What Year Is It?!

I had a very mixed response to a lot of what I saw today.. haha.

First things first, we are all aware of the recently-plummeted gas prices. I've seen post after post of my friends fueling up for pennies in comparison to what was nearly $4 per gallon just a month back. Per gallon prices of under $1 have been spotted in several places, and while I didn't manage that, I can't say I'll complain at all about the $1.57 I paid today. I'm in college all over again!

is it 2003? i'll take it! 

On to the rest of the day: Our business' subject matter is considerably slow at this point in the year; most of our key decision-makers are nowhere to be found within 2 days of the new year, which left us with a bit more flexibility with our lunch hour than is typically afforded. We took advantage of it as a unit; Carri, Elisa and I made our way down to Findlay Market, a short trip during which we learned Carri's never actually ever been [until today!] to Findlay.

We gladly cured that ;).
And while we were there eating, we spotted a rather spectacular doppelganger!

and now, it's 1950?
i'm wholly convinced mr. einstein was in the building.

I'm telling you, I don't believe I've ever seen such an uncanny resemblance..

amiright?!

So we ate lunch and chatted some with Becky; Carri got her first full experience of the awesomeness that is Findlay Market, and we headed back to the office to wrap everything up. Today was the last day that we'd all convene this year [wild thought!], so with an extra pep in our steps, we tied up the loose ends and bid our office adieu until 2015.

At home, Rob and I headed out to pick up some last minute things for our trip to Illinois, made a pitstop at Jungle Jim's and eventually landed at Fuji for dinner.

chicken katsu, sushi & rice
fuji steakhouse | cincinnati, oh

^ Dinner brought me full circle back to the present, here in 2014, which we'll leave behind in Cincinnati and return "next year." Tomorrow's going to be a jam-packed day, so for now it's off to get a head start on the sleep I won't be getting tomorrow night, haha :)

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Love Culture | Lemon Grass | Grand Sands

There were three big things on the agenda for today:

1. Secure "THE OUTFIT" for impending New Year's Eve celebrations. [Done!]

so there's that.

^^ Now, just imagine that without the super skinny, visible midriff showing, and with me being just a couple shades... *ahem.. darker. :p Preview! Hah..

2. Dinner at Lemon Grass with the one & only Catie! It's been way too long, and to say that it was excellent catching up & celebrating my recent engagement with this gal is a huuuuge understatement. Love you, Ceggers & THANK YOU for the little celebratory gift! ;)

yay, catieeee!!

3. VOLLEYBALL!
Yessssssssss, finally! It's been since Summer that I hit the sand for some volleyball, let alone anywhere with any sort of real structure to the matches. I randomly received a text from Paul while at dinner with Catie, inviting me to sub in for the evening at Grand Sands [whoa there, flashback..], and naturally, I obliged, even at the risk of cramping up from the amount of food consumed at said dinner :p.

welcome! :D

This place brought in a flood of memories, specifically the days when I played on a team with Kalyn, Paul & Tim. Thanks a lot, Paul... now I'm bent on coming back!

yes, please! 

I'd say that's a pretty solid start to the final few days of December. Tomorrow's my last day of "work" for the year, and then it's off to Illinois to celebrate Christmas with Rob's family & simultaneously usher in 2015. It's gonna be a full-throttle weekend, but I'm ready :)

For now.. I've still got sand in some weird places, so I'll see you blogbots next time!

xo | cmd 

More Family. More Food. More Fun!

We managed something of an "early" start this morning, even without rushing through breakfast or the multiple attempts at a family photo :).

it's been a long & incredible weekend ♥

cousins ♥

With promises to see each other within the next few weeks, we parted ways, with a pitstop destination in hand for Maricor's. It's been way too long since we've seen each other, so how appropriate it would be for us to swing through to celebrate some Christmas time with the James family.

Sydni took to her cousins as though no time at all had lapsed since their last visit; the girls took off at once to their own little world, leaving the adults to catch up on life and all the recent and upcoming things of life that will shape 2015.

My cousin is one of the few women in my life who knows me backwards and forwards, and past the point of where even a best friend can identify. She's been there for me through nearly every insignificant struggle I've ever faced, and without a doubt every single one of my major celebrations, let-downs, trials, mistakes and achievements. I am thankful beyond words to have the kind of connection that we do, and despite our infrequency in getting together, we, like the girls, can pick up right where we left off as seamlessly as though it was just the day before when we last saw each other.

