4 Years Ago

Today, I decided to stop feeling overwhelmed and to think of how far we have come.  October 6^th will be our 4-year anniversary of owning My Gym Children’s Fitness Center in Arvada, Colorado. We have been through so much and experienced more than I would have ever imaged since becoming business owners.

Matt Redman’s song “Never Once” explains how I’m feeling:

Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we’ve come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You’ve done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

 

Four years ago, we moved away from all of our family and friends to a place we had never been before. Today, Colorado is our home and we have made friends who love us like family.

Four years ago, we took over a business that was not going to survive the economy crash of 2008. Today, we are still maintaining double the enrollment from when we started.

Four years ago, we said that we would “never” own multiple locations so that Arvada could always have our full attention. Today, we own two My Gyms, and the original thought of selling Colorado Springs is dwindling down since we see the potential of what we can bring to both locations.

Four years ago, we didn’t have any employees and worked every single class and birthday party 7 days a week for 16 months by ourselves. Today, we have 6 staff members in Arvada (not including us) and 4 in Colorado Springs.

Four years ago, Arvada’s location really needed a face-lift of new carpet, paint, etc. Today, our year-old facility still feels brand new, and we are in the works of trying to go through the same re-location process in Colorado Springs.

Four years ago, we were 21 and 22 years old with one car and a few pieces of furniture. Today, we are 25 and 26 years old with two new cars, a fully furnished town-house, and a dog.

Four years ago, our future felt like a dream. Today, we are living our dream… and loving it. HE has been faithful, and we are so blessed!

September 3rd

Eight years ago, today, Thomas asked me to be his girlfriend. Six year ago, today, we said "I do". I truly cannot believe how time flys when you are having fun! 8 years as a couple, 6 years as husband and wife, and almost 4 years as business owners together.

This anniversary card was perfect:

Still think you're hot.

Still love your smile.

Still laugh at the cute things you say.

Still need your hugs.

Still craving your kiss.

Still love when you touch me that way.

Still glad you call to simply say "Hi"

or just cause you're thinking of me.

Still like the way I start out the day

with you as the first one I see.

Still having fun just staying at home,

or when we go try something new.

Still falling in love more and more every year -

and I'm so glad I'm married to you.

I could add... No matter what, I still love our life because I get to spend it with you. I love you, Thomas! Happy Anniversary.

Summer Stories

Every time I say I'm going to get better at blogging, I take longer and longer to post. My computer didn't even remember my blog address this time (I actually had to type every letter of hobby-family.blogspot.com). I really want to blog more, but sometimes I feel like it would just be the same, same stories or updates.

We work a lot, but you already know that. We did make ourselves take a few days off in a row the week of July 4th. We closed the gym and had a nice stay-cation around Colorado. We hiked Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, went to our first Lacrosse game (just to see the fireworks on July 4th), and used our LivingSocial to enjoy a half day of White Water Rafting. It was a great week of fun and relaxing!

Even though work keeps us beyond busy between the two gyms, we are having fun. We have been blessed with staff (the picture is both Arvada and Colorado Springs together). Even with two of these girls completing their final day with us just yesterday to leave for to college, three more applications have come in and interviews have been going well. It is a never-ending training kind of job, but you get to work with some fun personalities, for sure!

Coming out of summer, enrollment is starting to go up in Arvada, but it is still struggling in Colorado Springs. At times we get burnt out. At times we wonder what in the world are we doing making our life so busy. Then I was reminded last week that 'when great direction is needed, great direction is given'. However... automatic doors don't open when you pull into the parking lot; they open when you walk through them. I feel like we are still walking up to the "door" particularly in Colorado Springs. Hopefully things will change in another month and that 'great direction' will be given.

After a crazy work load each week, we have really been enjoying our Sundays. The 3rd Sundays of each month, we have had the opportunity to have an interactive booth at our local Arvada Farmer's Market. We bring a lot of our big My Gym equipment for the kids to play on in a grassy area right by the library. We have done two already and have three more to go. It's has been great, free advertising (not to mention the free, yummy fruits and veggies they give us for entertaining the kids).

