Bob Evans Blunder

I don't usually write complaint emails but tonight I felt like I needed to. And also since it's been so long since I've blogged I thought I'd share it with you.

Hello (Manager at Bob Evans),

My fiance and I ate at your restaurant and I wanted to let you know of a few issues we had. I'd like to preface by saying that after having been a server/bartender for 7 years and a manager for 3 I completely understand that people have off days. I am also not one to be overly critical of how other people do their jobs.

We stopped in at 7pm. We were seated along the back wall and then promptly ignored. There were around 10 other tables in the restaurant when we arrived. We waited about 10 minutes before being greeted and by that time we were fully ready to order. Our server, Grayson, introduced himself and was friendly. He apologized for the wait and quickly took our order. He did at one point after I ordered tell me 'No', as he was joking that I couldn't have something I asked for. I'm all for friendly banter but I wasn't feeling it after we had waited so long.

He came back with our drinks and said our food would be there shortly. In another 10 minutes I got my salad with the reassurance our food would be out quickly. Two more tables were sat right around then. At a nearby table a guest asked for hot tea and was once again told 'no'. Completely stunned she just stared at him until he explained it was a joke. The other table still wasn't greeted and after waiting 15 minutes I went to the hostess desk to inform Katie they hadn't seen a server yet. Ten minutes or so later Grayson arrived with a peace offering of banana bread and informed us there was only one cook and that he was behind. At 7:45 or so we got our dinner, but my fiance still hadn't received  the coffee he asked for when the banana bread came. Also, part of his order was wrong. He made no mention of it.

During the wait I was watching the kitchen, it was obvious he was working hard. The animosity between the BOH & FOH was also obvious. At one point there was an argument about who put the ticket in the window and some snappy comments were made.

Food sat in the window for several minutes before it was ran as 3 servers wandered around and one sat at the bar and ate. When our dinner finally arrived my fiances toast was like crusty cardboard.

At no point in the hour and a half we were there did I see your assistant manager on the floor. I also didn't see him in the kitchen but then again maybe he was in the dish pit. When I did finally see him it was because I was cashing out and asked Katie for your card and email address. She called him up and it took him several minutes for find your card and then he had to go to the office to get me your email address.

We swing by quite often and we usually have very good experiences but tonight that wasn't the case.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Just wanted to offer some constructive criticism to keep our community great. I can honestly say that had we been from out of town we wouldn't come back next time we visited. 

Sincerely,

Megan Parkes 

 

 

 

Harsh? I hope it wasn't too bad. We just have so many tourist in our area that I would hate for that to be the example. 

 

Love y'all!
 

 

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Little Slice of Heaven.......whole lotta sugar.

The thing about blogs, and social media, is, for the most part people always portrait the "best of life". ie.... I posted that picture because I look skinny and my boobs look killer! or, YOU'D BETTER UNTAG ME IN THAT ASAP OR SO HELP ME GOD!! The flip side of that are the people that air out all their dirty laundry like the internet is their private diary. If you're one of those people please, please, please stop! I have a few friends that are going through some custody issues, and honestly if you show up to the court with pages of profile wall drama they should slap you. Same with break ups, don't throw slander pies all over the place. It didn't work, he's a jerk, you're being dumb, it's OK! Everyone has broken up with someone at some point in their lives. And guess what?!? They survived!! Round of applause to all you folks with former break ups - Check you out, living and stuff!!

I guess the reason I'm ranting about this is because I'm straight up sick of people. I need to crawl into bed, eat ice cream for days, and not come out until I feel better. Don't get me wrong there are still people out there that I love and cherish. But there are also people out there that I could totally do without. I adore my family. I honestly don't think I would be the person I am today without them. Pretty sure if I didn't have such an awesome family (this goes for Justin's fam too) I would be a little grumpy troll that stayed in the basement and excelled at arcade basketball.

