Alex Babot Day

There is something to be said about the power of good friends and the impact they can have on us.
There is something even more to be said about the power of fellowship among believers; we, on so many different levels, are capable of reaching so much deeper into each others' lives than just the surface, and have that relationship echo back to us.

That being said [I know, something of an epic intro for what is actually pretty silly], today was orchestrated to be Alex Babot Day among a few of the guys at the Tower. For those of you who don't know Alex, his better half is Lara, and they are the first couple with which we really bonded when we first got to Towerview. I love them to pieces, and wish we had more opportunity to see them outside of church [ah, life]. Anyway, one of Alex's signature trademarks is his affinity with, and absolute ability to successfully sport the bowtie. I'm telling you, it might seem like a dated form of neckwear, but this guy can pull it off.

Erego, Alex Babot Day. :)

joe. pastor ron. adam. jarod.
ta-da! [this wasn't even all of them]
{missing at least jason, jimmy, kyle, and of course, alex! :( .. }

And if you think the fun stopped at the grown boys.....


cutest thing, ever. haha.. little luke!

^ I was actually on nursery rotation this week with Mo & Tanya; Tanya put Kyle's tie on Luke to see how it would look... and might I just say, he was dashing! He looked like a little sub-contractor; Tanya even managed to snag a shot of him making some important business calls. [We don't mean to interrupt, Mr. Luke! ;) ].

Now, because my husband is a married man, he is part of the larger collective group of married men who so often are found with one or both of their feet squarely planted in their own mouths. [I say that lovingly.. lol] In this case, a comment was made that Joe should buy lunch for every participant of Alex Babot day if Alex did not show up to bear witness. Welp, Alex did not make it this morning, so I'm not really sure if or when that's going to actually happen, because today was consumed with last-minute errands before Joe headed out to Cinci tonight. Haha. Good. Work. Joe. :p

Anyway, just a few more days before the next weekend, during which we'll all be in Cinci. I'm chompin' at the bits to get home.. good grief. I can't wait :) :) :)

Almost Monday!

xo | cmd

WELCOME BABY EMILIA!! [VBS Day4]

So as we all went to bed last night with the anticipation of little miss Emilia's arrival, the Babots headed to the hospital where Lara was induced at midnight. The journey started for them while the majority of us were asleep. This morning around 11am, little Emilia made her grand entrance!

I.. Am.. SO.. Excited!

welcome emilia leigh!

WELCOME EMILIA!!!!

[& Congratulations to proud Mama & Daddy Lara & Alex, and of course big brother Landon]

proud mommy, flawless & beautiful, as always :)
gorgeous daughter & mama!

I cannot wait to meet little Emilia, and I will gladly stand in that line to do so. We're continuing prayer for the proud parents, and perhaps even more proud big brother Landon! I pray everything goes well for the next couple of days and that you're home in no time. We are so excited for you. Yiieee, babies! ♥

----

Today, as we all know, is day 4 of VBS. It's been an energetic week so far, and we crossed the halfway point. I took a break from all things VBS to stop by Tracy's house and snag the giant bag o' T-shirts that were ordered for the Towerviewers participating in Relay for Life. I got them all home and separated them into labeled bags for the picking. Since my team co-captain is pictured above doing ridiculous other things like having a baby [sheesh... c'mon ;), heh.. jk!], I made sure to take care of this. It was a bit of work, but an oddly-refreshing breather from the cardio that is VBS music ;) Hah. Fun stuff.


relay for life | bellville il | july 20-21, 2012!

It's been a whilrwind week so far! We are so blessed :)

The almost-Friday is just around the corner!

xo | cmd

Towerview at the Ballpark!!

Due to the continuous construction that comes inevitably as part of our office build-out, we were granted two consecutive casual days; we all took full advantage of it and geared up in our jeans and t-shirts for the day. Mine was almost thwarted by an early morning client visit; luckily for me, this particular client happens to be within earshot of my house, so if you think I went home after my client meeting to ditch the business garb, you would be totally correct. Haha. Perfect timing on the casual day, too; I was headed straight from work to the Cards game.

baseball time!

