If I could describe my mood torwards things happening in current events it would be this picture. A couple weeks ago, right before Valentines Day the rug was pulled from underneath me. I answered the door to a women holding a binder and well lets just say its been a roller coaster of emotions ever since.

In my heart I know I give 110% of my sleeping and waking hrs to my family, but this has been so much added stress to me. I have experienced the complete cycle of grief. I feel like my perspective has completely changed. The highest compliment anyone has ever given me was when I was told “I treat everyone like they are my best friend”. I regretfully have changed my perspective on humans and my walls are HIGH. I don’t need everyone to like me just a couple close friends.

I have been mad, upset, playing the blame game, whoa is me!

If you can’t tell by my super cheery blogpost this is why I have decided to “Lay Low” for a while. I have almost zero motivation to be on this space. I am just focusing on being the perfect mother because I learned the hard way there is no room for toddler errors (taking off shirts that get chocolate milk on them) and I have 4 of them so its hella (my first swear on my blog) busy.

I’m sure I’ll come back in full swing when things settle, or not. But right now I just want to be alone with my family. Doing whatever makes us happy, opinion free.

Today I woke up to a speech therapist sent by the government, my cleaning ladies and a wonderful email from a hotel chain that wants our family to pick a location so they can host a vacation for us. So some gems amongst the craziness.

Even though I was super upset about being accused of neglecting my one years olds speech, I have refocused some attention on more than just his motor skills. 4 xs a week we spend our mornings doing physical things like gymnastics and roller rinks. Starting tomorrow I’ve decided to start incorporating a music class in there and some library time.

I’ve decided this hasn’t been all terrible. And I shouldn’t be defensive. And to try to absorb as much information and try to block out all the negative. Geesh kinda heavy stuff right. And tbh this is a VERY watered down version.

BTW, how beautiful is this ballerina! I have all the feels when I watch this, it’s super powerful to me.

Yesterday was Career Day at the middle school and I had the opportunity to speak. I want to share with you today what I shared 24 hrs ago.

It being career day I spoke on how I took my mommy blog into a business. I shared the evolution of technology and the changes I’ve experienced. And how it’s always evolving. Being an entrepeneur in the tech and social media world you always have to be on your feet and know your surroundings. I will dive deeper into that on part two. But before I do you need to understand me.

I started my blog as a diary format and sold clothes along with it. It bothered some because it wasn’t very professional. I had lots of grammer errors, terrible lighting in photos, etc. I never have wanted to come across as fake or staged. Instead I wrote as I would in my old fashioned diary.

Before my online diary went digital ie a blog. I wrote everything down with pen and paper from the time I could write. And even before then my older siblings would occasionally write things in it for me, like a scribe as I spoke. I will have to find some of those entries because they were so funny (to me at least).

One day when I was in high school my sister confessed that when I left the house and hung out with friends she and my mom would read my diary. She told me how good my entries are and how they stay up laughing about them. She also said I should be a writer. HA! I thought me a writer, I struggle! with writing and punctuation BIG TIME! And second you READ MY DIARY!!!! Gosh I got to find a better hiding spot, was my first reaction. I mean I would get detailed! My poor mother.

But, instead of hiding my diary I decided this is actually a compliment, and if I’m not getting in trouble for what I’m writing, wheres the harm in sharing? So I kept writing. I was flattered when things would come up that I wrote in my diary. I started loving that I had a “secret” audience.

In the last 2 years I realized I had a VERY! large “secret audience” on my blog and instagram. My numbers were insane. And companies started paying me for it. On the visible/ front end it appeared that my “followers” had come to a stand still. But, I soon became aware of a whole new way instagram started tracking my “secret followers”. Not who was following me, but how many were following me. Calculating how far my reach was and how many people were really following me, even though they weren’t clicking follow.

(to be continued)

(Continued) see previous post her

From Hundreds to Thousands : Hundreds of Thousands to Millions

First of all I want to say I am not a big shot blogger, I am just sharing how I run my business and how I have made a career of it.

Referencing back to the prior post, when I realized I had a larger audience than I thought. I remember when I got insights on instagram this is a screenshot of one of the first times I looked at it and found out that I had over 1,000,000 views on my instagram page in just 7! days again I don’t have great engagement on my photos, my likes are low and so are my comments so seeing that I had a million people on my profile that week was huge news to me. Its because of all of you so thank you truely for caring and sticking with me through my life journey.

*this was last year

I took a screenshot for the presentation of my stats on a pic I posted on Wednesday 

If you see above on the pic, I had about triple the amount of my “followers” seeing my picture on Wednesday. Companies have thankfully gotten so savvy and now use your insights to determine how much they pay instagrammers/bloggers.

Compare the above video to what I used to send companies in the stone ages (2 years ago)

I would send a media kit and my own pricing sheet. Its gotten so much more honest for both bloggers and paying companies.

