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

Sweet Days, Sweet People

With Joe still abroad on his ventures in Spain, Sydni and I made another go at flying solo to church. It was a pretty contained morning, since I was on nursery rotation and thus spent the morning downstairs and outside with Mo and the kids. Good stuff. I love love love those munchkins!


[borrowed]
... but it's so true!



After church, it was off to McAllisters with the Gobles, Prescotts, Babots, and Lara's parents. I wish I'd captured the scene that was Jacob and Sydni sharing their very own table for two, complete with food, drink, and crayons. Quite the grown up time for the two of them as they sat and babbled over games they were playing on individual smart phones. It was so cute... and totally worth it if nothing else than to observe the reactions of passersby as they did the double-take at two toddlers seemingly dining alone. It really doesn't take much to entertain me these days.

We managed to squeeze in a mini nap in the afternoon before it was right back to church for the evening service and choir practice. It's been a good night :)

Actually, it's been a pretty good day, immersed with good people, and of course good food. Life's good. :)

Oh! And Joe gets home tomorrow! It'll be late, yeah, but he'll be here. Praying for travel mercies....

[Meanwhile, it's back to the workhorse tomorrow!]

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

I'm a Fan of Days Off

Today was one of those coveted days during which I found myself doing many things, but NOT at work. Amen!  :)


iphone 4 | evo 3d



We took our time getting moving, and when we finally did, our first stop was the Sprint store for some new phones. Thank you, annually-expiring contract. Please know, I do absolutely consider myself blessed to have a phone that works, but here's the part where I have to admit I like to have a little fun. I'm all about simplicity in most aspects of my life, but hey, if I'm going to make something complicated, why not carry it around with me all day long, too? Anyway, it was time to upgrade from the his-and-hers Palm Pre's. Joe had his heart set on the iPhone 4, and after a bit of playing around on the display models, said yes to the HTC Evo 4g. Since the Evo was on back-order through our Sprint store, Joe came home with a new phone; I won't get mine until later this week. Oh poor Cori. Jk. I went to Google both of these and found a picture of them sitting side by side. I hadn't seen them like that before; my phone is a brick. Haha.

Anywhoooo..



accidental matching with mo :)
p.s. - nice photobomb, jimmy!



Sydni begged me to take a nap with her once we got home, so I of course obliged without protest. When I woke up, Joe informed me that some of our friends would soon be en route for an evening of football and hanging out. I mean, fall asleep for one second in this house....... :) Just kidding. About an hour or so later, the Babots & the Prescotts rolled in, and we spent the rest of the evening watching football, discussing weird names for children, goofing off with the kids, and laughing hysterically at some of the stupid things we've said and done. Good stuff. This is just one of the bazillion reasons I thank my Lord every night for Towerview. Aaaamen.

We figured out that Joe's new space phone has a camera on both sides, so once the guests were gone, we finished off the night with a mini family photo shoot. I'll start the week off right with a little preview of all that ;)

xo | cmd

Ode to the Sandwich: Blues City Deli

Hello, adorable new discovery!

blues city deli | st. louis, mo



sandwiches, galore!

A close friend of the Babots is in town for a weekend visit, so Alex and Joe coordinated for us all a little lunch outing across the river. We opted to travel off the grid of mainstream eateries and into what is for us an uncharted portion of St. Louis, and found ourselves at the Blues City Deli. It's a cute flapper-esque corner dive neatly situated into a neighborhood of quaint little brick townhouse apartments. It came as a recommendation from Alex, so we trusted his judgment on the menu, and I'm glad we did. I can't even now remember what it was that I ordered, but I do know that it was a sandwich, it was positively delicious, and if I have the opportunity to re-visit the experience in the near future, I will. Lest I forget to include that Landon and Sydni had quite the giggly time challenging the shadows of themselves on the wall, it did add to the lunch-hour entertainment.

Aside from our over-the-river-and-through-the-traffic mini excursion, it was a fairly average Saturday. Tomorrow's going to be one of those nonstop Sundays: church, Alex's birthday lunch, Easton's birthday party, and the children's play at church.

I suppose we'll call it an early night, then!

xo | cmd

Trick-Or-Treat | O'Fallon

It's that time of the year again. If you're wondering, no, Joe and I did not dress up for trick-or-treating today. I'm all about costumes, so maybe we'll get around to it on Halloween, maybe not. Last year I went out and about dressed as the Hamburgler, which went over well in a group of my friends disguised as everything from the Green Lantern, Goku, Frisch's Big Boy, and a few Jabbawockeez. Throw in a few characters from Street Fighter and Tekken, and it should answer any questions about most of those friends being Asian ;).

I kid, I kid.
[errrrrrr]

our little raggity ann ♥

So today we geared up for the daylight candy hunt over in O'Fallon with the Babots. I brought out the Raggity Ann get-up that I'd bought for Sydni over a month ago from a re-sale shop and suited her up for the fun. We'd bought her a monkey candy bag way back during one of my weekend visits to Florida when Joe was still in tech school, and so that came right along with us in the car as we toted off across the highway.

landon & lara | sydni & cori
mama's & their babies ;)

We met up with Lara, Alex, and Chicken Little, aka Landon, who, despite Alex's protest was proud to announce that he was a chicken, and gladly demonstrated what a chicken says. We thought it was absolutely adorable. Between Landon and Sydni, there was plenty reason to stop into all the small businesses lining the streets of downtown O'Fallon, and we even stopped at Papa Vito's for a lunch break on an outside patio. Altogether it was a great day: perfect weather, lots of exercise, and of course, candy. Sydni's first real expedition as a trick-or-treated was a success. There are still a few more days in the Halloween season, so we may very well be playing dress up again sometime in the next few days.

For now, we're wrapping up the evening with some family time, so that means I'm outta here. Good night, blogbots! :)

xo | cmd