The Perfect Midweek

Today was awesome :).

1. Early morning workouts! It's not really all that often that I can drag myself out of bed at 4:15 A.M. to get over to the gym, but I talked myself into it today - it was totally worth it.

oh heeeey wednesday morning

2. Roses are red, violets are blue... but roses are way more fun. :) 

These were on my car seat when I went to go to the gym; I ended up taking them to work to display. I hadn't expected them, but they sure are adorable! [Thank you, Joe!! ♥]

my roses! :)

3. Husband and daughter visiting for lunch?! I think so! Unfortunately, our regular sitter [Dawne] had a medical issue needing attending today, so she wasn't able to take Sydni. Joe decided to take the day off and hang out with her, giving them some much-needed daddy-daughter time. The two of them made it up to Glen Carbon for  my lunch hour; we grabbed a quick bite and spent what was left at the park playing :). It was gorgeous outside today, and we took full advantage of it. Plus, major major kudos to Joe for coordinating an outfit for Sydni that was not a halloween costume, rather one of the little sundresses my Ate Gazelle had sent. She was so stinkin' cute!

my loves on my lunchbreak!

4. After work, I made it home to find that Lara and Alex had dropped off some of the Relay for Life fundraising money for me to take to the ACS office. I am SO proud of Team Towerview!! We are going to be at our goal in NO time, which means I'll get to raise the goal, again. << Geeze, what an amazing problem to have ;).

hey, that's us! so so proud of team towerview!!!

5. Jarod joined us on a whim for dinner; we grilled out and hung out for a couple hours over dinner before he headed out and I made to it with cleaning this place up a little.

Like I said, happy Wednesday, right?! I couldn't have asked for a better one.

Let's see if Thursday can compare. :)

xo | cmd

Top 10 Reasons I [Still] Love My College R.A.

10 | She now runs Findlay Market in Cinci, and coordinates co-ops between local artisans, chefs, and businesses. How friggin' cool is that?!
09 | She forced me to run every stair at Nippert Stadium at UC, totally against my willl. One week of near immobility, one stop to yak, and a bajillion stairs later? = Totally worth it.
08 | She introduced me to UC Hoxworth blood drives, and essentially mandated participation on our floor.


becky! best ra ever.

07 | Because I would've been stuck with an over-the-top sorority girl my entire freshman year, if not for her intervention. And no, I don't mean one of those tolerable sorority girls; I mean the one that believes the earth shifted gravitation once she entered the scene.

06 | She introduced me into the Cincinnati network of indoor soccer, soccer clubs, and my now beloved Plex-rats of the Tri-County Soccerplex [league champs what?? haha]

05 | She's a beast! Right out of college, she was a forest-fire fighter. She's torn every ligament in her knees except one, has had surgery on average every other year, yet still plays soccer, still climbs, and is still in better shape than I will ever be.

04 | She gave me a sweeeeeet futon that I used for years. Sounds silly, but did your RA give you furniture? :p

03 | She saved my sanity, very literally speaking, by being there for me when one of my roommates attempted suicide. I'm so happy to say that roommate is still around to tell that story, but I would've been a wreck without her quick response and open door.

02 | She scheduled a night out of her St. Louis visit to meet me for dinner! Yay for our 10-yr anniversary of knowing each other :).

01 | We spent 1 year bonding over dorm life, 3 more years developing a friendship, almost 4 more years playing soccer together, and more recently making sure we're there for each other's big events. [She and Paul made it to our wedding.. woo!] She's always been a mentor, sound source of advice, role model, and above all, friend. It was awesome to catch up with her :).

***

Oh, and not to mention, she found a pretty cool little spot downtown St. Louis - If you've not yet tried out The Bridge over on Locust, I would suggest you mosey on over. They've even got a couple Cincinnati brews on tap, if you're into that kinda thing ;).


bridge th&wb | st. louis, mo

P.S. - Try the chicken salad. Delish.
It wouldn't have been a solid trip to St. Louis eateries without a stop at The Gelateria, and of course a quick walk-around of the City Museum [next time!]. She heads back to Cinci tomorrow, but we're already cookin' plans for another outing... keep ya posted.

