12-HOUR CLEANING

Q: Wanna know what I did today?

A: I made friends with all my cleaning supplies..................................

............................ for twelve hours.

Literally. 

hello..... clean house.

I spent the night at Rob's house last night for the first time in a while; we moved one of his vehicles back to his house and took some of my leftover things to store in the basement. I opted to take a day off work today with the sole intention of cleaning the house top to bottom before the landlords came to do my checkout.

Mission accomplished, baseboards and all. Two full bathrooms, four bedrooms, living room, hallways, kitchen, basement, laundry room and garage: DONE. This girl......... is SPENT. I even relocated the robins nest that was situated above the porch light [I wore gloves, and carefully re-positioned it in a nook of the tree where we always spotted mother robin; I hope she continues to tend to these little eggies!]. I know there's a risk there, but the nest really couldn't stay, but the last thing I wanted to do was harm any of the beautiful eggs. Cross your fingers with me....

no makeup... exhausted, but done!

I'm tired. I am.. super tired. I smell like pinesol and windex. I have some bleach spots on my knees from cleaning the bathroom floors, and I'm pretty sure I will wash out a full layer of dust from my hair when I hit the shower tonight. 


I picked Rob up from work and helped him put the bed cover back on his truck, also loaded up with some of my things, did a final walkthrough of the house with the landlords, and pulled out of the driveway for the last time. It's been a little bittersweet leaving that place, but I'm looking forward to this next chapter of my life, too.

I've done nothing but clean and reflect all day long today, and I've come to the conclusion that life is too short to be anything but happy. It really is that simple. I'm dedicating myself now to looking forward, not back. To seizing new opportunities and making the best of the ones that are just residual runoff from a life from which I am now liberated. I see people around me with so much less than I have, even in my current state, and I know that I'm blessed with more than I deserve, but less than it's worth if I don't take the steps to make the most of it.

I have my faith, and a Savior who does not disappoint. EVER.

I have a beautiful, healthy daughter.

I have a job.

I have family, friends and colleagues.

I have my health.

I'm stressed, but I'm happy.

I'm cleaning out more than a house, from here on out. (:

[[[ I'll keep ya posted ]]]

xo | cmd

Marianne Is Leaving :(

We all know I'm leaving. Most of ya'll know that Marianne... is also leaving :( She scored a sweet job with YoungLife in Virgina, so she's headed there first thing in the morning. And I do mean first. thing. Like, 2am departure mode. It's a 10 hour drive, so I would ask you to be in prayer for a safe trip and safe arrival.

I will definitely miss this girl....... :(

"let's swap contacts!" - marianne

We got the chance to finish up Marianne's painting, too. I met up with her for a little while at Starbucks [last time I'll see her, for a while, .... sad face] to add my hand-footprint to the painting she did of the world.

"your footprints don't define you; your friends do."
footprints l-r : cori. ali. marianne.

We're back at Rob's tonight. This will be my home for the next couple of weeks until I move back to Ohio. Tomorrow is Stella's first day kenneled all day [we bought her a kennel tonight... ohhh goodie!]. So far, she's done well with Sasha and Ziggy [Kelly's dog], so hopefully we can hold out for another week and a half or so.

Tomorrow I'm off work [hallelujah], but I'll be spending the entire day at the house cleaning, scrubbing, and removing every last shred of belonging I still have there.

*Sigh. I'm ready for this to be over....

xo | cmd

Box Trucks are Great For IKEA

Curse you, IKEA!

Just kidding. I actually love Ikea. The part I hate is that I, like everyone else who shops there, always over-buy.. and it's always a bunch of "cool stuff" I don't really need.

What I realized today is that it's waaaay more fun to go there and shop for stuff someone else needs. Rob and I decided that since we had the box truck already, it would be a pity to drive it back to Illinois completely empty. Since he'd had his eye on a few things the last time we came to Ikea, it only made sense to collect everything he needed in one trip, while we were guaranteed the space to transport it.

☑ king sized bed frame
☑ glass topped dresser

☑ tv stand

warehouse pickin'!! (:

It really didn't take us long at all to go through and identify everything we would need to pull out in the warehouse. We wound up with a cart full of boxes, which we'll surely get to assembly sometime in the next two weeks. I owe Rob bigtime for all his help in getting me moved, so I figured lending some of my super-awesome ninja skills in assembling furniture is the very least I can do ;) 

new furniture? = succes at ikea.

