Are you Indispensable?!

“If we can measure it, we can do it faster.”

“If we can put it in a manual, we can outsource it.”

“If we can outsource it, we can get it cheaper.”

“The end results are legions of frustrated workers, wasted geniuses each and everyone one of them, working like automatons, racing against the clock to crank out another policy, get through another interactions, see another patient.  It doesn’t have to be this way.” (Godin)

Robert has been reading this book called Linchpin Are You Indispensable? By Seth Godin.    Me personally, I’ve been reading The Millionaire Next Door.  It is also a good book, but written a bit more like a text book.  Very research oriented (which is good, but it takes a while to read).  Rob’s book I think is remarkable.

Yes, this blog shall be about Rob’s book because it has really got me thinking.  We’re both pretty focused on being indispensable at our jobs so that we can ‘go some place’ and become successful.  Of which, let’s get this straight, Robert and I are pretty focused on our careers right now.  That is not the case with everyone that I know or necessarily how it should be.  It is simply how we are at this time in our lives.  I mean, I gotta have a reason not to cook, right?!

I should probably add a disclaimer—I have not read the whole book.  I’m trying to let Rob get through it before I take it over.  I tend to read about 3 pages to his one, so we can’t read it together either.  I’ve only read bits and pieces that Rob has told me to read.

According to the book, “There used to be two teams in every workspace: management and labor.  Now there’s a third team: the linchpins.  These people figure out what to do and when there’s no rule book.  They delight and challenge their customers and peers.  They love their work, pour the best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.  Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations.  They may not be famous but they’re indispensable.  And in today’s world they get the best jobs and the most freedom.”

Now, doesn’t that sound nice:  “They love their work, pour the best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.”  I sit here and wonder, do I do that?   Do you?  Do you always pour everything you got?  Do you love getting into work each day??  So much so, that it’s like a work of art when people watch you??  I’d like to say yes, but I’m an auditor.  I don’t know how much art can be created here?  But, I’d definitely say that there are some days that I look at an audit report that I’ve written and am like.. “Gosh, that is a work of art.”  Maybe not in those exact terms, but after a difficult job I can know what its like to look back and say, “Damn, I did good.”

But… I’m not here to psychoanalyze my job or anything.  There’s a better part of this book I want to talk about.  Something that I’m finding I’m truly passionate about.  Being great.  I want you to be great and I want myself to be great.  I don’t like it when people tear you down and don’t build you up.  School was tough for me until I got to college, where I decided I wanted to do something great and make my mark on my school.  And I’m doing my best to make my mark on BKD.   So.. here’s my blog…  And it kind of goes like this.  “Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back.  It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map.  You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious.  Only you can do it, and you must.”

So, what happened to us??  Why can’t we all be brilliant and are usually rule-followers?  Why don’t we step out of the box, make our own rules, and just be who we want to be?!  As the book points out, “Kids can do anything (except fly, which they really truly want to do).  Very few of us set out to be average or to be typical.  Then, somewhere along the way, the indoctrination kicks in and we start looking for a place to hide.  We try to find a place where no one will discover how truly mediocre we actually are.  We want steady work, something that smoothes out the bumps, a sinecure that will protect us. […] The typical indoctrinated response is that great work and great art and remarkable output ate the domain of someone else.  You think that your job is to do the work that needs doing, anonymously." 

Well folks, the book says it and I believe it… how is it that we have all become average when all had these great big dreams as kids?  But I truly believe that  we are all capable of greatness and remarkable in our own right.  Don’t ever let someone tell you aren’t.

But, how did we get to these feelings?  We all have them, some more than most, sure.  “I don’t want to call attention to myself.”  “I don’t want to get into trouble for breaking the rules.”  “I always follow directions, but why am I not getting the raise that I know I deserve?”  “How do I get my teacher/boss to notice that I’m above his/her average worker?”

