This is a day that I usually prefer to pass by unnoticed and then pretend to be disappointed when someone remembers we missed it. Most of my family seems to be on the same page with my opinion, with the exception of Allison. She anticipates it for months and has almost the same giddy excitement she has for Christmas or her birthday when it gets close. With the entire Nation on stay-at-home orders I think in general most people paid more attention to it this year, simply because of lack of other things happening. Allison had a long list of tricks ready to go.
She placed a piece of card board in all the toilets. Thank goodness she hasn’t discovered other ‘options’ for this classic trick, that I will not even mention here because she does eventually read this.
She put tape across several doorways. This happened to be the day I did laundry and often was carrying things in front of me so I couldn’t see as well. So I personally ‘fell’ for this one at least 5 times and so did others. She was very pleased with herself.
I also found tape covering the faucet when I turned it on in my bathroom.
The one she did that made me chuckle the most was drawing on Emilee’s arm while she was sleeping. Emilee came in and said, “Mom, I don’t remember drawing any of this on my arm.” She still draws on herself enough that it was a total possibility she did it, but was confused she couldn’t recall it.
Allison’s pride and joy prank for the day was getting a hold of Matthew’s cell phone and changing her contact to “Campbell” who is Matthew’s crush. She then texted him like she was Campbell. Matthew figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t Campbell but he thought it was her sister. He even told Allison about it and she was giggling while she sat right next to him and continued to text. He figured it out shortly after that. Then I helped him change it back and change the password on his phone so she couldn’t get into it anymore.
The winning prank of the day was by me though. Thanks to my neighbors. They pranked me first with the following pictures.
This is the Governor of Kansas. I was shocked when I saw the schools would go through July.
Once they new they got me they said they were looking it and would send me more info when they found it. A minute or so later she said here is what we found. and send me this.
I was still a little confused and thought it was not very appropriate of the Governor of Kansas to do something like this. Then I saw the subtitle-the Hogan’s are the neighbors that sent it to me. They got me good. Then I decided to pass it forward to my kids.
Allison was mad for a good 30 minutes before she calmed down. 🤦♀️
Ever since I did the questionnaire with the kids answers the other day they have been asking to do it again. They loved it. So I am working on finding another one for them to do. In the mean time Lauren posted one for spouses today on Facebook that was fun to read so I am copying it for Ryan and I to do. You have to write EXACTLY what your spouse says for their answer.
Ryan’s answers for me:
How tall am I? 5’6″ (nope 5’5″)
What is my favorite thing to eat? chocolate lava cake
What do I do when I’m not with you? read a book, take naps (read yes, I rarely nap unless it is Sunday)
What is my favorite movie? The Notebook
If I could go anywhere, where would I go? Anywhere with my sisters
How do I annoy you? You don’t…Make me take these dumb quizzes.
What is my favorite show? Seal Team (Yep!)
Who is my celebrity crush? Chris Hemsworth (Very good guess , but it is Ryan Gosling)
You get a phone call that I am in trouble, who am I with? DeAnna
What do I hate? Being cold (very true)
What is my favorite drink? I don’t know, milk? (Vanilla Italian Soda)
What gets my temper going the most? Something with the kids, them not listening.
What is my shoe size? I don’t know, 7? (7-7.5 depends)
Describe me in three words. Loving, good mom
If I became famous, what would it be for? Your organizational skillzzz.
What makes you proud of me? When I see your influence on our kids. (Awe)
Where can I most likely be found? In our house.
What is my favorite restaurant? Bonefish Grill (Yes!)
Who is my favorite person? me
Where would I go for a long weekend alone? In our room on our couch with a book.
