All Together ♥

First things first: BREAKFAST! [Rinse & repeat with us.. duh..]
* I think I'm losing the battle of favorites here....

"noooo mommy, i wanna sit with mr. rob!"

Well THEN. Haha. Luckily for me, I still have the meatballs [aka S&S Pups, Extraordinaire].. They never disappoint. Okay, maybe sometimes, but I love 'em all the same and was glad to have some time to play with my other two, very furry kids.


stella.. sasha.. sasha.. stella... ♥♥

Rob's mom & stepdad stopped by for a little while; I wasn't expecting it but it was great for Rob's mom to finally meet Sydni. Syd made sure to show off her superhero skill by flying laps around the yard just for them. And yeah, Rob & his stepdad rode the chopper through the grass.. don't mind the tracks ;)

Once they'd left, we realized that the pups had annihilated a stuffed animal [not Syd's, thankfully], leaving little beanbag pebbles scattered all over the floor. I'm sure this was an act of retaliation for us not letting them join the outdoor festivities. In our defense, we would've spent the rest of the afternoon chasing them around the city had they gotten out, unleashed.

You might call this chaotic, noisy or unorganized. I call this the absolute perfect way to relax, with my favorite humans and dogs, all under one roof. It's not often now that we are given these types of days, but when we get them, I celebrate that. This is [& they are] my life. I am so .. so blessed.

I finished off today with some fried rice for all of us, which I have to say paired up with the chicken Rob grilled juuuust perfectly. The littlelest of us all is the biggest food critic, and her plate was clean, so I'll call that a win (: 

easy fried rice!

What a Day.
I. Love. Them.

♥ words just don't cut it....

This didn't turn out to be a bad weekend at all...
Homeward bound now.
xo | cmd

H-A-P-P-Y Saturday!

apple tree | granite city, il

First things first:
Places we've - well, I've - never been... and breakfast.

Rob introduced Syd and I to the Appletree Family Restaurant in Granite today. It's not a spectacular venue by most standards, but my hometown has very similar places and I love them... so I wasn't opposed at all.

It turned out to be much more like a diner than anything else, and I happen to love diners. Breakfast was delicious, Sydni was happy... we were all together in the same place at the same time... life's good.

From there, we headed down to a car show in Belleville, hosted in part by a guy Rob works with. Today was the perfect day for this (: 

perfect day for a car show!

And then it was off to Dawne's! It was so good seeing her, and if I'd had my stupid phone with me, I would've taken a picture to commemorate the first time I've seen her in months. She and Sydni had some long-overdue catching up to do, so we chatted for a few minutes and then went on our way.

We stopped by the mall for a few minutes, snagged some Orange Julius and checked out the new trends at Zumiez [luckily nothing spectacular enough to take home this time], and were back at Rob's in no time.

These two got some quality play time in today (:

tug tug tug tuuuuug...

Once the pups were a little tuckered out, we geared up for an afternoon ride out on Rob's [newest] bike. It's sad, but this is the first time we've ridden together.. haha. There's a first time for everything! Ours is just usually... delayed. (:

knockout bike. knockout boyfriend.
all around win (:

We rode over to Jesse's, where I finally got to see his little Zepplin [new puppy!], who is far too cute for his own good. I didn't have my phone with me, so these are borrowed.. but trust, the next time I see this little one, I'll have some shots of my own ;)

zepplin! adorable growin' lil brute (:

The three of us took off in search of a hangout, landing us at a pool table and a drink before deciding not to risk the chances of rain on the bikes for the night. Rob and I headed back to change and trade a chopper for a diesel.

goofball. & i love everything about him.

Before long it was back to Jesse's, to pick up him and his friend Kelsey.. and off to Fast Eddie's it was. We were in the mood for some grub and chick-on-a-stick sounded just about right. Y-U-M. (:

fast eddie's bon air | alton, il

Then to Rajun Cajun piano bar, where Jesse, Kelsey & Rob all failed at convincing me to get up on the stage and play anything. I thought about it, yes, I did... but I didn't. Sorry guys.. maybe next time. Haha ;)


rajun cajun piano bar | alton, il

We dropped Jesse & Kelsey off before our final destination of the night: Bindy's. Alicia made Rob promise the last time he saw her that I'd come by when I was in town next. So... it seemed perfectly fitting, especially with it being Bindy's 24th anniversary party!