The book says a lot of our “don’t vear off the path set out in front of you” starts from our schooling.  And I think the author has a heck of a point.  Additionally, “we remember what we learn in situations where successful action avoids a threat.”  “Schools have figured this out as well.  They need shortcuts in order to successfully process millions of students a year, and they’ve discovered that fear is a great shortcut on the way to teaching compliance.  Classrooms become fear-based, test-based battlefields.”

Now, I’m going to stop right here for a moment.  I know way is this a diss towards our teacher.  I have had many a great teachers.  I could not do what they do.  I don’t have the patience or maybe even the heart.  Teachers are awesome.  100% awesome.

However, as the book points out, “Well-intentioned teachers don’t want to do this, but the system often gives them no choice.  The work of creating positive change in a classroom is daunting, and without enough time and support, it’s a tough dog.”

I think somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the idea, that we need to teach others to believe.  In themselves and in others.  No, I do not believe anyone deserves a hand out or for things to be given to them.  I am a true believer in hard work and the American dream.  Dream—I said, not right.  But, I’m so tired of complacency.  You don’t have to be where you are because you think, “well, I have a job and it does pay well enough.”   You can be better.  You can be who you want to be.  Will it be hard?  Will it be uncomfortable stepping out of your zone?  Yes!  100% yes!!!!  You might even fail.  Heck, you can always go back to your complacent job if you fail, so why not give it a go?  Do something big.  Maybe it’s not about your job… maybe you want to get involved in a community project but none of your other friends or co-workers do that kind of thing, so you wouldn’t want to ‘call attention to yourself.’  Go do it!

I like this list that the book provides of what our school education is providing us.  And after you read it, I think you’ll agree to various degrees:

1.       Fit in

2.       Follow instructions

3.       Use # 2 pencils

4.       Take good notes

5.       Show up every day

6.       Cram for tests and don’t miss deadlines

7.       Have good handwriting (I think my husband missed this lesson)

8.       Punctuate

9.       Buy the things the other kids are buying

10.   Don’t ask questions

11.   Don’t challenge authority

12.   Do the minimum amount required so you’ll have time to work on another subject

13.   Get into college

14.   Have a good resume

15.   Don’t fail

16.   Don’t say anything that might embarrass you

17.   Be passably good at sports, or perhaps extremely good at being a quarterback.

18.   Participate in a large number of extracurricular activities

19.   Be a generalist

20.   Try not to have the other kids talk about you

21.   Once you learn a topic, move on

But… how do these key marks teach us to be indispensable??  How are they making you great??  Sounds like they are making you and me average.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with being average if that’s what you want to be.  I’m average at several things, and I’m okay with that.  But there are some things I want to be great at. 

The book also points out that the only two things school should teach us is:

1.       Solve interesting problems

2.       Lead

I never thought about school the way the book points out.  But in my mind, it’s so right.  I’d give anything if someone would have taught me to be a leader instead of letting me sit passively in a classroom all day.  I envy the people who can take control of a room and take charge.  After being in the workforce for 3 years... I’ve really seen how “Don’t challenge authority” comes into play.  So many people do something because someone told them to and then don’t think about it.  What if you have an idea to make this process faster?  More efficient?  Or just invent a whole new idea because the old one was archaic and no longer necessary?!  That will never get out if you don’t challenge those above you.  Now, that doesn’t mean go in and just start challenging others and creating frustrations.  I often notice myself just doing things because someone told me to.  But why am I doing those things?   Maybe I need to be a linchpin and crack open the door a little for some good ideas to flow out.

I also hate asking questions.  I’ve developed good research skills just so that I don’t have to ask questions.  I hate that sometimes.  I usually feel like asking questions makes me stupid.  Maybe I should already know the answer??  Why am I like this??  No idea… but I guess over time it was somewhat ingrained in me.  My family members are just the same way as well.  We shouldn’t be like that.  How can we be great if we don’t understand and are too afraid to ask questions to be great?

I’m becoming passionate about breaking these barriers.  About being who we were meant to be.  And I think that to get to be great, you have to know how you became mediocre which has led me to this blog.

