Year One - Done

We have reached the one year mark (and a month) of being on the road.  We left Raleigh on Feb 24th, 2014 and David started March 1st as his first assignment.  The past year has absolutely flown by.  Here are some of the highlights...

• Traveled about 3000 miles 
• Lived in 4 different apartments 
• Lived in 3 hotels
• David has been the IM at 3 malls and inside a Kroger
• Shortest stay was in McDonough, Ga for one month
• Longest stay has been St. Petersburg, Fl for 8 months

We have had the pleasure of meeting so many awesome people along the way....other interim managers, their wives and families, people from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds, and so so many great team members and leaders.  We have met some amazing raving fans of Chick-fil-A and have made lots of new friends.

Some other fun things on road include:

• Reuniting with an old roommate
• Watching several MLB baseball games
• Watching the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball game
• Living in a downtown Charlotte apartment
• Living in beautiful Florida during the winter
• Waking up to a view of the ocean
• Riding on the Chick-fil-A float in the Lakeland Christmas Parade
• Serving on the Chick-fil-A Food Vehicle
• Going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios
• Enjoying Disney World

Our most recent little fun activity was seeing the Firestone Grand Prix in downtown St. Petersburg.  We walked down to the festivities Sunday morning and saw cars and trucks racing from 9:30am to 6pm.  It was a full day of fast cars!  Now I don't really care about cars or racing, but it was still fun to do something different.  The weather was fantastic...not a cloud in the sky and 70 degrees.    

This past year has been a crazy adventure for sure! Some really exciting moments and great challenges along the way. Our future is in the hands of a mighty, faithful, and good God! We are excited to follow where He leads next. 

Birthday Weekend Celebration

Half marathon, Disney, warm weather, and best friends... I can't think of a better way to celebrate by 30th birthday.  I ran this half marathon two years ago with my friends Amy, Brittany, and Sarah and finished in about 3 hours.  I had been training for this run since November but did not feel as prepared this years.  Sarah and I decided we would stop and take pictures with the Disney Princes along the way, so we were not concerned about how long it would take. 

Sarah and I had to catch the bus to Epcot where the race started at 3:30AM...so so early! Good thing this was so exciting because not much get me out of bed at 3AM.  The race officially started at 5:30 with the first corral.  We were in corral K so I think we started running somewhere around 6AM.  The race starts at Epcot and you run to Magic Kingdom, through Cinderella's Castle, and back to Epcot around the big ball to the finish line.  Here are some pictures we took along the way.  The starting line...entering Magic Kingdom...the sunrise over tomorrowland...the castle...and back to Epcot.  As you can see, the race draws a big crowd.  I think there were over 25,000 people running!  

When we saw the line for the princes was 50 people deep, we decided just to keep running. Ain't got time for that.  We crossed the finish line in 2 and 1/2 hours.  Sarah is the only reason I could finish that fast! She kept our pace and somehow managed to keep up!  I was stunned when I realized it! A new personal record for me! 

We arrived back at the hotel around 10AM.  By that time I had taken over 30,000 steps for the day! I wanted to drive over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to see the animals on the property, and we decided to eat there.  After lunch we made our way back to our hotel and relaxed by the pool for several hours.  It was so warm and just awesome! For dinner we rode the bus to Downtown Disney to eat at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant.  While there, I met up with a good friend and fellow pharmacist Amanda from Raleigh! 

After an awesome weekend at Disney, we drove back to St. Petersburg Monday for another relaxing day.  Sarah, Brittany, baby Charlie, and I were soaking up some more sunshine on the roof of my apartment building.  

Overall, it was an exciting, relaxing, and amazing weekend.  I love reuniting with these ladies and only wish Amy could have joined us!  I'm already looking forward to next year ladies!!!!

