October 6, 2009 - May 17, 2017 RIP

As of today, this blog officially dies.

I have neither the time, the desire, or the energy to share what's happening in our life.

Maybe sometime in the future, I will breathe new life into it......but for now, my focus and energy are devoted to other things.

Signing off................

As we get closer.....it got longer

Remember that list that I shared with you earlier in the week.

Well as we get closer to opening day.......the list got a lot longer.

Paul and I have been spending 30 minutes sitting on the front porch each morning strategizing and making lists.

Here's what my list looks like now:

Damn......I need to get busy!

Our pizza life is getting ready to change

Opening this new store has been extremely busy and extremely stressful at times.

In fact, it's a miracle that we are still married at this point.  There's been tough decisions (and lots of them) and sometimes it hasn't been easy for either one of us to let the other person "have their way".  Luckily for us, we are able to compromise or agree on most things.

There's still a million things to do before we get open and there will be lots to do for awhile after we get it open and get stuff figured out and systematized.  After that.......we're already talking about taking some time off.  We haven't had a day off since the beginning of January.  I think we deserve one (or two).

But for today -- I'll be tackling this list instead:

But every time I walk into this brand new location.......the hard work seems worth it.  

But, we still need a vacation!

Time flies when you're having fun!

It really does fly......however, it hasn't been much fun.  In fact, it's been all work.

We're getting closer and closer to opening day.  In some ways, I'm ready.....in some ways, I'm not.  There is a BILLION things to do.  Can't wait for a vacation.

Here's some of the highlights of the last couple of weeks:

 We spent Easter at the new store with a group of employees working on 

getting things hung up, cleaned up, and figured out.

 The new traffic light looks awesome in the hallway. 

 The arrow is actually pointing towards the bathrooms.  Cool.

 Fire Marshal came out and we passed the inspection.  

Next up is the health department and we're expecting that to happen sometime this next week.

Paul is driving me crazy with his new pickleball obsession.  It's like ping pong but you play it on something similar to a tennis court.  He hasn't played yet, but he's getting the equipment so he can start (not sure when he's going to find the time to do this)!

 It got tired of our backyard looking like crap and the weather has been beautiful, so I tackled this project.  Digging up this mess and creating something beautiful out of it.

 Of course, there is always a helper or two nearby to lend a hand!

This girl is almost 16 years old....I guess she deserves to take it easy.

 Making a new pathway to the garbage cans and making a flower bed.  

Having to axe out tree roots and clean out weeds to make this spot look beautiful

 This is hard work, but it will feel so satisfying at the end to see the final project

 Got the azaleas planted and the mulch done.....just needed Paul's vision to finish off the end of the pathway.  Took until the next weekend to finish it all.......but so pleased with the results:

Now I just need to get that area where the other garbage cans are all fixed up.

 I've got these 3 gorgeous rose bushes to make a new flower bed and plant over by the other garbage can area.

 And once again, I've got a small garden growing again this year.

Cherry tomatoes and jalapenos

Got to hurry and get all my house projects finished up......in the not too distant future, I'll have to be working at the store every day again (boo!)

The exciting events happening in our life this week

We really really wanted to take off and go somewhere this week.  It's a dead week since there was no school nights, not a payroll week, we're not needed at the new store yet, and we're just plain tired and ready to get away.

But unfortunately, a couple of things got in the way.  Our awesome amazing dog sitter is temporarily not watching dogs due to some personal issues and we don't have another one in back up yet.  AND....we also just didn't want to take the energy to plan going somewhere when it could only be a couple of days, plus we do have a million things that still need done around here.

So instead, we hopped in the car on Monday and jumped on back roads going places we had never been and discovering new things.  We were originally headed towards Huntsville, but got side tracked along the way and ended up in Willis, Livingston, a bunch of small tiny Texas towns, and then finally cruising through Huntsville on our way back home.

We stopped at a few little antique stores along the way and picked up some more treasures to adorn the walls of the new PZ:

We worked at the new store the other night trying to figure out where everything needs to go so that we are efficient.  Took a picture of the sign out front with the empty space just waiting for our sign.  Of course, we are still waiting for the County Engineers to approve our building plan.  We have submitted it 3x now and this has been going on for almost a month now.....we are hoping to get approval this week.

Got flowers from the husband this week.  He had a little apologizing to do :-)

We created a Pizza of the Month for April......the Wise Guy.  

We take a picture of it raw for the employees to see how it is made: 

And we take a picture of it cooked so the employees can see how amazingly delicious it is:

And last, but not least......Aaron and Shay bought Wrigley a new dog bed for Christmas.

Unfortunately, Misty the cat thinks that it's hers.

The dog loves the bed so much that she is willing to lay on a corner of it and share it with the cat.

But the dog really hopes that Misty gets her own new bed for Christmas (so she can use it too)

Life is good.

I sometimes just need to keep reminding myself of that!

Let's keep this short and sweet

It's been a crazy ass week.

I need a vacation.

In the meantime.......I'll feel fancy drinking a much needed beer from my favorite glass!

We'll catch up soon.............

The bathrooms are finally done (well 98% of them)

The two new bathrooms are finally decorated and done.....well almost.  We still need to get up the towel holder and toilet paper holder before it can officially be declared as 100% finished.  I still need to find rugs to finish them off.....but having a difficult time deciding what color they need to be to match the tile.

Oh well......here is the amazing transformation:

This is the before shot of the downstairs bathroom:

 (I can't believe how hideous this bathroom looks and how long I left it like that)

This is the after shot:

The downstairs bathroom has been designated as the "beach theme" bathroom

These are the before pictures of the upstairs guest bathroom:

I know.....this bathroom was awful too.....but wait until you see the amazing transformation:

It makes this bathroom even more special to hang pictures that I took during our trip

The theme in this bathroom became "Paris" after finding these cute little metal Eiffel Towers at Big Lots.  It just seemed like a great theme, given the fact we had just been there.

The shower turned out amazing. 

It's been fun shopping for Paris items to decorate the room.....a couple of these items were actually things we brought back with us when we visited!

These bathrooms turned out even more amazing than we could ever imagine.  My husband remarked last night "we have such beautiful bathrooms".....and he never says things like that. Next on the list.....getting the master bathroom fully re-done!