Solution to the Solution!

Matt and I recently attended the GoPro event put on by Eric Worre, and the Network Marketing Company.  We had no idea what to expect, and we were blown away.  One of the biggest takeaways that we had from that weekend include the idea that we have the 'Solution to the Solution'.  They had a few economists speak, and they confirmed thoughts and research that we ourselves had recently been doing.  There are two main ways to ensure that you are financially secure.  The first is to build your own business, and the second is to purchase and acquire assets that provide you with a residual income.
  Many of you know that I love to bake, and I created a business back in 2010 called 'le petit Macaron'.  I learned very quickly that I created a job for myself.  After a year of working ourselves to exhaustion, we had a choice.  We could put in A LOT of money, and cross our fingers that we would make our money back.  Or, we could put the time in ourselves, bake at all hours of the night, and continue sacrificing our family and life to make it happen.  It was SO much work, and we didn't have the money or ability to really take it to the next level.  It was a very powerful learning experience for us.  I knew that I didn't want to go into business again unless it was by myself.  I learned that there is a big difference between building a business by yourself, and creating a job for yourself.
  So, how do you build a business without all the overhead cost, where you can be your own boss, and only have to answer to yourself?  As well as a business that you can take time off, and still get paid?  When we heard that Strongbrook had a network marketing side, we were nervous and hesitant to persue, simply because of all the negative stigma that comes from MLM's.  It seems like everyone you know has had a bad experience with it, or knows someone with a bad experience.  I really got caught up in everyone's stories, and was scared of going for it.  However, we realized that the possible reason why they had such negative experiences, weren't necessarily because of the MLM itself (although not all companies are the same), but because of the individual doing the MLM.  They were maybe too pushy, or over-promised the opportunity.  I know that this was my experience.  We decided that we don't have to follow the mold, would can do it differently...our way!
  So, as much as people love to hate on network marketing, it really is a fantastic solution.  It enables us to create a business where there is small initial startup cost.  It enables me to work from wherever I need to.  I am able to work during nap hours, and right now, I'm watching my girls have a dance party...(yes, with FROZEN music on in the background)!  It enables me to share a product and company that we have found that has quite literally changed our lives, and our future.  We have seen it work for so many people, and are watching it work for us!  We have decided to build our business our way, and not necessarily the same way other network marketers have done it, but how we want to do it, and how we feel comfortable.

  This brings Strongbrook in as the 'Solution to the Solution'!  We have both.  We are building a business that will bring in residual income.  We are also using that business and company to help us buy and secure tangible assets (real estate) that is bringing in residual income.  What a fantastic company, and what an amazing SOLUTION!!  We are so excited about building our team of people who want to work together to share this solution, and serve people all across America!

   

Your playing small doesn't Serve the World!!