Staying Warm in St. Petersburg

Last week my Facebook newsfeed was full (literally full) of snow pictures from my friends in Kentucky and North Carolina.  And as pretty as some of the pictures were, I am so glad I was not there to experience it.  I am loving soaking up the sun down here in Florida!  David on the other hand is sad to miss out on the cold weather.  I am about 100% sure we will never live in Florida again, so I am going to embrace every ounce of this sunshine this winter!  My parents even surprised us last Thursday with a visit to get away from the cold.

I've been trying to train for a half marathon the past couple of months, and I have found an awesome path in downtown St. Petersburg along the water.  This picture is from the pier looking back at downtown.  

Sunday before last, David surprised me with going to Universal Studios for the day.  I LOVE Harry Potter and have been wanting to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal since we moved down here.  It was a really busy day because students were out of school on Monday due to Presidents Day.  Apparently everyone like to go to amusement parks on long weekends.  Even though everywhere we went we had to wait in a line, it was so worth it and so much fun!  Here are some of the highlights!

While we did spend a lot of the day inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we did ride some other rides like Spider-Man, Transformers, and Shrek.

David walking inside Diagon Alley... through the brick wall!

Our very first stop was the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride.  While in line for the ride, you walk through the Gringotts banks and see all the goblins working.  It looks so much like the movie!  

We ate lunch at the Three Broom Sticks.

In front of the Hogwarts Castle on our way to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  We discovered the single riders line at this point! While you are not guaranteed to ride with your party, the line is SO much shorter! Lucky for us when it was our turn, the ride needed two people!  This ride was my favorite one of the day.

Oh the Hogwarts Express!!! We rode it from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade.  It was seriously the coolest attraction! It felt so real as we walked through Kings Cross and onto the train!

We bought ice cream and butterbeer while shopping in Diagon Alley.  The ice cream was delicious but David had to finish my butterbeer.  I didn't really like it.

Overall it was an amazing and busy day! I love spending Sunday with this awesome man!

Month 10 - Chick-fil-A Food Truck

We are into month ten on the road, and we are still in St. Petersburg, Fl at Tyrone Square Mall.  (Side Note: This short-sleeve wearing, beach going, sunshine warming winter is AWESOME!!) The team and David survived Black Friday and all that craziness.  The restaurant is continuing to stay busy as Christmas is getting closer.  Chicken sandwiches are flying out the shoots.

The Chick-fil-A food truck was in the Tampa area December 4-6th. David and I helped out Thursday at the Lakeland Holiday Parade and Friday at the Tampa Christmas Tree Lighting Event.

This truck can produce 700 sandwiches in one hour! David was one of the lucky ones that worked inside breading chicken for the parade.  My job for the day was cow handler, and it turned out to be one of the best jobs... besides maybe being the cow.  There were 12 people working inside the truck to make the sandwiches, 2 people bagging them up in the black heated carriers, and 4 people passing out the sandwiches to the crowd.  Chick-fil-A GAVE AWAY 4200 sandwiches to people in the parade and the people watching.




This pirate ship was the awesome Chick-fil-A float.  It has a bathroom inside...kinda random but cool.  I was schedule to work with the Cow handing out sandwiches, but my roll changed to help with the Cows on the float.  I was so excited...like really excited! There were a total of 7 Cows on the float and lots of local CFA operators, team members, and families on board.

This parade is a HUGE event in Lakeland.  They estimated about 50,000 people were there.  Our float was rocking out Christmas music and everyone loved it.  But honestly who doesn't love the Cows!  We had one baby cow walking next to the float and shaking hands with the fans.  The CFA float won the top prize of Judge's Choice.  Which is pretty awesome considering there were over 120 floats! I'm standing to the left of the middle cow.  There's nothing like dancing to Christmas music with a cow bell in hand!  It was so much fun!!!

On Friday night, David and I served at the Tampa Christmas Tree Lighting.  Again David was rockin' it inside the food truck, and I was helping distribute the sandwiches and walking around with the Cows. It's a pretty awesome experience to pass out free hot Chick-fil-A sandwiches.  People love you.   I got several responses like "Chick-fil-A is awesome," "God bless you," and a "This just made my night."  Chick-fil-A is wonderful! They gave away over 3000 sandwiches at this event!  I really LOVE this company!   