I'm home now; major kudos to my husband for taking care of the monster for the evening. :)

That's a wrap, folks....

xo | cmd

A Song for the Road Home

HooRAY for 3-day weekends! 

The bulk of today was spent driving back to IL, but not before we spent the morning and early afternoon visiting with my aunt and uncle from Cleveland. They came down to spend the day with my parents, and we were situated perfectly to have a few hours with them before we left.

Oh, and since there wasn't much else to report today, I thought I'd share this little diddy from late last night, when I partnered up with my sister, neice and nephew on one of those classic praise songs, Holy Holy Holy. Like I said, I am so blessed to have such a musically-inclined family.

I ♥ them, every single one.

We're home now, and Mo & Jimmy just showed up with Bootsie - they'd had her for the day. It's only been a few short days since we saw them last, but I'm gonna go catch up anyway :)

Short work week, woo!!

xo | cmd

Celebrate Family!

my sister!

I get that this holiday weekend was built on the foundation of the holiday itself: Memorial Day.
I am in no way, shape or form trying to detract at all from the gravity of what tomorrow represents.
I am saying that because of the extended weekend, we are here, visiting family, and for that I am celebrating. I love my family, and I was given a quick reminder today that they are just as incredible as they've always been, and that it's only getting better.

For example:  My daughter alone is growing like an outta control weed - she's developing into her own faster than I can follow, and I love it. My husband has since left the Air Force and re-joined the world of auto glass. My sister's family is blooming into this band of musically and artistically talented souls who continue to impress me every time we're together. My great niece Emmie will turn four this year. My parents are remodeling their kitchen. My cousins' kids [my 2nd cousins] are in their mid-20's now. Where is time going???? Holy smokes.

emmie & sydni ... strategy meeting. haha

Anyway, these types of holidays are typically fail-proof in bringing all of us together in one spot at the same time. I say that we're all scattered; that's halfway true. I think I say it more-so just because we are now the ones living remotely. The bulk of my family is located within a 20-30 mile radius of each other. With the exception of us, and my cousins in PA, the majority of the family is back in Ohio. I said all that to say that while the drive can be a little tedious, it is totally worth it to have even just one weekend with my family.

mom outdoing herself yet again!

syd & lola

It didn't take us long at all to get right into the swing of things; Cynthia & Brian brought not just Emmie, but their little puppy Lola, too. It was about 10 whole minutes before Sydni had assessed the little fuzzball as a non-threatening situation, and for the rest of the evening made herself Lola's personal babysitter. Since they were just about the same size - we'll say proportionally-balanced - it was pretty funny watching her tote Lola around all afternoon, everywhere she went. The dinner table, water balloon fight, and campfire were no exceptions. I think she wants one. Hmm. Not gonna happen, not just yet.

water balloon prep..... the dry phase..

Oh, and we had a full blown water fight that stemmed from my mom's idea for an innocent water balloon toss. We warned her that this would spiral out of control; she didn't believe us, but I think she realized it when the water balloons started flying, then the buckets came out, then the hose itself, along with some squirt guns intended originally for just the kids. Needless to say, by the end of it, we were all soaked to the core. That's right, I love my family. :)

kiddies all dried off :)

After we'd swapped all of our sopping wet gear for dry clothes, wiped off all of our runny makeup and tied up stringy hair, we made haste with it to get the fire pit started up for some s'mores & such.. because really what is a family shindig without gooey, chocolatey marshmallow sandwiches?? Duh. :p

marshmallows. this is a science around here....

fire! 

roasting with mini :) 

It's been an incredible weekend. I love my family, and I appreciate so much having the time to come and spend with them. We head back tomorrow to IL; it's gonna be another couple of months before we're back up this way; that makes it all the more perfect to have this time when we can.

