One Tough Month

This assignment has been the hardest one so far!  It's been long hours and lots of training. When we arrived in McDonough, we knew a free standing Chick-fil-A was going to open down the road on August 21st.  The previous operator at our location was selected for the grand opening, and he was taking almost all his current employees.  Therefore, David and the other IM Justin were going to have to interview, hire, and train about 20 people.  Starting August 18, the restaurant was being run by an all new staff.  David and Justin have basically been working 7 or 8 in the morning to 11 at night since then.  I worked 55 hours last week.  Last Thursday I was at the restaurant from 8am to 11pm and back the next morning at 6am for a 9 hour shift. My job has been to train Sharon, a new employee, on making salads, wraps, fruit cups, parfaits, cole slaw, and chicken salad.  I can help a little in the kitchen if I'm needed, but I'm not that fast.  I am becoming an excellent dish washer!

But my hours are nothing compared to the work and hours David and Justin are putting into the restaurant and the people.  They are training team members on running the cash registers, making milkshakes, bagging the meals, cooking chicken and everything that entails, making sandwiches, cooking fries, ordering the truck for all the supplies, and everything else in the store.  Writing all this out makes me realize all the small details it takes to give guests a great experience and great food with the high standard of Chick-fil-A.

On a side note... David's birthday was the 20th, and he spent the entire day at the restaurant. He did get a little celebratory cheesecake that night from the team!

It's been awesome to see these guys work so hard and pour their time and energy into the new team to make this a great Chick-fil-A.  They have absolutely been busting it! Not only have they been training, but they have had to deal with machine, facilities, and technology issues.  I know they will both make great operators one day, and I hope all this hard work will pay off in the NEAR future!  Only 2 weeks in and the guys are already seeing great results.  Team members are excited to work, and they are rocking out good food and awesome service!

While the days have been long and Sundays are a treasure to rest, David and I have enjoyed our time in McDonough! We do have some exciting new to share! We will traveling to a new assignment today!! Stay tuned for more info! 

This is the cookie the team bought for us on our last day! We are going to miss them!

Assignment #3

We have made it to assignment #3 in McDonough, GA!  This Chick-fil-A is located inside of Kroger at McDonough Crossing. The store is open from 6:30am to 9pm, so this assignment is my first experience serving breakfast.  We were spoiled at the first two assignments because the stores did not open until 10am.  David is getting up a little earlier now.  Chick-n-minis are my favorite item on the menu, so I am loving this breakfast menu!!! David is excited because one of his friends from the interim manager training class is also working at this location.  They are working hard but also having some fun!

We were told in the beginning that we would probably only be here for a month.  Therefore, the only option for housing was a hotel.  I have never stayed in a hotel for more than a week, so this should be fun! It hasn’t been terrible, but I think I might be a little high maintenance.  Some positive things are I don’t have to wash sheets and towels, there is an indoor pool, and there is a nice gym.  The negatives are we always get water on the floor when we shower and we do not have a kitchen so dinner is always out. 

While in Atlanta, we are looking forward to watching the Braves play, going to the Georgia Aquarium, and seeing the Chick-fil-A corporate office again.   Should be a fun fast month!

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! 

Good Times with Good Friends

I have spent several days over the past two weeks in Raleigh-Durham hanging out with dearly-missed friends. I attended the final pool party with my bible study.  I have learned so much and grown to know more about Jesus because of these awesome ladies and our wonderful leader Allyson (sadly taking the picture instead of in it).  The group has changed over the past 4 years as people come and go, but words can not describe how much I enjoyed spending time and living life with these women!!!

Most of my time was spent with one of my favorite families.  I always enjoying spending time at their house with the three kiddos. We went strawberry picking, swimming at the pool, made movies on my phone, and ate a lot of delicious strawberry pie.  (I may or may not have eaten 1/4 of a pie in one sitting) 

One day I was sitting in the van with the kids, and I heard what sounded like splashing water. Thinking it wasn't possible, I turned around to see what was going on. What do you know, the 5 year old has an empty cup upside down over a plastic bag on the floor. I asked him what happened and he said "I didn't want the water in my cup so I dumped it on the floor." Now I know he knows better than that, so I asked him what his mom would say when she found out.  In a scared voice he asked "are you going to tell her." Before anything else is said his mom walks back to the van, and his 3 year old little brother wastes no time in telling his mom what happened.

