Working together has it’s ups and downs. I’ll let you know how many of each in a few months. Dave and I have always worked for the same company, and other than his night shift in Memphis we were in the same office. But rarely did our actual jobs intertwine. We just had all the perks of working together: we went to lunch together, got a few minutes to chat during the day, made decisions on evening plans before even heading home, as a dual career our company moves us together, generally all just enough to say that it’s nice “working together.”

Now that phrase means something totally different. Our jobs overlap all the time. I’m in sales and Dave is in quality over the plants where most of my product is made. This means that when a customer calls me with a complaint I can go yell at Dave . Rest assured I don’t really yell at him but he does deal directly with the complaints/claims for my customers. He’s the one who I go to for a lot of answers.

So far we work pretty well together but keep in mind he was in Canton while I was in Memphis. This was our first week where we were working together, in the same office, going back to a small rental apartment each night (with a broken air conditioner) knowing that there’s no break coming up anytime soon. I’m not leaving for Memphis tomorrow (though I wish we both were), nope I’m going to be there Monday and all of next week and the week after, and so on until my travel schedule picks up again. To make quarters even tighter we’re out of office space until the remodel is complete so I’m office hopping while people are out. The above picture has been my view most of the week except for the day that we sat right next to eachother (surprisingly not our toughest day). Needless to say, we learned that working through dinners is not in our best interest.

We work differently with eachother than we would with other people but all in all we make our best effort to be coworkers in the office and husband and wife when we walk out the door. But with his new role we’re still in the stage where we’re feeling it all out and I guarantee some days will be easier than others. Again being in the same office for 5 years we know how to act, we’re not dealing with the problem of p.d.a. or marital bickering at work, it’s just finding a balance in our time. When we worked in the same office but not on the same projects we could still go home and talk about our days. It was nice because Dave had an idea of what was going on in the company and industry to know what or who I was talking about but he wasn’t directly impacted by what I had to say. Now when I say “oh I got a complaint from customer x today” he wants all the info right then. I’ve learned not to even mention it until I have all the details and know it’s a real problem. Dave knows he can’t say things to me like he would another guy at work. I take things more personally from him than I do anyone so my feelings will get hurt more easily than they would from someone else. And unfortunately the person I would normally go home and talk to stuff like that about is now involved.

People have always asked how we do it. How we see eachother all day then go home together. I’ve never really thought too much about it. One of us has always had at least a moderately heavy travel schedule which may help some but I’ve always liked work being a little extra part of our lives. I think I feel the same way with this job. And while it will cetainly be easier when we’re in the house so when we receed to our corners they’re a little farther apart (and cooler), I like having Dave in my day. I like seeing him in action, making a difference and hearing what people say about what he’s doing. It let’s me see a different side of him than I would just at home and I’m very proud of him.

I don’t know that I would recommend it to everyone, but we’ve made it work. Our company has been good to us, they keep growing our individual careers so neither feels left behind which is important. If you have to do it just know that like anything else in marriage it takes a little extra effort. Like this weekend, work is off limits. It’s become a part of our relationship but our marriage is not all about our jobs. I’ll let you know in a few months if one of us if looking for a new job, but for now it’s not bad at all.

Off to enjoy a work free weekend

I just got the wordpress app on my phone which means the potential for many posts. Haha funny right? But it may help. We’ll see. It also means the potential for many blurry phone picts like this one of my girls our last night in Memphis. Checking it out so sorry if it’s awful. But if it works I don’t have an excuse now do I??

What do you do when you live apart from your spouse?  Apparently we go to baseball games.  I imagine Dave gets as antsy in Canton as I do when I’m home alone looking for something to do.  What better way to pass the time than with an American tradition.

Dave has been going to Indians games (I haven’t been with him thus the lack of pictures) and has tickets for several mores games already.  Our neighbor kids play competitive baseball/softball and I’ve been tagging along to some of their games.  They’re already thinking about playing ball in college so we all jumped at the chance to go to watch Ole Miss vs LSU a couple weeks ago.  As Ole Miss alums Bryan and Megan have been to several and with the college ball interest the Williams had already been to a few, but it was my first college baseball game and first time to the University of Mississippi.  It’s no big 10 but it’s alright for an SEC school that’s not UT .

Thankfully the rain blew through quickly and since the Rebels had already won the first game of the night we were hoping they could pull out another win over the Tigers.  At one point we were going to run in for drinks when Jerry insisted no one leave until the “disco” dance…he had missed it at the other games.

Everyone in the crowd joined in on the dance.

At the bottom of the ninth the game was tied 8-8 and into the 10th we went hoping for a win.

We sat infront of the infamous “throw it in the dirt guy”.  No kidding that we were watching the away game on tv the next weekend and could hear him even on TV yelling at the opposing pitchers “throw it in the dirt” with everyone responding “DIRT!”   

Thankfully Zach and Page were looking out for me.  This was them yelling at me as a foul ball came flying into the seats right next to us!  After they saved my life I put the camera down for a bit and payed more attention the last 2 innings.  Ole Miss scored in the 11th ending the game at 9-8. 

I’m thankful for my friends that keep me entertained while Dave is away.  I know he hates to miss the fun here, maybe before too long I’ll be able to tag along to the Indians games.

Theresa and her husband Matt moved here from Virginia Beach last year and we all know she misses her hometown terribly.  When we found out her VA friends were coming to visit here in February we decided it would be a perfect time to have a baby shower.  Her friends were more than happy to help keep it a secret from Theresa who is notoriously hard to surprise. 

Little Avery Isabella won’t be here until  the end of June, but she’ll be one of the best dressed little babies around.

I hear Jessica is now making these tutus to order.  Unbelievably cute! 

Shower games are alright, but we skipped the traditionals and opted for onesie & bib decorating. 

This shower activity has been a staple for the last few my sister and I have hosted.  Anna originally snagged the idea off of our favorite show Gilmore Girls for her dear friend and then I used it at the shower I hosted for Jennifer.  All of our previous onesie decorating adventures have simply involved stencils and paints.  While they always turn out cute I wanted a way to make them a little cleaner and more usable.  My google search came up with just one linkthat showed how to use fabric in an easy way for the group.  So easy and super fun and no iron required!  We used stencils and die cuts as our templates, then fabric paints and rhinestones to spruce them up even more.  Even the self-proclaimed “non-crafters” made adorable onesies.

All in all we had a great time.  Check out the picasa album to see more pictures including the visit from the daddy-to-be.  We can’t wait to meet our newest little neighbor!

I tried.  I really tried hard this year, but between travel, uncoorperative printers, pictures in general, etc Christmas cards just aren’t going to happen this year.  I gave it my last ditch effort today but when Costco said I couldn’t pick them up until tomorrow at 11am I quit.  I’m leaving on a jet plane (you’ll thank me later for putting that song in your head) at 6am tomorrow morning and if I don’t take them with me they’re likely to turn into Valentines.  So I called my mom and laughed with her about my catastrophic attempts at printing cards when she finally told me I don’t have to send them.  Apparently I needed my mom’s permission to quit (she’s not big on sending Christmas cards anyway).  She assured me that no one’s Christmas would be any less merry because I didn’t send out cards.  So I did it, I’m officially boycotting Christmas cards this year and going with the “it’s the thought that counts” motto.  So here’s to not putting more stress on yourself than is already neccessary this time of year.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Here’s what you would have gotten in the mail