I.
AM.
SPENT. 

Time to get some sleep and put my drivin' eyes in. See ya tomorrow. 

xo | cmd

Delightful Drenning Days

Hey, Ohio :).

yardwork. do work. hah..

Sorry I didn't get all my formal salutations in when we arrived like owls in the night earlier, but I was exhausted and I didn't care who knew that. Anyway, we're here now, and so far it has been everything a beautiful homecoming should be.

It started before I was awake. Remember a few odd weeks back when we sold the Murano? Well, because it was licensed and titled [and all that jazz] in Ohio, the title had to be sent to Ohio. Silly, but timely I suppose that we would be here when it happened. Joe and Dad headed in early to snag that, and were home before I was even conscious enough to think about rolling out of bed.

itty bitty house for an itty bitty girl

Fast forward to when the entire house was alive - we started off the true Drenning way: Mom cooking for the entire family and relaxing to the sight of us all feasting away. As soon as we were done, it was off to town [hey again, Mt.V] to the childrens' garden at the KCCC. Sydni nearly lost her mind once she realized the place was stocked with everything a standard neighborhood has, just pint sized and in perfect proportion for someone of her whopping 2.5ish foot stature. It was adorable.

With the children's garden under our belt, we made with it to get some ice cream at what used to be a Sonoco station in front of R&M's off Martinsburg [can you tell I'm a local to somewhere??]. I was flooded with since-forgotten memories and fragments of childhood history being there; driving through the high & middle school campuses, the soccer fields, and nearby neighborhoods that at one point housed so many of my friends was a flashback that sparked both fond and happily-gone recall.

ice cream with nana & pappy!

hangin out on a miniature balcony

oh hey family!

a stone map of the U.S. - [boooo michigan!]

Meanwhile, back at the Dren lodge after the out-and-about festivities had been accomplished, we settled in for an evening of typical happenings whenever we visit:

I for some reason always sleep whenever I come home. I'm not talking about going to bed at night with the rest of the world; I'm talking about midday snoozes. Every single time I come home, I find myself settled into a prolonged nap of some sort. It's inevitable. We've all come to terms with it.

Joe, during these naps, never fails to commandeer my camera and capture himself in his signature pose. That happened tonight, many times [I'm sparing you the details of the other 8 or 9 shots that were either misfired or lesser quality in some way].

cori : sleeping | joe: self-portraiture | dad: nails painted.
... welcome to the dren lodge. lol.

My parents managed to take their creativity to a whole new level; Sydni has her toenails currently painted red to match mine; they coincidentally matched my mom's, too. Dad felt left out, so after much coercing, he let mom paint his nails. Haha. In most situations I would've thought that to be a bit strange, but my dad's totlally comfortable with himself, and besides, Sydni asked too. ;)

the 'dren lodge' aka, my parents' house | us in the chairs under the porch ;)

Dear smalltown,

I miss you in the sense that I will gladly visit you anytime you'd like, but make no mistake, I'm not stayin'. :)

* Back home it was, where we spent the evening lounging out at the Dren Lodge and building energy for what is sure to be a jampacked day tomorrow. My sister & her family will be here, along with my cousins.

Can't wait!

xo | cmd

And We Drove......

...... and drove.

yeah road trip.


- and drove s'more.

This is absolutely backdated. It's almost 2:30am, Ohio [EST] time.

[but we made it, WOO H-zzzzzzzzz]

xo | cmd

Date Night #2

What?! Is this real life?

