'Cuz Baby, You're a Fiiiiiiiirewoooooork! [Sings!]

It's no secret that we've run ourselves ragged over the past few weekends. I wouldn't trade any of that time, but with another weekend in our hands, we decided to plan on no plan, which is actually way more our style as it is. We made a resolve as we parted ways in the driveway that if we did anything for the weekend, it would be by chance.

Work was about as calm as we could expect any Friday to be; I was very much looking forward to an evening of relaxing and just hanging out with Rob. We of course spend a lot of time around each other, but sometimes we don't realize we need to just be together.

There's no better way to do that than an uplanned trip out for sushi.
And, where we live, there's no better place to go than Mango Tree.

our reaction to our resolve to "not do anything"
... haha.. love him.

He's the best man I could imagine sitting beside me in life; I'm not one for bushy bouquets of flowers every day, and I've never fully trusted anyone who thinks spending money is a viable substitution for quality time. Even with the means to approach it, he's nowhere near that danger zone. That... that is what I love.

... and i love you too!

Ok, who are we kidding. We're sick of each other. We just wanted FOOD.
[That's totally a joke, btw. Expect for the food part. That's not a joke ;) .. ]

spring rolls & crab rangoon = pre-sushi workout ;)

YUMMMMM!
The sushi, as always, was grade A and gone in no time. We paid our bill, left with full bellies and buckled up for the short drive home. As we were turning out of the restaurant, the sky in the distance exploded with fireworks. We had no idea what it was all about, and could only estimate their origin as the huge church on Newtown Road. Either way, we pulled into the drive of one of the closed businesses near Hahana and sat silently together watching what turned out to be at least a half hour's worth of fireworks. This wasn't a dinky little show!

fireworks!

I caught some of the action on camera..

There ya have it. Tonight's schedule has nothing else on it, and I am completely fine with that. We need a weekend in for a change. See ya tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Succulents, Take 2 | Bluegrass Bandstand

Today was a good day!

Elisa and I started it off with a lunch hour trip to Findlay Market. We've decided this will be a standard practice now, at least once monthly, if we can swing it. We rarely get out of the office for a full hour, so we figured if we were gonna do it, we would do it.

Okay, so again our staged rebellion was actually driven moreso by my story about how Rob & I fed our venus fly trap a bug last night; she decided she wanted one for the office, and I thought it'd be fun to have one back here at my desk, too.


pretty lil babies!!

I couldn't decide between two of those little beauties, so I just bought both, thinking I'd keep one for the office and give one to Rob as a present since he was thoroughly entertained by mine yesterday.

Elisa got a couple succulents and a venus; we're obsessed. Hah.

elisa's succulents

tiny traps in their car seat ;)

We of course ate some food while we were there, before hopping back in the car right before the rain started pelting down again. We got lucky. Back at the office, Elisa managed to find an unfortunate bug clinging to a wall, and did what Rob and I did yesterday - fed them to her plant. Haha. It's going to be the office version of The Hunger Games for the little bugs that keep buzzing around our desks.

After work, it was home for a quick change, then right back out the door down to Washington Park for the Bluegrass Bandstand. Kalyn was working with the Mt. Carmel Brewery team, and it wasn't long before we had the whole group there.

bluegrass bandstand

brought this guy (:

love him!

Of course Eli's BBQ made an appearance, but StreetPops showed up and brought a little cool-down to the party, too.  

what before picture?

We brought our smiles... 

kalyn. kelsey. cori. brittany.

And this other super tall guy brought his super tall guy-ness..

thumbs up from kelsey

All in all not a bad night! Friends, bluegrass, BBQ and brew - No complaints here!  

 

G'Nite!

 

xo | cmd

Slow Down, Self.

The flurry [and that is an understatement] of the past couple of days admittedly took a toll on me.

I count myself as being insanely blessed with family, friends and pretty much everything and everyone else that/who exists in my little world. The weekend was filled to the brim with all of those things, and inevitably some amount of strife to go along with it.

The truth of it is, I lost myself a little in the blur of the past five full days. I rant a tired spiel about how work is just. so. craaaaazy, and that by the time the day gives me back my home life, I'm still spinning around in laundry, cooking, cleaning, tending to my daughter, feeding the dogs and whatever miscellaneous tasks exist to accessorize the life of a working... woman.

