Holiday Shores On the Water!

Today started off with breakfast at Lenny's with Rob's mom and Don, before we headed back to Jesse's for a nice long bout of laziness. The morning hours crept on past, and by noon we were ready to rendezvous with the rest of the group on the lake for a day in the sun.

We drove up to Dillons' dad's, where we hitched a tow from one of the clan out to the pontoon, and from there, it was the rest of the day at our disposal.

this guy! ♥  

There are few greater things in the world than spending time with either family or friends, or both! Today was an awesome day, filled with sunshine, refreshing lake water, friends and good times.

not sure... not sure.. hahaha

courtney & matt 

Even the ducks were out to play: 

little family! :) 

We floated, we stopped off at some of the lakeside dives, and eventually found ourselves rounding out the night at Gilliganz. We ate a late dinner as we compared our after-sun skintones and laughed about random things, before parting ways in the downpouring rain back to Jesse's. 

It's so nice to have one extra day of leisure time; Sundays for us here are usually spent driving back home, but since we both have tomorrow off, it'll be one more day. 

See ya then! 

xo | cmd

PITCH PERFECT 2!!

Yeah, so we talked about cooking breakfast at Jesse's this morning, but didn't have that conversation until we were sitting AT breakfast at Apple Tree. Which..... ok, that's fine, because the food's still good, but uhhhh.. we're definitely cooking at some juncture this weekend.

After breakfast, we made a 2ish hour stop by Geoff & Nikki's - it is sunny and beautiful outside today; we hung out there for a bit, soaking up the day and playing with little [although growing so quickly!!] Emma, before we headed back to Jesse's.

I had a few errands to run, so after a short nap [yeah, that happened, too; Jesse has these two TREES...]:

that happened. it was... awesome.
zZzZzzzzz... 

I came back to the boys giving the backyard smoker a run for its money, and the dogs playing together as though they'd known each other since day 1. That's a big deal for Stella, if you've never met her.

this thing.... #nailedit

pittie party! 

puppy smiles!
stella. sasha. zepplin.

The food came out amazing. Like, ah-mazing. Recommend, recommend.
Rob's mom and Don stopped by for a little while, which was awesome. The last bits of daylight hung around with the smell of slow-smoker chicken

The time came for me to leave the backyard shindig and head to Collinsville, where I met up with Ali and Damanji! That's right.. it was FINALLY TIME! 

pitch 2!! 

Ok guys.. I mean let's be real here. First, this movie came out LAST Friday (5/15). It is now EIGHT days later and I finally went to see it, in the company of literally the ONLY two people I would want with me to see it:

i seriously.. just... love. love. loooove them. 

Long story short, we found a movie theater in St. Louis that looked more like a Marriott than a movie theater, ordered some chicken quesadillas and a Stella Artois [because say whaaaaaaaaaat this place?!] and settled back into sectioned-off captains chair recliners to watch this.

P.S. - I'll see it again, anytime, if any of you out there need a tag-a-long :).
P.P.S. - This:

this is us, basically. 

I'll leave the night that way. I rolled back in to Jesse's closer to 1am than midnight [oh, and this is backdated], just before Rob and Jesse returned from Geoff & Nikki's. It's been an amazing day here in Illinois ♥.

Tomorrow  = Lake & Friends!
One more day here before the trip back to Ohio.

Woo!

xo | cmd 

Random Messages

Ever have one of those days that just... get really weird, really quickly?

Well, the day itself didn't prove to be that far out of the ordinary, but it was a coincidental slew of unrelated messages that popped up early on that made me both smile and simultaneously feel that cringe of reminiscent feelings of things and times long gone by.

First, my cousin Corey, who I haven't seen in a solid number of years due to his current residence in Vegas: He sent me a picture of a dry erase board that a friend of ours and I scribbled out to him one morning after he'd been kind enough to host us in his apartment. This is nothing to most, but to me, this is a 13ish-year-old dry erase board that somehow stayed untouched all this time. Haha.

Secondly, came this, out of the blue from Kalyn:

*tear!

We're hopefully going to see Kalyn at the end of this month when we head her way en route to the Smoky Mountains; we planned a weekend around her and I have a feeling it'll be amazing :)

Lastly, I received a random but wonderful note of love from Rob's mom!

