Bye, bye, Burger King…..

Tomorrow I start a new job. After only 21 months in the fast food industry, I’m totally ready to start something new. I was at my previous company for 13 yrs, so staying at an organization for less than 2 years feels a little “wrong” to me. I know that it really doesn’t matter in the whole scheme of life, but there is a little piece of me that feels like a failure for not being able to to stick it out a little longer. I have to tell you. People in the food service industry work their tails off. It is all about long hours and hard work. In my particular case, I also got to come home smelling like “charbroiled burgers” :0) I met some incredibly nice people who have spent their entire careers working for the King. I tip my visor to them for sure. It just wasn’t for me.

My new role will allow me to sleep in my own bed every night and spend more time with my hubby and girls. This luxury comes with a $20K pay decrease and the loss of my company vehicle. We dealt with a $25K pay cut to move here two years ago for a better quality of life and ironically, it is taking almost that much more of a cut to get the quality we were looking for. Who knew quality of life came with a lower salary? I wish I knew 10 yrs ago. It would have been easier to stay at the lower income level rather than moving up and down in the tax brackets.

In all seriousness, I’m excited about the new role and looking forward to a consistent schedule. The hardest part so far has been the car thing. I know I am going to sound like a selfish, prideful human being, but I really liked my 2013 Dodge Journey. It was orange (my favorite color) and the perfect size for our family. We are replacing it with a 1997 Toyota Camry. My last 4 vehicles have been brand new, so this is a change. I agree with my hubby that we don’t want a vehicle loan right now, but boy is my pride getting in the way.

Why do I care what kind of vehicle I drive? Probably because I make judgments about people based on their cars, their clothes, their houses, etc. It is horrible. I try not to do it and I never say anything to anyone, but in my heart of hearts, I know I judge. So, in my 1997 Camry, I believe people will be “thinking” things about me that may or may not be true.   God is blessing me with more time with my family and friends. He has provided a reliable vehicle at a price we can afford. We live in a comfortable home, have plenty of food, and are safe and happy.

Why do I care what anyone thinks? Am I alone in knowing that something as silly as a car doesn’t matter, but feeling sad about losing it?  Argh!

Is Starbucks ever affordable? Really?

The last week or so, my hubby and I have been struggling with some decisions. We are finally starting to dig ourselves out of some “bad decision debt” (aka sub-prime mortgage and economy bottoming out while living beyond your means) and I’m thinking about changing jobs.

The hours that i am expected to work are changing and involve a LOT of nights and weekends. Well, my husband and my kids are gone at school and work all day so if I work nights and weekends we will rarely see each other. Ironically, I took a 25K pay cut 18 months ago when I took this job. The whole draw was the flexible schedule, great hours, and the ability to have a better work-life balance.  So much for that idea….

It’s tough because I wish I could just say “hey, this won’t work for me” and walk away, but if I did that, we’d have some challenges with those little things called bills.  We’ve actually been doing a lot of things in the last 6 months to reduce expenses, but we still aren’t able to survive on one income. This is ridiculous since our expenses are about a third of what they were before we moved here. Some days I get so frustrated with myself for not being smarter when we had great incomes, but like everything else I do I have to learn things firsthand and the hard way.

Less than 2 yrs ago I had a twice a day Starbucks habit going. At the time it seemed normal, but now I am appalled when I think about it. It is not that I think there is anything fundamentally wrong with Starbucks. Actually, their coffee is pretty yummy and for the most part they are friendly when you are purchasing their overpriced java.

The thing that makes me go hmmmmm now is the fact that I had no business going to Starbucks at that point in time. We had built a new home, my hubby had lost his job, and we were pulling money out of our 401k to pay the mortgage. I think back and I cannot figure out how I justified a $5 latte twice a day when we were using a credit card to buy toilet paper and milk.

Honestly, I think I was in denial and just wanted to feel a little bit “normal” (let’s get real though, my normal was totally skewed). When I think back, I wonder if i was missing something in my life and whether I was trying to fill a hole with “stuff” or “experiences”.