My parents were here over the weekend, which by default meant cramming as much activity as humanly possibly into a 48-hour window, friends visited, we visited friends, there were 2 trips to the lake, and an unwelcome slew of harassing contact from someone we at this point still tolerate, but who's proven to many of us that priorities can in fact include "proving a point" and "bullying people," even in adulthood. Don't worry, that last thing's been addressed and handed off to a bunch of uni's, so I'll spare that can of horseflies for another millenia, if you don't mind. We're thinking happy thoughts, today.

I have issues with delegation. That's not a secret.
It's not that I am just that confident in my multi-tasking abilities; rather, I struggle with this strange guilt whenever I put onto the shoulders of others the things that I feel I should be able to handle on my own. I've been working on this issue since I was old enough to recognize it.... I'm 20 years in, at least and still working.

It boiled down to a combination of comments made yesterday and a stalling moment of clarity that hit me today as we were standing on the boardwalk at volleyball. It is Wednesday after all. My first priority tonight was to park my car in a well-lit, self-preserving parking spot, in hopes of avoiding any parking lot mishaps like the one from this time last week. The sun was out, there wasn't a drop of that forecasted rain in sight, and Hahana was stuffed to the gills with smiling, summer-clad people.

[Sidenote: SUMMER. YESSSSSSSSSS!]

Anyway, Rob showed up at HB just as we were finishing the last of a 3-set match. Kalyn arrived shortly after, following a last-minute, unavoidable work function. It was kind of an off-day for all of us.. haha. I don't know that I've ever seen that many people at HB on Wednesday; it became a bottleneck of people trying to traverse the boardwalk between courts and the main building that we soon decided wasn't worth waiting out.

But.... as I stood there in a swarming crowd of probably 200 people, I took a deep breath and just exhaled. I did it again, and then one more time. I could't pinpoint the last time I'd actually done that, and all at once I felt as though I'd been unclipped from whatever tension-mounted spring I'd been wrapped around. The sun felt warmer, the noise around me faded a little, and I was able to really focus, for the first time in a few days, on one single thing, which at that time was the four people right in front of me. I paired this with the comment Rob made yesterday:

"I feel like you've been in a mood, or something, over the last couple days. You're on a short fuse. Are you happy?"

Whoa.

Slow.
Down,
Self.

To answer that: YES. I am happy. There are always more things in life that I wouldn't mind having, but my immediate list of needs is more than satisfied, and there's no room to complain: God. family. friends. job. comfortable living. purpose. ✓✓✓✓✓✓, and then ✓ again for whatever else I missed there.

This isn't the first, and I'm sure won't be the last time this happens to me, either, but I'm human and I don't always have the acute peripheral vision I want in separating the whirlwind of daily life from my own personal balance. I stood there on the boardwalk tonight and felt as though I'd seriously been deaf for the past 5 days and was just then regaining the ability to hear and process anything. Weird is a pretty fair description of that sensation.

Really, this is more of a memento to my future self, for the next time I find myself in some uncharted moment of lucidity. Right now, I'm home on the couch with my toes curled up around a sherpa blanket and my head against the shoulder of my best friend. Whereas volleyball typically carries us into the double-digit night hours, tonight ended early and I'm okay with that.

I needed to slow down.
Check. ✓

See you tomorrow (:

xo | cmd

Movie Date Night (:

I realized yesterday that this came out on Friday:


Poor Rob, who called off work and spent the day at home nursing some mild form of food poisoning, somehow managed to put up with and accompany me to go see it.

From what he says, he thought it was worth it. From what I saw, I'm probably going to see it again in theaters and will definitely buy it when it hits the shelves. I'm a nerd like that, and hey, #sorrynotsorry.

Also, this guy, who I loved in ELF, is also in it:

peter dinklage
miles finch, elf | boliver trask, x-men days of future past

Yep. As much as I love Hugh Jackman, Ellen Page and Halle Berry, I couldn't help enjoy Peter Dinklage even if he is [**SPOILER ALERT**] the leading villain in the movie. I sat there for 134 minutes picturing North & South Pole elves while hearing him in a totally different character. Yenno, kinda like how nobody will ever see Jaleel White as anyone other than Steve Urkel, even if he were to someday play the bigscreen portrayal of Obama himself? It's the small things.... I'm entertained (:

Aaaaanyway.. totally worth it.
Go see it.
Invite me if nobody else wants to go.

