fun to get to know people we talk on the phone with and who we work with on a daily base at the office. Of course they had their fight night too, an annual tradition, and that was a lot of fun as well.

Purdue Half Marathon & 5K

The high school cross-country coach planned to do the Purdue half marathon down in Lafayette. He decided to sign up the entire cross country team. A half marathon in high school! That is an incredible accomplishment. So we decided to make a family trip of it since Jaxton is in Lafayette as well. Cooper and Kayleigh ran the half marathon with the cross country team and their coach. Dawson Nathan and Owen, Nate and me all ran the 5K. 

Owen is such a funny guy, he wore crocs that day because he did not plan to run at all. He was not interested and not excited about what we were doing. Once he got there and there was so much hype and excitement at the starting line he flipped the switch and changed his mind. He wanted to run and took my bib number. Then he took off and I could not keep up. He beat me by far in the 5K and was so proud to have run in crocs and gotten a metal! Nathan got second place in his age group. 

Kaylee and Cooper did fantastic in the half marathon. Kaylee received second place in her age group. Cooper finished in one hour and 27 minutes. Kaylee finished in two hours and 12 minutes. Amazing accomplishments!

End of the Fall Season sports

Fall sports are a wrap. Nathan played soccer for Oak Farm and loved every minute of it. He was a star player because he has so much soccer experience. He led the team in many ways. They were not a winning team like the strikers, but Nathan enjoyed playing with his friends from school! And he also enjoyed wearing the Oak farm jerseys and being part of the school team!

Nathan broke some school records for the fifth grade team in cross country races. Cooper broke some records for high school and Kaylee as well. They all had PR’s that they were proud of throughout the season. The mentors and coaches that push them along are second to none. It’s been a fabulous season and has brought in a lot of great memories.

Happy Birthday Jax!

Jaxton turns 19! Now truly, where did the time go! Here are some great things about Jaxton at 19 years old:

1. Jaxton’s closest friends these days are still his high school crew. Sami is by far his closest buddy. He really enjoyed the Simplx technician crew including Caleb and Kayden over the summer. At Purdue he is still finding his niche and meeting new people and will hopefully develop friendships there in his town.

2.  Jaxton’s greatest passion is real estate. He is in the middle of trying to secure a job within the real estate industry. He has applied to 21 places, 14 of which were apartment complex offices or property management groups in Lafayette. There are so many in the college town. He really wants to buy property at some point, have renters and tenants, Manage leases and build a real estate portfolio. Is this something he plans to go after!

3. Jaxton has major marketing skills. He has hosted multiple dropship products and created websites for them all.  His latest product brought in about $20,000 in revenue before expenses. He has learned how to manage ads with Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and how to drive the clicks to his page. He researches a product and he has Contacts in China that supply his products. He has the whole thing figured out and it’s way above my head. So proud of him for these business ventures.

4. Jaxton is a true musician. When he plays music on the piano, he transforms into something else.  He feels the music and the emotions with his whole body. It is incredible to watch him play. This semester at Purdue he has not done any music classes, and he only had his keyboard for half the semester. He found a few pianos to play in empty music building rooms, but he has not had music in his life as much as he’s had the last four years. I know it and he knows it, that he needs music in his life. It brings him joy and satisfaction, and he plans to bring it back into his life next semester.

5. Jaxton has ventured to Purdue university. This is a big move and it is exciting and scary all at the same time. Meeting new people is hard, navigating a new schedule and early classes in an unknown massive school is difficult. Jaxton has silent confidence. He has so much capacity to do anything he puts his mind to. Navigating this new world has been difficult for him, but he is doing it. He is doing the adult things and he is figuring out his way. As he has run into roadblocks, be them emotional or educational or financial or social, he is learning how to navigate through all of that as an adult. We are proud of him as he navigate these things and keeps pushing forward. And of course, we are always here to give him that boost he might need From time to time. 

Austin, TX Power Up

Nate and I attended the power up conference with our management team in Austin Texas. It was a great opportunity to connect with our team and learn some great things from Alarm.com, one of our most important vendors. We got to network and learn and we have a lot of information to take back to the staff. Our flights home were kind of a fiasco with delay after delay and a change of airline and a change of flight. But we made it home before midnight. A great conference to remember!