2011 Christmas Letter

Hi all and welcome to the 10^th annual edition of the Miller Christmas letter.

In June of this year we headed down to North Carolina and spent a week with Brian’s family in a beach house on the Outer Banks. We visited the lighthouses and spent time relaxing on the beach. Brian and his brother-in-law rode a century (100 miles in a day) bike ride. Halfway through the week Brian received a call with a job offer for a position at John Deere’s Des Moines Works. While we continued to have fun hanging out and even rode some jet skis, the latter half of the week found us beginning to look for a new home and preparing to relocate.

Upon our return, we spent an afternoon house hunting: 17 homes in about 6 hours. Jodi spied the perfect house for us as we drove through a neighborhood. We arranged a showing and by the next day had a signed purchase contract. We moved the first week of August and have been busy getting settled and enjoying the greater Des Moines area ever since!

In her role as Project Manager for John Deere’s SAP (business software) group, Jodi wrapped up an 18 month SAP implementation at John Deere Financial in November. She also traveled to Brazil and assumed the accounting lead on the implementation of a new warranty system while a colleague was out on an extended medical leave.

As a Manager of Supply Management for John Deere’s Des Moines Works, Brian focused most of the year on procuring materials for producing cotton pickers, sprayers, tillage tools, and grain drills.

Brian and his band, Driven Existence, released an album entitled Render in August. All songs on the album were written and recorded by the band. The album is available via the band’s website www.drivenexistence.com or on popular music sites like iTunes, Amazon, or Napster. Be sure to check it out!

We retreated to a cabin in the woods the week of Thanksgiving and spent time hiking in the state parks of Central Illinois. We finished the trip off by spending Thanksgiving with Brian’s family and visiting our 1^st nephew, Wesley James Mullins, born September 4^th.

We hope that this letter finds you in good health and good spirits. Remember to take some time to pause in this season of hectic schedules to reflect and celebrate His birth!

Happy 2012!

Brian and Jodi

Semi-Annualish Blog Update

Howdy. So apparently it’s November already…just a few things going on since the last update.

In my last post I failed to mention that I had begun training for a century ride…maybe I was nervous it wouldn’t happen? Anyhow, I got most my miles in once the weather started to co-operate and me an my brother-in-law hammered out 100 miles in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 100.5 miles at an average speed of 16 MPH.

Speaking of the Outer Banks, we were there for the first ever Miller family vacation…actually it was the Miller/Montgomery/Mullins vacation. We flew out to meet the family in Raleigh. We then headed out for a  week at a beach house. Check it out here. We had a grand time hanging out on the beach, sight seeing, relaxing and generally having a good time. Besides the bike ride Jodi and I rented a jet ski and tore up the water for awhile. It was a great time and felt like it should be the start of an annual tradition.

While on vacation I got a call with the offer for a new job in Des Moines. I accepted and started about 3 days after we returned. Thus also began the relocation process. We must be getting this house hunting thing down. We viewed 17 homes in 6 hours and ended up with a great one that Jodi found (wasn’t even on the list to look at). We moved about the first week of August. I love my new job, the new area, and the new home.

On the band front, Driven Existence was ramping up for an album release when I got the news. We got the album out the first part of August. You can get yours here or iTunes, Amazon, Napster or a host of other music sights. Beware when listening, your face may just get rocked off! We played our annual show in August and have largely been on hiatus since then due to moving, school, work etc.

On top of moving, a few other things took place…out bassist got married, Jodi’s uncle passed away, and I had to testify in court. Interesting thing was it was in Metropolis home of Superman.

We’ve had great fun and lots of things to do in Des Moines. We hit the IA state fair and have done lots of home improvement projects like added a water softener, battery backup for the sump pump, found, learned about, and finished installing the irrigation system, added landscaping for the hot tub, built a fence, stained the fence, stained the deck, and about 100 smaller projects. Primus came to town in October and we headed to Chicago to see Dream Theater and da Bears!

In the beginning of September I became an uncle when my sister welcomed Wes into the world (a few weeks ahead of schedule).

With that, it’s now early November. The weather has been great. It’s just started to get cold but I still hope to get some biking in on the weekends. Cedar Falls did bless us with one last storm prior to moving away. This time God took his wrath out on the lions next door as opposed to our home.

Seriously it’s May Already

And you thought I’d given up on blogging!!

Ok, let’s head back to Christmas.

For Christmas we headed down to visit my sister in NC. After already starting to suffer through another IA winter it was very welcome to feel a rush of non frigid air hit us as we left the airport. Before you get any ideas here I do want to note that we did have a white Christmas. NC got a ‘major’ snow storm…first white Christmas since 1947. Anyhow, like 6 inches of snow that was mostly melted by the afternoon. NC knows how to do snow!

One high point this winter…I hired our snow done. It was a beautiful thing!

In January the Bears blew their chance at getting to the Super Bowl. Maybe next year (automated Chicago sports fan response).

The highlight of February may have been getting 3G service at home and work. I know that sounds sad but seriously, I was pumped. Actually it may have been a warm snap that allowed me to get a quick (albeit snowy) bike ride in.  At the end of the month Jodi and I headed over to Galena to a quick get away. Good times!

March saw lots of things picking up at work. There was a weekend where I did some serious work at home too…got my home inbox down to like 5 emails…again, mega lame but there were things in there for years that I got taken care of…i.e. 2 year old home theater seating is now repaired! By the end of the month the weather was looking up. I even got the patio furniture out. Jodi spent a week in Brazil so I got another week + as a bachelor. Park Lane wrapped up our recording and got our tracks off for mixing. I finally finished internally mounting the mics for my kick drums as well.

April saw Park Lane undergoing a re-name. We are now Driven Existence. Check out our Facebook, YouTube, and new website coming soon! In April I got out for a few bike rides and decided the bike I got last year is too big. I ordered up a new model in the right size. The day after it was delivered we got snow…and more snow…and hail…and several weeks of ‘seasonally cold’ weather. Right about the end of the month things warmed up. We headed to Chicago. We saw Peter Pan, did lost of shopping, and met up with Jodi’s parents.

 

April could be characterized as a “winning” month too…

• I won a dozen cupcakes (however someone ate one before they got to me)
• Jodi won tickets to a Lakers game from Magic Johnson!
• After only 5 months of waiting I was able to secure a brass snare drum for myself…Yamaha kit complete

So far May has brought better weather…in fact today it was darn right hot (94 with lot of humidity). Again after only about 5 months of waiting I received my custom ‘Brian Miller’ drum sticks.

So, reading back though and old post I was hoping that I’d update this blog prior to the grass greening up…just missed that goal.