we're OPEN!

wow what a first day!
after a very stressful couple of days, total freak out as I had NO idea how to do my prep work (paper work) for the health inspector! thank goodness I am not the only manager! we got our pass after some frantic last minute get the ladders/tools/DUST and reno crap out of the store we passed with flying colors and therefore we opened yesterday.

We had a very soft opening, no advertising, besides my facebook!, and we had been sampling cheese outside the restaurant (right next door and owned by the same families as our bakery/cheese market) for the past 3 weekends.

There were several hiccups with the POS system and it was totally different doing an actual sale then practice ones with people standing there patiently waiting! we did have our first RUDE customer! didn't take long. Everyone was very patient and understanding that it was our first day and we were working out the kinks and totally still learning, with the exception of 1 customer who told us 5 times how inconvenient, totally inconvenient, it was to wait while we figured out the PLU....... seriously she wasn't even standing the counter for 5 minutes and that was cutting/wrapping/weighing/pricing/cashing her out! seriously! she stood there and said "I know it's your first day and you are just learning and I understand but this is really inconvenient, like really inconvenient" awkward pause as I looked at her like "really? really you are actually saying that? those words are actually coming out of your mouth? really?" so I said again you know this POS is really a huge task setting up properly, she cuts me off and says again "yeah yeah I understand but it's really inconvenient, like really inconvenient" then she grabbed her bag in a snatching style turned and walked out...after paying of course. I was like "how rude" and one of my employees who has worked at a deli for a long time said you get used to that, people are just rude. Having said all that that was the only negative experience. We had lots of people saying they would be back, lots of looky lu's, and not bad sales all considering.

well it's almost time to go! this is my 12th day of work in a row, but I slept pretty good last night, sleeping pills are a wonderful thing :)

count down

I think, well, I am pretty sure, that our store is going to open on Wed, Canada day! it would be so disappointing if it doesn't. I have SO much of me invested into it! not money hahaha but my time, oh my gosh my time! (which means time away from my family), my energy, my personality! I have never done something like this before. When I did ordering at the hotel I just followed the "book" as it was a franchise and no thinking was required.

Now I have had a crash course in the art of dealing with sales people, including ones that just show up and REEK like smoke and WAY too much cologne trying to cover said cigarette smoke. Now I see this guy and try to hide, seriously need to work on my no means no stern face routine. I am learning how to firmly return products that I did not mean to order and the suppliers should have known better. To deal with small holes in the pop cans that leak all over your beautiful new wood cabinets and now have a fruit fly infestation.

I got really emotional today as I received my last and biggest cheese order.... (I have a 100kg wheel of emental cheese! ) sooooooooo excited about that! I love seeing it all come together, working with the new staff that I hired, ALL by myself.... feel like a big girl now! and start seeing how we are going to work together. Ironing out some personality clashes with some other people and try oh try so hard to be the bigger person, whatever that means??!!

I hope I have some great and interesting stories like the checkout girl. I LOVE her blog. It would make for a more interesting blog, mine seems to be much more of a personal journal these days, which is ok, I think I have needed it to be. It was/is great to be able to spit out all what we/I have been going through, even if it cost me some precious readers and comments.... if you didn't know a comment to a blogger is a major addition....we call it blogger crack. But it's all good and I feel a change coming, at least I hope to God in Heaven that a good positive change is coming (my way of saying that my house better sell soon, that J get all better and not have to go for nasty monthly treatments that make him pass out, throw up and get too sick to do anything, and that my life will take on some sort of normal appearance, actually scrap that I don't want normal but I will settle for calmer!)

an "ex"

I was going to do this big post about smells.... the smell of Foo's breath as her throat heals from the surgery..yah it smells like rotting foulness....the smell of my house....sewer and now that the drywall has been removed the mice that were getting trapped in there..well they are NOT trapped anymore! my cat killed one last night that was HUGE...

but as I was processing my post...yes believe it or not sometimes I do think about what I am going to say! although mostly I babble and whine about something or other! see, babbling again! anyways as I was saying, I started to read some of my fav blogs, something I don't have hardly any time for anymore, and read Bread Crumbs in the Butter's post "Beautiful" and it was like reading a glimpse of my life but WAY better written!

so go read it and then come back!!

