Our Story

When Greg walked into my life (literally) in 2009, my world changed forever.

Our meeting/dating story is pretty interesting, but I'll save that for another post. He was 21, and I was 19...we were babies. Just know - After a week of dating, we knew we would get married. I knew I had found the person who I loved with every ounce of my being. This was a once in a lifetime, grow old together, "forever love."

The first few years of our relationship, I was in college and he was working with his family at an oilfield / construction company where we were stationed in Lafayette, Louisiana. Those were some of the best years of our relationship and I enjoyed that time spent in Louisiana with him and his family.

He worked while I went to college and during those years, we grew together, traveled on the weekends and we dreamed of what our life would look like after I graduated college. On Christmas Eve during my senior year of college, Greg got down on one knee before my family and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him...and I said yes 😍

We agreed that whatever life put in our path, we would grow and work to achieve our dreams together. Through sickness and in health (I honestly think the terms "through economic down turns" and "starting real estate businesses" should be added, but I digress).

We took our vows before our family and friends in a little church on the outskirts of Kilgore. On April 14, 2012, we began the foundation for our forever.

After we got married, we stayed in Louisiana for about a year. We ended up in Lake Charles, Louisiana where Greg worked for the same company he had previously worked for in Lafayette and I worked for a local CPA firm as an executive administrative assistant. After several months, we were wanting to come back home to Kilgore. I applied for several jobs with no luck. Somehow, I happened to fall into the real estate world. We felt it was fate because everything aligned perfectly for us to move back home, and I could begin my career in real estate. Greg didn’t have a job lined up, but we had a small savings at the time. We decided after years of working 70+ hours a week, he was going to take some time off and figure out what he truly wanted to do.

After we moved back home, my career took off and Greg worked for a local oilfield sales company. He really liked what he did, but he knew he wanted more from his job. Several months later, Greg got a call from his uncle – he wanted him to work for his company and start up a location in Corpus Christi, Texas. This job had major growth potential and had great pay. Although we were going to be living apart for a little while, we both were excited about the opportunities we had to grow professionally before we had kids.

While I was busy building my real estate career in Kilgore, Greg was busy building his business in South Texas - but while he was stationed in Corpus Christi, we found out that our family was about to grow. In 2015, we welcomed our first child - Evie Jean. 

She was the biggest blessing to our little family, and her birth ultimately changed the course of our future. Until she was born, Greg planned to advance in the oilfield industry and travel wherever his work took him. After she was born, that little girl had her daddy completely wrapped around her tiny little fingers - he wanted to be home with his family no matter what he had to do to make that happen. Following the months she arrived, Greg moved home to Kilgore – this time, we had no savings and he had no job offers. He applied to more companies than I remember but was unable to find a job using his experience and expertise that was close to home. Keep in mind, this was 2016 - Kilgore had historically been reliant on the oilfield industry and at that time the cost of drilling plunged, many oilfield companies filed for bankruptcy and most of the oilfield jobs were moving to the Permian Basin which didn't exactly help our case for him staying close to home.

We had a newborn, a mortgage, and my real estate business to pay for - although my business was doing great, paychecks weren't as steady as the reoccurring bills we had monthly - we had no money to spend on anything other than bills, gas and groceries. Looking back, I like to joke that we were rich in love and happiness but too broke to do anything else.

At the end of the day, that's all that matters right?

One day while showing a house with me, Greg mentioned to me that he enjoyed riding with me and thought he might like doing real estate. I don't remember what my response actual was, but I remember thinking "Are you kidding me? We have no money, your experience is in oilfield, you have no sales experience, and you want to spend money on real estate school?" Although I was objecting in my head, I'm sure I said something like "Sure baby, let's just get some extra money first." In the weeks that followed, our lives changed.

Greg was invited to play in a poker tournament that supported a local nonprofit. The winning prize? Two $500 Visa Gift Cards. There were so many participants and although Greg is a great poker player, I didn't put much confidence in him winning. At almost midnight, Greg called me and said, "I WON!"

I’m sure that he said some other things, but that was all I heard.

Following his poker tournament win, Greg took that money and purchased his classes. A few months later, Greg took his classes, passed his exams, and began his career in real estate in September 2016. 

His first year in real estate, he sold 2.1 million in sales and was awarded the 2017 Rookie of the Year for the Longview Area Association of Realtors®️. After years of searching for the career that fulfilled him, he had finally found it. 

Shortly after, I got my Broker's License and we started East Texas Preferred Properties with 7 agents including Greg and myself. The following year in 2018, we found out we were expecting our second child - Hayden. After a crazy few years, our family was complete and we were content.

After 13 years together, 10 years of marriage, 2 kids, 4 businesses (and counting), I look back and am in awe of where we started off to where we are today. We now own a small farm in our hometown where we have chickens, cows, and plenty of land to roam. I wake up every morning and I thank God for this life and the opportunity to live it with my family. 

I’m a huge fan of Simon Sineck and his motivational words 
including his book “Start with Why.” 

These three humans are my “why.”

Before I met Greg, I was in a dark place in my life - I was lost, lonely and dreamed of the day I could escape and go anywhere but where I was in life. If I could go back to the 19 year old me and tell her anything, it would be “Just wait - It will all be worth it.” 



Looking back at all the events that led me to where I am today,
I would do it all again with no regrets.