ever so thankful

61. The opportunity to make a quick trip to Houston to have lunch with my dad while he was in town for a business meeting.

62. A wonderful Sunday of fellowship with my Life Group, dear friends, and at church.

63. my new Lesley Gore pandora station. I anticipate this being the soundtrack to much future baking.

64. Fun with coworkers painting mugs during our store party.

65. Trying out new recipes!

66. Sunday afternoon book study with Sabrina and Everly

67. Perfect tea-drinking weather (so far today I've had two cups of Earl Grey and one cup of Vanilla Rooibus...mmm!)

68. Texts from friends, keeping me accountable about spending time in God's Word

69. Julie and Julia movie night with Sabrina, Everly, and Birdie

70. A phone call from my brother in Haiti while he was at Notre Maison; I was able to get an update on "my" baby (she's doing very well and can sit up on her own now!).

4 1/2 years with the green apron

Hard to believe, but it's been four-and-a-half years since I started working at Starbucks. I've barely ever lived in one city for that long at a time (and definitely have never gone that length of time without changing houses/apartments), yet here I've worked for this company for 54 whole months. Granted, I've worked at 5 different stores (one of them twice) in 4 different states and 5 different cities, but still. It's been good. Obviously the flexibility/transferability of this job has been a huge blessing with all of my moves. Also, I've met so many wonderful and fun people that I've been privileged to work with over the years, many of whom I consider friends, and I've had so many great experiences in each of these places. So, in commemoration of this "anniversary" of sorts, here are some photos from the three stores where I've been the longest: Archer Road in Gainesville (26 months altogether), North Park in Chicago (12 months) and Holleman/Texas (10 months and counting). I also worked at City Place in West Palm Beach for my first two months or so and in Alcoa, TN for about two months in 2008.

Archer Rd Part 1 (June 2006 - May 2007)

Chicago (June 2007 - June 2008)

Archer Rd Part 2 (October 2008 - November 2009)

Texas & Holleman (a.k.a. "The Happiest Place on Earth" - December 2009 - ??)

off-the-clock fun with coworkers

fun and tasty creations, courtesy of coworkers

(except for the whipped cream/caramel drizzle. That was me.)

Miscellaneous tidbits from my Starbucks experiences that are emerging from my oh-so-tired brain (and therefore are really quite random and probably not that interesting):

* Three of the eight managers I've had over the years at the various stores have been named Robert. Two of them even look alike.

* Consistently favorite drink: caramel macchiato

* Favorite coffee: Sumatra

* Store with highest percentage of amazing customers: Archer Rd

* Memorable quote, even years later: "It is what it is!" -- Gina D. (Thank you, that was brilliant.) :)

* Least favorite product: matcha powder. gross.

* Favorite Starbucks romance: Ryan and Gina :)

* Coworkers who most frequently made me roll my eyes: Tim and Leslie

* Coworker who's played the "meanest" trick on me: Sir Robert of the Green Shirt

* Best cup-decorator and caramel-designer ever: Aja

* Store with the least amount of drama: Texas & Holleman

* Another random fact: I didn't get my first brand-new Starbucks apron until I was in my third year (see above photo)

* Store with the best/worst tips: City Place/Texas & Holleman

* Store where I've been given the most nicknames: Texas & Holleman

* Most-recently-discovered yummy flavor combination: cinnamon dolce with pumpkin spice (Aja's ingenious idea!)

* Store where I've clopened the most: Texas & Holleman

* Store where I had the most consistent schedule: Archer (opens!)

* Store closest to where I lived: North Park

* Store where I have sustained the strangest injuries: Texas & Holleman

* Favorite Starbucks pastry: cinnamon swirl coffee cake (and the chocolate chip cookie. warmed up.)

* Favorite drink to make: iced caramel macchiato

* Least favorite drink to make: green tea latte (and at Christmas, eggnog latte)

* Favorite Starbucks utensil name: spoodle

* Newest store I've worked at: North Park (helped open it!)

* Oldest store I've worked at: Texas & Holleman

Edit (4/4/11): Texas & Holleman may have now bumped Archer out of its first-place position for best customers, most likely because so many of my customers are now people from my amazing church... And my current pastry addiction is the cranberry orange scone. Exciting, yeah?

fifty-one to sixty

51. Cooler weather (the high today is only 79, and it's a beautiful 58 degrees out at the moment!)

52. The ability to laugh at myself

53. That God can and does use even me (yeah, crazy!) to accomplish His purposes for His glory--in spite of my ignorance and ineptitude!

54. Multiple opportunities recently to share the reason for the Hope that is in me

55. That even though I wish I myself were in Haiti, I can at least read stories from those who are.

56. Girl time with the lovely Sabrina, Everly, and Birdie which involved chocolate (of course) and finally getting to watch Letters to Juliet again.

57. This book, which Sabrina, Everly, and I used for our summer book study (though summer has turned into fall and we still have a final meeting left).

