Working women at our house!

First, let me start with Alison. Oh my. All I can say is she is going to be mightly glad when September rolls around and she has some time to herself. She is working two jobs this summer. She still continues at Marathon Stables, which is normally just Saturdays, however she also has two consecutive weeks of helping at riding camp. She insists this doesn’t feel like work (and in fact, until recently, her only payment has been riding lessons. Mary has also started giving her a nominal amount of cash as well!).

Her second job was the result of a “chance” meeting I had with a chef at No Frills. As we reached for the same perfect head of romaine, we ended up chatting, and he suggested that Alison submit a resume to the restaurant. It turned out he was the owner of Blumen Garden Bistro, and Alison has now been working there for a week and a half. She is the fourth “cook” in the restaurant (I say cook loosely, since this is a lovely upscale place where they serve daylily flowers in the salad and chickpea fries; oysters and creme brulee). Andreas is the head chef; there is a sous chef, a salads and appetizers chef, and Alison is now their preferred dessert prep person. However, she fills in for everything and they are thrilled with her, consider her part of the restaurant "team" and keep begging her to work more. She has made homemade egg noodles, crab cakes, the aforementioned daylily flowers in salad (she says the flowers are yummy) and is having a great time. She finds being in a kitchen soothing and restful (SHE IS NOT MY CHILD OBVIOUSLY LOL). This little restaurant served almost 100 people last night! She works Friday through Sunday, 3 - 11, and some Mondays as well. He would like her to come in Wednesday night as well, but I've said no.

Claire also scored in the job department this summer. She REALLY, REALLY wanted to work this summer, however being only 13 she figured the best she could do was babysitting. Last year she volunteered to clean trailers for our friends Scott and Sophie who run “West Lake Willows”. She is quite a good cleaner and she thought this might be a good way to get some experience. It has turned out that they had their full allotment of cleaning staff, so she is predominantly in the store, running the cash register, tidying displays, making registrations with a computerized system, scooping ice cream and making milkshakes. It is a GREAT job for her. She will clean if it is necessary, and also watch the children if Sophie has paperwork to do and Scott is unavailable. This is a beautiful place (I encourage you to go to their website and check it out!) and she is lucky to spend 3 days a week there this summer! She is working 12-6 Thursday and Friday, and 9-4 on Saturdays. Kevin actually spent the day there today SALMON fishing so I have hopes that our dinner menu tomorrow is taken care of ;-). Do you think a boat of guys thought to take a picture of the event??

Next post: Claire’s amazing week at Worship Camp at Wesley Acres (last week)