• So, as my this is my first blogging post, let me just say, YAY! I always wanted to be a published author, and I guess this is as close as I am going to get.
• Let's start this off with a little of my necessary background info, shall we? I'm 32 years old. Been married since two weeks after I turned 18. Yes, I am miraculously, still married. We waited 10 years before we had our first child, which, I think, was the smartest thing we could have ever done as a couple. Ember is four years old now, and in Pre-K.
• Seven years ago, we bought out the small company that my husband was working for. It was the plan from the moment he started working there, because the owner only had one child, a daughter, who had zero interest in running this company. So, he was hired on in the beginning knowing that we would assume the company in about ten years, so that Bill and Barbara could retire. Well, it never happened like that. Bil developed bad headaches about seven years in. A CAT scan showed a very aggressive tumor. That was in January 2003. By May 2003, he had passed. June 2003, we stepped in and took over. By that time Barbara was just anxious to get out and away from it all, so it was a very fast change.
• I was working at a large doctors office at the time. Great pay and health benefits back then. And I gave it up, stepped away, and stepped into a world that I knew hardly anything about. Running a business.
• So, here we are, seven years later, still going. Strong sometimes, not so strong in other times. It's a huge give and take. It takes more of out of me emotionally. Not much changed for my husband, Jeff. He did all the manual labor, and still does. That hasn't changed. He still stays on the road, day in, all day, working for all the regulars.
• But for me, everything changed. Life was so much more peaceful before, when I didn't have to deal with the IRS every month, payroll, inventory, and REALLY wanting customers to be satisfied, because my not only did my job depend on it, my company depended on it. Politics wasn't something I ever really concerned myself with. Now, I listen every day to what new is happening in politics, and the laws, and GAS PRICES, OMG, they really have a hold on me. It may not sound like much, but $1500 in gas each month for one van to run the roads hurts, and the possibility of it getting higher makes me cringe.
• Despite all the ups and downs, I love owning my own business. Most people ask me, "How can you work with your husband?" To that I can answer, it isn't easy. Luckily, he is gone working most days, so it really doesn't present a problem for us. There are some weeks that I dread going to work, because there are bills that I need to pay, yet I am stuck waiting on customers to pay me. Cash flow is a major problem in small business. Other times, everything is good, and money is flowing freely enough to make me comfortable.
• It's Sunday today, and I already dread going to work tomorrow, because I am in a couple of those slow weeks I was telling you about. But, somehow, it always works out. Tomorrow is a new day, and as long as my faith is in it's proper place, I know things will continue to work out!

Til tomorrow ya'll!