And... Enjoy the 4-day week [if you have one]!

xo | cmd


Memorial Day 2014

First things first:

To my cousin Jeremy, my other family in service, my friends back at Scott AFB in Illinois, and to the ranks of men & women before and after them who have laid or are unconditionally laying down everything to serve our country, THANK YOU. Today is for YOU, your families and the service you give to the rest of us.

thank you. thank you, thank you, thank.. you.

Our little family started the morning off with breakfast out, since nobody felt much like cooking.

little toes by little flowers out to breakfast!

After breakfast, we took our time deciding what to do for the afternoon. With it being Memorial Day, the possibility of canoeing was immediately nixed once we realized the rest of the city was out on the same mission and rentals were booked through tomorrow for the most part. We defaulted to the boat, which seemed to be the best alternative.

Brittany, Chad and Kalyn met us at East Fork, where we loaded up, dropped in and prepared to haul out for a day on the water.

That went just fine until about 10 minutes into the outing, when a part on the boat prop broke and left us floating in the middle of a wake zone. It seemed like it may have been a sad, premature end to our efforts, but then I was reassured that my friends are a lot like me in the spirit of attaching to the bright side of even the most annoying circumstances.

So what did we do? Well, we tossed anchor and hung out! Sydni had a blast swimming, showing off her crazy fish-like skills to the rest of us, and of course got to practice her casting with the fishing pole that has been repaired since the little hiccup two days ago with Papppy.

We laughed, we swam, we ate lunch and hung out. For having zero horsepower to move us through the water, I'd have to say it was nothing but a fun time and I'm not complaining!

love those girls!!!

All good things eventually do end, and when it came time for us to haul in, we managed to flag down a passing boat and grab a tow for the short ride back to the dock.

womp womp womp... haha

favorite girls!! ♥

Well, boat.. it was a good start to the summer, and this is just a hiccup. It's the end of the night now, and Rob's already got a tentative plan built as to how he's going to fix it [one of the many things I love about him!].

Today wasn't wasted, at all. After we hauled off the lake, dropped Sydni off for her week away from our home and tied up our poor dead boat, we headed to Brittany's for the most delicious veggie burger I've ever had. That, plus friends and Brittany's adorable dog Daisy, proved to be the best unwind for the day.

c'mon, aunt kalyn... just a bite?!

Happy Memorial Day to you, your family, and most importantly to the service men and women who have rightfully earned the praise due their way. We salute you!!

xo | cmd

Family at Findlay

Nana & Pappy came with us to church this morning; it was their first time coming to our church with us, and needless to say, they loved it. My mom spent time before and after the service sketching out some of the decor to take back as inspiration for their church at home; Dad took similiar notes on the message, the scripture quotes lining the walls in the foyer, and the welcome center, complete with coffee bar.

Also, I wanted to share today's message with everyone, because it hit home for me in a couple of ways. It's the second message in a series on which we're working. We missed last Sunday while we were out of town, so it was awesome to get back today, and even better to hear this message. I've had to ask for forgiveness more times than I'd like to admit, but I was strongly reminded today that how I react to an issued apology says just as much about me as it does about the person on the other end.

If you have a few minutes, I definitely encourage you to settle in and check it out!

After church, we decided to do lunch and a tour of Findlay Market. In all the times my parents have visited, there's always been some reason or interruption that's deterred us from making a stop by Market. Today, we were determined to enjoy the rest of the gorgeous weather in one of central Cincinnati's best spots.

Not that there was any doubt, but my parents loved it. I took them by Zincinnati, because I really, really wanted a Venus Fly Trap. I have always been fascinated by these things, and today I adopted a little one to bring home. Rob found himself a little cactus and a baby succulent to add to our terrarium.

spiky!

 Our little box of potted happiness :)

succulent. cactus. fly trap

It was a pretty tough call deciding what to eat, but eventually we all decided on separate vendors, and cozied up in a corner stall to eat, chat and people-watch.

tasty!

