Wendy Noble is a busy lady. A mother of five, she has managed to
perfect the fine art of balancing work with a successful family
life
– no small feat, considering she holds down two jobs.
Hollister – Wendy Noble is a busy lady. A mother of five, she has managed to perfect the fine art of balancing work with a successful family life – no small feat, considering she holds down two jobs.
“I’m just an ordinary mom, working my way through life,” she said. “Wishing I’d win the lottery.”
Born in Bakersfield, Noble’s family moved to Hollister when she was still a toddler, and she has lived in town for the past 40 years.
“This town has changed so much,” she said. “I could show you where all the orchards used to be, and I could tell you who owned them.”
After high school, Noble had a number of jobs before settling as a general manager for a Marie Calendar’s restaurant in Morgan Hill, where she stayed for several years. During the holidays, Noble oversaw a staff of up to 110 people hired to help with the pre-Thanksgiving pumpkin pie rush.
“We would make over 700 pies the week before Thanksgiving,” she said. “We had the ovens going 24 hours a day, literally. And when the ovens broke, I had to climb in and fix it – and I’m claustrophobic. But I didn’t want to have to turn anyone down and say ‘Sorry, you can’t have a pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.'”
Twelve years ago, Noble had a fateful meeting with an old friend from high school, Doug. In the years since the two graduated, Doug had become a youth karate teacher. Noble admired his way with children, and the two were married in 1993.
“I know everyone is proud of their husband,” she said. “But the way he teaches these kids pride and respect is amazing. There are kids all over the tri-county area who know that he really cares about them.”
Today her husband still teaches karate, and Noble wears a couple different professional hats: By night she’s a waitress at Dona Esther in San Juan Bautista, and during the day she runs the Java Express at San Benito High School.
“We have a lot of great high school kids in this town, and I have a lot of fun with them. But I think they get stereotyped because of how they dress,” she said. “There are some hard-core looking boys who hang out near the Java Express, and the other day Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer came on the radio… the 10 of them started singing, and we all laughed and watched them. I love that age.”
The key to balancing work and family, Noble says, is organization. By dividing household chores among the family, everyone has more time to spend together. And family time is what she says is her biggest source of satisfaction in life.
“My kids are amazing,” she said. “My second oldest has an culinary externship at Pebble Beach… and my youngest has a mohawk. I’ve just tried to teach my kids self-respect, and not to judge other people. We’re all just trying to do our best and have a great life.”
In her free time, Noble enjoys going out to football games and the movies with her family, and says she could never imagine leaving Hollister.
“I just want to help my kids keep plugging along at school and want to try to get ahead a little, financially,” she said. “But we love Hollister. It’s home.”
As to what she’ll do when she finally wins the lottery?
“I’d pay off my house taxes for the next 50 years,” she said. “I just really hate getting that bill.”
