Cousins for Christmas

The past week's been ...... one. of. those. weeks.
My heart's been heavy with the weight of some things I hadn't expected, and it's been an emotional rollercoaster. Everything from my soul to my skin feels tired, strained, and in need of some rest and healing. (Don't worry guys, it's a temporary lament - I'm not going anywhere, just being... human.)

I needed a break in the waves, so it was with a heart insanely full of gratitude that I headed out after church to catch up with my Ate Caridel, in town from Arizona for the holiday. To say that I needed the company of these women (& little women!) is an understatement.

I am.. so, so thankful for these ladies.

♥ ate caridel & maricor

♥♥ my heart was so happy to see them ♥♥

just add frappucino ;) 

pinsan ♥ | [cousin]

ate caridel ♥

Aaaaaaaaaalso, I'm not sure why I'd put off watching Crazy Rich Asians until tonight, but I couldn't have picked better company for a viewing party. I loved it, I love them, and I feel immensely recharged.

We're on the homestretch of 2018. I'm thankful for this season, as it's mixed with both anticipation and exhaustion. It's a strange blend, but 2018 has taught me more in one year than I'd expected or hoped. Today was a much-needed, much-appreciated chance to slow down and be present with some of my favorite humans.

I hope you're taking those moments this Christmas season, too - to slow down.. and just.. be :). ♥

xo | cmd 

To Easton We Go!

Dear Future Self: 

It's late in the evening, and I'm still smiling as I think of the day we just had. It wasn't anything huge, but it was everything to have had it, anyway. I hope that on a dark day somewhere down the road, you'll look back at today, in all its simple perfection, and remember how much love you felt today. 

Love, 

Your Present Self. 

**********************************

My mom's birthday was last Sunday, but since we can't be in six places at once, I wished her happy birthday over the phone. We decided mid-week that the weather would be just fine for us to meet up for lunch in Easton, which is just barely an hour drive for them. 

Oh, and in case you haven't been in Columbus in the past 15 years, the answer is yes, we are STILL under construction. 

I'd forgotten how ridiculous parking at Easton is on a Saturday, but we finally made it to the restaurant to meet up with Mom.  

could she be any more adorable?!

happy birthday, mom!

Since we were at Brio, Sydni got to have some fun of her own: 

And entertainment: 

^ I can't handle this girl ;) 

Anyway, more fun from mom's birthday lunch and trek around Easton: 

3 generations ;) 

gosh, these two... 

hahahaha

dad!

i may be partial, but i'm sure my mom is the cutest! 

so. much. love.

After lunch and a quick stroll around Easton, Sydni and I headed another 15 minutes north to stop in and say hi to Maricor.. 

cousin time! 

We're back home now, and with another good Whole30 dinner under my belt, I think this was a pretty good way to wind down the day. A friend of mine just got tattoo #1 tonight, so now I'll be on Pinterest for the next definitely-unhealthy-length-of-time digging around mandala elbow pieces.. because I'm the type of addict who can't bear hearing about it without also going to get one.. haha. 

All ideas welcomed. For now, as Iliza puts it, "PINPINPINPINPINPIN"

Happy Saturday, blogbots.

xo | cms

Happy BIRTHDAY, Sophie!!

We call each other's children our "nieces," when in reality we're what, 2nd cousins?

.. Yeah, nieces is way easier.

So, TODAY is my niece Sophie's 2nd birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, sweet girl!!!

She's. So. Adorable.... It Hurts. 

happy birthday, sweet sophie!!

Anyway, rewind to the road trip up to Columbus - a short little jaunt, complete with pony talk and princess music. We really were there in no time at all (:

syd & her mlp's

In a few short hours, we were rounding the last corner in Easton and headed for Target, to pick up a couple last minute things. Maricor met us there, and we followed her back to the house to find Chris with the girls. The cousins are finally back together, after what has seemed like forever!

three little dresses for three little girls ♥ 

literally, princesses everywhere .. haha

Maricor and I had every intention on catching up on our own after the girls had gone to bed [Chris, you lucked out this time, haha], but that didn't quite happen as planned. Plus, the weather here in Ohio has again decided that it's not done with its winter crap, so after a spout of rain, this happened for a few hours and completely derailed any desire to venture anywhere:


seriously?
.... enough!!!

So instead of dinner & a movie out, we saved ourselves some of the hassle and added some awesome to the mix with homemade Adobo and multiple rounds of Frozen.

mission: convert adobo into an air freshener.

^^ It's been way too long since I've had adobo. Especially straight from the pot. This, my friends, is called a Filipino problem, if there ever was one. I was drooling from the second the house started smelling like sabaw (broth) to the second we were eating it as though we hadn't actually downed Chipotle less than four hours prior to that. Whatev'. (:

Anyway, we're here curled up on the couch perusing NoMoreRack, with our girls dancing and singing to Anna and Elsa a few feet away. This is just about perfect, if I must say so.