It's funny how the ratio of available space versus what you need to carry shifts when you have a BOX TRUCK to work with, as opposed to my car. Obviously we wouldn't have dreamed of stuffing all of that into my car, but with the truck, it looked like a tiny pile of toothpicks scattered on a table top. It's really not that funny, but just sort of struck me as quirky, especially given the fact that the whole thing was packed to the brim on the way up.

Fast forward again, to our road trip back to Illinois. Our first stop was at my house to clear out some of the things to donate [yeah, we're putting this box truck to WORK]. From there, it was a drop at Goodwill and then the road to Granite. We unloaded everything from the truck, chatted with Kelly and Mike for a bit, and then turned tail right back to Fairview to drop off the rental truck for good.

That brings us to now, sleeping at the house for the last time tonight... on the floor, no less... haha.. Oh well, I don't hate it.

This move is slowly coming along... we'll get there!

xo | cmd

It's MOVING Day!

Ta-Daaaaaaaa, it's MOVING DAY!
.... again.

One of these days, I'll plant my feet somewhere long enough to start building my own furniture, like I want.... build a shed, like I want... and start a garden in my backyard, like I want....

Until then, I'll continue on my path of nomadic wonderment and stay on a status of temporarily wherever I find myself for the time being. Hopefully that means at least a 1-year lease of sorts.

That being said, I am fortunate to have some truly amazing friends here to help me with Project: Relocate Cori. Ali, her dad [aka Padre Lackey] and Jay showed up early this morning to lend their brawn in transferring everything from the house to the 16-ft boxtruck Ali and I retrieved from the ever-comical Walter over at Penske.

Ali caught me in a rare moment of being able to reach ceiling level outside the garage while standing on the truck's loading ramp. Excuse the fact that I look like I'm on stilts.. haha.

As much as this house will be a part of a closed chapter in my life, I'll still miss it (: 

house hugs!

Rob had to work this morning, and by the time he got back, we had pretty much cleared the majority of everything out of the house and into the truck. It wasn't long before he and I were situated in the cab and on the road, Ohio-bound. 

road trippin' ... in a penske... chyuuuup.

Fast forward 6ish hours to our final destination: Stronghold Storage in Eastgate. We got signed in, and with the help of my ever-faithful and life-saving [literally] friend Becky, got everything unloaded within a half hour. My old bosses were kind enough to let us park the boxtruck in front of their Express building overnight to avoid any awkward parking fiascos in Northside, and from there, we were off towards Clifton. Rob had never been to Skyline, so it was our pleasure to take him to one of the original Skyline's in the gaslight district of Ludlow. The review: awesome. (:

 ♪ ♫ it's skyline tiiiiiiiime ['nati folk, i know you know that jingle... ]

We're here at Becky's now.. and that, folks, is a wrap.

See ya in the mornin'.

xo | cmd

T minus One Day :/

I'm exhausted.

Mentally, physically, emotionally... exhausted.

I am moving all of my major belongings to Ohio tomorrow, where they'll live in a storage unit until May 11, or until further notice.... I have been all over this house for the past two weeks: packing, trashing and rounding up the rest to donate.

The last bit of packing and filtering through the clutter of this place was scheduled for tonight...

This is backdated, which is a testament to what I'm about to say:

I am... exhausted. I got home after work and felt like the weight of the whole situation was squishing my brain between a rock and a 2 ton bag of sand. That being the case, I opted for a "quick nap" before digging into the rest of the work.

Welp.......

That was about 7pm.

As I backdate this... it's about 7:04 AM... on Saturday... and I've been awake for a total of abouuuuut 20 minutes, if we're being honest.

CRAP.

Good news: We discovered corn nuts from Dierberg's .. and I will probably buy up stock in those suckers before I leave, because they... are delicious.

.... that's all I've got folks.

I'm still exhausted.

xo | cmd

Full Moon Funkies & Some Awkward Family Photos

Ooooooooookay.... So I'm not typically a superstitious person: I don't follow any funky precepts of situational outcome determined by what color I wear or how many stray black cats cross the street. I've always thought it was kind of exhausting [& pointless, really] to live in some subconcious fear of little dogmas. If I want to open an umbrella in my house while walking under ladders, well... come get me.

Yeah I know. I'm a a rebel. ;)

Anywho - I was challenged by the course of weirdness that was my day at work today. Very early into the day, Andi took a minute and checked out the full moon schedule. Yes, that's today. It all made sense now.