Well, thanks to our incredible Dawne, who asked to keep Sydni for another night, Joe and I had our 2nd solo date night in two weeks [it doesn't take much to impress us haha].


date nights with the hubs ♥

Since we so rarely have the opportunity to venture out to our own downtown Belleville, we decided to take that route for the evening, and found ourselves deciding we would absolutely do this again when all the businesses were open. It's adorable downtown. After scanning the food selections, we settled for Se7en, a newer sushi/sashimi bar right in the heart of Main Street. It was excellent! From there, we found not just a local ice creamery, but one that serves gelato. That's right: no more trekking clear into downtown St. Louis for gelato; it's right here in our backyard. Sweet little things :). Plus the owner Bulent, awesome Turkish guy that he is, reminds me so very much of my also-Turkish friend Bulent from back on the Levee in Newport. I feel like such a local! Hah..

shichi sushi bar | belleville il :)

sorry it's blurry .. but that definitely says belleville roll. woo, belleville! :)

We did dinner before heading to see a movie [unfortunately, Joe couldn't get us a senior citizen discount this time, lol]. We settled into a theater void of people save for the two girls sitting half the theater's length behind us to watch The Dictator. It was funny, but definitely not a flick I'd recommend seeing unless you're renting it from Red Box. Just my thoughts.

the dictator

Anyway, it was a wonderful little evening, and we owe our biggest thanks to Dawne again for making it possible for us :).

This has shaped right into a beautiful week! Tomorrow we head back to Ohio for the weekend; aside from the 8-hour haul back, I absolutely cannot wait. :) :) :)

Let's pretend I'll get off work early tomorrow... hrmm....

xo | cmd

Towerview Relay Update!

In case you were wondering, Towerview Baptist is kickin' tail and takin' names in the fundraising battle against cancer. I took a gander at our progress today, and according to what's been entered on the ACS website, this is us:

oh hey towerview! look at us go! :) :)

TAKE THAT, CANCER.
*We're not done yet, either - not even close! I am so proud of my church family and that I'm a part of that family. We are flying right along, and the best part of it all [well, one of the best parts] is that our original fundraising goal as a team was set at $1500. Clearly, we're past that and not looking back - time to up the anty!

I'm floored.
- Had to share :)

Happy midweek!

xo | cmd

[Simple].

I'm taking this opportunity to not write about ANYTHING :). It's been a whirlwind few days, and I'm ready to slow it down and enjoy something simple.

How about this from earlier:


love. love. love. love.

See? That was simple enough. :)
See ya tomorrow....

xo | cmd 

I Am Loved [& Blessed!!!]

I went into today thinking that it was going to be another one of those maniacal Mondays, filled from top to bottom with the commonplace chaos that so effectively defines Monday. I was on point as it pertained to work, but that's a standard there and I would almost be more concerned if I ever found myself wading through the work week's opening day in slow motion. I barely made it past the day's finish line before 5:00 rolled around, but I was on the road and en route back home. Little did I know that I had some fun stuff waiting back at the house.

I rolled into the driveway beside Mo's car; she'd been there getting some laundry done, but I didn't realize she'd done some light cleaning around the house, Sydni's room especially. She. Is. Awesome :). [[thanks, Mo!!]]

What caught me the most off guard was the box neatly taped and addressed to me.... from Gazelle.

I found the most recent picture of us, circa 2011 from Monica & Edlin's wedding:

me with my beautiful ate's:
gazelle. cori. grace. melissa

I hate to admit that my Ate [btw, Ate, pronounced 'AH-tay,' means big sister in Tagalog] G and I haven't been in close contact much at all over the course of the last year, but what precedes that without a shred of doubt trumps it. Ate G and I were nearly inseparable during one of those truly trying times in both of our lives; there's a good chance I would've unraveled at some point had it not been for her big-sister-esque hand in helping me along. For that, I owe her more than gratitude, and I'm pretty sure that even if we don't talk for years on end, we'll always be close :). That's just how it's been, and how it's probably going to stay until time runs out. I love her ♥.

So anyway, inside the box addressed from her was a card [that about made me cry, thanksabunch,G....] and the rest of this:

jumper, 2 dresses, shorts for syd
diamond necklace for mama
i ♥ my ate g!!