Besides school, the book points out that Corporations also strive to make us average.  Think about it from their standpoint:  “Let’s say you’re the boss, the guy with the map, the person generating jobs and taking profits.  You have a business model that allows you to hire people to manipulate data or make sales or do some other task that you can write down in a manual.  An exceptional performer earns you $30 for every hour he works. A good employee is worth $25 an hour, and a mediocre worker can contribute about $20 an hour in profit.   If you can’t tell who’s mediocre and who’s exceptional when you do the hiring, and you want to pay everyone a standard rate, how much should you pay?  Well, other than as little as possible, the answer is certainly less than $25 an hour.  Probably less than $20 an hour.  You want everyone employee to make money, even the mediocre ones.  Which means that all your other employees are getting paid less to make up for the ones who contribute the least.”

So, as you can see… every which way we turn, people are pushing us to be like everyone else.  Work harder, faster, better.  But, don’t go outside the box.  Just be average.   But you know what, let’s not be average.  Let’s not be complacent with what we’ve got.  Be great—if you want to be.   Believe in yourself, cuz you know what… I believe in you.  I really do.

Series to continue… upcoming next, How To Be a Linchpin.

P.S.  If you want to read more, I encourage to buy the book.  It is a very easy read!!!!

All text in italics was copied from Seth Godin’s book… so they are his words and not mine.  Didn’t want to violate any copyright laws!

Viva Las Vegas Baby!

You know the usual saying… “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.”  Well, I can assure, we did nothing that should have stayed in Vegas but its probably a good idea that what goes on in Vegas, generally stays in Vegas.  I’m not sure one could maintain that lifestyle on a daily basis.  But, I guess… people do live in Vegas.  But, I’m not sure its made for me.

First of all, we had a blast in Vegas.  We aren’t drinkers or big gamblers, but we still had a lot of fun.  I walked away with about $60-$80 in gambling winnings.  Now, I did win quite a bit more than that, but I like to play with my winnings.  It’s really fun to hear that slot machine go “ding, ding, ding.”  I could easily be addicted.  In fact, on our last night, I won $110 dollars on a quarter slot machine, cashed out… but then really thought about going back.  But I saw this sign on the ticket machine that said, “Be Responsible.”  So, I cashed in my winnings and went home with them.  J

Okay, that’s kind of a lie… Rob and I played a nickel slot machine for an hour at the airport before our flight home.  But in all fairness, it was Rob who convinced me.  And we did play for a complete hour.  Where can you buy an hour’s worth of entertainment for 5 bucks?  Nowhere!  So, I think it was a good investment.  Though, I had tripled my money ($15) but managed to lose all of it.  And then, I saw lady go to my machine and not ten pulls later got the triple sevens.  That will kill you. Haha. 

Awesome ceiling fixture in The Bellagio

But, anyways… Vegas.. .I’m not sure what I expected, but it was not quite what I was expecting.  It was not overly hot (in fact, on the first day when we got there it was 59 degrees when we landed and it was 74 in Houston when we left at 5 AM).  It was crowded, but I wouldn’t say overly so to where we had a hard time waiting in lines or anything.  What really surprised me was the push of strippers, topless bars, girls direct to you, etc.  Now, I’m not naïve… I know these things exist.  I know people go to them.  I expected it to be prevalent in Vegas.  But, they were EVERYWHERE!  Every two feet someone was wanting to hand something to you about topless bars, etc.  There was hardly a picture that could be taken where there wasn’t a truck driving by advertising some strip club.  In fact, me, Rob and Ryan took a picture (stacy was w/ the camera) and when she snapped it, there was truck advertising some strip club right behind us.  It was a little disturbing.  I can definitely see why my Frommer’s Vegas Guide said Vegas was no longer kid friendly.  I will say thought I did see quite a few families in Vegas.