Outside, we wandered around some more, Mom snagging ideas left and right of things she wanted to do in and around the house. I got 4 out of 5 of us for the group selfie, but given that poor lil Syd was in desperate need of a nap, I'll let this one slide :)

i love these people!

Next time, we're making Heidi and Jonathan come along for the trip. We missed you this weekend, seeeester.

It wasn't long before Mom & Dad had to hit the road home; we all took power naps, and soon she, Rob and I were back outside in the yard moving stuff around and cleaning up. Sydni insisted on a jaunt around on the 4-wheeler, so there was that.... really, we made the best of every bit of sunlight until it was gone.

my mini!

Oh, and guess what.. we're not doin' a thing more today, other than sitting around relaxing until whatever time we want (: We'd originally planned on camping, but after last night's bonfire, poor Syd looks like a connect-the-dot with her little bug bites all over her legs. We're a little spent, too, but it was well-worth it, and tomorrow's the other fishing trip I promised Sydni after her bait line broke yesterday :( [it's Pappy's fault, btw.. haha..]. Poor girl. We'll give it another whirl tomorrow.

For now, I hope you & yours are enjoying the beautiful weather. Let's not forget what tomorrow really means.

xo | cmd

Family. Boating. Roasting!

My parents arrived, as promised this morning. We exchanged our usual hello's, which mainly included Sydni saying, "Nana! Look at ________!" a few hundred times within about five minutes. I love it. We helped them get settled in, and then started packing up for our day trip out to the lake.

We toted everything out to East Fork, somehow got my aquaphobic mom on a speedboat, and took off for a day on the water.

Yeah, it was a picture kind of day :)


mom & syd

^^ Look at my mom in her wayfarers! Haha. Freebie from the credit union, she told me, and really the perfect accessory for a boat trip. Love my mom (:

It wasn't long before we found a nice spot in a cove, where we ate our picnic lunch and started really enjoying the day. Sydni strapped on her lifejacket and hit the water right behind me. Swim time!

look at her go!!

thumbs up!

We floated and cruised, cruised and floated, and then rode up on one of the narrow strips of shore in one of the coves for some more fun in the shallows.

syd, dad & rob working on syd's fishing pole

syd finding good rocks for skipping!

nana & syd playing in the sand ♥♥

The day really was all about Sydni. She's like a fish when she's in the water, just as I was when I was little. It was tough telling this girl that it was time to go. I mean look at her! She looks like a little grown-up in the water....

little summer babe!

When it finally was time to head back, we of course let Sydni show Nana & Pappy how well she could drive her boat. She's a champ!

vroom vroom!

Fast forward through the trip back to the house, during which Sydni zonked out almost immediately; she got a healthy little snooze in before we were back at home and gearing up for round two.

Round 2 = Bonfire!
The only problem was.. we didn't have a fire pit.
I wanted a fire pit.

The best solution I could think of at that moment, was to make ... a fire pit.

SO, I DID. (:

boom. back yard fire pit.

I turned into a little sod farmer for about an hour, peeling the lawn up in a circle to form a little pit. We used the brick pavers we got from Jay & Trey's house to build a small outline, and while it's a bit lop-sided, we weren't going for an aesthetic accolade as much as functionality. Oh, and we didn't have sand or gravel at our immediate disposal, so yes, that's cat litter.

Rob fired up the grill, Mom and I skewered some chicken, Becky and Mike showed up with firewood, dad set up the chairs and coolers, and Sydni ran around with a headlamp attached to her head to occupy the dogs. Talk about teamwork (:

The sun eventually began to fade, our dinner plates were all empty, and it was time to get the real evening started with fire.


not too bad!

dad, mom, the dogs & a couple of my little pony characters

becky & sydni..
.. sydni's that blur of a headlamp running by ;)

S'mores.
It's not a family bonfire with smores. It's also not a real kick-off to Summer nights without smores. Becky got us started, using a peanut butter cup instead of the traditional Hershey bar.

nommmm!

Soon, we had a production line of smores lined up around the fire, a system in place, and seven sets of sticky fingers.

it's time for smores.
it's time for summer!