Was I trying to fit into some mold or be someone who I wasn’t? What’s strange is that I now know that who I want to be is the opposite of that. I want to be someone who drinks coffee from home so I can give the $3 I save to the orphans in the same country where those expensive coffee beans came from. Life is funny.

I wish I could say that I am that selfless person now, but nope… Yesterday i had a $5 latte and I still really don’t have any business having one. Some poor little orphan in Ethiopia had rice. Hopefully :0(

I promise I’ll be more upbeat next post :0)

The 7 Year Itch…not so much

Today is a big day. Today my hubby and I celebrate 7 years of marriage. For you, this might not seem like a huge accomplishment, but for me and my husband Dave this is really good stuff. You see, we’ve both been married before and have some scars. When you’ve failed in anything, it can be difficult to try again.

I know, I’ve tried and failed with lots of things over the years. Ask my family about “Chef Brenda’s” fabulous mashed potatoes one Christmas. They were literally like paste. I’m the only person that I know that cooks and bakes pretty complex food on a regular basis, but can’t make a decent bowl of mashed potatoes. Fortunately, Dave is a master at mashed potatoes….. mmmm.

Anyway,mashed potatoes aren’t a big deal in the whole scheme of things. Unfortunately, mashed potatoes are the least of my failures.  I am happy to say they are the only mess-up that I get picked on about. My family loves me like God does and they don’t rub in the dumb stuff that I’ve done. I’m blessed.

Anyway as sappy as it sounds, I really do believe that people that fail a lot end up having the most rewarding lives in the long run. In my mind, those people are playing the odds the right way. The more you try, the more you fail, but you also succeed more. Risky?  Yep. Worthwhile? Totally.

Ok, this is getting deep… I think I’m going to just post a picture of me and the risk that i am most happy about taking in my life.  Have a fabulous day! I know I will.

Laying in the drive-thru lane….

So, last post I mentioned humility and how I’m still learning that lesson. I don’t know about you, but while I’m learning God uses “fun” experiences to help teach me. Since I love people and am all about saving others the pain of going through this stuff for themselves, I’m going to share one humiliating experience that has been driving me toward greater humility. Good times. Really.

BBK (Before Burger King) I worked in the wireless industry for 13 years. My most recent roles were on project teams at our corporate office in Chicago. After getting ourselves into a huge mortgage, my hubby losing his job, and several illnesses and surgeries in the family, we decided to short sell the house (that was decided for us :0) and move back to my home state to be near family and live the simple life.

I landed a position with Burger King, spent 8 weeks training in Florida, and we moved into a little rental house in Wisconsin. I literally went from sitting in a corporate meeting for a multi-million $ project on Thursday, to learning the proper way to say “hot fries” when dumping them on Monday. I’ve got some great stories to share about my training days in Daytona, but not today….

So, fast forward 7 months. I’m at one of my locations and I’m walking with an Assistant Manager around the drive-thru area and imparting my vast wisdom about the menu board to him. Next thing I know, I’m laying in the dirt and car oil with shooting pain in my wrist and ankle.

The AM was staring at me in shock. I could literally see him thinking (is that even possible?) “the corporate lady is laying in the Drive Thru lane. S*#t, what do I do now?”  Bless his heart, he recovered and asked me if I was ok and said he was going to get the manager.

Being the nice Christian woman that I am, I was laying there using some extremely foul language to numb the pain. I looked at him in fear and told him not to leave me there because I didn’t want to get run over.  So, the sweet young man dragged me through some more oil to sit on the curb.

Sometime just for fun, go lay down and without using your left arm or right ankle try to move 10 feet. Then do it on a busy street on a beautiful sunny day. I promise you’ll feel really classy ;0)

Anyway, eventually we made it into the manager’s office, found some old pickle buckets for me to throw up in, filled out some legal documentation, and my dear hubby came to pick me up to take me to the emergency room. While in triage, they asked me where I worked. Of course I said “Burger King corporate out of Miami, Florida“.  Geez… Even then.  Pride. ARGH!

