The TURNS '16

I'm pretty sure I said 5 years ago that I would never do the Turns again, but here we are. I mean, it seemed silly not to. I'm living with my in-laws and have this way to make extra money while we are saving for a house. Yep, couldn't not do it! 

Well, I only worked one shift each day instead of two. But then I came home, cleaned the house and cooked dinner for 12 people! I think it might have been more exhausting than doing double shifts! But I survived and made some good money! So I'd say it was worth it...I think!

Celebratory cones.

Most our afternoons looked like this! Cuddles galore!

Post-Vacation Panda Life

We have officially been back from VA for a week. It's been quite the week, with readjusting to our normal life again. I put normal in italics because the life we left isn't quite what we returned to. Josh started his new job at Panda Express the week before we left on our trip, but everything was so new that we didn't really get a good idea of what it would be like. So coming home from VA, halfway through his third week there, was an adjustment. 

Josh's new schedule is completely different than his schedule at Kneaders. He loves it. Josh has never been a morning person, so doing the 5am thing at Kneaders was never enjoyable for him and made his 10 hour days seem unbearably long. But somehow, working 9am-midnight feels like less work for him now because it isn't as early. He's crazy. :) And don't worry, that isn't his schedule everyday. He works 5 days a week. Three of those five days he has been closing (which has him getting home between 11pm-12am) and the other two days he is off at 8pm. I am so used to him getting home at 3-4pm and having all afternoon and evening together. But I must admit, he is so much happier coming home on these late nights, so I'm happy. When he was at Kneaders, he often came home completely exhausted. Even though we had the whole evening to do things, we hardly did because he was always so drained. And his days off were typically the same. So this new schedule definitely suits him much better. And I just keep telling myself, it's temporary. :)

Other than the new schedule, Panda has been treating Josh incredibly well. They really treat their employees so great. It's a fresh change. Although Josh did everything a GM did at Kneaders, he was never officially given the title (or the pay) of a GM and so that feeling of complete ownership wasn't there. Josh is still in training and I would guess he probably already feels more confident and more ownership where he is now. His ACO (regional manager) is amazing and has been bending over backwards to help us. She put him in the Orem store for training (even though it's out of her region) because it was so close to home for us. And she is most likely placing Josh is an amazing store! As far as we know, he will be the GM for the Saratoga Springs Panda Express. It was built in February so it has the new Panda look. The new Panda stores are amazing. Josh and I drove up to the store yesterday as part of a date night to scope it out and for him to show me around. I was really impressed. It's also wonderful because it has high sales (which translate to bigger bonuses) which is a huge blessing. We are very optimistic about it! He won't get his official assignment until training is over, but it sounds like that will most likely be his store, and that's what we're hoping. 

Here is how the rest of Josh's training will go:

Panda requires at least 7 weeks of training before your California trip to test with corporate. And at least a month before your CA trip, you have to attend a self-help weekend seminar in Denver. So, Josh will be leaving for Denver next weekend for the Landmark Forum. He's really excited. He's heard a lot of great things about it. Then he'll come back, train some more and his CA trip is scheduled for Sept. 23-26. Yes, that is the week before my due date. I'm nervous but there isn't much we can do about it. Postponing his CA trip will postpone him getting into his store and getting started, so we are just hoping for the very best! After his CA trip he will be officially placed in his store and begin as GM. 

His training has been incredible. He feels amazing about everything he's learned. Panda Express is incredibly organized and professional about their training and the way they run their stores, so his training has been smooth and he feels confident in everything he's doing. It's really been such a blessing. 

We're so excited about this new opportunity. The more we learn about the company, the more excited we get. There is a ton of room for growth and the company is expanding across the East Coast right now which is where we would like to potentially end up. So we feel really good about all of it. 

And now, some pictures. :)

You've probably seen a Panda Express like this:

that signature purple and orange...yikes.