Again, I know he knows better than to dump water onto the van floor, but in that moment he did what wanted to do without thinking about the consequences.

This entire situation made me realize that I'm just like a child.  I am always doing things that deserve punishment from my Heavenly Father.  I do things like see a girl in shape and want to look like her, see a mom with kids and envy her life, get angry and yell at drivers on the road, serve myself and my needs before David.  I was reminded that everyday I sin again God. I rebel again Him. I do what I want to do at that moment and don't think about the consequences. God hates sin, and my mind was consumed with the punishment I deserved.  But then I remembered Jesus and the Gospel.  Jesus has already taken that punishment for me. He paid the price for MY sins on the cross. Jesus in my place! Now when God looks down on me, he sees grace and that justice has been served. Oh what a savior!  

I so often forget the huge cost of my sin, and then it just smacks me in the face. And I'm reminded of God's great grace and Jesus's sacrifice when I'm just hanging out with kids.

In other news... David and I celebrated our wedding anniversary on June 5th!!!  We had a delicious dinner at The Palm Restaurant.  It's been a great 4 years, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.  

First Impressions of Charlotte

Growing up in a small town in Kentucky, my heart will always love the small town, country feel.  But I just have to say, there is something awesome and fun about living downtown in a major city.    Plano was great, but it was mostly giant houses in gigantic neighborhoods.  Now our view is high-rises and skyscrapers.  We are on the fourth floor of a nine floor apartment building.  It is so strange to me to ride an elevator to our "house." It's like living in a hotel with long hallways and doors on both sides.  We have to use our key fob to get in and out of the parking deck and on and off the elevator.  Another nice thing about our place is that we have not heard a single neighbor except those walking outside our door.  No TVs, no movies, no music, no vacuuming, no foot noise, nothing.  This patio is getting a lot of use for eating breakfast, reading, and updating the blog.  I'm really loving our new digs.  

The EpiCenter is about a ten minute walk, and we have made the trip several times for dinner and to check out what's going on downtown.  We can see the Carolina Panthers Stadium from right outside the apartment building.  With the weather so nice this time of year, there are always people out and about.  Lots of people running even if it's 90 degrees, lots of business men and women walking to work, and some homeless people.

I don't see myself settling down in the city, but for this season of life, I am loving this busy, walk everywhere, use the elevator to get home lifestyle.

David is working at the Chick-fil-A in the Eastridge Mall in Gastonia, which is about 30 minutes away from our apartment.  The store is well staffed, so there is not much for me to do.  I'm going to have to find other ways to spend my time here in Charlotte.  While part of me thinks it would be awesome to just exercise, lay by the pool, and read, I want to do something useful and meaningful.   We are not sure how long we will be here, so it is hard to plan.  I'll keep everyone posted if any doors open up.

Grateful

I heard it said in a sermon recently "There is nothing more annoying than an ungrateful child." (The sermon about prayer is here, and it's awesome! You should listen to it!) This statement has seriously had me thinking recently.  I don't want to be ungrateful for everything God has given to me. The big stuff as well as the daily and mundane stuff. And to shake my world a little more, I've come to know some of the people at the Willow Bend Mall Chick-fil-A in Plano.

I had the preveledge of working with two awesome ladies from Iran. One lady was married and had two children by the age of sixteen. And that is just the tip of an iceberg of her hard life. The other waited 12 years to finally get a visa to come to the United States with her husband and two daughters.  12 YEARS! She left her parents, siblings, and nieces, who she loves very much, to have a better future for her daughters. Her husband left an engineering job in Iran for a minimum paying job here. It just blows my mind to leave a family, language, culture and comfort to come to the United States for a better future.  I am thankful for so much in my life, but I take so much for granted! I'm learning to be thankful for every meal, for leftovers, and for the air conditioner on a hot day.  

I am also thankful for Chick-fil-A and this opportunity to travel, to work, and to meet new people. I'm excited to announce that David and I have moved back to the east coast. David is managing a store in the Eastridge Mall in Gastonia, NC. We are living in downtown Charlotte, but there will be more details about that later.  It's pretty awesome!!