My answers for Ryan:
How tall am I? 5’11” but you will say 6″
What is my favorite thing to eat? You are a foody, anything yummy, but you love burned popcorn (kind of the opposite what a foody would eat) and Extreme Moose Tracks Ice Cream (Ok, I like Sushi)
What do I do when I’m not with you? Hang out with friends, play board games (Probably golfing)
What is my favorite movie? I don’t know, you like the new Star Trek movies and Avenger movies a lot though. (Probably one of the Star Trek movies)
If I could go anywhere, where would I go? A cruise
How do I annoy you? making ‘noise’ when you are sleeping
What is my favorite show? Seinfeld
Who is my celebrity crush? Scarlett Johansson
You get a phone call that I am in trouble, who am I with? Michael Aaron Johnson
What do I hate? Pickles
What is my favorite drink? Lime or vanilla coke, smoothies
What gets my temper going the most? being woke up from a nap
What is my shoe size? 10.5 (11, my feet are growing)
Describe me in three words. Driven, intelligent, dramatic-I mean passionate.
If I became famous, what would it be for? Some business idea
What makes you proud of me? You are a very good dad
Where can I most likely be found? Watching or playing sports-specifically baseball
What is my favorite restaurant? K-Machos, Sake, or The Thai Place
Who is my favorite person? Me
Where would I go for a long weekend alone? Las Vegas and you would meet Michael Aaron Johnson there.
There has been some videos on the news of people that live by hospitals coming out to their balconies at shift change time (which is usually 7am or 7pm) and clapping and cheering for the doctors and nurses and other health care staff that are working so hard right now helping all the patients with COVID 19. It is very touching and it is great that the people living by the hospitals show support for them.
Our neighbor across the street has apparently also seen these videos and is trying to get a neighborhood nightly ritual going. They have been posting on FB and texts to the neighborhood asking to have people come out at 7pm every night and clap for one minute for the health care workers. Might I point out that there are no actual health care workers.
The first time they did it, we were not aware of what they were doing. Ryan and Matthew were playing catch in the street by the front yard. All of the sudden their whole Stutzman family came out and without saying a word start clapping and cheering. Ryan and Matthew didn’t know what they were doing and thought they were clapping at them for some reason. They stopped and looked at them and then after the minute ended without a word they all turned around and went back in their house.
The next night we got a text from a different neighbor explaining what was going on and said that it was going to be something that happened every night at 7pm. We forgot and missed it that night.
Tonight we set an alarm because we got more text invites and didn’t want to be the stick in the mudds. So at 6:59 I dragged the kids to the front porch and told them we were going to clap for 1 minute for all the healthcare workers. At 7 o’clock sharp the Stutzman family came out and started clapping…our family and one other family were the only other families I could see. We all clapped for a minute then at 7:01 the Stutzman family stopped and walked back into their house. The entire time we were clapping my kids repeatedly asked me questions like, “Why are we doing this?” “When are the doctors coming?” “Why are we clapping if no one is here?” “Can the doctors and nurses see us and we just don’t know?”
It was a little weird. Again, if they were actual people to clap for I would be all for it…but since there isn’t…I think it is strange for people to come out on the porch and clap for a minute with out any converstation and then go back inside. At least say hi and wave or something.
The last 24 hours have been a busy one for our little neighborhood area. They say things happen in threes but we might be going for three sets of threes.
To start it off, yesterday I was doing some lawn work and trimming up some bushes for Spring. I was using our electric trimmer and the automatic shut off switch that is supposed to release when you take your hand of the power button got stuck and I wasn’t being careful enough so I cut my middle left finger through the side into my nail. I had a glove on and was hoping when I pulled it off that it wouldn’t be bad enough to need stitches but could tell immediately that was not the case. So I went in to wash it off and was debating with myself to just super glue it instead of going into the doctors with all this virus crap. Ryan saw it and said I had to go get stitches. I told him to call my regular doctor instead of going to the ER. He tried calling Steve to see if he could stitch me up but he didn’t answer. My doctor wasn’t in but another doctor said he could do it. Ryan drove me there but he couldn’t come in. Everyone was wearing masks, and by that I mean the skeleton crew that was working. I didn’t see any other patient. I had to fill out a bunch of paper work to screen me for any possible sign of Covid 19. Then there were only some chairs labeled that I was ‘allowed’ to sit in. Talk about feeling like you are in some apocalyptic movie but it is your actual life. The doctor said it needed one or two stitches. While his two nurses where getting the room ready for ‘the finger lady’ they had a very loud conversation with each other about how it is ridiculous that people can’t follow directions and stay home and not do unnecessary things. Then they specifically mentioned that yard work and house work are not necessary. They were sure to leave the door open too in case I couldn’t hear them through that. I was pretty ticked. The doctor numbed me up and gave me my stitches. When he left the nurse told me to come back in a week to have the stitches taken out. I told her I could take my own stitches out so I didn’t have to come back and put up with her poor bedside manner again. Then I walked out. That was a lot nicer than the other things going on in my head. Give me a break. I know lots of nurses and health care workers that are caring and compassionate. It is kind of part of the job. Why go into healthcare to help people in stressful hard situations if you are that unpleasant of a person.