[So Merry Christmas, Maricor! LOVE YOU!]

cousins! 

The girls of course had a mini gift exchange:

sophie. madison. sydni
cousins ♥

Major kudos points to her too; I couldn't tell you the last time I had pancit [Filipino dish], but I'm about to change that this next year, because it... is delicious.

pancit!
[masarap, masarap!!!]

We finally loaded up for our last leg of the trip back home, where we are now. I'm a little worn out but completely content with how the weekend panned out!

hi pup pups!! 

OH! I finished this tonight, too! This two-tone guy is for Maricor's sister, my cousin Caridel, and I'll be shipping it out in the next week or so. Phew! 

o-h.... i-o!!!!

And that's a wrap, folks. I'm outta here to switch spots with the laptop & snug up to these two ♥

love 'em. 

Happy Sunday to you & yours - Go take Monday by the horns!

xo | cmd

I. SAID. YES!

Today was.... LOADED.

Holy friggin' COW, ya'll... I'M ENGAGED!!!!

Nononono....

WE .. are ENGAGED!!!!!!

WHAT?! YES... I SAID YES!!

Let me slow down for a moment and start at the beginning of what is now officially one of the greatest days of my life:

First things first, Santa - bless his jolly soul and all the overtime he's putting in this year ;) - well, he made another stop as expected last night here to the Dren Lodge, and what Sydni found under the tree this morning was a stockpile of wrapped goodies!

santa was here!!!! :D 

As is customary with Christmas presents, very little time was wasted before it was all hands on deck for the mass demolitions of paper, bows and packaging. Fortunately, Sydni's got a firm understanding of the "take turns" concept, which is very difficult to follow when it comes to spoils from Santa - I was very proud of her patience this morning!

nana & pappy took their turns :) 

sydni's biggest gift - a 4.5 ft tall dollhouse! O.o 

To say that Sydni was beside herself is a HUGE understatement; even we were impressed with the elaborate design - and size! - of this dollhouse that my sister and parents found asked Santa to get Sydni :) :).

Here's the part I did NOT see coming. I usually have a pretty good intuition about these things, and it is very difficult to surprise me [it's a curse more than a blessing, most of the time], but my man delivered and managed to blast my expectations of the day completely out of the park.

Guys Guys Guyssssss.....

♥WE ARE ENGAGED!!♥

How it happened [an entirely "us" story, too]:
I stood with Rob's arm around my shoulder as we watched my mom & Sydni tear into the dollhouse box. Dad, off to the side, had purposefully removed himself from the pit of the action, a move I of course didn't find peculiar. Rob kissed the side of my unceremoniously bunned up head and said, "I love you," as we often tell each other. I thought nothing of it, even when he repeated the phrase and hugged me tighter. I smiled at noone in particular, engrossed in the bliss of being with my family, in my parents' home, celebrating Christmas.

And then came out the box. He pulled it casually out of his pocket and held it in front of my face, to which I did what every movie-perfect recipient of a diamond ring does:

I cupped my perfectly-manicured hands over my pristinely-madeup face and nodded an emphatic Yes, YES! while tears welled up against my life-proof mascara, backed by the frizz-free, symmetrical waves of my red carpet hair. 

Uh.... yeah.

So what happens in real life in situations like this looked a lot more like what actually went down here this morning:

He held out the ring. I immediately started crying, but not the type of crying that makes you wish you looked like Rachel McAdams from The Notebook. Nope. The kind of crying I did was more like the ugly crying that Fat Amy does in Pitch Perfect when Bumper hits her with a flying burrito.

yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes &....... yes. 

That's not an exaggeration. I buried my makeup-free [thank HEAVENS] face into Rob's shirt and sobbed. Snot and all. This is life, guys. This is real life. I bawled, for lack of a more sane response, because I could not process the idea that this man wanted to commit everything in him to one person for as long as he walks this planet.. and that that one person is somehow... me.

xbox one controller | dollhouse piano | engagement ring
looks like we all got the best for this year! ♥♥♥

I cried. Mom, who is more the emotional basket-case in the feely situations, stopped what she was doing and started crying. That's now two of us ugly crying. Sydni, who's now been left to her own devices to destroy the dollhouse packaging, slips and cuts [the.tiniest.cut.ever,btw..] her finger on a stray cardboard edge, and starts her crying, for the obvious & entirely unrelated reason. Dad, who by this point doesn't know if he's tearing up because of the engagement or because of Sydni, just stands there in between the two decisions.