In front of the New York New York hotel and Lady Liberty

There was this one guy who was trying to give out some kind of tickets to Ryan & Stacy about some night club and then said, wait.. “You aren’t old enough to go a night club.”  I can assure, if they had seen us with R&S, they would have said the same thing to us.  What’s kind of weird is really didn’t get ID’d at all.  There were a few times that they stopped us and asked if we were 21 or what our birthday was, but no one actually asked to see the physical ID.  I had brought our passports along so that no one could doubt us!  The only time someone asked us for physical ID was at the airport when we were on our Nickel slots.  (Pretty sure after they asked us for physical ID I stopped winning on my slot, I think that was on purpose by them…)

Our hotel was fabulous.  Both of us (here I’m referring to both couples of R&S and R&J) got upgraded to THEhotel at Mandalay Bay.  Or in order not to get confused by the name, we called it TEHhotel as its kind of weird to say I’m saying at “The Hotel.”  People are like, what hotel?  We were originally supposed to be just at The Mandalay Bay.  Our rooms were over 700 square feet big.  I guess I should really say, our suite, not our hotel.  50 inch TV in the living room.  Had a half bath in the living room as well.  Floor to ceiling windows.  Huge master bedroom.  Even huger bathroom.  Standing shower and deep tub.  TV hanging on the wall in the bathroom.  Let me tell ya, I could really get use to watching TV while taking a shower.  It’s quite nice.  Maybe one day….

TV in the bathroom

Bedroom

Living room

Another thing that was surprising to me was the amount of people that pose as “special characters” on the sidewalk for tips.  We saw many a Elvis walking around.  Also, lots of Mario’s and Yoshi’s.  There was a whole group of men that were posing as different Johnny Depp characters (Pirates of the Caribbean, Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, etc).  I will say, the Pirate of the Caribbean Johnny Depp would have easily fooled me for the real deal.  He was quite a good imitation of the real character.  We also saw Bumblebee from Transformers, Iron Man, and a few other characters that paid homage to Robert & Ryan’s childhood.  Stace and I tried really hard to convince the boys to take a picture with their favorite superhero’s but they wouldn’t do it.  I could tell they really wanted to though.  We wouldn’t have judged….too much.  We saw a guy pretending to be a band member from Kiss, but he looked really old and just seemed to smoke a lot.  Never saw anyone take their picture with him.  I kind of thought maybe I should just quit my day job and find a good costume and take pictures with people.  Can’t be too bad.  I wonder how much money they make a day??

We also went to the Hoover Dam where we went on a Dam tour with our Dam guide and had so much Dam fun.  We walked through all of the exhibits and even had our picture made.  We got to actually go inside the dam and see all sorts of cool stuff.  Okay, so it was mostly concrete.  But, they knew when they built the dam that they wanted it to be a tourist attraction so the floors were made of marble.  Doors trimmed in gold.  Light fixtures were fancy and even the air vents were made to be appealing to the eye.  It was really cool.  It was all still original from the 30s as well.  Then they draw lines where they see cracks and some were marked from the 1940s.  The cracks were still petty much the same size as they were in the 1940s, no worries.  No leaks here!!  I wouldn’t really recommend the dam tour if you are closter phobic because you are in these little tunnels walking around.  Apparently before 9/11 you used to go all the way down to the bottom of the dam, but that is no longer.  Stupid terrorists and them taking away our freedom.  Anyways….

Hoover Dam

Another thing that I thought Las Vegas did well were the pedestrian over the road walkways and moving walkways.  You didn’t have to get just too close to the roads b/c when you think about the people that are probably driving those cars… you probably shouldn’t get any where near those drivers!  We rode lots of escalators and moving walkways.  I could get use to those as well.  Unfortunately, even with the moving walkways and sky ways for pedestrians we still didn’t see all of the strip.  We didn’t get to see the Volcano at The Mirage or see the Wynn or Encore hotels.  We tried as hard as we could, but we just couldn’t see everything.  Also, there’s absolutely no way you can walk the whole strip.  We even took the trams from the Mandalay to the Excalibur and the tram from the Monte Carlo to the Bellagio.  That will get you all the way to Mid-Strip.  We never made it to the North strip except to eat dinner at a place in the Stratosphere.  If we ever go back, I think I’ll stay mid-strip as that seemed to be where most of everything went on and where you really wanted to be.  I think the inside of the Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace were my favorite as well.