Later that night we had a really gnarly thunderstorm and shortly after a loud crack of thunder a bunch of sirens came over by us. Someone’s house had been struck by lightning and caught fire. I don’t know how extensive the damage was before they were able to put it out.
Matthew’s friend a street over had the fire department show up at his house today. His older brother ordered a new battery for his phone. When he put it in, it started getting really hot, he dropped it on the floor so it wouldn’t burn him and it caught the carpet on fire! They got it out pretty quick so it is just a small area of carpet they will have to replace.
Tonight Ryan and I went on a walk after dinner. We started hearing all kinds of sirens around us. When we got around the park we saw a bunch of lights in the school playground. The neighbors that were out watching said it was some kind of a medical emergency. We kept going and headed back in the direction of our house.
When we turned the corner there were a bunch more police cars blocking off the roads. We had to walk that way to get back to our house. We asked the neighbors in that area what was happening and they said that there had been shots fired at “Crazy John’s house” which is on the next corner up from where we were. We walked back home and there were police cars across the street from us in our neighbors back yard blocking off the house from that direction. Then we could hear the police announcing over their speaker, “This is the Olathe Police Department, John come out with your hands up.” They said it about five times. Then he must have come out because shortly after that they all left. I haven’t heard if anyone was hurt of not.
The black circles were the fires. Yellow circle is the medical emergency. Blue dot is our house and location of the hedge trimmer incident. Blue circle it the shots fired area where “crazy John” lives.
Lots of craziness. Hopefully it is done. You can tell that some people are starting to get a little crazy with all the changes because of the virus. I don’t know if any of these were related or not, just reports and posts I see on the internet are starting to have some crazies coming out. We were worried our kids were going to be panicked when we got home with all the police cars around. A while back our neighbors had a fire truck come to their house while we were gone because of a medical emergency and the kids were freaking out about it. Luckily when we got home tonight they were all in there evening electronic comas and where none the wiser to the whole situation.
This is going to get weird. It already is weird but when I stop and focus on it, it feels even more weird. It is like I am in one of those movies where someone is stranded or lost at sea and they start counting the days. It has been 12 days since they asked people to so a 14 day self quarantine. They announced yesterday that starting this Tuesday at noon there will be an even more strict 30 quarantine going into effect. Basically all businesses that are not essential are to be closed and other than emergencies, no one should leave their house unless it is to go to the bank, grocery store, hardware store, or doctor office. I have also heard that they will start fining people that are not following the quarantine and multiple offenders can even get up to 6 months of jail time. I have not verified that so I don’t know if it is true or not. This is when things could start getting ugly.
Matthew and Allison seem to be doing ok so far. I can tell Emilee is stressed, the past day or so I can tell she is getting some pent up energy and she keeps asking a lot of the same questions over and over. Maybe I will start a rating system for how we are all doing mentally.
We had church today. This is the first time in my life that I have ever had to have the sacrament done in my own home. I thought is was a really good meeting. I could feel the Spirit. It is a huge blessing and comfort that we have the Lords gospel and it is organized and clear how to do things. Even when new situations that haven’t ever really happened before come up there is a clear process and way to do things. We kept it pretty simple and did an opening song,prayer,business, sacrament song, Ryan blessed the sacrament and Matthew passed it, then we read scriptures and had a closing song and prayer. Our Primary pianist and chorister made a video for the kids to watch for singing time so we did that afterwards. We assigned out some parts for next weeks church.
