First Post
So I don't do this very often but I thought I would write about some of the stuff my wife and I have been up to. I have a lot of people on here that I wish I could be in closer contact with more often, but because of the distance and our busy schedules it's extremely difficult to do most of the time. I'm very sorry for this and I know Janet is too.
This past year has been a difficult one, my father passed in April. I closed Twin Ports MMA, a business that meant a lot to a lot of people in May. My family and I have had to deal with multi legal troubles. Finances are always a tricky situation and finding new careers back in the Twin Cities has been my wife and I's goal since deciding to move back in May.
However, Janet and I have started a new outlook toward the future that we are both very determined to see through.
We originally moved to Duluth because we wanted to begin our life together without some of the stresses at home. We also wanted to buy a house and to have both of us finish collage.
Janet transferred to The University of Minnesota Duluth and graduated in 2007. I was working for Mesaba Airlines at the time and also completing my AS degree in graphic design. I graduated in 2008. After college Janet found a wonderful starting position at St. Mary's hospital as a Cardiac Tech, which at the time was a brand new position at St. Mary's. I finished with my airline career in 2008 and went to work for Pawn America in Duluth. I had and continued to have a difficult time finding work in my field (Graphic Design) in Duluth. So aside from working for the pawn company I also began my martial arts training, which I had practiced on and off for the past 4-5 years. I found a Judo school in Duluth, was an active student there for 2 years. Then began studying kickboxing and submission wrestling at another location, I stayed at that school for a little under a year. I then found a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor in Superior, WI that had a student club at the University of Wisconsin Superior. I join that program and was asked to be the assistant coach after only two months of training there. I was a part of that program for about a year and a half then things took a downward turn and I decided that i must pursue my training at another location. Their was a breakdown in communication and a lack of confidence on my part toward the head coach. So I told all of the people training at the college club that I would start my own program and if they wished, they could come and train with me. 1 month later I stared Twin Ports Mixed Martial Arts. about 60% of the college martial arts club students followed me to the new training center. We grew as a team quickly and had a outgrown the current facility in under 2 years. We then moved to a location that was 3800 square feet in the Morgan Park area of Duluth. In the time that we operated out of the new location we had over 45 students at any giving time and we would often get visitors for the twin cities, Canada and other location on a regular bases. Our program was designed to help any and all that wanted to increase their knowledge of the martial arts, work on their health and physical fitness. We also had many competitors as well, ranging from boxers, grapplers and mixed martial artist.
Closing Twin Ports MMA was a very hard decision that I had to make after realizing that my family needed me after my father passing. The gym was always performing well, not so much that I could quit my part time job working at the pawn store, but we never didn't make our monthly budget. Own the gym was more of a passion of mine than a money making business that i relied on.
My father was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in march of 2012 and was told he did not have long to live. I always knew that it was coming, he smoked heavily for 30 years, but it was still a shock to find out that he had a short time left to live. He began chemotherapy treatment shortly after he was diagnosed and became very sickly and ill shortly after. He really started to lose weight and fade in his appearance in June of 2012. After a time going into the treatment location and having so many injections every week the chemo doctors advised him to have a picc line inserted into his arm, to make the doctor visits less painful and stressful. After only 3 weeks of having the pick line in, he developed a staph infection in the area where the pick line was at. Because of his weakened state from the chemo his body was not able to fight off the infection very well, even with antibiotic treatments. He ended up in Mercy Hospital for 16 days with the staph infection and almost lost his kidney due to the infection spreading to his blood. He thought that was going to be the end, however he did pull through with the help of the great team of doctors at the hospital. This was a scary time for me and my family. We made the trip to visit often during the cancer treatments, which was very difficult because of our work schedules.
After my father recover from the infection he slowly began the chemo treatment again, but this time instead of being a patient on a new experimental treatment he was forced off the program because he developed the staph infection. That made him unqualified to continue the treatment, which was working! The treatment required him to go in for CAT Scans to monitor the growth or recession of the cancer in his body and up until his battle with the blood infection his scans showed the cancer receding slowly. Learning this information about my dad not being able to continue his current therapy was disheartening and brought my family into a depression fearing that the cancer treatment was likely to begin to go backwards. Which is exactly what happened.