 You've probably even seen one like this:

the newer design and much more modern

 But have you seen a Panda like this?

this is the newest open-concept layout. they are very modern and really nice!

If Josh ends up in Saratoga Springs (a 20 minute drive from where we currently live) this would be his store. Neat, right? I think so. 

A bittersweet ending.

Last week Josh was offered a job as a General Manager at Panda Express. After a lot of praying and thought, we have decided to take it. It's a huge change for us. Not that his job will be that much different (still the restaurant business and still a GM) but we have been with Kneaders for nearly 4 years now. It is really hard to imagine not having Josh work at Kneaders. We love the people there so much, and it is going to be so hard to say goodbye. But, the new job is offering quite a significant pay raise, which we cannot pass up right now (needing a bigger place and having another kid on the way). So we feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity. Plans are still in place to hopefully attend a graduate program next year, so we will have to see where life takes us from here. But for now, we are excited for this change. 

He starts training in a couple weeks. His training will last 7 weeks and then he will be placed in a store. So we aren't exactly sure where he'll be yet, but we do know it will be in Utah County. Everyone he has met at Panda has been amazing and we can't wait to start this new adventure. 

Goodbye Kneaders 

and hello Panda!  

No Pictures, But Still Interesting...I hope.

I feel like I can't post a blog entry without pictures anymore. I've gotten so used to only posting when I have pictures to narrate the story for me. Well, not this time. I haven't taken any pictures (that I can think of) since we've arrived in South Carolina, so this one will just be writing. I hope you love to listen to me ramble...

I last posted about packing up our place in Raleigh and getting to Columbia. We've been here for about a week and a half now. As always, time goes fast during the summer, especially when you are staying busy and have lots of fun family around. Laurie and Bronson put us right to work when we got here in Columbia. We got the first few days to relax and before we knew it we were out cleaning apartments. In just 2 days I cleaned 12 bathtubs and 16 toilets. Josh and I have gotten back in our cleaning groove very quickly. Since the official "turns" (the term that the Titus' use for turning over [cleaning right after the old students move out and the new students move in] the college apartments around town) haven't started and won't until the 25th of July, we have been doing odd jobs whenever they are available. And lucky for us (who happen to be in dire need of money) there has been quite a bit to do. Besides those 7 apartments (the 12 bathtubs and 16 toilets) we have done touch-ups at another complex, cleaned a post-construction training room at Fort Jackson Army base and just today we cleaned a horribly dirty apartment in downtown (ghetto) Columbia. So, like I said, we've been pretty busy.

Other than cleaning for Sunflower (the name of Bronson and Laurie's company) we've been trying to arrange our trip to Utah plans. Money has turned out to be much, much tighter than we thought and so we are trying to figure out the cheapest, easiest way to get there. We came across a few predicaments along the way.

