Turkey Trot

Juli ran in her 1st race today, a 4-mile Turkey Trot. At the start of the race, the temperature was 23 degrees and the altitude of the park was about 5,400 feet high. She accomplished the run in just over 48 minutes.

My race number

My phone recorded my run

The race path I ran

Our Staff and Client Testimonies

Our wonderful staff: Dustin, Juli, Thomas, Jill, Craig

We recently handed out Client Surveys to have people voice any positive or negative answer to several questions. I was pleased with most of the testimonies that came back, so I wanted to share a couple from three of the questions...



Question: Would you share with us any positive or negative experiences you or your child has had with any certain member of our staff (including the owners)? Your open and honest reply to this question is very important to us.



"Cody has especially bonded with Mr. Thomas and Mr. Dustin. It is great to have such wonderful guys in Cody's life. He also really love Ms. Juli and Miss Jill. Thank you all for your kindness!!!" ~Cody is 9 years old


"Thomas and Juli have been great with Zoe and accommodating our schedule. Craig is always able to get Maya involved."


"Tanner loves is when:
-he gets to demonstrate with Mr. Thomas
-gets tickled by Miss Jill
-gets chased by Ms. Juli
-has a game with Mr. Dustin
We're just getting to know Craig, but like him already!"


"Mr. Thomas and Ms. Juli were great at getting Paige comfortable with the routine. She adores them! Mr. Craig and Mr. Dustin have done a great job at making Paige feel comfortable with them as well. She loves My Gym and asks to come everyday."


"The staff is top notch. They have all been amazing with Tessa, especially when she was having issues listening and participating. They were professional, patient and gentle with her outbursts. Couldn't be happier with result of their hard work."



Question: Are you and your child/children ALWAYS treated in a friendly and respectful manner by our entire staff?



"Yes! They always seem so happy to see Sean!! I also appreciate how the staff will ask how I am doing (i.e. It always amazes me that Juli remembers what is happening in our lives and asks me specifics)."


"All staff members are very nice to us and happy to see us, play with the kids and show them new things. Dustin is one of the best staff members: always great with kids and never tired of playing with them."


"Everyone is very friendly and they are flexible with our schedule. They are always talking to me and asking how I am doing."


"Yes, the boys and I are always treated in a friendly and respectful manner. It is nice that we are greeted by names when we come in and you say good-bye to the kids and I when we leave."



Question: What brings you back to My Gym?



"My grandson, Eason, loves to go to My Gym and gets excited as soon as we pull into the parking lot. He even says "I'm so happy" when we are walking to the door of My Gym." ~Eason is 23 months

"We think it is in the best interest in Tanner's physical development and life skills like following directions and peer interaction. It really prepares them for school!"

"My Gym offers so much more in my child's development than other local rec. centers. The extra attention to communication, sharing, discovery and trying new physical feats far exceeds any other program we've been involved in. Keep up the great work... your efforts are appreciated and admired!!!"


"Well, I have been to 3 other gym programs and you guys are my favorite for the following reasons: 1) time - class length is 1 hour plus I get free plays... I get more gym time for my money. 2) staff friendliness - I love when my child is greeted by name. 3) diversity - so much is crammed into each class: gymnastics, swings, adventure, puppet show, etc. Your program is great!"


"The fun, positive and creative staff members!"

2 years in a row!

Meet Jackson Werner

My best friend of 9+ years became a mom today. Jackson Timothy Werner was born 11/2/10 at 11:59am, 7 pounds and 21 inches. Andrea was contracting every 3mins since midnight last night, received an epidural at 5am, had her water broken at 8am, and started pushing at 11:15. I am so proud of her!

My Gym Halloween Parties

Saturday, October 30th

1:00-2:oopm 22 kids attended

5:30-6:30pm 30 kids attended

Our 3rd annual Halloween Party!

Meet our Staff!

Juli (Tinkerbell), Craig (Popeye), Thomas (Thomas the Train), Dustin (Penguin), Jill (Indian)

Silly photo

This is more like our personalities

Our Summer

Since it has been so long since I've posted, I will try to recap our whole summer...

