Keeping Up with the Cleavers...or Not So Much

Dear June, I must say, I'm exhausted.  I would like to know, how did you do it?  Did you take a small dose of crack-cocaine each morning?  Or did you simply drink coffee until you crashed?  


So, I'm thinking I'm going to be really skinny on this new path I've chosen.  I rarely sit down, because I'm running constantly.  If I sit down to eat, I'm getting back up because one of my children needs something.  Eating, what's eating?  Yesterday I realized I didn't even have breakfast by the time lunch started.  People have constantly asked me, "aren't you afraid you will get bored staying  home?"  Ha, fat chance!  I don't have time to think, let alone get bored.  I'll go crazy and they'll have to give me meds before I get bored.  By the time the kids are getting ready for nap, I'm so desperately in need of a nap myself that there will be no quiet time for me, at least now.  All I need is sleep.

I will say, while I'm exhausted, and not quite used to answering the constant calls of mommy this or mommy that, I'm having a great time.  I already have a tan from being outside with the kids in the pool.  My flowers are looking amazing, because I have the time to mess with them, not look at them with disdain when I get home from a long day at work.  While my house isn't cleaner per say, I definitely have time to pick it up as we go, which is a totally new concept for me.  Last night, we stayed up till 9:30 and played ladders, an outdoor game I'm actually pretty darn amazing at, while the kids ran around and played (Clayton, as naked as a jaybird).  Then, we all came in and had homemade icecream.

I feel myself morphing into this different person.  My goal was to focus on my kids this summer, and then this fall really push for my writing career to launch.  Of course, time is money in that business so I have to focus on it to a small degree at least until then - but I've realized something important this last week and a half; I'm focusing on me, even while chasing around two wild kiddos.  I ran outside yesterday a.m. without the worry of time.  I did my ab work out.  I took a nap.  I researched some new markets I'm going to query for articles.  I drank my coffee and let the kids wake up at their own leisure.  I'm, healing.

Healing from what you ask?  Healing my wounds from a life full of stress, hustle, and bustle.  Healing from the guilt of missing so many important moments with my children (I smile with glee to see what Mr. Clayton has in store for me today-he's talking up a storm now).  Healing from thinking I constantly have to be perfect, and do everything perfect.  Healing from the daily, choking fear I'd have to do something for the rest of my life that I didn't love.

In the meantime, Mrs. Cleaver, I could I get some of that crack?  I have a long day today.

~Trina

The Ones Who Say You Can't

I learned a long time ago that you have to protect your dreams.  You have to be careful about putting them out there because it's likely they'll get stomped on, laughed at....ridiculed.  I learned that no matter what it is you want to do, somebody has their two cents to say, and most of the time, it's not good.  It's only recently I learned that honestly...it doesn't matter!

When I wanted to go into the hay business, people said "Go to college.  Everybody should go to college."  And, maybe they were right.  However I started making more money than even imaginable by the time I was nineteen years old.  I became the hay sales and marketing executive for my father's company, and when that relationship ended, I started my own company.  I then was offered a position for an awesome organization, making more money to sell hay than most people I knew who went to college and I had zero college loans to pay back.

When I met my husband, everyone said, "Don't move to Oklahoma, you have an awesome career-you'll never make it there."  I started out at the bottom of a small insurance agency after I moved and didn't look back.  I know when they hired me they had their doubts about the little farm girl who didn't know an ounce about insurance, but four years later they had a respect for me only I could have dreamed of earning in the beginning.  Plus...I married the most patient, loving...amazing guy.  If I wouldn't have moved, I wouldn't have married him...which in turn, then I wouldn't have had my two beautiful children.  Think about if I would have listened to the naysayers...

After that, my husband and I decided to move to Colorado to advance his career.  They had the best lineman program in the United States, so off we moved.  Everyone thought we were crazy!  I got a job immediately at an agency there and shortly after, was an account executive, and soon after that, handling a sizeable book of business.  I learned more there than I expected, and now I have three insurance designations, over 7 years of experience, and am ready for my next move in life.

People will always tell you that you can't do something.  Usually, it's the people that are afraid you will.  I gave my notice Friday to transition the next phase in my life; my true dream.  While people look at me like I'm crazy and say, "How can you give up such a great job?" I say, "Your job is only as great as the level at which you enjoy it."  This is true, and I'm a person who believes no one should just be thankful for a job.  You should work your butt off, and have your choice of jobs.  If you're lazy, obviously this doesn't apply.  While I've made my fair share of mistakes, I make this next move without an ounce of hesitancy, and welcome the naysayers with a smile on my lips.  The only thing that drives me more to be successful in life than sheer will are those who tell me I can't.  


To those of you afraid to try, or even more so, afraid someone will tell you that you can't: there will always be people who say you can't. Remember, because there's so many people not willing to follow their own dreams out of fear or insecurity, they don't hesitate to try and shatter yours.  Every person is amazing and has a skill to be treasured.  Find that skill and don't look back....we only live once!  The ones who love you and believe you in, the only ones who matter...will support you!

~Trina