In an effort to blog weekly, I am sitting down and making it happen! You can congratulate me later.
I have a full time job and then work with Abacus and Pauline on the weekends. Every Tuesday morning I have a 9am meeting at my office with all of the department heads. Every Tuesday morning I am laughing harder than the previous week at the stories. I have never had a job like this - you really cannot pay for this kind of entertainment.
I was walking through the dining room today and a gentleman informed me "we caught a squirrel out there" pointing to the outside courtyard of the building. "Oh really" I respond, "and what are you going to do with him"? "We aren't sure-probably just let him go" was his response. "He's a big one though". Two giddy seventy year old men were anxiously pacing the dining room discussing plans for the squirrel they had entrapped in the courtyard of their new assisted living community. After weeks of adjusting and giving up what they thought of independence and freedom, these two men had reverted to 9 year old boys and were having the time of their lives. A reassurance that their lives were not over simply because their living environment had changed. Two young men catching squirrels in their backyard - maybe living here wasn't what they thought it would be after all.
Pauline and I are often involved in the beginning of life. We coordinate rentals for new couples starting their lives together. We get to see the excitement of marriage, the coming together of families, the love and the happiness that weddings bring. I enjoy each one for different reasons. Some because they are elaborate and exciting and give us a million ideas to think about. Some because they are crazy to be getting married and they make us laugh. Some because the families are so grateful and appreciative that we want to do anything we can to make their day great.
Because Abacus is growing and expanding, I continue to hold my full time job. My job at the assisted living communities has provided an unexpected perspective on running my own rental business. I find myself able to step back and offer more wisdom to people who may be stressed and overwhelmed. At the end of the day, you may be catching squirrels in your backyard with your buddy and none of this stress will do you any good. Enjoy your wedding. Embrace the chaos. You have your spouse a limited amount of time, don't waste a second of it. I am so thankful for my daily reminders of age and the value of time and friendship. I hope Pauline and I will be catching squirrels together for many years to come!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving
Seeing as I haven't posted a blog in well...a very long time; Thanksgiving seems an appropriate time to play catch up. Abacus has been very busy the past few months. Pauline and I hosted a booth at the Clark County Event Center Holiday Showcase this weekend. This tends to be a large part of where we spend our time during the off season - at trade shows and networking events. It's a good thing both of us are outgoing and enjoy these functions. Both Pauline and I love to study people and find out what makes them tick, what they like, what they don't like, and what they are looking for when planning their next event. More than anything else we find they want to enjoy themselves and they want to feel cared for.
Don't we all? Want to enjoy ourselves and feel cared for? I mean when it comes down to it, aren't these two very basic ideals? Why do so many people miss this in business and in life? Why do we complicate things? What limitations are we putting between ourselves and enjoyment? Are we surrounding ourselves with people who make us feel cared for? Are we doing business with people who make us feel cared for? Even if details are missing or things don't go perfectly - are we cared for and better able to manage the disruptions?
This week as Thanksgiving approaches Pauline and I want to thank each and every one of you for your words, your encouragement, and your continued support of our business. We also challenge you to enjoy yourselves this holiday season. Take time to take care of one another and require that you surround yourself with others who take care of you in return. Don't settle this year. Make a decision to enjoy your event, your holiday party, and the season. I am committed to making time to enjoy myself and making time to blog about this enjoyment more than once every 6 months! I am too busy and I will focus on making that time. I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is filled with pleasure and care. Happy Thanksgiving from Abacus Event Rental!!!
Don't we all? Want to enjoy ourselves and feel cared for? I mean when it comes down to it, aren't these two very basic ideals? Why do so many people miss this in business and in life? Why do we complicate things? What limitations are we putting between ourselves and enjoyment? Are we surrounding ourselves with people who make us feel cared for? Are we doing business with people who make us feel cared for? Even if details are missing or things don't go perfectly - are we cared for and better able to manage the disruptions?
