Graduation was in May and since then the question of "what's next for the Rollins?" has perplexed us and others. We've determined another 6 month plan, which seem to work best for us, and it all happened a little like this...
Ben abandoned finding a traditional job in February due to the worst economy since the great depression, a lack of interest in big corporations, and most of all the entrepreneurship bug that has got the best of him in the past and has now bit him again with a new Cornell technology. This is Ben's latest corporation and he's partnered with a Cornell PhD candidate who is working furiously in the labs on a medical device - Ben calls it a "Super" Band Aid for the eye, Star Wars type stuff. While we were in Mexico Ben spent many hours writing up a business plan to submit to several business plan competitions. When we got back to the states they won 1st place at Cornell's competition, and took 8th of 340 applicants in the biggest competition in the nation, Rice. They expect to go back to Rice this spring and take the grand prize of $100k cash, plus prizes. They have also been selected as a finalist in the Purdue competition, which is held this coming November with a prize pot of $30k. Here are a few links about the company.
CNN Forbes
Johnson School
And so, what does this mean for our family life? Well although the National Eye Institute has awarded nearly a million dollars in government grants to continue research, it doesn't pay a salary to Ben or Brian (his partner). The business has a bank account but its been used to pay for paperclips, printer ink, and business travel to Boston, Omaha, and Ithaca. This means we will stretch our left-over savings/student loans as far as it can stretch (I'm talking serious stretching like I've never stretched before) while living in the Rollins' basement at least through Christmas. Yes, I will be bringing our new baby home to our parents house - at least there is a sweet theater room, basement kitchen, and a yard large enough for Croquet.
While Brian continues working in the labs in NYC, Ben works in my parents basement writing grants, talking to the FDA, and other stuff. We (our parents included) all hope that come January we'll be able to pull some salary and finally begin to live like a real grown-up American family in a space of our own.
So there it is. Wish us luck!
Yesterday we drove from Ben's family reunion in Aspen Grove back to Farmington, UT which is only about an hour drive. We packed up the car, got in, and Luke says, "How many days is it gonna take?" The poor kid. Since January we've driven once from Mexico to NY - about 5 days, from NY to UT - about 4 days, and then a couple weeks ago from UT to Yellowstone - about 4 hours. So of course he can't contemplate a trip with luggage to take less than a day.
It IS a girl. Last week Ben's dad (who is an ER doc) took me down to the hospital and snuck me into ultrasound. It took about 2 minutes total. They put the little do-hicky on, squished it around a couple times and there it was...a little bum with open legs and a couple little lines, which aparently is what girls look like in ultrasound, black and white, fuzziness. There happened to be 2 women in the little room and both said, "yep, that's a pretty clear girl."
We are excited and my mother and grandmother have almost outfitted this child completely. Not quite, but they're getting there.
Also, if wondering - we don't know what we're gonna call her.
For those unaware, we will be having another baby in December. I had the ultrasound this last Thursday and the doctor really wasn't confident in his gender guess. He says, "I'd guess a girl, but I'd stick with yellow." How's that!?
Our baby did not cooperate with the probing and the best shot he got was looking up - like sitting under and looking up at the bum and legs...it was pretty vague. He says, "I don't see anything that looks like a boy, but there could easily be something stuck up in there." Nice, heh?
We're headed to Utah next week and they tell me that you can have an ultrasound to determine gender at any mall, at any time. I might have to find one of those places just to confirm the guess. Best news is that all those little developing body parts appeared perfect. Phew!
