SSSSSSSSICK DAY :(



lessons learned.

Last night did not equal sleep. Instead, it was a stretch of hours spent tossing, turning and sweating. I phased out at one point for a few minutes, and awoke so soaked in sweat that for a moment, I honestly thought I'd wet the bed [I did not, haha.. ]

Needless to say, I was in no condition to go to work today. I couldn't even wrangle my head and vision into a place to drive Sydni to Mindi's until nearly noon. Even then, while the day itself was sunny and very tolerable to a normal person, I embarked to and from Milford dressed just shy of a blizzard. Oh, the joys of being sick.

On the lighter side of life, Sydni has hit the little-girl-landmark of giving herself a haircut for the first time. I couldn't help but laugh, because I see the pictures my mom has shown me of myself when I thought I had salon skills in the bag at age 4, too.

nice.

Fast forward to the rest of the day; I've literally done nothing of any real value, other than try to sleep and stay hydrated. I knew I needed to eat, but the very thought of food made me nauseous. Carrots and ginger ale is not a diet I would recommend, unless you're either pregnant or in my case, apparently intolerant to chai tea blends. Then, carrots and ginger ale sound like the best things ever, and you'll eat an entire bag of baby carrots and not have to feel bad about binge eating. I guess that's a good silver lining.

Poor Rob got home tonight, dinner supplies in hand, and took to the grill to make dinner for us. My body went ahead and slept right through that entire experience, including the eating part. Luckily for me, he is forgiving, and even set my plate up for tomorrow's lunch in the fridge. Double the brownie points for that guy.

Today, I'm counting my blessings for my otherwise resilient health; I'm not the person who chronically visits the doctor with head-to-toe ailments, so I'm grateful for that. It only means that when I do get sick, I'm useless.

Here's hoping that I won't be so useless tomorrow.
Sleep is a poor man's remedy; I'm about to be as frugal as this night will let me.

xo | cmd

Sophie's 2nd: The Party!

Sydni and I woke up fairly early, preparing ourselves for the standard bustle before a party here with the James clan. Sydni got to spend all morning with Madison & Sophie, while Maricor and I ran our errands: picking up the cake, balloons, food, etc.

Sidenote: Thank you, Costco for the new lifejacket for Sydni! We've been talking for a while now about gearing up for boat season, and since we're regulated to have this on board, it may as well be a pretty one that she'll love ;)

itty bitty lifejacket! ♥

Back on track, Maricor and I managed to gather up all the day-of necessities and head back to the house to wrap up decorations and food prep before the guests started arriving. Like an idiot, I had loaded up the car yesterday while it was raining, and in my rushing back and forth, left the fully-packed camera bag sitting next to the door... but didn't bring it. GAH!

That didn't stop me from capturing some super sweet moments from the party, which, as always are better shown than described. Enjoy!

prepping with the birthday girl! love you, sophie!

happy birthday, sophie!

lots of love (:

the little guests (:

little family cutting the cake with party guests!

sophie girl

cake!!!!

We figured something out about piñatas today, too: They do in fact make them with pull strings, as opposed to only bashing them to pieces with a stick. We didn't realize this back in the fall when we picked out a princess castle piñata for Madison's party and let the kids smash it to bits. That one, too, was a pull string. Haha. Never too late to learn! (:

pull... strings.. haha

the munchkins & their spoils!!

In the midst of all the party activity, I managed to snag up my little monster for a goofy face photoshoot as Sophie opened her presents. I'm glad I did, too, because halfway through gift-opening, Sydni decided she was taking a nap [hahaha], and disappeared upstairs to snooze in Sophie's bed.

my one & only ♥♥♥

opening birthday presents!

As I just said.... this happened about halfway through shredded tissue and wrapping paper:

just... wanna..... sleeeeep...

It's okay though, because the nap only lasted about 40 minutes, and then she was back downstairs bouncing around with the rest of the kiddos.

happy birthday, beautiful girl!!!!!

It wasn't too much longer before the party started to fizzle out; parents with yawning little ones started filtering out the door, and once the house has become quiet [well, less noisy, rather], Sydni and I stayed for a couple more hours before we packed up and hopped on the road back to Cincinnati.

zonked.

^ She finished up her nap on the way home.

I started developing a belly ache somewhere between the chai tea from this morning and the time we left for Cincinnati. Shame on me; I know better. Chai and I have never fully agreed with each other, but it looks as though I may lose this round. We made it home about an hour before Rob rolled in from his weekend in Illinois, and I've slept for nearly the full five hours since that happened this afternoon.