Before I get into this one, let me first clarify that in my heart, I'm still Cincinnati, through and through. That being said, I also believe that if you're gonna live somewhere, be there. I'm leading up to the fact that I was pretty excited to get down to Busch Stadium tonight for what was my first Cardinals game this season.

* I never thought I'd hear myself say that. What can I say, I love baseball games. Period. :)

with dawne! :)

Anyway, what made tonight's game that much cooler was the fact that each seat purchased by a Towerview member was from a fundraiser we'd done a few months back as one of our Relay for Life fundraisers. Originally, it was planned that Joe would be accompanying me to this one, but with him in Atlanta this week, that clearly wasn't going to happen. I contemplated just passing our tickets off to someone, but then I remembered that I do in fact know people outside of our church [because everyone there was already going, hah]. I asked Dawne is she wanted to come along, and long story short, we partnered up and made a night of it. I saw some other familiar faces tonight; I'll tell ya what, this St. Louis place sure is starting to grow on me. Yeah, baseball :)

Dawne and I linked up and took the metrolink with Syd [who ended up overnight back at Dawne's because she is just that awesome] into St. Louis and rendezvoused there with the rest of the Towerviewers to enjoy the night. I definitely had no complaints for my first season run at the park. Speaking of which, Courtney from work was down there somewhere too, we just never found each other. Oh well. Next time.

cori. mo. lara

*Note to self, also. The MetroLink is not a force with which you should reckon if you're not entirely prepared. Haha. That is all I have to say about that. Be careful where you stop, and pay attention to where you load, otherwise you could very well find yourself traversing back and forth on that sucker for hours. I'm just sayin'. :p

Anywho, it has been some sort of night.. baseball and all. I loved every second of it, but I think it's about time I grab some sleep before I try to tackle Friday. TGI[backdatedthursdayentrymadesuperearly]F!

xo | cmd

Towerview Fundraising Breakfast: Relay2012

Hey Sunday! Thanks for stopping by :)

Today started off a couple hours earlier than the average Sunday; I was out of the house with little monster and en route to the Tower an hour or so before the usual departure time. With two cases of homemade muffins in hand, I unloaded toddler, Bible, camera, and eventually muffins into the most appropriate resting spots downstairs in the fellowship hall [well, aside from the toddler; those things don't ever rest...]. I spent a few moments snapping pictures of the helping hands and attendees of what was purposed to be a fundraising breakfast for the church's Relay for Life.

greg. ron. margaret
our trusted cooks! :)

my mini muffin monster!

breakfast

It was a huge success! Not only did we have a sturdy set of helping hands on board to flip pancakes, serve drinks and clean up, but the crowd elicited so easily by food didn't disappoint! I'm not one to regularly emphasize the strengths of individual denominations, but for what it's worth as it's relevent here: Southern Baptists have absolutely no qualms with cooking up good food, and we'll show that same lack of dissent when it comes to eating it. We love food, we love hanging out with each other, and we love coming together for a common and important cause. That being said, hosting a pre-Sunday school breakfast was guaranteed to be the hit it was.

When it was all said and done, we had $230 to put towards our [revised!!] team goal of $3,000. Our original goal was set at $1,500, but after just a month or so of We are getting closer!!! :)

pancake patrollers | lara & cori

on our way home.. cakehead ;)

After another home run sermon from our pastor [sorry for the inside joke; you'll understand if you were there], our 40 Days in the Word group [remember us? Yardsale?] rallied together at Lonestar to discuss the allocation of our yardsale proceeds.... and of course eat... again :). We nailed down some details on our next step in our plan to service our community, and did it with the usual flair of hilarious moments and musical-chair children.

I don't remember the next three hours following lunch at Lonestar; I'm going to attribute that to the fact that I spent that time napping :). I rolled back out of bed just in time to make it back to church for choir practice before coming back home again and wrapping up the day.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the grill Joe brought home yesterday. He spent a large part of the afternoon cleaning and configuring his new toy, and we wasted very little time giving it some exercise. Jarod, Jason, Alex, Jimmy & Mo stopped by after choir practice for some late evening grilling: burgers and chicken. I'm pretty proud of Joe: He didn't do half bad! :)

*Yawn.. Something about today indicated to me that this is going to be a great week. If the week's got other plans, too bad; I'm bent on making this a good one - and I've got God on my side :).

