Chicken in the Snow and a Special Anniversary

So it has been a while, but here I am back in full force. Reading is currently getting bombarded with snow, which impacted my job since we closed the store early today. My five minute commute home tripled due to the nasty weather. I am glad to be home, safe and warm with my sweetheart.

Speaking of my darling wife, it was a year ago today that I traveled to Tennessee with Mom and Dad Steele and Elizabeth to surprise and propose to Brittany. I can't believe it's been a year already...and yet so much has happened in this past year!

Based on the comments from my previous post, Brittany and I have decided only to post links to music, rather than have songs play when you open our page. Thanks to all who gave their opinion. We are all about making the fans happy.

Brittany and I decided to attempt to make my grandmother's famous sugar cookies on Wednesday night. What a delightful experience it was! We successfully mixed and chilled the dough, and we were able to bake about 3 or 4 dozen of the 7 dozen cookies before the burrito that Brittany had eaten at Moe's that evening came back with a vengeance. (Apparently Baby Kaye wasn't a fan of Mexican that night). She quickly exited the battle field wounded. I desired to comfort her, but we both knew what had to be done. Yep, I finished the cookies and cleaned the kitchen as Brit cheered from the sideline. We were quite proud of the cookies in the end as we believe they closely mirror Grandma Punky's famous treats.

On Thursday we had the wonderful opportunity to host the family that Brittany is nannying for over to our home for dinner. This included the children's father which was very exciting, since he hadn't been in the picture before. We talked with them over some vegetable soup and did our family devotions together afterwards. They were very open to us reading the Bible, and they are interested in coming to church with us in the near future. The father has struggled with alcohol but is trying to straighten his life out. Neither of the parents has been exposed to the gospel or church at all in their lives, but their hearts definitely seem to be softened towards it. We praise God for such a blessed time and look forward to seeing what He is going to do in the future!

Finally, I should update you all on the status of my career. In late November I received a phone call from the Chick-fil-A Corporate Headquarters in Atlanta saying that they wanted to have me down to interview for their Management Development Program (MDP). This is one of the ways that operators get their start. In theory, I would train for two years as a manager and then do a year as an Interim Manager (IM) before i would receive my own franchise. The interim stage would mean running a mall store, and I would be employed by Corporate. Brittany and I saw it as an awesome opportunity!

I flew down to Atlanta on Wednesday, December 2nd, and interviewed all day on the 3rd. The headquarters are beautifully nestled in the woods of Atlanta. I was treated exceptionally well and very much enjoyed my interactions with all of the Human Resource people. I continue to gain respect for the entire operation! I was told that I would hear back the following week, and sure enough I did. I received a call on Friday during which I was congratulated on making it into the program! Brittany and I were elated to hear the news!

I was also asked to report back to them regarding where I would like to complete the program, whether it be here in Reading with Shawn or somewhere closer to where Brittany and I hope to be in the future. Brit and I prayed about it, talked it over and decided that we would like to complete the program here. We are very happy with the obstetrician that we currently have, and we have a lease through the end of July. So I called corporate back, let them know our thoughts, and all is settled for now. We will reevaluate in July, and if I need to go somewhere else then we will leave. However, we are definitely hoping to complete the entire program here. I really look forward to helping Shawn make his store a very successful operation!

I will do my best to write more often!

Love from the Kayes--

KK

We've Got a Kicker!

We've had the pleasure this week of being more tangibly aware of Baby Kaye's presence (as if my growing belly weren't evidence enough!) as he/she has started kicking like crazy! I had been feeling movement increasingly in the last few weeks, but Sunday morning this week I felt my first prominent WHAM. It woke me up just before I was going to get up for church, and I quickly rolled over to tell Kory. He put his hand on my belly, we waited a few seconds, and then--sure enough--another WHAM. We just grinned at each other with much elation and again anticipated the next kick. How thrilling! Again, another step in the progression of realizing that there is a real, live person inside of me!

Last night was a real kicker (haha--pun intended). I was sitting on the couch, and all of a sudden I saw my belly pop way out as I felt the accompanying WHAM. I called for Kory (who was cleaning up the kitchen at the time--amazing husband!), and we laughed as we continued to watch my belly pop out with each little kick. Kory is hoping for a little soccer player in training!

If I weren't already enjoying our time in Reading so far, I had an experience last night that completely affirmed my affinity for this quirky little town. I was waiting for Kory to get home (I SO wish he had been home for this!), since he was on his way home from meeting an accountability/discipleship friend. I had been hearing sirens going off in the distance for about half an hour, and I thought--man, there must have been such a bad accident! Finally the sirens got louder and louder until I realized they were coming up our street. The sirens outside, they made such a clatter...I ran to the window to see what was the matter. When what to my wondering eyes should appear....but a fire truck driving slowly up our street, sirens and lights going, and a big jolly Santa Claus sitting on top waving merrily with a spotlight shining on him! I almost died at the hilarity, thought to myself "Only in Reading!", and ran for my camera. Sadly I couldn't get back to the window in time to get a clear shot of the spectacle. But it definitely made me love Reading even more!

When Kory got home I relayed the incident, which he was SO sorry to have missed! Then we headed over to patron a new restaurant just opening called Moe's Southwest Grill, since the new manager has been in to Chick-fil-A several times and gave Kory some coupons. When we got there, we were surprised to see a sign that said it didn't open until the following day (today)--yet it was full of people eating and laughing and having a grand old time. We looked at each other, shrugged, and walked in. When we asked the man inside if they were open for business, he replied that they'd be open for another 20 minutes and that we could have anything on the menu for free! So we tucked our little coupons away, amazed at our good fortune, and proceeded to order two "Homewreckers," which are the most deluxe made-to-order burritos on the menu (think Chipotle).

We enjoyed the delicious, warm, FREE food, and soon came to realize during our time there that we had accidentally crashed what seemed to be a kick-off night for families of employees before the Grand Opening the following day. Oops! The manager finally came over to say hi, since he recognized Kory, and we apologized for our mistake. He just shrugged and said it was no problem--that they were kind of opening it to the public more towards the end anyway. Yet another example of the Lord's kind, gracious provision in our lives--by giving us a free meal!

Kory still has yet to post an update about the most recent exciting developments with his job, but he has been so busy with work and trying to finish an online health/safety course for Chick-fil-A so he can be "Serv-Safe" certified. Hopefully very soon! Stay tuned. :)

Love from the Kayes--
BK

Blog Makeover

Trying a new look...let us know what you think of the new format!

First Glimpses

Our little one! They're a little blurry because our scanner wouldn't work for some reason, so I had to take pictures of the snapshots.