A quick post to wish all of my Canadian readers a Happy Thanksgiving long weekend. We have been blessed with amazing weather here in Southern Ontario, with high temps in the 20Cs. So what do we have to be grateful for this weekend?

• Beautiful weather
• Changing of the leaves and the seasons
• A roof over our heads
• Clean drinking water
• Fresh food
• An endless supply of clothing and shoes
• A car or two to drive
• Lots of love from the people around us!

Have a great long weekend!

Time for me to let you learn from my experiences. Many of you may have received a newsletter from my new website, Inspired By Julie Caroline, this week. This newsletter is a short bit of info, Success Tips, that will be sent out bi-monthly. The first edition was meant to be a Welcome to my new website and newsletter.

Here’s what happened when I sent it out – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good – I have had the chance to reconnect with people whom I hadn’t spoken to in years. The newsletter caught their attention and I received a nice email asking about what’s new. I also got some great feedback from friends, family and colleagues.

The Bad – My list had a high un-subscribe rate, which caused it to be flagged as sp*m. I had indicated on the newsletter that if you did not want to receive this newsletter twice a month, please un-subscribe. This is where the trouble started.

The Ugly – The last time I sent out a newsletter was over 2 years ago.  Many of you know, I’ve been on a long maternity leave and have just started working again a few months ago. I’ll admit, I’ve been out of the loop.  New rules and regulations are in place to prevent people from receiving unwanted email.  Now, in order to send a newsletter through a program like MailChimp, your contacts MUST opt-in. I did not realize this – as it seems like every time I connect with someone at a networking event and share my business card, I am added to their list automatically.

So, where do we go from here? First, an apology if you received the newsletter without my permission. Second, I have erased my list from my MailChimp account, which means that in order for you to receive the newsletter, you’ll have to opt-in.  Many of you will have already received a personal email from me with the opt-in link. If you didn’t get the email and would like to join the list – I promise to email only TWICE a MONTH.

Yes! I’d like to opt-in to receive the newsletter.

Lesson learned!! And I hope this information is valuable for those of you who are starting your businesses and working on your websites – don’t get caught up in the same mess I did. And a BIG Thank-You to those of you who have already subscribed!

It’s so easy these days to find other things to spend money on rather than a vacation. And when you’re both self-employed, it’s even more of a challenge because of lost income. There is much more value in a vacation than the money you spend, as we re-discovered this past week when we were in New Hampshire.

My parents own timeshare with RCI so they gave us the week as a gift (great start to the vacation cost!). We drove down through the Eastern Townships of Quebec and spent a night with my best friend Lee-Anne and her family.  That was a real treat for us, since she had been living across the country in Seattle for 5 years. The next afternoon, we drove the last couple of hours to Attitash, New Hampshire.  Attitash is in the White Mountains, and only 15 minutes from the famous Mount Washington Hotel.

Our unit was such a treat for us! Since we live in a fairly small two bedroom apartment, this 2 bedroom unit was actually bigger than our home, plus it had a 2nd bathroom, a fireplace, washer & dryer and cable!! It was really comfortable for our little family.  Céline did so well on the 9 + 2 hour drive and she really liked our little home for the week. In fact, she learned how to sleep on her tummy while we were gone and now almost sleeps through the night.  That’s my new recommendation for getting kids to sleep through the night – go on vacation and figure it out!!

We were blessed with a few days of nice weather, so we were able to go for a few hikes and see some amazing waterfalls. Nearby is the town of North Conway with a few outlet stores so we went shopping. There is no sales tax in NH (a 13% savings for us) so we purchased a new Blackberry Playbook while we were there.  Once I start to get the hang of it, I’ll tell you more about.  For now, let’s just say it’s a great business and entertaining tablet.

So, why take a vacation? For us, this vacation was time to relax, we had no schedule at all, nothing special we wanted to visit and no specific timelines. It was an opportunity for my husband to spend a week with our daughter, something he doesn’t have the opportunity to do on a regular basis. For me, it was a chance to share more of the child care duties and just enjoy being with my hubby and daughter.  We really had the chance to recharge and rest. This was an ideal vacation for a couple with a young baby.

What’s your idea of a great vacation? When was the last time you took a vacation? Do you take a vacation every year? What would be your DREAM vacation? Check in below on the comments.

A quick note to wish you all a Happy Easter weekend.  What are your plans on this long weekend? What does Easter mean to you? For the first time, there is a religious component to my Easter holiday.  I will be attending church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and I’m looking forward to learning more about the significance of the holiday.   I have learned so much these past few months and I’m really enjoying it. As with many things in my life, when I start something, I tend to give it my all. It’s interesting to note that since I have started attending and focusing on my faith, many wonderful things have happened in my life. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but I don’t believe that. It’s nice to be in a place where good things are happening and to feel happy the majority of the time. It certainly helps that Céline is sleeping better now that she is in her own room.  It’s amazing what a few extra hours of sleep can do.