♥ alicia!! [not my best picture, but we'll deal...]

This is backdated, fo sho. We made it home, had one of those liquid-encouraged, brazenly-candid conversations on the way, and at that, called it a night.

¡Hasta Mañana!

xo | cmd 

Road Trip Ruckus

Have you ever heard it said that if something can go wrong, it will?

Well, it wasn't that bad [for us at least], but it struck me today that literally each time I've been out to Illinois to visit, some sort of obstacle materializes and challenges my determination to get there. Today it was an overturned semi lying across both lanes of the highway, just across the OH/IN state line. The good news, I heard later on, was that the driver was okay [contrary to the rumors from other bystanding OTR'ers that he'd had a heart attack, etc.]

yikes. :(

We waited, parked with vehicles off, for almost three hours. At one point, I spotted a group of people throwing a football, others doing cartwheels in the grass, and someone tailgating in the bed of a truck. We bade our time by picking flowers.

making the best of time-consuming situations!

There's nothin quite like a road-side flower patch. Haha...
They finally righted the truck and dragged it out of the way; we were fortunate to have been just 10-15 cars behind the actual accident so we skirted through in no time. From there, it was smooth sailing aside from the forever on-going road construction on the other end of Indiana... but we finally made it! 

reunited!

^ And no, Stella is not eating Sasha's head. I just realized it looked that way. Haha.

Sooooooo.. we're HERE, and we're spent.

Goooooood night!

xo | cmd

Splish Splash

It's all in a day's work, right?
[I don't even know what that really is supposed to mean, but I do know we gave Thursday a run for its money today]

Work was work, nothing especially memorable about the day other than it's one step closer to Friday and that means we'll see Rob tomorrow!

Traffic, as usual in greater Cincinnati, was just.. a joy to navigate all the way out to Blue Ash for Sydni's swim lessons, but once I was there I realized that I would gladly grit through gridlock every single week just to see my little girl do this.

getting ready (:

learning how to float!

.. but never forgetting to have fun ♥

On the way home, Sydni said, "I wish Mr. Rob could see me swim!"
I was reminded in that moment how thankful I am for her. For Rob. For the fact that we are making this work, and that he's made an impact on my daughter. I was reminded why we're all being patient and making this long-distance thing work. We may not always be under the same roof at the same time, but when there's enough of the right kind of love there, we can do anything. I am blessed.

Back at home, it was laundry time, some goofing around [nothin' new there], and packing for the big weekend ahead of us.

this little girl is my world.

I'm exhausted.

Sayonara, Thursday.

xo | cmd

YouTubeAholic

I've posted a couple of internet things this week... and in the spirit of that, I figured I'd continue on with some of my recent favorites.

Off of a few YouTube channels I follow....

Convos With My 2-Year-Old.
It's Baaaaaaaaack!

I.. love these. I am so happy they've struck up a season 2. If you have kiddos - more specifically if you have one [or more] like mine, then this makes perfect sense to you.

For you Bieber skeptics out there, I stumbled on this and had to share. I'm nowhere near enjoying any of his music, but I heard this and became intensely appreciative of young talent doing useful and beautiful things with their ability! THIS is the kind of application I want my daughter to look forward to: maybe with music, but no matter the avenue, I would love to see her develop into something that can inspire the next.


