2009 July | Whitney Kolb

On July 31, 2009 / Faith & Family / Leave a comment

What a crazy, fun, adventurous week we have just had. A brief recap:

Hubs lost a major line on Monday. This falls into the obviously not-so-great category, but in a strange twist of hormonal emotion, I’m glad we’re not in limbo.
Hubs got a major opportunity on Monday. Probably part of the reason I’m able to remain so optimistic about the above point.
I renegotiated some legal fees, some production fees, and a few other invoices this week.
Saw favorite friends, The Senators Wife + fam on Wednesday night. We always love catching up with their adventures.
MIL came to town today and we found some major sale fabric for baby’s room, so, yes, the decor has changed again. I walked out of the fabric store with 36 yards of fabric for $12. No, that’s not a typo. I’ll post pictures of it later.
Got to catch up this evening with an old friend who just had a baby. I’m loving the scoop from everyone on the whole child-bearing process, so it was good to hear more about that.
We dropped a major rep group this week. So sad, but it was time to regroup. This is probably the hardest thing about this week, and one of the scariest, but again, remaining optimistic is absolutely necessary at this point.
Our new production system is almost ready to be implemented. I feel a learning curve coming on!
Was able to reach out and help someone who needed something more than I did. Actually, a couple of people. And that feels good.
A coworker closed on her first house! Always a big deal, and I’m so excited for her!

It seems to be a week fraught with emotion and changes, and I’m sure there is more to come next week. Honestly, for one of the first times in my life, I don’t have a plan for anything, just a vision for where we want to end up, and I’m trying to just focus on that.

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On July 30, 2009 / Design / Leave a comment

Now I have the gimmes. This picture makes me want French doors, white marble counter tops, and white kitchen cabinets. [sigh] From Things That Inspire.

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On July 29, 2009 / Nursery / Leave a comment

The bedding caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. The green edging on the binding seemed to be just the same color as the walls in the soon-to-be nursery. And the clouds were aqua, not light blue. And the stork was white on tan. And the whole set was on sale. And we wouldn’t have to paint the wall.
So, like a dutiful wife, I came home, told hubs about the bedding (and the fact that he wouldn’t have to paint the walls), and he agreed to go look at it. And then he agreed to purchase it. And then we were done.

So, baby’s room has evolved. From aqua, tan and white, to green, aqua, tan, white, with a touch of orange. With storks. Something I never thought I’d be into, but hey, it works!

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On July 28, 2009 / Once Upon A Time / Leave a comment

Today we met with our CPA. I’m getting a better handle on some financials. Feeling organized is awesome.
Today we heard some woes. It seems like everyone is singing them lately. People are surprisingly upbeat, despite the fact that almost every one we know is having a down year, job-wise.
Today we had the carpets cleaned. They are beautiful. And ready for a crib to be put together.
Today, we brainstormed life. Where we’re going, what we’re doing, what kind of adventure it will take us on. I pulled out some excel spreadsheets and tried to document a plan. We ended up with too many excel spreadsheets.
Today, no doors were closed. A few might have been pushed open, which is exciting. We will see. At this point, I’m up for anything.
The best part about today was the “we”. We are so in this together, so happy to be in it together, so excited to see where it all takes us.

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On July 28, 2009 / Gratitude / 3 Comments

Things to be grateful for:

An amazing husband
Baby-on-the-way
Incredible friends who throw and attend amazing showers
Gainful employment
Precious co-workers that pick me up when I’m down
A newly refinanced house with an amazing interest rate
Some pretty incredible stats on album sales in the past month

Really, in the scheme of things, that’s a lot.

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On July 22, 2009 / Design / Leave a comment

I love ponytails. Well, maybe less of a ponytail, and more of a looped-over bunch of hair on the back of my head. But when (and if) I dry my hair in the mornings, this is what I see when I flip my head upside down. And, it makes me really happy, every time. There is just something about oval-backed French chairs that makes me all bubbly inside.

