Who I am

Leigh is my alter ego. Here I can say the things I wouldn’t dare to on the blog that my family members and clients read. (Although I may reference that one occasionally here.) Here I can tell it like it is about all things marriage, parenting, family and work related. No need to censor this blog for little eyes (my children, nieces and nephews, etc.), grumpy husbands, watchful family members and potential clients. (I mean really, how can you complain about work, when the people you’re working for or could soon be working for can easily Google you?)

You know how families are: They get mad when you spill the beans. When you tell people everyone’s problems, and when you think aloud. Or even when you just want to talk about “Family Taboo” topics, such as anything besides the weather, politics and what the children are up to.

Here it’s just me. The real me! Not the professional front I put on for most of the world.

Welcome to Inside my Head!

I was 18 and three weeks out of high school when I got married the first time. Needless to say, things didn’t exactly go as planned.

I was 19 when I had my first child. I could hardly take care of myself, let alone a child.

Now I’m in my thirties, remarried and some days I think I have a handle on things… Other days I wonder where the manual is to both children and marriages!

Two of the most important things in life, and most of us jump into them not having a clue where to start! Add into the mix that over 50% of marriages don’t work so most of us are not on our first marriages, that there are step-children, half-siblings, and all the baggage that comes with failed relationships and what you’ve got is….

Well, I guess that’s what I’m trying to figure out!

I have a wonderful husband that I met back in November of 2000, we had a rough relationship from the start. A love/hate relationship some would say, complicated by the fact that we were both still carrying baggage from past failed relationships. And both still holding torches for others….

After a lot of ups and downs, and on and offs, here we are, almost 8 years later and I think we may have finally gotten our act together, both as a couple and as parents. But that doesn’t mean we know it all. Far from it!

I’m a self employed, work from home, computer nerd, who also works for the township in my spare time. He’s now working in warehousing and has a love hate relationship with it.

We have two children, our son is mine from my first marriage and our daughter is ours together. But we’re currently thinking about trying for another one.

We’ve also somehow acquired three dogs, and for a girl who has spent her whole life afraid of dogs, it’s a big change. But they’ve become like children to me, each with their own personalities. A Jack Russell who’s now almost 2, A Mixed Breed who just had his first birthday in April, and a Pomeranian who will be one in October. They’re “My Boys”.

For the past five years, my life has been mostly about trying to build a new house on the property that my grandfather gave me for graduation, and the additional that I purchased off of my grandmother after my grandfather passed away. In March of 2008, I finally reached my goal, and the building process began, but is still not finished.

Now my goal is to set a new goal I guess. I’m kind of in that “Now What” stage.

Updated September 29, 2008