Mother's Day Weekend: Part 1

How do you start the perfect Mother's Day weekend?

YARDWORK! 

backyard outta control....

^^ Yeah, so in the midst of us [still, forever likely] unpacking the internal contents of our house, the backyard has gone untouched - specifically the old mulch beds. We woke up early and split the work: Rob took the mowing and weed eating, and I did what I could to get the mulchbeds in the front and backyard under control. It's not perfect yet, but it's on its way! 

wheeeew! 

This whole homeownership thing sure has a lot of little fun extras wrapped up into it.. ;) On the bright side, we wrapped up all the work in a matter of a few hours, and hit the showers to transform from yardwork mode to matinee date mode! 

Throwback to a month or so back when an email popped up in my inbox to tell me Rob bought us tickets to this show as a Mother's Day gift. I've counted down the days and was suuuper excited even on the way down to the arena.. 

yiiiieeee!!!! 

Admittedly I look a little rugged, but maybe that's from five hours pulling weeds and landscaping right before we came down? Haha. Who knows. What I do know was that this show was about to be amazing - and I wasn't wrong! 

love you, mister! 

cirque du soleil | toruk 

cirque du soleil | toruk 

cirque du soleil | toruk 

cirque du soleil | toruk 

By the end of the show, there were enough blue lights to give us a glimpse of what it'd look like if we were all to start roving over Pandora... even without stripes :p

avatar blue! ;) 

It was a really cool show, and if you've got the chance, I would highly recommend it! 

finale!
cirque du soleil | toruk 

We headed home after the show, did one more wardrobe change for the night, and headed back out to meet up with Becky & Will at Rhinegeist. It wasn't a super long night out, but it was fun nonetheless and as always, even more so with great friends in tow. 

hiiiii... 

becky! 

Tomorrow's Mother's Day, and I can't wait to spend it with my two favorites - Rob & Syd. For now, goooood night! 

xo | cmd 

09.01, Part Two: Cirque Du Soleil's Totem

Finally!!

The countdown to this was over today, when Rob and I set out from Mt. Vernon to Columbus for our first big show together.. and Rob's first Cirque du Soleil experience. A few weeks back, I indulged a bit on some tickets for the Totem show, which is in Columbus for a couple of weeks. It worked perfectly into the existing schedule of us being up there for the weekend, so I figured it would be the perfect end to a north-central Ohio run.

hello from the grand chapiteau! | ohio expo center | columbus, oh

It was totally worth it.
And I mean totally. worth. it.

Bad news: I didn't take any of the following pictures.
Good news: We were in the 4th row, so had I been allowed to, I could've captured the exact same angles from our seats. Needless to say, we did have these views, and they were.. incredible.

This is what we saw but weren't allowed to photograph for ourselves...

opening sequence!

comedic relief: the "clowns" pippo & bubba

the "tracker" & his devil sticks act [ante ursic]
 the "scientist" & his LED tunnel juggling act [greg kennedy]

ring trio act: yann arnaud, olli torkel & alya titarenko
fixed trapeze act "lovebirds": sarah tessier & guilhem cauchois

the "amerindian" hoop dancers
shandien larance & eric hernandez [who replaced shandien's brother nakotah!]

pavel saprykin : the hand balancer

the "wedding ceremony" [roller skates]
[real life married couple!]: massimiliano medini & denise garcia-sorta

unicycles & bowls
... probably my 2nd favorite act.. be sure to youtube this!

the "crystal ladies," aka girls who can spin rugs on their hands & feet
twin sisters marina & svetlana tsodikova

my forever favorite cirque act.. the russian bars

some of the totem cast .. look at the costumes!!

Rob & I agreed that we would absolutely see another one of these together if the chance comes along. I was so happy I could be a part of his first Cirque show, and really, I had no complaints, either! We even met a great couple from New Albany who sat next to us.

After the show, we made the quick hop over to Easton to do lunch with my parents and Sydni at the ever-trusty CPK [California Pizza Kitchen], tour the new American Doll Store [.... whoa.] and even cross random paths with the Feasels [so great to see you, Megan!] before Rob, Syd and I loaded up for the trip back to Cincinnati.