58. Swinging in the twilight on a cool autumn evening.

59. That I have no guilt in life, no fear in death (this is the power of Christ in me) / From life's first cry to final breath, JESUS COMMANDS MY DESTINY!

60. For my "Texas family", my church, several of my coworkers, my "flogos" Bible study group -- all those God has put in my life who encourage me and challenge me to grow in my faith and in my walk with Him.

September flashback

Photos from September 2009:

just 'afore Paul moved to Texas

typical, in so many ways :)

Birdie and me

He clearly thoroughly enjoyed his visit to Forever21

sportin' our oh-so-cool shades from Forever21

aren't they the cutest?

me and Jubilee

oh how I love these two

my pseudo-uncle and aunt

leaving to fly back to Florida;

little did I know that the next time I was in Texas, I'd live there!

Of klutziness and caramel frappuccinos

I am an utter klutz. If there is something in the general vicinity of my feet, you can be fairly sure I'll trip on it. If anything has the potential to be spilled, it's almost guaranteed that I'll do just that. All items with which I come into contact that are the least bit hazardous will undoubtedly leave me scratched, bruised, or in some other way injured.

It's nearly inevitable these days, and I'm not really sure why. You'd think that accident-proneness would be something you'd grow out of as you age; instead, in my case, I seem to be growing more and more into it. I really don't remember being a klutz when I was younger, but there is no questioning the fact that I am one now. And my klutziness tends to lead to such funny/ridiculous/strange mishaps, too -- ones that you wouldn't hardly think possible, yet, because they happen to me, are hardly surprising.

Such as the frappuccino incident of last week... I work at Starbucks, and last Wednesday, about an hour before close, we got really busy. There were only two of us working, and I had a line of about 15 drinks on my bar (with a line of customers to the door who were still waiting to order). Needless to say, I was trying to move as quickly as possible to get all those drinks made and all the customers happily back out the door. All was going surprisingly smoothly...until I came to one particular caramel frappuccino that, though seemingly innocent, was actually a little fiend in sweet, sticky disguise. Ok, so, that may be a bit dramatic, but still. Beware of the Caramel.

Anyway. Back to my story. After putting all of the ingredients for this particular frappuccino into the blender pitcher, as I was reaching for the lid, I somehow managed to splash the pre-blended frappuccino up my nose, across my face, and into my ear (where I could feel it trickling down and puddling). Gross. And ridiculous. I mean, seriously; who in the world manages to spill something in their ear? Clearly, I am a very "talented" klutz.

However, I didn't have time to reflect on the incident at the time, as I still needed to blend that particular frappuccino (minus the portion that was in my ear) and knock out the rest of the drinks on my bar. Which I did, and to my immense relief, there were no further mishaps during the remainder of the night.

When I got home, though, I could still feel the sloshing of the frappuccino in my ear, so I decided to try to rinse it out with eardrops. Didn't work. Nor did my subsequent attempts with Qtips, rubbing alcohol, water, and more eardrops. So for the next nearly-48 hours, I had a very plugged-up ear, out of which I could hear very little. Most of the time it felt like it just needed to pop, like when you're on an airplane. But no amount of yawning or chewing gum achieved this, either. I felt like I was hearing everything from inside a tunnel, which was rather disorienting and incredibly distracting. All this because of a silly frappuccino.

Finally, Friday night, my pseudo-uncle, who is a doctor, looked at my ear and discovered that there was quite a simple solution to my dilemma: all he had to do was flush my ear out with a syringe of warm water. Such a relief; within moments, my ear felt normal again, and it was amazing how clear everything sounded! Though this was a bit of an anti-climactic ending to my ridiculous "injury", I was (and am) so very glad to have that over and done! If nothing else, I've certainly gained from this experience a deeper appreciation for my sense of hearing, a wariness of frappuccinos, and, perhaps, a greater realization of the ridiculous possibilities that come with being a klutz. All I can do is shake my head and laugh. Oh, Beth...

August in review (yes, I realize September is already almost over)

Starbucks game/movie night with my fabulous coworkers

Joey's birthday

Paul and I took a day trip to the Guadeloupe River

love these girls!

miscellaneous moments at Eyrie Park

my birthday

Jack Johnson concert!!!

so thankful

41. My wonderful church, and the opportunity to connect with other women and be taught during the semi-quarterly LifeGivers meeting.

42. A surprise gift of flowers from a friend, just to say thank you.

43. A cute card and fun letter from a dear friend.

44. The opportunity to go to my first college football game ever.

45. The fact that God teaches me even through yucky days and miserable failures.

46. The wit and wisdom of Elisabeth Elliot (and her newest-to-me book, which is already one of my favorites).

47. Getting to sleep in today!

48. The Bible study that my "flogos" group is starting to go through on this passage; I am really excited about this!

49. Beautifully expressed words of wisdom from a friend, and the fact that God seems to be teaching both of us the same thing right now.

50. Raspberry peach cobbler.