First Snow of the Season

We experienced the first snow of the season yesterday as my sister, Mindy, Emma, and I drove to Bellevue's Snowflake Lane. It's wherea a street outside the mall is transformed into a winter wonderland with fake snow and christmas music with live drummers along the street. We didn't really need the fake snow made from bubble suds, we had real snow! I love snow!

The current weather:
Bonney Lake, WA

36°F
Light Showers Snow
Wind: S at 12 mph
Humidity: 81%

So many JOBS!

Lest you think I am one dimensional and all I think about is Bubble Tea. I thought I'd share with you all that I'm doing to fill my time. These are all my jobs:

1) Operate my Bubble Tea business : business has slowed down in the cooler weather but I continue to work at the shop and make bubble tea every day.

2) "Marketing" the Teriyaki Wok restaurant- I help the waitresses when it gets busy but my main job at the WOK is marketing and promotions. Here are just a few things I've done here :

*paint and remodel
*reinventing the ambiance though music and visuals
*set up wifi internet for customers,
*develop branding with our logo and name recognition, we're all getting new shirts with our logo. My tag line : Feed the Flame (because our logo is a wok on fire)
*redesign menus in color with photos
*bottling and selling our original recipe teriyaki sauce and asian sesame salad dressing, almost hit our 100th bottle sold in just over a month.
*trying to add fun items like that Hint Mints.
*researching to develop a retail part of the business selling imports like chopsticks and stuff dealing with Asian culture.

3) Starting an e-business in internet marketing. I'm still waiting for the web-design program, Dreamweaver, to come in the mail to start putting up my websites, but I hope to be up and going by the new year. So, what will I be marketing? Lots of fun things for women. I'll let you know about it when it's set up.

4) Prayer Letter service: I found that one tangible thing I missed about being with Crusade is sending out prayer letters. I actually like stuffing envelopes and putting them in the mail. So, I asked a friend if I could send out hers letters for her. Funny, most missionaries use a service because there is more to do in ministry than sitting around stuffing envelopes but I really enjoy doing it.

5) Photography greeting card business: I take photographs of northwest scenary while I'm hiking or kayaking and make them into cards. Currently, the Bistro Thyme, a cute cafe here in Bonney Lake carries them. I'm not doing alot with this yet.

So, that's how I keep busy here in Bonney Lake. Here's to living life enjoying what you do. :)

One Year Ago...

today. I got in a rented mini van with three other friends to drive down to New Orleans for hurricane relief work. It was one of my favorite things I've done with Campus Crusade. I was reminded of this time during church when Pastor Ray gave a really good sermon about being thankful for everything we have. He reminded us of those in our area who have lost everything to the floods that hit us last week. The congregation could relate to that first hand because last week, our church was closed all weekend as the congregation signed up for service projects all over the city to help those who were in need. Many in the congregation went to the mobile home park where most of the homes were condemned, having been flooded up to 3.5 feet of their house. It was a tangible reminder of the needs all over the world.

Last year, I spent Thanksgiving in the tent of the Good News Ministries in New Orleans, serving Thanksgiving dinner to those in need. This year, I will be nice, big, cozy home of my sister with heat and lights and running water. We will be eating a huge meal with all the fixings.

My hope for this Thanksgiving is that I can have a heart of thanksgiving no matter what my circumstances, all year. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

My favorite show

I don't know why I love this show but I LOVE it. It's the only show I watch every week. I also watch Amazing Race, but only for the Korean boys, The Cho Brothers. They are the only ones I really like. If they go out of the show, I'll stop watching it. But The Biggest Loser is the best. I'll watch it til the end. It's just amazing watching transformation happen. It's a biblical principal that transformation happens in community with Grace and Truth and that's totally what The Biggest Loser is about. But another principal is that people are motivated by incentives like money. They are now all competiting individually, instead of teams to win the 250,000 in the end. My favorite part of the season is when all the contestants come back and weigh in to see who wins. You can get voted out of the show the first week and still win the whole thing by losing the most weight at the end from home. Last week, Marty, one of my favorite got voted out. They showed a little clip of what he looks like now and MAN, is he looking GOOD! :)

Now Listening To...

Fernando Ortega's Home. I'm playing it on my 5 CD turner at the WOK. I like it. I like to provide soothing music here a the WOK. I hope it's inspirational too. It's Julie R's favorite singer. :) And, Fernando used to be on staff with Campus Crusade and he has a million funny stories about Dr. Bright, one about how Fernando stepped on Dr. Brights clean white shoes with his muddy boots and also how Dr Bright used to call him Orlando Fortega. :)

Currently Reading

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I just started this book that I received at the Women's group at my church. We don't discuss it directly, but it's a book we are suppose to read along with our study. I like it so far. I have been meaning to read this well recommended book for years. I think it's one of Katie's favorite if I remember correctly. I'm just letting you all know so I could have accountability to finish the book. If only I had a nickel for every book I started and never finished! :)

Bo the Neutered Dog

My family poodle, Bo, was neutered this week. So sad. He has to wear this funny looking cone on his head so he doesn't bite his stitches for 10 days. It's gotta be so uncomfortable. He cracks me up every time I look at him. Not only is he funny looking because he's a poodle but now he has this huge plastic lamp shade on his head. You gotta love him/it. :)

Getaway turns to disaster

This Sunday, I decided to get away for a little R&R. It's been a very crazy month with two of our kitchen staff quitting and my mom being on vacation. So, I decided to take a quick trip up to Gig Harbor, a quaint town just 45 minutes away. I was hoping to take the kayak out one last time this year. Once I got to town, it started raining so I went to the Visitor's center to find out what there was to do. The former mayor, a sweet 79 year old woman named Gretchen who had served 15 years before retiring this year, happened to be there. She was so sweet and kind that she offered to drive me around town and give me a tour. It was really sweet of her. She pointed out all the historic building and told me the stories of the families that live there. She had a million stories about how the town has retained its character and integrity, about its parks and homes.