Maybe I'm just tired. Or hungry, I can sometimes get cranky when I'm hungry. We call it Hangry. Or maybe I'm disappointed? That might be it. I worked my butt off to clean the house, make a ton of sweet treats and invite everyone I know to my FIRST EVER origami owl party. And do you know who showed up? My mom, Justin's mom, and Karin. Thanks ladies, you're all awesome. Some people had really good reasons that they couldn't come but so many people backed out at the last minute. How many parties have I come to just to support you? How many letters, notes, etc have I sent your way just to let you know I appreciate and care about you? How many times have I done something above and beyond just to make you feel better? That's what I thought. TONS!

I know there is going to be someone out there that says "well you shouldn't do nice things for people to get something out of it. You should do it just because you want to". Well you know what, I do. It's ingrained in me be a thoughtful, kind, loving person. That's how I was raised. Maybe your mom didn't write little notes in your lunch every day, maybe she didn't send you a card just to say she was proud of you but you could still care.

I'm not saying that when I do something nice I want something done in return. I'm just saying the world might be a nicer place if we were all a bit more thoughtful. If you have an extra $30 bucks right now send your mom, or your sister, or your best friend some flowers. Or send someone that you haven't talked to in awhile a text just because you're thinking of them. Take a co-worker coffee because they've been working their butt off lately. It'll cost you $5 to do something nice and they'll think about it for the rest of the week.

I am very rarely a selfish person but I am still more selfish than I'd like to be. Give yourself today.

We all need a pep talk. Then get on the same team you turds.

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Owl Always Love You

I'm not sure when my obsession with owls began but I know it's not a recent thing.

That being said I'm so excited to announce that I am now a designer for Origami Owl!!

Yayyyyy!!

What in the world is Origami Owl you ask?? They are 'living lockets' - just like your pandora bracelet - you design them yourself. The company's slogan is "every locket tells a story, what does yours say?".

I love the look of them. I can't wait to get my new designer kit so I can build my first one. I've never been to a party because the only person I know that does them is down in Flint. I was really nervous about getting into something that I had to sell. I am not a sales person. The positive response I got from my family and friends was amazing and now I can't wait to get started. :)

Bella, the founder, started this company with a kiosk in a mall so she could earn money to buy her first car. Talk about brilliant!
The mission statement:

OUR MISSION IS TO BE A FORCE FOR GOOD; TO LOVE, INSPIRE

+ MOTIVATE WOMEN OF ALL AGES TO REACH THEIR DREAMS+ 

EMPOWER THEM TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS.

And anyone that knows me knows that anything that says "dream" is right up my alley. (I'll buy almost anything if it says Dream. There, now you know my dirty secret."

I mean really?!? How cute is this? 

This is how it works. Easy! And awesome! and totally you! 

I know it's a little picture but what an awesome idea for....say.... a wedding party? I already know I'll be wearing one on my wedding day. xoxo

I love my Pandora bracelet. My girlfriends got it for me for my birthday & Justin and the fam have added to it. Now it's full, (and heavy) and I only wear it when I'm getting fancied up. This is a nice alternative to that. (and you can build a whole necklace for the price of 2 beads!)

So that's the newest update for me. I'm working on a blog regarding the wedding planning but it's a lot of work!! LOL. 

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We're Gettin' Married!

It feels like it's been forever since I've blogged. I guess there hasn't been a whole lot of interesting stuff going on lately.

We are mostly settled in the house. Still need to unpack a few boxes, clean out the old garage and finish up the bathroom in the basement. It's lovely. I couldn't be happier with how everything turned out and how homey it feels. We've even had house guests. Matt stayed over for the housewarming party. Kelly & Alex came all the way from Chicago for a visit, Momma Ruth stayed at our place when the family was in town. And Lisa and Riley came up for a few days. Pleased to say the baby stayed safe and sound in our very un-baby-esk house.

I swear one of these days I'll go a whole day without thinking about the upcoming wedding. Hasn't happened yet, but someday it might.

