Marriage Counseling and Swedish Meatballs

The Hubster and I were married this past summer on June 29^th.  It was exactly what we had wanted and to this day is my biggest DIY project that I am the most proud of...until the kids come along ;) We did everything we were supposed to leading up to the wedding including pre-marital counseling, we even went on a marriage retreat.

Pre-marital counseling can evoke all kinds of emotions from men and women alike.  Men’s most common fear feeling: “I’m gonna have to sit around in a circle and talk about my feelings all day” while women worry about “Why doesn’t he care what color flowers the bridesmaids will carry?! Doesn’t he love me?!”  I myself thought that someone was going to sit there and tell us if we were compatible or not.  After 7 years together, I think we had that figured out on our own.

Now I will say that we were urged to talk about some tough subjects that I appreciate now but I have come up with the key component that is and has been missing from pre-marital counseling for decades.

Are you ready for this?

I'm not kidding here people.  I came upon this revelation after a recent trip to IKEA which therefore led to assembling our purchases.  

For those of you who have been living under a rock, IKEA is a Swedish company registered in the Netherlands that designs and sells furniture, appliances, and home accessories. This place has everything…literally.  Where else can you go shopping for a kitchen sink while getting an art piece for your wall right after you’ve picked out a duvet cover and then grabbing some Swedish meatballs for lunch right before you go pick up your kids from the indoor playground?

It is the Mecca for all homeowners and DIY’ers the world over.

IKEA tends to strike fear into the hearts of men everywhere.  Joe was no exception when I suggested we head there on a recent trip to Minneapolis.  We got to IKEA and I struck a deal with the hubster.  “For every 10 minutes we are in here that you don’t complain you will earn a star.  For every 5 stars you earn, you get a prize.”  It sounded good to him so in we went. 

We strolled through the movie-set like house set-ups looking for storage solutions and kitchen ideas.  Joe was doing SO well until I apparently spent too much time in the curtains department.  He had a bit of a meltdown so I tried to speed it up. Four hours later we were out after a short pit stop for some fish-n-chips and Swedish meatballs in the stores massive cafeteria...and because he had done so well he got a big hotdog after checkout for 50 cents.

Fast forward a week and a half and it came time to put together our big purchase- the Varde kitchen island I mentioned in Sunday’s post.  All IKEA projects go something like this:

Take this:

Turn it into this:

While trying not to do this:

 This is not an exaggeration.  Not. In. The. Slightest.

This is the only picture I have from the whole process.  Too many other things to pay attention to...like not losing one of the above mentioned 276 screws.  

After all was said and done this guy now sits in our kitchen providing some much needed counter space and storage. 

Excuse the mess. This is real life, people.

Like I mentioned on Sunday it will eventually get painted to match the cabinets. But for now we are just enjoying him the way he is and thanking him for the lesson in spousal conflict resolution.