This week as Thanksgiving approaches Pauline and I want to thank each and every one of you for your words, your encouragement, and your continued support of our business. We also challenge you to enjoy yourselves this holiday season. Take time to take care of one another and require that you surround yourself with others who take care of you in return. Don't settle this year. Make a decision to enjoy your event, your holiday party, and the season. I am committed to making time to enjoy myself and making time to blog about this enjoyment more than once every 6 months! I am too busy and I will focus on making that time. I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is filled with pleasure and care. Happy Thanksgiving from Abacus Event Rental!!!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Summer has Arrived
I find myself twitching a little bit when I walk into stores surrounding me with back to school supplies. The sun JUST came out and we already have to start thinking about sending our cherubs back to school? I love summers with my kids. Water play, relaxing, everything just seems a little slower and easier - even while running an event company! Abacus is insanely busy these days and we are turning away business right and left. We keep scratching our heads - how are we ever going to keep up with the demand? Even the largest event companies assure us we will always turn away business. A good problem to have? Definitely. A problem? Most certainly.
Pauline and I continue to grow closer and closer each year as friends, as dreamers, as business colleagues. I am fascinated at how our friendship and admiration for one another never seems to diminish. Rarely do you find someone you can spend as much time with as we do with one another and come out still smiling on the other side of every project. Do we have moments where we are frustrated and irritated? Absolutely. I am quite sure I frustrate and irritate Pauline more than she does me - I love her so much for putting up with me! We admit when we are wrong, we laugh when we are idiots, we cry out in pain when we can't move our muscles, and we genuinely know that there is no walking away.
Like the school supplies, I am never quite ready for school to begin and I am never quite ready for the event season to end. It's a ton of work, but it's exciting and I get to hang out with my best friend every single day. Once the season is over it always feels strange to go a few days without chatting. We find ourselves calling and talking about our dreams for the next summer season. What marketing are we going to do? What do we need to purchase? What networking worked and didn't work and where do we invest next year? I hope that just like a new school season, and children dreaming we continue to have this dream and vision and continue to love the pain it brings and the rewards we can almost taste!
Pauline and I continue to grow closer and closer each year as friends, as dreamers, as business colleagues. I am fascinated at how our friendship and admiration for one another never seems to diminish. Rarely do you find someone you can spend as much time with as we do with one another and come out still smiling on the other side of every project. Do we have moments where we are frustrated and irritated? Absolutely. I am quite sure I frustrate and irritate Pauline more than she does me - I love her so much for putting up with me! We admit when we are wrong, we laugh when we are idiots, we cry out in pain when we can't move our muscles, and we genuinely know that there is no walking away.
Like the school supplies, I am never quite ready for school to begin and I am never quite ready for the event season to end. It's a ton of work, but it's exciting and I get to hang out with my best friend every single day. Once the season is over it always feels strange to go a few days without chatting. We find ourselves calling and talking about our dreams for the next summer season. What marketing are we going to do? What do we need to purchase? What networking worked and didn't work and where do we invest next year? I hope that just like a new school season, and children dreaming we continue to have this dream and vision and continue to love the pain it brings and the rewards we can almost taste!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
You Can Go Your Own Way
This Fleetwood Mac song has been playing in my brain for weeks now. Realizing that the very people I expected to be at the end of the road with me may be going their own way is painful but it's a truth.
Being as loyal a friend as they come I tend to get hurt a decent amount. If I let you in then you are in for life. You are backed for life, supported for life, fed for life, loved for life, and encouraged to be the best person you can be. Someone told me today I have got to lower my standards and expectations. As true as that may be it will never make sense in my world. I would rather sit in this pain than to expect less than greatness from those around me. When I love I love fiercely and that opens me up for some suffering but lowering my standards isn't something I am willing to do. I expect greatness and if you choose to go your own way I have to let that happen but I will never stop expecting greatness from you.