For those who are enjoying this Easter weekend the secular way, have fun with the Easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies of course. It’s too bad cheat day is Saturday, we’ll have to save all of our Easter chocolate for the following Saturday – if we can!

Have a great long weekend and I’ll check in next week.

A quick Friday night post so that the week doesn’t go by without a post!

Some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the past 3 years:

• Be grateful for what you have.  I mean REALLY grateful. Take a closer look and you’ll see that many things in your life deserve a lot of gratitude.
• People can change.  Often for the best.
• Patience really is a virtue. I often gave up just before things got to be really amazing. More than once in my life. I plan on sticking with it from now on!
• People will surprise you. And forgive you.
• Jealousy and envy only hurt you (or me in this case).  They are poisonous emotions that are best left behind.
• And speaking of being left behind, the past is the past and it can no longer be changed. The only chance is to work with today and create a better future.
• I have a new wonderful reason to be the best I can be in everything in my life, my daughter.
• Putting others first can sometimes make a big difference in both our lives.
• Me time is important too – to stay healthy and sane.
• Passion can take you further than you’ve ever dreamed.
• Faith is so important. Having faith in life, in God, in the Universe is what makes dreams come true. My life is better now that I have Faith.  And I mean real, strong, unshakable Faith. It feels amazing.
• I was never really busy until I had a child!! Time management has become a daily necessity and priorities have really shifted.
• My husband is amazing (ok I already knew that). But still. He has been even more amazing over the past two years.
• This is it. Life is happening right now.  So if I don’t give it my best right now, I’ll miss my chance.

Good night and good weekend to all!

This is a blog post that is from the heart, many of you might not understand or agree but I believe it’s time for me to share this big decision with you.

Over 5 years ago, I began my career in network marketing. One of my best friends at the time, Leanne, invited me to join her in building a business with USANA Health Sciences.  Three years later, I had build a solid team with a strong and loyal customer base and was earning the highest income I ever had in any career to date.  And in April 2009, I made the decision to leave and work with a newer company, Agel Enterprises.  This may seem like an odd decision, considering my success, but the other side of the coin was that I was burnt out and was also very excited to see what the other side of the fence was like. I was thrilled to work with Agel and my new mentors, and at the time, it was the best decision for me and my family.

Fast forward to almost 1 year later, I was now pregnant and going through the challenges of a not-so-easy pregnancy which made it more difficult to work.  Once my beautiful daughter arrived in Sept 2010, I was no longer interested in working as she consumed all of my time.  Any business that I had built before with Agel was severely neglected and I had, for the most part, given up. Truth be told, although I had really enjoyed some of the Agel products and loved the way the compensation plan was set-up, I never became passionate about it, the way I had been with USANA before.

Effectively, I was sitting at a cross-roads and not sure what to do with my career (besides being a French tutor, which I still do and really enjoy). I continued to be a customer with USANA, using a number of different products that had not been replaced by what Agel had to offer. I still believed (and continue to believe) that network marketing is the best solution for me to be able to stay home with my daughter and create a powerful income stream. The question was, what to do now?

Life is very interesting sometime and often things happen that you never really expected to.  I reconnected with Leanne a few weeks ago and we had a candid conversation over a cup of tea. During our conversation, Leanne extended an invitation to return to the USANA team.  It wasn’t something I had really considered as I believed that door had been closed. Still being a loyal product user (as are many of my family members and friends), I decided to think about this and discuss it with my husband.  And after much thought and deliberation, we agreed that it would be a great decision to return.

After almost exactly two years, I have decided to return to USANA and to work with my team. There are two amazing things that have happened so far that have affirmed my belief that this is the best decision for myself and my family. First, if I wasn’t sure about the power of a residual income before, I am now.  I left my business – did not touch it – for TWO YEARS! And when I returned, I found that not only was I still earning income, but that the team had grown! How is this possible, you ask? Like me, many of my teammates and customers continued to use the products years later. And several leaders emerged from that team when I left, who continued to build their businesses without my support.  True, my income is not what it was before – but in what other business or profession can you walk away for TWO YEARS and still have an income when you return?

Second, although I kept using many of the products, one product I had replaced was the USANA Essentials, a multi-vitamin and mega-antioxidant product that is taken twice a day. As it was when I first started back in 2006, my product belief has been solidified: only a few days after I started to take the Essentials again, I noticed that my energy levels were higher.  Now, nothing else has changed, in fact I’ve been getting less sleep lately (more about that in a future blog topic).  Needless to say I thrilled about that, as you other new moms can imagine! And second, and this could just be a coincidence, but this week on the Slow Carb plan I lost 3 lb, more than twice what I have lost in any other week. I’m curious to see if this pattern continues. Stay tuned for an in-depth look at the Slow Carb plan starting on Sunday for one week straight.

