Investment

Each summer we get a plastic pool and each summer somehow it gets moldy or messed up.

I decided to use some of my Jamberry earnings to invest in an inflatable pool.  It has been great!  It easily inflates, Hallister knows how to turn on the blower and fill it up with water, and the kids play all morning until it is too hot.

The water does not get higher than 2' so I don't have to worry about Liberty drowning.  The boys actually put their goggles on and act like they are swimming and practice holding their breath.

We love not having to leave the house to stay cool in this Texas heat!

We will be sure to store it in an outdoor over sized toy box so that it lasts for a long time.  Our friends that have one have had theirs for 3 years.

Homeschool

Hallister had a great year in half day Preschool at Castleman Creek Elementary, the school right beside our house.  At the beginning of the year I was thinking this is great, he will be at school 12:30-3:00 while Liberty naps. I'll get time with Preston and get to do work during that time.

We attended a Lifegroup through our church and they homeschooled their four children. I was thinking more power to you, not for me.

Then as we got into the year I missed Hallister, and it became annoying to have to remember a certain time get all three kids out of the house.  Most days I would have to wake Liberty up from her nap to walk over and get Hallister.  I wondered what he was learning, not necessarily from his teacher, but from the other students.  And the Lord really started to work on my heart about homeschool.  My "no way" was starting to become a "maybe".

I sat down at the beginning of the year and was trying to think what gets me stressed.....it's getting out of the house with all three kids! I always have to look.... do they have drinks, do they have shoes on, diaper bag with epi pen and Lib's foods.....whatever time we have to be somewhere I have to start loading the car thirty minutes before or we are late. So I talked to another friend of mine Shira who homeschools to get the low-down on curriculum. I asked a friend of mine who bought Jamberry from me about why she homeschools.  She said because at her friend's school, where her daughter went to elementary, Planned Parenthood (known for performing abortions) came and talked and handed out pamphlets. Umm....no didn't want him to be subjected to that. Also, a friend of ours whose son goes to Castleman Creek, where Hall would be going, was bullied and threatened with a gun. Plus, instead of Midway school district giving raises to teachers they bought all the students of every grade iPads AND are building a $60 million dollar indoor football facility. Really? That is not money well spent.

I just don't want to subject Hallister to any of that.  I just feel like homeschool is the way to go, which I never, ever thought I would be saying or doing.  Now that our curriculum arrived in the mail and Hallister opened it up and was excited, that got me excited too.  We decided on Al About Reading, Handwriting Without Tears, Saxon Math and Sonlight Bible and History. I am very excited to teach him to read and say "I did that"!

I am not worried about him not socializing. We have our church family we see every week.  We have playdates every other week. Plus Hallister will go to a homeschool co-op on Fridays!  He will get to learn farming (go to a real farm), art, history, and it will be like a normal school day. So once a week we will get out and I know he will enjoy those classes.

So this is where we are at and how we came to that conclusion.  I'm glad we can get our 2 hours of school done each morning and go to the museum or Zoo in the afternoon, fun stuff.  Because you know public school has fillers with recess, lunch, walking to classes....Next year we can always re-evaluate, but for now, homeschool here we come!

Hi, my name is Elizabeth, and I'm a Jamberry Nails Consultant....

Say what?? Liz is selling nails?

Yes, this is yet another WAYYYYYY overdue update. But I do think not posting about this shows how busy and successful getting into a business of selling nail wraps has been for me, since I began my Jamberry Journey in January.

So rewind back to January.....One of my good friend's Elise invited me to her online Jamberry party at the end of last year.  I was busy though with designing a prom magazine and the kids/wedding magazine I design every other month, so I really didn't have much to pay attention to it.  The nail wraps looked really neat though.

In January Elise posted that she had made enough in the few shorts month she had doing Jamberry to pay for her and her husband to go on a nice 10 year anniversary trip next year.  That was exactly what I had started to talk to Jonathan about, maybe a cruise or all inclusive resort, but we didn't have the money.  So I contacted Elise, I said okay tell me more about Jamberry....vinyl nail wraps heat activated, over 350 designs. She did Facebook parties and was making a lot of money, but also a lot of friends, and there was online support system in place with Jamberry consultant pages.  THEN she said, and you know we have a Nail Art Studio where you can design your own wraps.  As you can imagine my jaw dropped....how perfect was that! So I discussed it with Jonathan, the starter kit was not that much, and I joined after just trying a sample for a few days.

January 13th I started my launch party and I was amazed at all the support I got and interest in this new product.  My goal was $400 and my party closed at $632.  I was thrilled to book more parties through mine and get them going in February.

In February I created my first design for nails, Star Wars!! I am so proud of this design. I even had to go through Home Office in Utah to get it approved. I did a big push for it in March and April, and a lot of my customers wore them for May the 4th!

Fast forward to now...I have promoted 5 times and I am now a Senior Team Manger. I have a team of 17 "Level 1s" directly under me and a total of 96 in my downline.  The nice thing about Jamberry is that you can have either, Facebook or home parties, and I have them online since I am at the computer anyway designing invitations/magazine ads.  Having online parties allows me to have hosts from all over. When a friend of a friend of a friend books an online party with me, it is amazing to find out how far away they really live.  I've host parties in Texas, Maryland, Washington, California, Arizona and Colorado.  I have team members that live in California, Texas, Hawaii and Alabama. I share a Facebook Team Page "You're In Good Jams", with my Team Manager Tana and Premier Consultant Kelly. They were the first to join my team.  I am also honored to have two of my best friends on my Jamberry team as well, Ann and Ginny.

We still continue to live by Dave Ramsey's quote....I want to live like no one else so one day I can (truly) live like no one else. I want to be able to give like no one else." One of my downline team member's lost her daughter tragically and we were able to give towards the funeral expenses.  We still live frugally with our envelope system, don't go into any more debt, and really want to build up our savings so we can purchase/build our dream home.

A neat thing about Jamberry, and why it is not a pyramid scheme, is that the people "below" you can actually pass you in rank if you slack off.  I can't sit back and make commission off my friends I still have to sell $700 a month and as a team sell $8000 a month to maintain my rank.  I have, on average, 5 Facebook parties a month, usually 3 at a time, then 2 at a time.

Since joining Jamberry our family has been able to dream BIG.  We saved up enough for our anniversary trip next year with my first two month's of working with Jamberry.  We have been able to fix the cars without dipping into our emergency fund.  Now that I am almost an Executive with the company our dreams have changed. Jonathan always wanted to go back to school, but to finish his degree in a timely manner, going part time and working a full time job was just not what we could handle. Then came Jamberry, and once you build a team, and are consistent with sales and supporting your team, those bonus checks start to double and triple.  One of my upline ladies makes $10,000/month minimum!  If I can maintain this consistency I will be there soon enough. Our dream is for Jonathan to be able to go back to school full time next year!  If that is God's will then I know it can happen.

So there you have it, my Jamberry Journey in a nail shell.  Thank you all for your support!