Chai tea- 1. Cori - 0.
At least we had an amazing weekend with amazing people. I love them.

Happy birthday again, Sophie girl!!! ♥

xo | cmd

Got up, ran errands w/ Maricor - all over the place & back to set up for the party

Sophie's party

*Party pix

Hung out for a bit, stomach started really hurting.

Drove back to Cincinnati, went to bed as soon as I got home.

Happy BIRTHDAY, Sophie!!

We call each other's children our "nieces," when in reality we're what, 2nd cousins?

.. Yeah, nieces is way easier.

So, TODAY is my niece Sophie's 2nd birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, sweet girl!!!

She's. So. Adorable.... It Hurts. 

happy birthday, sweet sophie!!

Anyway, rewind to the road trip up to Columbus - a short little jaunt, complete with pony talk and princess music. We really were there in no time at all (:

syd & her mlp's

In a few short hours, we were rounding the last corner in Easton and headed for Target, to pick up a couple last minute things. Maricor met us there, and we followed her back to the house to find Chris with the girls. The cousins are finally back together, after what has seemed like forever!

three little dresses for three little girls ♥ 

literally, princesses everywhere .. haha

Maricor and I had every intention on catching up on our own after the girls had gone to bed [Chris, you lucked out this time, haha], but that didn't quite happen as planned. Plus, the weather here in Ohio has again decided that it's not done with its winter crap, so after a spout of rain, this happened for a few hours and completely derailed any desire to venture anywhere:


seriously?
.... enough!!!

So instead of dinner & a movie out, we saved ourselves some of the hassle and added some awesome to the mix with homemade Adobo and multiple rounds of Frozen.

mission: convert adobo into an air freshener.

^^ It's been way too long since I've had adobo. Especially straight from the pot. This, my friends, is called a Filipino problem, if there ever was one. I was drooling from the second the house started smelling like sabaw (broth) to the second we were eating it as though we hadn't actually downed Chipotle less than four hours prior to that. Whatev'. (:

Anyway, we're here curled up on the couch perusing NoMoreRack, with our girls dancing and singing to Anna and Elsa a few feet away. This is just about perfect, if I must say so.

Tomorrow's a birthday party for the birthday baby.. and I can't wait!

xo | cmd

Friday With My Girl ♥

Rob left around noon today to head back to Illinois for the Supercross weekend, so that meant Sydni and I had Friday night all to ourselves. These are some of my favorite nights, so there of course was no complaining.

We started off our girls night with some shopping, because well, it seemed fitting. Okay, so maybe I also waited until kind of the last minute to shop for Sophie's birthday present, so that was part of the reason we found ourselves at Target after work, too.

And, because for some reason, we didn't own this until today:

how dare i.

So now we, along with half of America, own this movie, and are currently comitting its soundtrack to permanence in our minds. I'll be singing these songs until my brain physically gives out, I'm convinced. Or, it could be because of other adult-geared trailors like this:


This made me laugh just as much as that satirical little Olaf in the movie.

Anyway, if you really must know, the rest of our night has consisted of dinner, light packing for tomorrow's outbound trip.

Oh, and I just created an mp3 collection of all the Disney songs for us to play on loop all the way to Columbus tomorrow. Haha.

Tomorrow and Sunday are gonna be big days. I can't wait!

xo | cmd

Just.. Happy (:

Rob leaves tomorrow for St. Louis, and in two days, Sydni and I will be northbound to Maricor's to celebrate Sophie's 2nd birthday. We made it a point for us to all spend some time together before we all go separate ways for the weekend. Today's one of those days that doesn't get a long, detailed blog entry. I'm sure I'll have plenty of those after this weekend, but for now, I'm just cozy, content and loving every second with this little family of mine. 


true story ♥

xo | cmd

Volleyball Begins!

Volleyball! 

I spent most of today anxiously awaiting the first night of sand volleyball with the usual suspects. Chad is joining us this year, and even though we didn't show up to tie down a win for the evening, we were happy to get back out there and see the familiar Hahana faces from last year.

Rob showed up at the end of our third set, just in time to sit down with us and have dinner. It was definitely a chilly night to get the season started, but I'm pretty excited knowing it will only get warmer from here on out, and that means long nights of fun in the sand.

