And the award went to......

Not us! We had a fabulous night anyways! We were a little disappointed, but then we stopped and thought about the great year we've had and how we have been truly blessed. While other businesses and people were struggling, we were able to open a second location (what the heck were we thinking???)

For the banquet we were able to set up a table and spotlight our business. We talked to lots of potential new customers and heard from several people that they heard we had great pizza and were going to try us out! Here's a picture of our table at the dinner.



We had a wonderful dinner, met lots of people, and enjoyed dressing up and spending a romantic night out with my husband. We also were honored to receive a Commendation from the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of our Congressman Kevin Brady. They took pictures of us receiving the award and I'll post them once they send them to us. I think they are possibly voting in the House and Senate on which day would be a good one for Pizza Zone Day, but no decisions have been made as of yet. Now I just need to find more places to wear those fancy clothes......but someone around here has promised me another cruise and another reason to wear that new dress!



Now all I have left to figure out is who took the young Debbie and Paul and put these "old" people in their place!

Not the Academy Awards....but close

Well the big awards banquet is tomorrow night. Of course, being the typical "last minute" people that we are, I waited until this week to get a new dress and shoes and my husband went and got a new suit. This journey has not been an easy one, but after spending 2 days, looking at a minimum of 300 dresses, 2 malls, 10 misc. women's shops......I found the dress. Hope the picture does it justice. It is a nice satiny dress, simple and I feel elegant in it. Dressing up is a big deal for us. Our typical wardrobe is shorts, Pizza Zone t-shirts, and tennis shoes.



Of course you can't buy a new dress without having a new pair of shoes to go with it. So here's the shoes. After wearing nothing but tennis shoes for the last 10 years, should be interesting to see how I do in a pair of "grown up" shoes!



And then there's this next purchase. This was essential for my transformation of "pizza boss" to "award winning business owner" (LOL). I'm not even going to bother commenting on this last item -- it will speak for itself!



Lastly, I was excited to find exactly the perfect decorations we needed to decorate a table for the dinner tomorrow night. We are able to decorate a table to showcase our business -- and hopefully our table will be grand! We plan on displaying our employees working and pictures of our pizzas on the digital frame.



Now everything is in place and we're all set for fun evening!

Peaceful Mornings

What an amazing time to be the first person up in the morning and enjoy the quiet of the house just as the dawn is breaking? Although I must admit I unfortunately am awake long before the sun wakes up and starts it's journey across the sky -- insomina is not a good thing. I do find that I can accomplish so much these quiet mornings and love to sit on the porch and watch the neighborhood "wake" up. It's fun to watch the same people drive by each morning at the same time each day on their way to work. I am so lucky that I can (for the most part) stay at home and work from my office and can even wear my pajamas all day if I want to. Although productivity seems to be lacking when wearing pajamas -- best to get dressed in something equally as comfy, but a tad more professional. Sitting on the quiet porch gives you time to reflect on what needs to be done that day, what didn't get done yesterday, and what will still need to get done tomorrow. And as the sun slowly rises and the daylight softly creeps in -- I thank God for the beautiful day ahead of me and all the unexpected excitement that I am sure will follow.

Thankfulness - WARNING - it's a long one!

With Thanksgiving coming up and my sister Facebooking that we need to post what we are thankful for, I thought maybe it was a good idea to get us all thinking about what really is important to us in life. Trust me I know what it's like to be constantly busy, never having enough time, being stressed and getting gray hair, and not stopping and thinking about all that is REALLY good in my life. Here's this edition of "What I am Thankful For" and hopefully it will insprire you to stop and be thankful for the little things in your life and not focusing on all the negative.

First of all - I am thankful that this picture has not ever been posted on the internet before this or put into one of those "take a look at these people" e-mails! No truthfully, I am thankful to have been raised in a family that cared about us and raised us to be productive and upstanding citizens. I certainly thought that some of the rules were dumb at the time, but now I see why those things needed to be done at the time (although I still disagree with a large amount of them). The world premiere of the Taggart family circa 1976!



Secondly I am thankful for my two sons. Although they have not really followed the "dream" that I had for them, I am thankful that they grew up to be who they are. We formed a large bond for the ten years that I was divorced and had an amazing time "having fun" with the three of us. I cherish those moments and glad that I was able to spend the amount of time with them that I did. Now it's time to boot their butts out of my house and send them off to live on their own!



Lastly, I am thankful for finding the perfect person to spend the rest of my life with! Although he wasn't my first pick, he was the most important pick. I couldn't have asked for a better partner. He makes me feel loved and special each day and I am so blessed to have found him. Some people questioned whether I should quit my "day" job and work with him full time at Pizza Zone. What a great decision that was. Together we have worked so hard, devoted every spare minute, and successfully have built our little pizza shop. Although we work our butts off, we are proud of what we have accomplished together.



I have so many other things to be thankful for, but you all are probably sleeping by now -- so we'll continue this discussion some other time. In the meantime, I am so thankful for all the things that have happened throughout my life to make me the person that I am today!

Long and BUSY days!

Okay.....I need to take a break. These 15-18 hour days are starting to take their toll and I just need to step back a little and take a break! It's great being in business for yourselves, but it is also a lot of work and committment. Just to show you a representative sample -- here was my schedule for today:

8-9am:
*Finished printing, cutting, and stuffing 400 doorhanging bags so that staff can go out and promote new business. Stayed up last night until midnight to try and finish them -- but sleepiness won out.
*Issued check for employee we had to fire this week
*Made signs celebrating today's wacky holiday
*Got paperwork and uniforms for two new employees starting today ready
*Helped husband get out the door (he had an equally busy day)

9am-12noon
*Went to bank and did deposits
*Drove in covertible with the top down (best part of the day) and went to each location and picked up daily paperwork, dropped off things, and managed to squeeze lunch in with some good looking guy I found doorhanging in some neighborhood

Noon-3pm
*Sent rough draft of new menus to printer
*Answered numerous e-mails, random phone calls from staff and husband, and children
*Tried to catch up on daily paperwork and deposits from the stores (still 3 days behind in that)
*Spent time digging through all the paperwork for something the Health Dept had to have at their inspection of our 2nd location today (good thing I found it or they might have shut us down)
*Designed and printed 700 flyers and 700 stickers for a school night fundraiser we are sponsoring next week

4pm-7pm
*Went to the bank and made some more deposits (I am getting caught up!). Also found a moment to run into the grocery store to pick up something QUICK to make for dinner
*Designing another doorhanger my hubby wants to start using tomorrow (I'll be printing that working on it later tonight)
*Organizing the piles so I know what's left to do!
*Sneaking in a moment to blog

I gotta get back to work --- there's still 4 more hours left of work to get done tonight. Poor dog - he can't even keep up with me anymore!

Too busy.....too little time

I know it's been awhile since I've posted.....but there just isn't enough time in the day. Our days have recently been getting up at 4am and crashing in bed at 10pm. I have lots to update, lots to share, and lots to celebrate.....but right now can't take the extra time needed to post here. Keep checking back -- should have some updates for you by the weekend!