Tagged

My friend Lisa Leonard (link on the right) has a blog that I follow and today her post was titled "Tagged". Two of the friends that she follows had done this blog. So, here is what you do... you go to your photo program (mine is Memory Manager by Creative Memories!) and you go to the 6th file (mine was CM Regionals 2008) and you post the 6th picture (mine was a self-portrait of me and my good friend and downline Alicia!) Love you Leak! Miss you!
Now... you are tagged... if you have a blog... get on it! :)

God works in mysterious ways

I finally got to go to church again this morning. I went to Gateway again, which was the last church I went to (September 19th) before I started waitressing. I could tell that I really needed to go, I've been going almost every Sunday of my entire life... to miss 3 weeks in a row has really taken a toll on me.
The last time I was at Gateway it wasn't their regular pastor speaking, it was their old pastor. This time it wasn't their regular pastor either, he was the "Spiritual Pastor"... I don't know what that entails... maybe Spiritual Counseling?
Anyway, they are doing a series called the "Soul Revolution" and it is based on the book by John Burke. They challenged everyone to take part and are giving away the book for free. (I'll get back to this later)

Today the pastor started out talking about the Facebook craze and how he couldn't believe how much he was interested in his friends' "status updates" or the "what are you doing right now?" that you can put on your Facebook page. He read off some of them from his friends, including a friend named Thad who always puts funny things (I should've written one of them down) and he calls them "Thadisms". Anyway, he said that it was comforting to know that he wasn't "the only one filled with a life of little things." I really liked that statement, because it is so true... going to the grocery store, to work, to the Pumpkin Patch, catching up on email... etc.

So that was just about the Facebook portion. Then he moved on to the fact that we can not love God without loving other people (I John 4:20) and we can't serve God without serving other people (Matt. 25:40). That this means even that person at work who you can't stand or the person at school... or wherever. This really hit home to me because there are a couple servers at my work that really grind on my patience, and I am pretty sure they aren't Christians just by their behavior and the way they treat others. So the pastor was supposed to speak on this stuff but then said when he was preparing his lesson he changed his mind. So he spoke on the boy who had the 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. He said that he wondered if the little boy heard Jesus and the Disciples talking and said to himself "Um, no, this is mine! I thought to bring my lunch, why didn't they?" or was he thinking "I would love to share my lunch and make a difference" Maybe this is the little boy Jesus was talking about when He said "That unless you have the Faith of a child, you will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven."

So the pastor said that the boy had a choice.... he could say "My bread, my fish, mine" OR "My bread, my fish, my opportunity to make a difference" Which translates today into us saying... "My time, my strength, mine" OR "My time, my strength, my chance." My chance to help a friend in need, my chance to be an example of Jesus at work, my chance to show love to my neighbors, my chance to do an anonymous kind deed.... etc.

I was so convicted because of the way I just fall into the trap most of the time of just being rude right back to these servers who are rude to me, instead of just ignoring them or being nice in return. One of them yesterday at work decided to transfer a table to me so that he could go on break (because we were all doubles) and he had already done a Tableside Guacamole (alot of work) and gotten drinks, but the ladies were just chatting and drinking and waiting to order. So I took them over. I took their order, served their food and got them another round of drinks. When they tipped me I decided to give him part of it. When I handed it to him, he was very surprised. He said, "Wow, thanks, that's very generous of you!". I didn't have to do that, but it was my way of being nice in a very negative work atmosphere. About half the people I work with are team players, and the other half are just there for themselves.

Another work story... this past Thursday was Boss' Day, so I got cards for all the managers and just put a little note in there thanking them for their help and guidance. They have truly been in the trenches with us during this opening of the restaurant. So yesterday I asked one of the managers if he had gotten his card... (he had also just gotten married a few weeks ago and I had given him a card then as well)... so he said yes, thank you... then he looked at me and said, "Are you really that nice?" and I said, "Yes, I should own stock in Hallmark"... and he replied, "Wow, you just don't meet that many nice people these days." I told him I was raised right! But how sad that he doesn't think there are that many nice people. I'm glad that even though it seems that I get sucked into the negativity of the atmosphere, that I am also stepping up and showing the nice side. Please pray that I will shine in the midst of the darkness.