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Small Group Goodies

just a taste of what our friends are like :)
i love 'em.

It was a small group night. You know how these go.

* We were a few men short tonight; Julie & her boys, the Sandvens, and the Sleemans were all MIA, but we picked up Jarod for the night, along with both Becky's mom and Lara's friend Kim, both of whom were visiting from out of town.

It should go without saying that I beyond love our small group nights; I'm gonna say it anyway though, and with gusto at that:

I:: LOVE ::OUR SMALL GROUP.
♥

Truth. See for yourself :). 

Oh, and the picture there is a depiction of inevitable social time after small group lessons, juuuuuus-so-yenno. We actually did have a fairly cored discussion tonight over Matthew 9, which ultimately resulted in adding a few more points to the already flowering list of reasons that I admire, adore, and cherish my small group. 

.. But I'm still spent. Night, folks. 

xo | cmd  

Mother's Day 2012

The number one thing on my mind this morning:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

the mamas of my family
niece cynthia | sister heidi | mama | me :)

I know that in my immediate family alone, there are four mothers. We each have our own style, our own tastes, and of course, our own daughters. These three women are three of the most incredible ladies I've ever known. They are among the ranks of mothers who constantly surpass the expectations of being mothers, and for that I admire them.

.. But they don't stand alone. For every mother, every where, I'm celebrating your victories today: both big and small! :) The world moves because of you. Thank you to my mom, my mother-in-law and all the other moms who are the example we need to follow. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

=====================

We started church off this morning with an incredibly fun performance of the Mom Song, sung by Robin & Rachel. Great job, ladies!

rachel & robin : the mom song! :)

Once church was out, we made a quick pitstop at the store and grabbed some last minute grub before heading over to base to the Babots. We joined Alex & Lara, along with the Gobles & all the little ones, and also Lara's friend Brooke, for a grillout. We filled the afternoon with eating and playing outside. Jason showed up towards the end, right before Lara got the slip-n-slide out for the kiddos. 

Here's how that went.....

tom. jason. alex. joe.

landon & jason | getting air!

kids tying each other up ;)

she's getting so darn big! :|

alex setting up the slip-n-slide

three little ones in a row
jacob. sydni. landon

i. love. this.
syd & jacob

water!

"mama, i'm cold. brrrrrrr!"

"daddy: march!

slugger :)

paparazzi ;)
brooke. lara. cori

what a beautiful day :)

time to go: that is one tuckered-out little lady ♥

 Happy Mother's Day, everyone :)

xo | cmd

*TIRED OF CANCER!* [Towerview Style]

As we dig deeper and deeper into our fundraising efforts as a church whole, I have to say that I'm quite proud of my Towerview family.

* I am this year's appointed team captain for the First [hopefully annual!] Towerview Baptist organized team for the American Cancer Society's trademark event: Relay for Life 2012. I feel almost sheepish sometimes holding such a prestigious sounding title, since the team Co-Captain, Lara, is really the superstar here; she drives so much of this that it kinda makes my head spin. I would be at a loss without everything she's contributed and the time she's invested into tracking down the right people, creating fliers, and just overall proliferation of response and enthusiasm from everyone we need, when we need it. Thanksxmillions, LB :).

Anyway, last night at the church, a small group of us rallied together to discuss current progression of our team in all areas: fundraising, fundraising ideas, event decorations, even utilization of the ACS-provided web tools. During that time, we decided and set in motion two of the handful of fundraising opportunities we dreamt up in the earlier stages of planning:

1. Sunday morning breakfast at the church, pre-Sunday School. [May 20th!!!, fellowship hall.. free plug yeah!]
2. The 400-lb tire that Alex, Joe, and now Jason play with like it's a toy, flipping it around the track on base like it's no big deal. Our thought was to paint that puppy up and drop it off in someone's yard. That person or those people then donate $25 to get it removed asap and sent off to another yard of their bidding.