In the spirit of bittersweet inspiration, here's good old Miley, before she went celeb-rogue. Can you imagine if this image were what she would've pursued? I'm not discrediting Dolly at all here, but it goes without saying that Miley IS talented... perhaps we'll see more of this once the shine of the word TWERK wears off. [*note, that will be the only time you will ever see me use that word. Ever.]:

For some humor... and a PSA on the importance of not over-hashtagging everything in our lives:

#LOVETHEM. ;)

 

Jamie posted this little guy on my Facebook a couple days back.. If you've never seen any BLR's, I would suggest you do it.. especially if you need a good laugh [the NFL version is an excellent place to start, hah!]:

"Eat a waffle bug!" ;)

Lastly, the trailors for 2 novel-to-movies: 1] the second installation of the Hunger Games trilogy, and 2] the first installation of the Divergent trilogy. And before you ask, yes, Nikki, Elisa and I are going to both of these. Feel free to join. [*Disclaimer.. spoiler alerts! .. oh, and READ THE BOOKS first!]

and.....

And uhh.. I think that's about enough for now. I'm YouTube'd out.

xo | cmd

FACE MASH [Inspiration]

To the internet, again I must say, Thanks.

Somehow I stumbled upon some celebrity facemashes today, and decided that at some point, I'm going to launch off into my own project of compilations. I'll keep ya'll posted, but I now have some solid ideas of how to incorporate my own spin on the concept.

I'm excited.
For now... here's [courtesy of Freaking News] some celebrity mashups for your random viewing amusement. To make it a little more interesting, the answers are at the bottom of this entry.. see if you can guess who's who? (:


#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

Answers. Ya'll ready? (:

➊ | Alice Cooper & Al Pacino
➋ | Angelina Jolie & Keira Knightley
➌ | Donald Trump & Bill Gates
➍ | Julia Roberts & Jessica Biel
➎ | Meryl Streep & Paris Hilton
➏ | Natalie Portman & Keira Knightley
➐ | Orlando Bloom & Johnny Depp
➑ | Paris Hilton & Jessica Simpson
➒ | TomKat [who needs their names, anyway, haha]
➓ | X-Men Transplant! Mystique & Magneto

So that was ... time-consuming, right?
Not the most content-flavored entry I've ever posted, but I'll be referring back to this later....

Happy almost Hump-Day!

xo | cmd

Meanwhile, in Equestria....

Sydni's here!

... and that means that I just spent the entire evening re-enacting scenarios that only happen in Equestria. Not sure where or what that is? Well leeeet me tell you then! It's where THESE things live:

my little pony

I have skittle-colored plastic ponies everywhere.
In drawers, in my bed, under my bed, in the couch, on the kitchen counter.. I swear these things are going to soon overrun the house.. haha.

[not mine pictured, but] we have this, too.
my little pony. everywhere.

It was kind of funny, because as I sat tonight with Pinky Pie in one hand and Rainbow Dash in the other, conversing with Applejack and Fluttershy .... [yes, those are their names... and there are about 30 more just like that if you must know..] It dawned on me that I had MLP's when I was a kid. I'm sure I still have them stored in some corner of my old closet at the parents' house; I'll have to ask the next time I'm home.

1995 vs. 2013

^ Found that online and immediately remembered that yes, I did have those, because I very distinctly remember their faces. Looking at the ponies now, it's funny to see how the designs have changed over the past years, too. [We'll have to check out Barbie later, huh.. haha]

So this, my friends.. is what my night has been. It's slowly morphing into Fall outside, so Sydni and I didn't venture far from the house out to one of the stone retaining walls with our ponies before the evening chill really starting to set in. Now we've set up the village of our exquisite little equine all over the couch and coffee table.

So if you'll excuse me, I've got a castle to save from an "evil pony with an evil magic wand, Mommy!" [??]
... Or something. (:

xo | cmd

A NoOb, All Over Again

Meh.

It's been something of a process getting back into a full groove here in Cincinnati, but I've found the beauty in not rushing anything. It's actually been really nice, working things out at my leisure, without anything or anyone pushing me in directions out of my best interest.

Today I obliged the request of some staff members from SonRise, and joined a group of others not unlike me in being new to SRCC, at a luncheon after the late morning service.

get planted.

I'm glad I did (:

Some things that this made me realize today:

It's been a long time since I've been a noob at a church! Haha. I don't mind really, because we all have to start somewhere, but it's refreshing in a way. It's also another step in the direction of finding my own pathway back on the home turf.

