…I am officially becoming an adult with responsibilities…
Please take a moment to sigh with me.
*Le sigh…*
I suppose as it is proper to keep with the tradition, yet incorporate the new styles of life [technology], and being the ‘writer’ of the family, it’s been shown, my destiny, of writing the family Christmas letter.
Enjoy.
Hello Family & Friends,
Hanging out; we’re best friends.
Currently, while writing this I find myself in a strange, foreign world. Darco is sitting on a couch working on some accounting work, and Ollie, our cat, is roaming around the living room. Aiming to get in trouble I’m sure.
It’s been a whirlwind of a year for the Daugherty name. In the beginning of 2013 I, D, found myself in a relationship with a wonderful barista from Starbucks. I’d spoken of her before, but few of my family and friends had ever met her. We were attending a wonderful, small church in the middle of a cornfield, and we were preparing for the beginning of the Kansas City Shock. I was working at Subway, and for the past several months had been living in an apartment in St. Joseph. Darco was living with her mother in St. Joseph, and due to her health, we had already experienced some family frustrations in February with her winding up in the hospital. Darco’s mom was having problems exhaling the CO2 from her body, not good on the human condition it turns out.
Party out in the desert of Nevada!
February led to the first big adventure of Darco and myself. We boarded a flight, and went to Las Vegas, Nevada for a soccer meeting. This also resulted in a 8 hour [one way] trip to Reno, Nevada…and back, in a 24 hour time period. Somethings we learn the hard way, and making stupid trip like that would be one of those mistakes. March was the second round of tryouts for the Kansas City Shock, an incredible experience watching the future team come together through the tryout process [especially when you know nothing about soccer].
It’s incredible how fast things can change, and how dramatic they can be. In May our head coach for the Kansas City Shock stepped down, a week before practice was to begin. Quite the shocker, and praise be to God, we were able to find a coach the night that the former left. Life was a little stressful in May. Darco was working at Starbucks, and was also attending the University of Phoenix. I was working with Subway, and I had just completed a new experimental course through Subway showing that I mastered the understanding of management systems within the Subway corporation for franchises.
So…this happened!
On June 1, life started to become a bit more fascinating. I was asked to resign my position with Subway, ending a ten year commitment to ‘eating fresh’. While most people I do not miss from that job [honestly], I still am forever indebted to my mentor, Ro, for everything she did for me over the ten year time span. I think she’s retiring next year, and she was an incredible blessing while I tried to understand the corporate world. It was quite the eye opener of figuring out what I should do next in life. The next day, while eating pancakes at the apartment, Darco and I decided that we would go get engaged. So, by the end of the week I had lost my job, lost my car, and became engaged to a beautiful woman. Life is strange like that. We had a short engagement, resulting in our marriage on August 2, 2013 at Missouri Valley Baptist Church.
Now, the first week of marriage was not easy. We were very tight on cash, and we had also learned that Darco’s mother was going to be evicted from her home. Not an easy task to figure out. MC and Jim pitched in, we cleaned up the house, and assisted in moving Darco’s mom to a new location in northern Missouri. During this process Darco noted that her cat, of who she loved dearly, was missing from the house [it was an indoor cat]. Of course, while cleaning the house I was speaking to MC about what we were going to do about the cat if it returned [hoping my mother would take the bait and adopt the cat]. It was at that point I heard this yell of joy from the back of the house, “OLLIE! YOU CAME HOME!”
We were going to adopt a cat.
So, now we have a three year old cat in our apartment with us. Most times he’s tolerable, and only between 8:00 PM and midnight is he a pill [he tries hopping on our flat screen TV…for fun].
Between leaving Subway and getting married, Darco and I watched the Kansas City Shock grow into its first season in the Women’s Premier Soccer League. We added a minority owner, Steve, and also added 101 acres of land to our portfolio. The goal is to develop this acreage into a soccer complex in the northern tier of the Kansas City region. Needless to say, this is quite the challenge. The team did well, we finished the season with a record of six wins and three losses within league play. We were the only new team to qualify for the playoffs, and halfway through July I found myself driving a passenger van into Ohio with a bunch of soccer players. Talk about a dream come true.