We saw the Fountain Show at the Bellagio which was just spectacular.  That was probably my favorite “free attraction.”  I enjoyed the music and the fountains were very entertaining thing to watch.  I only wish the show lasted more than about 3 minutes a turn.  But alas, if you are watching fountains then you are not gambling which is not good for business.  On our way to the fountains, Stacy had a man that was dressed up as a pirate (I think that is right anyways) who then shot out his fake knife and said “on guard” really loudly and pointed is sword at her (all in good fun).  It was quite frightening!  Oh, the streets of Vegas!

Part of the Bellagio Fountain Show

We saw to fabulous shows while we were there:  The Lion King and Cirque De Solei’s ‘O’.  The Lion King was really my first broadway show to ever see and I just loved it.  I just love the Circle of Life song.  Makes me feel all warm inside and to burst out in song (which is never a good thing).

Ryan & Stace at The Lion King

The Lion King

The show ‘O’ was very good as well.  The whole thing was done in and above water.  Very impressive… I’m not sure if there was a story or not, but the tricks and stunts were very impressive and enough to keep me entertained for the hour and a half.  After that show, we did a little gambling and that is where I won my $110 dollars that I spoke of earlier.  Stacy was caught yawning by some guy that walked by and he came up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders and told her how she shouldn’t be yawning.  Well, it was 12:30 at night and she was sick, so she had perfectly good excuse to yawn.  I was yawning too.  But he just like kind of appeared and the way he approached her I honestly thought he knew her.  We were definitely all caught a little off guard and just kind of standing there and watching like, who is this guy that is approximately 12 inches from her??  He left soon enough, but it was quite odd.  We were waiting to play the Deal or No Deal game.

Before the start of 'O'

Let me tell ya, do not play the Deal or No Deal game at a casino.  Sure, it may sound exciting, and it is, but it is a rip off.  Worse than playing a dollar slot machine.  You have to keep betting at least a dollar until you land on a “bonus” and can begin the game.  Each time you are betting a dollar, your actual reward only goes up by like 30 cents.  So, your potential reward does not even go up by the dollar you are betting.  It’s not a good deal.  We ended up betting all of our dollars before we landed on a bonus round and didn’t get to play but one round of the actual game.  Very disappointing.  Good thing we played with the $10 dollars that I won (part of the $110 dollars).

Sweet butterfly in The Conservatory at The Bellagio

On the last day we spent the day out by the pool.  Stacy was feeling pretty bad, so she stayed inside.  I will say the Mandalay pool was quite impressive.  It has sand so its kind of like being on a beach.  The sand was even extremely hot, so it definitely reminded you of the beach.  It had a wave pool, regular pool, and a lazy river.  Quite large.  The only downside:  it was PACKED.  It took us 40 minutes to find chairs.  And we only found chairs after we determined we would have to just stay in the sand w/ no chairs.  People were leaving so I grabbed two and then we eventually found a third and grabbed it.  What’s really funny is once we got down to the pool, I realized Robert had on blue plaid shorts and Ryan had on red plaid shorts.  This is to typical twin of them.  Robert was the twin that always wore blue and Ryan always wore red.  Just classic that is what they would revert to in a swimsuit.  Even to this day, Robert has a hard time wearing a red shirt and says that it is Ryan’s color.  Just the nuisances of twinness I guess.  They are so cute.  J

We also ate Charlie Palmer’s Steakhouse in the Four Seasons on our last night before we saw ‘O.’  We also took a group shot of the four us in front of the classic Welcome to Vegas sign.  The steakhouse was awesome.  Both of us (couples) each shared a 14 oz strip and got different potato sides (us au gratin and R&S got little baby round potatoes) and R&R shared broccoli.  We also go desert (us a peanut butter bar and R&S chocolate cake).  Both were delish and it was quite an enjoyable evening.

