The Family that Works Together....

This post speeds ahead to just last year.  We decided to open a family business....me, the boys, and Eric.  A little bit of history - Before the boys were born, I worked as an Inventory Auditor for several companies, one of them based in Burbank.   I worked for a very nice man, Chris Smith, and basically crawled around on convenience store floors with a calculator strapped to my leg.  It was what I would call honest work, albeit, not very glamorous.  Every piece of retail inventory in the store had to counted, categorized and totaled.  Every soda can....every candy bar....every gum pack....and most of the stores were not what you consider....squeaky clean.  When my old boss contacted me a few years ago asking me to pick up his San Diego region, trust me, my immediate answer was "No Way!"  I have a real job now, one that doesn't require me to shower afterwards...but then, he asked the winning question...."how about having your boys do it?"   Hmmm....maybe....they would have their own business....and regular money coming in....and I would be leading them down the path of entrepreneurship.   Of course, I said...."sure". 

What I didn't consider was that I had been recently promoted to Director at my full time job, and that my hours had greatly increased.  In order to fit our new business into my schedule, we had to begin our day at 5am.  We took on 14 convenience stores that took us anywhere from one to three hours to complete.....and that was after we finished training.  The first month was pretty slow.  I will say that the boys must have calculator talents in their genes as they picked it up pretty quickly.  Chris became our "Cooler Guy" and counted beer, wine and soda in almost every store.   He had a talent for counting cases, and was able to count by seeing what was missing, rather than what was there.  He became very quick and accurate over time. 

Tommy would count the Checkout, Matt would count the 'tables' and I would grab the backroom and whatever was left over.  We actually worked really well together and I enjoyed the time that we had.   We would work about two to three mornings a week and usually drive two to three cars (not the best way to save expenses!) since we all had to be at either work or school at different times.  We worked almost every Saturday and then would go to breakfast.  Eric would join in when he was free and all five of us would spend the morning together.   It may not have been the typical family Saturday but I really enjoyed it.   Ok....for those that were friends with me during that time....enjoyed may be a bit strong.  I had my moments of sheer craziness....but I will say, that I enjoyed our actual time together very much! 

The early mornings became overwhelming for me after a year, as well as the number of stores going through revamps.  At every store that was being remodeled, we were met with 20 or 30 plastic bins of miscellaneous 'stuff' that had to be dumped and counted.  The stores began taking several hours longer so were not financially feasible anymore and we decided to pass the work onto another company.  I do really miss the time together; we spent more time together then than probably any other since they became teenagers.  I'm sad in some ways that I couldn't hang on for longer.  Eventually, I would have been able to back out and let them run the business.  I think it was just too much at the time. 

I'm proud of what we did accomplish and I did get to do a lot of coaching on work ethics.....like it's not a good idea to roll out of bed ten minutes before you need to be somewhere...or flip flops are not appropriate work attire....and it doesn't matter if you don't want to finish something, you have to keep working until it is done. We just had another family day yesterday and it again, made me proud. The boys attended Eric's Retirement Ceremony. They were respectfully attentive and I watched Matt walk up to the other Retirement participant, Commander King, shake his hand and thank him for his service. Proud moment for a proud mama.

All three boys showed great respect for Eric's accomplishment, as they should.  It was good to be together as a family yesterday.  I have learned now that these moments are golden....easily stolen...and never to be taken  for granted.  Time continues to move forward and can never be regained.  This blog has become another way for me to hang on to these little moments of time.  Thanks you for sharing them with me!