So.....

.....where did I leave off?

Well my sister, Paige, told me today that I'm not a blogger anymore. Well I guess that's true if the said blogger's hiatus has been since *ahem* March.

Holy crap.

Here are my excuses.....or.....reasons:

-I'm lazy

-I wasn't even fb updating so....give me a break.

-I've been training for a race people!!! (well as a tiny update I didn't run for a month after that 5k, but I'm proud to say that as of today I'm up to 8 miles. So suck it.)

-Jake's screen printing business is in FULL swing and I'm a little involved in that

-the decclo website is seriously almost done (but how many times do you want to hear that....really....)

-I was on the committee for planning a relief society retreat that happened last week. The committee happened to consist of me and two of my closest friends. You can probably guess that the planning meetings typically went a little longer than expected.

-I got a new calling at church, it keeps me kinda busy. (Primary pres.)

-a couple of weeks ago we stayed with some family friends 5 children (and we brought our two along with us) for 4 days. THAT was crazy.

-we've been experimenting with creating a front yard....pics to come

-I've been getting crafty and it has involved lots of time shopping at Goodwill, St Vins and old lady estate sales.....pics to come on that also.

Do I really need to think of more excuses? Please forgive me and continue to read. I will try not to disappoint for at least a couple more months.

Funny story today: You know when you're in a store and someone comes over the intercom and announces in "that tone" that parents need to keep their children with them and you wonder who would let their child run around and cause trouble enough for an employee to make that announcement? That neglectful parent was me. I really didn't think that playing a ginormous horn type of thing would cause so much trouble. He wasn't breaking anything was he? Sheesh.

On your marks....

Post race pic with Jack

I did it. I did the 5k. Now I have to bump up the mileage? Don't know if I'm ready for that but I sure had a lot of fun running in my first ever 5k race this last weekend. I went with friends Tiffani, Angela and Nina. We all did well and felt great for doing it. I was worried about the weather (which turned out to be beautiful) and about running hills (since I train mainly at home on a treadmill). There was no clock for the race but I think I ran it somewhere between 26-29 minutes, probably more like 27-28. Then they announced top finishers in each age division, and would you guess what? I finished third in the 20-24 age division and got a water bottle! My sweet hubbs kept the boys entertained and I had a really good time. It wasn't very far, but it was an accomplishment for me. I need to go get myself signed up for a 8k or 10k now. (Don't know how in the world I'll ever get to 13 miles for the half marathon in June.....)

Running the last 1/4 mile...Is it just me or do I look freakishly long in this pic?

My boys, patiently waiting.

Crux

We have been really busy lately. And I mean REALLY busy. As most of you know we decided last summer to venture off on our own and start a clothing company (Decclo). In the beginning of August we contracted the company Dogstar to create our website. With hardly any communication from them to us on what the heck was going on, they finally quit on us in October. They had subcontracted a portion of the project to a company in Maryland called Acadia Creative so when Dogstar quit Acadia fulfilled their contracted portion of the project, and chose not to take on the remaining items Dogstar had contracted. Our original goal was to be up and running by the holidays but we had obviously missed that mark by this point. Well, we were stuck and running out of a budget fast. That was a long story short right there, FYI. So as we went developer shopping once again it was suggested to us to go overseas. We found Classic Informatics over in India and they started from where we had left off and have been a dream to work with. This project is bigger than we were/are capable of and the guys over at CI have been awesome to work with. So now, 8 months later, we are planning on launching the site early April.

It's a blessing in disguise that this has been a slower process than we had hoped for many reasons. One thing we hoped to do was to eventually sell our product wholesale to retailers. In order to make this cost effective we thought we'd look into printing our own shirts. Once Jake started researching this option we dove head first and made the decision to print our own stuff and since we'd have all the equipment we might as well open a screen printing shop in Bremerton. This shop will be called Crux Branded Apparel and Screen Printing. We just finalized on a space over in East Bremerton this last week and Jake has started some small renovations while we wait for the mass of equipment we purchased to arrive. Turns out that the time we open doors at Crux will be about the same time we launch the Decclo website. I am also working part-time for Jake's dad and we are managing to make this all work right now. There is no way any of this would be possible without the help from our both sets of parents. They have all made a huge contribution toward our dream, cliche I know but there really is no other way to put it, with their time, energy and financial contribution. Aren't families the greatest? We are so lucky to live by ours.