We brought that idea to fruition with mad quickness after the meeting; the Babots went home and Alex proceeded to paint it up in the token RFL [Relay for Lif--c'mon, you know...] purple, with huge white letters exclaiming the ironic phase: TIRED OF CANCER.

Can't visualize that? Let me help you:

team towerview: the tire....
- makin' a pitstop at the woods' :) 

A W E S O M E . I love everything about it, and I'm almost a little excited about this puppy making its way to our house for a day or two. Should be fun. Team Towerview is an absolute blast. These are the things we love :)

-----------------

So the rest of today was pretty tame; it marked the end of our first full week sans Meagan; I realized I need to do some serious adjustment on something: time management, shortened lunches, ruthless increase of speed.. something to balance out the work. Hah. It's a good thing with the burst of business we're seeing, but man alive, we are swamped. I love it.

joe & josh: windshield maniacs

Joe's store manager from Atlanta is in town for the insane influx of business they've had in St. Louis post-hail storm; since he's out of his element here, we were more than willing to open up the Dills' hotel once again for an out of town visitor :). He's staying for a couple nights before he heads back to GA. It wouldn't be a real party with the glass boys unless we got to observe them in their natural habitat: They transformed our garage into a temporary bay for Mo & Jimmy's car; it was a seamless operation that ended just about as quickly as it started.

Cooooool. That's a wrap on Friday, folks....

Heeeeeey, it's the freakin' weekend.....

xo | cmd

Workhorses!

I'm friggin' beat. This was the first truly exhausting yet sheerly gratifying day of manual labor I've had yet this year. I loved it!

I started the morning off by sleeping in to a magnificant 8:30 [in mama-world, that alone is the equivelant of a mini-vacation]. Since Sydni was up late last night with all of her little friends here, I crept out of bed and left her to snooze while I got the laundry moving, cleared and cleaned the remnants of dishes and pans from last night, and tackled what ended up nearly an hour and a half cleaning up our basement, which serves as the kids' stomping ground during small group. I topped it off with a house-wide vacuuming, and when it was all said and done, I spent another near hour buzz-cutting our dog's hair down to a 1. It's not exactly the best look for her, but we do it a few times each year for a little relief from the summer heat. Come to think of it, she looks a couple years younger with short hair. Puppy mode :)
 

yeah, that's the same dog :)
before + after

getting started!
step 1.. movin' bricks

Once I'd cleaned up all the dog hair, given her a bath [and myself, since I was by then itchy and covered with dog shavings], Sydni and I loaded up for a pitstop at the store before making our way to the Gobles. We wasted no time getting right down to it; I managed to snag a few shots during breather breaks before and after. It wasn't long before nearly our entire small group was on scene and fully engaged in everything from ripping out weeds, gravel and brick, painting shutters and garage trim, tearing out rock and plastic liner, tilling, planting, mulching, and even chopping wood. In the midst of it, we even managed to have a little fun climbing trees, playing with the kids, and of course eating. Hey... we're actually a pretty cheap labor force: we'll work our tails off for burgers, hot dogs, and chicken, and not be a bit sorry for it! :)




repainting shutters | jackie

takin' breaks to play with the kiddies in the tree :)
becky. tom. cori. raymond. william. jacob!

mulch. lots of mulch.
jackie. tom. julie

ripping up gravel & plastic
jarod. becky. julie. alex

gettin' dirty!
tom. cori. joe. alex. julie

chopping wood
joe!

ax men
jarod. raymond. joe. landon

Tom, Jarod, Becky and I were the last men standing at 10pm as we unloaded the last bit of mulch from Tom's truck into the newly-planted flowerbed in the blasting glow of Jarod's headlights. We tidied up and sank down next to the fire pit to unwind for a bit before calling it a night and heading home with sleepy kids and dirt-creased hands.
Shower.. check. I think I might've even dozed off a few times during. I can't remember.
My bed has never looked so comforting..... Time to oblige it.