We had a planning meeting today also for this upcoming week. We talked about making sure all our bodies needs are met-physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. We discussed things that each of us need to do each day like;
Switch off between exercising and stretching for 45 minutes each day
Personal prayer and scriptures
Family prayer and scriptures
Read for fun for a minimum of 30 minutes a day
Go outside everyday
Daily chores
Laundry helper (kids will rotate each week)
Cooking helper
Practice piano minimum of 20 minutes each day
Teaching life skills with mom ~2 times a week
Hygiene habits with mom ~2 times a week
There is other things that vary a little bit but those are the things that will be standard each week. School stuff will get added in there too when the school stuff is out online from the district more. Life skills and hygiene habits are short little sessions with mom that review some aspect of hygiene (like using a q-tip) or life skills (how to sweep a floor) that they already know or should know but need a review. For example today we covered how to shower. They thought it was hilarious and were mortified that I had a stick figure drawing to help illustrate but all of them discovered 2-3 things that they were forgetting or not doing right.
Allison is going to get a little garden started this week with her dad. She is hoping to be able to do a salad garden with lettuce, peppers, and carrots. She wants to take over the whole back yard but I told her she has to start small and if it goes well she can expand.
Ryan is going to build the shelves in the basement bedroom closet. Emilee and I are going to finish condensing the toy room and her room while I finish getting the basement bedroom converted from a toy room to a bedroom. Matthew is planning on focusing a lot on his hitting and throwing for baseball.
It is all just odd. The world we lived and worked and socialized in less than two weeks ago has completely changed. Basically it has been canceled. There is nothing to prepare or get ready for, nothing to go to. It is a weird feeling. No reason to go to bed, no reason to get up in the morning. No plans. At. All. I can see how isolation can get to people. I wouldn’t say it is getting to me yet. I am pretty good at being alone but I have always had the option to change that when I decide I am not good with it anymore. I have my family too, so technically I am not alone. People that are single or live alone are in for a long couple months. Ryan is lucky to still have a job to work at home from too. So many people have been let go or had to close their business and that starts a whole other train of people that become affected as well. The economy was strong-growing and thriving in fact but this is a huge set back to recover from. I wish they would just implement a ‘pause’ in all of the financial stuff until this is over so people don’t have to declare bankruptcy or lose their job. It is going to be a job to get everthing ‘back to normal’.
I am sick of social media. The memes are funny but the rest of it just drives me crazy. Lots of rumors, misinformed or uniformed people ‘explaining’ things, people criticizing others. There is lots of good stuff going on as well. Many businesses and people are donating supplies or food or services during this time. I have taken a break from pretty much all of the news for the next little while. Ryan will let me know if I need to know something.
The icing on the cake today it that we found another gift from our crappy builder this morning. It has been raining a lot and one of our living room windows has water dripping inside from somewhere. We are thinking it is probably flashing or something but…getting it fixed is going to be a pickle. It might just be a ‘caulk the crap out of it’ until all this is over fix.
I’ve been getting a few things done around our house the last little while that have been on my list. Some of them I have done myself, others I hired out. The two that are the most exciting is out fireplace and the basement bathroom.
We have a gas fireplace and I have wanted to get a fan on it to make it functional not just pretty. The first time they came I asked them to show me how to adjust the flame and we found out that our stupid builder put a propane insert in instead of a gas one. I started this blog after we moved in but to catch everyone up. Our builder was a jerk on purpose and an idiot on accident so we had a lot of issues. So I was disappointed but not surprised when I found out they had installed the wrong fireplace insert. I was very relieved when they were able to find a conversion kit for $125 instead of needing a new $4000 insert. So they fixed that and then put the blower in. Now I can sit in front of my fireplace and read a book and get nice cozy warm toes.