I couldn't think of a much better way to start off the week than feeling the love the way I did today!
Here's to the rest of the week being equally empowering :)!

xo | cmd

OK, I Lied [About Being DONE]

It's true. I think I may have overstated myself yesterday when I said that we'd finished all things Christmas. This has now become a nearly 3-week affair for us, but I'm not complaining! ;)

First came the work day: The girls and I came in full force at the office today, and seemed to all have the same idea: NEW YEAR, NEW EVERYTHING. Our first order of business was cleaning and rearranging each of our spaces, something that kind of speaks for itself in ushering in the aura of new. It's refreshing to switch things up, de-clutter and in a way just re-calibrate the zen for the space we occupy for 45+ hours each week.

So there's that... and to round it off, we ordered a supply trip to Office Depot & lunch at Fresh Thyme.

fun times at fresh thyme! |  cincinnati, oh

^^ You know you're an adult when office & market itineraries can actually excite you. Hah :p.

Anyway, today was a progressive lineup of awesomeness; once work was finished, I picked up Sydni and we headed home to get started on dinner. More specifically, Sydni's mission statement for dinner:

"Mommy, I wanna surprise Mister Rob with dinner
because he is always doing stuff for us." 

Say what, little heartstring?! Of course we will.
I gave Sydni reign of the recipe book, and she decided on chili. Have I mentioned how much I love this girl?

Chili it was!

chili! ♥

Sydni's chili recipe hit the nail on the head, and with bellies full, we dialed in for the highlight of the night: MORE Christmas presents!

That's right, Santa made a stop over Christmas to Rob's mom's house, specifically for Sydni. Now that she and the presents were both here, we wanted to share that with his mom.

it continues..... 

Here are the spoils of that adventure:

skype! 

fuzzy coats!! 

the coats not being hugged ;) 

dresses

and of course, shoes! 

All presents aside, I am so grateful for Rob's family. His mom & stepdad are continuously thoughtful and have a blast thinking of things and places that Sydni would enjoy. His dad & stepmom are the same, and his step-niece Ella now has a new friend with Sydni. There are a lot of families that clash against the choices of their son or daughter, but I'm fortunate not to have that problem. My parents love Rob, and vice versa, and that alone is enough for me :)

And NOW.. I think Christmas is complete. I'll keep ya posted if I'm wrong... again. ;)

xo | cmd

Friends & Family on Friday

Breakfast out of town is usually a far cry from whatever dietary regimen I'm trying to follow, but I can't say I was upset about some turkey bacon and eggs to get the day started. To top it, we stopped by my old stomping grounds to say hi to a few familiar faces, and the new ones I'd not yet met.

Man, I miss these guys!

oh, how i miss these two! [& the rest of that team!]

We didn't plan it, but it turned out we'd see Marc twice today; we ran into him several hours later at Bindy's. We were set for the afternoon to celebrate Christmas with Rob's mom and stepdad, which provided the final item on Rob's Christmas wish list. We've now got a new acoustic for the house, and I have to say, it's beautiful.

he's in love! 

A couple hours later, we wrapped everything up at Rob's mom's and headed back to Dillon's to decide how to allocate the remaining hours of the night.

Bindy's it was. The crowd started pouring in as it does every time I've seen the place, and with it came Marc, who we just saw earlier this morning, and even Taryn, who was at a birthday party just before stopping through to see us. There were plenty of other familiar faces, which made for a fun [long, but fun] night!

hi jesse, hi taryn! :) 

taryn :) 

random snapchat? 

I'm not even sure who that SnapChat ended up going to, but if I had to guess, it was probably Ali & Damanji. Either way, it's been a night with these folks and I'm happy to have spent it the way we did. I'm also happy to be home for the night.... ;)

That being said, G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Illinois Thanksgiving... GO.

I forgot to mention that this Thanksgiving weekend is pretty much going to be a blur by the time it's over, so if nothing else, these blog entries are for my own sanity of sorting it out when the dust settles.

Wednesday night we made our way north to Mt. Vernon, yesterday was our family Thanksgiving feast, and today we were back in Cincinnati for a few short hours so that Rob could work a half day. Sydni and I maximized the hours by cleaning the house, doing laundry and packing up again for the last leg of our Thanksgiving weekend, and soon enough found ourselves on the road again, west-bound to Illinois.

