The Sales Man & The Hockey Man

Yesterday, I finally put my foot down. I don't know about my neighbors, but I am sick to death of the door to door salesmen! Our neighborhood receives a lot of pests, trying to sell pest control or various other products. It is such a nuisance to always have strange people coming to the door, and some of them are quite rude and relentless. When we first moved in 3 years ago, we noticed a few knocks here and there. But when it grew to multiple times a week, I have grown increasingly impatient! At first I chose to not answer the door, unless I knew someone was coming over. That didn't work as I had many calls from people or posts on Facebook, saying they came over and I wasn't home. Then I decided to just say "No", no matter what they were selling or how nice they were. But then, my guilt set in for how rude I was being. 

 Most people don't know this about us, but Dave and I spent our first summer together doing summer sales. We moved to Cincinnati Ohio, where Dave sold house alarms and I worked as an office guru. We then moved to Omaha Nebraska, both of us sold Dish Network and Direct TV.  It was probably the worst job I have ever had. You make around $400 a month, till your back end monster paycheck if you make it that far and hit a certain limit! (We never did!) Days were as long as 7am to 11pm. You get dropped on a street corner in a town you have never been to, with nothing on you but your pen and sales book. Bathroom breaks and water, were not easy to come by if you were in a large subdivision with no stores or gas stations within walking distance. So you would just pray that someone buys from you, so they would allow you into their home and you could then awkwardly ask to use their restroom, or have a drink of water. I remember the first door I knocked on, the woman opened the door and pointed to a sign and said can you read? I read "No soliciting!" and asked my trainer "is that what we are doing?" He laughed and laughed, I was so out of my element and I was an utter ditz. I had high selling days and no selling days, and a sunburn everyday. Needless to say we didn't make it rich! But the memories Dave and I share from that first summer together, make us richer in our marriage than any money will ever bring us. Driving home late at night listening to Dexter Freebish's "Leaving Town", and seeing nothing but corn fields and fireflies, just hoping we had enough change in our pockets to share a couple taco's from Taco Bell. Or hearing the thunder roll for miles, and watching lighting shoot across the sky like spiderwebs. Or watching all the "real" fireworks over the lake for the 4th of July. Those are the things that made us rich. 

Knowing how hard it truly is to walk in those shoes as a salesman, is what makes it hard for me to not feel guilty just closing the door in their face. But there has to be a line drawn, especially when it becomes so invasive.  I thought fine, if I can't find a sign anywhere that looks cute enough to hang outside my door, I will just have to make one. After mozying around at the amazing Hobby Lobby for a bit, this was the idea in my head. A couple hours later I was able to crank this baby out! I totally love it, it's not perfect but it's perfect for me. Plus I don't feel like I have to lose the look of my entryway to some lame sauce sign, and I still get away with shewing the lame sauce salesmen. Now if they choose to knock on my door, I have the right to be rude in asking them to leave. They have been warned by the queen of the house! :)

 Dallen is officially signed up for Hockey! We are so excited for him to finally start learning the techniques needed for the game. It's only a six week course to start, but I know it will help him greatly. Today we decided to take him for some free skate time, and Dave helped him learn some things. He learned to stand up all by himself, and to push himself around. You can watch him below, it is pretty cute. As we were leaving the rink, we were able to talk to the guy in charge of the Hockey information. He helped us enroll Dallen in the best class possible and also whipped out some free skates for him! Someone had donated them last season, so he just gave them to us! Perfect size 10 and everything, too cool! Dallen was beaming as we left the rink with his new skates in hand. We are pretty excited that they have such a great program to offer such young kids, and have all the gear needed to rent. Now he can be just like Dad, a Hockey player!