5 Year Anniversary!

I really need to get better at updating! It's been three months since I last updated! Oops! I originally stopped blogging because I ran out of blogger memory and couldn't upload photos. I mainly use my iphone camera now, so I can just upload my photos to flickr. So now I don't have an excuse for not blogging! Except for the fact that I'm usually busy! :P

Last weekend was my and D's 5th year wedding anniversary! How crazy is that?! We've been married for five whole years! Craziness!!! Mom and Dad generously offered to watch the shop so that we could get away for a couple days, which was extremely nice of them! Talk about the best anniversary gift ever! Originally, D and I were talking about visiting Niagara Falls. But D doesn't have his passport, we didn't really want to travel that far on a holiday weekend, plus hotel prices were outrageous, so we decided to do a staycation.  We ended up not really staying home though. Instead, we decided to pack our bags and randomly drive somewhere. D woke up really early Saturday morning and we were on the road probably before 10 am. We didn't know if we would come back home that night or spend the night somewhere. D loves being random and so his idea was to just start driving and see where we ended up. We mainly stayed on smaller roads, especially at first. I think we were only on a major interstate like once or twice.

So we ended up somewhere along the Indiana/Illinois border. We stopped at a flea market, where we found a couple good finds. It was so blessed hot and muggy! We drove on to this other small town that was filled with antique shops. I was super starving so we stopped at this little ice cream shop where we were waited on by this crotchity old woman.  We wandered in to an antique shop that was located in an old movie theater. It was pretty cool!

After that, we started driving southeast, back in to Indiana.  We went through a ton of tiny towns and spent most of the way on the back country roads.  Saw a bunch of watermelon, canteloupe, and pumpkin fields, which was pretty cool! At this point, I was really starving. D had eaten breakfast, but I hadn't so I was desperately chewing on breath mints to try to get some calories. haha. We finally got on a highway and ran across this peach orchard. They had a giant peach sculpture in front of their shop and seemed to be a cute little tourist attraction. We bought some peach cider, a couple fresh peaches, and fresh tomatoes.  We kept driving until about 6:00 and then realized that we were both getting pretty tired.  Since it was a holiday weekend, there were no vacancies at the hotels that we were wanting to stay in.  Diego had been driving all day and was getting super sleepy, I was trying to find a hotel on my phone while we were driving so was getting car sick and grouchy. So we decided to pull off at an exit to catch our bearings. Diego took a short little nap and I found a hotel in Lexington.  It was an hour drive, but I wanted to spend the night at a semi nice hotel and not just a cheap motel. We were right along the Indiana/Kentucky state line so it was some really pretty country side! As we were driving, we went past the Leavenworth exit.  We had stayed @ The Leavenworth Inn on our anniversary a few years ago, so  I decided to call and see if they had any vacancies. Surprisingly, they did! So that's where we decided to stay on Saturday night!

We had already passed the Leavenworth exit, so stopped in Corydon, IN  @ the Cracker Barrel and Walmart.  It started storming as we headed back to the inn. The gps wasn't accurate and so we had some trouble finding the inn, but finally made it! We got to stay in the main house this time around and it was really nice! There were some rocking chairs out on the front porch, so we sat out there just lisenting to the rain and enjoying the night. We had a King size bed and it was soooo comfy! We must have slept pretty well because we missed breakfast! haha

View of the Ohio River

So peaceful and pretty! 

We ate our fresh fruit for breakfast and decided to drive to French Lick, Indiana. They used to really well known for their mineral water and still have a couple big restorts.  I'd been wanting to see their atrium, so we decided to stop in since we were in the area.  We had tried to book a room at one of the hotels, but they were all booked for the weekend.  :( 

