Inspiration Behind the Blog

I’ve worked in the racing industry as a journalist for the past eight years, and one thing I have learned throughout those years is that the sport often operates as a large family unit. Those who are involved in it often refer to it fondly as a traveling ‘circus.’ Earlier this year my fiancé Blake and I learned we would be starting a family of our own, and over the last 11 months we have experienced firsthand the familial support of the racing community. Which leads me to the motivation behind this blog. I originally shared my pregnancy story with Jeff Gluck, a friend who works in the NASCAR space as a journalist, (Read his original article here) and after documenting my rather unconventional journey, I was overwhelmed by the amount of support I received from both men and women alike. Many shared they too were or had experienced a similar situation to my fiancé, Blake and I.

Our situation is a little unusual. Both Blake and I work on the professional sport of NASCAR, traveling the circuit for 38 weekends of the year. It’s the longest running professional sport with the season ranging from February to November, with very little ‘down time.’ Blake is a car chief for a top Cup team, I’m a reporter for FOX Sports as part of their NASCAR coverage. Earlier this year we unexpectedly learned we would  be adding parenthood this past August to our already chaotic repertoire.

To make things more interesting, Blake is also currently living in Colorado working for a race team that is based in Denver. And with the news of our pregnancy, the long distance relationship we had maintained suddenly became even more complicated. As you can imagine the nine months leading up to our daughter, Kadence’s birth was a bit of a logistical nightmare. Between doctor appointments in both Charlotte and Colorado, flights back and forth across the country for both of us, planning our wedding, planning a nursery, and holding down two very demanding careers it’s been a whirlwind of a year.  And it continues to be a delicate balance as we close out the 2017 NASCAR season living in separate states across the country…with a newborn. A lot of days I operate as a single parent until Blake can arrive from Colorado for a night or two during the week before we both leave for the race weekend. Hats off to men and women who may be single parents and manage that lifestyle. I can’t imagine how challenging that must be. In short, after documenting the details of our situation for Jeff’s website, I realized I might actually be able to help families who are experiencing similar situations to us, and parents who both hold their weight with their own respective careers.

Enter the idea of having this blog and helping people. It’s taken me several years to buy into the blogging idea. But I’ve had a change of heart to the concept. How will my site be different from the dozens of bloggers that saturate the social media space? For starters, this will be a ‘mom blog’ written by a working mom. It will touch on the fine balance of navigating trials and tribulations of motherhood while having an incredibly demanding, albeit, rewarding career. I don’t live an ostentatious lifestyle, I work during the week in addition to traveling Thursday through Sunday nearly every weekend for my career which requires long hours, sometimes precarious weather conditions, and a lot of time in and out of airports. Blake has the same routine. I wouldn’t have it any other way considering this was my teenage dream to work in motorsports as a journalist. But even though we work in pro sports, we do live modestly. We can easily relate to working men, women, and parents who manage it all. I’ve observed that some bloggers seem to manufacture the mentality of having a ‘perfect life.’ The reality? Having a career is hard, being pregnant is hard, having a newborn and being a parent is even harder in my opinion. 2017 has been one of the most difficult, stressful, but most importantly, happiest years of my life. But it has not come without its set of challenges.

 In addition to parenting, my blog will also give followers a behind-the-scenes look into life on the traveling racing circuit. There will be future content on motherhood, racing, travel, whiskey libations (yes, Mom needs and deserves an outlet), and whatever else I come up with. The racing content will include profiles on the faces and names you likely already know in the sport, and a few you may not. I’m hoping all this will appeal to both the male and female audiences, while providing readers with a look across America on a traveling sports entertainment empire.

Comment below on more of what you would like to see on the blog and I’ll do my best to make it happen.