The only caveat to our dinner was the fact that when we got the bill we realized that the soda’s cost $5 each.  And for each refill as well.  Ryan drank three cokes.  Stacy had two.  Good thing I only had one.  Kind of ridiculous!  I guess that is how they get you for not ordering alcohol??  Still, they might have mentioned it when they kept refilling our glasses!  Not cool to pay $25 for soda.  You could have bought like at least 60 cokes for that price.  Definitely crazy.  That was the only downfall.

So, what else did we do while we were there??  We toured the Valley of Fire State Park (pretty brief tour b/c it was kind of a long drive to get there and we were a tad bit tired from already doing the Hoover Dam thing all morning).  It was very cool though, I will say that.  We spent a lot of time in the Coke store as well as the M&M stores as well.  I do love both of those things!!!!  We spent some time at the Lion Habitat at MGM  We also toured each hotel from the Mandalay through Caesar’s Palace.  That’s kind of a lie.  We skipped the inside of the Luxor and the Excalibur.  All that in itself was exhausting and completely filled our days.  We didn’t even get around to any shopping, and everyone knows how that is my favorite thing in the whole wide world.  We ate lunch at Serendipity 3 one afternoon, which was spectacular.  I think Frozen Hot Chocolate might be my new favorite drink!!!

At the M&M store.

At the Coca Cola store (the picture that you could buy cost $30 bucks, so we passed)

New favorite drink.. Frozen Hot Chocolate!

Valley of Fire State Park

We also went to

Fremont Street

in downtown Las Vegas.  Can’t say I was that big of a fan.  I really just found it crowded, smoky, and loud.  Lots of vulgar people kind of walking around and the casino’s were definitely old and very smoky.  I don’t mind the smell of smoke in a casino if it’s light… but I don’t want to like inhale smoke when I walk in.  That’s not a good sign.  I even saw this woman with like no clothes on except some flower petals on her know whats.  I do not know where to look when this occurs.  Do you blatantly look down to where its noticeable you aren’t looking???  Or do you just walk by as though the person is fully clothed??  It’s a very awkward situation to the passerby.  I guess a man wouldn’t typically have this problem, but for some reason the guys say they didn’t notice this woman (I’ll pretend I believe them).

You may have noticed I never mentioned Robert or Ryan gambling at a table or anything.  Well, that was because we could never find a table that was less than $10 a bet.  That’s a lot of money to bet in one hand when you aren’t an expert!!!  At night sometimes you couldn’t even find a table that was lower than $25 a hand.  Even on

Fremont Street

downtown.  The only way to even find a $10 table was to wake up early in the morning.  If you know Rob, it takes a lot of motivation to wake up early and unfortunately losing money was not on this list.  So, it was really just me gambling away at the slot machine!!!  But, I did walk away a winner and everyone liked to watch me win or lose… so we had a good time doing it.

All in all, I call it a very successful vacation.  Not extremely relaxing, but well… we’d never been to Vegas and it was time to go.  I can successfully mark that off my list.  I would definitely go back, but maybe next time the beach and all-inclusive resort or something might be calling my name.  J  It was hard to pay a high price for every meal you ate in Vegas.  Okay Ryan & Stacy, where are we going next?!?

How Many Razorbacks Does It Take to Hang a Bicycle?

Today is Saturday.  It's the weekend before we go to Vegas and the weekend that I got back from Philadelphia.  We really didn't have much planned. 

Our goal for Saturday:  get the guest bedroom and closet organized so that Kyle could move in and have room to put his things and feel comfortable.

Before we got started our guest bedroom consisted of:  Rob's bicycle, a desk, a full bed, golf clubs, three stackable plastic drawers, and storage thing that you can also sit on that sits at the foot of the bed.  A lot of stuff for one bedroom that's not that big.