As Pauline and I continue on our journey with the new warehouse we are met with persecution in business as well and we have yet to lower our standards. People don't like our logo, they want us to invest in this equipment, those chairs, these centerpieces, etc. They have opinions on our marketing, our decisions, and our structure. But we gotta stick to what we know. Do we give too freely to our community? Yes. Do we say yes more when we should be saying no? Yup. Do we spread ourselves thin? Hold one another accountable? Wonder how we are going to make our dreams a reality? Yes, yes, yes. The one thing we don't do - lower our standards. We know who we are, where we are going, and although the how is always in question we never lose our faith. We hold tightly to one another because we realize the more and more we grow the less people are willing to meet our standards. The more people disappoint us, the tighter we hold onto our dreams and each other. Why is Abacus different? Abacus will succeed because YOU are valued. We cannot succeed without you and you are necessary to us reaching our goals. We will back you, love you, support you, feed you, and encourage you all while creating the event of your dreams. You can go your own way, but we look forward to those who go our way - we want you all with us when the road ends and we see that our standards mattered. That the tears and the pain made our dreams possible. That weeding out the darkness is necessary for the sun to shine.
Being as loyal a friend as they come I tend to get hurt a decent amount. If I let you in then you are in for life. You are backed for life, supported for life, fed for life, loved for life, and encouraged to be the best person you can be. Someone told me today I have got to lower my standards and expectations. As true as that may be it will never make sense in my world. I would rather sit in this pain than to expect less than greatness from those around me. When I love I love fiercely and that opens me up for some suffering but lowering my standards isn't something I am willing to do. I expect greatness and if you choose to go your own way I have to let that happen but I will never stop expecting greatness from you.
As Pauline and I continue on our journey with the new warehouse we are met with persecution in business as well and we have yet to lower our standards. People don't like our logo, they want us to invest in this equipment, those chairs, these centerpieces, etc. They have opinions on our marketing, our decisions, and our structure. But we gotta stick to what we know. Do we give too freely to our community? Yes. Do we say yes more when we should be saying no? Yup. Do we spread ourselves thin? Hold one another accountable? Wonder how we are going to make our dreams a reality? Yes, yes, yes. The one thing we don't do - lower our standards. We know who we are, where we are going, and although the how is always in question we never lose our faith. We hold tightly to one another because we realize the more and more we grow the less people are willing to meet our standards. The more people disappoint us, the tighter we hold onto our dreams and each other. Why is Abacus different? Abacus will succeed because YOU are valued. We cannot succeed without you and you are necessary to us reaching our goals. We will back you, love you, support you, feed you, and encourage you all while creating the event of your dreams. You can go your own way, but we look forward to those who go our way - we want you all with us when the road ends and we see that our standards mattered. That the tears and the pain made our dreams possible. That weeding out the darkness is necessary for the sun to shine.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Warehouse Woes...
Abacus Event Rentals has moved into a warehouse located in Ridgefield, WA on 10th between the NW Best Fish Company and East Fork Wine Cellars. Yay a warehouse! Of course, there are walls to be built, the bathroom is getting remodeled and it's a 60 year old building so we are up to our ears in projects. What would we do without a sense of humor?
Yesterday my husband - who is a UPS man - delivered a package to an older woman. She came to the door with a large gash above her eye and cold cream in splotches all over her face. She proceeded to accept her package and then ask my husband, "Do you shave your head"? He politely responded that he typically used hair clippers on what little hair remains. The woman with cold cream all over her face replied, "Why? It's not sexy". To which there could have been several responses, but we just enjoyed that laugh at her matter-of-fact statement with total disregard to how unsexy she looked in the moment.
With all that going on at the warehouse, I really think I will take up this mantra. "It's not sexy". But it's space - space to dream, space to grow, and space that is not in our garages! People may come by the warehouse and wonder what Abacus was thinking. Why move into this old building? Why build walls and do all this cleaning? Why not lease a space that has offices and windows and is neat and new. The answer is that our decisions are not based on things looking a certain way. The people at East Fork Cellars and the Fish Co. have hearts of gold and we wanted to be around them. The building and the warehouse are not what makes our company unique. We have always built Abacus on who we are and the people we create dreams for - brides and company's and vendors that we take care of and they take care of us in return. So, it may not be sexy but Abacus has a home and we hope you will visit and dream with us on our adventure!