There are two hotels that are considered to be one resort:  one in French Lick and one in West Baden. We stopped at the one in French Lick first.  It was the newer hotel, but it was still really nice! We explored the hotel for awhile and kind of felt like trespassers, since we didn't have a reservation.  They had a ton of activities going on since it was a holiday weekend. One that we were really interested in was a $5 hot air balloon ride! But we weren't guests, so weren't able to go! There was a grand staircase leading up to the front door of the hotel and it was pretty fun to walk up it.  A lot of people had their pets with them and it just had the air of aristocracy/wealth and kind of a 50's feel. It reminded me of the movie 'Dirty Dancing' you know when families would go to these resorts for vacation.  Anyways, it was fun to explore the hotel! We made our way out back and saw the mineral water source.  There was a casino on site and we walked over there just to check it out, but left pretty quickly because the smell/noise was about to drive me insane. I don't know how people hang out in casinos for fun, it was very unappealing to me. 

Decided to drive over to the other hotel in West Baden.  It was absolutely beautiful and didn't look like it belonged in Indiana; rather, I could see it located somewhere in Europe.  It was a really odd sight just because it didn't seem to fit in.  I wish we had taken a picture of the front view, because it looked pretty amazing! We didn't spend as much time at the West Baden hotel, just looked at the atrium and the gardens. We then decided to head up to Spring Mill State Park! I had tried to book us a room at the inn there, but they were booked full as well.  But we decided to go explore their Pioneer Village.

Hotel in French Lick, Indiana

I loved the big porch!

Cool ceiling!

Source of mineral water

Back view of hotel

Reminded us of 'The Secret Garden'

I think they used to get mineral water from this?

Hotel in West Baden

Really, really cool! Some of the hotel rooms have balconies that lead out to this!

Me!

Diego!

Steps leading out to gardens

Garden area

Cool fountain

View from back parking lot

Waving goodbye as we head off to Spring Mill

Well, I will have to finish updating another day.  Maybe tomorrow? I'll tell you all about Spring Mill Park and the restaurant we went to in Zionsville.  We shot a lot of video, which I would really like to share here. But it might take awhile to get uploaded! D documented a lot on his phone, so I will need to get the files from him! He actually ran out of memory on his phone so I started taking some pics/videos on my phone until my phone ran out of memory too! haha

Okay, well I suppose I should go be productive.  D opened today, so I will be working the closing shift.  Happy Saturday, everyone! :)

Passed My Test!

I passed my Serve Safe Exam! Yay!!! What a relief! I've been studying off and on for a few months, started studying more seriously a couple weeks ago, and then this past week was studying a LOT. I spent the majority of Thursday ( our day off) studying since my exam was on Friday morning. I guess it all paid off though because I passed the exam with a 95 pecent! I have not missed testing at all. It's something that I've never really liked about school.  I think I get test anxiety! I ended up taking this particular test @ Ivy Tech in their assessment center. They sure don't make the process easy. One of the ladies there was taking everything sooo seriously.  You could tell that she's a very by the book person.  She barely even cracked a smile at me when reading the directions.  They wouldn't even let me take any water in.  I have this thing about having water nearby, so hearing this kind of triggered a bit of anxiety within me. haha So I asked if I could come out of the testing room and get a drink of water if need be and she told me no! I"m just like, "what?!" haha So I'm stuck in this tiny room with bright lights, I swear they had the heat cranked up in that place, with no water, they wouldn't even let me have a pencil and paper? I was really feeling a little trapped. I could feel myself starting to sweat and the claustrophobia setting in.  I had an 'oh crap' moment so I just started whizzing through the questions. I figured if I was going to have a panic attack, I may as well get this stupid test over with first. I think I finished the test in about 20 minutes! Now the test wasn't overly complicated, but there were a lot of numbers/lists to memorize and I'm horrible at that, so I was taking it pretty seriously. Plus, I took the  manager version, so it included more info.

Anyways, since that's over with, I can  now move on to other things! There is a never ending list, so I'm sure I'll find something to focus on! ;)

We are hiring five new employees @ the wally. So this should get interesting! haha One of our original employees, K, is leaving. :( I'm pretty sad about it. :( She and her friend, H, have been with us from the very first day.  We're kind of going through a transition it seems.  Another employee, A, left bc she had a different summer job opportunity.  We got rid of another employee because she just wasn't working out. Now K is leaving. We have a couple of people who will be leaving for school in the late summer. We're getting a whole new staff and I don't know that I like it. It's so hard to find the right people! I never realized that staffing would be one of our biggest obstacles! It's a bit frustrating!

