Welcome

There are more Vosteens in the world than I would have imagined. My name is Gene Vosteen and it just dawned on me that after my Aunt's passing last year, that I am the oldest Vosteen of my offshoot of Vosteens.

A little background... I was born and raised in Hudson and Bergen Counties in New Jersey. They are both directly across the Hudson River from New York City. (BTW, folks from NJ don't say, "New Joisey", that's Brooklynese.)

I started working for New Jersey Bell and met the love of my life, Fran. In the 1970's, shortly after marrying her, we purchased a house in Fort Lee; had two children, Christian & Gabrielle; and just had a grand ole time.

I left Bell Atlantic in 1997 after 31 years and moved to Arizona. We had a house built in North Scottsdale. I spent a few years as IT Operations Manager at startup company in Tempe but left it as it got way too big for it's own britches. Now I'm running Foxstone Industries, Inc. as a home based business.

Why, you might say, did I leave New Jersey?

Well, Bell Atlantic treated me very well, but it was a big company and was soon to annex Nynex (Now it's Verizon, what next?). While my position was secure (I think), there were continued downsizing initiatives, more responsibility, more traveling -- in a word "bigcompanyitis".

Add to that the cold, the snow shoveling (my sholder still hurts), the raking, the lawn mowing, the pollution, and the humidity it was time for both Fran and I to stroke that mid-life crisis (or whatever you call it) and do something different.

Yes, I gave up 6 weeks vacation and a nice salary, but, the West is great and we can get to places like The Grand Canyon, Sedona, Tucson, and Mexico in a couple of hours. We can hike, bike, jog, and golf all year as well as swim April thru October.

Fran is writing poetry (and has been published several times!!), Gabi went back to college for her second Masters, and Chris chose to remain in New Jersey.

I will continue to work as long as it's still fun. When it's no longer fun, I'll give Jeep tours in the desert...

Thanks for reading, you can wake up now!