Boss Lady & Bob: 11 Years in Love, Marriage...and Business

Eleven years ago today, after six years of dating, we said "I Do."  We got married in our shared hometown although we weren't living there at the time. Ironically we were working together back then too.

After going to senior prom together we went off to separate colleges.

 

I went to Ithaca College as a Television/Radio Major with a concentration in Video Production and Bob went to Penn State as a Journalism major.  Four years of making that three plus hour trip back and forth and we both graduated on the same weekend - one on Saturday and one on Sunday - again making that drive in between to be there for the other.

We'd dated four years long distance in college and hoped that would be the end of our long distance days...

But then Bob accepted a job in Zanesville, Ohio with a small local news station there...making - I'm not even kidding - $14,000 a year.  A few weeks later I accepted a news producing job at a television station in Fargo, North Dakota making not a whole lot more. And so our long distance dating days continued.

About six months later Bob got a new job in the TV news industry and moved to a tiny apartment in Johnstown, PA. I remained in Fargo and as my year anniversary and end of my lease approached we discussed me quitting and moving to Johnstown in hopes of getting a job - any job - there to finally end our long distance days.

I had been in talks with the same television station for what felt like an eternity - but nothing was panning out.  I put in my resignation about a year after starting at KVLY-TV as the 5pm and 10pm news producer.  I had no other job lined up and was a nervous, but excited wreck knowing our days of being long distance were finally numbered.  The next day I was offered a producing job at the same station where Bob was working as a Sports Reporters.

Between the time I put in my resignation and the time I moved, Bob flew out to visit and proposed.  With both of us living so far from home - our moms jointly visited wedding venues for us.

Bob returned to Fargo and we made the two day drive together back to Johnstown. About a year later we got married in our hometown - which was still about 4 hours from where we were living.

About two years after I moved to Johnstown, we started realizing it was going to be extremely difficult for us to keep moving together and working in the same television market. I was working 9-6 M-F and Bob was working 3-11pm Wednesday-Sunday.  It worked out okay for us - married - but with no children...but wasn't going to be ideal down the road.  Bob decided to go into pharmaceuticals and got a sales job in Johnstown with a company that has it's US headquarters in our hometown. The hope was that eventually it would take us back home.

A year or so later I accepted a television producing job for the 5am news in Baltimore. Bob was able to get transferred and kept working as a pharma rep there.  I worked overnights 11pm-7am. It wasn't ideal, but we were getting closer.  Shortly after moving to Baltimore, in 2007, we bought our first house and I got pregnant.  2008 happened.

I went out on maternity leave about a year after starting at the station in Baltimore with the hope of returning to a dayside shift.  Things didn't work out and when I returned after 12 weeks of maternity leave...I was producing the 6am show which means I wouldn't get home until even later in the morning. Bob was on solo overnight duty with a newborn...things were stressful.  So we made the decision that I would stay home full time.  I had been back to work for two weeks.  We never planned financially or otherwise I would stay home. I still had loans to pay off. I'd only been working for 5 years. But it was best for our family...and honestly it might get us back home even sooner!

Almost immediately as a SAHM I started a 'mom blog' blogging about our daughter's nap, nursing, eating and playdate schedule. It was just kind of a journal - a fun one. But I always had this feeling - I wanted to do something for me too and I wanted to contribute financially. I started monetizing that blog by adding advertising in the most simple form.

Then I heard about Ehow.com and Examiner.com and I started freelancing for these sites making a penny a click for everyone who read any of my articles. I remember the first day I made .17. I was so freaking excited. Bob shared in my excitement...or at least he pretended to.

I wrote for Examiner for several years and did really well with it.  When Olivia turned two I got pregnant again.  Around the same time, Bob got offered a job at his company's headquarters in our hometown and we were finally - after all this time - headed home. We put our townhouse up for sale in....2010. I don't even want to talk about it. 2008 had happened. It was bad. But we didn't care that much - we were going home.

We moved in with my mom for about 4 months - me 5-8 months pregnant, a two year old, a house to sell and a house to buy. A new job and a whole lot of money down the mortgage crisis toilet.

In February 2011 we sold our house and in April 2011 moved into our new house about 5 miles from the high school where we first met. Blake was born in May 2011.

I was still blogging....and getting more and more involved in the blogging world and realizing this was something I could definitely use to help our family...at least until I went back to a traditional job when Blake was going into kindergarten or first grade.

With a house to be decorated, I started a DIY blog with my sister.  In December 2013, Bob gave me a Silhouette Portrait for Christmas. I realized the readers of my DIY blog who didn't have a Silhouette machine wouldn't be interested in any of those posts and I was completely alientating them...so I started a little sister site called Silhouette School in January 2014.  In July 2014 I stopped blogging on Two It Yourself as Silhouette School took over all of my free time - with a four and one year old.  Meantime, Bob continued to excel at work, moving up the ladder growing his salary to almost 10x what it was when we got married 10 years prior.

And in June 2016 he walked away to become my business partner in blogging.  Blake's going into kindergarten.

My how far we've come. I'd wouldn't want to do it with anyone else.

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