A big thank-you to my friends and colleagues in USANA who have welcomed me back with excitement and energy. And to all of my wonderful friends whom I met through Agel, I look forward to staying in touch on Facebook and to supporting each other on our separate journeys. What I have come to realize is that we all have to find the company that is the BEST for us and our families, and for me, that company is USANA. I’m excited and energized to start a new journey and a new chapter in my life.

On a different topic altogether, one of the decisions we make as a new mom (and dad) is what we are going to put on our baby’s bum! This post will talk about different options, what I’ve chosen and why it works for us, so that others can be armed with more information when they are making their decision. My good friend, Janice of the Fitness Cheerleader, mentioned that she would have liked to have used cloth diapers with her first (she now has three beautiful daughters) but that she just didn’t have the information at the time. Thanks for the post inspiration, Janice!

Option #1 – Full time disposable diapers

Regular disposable diapers and disposable wipes. Pros: diapers can be very inexpensive and often go on sale, as do wipes. Diapers can be purchased almost anywhere and fit nicely under clothing. Diaper Genie keeps soiled diapers from smelling! Cons: Diapers will spend more than your child’s lifetime in a landfill and the solid waste is untreated (as opposed to waste that is treated through laundry or toilet). Some children are more prone to diaper rash due to the chemicals used to bleach the diapers.

Alternative to #1 - Full time disposable Free & Clear Diapers such as Seventh Generation brand. These are chlorine free, with no dyes or perfumes (they are brown), have a smaller environmental footprint, are hypoallergenic and are better for baby’s skin.  They also make baby wipes. There is a higher cost for these diapers though, in fact they come close to the same cost as a competitive diaper service.  This is what we used for the first week of Celine’s life, since meconium tends to stain cloth diapers.  Plus, we had to spend two extra days at the hospital, so it was a necessity.

Option #2 -Cloth Diapering

There are MANY options for cloth diapering and that is beyond my scope, so check out this link instead for all of the different types of cloth diapers.  The choice to be made with cloth diapers is whether you will be laundering the diapers at home or whether you hire a diaper service.

Laundering diapers at home: This involves a higher up-front cost, as you have to purchase the diapers and/or diaper covers (depends on the kind you choose) and have enough to last you several days, as you probably aren’t going to have the time to do laundry every day.  The advantage is that once you have bought the diapers, they are yours for all of your children.  Furthermore, the soiled diapers are properly treated and of course, no diapers end up in the landfills (at least for now). The disadvantage can be that depending on the type you choose, you may have to invest in several different sizes, which can add to the overall cost.   And of course, you’ve got a lot of extra laundry on top of all of the baby laundry.

Diaper Service: This is the option that I have chosen. It is important to take a look at the different services in your area before you choose, as chances are they have different kinds of diapers which may alter the cost. I am using Comfy Cotton Diaper Service, based in Markham.  The advantages are that I put a bag of soiled diapers outside my door every Thursday and a bag of clean diapers is delivered in its place. I have two sets of diapers that are used exclusively for us, as long as we are customers.  One set is cleaned while we are using the other set. I can use up to 80 diapers a week for the same cost. The disadvantages are that I did have to buy diaper covers, and those I clean myself in the sink several times a day.  Also the diaper pail is SMELLY when I have to open it! And of course, I don’t own the diapers (only the covers) for any future children.  The cost is reasonable, but will be more than purchasing cloth diapers for several children in the long run.

Option #3: Cloth diapering with some disposables

This option works well for many people, cloth diapers at home and disposables when you go out or overnight. This also makes it easier if your child is in some kind of day care and you can send them with disposables. To make it easier to go out with cloth diapers, I have a dry bag from Bummies (which are the diaper covers I use as well) to keep soiled diapers while out. And for overnight, I am using the next size up in diaper covers, with 2 prefold diapers and a fleece liner from Bummies, which actually keeps her dry (even though the diaper is soaked).

Whew! That’s a lot of information to digest, so feel free to check in below if you’ve got any questions.  Also, feel free to share your experience, and what has worked for you and your child.

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I launched my blog! My first few posts were about our travel challenges on the way to Guadalajara, Mexico to celebrate New Year’s with my parents. It was interesting to hear from those who had shared other similar challenges and also to learn that people were actually reading my blog! It’s now one year and over 110 posts later (an average of 2 per week) and I’ve still got lots to write about and share. I enjoy all of the feedback and comments, not just on the blog but on facebook and twitter as well.  And with my new Blackberry Curve, I’ll be able to check in on both apps all of the time. Seriously, what did we do with our time before social media?  I think I remember vaguely, we used to read more and call people on the phone and actually connect in person, right?  Sure, I can criticize social media, but I have to say that in many ways I feel much more connected now than I ever did before. It’s easier to keep in touch with my family that are spread out across the continent and it’s fun to interact with people around the globe that I would otherwise have little opportunity to connect with.

