Life

Well, it has been a while. I now live at the Blanchard Mazzios. :-) No, seriously, I helped clean and set up before training the week before thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun. training went well. The kids went home with a friend from church who has a son and a daughter. Chris picked them up after work. They had a great time. I trained from 4-10 on Thursday, 7:45am-noon, and 4-10 on Friday, 7:45am-6:30pm on Saturday and 2-6 sunday. Lots to learn. much like Pizza hut was in high school, except that Mazzios has so much more on their menu and corporate office wants it to be a mix of pizza hut and olive garden, so that is fun.
Chris by the end of his first week was no longer working there. He has been working with Aunt lisa on the possiblity of working a govt. job. For right now he is at home, which he is enjoying, but is hard.
We went up to Kansas Tuesday morning to hang out with the family for Thanksgiving. We had a good time. Wednesday we went down to my grandmas to see her. She had me cut her hair and the kids helped her clean and Nathaniel helped her peel apples in a spiral. Chris went with Dad to the dairy farm to help him grind feed. He said it was really neat to see how that was done. He got to get a good visit in with Uncle John and Aunt Joy as well as Erin and Tryon. Karen and Mary arrived Wednesday night. Thursday we had turkey, noodles, rolls, green bean casserole, sweet potatos, mashed potatoes, and a sweet dessert, thanks to mary. It was chocolate galore!! We went outside to have a tire race and came in to eat some more. Jon was able to make it for a few hours and that was a lot of fun to be able to hang out with him for a while. We played some board games and then went to bed. Friday we got up and packed up the car to head to Grandmas for the big cousin thing. It was supposed to be come and go, but ended up everyone being together, which I was super thankful for. Kristen and Cory weren't able to make it as well as Yachal, but it was so good to see all the babies. Everyone's family was so precious. For me, to see everyone and how they are with their kids is such a blessing. I don't feel as alone anymore.
We left around 5, as Lorrie and her kiddos did as well. It was her birthday and she was meeting Yachal in town to go out for her birthday. Everyone was so much fun to visit with and watch. I wish it could have lasted longer, but....
We got home around 11:15 and put the kids to bed. I had to be at work this morning at 8am. The store manager is hoping to train me to be one of their shift leaders since I am the only one with pizza experience. We were hoping to get to some of that today, but with the Bedlam game, we were steady with business all day long. I headed up the make table area as well as some of the dough with the assistance of another worker named Mike and the store manager from Anadarko. It was good to get back into the swing of something I knew. Minus finding where things belonged and where to find stuff, it went pretty smoothly. I got home around 5. I need to go in for register and safe (the money) training tomorrow morning, so sadly I will have to miss church. This will be my last weekend to have to work, so that will be nice. On my availability, I put Monday- Friday 8-2 and they are going to honor that. They just want to complete the training proceedures before settling into a routine. Seemed today they are evaluating who works best together doing what also.
That is about it. I am doing a little housework tonight and then heading to bed. I am tired!!! I am sure I assisted with the making of over 100 pizzas today as well as at least 15 pastas and sandwiches and prepping 5 batches of dough. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and I will write again soon, when I have another break in my new schedule.
Please continue to pray as the kids are having to adjust to my working and we will be pushing it pretty tight as the Christmas season comes on. Kind of sad in moments when I think that this year we won't be able to do much. Takes me back to not understanding why God is allowing these things, but then I have to encourage myself with the verse that says, "These light and momentary troubles are achieving for me an eternal glory that far exceeds it all. So I should fix my eyes not on what is seen, for what is seen is temporary. What is unseen is eternal."