Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Greed

Recently we ended what some might say was a life lesson on greed! A couple of years ago we determined that we had outgrown our queen size bed. Especially since we seem to play musical beds in our house and can have anywhere from 1 to all 5 of us sleeping in our bed on a given night. So we started talking about graduating up from a queen to a CA King. Then we started pricing. Holy Cow! $2,000 for a bed! Needless to say we put it out of our mind. Our queen was only 2 years old and still in great shape.

A newly married couple started coming to our church, and I became acquainted with the wife. They were the typical starving students, especially since he was attending UOP, which is ridiculously expensive. They didn't even have a bed to sleep on, I think they were using blankets on the floor. Not to fun for newlyweds. Right at that time a friend of my father's was giving away his CA king size bed for free. I know what you are thinking because we thought the same thing. Give our little queen to the newlyweds and we take the king and everyone is happy! Plus we convinced ourselves that their little apartment couldn't fit the king bed and it would be best for them to have the queen. Without even laying on this king size bed, we made arrangements for us to take the king and give our queen to newlyweds all for free.

We were so excited to get this king bed, we bought a new comforter set and totally changed the look of our bedroom. I have to admit when they brought the king into our house I started to get worried, I had never seen a mattress fold like that before but just dismissed it because I wasn't used to the king. We set the bed up, put on the new skirt, sheets and comforter, it looked great! The first night we slept on our new CA King was awful, the bed sunk in the middle, and the box springs also sagged a little bit. It was a horrible old bed. We both regretted our decision and woke up the next morning wishing for our queen bed! I even thought about how I could word the conversation so we could get our old bed back but I knew it wasn't right, we were greedy in taking the king. We had a perfectly fine queen bed and should have had the king go to the needy couple all along. We would just have to live with our greediness.

To make matters worse, it was difficult for us to get our queen bed to newlyweds. They acted like they were doing us a favor by taking the bed off our hands. When really we were the ones doing the big favor by giving them our bed. They weren't at home when we had scheduled the drop off, and when we tried to call them they couldn't be bothered. I finally left them a message and said that I was just going to leave the bed in the car port of their complex and if it was still there the next day I would give it to someone else. After they got the bed the wife called me and complained that we hadn't given them any sheets, a bed skirt or blankets! Seriously? I was a little shocked to say the least. We never got any kind of thank you from them, they didn't say anything to us at church, give us a thank you note, nothing! They never acknowledged it!

So for the last two years we have slept on this horrible king size bed all because we were greedy in the first place. We wanted a king size bed for a cheap price and when we heard of a free one we jumped on it with out thinking at all. We should have kept our queen and let the rude newlyweds have the king. Our backs hurt all the time, we added about 10 pillows all over the place to try and make up for it but it is just a sad old bed. Finally we had had it! A brand new CA king was delivered on Saturday. Thank you George W. and your stimulus check, we did our part to help the economy. Our backs thank you as well. I think I can say we learned our lesson and won't be so greedy the next time!

7 comments:

Cort said...

Bula! E Vinaka na nomu talanoa me beleti na mocemoce. Sounds like you guys are doing well. I'll keep checking the blog. Check 9greenbeans.blogspot.com for updates with my family.

Carina said...

She asked you where the BEDDING was?

That's insane. Insane.

We slept on a horrible mattress for the first five years of our marriage. Ugh. It's the worst. The first big purchase we made after I started working at ah-ha was a new mattress. Heavenly!

p.s. love the new look!

Kelly said...

Oh Amy, that's horrible. And it's not like you can yell at people in church :) We have a full bed and totally feel your pain with having to get something larger...we're holding out until we're Stateside as they have totally different size mattresses over here. I had to order sheets for our queen from the US and have a co-worker from Boston bring them to me yesterday!

AngeeBee said...

Nice! Loved the story and congratulations on your new bed... I am sure you will love it! When we get home we are looking at a CA King as well!

I guess the other couple learned from President Monson's talk a few years ago regarding having an 'attitude of gratitude'!

Love,
Andrea

fijiangirl said...

cort: I checked the site! Your son is adorable.

azucar: I could go on telling you stories of that couple, thankfully they moved away about a month later...i have to admit, I felt no sadness when they left more relief

kelly: new sheets are always nice, is always hard being in a different place and not having the comforts of home

andeegee: I don't think they ever learned about gratitude at least not while they were in our ward

Janell said...

Oh my what a "hard" lesson to learn, excuse the pun. You did the right thing and that is horrible about the Queenie couple!!! Congratulations on the King CA bed...don't you love the space!

HollySomm said...

oh amy...i'm so glad i read your post. I've been a little un-grateful too. My twin size bed is probably the most uncomfortable thing i've ever slept on. (i'd prefer he couch back home) I have no dresser and the closet is too small for all my clothes. But my uncle is letting me live here rent free for as long as i need so...i've been given plenty. Thank you for your quick lesson. hehe, i love learning things from you.