This holiday post is a quick one, just a way to mark a milestone and to say thanks for all of you who are keeping with Motivation For Your Life. I still have plans for this blog and ideas for my julieboyer.com website, it’s just a matter of making it happen this year. In the next week I’ll be planning and setting goals for 2011, as well as reflecting on what was achieved in 2010. Looking forward to sharing with you!

Wordless Wednesday – a photo diary of Céline’s first weeks:

I had my first date with my soul-mate, Dan. For the full story on how we met, check out my blog post series on the How to Attract Your Perfect Partner. Our first date was at Paradiso Restaurant in Burlington, our favorite place where everybody knows our names!  It’s where we celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and we even got married there on July 12, 2009. I knew by the end of the first date that he was my perfect partner and by the end of the week, he was my boyfriend.  We were engaged in March 2009 and planned our wedding in 3 short months.  Looking back on my blog post on meeting Dan, I did promise to share our wedding story, so here goes.

We had originally planned a destination wedding for Dec 2009, in the Mayan Riviera. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? At the time, the economy was in pretty rough shape and it would have been difficult for many of our friends and family to be there. Since my parents live in Mexico, we had to do the wedding at a time when they would be in Canada. They had already planned to come for a visit in July 2009, to be there to celebrate my sister’s 30th birthday. After much discussion with my family, we decided to hold the wedding on Sunday July 12th, two days after my sister’s birthday.  This way, my parents and Sophie’s fiancé Nick (who lived in BC at the time) would be at the wedding. As coincidence would have it, my best friend Lee-Anne (who lived near Seattle at the time) would also be in town. The stars had aligned for our date.

The next step was finding a venue on such short notice. Two challenges: first it was the middle of summer and a very busy time for weddings and two, our budget was almost non-existent! The idea of getting married at Paradiso came up one night after a business presentation at the restaurant, I was speaking with the owner, Stephane, and he mentioned that there had been weddings at the restaurant before. I wasn’t engaged yet, but I did share the idea with Dan. When we did decide to get married, I brought up the idea again. Being the easy going guy that he is, he agreed with my idea. Since we didn’t have our island wedding, we decided to have an Island Theme for our local wedding.

Next step, make a list of only 40 guests, including us! The back room of Paradiso is great, but small so we could only fit 40 people in for dinner for the reception. We had decided on an early afternoon wedding, followed by an early dinner, since it was on a Sunday. And since two of our closest friends have young children, we also decided to include children at our wedding. Our outfits were simple, a white linen dress for me and a cotton shirt and shorts for Dan (and sandals!). Guests were asked to wear simple island wear as well.

The day of the wedding everything came together wonderfully. We were up early to go and decorate the restaurant. I had my hair done at the mall – yes, this was a particular challenge, since I got married on a Sunday (most salons are closed) and I only had my sister in my wedding party (so not enough to get a stylist to come to my home). I did get my make-up done at home though. A light lunch and we were off the restaurant. Everything was perfect, I walked up the aisle after my sister, to Far Away by Nickelback (we got engaged at the Nickelback concert). We were married by Reverend Pamela Grace, in a bilingual ceremony.

After the ceremony, we were blessed with one of the only sunny days that summer (anyone remember, it rained almost every weekend that year?) and we went out to Village Square, for a champagne toast around the gazebo. It was beautiful. We took photos around the Square and enjoyed the company of our guests. One of the great things about such a small, casual wedding, is that we had the chance to enjoy connecting with all of our guests. Not much later the room had been reset for dinner (the staff even decorated the tables for me!) and we gathered to share a first class meal. Another advantage of getting married in a restaurant, we had a really fantastic meal. The choice of New York Steak, Chicken Parmigiana or Salmon with risotto – how could you go wrong?

We did leave out a few of the traditions, such as throwing the bouquet and the first dance.  We had a few speeches during dinner, but they were all short and well rehearsed. We also took a moment to honour my parents, whose 40th wedding anniversary was also that summer and we had forgone that celebration for our wedding in its place. After dinner, the wedding started to wrap up.  We decided not to have a DJ and dancing, since it was a Sunday night  and many of our guests have young children and also had a distance to travel that evening.

All in all, it was the perfect day for us. And it was all done for under $5000. So, you see, you can have a beautiful day without breaking the bank if you choose to. Now, three years since our first date, we are happily married with a beautiful daughter. Life is truly wonderful!

Here is a link to wedding photos: