GLAD IT WASN'T ME

WHOA, DUDE.

[random thought for today.]

Yeah. I just saw this shot and had to share it.
Note to self: My life could be worse.

Word.

xo | cmd

Creativity Is Cheap [Hooray!]

Typical Monday, you silly thing. I’m glad the work part’s over. Hah.

So… yesterday when we were at the Babots, Sydni and Landon had a blast playing with the ‘weather bear’ that Lara and her mom had made for Landon. It’s basically a felt board teddy bear with felt clothes. It struck me today that it’s the perfect idea, and, knowing Sydni, she’d love it. I was all over it. During lunch, I made a pitstop at Michael’s to pick up some felt, then over to Goodwill to find a good frame for it all.

Back at home, Sydni and broke out our $5ish worth of materials, the felt glue, and some scissors. For all you DIY’ers out there, here’s how we completed our little project:

1. Remove poster or picture from picture frame. Wrap glass pane with felt. Secure back into frame.
2. Create a template for animal cut-outs. We used simple notebook paper and then traced out the shape onto felt. All the animals should be the same size and shape if you want the clothes to fit them uniformly.
3. Cut out animals. Use a sharpie to add details [paws, claws, etc.]
4. Glue animals directly onto felt. Add little eyeballs of your choice [glue ‘em.]
5. Using the same animal template, trace out clothes. Make them slightly bigger than the cutout so they’ll cover the animals completely.
6. Cut out clothes; use sharpies or markers to add details!

Tada! You now have a stellar little felt board for dressing up animals. I particularly love it because it’s not just a little girl thing; these animals and outfits could totally be boy-catered. J Love.

This one’s definitely goin’ on Pinterest. Hah.

Night, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Pint Size Rock Band

We started off the day with church; I was in the nursery for the morning, but still managed to spend some of the service upstairs with Joe & JB. After church, we headed back to the house and stayed there for just a bit before JB packed up and headed back to Cincinnati.

Joe, Syd, and I settled in at the Babots for lunch and a few rounds of our favorite couples card game, kemps. Landon and Sydni fished out some of Landon’s toys, and serenaded us with some toddler show tunes. It was… lovely J. 



http://www.40ditw.com/



Sunday evening service today was our introductory lesson into Rick Warren’s 40 Days in the Word study. This is a study that dissects scripture and teaching in an intensely literal, repetitious way. It’s quite practical in that it allows for a natural sense of deeper interpretation of each individual word, which ultimately leads to easier memorization. Pretty basic concept. Pretty cool results. 



casserole!
[thx rob & meagan!]



Meagan & Rob surprised us by dropping to bring us a chicken casserole at the church before we left. By the time choir practice was over, we were more than ready to head home and do some serious work on that little casserole. [Delicious. Thank you, thank you to the Greers!]

*Whew! What a day. See ya tomorrow, y’all.

G’Nite!

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday Joe!

Well would ya look at that! Just when he thought I was the only one that gets older in this family, today Joe went and added another year to his belt. He is officially an old geezer. Ha.

!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!

Anyway, since Justin is here visiting for both the weekend and his first time to the St. Louis area, we took full advantage of it all and went out for a little jaunt show him the base before heading over to the arch. It was definitely a nice little road trip.



cori. joe. jb
- the arch! -

Once we finished up with our little arch excursion, we headed back to the house and the boys proceeded into the basement for a few rounds of indoor cornhole.

The original dinner plans were targeted for Lotawata Creek, since Joe loves that place and it’s a great spot for visiting guests. I’ve known from past inquiry that they do not accept reservations at Lotawata, so I spent the day silently hoping we would be able to secure call ahead seating for us and a few others. I’d sent out some invites, and had about 15 heads total lined up and ready to rendezvous for a surprise birthday dinner.



syd & mo @ 54th street



Two hours before our projected meeting time, I came to find out that Lotawata wouldn’t be able to accommodate a party of our size until nearly 11pm. Excellent. Lacking a backup plan, and somewhat anxious about where to re-direct my efforts, I consulted Mo to see if she had a decent idea. Having lived in the area for a while, her input helped, and landed me at the

54^th Street

Grill in O’Fallon, parked on the wait list for nearly an hour before our friends started trickling in. By the time 6:45 rolled around, Joe, JB, myself, Meagan & Rob, Amy, Kyle, & Tessa, Jarod & Lila, Mo, Jimmy & their friend Stefan were all packed into two booths, stuffing ourselves full of deeeelicious food J. Add the cheesecakes I’d stopped off an snagged earlier, and it was a full-blown party. Hah.

 After dinner, the Prescotts and their friend stopped back to the house; we spent the evening with them before calling it a night. JB heads back to Cinci tomorrow, but we’re doing church before that. So.. until then… J

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POGI!

xo | cmd

It's a Small Group PAR-TAY!

This is the second round of our extended small group meeting at our place, and we sure had a lot to celebrate.


baby evan!

 For starters, the Gobles had their baby last week, so all the women were thrilled that they toted him along for our oogling pleasure. Welcome, welcome, welcome!! Baby Evan is here, and clearly both Mommy and Daddy are good to go, and we wouldn't dare forget about proud big brother Jacob - he's lovin' it, too. I even got to hold him for a bit during the evening; it confirmed any wandering doubt I had left that I do in fact want another little baby like that, just not yet. My oh my... :)

AAAAAND, because tomorrow is Joe's whopping 26th birthday, I had asked Lara earlier in the week if she could funnel her [extraordinary] cake-making skill into something Spiderman-related for Joe. Yes, that's right: Spiderman. She came up with a stellar little thing, and we managed to keep it hidden from Joe for nearly half the evening until it was time to light candles, sing, and do the whole deal. What was great about this was that there were three toddlers present, yet Joe was the one with the comic book cake. Love it. :)

joe. sydni. jacob. landon.
&& spiderman. :)

In other news, we launched into the book of James tonight, which we'll continue to do each meeting, chapter by chapter. Since James happens to be one of my favorite books in the Bible, I'm already excited about delving into it with our small group. We made it through the first chapter tonight, and even had time for discussions.

art in progress

Oh, and Jimmy took our etchy cups to a whole new level tonight; instead of opting for the traditional method of using a fingernail, Jimmy took to it with a craft knife, exacting it into quite the presentable little cup. Haha. It looks like we've got a whole group full of artists :)

God is oh so GOOD! 

Gooooood NIGHT!

xo | cmd

Prunis dulcis: Mini Exposé

Prunis dulcis?

[whaaat?]

codename
the almond

.: Hello, beautiful little thing!

It's not a secret that I'm a bit concientious of both my and my family's dietary habits. I'm a huge proponent of eating things as fresh as they can be, and I love everything about [truly] organic-based products, be they edible or not.



wonderful, indeed!



One of my favorite little snack buddies is the almond. I love everything about almonds. They're portable, they're virtually crumbless, and they usually have just enough texture to satisfy all regions of my midday taste pallet. I've always known they were good for the body, but I hadn't really bothered to do much digging into the hows come? of it all...

... 'til now.

Here it is, folks. Pass it on.

For starters, almonds grow on trees. It might seem like they should grow on a small plant or stalk, but no. Trees. Botanically speaking, they're actually considered drupes, not nuts. From what's most known of them, they started somewhere in the Mediterranean regions and with the help of human hands, spread their way out into the world. As of 2009, the United States was listed as the top-producing country for almonds, with 1,162,200 tons. That was a slight 880,100 more than Spain, the second highest producer. Here in the U.S., California is the metropolis for almond production.

As with any raw food, there's a much wider range of naturally-occurring almonds than most of us care to consider; they come in different colors, sizes, shapes, and even levels of tartness. There's not much that can't be fashioned out of almonds; their culinary capacity ranges from the raw form all the way to liquid [almond milk]. I personally am a huge fan of almond milk, almond butter, and especially just the original, plain ole' almond. :) Did I mention they're jam-packed with nutrients? Well, they are. Go check 'em out for yourself if you don't believe me!

If you feel like taking me up on that offer, or if you're just curious like I am at times, Wikipedia did a pretty good job on this one [kudos, Wiki!], and there are plenty of other references. 

So bring it on, Prunis dulcis. Nom Nom Nom.....  ;) 

xo | cmd 

Psalm 119 - The end!

Over the past 3 or so months, we've been patiently traveling through the book of Psalms 119. It's taken our pastor and a few others to help facilitate each weekly study, and tonight we finally crossed the finish line. We are finished!

The next big venture for us will be our upcoming Rick Warren 40 Days in the Word study that's starting up this Sunday evening. I'm certainly feeling blessed at this very moment to have such a studious, dedicated group of peers at our church to help hold me accountable to getting myself into the word. Not only that, but in the short few months that we've been immersed in the company of these incredible people, I've already got a renewed sense of energy and hope. It's refreshing!

To celebrate the fact that it's Wednesday and we are the Dills [aka, no other reason than that God is good all the time{and all the time, God is good!}], we grabbed some of our resident Disney characters and took some photos.

Work Week: 3 down, 2 to go!

xo | cmd

Towerview Blood Drive, Take 2 : Honoring Mr. Bob

Yay, blood drives! Everytime I attend or participate in one of these things, it flashes me back to college, when my RA [and now one of my finest friends, I might add!] encouraged her dorm girls to find our way to the annual on-campus Hoxworth drives. By encourage, I mean that she all but dragged us by the hair to go. Luckily, I was introduced to blood drives in high school, so it wasn't an entirely foreign concept, but it did give us all grins to watch some of the snootier gals lose their minds over the very idea of it all.

In any case, I'm a huge proponent of blood drives, and now that I'm in the Missouri territory, I've joined the ranks of American Red Cross donors, complete with a membership card and all. Woo! :)

Back in August, we donated at our first Towerview blood drive; today was the second go 'round, and this time for a cause very close to our hearts. Today's drive was dedicated to honor Mr. Bob, who is still showing us all how to show honest praise in the face of a trying situation. He is such an incredible man, and I was proud to be a part of today if for no other reason than to honor him and Ms. Isla.

Here's til next time!

xo | cmd

Hair Gone Wild

Hi, guys. :)
It's me, Cori.

p.s. - oktoberfest.. best known for:
feeding people ginormous pretzels since the beginning of time :)

This will be fun [for you moreso than me]. I'm fairly certain I'll take some heat for it, but history is history, and I can't change it; why then deny it, right? Haha.

ANYWHO:

yes, please.

While we were all sitting at lunch yesterday [after the moments of food-induced {in this case, Olive Garden breadsticks} silence that blankets a table of Baptists at the exact moment the food lands on it {don't act like you don't know}], we somehow brushed across the topic of our individual styles way back in the day. I love these conversations mostly because my imagination is excellent at fabricating the what-if from it, which is probably just as hilarious as what it actually was. For me, my hair is certainly one of those markers that I consider accurately indicative of what stage of life I was experiencing.

Here's the Hair Tale:



curly kiddie locks :)

I'm a hybrid Spanish and Filipino, so I had naturally curly hair when I was a youngster. It was usually tamed out with simple blowdrying, but yeah. Couple that up with a perm, and a haircut that landed right below my ears, and you had me, lanky, brace-face with poodle hair. Holler. Sorry folks, I don't have photo-documentation of that part, for many reasons. Just imagine it :). 

oh, junior miss pageant days.



cori & emily.
a stellar picture, altogether. haaa.

I grew out the curly mess eventually, and by the time I graduated high school, it was manageable. However, over the course of the four years of high school sports: track and soccer primarily, I tapped into trying different methods to keep the mess out of my face. The most conducive fix had to go far beyond the standard ponytail, so I wound up giving myself cornrows here and there for various sporting events. Yeah, it happened.



goin' brown!



short brown

Once high school was behind me, I ventured out on my own into the world of college. My poor hair didn't know what it was in for, but Not only did I chop it, but started in with color alteration. I didn't go overboard [at least not at first], but I certainly went a few shades lighter. I don't know why I didn't just stop there while I was ahead, but I didn't, and wound up chopping it all off again. *sigh.



a catastrophe.



Move forward a year or so, and you would've found me in the early portion of some sort of revolutionary phase and decided that my hair should be different colors. As you see, I started off with subtle caramel highlights - nothing too extreme there. Again, I should've stopped there. Here's the thing though: A lot of gals [and hey, guys, too] probably don't think dying hair is that big of a deal, but let me remind you of something: I have black hair. For girls with black hair, obtaining blonde hair is not a good idea. I never got that memo, at least not on time. Somewhere along the line I also got some facial piercings to add to the disaster. Here's how well that worked out for me.

Riiiiight.



short, again.
[p.s. - sister, love!]

Luckily, the downward spiral that was my hair eventually picked up some positive momentum, and I returned back to something much closer to natural state. I will say this, though: if you ever go from black hair to blonde hair, it will take a .:long:. time to heal itself. *sigh. The good news is, I grew it all back out and left it alone for a good 4ish years, got married, had a baby, and then decided to donate it. Wouldn't you know I'd be the one to chop 14 inches off two days before shattering my collarbone into 10 little pieces. Anyone with short hair can tell you that maintenance of short hair is no fun with one arm.



present day



Wellllll..

I'm sorry to disappoint you that the story pretty much ends there. I haven't done anything ridiculous since my last donation, and I'm not sure that I will again, for a very long time. As it stands now, I'm back to normal, and for the time being, I'm completely cool with that. :)

What's your story? ;)

xo | cmd 

Gospel According to Joe :)

My husband was blessed with the opportunity to share a message for our church this morning, and we were very blessed to hear it. If ever I needed a small, boosted pep talk in regards to setting, reaching, and maintaining goals, today was the perfect opportunity to soak in all that I needed as far as that was concerned. I felt it would be a bit awkward to photograph the actual message in progress, but I did capture a snapshot of scrapbook-esque quality. :)

As a sidenote, if you need the Workout Regimen for Slackers, let us know, and we'll be sure to shoot you a copy ;) Sorry, just a little humor for anyone who heard the message today and thus heard my husband explain how he works out for 5 hours. [[Joking, joking. We'll tease him for this one for a while!]]

After lunch, we headed with the Babots to lunch, where we ran into Julie, Jarod, Becky, and Becky's mom. The lot of us decided to join forces and make a production out of it, so we landed a little alcove room at Olive Garden and laughed our way through lunch.

Once home, I launched into some around-the-house to-do's, including some laundry, cleaning, and dishes; I was certainly not without my mostly-reliable little helper, of course. Halfway through our mission to clean up the living room, Sydni got sidetracked with a Dora the Explorer butterfly net and some crayons. The end result was her capturing all the colors so that she could build them into a square of artwork on the floor. I couldn't believe it when she came running to me proclaiming, "Square! Square!"

Well, square, indeed. I'm so proud. Way to go! I'm sure this type of cognizant milestone really isn't uncommon amongst kids her age, but I struggle enough as it is with remembering that she's no longer an itty bitty infant in burrito-esque swaddle blankets. She truly is a miniature adult, and quite frankly, it's mind-blowing. :)

Well we have had some sort of Sunday here. Tomorrow it's back to the reality of work and daycare and all the other razz that the weekdays throw us.

We'll see ya there!

xo | cmd  

And Saturday It Is.

I don't have anything earth-shattering to report for today, however, I do have an exciting salad story to report.

It goes a little somethin like....

high five, awesome salad.

this.

It was a spur-of-the moment indulge while I was out and about, but I've got to say a big thank you to Quizno's for the saladspiration that is what you see there. I'll be replicating that on a regular basis from here on out. :)

It doesn't take much to get me riled up, yenno.....

Oh, and I fished out some curlers today and experimented with them. Pardon me for showing my complete and utter disability when it comes to using these things; I am doing some research on how to make them work once they're taken out, too. Haha. 

Joe will be speaking tomorrow morning at church, in our head pastor's absence. Here's hoping he keeps his nerve and the words come to him.

Early night :)

xo | cmd

"Run Away"

No, I'm not going to run away, but I did listen to this version of a decent Sarah Jarosz tune earlier this morning and had to share it with those yet to hear it. Sarah partnered here with Alison Krasss [llllove.], Jerry Douglas, and Danny Thompson on a Transatlantic rendition of Sarah's Run Away.

I . Love . It .

This seemed fitting for a Friday :)

xo | cmd 

Syd-So-Stylin'

Sydni is morphing into a new phase [for her]; she must have everything that Mommy has, everything that Daddy has, and she must do everything that they do. [How's that for force of accountability??] Most recently, I've noticed that the rack in our closet which holds all of my scarves has been raided several times over the past few weeks. A few days back, I caught the culprit red-handed, and cute as could be, for that matter.

Sydni was on the tippiest tips of her toes, reaching as high as she could to yank down one of my scarves. I peered around the doorway and marveled in silence as she fidgeted, strained, and finally succeeded in securing one. She proceeded to wrap it around her head, neck, and half her torso, just like mommy does. She came tearing out of the closet partially mummified in what was certainly an oversized accessory for her.

So...

We took a timeout and did some snipping to an old T-shirt I had, producing the finished product of a little scarf, for a little lady. She was so excited to wear it that she is now insisting on wearing it to bed [not happenin']. Ha.

Oh, and lest I forget our new box of Mickey Mouse bandaids that was ripped open this evening. After about three whole minutes of the most intentional deliberation I've ever seen from a 2-year-old, she finally picked out the bandaid she wanted for her non-existent boo-boo. [Sidenote: bandaids went up, up, and away into the cabinet after this one. Stickers will have to suffice moving forward.]

All in all, I'd have to say that I've got a like-minded little tyke coming up in the ranks here.

We're so proud.

Tee-hee. ♥

xo | cmd

Human Ping Pong - The REAL 3D

  

Remember this? I think this video originally started circulating sometime back in the early 2000's; I know I was in college the first time I saw it. Well, I had an interview today that sent me digging for this one; the guy had listed on his resume that in from the late 80's to mid 90's, he was a professional ping pong coach.

[BTW - I want that job.]

Anyway, I thought that for both the purpose of nostalgic relapse into my college days, and also for renewed value of creative internet entertainment. If I could ever coerce my friends into a similar re-enactment, believe me you, I totally would. Ha.

Have a stellar evening, bloggies.

xo | cmd



Get Up, Cori.

So between last night and today, I consulted a good mile or so of my Bible, and a few other quoted personalities. When I find myself in this type of scenario, where it's a little dark and I don't necessarily have that immediate sensation of joy, that's usually what seems to draw me out of my pitiful little corner and back into a sensible frame of mind.



alyssa.rebecca.lauren
barlowgirl

 A few years back, Ali and I stopped by a local church that was hosting BarlowGirl, a young CCM/Rock Christian band comprised of 3 sisters. While we were probably among the oldest there aside from parents, I was struck by a story they had to share. It dated back to their visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, a journey they made with intention to both educate themselves further and also explore a new angle of perspective. In one particular cell, a carved inscription left behind by its anonymous inhabitant stated this:

I believe in the sun, even when it's not shining. I believe in love, even when I don't feel it. I believe in God, even when He is silent.

Whoa. That was nearly 5 years ago that I heard that quote for the first time, but I will never forget it. BarlowGirl translated that quote into a song, and while it's a bit pop-esque, it's an incredible message. [See and hear that here, if you're interested.] I find that simple statement so profound in that its author was among the vast number of innocent human beings intentionally sought out for torture and destruction, yet had the unwavering faith of a child. I love this statement for its raw ability to funnel my perspective back into what is my current reality: This could always be worse, Cori. Get up and dust it off.

Another one of my favorites: 

oscar wilde



What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. ~ Oscar Wilde

Same thing. Short, simple, and vibrantly highlighted with truth. Duh, Cori. Wake up.

Today was better. It wasn't perfect, but it was better. I'm thankful. :)

xo | cmd

Nuclear Meltdown

Today was [kiiiiiiind] of a [dramtically] rough day. I'll spare you the details.

Long story short, I was reminded harshly today that the power of prayer is sometimes one of the few strands of solace we have. Today was a bit dark. Today felt like a nuclear meltdown.

FACT:

Once upon a time, I was born human.
I was born with human flesh, and human physiology.
I was born with human tendencies and emotions.
I was born with a super-human ability to make mistakes.
I am currently, in human fashion, tripping all over the place.

I am still loved because of that human status, by the Father.

He was once human, too, for a few minutes.

The book of James is one of my favorite books in the entire Bible, and today I had a flash of this intensely comforting passage:  

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I will praise you in this storm.

xo | cmd

1... 2... 3... 11!!

I was hit today with the fact that my daughter is no longer a baby; she is in fact a toddler. Scratch that; she is a miniature adult. Weird. Anyway, we've been working on those tricky little number thingies. Most days, I have them memorized, so that's a head start. Most recently, we have been making streaks of progress in Sydni getting from 1 to 10 in order. This little demo here isn't the perfect example, but you'll just have to trust me that she actually CAN do it. This vid was just cuter. Lol.

This is a good way to lead into this upcoming week.

xo | cmd

Now THAT Is A Saturday

WHAT A DAY! {phew!}

So today was one of those days that seems like it should be a culmination of all the good stuff the regular week didn't tangibly produce. To put it simply, today rocked. I won't waste any time explaining why [[in an order dictated by chronology, not necessarily by scaled awesomess ;) ]]

my mama ♥

1. [This one's actually #1 in chronological and awesome order, fyi.] First off, my mom celebrated another year young today. Happy, HAPPY birthday to a woman whose life has been dedicated to the success of her family [pets, included], and to taking aggressive advantage of every moment and opportunity this life will offer. I look up to her in so many ways, from the first time she acted on her heart's intuition to adopt, to faithfully tolerating me at my worst. Her love has never shaken, and the quality of life I try my best to display is paled in comparison to the energy and sheer joy she exudes to those around her. I love you, Mom. Thank you, times the world over and then some, for all that you are, all that you do, and all that you will continue to do for your family.

daddy's girl @ the dino exhibit :)

2. St. Louis Science Center! Joe was gone when I woke up this morning, out with Alex galavanting all over St. Louis; he called me mid-morning to inform me that Lara and Landon would be by within the hour to pick up Sydni and I, and the four of us were scheduled to meet him and Alex at the Science Center in St. Louis, to which we hadn't been. We obliged, and within two hours were touring through the displays and indoor attractions that comprise the Science Center. Landon was so excited to show Sydni the 'real, live dinosaur' that inhabited the ground floor, complete with animatronics, realistic textures, and sound. Despite our hesitations, Sydni surprised us all by not fleeing from it, but rather demanding she touch the 'dinahorse' on its eye. Don't ask; I'm really not sure myself. Anyway, she loved it, and enjoyed everything else about the place, too. Good call, guys. I'm checking the Science Center off my list of newbie to-do things of St. Louis!



pretty little altima

 3. Since Lara and I drove separately from our husbands, we parked in separate lots and therefore had to drive down to meet them. We turned a corner and spotted them walking down the hill towards Alex's truck. It wouldn't have been a big deal, except for the fact that I spotted a shiny white Nissan settled right behind Alex's pickup; I knew at that instant that my husband had bought us a new car. See, a few days back, Ole' Trusty [our Honda] finally gave up the ghost and is likely finished beyond reasonably-priced repair. That left us with one car, and therefore in need of another set of wheels. We pulled up alongside and I hopped out, confirmed by the dealer tag still on the back plate, that this was our newest addition. It is beautiful. :) Thank you, to my wonderfully secretive husband, and to Alex & Lara, for not spilling the beans on this one. Haha.



nikon!

4. Back in July, I had taken that big fancy roadtrip out to Phoenix with Kalyn and Sam and had consequently wound up with a busted D90. I dropped that off with the folks at CreveCoeur at the beginning of September, and that long-awaited day of retrieving it in repaired form was finally here! Well, they actually called me on Christmas Eve, but I was just now getting around to it. Woops. Thanks to the U.S. Postal service's negligent handling, and then to the glorious reprieve of advice from Miss Diana Owens, my camera experienced its first [and hopefully only] major accident and patch-up. Anywho- it's home, it's functioning, and I am now back on the photographic prowl. Beware :p.

still a fan.

5. Football!!! [Poor, poor Tebow, I know...] While the games themselves may have ended a bit sour [depending on which side you're on], the good news was, we had some great friends over to share the evening with us, and even do a little manual labor [i.e. Jimmy, Adam, and Joe attempting to drive the Honda up the street and eventually having to tow it back to the driveway, haha]. Oh, and for the record, I'm still a fan of Tebow. True story.

And that is why.... today was awesome. :)
This is a good platform for Sunday, yeah?

xo | cmd

Yay, Small Group!

1. I love serving our Lord.
2. I love hosting stuff.
3. I love good people [aka, friends]

Well? How about we host our friends for small group, in which we can all serve the Lord, and each other, at the same time?


fun with cups
[just some] of our small group attendees

 Deal.

Tonight was our first gathering of our small group extension that will be meeting at our house on a bi-weekly basis. As always, I felt that anticipated flurry as I flew around my house cleaning up little last minute things for everyone that would be by. It's always nervewrecking when a group of people come to your house and you know it's messy. I'll be the first to tell you I couldn't really care less if your house is in disarray when I get there, but I am über self-conscious about you seeing mine in pristine condition. Seems a bit mal-aligned with reality being that I always have a 2-year-old, but hey, we did all right tonight.

So we found ourselves surrounded by Julie, Becky, the Gobles, the Babots and the Prescotts, seated around our living room following what I'll gracefully describe as stuffing our faces full of delicious food. [Oh, and note the fun scribble-label cups I bought on accident but will absolutely buy again!] We took advantage of our first night together as a group to share some testimonies and what we all would all hope to gain from our upcoming meetings together.

Let me pause here to say how thankful I am that we are afforded nights like these: to gather freely, without fear of legal or political consequence, without secrecy, to worship together and build on and from the people sitting next to us. What a blessing. Hallelujah, AMEN.

Because the content of our small group discussions holds agreed-upon confidentiality to the walls of our meetings, I won't share any of it here, but I will say that the respect I thought I had for each of those people in the room tonight tripled, at the least, and I spent the majority of the time in silent praise for the voices and testimonies we heard tonight.

I can't wait to see where this leads us. We're truly going to miss the other couples and individuals we would usually see every other week from the big group, but we'll see them soon enough ;).

Happy weekend, by the way!

xo | cmd

Glory Bound



♥

It's Thursday, which means that tomorrow, our church small group resumes. Due to the growing state of our current group, it was decided back in the fall to branch out into three separate sessions, divided by randomly drawing names and populating each new extension that way. The Werners, the Pages, and the Dills [wait-a-tick, that's us!] on the same biweekly basis as the original Koinonia Group.

While doing some more updates to the E-Vite I'd sent out on Monday for our group, I found myself humming along to the soundtrack playing in the background, which happens to be one of my favorite newer songs by The Wailin' Jennys. I thought I'd share the lyrics here; this song may be on my upcoming schedule here sometime in the near future, depending on how I can coordinate some live accompaniment.

I love.. love.. love this song. :)
[[[ Take a listen for yourself, here. ]]]

Enjoy. Pray for us and the other facilitators as we go into tomorrow night, and also for the other couples that are coming. We are so excited!!

Callin' it an early night, folks. Hallelujah!

xo | cmd

"Mama, I Want Cuties!!"

This will be another short entry, due to the fact that I've been on nonstop flurry all day at work, and now wish to get away from the computer screen and into some good quality gooftime with both of my loves here at home.

I will say, we made a pitstop at the Walgreens by our house on the way home, and left with a bag full of Cuties, because someone did such a good job of carrying the basket and the cuties all the way across the store to the register, all by herself. Go Sydni, Go!

I've got a little booger that wants a book read to her. I suppose I'll bid farewell for now :)

xo | cmd

Job Fair Madness

Ever been to a job fair? I have.

Today not included, I remember my first exposures to job fairs as early as my freshman year of college, when our campus transformed into a collage of booths and tents all aimed at recruiting resumes of the next up-and-comers. At that time, we were encouraged to attend in full business attire. Along with some of my classmates and friends, we obliged. I realize now that those recruiters likely found us and the hundred other underclass students filing by their booths like a cafeteria lunchline more of a nuissance than a benefit. I distinctly remember those representatives politely thanking us for resumes and kindly piling them into what I'm now certain was the completely useless stack. I mean really. My best intro at the time was, "hi, I'm a college freshman with just under 4 years of schooling still ahead of me. My resume doesn't have squat on it, but here ya gooooo."

Haha....

Years later [today], I found myself alongside Meagan for the tail end of a local job fair at one of the college campuses in Glen Carbon. This time, I was on the other side of the booth, handing out brochures to prospective job-seekers and explaining our business to them. I accepted resumes from students who I found were now in the position I'd been 8 years ago. [Whoa, eight years. Holy cow.] What an eye-opener.

Anyway, my level of gratitude for my employment was completely renewed today, and for that I am thankful.

It's been a crazy week already, and I need to unwind :)

xo | cmd

"Night Night, Moon"

night night!

Of the many books we read to Sydni, one of her favorites right now is A Night Night Prayer, by Amy Parker. We read this at least twice a day on the weekends, and usually at least once on weeknights as well. This evening was no different, except that on the page where we say Night, night, moon!, we took a break and went outside to take a look at the real moon. It was high and magnificent tonight, shrouded occasionally by passing cloud cover. I thought about getting out the real camera to capture the glowing circle, but opted instead for the more convenient cell phone. I kinda liked it, though.

That's about all I've got to report tonight, but for the record, I like it.



belleville full moon



This is the first 5-day work week I will have in two weeks; I'm not quite excited about it, but I'm pretty sure already that it's going to be a pretty packed, hopefully productive one. We'll have to see.

Night, night, friends!

xo | cmd