River Rats

For a split second there, I was sure it would be raining today. We didn't really check the weather for the weekend, but had faith in the elements holding out just long enough for us to be on the water for the majority of this Labor Day Weekend.

We may have wondered what the clouds would hold for the day, but by late morning, this was the starting view:

rob, kenny & the bajas

We departed from Dillon's house, met up with Kenny and Taryn, and loaded the Bajas into the water for a day that would be spent with awesome friends cruising the river.

Dillon & Matt hauled Dillon's jet ski's up to the drop-in in Grafton, so we made our way up river to get them, after picking up Kyle & Jesse. It wasn't long before Rob's mom & stepdad joined in, and from there, the day was at our disposal.

relaxing! 

^^ Jesse took this shot; that's Taryn over there on the right laying out, and I... am pretty sure I was asleep lying on the front of Rob's boat. Womp womp. ;)

After we'd lounged on the shore for a few hours, we voted it was time for food, and found ourselves heading to the Big Kahuna. Oh, and the poor little jetter had to be towed; it looks like an update on some wiring is in order!

poor lil jetter.. 

Finally..... 

front row parking & the bk

I have no complaints on how the afternoon panned out. We eventually all parted ways, and Rob and I headed back to Dillon's, where the three of us parked ourselves on the couch to watch part of the American Ninja Warrior marathon that's been on for what seems like weeks now. It was a toss-up on whether or not we'd actually get out and do something, but we eventually pulled ourselves together and found our fail-proof destination: Bindy's. 

and then there's this.. 

^^ Hahahah.. "It's a satchel. Indiana Jones had one!" - I love this guy. 

And that, folks, is how we're kicking off this Labor Day. See ya back on the water tomorrow! 

xo | cmd

3 Day Weekend.. GO!

Labor Day weekend is HEEEERE!

3 Days of no work started at the end of an abbreviated work day, and it took us very little time to hit the road westbound to Illinois.

( ^ ^ p.s. - I googled Labor Day, clicked images, and for some reason, there's a Filipino-adapted version of this.. so hey, let's roll with it.. haha) 

We have landed at Dillon's, with boat and dogs in tow.
This is gonna be an excellent weekend (:

xo | cmd

Classroom Treats

As an adult, I adore the fact that my birthday is at the end of November. That means that it's often snuggled right up against Thanksgiving, and consequently, I've found many years to be off work on my birthday. One year it actually fell right on Black Friday, which I celebrated by 1) NOT working and 2) NOT shopping. It was perfect.

My kid somehow lucked out this year having her birthday on Labor Day. That means no school on her birthday, and a long weekend on top of that. As a 4-almost-5-year-old, she's only eyeing the social consequence of not seeing her school friends on her birthday, but I think we've leveraged that with plans for multiple birthday parties. Still... lucky bug!

New rules these days on what kids can take to school to celebrate birthdays. They're probably not new, but all I know is that somewhere in the gap of my elementary days and now, restrictions have been placed on what kids can do to celebrate birthdays at school. It's not a big deal really, and if I'm being honest, I think it's probably a safer way to go. Looking back, I don't know if I was thinking about how that cupcake I just ate was made, or if that kid's parents' kitchen was clean. So yeah, probably the best bet.

Plus, kids [at this age] don't usually eat non-edibles, so from a healthy-snack standpoint, yay!

Long story short, tonight I took Sydni to pick out the stuffings for goodie bags to distribute to her classmates on Tuesday next week. She came home from school today with one from a girl's birthday, and apparently there's a boy whose birthday is tomorrow. I'm now very glad we won't be pumping sugar into these kids for 3 school days in a row, if not more.

done & done. 

kiddie treats! 

The biggest challenge wasn't really much of a challenge at all: Finding things gender-neutral for a co-ed class. Anyone who knows me knows I have a somewhat mild distaste for sparkles, glitter and generally for the color pink, anyway. We had a blast pairing little pencils with play-doh colors and jungle stickers, and she made an assembly line of it all by stickering my finished bags.

I've just figured out why parents have multiple kids: This stuff is fun.
[Go ahead and call me crazy. Check back in a few years to see if I'm still on that page ;) ]

Birthday treat prep = success!

xo | cmd

Party In The Park

Summer schedules are the trickiest darn things sometimes. Weekly commitments are especially iffy, since there are only so many days in the week and in Cincinnati, so much going on. Like, all. the. time.