There is so much more I discussed within my presentation, the main gist was just showing the business side of it all, after all it is career day, and hopefully this helps those who are thinking about becoming a blogger/instagrammer or for those of you looking to hire bloggers. To know what to look for, and to not take anything at face value. Like my husband has been telling me its about whats inside that counts.

Again I am far from a pro at this blogging business, but I can honestly stand before everyone today and say that I am an open book, I love my family, what I do and I am beyond thankful for this platform as it has been the biggest learning experience of my life. I have grown so much since I started, not talking followers, just as a human, my family has grown, my understanding and my compassion towards others.

If you have any advice or questions let me know.

Before there was a “we” : there was just a “me”

What Dallin claims he is most attracted to about me is the very thing I have never shared with you, my work ethic. So today I decided to share my “resume” and my past job experiences with all of you.

I think I always shy away from this because I wasn’t the girl that everything was handed to. I grew up great, but if you wanted a lot of extra you worked for it. And I am so grateful for that. Because it shaped me into the person I am today. All of my jobs gave me experiences. So thank you mom and dad. Because I know I never have told you that I am grateful that you taught me how to work at such a young age. If I can teach my kids what my parents taught and showed me I’ll be a very happy mommy.

So lets get started….

My first job was when I was 11. I weeded for Mr. M on his horse property. The money I earned from my first paycheck, I bought my first bikini, ill never forget how thrilled my parents were about that. lol

I got my first real job as a nanny when I turned 16. My sister was a nanny across the street for a different family. It was so fun.

One day, I went to a car lot where I was going to trade in my Toyota Camry for a VW beetle bug. I had no idea the man I was speaking to and trying to negotiate price with, owned the lot. I just got talking with him. He told me, “if I were his daughter he’d tell me that my Camry was a better car, to keep my money, and to be his nanny.”

And that’s exactly what I did. I was his nanny amongst many other things. I worked in his office. I watered the plants, shopped at Costco and stocked vending machines, filed the cabinets, and threw birthday parties for his employees. It was amazing. Being a car guy, he payed me an hourly rate plus gave me .50 per mile I drove while on the clock. And if you know me I like driving a lot! My paychecks were beyond great!

I did this for about 10 months up until it became summer. He wanted to promote me and have me work in the office 40 hrs a week all summer. I declined. I had made more than I thought I would this school year and I just wanted to play in the summer.

I got a once a week job at Abercrombie. Something I could do for fun on Saturday mornings for 4-5 hrs, meet people, and get discounts on clothes. But that plan all changed on my first day of work. I was opening the store when a darling family walked in. Three little toe heads and stunning parents. I greeted them, told them how cute their kids were and asked why the kids looked upset. They said they had just dropped their au pair off at the airport. I asked, like a nanny? And they said yes. I then asked the pretty wife if she needed a fitting room. And she said oh I don’t try clothes on I just buy them. (something I now totally relate to, but at the time I thought was wild). She then asked what I made an hr here and if I liked my job. I said this is seriously my first day, first hr and I make peanuts here. I’m just doing it for fun because I want to play all summer.

They then offered to double what I was making here and gave me a nanny job. I accepted. I got to play harder than ever during the summer with those three kiddos. I got to drive the nanny Escalade, I got a gym pass, an American Express and me and those kids did whatever we wanted all summer , which then turned into 6! fun years. I went on trips with them. I had my picture on their wall. We became a family. It was amazing! I was able to buy a new car, pay for school, rent, life, etc in college all on my own w/o ever once going into debt.

I Danced for The NBA (post here) , MCHammer and Vanilla Ice (post here) and did some modeling gigs here and there.

When I met Dallin he had an assistant who bought him milk, did his laundry, cleaned his room etc. When we got more serious he gave me her job so I didn’t have to work anymore. I remember he gave me a tutorial on how to do his laundry, where he took the dry cleaning, what brands of foods he liked etc. and that’s all I ever did of that job. I would come over, but lets just say it was never to “work”. I was on payroll and used the money he paid me to pay for my part of the wedding.

I had told him I didn’t want a fancy wedding and I would prefer to just elope. But he said that’s not how he does things and he would pay whatever to give me a fairytale wedding. I still would have preferred maybe just eloping lol bc I am awkward like that.

Anyways. I never planned on working a day after I was married. I did a commercial and made $60,000 off of royalties (I thought it was 30, but Dallin just corrected me it was 60). Dallin had an extra car for me so we sold my car and I made another $10,000. And that is when I learned I liked contributing even though it went all to savings lol I graduated college 5 months pregnant with Hudson. I substitute taught and bought my first Bugaboo Donkey with some of my earnings. And then I started a blog. Originally it was “Hudson A la mode” but I got pregnant with Holland right away and changed it to Birdalamode.

And now Here I am today….

TO BE CONTINUED…..