strap on your seat belts! wild ride ahead!

it's been a crazy week. sorry to bail on my blog, but duty calls.
went to hotlanta on tuesday and wednesday to meet with our new business partners and hammer out some work. the guys (the hubs and the brother) had more intensive meetings with the partners, so i got some work done on my laptop while i was there. it was a pretty productive couple of days!
it rained all day thursday, but that's okay, because i still had plenty to do, even though running to the stores in the rain wasn't great… but necessary. the partners came to town in the morning for more meetings {thankfully, i was off the hook for these} and the hubs, and two of the partners left to go to middle tennessee to sell. two. franchises. {yippee, our first two franchises with the new company!!}
i had lunch with a friend. noteworthy because i don't usually get out much (the life of having a home office) nor do i take time to invest in relationships or "me" during the day. it's a luxury i haven't been willing to indulge in… i don't know, maybe out of guilt like i should be working or something. at any rate, i'm trying to make more personal investments so that i don't go crazy. {it helps the dark twistyness i've been fighting lately.}
thursday night our partners met us at one of our stores for a store-wide meeting to introduce them to our new partners and give them a whiff of our new vision.
for instance, our goal…
open up 700 (yes, that is a seven with two zeros… seven hundred) new successful franchise stores by 2010. {ohmystars, i'm hyperventilating!)
okay, we had their attention.
dan had our employees eating out of the palm of his hand. if he ever gives up the restaurant business, he could so go into public speaking.
after the meeting, the six of us went out to celebrate the sale. pretty exciting stuff!

friday, more meetings, including a lunch meeting with my business partner at pei wei. (i love that place!) planning and strategizing how i do the marketing and print brokering for our growing business.
it's fast and furious around here and the pace has been overwhelming at times. learning to work with new partners has had its struggles, but all-in-all, i think it's going to work out alright. lots of transitions and adjusting.
the road ahead looks long, but exciting. i'm just praying that we remember the small things in life, too. {and the big things, too} should be a crazy ride.