I could do this every weekend ♥

xo | cmd

Weekend Prep

I know I could complete a solo [grocery] shopping trip in half the time it takes to do it when Syd's with me, but let's face it - it's way more fun when she's there. It's even better when we have multiple stops for a range of things, and she replaces the irritation of shopping in general with funny observations.

Our very first, and very crucial order of business?

princess. fishing pole.

Yes, that's right. We were on the hunt for a princess fishing pole, for the princess herself. We have at least 2 scheduled outings on the boat for this weekend, and I've promised Syd that she'll have her own pole for the excursion. That being said, we're starting here, with pink princesses. Haha. Gotta start somewhere, amiright?

We also stopped off at Jungle Jim's, which, despite it's massive innards and lengthy traversing time, was actually fun with Sydni. I asked her to tell me tales about every country aisle we passed. Some of them were pretty creative. On the way out, she wanted to take a picture with the gorilla and the rhino, so of course we did.

eat more bananas.. and give more hugs!
[this world would be darn near perfect, huh... haha]

rhino!

Nana & Pappy [aka, my parents] will be here first thing tomorrow, so we've decided tonight will be pretty low-key. Syd's been a huge help tidying up her room for Nana & Pappy, assisting me with laundry and even swept off the front porch with her broom. Now I see why people have lots of kids ;). Joking..... joking.... sorta... ;)

Anyway, the weekend's sure to be a fun-filled few days, so we'll leave it at that for now and relax here until Saturday sunshine meets us in the morning.

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Mini Car Wash

After the baby dent my car suffered yesterday when it was backed into, I of course needed to gather up all my car insurance, plate information, etc. to report to the insurance company. I stepped outside to photograph my plates, because I dunno if I'm alone in this, but I don't have my plates memorized off the top of my head.

I realized my car was filthy.
To remedy this, Rob helped me to dig out the power washer and the car care stuff. I enlisted the assistance of the best small helper there is, and the three of us had an evening of detailing the Subie.

dirty car? noooo.. problem

By the way, washing cars is tough work. My poor girl climbed in the car for a quick errand afterwards with a treat she very well earned for her dedication.. and within two minutes was out like a light. Don't worry, she'd already finished the candy on the other end and was gnawing on a soggy stick by the time she passed out. Still, it just goes to show that being 4 is a rocky journey, but *sighh... someone's gotta do it ;)

zonked!

I'm thankful for the nights like this. I love my little family and know that some of the best quality time is the time spent doing even the most menial things [i.e., washing a car] in the company of each other. ♥♥♥.

Oh, and tomrrow's FRIDAY! YAY!!

xo | cmd

Subie Snafu

My poor Subie.

First it was the two tires that needed to be replaced. Then it was the rock chip in my windshield on the trip to Illinois for Ali's birthday bash. The perpetually recurring splotches of bird poo won't stop until I either shave down the tree that hovers over our driveway, or find somewhere else to park.

Tonight, it was sheerly an accident, but Subie happened to land in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Someone backed up out of a parking spot right into her. In his defense, she's fine aside from some cosmetic damage, and the driver did everything he was supposed to do post-collision.

ouchie :(

Fortunately for me, Becky & Mike just happened to be standing by Becky's car, which was parked right behind mine, and witnessed the entire thing. Rob was just a few hundred yards away and was able to break down the cost of repair to the kid as an itemized list for parts, paint and labor. The kid was more than compliant to get it all taken care of, and from what it looks like now, we'll be settling this outside of his insurance. All is well.

After settling details over the Subie, we all decided we were hungry, so off to VT it was.

yummmm!

I. FORGOT... that they had fried green beans here. Folks, if there's one food vice-slash-maaaajor-weakness that I have, it's fried green beans. It's become a tradition whenever we visit Illinois to stop at Bindy's for no other reason than the fried green beans. It was the only place I'd found so far that has gotten them right. How I forgot VT serves them too is beyond me, but I'm definitely remembering now. Haha.

this. this half-eaten pile of fried gb's..

It really is the small things in life that keep me entertained. (:
Here's a candid shot then of my friends trying to define the difference between Bindy's gb's and VT's gb's. They weren't exactly the same, so off they were on an internet quest to figure it out. Who knows if they ever did..

sleuths!

Tomorrow's a new day.
I hope you and yours have a great rest of the week!

xo | cmd