Here's My Checkbook. You Can Just Fill It Out.

Yesterday the ice machine broke.

Today the fridge stopped working.

The computer can't open Quickbooks.

Our advertised free WiFi works only for some people.

The music system cuts in and out.

Our first customer complaint.

I would like one day where I don't write a major check for this business.

A Day in Tsubo

I first saw these on a girl who I worked with at the nonprofit and I thought they were cute. Of course, she was the type that could wear athletic clothes on casual Fridays and look cute, whereas if I wore my lulu lemon hoodie to the office I would just look like an idiot.

I thought the shoes were so cute that I googled them and then I learned that they were designed for comfort. So I immediately hated them. Who wears comfortable shoes?

Well I will tell you who. Someone who spent an entire morning mopping a restaurant floor in career heels before she went to her lawyer job and someone whose two big toenails fell off after running in her son's shoes by mistake. What? TMI?

So I broke down and bought a pair of these comfortable shoes out of desperation and reminding myself that I once thought that they were cute before I knew they were suppose to be comfortable.

My feet are such wreck that I cannot tell you my feet felt great in these shoes, but I really did not even notice I was wearing heels. And I suspect if my sad two job runners feet were normal feet, these would be perfect. In other words, I approve.

Love This One

The boy keeping himself occupied with the iPad camera while his mom shops for a new grown up bag (i.e. not Kate Spade. Although I must admit, that astro turf shopper is so cool.)

And Then The Thrill Wore Off

This week my son is on Spring Break and my boss said I should just work form home today and find some time to do something with my son (provided I got a letter out this morning).

Ahhhhh! Without having to get anybody out the door, this meant I could sleep until 7:00. Bliss. A full night's sleep. It has been weeks and weeks on end since I have had (1) a full night's sleep, or (2) not seen 5 on clock.

At 5:45 a.m. our morning person for the store called in sick. I so very very much wanted that full night's rest and easy morning. I NEEDED IT FOR MY SANITY. Oh well.

My What a Nice Coffee Machine You Have

Don't hate me because my coffee machine is beautiful.

The coffee business is picking up slowly. Our coffee is really, really good. Right now I open at 6:30 but we probably only serve a handful of coffees before I leave to go to my law job. We certainly don't sell enough to pay overhead during that time, but we also can't start a morning coffee business reputation if we aren't open.

Things slowed down considerably altogether after our first week honeymoon. I had planned to purchase a grownup purse this evening (i.e. not a Kate Spade) but I think I had better wait.

Obsessed

I love color.

Remember after the 80s fizzled and everyone went monochrome black and wore understated jewelry. boo.

I fear we are headed back there after all the neon this season - sooner or later the general public is going to say, "If I see one more neon yellow accessory, I am going to just start buying all black." Hear me now and remind me how I right I was later - Vogue's September Issue is going to be all about black. But until then, and after then if you are like me and live in a place where nobody cares what it says in Vogue or if you wear your pajamas to the Safeway at 3 in the afternoon, I dare you to go to kendrascott.com and not fall in love with something in your favorite color.

My favorite color is not, actually, pink, and it would never occur to me to accessorize with a feather or something that looks like a pastie, but darn if I don't want these. In pink and in blue and in white and in yellow and in green. Go forth bloggy friend and play on Kendra Scott. You shall have fun. Plus, girlfriend is a Texan. Also, having lived in Dallas, and having returned to Dallas from time to time, I want to apologize on behalf of my fair city for inflicting upon you Big Rich Texas. I know not of where one digs up such scanks.

Nooks

Y'all have seen this before - my favorite nook. It's the kitchen window with the angel my friend Cheryl gave me after my mom passed away, the picture of Tahiti where we stayed the first night of our honeymoon, and you can barely see them, but also all the origami butterflies that my son made me that go up the wall. I love standing there at the kitchen sink and watching the world go by on the Parkway.

My other favorite nook? Our store in the morning. I love being near my restaurant quality espresso machine, having sunrise light up the store, listening to our Manager's Eagle music on the stereo, and greeting the area's residents when they come in to try out our coffee. It's just beautiful.

So, you ask, why is there not a picture of that store nook? Because we're not at the store! What? It's true. Of course we are watching it on our iPads. But we decided to trust our closer for one night. Oh, we'll be there tomorrow, but for now it's family night. Chicken drumsticks and Arrested Development. Also, frozen treats don't sell we'll when the temp is near freezing. The store is very quiet today. However. We got invited to be a vendor this summer at the city's biggest arts festival.

Whoop here it is

It's like having a new baby.

The first day our drain stopped up and the production person was late. By Friday night I stood in the kitchen and cried, just out of pure exhaustion. By Saturday, my husband and I were able to step away to dinner. We can watch our store from cameras that feed to our iPads. We watched the monitor all through dinner.

Open! Open! Open!

Today we roll back that great big door and start selling. Happy birthday Store.

But most importantly, today is my son's birthday. Happy birthday Sunshine.

Grand Opening

The store opens in 2 days!

Thank God. I don't think anybody at my house has had a full night's sleep or three meals in quite some time. I'm not fooling myself - there are going to be extra hard weeks ahead after open, but it has to settle into some kind of system, yes? Yes. We're just going to go with yes.

We open on my son's birthday.

Thank God. Because I haven't had time to shop or plan a birthday. However, he has an entire store full of treats to choose from and call his own.

In The Gutter

I really have only so much brain power and it all gets used up at work (that is, the first job, not the store). Sometimes I leave work and I'll be at a stop light and I will have used up all my smarts for the day so I will have to doublethink what red means. Thank goodness for Louisiana public school drivers ed. Red on top means stop stop stop.

Does anybody else have this problem? It all gets used up at work. My family will try to hold a conversation with me at night and I won't even understand what they are saying. Also, since when did they all start eating so loudly and while they were talking?

This is going to be a problem since tomorrow night is new employee training at the store and lets not forget also bowling for team building starting at 8:00, also known as my almost bedtime.

However, tomorrow between 5:30 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. I will have figured out the entire Federal Acquisition Regulation system. What I am saying is that it is all downhill from there, finally ending up in the gutter.

The Butterfly Effect from a Bow Tie

My son is amazing. He is kind. He wakes up every morning smiling. He's crazy smart.

He also likes to wear blazers and bow ties. Every day. To school. I was thinking this would be like when he was two and wouldn't leave the house without a bib. Was that a fight worth having? No. And after about two weeks that phase was over.

So I thought maybe the bow tie phase would last two weeks. It has lasted months. Last night when we were at crewcuts because my son wanted to shop, he tried on pants and tucked his shirt way down flat into them. I told him that wasn't how it was done and he said that it was just the nerd in him shining through.

I asked him why he thought he was a nerd and he said it was because his dad said that. Being a mother is hard. I wonder if we would be here if I had said no to the bow tie - if I had insisted on jeans and hoodies. It's just a bow tie. But it's a bow tie. On a ten year old. Every day.

Bowling. Ewww.

My husband thinks it would be great if we did some team building bowling after the employee's first training on Wednesday.

Oh where to begin where to begin.

A. team building
B. bowling
C. Do you know what I would do with a spare hour in my life right now? Not Bowl.

Because do you know what I would do if my employer said we are go bowling to do some team building? Hate them.

It's interesting working with your spouse. Especially the lists of daily tasks that get assigned to you via spreadsheet. I have to draw the line at bowling though.

From the Inside

The entire front of our store opens up.