.. And that's where we are now. I just got dinner ready and we're in for a night watching Brave [thanks to Maricor & co. for the gift!] with Sydni and relaxing for the rest of the evening.

I feel a cold coming on, too, but I'm telling myself it'll pass... we'll see.

G'Nite!  

xo | cmd

PRETEND YOU DIDN'T!

I've come to the conclusion that no matter who you are, if you've watched Toy Story 3 in its entirety, and if you have any sort of soul, you cried... at least once, if not more.

I cried. Twice that I counted. Sydni begged me to watch this with her tonight, so I did, under the condition that she eat her salad with dinner. I think that's fair, right? [Plus, it was a kale salad, so in the interest of not over-boasting, we'll just say I gave myself a mind-pat on the back and considered it a double-win.]

Anyway, I couldn't help but share, because like I said, let's face it, we all cried during this part of TS3:


don't lie. you did. you cried. {{ it's okay, i won't tell }}

And if that wasn't enough, once I was done blubbering over that, I pulled it together for a few minutes until the actual end of the movie:

"goodbye, old pal"

Yeahhhhh, call me a big wuss, that's fine, but I definitely sat with tissue in hand for the ending, when the toys all get passed on to the little neighbor girl. If I just completely spoiled this for any of you who haven't seen it yet, well, it's out on RedBox now, so do yourselves a favor and watch it.. because you just.. won't.. understand until you do. Haha. Seriously. Thanks, Pixar, for your massively effective appeal to humanity, and subtle but sure tug on the heartstrings!

Tomorrow's FRIIIIIDAY!!
= 1 more day until Columbus with my cousins.
= 2 more days until Madison's birthday party.
= 7 more days until Rob gets here.
= 8 more days until Sydni's birthday party + my family.
= 9 more days until Cirque Du Soleil's Totem show.
= 10 more days until Labor Day!

We have... lots to look forward to. We may not have everything, but we sure are blessed with what we DO have.

Early night for us here.

xo | cmd

That One Day, Sunday

I was still half asleep this morning when I headed in to church with my parents. I really didn't even have a late night last night, but I'm fairly certain the week is just catching up to me. I was tired and grouchy for a while this morning, but that started to subside around lunchtime when we found ourselves at a very familiar place: R&M Southside Diner. Call me simple, but their shredded chicken sandwich, while nothing fabulous, has been my single favorite thing from this place since I was about... eight or so. I was pleasantly surprised that as far as I can tell, they're still using the same recipe, and I was not disappointed. (:

hello, old friend (:

On my way out of town, I decided to stop by a place that I haven't actually visited in years, but is a staple memory from my childhood. My mom was the president of the Knox County Humane Society from as early as I can honestly remember, up until somewhere in my early college years. She poured her heart into that place, the operation, the mission and the animals, and I had the privelege of being a very participating part of that experience. I stood next to a veterinarian as he spayed and neutured anesthetized cats when I was only 8 or so. I spent a half day plucking off deer ticks from a rescued stray dog in my garage when I was 10. I could read behavioral signs from both cats and dogs by the time I was a teenager, and I can't even begin to tell you how many small rodent leftovers I cleaned up from having 4 cats of our own. Needless to say, this place pruned me to have the compassion for animals I do, along with the working knowledge of how they behave.

humane society & dog kennels/run

^ Oh, and see that building & the dog kennel? I helped build those. I was about 7 when the construction on the building was completed, but I was in my early teens when the kennels went up, and I very clearly remember my crash course in concrete finishing and "entry level" framing work from the construction. I stopped by today if for no other reason than to pay homage to what really was my second home as a kid. THANK YOU, Mom, for making this a part of my life!