Monday was Memorial Day! Was kind of a strange day since we basically worked all day. lol. Went and bought some food--hot dogs, chips, potato salad, pie, pop, etc. and set it up @ work for the employees.  I made some hot dogs in the crockpot and everyone seemed to love it! So that was pretty much our party. lol. It was a rainy day, so I guess we really weren't missing out on much. But still, I would have liked to have spent it with my familia.  I sent D and Larry off to watch a movie and worked in the office all evening.  It finally quit raining around 9pm and we saw a full rainbow! So that was pretty cool!

Okay, well I had better get busy. Going to head to work soon. Happy Saturday! :)

A Day Off!

Well, hello again! Two blog entries in less than two weeks? What's going on? haha

Today was our 'day off' ! I never used to understand why my mom and dad would have such a difficult time relaxing when they were home from work. Well, it's now beginning to make sense. :) Even on our day off, D and I ended up doing work related things. We dropped a box of yogurt off @ the shop, then took some paperwork up to the city regarding our permit for an outdoor seating area.  We then went looking for Ross Park ( located in West laffy)  and spent the afternoon hiking in the woods.  D has been wanting to go mushroom hunting. One of our employees sent us a picture of a morrell mushroom that she and her family found and he's been wanting to find one ever since.  haha  While we didn't find any mushrooms, we *did* have a fun time hiking through the woods.  The hiking trails were barely existent so it was almost as if we were really lost in the woods. haha There were a ton of trees down and the path was overgrown, so we were climbing over fallen logs and being slapped in the face by tree branches. I will be extremely surprised if one of us doesn't have poison ivy or a tick. On our way back to civilization, we stopped by a public entrance to the Wabash river, which was pretty cool.  I had actually never been to this particular neck of the woods before. I really enjoyed it!

After our adventure, we stopped by a local Mexican grocery store to check out their produce and then headed to HuHot for dinner. I love this place---it's a Mongolian Self-serve Grill where you create your own stir fry and watch while the grillmaster cooks it on this giant turntable. My favorite part is that it's pretty healthy! We then stopped by Hobby Lobby to look for a few things and headed home.  I've spent the majority of the evening working on housework and updating the wally facebook.

Here are a few photos from our day:

@ The beginning of the trail

We climbed over that giant log

A cute little stream!

Near fishing spot

Dinner!

I've finally had a chance to start uploading some pictures from my phone to my flickr account. So I will now be able to post some of the ones that I've taken over the past few weeks/months. But it will have to be another day because I'm getting sleepy!

Night, everyone!

Waffles! :)

Well, I'm back! I know I've been MIA for the past few months, but it's been so CRAZY with everything going on @ TPW that I just haven't had any time to update.  It's hard to believe that we've been open for about 4 months already! Things are slowly coming together with the staffing, decor, paperwork, etc. We're definitely more organized than we were @ the start, but still have a ways to go.  D's brother, Larry, has been here since late February. He's helping us out by managing in the mornings. We've also hired a couple people to clean over night so that our regular employees don't have to stay so late. In the beginning we were staying there sooo late. We wouldn't get out of there until at least 1 am and then we would have to get up and be there early in the AM. We were working day and night! We're still working a lot, but actually can go home and relax and then have a good night's sleep!

Our regular night time cleaner is only available  M-F, so we've been looking for a weekend cleaner. Finally, found one that we're trying out on a trial basis. This was her first weekend so we had a late night last night and then again tonight. We didn't get home until 4:30am yesterday, but got out around 2:30 tonight.

We're starting a new feature called "In the Spotlight" where we interview a different employee every few weeks. One of our employees, Luke, is a budding videographer, so he's helping us video tape the  interviews and we'll then post them on FB. Tonight was our first interview! I wasn't expecting to be on camera so much, I figured the focus would be more on Haley, so I found it a little nervewracking. I'll be interested to see how it turns out!