First off, we didn't have the money to get to Utah period. Josh's parents have a company gas card they offered us if we drove (we would pay it back of course, but it would help us get out there in the mean time). But driving meant leaving earlier than anticipated and getting back later. Since driving from Columbia to Provo is a 30 hour drive we would have to leave 2 days earlier than planned and would either get back 2 days later or cut our trip short and leave 2 days earlier. Both of which didn't seem ideal. Leaving earlier would mean driving across the country to only be there for 3 days and then driving all the way back. In our Element gas would be about $600 plus food and a hotel on the way out (we will be staying in our place when we get there). All that driving just doesn't seem worth a 3 day trip. It would basically be a 7 day trip with 4 of those days consisting of driving and only 3 enjoying our time with family. But coming back later wasn't a good option either. Coming back to Columbia later meant missing out on days of the turns. The turns that start on July 25th are only 2 and a half weeks long. They are completely done on August 12. So everyday of the turns is important and missing days means cutting down our paycheck by $100s. So flying seems like the answer, right? Wrong. When the plans first started plane tickets were cheaper than the total cost for driving, so that seemed like the right answer. But, by the time we got the money to pay for the tickets, they had gone way up. And I mean, way, way up. Flying was now going to cost about $900 (rather than $500). And $900 is money that we do not have, so it must be driving right? Who knows. For a while I thought Heavenly Father didn't want us to go to Utah. It just didn't seem like it was possible. Every time we felt like it was going to work out, something got misaligned and the plan was screwed up. Josh tried to convince me to buy just one plane ticket and then at least one of us would get to go to Utah, but I wouldn't do that. Of course I want to see my grandparents and the rest of my family, but just as much, I want to show Josh off to my grandparents. Now that I'm married it's hard to imagine a vacation without Josh. He's my other half and I don't like doing anything without him. One he realized that wasn't an option it was back to the drawing board. On top of the short trip and missing extra work, driving across the country was going to put a lot of extra miles and wear and tear on our car that we both didn't want on there. Then Josh's mom had an idea. "What about renting a car?" A light bulb went off. Sure, it doesn't really fix the fact that we're going to miss a couple extra days of work but renting a car would prevent us from putting all the extra miles on our car. And while driving is probably not anyone's first choice in transportation across the country, we found a really cheap compact car that gets 40 miles to the gallon. Yes, 40. Our car gets 19. That's double! Which also means that the big old gas bill of $600 would be cut down to $300. So after paying for the rental and the gas, our grand total is still less than $600. Not only are we saving some money overall, we are also saving our dear Fallon (our car's name). And just to throw this out there, another great plus to driving...remember how we moved to North Carolina? Well, it wasn't just a oh-let's-move-in-with-some-family-pack-up-some-clothes-real-quick kind of move. Nope, we packed everything. Now, that everything I just mentioned (pots, pans, dishes, towels, shower curtain, pictures, decorations, etc, etc.) is in boxes in Josh's parents garage. Also, remember in my last post when I mentioned that when we drove from North Carolina to Columbia how we had to put some stuff in Jenn's car? It's true, we couldn't fit everything. And if we drive we can load up the little rental with all the stuff we don't need anymore which will make for a lighter Fallon on the way back to Provo at the end of August. Finally, everything seems right. So, those are the tentative plans. It's been quite the flip-floppy week with our plans, but we finally feel good about our decision. Flying would still be a great option, but I'll tell you now, unless there is a miracle and plane tickets drop down to where they were a month ago, we will be driving. :)

Phew, I hope I didn't put anyone to sleep with that story. I can get pretty long-winded when I blog. At least I can admit it, right?

Other than cleaning and planning our summer, we spend our free time relaxing. We sleep in, watch tv and swim in the pool. We still need to have some kind of summer, right?

Independence Day (in more ways than one)

We had a much different weekend than we had planned...not that we had planned anything...

Jamie (my sister) called on Friday and asked if we wanted some company for the weekend. Of course!! :) I guess Mark had a rough week at work and wanted to get away for the weekend. They had planned on spending the weekend at Virginia Beach but trying to find an open hotel for 4th of July weekend was impossible. So, she called us to see if they could come visit us for the weekend. Since we didn't have any plans and that worked out better for us than our previous plans, I said YES! (The previous plans were for just Jamie and the kids to come and stay a night or two on Tuesday because Mark was going to be out of town for scout camp)

Meanwhile, Josh quit working last Monday, the day after we got back from Virginia. He wasn't doing as well as he had planned and so the summer wasn't producing the results that we needed to afford everything. So we made plans to leave Raleigh and head to Columbia on Thursday. But Josh's mom had work for us on Wednesday so when we found out Jamie and the kids were coming to visit sooner, it worked out great for us. And we actually got to head out even sooner than we had planned. Everything worked out so well, we feel really blessed. 

