Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forgive the ones who didn't. Believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it! If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it would be easy. They just promised it would be worth it.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Stress is bad for you: A rant of sorts

Days left until the wedding: 97 (double digits baby!)

The last to weeks have been very high stress for me. The biggest reason is work (I'm working 6 days this week, which comes to about 46 hours of work). I know what you might be thinking out there in blogger land... "How could managing a coffee shop be stressful?! What could possibly go wrong?!" The answers... yes very stressful and everything can go wrong.

Last week I had to "let go" of an employee for the first time. This person had been causing me some small headaches here and there, and was difficult to train. They did this weird thing two weeks ago of going over my head and putting in their two weeks notice to MY boss, the owner of the company, just a few days after I had written them up for being late. This person never mentioned to me that they had been hired for another job and was planning on leaving, even though I knew about it from my boss. Long story short... last week during finals week this person didn't show up to their assigned shift, no phone call, no nothing. When they called to apologize to me about it, I explained that I knew about them leaving and I already had their shifts covered for the rest of the week. "It was meeting you..."

So, this week I had to change the schedule up a bit because of this person no longer working for us... and come to find out my newest hire has two other part time jobs that limits them being able to work when I need them to work. When I had hired her, she had one other job... but this second is a surprise. But now, not only that... she seems to know everything already and doesn't like being told what to do (It is my job as her manager and trainer to tell her what to do, and how to do it... this is a problem...) So we shall see...

But I ALSO have a girl leaving at the end of the month to have her kidney removed and put into her father, for which she is a match. He is very sick and needed a new kidney. She is so brave. And it's too bad she is leaving because she is an AMAZING barista (never known someone with rosetta making skills like that girl).

In the mean time, no one told me that Food Services of America (our food supplier) is no longer carrying Monin caramel syrup, which is our second most popular flavor. So the last two weeks I have ordered it, and it never comes... all four bottles I have ordered each time. I finally started to demand answers, and found out that they no longer carry it. Ugh.

And the last thing sitting on my shoulders like a 1,000 pound parrot is the wedding. Again, don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Dave and cannot imagine the rest of my life without him, and I cannot WAIT to call him "hubby"... but it is the event itself that is stressful. First up, a week from today is our bridal shower. It's going to be great fun! But all of our friends and both of our families will be there. I just want everything to go just right. And hopefully it will :) But... you never know... And I need to go purchase our invitations and start putting them together, before I forget or loose track of time.

But it is times like these that make you appreciate what you DO have. Like AWESOME employees. Gina and Sara rock my socks off. They are amazingly hard workers with their heads on straight. They love the shop as much as I do, and it shows. And my loving fiance, who listens to me rant when he gets home from work, and always offers helpful advice. And then gives me good hugs and kisses.

As I keep telling myself, everything will work out in the end. It always does. I think my two most recent hires will be amazing baristas and hard workers. And three months and one week from now our wedding will go off without a hitch! It will be fun and amazing and beautiful. Oh I can't wait!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Wedding Planning: Gettin' it done!

Days left: 110

So now we are inside of 4 months left until gettin' hitched. Mind blowing for Dave and I. I told him we are almost under 100 days and he just gave me his nervous laugh. We both know that we are excited to get to our wedding day!

This morning over breakfast we were talking about how crazy busy this summer and the rest of the year will be for us. We started to joke and say "remember how busy 2011 was?!"

Today was fun... we did a "Mary's Peak Rally" with Romo.



Dave with his serious driving face

I let my hair air dry during the drive... it was flying out the window the whole time...
Somewhere near Alsea...

We came home in time for the weird warm weather rain to start again. So I decided to sit down at my laptop and get some wedding things done. We have been shopping around for Dave's wedding band, and last weekend he finally found the type of ring he really wanted. Only problem was, gold is the metal he wanted and it's REALLY expensive. So we have been hunting on the internet for the ring he wanted at a decent price (and by decent I mean under $500, no joke... gold isn't cheap right now). But we did! We found the exact one for a great price! So I ordered it fast, to avoid the price changing tomorrow. (It's happened... haha).

We have also picked out favors... which we are waiting to order so they aren't just sitting around, and I think we have decided our wedding invitations too.

I ordered my veil this week and I already found my shoes. I was describing my veil to Romo's girlfriend, Krista (Ta for short) and I guess Dave was eavesdropping. He told me later that he heard me and said he's really excited to see me all done up. Then he said "Man, I better be looking GOOD because it sounds like you will be looking HOT." Just put that kid in a suit and he looks AMAZING. I know he will be looking good.

Half of my bridesmaids have their dresses officially bought and ready to go.

Cupcakes (yes, I said cupcakes) are all lined up, with all four flavors (yes... FOUR different flavors!) picked out, just the official decorating decisions need to be made.

It's all coming together. I'm feeling less stressed about it all the time. There are a few things here and there that I still have yet to book or make official (like a DJ... but I'm waiting to hear back about prices). But overall, I have worked really hard to get so many things done already it won't be hard the next few months. It will just be the day of stuff that will have be freaking out. Luckily I have the most amazing bridesmaids in the world, so I know they will be helping me the week of and day of.

In the mean time, our shower is in 2-ish weeks. Which should be SO fun! Hopefully there will be lots of pictures and stories from that!

Three days after our shower, Dave and I are going to see our favorite band, My Morning Jacket, play at Edgefield with some of our closest friends (haha come to think of it it will be Maid of Honor, Best man, and his best lady, and groomsman coming with us!)

Ooooo and the summer will keep getting more busy! Stay tuned for more adventures!

Love, Jess