I took off long before Rob did, heading home to shower and relax. He stayed behind to hang out with Kalyn and Chad, meeting me later at home.

Also, I got word from some others today that my little Lent Letters are hitting their marks, and that makes me happy. Never underestimate the power of even the smallest, handwritten note. (:

Good night, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Workity Work Work Work....

Today was another bustling day of non-stop movement, but it was a productive one, no less.

I started off with a job fair downtown with Elisa, something Express does frequently. We had a great time! 

hello, from us!

We stopped afterwards for a quick bite to eat at Tom+Chee. If you're a Cincinnatian or visit here, I would definitely recommend this as another local must-haves. I took a stab at the Turkey Pesto grilled cheese today and wasn't sorry.

[borrowed image from google, because i inhaled mine before
a photograph was possible.. haha]

Oh, and then there was the mini blizzard that opened its nasty mouth out of the blue, covering downtown Cincinnati with a couple inches of sideways blowing snow in a matter of minutes. We walked out after lunch to find our cars covered, and dealt with slickening roads all the way back to the office.

c'mon weather... stopppppp!

Being gone from the office for as long as I was today created a gap in some of the work I had intended to complete, so for the first [& mark my words, last] time in a while, I parked myself on the couch after work on the laptop, in what became a long but successful effort to get caught up.

I will not be the type of person who constantly takes work home with her. That will never, ever be my priority over my family. I was nearly disgusted with myself tonight for having to do it, and made a commitment to find other ways to absorb work than to sidestep spending time with my family to do it. [//rant]

*Sigh. Go away, snow.

xo | cmd

MANIAC. MONDAY

This was probably one of the most taxing Mondays I've had in a while. Yes, today I had a Case of the Mondays.

My job requires me to sometimes act not only as what I'm titled, but also as a babysitter to people who neglect to show up to work. I will never for the life of me understand the dynamic behind being in desperate need of work, as so many claim to be, yet refusing to fulfill a commitment to work when it's offered. Either way, it proved to be a cardiac kick-start to a Monday that would quickly turn into a whirlwind.

Granted, I kind of like the whirlwind of activity. It's indicative of the ramp-up we've long been awaiting, and after this brutal winter, I think we're all ready for the change of pace. I'm not complaining.

I was a little bummed that Sydni didn't have gymnastics tonight, due to it being Spring Break week, but that just meant she got to come home and help make spaghetti for all of us and cuddle up with the brand new blanket that was shipped to her & me from nomorerack, compliments of Mr. Rob (:

nomorerack = j o y in this house! ♥

^ Nope, no real reasons to complain. I'm exhausted from trying to keep up with the day, but the influx of business [albeit rather sudden, all in one day, haha.. ] is a much-needed break in the lull of wintery inactivity.

I think this will be a good week!

xo | cmd

DIVERGENT.

It seems like a developing tradition now that whenever Jesse comes to visit, it's always a Sunday breakfast [or in this case, brunch] outing before he leaves town. That being said, we were off to do that before he loaded up and headed back to Illinois.

After Jesse was on his way, Rob and I picked our recuperation spots on the couch and decided not to feel guilty about a day of relaxation. After all the activity and bustle of the weekend, it was nice to have nothing on either of our plates for a few hours.

And then, I somehow talked Rob into going with me to see Divergent!!

At work, Elisa and I have been counting down the days to the release of this thing, which actually happened on Friday. She was heading out of town for this weekend, and we had Jesse coming in, so neither of us went to see it on the Friday premier the way we'd planned for the past couple months. Sydni will be here all week, starting tomorrow, so by default that kiiiiind of boiled our options down to tonight... sooo yeah... hah.

It definitely wasn't the explosive release I was expecting, but it was definitely worth the trip & I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't go see it again in a theater before it's out to own. (: I didn't think I'd enjoy Shailene Woodley as much as I did in her role as Tris, but I have to admit she grew on me by the end and I'm a bit curious to see what the next movie in the series will give. I think my miniature lack of excitement comes from the fact that I've read all the books in the series and I know I'm not alone in my disappointment in how the series ended. The Hunger Games was, for the most part, and entirely different sentiment. Ehhhh...

I call that a perfect way to end a nonstop weekend (:

Time to unwind for tonight before we gear up for the whole next week.
Sydni's back tomorrow!!

xo | cmd

Weekends Are Fun

What's a good Saturday without a late start, right? Hah...