Yesterday my husband - who is a UPS man - delivered a package to an older woman. She came to the door with a large gash above her eye and cold cream in splotches all over her face. She proceeded to accept her package and then ask my husband, "Do you shave your head"? He politely responded that he typically used hair clippers on what little hair remains. The woman with cold cream all over her face replied, "Why? It's not sexy". To which there could have been several responses, but we just enjoyed that laugh at her matter-of-fact statement with total disregard to how unsexy she looked in the moment.
With all that going on at the warehouse, I really think I will take up this mantra. "It's not sexy". But it's space - space to dream, space to grow, and space that is not in our garages! People may come by the warehouse and wonder what Abacus was thinking. Why move into this old building? Why build walls and do all this cleaning? Why not lease a space that has offices and windows and is neat and new. The answer is that our decisions are not based on things looking a certain way. The people at East Fork Cellars and the Fish Co. have hearts of gold and we wanted to be around them. The building and the warehouse are not what makes our company unique. We have always built Abacus on who we are and the people we create dreams for - brides and company's and vendors that we take care of and they take care of us in return. So, it may not be sexy but Abacus has a home and we hope you will visit and dream with us on our adventure!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Bring it on!
Monday is going to be here in the morning. I get to wish some seniors a happy 100th birthday in the morning which is super exciting! What stories they must have to tell!
Bring it on!
Bring it on!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Lighten Up!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I generally spend this day with my parents eating corn beef and cabbage. Seeing as they are currently sunning themselves in Southern California so I opted to go raise some money for seniors in our community tonight instead.
We had a great group of attendees who came out to support the Specifically Seniors St. Patrick's Day event. Billygan's Roadhouse is the best! They have a staff whose entire goal is to take care of their community. The servers, bartenders, and managers are all on board with helping their community and supporting ALL of our efforts. I am so thankful for my Vancouver community some days I am simply overwhelmed. If all of us took care of one another all the time - how great would that be? If we all were honest and kind and stopped to take care of the person in the next booth - what a concept. Thank you Billygan's for showing kindness to strangers tonight - it will not be forgotten!
I had a very trying, emotional day today. I have been running on overdrive and it's catching up with me. Running our event company while also working full time, and raising money for organizations that are moving mountains - I want to do all of it and then also be a great mother and wife to my family...I am failing miserably on all accounts. The great news is that I know I am being shaped and molded for something and I will continue to press through the hard times in order to get to the finish line. I can't wait to see what that is - will it be seeing my children graduate with honors? Watching them raise their own children one day? Seeing our community become more aware of the needs of our seniors and begin investing in them? Watching our business (Abacus Event Rentals) stand alone and thrive? I wonder...
Whatever my finish line is I know I am going to have to lighten up if I am going to reach it. I am going to have to make room for failure. I have to learn to give myself a break and accept that moving mountains and leaving a legacy is not for the faint of heart. Whatever your finish line is - I hope you reach it and are able to look back and see the labor of love that you have worked so hard for come full circle. I hope that while you are helping people reach their goals and dreams they are right behind you lifting you into your dreams as well. Cheers!
I generally spend this day with my parents eating corn beef and cabbage. Seeing as they are currently sunning themselves in Southern California so I opted to go raise some money for seniors in our community tonight instead.
We had a great group of attendees who came out to support the Specifically Seniors St. Patrick's Day event. Billygan's Roadhouse is the best! They have a staff whose entire goal is to take care of their community. The servers, bartenders, and managers are all on board with helping their community and supporting ALL of our efforts. I am so thankful for my Vancouver community some days I am simply overwhelmed. If all of us took care of one another all the time - how great would that be? If we all were honest and kind and stopped to take care of the person in the next booth - what a concept. Thank you Billygan's for showing kindness to strangers tonight - it will not be forgotten!