Rob,
This is our life... welcome to it ♥♥
Hahaha... This was exactly how everything transpired, and in hindsight several hours later, I can honestly say that I would not have changed it. I'm one heck of a lucky girl, and when it actually hits me that I'm marrying this insanely amazing guy, I'll really start freaking out :).

For now, it was a morning to be envied here at The Dren Lodge: Mom's breakfast, followed by the sun pouring in through the gable windows to illuminate a Christmas morning marked by the sounds of my happy family.

dad & sydni : card games! 

Thanks to Rob's dedication to the cause for three hours, the dollhouse was finally erected and moved to its home in Sydni's room. The addition of nearly four boxes of my Barbie stuff from my younger years completed the furnishing of the new house, which was complete with a campground, thanks to the tents, grills and miscellaneous outdoor accessories. 

the house. + side garage. +campground. 

^ Oh, and the cards were moved outside to of course accomodate the horses, which obviously took precedence in residing in the garage stable. She's my mother's grandchild, I can say that much ;).

Mom & Dad took a short trip out together to complete a few errands and one of Mom's petsitting stops; we stayed back to hold down the fort, which added to the perfectly made-up agenda for today.

tickle. giggle. belly laugh.
repeat. 

[just] hangin' out @ the dren lodge! ♥

I'm still not over today. I won't be for a very long time.
I'm here in the house that [literally] built me, in which another irreplaceable memory was made today. I wouldn't have chosen any other place on planet earth for that to happen, but I didn't know that until it happened today. I'm here now, nestled in a bundle of blankets and tiny toes, surrounded by my family. This is perfect.

Good night from here, and from the proud-to-be future Mrs. Stokes! ;)
[it'll set in, eventually!]

xo | cmd

And On To The Next One [Christmas Destination, That Is!]

Rob had to work today, which is one of the reasons we didn't get moving north until the late afternoon. Sydni and I took advantage of the opportunity to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping, clean house and tackle some laundry before his return.

First order of business was breakfast!

breakfast date with my little ham! ♥♥

Sydni and I are the ultimate team; between the two of us, we managed to knock out the final gift shopping, clean the house up, paint a few pictures, play a card game, watch a movie, play with dolls, finish laundry, pack everything for the weekend and relax a little bit before it was finally time to load up and head north. Phew!

Oh, and we learned this today:

harry's

Looks like we'll be set for Harry's for NYE in St. Louis! More details on that a little later, but the list of things to look forward to is growing! :)

We made it Mt. Vernon safe and sound, and we're about to call it a night. Santa's making another stop here tonight for all of us, so off to bed it is, so the jolly man can do his work!

xo | cmd

The Merriest of Merriment: Christmas Day 2014!

♥♥♥♥♥♥!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

Yayayayayayayay! 

♥

Friends & Family: I hope today was a beautiful experience for each and every single one of you! In our house, the celebrating started bright and early, once Sydni realized Santa had delivered on his annual promises to visit and bring goodies. Lila was perched in her rightful spot, embracing the Christmas ornament Sydni made, ready to oversee the decimation of wrapping paper.

hi, lila! 

We wasted no time:

someone was a very good girl this year! 

Santa brought a pile of dolls, travel toys, markers, coloring books... and this: 

for my little artist! 

Rob and I assured her that Santa would be stopping at Nana and Pappy's this weekend, and that our Christmas presents would come then; today was all about Sydni!

Well, except for just a couple things...

merry christmas, pup pups!! ♥♥♥

^ The fur kids were definitely not forgotten, and would soon be chewing away to their hearts' content. Santa is quite the puppy lover, too!

Since we spent the majority of the day unashamedly jamming away in our PJ's, there was little photo action, so I thought I would share a glimpse of us from around this time last year when we held our post-Christmas celebration at my parents':

Christmas flashback, 2013! ♥♥♥

This year, I couldn't have hand-picked a better way to spend the day if I had the choice to do so. My little family is the greatest gift I could have under this roof, and celebrating our perfect saviour with the people I love the most is what I would trade for any thing the world could offer.

So from our family to you and yours: 

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014!!!

xo | cmd

Christmas Eve!

It has been such a whirlwind of a week; I was more than happy to oblige the day off to hang out with my girl ;)

We ran a few final errands, which included delivering this bad boy [which is a day late in completion, but fortunately this one time, it's ok.. phew!]:

it's done!! happy birthday, andrew! 

