Conference Calls Vs Couponing

Well here I am...writing a blog.  Kinda a cliche...Working Girl turns into Blogger Mom or something like that.  So here it goes:

Many who know me know I started working from the day I was old enough.  I started advertising when I turned 12 for babysitting jobs.  I made fliers and handed them out around church.  Picked up several jobs that way.  Then age 15, I got a worker's permit and started working at Tasty Treats serving ice cream and hot dogs.  When I turned 16, I walked over to Grocery Warehouse (Albertsons) in the same parking lot and there it began.  My climb up the corporate ladder.  From the minute I turned 18, I was a manager.  When I was tired of it at Albertsons, I moved over to T-mobile and worked my way up there. After 7 years of hard work and dedication at T-mobile, I decided to turn the page and start a new chapter.

What is that new chapter you may ask?  I am staying home with my kids.
December 28 was my final day at T-mobile.  I cried and cried when I left.  That was the life I had known for the last 7 years and I had built so many friendships and I felt important there.  I worked hard and it helped my self esteem.  I felt part of something.  My T-Mobile Family was a big part of my life, my SECOND family.  My employees were like my children.  Not only did I coach them and help develop them in their roles, but I was their leader who they turned to for advice and instilled confidence in me. Yet it got to the point where it wasn't fun any more.  The goals became harder, the pressure greater and the workload unbearable.  But I was strong...or I thought I was.  There were days where I would cry and cry because I was so stressed out.  I got to the point I was working 50-60 hours a week because I was ALWAYS connected to work in some form.  I never had a day off and pretty soon, Joe (my husband) became a single Dad.  I would go 2 to 3 days without seeing Hannah or Emilee (my 7 and 3 year old).  Then Joe and I started noticing Hannah's behavior was getting worse and worse.  The tantrums would be drug out for 2 to 3 hours.  She was having difficulty on so many levels.  I finally took her to the doctor's.  The doctor sent me home with lots of "homework" as he called it.  I filled out tons for paperwork and monitored her behavior over the next month.  I went back to see him and he diagnosed her with a form of Autism.  He gave me some meds to help her and looked at me and said, "Ya know Tina if you really want to help her, you need to get her on a more regulated schedule.  I can give you the meds, you can go see the therapist but until she is on a schedule where she can plan her day, she is going to act out."  This gave me tremendous anxiety.  I had no idea how I was going to do this with my work schedule.  I prayed and prayed that I would be able to figure it out.  So back in September I decided to make the decision to stay home.  We got our finances in order and I gave my notice to T-Mobile in November.  I worried and worried I was making the right decision.  What about money?  What about my self esteem?  Then it dawned on me.  "Tina, are you happy?  Is your family happy?  Can you continue working and your life be in order?" I realized I was working for many of the wrong reasons.  HOW SELFISH AM I?  Ya sure, we needed the money but 3/4 of it was going to gas, going out to eat, treats for my work and daycare.
Then it became very clear to me:
  “And now a commandment I give unto you—if you will be delivered you shall set in order your own house.” (D&C 93:41–43.)
 The Lord instructed his people to “organize yourselves; … establish a house, even … a house of order, a house of God” (D&C 88:119).

My house WAS NOT of order.  My FIRST family needed me.  I laid in bed with Joe and told him we could not continue down this path.  He agreed and we jumped...we took the LEAP of faith.

I figured SOOOO MANY WOMEN around me do it, I can do it too.  It wasn't going to be easy but our family was going to be so much HAPPIER!  And that was what was important at this time.

So here I am today...26 days later, leaving my corporate life full of conference calls and trading it in for couponing and cooking.  (PS the BEST site ever invented, savvyshopperdeals.com.  Thanks Leesha for showing me the way!)  I picked up some side work as most Moms do when they are staying home.  It has been good.

I can honestly say for those who have the misconception of a Stay At Home Mom being an easy job...it is NOT....by far.  But the REWARD is priceless.  My family is the happiest it has ever has been.  I have become quite the cook.  Hannah's behavior has improved ten fold and Emilee has become a Mommy's girl.  (She was VERY much a Daddy's girl...haha, I won her over.)  Joe and I have put the Lord First in our lives, we even have had Family Home Evening.  I know there are many challenges that lie ahead but I have found myself again...and I have the most important job in the world right now for my family...and that is being a MOM to my two beautiful girls.

Besides you can't put complaining customers in Timeout in the Corporate World!