I had a very trying, emotional day today. I have been running on overdrive and it's catching up with me. Running our event company while also working full time, and raising money for organizations that are moving mountains - I want to do all of it and then also be a great mother and wife to my family...I am failing miserably on all accounts. The great news is that I know I am being shaped and molded for something and I will continue to press through the hard times in order to get to the finish line. I can't wait to see what that is - will it be seeing my children graduate with honors? Watching them raise their own children one day? Seeing our community become more aware of the needs of our seniors and begin investing in them? Watching our business (Abacus Event Rentals) stand alone and thrive? I wonder...
Whatever my finish line is I know I am going to have to lighten up if I am going to reach it. I am going to have to make room for failure. I have to learn to give myself a break and accept that moving mountains and leaving a legacy is not for the faint of heart. Whatever your finish line is - I hope you reach it and are able to look back and see the labor of love that you have worked so hard for come full circle. I hope that while you are helping people reach their goals and dreams they are right behind you lifting you into your dreams as well. Cheers!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Adventure Begins...
Pauline and I signed our lease yesterday. Five years! What will those five years hold for us? Hopefully a lot of growth, fun, and an overwhelming success that we have worked so hard to achieve. If it's anything like the past three years we can't wait for the ride to begin!
Our journey began in 2008 when I decided to start an event rental company. With no idea of a name, I started thinking of A names to be first in the aphabet on the internet, directories, etc. Abacus just came to me with the tag line "count on us" - at the time there was no us - it was just me. I thought it was brilliant and then everyone mispronounced Abacus (A-bock-is? Ab-buck-us?) and seemed perplexed by the name. Oh well, I knew the Chinese counting tool and it started with A and I quickly tossed out the notion that anyone was going to appreciate the brilliance!
In 2009 my entire world would be changed when "Count on us" -became an actual US! I told my friend Pauline she could help with my event rentals during the summer because I was really busy. I had no idea what this woman was capable of or if she would even be interested. Suddenly Abacus was meeting the mayor, getting exclusive contracts, and doubling then trippling in size. Pauline will talk to anyone and everyone and instantly she's your best friend. Lucky for me she really is my best friend and the best business partner anyone could ask for - EVER. God has had a hand in every piece of Abacus from our first summer together to signing our lease yesterday. Obstacles have been removed, bad decisions have been brought to light, good people have been placed in our paths, and the Vancouver community has provided an overwhelming support for our little company.
So, here we are Vancouver - social media bloggers and all - waiting to see what you and God have in store for the five years of our lives we just signed away. BRING IT ON!!!
Our journey began in 2008 when I decided to start an event rental company. With no idea of a name, I started thinking of A names to be first in the aphabet on the internet, directories, etc. Abacus just came to me with the tag line "count on us" - at the time there was no us - it was just me. I thought it was brilliant and then everyone mispronounced Abacus (A-bock-is? Ab-buck-us?) and seemed perplexed by the name. Oh well, I knew the Chinese counting tool and it started with A and I quickly tossed out the notion that anyone was going to appreciate the brilliance!
In 2009 my entire world would be changed when "Count on us" -became an actual US! I told my friend Pauline she could help with my event rentals during the summer because I was really busy. I had no idea what this woman was capable of or if she would even be interested. Suddenly Abacus was meeting the mayor, getting exclusive contracts, and doubling then trippling in size. Pauline will talk to anyone and everyone and instantly she's your best friend. Lucky for me she really is my best friend and the best business partner anyone could ask for - EVER. God has had a hand in every piece of Abacus from our first summer together to signing our lease yesterday. Obstacles have been removed, bad decisions have been brought to light, good people have been placed in our paths, and the Vancouver community has provided an overwhelming support for our little company.
So, here we are Vancouver - social media bloggers and all - waiting to see what you and God have in store for the five years of our lives we just signed away. BRING IT ON!!!
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