So I guess this explains to our friends why we haven't been around much, to my readers who haven't had a whole lot to read other than boring running times and to the kids at church why we haven't had a party for them lately :) We are excited for this and it has been the best ride! We are learning so much about business, well Jake already knows a lot. I'm learning a lot more than I ever expected or thought I'd want to learn. Turns out I really like it and I think I have a niche for it. We've got a lot of interested prospects for the screen printing side of all this and our list keeps on growing. This summer will probably be full of late nights at the shop and hot busy days fulfilling orders. Keep your fingers crossed that Jake's efforts of this last year will pay off for him soon!!! We got bills to pay, lol.

TODAY'S TRAINING:

5K 26:51

The Spring it Forward 5k race is only two days away!!

Lesson Learned

This week we applied for a credit card for the company and couldn't get one. Apparently we had too many lines of credit opened. We were a little perplexed by this and maybe we're just dumb but we found out something we didn't know about credit. Normally I wouldn't be so open about sharing this somewhat private information on the world wide web....but I'm hoping this helps someone else out:

Jake went online to a credit bureau company (Experian or something like that??) and looked up our report for free to figure out what the problem was. What we found out was that most of our credit lines that are open are school loans. No biggie. But there were a few on there that shouldn't have been and stopped us from being approved even though our credit score is well into the 700s (the highest is an 850, they don't typically exceed 825). One example of an open credit line that shouldn't have been there was from Gordon's Jewelers (my engagement ring). When Jake bought it, he paid for it in full that day. This account should have been closed 5 years ago. In fact, all of our open accounts were and are in good standing! These companies like to keep the account open for ten years. What we didn't know was that you must call these companies and close the account yourself. Otherwise they stay open. Since we have closed those accounts everything is all better. Another thing we learned is that you can go to optoutprescreen.com and get yourself off of the lists that send you credit card offers. They send those to after they've checked your score. Get off of those lists!!! They aren't good to be on!! It cuts your score down, no fault of your own and it's a tragic waste of money and paper. Just wanted to share that in case we weren't the only uneducated when it comes to that stuff. Hope it helps someone!!

TODAY'S TRAINING:

5K 29:00

(I'd like to run the Spring it Forward 5k in 25:00 or less.....10 days from now)

Love Notes

Dear Febreze,
How genius were you guys when you hooked up with Bissel to make good smelling vacuum bags? Kuddos to you, thanks for making my house smell good better.

Dear Breyers,
I think you should make your limited edition strawberry cheesecake ice cream a permanent flavor. It would permanently be in my home. It doesn't even have chocolate in it and it is to DIE for. Thank you ice cream scientists for making such a scrumptious flavor.

Those tortillas from Costco that you cook at home,
I'm officially converted and could probably be considered a binge eater after this week.

Dear El Nino,
Thanks for stopping by this month. You are welcome any year you want to stop by. Every 5 years just isn't often enough.

Dear Jillian Michaels,
Although sometimes I think you're uber cheesy, you pump me up. Thanks for kicking my butt the days I'm on the treadmill. That's probably the reason you're rollin' in the benjamins with your job.

TODAY'S TRAINING

5k 27:48

(taking a four day break was not ideal)

This week in pictures:

Jake on a hike with friends Scott and Nate

Roasting weenies at G&G Frys

Playing at G&G Frys

Learning the advantages of being a boy at G&G Frys

Sharing Candy

My stamp project

Experimenting with records

My $2 Goodwill shoes!

The end.