All Good Things Must Come to an End

David wrapped up his second assignment in Gastonia, NC.  It has been a great experience meeting and working with the people at Eastridge Mall for the past three months.  Last Saturday, July 19, we officially closed the Chick-fil-A at the mall.  Throughout the day, we gave away over 200 sandwiches mostly to mall employees but also some visitors in the mall. We were also able to give large nugget trays to the employees of Dillards, Macys, and JC Penneys.

David and I arrived at the store about 10am Saturday and left around 11:30pm, but the day seemed to fly.  We had the busiest lunch and most sales for the day since David and I arrived.  The store definitely ended on a high note.  

Once the store closed at nine, we continued to work full force.  We had so many dishes and equipment to clean.  I think I stood at the sink for over an hour.  It's amazing all the equipment and kitchen things that are taken apart and cleaned every night.

We all enjoyed some ice dream after all the work was done.  Delicious!!!









This is our closing crew on Saturday night!  They have worked so hard, and we have had a lot of fun the past three month.  Thankfully the picture is dark because we all had been busting it all day, and I'll just say for myself, I looked rough!  Pretty sure I had raw chicken juice on my shirt.



Sunday morning we hit the ground running again! First thing was getting all the left over food and paper products to another Chick-fil-A.  It seemed like we had very little to transfer but five vehicles and one trailer later we were headed to the other store.  Then we had to take all the kitchen utensils and supplies and divide them up between the other stores from the area.  Local operators had already signed up for the items they wanted for their stores.  

We only had one surprise cleaning out the store.  This lovely pile of fries was found after removing the warming drawers, and they were just a little hard after about 10 years.  

Equipment and kitchen stuff was flying out the door Monday and Tuesday.  This is the kitchen completely cleaned out Wednesday afternoon.  

David and I will never forget our time in Gastonia.  We worked with an amazing team that worked hard and laughed all the time.  This team had a great attitude to the end, and it was joy to get to know them.  I wish everyone a great future as they go off to college, start new jobs, or continue working with Chick-Fil-A!    

   

Updates from the Last Month

It's been quite a while since an update, so here are some of the fun things we have been up to for the past month.

Because we are so close to Greensboro, we have been able to spend some time with David's family.  This is our sweet nephew, Hudson, who fell asleep while I was holding him.  We also celebrated Grandpa Hall's 93rd birthday at the end of June.   

Living downtown Charlotte definitely has its benefits.  We decided to go to a Charlotte Knight's baseball last minute one night against the Louisville Bats.  We bought random tickets on Stubhub, and they were perfect! It started raining about half way through the game, and there was only one section and about five rows of covered seats.  We were SO thankful for dry seats, AND that it did stop raining because we had walked to the game!!

The next night, we celebrated Father's Day with David's dad and his wife at another Knight's game.  I thought it was an exciting game!  The Knights were winning 12 to 1 at the beginning of the fifth inning and finished strong at the end 12 to 4.  

At the end of June, I went back to my old job at Quality Drugs to work for 2 days.  My friend Amanda took my job when I left, and it was awesome to work with her for the first time.  I have truly missed working in a pharmacy and the folks at Quality Drugs.       

After working at the pharmacy, David met me Raleigh, and we spent the weekend visiting with friends.  Saturday, we visited David's old coworkers at Chick-fil-A in Durham.  Sunday was spent relaxing at the lake with the Kuells!  The lake with friends may be my favorite pastime! 

David and I had a wonderful time Fourth of July weekend at Lake Norman with the Curry Family.  It was so relaxing just to lay around in the water, eat and repeat.  The lake, delicious food, and good company... A Sunday afternoon doesn't get much better!

We enjoyed spending time with David's three college roommates and their spouses one weekend in July. There was so much food, I think I gained about 10 pounds over 3 days.  There was also a lot of corn hole and some adult beverages.

We have big changes happening in the next few weeks as we transfer to a new location, so there will be plenty of new updates in the near future!