I still can't believe how thoughtful this was, and how I won't ever forget it. :)

****
Mo & I hung out for the early part of the evening before Joe and eventually Jimmy made their ways to the house for a little grill out and dinner. We're all settled in now and watching Kobe battle WorldPeace. Meta WorldPeace, that is.

I was reminded today [again] that I am so blessed to have the people in my life that I do. I think this is gonna be a good week; I can feel it :)

xo | cmd 

Towerview Fundraising Breakfast: Relay2012

Hey Sunday! Thanks for stopping by :)

Today started off a couple hours earlier than the average Sunday; I was out of the house with little monster and en route to the Tower an hour or so before the usual departure time. With two cases of homemade muffins in hand, I unloaded toddler, Bible, camera, and eventually muffins into the most appropriate resting spots downstairs in the fellowship hall [well, aside from the toddler; those things don't ever rest...]. I spent a few moments snapping pictures of the helping hands and attendees of what was purposed to be a fundraising breakfast for the church's Relay for Life.

greg. ron. margaret
our trusted cooks! :)

my mini muffin monster!

breakfast

It was a huge success! Not only did we have a sturdy set of helping hands on board to flip pancakes, serve drinks and clean up, but the crowd elicited so easily by food didn't disappoint! I'm not one to regularly emphasize the strengths of individual denominations, but for what it's worth as it's relevent here: Southern Baptists have absolutely no qualms with cooking up good food, and we'll show that same lack of dissent when it comes to eating it. We love food, we love hanging out with each other, and we love coming together for a common and important cause. That being said, hosting a pre-Sunday school breakfast was guaranteed to be the hit it was.

When it was all said and done, we had $230 to put towards our [revised!!] team goal of $3,000. Our original goal was set at $1,500, but after just a month or so of We are getting closer!!! :)

pancake patrollers | lara & cori

on our way home.. cakehead ;)

After another home run sermon from our pastor [sorry for the inside joke; you'll understand if you were there], our 40 Days in the Word group [remember us? Yardsale?] rallied together at Lonestar to discuss the allocation of our yardsale proceeds.... and of course eat... again :). We nailed down some details on our next step in our plan to service our community, and did it with the usual flair of hilarious moments and musical-chair children.

I don't remember the next three hours following lunch at Lonestar; I'm going to attribute that to the fact that I spent that time napping :). I rolled back out of bed just in time to make it back to church for choir practice before coming back home again and wrapping up the day.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the grill Joe brought home yesterday. He spent a large part of the afternoon cleaning and configuring his new toy, and we wasted very little time giving it some exercise. Jarod, Jason, Alex, Jimmy & Mo stopped by after choir practice for some late evening grilling: burgers and chicken. I'm pretty proud of Joe: He didn't do half bad! :)

*Yawn.. Something about today indicated to me that this is going to be a great week. If the week's got other plans, too bad; I'm bent on making this a good one - and I've got God on my side :).

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Lara & Emilia's Baby Shower

Today started off a little more on the sluggish side that I'd originally expected. Sydni and I both took a leisurely approach to the morning and were barely ready to roll when Mo showed up at noon. The three of us headed over to Babies 'R Us and then Once Upon a Child to do some gear shopping for Lara's baby shower before we raced back home to put the final touches on everything. By the time Jackie made her way over, we were all ready to get going.

lara! the beautiful mama :)

tea party time for little miss emilia!

