The Crazy Life of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs

The Crazy Life of a CEO...
The life of a CEO is a crazy one filled with laughter, tears, stress and fun. This past year has been an amazing journey of supporting our community, working with some of Nashville's finest, designing new lines and working around a deployment. This year has been amazing and our fashion lines have been growing like hotcakes every year since the day we started. The first professional photo shoot on the company was a huge success!

How hard could a photo shoot really be? Well I got the shock of my life...I was very surprised at all that went into our two day shoot. It was so cool and fun to be able to model my own brands! We had a blast thanks to Tom Sapp Photography and Elizabeth, the makeup guru, who kept me laughing through it all!

Here's a tiny clip of our pre-shoot "getting ready" session...

The Best Things In Life...
With my husband deployed and my brother Rob just returning home from the war, we are all reminded that there is nothing more important than spending time with the family.

Our predeployment scrapbook! We had tons of family visit, went to Myrtle Beach for a week and just played as a family at every chance possible.

A lot of friends have asked me, "How the heck did you get involved with the Nashville music industry?" Well, it's a pretty amazing story and I I truly believe an angel came into play in this most unusual introduction".

One day my mother-in-law, Janet, was working the floor at Neiman Marcus. A young woman named Constance came screaming into the store looking for a gift before she literally "jetted" off to a meeting in Nashville, TN. Janet, saw that she was frantic and having a horrible day and she asked her to take a seat and relax before catching the limousine waiting for her outside.

With a simple question, "Are you okay?" Constance spilled her heart out and told her about a song she had written about her best friend, a military spouse, and she was having trouble getting it picked up. She loved this song so much and wanted it to be a gift to the spouse community, but just keep running into walls with it. Janet instantly thought of me and gave her my phone number to see if I could help her in anyway.

To make a long story short Constance and I contacted each other. The joke between us is that both of us are very private when it comes to our personal lives, so to just call a stranger out of thin air was very unusual for both of us.

We knew it was fated to meet face to face when I told her that I was going to my mothers for the holidays and guess what…Constance was only thirty minutes down the street from her house. We instantly became friends and the ball started rolling on Angel’s wings as we say. I met Melissa Jones and Project Never Forget through this incredible friendship and have been helping Constance and numerous others do great things for our military community. I’ll never discount the power of fated relationships after this experience and if an angel shows up on your doorstep make sure you take the time to listen and share your gifts of friendship and support.

Melissa Jones Release Party! Celebrating her military tribute album, Red, White and Blue Night in Georgia and debuting her new single, "How Far Would You Go. To learn more about this amazing artist and sister to SGT. Jake Taylor visit www.melissajones.com

Melissa Jones - How Far Would You Go?

Roxanne and Melissa hit the road on a nationwide tour to military bases, hospitals and family readiness groups showcasing her military tribute album, Red, White and Blue Night in Georgia.

Melissa Jones 2008 Military Tour- Red White and Blue Night in Georgia

MSM presents the Military Spouse of the Year Award 2008
Roxanne goes to Washington DC for Military Spouse Magazines first annual Military Spouse of the Year Award 2008. Melissa Jones was the artist chosen for the event! I am so proud of my friend Babette (co-founder of MSM) and Chelle Brewer - the award recipient (not pictured).

Since I was a tiny baby my mother has shared the beauty and the power of the ocean with my sister and I. My mother grew up in Ormond by the Sea, just a few miles north of Daytona Beach, and every summer and holiday would be spent at this "untouched" beach just a few blocks from my Memere and Pepere's house...that's French for Grandmother and Grandfather if you're wondering.

The ocean has always been my place of safety and where I have found my greatest feelings of freedom and peace. Every morning when I drop the babies off to school I go and honor this amazing feat of nature by sticking my toes in the water and saying "Thank You". To live once again this close to the water, the place of my birth here in North Carolina I thank my lucky stars.

I was told once by a friend that when you believe in the power of the ocean you can write your wishes in the sand and let the ocean waves take that wish into the world...so I made a wish that my new line, Jane Wayne Surf would bring peace and fun to the world. Only time will tell what will happen to this wish but I'm honored to be able to work with my best friend hand in hand once again...the ocean. Visit our sister site for more information.