Wednesdays for me are volleyball, and that's how that's been for the last 6-7 years of collective time I've spent in Cincinnati. Wednesdays in the Nati are also Party in the Park, which is a weekly assembling of various food & beverage carts, cornhole boards, local musicians and of course a lot of people down in Yeatman's Cove. I started attending PITP's when I still worked for Clear Channel; since then, volleyball was always the trump card over Yeatman's, but since there were no games this week, we figured we would skip on down to check it out.

Fitting, as it was the last one scheduled for the summer.

music @ pitp

love this guy beyond words! ♥

The sun set on Cincinnati, and it was beautiful.

pretty city! 

We're halfway to Friday. YESSS. 

xo | cmd

Parks & Family & Forts & HOMEWORK.

This was a full circle kind of day. We started by waking up to this:

hahah.. ok? 

^ Apparently Stella wasn't cutting it for a stuffed animal... or 15. She's too much :)

The day went on and when I picked up my mini from Mindi's, we made flash plans to stop by the park.

♥

such a rebel.. 

she's officially too tall to walk under this without bent knees! 

Sydni took her first selfie with an exposed selfie arm tonight..

hahah ♥♥

Rob showed up for the last half hour or so before it started raining. Notes I made from tonight? Swinging selfies are difficult, especially when you're trying to capture three people swinging at separate intervals. Hah. Nice face, me.

welp. 

Back at home, I came to the realization that

Hey: It's happening.

Sydni has homework.

This week, it's the letters B & M on which they're focusing. Their homework?
Fill up the appropriate pages of their word books with cutouts of things that begin with those respective letters. Welp, we dove into B tonight and had a Blast doing it! ;)

she's a pro. 

On top of cutting & gluing, they've been asked to try and write the words near what they selected. Sydni flew right through that with no questions asked. 

whiz kid! 

Meanwhile, Sasha celebrated National Dog Day [today!] by pondering the reasons why humans cut up paper and stick it to other paper. At least that's what we're gonna wager she was thinking. She probably just wanted fed. 

sasha doooooog

Finished product! 

so, so proud! 

After homework, we cleaned up and readied for bed. We thought this was going to be routine, until Sydni insisted that she wanted a fort.

Yes, a FORT.
What did we do? We put our heads together and constructed a makeshift fort around the corner of her bed, which will do for now until we devise a more creative, more permanent solution [& trust me, we will].

Fort it is!

& ... zonked within 5 minutes.
winnnnnnnnn!

Who knew? I'm gonna start building towers if it continues to make bedtime this easy. Haha.
I vote a successful day.

Let's do it again tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Sunny Monday!

Today was beautiful!

Don't believe me?
Here's a taste [ya see what I did there? ;) ]

chocolate cheesecake happens... mmkay?

Yep. For a Monday [at work], the amount of situational management I had to exercise today was also at a bit of a low for the beginning of the week, so that was an added benefit.

Most importantly, mini is back and that makes me the happiest little mama today.

ohhhh... her... ;)

We spent the evening talking about the new things she's learning at school with Mrs. Smith, and how she's going to be a veterinarian when she grows up. I've got a career-minded chiclet on my hands, folks. Hah.

Speaking of learning, tonight Rob taught me how to fix my flat iron. He'd never done it before, either, but there's a first time for everything and now I know what I'm up against if this ever happens again. If you've ever wondered what a disassembled umberto iron looks like, here ya go:

poor little straightener!

^ Have I mentioned lately how thankful I am for this guy?

Here's to a continuously awesome week :)

xo | cmd

Luke Bryan.. From the Water!

Trish and I rendezvoused this morning for an attempt to find a church that spoke to us.

I wouldn't call it a successful mission, but we finally landed at Crossroads in Oakley that, despite its massive size, provided a much-needed refresher on life, our purpose in it as it related specifically to work, and just some quiet time between the music to reflect on it all.

You'll never know until you try it. It's a beautiful facility, just a little too much for me.

Back at home, Rob was up and ready to go, so we opted for a run out on the river. A week or so back, Rob and one of his work buddies had taken the new boat out for a spin, which was perfect, considering his friend is a seasoned traveler of the Ohio. It was our turn today, so we loaded up and dropped in just past Eli's and opened up the Baja for an afternoon on the water.

little river cruise

Jessica & Andrew joined in soon enough, and we were off down the water for a quick bite at Ludlow Bromley. Then it was back on the water; we decided last minute to anchor down on the waterside of Riverbend, where Luke Bryan was playing night 2 of sold out shows. I've never attended a Riverbend show from the river side before, but I loved it and will definitely consider doing it this way again.

hey girl, hey! 

the back side of riverbend

captain! 

