happy valentine's day!

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy one.

Thanks for all the questions - I will post a RAK winner on Friday, in the mean time, I want to answer a couple of them today.

1. Mar asked "How frequently you play soccer and for which team? "

• I play soccer 1x a week in the spring and fall league in a nearby town. It is a co-ed league which means 8 guys and 3 gals are on the field. It is a pretty intense workout (2 - 40 min halfs). My only practice is running (LOL). I play defense a lot and they know I will go after anyone be they a big guy 6 ft tall and 225 lbs or a girl like me. I have scored a couple of goals (penalty shots) and some small goals.

2. Anam asked "Is being family with your business partner tough?"

• Good question. The answer is yes and no. Frankly probably it is tougher on our hubbies than us. Deb and I do have heated yelling discussions some time but that is the style which we operate at (you get that when you have 2 type A personalities together). But in the end we get through it and we are able to become closer as a family and also get our business where it needs to go. And it is easier probably to be "brutally honest" with each other b/c we can tell each other the world isn't made of marshmellows - LOL - and we still would spend holidays together.
• It also works b/c Deb and I love to work but we also have strengths in different areas. I remember when Deb drew out this 5 year business plan for MR and I was more like "whoa, hold on there do you know how many orders we have to do to get to those NUMBERS?" So she is the vision and I am the ground in ways. But we are there now and probably 2 years ahead of schedule.
• We also tote our kiddos to all the shows (noah has a whole 3 shows under his belt and jonathan has 2 shows) but we wouldn't have it any other way. There will be a day when they are in school when we can't do that but for now it works. It actually works out pretty well b/c the grandparents (some or all) come to the shows with us and get the boys for hours at a time - undivided grandparent spoiling for like 7 days in a row and we are left to unspoil them!

3. Dale Anne asked "it into production? For an example, the NEW FABULOUS stuff you had at CHA - when did you have to work on that? "

• This is an excellent question - one that i am going to wax poetic about in a "dear retailer letter" soon. We had a retailer call me and tell me that it was unacceptable that everything wasn't ready 2 weeks after the tradeshow b/c that is the standard in the industry. Um ok, where have I been this entire time? They proceeded to cancel their order but I would rather they be educated in how the manufacturing side works. Deb is also going to blog about this so look for my "dear retailer letter" coming soon!

4. Laura Vigliarolo asked " What is the one thing you regret about Maya Road if anything????? "

• That I didn't quit sooner and believe in MR as much as I should have in the beginning! Our first year we did this on the side. So everyone was working. We were packing our own orders and doing everything ourselves. I can remember we would send postcards out to scrapbook stores we saw in the back of scrapbooking magazines to come see us at CHA! But I didn't know if we would make it and I was on the fast track at work to be like a Director or VP one day. Deb kept trying to convince me to get on board. Well when you quit your job and you were the bread winner you start to have to believe - LOL!

More answers coming soon!