Senior Vice President of Papa's Pantry

Well, that's what I like to refer to myself as anyhow.

First week on the job was really great! 

My very first day I worked 11 hours.  We had our first ever Advisory Board meeting that night and we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off to prepare for it.  We were providing a donated dinner for everyone (about 20 people) and when the lady went to pick up the food at 4:30 from a local Mexican restaurant, they said they had no idea what she was talking about and had no food prepared for us.  The meeting was supposed to start at 5:30.  We immediately bust out in prayer, talking about "Father please continue to provide for us like You've always done..."  And of course, He did.

In fact, we bust out in prayer often.  The last day I was there training with Tina, me, Lynne, Tina, and Sandi all sat around at the end of the day and prayed.  They took turns going around the circle and each spoke for several minutes.  When it came to my turn, I said, "Uh, I pass =)"  And I know I should've just jumped in like I knew what I was doing, but I didn't.  However I also know I will have many opportunities in the future to join in.  Each one of them spoke of their conviction that my timing and me taking the job was all in God's plan for me, for Papa's Pantry, and for Tina.  And I believe them!

I have made a few mistakes... for example I deleted a message off of Lynne's voice mail, instead of re-playing it.  I only got the first 6 digits of the guy's phone number.   Ooops.  I forgot to give this lady her ID back after I made a copy of it and she left with it still in my copy machine.  Ooops.  Then I thought for sure the phone's weren't working.  I tried dialing from my office and it would ring a few times, and then make this weird noise.  I went to Lynne's office to try in there, but I got the same result.  I told Sandi I didn't think the phone lines were working and asked her for assistance.  Any way, to make a long story short, she concluded, "You're in Atlanta honey.  You gotta dial the area code."  Ooops.

In this week alone, I've vacuumed, dusted, placed, canceled, and re-placed an order to Office Depot, greeted clients, complied 187 pounds of food for a children's home, was the photographer at the Advisory Board meeting, made copies, learned how to use Microsoft Access, and gotten friendly with a Google calendar, Google Docs, and a Go Daddy email account.  I've made coffee, put out sign-in sheets, accepted donations, made client appointments, learned how to use Windows Live, rearranged tables in the Master's Training Center, gotten the mail, mailed things out, signed and accepted things from UPS, learned how to search and shop on the Atlanta Food Bank website, stocked free breads and desserts from Publix, inventoried t-shirts, and on and on and on and on..... 

You get the idea. I am constantly busy and it feels like I am juggling 32 balls at once.  Which I like, because it keeps me busy, it is not monotonous, and the people around me are great.  Not to mention, I have a 90 second commute to and from my house to Papa's Pantry.  Who can say that in Atlanta?  AND I have the most supportive fiance in the world who allows me to feed my soul with this job, instead of padding our bank account with something like teaching would pay.  I AM BLESSED!

Easter

     Ryan and I have been talking about attending a church for some time now.  He sporadically attended a Catholic church growing up, and I was raised in a Presbyterian church.  We are both very open to attending any kind of different church.  Being that it was Easter weekend, Ryan had two separate co-workers invite him to attend their church on Easter.  We went with the first invitation, which was a non-denominational church up in Canton.  It was called Revolution.  I tried to prepare Ryan for what he was about to experience, since I have been to these kinds of churches a few times in South Bend.  So we met Ryan's co-worker Matt, his wife Carrie, and their two kids.  We both enjoyed the service, but I think we will church hop until we decide where we should belong.

     Grant is back in town after being gone for 2 months.  We invited him over for dinner Easter evening and we had a fun time.  And since I miss our roommate arts and crafts nights, I had another one all prepared.  So after dinner we made tie-dye Easter eggs:

It was a great Easter Sunday!!!

Papa's Pantry

I was able to train last Wednesday morning from 9:30am - noon.  From those two and a half hours I typed up three complete pages of notes. 

You know how your mom always took a picture of you on your first day of school each year?  Well here is a photo of me on my first day at work:

Do I look like a secretary???