The sunset on the water is amazing in and of itself:

love. 

We'll be back, yes we will.

river panoramic! 

I'm looking forward to waking up refreshed tomorrow for work, not drained from sun exposure and swimming. I could get used to this!

xo | cmd 

Farewell for Brittany | Night Out With Trish!

The good news from today: 

- Lawn is mowed. 

- Gardens are weeded, cleaned and trimmed. 

- Boat is clean. 

- Cars are washed. 

- House is vacuumed.

- Laundry is done. 

- Dogs are [sorta] clean. 

Basically, we got gross today before we prettied up again. It was well worth it, and in some ways, overdue. 

We managed to clean ourselves up in time to head to Brittany's for her going-away party. This gal is moving to South Carolina for work and I'm super happy for her. Congrats, Britt; thank you for letting us share in your going-away festivities! We are coming to visit you, also. Just so you know :D. 

After Britt's, it was down to good old OTR to rendezvous with some faces I haven't seen in way too long. The usual suspects, Keith & Nader were among them, but the gaps of time that lapse between visits with TRISH proved to make tonight a great opportunity to catch up. 

thanks for hangin' with me, pretty mama! 

I don't know where my mind was tonight; I didn't have my camera out at all at Brittany's, which I attribute to the fact that we were all having too much fun to worry about pictures. It's a miracle we got any decent pictures at the end of the night, too.. and Rob decided to photobomb nearly all of them. Awesome :|. 

Anyway, that's not a bad start to the weekend; I'll take it! 

xo | cmd 

Friends & Friends & Friends: Support ALS Research!

I am having a blast watching people band together all over social media to share this challenge with her families and friends. I've seen several people who, like me, didn't really understand the full scope of how ALS affects those who have it, their families, caretakers and friends.

It's.. horrible.
I've seen a handful of videos over the past couple of weeks, made by individuals directly affected in some way by this STUPID disease. The 26-year-old guy I showed ya'll yesterday even stated that for him, ALS is something that people either equate with the title of Lou Gehrig's Disease & know very little past that, or they are aware of what it really is, and the conversation after that is slim to none.

What an awful way to have to live.
So yeah, I'm loving the video streams of people having a little harmless fun with the ALS challenge. Call it narcissism, call it vanity, call it dumb.. call it whatever you want: money is being donated and awareness is being raised. Let's not forget why we're making these videos, but let's keep challenging the world to shed light on this. Let's save some lives, yeah??!

Here's a mini compilation of my lovely friends, directly challenging me & challenged by me to participate.

kalyn

 ^ She started it for me... thanks for the nomination, Mom! [& yes, we call each other that for reasons even we don't really know... leave it be... ]

My nominations went flying yesterday, and these are some of the early responses:

Becky is scheduled to this sometime tomorrow at Market.
Jessica already did this from someone else's challenge...  

Chad, who decided he would do this before he even left volleyball:

hahana beach!

From the IL lovelies I called out, all three of them nailed it:

Ali:


my favorite ginger

DeShawn: 

damanji himself

Tim: 

timmy!!

Earlier footage of Marianne, who was previously challenged by someone else. What an awesome idea, btw!

love this.



Allllll right, Becky & Rob - you two are still on the chopping block. Let's see it!

Oh, and guess what - it's the weekend... so...  yeah. Love it.

TGIF!

xo | cmd

New Girl On The Block

Rob, the Craigslist afficionado, has struck again.

I think the rampant string of buy-sell-buy-sell may finally be at a stopping point -- for now.

Meet the newest addition to our family. She is still nameless, although we've received numerous suggestions of an appropriate nickname of Lexi.

welcome to the family, newb!

We're still working on the name.

Whilst Rob was working out the final deal on that little gem, Sydni and I busied ourselves in the grass by a nearby church, where she was ready to show me exactly how well-rounded she is:

We stretched. Playing is now an activity that, according to Sydni, requires extensive preparation. This is called the cross-your-arms stretch. Who knew? 

♥♥♥♥!!

We tumbled.

We laughed. A lot.

happy girl

Since she just started school, I figured I'd give her a pop quiz on something she learned this week: addition.