By late start, I mean we managed to completely skip breakfast. By the time we were all up and functioning, it was nearly lunch time, so we bypassed any notions of venturing down to Taste of Belgium, and instead made a beeline for Eli's, which Jesse's never had.

.. Until today. Eli's never disappoints! 

eli's!

After lunch, we scratched our brains for somewhere to take Jesse that we've not already shown him. We settled on Jungle Jim's, which became the perfect opportunity to both give Jesse a tour of the place and restock our depleted supply of mocha. Additionally, we left with a new growler, a growler koozie [I didn't know they made those...], some various exotic versions of cheese, sausages, juices and chocolate.

in honor of marianne & ali:
jumex & cameron hughes!

jj spoils!

It wasn't surprising that it took nearly an hour and a half for us to wholly navigate through Jungle Jim's with the frequent stops to browse the various sections, so by the time we got back to the house, we were all ready to relax for a couple of hours before catching up with tentative evening plans.

pretty much the afternoon.....

Fast forward a few hours to when we all woke up from power naps, it was time to rendezvous with Carolina at Mango Tree. Sushi tonight was a deeefinitely a good call!

mango tree!

Halfway through dinner, we finally started making some solid plans for the rest of the evening; Carolina figured out where Nader & Co. would be, which meant a trip downtown. I hadn't even taken Rob down to any of the venues in the actual downtown district, so we figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

We met with Nader, Keith, Eric and few others at one of the Irish pubs, then tried out some wannabe-ritzy place about which I'd never even heard [which was a bust beyond belief]. It wasn't long before we came to the surprising realization that we'd actually rather be in OTR. Sure, OTR is fun, but we thought it was due time to switch things up. We didn't count on wishing we were back there. Hah.

So as it happened, OTR became our final destination for the evening. We greeted the typical crowds with a little more patience than usual, realizing that the alternatives at this point were ridiculous in comparison. We landed at The Drinkery, which coincidentally proved to be a miniature reunion for several different people that represent the various different parts of my life in Cincinnati before I started moving all over the country.

I ran into Lora.... love & miss this girl!


lora & me, circa 2009

Then I turned around and bumped into Justin Jeffre, a friend of mine from years ago that has quite the history both in Cincinnati and well, internationally, but that's neither here nor there... haha..



justin & me, circa 2008?ish?

And of course, it wouldn't have been any sort of night without some double trouble [just kidding, they're not trouble]! I saw Regina & Renata for the first time in probably eight years.

& tonight, with regina & renata!

And of course, my lovely friends, awesome boyfriend and visiting guest of the weekend were there with me tonight. It was the perfectly energetic, hilarious Saturday night & I'm thankful for every single minute of it! (:

On that note, goooood night blogbots (:

xo | cmd

Jesse's Here

A few days ago, Rob & Jesse made plans for Jesse to come out and visit for this weekend. I decided we'd do our best to put together a fun weekend for him, and that started tonight!

Rob and I met up first with Carolina at Terry's Turf Club for dinner, hoping that maybe Jesse would arrive for that part. Unfortunately, he was still on the road while we were eating, but he made it in not long after that.

terrys's turf club | cincinnati, oh

It was our first time at Terry's; I was pretty interested to see what all the hype was about. As it turns out, the food is definitely delicious, but I'm not entirely sold yet on the prices and the whole European seating thing. I do know that the company with me was enough to make it a great time, either way! 

♥ carolina!!

They gave us steak knives for sandwiches, and I asked Caro to hold it up to see the contrast in its size.. and this is what she gave us, haha...

creeeeepy caro! ;)

In her defense, that's a game face that was necessary for these burgers..

giganto.

head-sized chicken sandwiches?  yes, at terry's turf club, yes.

We finished dinner and headed back to our house to catch a quick breather and wait for Jesse. He arrived not long after we did, and the four of us were loaded up and back out the door. We opted to try a setting other than OTR, since that seems to be the only place we've frequented lately.

music @ mlt's

It's been more than a few years since I've been down to The Stand, MLT's and whatever else is down there now. We decided to hang out at MLT's for a bit, which proved to be a low key affair, complete with a pair of cover musicians, fire on the patio and a crowd just big enough to generate a buzz but not intense enough to suffocate. Once we'd had our fill of MLT's, we traded spaces for the lounge at The Stand, another place I wasn't sure was even still there until we were walking through the door.

me, caro & nick

We ran into Nick and some of the others within the first 20 minutes we were there, then went on to challenge the pool tables and the dart boards. That of course, was a bust for the most part, mainly just for Carolina and me. Darts perhaps just aren't ... our thing.. haha.