My job is weird enough as it is, on a daily basis... but today may take the cake for a little while on the scale of 1 to way-wacked-out.... anyone who's ever dealt with the general public on a large scale [specifically the unemployed general public], or in HR can attest to how zany it can be.

Quirks of today, in no particular order:

xX | "Did you guys know, on your online application, that it does not accept the letter C?" - Applicant attempting to register online.

xX | In an interview earlier this morning:
"I see that you did production for 3 years?"
"Yes, I made pieces like the ones that English & British warriors of the 18th century carried into combat, to aide them whenever they needed to perform trachiotomies."
"Oh...... Of course."

xX | The girl who removed a huge fake eyelash during an interview. Just. One. The end.

xX | Interview flop #1 : Overpriveleged engineering intern who believed we were intending to scam his information and sell it to private vendors. I don't even know what that means.

xX | Interview flop #2 : RSO. RECENT RSO. Hide your kids, ya'll.

xX | "I can't make my interview because it's raining outside." - Unmotivated Associate

xX | DOPPLEGANGERS! Arsenio Hall [the muppet puppet version], Fantasia Barrino, and a llama.

xX | Temporary internet crash.

xX | Resume one-liner: "I showed workers who were working how to be better at there jobs than I am."

xX | Corn nuts. You're welcome, Linda.

xX | Kyle, being hilarious. ... Yes, Kyle, you can take a lunch break.

xX | Discovering that someone you know has launched a fundraiser for something estimated to take 3 months for completion, that requires $20k. Good luck.

... It doesn't look as hilarious re-reading it, but to mash it all together into one day definitely makes things a little stranger than the average Thursday.

To continue in the spirit of silliness, I found myself at Ali's later in the evening, along with Marianne, Damanji and Tim. Ali's dad took on some pretty heavy photography work and got some shots of us nimrods doing what we do best... goofin' off. There's no better way to explain it other than just showing it.... so uhh... yeah.

Here ya go....

Oh, I love 'em.
I'm home now, showered and ready to call this one a night. Two more days and I put my life [a.gain.] onto a moving truck and drag it across a few states. I will be so glad when my life can stop being nomadic... *sigh.

xo | cmd

Proof I'm Blessed

It's been officially announced that I'm leaving.
Here's the thing about that: Marianne is leaving, too. She was here for military, but just recently scored a sweet gig with YoungLife in VA. It's a suuuuuper exciting opportunity for her, and mine from here on out will be exciting, too... it just means that both of us are leaving.

Let me rewind a second to the going-away gift that talented ALI made for Marianne:

marianne + amazing gift = sad but happy all of us.... ♥

^ That was the first of two gifts that Ali put together. I teared up a little seeing the first one, and once the actual pictures replace the stick figures, it'll be AWE.SOME. I had no idea she was working on a second one, for me... and when she gave it to me this morning, it took everything in me not to cry. I'm such a wimp.

[my present from ali]
illinois ali... to new york marianne... to ohio cori ... it's true.
your feet don't anchor you... your friends do. ♥

I.... feel.... BLESSED.. beyond words that I could convey. I've already packed up all my craft gear, so I can't yet reciprocate the favor. The way I've got it figured, these two girls had better give me the correct mailing address for things I may or may not send later on down the road ;)

For  now.... 

it's true. my friends... make this true.

I got my Tumblr fix for the day; how about you? ;) Ali, Marianne, Mo, Rob, Jay, DeShawn, my coworkers, and everyone else I've met along the way here... you've made marks on my life that will never be duplicated, and for that I am so grateful. It's been a bumpy ride for some of us, and I'll admit my faults along that journey... there are things both said and unsaid that tie us together... Let it stand that I'm grateful, and sincerely indebted in many ways, to each of them, in separate ways. I'm not the greatest at wearing my heart on my sleeve, I'll wear it inside-out all over a good blog ;).

&& then some. ya'll know who you are.
..... thank you ♥

And for those incredible people who were before my time here in IL and for those who will come after it now.... love, love & more love to all of you. Don't ever forget it.... 

truth.

Here's to FRIENDS.. Yeah, I'm blessed (:

xo | cmd

Business of the Month

It's raining again. It's pretty dreary and drab out there, which proved to be a good motivator to keep me in the house packing instead of playing outside in the sunshine. Silver lining!

In other great news, CONGRATULATIONS to my office for receiving this award ... we've all worked incredibly hard to get here, and I definitely think we earned it. 

woo!!