I’ll be honest; usually the chair is lately covered with a pile of maternity clothes. It’s seems I’m stuck rewearing the same stuff every other day, so after it’s washed, I’ve been stacking the clothes here, so that I don’t have to go digging through a closet of sizes that don’t even come CLOSE to fitting.

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On July 20, 2009 / Biz / Leave a comment

So, I’m going to head to bed in a few, but I wanted to recap the weekend. It’s been all too short, in a very crazy way. I stayed up until five in the morning on Saturday, tweaking stuff on another website. I was in The Zone, in a major way. Woke up a few hours later on Saturday morning, and proceed to spend another day doing, well, the exact same thing. Optimizing websites is fun. After a long Saturday afternoon nap, I fiddled with some actual PHP code for the first time–nothing major, but was proud of myself for thinking through a few simple code issues.
I stayed up until the wee hours again on Saturday night, tinkering away on google until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. After a few more hours of sleep, I got up and decided to finish the website project, and close the computer, and do something lazy for a change. Like watch way too much HGTV and fall asleep for a long Sunday afternoon nap.
And after that, I tackled some work email, decided I wanted ice cream for dinner, and headed through the Braum’s drive-through.
That weekend may sound as boring as all get out to you, but I LOVED it. The website thing is my hobby–it’s challenging, but solvable. Unfortunately, it takes hours to get things accomplished, and weekends like this with no interruptions. And sometimes, in the case of SEO, months to see results. And in a side note, I’ll admit that I will miss these long empty weekends after kiddo gets here.
I’m excited to get this week started, even though I seem to be following the same trend of the past few nights. It’s almost 3 a.m., and that doesn’t exactly make me feel like I’m going to start off the week rested. There is a lot to do, but we have the man power to make it happen, and I’m excited about what we’ve done, and feel confident that we have a few more weeks to make some major headway for the holiday season.

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On July 12, 2009 / Pregnancy / 1 Comment

It’s amazing how a change of scenery can help shift perspective. I’ve been in Atlanta with the hubs for the past three days. We’ve been working, walking, talking, networking, so it hasn’t exactly been a vacation, but it’s been refreshing to meet up with friends in the industry, catch up, get some fresh ideas, and come home to a made up bed our hotel room each night.
At the moment, I can’t sleep, so I’m catching up on randomness–what people are doing on Facebook, Twitter, reading the trashy celebrity gossip blogs, all that. I hopped on over to BabyCenter.com and logged in–thank goodness that site is there to remind me how many weeks pregnant I am, as I’m happier forgetting that, if possible.
Thirty-two weeks. Which means two more months to go. On one hand, that is WAY too long to wait. I’m already constantly short of breath, very uncomfortable, and tired of being kicked. On the other hand, I’m worried that eight weeks is not enough time to finish getting the nursery in order and everything life aligned. I know I’ll figure it out. But, yikes!
In case you’re curious, BabyCenter.com says kiddo weighs approx 3.75 pounds and is about 16 inches long at the moment, and will gain about a pound a week from here on out. This is gonna get interesting!

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On July 9, 2009 / Faith & Family / 1 Comment

I know I can be intense sometimes. And I’ll admit that I’ve been better about “turning it off” than I have lately.

But I’m feeling a MAJOR responsibility crunch right now that I’ve never felt before. I don’t know if other people have felt this before, and tried to express it to me, and I just haven’t been listening.
My life is changing, has changed, and will change, DRASTICALLY this year.

Change #1: Without planning to do so, the economy has gradually made me the primary bread-winner for our family.
Change #2: The whole family part of that sentence. There are soon to be THREE of us. That’s just nuts.
Change #3: The whole economy part of this scenario. It’s so out of my control. Yet, I still bear the responsibility of making sure paychecks get cut each week.

I don’t mind being the bread-winner. If anything, my husband and I have great personalities for this arrangement. My ability to focus really pays off in the self-employment arena, and hubs is just laid back enough to know how to balance out that part of my personality. It does throw me a little off kilter that we didn’t plan for things to happen this way–that’s dose #1 of responsibility.

