Life Altering Changes

I once thought that having a career meant that I was successful. Then I was successful and realized that it wasn't what I wanted. And then I started to make a lot of changes.

Working in a restaurant is hard. Many people say that about their jobs, but restaurants are a different kind of hard. The wait staff have to always realize that their every move is being watched by someone, the cooks are always hot and under a huge amount of stress to make sure everything is perfect and sometimes even when it is perfect it isn't.

They say the guest is always right, however, in my experiences of working in a restaurant for 12 years is that there are different levels of right. Your "right" as a customer and my "right" as the staff. Sometimes there are only so many things that you can do. I remember my boss once had a guest who was upset that the lasagna wasn't "standing up" like it does in the picture. I believe that she took him several pieces before he was like forget it. She finally got one and he said he didn't want it and she said "I know I just wanted to show you that we can do it!" Everyday in a restaurant is a different level of difficult. And every once in a while there are those days that you wonder why you signed up for all of this!

Working in a restaurant definitely paid the bills. However, as time went on, there was less and less about it that made me happy. I needed to change. I knew I needed change in my life, but how? I was a single mom, and making decent money. Those jobs are just around every corner these days. And being a single mom, I didn't have the savings to just quit, not that I advise that even for those that do have a savings.

I started applying for everything and looking for guidance on what I wanted out of life and the path that I wanted to go forward with. I prayed, day in and day out, "Change, I need change." One day I got it. A job at a manufacturing plant with, dare I say it, normal hours and only forty to forty-five hours a week! I thought that would mean that I could do something people called "get a life". But I didn't know how to do that and what it would entail even if I found it.

Wow what a change from a restaurant to manufacturing! Nothing about it was like anything I had ever done before. I went from working almost sixty hours a week to forty. I was able to work on my house and spend time with my daughter. I also thought that I might have time some other crazy thing I had heard about, dating. I had been a single mom for 10 years. I had gone on a couple dates but by the time that I found an evening with my old job that worked and a babysitter, the guy had already moved on.

So I tried doing the online dating. Ugh! For the most part, it made me wonder what kind of conversations some people think are appropriate. And then there was one guy. He restored my faith in the world that men actually knew how to have a conversation that didn't revolve around sex or beer. We went out on a date and he turned out to not be a serial killer. I did ask him if he was, just as a disclaimer, he said he wasn't.

It wasn't very long before we knew that life together would be good. Him and his daughter moved in and then we got married. We had a beautiful wedding day and so many of our family and friends came to support us.

We didn't go on a honeymoon. We like many people hope to go someday, but we had bigger priorities. We were hoping to adopt. We finally got him and now we had 3 kids! A month after that we found out I was pregnant. I never thought in a million years that within a year, I would go from having one child to having four! However, there we were.

It wasn't very long before we were working on our budget and realized that we would not be loosing money by me not working. This thought intrigued me. I could get so much done around the house and everything would be awesome. That's when I got the challenge of a lifetime. Neither of my 2 previous jobs had prepared me for what came next.

I suddenly found myself busier than I was before! I am not sure where all this work was when I actually had a job or how it got done. But I think the house elves that were doing it quit when I started staying home because it never ends. I suddenly was a bit worried, what if the three year old, the one year old, and the new baby all start crying at once? Ok, I can do this. Now I just have to figure out how. Millions of women are stay at home moms and they do it.

In the midst of all of the kids and the busy work at home, I also wanted to become a writer. I am writing a book. Ok, let me rephrase that. I started writing a book, and now I have continued the story in my head so one of these days when I have a few spare moments, I might be able to write a book.

In the meantime, I will enjoy my crazy life and my silly kids, and my wonderful husband.