Justin and I just finished officially asking our wedding party to join us for our big day. They all gleefully accepted and we are so pleased.

We each created a special box with "wedding day" essentials in them for the party people.

Sideways : You get the point. I painted each of the boxes with our wedding colors & the girls names. 

I even wrote a little note about how special they were and how much it would mean if they would stand by me. 

Inside the box I included:

-Tissue (cupcake print of course)\

- A little notebook for notes

- A coral nail polish (Elle's box had a mint colored polish in it)

- A mini manicure kit 

- A ring pop (of course!)

- and a swatch of our wedding colors. 

Each of the girls also got a pin with their role on it. The box pictured below is Lisa's (her daughter Riley is going to be our flower girl so she got a button too)

- OH! And chapstick, in mint obviously. :) 

Justin's boxes included all of the essentials as well. 

-Booze

-Button 

-"Top Secret" Note

- Mustache Shot Glass

and a save the date. 

His boxes turned out super awesome. I loved the look of the ammo boxes. 

His note was really sweet and well thought out.  

I stole this picture from Greg's instagram account. He was pretty excited. :) 

It means the world to us to have some of our best friends and family by our side. Thanks guys! 

I guess that's it for now. I have work to do.

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All aboard the blogging train!

Where have I been?

I don't even know. I feel like wedding season is this crazy chaotic amoeba that sweeps into your life and drags you through the next 3 months. Don't get me wrong I LOOOOOVE weddings, and photo boothin', and making cupcakes, and steaming dresses, and editing pictures, and....and.... you get it. But phew! I need a nap! LOL Seriously guys we're only one month in. I need to put my big girl panties on and deal with it.

June was a crazy month tho. We had 3 weddings, the senior all night parts, and my God Daughters baptism. One of these days I'm going to make a compilation of all the pictures Justin and I have taken together in the photo booth. I don't even think I have them all still. That hard drive fills up fast! I will make one of the pics I still have. That'll be fun.....and time consuming....

We have also taken on a very ambitious diet & work out program. It's a 12 week program to get our butts in gear and start losing some weight for the wedding. You know there is only 346 days left! LOL The only thing I'm bummed about is that I finally got a box of chocolate peanut butter pop tarts and now they have to wait.

We found out about this plan from our friends Dan & Kristen. They both had really good success with it and we hope to do the same.

It starts with clean and healthy eating. No more post bar trips to T-Bell. No more late night peanut butter pop tarts ( :(!!! ) just things cooked fresh.
This is our meal plan:

It seems like so much food to have to eat but when you break it down it's all healthy and filled with protein. Oh, LOL I just noticed that I wrote "turkey balls". Technically they are called turkey muffins, but they are basically just meatballs made with lean ground turkey, oats, spices, celery and onions. I also don't do egg whites. Which is why I have the choice of either 5 egg whites or 1 egg. The first day I tried to go all out and have all sorts of protein filled meals & mini-meals. I didn't even make it to lunch before I was stuffed. So today I tweaked a bit. I had 1 scrambled egg on 1 slice of Ezekiel Bread and some apple slices for lunch. A protein shake for mid-morning. I'll have a small chicken breast (4 oz) and some rice for lunch and a Greek yogurt for mid-afternoon. 

These are the small meal options that you can substitute instead of having turkey balls everyday. The nice thing is, is that veggies are free. I can have as many as I want, whenever I want. 

We made carrot cake protein bars & they are delicious! I didn't take them away from Justin, his meal plan did. :) More for me! 

These are the starch options for when you're filling in here and there. 

The best part about this plan is that I can make everything ahead of time. Monday night Justin and I spent about 2 hours in the kitchen making rice, pasta, & turkey muffins. I made some protein bars & we baked about 5# of chicken breast. After that all we had to do was assemble it all.
Everything is portioned out and ready to grab. Now that's my kind of kitchen!
This is our refrigerator now. I don't know why it's sideways. It must be trying to make a run for it lol. (Man! I'm cheesy! oops there I go again, lettuce stop this nonsense)

As you can see everything is already done for this week. No more having to buy lunch, no more drivethru at the end of the day. Just 2 minutes in the microwave and we're good! 