Why wouldn’t Starbucks be involved with wedding photos?
She always pulls the perfect shots.
Upon August, Darco and I had been praying for the direction I was to take my employment. At the same time, Jim had watched his plant shut down in St. Joseph and was in a similar situation. Thankfully, between Darco, myself, MC, and Jim we learned and saw how powerful and uplifting family can be. I went back into the classroom as a substitute teacher within the North Kansas City School District. Darco, on the other hand, continued her job at Starbucks, and was notified that it is time for her to move up within the company. Through several meetings, discussions, and surveys she’s quickly moving rank to become an assistant store manager in the company. The likelihood is that she has the opportunity to become an “ASM” before she’s even of age to consume alcohol. She continues to amaze me.
I started back into the classroom on the first day of school at Staley High School. Overall, in August, September, and October there were only two days each month that I wasn’t in the classroom teaching. The strain was obviously the gas mileage traveling every, single day. Darco and I started to discuss the potential ideas of moving to Kansas City. She would eventually relocate to a Starbucks in Kansas City, the substitute teaching was in Kansas City, and our soccer team is in Kansas City. To added coals to that fire it became known that a teaching position, full time, was about to open up at a school that I spent the majority of the time in. It, in many ways, was a dream job for me, and Darco was ecstatic also. Life was calming down, doors were opening, and everything made sense. One way or another, I would finally wind up in a classroom.
True Story: This electric sign was attached to a shirt that acted as a synthesizer to noise. It was epic.
I don’t think God wanted that door to open up too wide because He shut it rather quickly. A day before I met with the principal in that school to discuss this opening I met with a parent of one of my players. He wanted me to work with him on a project for a man named Mr. Kinney. Naturally, not to be selfish, I wanted to know what kind of pay I should expect…
This was a life changing opportunity.
Instead of teaching I wound up in a job maintaining the social media accounts of two Mazda dealerships, a engineering education firm, an office complex, and a real estate residential development. Jokingly, I get paid to operate Facebook accounts. Realistically, the portfolio I created with the Kansas City Shock paid off incredibly big. I have three offices that I float between in Lee’s Summit, Overland Park, and South Kansas City. This all took place during Thanksgiving.
Upon receiving my first paycheck I mistakenly took Darco to one of the dealerships with me, I had to correct a few photos, and then we’d go out on a date. While working on a photo my wife came to me and said, “What’s your social security number?” In a car dealership that can only mean one thing: financing.
It’s…so…shiny!
Incredibly, my wife went out and found out that we qualified for a wonderfully good deal from Mazda on a new car. So, two days later we drove off the lot in a bright red, 2013 Mazda3. If nothing else, the 41 miles per gallon impress me, but the car is wonderful. This adventure has led to new concepts, ideas, and plans with the Kansas City Shock that I can’t share…yet.
With so many things changing, so quickly we started making some internal choices as a family [Darco and myself]. We moved church bodies, which was very, very hard on both of us. We’re now attending a wonderful church in Smithville, Missouri with my parents. It was opened up more time with the family overall, something that was greatly missed. We also made an announcement to friends and family that we will, 100% certain, be moving to Kansas City in 2014. While St. Joseph has done so much for both of us, especially with Darco growing up here, it is time for us to move on.
As a brief recap: Darco’s up for promotion with Starbucks, I left Subway after ten years, started teaching, left teaching, is now paid to operate social media feeds, the Kansas City Shock actually started a real season, we adopted a cat, and wound up with a new car.
She’s pretty.
If this was 2013, I can only chuckle at what is to come in 2014 for “Club Daugherty”. As a reminder, we’re located online. You can keep up with our family adventures throughout the year at our Google+ page.
My His Grace Always Be Enough,
-The Daugherty’s-
…that wasn’t soooooo bad…
Signing On The X 