It's true. This little chicky seems to be too smart to handle sometimes.
And most importantly, we hydrated. ;)

sticker-clad chickadee

Overall, I don't think we can complain. We have a new set of wheels in the driveway, two wagging pittie tails curled up on next to us and a kindergartener who loves life.

We're pretty happy.
Hope you are, too!

xo | cmd

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Our volleyball tournament was tonight.
We'll suffice to say this: "Next time. NEXT. TIME." Haha.

Afterwards, I accepted the challenge passed on to me by Kalyn: The viral sweep of ice bucket douses, all in the name of raising awareness and funds for ALS research. The ultimate goal? FIND A CURE.

Amidst the handful of skeptics and those otherwise reluctant to participate for whatever reason, I personally find it endearing to see the newsfeed on my preferred social media outlet -- Facebook -- saturated with video snippets of people dousing themselves or handing that favor off to someone else, in support of a cause. Is it literally every other post just about? Yeah. Does that really bother me that much? NO.

Does it seem a bit narcissistic?
Probably. Sure, we're all posting footage of ourselves doing this, but hey, here's an interesting read I found about this current phenom:

>>> What An ALS Family REALLY Thinks About the Ice Bucket Challenge <<<

This is one of the few times I really want to speak up and tell the naysayers to just... calm down.
This gal says,

"... here’s the deal: We are in for the fight of our lives with this monster, and the very LAST thing I want is for people to give quietly, anonymously, and then slink away. Raise the roof! Raise a ruckus! Call all sorts of attention to yourself! I will be happy for you and every Facebook like you receive, as you nudge ALS an inch or two closer to the collective public consciousness."

Okay. She wins. The ALS-affected win. Douse AND donate, I sure will.

And I did.


In case you can't hear, yeah, I did nominate quite a few people [someone told me the limit was 3? woops] - I guess we'll call it 3 groups of people, as opposed to just 3 individuals:

1 - volleyball team: Becky & Chad [Jessica already did it]
2 - My IL darlings: Ali, DeShawn & Tim [Marianne also already did this]
3 - My better half Rob. Not really a group on the last one... hah.

Anyway, 1, 2 & 3 - you've got 24 hours to accept AND donate. GO!

Oh, and just in case you're still one of those critics who think this too is a fad equitable to that of Gagnam Style or The Harlem Shake, c'mon.. really? Those two things benefited the greater good of mankind .... how, exactly?

>>> Here's ALS, in REAL TIME. <<<

 

Yeah. I'm on board, 100%. If we as a collective group of humans can find a cure for this, I'd say our efforts now, regardless of how funny we and our friends think the videos to be, are worth it.

 

Happy Wednesday!

 

xo | cmd

FIRST. DAY. OF. SCHOOL!!!

I'm not ashamed to brag on myself today: I did not cry.
That doesn't sound like a huge feat to most people, but this mama fully expected to shed some tears watching her baby board the school bus for the very. first. time today.

& i love you to the moon & back! ♥♥

Nope. :D I held it together. Barely. But I did it.

Bottom line: This little girl is a kindergartener. My heart.. is happy. I am so proud of the beautiful soul she is becoming.

So here they are: DAY 1 - KINDERGARTEN!

first day! 

my beautiful girl ♥

and this is my world. 

hangin' at the bus stop with mallory

The time finally came.. 

it's here! 

It was time for hugs from Mindi. This was special for me, since Sydni has been in Mindi's daytime care since she was 6 months old. Aside from the time we lived out of state, Mindi has always been there for Sydni, and for me as well. What a sweet moment! 

thank you, miss mindi! 

sweet mallory [mindi's daughter] being a watchful friend for day 1! 

After the extensive 8 minute journey to school... ;) 

:D 

day 1 in class.. meeting new friends & finding a rhythm.. 

There ya have it. My baby girl is a school kid, as she calls it.
I am one.. proud.. mama. ♥♥♥

The day must go on, of course. Off to work it was, to finish out the Tuesday. As a reward for holding my composure for the day, Rob and I took advantage of the evening and made a second attempt to see the new TMNT. Fortunately, bad luck didn't strike twice, and we made it through the entire movie with no theater power outages. (:

tmnt!

P.S. - Tuesdays -- at least this Tuesday -- are discount days at the theater in Oakley. NOTED.

*Whew! That's a wrap, kids.

xo | cmd