 I've been getting a lot of questions lately about what it is that I'm doing.  It's crazy how much life can change in 1 year.  Especially when you're not looking for change! I figured the best way to explain it would be to write up my/our experience with Strongbrook.  It's kind of lengthy, but I wanted to get every detail in to explain how we are where we are!
     August of 2013, we were invited by my Aunt Marlene Matheson to come and check out something new they were involved with and excited about. We had spoken previously about it before, and had discussed the fact that we were now renting our first home, and that they now had rentals.  I was interested in what they were doing with their rentals, so I did want to go.  Well, my dad and brother had gone to a previous meeting, and gotten a book, so before the meeting I read the book and was ready for my questions to be answered!  After the meeting, we had a few additional questions, and were able to meet with the president of the company, Kris Krohn.  The company promised a 5-10 year game plan, where they can replace your income in that time through investing in real estate.  We had known that we wanted real estate as part of our retirement, hence the reason why we were renting our first home.  However, Matt travels so much with work, and with 4 young girls I knew that being a landlord wasn't a great option for us.  So Kris showed us some of our options for our game plan, which was really exciting.  We were able to see what we could do now, to be where we want to be sooner than we thought.  It helps me to know that when he's out of town that this is not the end all, that we are working on other options so he won't have to miss our kids growing up.  We signed up to work with Strongbrook, and from there met our 'coach' Rodney.  We then met with Rodney a few times, got our financials in place, then had to wait for Matt's job and some commission money to come in before we could purchase our first home.   
    At that first meeting that we went to, they did a drawing for an entry into the 'Conscious Creator Live' 3 day course.  Matt won!  We had never heard about it, and all anyone said about it that night was how amazing it was and how it would change his life!  We figured he had better go! :)  It was happening that weekend, and conveniently Matt had already taken work off to do a little 'Staycation' with our family.  We decided that it would be a good thing for him to go, and he loved it.  He came home each night so motivated and literally 'high on life'!  It was hard to watch him learn so much and be so uplifted, and changing.  We decided that the next time they put it on, we would do it together, or I would do it so we both could learn and go through what he was doing.  
    When we first met with Kris, he mentioned that they were really excited about a new part of the company called Strongbrook Direct.  They had recently realized that the majority of their clients were referrals, and friends/family of those already doing business with them.  We weren't really interested in that part initially, primarily because we did not want to feel like we were hitting up our friends and family to make money off them.  So we told him we weren't interested in that part, and no problem.  Well, we went home and Matt did end up telling a few friends about it, and they were actually interested.  We got a few 'thank you' checks from Strongbrook.  But the thing that was exciting was the fact that we had introduced someone that we cared about to a company that provided them with a solution, the same as for us!  The more we learn about it, and the more we see, this is a company that can literally change someone's life.  You can go from a space of not having many options for retirement and the future, to having many options.  Many people that we know have wanted to get involved with real estate, just like us and haven't known how. We now don't feel like we're hitting up our friends and family, but simply sharing a company and opportunity that has blessed our lives, and we're excited about.  
  In November, we held our official "Grand Opening" meeting, and lots of friends and family members came.  Thank you if you did!!  We saw it become a solution for a few more of our friends and family, and this made us feel even better about it.  In December, we got a call from my cousin McKay Matheson, who had initially found the company.  He said that he had been doing some one-on-one mentoring with the president, Kris Krohn and it had changed his and his wife's mindset and lives immensely.  They were opening up another mentoring session, and wanted to know if we were interested.  This brought many nights of discussion, and pondering, and prayer.  It was a lot of money to drop on something we didn't know much about.  And we knew it was going to STRETCH us.  But, we were pretty happy and CONTENT where we were.  We had a great relationship, and marriage, we had 4 beautiful girls, and were in a pretty good place.  Well, we felt good about it and decided to go for it.  We had no idea what we were in for!  
     December our mentoring program began, and it was a HUGE sacrifice, but also a HUGE blessing!  We went on Saturday mornings at 8 am, which was a really big sacrifice for me, because I had been running with friends for years every saturday morning.  We had just moved, and this was the only time I saw those friends.  :(  It was SO hard for me to put that off, and know for 6 months I wouldn't be joining them!  And then to find somewhere for the girls to go at that time every week.  BUT, it was an intensely satisfying and growing experience.  Every week we were so glad we made it.  We were pushed to read a new book every other week, we were pushed to come up with a Stretch to become better.  We learned so much about ourselves and each other.  We no longer had time to hang out on the couch and watch Netflix episodes, we had to really work hard to arrange our schedules to work on our stretches.  We had so many amazing conversations and discussions with each other and where we wanted life to be.  We had become so content with life the way it was, that this was kind of like getting to know each other again, in ways we had never done while we were dating.  
     February came along and we both were able to attend the Conscious Creator Live course.  What an experience!  They spend a lot of time in the classroom, learning tools and laws for living consciously.  There were exercises done and questions asked that we've never even thought of.  For example, I had never even had the thought of what would I do with my day if money wasn't an issue?  Well, I would still be a mom, with or without money.  But I've never allowed myself to dream, to dream of what I could do WITH money to help others.  Who I would want to help if money wasn't an issue?  Sure my day to day wouldn't change much, but my goals and dreams would.  Kris's wife Kalenn spoke for just a few minutes the first day, and said something that really hit me.  Essentially, she said that we have a choice, we have a choice to live a nice comfortable life, a good life.  Or we have a choice to live an extraordinary life.  Yes, Matt & I have our trials, and we don't have a perfect life.  But we do have a pretty amazing life.  But why not have an extraordinary life?  The rest of the 3 days of Conscious Creator helped me take an intense look at my life and where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to serve.   
     We had our graduation from the mentoring class in June.  As this was ending, he offered another class to us.  A class to move forward, continue mentoring and learn how to facilitate future mentoring classes.  This again was another decision.  Matt knew that he didn't want to continue, merely out of time and other commitments.  However, I really wanted to continue, not only for my learning and growth, but for future possibilities as well.  I know that my job right now is to be the best mother to my girls and to help them grow and become the best women that they can be.  I need to help them find their potential and the knowledge and skills that I've learned and am learning are instrumental in that.  It's impossible to explain all that I've learned, but it includes a personal journey that I'm still on.  I'm so grateful for the experience so far...I have learned so much about myself.  My testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father has grown by leaps and bounds.  I feel like I'm just beginning on becoming the person I want to be, creating the life that I want to live, and serving and helping people do the same.  
    Just two weeks ago, I attended the Conscious Creator Live seminar again, and actually got to participate more as a facilitator.  This was another amazing experience.  I realized that many of my beliefs that held me back in the past, I've turned and I truly don't feel that way anymore.  What a huge blessing!  I saw how much I have truly changed and incorporated the knowledge into my life.  I feel like much that I've learned, I've already known and heard through the gospel.  But this has given me a way to truly apply the principles in my life.  I feel like the 3 day course is like EFY for adults!      
   It's become so much more than just Strongbrook, and the real estate side of it.  Who knew that this was going to come out of a real estate company!  Anyway, if you've read all this way, this is the craziness that we've been up to!  I can easily say that our lives have been changed by being introduced to this company.  The thing that is great, is that you can do just the mentoring/conscious creator side of the company, or you can do both.  We would absolutely love to share our experience and answer any questions you may have!   