To change the subject off of work, our Sundays are also filled with being active in our church and attending basketball games. Juli has started occasionally playing the keyboard on our church's worship team (in addition to the youth band) and still serves as a youth leader over the high school girls. She just got back from their Summer Camp (youth retreat) last week - 5 days away with no cell service and not much sleep. Thomas has joined a basketball league that plays every Sunday night. It is fun watching him (even though some of his games don't start until nearly 9pm).

Some other random blogging thoughts...

•  Angela (Juli's sister) comes to visit next Wednesday through the weekend. Unfortunately, the boys will be staying behind, but it'll be great sister time as we get pedicures, go shopping and take bets on if we will have another nephew or our first niece in January.
• Our anniversary falls on Labor Day this year. Yippy for a day off to celebrate SIX YEARS of marriage!
• We go to California in October for another My Gym owners-only seminar. I can't believe we have been in Colorado AND a business owner for almost 4 years already.
• I miss my grandparents. I think about Mimi a lot when I'm playing the piano. I think of Pop even at the most random times. If I'm remembering correctly, their anniversary is this month. I wonder how you celebrate 63 something years with your love in Heaven.
 



Our May

I cannot believe it is already the month of May! One of my new years resolutions was to blog more often, but there is so much that has already happened this year... it's hard to keep up. I am on track with another new years resolution, though: to read 12 books during the year 2012. I am not a fast reader, and it's hard for me to make time to put my feet up and dive into a book - that's why I thought it would be a perfect challenge for me. I only read 4 books in 2011, so I set a goal this year of one book a month and even if I accomplished only 50% of my goal, it would be more than the previous year. Currently, I am on my 5th book since January 1st, and considering it's the 5th month of the year, I feel like I'm right on track.

One of the books Thomas and I read together last year was Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" while we were completing the Financial Peace course at our church. It has changed our life! We are medical debt free as of last month (from Juli's emergency, no insurance gallbladder surgery in May of 2010). We are no longer purchasing things on credit cards as we are chipping away at that debt each month, and My Gym Arvada should be paid off by this time next year. My Gym Colorado Springs will be put up for sale once we finalize our lease (hopefully this month), but the timing of that sale is in God's hands.

Summers are hard for us financially at My Gym in this gorgeous state. People travel or prefer to be outside ALL Summer instead of continuing their weekly My Gym classes. We are already seeing our numbers drop (March was a very high enrollment month, but we have dropped 30+ kids in each location since then), so we are trying a new marketing approach to capitalize on those who might think of My Gym during the Summer.

Our drop-off Summer Camp starts in both locations the first week of June and we have had successful Summer Camp enrollment nights for those. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, so I took the time to research local elementary schools and type all the teacher's email addresses into a database to send them a summer special just for teachers. Memorial Day is just around the corner, too, and we'll be advertising a huge military discount in Colorado Springs since that gym is located right by the Air Force base.

Staffing is our biggest struggle with owning two gyms. We ran My Gym Arvada for 16 months without staff (just Thomas and I on every class and every birthday party), but now that Juli is mainly in Arvada and Thomas is mainly in Colorado Springs, we are becoming highly dependable on other people. We are hiring in both locations because we need to. It's a little stressful to do so during the approaching slow summer months, but we have to stick to our belief that we will never be able to grow our business if we don't grow internally with dependable/available, highly trained staff.

Some more quick updates...

 Pepper turned ONE on April 29th. He has grown so much since we adopted him at 8 weeks old.

My brother is a United States Marine!

 We were able to fly to South Carolina for a quick 3 days to be a part of Micah's family day and graduation from Marine boot camp. We were able to visit with Juli's dad, mom, step-dad, aunt Sheila, brother, sister and nephew Jacob.

 The Waits siblings: Juli, Micah, Angela

And finally...

I would say that a "chapter" in my life is coming to an end, but it feels more like a book is coming to a close. I have been a nanny off and on since she was 14 years old. Caleb and Chloe (our flower girl and ring bearer in our wedding) were my first "job", and my love for babysitting turned into long-term nanny commitments along side of My Gym duties. Anelise was my most recent almost full-time nanny job, but I had to close that "chapter" when we took over the My Gym in Colorado Springs. I was so sad to not have that "mommy practice" anymore and thought I was done with nannying until Kate (pictured) came along once a week on Thursday mornings. I thought it was manageable since it was only 4 hours a week, however, with the work load of both gyms and staffing troubles, May will be my last month as a nanny. I would still love to babysit here and there for families I keep in touch with, but my consistent day to day and even week to week work will always be My Gym until the glorious day comes when I get to "nanny" my own children for a lifetime.