May -

• Juli had her gallbladder removed, and healed well from surgery. Micah flew out to help take care of her and work some at the gym.
• My Gym was booming with 194 kids enrolled!
• We hired two new employees. One, Dustin, is now our Director and the other quit early August.
• Thomas played softball for our church league.

June -

• Thomas turned 24.
• We were at a Colorado Rockies baseball game on Father's Day.
• Thomas' mom, sister and step-dad came to visit near the end of the month.
• Summer Camp started at the gym twice a week for June-August.

July -

• Thomas' brother, Robert, came to visit for 2 weeks.
• We went to another Colorado Rockies game on the 4th of July.
• Juli flew to Orlando for a weekend to surprise her sister, Angela, at her baby shower for Parker. From Orlando, Juli flew to California to meet Thomas (or flights landed an hour apart).
• We went to California for 2 weeks. The first week was vacation - visited friends in San Diego, went to the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Disney Land, Disney's California Adventure, Universal, and Hollywood Blvd. The second week we were in Long Beach for a My Gym Owners' National Seminar.
• We received an Achievement Award: "The owners who have achieved remarkable progress in striving for excellence in the areas of business operations, leadership, customer service, program quality and enrollment." Only 6 out of 220 gyms received this award (4 domestic and 2 international).

Disney Land

Disney's California Adventure

Hollywood Blvd

Hollywood Sign

My Gym Achievement Award: Thomas and Juli Hobby

August -

• Juli went to Orlando for 3 weeks. Thomas joined her for the final week there while Dustin (or Director) ran the gym. It was a wonderful time of seeing family and friends (and meeting our new nephew, Parker, who was born July 20th)!
• Summer Camp ended at the gym, and our enrollment numbers we lowering.

September -

• We celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary on September 3rd.
• We came home from Orlando on Labor Day.
• Enrollment numbers are at 134 after a lot of families canceled for summer.
• We hired another employee last week and we have another interview this week.
• We have lived in Colorado almost 2 years and will be signing another lease to stay in our house.
• Dustin (our Director) asked Thomas to be his Best Man in his wedding November 6, 2011. They have become best friends and we enjoy hanging out with Dustin and Kendra when we aren't working.
• Juli is back to watching Anelise 1-2 days each week as a nanny job. She is now 10 months old and just started walking.
• The weather is beautiful, but we are hoping the snow comes soon to bring in more business.
• October 6th is our 2 year anniversary of owning My Gym. We will have an anniversary party on October 9th and Halloween costume parties for the kids on October 30th.

Juli's Surgery

1st picture taken: Before my surgery (about 6:30am), and before they had to stick me in 3 different spots for an IV. The first two crumpled under my skin and it even made Thomas cringe.

2nd picture: After surgery, about 10am (yes, that's me smiling)

Picture #3: My incisions and a belly full of gas they 'blow" you up with. I look pregnant and my skin hurts, too, because of the stretching it did from the gas. I felt/feel like I have an elephant on my stomach.


Picture #4: My view from my nice, private recovery room. It even took off once and came back while we were there.

Latest update: We are home now after almost 16 hours in the hospital! I had a long recovery at the hospital (13 hours), but I was determined to go home the same day of surgery instead of staying the night like some nurses wanted. We were able to be discharged a 9:30pm. The nurse said that we must have had a very nice Doctor to let me go home "early" (rather than staying the night), because they usually don't discharge patients anywhere close to that late at night.

To go home, I had to be able to...

• eat and keep it down (I passed that task with eating a Gramcracker)
• handle just my pain medicine that I swallowed and not need additional pain meds through my IV (that was hard to "pass", but they were able to give me one more "shot" of morphine in addition to the pill I was taking a little before we left
• get up and walk, and also go to the bathroom. (I walked to the bathroom to accomplish both, but that was a bad experience).

