Full Circle

I spent 17 years in retail with 12 of them in management and I made the decision to quit with no other job to fall back on.  I chose to go to school and work some odd jobs.  Then I landed a fairly good job with benefits and decent pay at Brighton Hospital only to lose that position due to cut backs.  I did keep a position at the hospital but I took a big pay cut and lost hours, but still had benefits and my sanity.

In the meantime my wife left her job basically for the same reason I left my first one, sanity!!  Needless to say we had a couple of rough years struggling to make ends meet but we kept it going together.  We are people that truly believe “everything happens for a reason” and we had faith that things would work out the way they were supposed to.  Our biggest challenge has been keeping our girls from feeling any of the stress we were going through.

Now, as you may know things seem to come full circle.  Stacy stayed in the advertising business by working freelance for different companies, and low and behold a few years later she is working fulltime at a new agency that she loves.  And now I have officially started a new position at the hospital and yes I have come full circle also, I am back in a supervisor role running the gift shop and I am also the volunteer coordinator.  It is strange to think I left management in retail because it was not worth it and after six years of working at the hospital I am now back in management and I could not be happier.

To sum things up, we both left jobs that really were not worth the money we were making.  We struggled though some tough times together, but we made it work. We both were able to volunteer at the schools and other activities our girls are involved in. Now we both are back working fulltime doing what we love to do and we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We will finally be able to get things under control and be able to relax together.

So my opinion is if you work hard and take care of each other things will work out.  Money is not everything and we both gave up money in order to be better at home.  This was all made possible because we are a strong family and we have great family and great friend support. 

Faith is a powerful force and as long as you have it things will work out. I had faith that I made the right decision to give up the money I was making to be with family and coach my girls and in my opinion it was definitely the right thing to do; I would not change a thing.  In this situation my opinion and my family’s opinion are the only ones that matter- because family is what really matters.

Welcome to 40

OK, so I know this a joint venture blog with my husband but today is not his 40th birthday.  It's mine.  He had his already, so that means I can monopolize this introductory post on our new blog.

Today is huge.  I've reached a new decade, a milestone of sorts and I'm not sure how to feel.

For the last three-and-a-half years I have been trying to find myself.  Find out who I was meant to be in life, what I was meant to do.  I examined the "what-ifs", lived without regret, went to therapy, evaluated my paths.

I quit my job, blogged full time, wrote for newspapers, worked at a greenhouse, freelanced in a variety of capacities at a variety of places, helped at my girls' schools, lost weight, gained weight, and now on my 40th birthday I realize I have come full circle.  Right back to where I left on November 13, 2008.

I am once again working full-time in the same industry that I kinda sort-of said I would never work in again.  I am also doing the same type of work that I really, definitely, said I would never do again.  But that's OK, I feel good about it and today is a good day.  I'm at an age that I never could, and still can't, imagine being.  It's kind of surreal to say "I'm 40 today."  It feels like I am talking about someone else.  But I'm not.  It's all me.

So, hubby and I hope to share this joint venture blog and see where it takes us.  I think it will be a lot of fun for others to see our different writing styles and his lack of spelling and grammar checks. :) I hope you sit back and enjoy the ride with us, and I hope to enjoy at least 40 more years of my own ride, working full-time, making money, getting refrigerators for birthday presents (and sleeping gnomes) and just generally being at peace, enjoying life.  My life.