I Have Survived.

Hello friends,

Guess what! I did it. I survived my eight consecutive days of work at my new job and now I have never been more excited for my day-off tomorrow. I actually get to sleep in, and I think I'm going to sleep in until...oh I don't know, how about forever?!

I want to tell you all about it, but before I get into all the details, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who had me in their thoughts and prayers. I gotta say, your prayers definitely paid off. I can't even believe it myself, but I didn't feel an ounce of tiredness at all until today, the eighth day!
It is so unlike me. It's just so so so not me at all to actually feel excited for an EARLY work day the next day. Normally I'm dreading it. Normally I'm dragging my feet by lunch time wishing I could be doing other things (especially in this gorgeous summer-esque weather that we are experiencing right now). Amazingly enough, I had more energy this past week than I've ever had with a job!

What kept my spirits up were two plain, simple, and wise guidelines:

1) Acceptance. When I accepted the fact that my upcoming week was going to be crazy, I mentally prepared myself for the worst and just took it all one. day. at. a. time. I never once counted down the days until my day off. In fact, I counted UP the days, if that makes sense. After the first day passed, I was like "wow, I made it through!", and after my second day, "oh my goodness, two days in already?! I'm really proud of myself". Working is something I want to take pride in, and is something I want to look forward to rather than get it over with.

And secondly,

2) Remembering The Purpose. Why am I working here? What is the purpose of my time here? When tasks became a little redundant or some people's words rubbed me the wrong way, causing my mood to shift into a downward spiral, I just reminded myself that I am there to do the Lord's work! I'm there to serve Him. I mean, yes, obviously I'm there to earn a nice paycheck once every two weeks and help pay the rent, but ultimately I had a goal to cook meals for thousands of people and it had to be met!

Colossians 3:23 sums up my two points perfectly: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men...".

Now to get into the juicy details!
On the weekend we prepared for a women's group of 400+. Looking back now, alot of my week is now a total blur, but to the best of my memory...all I remember is chopping a TON of carrots and bbqing chicken breast on the grill for like 3 hours (I'm practically a grill master now). I also remember that the women ate way more than we ever expected, so at lunch we were in a HUFFlepuff to get more food made.
We also spent all weekend prepping for the Mon-Wed group of 1,200 men of the Pastors Conference. Prepping food is like my favourite activity in the world. Honestly. I'm weird in the way that I could do a mind-numbing, repetitive task for hours and I'd be completely overjoyed about it. So that was fun.

Another job I had was to refill the salad bar buffet lines. At first I was totally scared to do it, just because I'd rather hide away safely in the kitchen and not have to interact with the guests at all. But once I got the hang of it, I was loving it! And all of the men were so kind and took so many moments to tell us "thank you for the food" or "you guys are doing such a great job". One of the guests from New Jersey told me that his grandfather was from Lake Winnipeg and I totally fa-reaked out! "I'm from Winnipeg!!!" Anyways...

So that was also fun, until Tuesday at lunch when I so badly wanted to have a break-down and cry my eyes out from pure stress. (I know what you're thinking, typical, typical Jenny). Since there were so many guests, a couple hundred men had to eat in a different room that had other buffets and salad bars, and I was sent to that room to be in charge of the salad bar (by myself!!). I was told that it'd be easy. And at first it was...but then literally every crock started getting empty at the exact same time. So it was like an hour of non-stop squeezing into the salad bar, refilling things, grabbing things, running all the way to the kitchen because some things were missing from my re-fill cart. With cheeks bright red and eyes welled up I eventually yelled to the wait-staff, "Can I get some help?!?!". I don't yell, I never yell...nor do I speak with such a harsh tone, but I guess in a moment of desperation I had no other choice. (Perhaps this is my future mom-voice being awakened?!). :P

After lunch was over, I told my co-workers about how nuts it was for me, but I don't think they took me real seriously just because I'm a newbie. BUT, when my co-worker took over that room for supper, he came back to me in exhaustion and said "Jenny, I'm SO sorry we had you out there alone!!" That made me feel better. :)

As I said before, (aside from my brutal aching feet and legs) I never felt tired, but the 2 consecutive 14-hour days totally disoriented me and made me do things I would never do.
First of all, I left the light on in my car all night! Who does that?!

And secondly, when I went to pick Jarryd up in the evening, I got out of the car, hugged him, and then I walked around to the passenger side because I wanted him to drive us home. Because my legs were aching SO bad, I opened the door, and literally crawled onto my seat, shut the door, and we drove off. When we arrived at home, as I got ready to open the door, I reached down to the floor for my flip-flops (because whenever I'm in the passenger I always have my bare-feet up on the seat). But nothing was on the floor! "Did I really just leave my flip-flops on the side of the road at your workplace?!" Turns out I did, and they were STILL there waiting for me the next day! Yay! But how crazy is that? That just speaks volumes as to how much sleep I need!

In conclusion, I have to remind myself that having 1,200 guests is only a once a year thing and that the average amount of people is usually 400-500. Now that I got through this week alive, I feel like feeding 400 people will be a synch!

I've really enjoyed getting to know my co-workers at Sandy Cove. I feel like I'm fitting in quite nicely there. :) And another huge blessing about this job is that I got to take plates of food home for Jarryd and I to eat for dinner. Free food!! It's like eating take-out every night and never having to make dinner!! (Just watch me gain like 20 pounds by the end of the summer...)

I am truly proud of myself and I feel like giving myself a gold star (or two) for this one! I'm excited for all the things I have learned and all the things that I have yet to learn!
And now, it is time to rest! But before I hit the pillow, I absolutely have to watch some Parks & Rec. ;)

Zzz...<3