There are many trials that test the strength of a marriage; some are tougher than others. These are the trying times when you either come together or fall apart. In our marriage those times seem to come when attempting to assemble IKEA furniture... and when moving.

Today could have been one of those days. No, we weren't moving (thank GOD- I'll tell you about that another time), and we now live well outside of IKEA's delivery range (dammit!), but we rearranged some furniture. It started yesterday, when we got a second-hand couch delivered. You have no idea how exciting this was- we haven't had a couch for almost 2 years, I shit you not. Unfortunately, manouvering a huge couch through the tiny door and into the miniature living room of the Hobbit-hole we're currently living in was easier said than done. Worse, the act of moving all of our crap to new locations caused my hubby to bitch relentlessly at me about the clutter in our house- like it just appeared in some Big-Bang scenario, or I just pulled it out of my ass. Apparently it has nothing to do with HIM...

Anyway, that's over. The couch looks great. AJ eventually calmed down (after he cleaned the kitchen- sweet!), and though we once again did not do the mature thing and actually talk about our quasi-argument (one-sided though it was), we're cool. So why the hell did we decide to move furniture again today?

I'll tell you why: because there's no room in this place for a friggin' Christmas tree. No spare corners, no space that could be cleared, as there's nowhere else for the furniture to go. Well, except in the bedroom. And that's how we found ourselves moving bed, dressers, etc., shuffling our shit to make room for the festive bush*... which we just bought at Value Village. 5 feet tall, and it looks like a stunt double for the one in the Charlie Brown Christmas special, but it's better than nothing. Actually, I think it'll be right purty when it's decorated, and LB won't be able to get his hands on it if it's in the bedroom. We're brilliant!

And you know what? It was OK. We worked out a game plan- shove bed forward, move dresser #1, swing bed around, move dresser #2, get bedside tables out of the way... you get the idea. We actually asked each other for our thoughts on the plan, listened to each other, AND he didn't complain about the mess on my dresser. It was exhausting, but we got it done.

There is no deep conclusion to this story- sorry. I'm just blabbering. I guess if I learned anything from this, it's that our marriage is strong enough to survive even this, the Moving of Furniture.

I'm so proud... *sniffle!*

*Festive Bush- This is what we had to call the 20-ft. high Christmas tree in the "cafetorium" at my high school so as not to offend anyone. I shit you not.