The next big one that just got finished is our basement bathroom! They did the final paint touch-ups the day before they started all the quarantine stuff with COVID 19. Perfect timing! The plan is to move guest room downstairs when people visit. All the ‘rooms’ are done in the basement now. There is still a little finish work to done eventually but our house is getting closer and closer to our finished plans.
I don’t have a picture with all the finishings in it but you get the idea. 🙂
Before all this COVID 19 business I went to see my mom in Florida. She had shoulder surgery in January. DeAnna went out to visit at the beginning of the month and I went out at the end. She is doing pretty good when I saw her. She can’t drive so I think one of the hardest things for her is getting lonely when my dad is gone at work. She can’t use her right arm at all though. It is still pretty sensitive if it gets bumped even a little bit. We got out a little bit and did some window shopping. I helped her get some of their food stocked up. I made cookies, granola, and a breakfast casserole. We went on some walks. My dad took us around their apartments walking trail and we saw on of the three alligators he likes to keep tabs on. We watched some good movies too when she got a little worn out. I had a very nice trip and was glad I got to see her and my dad for a few days. They seem to be getting used to Florida and I am glad they have their own place now.
We have decided to dissolve our RV rental business. There seems to be a lot more interest from buyers at the price we want to sell them at here in Kansas so instead of flying back, I drove our RV “Cowboy” back. Kenny was following me a few days later with “Lil’ Sebastian”. I didn’t want to drive myself and luckily Lauren and Ethan were in Florida for a mother son trip for his 12th birthday so she was awesome and said that they would drive back with me instead of fly. It was slow going but we made the best of it. After getting flipped off, honked at, and yelled at by a few truck drivers we finally figured out the ‘rules of the road’ for driving in harmony with truck drivers that don’t like RV drivers.
While I was gone in Florida Ryan held the fort down at home. He went and ate lunch with both of the girls one of the days I was gone to be a nice dad. He also was able to watch Emilee receive her Student of the Month award from her teacher. Emilee also had her final basketball game for her season. She did really good this year. She improved and learned a lot, I was proud of her. Her stamina improved a bit too. She asked her coach to take her out many times but she never just walked off the court and sat down like she did last year.
She was more excited about the treats afterwards then the game.
Mrs. Ankrom’s Student of the Month for 1st Graded
Matthew had his 7th grade regional basketball tournament while I was gone as well. His team ended up winning first place for 7th Grade JV. He got a taste of the basketball excitement this year with playing and is already looking forward to next year.
When I got back I spent the next week cleaning and detailing the RV’s. Oh my goodness, it was so exhausting! I got Cowboy done just in time for Sebastian to arrive. Luckily Sherri came with Kenny so she helped me get him ready. Kenny fixed up the last few things on them and winterized them and set up showings. We sold Cowboy that weekend!! Woohoo! Sebastian is ready to go but hasn’t sold yet. All the COVID 19 stuff has shut down people’s interest in buying things for the moment, so hopefully once that all blows over we will be able to get that one sold too. The girls loved having their cousin Aubry around to play for a few days.
“Navigating these unprecedented events” Ugg, that is the buzz phrase you hear within ten seconds of listening or reading any type of news right now. The Coronavirus or COVID 19 for short that hit China in December 2019 and has had them in quarantine for almost 2 months has now spread to the rest of the world and been declared a global pandemic and things have been starting to get a little crazy.
Reports about things going on with the virus were in the news and it was a common topic but it wasn’t until about mid week last week that things started to escalate quite a bit. They announced that international travel was shutting down and started to cancel events for the next upcoming week or two. Our Spring Break was supposed to start this week. Ryan and Matthew were headed to Arizona for Spring Training with the Royals. It included a stop in Oklahoma for a NBA game and New Mexico to visit the Albuquerque temple. They were going to leave on Friday but by that time college and professional basketball had been canceled, temples were closed and baseball was postponed indefinitely. They ended up not going. The girls and I were going to go to Oklahoma for a few days to explore Tulsa a little bit but decided to hold off as well. Things were changing almost by the hour so we didn’t want to get somewhere and then get stuck without any supplies or have to move in with someone else and use their supplies.
