It's been a minute...

Okay, it's been longer than a minute! Almost 11 months, actually, since my last post! What in the world have I been doing? Where have I been? After the first two months of pushing my blogging to the back burner, it got easier and easier with each month. I wanted to blog, I promise! To keep a log of all that has been happening in our life and in our girls lives. But time kept slipping away...
Well I've decided before a year creeps up and I am so mortified by the lack of entries chronicling my babies lives I am just going to start again. And pick up where I left off. Luckily, I started several entries and simply didn't post because I didn't know how to explain what had taken over our life (in a good way!) and didn't have time to scroll through all the pictures to update. I have decided to post the entries I started with their original date and just finish them and fill in the blanks with pictures.
So here is what has been going on and why it seems we have fallen off the face of the earth:
In August 2011 I got a message from a friend telling me a bit about a company called It Works and if I was interested in selling the product. I hit delete quickly as I am asked often to sell everything from make-up to candles and everything in between. But something about it appealed to me. If the product did what she said it would do, I wanted to try it myself. And if the money was as great as she said it was, I was interested in that as well. After talking with my family and my mother in law telling me I may regret it if I didnʼt, I decided to give Tiffany a call. I signed September 2011 with every intention of simply selling the product in my store and never starting a team.
That first weekend after I signed and before I got my kit I started my training. It used to be a 14 day step by step and I went through the entire thing in 24 hours. I could not stop watching videos, reading about the product and learning everything I could. I was fascinated by the product, dying to try it myself, and knew that if half the results they promised would actually happen to my customers, I could sell it with no problem.
That first month was a blur of sending messages, talking to anyone that would listen and getting ready for my first womenʼs expo where I had a booth. I had the goal of diamond on my mind and I hit it in seven weeks. I looked at my chart and saw that double diamond was an easy goal for me, so I decided to do the unthinkable and go Triple diamond in 11 weeks. This was November 29th. I had momentum and my team had momentum and we began signing distributors left and right. I signed 37 distributors in less than 3 months.
My issues with finding balance started surfacing in December. I had grown far more quickly than I planned, I had ladies working diligently, but I had not developed leaders, and the stress and no sleep was catching up with me. I used to work ALL DAY and NIGHT. Literally. I would lay down at 10-11 at night with my husband and when he fell asleep I would get up and go work again until 2-3 in the morning. I was on my phone for at least 6-8 hours a day. My text messages jumped from 650 in November to 2300 in December. (I got carpal tunnel for crying out loud!) I was constantly charting, emailing, texting, training, thinking about who I was going to wrap and my life got seriously out of balance. Add to all of this the company transitioning to a new website that had CRAZY issues and I was a mess. All I dealt with every day were problems. My team had grown so quickly and they had no one else to talk to when orders were late, or websites didnʼt work, or information was lost/incorrect in the computer. I barely got my self cleaned up and out of the house every day. I was a mess inside despite my first huge check on December 15th. I only signed 3 distributors in the month of December. I was almost ready to throw in the towel. Almost.
I own the Lubbock Bridal Show so in the middle of all of this going on I was planning for our huge event in January. I was burned out and tired of feeling guilty every time I looked at my kids and my husband. I reached out to some other leaders and began looking for advice and inspiration. I found it and read an article on leadership that changed my entire perspective. I realized I could not shoulder this growing team and group on my own. So I started pouring into my leaders. I quit taking every phone call and answering every message from my downline. As my leaders began to step up and take care of their own teams, my stress began to lessen. I made sure my leaders had access to me and the tools they needed to grow and lead their teams. It changed my world. When my husband looked at me in January and said, “Iʼm miserable,” I knew it was time to look at selling my store and clearing some things off my plate. A 6 month old, a three year old, a marriage, a retail store, a bridal fair, and It Works were simply too much. I have had the business since 2004 so it was not an easy decision, but once it was made God opened every door and gave me complete peace. On June 1st, my manager Elissa bought the store and I could not be more happy and proud for her.
Our team started growing like crazy and in March I hit the highest level in the company. It has been life changing to say the least! The last several months have been a bit of a blur. We are in the middle of growing a huge organization and helping change peoples' health and financial future. After four months of planning, praying, and preparing, Dan quit his job at Sinclair and has decided to work with me full time on It Works. It has been incredible working together! We opened a training center for our team and love this new path God has us on.
All that being said, life was literally turned upside down for us and for our girls. It has been a big year of learning and adjusting to our new "jobs" and how to balance life.

So here we are now, almost one year to the day that I started what feels like a new life! I am excited to start blogging again and keep a record of the girls lives via blogger since I have no idea where Grace's baby book is and doubt if I ever bought one for Audrey! (Don't judge me!)

Enjoy the updates!