I'm so proud of this team; I've seen in just a few short years the growth we've had and I'm personally proud alone to be a part of it all!

express employment professionals!
marc & diana | our team!

Not bad news for an otherwise dreary looking day, huh?

I should get back to packing. This house isn't going to box itself up, right?

.... Right? :)

xo | cmd

HAPPY BIIIIIIIRTHDAY ALI!!!!

*SQUEAL!*
It's Ali's birthday.... sooooo....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love love love love... her!

Here's how today at work went, in between actual work: Decorations, cake & our office staff all hanging out together. Oh, and I invited Jay to come up and be a surprise guest. (: 

decorations? duh. turtles, everywhere!!

I have to give major kudos to Andi, who has not only fulfilled the much-needed role of competent staffing consultant for the office, but also brings the talent of cake baking. She's pretty stinkin' amazing, and when we approached her for a second office birthday cake in the form of a turtle, this is what she brought today. And yes, it was even more delicious than it was cute. Belieeeeve it!

andi's creation: another amazing cake!

surprise guest! well, not really a guest so much as that one neighborhood
kid who just randomly shows up at your house to eat all your food and watch
your tv..... lol... hi jay! :p

This may be the first time I've gotten a picture of the entire office, too - at least the most current crew ;) I've gotta say, we're a pretty decent lookin' bunch! I love this work family of mine, and I'm excited to see it growing even though I'll be parting ways here soon. They will always have a special place in my heart and I'll miss them more than you'll ever know..... 

kyle. matt. linda. ali. cori. andi. diana. marc | 2013
express employment professionals | edwardsville/glen carbon il

celebrating my best friend & beautiful coworker.
happy birthday, ali. ♥

Oh, the JOYS of Express office birthdays. I've already promised myself back here for the summer and fall birthdays when they come around; I love this team & I will miss them. It didn't hurt to round out my employed-here birthday participation with that of my best friend.... & that was only the start of the birthday fun (:

We continued the birthday bash after work, with our first stop for sushi at Se7en in Belleville. Duh. I rendezvoused with Ali, Ashley & Scott, Tim and DeShawn, soon followed by Jay & Cindy, and finally Rob. It was a feat, but we somehow managed to go through not one, but TWO boats of sushi, drinks AND mochi. Hey. If you're gonna go, go big. :p What's that, another photo montage, you say? Well, I never thought you'd ask! ...... aaaaaaaand..... GO:

sushi boat... the first of two ... haha

The server thought it'd be wise to let us split the bill.
.... ummmm, sure?

easy, right? : / 

Dinner aside, we tailed over to The Edge in Belleville, with just enough time to catch the last round of laser tag. We pretty much closed the place. Ali, aka "TANK" came out on top, with the rest of us trailing behind. Let the record stand that I definitely did beat Rob. That probably won't ever happen again, so yeah... ;)

love. him. a lot.
...& uhh, check out the photobomb.. haha 

And of course, a semi-socially unawkward group shot.. so rare, I tell you (:

rob. cori. tim. ali. deshawn. jay. cindy

MARIANNE: We missed you, you poor surgery-stricken butterlover. We will have some GOOD fun once your nose is healed up and you're ready to smile again (: Hope you feel better SOOOON!!!

poor marianne. we missed [& love!] youuuu!!

LOVE YOU, ALI. HAPPY, HAAAAAAAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

dear friend, happy birthday  ♥

xo | cmd

☼ SUNDAY WITH SYDNI!! ☼

Today was the best day overall that I've had in a very long time. To the core, I have next to zero complaints about the day, other than the fact that it's over.

First stop: Picking up Sydni and heading to breakfast! We have a thing for going to Taste of Belgium every time we're in town, so it only made sense to take Syd there for her first time. She definitely didn't mind a fruit waffle, and I definitely didn't mind having breakfast with two of my faaaavorites: Miss Sydni, and Mr. Rob. ;) 

taste of belgium | cincinnati, oh

After breakfast, we decided we'd go take some pictures and enjoy the goooorgeous day. It wasn't hard to pick the place; by default I toted us out to the one and only Eden Park, my all time favorite park in the area. It's served as my refuge since college, and I jump at the chance to take visitors up there. We had a blast. I figured I'd show it rather than tell it.... enjoy ♥ 

this little face... melts me, every time.

duck pond!

hangin out with mr. rob (:

mama & mini

she's suuuuuch a model! ;)

"mommy! look at me and mr. rob, we have monster faces!" - sydni

walking around the mirror pond .. and maybe splashing in the water ;)

with my two favorites ♥ ♥

*Sigh. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Like I said, my only real regret is that it's coming to a close. I had the opportunity to meet Joe's new girlfriend today, and have to say she's a sweet girl. It's been a long road, but I'll suffice to say that we all deserve to be happy, regardless of what we've done and where we've been.