This was the beginning of our quarantine. We were still including friends.🤦♀️ The kids were trying to make themselves a human table. There were four chairs under each of their bums and then we took them away one at a time until it was them supporting themselves.
Over the weekend they said that they would let us know if school would resume or not after spring break. They ended up announcing they were going to extend school closing through April 5th-an extra two weeks, but the next day the Governor of Kansas said all Kansas schools were closed for the rest of the school year. Our district is hoping to have some online school stuff available for the kids to do starting in April. Tons of people on social media are freaking out about doing home school and posting about what they are doing. I don’t feel the need to jump right into that boat since this is our original Spring Break anyway. I have plenty of life skills that I can teach and review with them in the absence of school. We are currently focusing on close quarter social skills, maintaining a clean environment, expanding our ‘things I can do without a screen’ knowledge, color sorting and linear folds with laundry, cooking basics and above. We have daily review courses in personnal hygiene, germ transferring, and washing your hands. Our trampoline has been used more in the past week then the last year and we are planning on going through all of our games and puzzles too. I have offered piano lessons but no one has taken me up on that. I have been getting lots of practice in though. I have also been doing lots of reading.
Local and federal governments have requested everyone to self quarantine themselves with their families for two weeks. EVERYTHING is closed. Everything that is entertainment I guess. Movie theaters, any indoor play areas, restaurants are drive thru only if they are still open. The stores have been cleared out of any staples including milk, eggs, bread, rice, beans, toilet paper, and anything that kills germs like clorox wipes or hand sanitizer. All sports or extra curricular activities are canceled or put off until summer. Everyone that can is supposed to work from home. Most businesses are closing so those people are out of work until further notice. Church has been canceled. Dental offices have been asked to cancel all non emergency appointments. If you are out for some reason everyone is requested to use ‘social distancing’ another buzz phrase that will be forever etched in everyone’s brain. It means to not touch anyone and keep a minimum of 6 feet away from people at all times. All of this is to “flatten the curve” which means to lessen the exposure and keep the numbers of people needing treatment down so that hospitals and doctor offices are not overwhelmed and unable to treat people.
If I remember right there are five different phases that a pandemic will go through before it is considered over. It is estimated that we are still in the first phase, which means we have not reached the peak of individuals that will be infected and numbers are still expected to increase exponentially.
How is this for a knowledge tree. Ryan’s bosses, girlfriends, son is an aide or secretary on Air Force Two, which transports a lot of secretary of state or defense government officials. He said that they are very close to shutting everything down and allowing no travel or people to leave their homes at all. A few states have shut down all non-essential stores and businesses and I am sure more will follow. The only way I can see them not allowing people to leave their homes at all is if they declare martial law-which is INSANE.
On top of that there was a 5.7 earthquake in Salt Lake Utah yesterday. DeAnna and her family are ok. Hopefully there aren’t anymore of them.
Changes like this, especially so quickly naturally bring panic and worry with them. It is wonderful to have a living prophet to help us be prepared and ready for things so we can be calm and not stress as much as we would if we weren’t prepared. The prophet has been telling us for years to get prepared by having a month up to a year supply of food, water, and money in case something were to happen. This has definitely been a reminder for how fast things can change. One a Wednesday evening we were at a Girl Scout meeting, doing home work and gymnastics, business as usual. The next day stores are out of everything and people are going a little crazy getting ready to quarantine themselves for two weeks. The Prophet also implemented a new home based church supported curriculum a little over a year ago in our church so we can even continue right on with our spiritual study without much of a hitch even though church has been canceled. It is very comforting to know that there is a sure place to look for guidance when life starts getting crazy.
This is a screen shot of one of my favorite meme’s going around right now. There is a lot. I have decided to take a social media break for a while.
Saturday was busy with Girl Scout Cookie Booths, baseball practice, basketball games, and a friends baptism. As we were finishing up the last activity we had scheduled for the day Grandma and Grandpa Terry arrived to stay for a few days.