After that delightful tour, I spent some time at a coffee shop, where i feel asleep for a bit and then headed for the little B&B I decided to stay at. It's called NO CABBAGES B&B. It was such a beautiful place in a dense old growth forest area near the beach. I had a very restful time that night, but little did I know that disaster was impending.

Ok, it's really not that dramatic. The disaster was that the ONLY road out of this neighborhood was washed out by a huge mud slide after several days of very heavy rain. The mudslide actually just missed the mailwoman after she had crossed the road. After waiting hours for the county to come out and remove the mudslide, we started to loose hope. The mailwoman abandoned her mail truck and decided to hike out over the mud where her husband picked her up on the other side. Lucky her. I started feeling trapped and bored after several hours stuck in the house, even the beautiful surroundings couldn't calm my restlessness.

The B&B owner, Jamie, finally came to tell me that it might take 2 days for the county to deal with the mudslide because the rain just would not stop. So, I had no choice but call someone to come get me in the morning. I was resolved to that situation but, as they say, "when it rains it pours." All of the sudden, everything went black and the neighborhood lost power. That was the last straw, I got on the phone with the only person who I knew I could count on. I called Michael Na, like I do whenever I'm in trouble. He dropped everything and came all the way from Seattle to drive me home to Bonney Lake. But, that's not the end of the story. Because I had to actually get to the other side of the mudslide. Instead of walking through the mudslide, since it was even a bigger mud pit now and also PITCH BLACK, we dicided it would be easier to hike up the hill past the slide.

So, here I am, with a huge backpack climbing a mountain in the pouring rain. I had a walking stick trying to get up a wet, slippery, thorny, bushy, dark hill. The B&B owner's husband went in front of me and saved me from slipping down the hill by extending his walking stick for me to grab onto. Once up there, I waited in the dark with my little flashlight for him to get his car, which he had to leave up there earlier that day. He drove me to where I was meeting Michael in Gig Harbor, which took longer than normal because yet another main road was closed, of course.

What I thought was a freak mudslide incident ended up being the case of a region wide rain and flooding problem. This morning our employees couldn't even get to work because the 410 Hwy, was closed due to flooding. What a mess. People are being evacated and the rain still hasn't stopped. I wonder if we made the national news.

So, that's my story about how a nice getaway turned into quite an adventure.

Coffee Fest

So, after going to the Coffeefest for 3 days, what did I REALLY gain? Well, the seminars were great for all food/beverage businesses so I got alot of ideas for the WOK even if I don't open a coffee shop. I think I decided which coffee roasters I would use, Urban City. I also made a purchase at the show for the WOK. I am now going to be selling Hint Mints at the shop. They are the best tasting and coolest looking mints. I hope they do well here at the WOK. I also decided to do some creative advertising here at the WOK. Like for instance, our togo boxes can be used a free advertising space. I could create a sticker and slap it on the top of the lid for a certain new item or maybe our Bubble Tea. Also, I'm working on our branding. We had a pretty good logo but it hasn't been utilized to it's fullness. I'm working with Carolyn, my designer with that. The best thing about the show was when I drove up to the convention center the second day and saw a crepe shop on the ground floor. Now this is the first time I'm making this info public but when I start my own bubble tea shop, I will be serving crepes. So, I went to the crepe shop during lunch and met the owner. He's a young looking (actually, good looking) single guy! :) But we made an appt to talk next week about his business. He's willing to teach me the business and be my supplier. He had GOOD crepes! Well, all in all, it wad definitely worth the time to attend. I also got to see two old friends. Jenn, my friend from Green River is also starting a shop in CA so she flew out for the event and I also ran into Paul, a former fellow Campus Crusade staff. What a small world. :)

Julie's Visit

It was so wonderful having Julie visit. Julie and I met 10 years ago in Florida for Campus Crusade new staff training. We became fast friend and after we left the training, we decided to keep in touch regularly for accountability. That was 10 years ago and we have been talking on the phone every month since then. Wow, that's committment! So Julie met my family, even went costume shopping with me for Emma, my cousin. We had a great day at Mt Rainier where we hiked to Green Lake and then I threw open my 2 second tent maybe for the last time before I send it back for the recall. That's Julie in the tent. We had a relaxing time, even as we huffed and puffed our way up the trail.

Julie loved the Coffeefest. We were tireless visiting all the booths even though we hadn't had breakfast but filled up on coffee, smoothies, scones, biscotti, and lots of chocolate. We crashed from our sugar high at about 3pm when we ended up at B&N Coffee for lunch, no we didn't drink coffee there.

Julie's favorite coffee was from Portland Roasting Co. I've heard they are good and I'm really glad she went with me because I know NOTHING about coffee. As a matter of fact, I only learned even what is involved in just pulling a shot of espresso for the first time at the show. They are OBSESSED with the perfect cup of coffee over there. Julie also liked Urban City Roasters, which is what i think I would use here in WA. But by far the COOLEST coffee roasting company with their incredible branding had to be Thomas Hammer Roasters.

Overall we had a great together. I'm thankful for good friends.