Then, the closet in the guest bedroom was completely jam-packed of everything else.  I keep all our t-shirts in there, christmas decorations, luggage, boxes, games, china that we haven't taken out of the boxes yet b/c we don't have a china cabinet, and fiesta boxes.

Let me fill you in on these Fiesta boxes.  When we moved here, we moved all of our wedding presents down.  And all our plates, bowls, etc came in 5-pc Fiesta boxes from Dillards.  When we unpacked, Robert wanted to keep all of those boxes.  So that when we move, we have to re-pack each 5 pc place setting in that individual box.  Do you know how hard it was to move like 5 boxes at a time from your car to inside and then unpack each box?  But Rob wouldn't have it.  He wanted to keep the individual boxes (16 of them).

Rob loves keeping boxes.  I find it so amusing!  We have boxes for the wireless router, cables, computers, and anything else that comes in a box b/c he can't throw them away.  It is kind of nice in the instance that it does have a home.  But there's nothing like storing empty space!

So, anyways... there was no room in the closet for Kyle's things.  He wouldn't have been able to put away his suitcase or hang any of his clothes.  We had originally tried renting a storage closet in our apartment complex, but there is a waiting list with no realistic end in sight.  Certainly not before Kyle got here.  Then, we thought about renting a storage closet outside the apartment complex, but Rob wasn't too happy with that idea b/c he uses his bicycle at least once a week.  So, all that being said... our project:  re-organize the closet and hang the bicycle and golf clubs on the wall to get them off the floor.

Anyways, we headed to The Container Store this morning to begin our shopping.  This store is amazing.  It just kind of beckons you to become organized.  If you know me, it makes me feel very good inside.  It's like my dream store.  They have the coolest storage ideas.  They have individual shoe boxes even.  Can you imagine what I could do with individual shoe boxes??  Ok, yeah.. I do know what would happen w/ indidividual clear shoe boxes.. they would remain empty b/c who has the space for individual shoe boxes and then you'd have to actually put them in the shoe box.  My shoes are the first thing that come off when I walk in the door.  You have to be careful when you come into my place b/c you are liable to trip over a shoe.

But, when we got to the store... we did get a little side tracked with a shoe tree that swiveled at first. 

Anyways, I absolutely fell in love with this product:

The Platinum Elfa Mesh Start a Stack.  So cool! 

The Platinum Elfa Mesh Start a Stack

The Container Store

But, w/o the drawers it costs at least $100 w/o a top.  Who wants their top drawer not to be covered w/ something?  More dust would just collect on this clothes thats sitting in this picture's top drawer.  But, let me show you what we did get:

Bike rack on the wall

Stores two golf bags and shoes!

Then, we also got two under the bed storage units.  We got home, took everything out of the closet, donated some clothes to goodwill and put the closet back together again in a more organized fashion.  We threw away the Fiesta boxes as well as other empty boxes, or at least condensed boxes into other boxes. 

Let me tell you, when Rob gets a mood to organize, he's like Mr. Speedy Gonzales.  He's on a mission.  He get's going.  You can't stop him!!  He just goes.  There's no telling him to try it a different way or anything.  He starts throwing things even.  We had empty boxes flying in the air!

Anyways, we did some spring cleaning and got everything settled in the closet.  However, our under the bed boxes were too big for "under the bed."  That must have been why the one we already had was at the bottom of our closet and not under the bed.  So, now we have another one that sits at the bottom of our closet, too.  Maybe I'll remember next time.

So, before we even went to The Container Store I measured all the spots on the walls for where the bike could possibly fit.  He has 26 inch tires and the entire height of the bike from bottom of tire to top seat is about 3 feet.  He also has a very light-weight bike.

However, the places I had thought we could have put it, Kyle would have been sleeping with a bicycle seat and handlebars right in his face.  Literally, 3 inches from the end of the bed, if that.  I failed to realize just how large the bike would actually be on the wall.  It's quite huge!!

