What Are We Doing?

CHANGE. Change your body, change your hair, change your car, change your office, change your clothes, change your habits, change your life. The only thing constant in this world is change and you don’t have to look far to find talk on the matter. I know that life is ever-changing, but it’s the big changes that spin us into an unfamiliar consistent chaos. And that is what this blog is about. Change. In the mist of the worst financial recession since the great depression, my husband and I have quit our “real” jobs, sold our house and left town.  

This was six weeks ago. As you can imagine, we’ve spent hours, upon hours in the car changing lanes trying to get to the designated destination. After staying three to four nights we would turn around to drive to a new destination. Somewhere in Louisiana I decided that I wanted to document this journey. If not for anyone else,for myself.

A little background for those reading. In May of 2008 I married the love of my life, John Tatum. He’s charming, honest, loyal and a good ‘ol country boy. One of John’s best qualities, is that he’s an unsuspecting dreamer. He sees possibility in his surroundings. He has big thoughts and big dreams. I knew this when I said “I do,” but nothing could have prepared me for the life I would soon be living.

About a year and a half ago, John decided he wanted to get a bumper for his truck. As a person that can count the number of trucks she’s been in on one hand, I just could not understand the reasoning behind this massive piece of metal on the front of a massive truck. We lived in Mobile, AL and he drove down a nicely paved road five miles to work. Why the need for this equipment? It beats me, but he made his decision and his purchase. Upon John’s web searching he was disappointed in what he found and saw possibility for someone to offer something better. So he did. While working a full time job, this finance major discovered how to build his own e-commerce website that today offers hundreds of heavy duty truck products. He taught himself not only to build the website, but also how to market the website. John quit his “real” job and has been full time with his website now for four months. The business continues to grow each month and there are now four employees of Peacemaker Truck Accessories.  Needless to say, I am now thankful for that “useless” purchase.

Meanwhile, I was working for a non-profit organization and a mission I whole heartily believe in- working to offer young women across the country opportunities to realize their potential. My participation in Distinguished Young Women (formerly America’s Junior Miss) enhanced my life in many ways, opening my eyes to a world full of possibility. After two fulfilling years of dedicating all I had- I felt it was time to move in a new direction. After discussing this with my husband he made the comment “Wouldn’t it be funny if the house sold this month?” You see, we had put it on the market in January of 2011 just to see if we would get any bites. For ten months there were no bites. We had talked about picking up and moving, never truly embracing the idea as a potential future. The next thing we knew, an offer had been made and our lighthearted conversations were now a reality.

I knew what was happening in our lives was bigger than both of us. God had intervened and was giving us a big shove into the land of chaos and out of our warm comfy beds. But where would we go? What would we do? Are we ready to buy a forever house and settle down? We put up the first wall and countered significantly higher than their offer. Our real estate agent discouraged it and told us they would probably walk. They accepted.  (Jaw hits ground here.) Wall two: “If they find any problems with the inspection we are not paying to fix anything.” Ha! Nice try, but the inspection came back clear. WHAT were we going to do? We were not prepared to move, didn’t know where we wanted to be and honestly never thought that selling the house would actually happen. As we packed up our house of three years we couldn’t seem to make it more than one hour without asking “What we are doing?”

Here we are, six weeks later; bags packed, the remains of our home in three storage units and a little gas in the tank. John sells truck accessories every day and our constant dialogue revolves around new ideas, projects and businesses (More to come on this). We’ve traveled to Panama City, Birmingham, Opelika, Ozark, Mobile, Orange Beach, Las Vegas, and Houston, TX and always arriving to loving family members and friends. It’s been a wild ride and it’s only the beginning.

So what ARE we doing? Where are we going? What is our plan? All valid questions, and we are on the journey to the answers. I am sure there will be many miles until we truly reach the answer. I can only hope, as we continue on our path, that we keep our eyes on the road and prepare ourselves to change lanes.