Well, I just finished eating some waffles and I think I'm going to head to bed. I've been obsessed with these waffles called Eggo Mixed Berry Thick n Fluffy. They're so good that I eat them without syrup or anything! Yuum!

Okay, well Goodnight, all! :)

Turkey Day!

Well, it's been about 22 days since my last post so I supposed it's about time that I update. :P  Things have been extremely busy the past few weeks. We're up in in Rensl for the holiday weekend. Had a really nice Thanksgiving @ Aunt Mary and Uncle Chris' house on Thursday. The Stewies weren't able to make it because Uncle Gary was sick, but everyone else was there.

We had so much yummy food: turkey, ham, pheasant that my dad made, mashed potatoes, gravy, yeast rolls ( my fave!), stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, stuffing, deviled eggs, pepper bread, green bean salad, cranberry salad.

Waiting to eat!

Praying for the meal and saying what we're thankful for!

Giganormous stuffed bear that Aunt Mary and Uncle Chris got for Baby Jack!

Time for dessert! @ the bottom of the picture is Lachlan's bday cake--a turkey cake. haha Aunt mary sent Uncle Chris to get a cake w/ a picture of a turkey on it and he got this one instead. hehe It was pretty cute though!

Today we slept in and then worked on some TPW things.  Went to dinner w/ Mom and Dad and the Hannons. Then we came home and put up the Christmas tree. A week from tomorrow is December 1st! Hard to believe!

Let's see, what has been happening. Have been busy w/ TPW of course.  The drywallers were in there last last week and finally finished on Tuesday.  We hired someone to do the tile and they started early Wednesday morning. Hopefully they will be finished by Monday.  After that, we need to start painting.
 I'm getting  a little nervous because I want to be organized, but with some things I feel like they are just being thrown together. It's all happening so quickly, but at the same time it has been taking forever.  

Larry flew back to LA a week ago Wednesday.  We drove him up to Midway in Chicago and went to Ikea while we were there. I love that store! I wish there was one in Indy! Anyways, Larry should be flying back this next Tuesday, but this time he will be landing in Indy.  So that's good.

I'm really excited for Christmas this year.  I am enjoying the feel of the holidays: the sound of Christmas music, the feel of a warm fire in the fireplace, Christmas decorations in the stores/mall, the spirit of the holidays.  Maybe I'm noticing and appreciating everything so much more because last year was really strange, or maybe it's just because I'm getting older. I'm not sure.  But I've noticed that I am beginning to really appreciate the smaller/simpler things in life.  It's kind of nice!

Didn't really do much Black Friday shopping.  Did order a camera online-- as an early Christmas gift. Also, happened to be at Walmart this evening and there were still a bunch of DVDS that were on sale.  So I bought a few! And that was my Black Friday shopping.  I typically have little interest in the BF shopping.  It brings out the bad in most people and I really don't care to be a part of it. Plus, I HATE how stores are opening on Thanksgiving day. I don't really care to support this and decided not to do any shopping before Friday unless it was online. I used to work retail and I know how horrible it can be to work during the holidays in general.  I don't think it's a good practice to require employees to work on the holidays unless absolutely necessary. Now I can understand working @ a hospital, a gas station, etc. But for actual stores to be open full force-- I think it's distasteful. 

My camera broke a couple weeks ago so I haven't been able to take as many pictures as usual.  I've been trying to snap some shots w/ my phone camera, but they aren't very good quality since my flash doesn't usually work.Here are some photos from the past few weeks, some of them are from before my camera broke, some of them were taken w/ Jennica's camera, and some are from my cell phone.

Well, I'm unable to upload any photos to my blog @ the moment. Looks like I've used up all 1 GB of space and will have to upgrade if I want to upload pics directly from my computer. I guess maybe I can upload them to flickr and then copy the link, but that sounds like a lot of work! :P

Maybe next time! Night, all! :)