My Story

Hi! Nice to meet you! I’m a wife, mommy, WordPress developer/designer, full-time worker, travel lover, student and blogger. At the end of last year, I finally completed my schooling with my Masters Degree in Internet Marketing from Full Sail University. Juggling life plus schooling is hard and I’m so glad it’s complete. I wear lots of hats… but if you were to list out all the hats you wear it would be a longer list than you expected as well.

The BIG Change

In 2015 the company that I was working for, and had been for the last 6 1/2 years called a “state of the union” address on a random Tuesday and had us all on a conference call (there were 3 offices around the country). As they are going through the growth and changes they get to our office and say, we’ve decided to close this office and will be discussing it in further detail with you after the call. It was like a bomb dropped. Everyone looked around and didn’t know what to say. We had all been sucker-punched. We were the office with the most experience, and they were always asking more of us and this is how it goes?

The Lay-off’s

The layoffs happened in shifts the first one beginning six months after the announcement. I winded up being there until 12-31-16. It was a difficult blow, not because I loved the company- although they did get my hard work- it was the people whom I had worked with. They had been with me through some of my biggest life events, the death of all my grandparents (over a 2 year period), me getting married, having two babies…we had become family and regardless of how we’d keep touch afterward I wouldn’t get to see them every day and have that same interaction that we enjoyed. This job also offered me a lot of flexibility with my kids, I was sometimes able to work from home if they were sick, or if I had appointments.

I was offered the opportunity to move to another office in Colorado Springs but I would have preferred to cut off my right arm then move for a company that dropped the “we’re closing” bomb like they did. After all, what would happen a year after I got there if it closed? I’d be thousands of miles away from all my family. I stayed until they asked me to leave so I’d get the severance and could move on from there.

The Next Chapter

I LOVED being off with the kids. Who knew I would enjoy it so much. I knew after the first couple weeks that when I went back to work I wanted it to be something flexible for the kids’ schedule. My daughter would be starting school in the fall and I wanted to be able to take her and/or pick her up. I was still working on my bachelor’s degree but decided to learn code as well. I went through Skillcrush and Codeacademy as well as some Udemy courses. I also worked on my technical certificate for Web Design and Development in addition to my bachelors. Running out of severance money soon and needing insurance I had to find something to do for work.

Accepting that sometimes there is an ‘in-between’

I winded up getting a job in the public sector as a coordinator and I’ve learned a lot but flexibility doesn’t exist, along with vacation time. I will say in the instances of one of the kids being sick or something like that they have been very kind to me and understood, but when the rule is if you don’t have the time off you can’t take it- then that could stop at any moment. I don’t take it for granted and I know that it won’t always happen.

Moving forward

I am determined to find work that offers me the flexibility to be a mom. That is my main goal. I’ve been working on getting my dream rolling with a WordPress Design/Development business as well as this blog. I have previously had a side gig as well as a travel agent specializing in booking Disney destinations. I did that though because it was my was a way of doing something that helped people and allowed me to share my Disney love at the same time.

So, that’s my story. Failure is not an option. I am going to find some way to make this happen.

Thank you for joining me on this journey and juggling blogging, family, school, work, and new business. I hope you can relate to some part of it and will find it encouraging.

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Thanks again & Enjoy!!

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