I also trained all day yesterday from 9:30am - 4:30pm.  I have not converted those notes onto my computer yet but I took a ton!  I will be doing everything from making coffee, answering phones, ordering office supplies, greeting clients, doing mailings, to fixing the copy machine.   My most important job, however, might be to let Lynne's dog out as needed to use the restroom, and then give her, Sophie, a treat when she comes back in.

At the end of the day Thursday we threw Tina, who's job I'm taking, a going away party.  Many tears were shed between Tina and Lynne.  I just happily ate cake.  Everyone loves Tina and she did such a great job there...I have BIG shoes to fill!

I start on my own Tuesday!

I got a job!!!!

I am so excited to be the new administrative assistant at Papa's Pantry!

I knew that my schedule being so unstructured was not a good thing for me, so I re-contacted Papa's to see if they needed any volunteer help.  I was hoping to get my pantry shift back, but unfortunately, someone was already doing my shift.  I asked Tina, the administrative assistant there, if she could just keep me in mind if any slots needed filled in.  She called me back two hours later and invited me to do the Wednesday shift this week, since the regular person couldn't make it.

I arrived early for my shift so I could catch up with Tina about everything that had been going on for the past 3 months or so.  She asked how my subbing went, and, since we all know how I feel about that, I told her I'm really struggling with what to do with my life and that I do not want to go back to being a teacher!  She told me she was leaving Papa's, for a job that provided benefits, and her last day would be next Friday.  We agreed to keep in touch.

At the end of my shift she asked me if I was interested in having her job.  I said "yes!" and she told me to send Lynne, the founder, my resume.  I went home and immediately sent Lynne my resume and Lynne wrote back saying she wanted to interview asap.  Since I am leaving for Indiana tomorrow for a week, she asked if I could comeback in right then.  So I did.  Low and behold she offered me the job on the spot!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to be moving into the non-profit sector of America!  Papa's Pantry is also a very Christain based organization and I think it's a good thing to be surrounded by people who believe that deeply.

Here is a link to their facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Papas-Pantry/155026458571

If you scroll about half way down the page, they have an 11 minute video posted about what we do there.  Feel free to check it out!  I think it gives a real accurate picture of the all around services we offer =)

It's Official

I hired Reverend John Mashall today!  Which means, the wedding can actually take place now =)

And, don't judge a book by its cover ;)

CAKE

I ordered my cake today:  4 tiers, vanilla cake with lemon filling...

Only to find out Ryan hates lemon filling!

Ooops

Under Construction

Ryan and I have been busily trying to get this house re-organized with the addtion of all my things from Indiana.

We took Grant's room and repainted the whole thing.  I worked on the cut for about 3 hours one day, painting it in Killim flat with the leftovers from when that room was originally painted.  When we ran out of that, we went to the store and bought Killim glossy, unbeknownst to us, and we got to re-do all the work from the previous day I had done.  We repainted that bathroom too, after a major cleaning of it.  I would like to publicly apologize to my mother, who had the unfortunate pleasure of staying in that room pre-makeover.  That room was smelly, disgustingly filthy, and all around gross.  I didn't know how bad it was until I was in charge of cleaning it all up and repainting it!  We also had new carpet installed this week in that room, and bought a headboard off of Craig's List that we will eventually paint whiteish.

Here is the finished product:

Then I went to Ikea and bought two things: a white bookshelf (identical to one I already own but gave to Kelly), and a black dresser for the master bedroom.  I prided myself on putting it all together.  Here is the finished product:

On a roll, I went to construct the bedroom dresser.  It took me two days to do, and it came out GREAT...except for one part....

Notice the bottom piece of wood is just wood - not black?  Ooops....  I think it adds character but Ryan insists we paint it black. 

My dad and Michael came to stay with us last night, and my dad's birthday is later this week so of course I made him a cake.  This was the first time I made cream cheese frosting and the best part about it is you don't have to smooth it all out like with regular frosting.