Then, there is the whole family thing. The overwhelming part of this is that my life isn’t about cute shoes anymore. It’s going to be about making sure a kiddo is fed, clothed, cared for, and properly educated. A heaping dose #2 of responsibility. (But I am saving a ton of money not buying cute shoes!)

Normally, this wouldn’t intimidate me in the slightest. But when you lump the economy on top of this, that adds dose #3 of pressure. I’ve always had a high sensitivity to the fact that I provide the income for a handful of people. I’m fine with viewing my position in their lives as responsible for providing their income–I can accept that. The great thing about the people I work with is that they are grateful, which in turn just makes me want to do more for them.

But all this equates to a very intense version of me, right now. I’m working close to 24/7, weekends included. We have a workflow system to install, accounting procedures to implement, customer service people to hire, cross training sessions to train, customers to take care of, products to design, images to distribute…the list goes on and on. I have a finite number of days until kiddo gets here, and changes my life forever. I KNOW I won’t be able to work as much then, and I’m sure I’ll be grateful for the break. But until that point in time comes, I have to do EVERYTHING in my power to make sure that my husband and employees are provided for. It’s not about me right now. It’s not about a party, or a good time, it’s about doing what needs to get done to make sure that everyone has everything they need to get their job done.

And so, I’m overwhelmed. Lest I sound like a complainer, let me clarify that I am NOT complaining. This is my life. The decisions that I have made have brought me to this point. I alone am responsible for where I currently stand. I get that, I embrace that, I can live with that. I don’t run from it–if anything, I’m grateful for it.

But, it is a lot to deal with right now. And I’m still overwhelmed. It will get better–things will level off, stabilize, and maybe they won’t change as drastically as what I am preparing for. Until that happens, I just have to keep going.

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On July 5, 2009 / Movies with Style / 1 Comment

Lately, I’ve loved watching movies. It’s too hot to go outside, there is nothing on television, and when the evenings have gotten long, the hubs and I have turned to the good ol’ Netflix subscription.
Shortly after hubs and I started dating again, I suggested we go the movies. Hubs is rarely vehement about anything, but his response on this was: the movies are loud, have annoying kids sitting in the back row, have too much texting and cell phone activity going on, and are dirty. I really couldn’t argue with him on any of those points, but asked if we could go see a recent movie anyway. We did, and sure enough, the kids in the back row were loud, rude, the sound on the movie got messed up halfway through, and it was dirty. We haven’t returned since.

However, at dinner the other night, a friend told me about the Warren Theatre in Moore. “Once you go to the Warren, you never go back [to a regular theatre].” She told us about the seats, the balcony, the food. Honestly, I didn’t think much of her review, because I was so annoyed the last time we were at the theatre. On top of that, the Warren is in Moore. MOORE. People, it might as well be in Texas–why would I go to Moore to watch a movie?

But last night, a friend from Norman called and wanted to hang out. We needed something to do that was in between my way-north house, and her way-south house. So, I suggested the Warren. I checked their website, and found out there was a restaurant there, so we met early to eat.

Let me tell you something. THAT PLACE ROCKS. (And keep in mind that this review is coming from someone who hates crowds, hates public restrooms, and hates amusement parks.) It is equivalent to Vegas–the Wynn of Oklahoma City. Well worth the thirty minute drive, it was clean, and spacious, and elegant and impressive. The seats were cushy. There were signs everywhere that said cell phone users would be evicted with no refund. The diner was a little bit vintage in feel (with jukebox), but sharp. The milkshakes were yummy. There is a balcony (tickets to movies shown in the balcony are $18), where the age requirement is 21 and the seats are heated. All in all, the experience seemed to evoke reminders that “going to the movies” was supposed to be something special–a treat–and not just a place to drop your kids off at on Saturday nights. It was Disney-ish. I will be returning to Moore again to watch a movie, soon.

From a business perspective, I hope they succeed. I hope that a theatre that offers a true, old-fashioned, movie-going perspective can not only succeed, but thrive and become sustainable in today’s society.

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