During the late summer and into winter my younger brothers and fathers relationship was on a rocky stretch, there were arguments and disagreements which lead to them not talking or communicating for over 4 months. This happened during the holidays session which was very hard for my mother, who said that this would be my dad's last Christmas. She wanted the holidays to be as special as possible because we would not all get a chance to spend another one together. Christmas came and went without my brother. However he did make amends in the month of February when he learned that my dad's health was diminishing quickly. He stopped chemo treatment in February and asked to be giving narcotics to help with the pain of cancer. In the first week of April he was delivered and oxygen unit to help with his breathing that was very stressed and a hospital bed soon after that. He died just a few days before his birthday on April 10th, 2013.
We had a talk on the telephone about 2-3 weeks before he passed and he asked me to never forget about my mother or my family. I think he thought that because of my busy life style my thoughts were not as much on my family's needs as they should have been. After that talk I went home and told Janet that I think we should close the Twin Ports MMA and move back home. I told her I thought that would be the right thing to do.
I closed Twin Ports MMA May 23rd, 2013 and we began the process to have one of us find a job in the twin cities that would allow us to begin the move back home.
Janet has applied, sent resumes and made calls to potential employers since May with no luck. She has looked into over 65 different positions in and around the twin cities area. This has become the most difficult thing in our transition back home. Our plan of action at this point is to have one of the two of us find a job in the Minneapolis area, then try to sell our house in Duluth, while the other continues to work in Duluth. When we sell our house we will both be living with my mother for a time between 1-2 years so we can take care of our extreme college debt and other bills. We also want to be able to help with my mothers house as it's in need of a laundry list of things to upgrade, fix and remodel. I would like to be able to give her things that she has never had time to do in her long time working for the U.S. postal service. She was a postal worker for 30+ years and supported me and my entire family. My mom retired from the position January of 2012 and was shocked to find out that instead of being able to enjoy herself after retirement, she was now a health care person. Making sure that my dad was comfortable throughout his treatments.
Now that my mother has time to accomplish more around the house, she doesn't have a male to help with the extra heavy lifting, so I feel that it's my duty to be there for her.
During my time teaching and training people at Twin Ports MMA I had the opportunity to meet Tom Schmitz, a Brazilian jiu Jitsu black belt teaching and training his own students in Oakdale, MN under the the Spartan Martial Arts training facility. I started training with Tom in Sept of 2011 and have been making monthly trips to Oakdale to work out and continue learning the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Since closing my gym in May of 2013 I began making more frequent trips to Spartan Martial arts developing my technique. During this time, I made a commitment to Tom to begin helping him attract more students to his gym by designing and doing SEO for his Spartan Martial Arts website. I also have been helping with graphic design and online marketing for his business as well. I wanted to make a full time transition to Spartan Martial Arts by Sept, 2013 but this has been very hard because of the 170 mile distance between Duluth and Oakdale, MN. I started working 2 days a week at spartan Sept 9, 2013, teaching Teens Muay Thai kickboxing and Martial arts fitness. I teach there Mon and Tue afternoons. This has again been difficult because of the long distance between the two cities, and I committed myself to be there every week. After about two months of this schedule I found myself getting sick and feeling very drained. Besides the teaching of classes the two days, I also was training Jiu Jitsu both days as well. I was doing 6 classes in two days! My break times were spent at the local coffee shop, continuing to work on the computer, expanding the web reach of Spartan Martial Arts. I came down with a upper respiratory infection in early Oct and then I was diagnosed with staph infection in my upper right thigh. The upper respiratory infection was not uncommon for me, I seem to come down with one every year, but the staph infection really startled me. I was out of commission for about 2+ weeks.
Working with Tom and the guys at Spartan Martial arts has been great. I really feel it's what I need to do when it comes to my martial arts hobby. I really look forward to moving to the twin cities and being able to train more often at the gym in Oakdale. However working there every week has proven very difficult for me, the commute and the cost of gas, food, coffee etc... is making our financial problems worse...:(
We are struggling with getting to where we want to be, it's been over 8 months since we reached an agreement to move back home. But the hurdles have been large and many. We will keep working towards our goal to be closer to friends and family and ultimately starting a family of our own, and that's the whole point! :)
Thanks for reading
Nick Sutton