So, we decided we'd put in our "garage."  Our garage is two walls that when you open the front door, there is just a corner of empty space.  That's where we kept our chips, sodas and our lunch boxes as well as other random junk.  Literally, our garage.  We decided it would fit there w/o be unobtrusive.

Enter try one of hanging the bicycle.  The instructions read, " hold up bicycle against the wall, measure where tire hits the wall and then mark 12 inches above that spot."  Do you have any idea how many tire marks I now have on my wall from "holding the bicycle up"  Rob's just bouncing it up and down.  As he said, "yeah, the bicycle is light.. for a bike.  Not for holding up against a wall."

I had originally wanted to put drawers below the bike.  But rob was practicing hold the bike against the wall and I could see he was really struggling.  He was like, it's not gonna do us any good if I can't put the bike on the thing b/c it's so high up.  So, the bike is not too far off the ground and I will have no storage under the bike.

So, first thing's first... we grab our stud finder (I know, you're impressed.. we have a stud finder."  We follow the instructions by finding the stud and then screwing in the holes.  We put the bike up there and the whole thing immediately falls down.

Now, let me tell you.. this is not surprising.  We are not the best "do-it-yourselfers.  You're talking to the girl who is married with two holes in excess of the original holes drilled for her curtain rods and a tv that hangs slightly crooked on the wall.  We aren't the best.  And we are slow. It probably took us 30 minutes to find the stud and then decide where we wanted to drill in our holes.

However, the whole thing fell down b/c well.. we had missed the stud.  I blame this on our stud finder.  We had like quadruple checked w/ the stud finder.  But we definitely did not drill into the stud.  Dry wall came flying out of our drill holes when the bike came tumbling down.  We checked again w/ the stud finder, and it kept telling us that we were at a stud.  But it was so wrong!  Why does this stuff happen to us???  How can the stud finder be wrong??  We depend on those things!

So, we move the wall that is caddy corner to the original wall we were working on (makes the corner).  We re-measure (more tire marks now on wall) and re-drill.  This time when Rob drills the holes he realizes that he is indeed drilling into the stud.  We hang the bike.... ta-da, it does not come tumbling down!  The next part is to put this little thing on the bottom tire so that none of the bike is actually touching the wall.

I get down there and tell Rob to let me know when I'm straight so that I can stick it to the wall. He finally says okay, you're good.  So, I stick it to the wall.  The he measures.  The top tire is 17 3/4" from the end of the wall.  The bottom of the tire is 16" from the end of the wall.  Is that straight?  No.  Our bicycle is definitely hanging diagonally.  But oh well.  It's out of the bedroom and not taking up floor space.  I opt not to fix it.

So, there's your story.  It only took us about an hour to hang that one bicycle.  Now... on to the golf club storage contraption.  We got it into the bedroom and decided that Kyle would be having a golf club just hanging over his head w/ both set of golf clubs on this thing.  One cannot sleep w/ a golf club nearly 1 inch from his head.  So, we put that thing back in the box and decided they could stay on the floor.  With the bike out of the bedroom, I think they'll be ample room for two sets of golf clubs when Kyle brings his (I'm assuming he will b/c he does like to golf).  Fancy contraption, all for nothing!  It makes me a little sad.  I do love good ideas.




The completed project (ignore tire tracks)
You can't even tell it's diagonal, see!!!

 So, Rob's bike is kind of our like our baby... it even gets its own room (ok, its just a corner of our house!  ;-)  If you could have seen his face when it ripped from the wall it's first time.  He almost wouldn't try to hang it again.  But I was like, "you're really worried about your bike falling?  Don't you go flying from this thing and drag it down mountains and rocks sometimes?  And you're worried about it falling 6 inches from the floor?  It's the wall you should be worried about, I tell ya."  That got him to try it again.

But oh well, the guest bedroom is now clutter free and the closet is organized and there is room for Kyle's luggage and clothes!  Phew!!!  Now... onwards to pack for Las Vegas and eat some dinner.