Lara's shower for little Emilia was aaaaa-mazing! The lady who hosted it had transformed her entire basement from her kids' playroom into a tea party, decked from top to bottom in simple yet elegant decorations highlighting baby girl, complete with everything from little baby cupcakes to a banner with Emilia's name. We had a blast. 

adorable baby cupcakes!

presents :) [i love baby showers]





Oh, and it wouldn't have been a baby shower with these creative ladies without a craft session: Lara had it arranged for all of us to design little headbands for Emilia. Each of us picked out our own colors and patterns and put together an array of little elasticized bows, which I must say were all adorable. In the event I have another girl down the road, I may or may not - but probably may - borrow this fun idea. In hindsight, it might've helped out a lot when Syd was a munchkin, since she lacked hair off the bat and on more than 20 occasions was declared an adorable little boy by passersby. Hrm. Anyway, here's how those turned out:


bows [arrangement by yours truly :) ]



blueberry struesel muffins



Once we retired ourselves from the baby shower festivities, Mo headed off to do some babysitting on base for the Werners, otherwise I would've enlisted her services for the muffin-baking that consumed the rest of my evening :). We've got the Towerview fundraising breakfast tomorrow morning before Sunday school that's purposed as a fundraiser for our Relay for Life team. I'm excited for it! - Oh, and the muffins look stellar [thanks, Nancy, for the recipe!].

I made some pierogies & peppers for us while the muffins were baking, too. Yay for my [adoptive] Polish roots shining through! :)

It's gonna be a long day tomorrow; time to get some Z's!

xo | cmd

Small Group Goodies

just a taste of what our friends are like :)
i love 'em.

It was a small group night. You know how these go.

* We were a few men short tonight; Julie & her boys, the Sandvens, and the Sleemans were all MIA, but we picked up Jarod for the night, along with both Becky's mom and Lara's friend Kim, both of whom were visiting from out of town.

It should go without saying that I beyond love our small group nights; I'm gonna say it anyway though, and with gusto at that:

I:: LOVE ::OUR SMALL GROUP.
♥

Truth. See for yourself :). 

Oh, and the picture there is a depiction of inevitable social time after small group lessons, juuuuuus-so-yenno. We actually did have a fairly cored discussion tonight over Matthew 9, which ultimately resulted in adding a few more points to the already flowering list of reasons that I admire, adore, and cherish my small group. 

.. But I'm still spent. Night, folks. 

xo | cmd  

Date Night!

Definition [according to the gospel by Cori] of a married couples' date night:
n. An occurrence during which the husband and wife find themselves venturing out on their own sans child[ren] for an evening, free to allocate said evening entirely as they please, with only the stipulation that they will in fact return at some juncture to pick up earlier mentioned child[ren].
n. Rare.



our little toy car for the evening - the miata

When was the last time Joe and I had a real date night? Your guess is as good as mine, so it made perfect sense that we would just refresh the recent history in that department and do it up date style.

Before I get too far into the wicked wild tales of our kid-free evening [pshhhh], let me first and foremost T H A N K Dawne, our trusted in-home daycare provider and babysitter. She had offered, unsolicited, earlier last week to keep Sydni overnight one night so that Joe and I could have one of these date nights. It was funny how the natural tendencies of married folk still factor into even the getting-ready phase of the traditional date:

"Cori, really? There's a long black hair in my sink. Did you put that there on purpose?"

"Joe, put the cap back on the toothpaste..."

^ True story. Haha. Anyway, we managed to bypass the formalities of the standard pre-date process and head out the door to dinner without much fuss. Joe had the little retiree vehicle [Miata], so we bee-bopped ourselves in that dinky thing on over to dinner before making our way to the theater for a movie.


yay, marvel! :) | the avengers

Fast forward to now, when we're back home, and I can tell you that The Avengers was all I had hoped it would be :). It's been I-don't-know-how-long since Joe and I went to see a movie in a theater bigger than our living room, so it was a welcome change in routine altogether. That the movie wasn't awful definitely helped enhance the overall experience, and when it was all said and done, I felt like we'd done a dandy little job of taking advantage of a night to ourselves :). Yay, us!
Since we don't want to incorporate too much wild into the night, we're both going to sleep in a few minutes. It's early, yeah, I know, but some things just won't change nowadays. Haha.

G'Nite.

xo | cmd