And then, in the spirit of follow-up to the reunion last night, I made a quick round down Yellow Jacket Drive, over those rickety speed bumps and into the loop between the high school and middle school where I spent a combined 7 years of my life. My class was the first to go a full 3 years in the new middle school after it was built. I was almost overwhelmed by the memories that came flooding back when I circled through the parking lots.

mvhs & mvms

It was a little funny, too, seeing those buildings now. They almost looked small compared to the way I perceived them when I actually went there. I very clearly remember the floorplans of both of these buildings, and how much time was spent standing outside the middle school (bottom pic) waiting on the busses... for both the middle and high schoolers. At the risk of sounding stoic, I'll just say that it was, for me, a very humbling and nostalgic experience that I appreciate so much more now that I no longer actually live in Mt. Vernon.

Fast forward to my trip back to Cincinnati, which was followed by an immediate session of editing pictures and unwinding. I don't think I shared either of these pics from a few days back, but I wanted to make sure I did now, since I spent a lot of the evening talking to Rob and hearing these two in the background. He sent me these, of the pups being their goofy selves.

so typical.. stella carrying her food bowl around when she's hungry..
.... & sasha trying to steal it..

Gosh, I miss those two. I wish Rob could bring them with him when he comes up for Labor Day, but I'll be a patient mama, I suppose, and see them both the next time I'm there to visit. For now, it's a Skype date with Rob, and so far I've seen the dogs migrate from couch to couch and curl up next to each other.. and the whole thing just makes me want to be there. [Sad face.]

Anyway, it's getting super late and tomorrow is Monday.....
The GOOD news is:
Sydni comes home to me tomorrooooowwwwwww & we'll spend the entire week together.. and then, this weekend is Madison's princess birthday party.... and thennnn, next weekend is Sydni's 4th birthday party at my parents' house.. + Rob + Cirque show ...

.. I am.. beyond! excited (: (:

For now, SLEEP.

xo | cmd

VIDEO BLOG :: Cups... Again&AGAIN | Cirque!

I fell in love with Anna Kendrick doing her rendition of Cups [thanks, Pitch Perfect]; obviously the entire world did, because there are about a bajillion remakes of this song out there. Anna of course has her own video for it, which is adorable, but most recently this viral video came out and I'll be the first to admit I've watched it WAY too many times.

... but I'll keep watching it, because while I'm starting to tire of the song itself, I love this particular rendition. These four deserve all the credit in the world for this arrangement! (:

Like I said.. over & over again I'd watch this. It just makes me happy, and since it was sorta gloomy out today, it worked.

In the midst of linking ^that^ video, I found another one: done, produced, edited, etc. by one person. It's certainly a remix, but I wouldn't be able to do it, so much respect to him!

On a whim, I also watched one of the Cirque Du Soleil productions tonight, and thought I'd go and share some of that with everyone, too. I honestly wouldn't recommend settling in for a night on the couch with this entire thing, but if you have the chance to go to an ACTUAL Cirque performance [I have, so..] trust me, it's worth it!

This is a snippet from the Worlds Away production, part of KA, if I'm not mistaken. Like I said, the talent that comprises and Cirque production is so intense in a live experience that no video will ever really do it justice, but it's still entertaining.

Speaking of the weather, I'm gonna throw this out there now that I'm reaaaally hoping this drab crap clears out by tomorrow evening for volleyball. I'm quickly realizing this league doesn't give us the competitive edge we're used to, but it's still fun and not a bad way to ease back into the volleyball scene here in Cinci for four people who've never played together. Aaaaand, since all four of us just got back to Ohio [well, one was never here in the first place, so make that 3], it's coincidental that we're all coming back like this.

A couple of sidenotes:

*THREE DAYS left, until I'm back in IL visiting with Rob, for Mike & Kelly's wedding! There's a tiny chance I'll get to see Mo on this trip, too, which would be awesome.. plus I'll see the meatballs [aka Sasha & Stella] - what is there NOT to love about this weekend?
*Sydni is in swim lessons all this week with Nana & Pappy, and from the reports I've heard, she is doing an incredible job and catching on at lightning speed [what else did we really expect?]. I'm itching to hear all about it from her!
*NEXT weekend is both my dad & cousin's birthdays! The bulk of my family will be there, which is great since we so rarely can do that anymore. I can't waaaait (:

C'Mon, week... hurry up ;)

xo | cmd