Why I Decided To Blog For A Living

Life Was Put On Hold

When I moved back from Alaska, my life was put on hold. I was still working for the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) from afar, but it was only for another six months or so. Then, I got pregnant and my search for a job in Dallas ceased because we needed to find a house (we were living with my parents). After two years of being a stay-at-home mom, I wanted to work again. I'd worked for UAA a few more times after I had Brody, but they were temporary jobs. Then, I started looking for work and sending out resumes, and I found out I was pregnant with Bex.

My life kept getting put on hold, which meant my dreams were put on hold. I always thought I would have a job of my dreams (doing what? I don't know...), but I thought I'd get to a happy career-place. I'm a mom now, who is 28, and I haven't worked full-time since 2012ish.

So I'm ready learn and put my knowledge to use on this blog to hopefully make a profit. Here are some reasons why...

THE KIDS

Bex is on the move now, so he is the most difficult child to put a diaper on. He just flips over and starts crawling away and if I don't catch him fast enough he just pees on the floor. He's been crawling for nearly two months and he's pulling himself up in his crib and by the couch, so now I have him getting into EVERYTHING.

If I could only figure out why babies love to get into dog bowls all the time... or a solution besides having to put them up (cause then we forget to feed our poor dogs). SIGH...

Now I'm moving my decor around because he can reach breakable things and whatnot. I'm trying to "baby proof" my house.

But he is a little chunk. He loves to eat. He tries to steal whatever we're eating. He has four teeth now and more coming. His teeth bother him more than Brody's ever did.

And we are still potty training Brody. I know it sounds bad, but with me in the hospital so many times this year, he hasn't had consistency when it comes to his "training". I've been really working with him the past month. And for the most part he does good, but today was just a bad, terrible, awful. He peed his pants three times. And no to Adam Sandler in Billy Madison "it's not cool to pee your pants!"

If you don't live in Texas we are getting some major rain down here, which scares Billie. So I'm pretty sure he's pissed in a few places around the house, plus Brody peeing in his pants, and with Bex crawling around and peeing, my house smells like piss. At least, I feel like it does. Everyone is peeing everywhere. And I'm going crazy because of it.

Mentally, I need some time away from the kids to do something and have some sort of structure and routine to our daily lives.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT BESIDES CANCER CRAP

Medically I'm doing mostly OK. I've had to get several infusions because I've been low on magnesium, potassium or just need fluids in general. That means my doctor appointments are long. And I'm going mostly just once a week, but I've had to go a couple times a week depending on how my bloodwork looks. But I'm still in remission for the AML, but I could do some blog work up there due to how much time I spend up there a week.

For those of you who want to know about me medically, I'm going back on Nexavar--the oral pills that cost like $14K. The last time I was on them I got a really bad rash that just wouldn't go away.

Don't worry; the cancer didn't come back or anything, that's not why I'm going back on them. They are using the medication as maintenance. I have a bad mutation that is aggressive as hell and notorious for coming back called FLT3, and this medication targets that mutation. They want me to stay on it for a year for precautionary purposes. Doc said maybe even stay on it for two years from my transplant date which was in April depending on how I handle it. One to two years!? WTF. I hope that changes, but I'll do what the doc wants cause he knows his shit, by shit I mean leukemia.
Now tell me if this isn't crazy... Apparently, they are going to experiment with me (I'll be the first EVERRRRRRR) to try and see if we can desensitize myself from the side effects of the drug. So, for a few days I'll have to take a quarter of a pill for one day, and then start to slowly increase in the coming days.

I'm pretty nervous for that. I was actually suppose to start this weekend, but then I didn't buy a pill cutter till yesterday, and I wasn't about to try to cut pills that cost like several hundred dollars each and them break into a thousand pieces. So, I'm holding it off till next week on that.

But thinking about all this cancer stuff every week becomes exhausting and I need an outlet where I can talk about some new, regular things in my life. That doesn't mean I will stop telling my stories about how I feel about having AML and what not, I just need to talk about more things.

TURNING 28...

I recently had a birthday and turned the big 2-8! So I had a party because I thought I deserved one after all that has happened over the past year (more to come on that later). Another year older, another year to celebrate life. This also motivated in really making my job my blog--and a dream come true.

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT BLOGGING TO MAKE MONEY

This is a really BIG DEAL for me.
I've decided to really focus on my blog and try to take it to the next level. And of course, you, my readers are big part of helping make me more successful.

I know what you're thinking, "you always say you will post more, Cass and never do."
But I'm really going to put more effort into this blog.

I'm tired of just having my weeks consist of doctor appointments and taking care of kids. I really need to do something for myself. I'm going crazy all the time at the house. And I'm not at full strength so I still need help with cleaning, cooking and the kids. I get way too tired too easy and that stresses me out. Blogging makes me happy, less anxious and I can make money from home. Plus, it's fun!

One of my favorite bloggers, Helene In Between, wrote a post the other day that spoke to me, entitled "Do You Know How To Figure Out What You're Good AT?" Go read it. It's an amazing post.

Like me, she also has a communications degree, and when she was growing up she didn't know what she wanted to "be" either. There are so many people who knew early on they dreamed of being a nurse, doctor, lawyer, accountant or engineer. I, on the other hand, had no clue what my talents were. What was I good at? What am I good at? What do I enjoy?

I knew I liked to talk. I loved to dance. I like to read. I love watching new TV shows and I adore animals. And eventually, in college, I figured out I loved to write.

And that's how Helene felt too. She never felt like she was good at any one thing until she started to blog. And she thought she had to find a niche to talk about. I was like that when I first started blogging too.

I blogged about our 17-day road trip from Alaska through Canada and down the west coast. Then, I blogged about being a first-time mom. Now, my blog seems to be more about cancer or battling acute myeloid leukemia than anything. But I know now, I don't need a niche. I'm interested in lots of different things, so I want to talk about lots of different things with my followers and make some money while I'm at it.

After six years working for various companies, Helene decided to go and blog full-time, meaning blogging is now her job--her income.

I really want to contribute monetarily to this family, so I took an "Quit Your Job to Blog" e-course designed by Helene to learn more about gaining followers, social media, seo, how to make money, etc.

And boy, oh boy, did she put some work into that course.

It's loaded with information and well worth the money. I have pages and pages of notes from her videos, plus worksheets and invaluable resources (that I never heard of until her course) to help me grow my blog, my audience and even make some money along the way.  If you're a blogger, I encourage you to take the Helene's e-course .

Don't worry guys; it's not going to change my writing in anyway. And I'll be working my butt off. Blogging is hard work; there is so much you need to do for each post so it takes a lot of time.

But I will be the same ole crazy, quirky, OMG-did-she-really-just-say-that-Cass because that's who I am. And that's how I write. I'll still tell it like it is and that's not going to ever change.

But I don't want this blog to be all about my journey battling acute myeloid leukemia. Of course if I can help someone talk by creating a cancer support group on Facebook or something, I will totally do so.

But for me, I have to talk about other topics too. The cancer stuff can be a little heavy for me at times and sometimes I just want to feel normal and forget about that part of my life.

Now, I'm asking you guys for your help.

I'd like for you to take a survey and answer a few questions for me about my blog and what keeps you coming back.

I have two surveys I'd like for you to take. They are very brief and multiple choice so it should take you no time at all, plus it would help me out greatly.

1. The first is about Demographics. I just want to gaining knowledge about My Readers/Followers. Please take this survey first.
2. The second survey is all about my posts and what you like and don't like... Please take my survey about my blog posts here.

Thanks for being so amazing you guys! And I appreciate your support as I start this venture!