Along with the meal plan there is also a work out plan. We haven't started that yet but we will! If you would like to see more of that go - 

www.bodybuilding.com

>Find a Plan

>Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer

>Get Started Now

>Phase 1 

Seriously it's that easy. Bonus: No cardio for the first 4 weeks. The plan is to get your metabolism up and running, build some muscle to help burn calories & then shed the pounds. Sounds good to me. 

I am absolutely NOT going to tell you our start weights but I will keep you up to date on the progress that happens. 

I can say that I am up 45 pounds since Justin and I started dating. And he is up almost 65 pounds. (My guess is that his ex didn't make as many cupcakes as I do! hehehe). 

So here we go! Fit life. and egg whites blech! 

I also wanted to share a few pictures from Rileys baptism. She's such a doll!! 

 This was on our way to the church. The gown she was wearing is made out of her great grandmothers wedding dress. Each of the Caras kids (Dave, Lisa, Nick & now Riley) were baptised in it. How precious! 

She's not really sure what's going on here. 

During the service. Riley was not too sure about having water dumped on her head! 

Being baptised is a lot of work! 

The Caras family :)  

On the way home. All tuckered out. 

In her party outfit. :) 

Seriously! Look at that face!! 

Couldn't help but add this one. I'm one proud God Mother!

Well there ya have it. Life & All. 

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Lady Peeves

Gross guys, c'mon now.

I mean things about the ladies that cheese me right off.

Also, I'm making some cuppy cakes tonight for a very special lady.....on her very special....day....dang it I'm bad at secrets.
So what does that mean for you? You don't have to read my random weird day blogs. You'll get to see some nommy cupcakes again soon.

Things about the girlie's out there that I found outrageously annoying:

1. The girl in the dressing room with her friends that swears she looks fat in everything she wears. Listen here tiny angel face - you literally just said those shorts are a size 2. 2! There is truly only one size smaller than that. a ZERO! Christ, people that wear zero's are non existent to me.

2. The skanky girl that posts herself up at the bar trying to get free drinks all night. Do you know what happens to me when some dude buys me a drink? Nothing! I get weird. Then I'm all like "thank you for the thirst quenching beverage good sir." *Initiate handshake now*

3. Girls that are so wrapped up in what they're doing or how fly they look that they don't pay attention to where they're going. Don't glare at me when I almost run you over because you wandered out in front of my car. It's not my fault! I mean, yes, technically it would be. But if you weren't trying to get your hair unstuck from your lip gloss we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

4. Girls that feel the need to show everyone their tattoos. No matter where they are located. Even though that golfer may have wanted to see your tramp stamp, it's not work appropriate to show him. Not the time or place chicky. Not the time or place.

5. Girls that text nude photos of themselves. I really don't care if that's what you want to do, but maaaaayyybbeeee you should make sure you're sending them to a guy that isn't going to show everyone. Make your mothers proud sweet lady friends.

6. Over sharing. There are so many things about you that I do not need to know. Ever. I could elaborate but I just wont. Even if we are total bff's I can guarantee there are still things about you that I do not want to know.

7. Bridezillas. I COMPLETELY understand that you want your wedding day to be the most magical, perfect, flawless thing ever. If you could be kissed by butterflies as you floated away on a cloud I'm sure you'd like that too. Let's be rational. Sometimes things happen. Uncontrollable things. Rain for instance, that's one of those things you have no control over. Screaming, crying, and throwing a temper tantrum are not going to make the situation any better, or make me like you any better.

8. Screaming when "your song" comes on. Why does that happen?

9. This is a multiple part irritation. And it all has to do with styles of pictures.
A. Duckface. Whhhhhhyyyyy do people do this. I know it's supposed to make your lips look fuller and more desirable but honestly. ICK!
Here's an example.

