Our Milk Money...

It is almost July, WOW! We have fortunately been very busy bees packaging up our gowns and sending them out all over the country! In a little over 2 months, we have made over 70 women stylish and comfortable in the hospital! We already have our second shipment of fabric en route to our manufacturer in San Francisco, including the Susan Gown... this gown will be ammmmazing!

We have enjoyed connecting with other small businesses through social networking... mainly Twitter and Facebook. I guess I should have known about the power of these sites from my husband Bryan,who does social networking for the San Francisco Giants. I have been surprised to see 200 people comment on a Facebook post in just 5 minutes!...but, when people are actually finding us and reaching out to us... we've been amazed. We know we have a wonderful product and we believe in it so strongly... but, when someone comes to us with the same feelings.. we just fill with excitement!

We have discovered in ourselves a desire to support other women and men who are doing what we are doing, starting a home based business. We are so blessed because we both LOVE our day jobs as RN's... so, A&I has been a side business that we love, and if it can help us support our families, then great! We wonder if our fun business could turn into something more?? Maybe Annie & Isabel WILL help us put our 6 boys through college, yea! Ultimately we are blessed because we have the ability to work in the hospital, run Annie & Isabel, and raise our children as we want, and get a little sleep here and there:)

This desire in us to support others is much more present now that we are trying to succeed ourselves. I have found wonderful companies and people doing fantastic things. I bought a beautiful cuff from Ruby Roxanne Designs, a cool looking peanut allergy alert bracelet from Allergy Apparel for my son Henry, and oh boy.. I just discovered Stella & Dot! We've even found local people doing great things, like Kelli Wheeler, who wrote the hilarious book "MOMSERVATIONS, The Fine Print of Parenting". But in supporting these people, just like us, I was thinking it would be wonderful to have a registry to find a local business you would want to support if you needed a service or good? Well, I ran across one called Our Milk Money.... isn't that a great name? I connected with the owner, Ally, recently and what she has started is pretty awesome. OurMilkMoney.com is a online organization dedicated to supporting self-employed parents and it has inspired a nationwide movement of families who are working together to gain more control over how much time we are able to spend with our children. Unfortunately, in our current society many families are unable to support themselves on one income alone, resulting in both parents working. Most of us desire for someone to stay home, but sometimes that just isn't an option. The great news is many parents are starting small home businesses so they can be their own boss and be home with their families. Our Milk Money is an organization dedicated to supporting parents in their personal and financial goals.

The goal is to try and use the directory and support each other, creating a "mini-economy" that will allow us the choice to stay home with our kids. OurMilkMoney has been successfully growing across the country in cities such at Los Angeles, Phoenix, and now they are trying to reach Sacramento.

In just a couple of weeks, Ally Loprete, the founder, will be appearing on our Channel 10 news on Sacramento & Co with Melissa and Guy. She is asking all local parent owned businesses in Sacramento to join her on www.ourmilkmoney.com so she can adequately promote it to the community on June 30th, when the segment airs.

Usually, there is a 25$ annual membership fee when you apply to be on the registry, but she is offering to waive it for any "self-employed parent" who signs up before June 29th. Annie & Isabel is on it and the process was a breeze!

Below is more info from Ally on how to join~

We hope if you are local and have a business you will join us and we can all support each other.

We are doing it for these "guys"

To learn more about the site and the mission of OMM http://www.ourmilkmoney.com/aboutus

To apply for a free spot in the national business directory http://www.ourmilkmoney.com/joinnow

Application instructions: 1. Make sure you select Sacramento as the major market and your town as the sub-market 2. In the notes section of the application write in

"SACRAMENTO FREE"

3. Do not select any additional markets- you will be automatically entered in the national directory. 4. After you accept the terms and conditions, you will be taken to a paypal page. You do not need to enter any payment information. Just exit out. You

r application will be reviewed within 24 hours. If you would like to check on the status, or if you have any additional questions, the membership director can be reached at membership@ourmilkmoney.com