The rest of Saturday through Monday we made our house the gathering spot and the kids played and had fun together. Grandma had brought her usual stash of candy and crafts or other activities for the kids to do. They had a lot of fun art projects to decorate their rooms with (or sell was Allison’s plan). Grandpa was recruited to read or make up his own stories too.
Emilee went to work with her dad one of the afternoons. She has been begging to go with him for awhile so Ryan took her. She actually loved it. She brought her lunch and they ate in the kitchen together and she sat next to him at his desk and helped or watched a movie on Netflix.
At work with Dad.
To feed everyone I went with my favorite winter meal planning for dinners-soups! Chicken noodle, broccoli cheddar, potato, and chili were all part of the menu.
Tuesday the kids went back to school. Roger and Rhonda visited with me for the morning and then went to look at houses for a bit before everyone met at Matthew’s basketball game. He had a good game and enjoyed showing off his skills he has been working on the past few months. After his game we decided to do a ‘traditional’ dinner out together for our last meal with all of us before Grandma and Grandpa Terry headed back home.
The past few years when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit we have been going to a place called Steak-N-Shake for dinner one of the nights they are here. It has a variety of options for adults and kids so everyone is happy. It is a fifties style diner so it is casual and a fun environment. It isn’t usually to busy so all 12 of us can get a table together pretty quick, and the food is decent and pretty cheap as well. The best part is they last part of their name…the Shakes are delicious and there are many choices. We have gone there probably a dozen times at least in the past few years.
However, each time we go we are always a little surprised to see that Steak-N-Shake is still actually in business. The service is ridiculously awful. Not intentionally, which is why instead of never coming back we usually joke about it instead. They are very polite and try their best it is just…silly. This time we discussed it might really be time for us to find a new dinner place when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit. Here is how our last dinner there went.
Once we all got situated at the table our waiter arrived about 10 minutes later, which is much faster than usual. We estimated he was maybe 15 years old, maybe I am old so everyone seems young to me but I don’t think anyone working there including the cooks looked like they were older than 18. He took our drink order (11 waters and 1 coke) and disappeared to fill it. He made several trips back and forth between our table and the kitchen but eventually successfully got everyone something to drink. He then left. A few minutes later we flagged him down and asked if we could place our food order. He apologized for the delay and says yes but then realized he didn’t have his pad or pen he needed to take our order and runs to get it. When he returned with his pen he made the announcement that he was a little flustered because he was new. Brand new. We were his first order. We were not surprised at all because EVERY time we eat there the waiter at some point or another tells us they have been working there for less than a week. We don’t know if this is true or a tactic they are trained to say to get more leeway with their horrible service. In this young mans case I think he really was taking his first order. Whoever the person in charge was, thought giving the new guy a table of 12 people for his first go as a waiter was a good idea.
He went around the table and took each of our orders. He was very thorough and asked a lot of questions. When he was all done he asked if he could repeat it back to us for accuracy. When he did this we thought he didn’t know how to read his own handwriting but found out that the restaurant uses its own short hand or abbreviations when taking orders to make it ‘easier’ for everyone to understand. However, our waiter (I’m just going to call him Ben from now on) didn’t quite have the abbreviations down so when he tried to repeat it back to us he wasn’t sure what he had wrote and he basically had to take our orders again.🤦♀️ Eventually he got it down and once again headed back to the kitchen to give our order to the cooks.
When Ben gave us the receipt to pay for our food, he also handed us the papers he wrote our orders on. I was almost sassy and asked him if he wanted to keep them in memory of his first day on the job. Instead, I kept my mouth shut and decided to take a picture for my own memory of our fun time-probably the last time- eating at Steak-N-Shake. We tried to figure out whose order was whose but we couldn’t.