Next time you're taking a picture and you do this I want you to take a second picture. Of your side profile: 

Is your face supposed to look like that? I don't think so. 

B. "Selfies". I am friends with girls that upload crazy amounts of self taken photos. The occasional 1 or 2 is fine. But 3 a day? Really? And in the car none the less. Aren't you driving? Or did you get in the car for a quick photo sesh? You're another one of those people that I would run over. 

I know you took that yourself. And quit trying to act like you didn't know it was coming. What are you looking at?? And bathroom pictures! I will totally call you out if you are sitting on the toilet while you're taking pictures of yourself. 

C. Anything cropped like this:

oh yeah? Whatcha showing me? For reals. 

So whenever I see pictures like that at first I:

and then it's straight into:

unamused. 

10. Leggings are not pants. Please cover up. Soon please. 

So there you have it. My top 10 Lady Peeves. I may end up making a part 2 some day. 

Hooray for cupcake day! Maybe I'll do another contest and send out more cupcakes. :) That was fun. 

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The Big Adventures of Little Rubi

I got my first ever 'Flat Stanley' this past weekend. Her name is Flat Rubi. :) I was really excited when Shannon reached out on facebook and asked if anyone would be interested in receiving a flat Stanley because I love our community!

So here is the story of Rubi that I sent back with a bunch of pictures. 

Rubi’s Adventures!

When Rubi first came to Gaylord, MI we were right in the middle of Prom Season! She was a great help collecting all the rented tuxedos and packing them up so they could be sent back. We sent back a total of 97 tuxes! Whew! That was a lot of work!! Rubi didn’t mind though, and she even took the time to climb to the top of Tuxedo Mountain.

 After we packaged all the tuxedos up we decided who the winner of the Best Dressed Tuxedo Contest was.  It ended up being a really nice couple from Gaylord High School.

It wasn’t all work. We had some time to look around at Lasting Memories Bridal and even try a few dresses on. Rubi waited patiently for her turn in the lobby and then we got to go back and look at all the beautiful dresses. We got to try on a few veils and tiaras too! We looked at lots of color swatches and Rubi even picked out some of her favorites.

After the bridal shop we wandered down to the used book store. It’s so much fun to look at all those books. We even picked out a few to take home.

On May 4^th, our church hosted a Spring Celebration Dinner for the community. There was great food, neat crafts, and really yummy desserts! There was a band too! We had a blast dancing and singing! We even had a turn in the photo booth! We sure did make some silly faces!

On Sunday we attended church. It’s such a nice way to wind down from the busy weekend and refresh for the upcoming week. Rubi really enjoyed all the singing we did. She even helped hold the spot for the next song. It was communion Sunday so after service Rubi helped us clean up.  

May 17^th-19^th, Rubi, some other people from church, and I took a trip to Kansas City, Mo. There was a weekend church retreat that we had to attend. We ended up getting stuck in the airport for much longer than we had intended but we made the best of it and got there eventually. Rubi kept us up to date on the planes safety information and really enjoyed looking out the window as we were taking off and landing. And then FINALLY we made it to Lake Doniphan. It was a really quick trip so we didn’t take many pictures.

Once we were back in Gaylord we did a lot of Geocaching. It’s a fun game. It’s sort of like a treasure hunt but there are things hidden all over the place. On the map I included you can see all the different locations in our area that things are hidden. Everything with a smiley face on it are things we’ve found. The plain green dots are things we still need to find. 

Just yesterday we found 10! Geocaching takes you to all sorts of new and beautiful places. I included a few pictures of places we ended up.

Another thing Gaylord offers is bear hunting! Don’t worry they aren’t real bears. They are 4 foot painted statues that are hidden all over town. There are 18 total. We were only able to find 8. 

So there you have it. The Great BIG adventures of little Rubi! 

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