Church in the AM!

xo | cmd

Thanks, Craigslist

Never underestimate the power of Craigslist.

I feel it's almost warranted that I apologize to the free online mecca of trading, buying, selling, or simply e-window thrift shopping; in all my time using it for divesting of unwanted gear or hunting down something specific, it's never failed me. Today especially, my sincerest gratitude was earned by the swift turnaround of fellow Craigslisters like myself.

Remember those kittens I told you about yesterday [in something of a backdated entry, hush hush]? Right, well, one of the tasks to which I assigned myself upon returning home last night with the quadruplets in tow was to hop on Craigslist and post a little diddy about the furry little babes that cannot and would not be able to share my address as a permanent residence. *Sad sad. I did that, according to the timestamp on the posting, at 12:11 AM this morning.

craigslist - amen



Long story short, by 3:30 PM today, all four of those little darlings were packed up, loaded up, and toted off to their new homes with new families. I'm still hearing phantom mews coming from the kitchen, but I'm blaming that on my current, near-delusional state of exhaustion.

Between the sleep-speckled night and the final farewells, I was fortunate to at least share nursery duty with an equally-groggy Mo, and then a small rendezvous with some members of our small group, organized together for Alexander's birthday party. Sydni was off with Dawne for her nephew's 1st birthday bash, giving me a relieving reign over the afternoon, in all of my bordering grouchiness from inadequate sleep. After Mo and I had returned to my house for the fuss of kitten caboodling, it was back to church for choir practice. I'm still not entirely convinced that I know where today went, but I do know that it's winding down to a close, and I'm goin' with it.

What a weekend!
I'm callin' this one a day, folks. I'm spentttttttttttttttttt.

THANKS AGAIN, CRAIGSLIST!

xo | cmd

Pint Size Rock Band

We started off the day with church; I was in the nursery for the morning, but still managed to spend some of the service upstairs with Joe & JB. After church, we headed back to the house and stayed there for just a bit before JB packed up and headed back to Cincinnati.

Joe, Syd, and I settled in at the Babots for lunch and a few rounds of our favorite couples card game, kemps. Landon and Sydni fished out some of Landon’s toys, and serenaded us with some toddler show tunes. It was… lovely J. 



http://www.40ditw.com/



Sunday evening service today was our introductory lesson into Rick Warren’s 40 Days in the Word study. This is a study that dissects scripture and teaching in an intensely literal, repetitious way. It’s quite practical in that it allows for a natural sense of deeper interpretation of each individual word, which ultimately leads to easier memorization. Pretty basic concept. Pretty cool results. 



casserole!
[thx rob & meagan!]



Meagan & Rob surprised us by dropping to bring us a chicken casserole at the church before we left. By the time choir practice was over, we were more than ready to head home and do some serious work on that little casserole. [Delicious. Thank you, thank you to the Greers!]

*Whew! What a day. See ya tomorrow, y’all.

G’Nite!

xo | cmd

Now THAT Is A Saturday

WHAT A DAY! {phew!}

So today was one of those days that seems like it should be a culmination of all the good stuff the regular week didn't tangibly produce. To put it simply, today rocked. I won't waste any time explaining why [[in an order dictated by chronology, not necessarily by scaled awesomess ;) ]]

my mama ♥

1. [This one's actually #1 in chronological and awesome order, fyi.] First off, my mom celebrated another year young today. Happy, HAPPY birthday to a woman whose life has been dedicated to the success of her family [pets, included], and to taking aggressive advantage of every moment and opportunity this life will offer. I look up to her in so many ways, from the first time she acted on her heart's intuition to adopt, to faithfully tolerating me at my worst. Her love has never shaken, and the quality of life I try my best to display is paled in comparison to the energy and sheer joy she exudes to those around her. I love you, Mom. Thank you, times the world over and then some, for all that you are, all that you do, and all that you will continue to do for your family.

daddy's girl @ the dino exhibit :)

