The Traveling Wife, the Windshield Life

I'm excited to announce, (for those of you that don't already know) I got a new job. Actually, it's not just a job, but a career!!! ... Its a job that I love, that I'm passionate about, a job that teaches me so much, a job that I can excel in.

My responsibilities include coordinating events, creating promotional materials and assisting our director all in an effort to increase ag literacy amongst K through 12th grade students. This has been a lifelong dream of mine through all my years of 4-H, FFA, Farm Bureau membership and leadership trainings. Combining my two passions, kids and agriculture is so rewarding!

So HOW exactly do I do this? I was hired on Aug 12, so this is still very new to me. But thus far, I have been traveling the state, visiting teachers, students, fairs and ag events to spread the word of our program and teach about agriculture.

As you probably know New Mexico is the fifth largest state, so its a pretty vast area to cover. But because our state is so large, its neat to visit the different regions and see what makes the area, their residents and students unique.

Las Cruces is one of my favorite places to travel
to because (not to sound like a fat kid) but the food! Its great when we're out presenting or working in the office, and lunch time hits. There's so many options of where to eat, and you know it'll be delicious. When you live in an area that only has a couple of mediocre restaurants, you have a new appreciation for good food. Not to mention Las Cruces has beautiful landscapes which are a welcomed change from the flat, high plains. Las Cruces is a second home, so its comfortable and familiar, it does't feel too far away.

Then of course a lot of our organization's meetings are in Albuquerque, a central meeting place. I have lukewarm feelings about the big city but I do love that they have are Targets and Starbucks galore (once again, something we don't have in Eastern NM). Although New Mexico is still pretty much considered a rural state, much of Albuquerque is still urban, so that allows us a great opportunity to teach about agriculture to kids who may otherwise not have the chance to learn about it.

Our program is strongest in southern New Mexico, so we are trying to increase its awareness and offer it to teachers throughout the entire state. I've spent a lot of time in Bernalillo and our presence further north will be increasing. The further north we go (especially closer to Santa Fe), the more skittish I get. Because this tends to be our more 'liberal' part of the state, the misconceptions that children believe, takes a lot to re-teach. Thank you teachers for showing your second-graders 'Food Inc.' (sheer sarcasm).   But I look forward to going further north, like Taos, Springer and Raton.

Now for the eastern part of the state, that's my sweet spot. The community on this side of the state is kinda like family to me now, and its nice to know some of the teachers and some of the kids' parents. I'm excited about getting into the Clovis, Portales and surrounding area schools.

As for the west part of the state, I haven't spent ANY time out there, so it'll be fun to get out that way.

We've got events coming up in Roswell, Hobbs, Raton and Deming so I'll be seeing a lot more of the windshield. I've gotten a lot of questions about traveling- "You travel ALL over the state?!", "How does your husband feel about it?", "How often are you home?"

The fact is, the amount I travel is nothing compared to our director. She's fantastic and always assures that any teacher who wants an ag presentation done in their class will get one. I admire her drive and lack of fatigue, she's like the Energizer Bunny! So, when I get worried that I can't pull it off, I watch her and realize its possible.

Back on the home front, my husband misses me (and I miss him). But the great part has been that although I've been super busy this Fall, its also harvest for him, so he's just as busy. We just make sure to block out time in our schedules for one another with date nights and quality time.

I truly feel blessed though to be able to do this job, then come home to my wonderful husband, our
dogs (and the newest addition to our family- Brownie, our baby jackrabbit, haha). No, neither of us have 9-5 jobs, nor a consistent schedule but its life and we're making it work. I guess a big factor in all of this is that we don't have little ones yet so now is kind of a great time for us to be busy, network, develop relationships and try to get our jobs aligned. I do have to mention though, Jeroen and I have a training and a vacation together coming up, so that's REALLY great since we ARE still newlyweds. I guess it's just learning to manage it all.

But all in all, EVERYONE is busy, I guess its just how you choose to handle it.