This is about the time we get nice and settled in because we know we aren’t going to get our food for a while. I often look around at this point and do a little people watching in the restaurant. There is usually one or two other tables. One of them has often placed their order sometime before we even arrived but hasn’t got their food yet. Sometimes the mom might be reminding everyone to be patient, “It can’t possibly take to much longer.” The dad sometimes will be muttering about his irritation at the wait. Often at some point people start comparing with other tables about how long they have been waiting.
Since the kids are older now, it isn’t to big of a deal for us to wait. Especially since they each have a cousin to interact with while we wait. About 15-20 minutes go by and Ben comes over to check with us. We tell him we are doing fine. He tells us that the cook ‘flipped out’ when he saw our order but it shouldn’t be much longer. We kind of laughed and said something about we hope that means he doesn’t spit in our food, to which he replies, “Oh no, I don’t think he would do that.” 🤦♀️ In the mean time the shakes we ordered are ready so he will bring them out. Seven of the 12 of us ordered a shake with our meal. They only brought 6 shakes and of those, only three were made correctly. After figuring out what was ordered and if anyone wanted to switch their order for what was actually brought they had to remake two of the shakes.
While the new shakes were being made they brought out the first few trays of food. I was watching Ben the hole time and saw it happen but still couldn’t figure out how. About half way to our table the top half of one of the burgers just rolled right off the tray to the floor. Ben tried to catch it but just hit it and flipped it around a little more before it hit the floor. I don’t think he realized how close he came to dumping the other four plates of food still on the tray while trying to save the burger. Luckily it just teetered a little and smacked the lady at another table still waiting for her own food to arrive in the back of the head. Ben decided to leave the burger on the floor and come set down the tray he still had (very smart decision Ben). He told us that HALF of one of the burgers had not made the trip from the kitchen to our table so he was getting that fixed. Then he gave everyone else a plate of food. When he left to get the new ‘top half of a burger’ we all switched plates and gave it to the correct person who ordered it. I was the lucky winner of the half cheeseburger plate. I watched Ben like a hawk to make sure I actually got a new burger and not the same one that had been brushed off. Instead of a whole new burger he quickly brought back a new cheeseburger on a top bun with lettuce ketchup and mustard and slapped it down on top of the bottom bun and tomato that had survived the first trip with all the grace you would expect from a 15 year old on his first day on the the job.🤦♀️
After a few more trips to the kitchen and back we all ended up with our orders. Jovee was in the mood to be a problem solver instead of waiting for Ben so she went to the kitchen three times herself to request items we were missing once we had our food. Once for silverware, once for napkins, and once for spoons because the silverware didn’t come with spoons.
It was about a 1 1/2 hour ‘fast food’ meal by the time we were ready to leave. We all got a good laugh about our experience and enjoyed our meal together. That is not the end of the story though. You still have to pay for the food. It doesn’t seem the restaurant has a clear plan for how to check someone out when they are ready to leave. You have to stand in front of the register and announce you are ready to pay about three times before someone comes over. Then they always seem to find the one person that appears to have never seen a cash register before, let alone used it. It takes FOREVER. We have all found things to entertain us while we wait. Roger is sweet to pay for everyone. Ross assists Roger because he usually has some combinations of coupons he insists we use that complicates the process for the already frazzled cashier. Ryan and Rhonda recalculate and sneak in an extra tip at the table without Roger noticing. The girls beg for quarters for the candy or toy machines they have. Matthew and Ethan pretend they are too cool for the candy machines by explaining they are designed to take your money without giving you a toy but if the girls have money they will help them get the toys, and Lauren and I try to figure out what this sign directly above the checkout counter means.
We did our best to guess but couldn’t figure it out. We weren’t sure what the second letter was. We thought it was maybe another language so we cheated and googled it. Google said it is TAKHOMASAK. A ‘famous’ saying created by Steak-N-Shake encouraging customers to take a sack of burgers home with them when they leave. We were still confused until we said it out loud. Get it… Takhomasak=take home a sack.
Fun times at Steak-N-Shake! Hurry in and have your fun time before the health department visits and shuts them down, it burns down because they have five new untrained teenagers running it every week, or they go bankrupt because no one knows how to run the cash register.