Tomorrow's a birthday party for the birthday baby.. and I can't wait!

xo | cmd

Friday With My Girl ♥

Rob left around noon today to head back to Illinois for the Supercross weekend, so that meant Sydni and I had Friday night all to ourselves. These are some of my favorite nights, so there of course was no complaining.

We started off our girls night with some shopping, because well, it seemed fitting. Okay, so maybe I also waited until kind of the last minute to shop for Sophie's birthday present, so that was part of the reason we found ourselves at Target after work, too.

And, because for some reason, we didn't own this until today:

how dare i.

So now we, along with half of America, own this movie, and are currently comitting its soundtrack to permanence in our minds. I'll be singing these songs until my brain physically gives out, I'm convinced. Or, it could be because of other adult-geared trailors like this:


This made me laugh just as much as that satirical little Olaf in the movie.

Anyway, if you really must know, the rest of our night has consisted of dinner, light packing for tomorrow's outbound trip.

Oh, and I just created an mp3 collection of all the Disney songs for us to play on loop all the way to Columbus tomorrow. Haha.

Tomorrow and Sunday are gonna be big days. I can't wait!

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

The Return of SYDMAD

My favorite part of waking up on weekends with this girl:

ninja mornings!

Is it Saturday night already? Whoa.

Highlight reel from today: Ikea was our first stop on the way up to Columbus. Maricor needed some specific bowls, and so I agreed to get them. I was leary at first, since Saturday is probably the worst day to do an Ikea run if you only need one thing, but I was pleasantly surprised at the short 15 minutes between entrance and checkout. What took the longest was this [& I didn't mind, at all!]:

cinnamon rolls.. the first reason you go to ikea.. duhh..

Post-Ikea, it was off on the road to Maricor's, which I realized today is actually under two hours away. That.. is... awesome. I was beyond excited for this, since it was the first time Syd & Mad have seen each other since they were babies. I was amazed that they jumped right back in with each other, like they hadn't missed a single day. [L-o-v-e!!]

nov2009 | jun2010 | aug2013
... & many more to come!!

We relaxed for a little while before loading back up and heading over to Easton to eat and get some fresh air for the girls.  

cousins!

The girls [aka, SydMad] were quite rambunctious today, but aside from that, I couldn't have asked for a better afternoon. At least little Sophie provided some chill relief from her sister and cousin's exhausting conduct while we were out. Haha.

1. response to, "please don't play in the rocks."
2. response to, "please make nice faces at people passing by."
3. sophie, entirely unamused.

.... Ornery or not, they're still adorable.. I can't deny that.

holding hands like good little sidewalk buddies!

We had one final little meltdown on our way out, which was easily cured by Tita Corin agreeing to carry both girls. It took a couple attempts to find a feasible way to get from one side of Easton back to the garage on the other, but we figured it out and aside from the awkward glances, it was a fuss-free exit and for that, we were grateful.

attempt #1 ... and the successful re-arrangement that made it across the plaza!
... i am.. a human stroller. #dowhatchagottado

Back at home, the night continued on much like the day: Sydni and Madison tore the place apart, Sophie sat resigned to her movie with teddy bear in hand, and the mama's... well, we added some pleasantry of our own in the form of some pink moscato. How's that for a reward?

mad+syd. sophie. mama's

+ Dinner!

i'll pretend i'm not obsessed with cbay biscuits.. haha.. (:

+ FINALLY............... :

WIN!! haha.. two tuckered out little girls

Day 1 of Mad's birthday weekend has been a success so far. Tomorrow's the party, so until then, goodnight! (:

xo | cmd

Halloween Shout Out | Becky's HERE!

In the spirit of this quickly-approaching "holiday" dedicated to dressing up [or down], pretending to be someone [or something] else, and of course, inviting 1 to 200 of your closest friends ....... I decided to dedicate this one to two of my friends [who I misssssss] from Columbus.

Remy & Gilberto [Jeremy & Gilbert], this one's for you.

Here's to over seven years worth of halloween costumes together [sorry, I don't have the time to go digging for the other 5 years of photo-docs]. Miss you guys, and I miss your legit costumes!



remy. rin. gilberto | halloweening since 2004 :p

Hope everyone's ready for the real deal tomorrow (:
I'm pretty sure we're dressing up for work.

y.....um. | wasabi | edwardsville, il

^ Oh, that? Yeah.. that.. Totally almost forgot about that. Becky's in town for a few days, too! We decided to swing by Wasabi out in Edwardsville for some grub [which was delish], and then up to Global to unwind with some friends for a bit. I'm headed home in a few days and I'll see her then, but it just seemed fair to hang out on both turfs before I'm Ohio bound again. Haha.

Happy Hallow's Eve!

xo | cmd