Jamie, Mark and the kids got to Raleigh on Friday night just before the kids bed time so we didn't do much on Friday. We hung out and watched the movie, Son of Rambo. On Saturday we went to Chipotle for lunch and then saw an early showing of Toy Story 3. That movie was so adorable and it's always funnest to see those movies with children. I loved watching their faces. After Chipotle I felt a little sick to my stomach but sitting through the movie made me feel a little better. When we got back to the apartment, we went swimming at the complex pool. The kids love that pool and so we all headed down there to swim. After the pool I felt awfully sick and so we spent the rest of the day relaxing around the apartment. The boys played video games, we watched a lot of tv and sat around and talked after the kids went to bed. I felt very sick to my stomach and tried to sleep on the couch to avoid throwing up. I woke up feeling much better after a good nights rest the next morning. Unfortunately, Jamie woke up Sunday feeling pretty sick. We think we were probably passing around a little 12 hour bug. Since Sunday was the 4th of July we made tentative plans to watch the local firework show but with Jamie feeling sick and not wanting to bust through the crowds, we decided to pick up some little fireworks and do them in the parking lot. I thought it was a lot of fun and the kids really seemed to enjoy it too. So we got to celebrate our independence as a country and our independence from a horrible summer job :) I must say though, we are both incredibly grateful for this wonderful country we live in. It's easy to take it all for granted, but we really are so blessed.

On Monday morning Jamie, Mark and the kids helped us pack up our apartment! They really were very sweet to stay and help us all morning. We really appreciated all their help, so much. They left around noon and we finished packing up and hit the road around 2:30. 

Amazingly for us, Jenn was leaving for Columbia on Monday as well and so by packing up our car, her car and their trailer that her car can pull, we were able to fit everything we needed to (including the furniture that Josh's parents brought down for us)! It worked out so well. On the way down Josh and I were talking about how well it all worked out and how blessed we felt. It really felt like Heavenly Father knew what we needed and made sure that everything we needed fell right into place. 

A huge thank you, again, to Jamie and Mark for everything. For coming to visit us (we always love seeing them), for treating us to lunch and the movies and for helping us all morning on Monday! It was such a blessing.

And a huge thank you, also, to Jenn! We couldn't have done it if it weren't for her willingness to help out and haul a load down here! 

Our plan from here goes as follows:

We will work for Josh's parents cleaning company just like last summer. Work will be here and there until the end of July when we do the apartment turns for 2 1/2 weeks straight. 

We are planning a weekend camping trip with Josh's friend Tommy and his soon-to-be wife.

We are also planning a 4-5 day trip back home to Provo to visit my mom, her parents and Joe and Karen and the kids. That will be a lot of fun!

After the turns (which end on August 12) we will head back up to Raleigh to pick up the mattress we borrowed from Jamie and Mark and head up to Virginia. Jamie and Mark's anniversary is August 14 and so we are planning to stay up there to watch their kids over night while they get a night away. 

Then it's back to Columbia for a few days before our anniversary :) I'm planning it this year, so I can't say anything about it yet. I wouldn't want Josh to actually read this and find out what I have planned. 

Then we head back to Provo around the 22 of August to unpack our house and get back in the swing of things before school starts! 

Good things are happening! We feel so blessed right now. Josh's parents were more than willing to let us stay here at their house again. And I think they were more excited about the fact that we're working for them again :) We are so appreciative of a place where we don't have to pay rent, water, electricity, internet, food, etc, etc. 

There is only one picture from the weekend so far. My camera was dead all weekend so Jamie has them all. She promised to get them to me. So I'll have them soon! :) But I did snap just one with Josh's phone.

This was Josh's 4th of July treat! There's some pound cake in there somewhere. And yes, that's an Oreo on top.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

Missing my Joshie

Josh is building a garage for our landlord with a few friends. They've been working on it for a few weeks now. This morning he headed out to work around 9. I slept in until 12 and then cleaned the house until around 3. I did laundry and showered. Now I'm just sitting home thinking about how much I miss Josh. I wrote him this super sappy email about how awesome he is. Hope he appreciated that. Ha. He really is such a great husband. He always makes me feel so great and beautiful. I can't wait for him to get home!

I MISS HIM!