Off We Go

Everyone, please wish my mother-in-law good luck as Sam and I leave first thing Monday morning for one of our bi-annual trade shows. I know, it sounds wonderful - a trip without kids to Orlando for 7 days, but let me assure, this is no pleasure business trip mixed with a little business! Obviously, we are having the leave the girls in the care of Sam's parents for the whole trip. The girls are thrilled to be able to spend the whole week with Nanny, but I'm a little sad and will miss them so much. It will be a well-needed break from them, but not really a "break". The one good thing that we discovered last year is that we (just like vacationer's to Disney) can rent whole houses in a neighborhood that is nothing but vacation rental homes. And most of these homes are better than the average person's residence - complete with a pool, hot tub, cinema room, billiards room, and about 6-8 rooms and almost as many baths. So that does make it a little better than having to stay in a hotel and go out to eat for every meal. We have hired a company this year (after learning last year how hard it is to try and cook for 30 something people after a long day at work) that will be bringing us fully catered dinners just as we arrive home. Last year, by the time we got home and started cooking, it was close to 10 before we ate and then we had to be up at the crack of dawn the next morning. It was exausting, but it is exhausting regardless of the cooking part. We (the women) are soooo excited that we can actually come home and kick our feet up instead of going straight the kitchen!

Just to give you a little insight to why these weeks are so hard and exhausting:
1) It's like going to market in the retail business, but we are in the hardware industry and WE are the ones setting up all the booths
2) We will be setting up booths in about 40 different locations (that is not the number of booths, just "locations". This means physical labor, putting together all sorts of things, "setting" the product so that it looks like a store (i.e. The Home Depot), labeling everything with prices, making it all look "pretty", cleaning it up, etc. We usually get to the convention center around 7:00 in the morning and work all day until around 4:30.
3) On Thursday, the show actually begins and we have to "man" all of the above booths and sell our product to store owners/buyers/etc. This is not physically hard, but it is just draining, especially after all the set-up. It's a lot of standing around chit-chatting with the numerous (hopefully) poeple to come by the booth. Talk about SORE FEET ! The shows last through Saturday from 7:00 am - 6:00 pm. Now you know why we don't want to have to cook!
4) As soon as the show is over on Saturday (and I mean to the second), we have to begin the tear down process! Every new person in this business is always amazed at how it takes days to set it up and only about 4 hours to tear it all down! It is mass chaos!!!! People throwing stuff, boxes flying, big fork lifts flying around moving huge crates around! You better be on your toes or you will get run over or hurt!
5) And this is only the beginning for our office because as soon as we get back the next week, we (or should I say Maria) begins placing all the orders that we received from the show.

That is about all that takes place during our show weeks and we are glad that these big shows only come 2 times a year! As much as it is hard work, we all work hard during the day and play hard at night! We have a great group of people that work with us and we enjoy (and appreciate) their help more than they can understand!

This post is more for those of you who have always wondered what we (and my parents) do for a living. This pretty much sums it up since these shows are what provide the income for our company for several months to come! Sorry if this bores you to death and is not about our precious girls, but oh well - now you know!