Leaving the Ratrace and acquiring a rat

This post is something I have been wanting to write for a few months but just haven't been motivated to sit down and do it. So here I am with a million other things that I need to do, trying to come up with the words to explain the changes that have been taking place in our household.

The biggest change took place in the spring, when Ryan went from his desk job as a manager at Reimer to being a small business owner and manual labourer!

Back in January, I received an e-mail from the homeschool e-mail chain about someone who was selling their business in order to move back East. I glanced at it and passed it along to Ryan as I have done with other things I thought he might be interested in. Ryan had been having some frustrations at work and we were talking about it one evening when I asked him if he had read the e-mail I sent and suggested, jokingly, that maybe he should just quit and go into business for himself. When he said that he had read it and was actually interested, I was surprised but thought that was probably as far as it would go. There have been other times, in the 11 years that Ryan worked at Reimer, where he was unhappy and I pointed out jobs in the help wanted section of the paper or talked to him about other options for work but he was never really interested in making a change like that. So you can imagine how surprised I was when my husband told me he had called and made an appointment to talk with the business owner and find out more about it. I was even more shocked when he came home from that meeting and started talking about how we could finance buying the business. His enthusiasm was contagious but also scary for me. This kind of risk-taker was not the Ryan that I married. I had sometimes wished that he would think outside the box occasionally, but now when he did, I realized how content I was in my safe little box!
I am rambling here much more than I had intended to when I started this post. To sum up the next few months I will just say that we spent a lot of time talking, thinking, praying, and getting advice and decided that this was in fact an opportunity that we wanted to take. So on, April 18, Ryan worked his last day at Reimer, after working his way up the corporate ladder there for over 11 years. We enjoyed some family time at the end of April and then took a short vacation to Oregon and then, at the beginning of May, Ryan starting training for his new job. On June 1, he became the owner and sole employee of Mend-A-Bath BC. He has been re-surfacing bathtubs, showers, tile and sinks for 2 months now and is enjoying the change. He works all over the lower mainland which means that he still has to drive into Vancouver fairly often but he also gets to work closer to home some days too, which we appreciate. Most days he is home by 3 or 4:00 in the afternoon, if not earlier, which is a pleasant change from the long days he put in pretty regularly at Reimer. One of the benefits of doing a job that is more physical is that he is getting in shape. Since quitting his office job, Ryan has lost over 15 pounds! :) To me though, the most important changes that have happened are not the physical changes but the emotional ones I have seen in my husband. Over the last year, the stresses of his management job have been taking their toll on Ryan and I was afraid to see him so discouraged, tired and stressed. Despite the challenges involved with becoming a business owner, Ryan is so much happier now. He gets to sleep in later than he did when commuting to Reimer so that helps, but he is also just generally happier. He comes home with a smile on his face and a tale of the interesting customers he has met. The kids and I are happier too because Ryan is home more often and has more time and energy to spend with us.
So there you have it. Sorry for going on and on. I will draw this part to a close by saying that God is good and He has blessed us in many ways as we have trusted Him to lead our family into this new adventure. And, if you need your bathtub re-finished call Ryan!! :)

Now, to the second part of the post. . .

So you may have noticed that there was something in the title of this post about acquiring a rat. Last year, Grace used her birthday money to buy an addition to our family - Patches, the guinea pig. Well, this year, Evan decided he wanted a pet too and he was going to use his birthday money to buy a hamster, so we went in to the pet store to look at the price of cages and things. The lady working in the pet store convinced us that hamsters are not great pets because they are stupid and they bite but that rats are actually awesome pets to have. By the end of our visit, she had convinced Evan and she had even won me over. You must understand that I do not love rodents but particularly ones with long tails. I think I explained my fear of mice in a previous post. Anyway, Ryan and I talked about it and agreed that Evan could have a rat so Ryan and Evan went off to the pet store together and came home with a cardboard box. Evan walked in the door and said, "Mom, there were no male white rats like I wanted but the snakes were on half-price!" Ha ha, very funny Ryan! I knew they were pulling my leg, but the thought of a snake did make the little rat in the box look a lot cuter. :) All that to say that "Jack" the rat has been a good addition to our family. Evan takes very good care of him and he really is a smart, gentle creature. Here is a picture for your viewing enjoyment.