Adriana's 7th Birthday

Yesterday (October 12th) was Adriana's 7th birthday. We had planned to go Southwick's Zoo in Mendon for the day. However, it rained almost the entire day so we ended up just hanging out and playing. The kids had a great time regardless. Adriana's friend, Jacqueline Dufour, and her brother Elijah and sister Claudia came over for the day. They are also a homeschooled family. The kids played at the house for a while and then we took a drive to Mendon to see Grammy and Grampa. The kids again played and we all had some of the birthday "kitty" cake that Grammy made. Adriana opened her presents and the kids played some more. Then we all kissed Grammy and Grampa goodbye and headed to Bangma's Farm for ice cream sundaes. Back home the kids played for several hours before I drove them all home around 7:00pm. Adriana and the kids said that it was the best birthday ever. Hmmmm, we didn't go to the zoo, I didn't have organized "birthday games", I didn't rent a Moon bounce", it rained all day, yet they said it was the best. They just had two homes where they could play what they wanted... And they did! It was a great day. :-)

No cable TV at the Andersons

Last week David and I decided to eliminate cable TV. There is nothing but garbage, and I do mean GARBAGE, on TV these days. We were tired of the girls watching the Disney channel. Which aside from the educational programming for 3-5 year olds in the mornings on Disney Playhouse, is really garbage! Adriana would also watch Nickelodeon....again....gargbage; the cartoon network....junk; and PBS. I would have to worry about the kids flipping through the channels and coming across the crap that is on.....Jerry Springer...MTV, VH1.....you get my point. Even what network TV considers family programming we consider highly inappropriate for children. I'm not sure what family they are referring too when they say "family programming"...because it isn't for my family! Several people have said to us, "Why don't you just block out the channels you don't want them to watch?" Here is why....I don't feel I should have to pay $50 a month so they can send crap into my home over the TV just so that I can block it out. Doesn't make sense to me. If they would let me pay for just the channels we want...that is PBS, the History channel, HGTV, Animal Planet, and maybe Fox News then I would keep cable. However they don't let you do that. They make you pay for all the channels you don't want and then in turn expect you to block them out if you don't want to see them. That's like me saying to my customers that they can't buy just a cup of coffee and a cannoli...oh no...you must pay for a chai, a lattee, a hot chocolate, a smoothie, a cappuccino, an espresso, a cream puff, an eclair, muffin, scone, carrot cake, etc. Oh you don't want all of that? Well you still have to pay for it, but you can toss what you don't want in the trash on your way out. The only difference is I don't serve CRAP!

At first Adriana rolled on the floor in agony when we told her we were getting rid of cable. She cried for an hour saying "You're torturing me! I'm moving in with Grammy!" Her discontent only lasted a few hours. Then she realized that we still had all her DVDs that she could watch. It was just too easy for the girls to turn on the TV when they were bored instead of finding something to do. That is to read a book, do a puzzle, draw, color, play with their dolls etc. We have been without cable for a week now and the girls are just fine.

Of course when David called to cancel the cable TV, the cable company told him, "Okay, but now your internet cable will be $50 a month instead of $40 a month." Oh yeah that makes sense!

Employee headaches

Hello All,

Well, the last few weeks have been very busy and stressful for poor David. As our business grows the more employees we need; and with more employees comes more headaches. We had 13 employees going into September; however one of our employees we had to let go 2 weeks ago because she just wasn't pulling her weight and we couldn't trust her. She spent most of her time talking with either her boyfriend or the customers. We had complaint after complaint from the other employees who would be working like crazy doing everything while she just stood around and chit chatted. We spoke to her on many occassions about this, but nothing seemed to change her work ethic. Then we caught her cheating on her timesheet, adding hours that she hadn't actually worked. When I confronted her about it she made up an excuse that was just as bad. "She filled in her timesheet earlier in the evening guessing what time she would finish."

Another of our employees (one of our best!) was planning to leave us in January because she is going away to college in Florida. She informed us 2 weeks ago that she was leaving this Friday instead. So David and I hired Sebastian, the 16 year-old son of some good friends of ours, Flip and Sue. Sue is also one of our employees; she bakes 5 nights a week for us. Her husband Flip is the one doing all the carpentry/design work with David on our new cafe building. (oh did I mention that the carpenter we hired bailed on us 3 weeks ago.) Anyhow, another employee, Tess, informed us last week that she had been offered a better position at her full-time work location. So she will be leaving us this week because they require her to now work weekends. So David and I hired Harrison to work weekends. Harrision was the second employee we hired when we first opened 3 1/2 years ago. He was then a highschool student. When he graduated 2 years ago he headed off to college in Florida. Well, now he is back in Connecticut going to college in Hartford. He'll work for us Friday and Saturday nights. Finally, this Monday rolled around and our employee Sarah, who has been with us for about 3 months working 3 mornings a week, didn't show up for work. After calling her she informed me that she really didn't want to work here anymore because the mornings were too early for her. It wasn't convenient for her late night partying. Maybe she could have told me that last week instead of just pulling a no-show.

Adding to the headaches of employee changes..... Sue informed us last week that she is going to England for 10 days to visit her sick father and taking Sebastian with her to look at colleges there. They left last night. So this coming week we are short 5 employees. My head is spinning. I'm not sure how any employees I have now. We'll also be losing yet another employee, Joy, in February...she'll be having a baby.

It would be much easier if my sister and her family, and my brother in California would all move back to this area. I know you would all love to work at the cafe....right? :-)

White Mountains camping trip

Our first vacation in 8 years! We took a two day trip up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire last weekend. We arrived at our campsite Saturday evening around 5pm, and we returned back to Putnam at 8:30pm on Monday. We did some hiking, cave exploring, toasted marshmellows, played the peanut game, and told scary stories around the campfire. A great time! But too short. This was our first time away from the cafe since we opened it 3 1/2 years ago.

Sabrina's first horse show

This is Sabrina at her first horse show. She entered into a horse show in August and placed third and fourth in a couple of classes. She did a great job for her fist show.

She is working part-time at the cafe to earn money for next year's horse shows. They are very expensive; so Dave and I told her that since we are paying for horseback riding lessons every week that she is going to have to save up for the horse shows herself. Lida payed for this one.

Dance show last Spring

This is a picture from Adriana's and Sabrina's dance show this past June. The show was outside on Putnam's Victorian bandstand by the river. Sabrina was in three dance numbers (ballet, and two musical theater). Adriana was in seven dance numbers (ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, and two musical theater)!

This was Sabrina's first year dancing and I really had to twist her arm to stick with the ballet. She loved the Musical theater class but was not crazy about ballet. However by the time the dance show was over she was excited to take dance again this year. She is taking ballet, tap, contemporary, musical theater, and ballroom this year. She is also taking yoga and acting classes at the same studio.

Adriana on the other hand was dancing in the womb and hasn't stopped since! She is a natural dancer. This year she is taking ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, acrobatics, musical theater, acting, ballroom, and yoga.

Our new family blog!

Hi Everyone!

Dave and I are finally giving this blogging thing a try. I figure since I'm a complete loser when it comes to emailing, telephoning, snail mailing etc. to my friends and family, that this would be a good way for me to keep everyone up-to-date on the goings and happenings of our busy family.

I may not always have time to write a blog but I can at least post pictures and you all can have fun guessing what's happening in the pics! :-)