Fast forward through the 5-hour roadtrip to our first landing point at Rob's mom's. We stopped by primarily to visit with them, but also because she wanted to give Sydni her late birthday/early Christmas present: A Midieval Princess Dress!

She loves it. Thank you, Carolyn!!!

We're now at Dillon's; the boys took off to go do their own thing, and Sydni and I are busying ourselves with some good old fashioned mama-mini snuggle time to some cartoons.

Hello, Illinois! ♥

xo | cmd

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

MONday Funday

Mondays usually give me some amount of anxiety, just from the inherent nature of Monday itself. Today though, while it was stacked top to bottom at work, proved to be busy but manageable. That's rare, for what I do, especially on Mondays. Haha. I'm not complaining.

Post-work was a continued contradiction to what Mondays usually bring. Sydni is back this week, and our first order of business was a little yard and garden work.

Over the weekend, Rob's mom gave us a couple of plants to get started. I decided this would be the perfect project for Sydni. She seemed to agree, wholeheartedly, when we parked ourselves on the front porch tonight to work on it!

let's get started!
[& yes, that's her chalk drawing of a cross on a hill.. ♥♥]

I'm convinced this little girl can do anything.

potted plant success
look at my little gardener!!

Excited!

i'm exciiiiiiited!

With the potted plants out of the way, she was ready to move on to the big leagues:

i'm digging... and i'm diiiiigging...

And to cap it off:
Watching that clip again now, I hear the bossy little girl from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in my head making obsurd demands. So to clarify, no, Syd's not as spoiled as this clip makes her sound. I couldn't help but trade my garden gloves for the camera though as she fought with one pesky mosquito and several gnats that kept intruding on her workspace.

Either way, if she wants to claim a garden of all things, I'm not gonna stop her ;)
She's just like her mama.. haha.
G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Illinois & In Betweens

We're home. In Ohio.

Earlier today, we were still in Illinois. It was a much warmer day than yesterday, which made for a perfect time relaxing outside for a bit before we climbed back in the car for the 5-hour homeward trek.

sweet. bitter. bittersweet.
illinois to ohio, ohio to illinois...

After breakfast, we dropped by Rob's dad's house. They've made some major headway in some home renovation projects they're doing, including the outline for a pool. We spent a couple hours there visiting and chatting with them.

Most of that time was spent with a happy Travis parked on my lap. Sure, he's all of 75 pounds, but hey, who's counting? 


travis!

sunshine & a happy pup!

 Then of course there was Toby:

he didn't want in the chair ;)

And when Travis finally decided he wanted some shade, too..  

happy boys

The "see you soon"'s came before we wanted them to, but we managed through it, and headed onward to say the same to Rob's mom. We spent a little time there of course, too, admiring the blossoms and checking out her screen room projects. She's got some monster blooms in her yard, and gave us a few little ones to take back to Sydni.

beautiful blossoms!

She recently did a furniture upgrade on her patio and now has some chairs that I decided today were exactly what we need for our dining room table. We looked at several chairs of the same structural style, but of course either upholstered, leather or just plain frame with seat cushions. Nothing so far has seemed to really sway me, until I saw these. Our table's a finicky thing to try and match, but I know that these will work just fine.

dark wicker highbacks.
#want.

I'll keep you posted on when we acquire some of these for our dining room ;)

Speaking of our dining room, fast forward through the road trip itself to the fact that we're back in it now, laughing at the note Mike & Becky left for us on the back of a small shipping envelope they'd found somewhere in the house:

hahaha

If you can't read it, it says:

BECKY KILLED YOUR SCREEN DOOR HANDLE (SHE'S BLAMING THE DOGS.. BUT THAT'S JUST TOO COMPLICATED. & I JUST FOUND OUT, TOO LATE TO FIX... HMMM). HOPE IT WAS A GOOD TRIP. - MIKE

Hahaha. I thought about rubbing this in Becky's face out of good fun, but since the latch on the back screen door has been jamming for the past few weeks, I decided I'd just wait and give her grief about something else ;)

 

Plus, I decided at the last minute to do lunches for us for tomorrow. Here's to healthy living, both at home and at work!

hers & his ♥

Phew. What a day. I'm outta here.

See ya, tomorrow!

 

xo | cmd