Open Houses

We had an Open House at My Gym Arvada on Saturday, Feb. 12th and enrolled 11 new kids! We make monthly enrollment goals (even when we are not doing an open house) and decided to make 25 our goal for the whole month of February. With the Open House specials and the 11 new kids during our 4-hour event, we hit our monthly goal of 25 enrollments the second the Open House ended... 12 days into the month. We are adding new classes and really have gotten on an enrollment spree that we hope to keep going.

We had a two-day Open House at My Gym Colorado Springs the following weekend and enrolled a total of 22 new kids. Since we had 11 new members during the first day of the Open House (just like Arvada), we were not expecting much the second day, but it's exciting that we were pleasantly surprised.

We've had a rental car for January and February as our second vehicle. We will be turning the car back in on the 29th, and the March work schedule has us trying to cover every shift with just one car and all the new staff we've hired. I am nervous about it, but I rather try it before we have to add a second vehicle expense right now. Thomas will still be staying one night a week in the springs to save on gas, but having one car will actually allow us to spend more time together working in either Arvada or Colorado Springs instead of being split like we have been for the past 2 months.

It's almost like March will bring on a new adventure, but we are ready and still excited. We are also thankful there is a Petsmart with a Pets Hotel right by the Colorado Springs My Gym. Our dog, Pepper, loves the 1 1/2 car ride to and from his doggy day camp while we work (and it's only $20 for the day... usually 10-12 hours).

Those are the work updates I have for now. I always want to write about more interesting things going on in our life, but My Gym is our life right now and there's a lot going on to talk about. We are tired, but blessed!

Time for an Update

We have owned both My Gym Children’s Fitness Center in Arvada and Colorado Springs for over a month now, so I thought it was time for an update. Both gyms are currently increasing in enrollment and birthday parties. We are gearing up for an Open House in Arvada next Sunday, Feb. 12^th. Colorado Springs will have a two-day event on Feb. 18^th and 19^th. We hired a new employee in Arvada last week, and are still interviewing other applicants in both locations.

Thomas is mainly in Colorado Springs – staying overnight about twice a week to save on gas. The gym has a nice extra storage room where he has a futon set up with a TV and his Xbox. Juli is mainly at My Gym Arvada during the week and typically in the Springs on the weekends to give Thomas a break from the drive. It’s hard managing two gyms and working every class/birthday party, but we have great staff right now helping us (especially Dustin from Arvada and Sam from Colorado Springs who also work 6-7 days a week), and we a truly blessed by this experience.

Our goal is still to eventually sell My Gym Colorado Springs, but since we are unsure the timing of when that will happen this year, we are focused and determined to build it up to the best of our abilities before resting. We have to constantly remind ourselves that the continuous work and endless hours are only for a season and that it will be worth it all in the end.

Please continue to pray for our health and safety through this journey… may we receive wisdom and strength from the One who gave it all.

In other news, Juli’s brother left for Marine Corps boot camp on January 16^th. We received the first letter in the mail from him last week. The letter means a lot to me (Juli). I keep in on my fridge and look at it daily. It reads, “Juli, Thomas (and Pepper): This place is crazy! I’m gonna send mom all the details cause I don’t have much time to write. I am well, though, I miss you guys! I regret not spending more time with y’all when in Colorado. I promise to visit soon. How’s Colorado Srpings? Please write often. Include spiritually uplifting things. My devotions are what’s getting me through this. I really love y’all. ~Micah …PS Tell Mom and Angela that the food is truly great and the weather is nice so far.”

I am going to write him tonight, but I don’t think I could tell him how much I actually miss him. I was spoiled by Facebook keeping us so connected before he left. Little things during the day make me think of Micah and what he possibly could be going through. Please lift him up in prayer, too, as I count down the days to his graduation (April 13^th) and a short 10-day leave that will allow him to call his sister. If you would like to write him (normal first class letters only), his address is:

RCT Waits, Micah D.

3^rd BD, India CO, PLT 3024

PO Box 16345

MCRD Parris Island, SC 29905-6345