My left wrist was broken, my right ankle was sprained. It was late in the day of the Friday of Memorial Day weekend so nobody would put a cast on until Tuesday. I had a long, sunny weekend to lay on the couch in pain and think about what a great example of Christ’s love and professionalism I had been.

From my “I am so wise, let me show you what I know and not watch where I am walking” attitude to the string of F bombs (yes, really) that I shared with the world. Oh, I am so thankful God doesn’t expect perfection, he just wants growth.

God loves me so much that he gave me a whole summer to practice the simple art of simply saying “at Burger King” during the countless conversations I had with strangers about how I broke my wrist at work.

He also gave me lots of time to practice “patience without swearing” while learning how to wash my hair, wipe my tush, type, cook, etc with a cast and an ankle brace on. Again, sometime for fun while you are in the bathroom try……. understand?

Anyway, at the time this was totally a pain, but in the long run it was good for me. I had planned to do a sprint triathlon in August, but couldn’t train so I had to find a different way to get and stay healthy. That led me to start a side business sharing the nutritional products I use. I also really am more patient now than I was then.

What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.

Check out James 1:2-3 and 9-11 in the Bible if you want to see one reason I think God allows icky stuff to happen. Actually, just read all of chapter 1 in James if you have time. It’s good stuff. 

Hope you are having a fabulous day!

Brenda

I’m 40 and I work at Burger King……

At some point I’ll share what has happened in my life between the first time I worked at Burger King (when I was 16) and now. There is some good stuff in there that will probably make you feel a lot better about any mistakes you’ve made along the way, so keep coming back if you are looking for an ego boost.

Today though, let’s just talk about now and what my new career in fast food is teaching me.

If you are anything like I was BBK (Before Burger King), you probably don’t think about how to answer the question “Who is your employer?”  I know I  didn’t waste any brain cells pondering possible responses to this simple inquiry.

Then, about 18 months ago, something happened.  The receptionist at my dentist’s office asked me where I worked and without flinching I said “Burger King Corporation out of Miami, FL”. Somehow in my Midwestern brain, I decided that adding a reference to Miami would make my career sound exotic and important.

Really? Why did I feel the need to elaborate? What was it (and still is) inside of me that didn’t want this receptionist to think that I worked at the neighborhood Burger King restaurant? Is it Arrogance? Pride? Whatever it is, I don’t like it about myself, but I still struggle with it.

Every day I work with people in local Burger King restaurants. Many of them have worked in fast food for many years. The vast majority of them are hard working, kind, and generous people. They have families, they go to church, they live lives a whole lot like mine.

Still, I put myself on some type of higher plane than them. That’s wrong. That’s a lack of humility and I’m working on it.  My thoughts and behaviors about this are lame, but they are real. The fact that I can learn to be different and better. That’s the good stuff. 

If you can relate to this, I’d love to hear about your experience or better yet, how you maintain humility even though you are a really, really important person :0)

If you are confused and are wondering why I think this is something worth working on, check out Romans 12:3 in the Bible. God doesn’t want us to think more highly then we should about ourselves.

We are awesome and precious, but so are all of His other children.  Even the one’s that work at Burger King.  Maybe especially those…….. ;0)

Hope you are having an awesome day!

Brenda

My first blog post ever……

If you would have asked me what picture would be on the first post of my blog, it is extremely unlikely I would have thought it would be anything like this. Life is funny and I believe God has a sense of humor, so here is my first picture……

Ok, my husband is not a big hunter and this is actually the first time he has ever gone. This is also the first time he has ever killed anything  bigger than a spider or maybe a snake or something. So although I am proud of his newly acquired ability to procure nourishment for the family, that is not the reason I’m posting this picture.

I’m posting it because, well because, just look at him. Look at his face. He looks happy. He looks excited. He even looks a little terrified. He looks ALIVE and that makes me feel happy, and excited, and hopeful……. I love my husband, I love my girls, I love my God, and I love the life He has given me. That’s what this blog is going to be about. Life. Real life…exciting….sometimes terrifying, but always real.

This should be fun.