I #*%!ing Love You

Our business is considered a lifestyle business...which means we do our business as part of our life. We share our products but we also give you a peek into our daily lives. Not everyone wants that kind of exposure...but we really enjoy it. It makes our "job" fun and the amount of compassion and support we receive from everyone (our customers and those we meet at events who are customers-to-be...lol) is unbelievable. 

One statement we get a lot from people we talk to is this, "I could never work with my spouse." I find this baffling....I mean, is it easy peasy every single day? Hell no. But overall it is enjoyable and fun and we make a great team. 

Now, some of you may never have tried working together....at a job....cause I can guarantee you that household chores and projects will NOT give you a good indication of whether you would "work" well together. Here is a story to prove my point. :P 

A few weeks ago we were gifted a sofa...we were excited because we thought it would go in our playroom (which was lacking in good seating arrangements)....we went and picked it up, everything went well....no fighting happened in the picking up of said sofa. After we got it into the playroom (without too many issues) we realized that it would look way better and fit better in our living room. Problem is we already had a couch in our living room....although it was looking kinda shabby and it was huge, we had a hard time getting it into the living room when we first moved in....but we decided it was worth it to switch them out and see what we thought. 
Fast forward to the next day, Ben was not feeling great with a headache but I thought "I am a strong independent woman....I can do this myself" HAHAHAHA (It's ok, everyone can laugh now....it is pretty comical that I believe myself to be both strong and independent...since I am only 5'2" and do not lift weights....I don't even have the added bonus of carrying babies/children around anymore, since all of mine are beyond that age.  Mothers will understand the muscles we gain while the kids are young...lol And I am far from independent...I am a 42 year old woman with a chauffeur, Ben drives me almost anywhere I want to go. hahahaha) Anyway, I tried...I really did....I could not even get the couch out of the living room, was it frustrating? You bet, why could my body not do what my mind was sure I could do through sheer will?!?! 

Ben, seeing my attempt had failed...swooped in to be my saviour and the day really took a turn for the worst at that point. We worked together....and against each other....we got the couch into the kitchen (with much effort and having to move our fridge to get it out....can you guess who had to move that cause it weighs a ton and is just all round awkward when you are half the height of it (maybe not that bad but I do need a chair to get anything off the top of it? lol) But we got the sofa out...only to realize our next problem, there is no way it was going to fit down the hall to get it to the playroom....hmmm....If you know our house, we have a outside door into the playroom, so our plan was to take the couch outside, leave....get the "new" one from the playroom and bring it outside and into the front door to get it to the living room. Really....it was a solid plan, what could go wrong? :P 

All of our doorways are small...and we have two doors to get outside, a glass door from our sunporch to the kitchen and then from the sunporch to get outside. We got it as far as stuck between those two doors....and it would not move. This is where the yelling and swearing started...it was Ben, Ben started the yelling and swearing, I tried to calmly explain that we could do this....until I stopped being calm and was determined this was happening and it was too late to give up now. We ended up having to take both doors off....and that still was not enough room (I still do not remember having to do all this when we moved in...but that was 5 years ago and I have a horrible memory...well, except for this type thing, I will remember it for a long time...the horror of moving furniture...lol) so Ben started taking off the moulding and whatever those things are called that go around the door....he was going to ruin it, the thing that the door handle pokey outty thing goes into to keep the door shut was still on there....he was trying to just rip the moulding off with that still screwed in....the yelling got a little louder and swearing a little more intense....I got myself a screwdriver and took that thing off (doesn't really matter what the real name is...everyone must know what I am talking about, if you have ever gone through a door...lol) then the moulding came off easily enough. After all the doors were off we finally got the couch outside...but we realized it was winter and we did not want to just place the couch on the ground....so I went and got a blanket and place it on the dryest place on the driveway, where we left the couch. 

The next goal was to get the one from the playroom into the living room. Sounds easy enough....except there were more doors that needed to come off (we had just done this when we brought it into the house a few days before but figured it was staying in that room so had put it all back together....lol)...Ben was trying to give up at this point....so I told him I would just do it (remember I am strong and independent....or my brain is anyway...lol) I came pretty close to just breaking the old sofa...I was going to have to roll it to get it anywhere near the door, I had neither the strength nor the arm length to move it anywhere by myself. 

After some more yelling...and you guess it, swearing....but I will let you decide who did the most....we finally decided to go ahead with the plan, cause how can we have one couch in our playroom that did not fit well and one on our driveway....I know we aren't overly social but I doubt anyone would come visit if we told them we had to sit in the driveway to hang out....hahahaha We got the "old" couch out of the playroom and carried it without too much issues into the living room (remember all the doors and stuff were already off....easy peasy.) Then we had to make a decision, was it worth it trying to get this couch into the playroom, I mean, come on the kids have been doing fine without a couch to this point, right? But we decided, yes, we did want it in there so we did it. It wasn't actually too bad, cause doors were already off...lol. 

Now that both couches were moved....and we were actually happy with the results (more seating arrangements in the living room and a nice comfy couch in the playroom)...someone had to clean up the mess....doors everywhere, moulding needed put back...fridge needed re-balanced....THIS I could do...this was more my style of strong independent woman...I put all the doors back on myself (admittedly not without issues...since I had to hold a door and put the door hing posts back in all by myself....could I have asked for help? Sure could have but that would not be showing my strength...lol), I put the moulding back on and there was only one thing that I was not able to do....the screen door arm (I know no technical name of things....hahaha But everyone will know what I mean) and to this day (weeks later) it still sits on the floor beside said door. lol  Keep in mind Ben was not feeling well so don't be too hard on him.  I did my fair share of yelling and cursing as well.  hahaha

We are still married, we are still friends....we can now laugh at the incident and there is no anger left....but I tell you this story to say that just because you cannot move furniture together (or paint...gosh I have a few stories about trying to paint with Ben...he sure is cute but not a good painter at all...hahaha) does NOT mean you could not successfully run a business together. We rarely ever fight about business stuff (not saying we do not...just not very often). There is just a different feeling running a business to running life (although I think overall we do a great job as a team with life in general too...we will just try and avoid large furniture purchases in the future....if you come to our house and all we have are small, easily moveable chairs, you will now know why). 

Valentine's Day is tomorrow....this is not a sappy post but it is filled with so much love....even in the crappy yelling/swearing projects we try and do together....I still looked at Ben and think 'You big dumb idiot...I #*@!ing love you." (Obviously not what I say...hahaha But I did think it and it's the thought that counts, right?)