Happy, HAPPY birthday, Andrew! I hope you love it! :)
I finally, finally, finally finished this thing, which took about three days longer than I'd anticipated, along with an entire extra skein of wool. Passing it along to Jessica for its actual gifting was both a relief and a loss; I've poured so much into this thing that it's bittersweet to see it go, but that's the life of crafting, I know... c'est la vie...

We dropped by Jess' studio to hand-deliver this bad boy, and caught her at the tail end of a client session. Sydni then had the chance to explore the likes of a fitness studio, and even got a quick sesh from its owner and personal trainer.

adorable. look at that form! ;) 

spartan in the making... 

OR....

aerial yogi in the making? ;) 

Hehehe... she's a gym lover! [Nope, not her mama's kid at all, huh... ;) pshhhh!]
We finished up with Jess and were on our way to complete a few errands and head home.

Workouts are exhausting, I'll give ya that, Syd:

zonked! 

Back at home, we relaxed into the evening and just before bedtime did our final preparations for the BIG day tomorrow. Santa has a lot of work to do, so we wanted to make sure he's properly fed and watered on his stop through here. She was so sweet!

come get 'em, santa! 

My sweet girl!! She just went down for the night, and I think it's high time we follow suit, so that we're not interrupting Santa's neighborhood route tonight.

See you then!

xo | cmd

Office Christmas!

I seriously hope Santa gets a Caribbean vacation after all the work he's putting in this year ;)

@ express, feelin' the festive Christmas love!! ♥

Sheesh, Santa! 

dave. "the twins" [elisa. cori]. carri

In spite of our sometimes [truly] dysfunctional conversations and wading through the sometimes messy gunk that our jobs here can produce, I love my little office family and am thankful to have shared a Christmas celebration with them! 

The rest of the day went by at a grueling pace; as I sat and dialed out the last few calls, I multitasked to pass the time.. Don't worry; everything is done and I even managed to make some headway on things scheduled for next week... Carri would say that's the Sagittarius in me, somehow accomplishing more when I'm overloaded. I can't explain it, so I just roll with it :) 

talking & knitting.
multitasking! 

At home, Sydni and I got busy preparing dinner for our incredible head of the house; Sydni so sweetly explained to me that we "needed to do this because he does so much for us." I may or may not have cried a little when she said that..... ^_^

my own little cooking show! ♥

Rob finally made it home, and while he and Sydni were finishing dinner, I spent some much overdue time with the pups, which I think went over well. Would you agree? ;) 

♥ pibbles! 

And to round out the night, our own little Lila was spotted inching her way closer and closer to Christmas Day: 

sneaky girl! 

^ Oh, and I spy the ornament Elisa gifted me for my birthday [thank you!] 

TWO. MORE. DAYS!!! :D

xo | cmd 

Christmas Priorities... Pshhh... ;)

I can't believe Christmas Day is this week. The festive spirit got ahold of me this year and I'm on a roll preparing for it this year, more-so than the past few years, but I still can't quite grasp that it will all culminate this week. Phew!

Instead of staying home and diligently knitting away at Andrew's birthday/Christmas present like I should have tonight, I obliged Becky's invite to Comet for dinner, joined by Andrew himself [the ironyyyy], Jessica & Rob. While I lost several valuable hours of needle time, I wouldn't have traded it for the company, atmosphere and of course.. food!

quesadillas @ the comet.
'nuff said.

We're a funky bunch, I'll say that much. We eventually bid goodnight to Jess & Andrew, and followed Becky back to our house to hang out for a bit and watch the UC game. Sydni conned her buddy Becky into one of her endless endeavors as project manager in our house, and none of us were disappointed that giggles replaced the priority of watching the game.

little builders! 

The final countdown is ON! THREE DAYS! ♥♥

xo | cmd 

Christmas Is... Surprising!

To fully convey this morning's [awesome] message from SonRise, I figured I would do it the easiest way possible!

YES, YES & YES :)

Today was [hopefully] our final excursion into the mayhem entitled Christmas Shopping. We wrapped everything up within a very reasonable time frame, and even managed a pitstop for lunch afterwards:

sometimes these things happen..... 

Fast forward about 6 hours to now; house is cleaned, laundry's done, gifts are wrapped & I... feel... blessed :)

See ya on the flipside!

xo | cmd