yesterday's meatloaf is today's sloppy joe

We are so blessed to have the cafeteria available to us for free! However, while the student's aren't here the cafeteria is closed. But, this is probably good so Elle will have memories of her mother cooking. We usually only eat in the cafeteria for dinner. Chris is usually gone before Elle gets up in the morning and a lot of the students don't have lunch at the same time, or have to eat a sack lunch over in the school building so we like to reserve lunch as our family meal. Dinner is always 5:30-6:30. For the last week or so we have had lunch in the caf because I didn't want to have to go to the store until absolutely necessary. Plus, we'll be on our own for two and 1/2 weeks so we thought we'd take advantage of someone else worrying about what to eat. The caf is contracted out to a company who decides what we eat. The company is different this year than in the past, but they hired all the same people who worked here previously. However, many of the students (and adults) complain about the food not being as good, monotonous, and they run out a lot of the times. They've gone through several managers and currently have temps rotating through. Not sure what the deal is with that. Overall, the foods pretty okay. There is a little of the meatloaf-sloppy joe thing that goes on, but it's not too bad. For lunch and dinner you can choose from the hot entree, the grill, salad bar, soup, or have a deli sandwich or even cereal. I'm still amazed at the kids who bring in microwave meals as well. There's usually dessert and always ice cream (a favorite around here). We have plenty of drink selections as well, except no Diet Dr. Pepper, but I guess it's not QT so you can't have everything. We tried getting the kids to sit with us, but they don't like to eat with us for some reason. We usually sit by ourselves or with the other faculty residents. If we're there at lunch we eat at "the teacher table". We keep a booster seat and disposable bibs on top of one of the closets on the side. Elle usually roams around while Chris and I get the food and then if she finishes first you can find her a) playing by herself under the tables, on the bench, or running around or b) playing with Jonathan (another prof's son) who lives on the 3rd floor or other faculty. She's still cautious of most of the students so she doesn't usually bother them. We also try to keep her out of the fireplaces. It's really eating in a cafeteria with a tray and everything, but we don't have to do the dishes! If you want to visit sometime we can let you experience it first hand. Of course it will have to be when the student's are here as well.