Customer Service

Customer Service seems to have gone on the wayside. You call on your phone and you have to press 2-8 buttons before you can even get the message to press "O" for operator. You go into a store and if you are lucky, you can find someone to at least take your money after you have spent lots of time looking for the item you needed. You wait in line to only have grumpy people waiting on you.

Well, not at the Tollgate Inn and Bakery.

Phil and I order a special made "All grain, raisin, walnut bread" for breakfast. Besides what the name says, it has wheat flour and is pretty organic. Because of our sensitivity to sugary items, it fits us perfectly. I call to order six loaves so that I can put it in my freezer and to make it cost effective for the business.

I am on my last loaf. I call this morning. The girl answers the phone "Tollgate Bakery". I say "hello" and she immediately says " Hi Teri, are you ready to order your bread?" She says it with a smile and is very personable. It makes me smile and know that I am not just a sale. We chat a few minutes, she tells me the baker will be in tomorrow and will probably make it then. She inquires if I need to have a call reminder when it is ready. She tells me to have a nice day at the end of the conversation. I hang up.

This is so refreshing. She brightened my day, I brightened hers by being friendly. I enquire as to how her day is going (she has been there since 6 am - can't be fun to wake up so early and be friendly to demanding people), tell her to have a nice day. We have had at least one person be nice to us today.

I just saw on the Internet about the airlines raising their baggage fees, long lines, TSA workers taking a long time with checking things, people not putting their shoes on the belt but taking up containers, etc., etc., etc.
The last time I flew - before Christmas - it was busy. I was at PDX by 5 to make a 6:30 am flight. The lines were long, the training meeting ran over, the employees were a little stressed. All I did was smile, have my identification ready, follow directions, be patient and tell everyone helping to have a nice day. My time was stress-free, and I hoped to make their day a little brighter - even for just a moment.

So why this blog: Well, it only takes a little bit of effort on our parts to make not only our lives easier, but others around us. Be kind to those who do have to put up with rudeness. Be patient when they have to continue to ask those dumb questions. They are only doing their job and we can help make their days a little brighter. Who knows - the next time you deal with others, the customer service may just be friendlier than you expected. Have a great day. :-)

Stuff

So, my brother is now in California visiting and helping his daughter. He gets into town and tells me I have to update my blog. So here it is.
Isaac and Phil decided to spend last Thursday playing Legos. As you can see, those little pieces are all over the place. Isaac is fun to be with and when the rains come, this will be a great spot for them to spend their evenings together - before they go to Dairy Queen for their treat.

Both Isaac and I had to help Phil off the floor - he isn't quite as flexible as he used to be. :-)

Last week Wednesday, some of the Wednesday Quilters came together at my house to have our Christmas Party. It was a wee bit late, but we had fun. Phil came home in time to take our picture before they headed home: Becky, Cindy, Dixie, Donna, Marilyn and me. So, Christmas is now done and the decorations are put away.

Thursday I went to my Q-FAC meeting. Shirley brought the 2010 Sandy Quilt Show Raffle Quilt to be bound and then a picture taken to be part of our publicity. So, photographer Teri was ready with the camera to get a great pic of our quilt. These are all miniature blocks representing miniature quilts. I put together three of them: row 1 - second from right (Flying Geese squares); row 2 - far right (Flying Geese strip quilt top; and row 5 - second from right (pinwheel). Hopefully we will sell lots of raffle tickets to help the Sandy Historical Museum with more projects that they need. That's it for now. Will post soon.

Christmas, 2009

After talking to our sons, daughters-in-law, Mom and other family members, we had a light lunch and then went on our Winter Wonderland Hike up the mountain. We drove to Government Camp, at the 4,000 feet level. Mt. Hood is over 11,000 feet but this was just enough for us. Of course there is lots of history there as it is part of the Oregon Trail so we stopped and visited a few of the historical markers telling us about the Trail.

I got to romp in the snow a bit. The sky was sunny and clear, temperature 23 degrees but the wind chill was a whole lot lower. Reminded us of Michigan for sure.

There were Belgium horse drawn carriage rides throughout the town and toward the ski resort area.

Mt. Hood is in the background and this was one of many places to ski.

On our way back down the mountain, we found a place where we could stop and take a pics of us in the snow.

This was 30 Road and there was a nice bridge that made the scenery just splendid for us. It was a whole lot warmer and less windy as well.

The little creek was flowing. When you get mountain runoff, it is usually extremely cold even in the summer. Many people think it is ok to take a dip in it but that can bring on hypothermia very quickly. Just best to enjoy it in pictures later on. One more picture of me in the snow.

Then I decided to blow the very fine snow at Phil. Got more of it on me. Burr - it was cold. But we really enjoyed our visit to the Mountain and have our snow fix for Christmas Day. Hope you had a great day as well.

INTRODUCING.......

Phil and I are going to be Grandparents!!!

As I was in MI for Greg's swearing in as a lawyer, Nick and Julie had their first ultrasound

scheduled and they asked me and Julie's Mom, Rita, to attend.

And we are happy to introduce you to................

CALEB MICHAEL LaVOY!!!!!

Oh, he is soooooo handsome!!! :-)

The imaging was so clear, we could see all of his greatest features.

He is about the size of a cantaloupe, weighing 12 ounces;

his little heart was beating 153 beats per minute;

we were able to see him wave to us ;

we saw him swallow,

and he accommodated the nurse when she needed him to move

a certain way for measurements of head, etc.

