Date Night

Joshua had the day off and I had to work in the morning but we decided to do something after I got done with work. Joshua said he would plan something and did well by not letting me know what. 

After I got done with work, I went to my car and found a note and rose on my windshield. I know...awww! Well done Joshua! But it doesn't end there. The note said to drive to a park near our apartment and to meet him at the top of the hill.

I get to the park and man was that a hill I had to walk up. But I get to the top and find Joshua. He had a picnic all laid out for us (that was one of our first dates years ago). We enjoyed the nice weather and the food and the view.

We were going to watch a movie afterwards but Joshua fell asleep since he's so tired from working 10 hour days 6 days a week. But at least it was nice to do something with him and see him for more than 10 minutes!

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Enjoying the weather

Drinking hot tea

All smiles

The rose he left on my car

Melissa and Rob's Wedding

What an awesome day!!! The weather was a bit chilly but that won't stop us from having a great time, although Joshua did have to miss out.

My friend Meghan and I got to the wedding place earlier than the rest of the guests. We and another girl were asked to help out to make sure the ceremony place looked great and to hand out programs and anything else that Melissa needed. Anything for the bride :)

The ceremony went smoothly. Nice and short. And Melissa and Rob looked great!

Cocktail hour was great too with hor d'oeuvres like meatballs, bacon water chestnuts and french fries with tartar/ketchup sauce in martini glasses. Delish!!! Not to mention all the candy I munched on. Melsa had the best idea and had a candy stand where we could dish out our own candy into bags as our party favors. Talk about sugar overload!

Dinner was amazing...I got steak done medium rare, a little too rare for me but none the less still ate most of it. 

Dancing was so much fun! Always is with the OC crew. And we had A LOT of fun with the photo booth that was there. You can just imagine the type of pictures that were taken.

Thanks Melissa and Rob for an awesome night!!!

Fun With Photo Booth!!!

Joshua Ciafullo, Sous Chef

Alright, so I haven't really mentioned anything about this for weeks cause I didn't want to jinx it.

JOSHUA IS NOW A SOUS CHEF 

AT THE MARRIOTT!!!!!

He has worked so hard and I'm extremely proud of him for sticking with it!

So how did this all come about?

When Joshua came to Wisconsin, he became a server then met me a year later. To impress me, he cooked me an elaborate dinner and then he realized, maybe I could do this as a job. He got a cooking job at a French restaurant through a friend of the owner where he was serving. He learned a bunch of stuff there but wasn't that happy. Luckily while waiting for me to get done at Old Chicago one night, he met a guy there who was a Sous Chef at the Marriott. They got to talking about what they did and lo and behold, the guy was leaving and they were looking for a cook. He told Joshua to go apply and he would vouch for him. And that's how he ended up at the Marriott.

Joshua worked as a rounds cook for the first two years, becoming the Associate of the Year in 2007 then he got promoted to Lead Cook. In 2009, he volunteered and got volunteered to go help open a Marriott in Bloomington-Normal, IL. He was helping so much that they wanted to keep him there. Joshua then got Associate of the Month in Nov 2009 after helping to open.

This year has been the most interesting year for Joshua and cooking opportunities. The Marriott in IL offered Joshua a job in April and it was a tough decision but we decided to forego it. Joshua got a second job at a catering place that does both sit-down and catering. He only worked there for 4 days in a two week span and they offered him a head chef job but the environment was so bad that Joshua wouldn't be able to do his best work there so he decided to forego it. In the meanwhile, he applied at a different restaurant and they loved him, of course, and told him to call back when he got back from our Smokies vacation.

And the sous chef position finally opened up at the Marriott so he applied for it. It took a couple of weeks but Joshua was a finalist of three. Then they each had to make a couple of dishes using specific ingredients kinda like something you would see on a cooking show. And just last night, the Marriott offered Joshua the Sous Chef position! It's a slight increase in pay, more responsibility, more chance for overtime hours but same benefits. More importantly, it's the title. So after all these years of putting hard work into the Marriott and turning down multiple jobs, he finally has the job he has been working towards since day 1 at the Marriott.

And all this without a culinary degree!

Joshua, Sous Chef