A Long Time...

These last few months have been very, very busy. We moved to Thermopolis. Looked forever for a place to live and settled on a little house to rent for now. I think that we looked at every house for sale here in Thermop!

When the 16th of November came I don't know that I was ready for what was about to happen. I was scared to death, thrilled, and nearly pee'ed down both legs a time or two! The condition of the store was a little worse than you could see from the outside looking in. We bought a semi truck of groceries and that was only a small improvement... 4 trucks later the store finally felt like it had product on the shelves even with the massive holes from where the previous owners had pulled the ordering information from items that sold out.

For the first few weeks Mindy stayed in Powell and I lived at the Super 8. Let me tell you, if you have the opportuninty to do that... or get kicked in the teeth with steel toed boots... take the steel toed boots! I lived there for almost a month with no fridge, no microwave, not hot water on some days and rusty orange-ish black-ish water on most days. Lucky for me I didn't have to be there all that much because the store required a lot of time. I was spending a 120 hours a week at the store trying to clean things up and make them presentable. Fortunately I am now able to only spend around 75-80 hours a week... maybe I'll get a part time job with all the free time I have! Ha ha

The work has been really rewarding. The people of Thermopolis have almost declared the store sacred ground. They were hungry for a store that treated them as a guest, and gave them a choice. The comments we still recieve are tear jerkers, and literally people still come up and introduce themselves, saying how appreciative they are we came to town. It really gives the 20 years of work prior to this a lot of validity. For 20 years I helped build the name Blair's Market, the brand, the end product... and for those who experienced it they loved it! It's also been a testament to Kent and his hard work. EVERYONE in Thermop has been to the Worland store, and they compare our little store to the Worland store. I have some pretty big shoes to fill. But I know that the hard work will be very rewarding to the guest. It won't be long and we will bust the seams on this little store and be begging the corporation for a store stretcher!

I do have to say that it is wonderful to be able to have Mindy at the store. Some days I know she questioned why I was so tired... now she knows that I don't sit in the office all day and point fingers and shout orders! She works really hard to help us be the best and she is a very valuable asset... and she lets me do what I love, serve the guest.

So for now, we survived the Holidays... and are looking forward to pushing the limits of this little store while we learn, grown, teach and have fun!