Feeling like a Failure

I have been feeling like a complete failure lately.
1.  A failure in the kitchen! David usually comes home from work after a long day with no dinner on the table.  I HATE planning a meal and cooking! When it's time to get into the kitchen I immediately think whatever comes out is going to be crap.  Then the guilt comes in that I am a bad wife...failure!
2.  A failure at life because I don't have a paying job right now.
3.  A failure with self-control.  I want to eat healthy, but Snickers are on sale at Target.  I have to buy a bag.  A bag of chips does not stand a chance in front of me.  I feel guilty for all the bad choices and vow to do better tomorrow.  Tomorrow comes with all its temptation, and I label myself a failure again.

I have been reading Made to Crave and just started Unglued by Lysa Terkeurst.  Both are great books so far! And God is using both to teach me about himself, self-control, and failure.

God loves me even in the mess of feeling like a failure.  I've heard and read God loves me thousands of times, but today I started to believe it!  The failures do not have to define me.  I'm a girl loved by Jesus, that's who I am.  Jesus loves me during this messy season of life, and I know he does not want me to stay here.

In 1 Peter 2:9, God is calling me out of the dark pit of failure.

For you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession.  As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.   

I'm learning about my failures and my weaknesses to grow closer to Jesus, and so God can mold me into the person I am created to be. Today I chose a banana over the candy staring at me.  A small victory, and it may be dumb to some people.  But today I'm thankful for God's strength to say no.  And I'm learning to praise Jesus for the small victories in the kitchen too.  David had more than Skittles for dinner tonight...YAY!  

The picture is a quote from Lysa's book Unglued.  Imperfect Progress. I'm not going to stay in the cycle of failure! One step at a time I'm moving toward Jesus by his Grace.  It is slow, and I'm now okay with that!

The song Greater by Mercy Me has been on repeat today.  These are the lyrics I love most

There'll be days I lose the battle

Grace says that it doesn't matter

'Cause the cross already won the war

He's Greater

He's Greater

I am learning to run freely

Understanding just how he sees me

And it makes me love Him more and more

He's Greater

He's Greater

Update from the Last Month

Well, I just realized I never updated the blog after our travel day. At the end of August, we moved from McDonough, Ga to St. Petersburg, Fl for assignment #4.  David took over as the Interim Manager at the Chick-fil-A inside Tyrone Square Mall.  We are starting month two at this location and month eight in the IM program. Time is flying.

About a week into the assignment, David and I woke up to some very sad news. I will never forget the morning we found out Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fi-A, had passed away.  We had heard that he was not doing well, but the shock was still there.  I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Cathy, but several times that day I found myself crying. All day I just kept thinking about the amazing legacy he was leaving behind.  Here was a man that opened his first restaurant in 1946, opened the first Chick-fil-A in 1967 and then grew the company to over 1800 locations.  I greatly admire is business sense, his commitment to Jesus, and his love for people.  David and I would not be where we are (literally would not be living in St. Petersburg) and who we are without Mr. Cathy.  I could continue, but for more information on Truett Cathy visit www.truettcathy.com.  He was such a great man.  I highly recommend it!

During the month of September there was a second IM, Steven, working with David. I spent lots of time with his wife Courtney while our husbands worked at the restaurant. It was so nice to have someone in the area to hang out with and go shopping.  One Sunday afternoon we all went to see the Tampa Bay Rays play!  Tampa lost, but it was still a fun game to watch. The game was played in an inside stadium which I had never seen before.

The apartment we moved into when we arrived was about 30 minutes from the mall and the closest beach.  It was nice, but traffic to the restaurant was terrible. So when we found out we were staying another month we decided to move closer to the mall...and the beach. Now we have this awesome view everyday. I think I will be okay here! 

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!