What I've been busy doing!!

So I went a little 'cake crazy' the last month! I've had fun this past year learning how to use fondant and trying to make the cake yummier and prettier!

I wanted an excuse to practice, so I made cute little 4 inch cakes for the girls' teachers for gifts this year. So fun!

Sorry it's sideways, but I made this cake for my sis-in-law's sister's birthday.

This was for my Sis-in-Law Erin who just had a baby, and has been reading non-stop!

I saw a cake like this and have been wanting to make one. My cousin's daughter got baptized, so I jumped at the chance to make one!

Made this cake for our Christmas eve party with Matt's family! Chocolate cake with the peppermint frosting!
Needless to say we've had some fun with cake lately!

yeah, I know, it's been a while!

So, I don't know if anyone even checks my blog anymore! I've been a little absent, but got down to scrapbooking the last year, and realized how nice it was when my blog was updated so I could take things from here! So, I'm going to try to be a little more on top of things. Anyway.....we had a fantastic Christmas Season and break, Matt was able to take lots of time off, so we had lots of great family time. I asked Ellie if she was ready to go back to school tomorrow, and she got sad and said, "you mean, no more family days?" What a great thing to hear from your daughter! Yea for family days! Here's some fun pics of the last couple of months, and what we've been up to!

Matt coached Ellie's soccer team. SO FUN! It was an all-girl team, the purple princesses! All the girls were also in our neighborhood. Ellie absolutely loves soccer and is actually very competitive.

In October, Matt had to go to Orlando for a Saturday training, so we decided to join him and spend the next week at Disney World!! So much fun. We trick or treated one night at the Magic Kingdom and were able to see pretty much everything we wanted to at each of the 4 parks. It was hot (90's in Oct.!) but not crowded. We walked onto almost every ride at each park!
We actually saw Rapunzel & Flynn Rider even before the movie came out! The girls were so excited that they met her! Kenna loved her!
Trick or treating at the Magic Kingdom! The girls couldn't believe that they got to trick or treat at Minnie & Mickey's house!
Grandma & Grandpa Johnson joined us for the week. It was so nice to have the help and extra hands. Nothing better than to hang out with grandma & grandpa at Disney!

Here's McKenna saying Merry Christmas! There was a bag of cookies on the table, and she just decided to get them herself! She's definitly the busiest and craziest toddler I've had.

The sleepy elf came on Christmas eve, and brought Ellie some 'pirate' jammies! This was a classic Christmas moment, with her yelling..."how did he know? How did he know?"

Ellie & cousin Julie being the 'angels' at our Christmas Eve re-inactment!

Getting excited to see Santa!

McKenne ~ 18 months

Ellie ~ 5 1/2

Addilyn ~ 3 1/2

Braving the cold to see Santa come down in the helicopter at University Mall.

We had a great holiday season, and are looking forward to a great 2011! We're grateful for all our friends and family we were able to spend time with and make the season so wonderful.

Family Pics

We got our family pictures taken in October.

Going on 8 years of marriage!

Addilyn ~ 3 years

~3 cute girls~

~McKenna 16 months old~
This is the best shot we got of her! She made the picture taking event not so fun!

~Ellie 5 1/2 years~

I love this pictures of my girls! They've got such different personalities and really look so different from each other. It'll be fun to see where they take us!

Top of Utah Marathon!

Mile 17.....feeling pretty good still!

Janae, Heather, Kelly, Jenny, me, Janelle
I wanted to write up my marathon experience. It was amazing, and when all is said and done, I'm kind of sad that it's over because it really was so great to run and train with these girls!

This marathon has been quite the experience. I started really running after I had Addie 2 summers ago, and did my first 1/2 marathon 2 years ago. I was thinking about the marathon, but got injured and knew there was no way to train in time. After having McKenna I was so excited and ready to get running again. I started running with a few of us, and slowly our group got bigger and bigger! There were 6 of us total that trained and ran the race together. What a huge blessing! I felt so lucky to have such tough, amazing friends to take this journey with.

We signed up for it months ago and started training. So many early mornings and long Saturday runs. It was interesting to see how differently the long runs affected each of us, with different injuries coming here and there.