Even the drive home was tolerable; I made some final touches on the decorations for Ali's birthday tomorrow, and spent most of the time just reveling in the amazing day we had. I caught the last few shots of the night on the drive back, and was reminded that I'm surrounded by beauty, from the smallest things to the bigger picture. 

God's canvass : aaaaabsolutely beautiful.

To sum up today: [a gift from my amazing friend Ali : lovelovelovelove her!!!!] This is what hangs now in my mirror and reminds me every mile of the way....

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

We're home now, after a stop off at the office to decorate for Ali's work birthday celebration; I'm preparing food for the office lunch and hanging out with this weirdo boyfriend I kiiiiinda adore. :p

Love & more Love, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Unsuccessful Housing Hunt..

I just woke up.
....... for the second time today.


this was... our day...



We drove... a lot today. We took off around 9:30 this morning to head out to Anderson to check out a townhouse; I wasn't entirely sold on it, but I've not ruled it out, either. From there, we covered the entire Milford area from side to side, parts of Loveland, back down through Miamiville and even a little into Mt. Carmel. Through the process, we dug up a few very interesting characters, properties off the beaten path, and a tree with a twisted branch on which I lost the bet that it was organic [vs. a rope or wire of some sort]. That bet cost me lunch at Chipotle [not mad, not mad.. haha..], and we were off again. If for some reason you thought we didn't spend enough time in the car........ we were in that thing solid all the way up until our final Norwood pitstop at 6pm. I was exhausted.

BAD NEWS: Jury's still out on the housing situation. I'll be exploring some more options this week on a place to nail down, but I've heard from a few people that the Cincinnati rental market right now is pretty dry. I'm not crazy.

GOOD NEWS: I.. well, we [Rob has been my bodyguard all day] met up with David and Nancy [the owners of my new office] in Norwood to see what will be in its finished state the Express office of greater central Cincinnati. It's still a work in progress, but it's spacious and has excellent visibility/accessibility. I'm pretty excited about build-out, and was glad to have finally met David's wife. I was happy Rob was there, too; looking back at the folks we met today, I'm not sure I would've had as much composure walking into those meetings solo.


see that big blank spot? yeah... that'll be me... (:

Anyway, we made it back here to Becky's just shy of 8pm - Becky was out cold on the couch and we had very similar plans, so it was straight to a late evening nap..... which brought us to just waking up about 30 minutes ago.
Yeah, us.


tofu quesadilla from the comet? yesssssss, please.



This headache I've been fostering all afternoon is finally starting to subside, for which I am sooo grateful [I'm such a baby when it comes to headaches]. We've collectively decided on ordering food from The Comet; Becky and I just got back from picking that up, and Rob's in the shower so I figured I'd take a few minutes and blog before I pass out.. Haha. I'm still pretty spent from the day, but thankful for Becky... for Rob... and oh yeah, for the fact that tomorrow morning, we'll be getting Sydni for the day before we leave. I'll also be devouring a tofu quesadilla within the next hour, and for the time being, that alone is worth fending off sleep for just a few more minutes.

Happy Saturday, blogbots!

xo | cmd

♪ ♫ It's Just a Long... Way... Home ♫ ♪

This week was definitely one heck of a 5-day stretch. *Whew. I'm not sad to see this one laid to rest, but at the same time I find it slightly bittersweet knowing that my time here is still limited. I'm about to head back to Ohio for some scouting and screening of potential landing spots for me; I've been singing Steven Curtis Chapman all day....

It's crazy to look around my house and realize I've already started packing up my house and must say I've gotten pretty far. There is still a lot to sort through, but after multiple moves in the past two years, I think I've pretty much divested of every spare thing along the way that I either didn't need, didn't use or didn't remember at all. I've made a few donations here lately just to catch up on my inventory, and I feel pretty good about it. We'll see what I can churn up this weekend as far as housing goes. We'll see.

We're leaving here as soon as Rob gets back; the car is packed [with all of the two days worth of stuff we need], and I'm ready to be done with the drive. It's gonna be a packed weekend; here's to safe travels, fruitful searches, and the like.

xo | cmd