2. St. Louis Science Center! Joe was gone when I woke up this morning, out with Alex galavanting all over St. Louis; he called me mid-morning to inform me that Lara and Landon would be by within the hour to pick up Sydni and I, and the four of us were scheduled to meet him and Alex at the Science Center in St. Louis, to which we hadn't been. We obliged, and within two hours were touring through the displays and indoor attractions that comprise the Science Center. Landon was so excited to show Sydni the 'real, live dinosaur' that inhabited the ground floor, complete with animatronics, realistic textures, and sound. Despite our hesitations, Sydni surprised us all by not fleeing from it, but rather demanding she touch the 'dinahorse' on its eye. Don't ask; I'm really not sure myself. Anyway, she loved it, and enjoyed everything else about the place, too. Good call, guys. I'm checking the Science Center off my list of newbie to-do things of St. Louis!



pretty little altima

 3. Since Lara and I drove separately from our husbands, we parked in separate lots and therefore had to drive down to meet them. We turned a corner and spotted them walking down the hill towards Alex's truck. It wouldn't have been a big deal, except for the fact that I spotted a shiny white Nissan settled right behind Alex's pickup; I knew at that instant that my husband had bought us a new car. See, a few days back, Ole' Trusty [our Honda] finally gave up the ghost and is likely finished beyond reasonably-priced repair. That left us with one car, and therefore in need of another set of wheels. We pulled up alongside and I hopped out, confirmed by the dealer tag still on the back plate, that this was our newest addition. It is beautiful. :) Thank you, to my wonderfully secretive husband, and to Alex & Lara, for not spilling the beans on this one. Haha.



nikon!

4. Back in July, I had taken that big fancy roadtrip out to Phoenix with Kalyn and Sam and had consequently wound up with a busted D90. I dropped that off with the folks at CreveCoeur at the beginning of September, and that long-awaited day of retrieving it in repaired form was finally here! Well, they actually called me on Christmas Eve, but I was just now getting around to it. Woops. Thanks to the U.S. Postal service's negligent handling, and then to the glorious reprieve of advice from Miss Diana Owens, my camera experienced its first [and hopefully only] major accident and patch-up. Anywho- it's home, it's functioning, and I am now back on the photographic prowl. Beware :p.

still a fan.

5. Football!!! [Poor, poor Tebow, I know...] While the games themselves may have ended a bit sour [depending on which side you're on], the good news was, we had some great friends over to share the evening with us, and even do a little manual labor [i.e. Jimmy, Adam, and Joe attempting to drive the Honda up the street and eventually having to tow it back to the driveway, haha]. Oh, and for the record, I'm still a fan of Tebow. True story.

And that is why.... today was awesome. :)
This is a good platform for Sunday, yeah?

xo | cmd

Fellowship, Mexican Style

If you don't know by now, I love our church and the family it holds. I love our pastor and his family; I love the dynamic of our congregation, and I love the relationships we've already begun forging in the short 7 months we've been here. I have to confess that this is the closest I've ever been to the heart of a church, and I attribute that to the fact that the heart of the church is so genuinely broad and willing to embrace on impact, and unconditionally.

Today was another one of those weekly gatherings with said church family; the message was on point, and our fellowship made its way from the pews to a nearby Mexican restaurant. It wasn't anything extraordinarily spectacular; it wasn't a celebration of anyone's birthday; it wasn't for any special announcements. It was however, another small event that served not only some delicious food, but some casual conversation, funny stories, and hearty laughs. It was a chance for fellowship, and even in its simple, impromptu form, we took full advantage of it.

the motherload of enchiladas

Oh, and for the record, I can't for the life of me remember what the restaurant itself is called, but this sucker came out steaming on its plate and settled right in front of Joe. I have no idea how he finished it off, but I definitely give him kudos for that. We thought we'd photo-document this for the sake of remembering the accomplishment, but also in case we would need to explain to a doctor later on what it was that knocked him out. :)

Luckily, we're still stomachache free, at the end of the day.

Meagan and Rob made their way over after lunch to finally see our new digs, and experience the hybrid indoor cornhole set up in our basement. Once they left, it was naptime for the rest of the afternoon, and that puts us here now.

What a great weekend. :) We are truly, truly blessed.

xo | cmd