I don't know if these are side effects from the meds, but I'm so HEAVY when I stand/walk that it takes so long for me to pick up one foot and move. We use a LOT of stomach muscles to move even the slightest bit! I also have bury vision with anything that is close to me. I can't remember the name of the pain meds I'm on, but I can't read that bottle right now because I can't see it - that is frustrating. I do know, though, that 1MG of my pills I'm taking is equal to 7MG of percocet. I'm taking 2MG of meds (it starts with a D) every 3-4 hours... doctor/nurse said to set an alarm to wake up and not miss a douse. I also have a patch (like a bandaid) on my neck behind my ear to help with nausea. They put it on before surgery and I have to keep it on until Sunday. It is helping a lot, though!

I'm trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but right now I'm still in a LOT of pain. My gallbladder not only had gallstones, but it was also inflamed. I experienced a lot of pain with my gallbladder attacks, but this is a different kind of pain. I just have to remember that it WILL go away and I'll be back to my normal self soon. The doctor told me that it'll be a good 1-2 week recovery (with a follow-up visit somewhere in that time frame), and I can't lift anything over 20 pounds for a month.

Thank you to all of you who are praying for me. If you know me well, you should remember I do NOT like shots, needles, or medical stuff. This was my 3rd surgery, and I'm actually proud of myself for being so brave. I just needed my gallbladder out so badly that I was willing to go through almost anything for relief. Hopefully the surgery pain will be gone soon, too!

So, I did it...

Tuesday night, I started having bad gallstone/gallbladder pain with fever symptoms. I went straight home to start the 1st Gallstone Flush at 9:30pm.

At 9:30am the next morning, I drank the 2nd Gallstone Flush.

These drinks (especially the first one) was the worst things I have EVER tasted, but I think it was successful. Wednesday was a very crummy day as I was passing my little friends (obviously I took off work), but I'm feeling better today. I could still have gallstones, but hopefully this will buy me some time if surgery is still needed and hold the pain off for awhile.

March Madness: a little bit of everything

Business Update: I'm sorry I didn't get to post an update a month ago about our enrollment numbers. As my last post talked about, our goal was to get to 200 kids by Feb. 15th. To date, our top number is 191. We were so close, but we are still happy that we worked so hard to get it up that high (especially with buying the gym less than a year and a half ago with only 88 kids). Of course, enrollment numbers go up and down with cancellations and sign-ups, but things are improving! We had a booth at the Radio Disney's All About Kids Expo earlier this month. We are still tallying our numbers from that event, but I hope to have a post about it on here soon.

Personal Update: On February 23rd, I (Juli) went into the ER with severe pain in my right side. We were worried it was my appendix, but it turned out that I have gallstones. The ER doctor was even surprised that is what it was because of my age. I was sent home with Vicodin to take went a gallbladder attack happened. This diagnosis has cost almost $5,000 so far, so I'm deciding to put off surgery (even though that will by my cure). I have a recipe for a gallbladder "flush" that consists of drinking:
5 oz of Classic Coke
6 oz of Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons of Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
...then wake up in the morning and drink 10 oz of Citric of Magnesium. LOVELY! I'm just trying to figure out when I can schedule a day off to be at home to do this.
I've also been told by a close friend of ours who is a GI doctor/surgeon, that this "flush" will just be like a bandaid for now until I can have surgery - preferable before we start trying to get pregnant. I'm willing to try drinking this yucky stuff to see if I have fewer attacks - at least until we are able to get insurance and then decide. I'm just glad I know what is "wrong" with me.

The same friend of ours who is a GI doctor/surgeon just got diagnosed with caner. He was born with Crones disease, as well, so his body is just shutting down. He has a 6 year old, Alden, and a 4 month old, Anelise. He is the brother of Jennie (mom of Kate and the twin boys we babysit for), so that is how we know him since we are close to their whole family. Because of their situation, I have started watching Anelise every Wednesdays and Fridays from 9am - 6pm. It is weird to have taught every class/birthday party at the gym for 14 months straight to then go to being out of the gym two days a week, but it's going well. I love being able to practice being a working mom with taking care of the baby, doing admin. work for the gym on the computer, setting up a booth at an expo with a baby strapped to me, running errands, and sometime meeting Thomas for lunch. I also of course love that I'm helping out a great family, while getting paid more than what our employee is getting to be at the gym those two days (yes, it was a business decision, too). Wednesdays and Fridays are nice for Thomas and I because we actually get to answer the question at dinner, "How was your day?"