I totally get what she says about the other house, the one that you want/need to sell so badly that it feels like an "ex" you just can't get rid of! we finally got an offer on our house but it was $100,000 LESS than what we are asking! which is already $70,000 lower than the assessment and $20,000 from what we first listed it for, and totally worth it! UGH I feel frustrated!

Family Fun

I LOVE my family! we so know how to have a good time together! and we love to dance and as one person observed at a family wedding last weekend, "you guys will dance to anything!"...pretty much!! I love how we have fun together, all generations!

I tried to download the video on here but no such luck so you will have to click here and go watch it on you tube.


side note: it was my birthday yesterday....not sure how to feel about THIS birthday :) sure wish I could stay 29! well now it would be 29 + 6!! yuck!
also Foo is recovering really slowly! she is up a lot in the night in pain and still has not much of an appetite, she has lost quite a bit of weight (she was 83.5lbs going into the surgery and for a 7 year old that is probably a bit high, so she is not withering away but certainly not good to lose so much so fast!). It is so hard not being able to take the pain away! hopefully she will turn the corner tomorrow!

disaster

I feel like I can almost see a rotating hour glass and hear a voice saying "these are the days of our lives" over my head! so much drama in my life lately!

Upon arriving home from the hospital only a few short hours later, the sceptic field backed up into our basement.....yup floating crap in the downstairs SOOOOOOOOOOOOOo much fun. UGH!

Thank goodness we have insurance! the house has insurance and we have renters insurance so it looks like we are moving into a hotel until they finish cleaning it up. (just have to wait for the adjuster to come and see our house, this is all so new to me!) We can smell sewer, they have cleaned it up, disinfected, are drying it out and sealed off the downstairs..........not before we could get clothes out of 2 of the girls rooms!! sucks! and last night after coming home we could barely stand the smell. So I called the insurance and am just waiting for the call to move us to a hotel. I could stand a little room service but the craziness of this all is feeling like a bit much.

Foo was up every 2 hours last night, crying in so much pain. So hard. Now she is trying to recover in a house that is not SAFE!

what I wouldn't give for a few days of normal!

Foo's Surgery

How can you tell the above photo was taken Pre-surgery??? poor thing really didn't understand what was about to happen. When she woke up one of the things she said to me was mom can they put the tonsils back in my mouth?
what an emotional roller coaster. This was the first time any of my babies have had to have surgery. Walking in her in to the surgical room, helping her on the bed, holding her hand while she cried and fought the mask and the sleep that was forced on her.............all heart wrenching. Walking back to the room while she was in surgery, waiting to hear the phone ring for them to come get me, watching the clock tick by, all heart wrenching. Seeing her cry in the recovery, listening to the nurse telling her a little too harshly for my liking to stop crying or she is going to hurt herself, the look of sheer panic taking over on her face as she struggled to swallow, watching her cry again when she was wheeled back to her room and see her daddy, watching her daddy bury his face in her shoulder to hide his tears, all heart wrenching. Forcing water, ice chips and Popsicles down her, help her as she throws up, try to make her more comfortable, lie beside her and snuggle, wishing I could take away all her pain, watch her almost faint, all heart wrenching.

What an ordeal. I am glad it is over. I know she will be a healthier girl now that the tonsils and adenoids are out. The Dr said her tonsils were really big and her adenoids were actually infected, so she is on antibiotics for the very last time for this! thank goodness.

She is such a trooper, giving me a smile when I know she doesn't feel like smiling, I think she was very happy to be heading home.

The hospital was great, the children's section was so great with a play room and loads of toys and movies. We all got our own rooms with a TV so they could watch movies all the time and that of course is right up Foo's alley! they have an outdoor play area and everything! I was really impressed.

ok well I am exhausted, I feel like I have been hit by a truck! There are some stresses in play due to work too and our house still with no offers, and to be honest...... I feel like crashing!

Family Wedding

I love taking self protraits.....it's my thing!

my beautiful movie star sister, Shash and her cutie patutie son LiLi

me and 2 of my amazing daughters

we have a family FULL of characters....LiLi is NO exception! too cute, he was breakdancing on the dance floor.....we all had a blast. We all love to dance and I am proud to say me and my family...well the ladies in my family....outlast the younger generation! we outdance and outlast any 20 year old :)

foo and her very similiar cousin karebear.... I LOVE my family

crazy moment with my oldest sister



the reason we all got to have a great afternoon and evening together....Congratulations you guys, you make an amazing couple and we are so proud to have another addition to our family!