We definitely kept tonight tame; tomorrow we'll find something a little more exciting. Either way, Jesse's here and we're off to a great start for the weekend.

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Workin' Out Together ♥

So today marked a first for Rob and me - working out [at a gym] together!

I decided to get back into a gym groove during the winter, mainly because I thought it was never going to end.... actually, I'm still not convinced that it will, but that's another rant....

Anyway, this is where we both found ourselves after work today...

yeahhhhh (:

It looks like we're on a good track, even though I think we'll both be sore for a couple of days. Nothing like a solid work out to keep the week in motion!

Oh, and yes, we're going to Alison Krauss in May! I just dropped money off at Kalyn's for tickets and I... can't... wait.

All signs are pointing to SUMMMMMERRRRR!

xo | cmd

Naked Silver Linings[On My] Bad Day

Ummm.. what?

Today wasn't a great day. I suppose that's all relative, though, right?

RIGHT.

I didn't feel like telling myself that today, even by the time the day had boiled down to just over an hour left at the office. It was just one of those days, ya know? It wasn't a catastrophe, no, but it wasn't a smooth little sail, either.

I learned a little practice from a great friend of mine some odd years ago in college. It's not always easy to do, but I've honed in on my own technique over the years and in most scenarios, can execute perfectly.

It's simple: In the midst of a trying situation, disappointment, frustration or otherwise unpleasant moment, I force my mind to remove itself from the present for even just one or two minutes, and focus, wholly, on two things:

1. I am not God, but I am His, and He will never give me
more than I can handle with Him.

 

.. and

 

2. There is someone out there facing something far worse, far more intense and
faaaar more urgent than what I am facing now.

 

When I first started trying this out, it seemed stupid to do at times, because obviously the world isn't ending because I'm having a bad day, but that doesn't change the fact that I am in fact having an awful day. It just takes time, discipline and an open mind to realize that it's true.

 

Take a deep breath, Cori.

There's an icon from the world of yoga who I follow on Instagram. Her name is Rachel; she's a world-traveller who leads workshops, uplifts everyone she finds and somehow manages to find the beauty in the core of darkness.

 

Until recently. I, along with the multitude of her followers, read a post of hers a week or so back that detailed disaster in her world: Her apendix ruptured in an airport, sending her into a 7-hour surgery at a hospital in another country. She awoke to surgical scars marking the new absence of her appendix and people telling her that in addition to this, her best friend had passed away in a car accident.

 

Are you having a bad day?

Read:

 

 

The reason I called this entry Naked is because I have read and re-read her entries, absorbing the pain she is facing. I have lost friends unexpectedly, but to have your life's passion [yoga] taken from you momentarily as well as you struggle to cope with a loss of that magnitude must be paralyzing. Whether I would admit it or not, I think I do find some level of comfort in seeing someone be so candid and raw in expressing the honesty and emotion that must happen before healing can begin. All of Rachel's posts up to this point are packed with a type of realistic inspiration and encouragement; I'm praying now that she will find her own in the comfort of her friends, her family and the warm memories of her best friend.

 

And so I look at my day, and I look at hers.
I see mine, filled to the brim with inconveniences, backtracking, miscommunication and a dreary weather pattern to boot.

And then I see hers, balancing endurance with reverence on the edge of a void freshly-created by the unexpected death of her best friend, and the three scars reminding her that yoga will still have to wait.

 

My day tomorrow may or may not be an improvement of today, but it is not like that.

So I'll stop whining about my first-world problems and start approaching them with the grace and patience I'm supposed to.

 

I thought about this all the way home, and by the time I walked through the door I was itching to channel it into something productive. Since the sky had been the same dull, placid color for the entire day, I opted to add some color, with a dash of salt & pepper.

homemade soup!

Some may have read this and now wonder if I'm as far detached from reality as it kind of sounds, but I promise you I'm not. I fully understand the gravity of bad situations and the like, but I'm actively choosing to weigh the pros before the cons. We are after all partially defined by the ways in which we react to circumstance.

 

So...

.... how's that for a heavy entry on a Wednesday? Hah (:

 

Life. Is. Good.
We. Are. Blessed.

 

xo | cmd