Okay, so now to the reason God works in mysterious ways.... besides the whole "love hard to like people at work" part of the sermon... I told you they are doing this Soul Revolution thing. Part of it is that you are supposed to have your watch or something beep once an hour to remind you to pray, or just to be a Godly person. A couple weeks ago, I touched something on my watch and it has been beeping on the hour. It was kind of annoying, because I didn't know how I did it, and I couldn't figure out how to stop it. When the pastor said that part, I was like, "okay, God, apparantly you want me to do this study." I was a little aprehensive, because I am still church shopping and I'm not sure that I want to make this my home church, especially since I haven't even heard the regular pastor preach. But, I went to the lobby after the service and told the person at the table that I had just moved here and that I was still church shopping. He told me that the only thing I had to do was find two other people that would be willing to go through the book with me if I didn't get to complete it with this church. So... if you want to join me, the book is titled "Soul Revolution" and the author is John Burke. The subtitle is "How imperfect people become all God intended". So, let me know, I'll be starting the book tonight.

Please pray for me as I go through this book because you know that Satan will be trying even harder to make me conform to the negativity at work. Also continue to pray for energy as I work 3 jobs.

I will try and post pictures from the Pumpkin Patch last Sunday later on this week... we had so much fun! Love and miss you all!

Walk a mile in my shoes :)

Okay, so I've been a little upset with not being able to workout. I've only been to Curves twice since I moved here, and back home I went at least 3 times a week pretty consistently. So I decided to wear my pedometer while waitressing to see how many steps I would take in a shift. Oh my gosh, I knew I walked a lot, I mean, I pretty much don't stop. When I am caught up with my own stuff and have extra time I am usually in the kitchen so that I can run hot food, or drinking some water.... but either way, I never stand still for long. Wednesday was the first night I wore it, I walked 10,330 steps. The next night I walked 10,450 steps. I forgot to take it with me on Friday night. Saturday I worked a double... I walked 22,904 steps! Yeah... that's a lot! So again, next time you go out to eat, think about how many steps your server is walking each night.
Just to put this into perspective... If you know me, you know that I LOVED the Bob Jones Trail out in Avila, and walked it quite frequently (definitely miss that trail, and my walking buddies... Lara and Bekah). One day I wore the pedometer out there and it was a little over 8,000 steps for the full trail which is approximately 5 1/2 miles.
Pray for my feet... they are sore every day. Pray that they will get used to all this standing and walking.
On a good note, I did put in a revised availability now that I am subbing and I will have Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays off from waitressing. This will give me one day with no jobs (Sunday) and no days with three jobs (Wednesday and Friday). This is a huge praise b/c this was not the availability that I had on my application and they could've denied it. God is good! :)

First Texas Storm!

It is pouring rain right now! I went downstairs a little while ago and noticed lightening... so when I came back up I opened my bedroom shades (the alarm is on, so I can't open any doors or windows). I continued to enjoy the lightening flashes and the occassional thunder. Just now it sounded like ginormous rain drops were hitting the house and my Xterra outside. Now, just as I am typing this it is calming down.. no, wait, it's pouring again. Well, I'm excited, I hope it's a big Texas Size storm!!!! :)
Miss you all! Oh yeah, it's coming down now! SWEET!

FINALLY!!! I can sub!!!!

So, last night I got home around midnight and got on my computer shortly after to check email etc.... and I had an email from the Round Rock School District with the information to set up my subbing account!!!! Yay!!!! Of-course there was no way I was going to be able to sub today, I'm still recovering a little from my cold. But, I set up my account. When I checked this morning there weren't any jobs available. However, I just got home from running a few errands and thought I would check before I rest for my shift tonight and there was a Kindergarten job for next week! So, I officially have my first sub job! Yay! I'm so excited! Of-course, I'm hoping that I will actually have one before then, but I am stoked to finally be getting into the schools after a month of paperwork process!!!
Please pray for energy. I don't drink caffeine, and it doesn't really effect me anyway thanks to the amount of Mt. Dew I drank in High School, so I need natural energy. Between subbing, Camp Fire, and waitressing, I will pretty much be working 7 days a week!
But, I've had 6 jobs before, so I know I can do it with God's help!!! He is my energy source! Pray also that I will have energy and time for quiet times, because sleep has definitely been my number one priority in my spare moments lately.

What a crazy, busy week!