I discovered areas of outreach and ministry into which I have an interest in growing. I spoke with some folks on the praise & worship team, and got some contact information for a few other areas of interest.

Today seemed average on all accounts, but in retrospect, it's a milestone for me. The bigger picture is that I'm finding my way, after several rocky months, and for that I am left feeling blessed, encouraged, grateful and above all... happy.

I think... we're almost there, folks... I'm taking my time on this one, and so far it's paid off in ways I wouldn't have imagined.

xo | cmd

Motor City Work Conference, Pt. II

gooood morning, detroit :|

I woke up in Detroit this morning.
I woke up way too early.
I smelled like an ashtray when I woke up.. because you can still smoke indoors in Michigan.
And somehow, I woke up hungry.

Luckily for us, the Westin is a classy little-well, not really little - joint, so there's nothing to complain about with wide waterfall showerheads, marble sinks, window blinds that filter in the light but not the dilapidated view of demolition and chaos.... and of course a full-scale breakfast buffet line, complete with coffee.. to start off day 2 of our conference.

Fast forward to training [it's a bunch of useful info that's applicable to my job but not really to a blog].. and then fast forward again to the part where we continued eating. They called the food-intake part "breaks." We called it the other way around: in between eating, we took some breaks and learned some stuff. It's a huge win.

So yeah, we ate, again, at the full-table service awards luncheon. ConGRATS to Kortney on being recognized as one of the top 5 sales reps for our territory, to Nikki, Kortney & Anna on completing their EUC for sales, and to a tiny self-backpat for completing my EUCP. It only took me a shy 3 years to do it. Haha.

express takes care of its own ;)

Oh, and Chris bid for and won this:

4-foot tall wooden express superhero?
..... check.

Haha.

Anyway, it wasn't long before Nikki, Elisa and I were back in yoga clothes and packed in a row into the backseat, headed for home. We stopped off at a gas station in Wapakoneta [yep, welcome to Ohio...] and debated a mini visit to the Armstrong Air & Space Museum, but were distracted immediately by the DQ, which of course was a bigger priority. It'd been nearly FOUR hours since we'd eaten, so by this point in the weekend after having stretched our stomachs to the max with heart-attacking food, we figured, why not?

neil armstrong air & space museum | wapokoneta, oh

.... and then, finally, we were home.
It's still early in the evening; Oktoberfest/Zincinnati is happening this weekend downtown, but if I'm being honest, I'm parked on the couch now and really not in the mood to do anything else. 

... Don't judge.
I'll see how I feel about all of it tomorrow. (:
For now, I'm gonna lay here and attempt to will this food to digest.
We'll pick this back up tomorrow.

xo | cmd

Detroit : Sales Summit 2013

Well it's been a long day.
Great, but long.

It started at 5am when I was up and getting ready for the rest of the day. By 6:45am, I was in the foyer of my boss' b-e-a-uuuutiful home, joined shortly thereafter by Elisa and Nikki. The five of us piled into "Mom & Dad's" car [that was their title all weekend], and embarked on our 4-hour trek north to Detroit, MI.

And because I'm an Ohio native.. and because I've been to Findlay, Toledo, Perrysburg and further... I can say this:

The downtown bowels of Detroit are a DUMP. Literally. It is so much so, that in an eerily-fascinating way, it's enticing.. but at from behind a camera lens. Otherwise, it's not much to celebrate at this point if you consider what those vacant, destroyed-but-standing buildings once were or held. *sigh.

yep. room with a view... it's definitely.... somethin' ..

We landed at the Westin, in the heart of downtown; there were business-professional clad people milling around all over the sidewalk, assuring us we were in fact at the right place.

Fast forward to Elisa and I checking into our room, changing out of yoga clothes [aka, road trip attire] and making our way down to the opening presentation for the weekend. We reunited with owners and members of the other four local Express offices, along with a slew of other offices from around Ohio, Michigan and Canada.