Friday night we all met up for pasta at Jenny's which was fun. We ate at around 4 and then headed up to Logan. Janelle hooked us up with her families fifth wheel (which was BRAND SPANKIN NEW) so we could park and sleep right by the starting line. This was such a blessing, since we were originally going to stay in Tremonton, have to drive a half hour and catch a bus at 4:30 in the morning. We were able to get up in the morning, walk right out to the starting line and not be freezing cold. We picked up our packets on friday night, and then headed up and went to bed pretty early. I really didn't sleep at all because of nerves, everyone else was so quiet I kept thinking everyone was sleeping but it turns out we all were just laying there waiting for someone else to wake up! The morning of we all gathered for a prayer, and Jenny said the best prayer. You could feel the spirit so strong, and by the end of the prayer we were all in tears. We headed over to the starting line and huddled together to stay warm. The gun went off and we all started screaming, so much adrenalin. Then the running began. We headed down 14 miles of beautiful Blacksmith Fork Canyon. I started out great, tried really hard not to get too excited and go too fast at the beginning. For some reason, I had side ache's and cramps the ENTIRE run! It was probably just nerves, but I never felt like I was able to relax and just run. I ran with Jenny and a friend from high school, Lindsay for a while at the beginning.
I was so excited to see Matthew, my Dad, my sister Rachel, and Jenny's husband Scott at the mouth of the canyon! It helped so much! They were so great! They ran from stop to stop and I saw them probably 4 times before the finish line!
Besides the crampy stomach I felt great until about mile 18, then my stomach started giving me problems. I stopped at 18 to see if using the great old port-a-pottie would help, and it helped a little. From mile 20 on, it was seriously mental. I would just convince myself that I could make it to each aid station, then allow myself to walk while I drank water then keep going to the next one! It felt so great to finish and to see everyone there. My finish time was 4:22:52. It wasn't quite as fast as I'd have liked, but for my first one, I'm happy with it! My only complaint is that my 2 middle toes are a little numb? Weird?
What a great experience! This is one I'll never forget, and I'm so grateful for Matt and my girls for supporting me! I spent many hours out on long runs he was so great and supportive!

On another note....Matt did his first sprint-triathelon 2 weeks prior to this. I don't have any pictures but hopefully I'll get them soon. He did it with Rachel, my sister and my dad! I ran for my dad which was so much fun. It really made me want to do one. Maybe next year! But I've been so proud of him and his training...he's lost almost 30 pounds this past summer from all of his hard work! It's been a fun, active summer for us!

school/labor day

I can't believe it's almost October! There has been so much going on....and with this 80 degree weather it's hard to convince myself to start thinking about Halloween! This post might be a little long-winded, but there's lots to say!

Ellie is officially in Kindergarten! She is absolutely loving it and loves that she gets to go everyday. She is at Westside Elementary and she is in the Spanish Immersion class. We thought hard about putting her in this class, we did a lot of research on it and decided that it's a good idea for her. She's already reading and loves to learn new things. HOWEVER, that first day when I took her in, she was all nervous and excited, as was I! As soon as we walked in and her teacher looked at her and said "Hola Ellie Rose" then went on to say something about getting her folder and putting it in the basket all in Spanish....Ellie looking up at me like "what is she talking about!" Anyway, we knew it was Spanish the first hour and we had talked about the fact that she is not going to be able to understand her teacher the first part of class. I left and got in the car and kinda broke down. Kindergarten and the whole big kid school thing is hard enough and I just stuck her in a classroom with a teacher she can't understand! I felt like the meanest mom.
It's much better now and it's fun to hear Ellie doing her Math stuff in Spanish, and she came home singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider in Spanish this week. She's loving it and getting used to it. I think it was just a little more of a transition than we were thinking it would be!

This is a prime picture of my McKenna. She constantly has stuff in her mouth, and all I have to do is hold out my hand and she dumps whatever's in her mouth in my hand! She is the BUSIEST baby I've had yet. But she is so social and so much fun. She loves to have you look at her and laugh with her. If you're not paying attention to her, she'll come up to you, simply pat you on your leg until you look at her then continue to do what she was doing. She's really good at entertaining herself......however I feel like I am constantly picking up after her and getting things out of toilets, changing dirt diapers, smelling Marigold breath, and cleaning up after her messes! What a busybody!

On Labor day we headed up with the Johnson family to Park City. We hit the outlets first, then headed to a yummy lunch at Squatters! Then we did the Alpine Slides. It was Matt's first time, and a first for the girls. They had so much fun going up on the lift and Addie was my buddy. Ellie loved going with Grandma J.!

Here's my cute little 3 year old! Addie started preschool the day after Labor Day, and she could not wait! She absolutely loves it and adores Miss Farr. She's in our ward and neighborhood so I actually have 2 hours for 2 days of the week when it's just me and Kenna! And sometimes I get lucky if McKenna decides to take a good nap! Addie loves to come home and tell Ellie about the things she got to do in preschool that day. She's more excited to talk to Ellie about it than Matt or me!