Okay, well let me just say that taking up waitressing after 10 years off, at the age of 34, not the smartest thing I've done.... but you do what you gotta do to survive! We are short staffed at Iron Cactus in the server department and that equals no days off, with some double shifts thrown in, which equals my 34 year old feet very upset with me (have hurt for about 4 days straight now). I was supposed to have a night off tomorrow, Wednesday, but when I was checking out yesterday two of the managers were trying to figure out how to get more people in there on Wednesday (now... I had just come off of a lunch shift where there was only 6 of us and it was pretty crazy, so I thought about having a nice night off to spend with my best friends, niece and nephew who I haven't seen in days, and helping out the managers that I like and earning some money that I really need...) and I offered to come in after my Camp Fire shift...I must be losing my mind! But I'm not available during the day b/c I'm hoping that SOON, my subbing paperwork will finally be done and I will be subbing during the day, making it 3 jobs... so here I sit trying to relax and put my feet up (and doing laundry and catching up on TV on the DVR) and figured I would try to bust out a blog update.
Wow, that was a long intro!
Okay, so let me just say, that when you go out to a restaurant, please tip the waitress at least 15%, if not 20%, when he/she has done a good job. We had two mock days where people got to come in and eat for FREE and some of these people didn't even tip 10% of their bill for their food... um, I'm sorry, you just got $80 (or more) worth of free food and alcohol, and you aren't going to step up to the plate? Wow! Now, let me just say that the people that came to the mock service were mostly friends of the owners and most of them live in houses that would be worth millions in CA, and the ones that I see from the road are atleast 8000 square feet... yeah. Anyway, to add to it, in Texas they have a minimum wage just for servers... it's $2.13 an hour. In CA, you still make the normal minimum wage, so we really are counting on our tips. Oh, and since I am still living with Steph in Round Rock, I drive anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour one way (depending on traffic and red/green lights) and it takes a quarter tank of gas. Now, luckily it is cheaper here for gas, but that is still alot. So, pray for patience for rude rich people who don't know how to tip good service (food comes out hot, drinks don't go empty, smiling...). I know that God is in control and He knows how much money I need to make. I want to be a shining light for Him, not only to my customers, but also to my co-workers. Pray also for my feet to quickly get used to standing for 6 to 13 hours at a time and to stop hurting.
Also, I am starting to really miss everyone back home because I don't have any time to talk to people and stay in touch, so if you are in SLO, I miss you and know that I'm thinking of you! Think of me too!!! Call me, Text me, email me and let me know how you are! Oh, and if I know you and you don't live in SLO, I'm sure I miss you too!!!!

My new job :)

So, as you know, I have a new job as a waitress at The Iron Cactus. For the past week or so we have been training while we wait for the new location to be finished. Training involved learning every item on the menu, ingredients of sauces, and lots of drinks. Each night they would go over the items that we would need to know for the next day, and then we would be tested the next day. You have to get a 90% or better to pass, or you had to re-take it.
So, every night I got 93%, except one night I got 97%. Then last Wednesday they gave us all the questions that would be on the Final tonight. So Thursday I re-wrote all the questions and put the answers under them. I was excited to have 4 days of studying. Well... Thursday morning I had woken up congested... I was hoping it was just allergies, so I went out and bought some allergy meds and Nyquil for sleeping. Friday I woke up even more congested and not feeling all that great, but still was hoping it was allergies. Yeah, not so lucky... Saturday and Sunday I had a low fever, and spent a lot of time sleeping (except when I went to church on Sunday... will write about that later). I drank a gallon of OJ trying to flood the cold out of me!
So, not a lot of studying, some everyday, but not as much as I was hoping. So this morning I set my alarm for 7:30am hoping that I would be better and would be able to spend a lot of time studying. I felt even worse, so I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep.
I know this is long... but bear with me!
I got up around 9:30, ate breakfast and started studying. I studied until about 1:00, then I took a shower and got dressed and studied a little more before driving to the restaurant. I got to the restaurant an hour early to study.
I have very high test anxiety when it involves a blank sheet of paper... which is what most of our tests have been, and what tonight was going to be. So, it's 5:00pm and we think we are going to get to take the test... but NOOOOO, we are taking a tour of our new restaurant (first night there) first! I was freaking out on the inside thinking that all of the information was just seeping out of my brain as we walked around and saw everything!
We finally got back and started the test. My little hand just kept writing and never stopped.
We went through some games and team building stuff and then at the end of the night they announced that everyone passed the test. (This is the first test that happened, every other night there was always at least 4 or 5 that didn't pass) I raised my hand and asked if we were going to be able to see our tests (b/c every other night they gave them to us to look at our scores). So after announcements, I went over to Amy, one of our trainers, and got my test.
I got 103.5% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The highest score (which they did announce) was 104.5%. There was a 5 point bonus question... which is why I got over 100%
I was sooooooooooooooo excited, because I was so nervous since I was sick all weekend and didn't study as much as I had wanted to.
Yay! I'm so excited! It's a very nice restaurant, and I'm really excited for it to open this weekend! I'll keep you posted on how it's going!