Missouri = Misery

This summer we made the decision to have Rob do Summer sales for the first time in his life. It was a scary scary decision but after a lot of thoughts, prayer and temple visits we came to the decision that it would be the right thing to do.
We made the decision about a week before Rob actually had to leave so everything happened so unbelievably fast. I got work off so that I could drive out to Missouri with him and then I would fly back by myself. It made me so sad to see how empty our house was with practically all of this things packed up in the car.
So we hit the road and began what would turn out to be the longest and biggest learning experience of our marriage thus far. Things from the get go were very rough and disorganized with the company. No one knew where they needed to be or where they were going to live but we had gone out about a week earlier than we needed to so that we could have a mini vacation together before we parted for the summer.
We had some fun in St Louis and spent some time with Robs brother and sister in law and their kids while we were there. One day we took the kids to the zoo to help give mom and dad a break. Claire and Benjamin loved the animals. I think my favorite exhibit was where they had all the different species of monkeys. They were just so interactive.  It was a pretty large zoo so we took them everywhere and needless to say we had worn them out by then time we got home.
We also stopped at the Botanical gardens. It was rainy when we did but so beautiful anyways. I'd never been to a botanical garden before so I loved every second of it. There were some really really funky plants there.
Rob and I went to what they call the city museum. It was my favorite part of the trip by far. It was a dream come true for me because of how much I love play grounds and such. It was an enormous building made out of recycled materials and it has a 10 story slide in it. and all these amazing places to crawl to. They don't have maps or anything it's all meant to for exploring. We spent forever getting lost in there. There's a whole outside to the building to. Lots of tunnels in midair that you can crawl through. I got really really sick on the 10 story slide but it was so worth the long climb
If anyone is ever in St Louis I highly recommend going to the City Museum. It's so worth it.

We also went to a Cardinals game while we were there. They were giving away free T shirts for kids and my sister in law wanted one for Benjamin so she asked a random stranger if she could borrow their child so that she could get a T shirt. The stranger agreed and surprisingly enough the T shirt was the perfect size for her. So she wore it during the game. I'm not a hug baseball fan but being married to a sports junkie, I'm learning to appreciate all the different games more and more. I think right now my favorite sport is football followed by soccer. Baseball is just a little too on the boring side for me.

The highlight of our travels was family time and of course some of the food while we were there that we ate was so amazing. I've never had better BBQ than Pappys BBQ. I crave their food to this day. Amazing. So worth the hour and a half wait. Rob and I also found an amazing place that makes the best Calzones. It was called Sauce on the Side. I loved it. We actually made it there twice while we were there.

But while all of the family time and fun things we got to do were amazing it didn't change the fact that the company did not follow through on any of their promises and had no leadership. His team was all brand new, from the Manager to all of the salesmen. Originally this had been a major concern for us while we were in the middle of making the final decision to but the owners of the company had assured us that they would be helping this team that Rob had joined every step of the way. So we trusted what they told us and decided to take the risk.
Well it took us about 3 months to realize that they had lied and they had no intentions of following through with any of the promises that they made. We were slowly losing more and more money and not getting ahead like we had originally planned for. So a few months into it and due to some other deciding factors we decided to bring Rob home early. Strangely enough he was the last of his sales team to come home. All the salesmen and even his manager had come home earlier than he did but with no one from his team there we figured we'd better just cut our endeavors short.
Yet another huge risk taken by us because by him coming home early we would lose out on the back end check that he was earning while being out there. Which we had a decent amount built up from the many sales he made while he was out selling but we just couldn't keep wasting precious time. Things were getting more and more tense between Rob and I because of the stress of his work and some of the situations I was going through at home and it just wasn't worth it to us to sacrifice our marriage for money.
So while we put ourselves in a very difficult situation financially we learned so much from the experience. We learned just how much we depend on each other as a couple. While I thought it would be so easy to be by myself during the summer it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I really depend on Rob so so much and he had a difficult time behind far away from me with so much going on at home and not being able to do much to help or change the situations.
I was so excited when he came home. :) nervous because he was jobless but excited that we'd get to be together again. Thankfully it did not take Rob long to find a new job however it did take a while for training to start. So we hurt for a bit in the sense that I was the only one with income but we managed to scrap by. He also has a part time job now at Best Buy. He works so hard and I'm so grateful for him. We are constantly looking for more ways to earn a little bit more every day so that we can continue to work towards our goals we've set with each other.
So while this summer turned out to be the worst one yet, we learned so much along the way. I'm so happy that I have Rob to experience these things with me and that we can learn and grow together. I am a lucky girl. :)