Super profesh, I say. Super.

yyyyep (:

From there, we started in on our first round of training tracks, designed to cater to our job functions, but of course with a twist of fun [as is the Express way, for which I am ever grateful]:

kortney's a magician ;)

The formal part of the day came to a close and it was time for some fun, the way our local offices are known to do it: We [our 5 local offices] reserved a huge table at a local Greek restaurant, ate calamari and baklava, and drank uzo until we couldn't stuff one more thing into our stomachs, and had a really good chance to get to know some of the newer gals. We all agreed this should be a much more frequent thing, this whole social outing part of it all.

parthenon, greektown | detroit mi

flaming cheese. yes. queso con fueeego!

After dinner, the lot of us found ourselves directly across the street at the Greektown Casino, where we finished off the night out with some Blackjack, slots and more than enough people-watching [let's be honest]. From there, we made our way back to the hotel where Anna, Nikki, Kate, Elisa, Kortney and I spent the next two hours laughing ourselves into tears along with some random co-guests in what we learned was an out-of-town wedding party.

kate. elisa. kortney. cori. nikki. anna
greektown casino | detroit, mi

Oh, and we ate more food.
Not only will we be off the wagon this weekend.. I'm not really even sure we brought the wagon.

*and chyeah, this is backdated. Actual bedtime happened around 1...ish... AM.
Summit, Day 2 is tomorrow.

Signin' Off from the Motor City herself...

xo | cmd

& A Bunch of Random Stuff I Find Online

Every once in a great while, I find myself saving random articles, pictures, tutorials and creative project/recipe ideas off of whatever source they originated. I discovered today that they're starting to overrun space on my desktop; not that there isn't ample room there to share, but it's looking cluttered.

So here's an entry where I use my blog as a personal remember-this-for-later type board..

First things first:
FOOD. [Don't act surprised]:
[also, click on the pictures to enlarge, if you can't see .08 font ;) ..]

1. Banana Burritos ... or, if you're in Asian mode, Sushana:

things to try with syd!

2. Jelly Worms [these look tricky.. but fun .. for Fall & Halloween!]

wiggly...

3. Casseroles. You can so rarely go wrong with giving me a casserole recipe. The fact that there is an entire stick.. of butter, makes me want to prepare this for and send it to Marianne. Haha.

"curse youuu, paula deen!!!"
[and jk, i don't think is a pd recipe...]

4. Cookies. Don't ask. Just make.

things i promise to only make once a week.. at work...

These things are gonna make me start drooling... I'm such a foodie.. not to be mistaken with critic.. just a fanatic.. of food.. more specifically, eating it. No shame. Haha (:

This one made me laugh. A random number called my cell phone while I was at work, so instead of answer it, both for the obvious reason of my being at work, but also because I didn't even recognize the area code, I let the voicemail pick up. I later Googled the number; apparently G+ thought I needed help pronouncing it... assuming I know each sound component of the English alphabet letters already.

ohhhh, so that's why english-inept speakers sound so strange to us:
"fahyv" ??

^ Really? Twenty-six letters to memorize, but you've not yet done 1 through 10? Hmm. "Fawr, fohr." I think I'll start handing out my number in that format. "Eyt,... too,... fawr..." Yikes.

And then there's this... making me appreciate cotton and satellites in ways I probably never would have before:

thank you, buzzfeed.

Yyyyup.

Lastly, for today at least, I found a shirt that I wouldn't mind owning. It makes no sense, which is part of the quirky fun about it, but it's part of a tshirt company whose claim is in the printing of fun stuff specific to various parts of the Midwest [USA]. As someone who hails [mostly] from the MW, I have to say that many of my non-MW friends certainly do this.. a lot. This made me laugh especially after having lived in Illinois, to which nearly everyone would immediately reply, "Illinois? Ah, cool! Chicago!" ....nnnnnnnnnnnnnn...o.

want.

^ Looking at that, I realized I should probably start forming my birthday and Christmas wish list... more for myself than for anyone else.. haha.

Anyway, that's enough menial stuff for today.

xo | cmd