A wonderful day for a very excited family.

Greg's admission to the Bar

On December 14th, Greg was sworn in to the Michigan State bar by his boss, the Honorable Justice Robert Young of Michigan Supreme Court, where he is working as a judicial clerk. Finally an office instead of just a desk with school books on it. I surprised Greg by coming to MI for the ceremony.
Gram went with us and had to get her picture with Justice Young. As she said, "Once in a lifetime".

Just as we were about to go into the court, there was a bomb scare so we had to evacuate the building. A perfect opportunity to be treated to lunch at the Detroit Athletic Club with Justice Young, his clerks and secretary.

We returned back to the Cadillac Building and proceeded into the Courtroom where Chris Hammer presented Greg to the Judge for the swearing in. (maybe I can figure out how to load that in and send it out later). Aunt Mary Ann, Uncle Jerome and Nick were also there for Greg's special day.

Pictured here are his staff; Carolyn (secretary), Amber, Chris (judicial clerks), the honoree, Tammy (Judge's permanent clerk) and of course, Justice Young. We went back into the office area and had one final picture of Greg with Justice Young and Kermit the Frog. A great group of people and a wonderful experience for Greg.

Wow, I can't believe that it has been a month since I last posted here on our blog. So, I decided to share a few projects that I have been working on in the last month.

This is the Strata Star that I did recently at our Q-FAC Retreat. It will be a wall hanging above our bed. They are fun to make and easy to quilt. Love those kinds of projects.

These two photos are of the wool applique that I am now hooked on. The top is not quite done, I still have to finish the small penny mats and then trim the black wook and buttonhole stitch around the entire piece. It is a centerpiece candle mat for my dining room table.

This is my strawberry candle mat that will be my centerpiece for summertime. Makes me want to get some strawberries. I am also working on a wool flower and basket wall hanging, and something for our future grandchild. All that inbetween doing my Ikebana piece for EGA, some surprises for next year as well as other stuff. Ah, I love to keep busy with these kinds of projects.

First Clam Dig in 2009-2010 Season

This weekend was the first time we could go clamming. Even though the weather was predicted as being wintry and stormy, almost nothing can keep us off the beach to get our dig in. So we set out on Friday morning, meeting the Doels for breakfast in Woodland, WA. Then on to Clatskanie for a stop at the Quilt Garden. Finally our destination of Jack's to pick up licenses and a clam gun.
While we waited for the Johnsons to arrive and the trek to the clamming fields (aka "the Beach"), we set up our projects of wool applique. I was teaching Donna and Becky my technique of making a candle mat. The mittens are another project that Becky had to get ready as well - we were prepared in case the weather was too bad to go out. While we set up our table with our projects, Phil and Bill practiced on the Wii - archery, bowling, and frisbee.

Check out that form of archer Phil.

It was finally time to get ready to go out. We all wore rain gear not only for the obvious rain coming down but also so the waves wouldn't get into our boots. A fashion statement -- well, maybe not - after all, I didn't have on my pink/black/gray polka dot boots on yet. :-)

When we got to the beach area, there were hardly any people out (we found out the next day that they had actually closed clamming due to strong waves) and with the rain and wind, it was too hard to figure out what to do with the camera, so there were no pictures of the clamming itself. But we trekked out there, braving the weather to get some clams. Unfortunately, I got just a little too anxious so I waited in the car for them to finish. This next pic is the clams that we dug on Friday night.

Phil asked for part of his Christmas presents early and he purchased a lantern and a clam gun. Well, the mantle fell off about three times, somehow we found it twice, but it is still out in the ocean somewhere. Because of instability, Phil's lantern tipped over and so he had to get new socks to put in it and a new base so that, hopefully, it wouldn't fall over again. This is where duct tape came to the rescue. All three men taped their bases to the lantern. Worked well.

While the men were doing their projects in the garage, we were busy with our projects in the house.

Before we went out to clam on Saturday night, we had a seafood feast. We had oysters and shrimp cooked on the grill, cole slaw, clam fritters and rosemary flavored baked potatoes. Yummy!!!

The weather was more cooperative on Saturday night and the clamming was good. Well for some of us. I had a flash light that the battery was ok in the beginning but kept getting dimmer and dimmer. The waves came in occasionally and chased us back - they were still a bit scary but we could predict them a little better. Well, I moved out further toward the water and saw a clam squirting at me, just daring me to get him. Well, I did - just before the next wave came in. I am happy to report, he was my only one and is now minced meat!!! I also picked up a sand dollar (special project need) but that was it for me. However, as you can see the rest of them did well and we had about 60 clams between us.

We rinsed them and then placed them in water for cleaning on Sunday - it was 10:30 when we got back in so a little too late to begin that part of the process.

But we - well, Phil, Bill and Dan - cleaned up the gear and rinsed the sand and salt water from our boots, rain pants, etc., before going in to play a game of 10,000. Donna won - again!!!

This is the guys having a great time cleaning clams. Bill wanted me to help but I told him that Phil had already cleaned the clam with the "T" on it for me. :-)

Look at all the clam meat we got on the second dig. Oh that was hard work!!!

Thanks, Bill and Becky for having us up to your home for a great time. Thanks to Donna and Dan for sharing that weekend with us as well. Looking forward to another dig soon.