Things we are looking forward to:

• Jenny and Scott (Juli's cousins) are vacationing in Winter Park, Colorado March 17-21. It is only an hour and a half away, so Juli will get to go visit them at the resort next Friday, and they should be coming to see our house/work on their way to the airport that Sunday.
• Juli's mom and Aunt Sheila are coming to visit and stay with us March 29th - April 5th for Juli's birthday.
  
• Thomas' mom might be planning a summer trip out to see us (just waiting on the weather to get warmer)!
• We have our flights booked for a trip to San Diego and LA July 17-25. We will be seeing Thomas' friend, Jeryd, and his wife and baby girl (due in June). We are still planning our activities, but San Diego Zoo is on the list. When in LA, we want to go to Disney and the beach, but then we have a My Gym Owners Seminar there that Wednesday-Saturday.
• A Florida trip will be in the planning soon as it gets closer to Angela's (Juli's sister) due date - probably the end of August or beginning of September. The Rockies play the Braves on August 23rd, though, and we have tickets... so hold on, baby Shaw! :-)
  

Exciting Times!

My mind is blown away with how crazy busy work has gotten! Saturday will be our "16 month anniversary" of owning My Gym Arvada. Our first employee, Chelsea, joined our team mid-January and I actually have to watch how much I schedule her to make sure she stays under 40 hours a week. Bringing her on isn't giving us much of a break, but it's growing the gym! We have added more classes (some where all 3 of us have to teach it), and we have also stepped up our marketing game!

Juli & Chelsea

January 23-24, we had a booth (picture below) at the Colorado Baby & Kidz Expo. January 30-31, we had a "Registration Extragavanza" at the gym. These events along with January's "pay your child's age membership" special REALLY boosted our enrollment numbers!

Last time I posted around the Holidays, we were so excited to have 137 kids enrolled! It was the highest enrollment the gym had ever had... so far. Before I announce our current enrollment standings, I want to back up to November 2008 when corporate came to do a support visit. We had 131 kids enrolled and 5 birthdays booked for that month. Here is a quote from what Chris King wrote on our on-site report: "Overall, I would like to say that I think you have done a wonderful job in your first year of growing and maintaining a successful enrollment with the Arvada gym. The facility looks wonderful internally, and all enrollment is steady and consistent. The fact that you have done everything by yourselves this first year has both helped you and hurt you. By having no other staff, you have kept payroll to nothing. Also, by having no other staff, you have made it next to impossible to proactively help your gym grow. As you now realize, the Arvada gym needs more than great class programs and internal marketing to grow to where you want it. The gym needs someone, or a team of people, with some time to get out and market."

Now that there are three of us (Thomas, Juli, and Chelsea), we have taken this advice, set-up a marketing plan, and rolled out a bonus structure. We went from 137 kids the end of December to 188 kids the end of January. We also have 10 birthday parties booked for the month of February (the highest we have ever booked in a month). We are shocked and excited to have these enrollment numbers! However, the stress is still on because we are trying to reach 200 kids before 2/15/10. Cory, the CEO of My Gym, has offered a free month of royalties if we reach this goal. With almost one more week left of this "bet", we are pushing hard, getting on the phones, and offering a special to all our members who canceled in 2009 if they re-join before Valentine's Day. This is a fun challenge, but stressful. In the end, though, we will be on top either way!

Our break-even number with Chelsea now hired is 186. We are pleased that it only took 15 months to break-even, but with the small "cancellation margin", we want to stay above 200 to be safe each month. Please pray for us this week to be able to reach the enrollment number of 200 before the 15th (NEXT Monday)! Thank you, as always, for your love and support through our hard work and busy times. We are smiling! :-)